Sitting Pretty

Benjamin is enjoying a new view of his little world. He started sitting up by himself this week and is loving life! He doesn't even mind when Barrett knocks him over when he "plays" with him. Benjamin continues to be such a trooper! He will be six months old the end of next week...can't believe it!

Barrett turns 3!

We celebrated B's 3rd birthday with lots of friends and lots of monkeys! He LOVES curious George so we decided to surround ourselves with little monkey friends for the big day! The banana monkey cake (made with the help of our friend Judi...see the video) and little monkey cupcakes were a hit and Barrett loved wearing his monkey mask (and still hasn't taken it off!).

All the brothers...

Jerry's brother Jeff (who lives in NYC) and Pat (who lives in Raleigh, NC) flew home for the weekend to celebrate Barrett and grandpa grant's birthdays. So all four of the Grant boys were in b'ham at the same time which rarely happens. You will see lots of pics of cousins and uncles playing the Wii (Barrett is pretty dominant in a game of Wii boxing!). This was Jeff's first time to meet Benjamin who turned five months old this week. MC, Julia and Emily Grant rotated turns holding Benjamin...who loved every minute of his visit with his cousins. A great weekend together...we are thankful for our family.

Four-month old Benjamin

Benjamin turns four months old and big brother Barrett is loving his new playmate. Benjamin weighed in at 15lbs. 8oz. at his checkup! He is in the 90th percentile for height and 70th for weight. Big healthy fella. Give me an esophagus and watch me grow!!! We say that a lot around our house.

Big news at our house is potty training with B....big fun. You will see a pic of B at the lake house on his homemade stool (thanks to Granddaddy). We watch the potty movie, we talk about the potty, we hang out in the bathroom and read books and try to go potty...we are all about the potty...and we celebrate success with M&M's!

Lots of fun play pics including a few with our friend Sally who is one of B's favorite friends...and Benjamin in a few of his new apparatuses...what in the world did they do before they invented these things!

Holiday Week

We spent the fourth of July weekend resting at the lake. But before we left town Benjamin had another hearing test at Children's and his first visit to the HEAR clinic (which is a specialized division of Children's focusing on children with hearing loss). You will see the pic above of Benjamin all hooked up for the test. He looks REALLY happy about it huh...I know...the pictures are not in order...but I am still not really good at the blog thing...but I'm trying.

Thankfully Benjamin's hearing loss was the same as the last test...perfect in the right ear and mild/moderate loss in left ear. We have decided not to use any type of hearing device in the one ear with loss after consulting with both an ENT and the HEAR folks who said they feel it is not necessary. Benjamin does qualify for early intervention through the state since he does have some loss so they will be coming to do home visits and monitoring both his hearing and speech. They will monitor him till he is 3 years old which is so reassuring to have another person watching him closely to make sure the loss does not cause any delay in his speech.

The fourth of July was so much fun at Lake Wedowee with Grandmama and Granddaddy Gooden. Barrett was like a little tadpole and we had to pull him out of the water to sleep and eat. He also loved riding the jet ski with his dad. Benjamin loved the lake and thanks to a few battery operated fans he was able to be outside in the shade with the rest of the fam. Barrett LOVED being in charge of Benjamin's fans as you will see in the pics. Samford (our black lab) is now in recovery mode after a weekend of constant swimming and chasing tennis balls. He is 7-years-old but you would never know it when there is water or a ball around. He finally passed out in the car on the way home and has moved a little slow since then...probably a combination of being sore and being a little depressed to be back to our boring house.

3-month old Benjamin!

Wow, I can't believe it! Already three months old. Barrett and little brother had a big day celebrating by having friends over to play and then going swimming at the pool! Benjamin is sleeping a lot right now and growing a ton! He is probably about 14pounds and is smiling and talking all the time.

Barrett (who says so many words it is scary!) calls Benjamin "Brother" and tells him how much he loves him (as he hugs him way too tight)! We are thankful he is doing well and we head back to Children's next week for hearing checkups. So far the hearing loss in one ear seems so minimal that we will just be watching it.

Here is a fun picture of B and our friend Carla Jean on a "date night." CJ is sweet to take him to family night at Chick-fil-a and he loved having his face painted and all the yummy ice cream! That is what I call a fun date!!!

Baptism day/Father's day

We celebrated Father's day with family and friends as we also baptized Benjamin at Red Mountain Church.

Barrett's favorite part of Benjamin's baptism was singing the song "I am Jesus Little Lamb" that we sing in honor of Lawson Finch at every Red Mountain Baptism.

The words to the song are "I am Jesus little lamb, Ever glad at heart I am; For my Shepherd gently guides me, Knows my need and well provides me, Loves me every day the same, Even calls me by my name." I don't think Barrett missed a word (we sing it a lot around here). It was a precious day for our family and we are so thankful for all the amazing friends who have supported us and prayed for Benjamin's health since he was born.