We had the procedure to open Benson's tear duct today. He did great and there's no more goop! Yay!!

TALKING!!!

This post is not for those of you who voted for the "Pictures Only" preference in our recent blog poll...
This one is for the Grandparents, Great Grandparents, relatives and friends who might as well be relatives because they check the blog every day hoping for new updates :)
This one is all videos..
I just couldn't help it :)
Benson is talking! He just started yesterday! He has said a word here or there in the past few months, but yesterday it's like something just "clicked" and he's trying to repeat anything and everything we say! He said "belly button" today! Multiples times! And I have witnesses! But I couldn't catch that one on video. I did, however, chase him around with the camera this morning trying to catalog as many words as I could on video. The following post is the result... :)

Dada. Dadadadada


Mama. Mama.


There it is!


Thank you.


Uh-Oh...


All done. Ok- This one is a bit of a stretch, but he does the sign with it, so I'm saying it counts :)


In addition to the words you just heard with your own ears, Benson can also say:
Dog
Yuck
Hot
Baby
Night-Night
Yessss (he does this one with a fist-pump)
Bye Bye
Ball
Papa
Hey
Hello
Belly Button

This is SO MUCH FUN! Every time I think it can't get any better, it DOES! I am falling more and more in love with this sweet little boy every day! He is SUCH a precious GIFT!!

I realized that I never shared Benson's One Year Portraits, so here they are...

my little GIRL is growing up...

I always felt like Becca was my little girl. I was ten when she was born and I felt like she was all mine. I would to fix her hair in braids and doll her up in cute little outfits. I really thought she was the most precious little girl in the whole world! She had her first day of high school today, so I thought I'd take this opportunity to take a walk down memory lane... I love you Bec!

Aunt B with little B on her first day of high school


Sweet girl


She could make the silliest faces and it always made me laugh!


Too cute!

This has always been one of my favorite pictures... Benjamin has always referred to Becca as "1.5" (I'm his number ONE, but she comes in close at 1.5! :) He's the big brother she never had!)

Some time with the girls...

Benson and I spent the day with Hannah and Addie Grace. Let me just say, that I have got some REALLY adorable nieces!
Not to mention that they make really great subjects for playing around with my new Photoshop :)

Sweet little piggies...


A morning stroll...


We went to see the ducks..
Benson said hey...

Addie Grace is full of smiles and cute as ever...

This little tiger is ready for football season!
How cute is Will in his little halloween costume! And doesn't Christa just GLOW when she's holding her boy?!

A little uncle time...


Just a couple of cousins sharing some O's...

snapshots

I think one of the sweetest times of being a mama is when Benson wakes up. I love it when he's still a little bit of a sleepy head and snuggles up close to me. Here's a few pics right before I got him up from his afternoon nap...

I love to watch him sleep...

That little tookus up in the air... so cute!!

When Benson and I went to visit Kelli in Greenville, we stopped by pottery barn and got these cubes for a STEAL! I had this grand idea of the PERFECT place for them until I got them home and realized that they were too HUGE for the spot. So Benjamin and Benson were playing Brady Bunch with them... silly boys...

My son the future politician...
(how CUTE is this little Clemson baseball outfit Layne and Mark gave Benson?!)

August is here!

Normally we don't let Benson fall asleep in our arms... it's contrary to "Baby Wise," which we HIGHLY recommend. But sometimes we make exceptions... and those times are sweet...

Hannah and Addie Grace came to town! Can you believe how much Addie Grace has grown?!


Hannah in all her adorableness... What a little priss pot! :)

Sweet Hannah, sharing...

Addie Grace is normally all smiles, but I thought this little lip poked out was just too cute...


And here's Benson showing off his awesome dancing skills... he cracks me up...

Can I just say that this is QUITE encouraging...

ah HA! It CAN be done! Judging from Benson's head, I was feeling that my dreams of one day having a baby girl and being able to put matching bows in her hair everyday were looking pretty bleak until I came across THIS BLOG! Woo Hoo! A little Elmer's glue and we're all set!! Yay!

(How did people ever parent without the internet?)

Clumsy Baby Giraffe

In making the crawl from his room to the bath, Benson stopped by the kitchen to see Daddy who was sweetly, again, doing the dishes. When he got to the tile, he stood up and started walking. Benjamin called me in and said, "Babe, you've gotta see this.... He looks like a clumsy baby giraffe walking around here like that!" We were able to capture it on video, but did attempt to spare the blog-o-sphere the full frontal nudity. There was, however, a full moon!!

Benson's First Sign!

For those of you who don't know, I LOVE American Sign Language. Since Benson was born, I've really not had too much of an opportunity to do much with sign language, but that's all about to change...
Tonight, we stripped him down to his diaper for Spaghetti night and he was so excited, he started talking!! With his hands, that is... Benson has officially learned his first sign... "More!" I'm SO excited! Let the good times begin! I can't wait to start teaching him new words!!!

And after his first spaghetti dinner, Benson helped Daddy do the dishes...
Well, as Benjamin loaded them, Benson unloaded them. Silly boy...

Kelli's Last Day with the twins...

Kelli's husband Trey got a job with a law firm in Greenville, so they are moving to the upstate! :( It's a wonderful opportunity for them and I am excited about that, but I am so sad they will be leaving. I will really miss all the fun times that Benson and I have with Kelli and "her twins." Today was her last day, so we went for one final hoorah at the zoo. Here are some pictures from the day...

Packed in like sardines...

Benson was really excited to have someone sitting beside him that he could touch! Annaclaire... not so much...

We went inside of the Lorakeet cage!

See the Lorakeet on the branch behind us?

On the Merry-Go-Round...
Don't they all look SO ADORABLE in the outfits Kell made for them?! Be sure to check out her new website: www.blushandbashfulbaby.com

Benson LOVES the carousel!

He was waving at everybody...

Giddy Up, Baboon!

The only animal sound that Benson knows how to make is the sound of an elephant, but he doesn't exactly know what an elephant is... he just sees Benjamin do it and copies him. (One of these days I'm going to secretly capture it on video and put it on here for all to see... it is SO funny!) We tried to put two and two together, as far as matching the animal with the sound, but it didn't work that well... it was still cool to see them!

The giraffe came up to say hey to us! He kissed Benson on the arm!