Out of the Mouths of Babes, Vol. 10

Jack today after being told to go to rest time: "I'm mad at you, Mommy. I'm really, really....ONE HUNDRED mad at you!" (This must be pretty mad because that's all the higher he can count)

New Things...

This has been a big week for Ben.  I feel like he's learned SO much.

He has started to dance (any time he hears music, on command, and sometimes just to the music in his head apparently)...he just bops his little head around any time he feels like it. He has gotten really good at waving hi and bye (and depending on which you tell him he makes a ha ha or a ba ba noise). He learned to raise both arms up in the air to "soooo big". And today, he started clapping.

My dad was over today and pointed out that he dances like his little Fisher Price doggie who sings and dances (and claps and does So Big)...since Ben is enamored with watching him, I'm guessing this little dog has taught Ben his new tricks.

He is standing better on his own and is braving more little solo steps.  Today, he attempted 2 steps in a row. So, we're working on walking.

Latest sound: gong-gong-gong

Playing

Jack is a pretty awesome big brother.

He loves Ben.

Most of the time he's willing to play with Ben.

He doesn't usually get too bent out of shape if Ben touches his stuff.

He likes to hug Ben.

He loves to try to teach Ben words.

He's just super good with him.

He is definitely as smitten with Ben as we are with the two of them.

Perhaps this is why he's already put in his request for another little brother. 

Ben doesn't exactly play with toys the way Jack might prefer.

Our Little Spidey

Banana

Last week I gave Ben his first real 'nana'.

It was a hit.

And a big old mess.

All done.

And all cleaned up.

Curl

Ben's hair as it's gotten a little longer in the back has this little curl behind his right ear (there's a little wave behind his left, but it's not quite like this one).  It's not always quite so visible depending on how it's laying.

But I just love his little curl.  

Not its intended purpose...

Jack got out puzzles yesterday to 'do' with Ben.

This was how Ben 'does' puzzles...

Covered Bridge Festival

Fall has always been my favorite time of year.  I love the temperatures outside, the smell in the air, the color of the leaves, and the Covered Bridge Festival (which I don't get to go to nearly as often as I'd like).

I escaped from the kids yesterday (thank you, Bob) and headed back home for the day with Staci.

We had a wonderful time sans children to just enjoy the day.  There was no wrangling children in strange places for diaper changes, no attempting to get a cranky kid to sleep in a stroller, no temper tantrums, no rushing a 4 year old to a potty with a line a mile long, no "I'm bored", no trips back to the car to attempt to breastfeed (pumping was an adventure, though).  It was awesome!  And every time we saw someone else's kid throwing a fit or crying, we just smiled. 

This was our view on the back roads we took to get to Bridgeton to avoid traffic...

One of the roads we took on our little back road adventure was so incredibly bumpy we could only go about 4mph and couldn't stop laughing. 

This little chair was my one little find.  I just loved it.  It's old and cracked; the paint is chipped, but it was still very sturdy and super cute.  And all of it's little flaws just added more character.  

The chair is pretty cute, but I'd say it's occupant takes it to a whole new level.

Love this boy!

And I definitely love coming home to these two crazy little guys!

All in all it was a very nice day with one of my favorite people, fantastic food, lots of laughs, and a new little treasure!

Out of the Mouths of Babes, Vol. 9

This morning I had to drag the kids out fairly early so Ben could get his final flu shot for the year.  When we went into the garage to get into the car, Jack saw that there was sand (or maybe even cat litter) all over the garage floor (Bob put it down to absorb some of the oil that had leaked onto the floor when he changed the oil the other day).  

Jack said, "Who put all this stuff on the floor?"

I replied, "Daddy did."

Jack said, "Well, Daddy is a FREAK."

After trying to hide my laughter I told him that wasn't very nice and asked why he thought that.

Jack said, "Because I could barely stand and almost fell over in that stuff."

Surgery Update

Jack's thumb surgery has been scheduled for November 6th.

10 Months

My dear sweet Ben,

You are KILLING me! I cannot believe that we're in double digit months. Only 2 more months and you'll officially be a toddler.  What are you up to these days?

You have gotten super speedy.  We always laugh that you're like our little puppy dog.  You are incredibly fast at crawling, and when you really are trying to get somewhere you basically make a panting sound that mimics how fast you are crawling.  You also like to crawl with something in your mouth.  Hence, the little puppy dog comments.

You are stating to get quite chatty.  Lots of mama, dada, and I'm pretty sure you're trying to say Ja-Ja for Jack (you adore your brother and follow him everywhere...Jack is no longer certain that this is a good thing).  And, tonight, when you were apparently quite tired and you thought I wasn't getting the message fast enough (although I was quite aware since you were trying to bury your face in my chest and pull my shirt down) you said ni-ni (I always ask if you're ready to go ni-night) and signed milk.  Daddy says we can't count the milk signing as real since I never taught you to sign for milk...but it was very obviously a sign for 'something' (you just kept opening and closing your little hand...and when I looked it up, it was indeed the sign for milk). And, who knows, maybe at daycare she practices signing with you.  It's possible.  Regardless, it was adorable and totally got your point across.  

You really got the hang of cruising this last month.  And, on Friday (10/5), you took a little tiny baby step on your own.  I was hoping you'd beat your brother on this one, but I think he one-upped you by a couple days.  Overall, you guys are in a dead heat on your gross motor skills.  You're standing for a little bit longer on your own as well.  And getting braver at moving from one surface to another without dropping and crawling.  You love to climb up on things to get to anything else (you mastered Grandma and Grandpa's stairs within seconds this past weekend). 

It's VERY hard to get pictures of Ben these days.
I know this one is blurry, but I just LOVE it.
It is the epitome of who he is at 10 months!

In the last few weeks, you got your 3rd tooth.  It's not one of your main top teeth though, it's a little one to the left of them.  The rest of your gums are swollen and busting at the seams.  Poor thing.  You are the drooliest little thing I've ever seen.

 You've been sick on and off (back to back) since the middle of August.  Lots of viruses--you share really well too.  I hope your little 'puts everything in the mouth' phase ends sooner rather than later. 

You also have some serious stranger anxiety going on these days. You like to keep very close to mommy (even at home), and frequently completely lose it if someone you don't know tries to hold you.  Even if Daddy has you, more often than not, you get whiny and starting saying Mama and reaching for me.  You're quite the little mama's boy...which is okay since Jack has switched teams since you came along. 

You are pretty much moving into 12 months clothes.  You can wear 9 month pants (short little legs), but not the onesies, and pajamas pretty much have to be 12 months. 

You moved into your own room a couple weeks ago, and you have taken to it like a champ.  All in stride.  You're slowly sleeping later and later in the morning.  Usually waking anywhere from 4am-8am (occasionally you like to throw in a super early one just to keep me on my toes). You take 2 fantastic naps during the day (sometimes your morning nap is about 3.5 hours long). But you certainly play hard while you're awake.

As for food, you usually breastfeed 7 (sometimes only 6) times a day, and we've been doing purees twice a day. My goal over the next month is to boost the purees up to 3 times a day. Mommy started taking a hiatus from making your baby food herself, and now you'll eat all kinds of vegetables from a jar. We continue to work on textures.  You are just like your brother...you do not like chunky food.  You'll sort of eat puffs and rice rusks, but nothing mixed in with purees. I gave you some cut up avocado the other day--you did all right with it, but you spit most of the strips out rather than swallow them. 

I haven't weighed you but maybe once this last month.  That neurosis of mine finally appears to be getting out of my system.  So, I'll have to work on getting a weight on you tomorrow.  

Update: I got your weight on 10/8 and you weight 19lbs 1oz.  Of course, you had just eaten 6oz of baby food an hour prior to that so we might have gotten a little bit of a boost.  But we'll take it regardless!

Grandma and Grandpa

First weekend in October, we went to Grandma and Grandpa's.

It was Ben's first trip there.

He still has, uh, some stranger anxiety.

Most of it was directed at Grandpa. :)

Don't worry, Ed.  He'll figure out what he's missing pretty quick. 

It was a VERY chilly day.

Jason getting a taste of 'little brother'.

These two big boys are so tolerant and good with Ben.

Thumb Update

So we saw the hand specialist again today (well, technically we saw his PA).  His thumb is unchanged (as we already knew) and still stuck in that bent position.  So, a surgical fix it is.  They have to get authorization from insurance and look into the schedule and then get back with us on a date.  It'll be done at IU West.  My major concern is making sure there's a pediatric anesthesiologist (not just an adult one)...I put in my request, so I guess we'll see what happens.

Now it's started...

This morning, Bob and I were sitting by Ben, and I was trying to get him to say Mama.  After I went, Ma ma ma ma ma...Ben looked at me, then looked over at Bob, and said, "da da da".  Rotten.  He was more than willing to perform this feat over and over again. I guess I did get 4 entire months of ma ma ma without having to share so I guess I should consider myself lucky.

Today's the day... (Take 2)

Okay, well, actually Friday was the day. 

 We moved Ben to his own room.

It has, shockingly, been anticlimactic.

(Take 1)

 I was hopeful this would be a magical fix to get him to sleep through the night.  Although we all know, there aren't "magical" fixes.  This boy is going to do it when he wants to do it.  And until then, I'm now going to march myself down the hall to nurse him.  He's better than he was a few months ago for sure.  He lays down around 7:30-8:00pm and wakes up for good around 7:30-9:30am.  He will usually wake up 1 (occasionally 2) times in that span of time.  Sometimes, like last night, he'll make it clear until 5:00am...other times, he wakes up in the 12:00-1:00am time frame.  I'm willing to tolerate a minute or two of fussing, but not much more than that (he's right next to Jack now, and I don't really want 2 kids awake in the middle of the night). Plus, one of these nights will be the last time that he wakes to nurse overnight, and, as much as I want sleep, I'm going to miss those cuddles too.

We're doing our best to turn the spare bedroom into Ben's bedroom, but there are definitely some other things I want to add (Pinterest here I come) to make it his (especially since we're recycling the bee nursery theme from Jack).  I suppose we should paint it too, but I have yet to recover from painting Jack's room.  

Tractor from Papa Roy

I bought a new little shelf, so all of this stuff has moved.

Love our announcement from Grandma in the black frame!

Whoops...captured more dust than I intended to!

Celebrating Number SIX!!

Today was Bob and I's 6th anniversary!

 My parents were thankfully able to watch the boys for a few hours (I felt bad even holding them to this after they watched them Monday and Tuesday due to Jack being sick).  We attempted to make a reservation at Maggiano's (we've gone there the last 2 years) but the earliest one they had available was at 8:30pm (we wanted to be back BY the boys' bedtime).  So we took our chances and just walked in. The supposed 45 minute wait turned into nearly an hour and a half, but eventually we had a great dinner and somehow ended up in the exact same booth as last year.

I can't believe it's been SIX years since our wedding. We've been together for 8 years now.  After I started working in the NICU, it felt like I was single for such a long time.  But really, I was only there 2 years before I started dating Bob.  Feels like an eternity ago now!

I married my best friend, the best daddy in the world to our children, and one of the most patient men on the planet.  He's my other half, and I can't imagine our journey without him.  And I am so grateful to him for the two most incredible gifts I could ever ask for!

The view of downtown from the top of the Chase building.

Getting (more) Vocal

The only sounds Ben had made for the last couple months had been 'ba' and 'ma'.  And, of course, I count his first word as "mama"...but truly it was more of just a string of 'ma ma ma ma ma' he made when he wanted me, usually crawling toward me crying.  He certainly was discriminate in only using it towards me, but it was also almost a distress call.

On Wednesday, this week, when he and I first got up, I set him in the exersaucer while I ran to the bathroom.  He was watching me, and I had my back turned to wash my hands, and he goes, "Mama".  I immediately turned around, and he just grinned at me really big.  I think we can count this one officially!!
Later this day he was standing between Bob and I at the couch, and looked at Bob and made a da sound, then looked at me and went ma ma.

One of the funniest things he does is string together "ba ba ma ma" and it sounds like bad, bad mama.  I always laugh when he does it.

But, we're also starting to hear lots of other new noises lately...

-da (few and far between compared to the "music to your ears" sounds of ma ma)
-yeah
-dj (it really sounds like this...almost like maybe he's trying to do Jack)
-wuh

Rockin' It

Today, Ben is wearing some Baby Legs...

...perhaps we just like them around here

...or perhaps he has no clean pants.

I'm not at liberty to say.

Regardless, Ben is rockin' them 80s style.

Drawing...

So this morning, Jack asked me to draw a picture of me with Ben in my belly.  I took some artistic liberties with my appearance, of course. When I finished, he told me, "oh that's a good mommy."  Then he drew himself.  He, perhaps, looks a little creepy...but he's only 4.  Then he added this thing to the back of my head because I, apparently, forgot.  At first I couldn't figure out what it was...then I realized it was my, ever present, ponytail.  I guess he doesn't recognize me without it.  After we finished our joint picture he said, "Now we can be friends." That's good, I suppose since the morning we've had together hasn't exactly been what I'd call 'friendly'.  It's more what I'd call 'clashing.' But, we're friends now...

Go Colts!!