Grampie Update + Cousin Fun

A few weeks ago, Grampie had a stroke.  It gave us all a scare, but thankfully he is doing just fine.  They are able to treat the problem with blood clots with medication, and he won't have any long term deficits.  The only good thing about this situation....Cousin Caleb, Aunt Beth, and Uncle Craig came to visit!  I'm sure I've written on the blog probably some time ago that Benny has a 'twin' cousin.  Caleb and Benny share a birthday.  They live kinda far away, so we don't get to see them too much.  Turns out that Caleb and Benny are pretty good friends.

Click on the link below for the sound of pure joy....

http://youtu.be/3Ap8cKJe-go

We spent one morning at an amusement park for toddlers/young children.  They both loved it.  Here they are riding the boats...

http://youtu.be/mvJno3zvASs

The airplane ride was coming to an end.  Here Benny is asking for 'MORE!'

Giddy up with Uncle Craig!

Another pic of the boat ride...

Grampie was feeling up to a train ride the day after he got out of the hospital.

Of course, Grammie was only slightly happy to have her two grandsons at her house.

A little pool time in Grammie and Grampie's yard.  "Hey Caleb, you look hot.  Don't worry.  I have this cup and will dump some water on you."

Intently studying the cups...

You drink it, and you dump it.

I feel the love.

Party On!

July marked a monumental event.  Nana and Papa celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary!  It was a grand occasion.  Lots of family in town to celebrate.  We had a great time, and we all know Benny likes a party.

The happy couple :)

Benny had tons of fun with these 3 girls.

 Kevin and I made Nana and Papa a 'candy bar' letter for their anniversary present.  It told them how much we care about them in a very sweet way.  Here's what it said:

Hey HOT TAMALES,

Your love expands farther than the MILKY WAY and means MOUNDS to all of us.

Your EXTRA special relationship is beautiful like a SYMPHONY.

We thank you for the GOOD AND PLENTY of times you TAKE5 to show you care.

Your friendship with worth WHATCHAMACALIT more than 100GRAND.

We GOOBERS SKORed to have you as our grandparents.

We love you to PIECES!

KUDOS to 60 years!

Hugs and KISSES, the 3 MUSKETEERS

A beautiful and delicious cake!

Everyone that made it!

Chris, Angie, Faith, and Callie sang Nana and Papa a song.  Aunt Angie is a pretty mean ukulele player.  Benny was a fan!  He promptly asked them to sing more! 

Benny was the official 'test-taster' of the cake.  He approved.

Mommy's Little Swimmer

This summer Benny and I have went swimming quite a few times.  We also took a swim class during the month of July that met on Monday and Wednesday evenings.

A cute pic of Benny before we head to the pool.  (BTW, that tractor and fire truck are two of Benny's absolute favorite toys.  He likes to crawl underneath our dining room table and play with his small cars, trucks, and tractors.)

Zoo Day

Taking Benny to the zoo was on my 'bucket list' for the summer.  Checkity-check!  We did it!

Daddy and Benny looking for the elephants...

 Over there Daddy.  I see them!

 The elephants were one of Benny's favorite animals at the zoo.  He kept pretending he had a trunk and made elephant noises.

 It was a pretty hot day, so we had to take a rest in the shade.

Hey, what are you looking at??

Trying out Mommy's shades.

We took a ride on the choo-choo train!

Birthday Bash

Earlier this month, Benny turned 18 months old and Daddy turned the big 3-0.  P.S.--He married a much, much younger woman :)  We had Nana, Papa, and Grampie over for dinner to celebrate.  Daddy requested a happy birthday chocolate, peanut butter pie.

 Blow out the candle....

Yeah!

No surprise here.  Nana is feeding Benny a little bit of pie.

 Daddy needed some assistance.

Nana and Papa had just returned from a trip to TX.  They got Kevin a nice new polo shirt along with this 'Texas sized acorn.'  Yup.  Daddy's a big nut.

Benny had his 18 month check-up.  He had to get shots.  Poor baby.  He was feverish for about 2 days and was very, very sleepy.  Here are the 18 month Benny stats:

26.6 pounds, 33 inches, and he had 10 teeth (#11 just came in)

Mr. Sleepy

http://youtu.be/7VhwwzQw__s

 The link above is from maybe 2 weeks ago.  I had given Benny a bath and brought him downstairs to change into his PJs for bed.  He was so, so tired.  He decided he would sing his own bedtime song.  The video demonstrates Benny's excessive love for my hair.  He does sleep with a stuffed animal---either his horse or monkey.  But, what he really loves is to stroke my hair.  Ah...so soothing. 

Mommy's hair + a binky = a content, yet very sleepy Benny.

Nana

Yup.  I've convinced Nana, once again, to share her cake and ice cream with me...

It's delicious!

Benny loves Nana.  Its pretty cute.  He takes her hand and shows her things all over the house.  If Nana is around, she is his personal and very best playmate.  So far, she is the first person where he uses her name consistently to get her attention.  If I ask him what's my name, he says "mama." When Kevin gets home from work, he is very excited to see him and shouts "dada"  But, he doesn't regularly use our names as a means to get our attention, but he does with Nana.  For example, we were outside and he was walking towards the shed in our backyard where we keep some of his outdoor toys.  Nana stopped following him.  He was almost to the shed and he turned around and motioned to her and yelled "NANA!"  I'm sure his little head was thinking "Come on Nana.  Keep up.  I thought you were playing with me."

Nana + Benny=BFFs

(Not to mention, Nana is married to this really nice guy named Papa who gives Benny excellent hair cuts.)