Seven Months Old-Grrrr

Benny turned 7 months old this week!  As usual, I can't believe he is that big already.  He's doing more and more everyday and becoming such a big boy.  He's getting pretty good at sitting, loves to grab and investigate anything within reach, and is all about rolling over to his stomach although he has no desire to crawl yet. (Thank goodness)

The biggest development over the past couple of months is his introduction to solid foods.  We have a sneaking suspicion that he will be a better eater than his brother.  He really likes apples, pears, and yogurt while butternut squash, peas, and sweet potatoes are just okay.  He has great fun swiping at and grabbing Cheerios, apple puffs, and baby rice crackers.  He's gotten pretty good at actually getting them in his mouth. 

Benny's little personality is really coming out too.  Everyone who sees him comments that  he is the happiest baby they've ever seen.  He's always smiling and loves to look at new people.  His brother is the one who can get the biggest smiles out of him and they sit and laugh at their own private jokes all through lunch.  While Ben is a big smiler, he is also really sensitive.  Loud noises really bother him.  When something does upset him his lower lip actually comes out and starts to quiver before he bursts out into tears.  One of the cutest recent developments has been his growl.  He doesn't goo or babble that much, he just growls.  Sometimes we're a little scared at the noise, but it is pretty cute.

We love everyday we get to spend with our sweet little boy...now, if he would only sleep through the night!

(a few days old...)

(3 months old...)

(7 months old!)

Hard Work

So, the season of gift giving is upon us, and our family has been working hard to pick out just the right gift for everyone.  This past week, we were busy creating some secret presents for Daddy,  Gram and Gramps, and Grandma and Grandpa.  They look great, and Evan and Ben are very proud of them, but you'll just have to wait to see what they are.  Until then, this is the only clue you'll get...

The Meaning of a Tree

In the midst of the show showers outside, we decided to head out and get our Christmas tree.  With the skies heavy with snow, it was the perfect day for tree shopping.  Evan and Ben weren't too interested in making sure we had the perfect tree, so Ian and I chose one that we liked.  The boys enjoyed the process of getting the tree from its place in the row to the roof of our car.  Ben just took in the sights while Evan was thrilled with the chainsaw, tree-bagging machine, and all of the workers bustling around and doing their job.  He even got a candy cane while he watched!

(Evan liked this one, but it was a bit too big.)

(Daddy and Evan next to our tree)

(Ben and I next to the tree-Take a look at the family resemblance between each of us and our boys.)

We got home, did a little playing in the snow, and then it was time to decorate the tree.  I had already gotten all of the ornaments out and set them on the table for easy picking.  The boys were also cleaned and dressed in their fuzzy Christmas PJ's.  We even had glasses of hot chocolate to enjoy.  The stage was set.  Ben thought the twinkly lights were fun, and Evan had fun hanging a few, but his attention span was not too long.  However, he did enjoy hearing the stories about where all of the ornaments came from.

 (Evan hangs his tin of ornaments.)

 (Ben and I choose an ornament to hang.)

(Ooooh...Christmas tree)

(This one goes here...)

What we all really loved was seeing the tree up and decorated.  Since its been sitting in our living room Ben has stared at it, Ripple has chewed at the little reflections made by the ornaments on the ground, and Evan has thoroughly examined all of the ornaments hanging under 2 ft. high.  While all of the ornaments may not be color-coordinated and match, while each ornament may not hang in exactly the most visually pleasing location, it is beautiful none-the-less.  The tree means more than looking pretty and serving as a decoration.  To me it represents my family that decorated it, and each of the ornaments represent a piece of our lives together.  Each year, we add more ornaments to the tree and more wonderful experiences in our lives as a family. 

 

(This one is for our favorite team...)

(This one is a little piece of history...)

(This one was found on one of our adventures...)

(And this one just reminds us of something we enjoy...)

 

(This one marks an addition to our family...)

(So many stories on one tree!)

S*N*O*W

The holiday festivities have been in full swing at the Davis household.  We've been enjoying all kinds of fun holiday activities from reading holiday books to decorating the house to getting the tree, but more on that later.  We didn't know what could possibly happen to get us even more in the holiday spirit.  Then, we looked out the window after we had brought home the tree.  There were little snowflakes falling from the sky!  This is the second time in Evan's short life that it has snowed on the day he decorates the Christmas tree.

They were both napping when the snow started to fall, and I was afraid that it would stop before they woke up, but luckily they didn't nap for very long and the snow continued to come down.  After they woke up, we bundled them up in their winter woolies and went out to explore.  Ben loved just watching the flakes fall and tickle his nose while Evan just wanted to kick and throw and run through the snow. 

(The snow starts to fall...)

 (Rip explores the snow...)

 (Ben hitches a ride on Daddy...)

 (Fresh snow...bright eyes!)

(Show me more...)

Once we came back inside we warmed up, cleaned up, and moved on to some tree decorating, but that is a tale for another day...

Infant Scientist

Like father, like son.  So, we received a call a few months ago asking if Ben could participate in an infant research study at Duke.  Being the good science family that we are, we of course consented.  Last Friday was the big day.  We drove up to Duke.  We were even in a building directly across the street from where Ian did his science for so many years.  I filled out some paperwork, Benny got a picture with Pooh Bear, and we were ready to go.

His job was to sit in a room for about 10 minutes watching a couple of television screens.  They were studying infant's conceptions of time.  The screens both had dots on them.  On one screen, the dots varied in number, on the other they varied in size.  They wanted to see which screen held his attention.  He worked very hard, and did a great job.

We finished up.  They gave me $10 and Ben some toy keys to chew on and take home.  They even sent him home with an official certificate which you can see above--"Infant Scientist" -- Dad was so proud!

The Santa Train

Last year was our first Christmas in Durham as parents, so we were clearly out of the loop on some things.  One afternoon, I was in a Kindermusik class with Evan, someplace you're really not supposed to bring your cell phone.  However, I brought mine in that day because I was awaiting news about the arrival of my first nephew, Jack.  One of the other mothers saw the cell phone and heard that I was awaiting an important phone call.  "Oh, you must be waiting for a phone call from the Santa Train, right?" she said.  This was the first I'd heard of the infamous Santa Train at the Museum of Life and Science.

There's always a train at the museum, and Evan loved to ride it.  Well, in December they decorate the area and send the "Santa Train" to the "North Pole" to visit Santa.  The Santa Train runs in the evenings, and for some reason, this seems to be the most popular event for families in the area over the holidays.  Tickets typically sell out really quickly, which is, I guess, why the woman in Evan's music class thought I would be using my cell phone to call for tickets during class. 

Since we were members of the museum this year, I decided to take advantage of the fact that we could purchase the Santa Train tickets early, and we got our tickets.  We told Evan all about it, and boy was he excited.  As I said earlier, he loves trains.  So, on December 1, just after the weather had made a distinct turn towards winter, we headed on up the the museum.

(Evan gets very excited about trains!)

The first thing that I noticed, other than the fact that I had forgotten my coat, was the fact that they had lights and holiday decorations everywhere.  Evan loved looking at these, especially the inflatable train.  He kept wanting to ride it, and we had to inform him that this train was not actually the Santa Train.  We headed in and did some crafts that they had set up to do while we waited for our specific train time.  Evan was a bit preoccupied and overwhelmed by the whole set up, so Ian ended up making most of the "reindeer food" and tree topper.  He would, of course, have nothing to do with the face painting.

(Evan and Ian make a tree topper.)

(Ben checks everything out.)

So, we headed on over to the main attraction, the line for the actual train.  During all of this time, Benny had been happily riding in his stroller.  We had brought a bottle for him which he had been happily refusing, but Ian doggedly continued to try as we waited for the train to come.  When it finally pulled up, twinkle lights shining, everyone cheered.

(Benny enjoys his bottle while we wait in line.)

(Somebody borrowed by gloves!)

We hopped on for what we were sure would be a chilly, but thankfully short ride.  I happily snuggled down with Evan on my lap really wishing that I had remembered my coat, and Ian held Ben.  I don't think six months is the optimal age for train rides because Ben screamed most of the time.  We headed down to the train's turnaround point, just a couple minutes ride.  At that point they had set up a little "North Pole".  We didn't leave the train, but an elf came by and handed us a candy cane while Santa visited each child individually and asked what they wanted for Christmas.  Evan was a bit shy, but he told Santa what we wanted (and fortunately we have already purchased it and it is waiting in our garage).

(On the train)

(The North Pole)

(SANTA!)

After the quick greeting, we breezed back to the train station, catching a brief glimpse of Rudolph and his red nose dancing in the woods (a laser light).  Once we got back we headed straight for the hot chocolate station and enjoyed it under a heat lamp.  It was the perfect toddler-sized outing.  Evan had a great time, Ben came around and didn't have a terrible time, and we all thought it was a great way to start off the holiday season!

MUD

It's been a relatively warm fall so far.  However, a storm finally blew through and brought winter with it.  This morning, the world was drying out from the downpour of last night and the brisk December wind was blowing in freezing temperatures.  Before the weather really turned cold, we really wanted to get in another outdoor playdate.  So, our little toddler playgroup headed out this morning to visit the soccer fields and playground. 

The wind was blowing the balls across soccer fields, but that didn't deter us.  The boys had a great time running across the field kicking the balls and pushing walkers.  The moms were standing around, younger siblings in carriers and arms and trying to keep warm.

(small toddler, big field)

(Trouble)

After some time down on the field, we migrated to the nearby playground.  That's when the fun really got started.  For the most part, the playground was dry.  However, at the bottom of one slide was a nice squishy muddy puddle.  Quinn was the first one to find it.  Gingerly he stepped his toes in.  Then, he was dancing through the water.  The other boys noticed this and thought it was pretty funny.  I think Edward was the next to dip his toes in, followed by Kohen.  Carson and Evan were watching from the top of the slide, but pretty soon, the temptation won out and in jumped Carson.  Evan doesn't like messes, so it took a good 5 or 10 minutes and me telling him it was okay before he could get his shoes dirty.

(The infamous puddle, looks harmless enough, doesn't it?)

(The boys are drawn towards the slide with the puddle.)

The boys had a ball and the moms looked on and let the fun continue.  Suddenly, one of us glanced over.  One of the toddlers has decided it would be a good idea to remove his wet pants, underwear, and rain boots.  He was roaming around the playground not bothered at all by his missing clothing and bare bum.  After we all stopped laughing, his mom went to the rescue and returned the pants to their proper place. 

Oh, but the toddlers weren't done with their puddle adventures.  They kept getting braver with the mud, reaching their hands in, sitting on their bottoms in the pool.  We continued to let them have their fun.  In a split second all of their fun ended.  We heard a loud cry from the puddle.  When we head over there we see two of the kids with their faces absolutely COVERED with mud!  One was screaming and one was laughing.  One can only imagine the events that preceded those reactions. 

The toddler in tears was quickly cleaned up and taken home and the play date started to wind down.  Some boys played around for a few more minutes, others had a quick snack.  But at the end of the day, everyone was loaded in their car or stroller, pants removed, and covered with a nice warm clean blanket. 

(All of this trouble has made us hungry.)

While it was chaos, it was great to watch the boys explore.  We love having such a great group of friends to head out and enjoy such experiences with.  Wouldn't share it with anyone else!