15 Months (12/13/13)

Dear Ben,

Happy 15 months, Ben!  This month of pictures might have been the hardest one yet!  You are showing me your tongue in one of the pictures below, as this was the only way to distract you from the sticker.  :)  I took the pictures a week or 2 ago, but I am totally late getting this post written this month.  I thought I better get caught up before the new year and before you are a 16 month old!

GENERAL:  You were 30 inches at your 15 month check-up.  You are getting so big!  You weighed around 18#13oz at your 15 month appointment, which is approximately what you were last month.  However, this is likely because of your surgery, which slowed down  your eating.  You were SO tough for your surgery.  We know you were in a lot of pain, and it was so hard for us to see you like that.  This one was harder than the first surgery, and I am hoping the last one is easy!   Your tummy is healing SO nicely!  You love to show your tummy to everyone and anyone, including strangers in the waiting room of the doctor's office or strangers at the restaurant.  It is so cute!  I hope you are always so proud and confident!  At your surgery follow-up, they weighed you on a big-boy scale instead of the baby scale.  That made me sad!  You're growing up too fast!

EATING:  I will start by saying that I think we are (finally) making some progress.  Your surgeon told me that you are doing exceptionally well, and even referred to you as "perfect," which made me feel much better!  (Though I already thought you were perfect!)  You still love your fruit, but you are getting better at eating a wider variety of things.  The foods you are eating most these days are: blueberries, goldfish crackers, fries, string cheese or mozarella whips (once and a while), chips, bananas, blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries.  You really like to feed yourself.  I would love you to eat some more protein!  We're working on transitioning you from formula to whole milk, which is a slow but steady process.  You are getting a little bit better with drinking during the day, but you still wake up 1-2 times a night, and we will give you a bottle.  Those are your best bottles, so we're have a hard time getting rid of them!  I'm sure they will tell us to do that at the feeding clinic appointment next week.  Until then, I'll keep giving you the fluid/calories as long as you'll take it!  You will drink from a sippy cup, but usually just sips of water here and there.  

SLEEPING:  Your sleep has been pretty good.  It has varied a bit, but you always get up 1-2 times a night.  Again, if we didn't give you the bottle, you would probably learn to sleep through the night, but I (we) really don't mind that bottle!  Your napping, on the other hand, leaves little to be desired!  You are typically taking 1 nap a day, and it is TOUGH to get you down for that one.  You do not want to miss anything!  You love your pacificer, which you only get while sleeping, but you will gladly give that up any time if it means you can play.  You are so spoiled that you even get held for part of your naps sometimes!  Not many kids get snuggled for their naps!  You are such a little love bug that it is hard to resist the Benji snuggles.  

You visited Great-Nana for Christmas.  You liked the dolls they have there and you tried to steal their nuks!

FINE/GROSS MOTOR:  You are meeting or exceeding all of your developmental milestones, which is especially impressive since you had/have a special tummy to work with.  You are ALWAYS on the go.  From climbing the couch, your chair, and the stairs, you can find fun anywhere.  You also love stacking things up too, and can make a pretty tall tower.  You have a toy with wooden pegs, that you love putting in and out of the holes.  You are getting better at feeding yourself with a spoon too, though it is quite messy!  You love taking baths and playing with all of your bath toys.  You would stay in there forever if we let you!  We usually make you get out before you start shivering though!  One of your favorite things right now is the Christmas tree.  You throw your balls at the tree and try to rip of the lights, but for the most part you just point in awe.  

COMMUNICATION/COGNITION:  You have really starting talking a lot more this month!  You are saying: mama, dada, NO, ball, Ra Ra, Nana, Papa, bye, uh-oh, this (which sounds more like "dis!")  We love your little voice!  You love music too, and if you want us to sing to you, you will start humming.  If we stop too soon, you will start humming again.  I can't wait until you can sing songs!  You love to "sing" "Itsy, Bitsy, Spider" and "Pat-a-cake."  We are starting to teach you your letters with your new alphabet puzzle.  So far, your favorite letter is the "o" because you think it looks like a ball.  That reminds me, you love balls!  Anything that is round-- an ornament, an orange, a cheese ball (which I CANNOT believe I bought, but you like them and I like that they have lots of fats), you affectionately refer to as a ball.  We are constantly in amazement of all the things you pick up on a daily basis.  You like to copy everything we do!  If daddy closes the dishwasher with his foot, you want to close the dishwasher with your foot.  If we brush our teeth or hair, you want to do these things as well.  The same goes for putting on socks and shoes, cleaning, talking on the phone, etc, etc.  :)   You also like showing us your nose, hair, teeth, tongue, mouth, eyes, ears, eyes, tummy, piggies, and hands.  You have the best laugh ever and think that we are pretty hilarious.  

Time to continue with our New Year's Eve celebration!  We are having a wild night of board games and relaxing, hoping that you sleep through the night, since you only took a 30 minute cat nap in the car today.  I (we) love you SO MUCH, big boy!  

Jesus' & Andy's Birthday

This is probably going to be my longest post yet, but there were just so many happy moments over the past week!  Our official celebrations began the Saturday before Christmas.  (I say official although technically, I have been celebrating Christmas since Andy gave the green light for us to listen to Christmas music all the time.  We have yet to stop listening.)  On Saturday, we went to my cousins' house on my mom's side.  We did our traditional secret Santa exchange and Benj got to hangout with his favorite godparents-- Uncle Joe and Auntie Anna!  As you can see, he was loved on all night long.  I do not have a ton of pictures from this night, but fun was definitely had by all!

I had to go back to work for a day on Monday, but thankfully I had the yearly "Eve of the Eve" party to get me through the day!  It was hard to concentrate at work when Andy was sending me cute pictures like the one of Ben having a staring contest with a deer, but as soon as I signed my last note, I couldn't run to my car fast enough.   The "Eve of the Eve" party is a party that Andy's family does with some of their close family friends.  Andy has known them his whole life, so they love seeing him all grown up. :)

Again, I failed to take party pictures, but this is only because we were having so much fun eating, drinking, and being merry.  Oh, and because I spent a lot of my time chasing Ben so he didn't break all of the breakables.  He seems to be a magnet for those!  Ultimately, the hostess let him go through one of her kitchen drawers, which Ben was more than happy to do.  On Christmas Eve day, I was in heaven that I got to hang out with my boys all day.  Ben is obsessed with our tree, and now that Christmas is over, he is finally leaving it alone.  He would go grab a light or throw a toy at it and then say, " Nooooo!"  You're right bud...NO!

Since Andy's birthday is Christmas, we tried to celebrate it as it's own day!  (As we always do!)  Ben helped me pick out and wrap daddy's presents.  Oh, and then he helped open them too.  Such a sweetie pie.  He then proceeded to prove that babies do indeed prefer boxes to the actual contents of the boxes. 

Our little family of 3 went to church on Christmas Eve at 4:00PM, instead of our usual midnight.  Despite getting there 30 minutes early, the place was packed, but we were able to get front row seats in the good old crying room!  Ben was actually very well behaved and I think we would have even been safe outside of the room as well.  Thankfully, Ben was able to squeeze in a quick nap before we were on to our next party.  We celebrate with my dad's extended family on Christmas Eve.  I was slightly very hesitant to bring Ben, as the party didn't start until 7:00, but he was a CHAMP and lasted until 9:30.  As always, it was great to catch up with family that we only see about once a year.  They all loved seeing Ben, of course!  

I was so happy that we had a true white Christmas this year!  I can't even remember which days it was snowing because there were so many snowy days and I loved each and every one of them.  I think the snow is so pretty, and it just doesn't feel like Christmas to me without it.  I don't know that Ben was totally in shock when he woke up to a bunch of presents under the Christmas tree, but with a little prompting he jumped right in and started opening.  He would bring each present over to Andy, and then he would rip it apart.  He loved his alphabet puzzle, shopping cart/food, and iPad cover.  :) 

The next stop was my mom's house.  As always, her festiveness did not disappoint!  The fruit tree alone would have made Benji the happiest boy in the world.  (Sorry, no whole grapes for you, little man.)  I was not so secretly hoping he would eat one of those donuts, but no such luck.

Believe it or not, the box for Andy's beloved coffee grinder was actually Ben's favorite.  He loves peak-a-boo, so he was in heaven when we put him in the box so he could pop up and down over and over and over.  

For the record, Ben wore the same outfit, I believe 3 days this past week.  There are only so many days a year you can get away with this adorable ensemble.  Actually, he could probably pull off this look 365 days a year.  

We couldn't stay at my mom's too long, because our next party was at 11:00.  Next stop: my cousins' house on my dad's side.  We were all spoiled some more, and Benj got to follow around his cousins, grandpa, aunt, uncle, etc.  I love this boy to pieces, but it is also nice that he likes to be with other people too!

I have to include the one and only picture with my sibs from Christmas.  Yep, oldest and shortest on the right there.  

It was nap time for ALL of us before it was time for Christmas Day party #3.  I am not one for taking naps, but the Christmas Story was on, (I think) it was snowing a bit, and well, I was tired, so it was the perfect combination for a heavenly nap.  After we were all well rested, we headed over to Andy's parents house for our final Christmas celebration.  Although Andy got a lot of birthday love, we finally sang to him at his parents' house.  Ben even had a few bites of his ice cream cake, which is a holiday in and of itself!

Although we thought Ben would be sick of celebrating, he partied like a rockstar yet again.  The beautiful snow was falling yet again and it was the perfect ending of a perfect day.  Ben even played some Christmas songs with me on the piano.  My heart was so full by the end of the day.  This was truly the best Christmas ever.  It is exhausting trying to make sure we see everyone, but we are blessed that we all live close enough that we are able to do this.

Although we were able to celebrate Andy's birthday on several occasions, Auntie Anna graciously offered to Benji-sit the day after Christmas so that we could have a date night!  I made a comprehensive list of 8 restaurants and 8 bar/post-dinner activities/dessert options that I thought Andy would like.  It was a multiple choice test of sorts and he had to choose one from each category.  He made excellent choices and we ended up at a Middle Eastern restaurant and then we went to one of our new favorites, a wine bar.  It is quaint and cozy with a fireplace and games--again, perfection.  For the record, the birthday boy won the game (of luck!) that we were playing.  ;)

On Friday, we had a lazy day of cleaning, shopping, working on house projects, and eating!  Andy is an awesome shopping partner, so I guess I shouldn't' have been surprised that Ben is a great shopper as well.  We picked up my mom for lunch before heading to the mall.  This kid was a total angel at each and every store we went to.  

Although it seems like we were doing things non-stop, there was plenty of time for play and typical Benji shenanigans, including waking up with your arm out of your sleeve.  "I have NO idea out this happened, momma!"

We were even able to use his beloved sled a few more times.  Ben has gotten a lot of use out of his boots and snowsuit, although it is hard to walk in the snow when it is above your knees!

We ended our day today with a hike through one of the parks near our house.  I'm not sure if Ben found it relaxing or boring, but either way, he was out cold by the end of our little adventure.  

Tomorrow is my 6th and final day of vacation before it's back to work.  Boo!  Thankfully I have off New Years' Eve and Day!  I am going to miss my boys so much!!!

Weekend Recap: Life Lately!

There are simply not enough hours in the day for me to stay on top of these blog posts!  I want to so badly, but I can't.  I'm just going to highlight some of the holiday fun we've been having lately, as I wait for the Michael Buble holiday special to begin. :)

(1) Let it snow!! While we tried (key word: tried) to get stuff done around the house, we were only semi-productive.  I had to convince Andy that Ben needed one of his Christmas presents a little early.  After all, there are only so many days that were are home when it is actually light outside, let alone--snowing!!  I was obviously able to convince him to enjoy the winter wonderland with Ben in his new sled!  (Not that hard--he wanted to try out his new winter boots pretty badly.)  Aside from his face plant after realizing he can move as quickly in the snow, Ben loved it!

However, Ben still needs to learn the value of gloves!  He kept flinging them off.  He is so tough though that he really didn't seem to mind that his little paws were turning red.

I just love this picture perfect moment below.  Life is so good.  Next time, we're going to figure out how Rosco can pull Benj in the sled.

(2) Festive Food! We went to our friends' house on Saturday night.  Ben was smothered with attention.  Two of the girls were literally crying over who got to hold him more.  (Too bad he didn't want to be held by either of them...)  Although we had to intervene a lot, it was nice that he was able to be entertained for awhile.  Great food, drink, and company = great night!

(3) Nutcracker!! The girls go to the Nutcracker every year, but I'm counting down the years until we can bring Ben!  (Get pumped, Andy, you're coming too!)  Until then, we will just have to continue listening to the Nutcracker Pandora station non-stop.  We were at least able to bring Ben to lunch, although he was more interested in the "balls" on the tree than sitting down to eat.  The Nutcracker was fabulous, as always!  Thanks for a fun day, Mom!

(4) Christmas Birthday Boy!! As much as I love Christmas, it probably isn't the best day to have a birthday, but like it or not, that's when Andy decided to make his grand entrance.  I don't think I do a great job at it, but we try and celebrate his birthday on a day other than Christmas.  On Monday, we celebrated with his parents.  We're going to celebrate again the day after Christmas.  Maybe we'll try to celebrate on his half birthday next year!

(5) Gingerbread Men!!  St. Nick brought Benji a gingerbread man decorating kit to Nana's house.  We finally got a chance to use it.  He dove right in and was a natural.  I am just obsessed with this kid.  But look how cute he is, intently decorating his gingerbread man!  I love him so much!!

My personal favorite is the one on the right.  Wouldn't you agree?

(6) A Christmas Carol!! Andy and I were fortunate to get a date night last week!  Auntie Anna and my mom watched Ben so we could get dinner and then see "A Christmas Carol."  Such a heartwarming story!  It made me wish we would have done more for others who are less fortunate this year.  I suppose there is still time!

(9) SANTA!!  Last, but not least (well, maybe least in Ben's mind), I have to include our picture with Santa!  Ben actually looks a little happier than he seemed in real life.  Oh well, maybe Ben and Santa will be better friends next year!

1 week 'til Christmas!!  Ahh!!!

Weekend Recap: Santa & Friends

Outside the snow is falling and inside we're watching Home Alone.  We're making the most of our snowy Sunday over here!  Before I get in to our weekend, I want to mention that Ben got haircut #2 this past week.  My mom brought him while we were at work and I came home to this:

I cannot get over how grown up he looks!  My mom (and Auntie Anna) also took him to get some holiday pictures.  (St. Nick gift for Andy and me = best gift ever!)  The boy loves his Christmas trees, and since he is not allowed to play with the ornaments at our house, I'm sure he was in heaven that he got to hold one for the pictures!

Although I am bummed that I didn't get to join in the fun, thanks to Auntie Anna, I got a glimpse of the little stinker in action.  

St. Nick also paid Ben a visit this week...times 3.  He seemed to know all of Ben's favorite things.  He got some flashcards, fake keys, bath crayons, balls, and goldfish crackers.  He was excited, to say the least.  

To keep in the Christmas spirit, we visited Santa on Saturday morning.  Our financial advisor actually rented out a movie theater for the morning complete with breakfast, a Christmas movie, goodies for the kids, and Santa himself.  Unfortunately we have not seen the pictures yet, but hopefully Ben doesn't look too traumatized.  Although Santa wasn't a hit, the rest of the morning was so fun!  We loved it!  I didn't think it was possible, but we got even MORE into the Christmas spirit!

  

Our next stop on Saturday was to our first "gender reveal" party.  You can't go wrong with great food and company!  I guessed boy and Andy guessed girl.  Andy won!  Ben is so excited to have another girlfriend come April!

And since 2 parties wasn't enough for 1 day, Andy and I headed to Chicago for our annual Christmas party with my college friends!  (My super mom stayed with Ben, and he actually went to another party as well.  Busy babe!)  I am so happy we were able to find a date that worked for all of us.  I just love my girlfriends so much!  Being the crazy 30-somethings that we are, we never actually made it out to the bars, but fun was still had by all!  Andy got to drink out of a moose mug, so of course he was happy!  And then he asked if we could get another dog.  GOOD ONE! ;)  

We were able to sneak in some Christmas shopping on our way home today, but we didn't want to be gone too long because we missed our boy!!  We just love him to bits and pieces!  It was a complete winter wonderland by the time we got home.  I can't wait for Ben to play in the snow.  He will love it!

Weekend Recap: Our Thanksgiving & More

Another fabulous holiday in the books.  I believe I said this at Halloween, but Ben truly makes holidays   infinitely more fun!  I wish I had more time to describe every last thing we did, but there are just not enough hours in the day.  Plus, I hear that a lot of cyber Monday deals are still going on...

We kicked off our Thanksgiving celebrations on Wednesday with my mom's side of the family.  Our cousins were in town from New York, and it is always great to see them.  It will be the last time seeing them when they are a family of 3!  Theo wasn't feeling the greatest on Thanksgiving, so he did not stick around too long.  We did, sort of, manage to get a picture of them in their matching train shirts!

My mom totally goes all out with the holiday decor--just the way I like it! :)  Our current house isn't big enough to host a huge family gathering, but hopefully next home will allow us to host big, festive parties!  As usual, our time with our cousins went way too quickly.  Although the little guy in red would have loved to hang out all night, we didn't want him to get too off of his schedule.  I'm so thankful for all of my cousins!

Although we had plans of kicking off Thursday with a turkey trot, we decided to pick warmth over fitness.  Ben wasn't in to the Macy's Thanksgiving parade just yet, but he was definitely in to skipping his nap.  He didn't want to miss any of the excitement.  Can't blame him.  Unfortunately it was too cold for him to wear his cute turkey outfit, and unfortunately I couldn't get a good picture of the entire ensemble, but it might be in the top 10 of cutest things I've ever seen him wear.  

Although I was holding him for most of his nap, he was able to catch a few zzz before kickoff!  Our first celebration of the day was with my dad's side of the family.  We went over to our cousin's new house fairly early so as not to miss the (pathetic) Packer's game.  Luckily I was able to capture Ben's "touchdown" when the Packers scored, because that was the only touchdown of the game.  Although we had some upset fans, the delicious meal helped make everyone happy again.  Benji's main dish is pictured in the lower right corner below, everyone else's meal is the top right corner.  Sigh....

One of the many perks of hanging with our cousins is that there are girls who want to "babysit" Ben.  He loves other kids, so he happily played with the big kids while we ate.  It was great!  

My picture-taking definitely dwindled by the end of the day.  There was a big crowd, but unfortunately I did not get pictures of everyone. :(  On a positive note, everyone did get lots of Benji kisses, which are even better than pictures.  I cannot get enough of his little smooches and I will probably cry the day he stops doing that.  Hopefully that day will never come.  

After this celebration, we were off to Andy's parents' house.  I took a few pictures there, but looking at them now, the are quite blurry.  Maybe my vision was a little off after eating so much.  Since his parents knew we might be turkey-ed out, we had lasagna for dinner.  Somehow, we managed to find room in our stomachs for more food.  It was delicious!  

I am beyond thankful for all of the amazing people in my life.  Three family parties, each with wonderful, loving, fun, kind, and happy people?  We are so blessed.  

In a past life, I would have gotten excited for some black Friday shopping, but this year I was completely content staying home.  I actually found some fantastic online deals.  We had a lazy day but we did finally leave the house to go to my mom's so Ben could play with his east coast cuz.  In true Benji-form, they played with each and every toy they could find.  It was adorable.  :)  

The highlight of Saturday, and one of the highlights of my entire year, was cutting down our Christmas tree!  This will definitely be a post-Thanksgiving tradition.  We went later in the day, so not only was the lighting amazing, there was also barely anyone there.  It felt like we were way out there and that we had the whole place to ourselves.  (Think Griswold "Christmas Vacation" style...)  Although the weather was pretty nice, Ben got to break in his new snowsuit.  

Of course, I had to take a million pictures.  Look at that lighting (and the cute little blue snow bunny)--how could I resist?!

Ben LOVED watching his daddy cut down the tree.  He even found a Benji-sized tree.  As soon as I figure out how to get the videos off of my iphone, I will post them.  They make me so happy.

We capped off our weekend with tree decorating, Christmas shopping, and more eating.  Of note, Ben slept through THREE meals while we were out over the weekend.  As much as I love his company, it was like Andy and I had 3 dates!

While going back to work was rough, my heart was so happy and full after 4 days with my family.  I am so thankful this past weekend and every weekend.  This whole year has been packed with blessings.  At the top of my list is good health.  Although I was hoping to be done with Ben's surgeries by now, and although his lack of eating stresses me out more than anything, I know I should focus my energy on how well he is doing.  He is the smartest and happiest boy ever!  I love him so much it hurts!  I also have to mention my amazing husband.  I am so thankful for him!  He loves his little family so much and it melts my heart to watch Ben copy his daddy.  He has kept me level-headed when I start to stress and is so patient, thoughtful, loving, and sweet. :)  He even makes fireplace s'mores with me.  My boys make me the happiest wife and momma!

And on that note, I should probably wrap this up, as Andy wants to go to bed!  Goodnight!