Murray Visit

Ben and I visited my family in Murray, Kentucky recently. Ben made his first trip on an airplane, which made me quite nervous, but he was a wonderful traveler. I wouldn't recommend flying with a toddler on an early Monday morning flight because neither the passengers nor the flight crew were the least bit helpful - otherwise things went smoothly. Thankfully he slept both legs of the flight. We had a great time visiting with everyone.

Ben giving Grammy's dog, Miles, a kissie. They became best friends during our visit. Every morning Ben would wake up and run to find Miles.

Enjoying spending time at his Uncle Frank and Aunt Debbi's house.

Dining on some pizza with Denham & Cohen.

Having a taste of his first "Jingler." For those of you who aren't familiar with this beverage, it's an orangeade, limeade and lemonade all mixed together. One of Mommy's faves.

Yum!

Swimming at Great Uncle Dennis & Great Aunt J.R.'s house with Jane, Brianna and Mommy.

Having lunch at Belew's with Pops. Belew's burgers are another one of Mommy's faves.

Ben decided to share some of his lunch.

Cohen & Ben

Raggs

Ben went to his first concert on Saturday, August 23rd - Raggs live in Charlotte. For all you non-Carolinians, Raggs is a show on the public television station about stuffed dogs who play in a band. I do believe Raggs goes beyond our region and comes on in Northern KY on Sunday mornings. Anyway, Ben loves the show and they kicked off their World Tour in Charlotte (the show is filmed here) so we decided to take him. We weren't sure what to expect, but after he warmed up a bit he had a great time.

Daddy & Ben before the show.

Paawwwssuuuppp!

Getting ready for the show to begin.

Trilby, B-Max, Pido, Raggs & Razzles.

Ben's favorite character is the cat on the show. His name is Dumpster and he made a special appearance at the concert.

Tricycle Fun

The weather in Charlotte the past few days has been beautiful and we're trying to take advantage of it by being outside as much as we can. We dusted off Ben's tricycle and he practiced riding it around the driveway (well, practiced having me push him). I thought he looked particularly handsome in these photos so I wanted to post them on the site.

I used some of these pics to enter Ben in a photo contest on the Parents Magazine website. You can click this link to view them - each time someone views them it helps his chances of winning: http://www.parents.com/app/sharemy/photoDetails.jsp?photoId=271800009

North Carolina Zoo

We made a trip to the North Carolina Zoo with Michael and Elise. The zoo is in Asheboro, which is about 1 1/2 hours from Charlotte. It was a nice way to spend a beautiful Saturday afternoon.

18 Months & 31 Years

Ben turned 18 months on August 1st and his mommy turned 31 on July 24th. Mommy celebrated her birthday with a wine tasting party and Ben celebrated by going to the doctor and getting a shot.

His appointment went well and he got a good report from the doctor. He is 35 1/4" long and weighs 26 pounds, 9 ounces. The doctor said he is off the charts as far as length, which apparently means he's over the 97th percentile. She said he's the height of an average 26-month old. If he could say something other than "dada" people might actually mistake him for a 26-month old!

Here are some recent pictures:

Here are a few pictures from Erica's birthday wine tasting party. Thanks to Dana for bringing a delicious cake!

Ben is very into current events and enjoys reading the weekend paper.
Ben and Elise tried to beat the heat by visiting a children's library. There wasn't too much for them to play with there and, as you can see from the above picture, they were a little bored.

One highlight of the library visit was that Daddy was able to walk from work to visit us.

One of Ben's favorite things to do now is locate airplanes when they fly overhead. I never noticed how many airplanes go by until he started pointing to the sky each time one flies over! They're usually too high in the sky for us to see them, but he can always hear them.

Ben enjoys giving b.b. kissies. He won't give anyone else in the family kissies anymore, but he sure does love showering her with them. As you can see, she isn't too thrilled with being the recipient of so many kissies.
Watch out Ben! I think she's tired of being bothered.