Ben's First Words

Months ago, I announced that Ben's first word was "Hi" and at the time, it sounded like "HA." Recently, I said he's been getting a little better at talking. I'm happy to say that he has straightened out his "Hi" and added two more words to his vocabulary: "shoe" and "ball." He will also repeat a few others. The only one not in this video that he says pretty consistently is "Daddy" ("dada") (sorry Nick...I think he started to get distracted). Enjoy!

Quiet!

One of the cutest things that Ben has been doing recently is "shush" us!

Afternoon in the pool

We went to see some Kray family friends today and they were generous enough to let us take Ben in their pool. This was his only 30 seconds of apprehension about the pool. After this, he leaped in and did NOT want to get out!

The funny thing was the he didn't want to be in the tube thing and he didn't want to be held. We need to teach him to swim soon as he was dying to be on his own in the pool. He was so happy in the water!

Mystic Aquarium

We met my cousin, Jill, and her daughters, Ella and Julia, at the Mystic Aquarium today. It was hot when we were outside, but very fun. I loved seeing the girls and now that Ben can walk well, it was cute to see him running around to see all the different fish.

The kids "posing" at the whale exhibit.

The sea lions were so cool. This one jumped right up in front of us to give us a show.

This picture is entirely for Lauren.....we saw African Penguins!

I have no idea what he's posing in front of...but it was cute how he went to stand in the box.

Soon Ella joined.

She loves Ben!!

2 former Bentleys with their children. :)

Did I mention it was Julia's 1st birthday today? Happy Birthday Julia!

Kid City

Not a ton of pictures to prove it, but we visited Kid City on Wednesday afternoon and it was SUPER cute! There are such creative places out there to take kids to. I'm very impressed by this world that I didn't know about before I had my own child. We will definitely be going back here another time we are in the CT area. There were some "rooms" that I think we could have left Ben in all day and he would have been perfectly happy!

Visiting "G.G"

We drove to Worcester, MA today and had a great time visiting Nick's grandma and going out to lunch.

(Yes...Nick and Ben were twins today.)

Playing outside...

Yesterday afternoon, Nick spent some time trying to figure out his new remote control helicopter that Ben got him for Father's Day.

Ben was VERY excited!

Then we tried to get Ben on the grass for a bit with the bribe of bubbles.

He wasn't a fan.

MUCH better!

The Children's Museum

Yesterday, we went to The Children's Museum in West Hartford with Nick's parents. Ben enjoyed checking out the museum with a grandparent in each hand.

If you can't tell, Ben is being a turtle in Turtle Town with a big empty turtle shell.

He walked out the same way he walked in. A happy little boy!

A sunny day in Glastonbury

Kathy and I took Ben to the park today. He enjoyed the swings and the sand. Maybe he won't be afraid of the sand at the beach the next time we go.

After a dip in the pool and a nice lunch, Ben loved running around the Krays' house before his nap. He's getting so fast!

Before going out to dinner for Kathy's birthday, we visited the fountain in the middle of town. As usual, Ben was in his glory with the water and we all enjoyed watching him.

"MOM! Do you see this fountain over here!?"

Some cute posed pictures.

Happy birthday Kathy! We were happy to celebrate with you today!