But he was STILL HUNGRY!

Ben retelling Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar to his cousin Gwen on our recent trip to Michigan. He did a great job, though we might need to review certain details of metamorphosis with him!

Deep Thoughts with Benjamin

Some recent quotations from Ben:


Holds up 2 soccer balls: "Daddy, pick a soccer ball. (points) But don't pick this one."


When I got to his daycare class to pick him up yesterday, one of his friends must have said "mommy" when he saw me. But Ben didn't see me at first and irritatedly told him, "Daniel, I'm NOT your mommy!"


Ben has had kind of a rough adjustment back to school after being on vacation for a week and a half. He has been asking when we get to go back to Ohio and see Elli, Gideon & Evelyn and has been fussy about going to school in the morning. A conversation from earlier in the week:

Ben: I don't want to go to school! I want to stay home with you!
Em: I'm not staying home. I have to go to work, and Daddy's already at work so there would be no one to fix your meals or play with you.
Ben: Then I will go see Elli!
Em: Well, we would miss you because that's a long walk and you would be gone for a lot of days.
Ben: Well...then I would take the car.
Em: It's still a long drive and you don't know how to get to Elli's house.
Ben: Then I will use the GPS. And then I will get to Elli's house!

Elizabeth's baptism

Elizabeth Grace was baptized on June 2 at her great-grandmother's church, where many other family members have also been baptized over the years. My parents came in from Michigan and my grandmother sent her baptismal outfit, which was in pretty good shape for being about ninety years old! Dave's parents recently returned from a trip to the Benelux countries and brought back a pair of exquisite Belgian lace booties.

She immediately tried to grab the stole (?) and chew on it. She was also fascinated with the candle and tried to grab it several times!

With godparents Angela & Rob:

Not a great shot of Elizabeth, but a good view of the beautiful Belgian lace booties:

Elizabeth is five months old!

Elizabeth is a cheery, still mostly mellow five-month-old. She likes to babble, play with her feet, chew on things, watch her big brother's every move, and roll and inchworm like crazy. She's still figuring out rice cereal. She seems to enjoy riding in our wraps and Ergo carrier and will often fall asleep while being worn. Little is safe from her drool! She is getting better at sitting in a wobbly tripod for a short time if we position her that way and still prefers being on her tummy.

Ben saw that his Billy Butler Royals shirt was clean one morning, and after deciding to wear it, he grabbed Elizabeth's Royals shirt and brought it in to our room so she could match.

Hanging out with her super-soft bear blanket, which became another victim of the drool monster!

Enjoying Rocking Panda:

I still had our work parachute in my trunk after our bereavement camp, so I told Ben we could play with it this weekend. It was a big hit!

Ben occasionally requests to hold Elizabeth, though sometimes we suspect it's more of a bedtime stalling technique than actual desire to cuddle with his sister! He is generally very sweet with her, though, and she absolutely adores watching him!

Elizabeth is four months old!

Elizabeth went for her four-month-old checkup yesterday. The doctor said everything looked great and she should start on rice cereal since she is burning calories by rolling a lot and scooting a little.

Her stats were:  
Height: 24 3/4" (66%ile)
Weight: 13 lbs, 14 oz. (53%ile)
Head circumference: 40.9 cm (45%ile)

So she has grown 1.5" and 2 lbs, 10 oz. since her two-month checkup and is about 2.5 pounds less than Ben was at her age, a fact for which our backs and arms are grateful!

At four months, Elizabeth loves rolling over, doesn't much like being on her back unless it's on her activity mat with hanging toys above her, drools constantly (though the doc assured us she doesn't look anywhere near to having teeth), is babbling, smiling, and starting to laugh, and is a generally happy and easygoing baby. She is just delightful! Her teachers at daycare think she may be having a growth spurt because she's been hungrier and napping for long periods of time, while still sleeping through the night most nights. She continues to adore watching her big brother and likes cuddling with some stuffed animals like the super-soft elephant Grammie and Papa got her:

Elizabeth even got to go to her first Royals game last night, though she spent most of the game walking around with a tired and grumpy Ben, who decided the game was too loud. Our friend Kristy & I walked around with him and let him play in the Kid Zone. We did swing by Guest Services on a tip from the ticket taker and got Elizabeth a certificate for her first game. She was perfectly content in her Ergo carrier for most of the time and seemed to like looking around at everything. Here we are at the end of the game next to the Royals Charities piggy bank:

Our smiley girl

Elizabeth is such a smiley, happy, generally mellow baby. She likes cooing, cuddling and watching people talk and sing and is working on learning how to laugh. She really likes staring at her big brother! We have had to get out Ben's stash of baby bibs and teethers because she's hit the super-drooly stage.

Since Elizabeth figured out how to roll over, she is generally happiest on her belly and will roll over as soon as you put her down. She likes looking around and sometimes scoots herself millimeters at a time. She was playing on her quilt earlier this week and Dave caught a series of about thirty pictures with Elizabeth looking up at "Chopped." I guess we have another Food Network fan on our hands!

Listening intently to judge Geoffrey Zakarian...

and to a very emphatic contestant who kind of looks like he's ordering her to march right upstairs and make gourmet food:

We went to Jack Stack BBQ last weekend and Elizabeth decided that after she had her bottle, she did not want to return to her baby seat. She sat and stared at Daddy's food instead.

Big Truck Night

We took Ben (prior to his new haircut, seen above) and Elizabeth to a Big Truck Night sponsored by the local Missouri Department of Transportation office. Ben was in absolute heaven checking out all of the emergency, farm, and construction vehicles.  Elizabeth seemed interested in the crane that was going up and down near where we were sitting as she had her bottle. They also had some K-9 demonstrations and the bomb squad blew up a watermelon.

Sometimes mascots frighten Ben (and us, honestly!) but for some reason he just went running up to the MoDOT bear and gave him a huge hug, walked away, then ran back and gave him another hug! He was also excited to get a signed card from the horse mascot of the Missouri Mavericks hockey team and proudly hung it on the fridge when we got home!

The firefighters had plastic fire hats to give away. He had a great time sitting in the fire engine and pressing all the buttons he could reach!

Since Ben had such a great time at this, we are hoping to go to the Lee's Summit Annual Big Truck & Equipment Show next Saturday, May 19 at the LS airport. He is also giddy with all of the construction equipment rolling through our neighborhood as they tear up and repour all of the curbs. This morning we stood and watched a Bobcat pick up dirt for 5 minutes!