Little Explorer

I just love this picture. The polo onesie is adorable, but it makes him look older! Not ready for that yet.

Intrigued by Daddy's tongue...
...and his curiosity gets the best of him, unfortunately for the tongue.

So many toys, so little time... First he flipped his red playmat, then crawled underneath it and began playing with both his cloth book and his mail center at the same time.

The door to the mail center has been ripped off many a time.

Under the playmat once again.

A crinkly piece of his playmat...

Hey, it's a deer head! He would go on to try to eat the deer head.

And the Happy Apple makes another appearance. Benjamin is strong enough now to pick it up by the stem. Here, he moved it to his lap...

Then moved it away. I'm often afraid he is going to drop it on himself - that thing is quite heavy!

The Happy Apple is like one that Katie & I had when we were little. I had been looking for another toy from our childhood, a Hickory Dickory Dock clock. I was so excited when I found a line of toys from my era that were being remade and included this clock. I saw a bunch of these toys less than a week ago, but when I went back to the store today to get the clock, they were all gone! And I don't mean they were sold out, the display had been replaced. I was so disappointed. Oh well, time to search the internet...

Speaking of disappointments, this is the time of year that has been bittersweet for me since moving to the south. I love, love, love fall - the changing leaves, the crisp air, the pumpkins, I could go on and on. Up north right now, I know that there are some cool mornings here and there. But the summers last so long here that it's hard for me to enjoy this time of year. I went outside a little after eight this morning, and it was so incredibly humid that it actually felt like stepping into a sauna. Crazy. I look forward to taking Benjamin to a pumpkin patch in the next month, but it's sad because I know that if we put the pumpkin on the porch it will rot within a day. Hopefully it will soon be cool in the morning and I can resume my walks on base with Benjamin. I'm also looking forward to doing a bit of gardening that is sorely needed in our front flower beds. As it is now, if I take a quick twenty-minute walk around the block with the stroller, I get a dozen bug bites by the time I get back inside. Well, at least there's a good chance that someday Benjamin will like Halloween, since we know he loves to have the snot scared out of him!