Firsts

1. Benjamin’s first haircut was on Friday. His curls are gone and I couldn’t get Sarah to agree to a rat-tail or a mullet. He looks pretty sharp.
2. My parent’s first trip to Berea. Great time – they brought up a piano and another mattress set so we actually have a true bed for company. We had a great time with them and Benjamin really enjoyed hanging out with his grandparents.
3. Our first trip to Henderson Settlement. This is an outreach that the church I grew up at in Mississippi helps support. It was a good experience and you can check out the website at www.hendersonsettlement.org
4. Our first hiking trip since we’ve been in Kentucky. We didn’t hike all that far but really got a chance to check out all the fall colors. The colors are at their peak for the next week or two. We hiked at Pine Mountain State Park down "Chained Rock" trial. Benjamin did great during our road trip and hike.
5. A mostly retired couple from Anderson, SC came up and visited us on Monday. They stayed the night on Sunday and then spent most of Monday sight-seeing and shopping. It was great to visit with them.
   
   You can check out a few pictures by clicking on the links to the right.

Gifts for Kids

Below is an excerpt from the the Issac Clardy blog posted by Issac's father Sammy. I think this is really awesome and plan on supporting. To read more visit the link Issac Clardy in the right column.

"Issac is wanting to do something for the kids in the hospital during Christmas because he remembers what it is like since he has been in the hospital during Christmas for three of the last 5 years. He is asking everyone he knows to help. We have talked with some folks here at the hospital and they have given him the ok. He is going to be giving out presents to kids that are in the hospital during the Christmas season. If you would like to help simply visit your local toy store and purchase a small gift between $5-$10 and then send the wrapped gift c/o Isaac's Christmas Train 6735 Hopeful Road Florence,KY 41042. There are boys and girls ranging in age from 3 months - 15 years old. Please pick one age group. Indicate on the outside of the gift wrap the age range of the gift and whether or not it is for a boy or girl. We wiil be delivering the gifts in the middle of December and will hopefully have some pics to post."

Baby & The Pumpkin Patch at Hillcrest Farm

Well just in case you haven't picked up from the “What’s the diagnosis” post… we’re expecting another addition to the Little family. Based on the Dr appointment yesterday the due date is somewhere around May 10th. We keep asking Benjamin if he wants a baby brother or baby sister but I don’t think he really cares. Sarah and several others in our family are definitely voting for a little girl but we’ll just have to see. The Dr let us see some really amazing 4-D ultrasound photos. That’s probably the coolest thing I’ve seen in a long time. If we can find a scanner I’ll load one of the up sometime soon. Oh… and is case you are wondering I okayed the strange-eating list with Sarah prior to posting it.

Weekend before last Sarah’s sister Rachel and our niece Cora visited us. On Saturday all of us loaded up and drove up to Hillcrest Farm. It was great weather and wasn’t crowed before lunch. They have a great variety of pumpkins and squash. Cora was most excited about all the different animals she got to pet and feed (cows, goats, etc). We all went through a hay maze – large round bales of hay positioned in a small maze – then we all ventured to the corn maze where we didn’t think we had a bit of time trying to find out way out. The finale of the day was the hay ride. The Farm provides shrubs and trees for a nursery up the road. We all piled on the back of a wagon and got to check out all the varieties of plants and trees. At the top of the hill there was a huge pumpkin patch. Benjamin picked out two little pumpkins about the size of a coffee cup. One was white and the other was orange. He was super excited about his “pum-pums.” Cora picked out a pumpkin that was more than she could carry. We had a great time.

Out Near Big Hill

Thursday evening we had dinner with the Escobar family. They live near the Big Hill community. No this isn’t exactly a name of a street – more the name of a place. The Big Hill food mart is on the corner and the BIG HILL is just down the road. That’s my kind of directions – go towards BIG HILL and turn this way or that. That’s much easier than looking for road signs or highways numbers. They are one of the first younger families we have interacted with and gotten to know a little better since we’ve been in Berea. We’ve really enjoyed the time we have spent with them and have already shared many laughs. Their young girls have already wanted to adopt little Benjamin. Both Jennifer and Alfredo are very talented artist – I added a link to their websites so you can check them out when you have time.

Sarah, Benjamin and I also spent Friday night in Hazard, KY. Benjamin really enjoyed spending time with his cousins Katie and Crystal. Benjamin had the best spot as he rode on my back in the shoulder backpack as we ran around and played soccer and frisbee. I’m glad to see that he already has an interest in Soccer and the outdoors. The park near their house is really interesting and I hope to take a few pictures the next time we are there.

I think Benjamin is in a little shock. We've had our first fairly cold weather (ie. around freezing) - and he's having to wear socks and shoes a little more often. He was so used to the warmer weather but he'll do just fine. He really enjoys wearing his little hat and blue-jean jacket that a friend gave us. I'll have to see if I can get a picture of him with them on.

What's the diagnosis?

For about the last month or so I've been concerned about my wife. She has really been eating some bizarre mixes of foods and not eating others all together. I thought I'd share with you a list of things and see if maybe you might could help me figure out what might be up?

1. In about three days she polished off 3 regular size bags of potato chips. They weren't even the kind she normall likes - these were Taco flavored, and Cool Ranch
2. She made a glass of chocolate milk with Hershey's Syrup and had it with her dinner one night
3. She made macaroni & cheese from a box (I can't remember the last time she did that)
4. She ate Prunes while Drinking Hot chocolate
5. She really, really was insistent about getting guacamole at the Mexican restaurant we went to one evening
6. We were watching a TV show one night... she went to the kitchen to get a little snack and came back with a small box of raisins, a small bowl of Ice Cream, some Ritz Crackers, and some grapes...
7. She's averaging at least one meal per day of nothing but cream of wheat
8. Yesterday when she came home for lunch it was left-over day... with two large pork-chops grilled & BBQ style, broccoli casserole, sliced tomatoes ... but she opted for crackers & cheese instead
9. Another night she made some hot chocolate and then had crackers, pepperoni and cheese with it
10. She comes home for lunch and then can't seem to keep her mind off of a hamburger from a fast food place (ie. McDonalds or Sonic)

Benjamin

Benjamin is starting to look more and more like a little boy. Sometimes he really cracks me up. After his bath today I put on his cover-alls. He hadn't worn them in several weeks. He was really confused about what he was supposed to do with his hands. Instead of putting them in his pockets - he kept putting them inside his cover-alls between them and his shirt. He seemed really puzzled by this. Maybe he was wanting to play with his shirt and couldn't figure out how to get to it...

Mega-Blocks - I pulled out his bag of Mega Blocks. He was so super excited that he practically jumped off of the rocking chair he was sitting on. He couldn't wait to play with them. He would pull one or two out of the bag at a time and give them to me to build something. About the time that our building project was a reasonable size ... he stopped pulling out new blocks ... and turned his attention to destroying our project. If he couldn't get them to pull apart ... he would pick up the big stack of blocks and toss them to the ground (looked like a wrestling move) ... if he still couldn't get them loose he would bite them .... I guess to get a better grip. Finally if they were really stuck ... he would hold them out and say "Gunh.." - which is his universal word for needing help or not understanding.

Socks - we've been working with Benjamin to be comfortable wearing socks ... but he really hasn't taken to them. So the other day I put the socks on one of his stuffed animals. He thought that was so funny. We'll today we were playing and he found one of the socks and asked me to put it on the animal... then he asked me to put it on his foot ... which he then pulled right off and asked me to do it all over again. So at some point I put one of his socks on his hand - he thought that was funny - so he asked me to put the other one on the other hand ... so he ran around his room claping his socked-hands together like they were boxing gloves.

One of his favorite things to do now is to explore outside. He'll go around and pick up sticks, rocks, leaves ... he'll point out bugs ... and try to play with spider-webs. He's already brought home a collection of acorns and fall leaves for his mom...

Sunday Afternoon

It's Sunday afternoon, little Benjamin and Sarah are both taking an afternoon nap. I've been playing around with some of my photos. We've had a nice weekend. We talked with several family members, had our friend David and his son Issac over for dinner yesterday, talked with another set of close friends about their interest in adoption, and had good fellowship after church today with friends here in Berea. One of our neighbors and their 2 1/2 year old son dropped by yesterday for a quick visit - which turned out a little longer because Benjamin needed to show him some of his toys.

You can check-out a few link's I added on the right. One is another photo link and the other is for a link is for a Hurricane Katrina partnership between the town of Wilmore, KY and Pass Christian, MS. You can click through this one and get fairly current coverage on what is going on along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.