12 Months!!

A few weeks ago my baby turned into a little boy and turned 12 months (somehow it sounds younger than if I was to say he turned one year old!)

I am LOVING this age, here's what you are up to my little man:

Height:  31 1/2 inches which is around the 93rd percentile

Weight:  27 lbs which is around the 98th percentile

(So pretty much that means that Benjamin is a very healthy little boy!)

Likes:  Climbing!!!  That is your new thing.  You're also really starting to love walking though you still crawl alot because you're so stinkin' fast.  You still love all things electronic like computers, remotes, cellphones, phones, etc.  You love your books and can often be found heading over to your basket of books to read first thing in the morning.  I absolutely love reading to you.  You love to dance while Mama plays the piano or while you're watching Praise Baby.  You love going down the slide!  You love playing with your football and you like playing with lightsabers and having lightsaber fights with Daddy.  You pretty much just like exploring everything and getting into everything!

Benjamin reading books in the morning (Ben sitting on his feet is his Daddy's favorite position he sits in)

Dislikes:  Oh my sweet child, you still hate getting your face wiped after meals and whine almost every single time.  You don't like being told "no" (surprise, surprise) and you sometimes don't like getting the shampoo rinsed out of your hair.  You're usually pretty easy going unless you're tired or hungry.  Though you prefer to be close to your Mama, which most days isn't a bad thing!

Eating:  The biggest change in your eating is that you switched over to whole milk!  You didn't fight the whole milk at all, and I really didn't think you would.  You did NOT want to drink it out of a sippie at first and really wanted your bottle.  But that only took 2 days of "weaning" and we haven't used a bottle since.  Although I must confess that I haven't put them away.  They are still "drying" on the dish rack on the kitchen counter.  I think I'm in denial that he's growing up.  I'll put them away someday. 

You still love food of course!  You have now tasted peanut butter and really seem to like it.  You also tried an egg but really only like it with ketchup, just like your Auntie Amanda.  You love, love, love blueberries and inhale them when you have them in your meal.  You're not too picky, but every once in awhile get in a "mood"! :-)

Sleeping:  You're sleeping through the night, except for the very rare night.  You're still taking 2 naps a day varying in length but usually about 1 1/2 hours each.  Your longest nap has been 4 hours and your shortest has been about 15-20 minutes.  Some days you "skip" a nap and can do okay doing so but you're usually extra tired after that.  You still sleep with your 2 Floppy dogs, 2 blankets, and your paci and you have Mama sing "You are my sunshine" through twice before you go down.

Personality:  Goofy!  You are such a shy little clown.  You're goofy, but act crazy when you think that someone is laughing at you.  You get this adorable twinkle in your eye and "perform."  Unfortunatley, you seem to have a bit of mama's temper.  You can get pretty mad which will mean I'll have my work cut out for me to be patient with you as I discipline you and teach you to keep your temper under control.  You are so observant and love watching other people and other kids.  You're always on the go but will still sit a little bit to watch some Elmo.  You're becoming super vocal and it's sooooo adorable hearing you mimic words and try to express yourself.  You can be shy and timid but also very loud and aggressive.  Your Mom and Dad happen to think you're pretty close to perfect (or at least perfect with a temper, ha!)

Highlights:  Learning to walk!!!!!!  HUGE milestone.  You're learning new words like ball, balloon, water, all done, downstairs, milk, bite, yes, bubble, diaper and banana to name a few.  In a few weeks you're going to have your first night away from Mom & Dad so they can have a night away (to make up for when he got sick and we had to cancel last time)  We had a great birthday party with our close friends and we loved celebrating your first year. 

I'm not sure we'll ever be able to express in words how much we love you Benjamin and how much we love being your parents.  Every night we sneak into your room and pat your little bum, tuck you in, squeal at how cute you look and sigh because we just love you so much.  I cannot wait for the next 12 months my little Koalas, you are our joy!

Another weekend

I'm not sure why but these weekends just seem to fly by!

Friday night we had our Community Babysitting night at church.  We didn't have a huge group but we had several families from church drop their kids off so they could have a date and there were 2 families from the community that saw our advertising and each of them brought 2 kids each.  The kids were soooo good and the girls were a great help in keeping them entertained.  I think we made some great contact with the new families and everything went really smoothly.  I actually went and picked up Benjamin to bring him there since there wasn't an overwhelming amount of kids.  That gave Peter about 3 hours to veg and work on his bookshelf, he doesn't often get "alone time" on a Friday night so I'm glad that worked out!

Saturday we had a lazy morning.  Peter worked on the bookshelf and I started repainting our stair banisters, window frames and front door.  Last time we painted we didn't use a semi-gloss and it needed to be redone.  I have a lot of work to get everything redone but it'll get finished slowly.  Our bookshelf is starting to look great, it'll be soooo weird to have something in that spot that has always been "the weird niche."

 don't worry he didn't drink any, but he thought he was hilarious sucking on the top!

 giggles between a father and a son on a Saturday morning!

Peter put Benjamin on his horse and then played a cartoon version of the Lone Ranger on youtube.  Funny stuff!

We also took Benjamin to McDonalds in the afternoon for some playtime (because his naps were pretty much non-existent)  Anyone else have their kids go off "routine" when Daddy is home on Saturdays??  Anyway, we split a milkshake and he played for awhile so it was fun.

 Benjamin is not crazy about sweets but ate a bite or two of a chocolate milkshake

 look Mom, I'm at the top!

 this little boy looooooves to climb

so sweet!

We worked some more in the evening and watched the first half of Masterpiece Theater's Jane Eyre via Netflix.

Sunday morning was church of course.  I had stopped by Rite Aid beforehand though because we needed gas and I wanted to get the free Johnson & Johnson baby products.  I must have got there at 8:04 right after they opened but there were already 2 other moms in the aisle scooping up stuff.  It was crazy!  I had no idea that people really got there right when the store opened on the first day of the sale.  I just happened to be out to get gas and knew I wouldn't have time later.  Craziness.  I got some great stuff essentially for free so that was awesome.  Benjamin was looking mighty handsome for church this morning!

 playing with the little piece of wood Daddy gave him

 so serious but so handsome

 Dear Benjamin, stop growing up.  Love, Mom

 this picture makes me want to go wake him up from his nap and hug him.  Well....almost!

 adorable

 another tooth is popping through to add to his super cute smile

Oh, Benjamin Daniel, I am so crazy about you

After church we ate a quick lunch at home and put Ben down for a nap.  I wasn't feeling too hot so I vegged while Peter worked more on the bookshelf.  Wouldn't you know, little guy slept 4 HOURS!!!  He woke up for 5 minutes after 2 hours had passed and I thought he was done with his nap.....nope, he rolled over and slept for 2 more hours.  INSANE.  He was fussy when he woke up though because one of his top teeth is popping through so we gave him some tylenol and that helped.  We went and ate KFC buffet for dinner which is super close to our house, played with little man, gave him a bath and watched him walk around upstairs like a champ.  Then I decided to cut Peter's hair....I'm not even close to doing it right but it sure beats paying $15 right??  Then we watched the rest of our Jane Eyre and called it a night.

Peter's working pretty much all day and all night tonight.  OH JOY.  Especially when you don't feel good.  But I"ll manage.  We're going back to our parents house this weekend so we're super excited!!  I have a TON of laundry to do and my house needs straightening but I have zero motivation.  Not even a mite of motivation.  Oh well, maybe the coffee will help?  I doubt it.

I'm so late getting Benjamin's 12 month post up but I'll try to do that sometime today maybe?

Randomness

This post is called Randomness because well, it's random and I'm too tired to think of anything clever.

*  Today I made a big ol' pot of vegetable beef soup for my friend who just had a baby boy last week (he was 4 weeks early)  I also made some chocolate chip cookies and sent frozen peaches from this summer and sweet Hawaiian bread.  I'm a huge advocate of bringing food to new mommies because it was heaven to have meals brought to me after having Benjamin and you're just so tired, sore, yada yada yada.  And oh my goodness, their little boy is soooo precious.  I wanted to steal him.

*  Yesterday, a young man whose family attends our church, overdosed for the third time.  My friend and I went to be with his sister and mom at the hospital and today Peter went with our pastor to take this gentleman to a Christian shelter where he can make decisions about his rehabilitation.  It is so hard to see the sin of this world grab hold of someone you care about, and I feel more burdened then ever to pray for the young people in our church and to encourage them to draw near to the Lord.

*  Tomorrow is our Girl's Night Community Babysitting Event.  I'm super excited.  It's been a bit of prep work but we're going to have some fun activities for the kids and we're going to have a packet of information sharing the Gospel, a cute bunch of verses to memorize as a family for a week, tips for handling conflict in marriage and a few other things.  I know we're having at least one family coming who most likely doesn't know Jesus and I'm loving that we'll be able to share Christ in this way to them!

*  Benjamin whined a lot today.  I was very glad to have bedtime so I didn't have to hear him whine.  Don't get me wrong, I love him like crazy, but the whine gets old sometimes.

*  Benjamin has been taking short morning naps and long afternoon naps.  I don's think he's transitioning out of no morning naps yet, but I think I've just been super busy with things that his schedule's been a bit ruffled.  After his long 3 hour naps though he has a hard time going to sleep later that night even with a bit later bedtime.  We just laugh because he's seriously crazy and goes around with tons of energy like a madman.

 just looking cute in his new pj's.....ready for bed right?

 that's what I think of going to bed Mama!

 I think that instead of bed, I want to play

 and crawl around every square inch of my crib

 what did you say Mom?  It's time to wind down now??

 HAHAHAHAHA, I have yet to begin my craziness.

 See?  I've started a new game called "let's chuck my Floppy's out of my crib as fast as I can so Mama has to get them back for me everytime."  Fabulous game!

 "My parents are my servants!  BWA HA HA HA.....I drop the dogs, and they pick them up like good peasants!"

What's that Mama?  Oh, okay....so you're not to be referred to as "my peasants."

 But could you please get me some milk peasant, I mean Daddy....all this craziness has made me thirsty

(and yes, he jumped the entire time he was drinking)

 I just gots so much energy, I can't help but JUMP and SQUEAL and LAUGH

 and wrestle poor defenseless dogs

 this is the best bedtime ever!

 oops, I have NO IDEA how this happened again Mama

 FINE, Mom.  WHATEVER.  I'll stop going crazy and go to bed.

or will I?  Bet you'll think twice before letting me sleep 3 hours again huh?????? :-)

*  My son has a healthy appetite.  And is a messy eater.  He's such a charmer don't you think?

*  Peter's been eating SpecialK for breakfast because I got it free at RiteAid awhile back.  Tonight as he's eating this frozen peanut butter pie with chocolate sauce on top he says "I don't understand why I'm not losing weight, I'm eating SpecialK"  Oh my poor husband, ha!

*  The other day my nose was telling me that Benjamin was due for a diaper change.  It stunk so bad that I went over to make sure he hadn't blown out (which hasn't happened in at least 4-5 months)  He hadn't, but it was soooo close and it was NASTY.  Oh my goodness.  So what do I do?  I go grab the camera to take a picture.  Yep, I did.  It'd been one of those mornings and I wanted to send a picture of it to my husband so he could see the "icing on the cake" to my "fabulous" morning.  Is that sick?  Regardless, I did it.  When Peter opened the email at work he said he almost barfed.  Don't worry, I'm not going to post the picture here because it really was gross.....but you betcha I sure did send it to my sister's email.  HA HA HA, love ya sis!!

*  Okay, enough blogging for tonight.  I need to finish my cup of peppermint tea and get some rest.  It's going to be a full day again tomorrow!

Bloggy Award!

 How funny is this!  My blog was given a blog award by a sweet gal who reads my blog.  Still blows my mind that anyone other than my mom and sister read about my everyday life, but it's fun anyway!!

Here's how the Stylish Blog Award works:

1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this award.

2. Share 7 things about yourself.

3. Award other bloggers.

4. Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award!

So here goes, sorry if I completely botch it....I'm used to posting about naps, Wal-Mart and desserts :-)

First off, thank you to Joy for this award.  She just had the sweetest baby girl!

Now, 7 things about myself......well, let's see

1)  I confirmed today that I cannot cut a straight line to save my life.  Thank goodness for paper cutters or my crafts for our Friday night Girls Night would look terrible.  Let's hope Benjamin didn't get my genetics in this area so he can actually pass kindergarten.

2)  Is it wrong that I feel like my territory is being marched on when Peter wants to help me coupon?  Yeah, I'm a bit of a control freak.

3)  I'm looking forward to seeing the movie version of "24" but I'm not sure if it'll ever come out.  Maybe Jack Bauer will die of the common cold, ha!

4)  I truly wish I could fly down to San Diego this weekend to see meet my newest niece Mandy Grace.  She is pretty stinkin adorable and this Auntie needs to hold her.

5)  Tonight I learned both the joy and horror of your child taking a 3 hour afternoon nap.  I'll post pictures later.

6)  I don't let my husband get the mail.  It is a small little daily enjoyment I get to have and I'm kinda possessive about it.  I just love getting the mail!

7)  I love receiving and writing thank you notes, something so fun and personal about a hand-written note.

I'm going to give this award to my friend Heather.  Heather is pretty much as close to Super Mom as you can get and let me tell you, it is a shame she is stopping with 4 because her kids are BEAUTIFUL.

So wow, there you have it.  My first "Blog Award"  I'd like to thank the Academy....and my mom....oh, nevermind.

Assertiveness

I think someone is teaching my child things behind my back.

Because today my ONE year old decided to be very assertive.

Dinnertime:  He ate great as usual but wouldn't finish his spaghetti.  We tried to get him to take more bites but he yelled clear as day "All done!"  That's the clearest he has ever said that.  We died laughing.

Pajama time:  He was NOT wanting his pajamas put on.  He was so mad he was almost blowing spit bubbles of madness (yes, I made up that term)  Oh, why could my child not have received my temper.

Bedtime:  He drank some milk then pushed it away.  And whined until he could wiggle his way out of my arms.  He did not want Daddy to pick him up, he wanted to crawl into the hallway to escape.  He cried when he was caught and cried when he was put into his crib after his song.  And he's just now going to sleep almost 45 minutes after being put down.

Suddenly my one year old has found some independence and he's learning to be, shall we say....assertive?

He may look cute in pictures (well, cause he is) but he is going to be a handful!!!!

 recognize the shirt Anita? :-)

 don't try to look innocent Mr. Benjamin! :-)

 no Benjamin, tell us how you really feel!

yes, this picture proves that my son is discovering he has an opinion that needs to be shared.  Oh mercy.