Family time-

 One of several attempts to get a pic of all three grandkids... sheesh, it's not very easy, but still cute.

Ben and his "sweet little miss miss." He still adores his baby sister and says he loves her more than anyone else ever will. I'm going to quote him on this in the future... when she's getting into all of his toys or flirting with his friends...

old toys become new toys-

Ben loved this as a baby and now loves sharing it with his baby sister. He was even having fun goofing off by himself - what a funny kid...

Cousins-

Charlie, AJ and Uncle Chaz were in town over spring break... and it was so much fun. Ben and AJ really miss each other and were instant buds! Poor Charlie was really sick, so we missed him a lot, but we got to visit with him on the last day. One of the highlights of the visit was when Ben and AJ went on a Leprechaun Hunt on St. Patty's Day. They LOVED it and Ben is still talking about catching a leprechaun (AKA - chameleon - he could never remember the word, it was really funny). Bubba packed pillowcases to capture the leprechaun as well a binoculars to easily spot them from a distance. Next year the boys will need to find a pot of gold or some treasure - they LOVED it. Here's a pic of Ben's leprechaun near the tree he lives in.

Penguin Arms-

I just wanted to take a moment to reflect on the horrible reality that was Ben's 5-year vaccinations. Oh. My. Goodness. It was BAD. He was worried/nervous about getting shots, but we played it cool - "we'll see, big guy!" The actual doctor visit went really well - he's up to 43-3/4 inches and 42 pounds (75 percentile for both). He did great on his hearing test and listened to the doctor, answered his questions, etc. UNTIL the very end when the nurse came in with the tray with all the shots. Ben started FREAKING - "what are those... are those for meeeeeee?!" He jumped onto Joe's lap and started screaming as loud as he possibly could. Ben tried to make his way up onto Joe's shoulders to avoid the nurse and would have climbed out the window if he could have - shrieking the entire time. They started with the finger-prick lead test and proceeded with four(!) more shots, two on each arm. Joe had to hold Ben's entire body down while I held his head and stared into his crying face trying to calm him down... ugh. It was rough. Thank goodness Joe was there. 

Meanwhile, Miss Nora was as happy as could be looking around in her pumpkin seat like "what the heck is going on here?" When her turn came for a shot she let out a tiny little "yelp" and was done with it. Ben pretty much screamed bloody murder until we left the office.

So, afterwards Ben had little penguin arms - refusing to move his arms whatsoever and would only bend at the wrists. He even had us buckle his seat belt. It was pretty pathetic. UNTIL, a miracle occurred in our house - it was amazing! Bubba called to see if he wanted to play her new Wall•e Wii game and suddenly he was CURED. Hallelujah!