Happy Father's Day

Love you.

Sick Weekend

Rosemary and Ben are sick...poor things. You know it's bad when Rosemary falls asleep like this.

SeaWorld...again

We headed down to Orlando again for the weekend and spent one day at SeaWorld. The night before mom and dad watched the kids and Jonathan and I had some delicious Cuban food at Bongo's at Downtown Disney. Then the last day mom and I hit Ikea.

Ben looking all like a big boy in the front seat of the stroller.

And Rosemary finally took a picture with Shamu...her seventh time there. We'd waited in the line for pictures a few other times then she changed her mind right at the end. This time she even gave the whale a hug.

We don't have a pic, but Jonathan and I got to ride Manta...very fun and very different. I'd never ridden a roller coaster where you're pretty much lying on your stomach like you're flying. I was actually a little nervous (the troughs underneath where you load up really don't calm any nerves either, I must say) but it was so smooth.

The Ballerina

After over a year of watching Lawrence Welk and dancing most Saturday nights, we have officially signed Rosemary up for ballet lessons.

I think that I was more excited about her first day of ballet than I was for her first day of preschool. I think she was excited too. If you know Rosemary, you know that it's sometimes hard to tell with her, but the fact that she talked about it so much and so willingly got ready and participated was a good sign.

Moms were invited to stay for the first class, but since she was so excited, I took off rather than throw things off. Just had to get a quick photo of her front and center on her little mat.

Her little bun. And notice the paint rollers? If it ever stops raining in Gainesville on the weekends, we might actually finish painting our house.

Ben at 11 Months

It's hard to believe that in just a few weeks our "Baby Ben" will be one. I'm trying to savor this time as much as I can because I know that "baby" Ben is slipping away right before my eyes and in a blink will be "toddler" Ben with all the vestiges of baby-dom behind him. I remember being amazed with Rosemary at how that one year old mark just triggered so many changes in her.

I know that I'm biased, but I think that Ben is about as close to a perfect baby as you can get. He's so sweet tempered and mellow and inquisitive at that same time. A joy to be with and tons of fun. I love how he will smile, scrunch up his little nose and snort when he's excited about something. I love how he wants to be wherever we are and enjoys being held, at least for a little while. And I just love him.

A few milestones from this month:
Calling us mama and dada (he kinda started this at the end of last month, and I'm pretty sure that he said "mama" first. Woohoo!)
Pretty much completely on table foods. He gets an occassional jar of baby food if we're out or if I think he needs some extra vegetables.
He's a climber...probably even more so than Rosemary...which is terrifying! Practically a Houdini, he can even get out of the straps in his highchair.
Ben had his first night away from us over Memorial Day weekend. Jonathan and I are painting the house so the kids spent the weekend with my mom and dad.