9 Months (9/18/2015)

I feel like every monthly post could start with, "I can't believe he is xx months already!"  I can't believe he is 9 months already!  My sweet little guy is going to be a big 1 year old in no time at all!  I am so in love with this little boy I could explode.  He and his big brother are simply the best.  Side note, the photo shoot was tough this month!  Andy was gone and Josh did not have any interest in posing for me.  ;)

GENERAL:
Dear Joshy,
You have your 9 month check up tomorrow, but I think you are about 14# 10oz and 26+ inches.  You are the best little baby!  You've only had a few days of "school" so far, but every time we get glowing reports about how you are the happiest baby.  You rarely cry and if you do, it is very short-lived.

SLEEP:  I have to say that sleep has been ROUGH the past month.  Between you and your brother, someone always seems to be awake in this house.  Well, that's a slight exaggeration, but I think there were only 1 or 2 good nights of sleep this month.  The other nights, you were up several times.  Sometimes I'll feed you, and even after that you have not been wanting to go back to sleep.  The sleep deprivation is starting to catch up with me!  You still go down nicely for your morning nap which is about 1-1.5 hours, and then the afternoon nap is usually pretty good too.  You go to bed around 7:30 and then you're usually up for the day (or at least a few hours) around 6:15.  I can't even say a time that you usually wake up at night because it has been all over the place.  Let's do a little better this month, deal??

EATING:  You're still a good little eater!  You will nurse in the morning and before bed at night, and then whenever you wake up during the night.  I'm still pumping twice a day at work, or I'm at least trying to!  During the day, you will usually have 2 bottles that are about 4-5oz each.  I'm going to ask the pediatrician tomorrow if this is enough milk for you!  You still love those cheese puffs and we are slowly giving you more table foods.  You love raspberries and bananas.  I'm also going to as the doctor when we can start giving you things like meats.  You seem to want to eat whatever we are having, which is great!

COMMUNICATION/COGNITION: You have gotten quite the little personality lately.  It's the sweetest personality.  You giggle a lot and we all love it so much!  You've mastered clapping and waving, and you're pretty darn good at doing "so big" and even blowing kisses!  You've started to say "da da da da da da" and "ba ba ba ba ba," and I am patiently waiting for a "ma ma ma ma."  You're always babbling and you look at me like you're really trying to tell me things.  You are definitely recognizing familiar faces too.  One of those faces is Nana's, and you have her wrapped around your little finger!

FINE/GROSS MOTOR:  I have a feeling you will be walking very soon.  We had been telling Ben that you would probably walk by Christmas, but now daddy is predicting you will be walking by Halloween!  You can stand for a good 10-20 seconds and can even clap while doing so.  You love to crawl away have have us chase you.  If we pull you back by your legs you will laugh and laugh!  You are such a speedy little crawler and recently found the stairs.  You even opened the baby gate that wasn't closed all the way and scooted yourself up a stair!  Trouble!  We had to put a lock on the fireplace because you managed to get that opened and then you try and crawl inside.  We also have to be extremely careful with what Ben leaves on the floor because you find EVERYTHING and put EVERYTHING in your mouth!  It scares me!

I love you so much little boy.  We all do.

Ben Turns 3!

I can't believe my baby big boy is THREE!!  I just love him so much.  He is the sweetest, smartest, most sensitive, most athletic, and most fun little 3 year old I've ever met.  His vocabulary amazes me on a daily basis, and more amazing yet is his excellent grammar.  ;)  He uses good/well like it's his job.

He is always listening to everything everyone is saying, and he doesn't miss a beat.  His memory is crazy good and he will often reference things from 6+ months ago that I totally forgot about.  He knows all of his letters and can count to 20+ (though he usually misses 15).  He's thoughtful and always concerned if one of us isn't feeling well or if one of us had a bad day.  He is seriously in love with his baby brother and I hope they are always best friends.  Although we probably shouldn't encourage this, he sometimes climbs in to Josh's bed in the morning when Andy and I are still sleeping.  Hearing those 2 giggle on the baby monitor just might be my favorite noise ever.  Speaking of sweet sounds, one of my favorite things Ben does these days is SING!  He recently started to sing complete songs.  He usually sings the songs from music class, but yesterday he sang a song he learned at school and I almost died.

Just for the fun of it, Ben is about 26.5 pounds and a little over 36 inches tall, I think.  His only favorite foods are fruit, fries, goldfish crackers, chips, pretzels, string cheese, grilled cheese, and chocolate milk.  He still needs a lot of encouragement to eat, but he is growing, healthy, and has a ton of energy, so it's hard to argue with him.  He loves any and all sports and loves to play outside.

In addition to being the most loving and snuggly guy, he has a bit of a stubborn streak as well.  If you ask him something, he will often intentionally say or do the opposite of what you want to hear.  Stinker.  He really likes to be in control so we are working on him not always getting his way.   He is a curious little thinker which can get him into trouble at times, (like when he threw a GOLF BALL down the air vent in his room) but the majority of time he is as sweet as pie.  While I was a little bit sad for him to no longer be two, I am so excited to watch him grow and learn.  I sure love the little person he has become!

Ben had the best time at his much anticipated birthday party.  He came in to our room the morning of his birthday and said, "I saw some presents out there but I didn't open them."  Such a good boy.

For some reason I don't have a picture of it, but we got Ben an orange watch for his birthday.  He is obsessed with anything Andy has these days, so he was thrilled to get a watch, just like daddy.  (Side note, when I say he wants to be like daddy, I mean he REALLY wants to be like daddy.  Same shoes, undershirts, jeans with "pockets on the back like daddy," protein cereal, and he even likes to wear daddy's deodorant!)

I'm really bummed that I didn't do a better job of taking pictures at the party, but rest assured there were about 30 of Ben's favorites in attendance.   We decided to do tacos and it was a huge hit.  Hopefully Ben will take after daddy in the cooking department.

My mom decided to make Ben's cake, so the 2 of them (and Josh) went to the party store to pick out some decorations for the cake.  After a long deliberation, Ben decided on the follow:

He was beyond spoiled with gifts.  We are blessed with so many loving family members and friends.  My dear mother got him a drum set, keyboard, AND an electric guitar.  Those will be making their way to Nana's house ASAP.  

And because I can't forget about the other sweet baby boy in my life, I have to add some pictures of Joshy-pie too.

As soon as everyone left, both of the boys went down for a much needed nap.  Ben was waiting for me to go up and read him a book, and I went in to his room (after a 2 minute delay) to find this: 

It was an absolutely perfect day to celebrate 3 beautiful years of life with my Benji-boo!  My 3 boys make my heart so full!

3 Day Weekend Fun

It's really no surprise that long weekends are my FAVORITE weekends.  I recently read the book "The Life Changing Magic Of Tidying Up" and had been whining about how impossible it is to clean the house with 2 busy boys around, so for my birthday, my mom gave me a day where she watched the boys on the weekend so I could purge our house!  I did my clothes a few weeks ago and it felt so good to get rid of things that did not "spark joy."  Of course, I then felt like I had nothing to wear to work and I've since done a lot of shopping, but it still felt amazing.  (And I'm not going to complain about more shopping!)  I took my mom up on her offer on Saturday.  Shortly after Ben left (Josh napped and they picked him up later), this arrived:

My cousins had outgrown their play set, so we decided to buy it from them as an early birthday present for Ben (& Josh, but he is a little young to appreciate it just yet.)  We got a great deal and they even delivered AND helped with set up.  Our backyard is completely fenced in so it was a little challenging getting the big piece back there, but they managed!

The final product was perfection!

Ben was all smiles when he saw it and he has been pretty obsessed with it ever since. 

It has been a great motivator to get him to do things. :)  We spent most of our weekend outside.  Ben went mini-golfing with Nana and Papa John on Saturday.  We celebrated our friend Claire's first birthday on Sunday.  

We ended out long weekend with a visit to Great-Grandma's house.

I'm still exhausted and really should be sleeping instead of blogging!  I'm so excited for Ben's 3rd birthday this weekend!  I cannot believe it has already been 3 years since we met this sweet boy!  Yet at the same time, I can hardly remember what life was like without him.  I think I slept more… ;)  Goodnight!