The Banjo

For some time now Travis has been pining for a banjo. 

Don't ask me why -- he just has. 

First it was the guitar about 7 years ago, then the ukulele joined the crew last September and now the banjo.

 All his boyhood dreams have now come true.

You have to admit all three look pretty impressive hanging from the wall.

I'm just hoping he doesn't decide he needs a sitar next.

We're running out of wall space.

If You're Happy & You Know It..

Clap your hands! 

Yet another milestone for the baby.

9 Months already

Last week Benji turned 9 months old. We are so proud of our little boy - he's chunked up to 15lbs 2oz (almost a 4lb weight gain in 3 months!) and is literally everywhere. Best of all his heart looks like it is completely fine - no murmur and we are even down to 3 month visits to the cardiologist (much better than every 2 weeks). So far it looks like he won't need any other medicines or treatments. I cannot tell you how good it is to have a healthy baby again.

He's starting to sleep better, still wakes up around twice a night, but we are working on that. I still don't have it in me to let him cry it out yet. This kid might be a touch spoiled. But he deserves to be, right?

Benji's a speedy little crawler and pulls up on everything.

Sporting 4 teeth (with 2 more soon to make an appearance) this kid loves to eat. As long as it doesn't come on a spoon (none of that yucky baby food for him), he will chow it down. Some favorites include: pizza crust, popcorn (pieces that I pick the kernel off of), black beans, and rice crackers. He's also mostly weaned himself and usually just drinks formula now. Which  is sorta sad because I miss those quiet moments with my baby - but also nice that others (I'm looking at you Travy) can take a turn at 2am!

One of Benji's favorite places to play is on my bookshelves. Probably cause I store his toy bins on the bottom shelf. He seems to be fascinated with books and will pull several off the shelf and sit and look at the colorful covers.

Hopefully this means he'll be a bookworm just like his brother and mommy!

I know I'm biased but...

Dang it! That kid is cute!

Potpourri

When I downloaded my pictures yesterday I realized there was a whole lotta randomness contained therein. Probably cause Travis has been either pretty busy with work or out of town the past few weeks and so the boys and I have been trying to stay entertained. Which I think we've done a pretty good job of.

We had stir-fry for dinner last week so last-minute I decided to pull out our Chinese placemats and bowls and have an Asian dinner while listening to some Oriental music.

Peter especially loved eating with the chop-sticks. 

Which should really be called 'poke-sticks' in his case.

Another day, after watching a Bob the Builder episode about recycling, Peter asked to build a bird feeder. It's now hanging in one of our trees and I don't think a single bird has found it yet. Don't tell Peter that tho. He thinks he's saving the entire bird population in our neighborhood.

It kills me how grown up he looks here.

Last week we had a couple days of lovely 70 degree California weather, so we had a picnic lunch outside. And Foxy insisted on joining us. Benji is fascinated by Foxy (Peter too to be fair). Thankfully our sweet kitty puts up with all his man-handling.

Then on Tuesday we celebrated Valentine's Day. Peter made this great picture (with the help of crafty Emily) for me at Preschool.

Good times but luckily Daddy gets home today. Here's hoping he doesn't mind two crazy boys attacking him the moment he walks in the door.