He is into everything and loves to explore anything he can get his hands onto!
He's eating a huge amount of food! It seems like he eats all day long. As soon as breakfast is over he's ready for a snack! Orrrr ... if he sees anyone else eating something that looks interesting to him, he is suddenly famished and must try a bite of whatever it is he sees (not that he always gets a bite, but he sure does try!)
Bennett currently has 14 teeth and it working on two more right now! I might lose my mind before they all come in, but we are hoping these last two will be it for a LONG time!
Bennett has mastered walking and is now really enjoying running! When he gets excited to see someone or if he wants you to run after him, he makes this little squeal and them his little legs just get moving so fast and he takes off! It's adorable!
As has been the case for at least the last 6 months, Bennett continues to love music. He loves to listen to it, he loves to dance to it, and he loves to make music anyway he can! He has started to sit with his "guitar" and sing!(I have a video of him and Adam sitting together with their guitars singing but Adam says he sounds bad in it - I think it's adorable!)
Bennett isn't talking a ton, but he's communicating! We got baby signs for a gift, we were totally on board to start it, and well... I failed. So basically the kid is on his own, in the world of kids who are all signing to their parents. He just has to point and say "Nah nah nah" enough times until we figure out what it is that he wants. But we usually get it in the first couple tries :) (90% of the time he just wants us to hand him his cup on the counter or he's asking for a banana, he asks for banana's constantly!)
I don't really know a whole lot about toddler strength and all but I think our son is super strong! He can pull himself up on to things that are at his shoulder height! It's rather amazing to Adam and I the things that he has been able to climb up on! He defiantly can get his foot above his shoulder and then push off - He may be getting rock climbing gear for his 2nd birthday!
All these pictures so far were taken one month ago on May 22nd (15 months) - this is what our 16 month old looks like today with his freshly cut hair
He looks sooooo much older to me! I'm still not sure if I'm happy with the cut, it may be a long time until he gets another one! He needs to stop growing now!
With in a week two couples we love dearly both moved to the North West portion of the country. One couple went to Eugene, Oregan and another went to Seattle, Washington. Lucky for us we were able to get together with both couples before they left to share one last meal together and just be able to hang out, since presumably it will be quiet some time before we get to see them again. Since they moved with in 3 days of each other we had one farwell dinner on monday and then the other farewell dinner on tuesday - you know, that's how we roll around here - non-stop parties!
The first couple we "celebrated" (not that we were at all celebrating their leaving, I just don't know what else to call it) was the Radliffs. We love them! They are a breath of fresh air to our souls! Adam and Michael get lost in talking about the latest Scientific America article and/or talking about music or theology or a combination there of. Becky and I love to meet for coffee and talk kids (not that they have any but I can hope can't I?!) and theology and food, we always end up talking about food - oh well, it's fun to talk about! Anyways, we love them but we are excited for their new life in Eugene and we already have a trip planned to see them in September (since we will be in Salem for a wedding) so we are for sure looking forward to that!
So what we did to send them off:
We (as well as the Ward family - the Ward's are basically the reason we know the Radliffs in the first place) all met up for a hike at the Santa Rosa Plateau and had a lovely walk. I had forgotten how beautiful it is up there. It had been at least 10 years since I had been up there!
After the Plateau we all made it back to our place for a fabulous vegetarian meal prepared especially on Adam's new grill he got for his birthday just hours prior to our hike.
After dinner we had a few more friends join us for dessert and games.
It really was one of those nights were you think - "This was perfect!" One of the most lovely and enjoyable evenings I have had in a long time. Perfect conversation, tons of laughter, fun with all the kiddos, it was just a great memory to make and keep close to our hearts.
The next couple leaving is Justin and Elisha Davie. We share a rather funny memory with the Davies, we lived in the same apartment as our first married apartment. Adam and I lived there for a year and a half and then Justin moved in when we left and Elisha moved in a month or so later (after the wedding of course). So oddly enough when the Elwers and Davies think fondly back on their first apartment as a married couple, we all think back on the same place - random huh?! Anyways, sad to say that it was that move that made us about 30 minutes away from them (as apposed to the 10 minutes prior to that) so we didn't see them as often- oh well, such is life. But that doesn't diminish our love for them! Justin and Adam have been friends for a really long time, Justin was actually in our wedding. And Elisha and I met for about two years for discipleship, which was such a joy because she is such an amazing and sweet woman who loves the Lord so much. Justin and Elisha will both be attending Seattle Pacific University to finish up their BA's. We will miss them but we are so glad that they are finishing up school.
So, all that to say, we had them over for an old past time of ours, playing "Hand and Foot"! We used to have them over (when we lived in our old apartment, you know, before they moved into it) and would play this game for hours and hours until it was "tomorrow" - So we had to play just one more time! We played boys against girls (always a favorite competition) and the boys blew us girls out of the water! It was unbelievable, I've never been beat that bad before ...EVER! It was a great night!
We are sad to see our friends (both couples) leave in what seems to be an exodus to the northwest, but we know that each of them are following dreams and goals of their own and we bless them as they go off to fulfill them.
We spent a few weeks celebrating Adam turning 29 on the 29th
(or in the words of a nameless family member - "He's turning 29 on his 29th Birthday!")
and who doesn't love to celebrate their birthday multiple times?!
We started out a week before his birthday with a fun outing to Balboa Park in San Diego for "Mud Fest" in the Spanish Village. I love the Spanish Village! It is one of the cutest features of Balboa park and my husband loves clay/ pottery so this was basically the perfect outing for us!
Upon arriving we saw a group of people throwing pots with brown paper bags over their heads. We watched for a while and figured out that we were watching the amateur "blind pot throwing" competition.
Adam went to sign up and all that was left the the "expert" round. He figured since he had done it for about 3 years he was good enough and could join the last heat. So he got a bag, drew a face and started prepping his clay...
He had this at one point, but got an air bubble ...
... and ended up with this!
Oh well, not bad right? I mean he was throwing a pot with out using his eyes, right? Well, let me just show you a few of the other "experts"
Uh, yeah, Adam probably should have been in the amateur round - oh well - he had fun getting his hands dirty anyway!
We spent the rest of the afternoon wondering the park.
Looking at fountains
Walking over giant bridges
And looking at beautiful plants.
And then on the way home Adam picked Indian food for his "Birthday dinner" (which was really fabulous - check out the blue peacock!) and my Mom watched Bennett which was really nice so we just got to enjoy the yummy food and Bollywood videos all to our self :)
Then we took about a week's break from celebrating Adam (you know, apart from the everyday run of the mill celebrating of Adam that goes on all the time) and resumed celebrating the next Saturday on his actual birthday! Oh well actually, now that I think about it (and look at my pictures) we did sort of celebrate the day after "Mud Fest" too. It was Pentecost, so we all wore red to church
and then took Bennett to the duck pond for the first time
(But that's not really celebrating Adam, now is it - oh well! )
Back to the golden birthday - on the morning of we went to the Temecula farmers market and then just kind of spent the day together doing stuff around town (playing at the park and such). It was a very lovely and relaxing family day.
In the evening we went to Stefanie and Jonnie's wedding. Yeah, I know, kind of random to go to a wedding on your golden birthday but we knew a bunch of people who were going to be there and we decided it would be fun to hang out with them all at a beautiful location.
Bennett and Becky getting some quality time in before the big move (more on that later)
Cute little fun touches were all over the wedding
But the one thing we (Adam mostly) loved about the wedding was that on each table there were these little wooden mind games to play with! Adam spent the whole time smoke'n people as they tried to put them together. He would just laugh and say, "You know I had to do these sort of things as a child to get into Mensa" (I may be exaggerating just a bit as to what he was saying)
It was a great evening, we had In-n-Out for dinner and had a great time with our friends (except for the dancing, we apparently weren't hipster enough to enjoy the dancing. oh well, not our wedding)
Congrats guys on the start of your life together!
But wait! The celebrating of Adam isn't over yet!
The next day, the Howley side of the family celebrated Adam! We had a great afternoon of swimming, tri-tip tacos (that were fabulous by the way) and family walk around the block. Then we all watched a movie together that Adam got to pick (he picked Invictus, it was really good!) and had pie - Chocolate silk and Lemon Cream Cheese... nothing better!
Then the next day, we finished up celebrating Adam with a breakfast date to Richie's Diner with Adam's Mom. Bennett broke his crayon in half and was being so cute trying to put it back together! I pulled my camera out quick - but I missed it - dang!
Breakfast was followed by a trip to Home Depot to buy his new birthday grill!!!
This is the first thing he ever cooked on his grill - but that's a different story - more to come on that later!
(It is so nice to have a grill - I feel like our cooking options have totally opened up! It's fabulous!)
Happy Birthday Adam - I'm glad you are now Golden! Enjoy your year!!!
