ben was baptized

Ben and his godfather Roger

loving uncle steve

uncle thomas got hitched

heading to grandmas

tired puppy

grandpa

grandpas house

end of a nice day

sunset

O's kinda lookin like a virginian

grandpa's new boat

swimming at the marina

grandpa and ben

I need to do some fill flash touch-ups on these cell phone pics... would be very cute otherwise! Richard brings my real camera with him on Thursday.

rivah nap

We took the fight out of the boy

we made it to the rivah

Just in time for sunset

driving to grandpas

Owen loves the dvd player in grandpas minivan

o and laura

two kids lots of gear

heading east

heavyweight champion

in this corner:
Ben McManus, 5 months
20 lbs, 5 oz, back in the 99th percentile
Wearing 12-18 month clothes

then and now

Our boys are growing up!

This weekend we retired Ben's portable car seat. It is a bummer, because it enabled me to move a sleeping Ben in and out of the car without disruption. However, he's 3 inches too tall and ounces away from being too heavy for it. These pictures show his first day (leaving the hospital) and his last day in this car seat. He's changed a bit, no? Ben will now use Owen's car seat, turned backwards for the next 7 months, and Owen's moved to a booster seat.

Ben's first bottom tooth has broken through today. He's still not doing much sleeping at night, but maybe things will get better now that this tooth is showing. He is finally enjoying eating pears and oatmeal after 4 tough weeks of messy attempts. He also has become fond of his blue blankie. Owen's still very attached to his blankie (which was green and is now a shade of green/brown/gray) so this could be the beginning of a long friendship.

Owen ventured out of the garage on his bike, now enjoying going up and down our driveway. He will be moving to pre-K in day care when we return from our trip, in July. Ben will be starting at the same center and I will be heading back to work. We leave on Friday for a 3 week adventure to North Carolina for a weekend, Virginia for 10 days, and then Vermont for Uncle Thomas' wedding and Ben's baptism.

picnic