Weekend Recap: Wedding and Music

This past weekend was soooo fun!  Actually, the fun started on Thursday with "Muffins With Mom" at Benji's school.  I am pretty sure I was more excited than Ben--I live for this stuff!  He was a little nervous when we arrived, but as soon as he realized I was staying with him, he was a happy camper.  He basically stared/smiled at his teacher the entire time.  Unfortunately, I didn't actually know which kids were from Ben's class, but luckily I saw a friend from college, so Ben and I finally socialized for a bit.   :)  After Benji ate approximately 6 grapes and got powdered sugar all over me, it was time for me to go to work.  :(   Luckily I had some post-work fun to look forward to!  My fabulous coworkers and I went to a food tasting benefit for kids with cerebral palsy after work.  Gotta love eating and drinking for a good cause!  We had a blast--too bad it was a Thursday night instead of a weekend!

Andy, Ben, and I spent Friday night getting ready for the rest of the weekend!  After music class on Saturday morning, Andy and I were off to our friends' wedding!  Although we missed our boy, he was in great hands with his sleepover buddy, Nana.  Ben kept Nana and Papa John busy at the children's museum for nearly 3 hours!  He LOVES that place!  As much as I would like to think he was missing his momma and daddy, I'm pretty sure he didn't have time for that.  :)

Andy and I grabbed a quick lunch before meeting up with some of my college friends.  A brilliant friend decided it would be a good idea to get drinks in the short amount of time we had before the ceremony.  We were at a bar for about 6 minutes before the girls starting corralling the guys.  We arrived at the church at essentially the worst time ever--when the bride was just about to walk down the aisle.  SORRY SHEILA!  She graciously welcomed us in and pointed us in the right direction.  Not only did I feel horrible that we were late, this also meant seats in the back corner, which is not where I like to sit for weddings!  It was a beautiful ceremony though!  The reception was equally fabulous and it was so great to catch up with everyone.  I just realized that out of the 8 girls in the picture below, we live in 5 different states!  It will probably be a long time before we are all reunited again... :(

Of course the whole night went too fast, but I am so thankful that we were able to celebrate Sheila and Brian.  It's not our best picture, but we managed to get one photo-bomb-free photo of the two of us.  :)   Andy and I had to get up relatively early to head back for our parenting class.  We were tired but we sure do like our class!

After class, we made sure that Benji got in a quick nap before his big concert debut!  I wish I had a video of his performance because it was the CUTEST thing ever!!!  I really didn't know what to expect, but it was like he knew that it was time to shine.  He did what he was supposed to do for all of the songs AND he gave 3 shout outs to NANA throughout his performance, typically when it was nice and quiet.  It was so funny.  It was bright on the stage and the audience was dark, yet somehow he knew what direction to yell NANA!  The auditorium was packed (a few hundred people??) and he was a total ham.  Clearly he doesn't take after me in that department.   It was the 20th anniversary of the string academy I used to play violin with, so all of the alumni were invited to play at the concert.  I missed the rehearsal for other songs, but I did play "Twinkle, Twinkle" with the big group.  It was fun to play my violin for the first time in about 10 years, even if it wasn't a very impressive performance.  ;)

We, of course, had to celebrate Ben's first concert at our favorite restaurant.  All in all, it was a fun-filled but exhausting weekend.  We were all in bed early and we all slept through the night!  Woohoo!

SCHOOL UPDATE:  Ben had another great day at school yesterday.  He was a little sad when he got there, but as soon as he saw his teacher, he reached for her!!  He voluntarily put his nuk away, ate a good lunch, napped, and made art projects.  Made my day!!  He told us all about it over a date night.  I have the best dates ever.  So unbelievably blessed.  

Weekend Recap: St. Patrick's Day Festivities

I think I work too much.  :(  It's so frustrating having to do hours of work at night to stay on top of things!  It doesn't help that it is only 1 doctor and me this week!  I'm just tired, but I'll stop complaining now.  Our Friday night and Saturday morning were essentially a repeat of last weekend.   Guess who made 10 friends while "rawing" on the wall with chalk??

We had a fun weekend celebrating St. Patrick's Day.  This isn't one of the holidays I get extremely excited about, but as I know I've mentioned before, Ben makes all holiday celebrations better!   It was a little chillier than we would have liked, but we decided to check out the St. Patrick's Day parade on Saturday afternoon.  Benji looks bored and cold in these pictures, but he was actually loving life with his stickers and green beads.

Fortunately, my cousin's restaurants had some heaters on outside, so we hung out there until we were invited to ride on the shuttle bus in the parade!  There were a bunch of kids throwing candy out the window, and my favorite little leprechaun wanted to join in the fun.  It took a bit of encouragement to get him to actually let go of the candy.  He quickly learned that it was better to keep the candy for himself, which was probably better for everyone since he was dropping the candy versus throwing it.  I was afraid we were going to drive over some fingers!

We kept the green fun going on Sunday morning with some green pancakes.  Ben sure loves to cook with daddy.  He also loves the Lucky Charm charms.  Smarty.  

On Sunday afternoon, Andy and I went to our first "Love and Logic" parenting class.  We didn't really know what to expect, but we were pleasantly surprised.  We topped off our night with a visit from one of my bffs, Maggie!  After Ben flirted with her for a bit, Maggie and I went out for dinner and some quality girl talk!  The perfect way to end a weekend. :)

Last, but not least, a Benji school update.  Week 5 was a success!  My mom dropped him off, and there were a few whimpers, but NO TEARS!  (Maybe just some happy tears for me!)  He didn't want to do the art project but he ATE LUNCH and did a lot of playing!  Somehow, he got his teachers to give him 2 nuks for his stroller nap, but he was good about putting them away for play time.  :)  Unfortunately there was a problem with the water at school, so they had to close early.  But fortunately, this meant lunch #2 for Ben at Culver's.  Here's hoping that next week is even better!

He had a great 18 month pediatrician visit today!  I could not love this kid more than I do!

Weekend Recap: Farmers' Market & Fun With Auntie Anna

Work has really been taking over my blogging time lately!  I feel like I am working on notes for work nearly every night.  Boo!  I am happy to report that this past weekend was much better than the previous weekend.  Ben is back to his happy self and thus I am too.  Since Ben and I are not huge Friday fish-fry fans, we went to one of the only restaurants we could think of that was fairly Lent-friendly.  I'm pretty sure Ben was more excited about the chalkboard wall than eating, but it was a good motivator to get him to eat.

I had to go in to work for a bit on Saturday morning and Andy wasn't feeling the greatest, so it was music class for Benji and Nana.  After that, we headed to the indoor farmers' market.  It was super crowded in the actual market area, so we pretended that we were outside and explored the domes.  Ben loved watching the trains and fish, and of course, trying to reach all of the branches when he was on daddy's shoulders.

We stopped for lunch and Ben may have eaten his biggest meal yet!  Give this boy a fork and he doesn't stop eating!  I probably get waaaay too excited when he eats, but I can't help myself.  :)

Ben had no problem springing ahead for daylight savings.  He used it as an excuse to get up early.  ;)  He must have been so excited for his date with Auntie Anna!  She invited him to be her date for a birthday party for her boyfriend's niece at the children's museum.  He isn't smiling in this video, but his face would light up whenever we talked about going to a party with Aunte "Ahn." Side note: Andy and I had a little day date while they partied.  Shopping and lunch, just the two of us.  Definitely a rarity!  Thanks, Auntie Anna!

Ben looks like he thinks Auntie Anna is too big for his truck, but he drove her to the grocery store anyway.  Oh, and then he found a chalkboard wall.  He loves "rawing" with chalk so much that if I didn't think they were totally messy he would definitely have one of his own. :)

After spending all of his money, he was spent himself. 

Amazingly, he still had enough energy to make me dinner.  He has been obsessed with helping Andy cook lately.  I love it.  

Last but not least, a school update.  I snuck away from work so I could meet Andy's mom at school for the drop off.  We were just fine walking down the hallway-- talking about making pictures for momma, eating lunch with the kids, etc.  However, as soon as he realized we were headed to his classroom, it was waterworks time.  UGH, I seriously almost started crying too and I couldn't even look at the teacher.  It was so sad.  He tried to hide in a corner outside of the room.  Waaahhhh.  His teacher took him from me and he quickly nuzzled his head into her shoulder, still crying.  I wanted to watch in the one way mirror, but that might have actually made me cry, so I headed back to work.  About an hour later, I got picture text from the teacher (didn't know that was an option!!) saying that he was doing well and playing with the kids.  Do I see a SMILE behind that nuk??  Such a relief!  He even ate AND made some beautiful art!  HUGE progress!  So proud!

Well, it only took me 3 days to write this post, thank you, work.  I even gave up Facebook for Lent and I still don't have much free time.  ;)  Tomorrow is Thursday though, which is almost Friday, which is almost the weekend!  And tomorrow is also Ben's half birthday; I can hardly believe it!  I think this calls for a half-birthday party!

17 Months (2/13/2014)

I am so late on this again.  It isn't hard to write this, but I always end up forgetting things.  My goal is to keep up with these monthly updates until Ben is 2.  I think it will be fun to look back at someday.  Hopefully I'll need to look back to remember how much I used to stress about your feeding, though I imagine my mom will not let me forget that.  :)  I can at least say I took these pictures on time this month!

Dear Ben,

I love you SO MUCH!  I cannot believe how much!  Letting you have your nuks was the only way you would sort of sit still.

GENERAL:  At your last appointment, I believe you were 30.5 inches or so and you weighed 19 pounds 8 ounces.  That last appointment was a 3+ hour appointment in the feeding clinic.  I'll get more to the feeding part in a bit.  :)

EATING: I'm 2 weeks late in writing this, but I feel like your eating has been up and down lately.  We went to the feeding clinic on Valentine's Day.  After that appointment, you were started on a medication to stimulate your appetite.  It worked almost instantly!  It was great!  You were eating non-stop.  You had 2.5 bananas for a snack one day.  However, you got a bit of a stomach bug the following week, so your eating was a little bit (lot of bit) off.  The week after that, the medicine didn't seem to be helping.  You are supposed to be on it for 2 weeks and then off for 2 weeks.  I think we'll try it again, but it seemed to make you sleepy and crabby, so I'm not sure if it is worth it, especially if it isn't helping with the eating!  You are still acting like whole milk is poison.  My goal was to have you off of the formula by 18 months, and at this rate, I don't think that is going to happen.  You are also still getting a bottle, but I'm (we're) so desperate to get some protein and calories in you, that we'll do whatever it takes!  It's not that you even LOVE the bottle, it is work to get you to take that, but you will  now say "ba ba" when you want one, and you're pretty accurate with that.  :)  You take between 4-6oz about 4 times/day.  We are still working on increasing the variety of foods you eat, but fruit is still your favorite!  You're starting to like yogurt again, which makes me happy!  (Protein + fat = happy momma!)  You definitely like to feed yourself with a spoon these days and you're actually pretty good at it!  You also love daddy's pancakes as much as you love helping him make them--which is a LOT.

SLEEPING:  Your sleep has been great lately.  You are typically getting up once a night, but it is often at 5:00am, which is pretty darn good.  You are going to bed around 7:00-7:30PM.  If you have a bottle at 5:00, you will typically fall right back to sleep until 6:45.  It's awesome!  Your naps have been variable and you still need to be rocked for your naps.  This is fine with the Nanas, but it doesn't work as well at pre-pre-school...  You go to bed like an angel at night though!  We read books, say prayers, brush your teeth, and then lately you have been pointing to your bed.  You'll some times lay in bed any play with your nuks, you like to have TWO of them, and then you go right to sleep.

FINE/GROSS MOTOR:  You continue to be an active boy!  We got you a new desk recently, so you love to climb on that, even though you know that is naughty.  You love to color at your desk though with your crayons, which I thought were Benji-proof but you showed me otherwise.  You also love to "raw" (draw) on the chalk board too.  You are also getting better and better at your puzzles!  You can put pieces in place all by yourself, though you need some prompting sometimes to rotate the pieces.  You also are starting to put the shapes in the shape sorter without help.  You love being a helper.  If someone is leaving, you go get his/her shoes.  You love throwing away your diapers and putting your dirty clothes in your laundry.  If daddy or I go grocery shopping without you, you are there the second we get home to help empty the shopping bags!  You love emptying drawers and getting in to things that aren't yours.  :)  You still like to make huge messes, but you're getting a little better at cleaning up when you're done.   (I know this is cognitive stuff too, but a lot of the developmental milestones tend to overlap.)

COMMUNICATION/COGNITION:  We still think you are the smartest little cookie.  I'd say you have almost 20 words?  You are getting good at at least trying to copy us.  You have the cutest little voice.  You're really into this Sesame Street book about bubbles, which is not surprising because you LOVE taking baths.  It is either "bubbles" or "pot," which is actually "Spot" -- that "s" is a tricky one!  You love pretending to talk on your phone (or our phones) and you always want to FaceTime with Auntie Anna aka Ahn.  You love listening to music and being sung to, and you try to sing along sometimes too.  It is soooo cute!  Your favorite (and only) animal noises are making cow and monkey noises.  You like to "watch" Curious George in the morning.  You make your monkey noise, smile/laugh when you see George, and that you're over it.  You still love to be held A LOT, which is fine until whoever is holding you needs to do something.  (Get dressed, go to the bathroom, watch hands, etc.)  We are working on not crying when you don't get what you want.   You are our little shadow and like to do whatever we do.  Especially Daddy!!

Time to delete some pictures on my laptop so that I can add some new ones!  I do not know what to do with all of the (1000s of) pictures I have of you!  Love you more than words could ever describe!

Weekend Recap: Cars & Crying

This post won't be too exciting, as our weekend did not go as planned, but I will try to keep it as positive as possible.  :)  I was supposed to have a girls' night on Friday to celebrate my friend Sheila, but my driving buddy ended up getting sick and I wasn't feeling the greatest either plus Ben was still a little off, so we ended up canceling at the last minute. :(  Hanging out with my college girlfriends does not happen often enough, so it was sad that we couldn't see each other.  SUPER excited for Sheila's wedding in a few weeks though!

Ben and I went to music class on Saturday morning and thankfully it went a better than the previous week.  He still wants to be held almost the whole time, but he does love his music.  After music class, we had big plans to check out an indoor farmer's market, since we are desperate for some warmer weather over here, not to mention it was snowing for the 500th time this winter.  However, Ben was the absolute crabbiest he has ever been.  I believe his huge tantrum started when I wouldn't let him have his nuk after he refused his bottle that had some whole milk in it.  He was screaming and shaking and was completely inconsolable.  He was mad when I was holding him, he was mad when I put him down.  I was getting so frustrated that I just put him in his bed, but that only made him more mad.  I finally swaddled him up and he calmed a bit, and then when I went to sit with him in his rocker, he got mad again.  He apparently didn't want me to sit because he tried to pull me off of the chair with his little paws.  I knew that he would have stopped crying instantly if I gave him the nuk, but I stayed strong until he finally fell sleep in my arms.  It was a short-lived cat nap and he woke up crabby, but he was at least redirectable at that point.  He looks so innocent in this picture below but do not be fooled!

This little fit took longer than it should have, so the farmer's market was closed by the time that we were ready to go.  We didn't want to stay in the house any longer, so we ended up going to the grocery store.    (Oooo...exciting!!)  Thankfully, Ben was perfectly content in the car there and back AND he made about 20 new girlfriends as he ate his way through the store.

On Sunday morning, Andy and Ben had some boy bonding at the car show with Andy's dad, bother, and nephew.   It's is a yearly tradition, but this was Ben's first time.  According to Andy, Ben LOVED it.  He got to climb in cars and even had a mini-meltdown when he had to be taken out of one of them.

I had a pretty awesome morning myself,  and went to the gym and the mall before having lunch with my mom.  I rarely have free time so I was trying to make the most of it!  Of course Ben didn't want to nap when he came home, so we made some play-dough which kept him busy for a LONG time.  He was a little skeptical at first, but he thought everything we made with the play dough was hilarious.  (Or a "ball")  

I don't know what was up with Ben all weekend, but he was just not himself.  He was crying a lot when he didn't get his way, which is something we do NOT want to reinforce.  I think he gets frustrated that he cannot always verbally communicate his needs.  Ugh!  Thankfully today (Monday) he seems to be back to his old happy self.  Well, aside from when he went to school.  Day #3 was a bust.  I called to check on him and they said he was crying a lot, not playing with the other kids, and not eating.  I was a little frustrated that they were asking me what to do and said the he is like this because he only goes once a week.  Not much consolation for a worried mom who just wants to scoop her baby up and take him home!  My mom ended up going to pick him up a little early.  He was happy as can be when she got there and was showing her different things.  Benji!!  Hoping he likes it better next week! 

I better end this post before it crashes on me for the 25th time.   The pictures are a bit blurry but it took me so many tries to upload them that they will have to do.  Goodnight!