Five Islands

Ben's first time at Five Islands! Jay, Jammer, and I went to camp on Sunday (one of our very few days off together this summer) and enjoyed a really nice afternoon with everyone. I had to take a photo of Ben on the log that all the cousins used to get their pictures taken on. Bryan and Anna did a great job with the lobsters, and here's a photo of Anna showing Jam a lobster. Wonder what he thought of that??? Unfortunately, Ben wasn't feeling his normal self (we've since found out that he's been sick with some sort of infection!) and I caught a picture of him napping on Nana's lap. Of course, we couldn't let him be, and brought him outside for the group photo, but he did sleep on the way home. (I'd really love a copy of the group photo emailed to me, if anyone has one. Thanks!!!)
It was nice to see everyone, and thanks for the lobster Stan!

Jam's first dip in the lake!

We started with just dipping Benjam's toes in but he'd crank his legs up-up-up to keep them out of the water! He finally conceded to having his feet in the water, and then the next day Jay managed to get him in up to his waist. He really wasn't sure about that, and in all fairness, the water was still a bit chilly. But it was HOT out and Jam seemed okay with it once he was out of the water. Jay had been for a swim already, but it was my first day in the lake too!

Summer Scenes

Here's a picture of Benjam in his "Cunnin'" t-shirt (a gift from Katie's cousin Meg); at Nana and Grampie's house, playing in Harley's water dish; and playing in Mumma's herb garden...
He likes to be outside!

Happy Father's Day!

Jay had to work on Father's Day, but Benjam and I went in to visit him at the hospital (bearing gifts of iced coffee and dark chocolate!)
Happy First Father's Day, Jay!

Nice weather...

We've been able to get outdoors quite a bit, which has been nice. Ben likes to hang out on the porch, and he's discovered the new grass we planted (he likes to eat it). It's a whole new world out there!

Who, me?
I want it, I want it, I want it... This is Benjam's theme lately... So very determined.

Mumma with her 2 boys...

Yaaaaayyyyyy!

Benjamin loves to copy the adults around him when we put our arms up over our heads and say, "Yaaaaayyyyyyyy!!" Once he gets started, he likes to keep it going and makes sure everyone around him keeps it up. :}

Big Boy

Happy June! Benners will be 10 months old in a little over a week! It's hard to believe. He's moving around the house (and after the cat) at top speed. He's been pulling himself up to stand on just about everything, and as a consequence has had a few tumbles. He gets up and brushes them off very well though. Tough Guy...

Mum starts back at school on Tuesday, and our house is getting ready for a change! Posts to the blog may be less frequent, but we'll try to get photos up at least as often as we can.

End of May photos

Here are a couple of photos taken at the end of May.
Drinking espresso... no, not really, but he loves Daddy's espresso cups.

We call this his 'outside look'~ he gets in a zone and really loves to be out in the fresh air.
Here we were getting ready for a walk and Harley was behind me, so Benjam was watching him.

Who, me?

Waddayamean? I didn't eat that! It wasn't me... Um, yeah~ everything goes into his mouth. It's quite scary, but at least we do a better job at keeping our floors clean...


He tries all sorts of new expressions with his face. We call this one his grimace. You can sort-of see his 2 bottom teeth in this picture. It cracks us up when we see this expression, but I don't imagine it'll always make us smile.
Warmer weather is finally here and it's been really nice at the lake. We have Harley here with us for the week as Ben's Grampie and Nana are in New Brunswick on a walking tour vacation. Harley and Ben need to be kept separated, but Harley is fine with sleeping on the porch and being outside as much of the day as he can. It's nice to have the dog around again!

In the meantime, I'm enjoying my last stretch of time at home before I start fieldwork. Jay is busy with work this coming week, and then will be home with Ben much more often. Summer is on its way!

9 months old!

We took Benners to his 9 month check-up yesterday, and all is well. We over-estimated his weight (by a few ounces), as he weighed in at 'only' 27 lbs, 12 oz. Maybe he's starting to plateau on his weight? He's still off the charts, but a very healthy little boy. He had just two vaccinations this time, and we had to go to the lab for a blood draw, but he was such a trooper~ he only cried for a few seconds with the shots, and not at all with the blood draw. Our tough little guy. His pediatrician thinks he's likely to tear our house apart because he's both so determined and so strong! We laughed about it at the time, but I have a feeling it won't always be quite so funny...

His second tooth is starting to poke through and he's back to rubbing everything on his gums... He's also pulling himself up to standing on anything and everything, and is starting to learn how to sit himself back down again (it isn't always very pretty, but he does it). Along with all this new mobility are the bumps and bruises that are inevitable. Good thing he's such a trooper!

Benners continues to say "Mumma" and is also saying "Dada" and does a lot of babbling (especially in the car). He wants to get into absolutely everything and is very determined to do so (I think he gets this from his Mum~ just ask his Nana and Grampie Dwyer about a certain Christmas tree that I wanted in the house NOW when I was very young...) Hopefully this determination will translate into success in the future!

In the meantime, Jay is still working pretty crazy hours at CMMC, Maine General and the Winthrop Ambulance. May is the last month that Jay has such freedom with his work schedule, since once I start up my fieldwork he will be more limited in what he can do 'outside' of the home. I just have a couple more weeks left at home with Benjam before heading to fieldwork. Things will be a bit crazy this summer, with Jay and I passing each other at the door, but by the end of the year I'll (hopefully) be done with school and we'll move onto the next phase... whatever that will be!!!

Warm weather is here!

It must be almost summertime because Grammie and Grampy Phil are back from Florida! They arrived at the lake last Monday and brought really nice weather with them. :) We've had lots of fun hanging out outside, watching people work with the new 4-wheeler, and seeing some new things get planted around the yard. Benners isn't helping much, but he sure does love to be outdoors and especially loves his walks. He's crawling fast now, and pulling himself up to standing on furniture and the back of Mum's legs. Even though he's teething and has a tooth in, Benners continues to have a wonderful temperament, and his predisposition to being happy most all of the time, makes the job of parenting that much easier! His fussiness comes occasionally when he's tired, but who can blame him?
Katie's first Mother's Day started off with the best present Benners could give his Mum~ he only woke up once during the night! He slept from 7pm-5:30am with just one wake up at 10:30pm for a brief nurse and visit. It was WONDERFUL!

Is Spring finally here?

The weather is starting to warm up, and the snow is finally all gone. Ben's Grammie and Grampy Phil are due to arrive back at the lake from Florida tomorrow and the weather is supposed to be in the 70's! I got the peas planted in the garden finally, and hopefully Ben will be able to eat peas fresh out of the garden this summer. That was always my favorite as a kid!
Ben likes to eat mashed potatoes with his hands (see photo), and has decided that he wants a lot more control about what food goes into his mouth and when, which has been quite a challenge. Luckily we're not worried about him wasting away to nothing! ;-p Benners has been a great napper during the day, but is still waking up several times at night... But he's also teething... it's always something!

We've had more and more people tell us that they are starting to see Dwyer (as well as Jewett) in Ben's face, which is neat. He's definitely a mix of Jewett and Dwyer!

Happy May!

We're looking forward to warmer weather so we can get outside! At least the sun is shining today, though it's very breezy here at the lake. Benjamin is working on his very first tooth, and boycotting eating anything from a spoon. He's crawling all over the house, and his favorite toy is the cat. She puts up with all the rough attention (at least it's attention), but we have to rescue her if we don't want to have a hairless cat. Ben just loves to follow her around and pull at her (and then try to put her in his mouth, of course). Nothing is safe any more, as Benners is wanting to explore anything and everything in his reach. He keeps us on our toes!

Grilling

We were able to grill outside in this nice weather! Here's a photo of our new grill and the first meal we prepared on it (shrimp, portabellos, and asparagus). And a photo of Katie being goofy. The margaritas were yummy, but the food was yummier!

Driving already???

No way! But he is crawling. Sometimes he crawls on hands-and-knees, and sometimes he hitches himself along with one outstretched leg. Either way, he's getting himself around. He appears to love this new freedom, and we are keeping a MUCH closer eye on his where-abouts. Thanks to this much nicer weather, we've all been getting outside quite a bit (grilling photos to be posted soon). It feels SO nice after the long winter!

Jay's managed to have 3 days off in a row, and it's been really nice to have him around! We've got to get in some of this family time before Jay and I start working completely opposite schedules once I start Fieldwork up at the beginning of June.

Benners has become a much better sleeper lately~ 1 1/2 hour naps during the day (2 or 3), and getting up just a couple of times at night. We'll take it! He's still gets up early (between 5-6am usually, sometimes he'll 'sleep in' until 7am), but he goes to bed early too (6:30-7:30pm), so we can't blame him for wanting to start his day early!!! He always has a smile first thing in the morning, and is such a good-tempered little boy!

Red Sox Fan

We went for a walk this afternoon, taking advantage of the nice weather before the storm hits! Benjamin puts up with his baseball cap, and we think he looks pretty darn adorable in it!

For his eight-month birthday, Benners got...

A COLD! His first real cold, poor guy. He's a trooper though, and still plays through the runny nose, coughing, sneezing, and fussiness. It's his first real illness, so we consider ourselves lucky that he made it this long being so healthy. And it's just a cold, right??? We're bound to see many more in the future. :(

We can't believe it's been eight months since Bejamin Thomas was born. What an education we're getting, and what a true blessing. He learns new things every day, and it's just so cool to see what he manages to figure out all on his own. Time flies too quickly, though.

We're preparing for a major snow storm (again!) today, that's supposed to bring us 6-12"!!! Guess I won't be planting my peas in the garden this week.

Yoga Baby

He really makes it look so easy!

Posting Comments!

For those of you who wish to post comments, I've recently changed the setting so that you do NOT need to be a 'registered user' in order to do so. (I didn't know this was an option until recently.) You should be able to just click on the word "comments" under the post and leave a comment. Of course you don't have to, but we love to know who checks out our blog and what everyone thinks! So feel free to leave comments, or email us!!!

Happy Easter. Hope everyone is well.
~Katie, Jay, and Benjamin

Downward Facing Dog Yoga Pose

Here he is in his favorite yoga pose. He can actually hold this pose much longer than I can! :) He's a very flexible little dude. We visited with Cousin Claire last weekend and the two liked to sit on the floor and play together (well, play with toys beside each other). It's neat to see how similar they are with their development. A picture of Benners all bundled up for a walk last week. There's no chance of a walk today, as we got more than a foot of snow overnight!!! This is Spring, right???

Spring is here!

Yes, he's wearing his favorite pj's (again!) in this picture. They're almost too small for him, so we're getting the most use out of them as possible. He's into 12-18 month clothes, and some of those are even starting to get snug. We've been doing some Spring shopping for new clothes~ for both Ben and Mumma! As Ben gains weight, I'm losing it so we're both in need of some new clothes.
Ben continues to find ways to get himself around on the floor, though he's not crawling forward quite yet, he's (almost) able to get from his belly into a seated position (definitely not gracefully yet). He's sitting very well on his own and we're finding that he can reach things that we thought were well out of his grasp! He likes most non-baby things, so we've already designated a remote control that's all his own! Benners continues to try new foods, sweet potato and banana are still his favorites.
Our biggest challenge is getting Ben to sleep, and he fights it like a champ! He's back to his 45-minute naps and getting up frequently during the night so I imagine his sleep will continue to cycle through good-and-'bad'-stages. He doesn't have any teeth yet, but he's drooling buckets and rubbing everything on his gums (the remote makes a great squeak when he rubs it back and forth on his gums) so imagine we'll see the first tooth peek out soon.
Jay is busy, busy with work and I have two months left at home before I start my Fieldwork for school (June 4th). I'll be going back 4 days/week and Jay will be working 3 (generally), so we won't see much of each other, but Ben will have his parents around for most of the time, which is our goal.
Hope everyone has a great Spring... Red Sox season starts today!!!