One year

One year ago today, Benjamin Robert Tackett was born. And I honestly wonder how I made it my first 31 years without him. The little man loves life (unfortunately, all too often that translate into wanting to start his day at 6 am. He doesn't understand weekends yet.) He shrieks with joy when he sees Larkin, me, or - his favorite person, Maya. His hugs are incredible - he will wrap his little arms around your shoulders and squeeze, squeeze, squeeze.
It has been so much fun watching the him grow and explore his world (as well as seeing what I would look like as a baby baby.) He is an active, curious kid whose default emotion is joy. He has sparkling blue eyes and an easy smile - and he knows how to use both. I am constantly stopped by strangers telling me that he is an absolute flirt. Ladies, watch out.
Another joy of the last year has been watching Maya be a big sister. The girl was born for this role. After telling us that it is 7 o'clock, the second thing out of her mouth each morning is "where's Ben?" She rarely loses her patience with him, even when he grabs her toys. She delights in accomplishments and is his biggest cheerleader. (When he took a couple of steps the other day, Maya ran over to hug him and told him, "Ben, good job! You pretended to be a boy!")

Ben, happy birthday! We love you so very much.

Winter Park

Larkin had a bachelor party in Galveston last weekend, so I took the kids down to Winter Park for a long weekend. We had a wonderful time with my parents and friends; however, it was definitely strange as it was our first time visiting WP with my parents living in their new villa. Maya quickly named the two houses "the small house" and "the funny house" - funny because it had very little furniture! However, the lack of furniture made it perfect for my two kiddos - lots of room to run around, play with toys, etc.

I think Florida has finally replaced Colorado as Maya's dream place to visit (she now wants to wear bows in her hair like "Kwesley" and has named one of her babies "Jonathan".) We ended our first night there with dinner at the Reynolds' house. Maya loved playing with Kresley Reynolds and Jacob Cohen.

Ben fit right in with the Reynolds twins, Jonathan and Aubrey.

My parents came to dinner with us. Having dinner with my parents, my kids, two of my closest friends and their families was absolutely wonderful. The Reynolds and the Cohens get together for pizza most Friday nights - now that Bob and Nancy know about this, they may become regulars at Casa De Reynolds.
The family room in the "funny house" had one rocking chair, a piano, and lots of toys. Ben loved the piano - notice how he is on his tip toes trying so hard to reach the keys.
We spent both Saturday and Sunday at the Racquet Club. We had numerous friends join us for swimming and lunch both days. Betsy Sturgis drove up from Vero for the weekend. Maya had a lot of fun with Bridget and Brent!

Ben thought the kiddie pool was pretty nice.

We spend time at my parents' new house. The villa is beautiful, comfortable, and my kids immediately made themselves at home.




The street they live is on is very quiet - and flat - so perfect for bike rides and walks.





Ben enjoyed the new golf cart.





We stopped by a playground on our last day in town.


My parents then met us at the "funny house" for one last swim.




It was a wonderful trip, but we were all happy to see Larkin waiting for us at the airport Monday night!

Uh-oh

We are in for it...

He took four or five steps two different times on our walk tonight.

Allison's pictures

Happy Easter!

Maya became a big fan of Easter this past weekend.... of course, with 2 egg hunts and lots of candy - who wouldn't? (Poor Passover with its 10 plagues just can't compete at this stage.)
On Saturday, we went to an Egg Hunt at the library. We, unfortunately, missed the hunt part of it. Maya wasn't that upset as she couldn't really fathom what this whole egg hunt thing was about so she didn't know what she was missing. But some girls at the library heard that she didn't get to do the egg hunt and ended up organizing an egg hunt for Maya with the eggs they had found. I was so impressed with the energy and excitement - not to mention the generosity - of these 3 girls. Because of them, Maya realized that egg hunts are actually quite fun!
My friend Allison came with us to the library and took excellent pictures of the kids (I will upload these in a separate post later this week.)
We dyed eggs at home on Sunday, and then we went to an outside egg hunt on Monday in Takoma Park.
Monday was warm and sunny, and I'm so happy that a beautiful weather day actually fell on my day off.

Now that Maya knew what an egg hunt was all about, she took this one very seriously.
Ben found an egg or two himself.


In very exciting news, our dear friends Becky and Mac left for South Korea today to pick up their son, Paul. Paul is two weeks older than Ben, and we are so excited that Paul will get to celebrate Mother's Day and his 1st birthday with his parents. Bex and Mac - safe travels, we love you and are beyond thrilled for you!