Easter & Cookouts

Easter was great! Benjamin and the rest of us were dressed up spiffily and it was nice to have good weather all day. Benjamin opened up his two Easter baskets (one from Grandma W. & the other from us and Grandma & Grandpa D.) Seriously, he opened them and of course had more fun with the tissue paper than the toys we bought him.

The following week we visited Cincinnati and I was able to take this picture of Benjamin with his Great Uncle Kenneth. It was so nice to take this picture because of what my uncle Kenneth has meant to me all of these years. He's always been around for my important life events and it was wonderful to see them together.

While we were there, we were able to see the brick that has my father's name and Naval service info at the almost complete Springdale Veterans Memorial. We of course had Benjamin take his picture with next to the brick.

Not too much is going on with us at the moment. Mainly just figuring out if we need the AC or the heat on in the house and today it's definitely the AC. We are also in a battle for space with a family of wasps. This hasn't been fun to say the least but we have to thank Sadie who attacked the wasp that was in Benjamin's playpen the other night-She's a good dog.

My mom has these two pictures hanging up at the house. That's me in 1982 and Benjamin in 2009. I think it's cute.

Benjamin's growing up. He's thinking about crawling and maybe a tooth...I'm not so sure. He rolls EVERYWHERE and chews on EVERYTHING. He's such a happy baby and so easy to take care of...he makes life pretty darn good. See why I love him so much?

Is it winter or is it spring?

This weather is the pits! Yesterday I was in shorts and a t-shirt, today I'm in sweatpants. Global warming my tooshie. Honestly I don't mind it that much but what gets to me is the sickness that comes with the drastic weather changes. This is our first official family illness. It started with Benjmain a few weeks back with a respiratory infection (he's fine now), then it went to me with strep throat (I'm getting there) and now Rob has a combo of everything. Bad thing too is that I was on penicillin for the strep and now Benjamin is recovering from the allergic reaction that we now know he has to penicillin. GO FIGURE.

I now truly understand that the whole family can get sick and it isn't fun. I have to admit I used to think that some parents would use their kids colds as an excuse to not do anything but now I see that I was totally wrong. I think I've been maybe 3 places in the past 3 weeks and that's not counting the doctor's office. I think we are paying for our pediatrician's kids educations now.

I felt good enough this morning to venture out to the gym and I was throroughly embarrassed at how out of shape you can get in 3 weeks. Luckily, the group of high spirited women that I run with made me feel like a million bucks with the encouragement. I can't complain there!

Benjamin has learned to shake his head no. Well I guess I should say that he shakes his head like he's saying no-he can't talk back yet. It's cute and of course I can't capture it on video, he just won't let me. I think he's getting ready to crawl so I'm trying and trying to 'babyproof'. I use this term lightly because I don't think it's 100% possible to do so but you get the drift. Picking up the obvious stuff and storing away what's just not really needed at a moment's reach.

I have to give some serious kudos to our pediatricans' office. They are absolutely wonderful and have taken care of Benjamin since day one. Those of you who live close to Scott County and need a new doctor, try Dr. Joel Knight and Dr. Andrew Balbaugh @ Bluegrass Pediatrics and Internal Medicine. They are next door to Western Elementary/Chevron/Givoannis on 460. Anything that we have ever needed or wanted, they have gone above and beyond!

All's quiet on the Homestead Front. Sadie, Benjamin, and Rob are asleep and now I'm going to go get into something. Not sure what yet but if it's exciting enough, I'll write about it later!

6 Months Old!

We had Benjamin's 6 month visit this week and we are so THANKFUL that we received a very good report. His respiratory infection was gone, his heart sound fantastic, and the new feeding routine has put back the weight that he lost. He's also a little 'advanced' with his coordination despite the weight issue we encountered recently. I can brag about that can't I?! If we keep up the work we've been doing with the feeding schedule, he should get right back on track weight wise in about 2 months, ideally.

Yesterday afternoon he started this shimming/crawling backwards thing. It's almost like he's crawling but he goes backwards and it's funny to watch. This morning, Carrie Underwood's video of her singing the old Randy Travis song "I Told You So" came on GAC and as soon as she started singing, Benjamin stops what he's doing and just watches her-the entire video! I guess he's got a thing for blondes!

We've made it outside the past few days and we have two new additions to our backyard, a pretty umbrella and a new grill! The grill was a gift from my parents for our anniversary since ours was destroyed last year. How did it get destroyed? Well, Memorial Day last year, our neighbors daughter and son had a little 'unsupervised' party and they have a huge trampoline. All of a sudden I hear the bang and Sadie goes ballistic and so does Lady, the dog next door. I run downstairs because I'm thinking something's hit the house. Nope, what do we see? One of the kids at the party had went a little crazy and jumped over our fence and landed directly on our grill, reducing it to a piece of charcoled junk. I will say that it was only one of those $30 grills, nothing fancy. The kid sprained his ankle pretty good and the daughter and son begged me not to tell their parents. I did, but only a few months later-they are REALLY good kids.

Anywho, back on track. So today it's raining so it looks like we won't be outside. Benjamin and I go to book babies on Thursdays at the library and we have an awesome library. He really enjoys it and Ms. Mary Lou who runs the infant book babies program.

We also bought a new bathtub for Benjamin. He was getting too big for the one we had, which I loved because it folded up and was super convenient. He loves the new one though, it's that blow up rubber duck looking one. He likes sitting in it and splashing around with the rubber ducks that we have.

Well it sounds, and smells, like it's time for a diaper change so we will have to go for now. Enjoy the pictures and as always, leave a comment if you can!

Oh! If any of you gals want a good workout, check out Shimmy on FitTV. It's this belly dancing stuff and it is a serious work out. I of course look like an albino chicken trying to belly dance but who sees me doing it beside Benjamin and Sadie....they don't care!

Oh, The Month of February

I don't really care for the month of February, it's never really been a favorite of mine. First off, Valentine's Day is stupid and I'll leave it at that. Secondly, it was this time last year that Rob and I were fighting for Bejamin's life as well as mine. As I look outside and see the wet snowy weather my mind rushes back to the gut wrenching day in which I was admitted to the hospital for the weather was the same that day. I felt awful to say the least. By this time I had a medical pump installed into my stomach that I had to repoke myself every day and fill syringes with the medicine that would eventually save me and my little person inside. At this time we didn't know we we're having a boy.

With February behind me, I enter a mind of thankfulness. Sheer thankfulness and joy. This time last year, these feelings were unthinkable and I am so blessed to have been given such a sweet healthy boy. I catch myself smiling in a little bit of disbelief everyday that it all turned out so, so good.

Benjamin is growing rapidly and doing something new everyday. Lately he loves talking all the time, pushing up on his arms, and now he's starting to draw his knees up under his belly. I took this a few days ago and now you can see why I'm so thankful.

Top 15 of the New Year

So I realized today that I am way overdue for an update and I can't believe that this much time has passed. Since today and the rest of the week Benjamin and I are running all over the place (he sleeps so much better at night when we're busy!) I'm making a Top 15 List. Enjoy!

Top 15 Things of the New Year

15. Introducing cereal has been fun and Sadie cleans the floor for me when we're done

14. Benjamin rolls over all the time, everywhere we go.

13. Duncan Granparents bought us a new carseat that goes into a stroller that we love!!! If only it would fit into the tiny Sunfire.

12. Our Sunday School class is growing and is so much fun.

11. Benjamin has stopped nursing EVERY HOUR.

10. Giving prune juice to Ben has made for lots of laundry.

9. Our pipes didn't freeze during the ice storm.

8. Benjamin reaches for us noe.

7. He also reaches for Sadie and loves to watch her.

6. I've been going to the gym and hope to go even more when the weather clears up.

5. We survived the winter storms and only lost power and telephone for about a day.

4. Benjamin has started to push up on his arms when he's on his belly.

3. He now has to be in bed by 8:30pm-his decision.

2. Every morning is a surprise since I don't know where he'll be in his crib. Sometimes completely covered by his blanket, sometimes he's at the end with a toy in his hand.

1. Rob still has a job.

So far, so good and that's how we hope to keep it.

This is Vacation?!

It's the pits when your sick over vacation. It's downright revolting when your entire household (minus the dog) is sick over vacation. It all started with Benjamin on Christmas and just went from there; luckily Benjamin recovered quite quickly. I'm also finding that it's hard to treat the winter yuckies when you're still nursing, nothing good is safe to take. Yuck!

On a much happier note. Rob has an extended shutdown this year due to the economy so he has been here all week and for one more and it's been quite nice. He's been able to see what Benjamin, Sadie and I do all day and I think he was a little surprised at how much effort it takes. In this picture, both Sadie and Benjamin needed something and I remember Rob saying, "I can't take care of both of you at the same time! Meghan!!" Too funny I say. I just had to take a picture of this tough moment!

I've always heard that when your baby starts sleeping through the night and then suddenly is up at all hours and wanting to eat every 1-2 hours that he's probably getting ready for a big step. Well, I guess they're right. About 2 weeks ago Benjamin started that and you get so spoiled by them sleeping through the night and it's just soooooo hard to go back to the I-just-came-home-from-the-hospital stage. It was worth it! He's always had his hands in motion but this week he can really grab things that he wants, not just what's around that he happens to find. He's found my nose and glasses this week. He's also starting to enjoy laying on his tummy. This took a while but he really seems to like it after his morning bath when I lay him on the soft flannel sheets. This little clip is cute to me and please forgive my 'mommy banter', I can't help it. He also produces a you know what sound at the end of the video but I'm going to post it anyway because it's cute.

I made a list but didn't check it twice.

Believe it or not, this is the first chance I've had to write in a while, Amy, I'm sure you understand! Christmas has come and gone and we had a good first Christmas with Benjamin. The grandparents came to our house on Christmas day where we enjoyed my festive spice drink that's been a tradition for us, good ham with the trimmings, and great dessert. Benjamin was a bit fussy since he had a cough but overall he was a trooper amongst the craziness that goes with the holidays.

Do you ever have a good idea in theory but come to find that's it's really a bad one? This year I thought I would get the grandparents those mold impressions of Benjamin's hands. Can we say disaster? I either got the mold way to wet or way to hard and I think I ended up sticking Benjamin's feet in it thinking that might work easier, once again I was wrong. Rob was holding Benjamin while I put his feet into the mold. Needless to say Benjamin loved the squishy feeling on his feet but Rob did not like it when Benjamin started to kick in it which resulted in Rob's arms being coated with plaster. Anyway, I quickly gave up this fantabulous idea and opted for sticking Benjamin's feet in blue ink and making a nice little token on his inky feet. This went MUCH better but he still has one blue toe. I'll take this one as a victory.

Sadie loves Christmas. She got a football for Christmas, the other 8 footballs that she has in the backyard are frozen and are waiting for garbage pickup.

It's funny and so nice to see how my father is totally taken with Benjamin. I don't think that Benjamin could do wrong in his eyes and he loves taking care of Benjamin. Don't get me wrong, his grandmas love him too but my father is just floored by him. Of course it doesn't help when Benjamin lights up like a Times Square Christmas tree when he's with him. In this picture, he's looking at his grandpa even though I'm holding him.

Christmas was great this year and we're thankful that our family as a whole is healthy and happy. Sometimes I can forget about that and it's the most important.