Main Street, U.S.A.

Our town is so quaint. Really, it is.

As soon as the weather warms up, our town goes parade crazy. We live just off Main St., so we can always hear the parades even if we haven't bothered to walk around the corner to see them. This morning there was a Memorial Day parade, and Ickie's former student (now our friendly neighborhood policeman) was in the honor guard. We followed the parade to the park for the ceremony and shooting of rifles. The park was swarming with kids ecstatic about the ice cream truck, but Ben still found a free swing. We walked home and napped with the windows open. Then we grilled burgers for dinner and sat on the back porch. It was a very pleasant day.

Learning New Things

For his 9-month birthday, Ben celebrated by crawling forward a bit more, sitting up on his own, and standing by the window. I also took him to the park to ride the baby swing for the first time yesterday and he really enjoyed it. He was checking out the adorable little girl next to him--already makin' eyes at the ladies, as Ickie put it.

Bathtime Fun

Ben is crawling a bit now: mostly backwards, but he can go forward a bit too. He's cutting his first tooth and will be nine months old this week. He loves baths and naked time.

Spring, At Last

It takes a while for spring to come to Maine, but when it does, people go nuts. Our park has been packed every day for the past two weeks. The ice cream man and hot dog man are practically bashing in our front door.

Today was another lovely outside day. Here are some shots of Ben hanging out in the backyard.

















The funniest is this one: Ben's version of a kiss, where he takes a big wet bite of my nose.