Recent events

It seems we have begun to enter the Terrible Twos here in the Allman household. Our sweet little fella has begun to discover his will. In a big way. Tonight's battle was where to sit for dinner. I couldn't understand his screeching request, so I tried everything: his highchair - "NOOO", his rocking chair - "NOOOOOO", sitting on my lap in my chair - "NOOOOOO - udderone". Huh? I then sat him in my chair by himself and sat myself in the "other one" and tears dried up immediately. He ate two whole slices of pizza, the second one did not get cut up (!) and he was happy as a clam.

We went to my dad's mother's family reunion over the Fourth of July weekend (p.s. Happy Canada day, northern family!) and Bennett had a great time bonding with his cousins. He enjoyed swimming in the pool the most and was quite disappointed when we would not allow him to walk on the picnic table on our third story deck. Seriously? Does he think I've got a death wish for him??? He ate marzetti (an old family recipe), homemade ice cream ("Mores, mores, MORES!!!"), and shared his toys so nicely with his older cousin Eloise.

After that weekend, we traversed across the mountains to stay with my parents in NC for a week. More swimming - and this time he decided to go solo. That's right, folks. Bennett walked out into chest deep water and picked up his feet! Granted, he was wearing his flotation device, but that kid wanted to swim and he did. Next thing we knew he was chanting, "dock, dock, dock" and walked out onto the dock. After watching Gunkle Ben dive off the board a few times, Bennett decided he wanted to try it out himself. I dove in and waited in the water at the end of the diving board and Brian helped Bennett practice jumping. And then, voila, the boy was in my arms under the water. I had stupidly forgotten to take a flotation device for myself, but was quickly rescued by my knight of a husband and my brother. "Mores, mores, MORES!" the wee one cried. I got an inner tube to prepare for more catching and Bennett climbed the dock ladder to jump right back in. He probably jumped in about ten times.

I was quite proud of how well he traveled on our way home as well. We only had to stop three times, so our trip ended up being just under 11 hours long. Wheee! Unfortunately, our "elmo" disc had been scratched to pieces, so Brian and I had to try to sing the songs ourselves. I'm not so good at Elmo's voice. Sigh.

We're back to quasi-normal now. Oma is here to help out because I had a second job interview this afternoon. I'm supposed to learn early next week whether or not I got the job. Keep your fingers crossed please!

Pics of all these adventures soon.