Benjamin at 1 month:)

My blogging has been sporadic of late and I have lots of things to post about, but our desktop computer has recently decided that I can no longer view pictures or video on it... It seems as though all of our appliances and vehicles knew that I was without a job and decided to all break at once.  Gabe has a big lecture to give and has been working tirelessly with our laptop, so I try to grab it when I can to check email.  So, hopefully after the next few weeks I will be able to get caught up with the blog:)  Benjamin has turned a month and has grown/changed so much in that time I can't believe it.  I had upgraded him to 3 month clothes at about 2 weeks old, but the other day I realized that it was difficult to button the onesies and one piece pantsuits... sigh... I guess soon I will be digging out the 6 month clothes... 

James is in the midst of another language explosion and he is proving to be stubborn (as 2yo usually are) and absolutely hilarious at the same time.  He is in the "I will do it myself" phase, which takes longer, but is actually super helpful when he can climb up into the car seat by himself while I get the other 2 in.  He has also started singing lots of songs.  I have some video of him singing "rock a by baby" to Ben which is SO CUTE... maybe I will be able to upload that one soon.  James loves the show "Super Why" on PBS and has been amazing us with the letters he knows.... I fear that he is soon going to surpass his brother in this facet of learning.  I thought that he had just seen the show before when he would identify the letters on the tv before they were said, but he has started identifying those same letters EVERYWHERE.  He is really into wanting to know what all of the letters are and he is so good remembering them.  I have been blown away by this!  He also knows one knock knock joke, which he doesn't really get, but thinks that it is hilarious to say.  

Noah has had a physical growth spurt and looks like such a little man to me now... not sure how that happened.  He continues to be a very kind and loving big brother and is so helpful at home.  He can get himself into and buckle his car seat, get himself dressed, pick up after himself, help with dishes and cleaning. I realize that these may not seem like a big deal, but they are in making our day to day life easier! His gross motor has also improved and is so excited to play soccer, golf with daddy and grandpa, and basketball which starts this week.  He loves music and attending our new music class at the assisted living center in Falmouth (more about that in another post). The most fun thing about Noah now is that he loves to play games now.  Dominos, memory, candyland, duck-duck-goose, and his favorite right now: hide and seek.  James tries hard to play this game too which is very cute, but totally doesn't get the point and ends up giving away hiding places which is very frustrating to Noah.

The Rest of Trey's Visit

The morning after the fair was a beautiful day and the cousins got to spend some quality time playing together outside:)  Noah and James are very proud of their skeleton and pirate pumpkins.

Fryeburg Fair 2011- Day #2

So, our second day at the fair was hot and crowded, so much so that I think we will not be going on the Saturday of the fair again.  The up side though was that we were able be at the fair with Nanny, Grandpa, Aunt Amy, Trey and 3/5 of the Pelkey clan:) We had lots more great fair food, fed the goats again, and spent some time in the school house. Trey had his first donut (and what a way to go with a "fair" donut;)), Noah got to try out some big farm machinery (James was asleep), and Benjamin tolerated the day in his onesie.

Noah the Soccer Star:)

Well, not really, but he has improved dramatically over last spring:)  I finally remembered to bring my camera today and get some photographic evidence of him playing soccer.  He absolutely loves playing!  I do have some video (and some video of James singing about Noah playing soccer) that I will try to get on here at some point.  It is so funny to watch this age group "play soccer".  Gabe likens it to herding cats;) This was the last day of outdoor soccer... it was so cold that James, Ben and I watched from the car for the last half.  It took me a surprising amount of time to convince James that it was ok for him to sit in the driver's seat to "drive", but once he figured out what that was all about it was hard to get him out;)

Fryeburg Fair 2011- Day #1

One of the highlights of fall is the Fryeburg Fair.  This year Gabe had a vacation week so he was able to come with us for both days:)  I am quite sure we would have gone more, or stayed for a few nights, but he has an important presentation coming up and plans to spend most of the vacation working on that.  Monday was Woodsmen's Day and supposed to be a rainy day, but it turned out to be perfect fair weather.  The pictures really say it all, we had a great time and a wonderful family day at the fair.  We definitely took full fair liberties and had lots of overpriced, deep fried fair food and spent time checking out all of the animals including feeding the goats at Old McDonald's farm.  

Since the last blog post not much overly excited has happened beyond the mundane day to day stuff:)  Benjamin is growing very well.  At birth he weighed 8 lbs. and when we went in for his 2 week check up he was up to 9lbs. 12oz!  Super baby (or I like to tell myself it is super milk:)). He continues to be a pretty easy going baby and tolerates all of the love that his big brothers give him.  In the same vain, Noah continues to be very helpful in caring for Ben, and James has also pitched in to insist on doing everything by himself;)