Ruby And Ben

First, the back story! For those that don't know, my mom and her best friend Mary A. have been BFFs for the past 27 years. Mary has 3 daughters, Colleen, Candace and Sheila. My brother and I were practically raised with Colleen and Candace and they are my first and oldest friends! Colleen's daughter, Ruby, is 9 months younger than Ben and too cute! She and Ben have played together only a few times since Ruby and her parents live in SoCal. But when they get together, they have lots of fun. Ruby already knows how to handle boys! She was either trying to hug and kiss Ben or she was smacking him;) He didn't seem to mind either! Too bad she has to wait until he's 40!
Ben and Ruby sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!

"Wait! Come back here, Ben!"

"Come on, Ben. I said I was sorry!"

"Nice hands, Ruby! Nice hands to Ben"

Mimi and her babies

Emily and Ben love their grandma so much! Whenever we go to her house, we have so much fun. Here's the babies getting some Mimi-Snuggles!

Emmy loves Nina!

My cousin Maureen is Ben's God Mother. She goes by Nina, which is spanish for that? Who knows. Anyway, they both just adore her. Usually Ben swoops up all her time and attention

but Emily was able to get some one-on-one time with her!

Best Buddies--for the moment!

I was able to catch the two of them playing nicely the other night. Ben has been having a hard time sharing toys lately. He doesn't really like the idea that some toys are his sisters and he HAS to share with her. Sometimes he hits Emily, sometimes he hits the toy, sometimes he hits me... Anyway, here they are playing together! These are the moments that make having two little ones SO worth it=)

"Hey, brother. Wanna play with me?"

"Ok, here's what you do--touch this, mouth that and spin this"

"Wait a minute! It's my turn!"

"OMG, this is SO much fun, Milly!"

The Excersaucer!

Emily will not tolerate me leaving the room to go into the kitchen. She gets VERY upset when I disappear around the corner and cries until I come back. What's a mom to do? Enter the Excersaucer! What a fab invention. A safe, fun place to stash your baby while you do something as selfish as make food for yourself! Emily really loves to play in her excersaucer, thank God.

We love the mall!

We spend many a morning at the play-zone at Valley Fair(the mall down the street). Ben loves to run around, make new friends, climb all over the place and have a good time! Emily has to stay with me for now--a fact she's none too happy about. She can't wait to be able to run around with her brother! Here are some pictures from our most recent trip to the mall. Please forgive the darkness and fuzzy quality of Ben's photos. They were taken from across the play area=)

Benjamin is all smiles when playing at the mall

Here he is in the red car

He loves this spinning wheel

Milly giving me her best "bored" look.

I just promised her we'd hit Starbucks after the playzone.

Emily's Toy

Emily loves her activity table. We've had a few scuffles between her and Ben regarding this, toy though. He's still learning that not everything is his! Poor Emily often gets hit, or shoved when Ben wants a turn. Here's a few late-night pictures of her finally getting a turn!