Morning talk

Benton has a cough right now and it's especially active at night. After getting up a few times last night with coughing fits, he was sleeping in a little later than normal today. I went in to check on him and climbed in his bed beside him. I put my hand on his back and he opened his eyes. This is the conversation that followed.

Benton: "You're hurting my back."

Me: "Oh, sorry. Can I hold your hand?"

B: "No, this hand is for picking up toys."

Me: "Right. Well, how do you feel this morning?"

B: "I feel great. Do you hear the rooster?"

Me: "I do. You know, it's library day. If you want to go to story time we need to get up and eat breakfast. Do you think you're ready?"

B: "Not yet. I just wanna stay home today."

Me: "Sounds good."

B: "Now follow me and let's find something to play with. Oh, did you hear the rooster again? I think he's cold out there."

Just a little glimpse into our morning. I love this boy so very much.

Chicken chaser

Remember me telling you about the chickens next door? Benton has always been excited about them and has been known to tell people they are his pets. (Example: "Benton, do you have a dog?" "No, I have chickens.") When one gets out of the coop and visits our backyard, he'll yell "Hey, chicken!" and run around near it. But I've never seen him get too close. It seems he has a healthy fear of what would happen if the chicken decided to come toward him instead of running away from him.

Until now. Our five-year old neighbor showed Benton that the chickens really can't run all that fast and they're pretty easy to catch. After watching his friend once or twice, Benton is now an avid chicken chaser. In his words, "Chickens are nice."

Poor chickens.

Playing catch up

I'm attempting to catch up on a month's worth of blogging in this post. I won't make any excuses for being so behind, but I promise I have some good ones. Like having my gallbladder cut out this week. (Ok, I'll make one excuse.)

Brack turned 29 in September. Two years ago, he instituted a new goal to run his age in miles each year. This year's birthday run took place on a local track -- 117 laps later, he reached 29 miles. Here's his post-run picture with his two cheerleaders.

As soon as postseason Braves tickets were available, we knew we wanted to take Benton to see the wildcard game in Atlanta. We took him to a playoff game against the Giants a couple of years ago and we knew he'd appreciate the excitement of the postseason atmosphere even more this year. Parker stayed with the grandparents and Benton got to really enjoy the fun at Turner Field, including the worst call ever and angry fans throwing their beer cans. We were heartbroken with the season ending like it did but were glad to be part of the big night, especially seeing Chipper Jones in his last game.

The next day, we went up to Rome for Mountain Day at Berry. For some reason, I didn't take my camera to the mountain. Conveniently enough, the Coosa Valley fair was in town that weekend. I somehow tricked Brack into taking us and it ended up being a lot of fun. The weather was perfect, the kids were behaving and the rednecks were minimal. I even achieved my goal of getting Brack on a ride with Benton.

Highlights for Benton: feeding the camel, eating a chocolate-dipped banana, bumper boats and the monkey show. Parker enjoyed people watching with her mom.

We're so glad fall is here! I'll try to post again before winter.