Our Cute, Happy Little Guy!

Life continues to move forward as it should-- relatively quiet and steady. Until summer finally arrives to shake things up, it's the up and down moments of daily life that bring us our stress and happiness. Some of our ups: Dustin has found a great summer job as a community college teacher for Anatomy! The schedule is minimal hours and the salary is fabulous. We feel blessed! I am 34 weeks along, which leaves "only" 6 weeks left. There's a light at the end of the pregnancy tunnel! We also recently bought a great piano and just got it tuned! We love it!

Our greatest and consistent "up" is our cute, happy little guy. Benjamin brings us so much joy every day. He is so helpful and cheerful. He loves Elmo, cars, babies, playing outside, music and dancing (especially to Gipsy Kings), wrestling with Daddy, reading stories with Mommy, being silly (like stuffing all sorts of everything into his Little Tykes car and riding around-- see pic), carrots and ranch dressing (ok, anything with ranch dressing), playing the piano, reading his books and all the magazines he can find, singing "I am a Child of God" and "ABCs", watching Sesame Street and Curious George, crayons and coloring, bubble baths, animals, and being a helper--- which, for a two-year-old, he is really amazing at! He always puts away his toys at the end of the day, loves to unload and load the dishwasher, and he seems to live for when we go grocery shopping so he can bring in bags of groceries and then put them all away. We are confident he will be a wonderful older brother.

My favorite moments with Benjamin, though, are those sweet times when he just feels so happy that he comes and gives me a big hug and kiss, just because. His smile, chatter, laugh, and love help me let go of those little toils in life and feel so full of joy and gratitude. I can only imagine the addition of happiness that will come to us with our new baby. So, amidst Dustin's seemingly endless studying and the general "fun" of late pregnancy, we are so grateful for our constant reminder of our tremendous blessings--- our wonderful, adorable, happy little guy!