Thursday, November 12, 2015

A Woodsy Party for our Benjamin Boy

Benjamin turned one! And he is such a little man. There is nothing I don't love about him. I wanted to have a little party for him, so we invited a few of his friends over (Evelyn, Ella, Harrison & Audrey) to celebrate with us.

I tried to keep it low-key and used stuff I already had in the party/christmas decoration stash. Which, is luckily, a pretty big stash, ha. We ate chili and hotdogs, and roasted marshmallows for s'mores out back.  I'm not one for themed food tables, but I'd been wanting to try my hand at Mushroom Meringue cookies for years now (they look so real!) and then I saw this picture of donut hole hedgehogs that cracked me up so we made some. (My hedgehogs look kind of like Bob Ross, but Amelia and I had fun making them so thats what counts, right?)

It was so cute to see all of the little babies sitting in their booster seats together stuffing their faces . It was like a little baby gang. The bigger kids had a lot of fun running around with little LED flashlights  and glow sticks, and then later they all piled into Benjamin's new teepee and played games.

Benjamin LOVED it. I think the big fire pit was the highlight of his life so far. Every time he managed to get to the ground he ran straight for the fire, giggling maniacally. He was a little frustrated with us that we wouldn't let him jump into the flames, but I think he'll thank us later. When we finally gave him his little cake with a lit candle on top he was SO HAPPY.  Little pyromanic. We never could get him to dig into the cake, but he played and played with that candle.

Happy Birthday baby boy! We are so lucky to have you!





Thursday, October 22, 2015

House progress

We moved in about 6 months ago and finally feel mostly settled, so I took some updated pictures of our house. Maybe I'll even do a more in depth tour of each of the rooms later...if I'm feeling crazy. And if they're ever clean! Hahahaha...*cry*. 

We still have a list of projects to tackle, namely:
Clean out the garage, paint, new shelving, etc.
Replace lights in entry, Benjamin's room, and our bedroom
Refinish kitchen table
Get grass in the back yard? How does one do this?
Dining room curtains
Paint bathroom vanities, concrete finish bathroom counters

But, we'll get to those someday. For now we're just enjoying having a lot more space and a fenced in backyard to play in! 





Thursday, September 24, 2015

Amelia's 2nd year



I never did post a recap of Amelia at 2 years old, but I did just finish up her 2nd year photo book, so we're just going to post that an call it good. Now to get started on Benjamin's one year photo book! And Amelia's year THREE?! TIME. STOP IT.

Monday, September 7, 2015

Benjamin 6-9 months

6 months stats:
Weight: 15 lbs
Height: 26 inches

9 months stats:
Weight: 20 lbs
Height: 29 inches

Benjamin started solids at 6 months. We're giving him a mix of "real" food and purees, and he doesn't really seem to care as long as it gets. in. his. belly. He likes cold bagels, slightly smushed blue berries, applesauce, and butternut squash baby food. He also enjoys whatever Amelia sneaks into his mouth when my back is turned. I'd say we're doing baby-led weaning, but I'm not 100% sure which baby is leading here.

His favorite toy is anything that is not a toy. Especially cords and brooms. He was playing with a dirty broom and I took it away...and the boy who hardly ever cries pitched the biggest fit ever. I had never seen him so upset. I handed it back to him and he stopped instantly. So then we posed him like Harry Potter playing quidditch and everyone was happy. Once I left him alone in the kitchen in his walker for a second and when I came back he was holding the broom in the middle of the room and looking like "well someone needs to sweep this mess up". I don't know how he got it out so quickly!

He loves the vacuum, and really anything loud and action packed. His favorite place to be is the thick of things. He doesn't participate much yet, but he knows where the action is and loves to investigate. If I'm in the kitchen he'll scoot his walker over as close as he can get and make unhappy grunts until I pick him up and let him see what I'm cooking or chopping.

He started this little army crawl around 7 months, and now that boy is unstoppable. And he's fast too! The best is when he scoots himself around a corner. You can hear him coming before you see him (its all little hand slaps on the floor and baby grunts) and then his head pops around the wall and he gives you this big proud smile and laugh. He's all "Here I am! I did it!" and I always to make sure to give him a nice big "Hiiiii Baby!" to let him know we're proud of him.

He also loves his little walker. He knows exactly how to get where he wants to be. And he loves to get going fast and then lift up his feet and coast. He can really hurt when he bangs into your ankles though, and Amelia runs away as fast as she can yelling "No baby! Don't get me!" when she see's him coming. Which of course, he loves and then tries to get her.

He's learning a little bit about defending himself. If Amelia takes his toy he knows to make a little fuss and justice will be served. If Amelia is making him uncomfortable (you know, trying to pick him up by his neck, or sit on him like a pony, or drag him across the room by his ankles...) he looks me in the eyes and cries until the second I pick him up and he stops immediately. He then turns right back around and watches Amelia because he loves her and knows she's where all the real fun is. He just doesn't want to die in pursuit of it. Smart little man. Safety first.

He loves to talk and coo and jabber. He makes a long montonuous sound over and over again when he's tired, like he's singing himself to sleep. He says "Dadadada" and lights up whenever he sees Cory. He says "Mamamama" when he is upset or if he thinks I'm taking too long to bring him food. He motorboats his little lips when he's thirsty at dinner, and I swear he said "bananananana" to a banana once.

His HAIR. It's a perfect little mohawk and I never want it to grow out. 

He's started to get a little bit of separation anxiety. He's okay for a while, but sometimes when other people have him and he see's me he makes the saddest face in the world and starts to cry until I hold him again. It is pitiful and adorable.

Benjamin is our sweet, happy guy. Like, I can't even believe how sweet he is. He smiles so easily, and give these great big laughs at the drop of a hat. Every night I swear he goes to a place where they teach him how to be even cuter and sweeter than the day before. Sometimes, when he's giving me cute grins and smiles, or grabbing my mouth because he wants me to kiss his little hand I just have to grab him and hold him tight and tell him "YOU-ARE-SO-CUTE-AND-SO-SWEET-AND-I -LOVE- LOVE-LOVE-YOU-THAT-IS-ALL." And he just lets me squeeze the tar out of him and tell him these things real fast and then its over and he smiles. He knows he's cute. (As an aside, now Amelia thinks this how you should interact with babies and her mama voice is all "ooobabybabyyousocuteIwubyoubabybrudder" and its the best.)