Walk in the park

Benjamin finally slept a little better last night.  He still woke up around 4 and 6, but only for about 5 minutes each time and he slept until 8!  So this means I was able to catch up on sleep which was awesome!  When we got up I realized the sun was shining (mostly!) so I decided to get us ready really quick so we could take a walk to the park. 

I loaded up the essentials...milk, cheerios, and coffee(for me!) and we were off.  It was SO nice to get out and enjoy a little fresh air.  It was probably between 58-61 degrees and was really pleasant.  It started to get a bit windy on the walk back but we were both loving being outside.  The playground is only about 1/4 mile from our house and though it isn't very big, it's the perfect size for Benjamin's age now.  He climbed and went down the slide and walked all. over. the. park.  He had a grand old time, and so did I!  We spent over an hour there and came home to clean up and get ready for lunch.  Now Benjamin is napping and I'm enjoying a nice cup of tea.  Let's hope this Spring weather keeps up :-)

My sweet boy holding a flower for his Mama :-)

Sickness & Spring Cleaning

We've all had just a bit of sickness the past couple of days.  Benjamin has a runny nose and a pretty good cough.  I've had flu-like symptoms minus the actual throwing up...I just had no appetite and only ate toast/applesauce for 3 meals (no, family, I am not pregnant!)  Peter has a bit of a sore throat and kind of the "sick tiredness" you sometimes feel.  Overall though, we're starting to feel a bit better, it's just been a long couple of days.

We had a good rest of the weekend, it seemed to fly by.  We sold our 1990 Honda to a teen from our church on Sunday, I made a roast dinner, and we cleaned a bit and vegged a bit.  Sunday night was super long because Benjamin woke up at 4am and was awake until almost 7am.  Not sure what the deal was other than the fact that he's a bit sick.  So, I was super tired and add to that that I had zero energy and didn't feel like eating anything.  It was a long day and we didn't do much of anything since Benjamin was kind of lethargic too....we stayed in our jammies all day.

Today I felt a bit better but still had toast and applesauce for lunch.  I spent the morning and afternoon cleaning and then spring cleaning the upstairs.  I finished the downstairs last week and tackled level two today.  That is, I spring cleaned while Benjamin the Tornado tore apart our bonus room/play room.  Seriously, that kid wears me out.  I can't get enough of him though!! :-)  Needless to say, my back is killing me tonight but it feels soooo good to have organized closets, night stands, bathroom cabinets, drawers, etc. 

Tonight Peter had Benjamin propped up on our guest bathroom sink while he washed his hands, but then he let Benjamin touch the water, which quickly led to Benjamin jumping in the sink.  Oh boy!  He loved it, and it provided great entertainment for all of us :-)

A little while later, I came out into the hallway and found Benjamin just relaxin' the night away :-)

 he needed a rest from the mess (see the background in the next picture) he created!

 ha ha ha, Mama has to go clean up my mess now!

 he's CRAZY!

We finally calmed things down a bit, gave him a real bath not in the sink, and Daddy read him a Bible story before bedtime!

I'm not sure how well he's going to sleep because of his cough, but I'm praying he gets some rest so he can become completely healthy again!

Also, today is Peter's Dad's birthday so we want to wish Poppy a very Happy Birthday!  We love you :-)

Friday Off!

Today is not a normal Friday because Peter is HOME!  Since he worked so many extra hours earlier in the week, he was able to take today off and it's been great!!!  We've been super tired from our long week so it's been nice to be home and just enjoy time together and rest a little bit.  

Here's a few highlights of our week...

It's still been raining off and on most of the week but we've had little glimpses of sunshine here and there so when it's out, so are we!  Benjamin went walking with Daddy while Mommy fixed dinner and then Peter put Benjamin in the grass of our front yard.

He just sat there for the longest time (not wanting to touch the grass at first) and loooved watching the cars go by as everyone got home from work.  Of course, I had to snap a few pics...

 a sweet, thoughtful moment

I simply adore him

I have been more than ready for Spring and sunshine to arrive so I was getting a bit of spring fever this week and have been cleaning out closets and things.  I only worked when I could while Benjamin played or napped for two days, but I cleaned out our laundry room, pantry, refrigerator, cupboards, coat closet, stair storage, console table and "junk" drawer.  Oh, it feels good to get organized again.  Next week I'll try to tackle the upstairs, oh boy!

Benjamin enjoyed playing in the cleaned out storage area under the stairs! :-)

Wednesday was our small group in the evening and it's always so great to get together with our friends.

Thursday I took Benjamin and 5 high school girls to Eugene for a day of shopping and lunch at the Olive Garden.  I think I was crazy when I suggested to the girls to "just call me" if you get bored on Spring Break and want to go somewhere, ha! :-)  It was really fun though and despite lugging around a busy, big, one year old through a few malls and lunch at Olive Garden during what should have been his nap time, it was a great day.  I enjoyed being able to connect more with the girls in our youth group!  As soon as I got home, I dropped Benjamin off with Daddy and headed to Worship Team practice....it was a long day!  We finished it off though by watching some more of "Bleakhouse" on Netflix.  It's based on a Dickens novel and is really good, hopefully we'll finish this weekend!

Today we've been kind of lazy and kind of productive.  I made monkey bread for breakfast (YUM!), Peter took Benjamin to the hardware store and we're trying to get Benjamin caught up on his naps/sleep.  Not sure why but his napping has been kind of off lately and his sleeping has been off (i.e. getting up and "talking" on and off from about 6am on....)  We were more than ready for a day of rest today :-)  We're going to watch the Ohio State men's basketball game tonight as they take on Kentucky!!

Here's a few more pictures from our week!

 Benjamin has decided he wants to brush his own teeth!

 he looooves his Elmo pj's from Auntie Amanda

 oh my goodness he is cute (even when he's running away to avoid bedtime!!)

 he looks at his pajamas and says EMO EMO

 the best part of these pajamas is that when I go to get him in the morning he looks like this (the buttons don't fasten super tight!)  We die laughing when we walk in to see our little Elmo Fabio lookalike :-)

 love his baby blues!

 our little stud strutting his stuff :-)

he wanted nothing to do with this dog stuffed animal earlier in the week (because it's not Floppy of course) but he at least gave it one minute of his time later in the week.  Glad he's not opinionated and particular :-)

 it's the "after dinner happy" as our friends call it.  He was quite pleased with himself after stuffing himself full of spaghetti.  Now off to go play with my toys!

 reading one of his new favorite books Chika Chika Boom Boom!!

 looking like such a big boy!

 he looks like he's starting an Irish jig or something!

 he loves to carry random objects around and yell at the top of his lungs.  And I'm noticing that his pants are getting shorter.....which means he's still growing.  Stop it already little man, Mama can't take it.

 this is how he spends a lot of his time....trying to grab Mama's laptop!

 quite the impressive reach

 Oh Benjamin, you are a handful.  Is it bad that he's not at all deterred when we sternly tell him not to do something.  I think we're going to have to get creative around here when it comes to discipline!

 Just cruising with his shark!

 Look what I caught for dinner Mama!

Doesn't he look like a rugby player here?  The cutest rugby player I've ever seen!!!