7 months

7 months old:
-2 teeth now! cut those bad boys the same weekend he was sick.
-eating cheerios
-started scooting on his belly backwards...I think crawling is still a ways off, but showing interest.
-wearing 9-12 month clothes. despite being on the low side for weight he is still long.
-he is a binkie kid just like brooklyn was
-brooklyn is still far and away his FAVORITE person
-he has entered the "i only want mama to hold me" stage

the bummer in our lives at the moment is ben's constant pooping. that's right, pooping. he poops and wakes himself up every night at 2:30 am and then has the hardest time going back to sleep. he poops and wakes himself up from every nap. just lot's and lot's of dirty diapers in this neck of the woods.

sweet blue eyes

naked time

i LOVE having trucks around the house

benny and a very special friend for life, sienna

benny and another special lady, tatem (notice how he's holding her hand :)

Hooray for 7 months benny! you are such a love and we are all SO in love with you.

Ben: mystery solved

Went to the dr, benny has roseola. It's a virus that generally starts with a high fever, extreme fussiness and ends in a rash. Check, check, check. He's over the worst of it and the rash should clear up in 1-3 days. I'm so thankful this is all over. I will keep this all tucked away in the recesses of my mind the next time he get's sick and has a freakishly high fever. Brooklyn has always been similar- prone to really high temps when she's sick.

I have to add that I was floored with the level of care we got at the hospital, peds office and phone calls while we were home. A nurse from the ER called to check in on him, his pediatrician called to check in on him, as well as the ER dr that took care of him. wow.

Thank you all for your prayers and support. I feel blessed that this was the outcome. Mom, thanks for bringing a delicious dinner.

Now, I need some suggestions on how to make up for the 'non' fathers day we had for matt's birthday which is friday. My poor brain is only working at 50% right now ;)

Matt said he looks like a little old man

father's day fever 2011

Father's day was what we like to call "reality father's day". There was no golf, no breakfast in bed, no banners hanging from the wall saying "happy father's day", we didn't even have dinner. :( we ordered take out for lunch and then were so tired by dinner we just ate dessert. yup, you heard me, we had strawberry shortcake followed by pita chips and hummus.

benny boy asleep on mama sat night

Ben got a fever on friday and by satruday night at 8pm it was 104.3. ugh. we did what we were told and medicated and monitored him. by sunday afternoon the fever broke and seemed to be in great spirits, but woke up early yesterday morning with a raging fever of 105 again. I gave him motrin and he was just writhing in discomfort and checked his temp again at 4 after he slept for a few minutes on my chest and it had barely gone down...so packed him up and headed to the ER. Thank God all the tests came back normal and they were able to re-hydrate him and get his fever gone completley. Not a fun day, but walked away feeling so thankful for our health. Seeing my baby in a hospital gown hooked up to an IV has to be one of the single most sobering moments of my life.

So he woke up this morning with a rash all over his back and neck, probably from the high temps; but his fever has remained "almost" gone for 24 hours. We're going to see his ped at 3pm today. I'll update more then. I have been walking around with a knot in my stomach. It just hurts to see them hurt. you know? They are so helpless and I would give anything to take that pain and discomfort from him.

I started to cry to myself (probably a little pity, mixed with a little relaxation finally) this morning while doing the dishes. I've just felt so unsettled and such a lack of peace. I looked at my phone to see what the date was...and it hit me. It's the 21st, the 22nd is the date we found out all the horrible stuff with luke (2 days before matt's 30th birthday). There is something hard wired in me that always feels "unsettled" on this day as it is.

my little big dancer

My little girl is getting so BIG. She had her first dance class yesterday and LOVED it. Despite the mood she was in when we first got there, she got into it quickly enough. There were only 3 other girls, so it was lot's of individual attention. Ben was fantastic, he just sat in his car seat and watched, wide eyed, for the entire thing.

Brooklyn would periodically stop the class and say "hey, guys! watch me!!" I just snickered because that is totally who she is. She loves to have people's undivided attention, loves being in the center of things. She also talks NON stop most of the time these days. The greatest piece of advice I was given was to never tell her to stop talking or show annoyance with it, as that is the quickest way to squelch her spirit. Let's face it, girls like to talk. I know that first hand :) So I have been working very hard at that.

When we got home from all our activities yesterday Ben needed to nurse and Brooklyn had to go potty. So, I'm on the couch nursing and she's in the bathroom. I hear her say "this kid is driving me crazy". I knew exactly what that meant. She was referencing the book "I'll love you forever, like you for always" where the 2 year old unravels all the tp and his mom yells "this kid is driving me crazy". Ugh. Then she says "nothing mom, I just made a mess". I go back to find the entire roll of tp wadded up on the floor. Oh well. So, we are then in the hall getting her clothes back on for nap time when she turns around, lifts ben off the floor by the neck as high as she can and then drops him, his head slams down against the wall. I'm only sharing this because I want to remember these moments in addition to the great ones. It's not all play dates and dance classes. It's me, by myself all day long raising HUMAN BEINGS. How did I qualify for that job?? I wish I could say I handled the incident with complete grace and proper discipline, but that would be a lie. I do know she will not do that again, I just wish discipline in situations like that didn't hurt me more than her.

On a lighter note, we have really nice neighbors across the street. They have two teenage daughters, McKenzie and Alyssa. Brooklyn loves McKenzie, but she thinks her name is miss kenzie. So funny. She also doesn't understand that they live across the street. When we pull up or she see's them pull up she says "hey, those guys are back!" Never a dull moment. ever.

teething bites

No, no teeth yet, but we are definitely teething. I then Benny had a little bug last week too, so he has been cranky and sleeping terribly this past week. I'm giving him a break since we just moved and that's a lot of change for such a little guy :) Everything is going in the mouth, runny nose, fever (which may or may not be from teeth). Ugh, I forgot how much teething stinks. Brooklyn cut her first tooth at 4 months, so benny boo is at a totally different stage, he's much more alert then she was. So he can show me how miserable he is :(

So, I have to write this down so I don't forget. Friday we had a guy come out to clean our air ducts. He had a thick russian accent and couldn't have been older than 22. Brooklyn was terrified of him at first, but eventually warmed up and talked his ear off. So, 2 year old girl who just talks in stream of consciousness + russian boy who has heavy accent = hysterical. She would tell him something like "hey, guy, can you say hi to my baby brudder". He would just stare at her and then say something like "I go to garage where duct is located" (in heavy russian accent) so she would repeat herself again, just louder :) It was hysterical. I was laughing the entire time. Until....she walks out of her room where she had stripped down to her birthday suit but put a big head band with a bow on. She walks right up to me and in that little girly voice of hers says "can I go outside for a couple minutes?" pointing to the garage where the guy was working. Ha! That's my girl.

Having a front and back yard has been amazing thus far. It's a shame we have neighbors that make us keep our clothes on, if not for them, she'd be naked ALL the time!

this girl and her personality :)

this was one of my only benny smiles :(

had to get a shot of this little number hand picked. note the detail of the sparkly dog purse and fake bouquet of flowers

Remi & Tay came to see the new house

I was watching my girlfriends daughter, emily, and she and B had a blast raking the yard with gram

we made s'mores friday night

they were a hit!

getting settled

I have been attempting to get on here for an update all week. No such luck. In fact, brooklyn is sitting in front of the tv vegging out while I write this (tisk, tisk).

We are officially all moved in, almost all unpacked, and this coming weekend is going to be dedicated to organizing, hanging curtains, deep cleaning, etc.

Sleeping has been touch and go since the move. Ben has had a really difficult time adjusting, and yesterday woke up with a 101 fever. Poor little bugger.

Matt has his final class for the course he's in right now tonight, and we will all be able to exhale. I am truly in awe of his ability to multi task. He has literally been coming home from work, helping me with the kids and dinner from the moment he walks in or doing something with the house that needs to be done, then spends some time with me, then studies till bed time. Then gets up goes to work and does it all over again. The fact that he moved us while at the end of this class is beyond me. Matt, you are amazing and I am so proud to call you MINE. He has the whole month of August off, so that is the carrot dangling in front of both of us. 

Daddy and B having a carpet picnic

Benny playing around

Benny standing in his crib!

We've had a few days of sun, so windows down, music cranked!

All four of us in a picture!! I haven't gotten nearly enough of these

Brooklyn helping tete blow out her candles

Ben wanted a bite of dessert SOOO bad

BBQ in our back yard- Brae, Ben, Alexis & Brooklyn (pure chaos :)

My friend Erin took this one at her house and it is my FAV pic of benny boy!! Look at that round little face.



stats

Ben is 6 months old! Half a year...where did that go?!Length: 27 1/2 inches long 85%
Weight: 16lb 8 oz  30%
Head circumference: 90% (he is a feenstra ;)
So, looks like he didn't gain much weight, it all went to his length! The dr said he looks great, so not to worry about the weight.

He is now officially sitting up. Eating solids galore. He has a pension for sweet potato and apple, but will eat anything. So far I've made broccoli, peas, plums, carrot, sweet potato, squash, apple and banana. He has the best laugh, it's like a squeaky wheeze. It makes me laugh every time he does. He continues to be a very easy going, happy little boy. He loves to grab my face with both his hands and give big open mouth kisses. He is working on holding the sippy cup, still no bottle, but is already showing less and less interest in nursing since we started the solids. Sleeping is going so much better. He goes down between 7-7:30 and doesn't wake up to nurse until 3-4am.

Brooklyn is 2 yrs and 9 months...3 months shy of THREE! Wowza's.

She can spell her name, can count to 30, can identify every letter in the alphabet (except Q & R), loves to tell people that her birthday is August 28th.

Funny brooklynism: we went to a birthday party last sunday. There were 5 or so little girls her age, but she didn't know any of them...at first. She walked right up to all of them and introduced herself "hi, my name's brooklyn, I'm 2 1/2". There is really nothing funnier then watching 2 year old "getting to know each other". There is no easing into conversation, ice breakers or hand shakes. It's a declaration of name, age, perhaps identification of a sibling or parent and then jumping right into a game of some sort. My child is bossy. She was ordering all the other kids around, telling them what they were in the make believe game i.e. pirates, princess, etc.

She disappeared into the house and emerged about 5 minutes later- in an entirely different outfit. She had discovered Paytons (the 5 year old of the house we were at) dress up box. She came charging through the back door in a full on leotard/tutu (on backwards so that both nipples were exposed) and a pair of high heels. I wish I had Matt's face on video. He was dying! It was absolutely priceless. She comes out and declares at the top of her lungs "I look so good!"

As we drove home from the party I could see matt was still thinking about it. He said very casually "no one elses' kid had a wardrobe change, she's like lady gaga". I have since laughed about 80x over that.

Brooklyn memorized her first bible verse, Matthew 7:7. Very proud of herself.

Lot's more updates to come! I have been without a computer since Friday, so soon!! We are officially in our new house though :)