A great reminder

Source:  http://www.daesofourlives.com/2011/08/timely-reminder.html

Monday Randoms

This past Friday was our EPIC girls Christmas party.  We all brought dips to share, and I organized some Christmas related games like Christmas Jeopardy, unwrapping candy cane kisses with ski gloves on, marshmallow catching competition, and melting ice cube races without using your hands.  We also had a White Elephant gift exchange and we had a great time.  There were 9 girls and it was so fun to be with everyone!

Saturday we just took it easy with a day at home. 

Daddy & Benjamin working on a lesson for small group

I baked lots of yummy goodies, mostly for coworkers (and perhaps a few for us) :-)  We made a few last minute travel reservations for our trip to Ohio next week and the only time we left the house was for a quick 15 minute trip to Wal-Mart.  Peter and I watched Miracle on 34th street while Ben napped and we worked on a few projects.  Peter had never seen that movie!!  Later on after Ben went to bed (after screaming everytime I would try to leave the room and eventually causing himself to fall out of his crib) we watched Charlie Brown Christmas while we dipped goodies in chocolate.  And yes, Benjamin's crib is now lowered and he was okay!!

Sunday was a fun morning at church with some extra song specials by the kiddos.  Benjamin looked adorable in his little penguin sweater vest but of course he wouldn't cooperate for pictures.  And I now notice that he has a giant booger in his nose....lovely.  Just know that he was really cute in person :-) 

 okay wow, mama's lookin' a little bloated!

We had Pizza Hut buffet, then while Benjamin napped I ran to Target and Michaels for a couple of items.  We gave Benjamin a quick dinner then headed off to a local Mennonite church to watch a play/musical/live nativity.  We went last year and though it's long, we enjoyed it.  Benjamin was quiet for all of 3 minutes before we had to take him elsewhere to half watch/half keep him entertained.  Our son just does not know how to not talk or not move around.  Oh well!  It was a late night though, we didn't get home until 10:15!

Luckily Benjamin slept until almost 9 this morning.  Unluckily I had a Dr. Appt I had to get up for, so there was no lazying around for me.  We headed to the appointment right after Benjamin woke up and baby boy is doing great.  Though the Dr. told me that he'll probably be bigger than Benjamin.  Um, excuse me?!?!?!  Not what I wanted to hear!  Benjamin was 8lb. 6oz and he was delivered with an epidural that didn't work.....sounds like I'm going to be having a really happy time around Valentine's Day, NOT!  Ha :-)

Benjamin took a great nap today while I worked on a few tasks, and tonight Peter is working on a coworkers computer so Benjamin and I are watching Little Einsteins!  Daddy just came home as I was uploading pictures, hooray!  So now we're all watching!

Oh yeah, I also wanted to post a picture of Benjamin with the Santa Clause at Wal-Mart.  Poppy & GongGong took him while we were in Bend.  I think it's obvious that's he not a fan of the jolly ol' man in the big red suit.  Though looking at him, Wal-Mart Santa IS a kinda scary looking :-)



Stop growing up!

I really need to convince my son to stop growing up.  Stop. it. now.

Peter and I have both been a bit sad at how big Benjamin seems to be, and how much older he's acting.  No more high chairs, he's singing complete songs (and all.the.time), he speaks several sentences at a time, he understands so many new concepts, he's learning to dress himself.  It all needs to stop.

And the real dagger is that he seems to be perfectly okay with being put down for a nap and down for bedtime....without being sung to. 

*GASP*

He tells us he's ready to go to bed, wants us to put him in his crib, give him his animals, tuck him in with his blankets, tell him how much we love him and then turn off the light and say goodnight.  That's it.  No more singing and rocking my sweet baby boy for 10-15 minutes, always ending with his song "You are my Sunshine."  He rarely fell asleep while I rocked him but he always listened and put in "song requests." 

And now he doesn't seem to need that and quite frankly, it makes me kind of want to throw a fit.

Sure, that means that you get an extra 10-15 minutes of downtime in the evening or at naptime that you're not spending trying to get him ready to sleep, but I kind of want those days back.  I want him to tell me he wants me to sing "Jonah" or "Jesus Loves the Little Children" or "Baa baa black sheep, have you any wool, yes sir yes sir three bags full" (and yes, he thinks all of that is the title of the song!)  For the ones he likes he'd say again, again, again. 

It's bittersweet because I absolutely love watching him grow and develop and learn new things.  This week he's been counting backwards....where he gets that who knows.  It's so fun to be his mom and get to be there for all of this.  But part of me wishes I could keep him little forever.  That he'd always need me to sing him to sleep.  I know he may go through phases again where he wants me to sing to him, but for now I'm just feeling a bit nostalgic and remembering my sweet baby boy and feeling amazed at how quickly it does seem to go by.

So Benjamin, please, don't grow up so fast.  The heart in this dear ol' mama of yours just can't take it.  You can stay little for as long as you want.



Little peek at our boy!

Well, unfortunately we weren't able to get any 4D ultrasound shots of our little guy.  His positioning was totally wrong for the shots and he had his arms up by his face so we couldn't get a picture.  That, and the ultrasound tech was (I think) having a bad day and didn't seem to be trying very hard....but that's just my opinion.  We couldn't turn down a free ultrasound though, and it was nice to see a little bit of our boy and hear his strong, steady heartbeat.

She did give us a few pictures and though they aren't very clear (our other ultrasound tech from 20 weeks was much better!) we still loved seeing his face.  Benjamin was really excited to "see baby brother" but I must say, after about 7 minutes he lost interest and was a little antsy.  What's to be expected from a 22 month old though right?

Anyway, here's our little man.  We love you and can't wait to meet you!!

showing a nice steady, strong heartbeat!



Visiting Nana, Grandfather & Auntie Amanda

I mentioned a few days ago that Benjamin and I drove back to Idaho with Peter's parents...we were heading back to spend about 4 days with my parents and siblings.  Since we didn't make it back for Thanksgiving and we're having a baby in February they really wanted to see Benjamin(I mean, us).  We were happy to oblige :-)

Benjamin had a fabulous time having extra stories read to him, special cereals and treats bought, the endless amounts of toys they have for him to play with in the basement, and had fun getting to know his cousins more. 

We were treated to a great dinner on Wednesday night thanks to my brother Alan and his fiancee, Natasha.  My other brothers Adam and his girlfriend Hannah came over for visits too.  Benjamin's favorite part was probably the shopping.....which to him meant running like a complete wild man throughout the stores and having Grandfather chase him.  He seriously wore him out, it was hilarious. 

 Cousins:  Aiden, Alexander, Azalea and Benjamin

 Nana patiently drawing more and more shapes for the very particular little boy!

 Benjamin loved having Grandfather make the train go round and round the tracks!!

 strangely, this toy occupied much of his time!

 storytime with Grandfather

 storytime with Nana

 talking with (great) grandma

"but they're MY Floppy's" says Grandfather

 checking out all Christmas lights with Auntie Amanda

Benjamin is currently obsessed with trains

We just had a great visit and though we were excited to go home on the airplane and see Daddy on Saturday, we were really sad to go.  But we know we'll get to see them all again fairly soon so we'll just look forward to that!