Ridge and Ben

Mary Shelton and Ridge came from Jacksonville to visit today. We took the boys back to their home away from home for their first year of life - the Village Market at Haile Plantation.
We met here multiple times each week while the Gamblins lived in Gainesville and it was bittersweet to be here together again. Mary Shelton and I are both pregnant with #2, so we will definitely miss our trips here when the babies come along in the coming months! But, I guess it won't quite be the same with our active boys running around! This is the only other picture I could get of the 2 together - there was a playground a few feet away, but they preferred to run up and down a handicap accessible ramp instead!

Day with Daddy

Ben and Carl had a guy's day today. I went to Orlando alone to do some shopping and pick up a dresser from IKEA for Ben's new big boy room. To put it simply, the day was sheer bliss for me! I feel completely rejuvenated after a day away from home!!!

I could not resist taking these pictures before I left. I think it is pretty obvious who dressed Ben this morning!

Carl has had to work late a couple of nights this week and Ben has been missing his Daddy quite a bit. I know that after a trip to the museum and park and a long nap with Carl, the day was blissful for Ben, too!

On the way home, a completely random thing happened. I passed a friend and classmate from high school on the interstate. I knew that Jami and her family were vacationing in Florida, but had no idea that they were driving back to IL today. When I was about 25 miles from Gainesville, a van passed me with IL plates. These always attract my attention since they remind me of my home state. I noticed that the license plate said JOY, and I'm not sure what triggered it, but after awhile I started thinking that the plate sounded like something that Jami would have on her car. I followed them the rest of the way home, wondering if it could possibly be them, but knowing that the odds were extremely unlikely. I tried to pass them a couple of times, but it was really windy and I was already driving too fast for a pregnant lady! Clint was probably wondering who the crazy driver behind him was! I finally got around them right before my exit and sure enough, Jami was sitting in the passenger seat. I was so surprised that it was actually them, that I went ahead and took my exit (I was already in the right lane) instead of waiting one more so we could have exited together! Considering that I graduated from a class of 19 people in a state hundreds of miles of away, I thought this was a pretty crazy story!!

Best Friends

This weekend, we attended the Haile Arts and Music Festival with Rochelle and Fischer. Fischer is without a doubt Ben's very best friend! He lives in our neighborhood, so we get together with Fischer and his mom several times a week. When leaving for the park, Ben always asks "Fischer?" and when we go on walks Ben will point down Fischer's street and repeat his name in the hopes that we are walking over for a visit. Fischer is about 6 months older than Ben and has definitely taken on the big brother role. He takes Ben under his wing and shows him how to do all sorts of "big boy" things. It is so fun to see how much Ben looks up to his best bud!

The kids had a good time dancing to the music. Fischer is quite the little dancer! When we walked by the first time, they were doing a Tom Petty cover and Ben insisted on getting out of his stroller so he could dance - we are so happy that he already has good taste in music!

Haircut

I've been putting off the inevitable for a few weeks (some may argue months!), but I decided that the time for a haircut had come. Ben's curls were such a big part of him, that I couldn't imagine my little guy without them - I was very attached. For every desperate phone call I received from my dad pleading with me to take him to a barber, Ben would receive a compliment from a random lady at the grocery store, or the waitress at a restaurant would gush over his dreamy blond curly q's and my decision to keep them would be reaffirmed. Basically, I just wasn't ready for my baby to grow up! But, with Ella on the way, I figured it was time for him to start becoming a big boy!

I couldn't stand the thought of watching those lovely curls fall to the ground, so I sent Carl (with strict instructions) and Ben alone. According to Carl, Ben LOVED the haircut. Each time the stylist would make a cut, he would say "Snip!". And he also thought the trimmer was pretty neat. As they were walking out, a lady exclaimed, "Wow, that boy walked in with long, yellow curls and walked out a little boy!"

He did walk through our front door looking much more like a little boy, and I am proud to say that I was able to hold back the tears (barely!). Whew, preschool is going to be rough!!!

Illinois

We just returned from our Spring Break trip to Illinois. I think we were the only people from Florida who actually traveled north! Carl had a conference in Tampa the first weekend of his break, so Ben and I flew from Orlando Thursday morning so that we could have a few extra days in IL. We were planning on leaving for Orlando at 5:00am and Ben woke up at 4:30am throwing up in his bed. After an early morning bath, he did not fall back asleep in the car, so I was very nervous about how our solo flight was going to go. I prayed the whole way to the airport that the flight would not be full so that Ben could have his own seat (as opposed to sitting on my lap the whole way!). Thankfully, he did get his own seat, which totally saved the day! He thought he was pretty big stuff sitting in the seat like a big boy and had extra room to stretch out.

Aunt Kimmie brought Ben finger paints. This was his first time, and he wasn't too sure about getting his hands dirty!

On Friday, we met Nico, Connor and Lucas at the new Five Points in Washington. They had an amazing zero entry pool with fountains for the kids to play in. The boys had a great time, but Ben's lips were completely blue the last 45 minutes we were in the pool. He's used to having the warm Florida sun keep him warm while swimming!

We hosted a baby shower for our friend, Kristin, on Saturday. She is having a baby girl in May! It was great to see old college friends and meet Jess's Connor and Eva's Berit for the first time. Ben helped Kristin open gifts and had a great time playing with Baby Kinsella's new toys!

We headed to the Zeller's on Saturday night. We walked in through the garage, which means Ben saw the laundry room as soon as we arrived. He was so excited about a new washer/dryer to play with that he did not even eat his supper. Em has a cute video of Ben and Jude posted here. Ben was not very good at sharing the Tide bottle, so luckily Jude's sweet kitchen set and big boy bed were enough to distract them. They spent the last part of the evening wrestling. I wish I would have gotten some pictures of them taking each other down! Ben is definitely Mr. Cautious, so I was completely amazed that he was having fun and not running to me crying!!

I was terrible about taking pictures the rest of the week! Carl and Ben spent the day at Allen and Rita's on Monday. It was here that Ben rediscovered the old Little Tikes washer/dryer set. He had so much fun that Carl ended up bringing it back to Gridley. Ben spent most of his time the rest of the week doing laundry.

Ben was also able to see all of his great-grandparents and aunts and uncles while we were home. On Wednesday, he had a lot of fun serving my side of the family coffee and muffins that he had made in his kitchen. They literally pulled up chairs to make a half circle around him while he showed off all of this tricks. He was soaking up all of the attention that comes with being the first great-grandchild!

On Friday, I was able to spend the afternoon with my mom and Grandma Myers. We visited a few different fabric stores to pick out fabric for the bedding Grandma is going to make for Ella's nursery (yep, we decided on a name!). It was great to spend time with Grandma and I can't wait to see how everything turns out. She is the most amazing seamstress I know!!

Carl and I were also able to see some of Carl's old friends from HS and go out on a couple of dates. By the end of the week, Ben was getting pretty overtired and cranky, so it was nice to leave him with my parents for a couple of nights!

We ended our trip with the annual Irish Party at Carl's parents. We had a great day with the extended Drake and Beagles families and all of the cousins. Ben loved all of the Irish toasts at the beginning of the meal and was also a fan of the awesome potato soup and corned beef!

While we had a great trip, it was SO nice to get home! As our plane landed, they announced that it was 85 degrees out! Ben took a 3.5 hour nap on Monday and we have spent most of our time outdoors since we've been home! It is hard to believe that when we fly home in August we will be a family of 4 -Yikes!!

Visits From The Grandparents

I'm a little behind on the post from my parents' recent visit. They came to stay with us Feb 15-22. We went on a couple of outings around Gainesville and took a side trip to Orlando since Dad has a similar attention span to Ben's and would go stir crazy doing our normal routine here in Gainesville.

Ben's newest obsession is coffee. Carl and I aren't big coffee drinkers, so we're unsure of where this latest phase came from! We bought him a coffee maker for Valentine's Day and he has been playing the part of barista ever since. He and Grandpa are sitting down for their morning coffee in the picture above. Ben looks like he needs to start drinking some decaf! After several cups of coffee, the pair decided to make pancakes. Baking with Grandpa is quite the experience. He lets Ben do way more than Mommy does, including trying to crack the eggs. Grandpa's confidence in Ben's cooking abilities led to a huge mess, but was fun to watch!

On Monday, we took a trip to Morningside Nature Center. They have a historic farmstead that has a few farm animals in residence. Ben enjoyed looking at the cows and sheep, but chasing the chickens and imitating the rooster's call were his favorite things to do! We also hiked on one of their beautiful hiking trails.

Ben chasing chickens

Looking for the chickens after they ran under the farmhouse

While in Orlando, we took a day trip to Kennedy Space Center. I was worried about how Ben would do, but he was a trooper. He loved the bus ride to the various locations - he was able to sit in his own seat like a big boy! He also enjoyed the different movies about space because he could provide the audience with commentary on the moon and the stars. He couldn't contain his excitement and would repeatedly shout out "MOON" and "STARS". These are some pictures of the Apollo 5 shuttle.

Cheese!

It was no surprise that Ben's favorite part of the Space Center was the fountain outside!

We spent our afternoons in Orlando in the pool And by "we", I mean mostly me and Ben! It was freezing when the sun started going down, but each time we asked Ben if he was ready to get out he would respond, "NO, NO, NO, NO!". His little teeth were chattering, but he was having a great time!

He quickly made friends with the other kids in the pool - most likely because his pool toys consisted of 2 plastic cups from our bathroom! However, Nana took pity on him and bought him a little fish from the poolside store. He and the fish were inseparable in the pool and tub after that!

Ben always took a particular fondness to the ladies in the pool. Sometimes he would even wave as they swam by!

We were eventually able to persuade him to get out of the pool by bribing him with Goldfish and a warm bath in the big jetted tub back in our room!

Carl's parents stopped through for the last 3 nights on their way back to IL from Bonita Springs. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures since they spent the whole time nursing us back to health! I spoke to soon in my last post! Ben ended up developing a toddler's version of a sinus infection from all of the vomiting and Carl and I both caught his nasty stomach virus! It was a rough few days, and we were so thankful to have Allen and Rita here to help out. People often tell us that we are crazy for wanting to move from Florida back to IL, but this was a perfect example of why being near family is SO much more important than having amazing winters! Thanks so much to Allen and Rita for keeping up with MANY loads of laundry, running errands, cleaning up, cooking and letting us rest while we were recovering. Ben was very clingy to me while he was sick, but Rita could make him laugh again when I didn't have the energy to do anything but pop in another movie for us to watch! It was so nice to see a little glimpse of our old Ben in the midst of all his sickness. Poor kid - the stomach virus was horrible. I can't imagine getting a sinus infection on top of that!

We are flying to IL Thursday morning, but don't worry, we will be back in good health by then!