Ben's best friend, Grayson

Ben met his new best friend, Grayson Collins, today. Ben and I drove two hours to Wilmington, Delaware (Ben's fifth state!) to visit Chelsea and Grayson (born on July 9th). Ben did great on the drives and then cried most of the time we were there. Oh well. I guess I should be thankful for peaceful traveling.

Chelsea and I definitely had more fun during the photo shoot than the 2 boys did. It started with Ben trying to eat Grayson (which as you can tell from pictures, Ben likes to eat) and ended with Grayson in tears. Poor guy.



In Maya news, she's really developed quite an imagination lately - and I love it. One day last week she told me all about her friend snake (an imaginary snake helpfully named Snake.) She has also been pretending to be a monster (which usually involves her putting a blanket over her head and saying "I'm a monsher, I'm a monsher" and then running into something - she has inherited my imagination and my grace. What can I say?)

5 little monkeys

New pictures of Ben

Ben and I went to Brooke's, one of my college roommates, bridal shower this past weekend. It was his first bridal shower, and he seemed to enjoy it. (And more thanks to Allison for these fantastic pictures!)


Bonding with Aunt Tatman

Pictures from Bakersfield

I won the battle with the computer; here are the additional pictures from last weekend's trip to California.


Marshall and Ben
Amy entertaining Ben with a gift from Great Grandma
Four generations of Tacketts
The Wayne/Tacketts can clean up with the best of them.
Wendy and her two girls
Gene and the littlest Dodger

Maya playing with Justus

So this picture isn't from last weekend (Allison took it on the 4th of July), but it is a rare shot of Maya smiling for the camera, so I had to post it!

Bakersfield July 2010

Last Thursday, we took our first trip as a family of four. Wendy was being honored by the American Cancer Society, so the 4 DC Tacketts flew to Bakersfield for a long weekend. Both kids did great on the flights - Ben mainly slept through them and Maya enjoyed watching Dora, reading books, playing with playdough, drawing, etc. We had a great time in Bakersfield - we got to introduce Ben to almost all of his California relatives; spend more quality time with Benji, Amy, and Loretta; get dressed up to attend the American Cancer Society benefit; and even go on a date!

Maya had a blast with Shushu and Grandpaji. She repeatedly asked on the plane ride back if we could go back to Shushu's house. I tried to convince her that going home to our house in DC to see Abe would be just as much fun, but I don't think she was buying it. (Funny story- on the shuttle back to the parking lot at BWI, Maya loudly told me that she wanted to go home to pump. Yep, use the breast pump. I have either fostered the maternal instinct in her early or scarred her for life - not sure which.)

It was also great to have tons of hands to hold Ben - he has turned out to LOVE being held - or more accurately - HATE not being held. As much as I enjoy snuggling with my little guy, it was nice to be able to pass him off and use both my hands whenever I wanted to.

Maya helped Wendy pick tomatoes or as Maya calls them "DA-matos." (Our cherry tomato plant is doing great by the way - and saving us tons of money as they are one of Maya's favorite foods!)
Maya helped beat the Bakersfield heat by going through the splash park at Jastro Park (if only they would turn the water on before noon, the adults could have handled the heat and taken her more!)
She also enjoyed the swing that Benji put up.
Ben.... well, Ben sat around a lot. Poor little guy. He is looking forward to being able to run around like Maya.
Ben, Maya, and Loretta went to visit Great Grandma at her house. Apparently, some one decided that an assisted-living house needed a karaoke machine. And Maya agreed.

We have more pictures (of the kids with Great Grandma, Ben in his Bring It shirt with Marshall, the first picture of the 9 Wayne/Tacketts, etc.) but the computer is being smarter than I am once again. Will try to post soon.... Thanks for a great weekend, Wendy and Gene!

San Jose Tacketts

We're wrapping up an awesome 4th of July weekend with the San Jose Tacketts--Uncle Benji, Aunt Amy, and Cousin Loretta (Lola), who is now 13 months.

Maya and Lola entertained us (and themselves) all weekend.


It got hotter throughout the weekend, so Maya encouraged Lola to run through the water park in Silver Spring while the daddas watched the World Cup.


Katie, Aunt Amy, and the girls made 4th of July cupcakes.


Loretta loved hers.

Will the real Benjamin Tackett please stand up?


Maya and Lola solved the problems of the world over a nice meal, and engaged in a periodic laughing contest.

A couple spontaneous dance parties broke out.



Maya beat the heat one afternoon with her first water slide.




Props to Katie for encouraging us to brave the 100-degree temps to check out the Takoma Park 4th of July Parade.

Little did we know the parade is one of the country's oldest and most political (read liberal). Maryland's Governor, US Senator, Congressional Rep, and pretty much every local elected official threw out candy. Maya ate a lot of it.


The entrants in the parade taught us the importance of "attachment parenting," reminded us about the "truth" of 9-11, and explained that mediation will solve pretty much all the world's problems. Even the local chapter of Common Cause walked.


My personal favorite was the neighbors against global warming, pushing their push mowers in a formation.


A couple of the floats included steel drum bands, the most entertaining part of the parade. We were dancing too much to take pictures of those.

It all reminded us how much we love America.


Napping, by the way, is patriotic.


Happy birthday USA.

Week 4

Ben had his 4 week check up this week. He has gained 2 lbs and grew 2 inches in the last 4 weeks! He is spending more time awake; his alert times usually correspond to when Maya is here in the mornings and evenings. I don't know if he is awake at those times due to the fact that Maya doesn't exactly understand what an "inside voice" is or if he and Maya are in collusion to really test my parenting skills. Luckily she continues to love him and find any noise (including crying) coming from him funny. Otherwise, I'd be in trouble.... Maya wakes up me each morning by coming to join Ben and me in bed (I bring him into our bed for the 5 am feeding). I love having both my babies in bed - I just wish it was at 9 am as opposed to 6 am!
We tried to give them a bath at the same time last week. It went okay, but it is much easier to bathe Ben when it is just him and me during the day. I have not a clue how I'm going to give them both baths when I go back to work but I've got 8 weeks to figure that out.

I'm starting to see a little more resemblance between Maya and Ben (but usually only in pictures - not in real life). Here is Maya at 2 weeks:
And Ben at 4 weeks: Besides looking like a jumbo baby, his coloring is different than Maya's. He definitely has some Klingler in him, whereas I would have doubted Maya was mine at 4 weeks of age if I hadn't delivered her!

Besides the coloring, one big difference between them is Ben loves tummy time. Maya would scream like we were torturing her if we put her on her tummy. Baby Ben loves it.... no flat head for this kid.

Larkin is on his way to Baltimore right now to pick up Benji, Amy, and Loretta. We are very excited for a long weekend with them and will post pics next week!