Oct 26, 2009





We're home! We're exhausted! We spent the last couple of days at the cottage and had such a nice time. Ben did great! He loved playing with Jackson and Blake. For some reason Ben loved tackling Jackson. He thought this was very funny! We caught the end of one tackle. Maybe he will play football after all!

Ben was very adventurous. Brian and I quickly established a hand off system. One of us had a complete set of eyes on Ben at all times that he was not in the playpen. The only time he was in the playpen was when he was sleeping. He slept great, too, which was nice. We were stuck inside most of Saturday with lots of wind and HUGE waves! Of course it cleared up on Sunday and we were able to get out and go for a walk. I was surprised that Ben did so well in the backpack. He wasn't so sure about it last time I tried it, but this time just loved watching Abby chase the ball and his cousins play around him. Brian carried him in the pack and Ben just pointed at everything and jabbered away in his ear. So cute!

Tonight we had another first. I fed Ben his first Spaghettios! He LOVED them! He also took the reigns and wanted to feed himself with the spoon! I was able to catch it on camera. He's taken food off the spoon and off the tray to feed himself very well, but tonight he was actually going through the motions of feeding himself with the spoon! He was determined to do this! Right after I turned the camera off he flung a big spoonful right into his eye and thought that was hysterical! We got a little messy and badly needed a bath following dinner tonight!

Oct 23, 2009

Baby needs a new pair of shoes!

Yup, Ben got his first pair of shoes. He wasn't cooperating for the camera, but you can sort of see them. He doesn't seem to mind them. He doesn't try to take them off or play with them, he was too interested in the box. For the first several hours he was acting like they were inhibiting him any use of his legs! It was so funny, his legs were just limp and he was dragging them everywhere!

I figure he better have some good shoes since we are leaving for the brisk north of Michigan in just a few short hours! I'm hoping to do some walks of the lovely fall colors up there! We are leaving for a couple nights with my sister, her 3 kids, and my best friend, her hubby and their 11month old Jackson. With all these kids around I'm not expecting much relaxation time! Count them, that's 5 kids under the age of 6! We're crazy. Brian and I have also been training so we're prepared for chasing our little Ben all over the place. You know how he likes to explore and the cottage is NOT child proof. So we're limbered up and ready!

Ben is doing great! We're holding steady at 7 teeth. He has gotten very quick in his crawling moves. He has slept through the night for the last three nights IN A ROW! He is LOVING cuddle time with Abby and I have to catch it on video. This morning he just crawled up to her and buried his face in her fur and laughed and laughed!

We're good but continue to be very busy with all these travels and visitors. I think things may slow down sometime in February!

Hope to get some cute pictures and videos this weekend of all those kiddos!

Oct 12, 2009

Lots of Grandparents!

10 Months Old ALREADY!

As usual, we have had a busy couple of weeks. Two weekends ago we spent the night at my parents house. We had such a nice visit. Other than Ben is starting to have a real problem sleeping at a different place. And by "have trouble" I mean he screamed all night long. In general, he's still a good sleeper. He does wake up every couple nights or so, usually just once, and it gets worse depending on what kind of tooth he has coming. But this was just an all out scream of terror. Likely because he had no idea where he was. Luckily my parents get all the movie channels and I ended up just sitting in the living room watching Armageddon.


I'm attaching a video of my niece Lianna and her first duet with my Grandfather. As you may remember, my Grandpa is quite the piano player. He played for our first dance at our wedding. Now he's helping Lianna learn the art. It was so precious, I couldn't help but add it.

We got back Sunday. Work work work. Then Wednesday night the Bishops arrived. We jumped right in and had a great time. I don't think they are used to having a baby around! The old saying "Sleep when the baby sleeps!" They needed to practice that a bit throughout the weekend. When Ben napped, the Bishops napped. We needed the rest, though! We did quite a bit of shopping, including a trip to Ikea (way to hang in there Barry!), the mall.

Sunday we headed to the pumpkin patch. We weren't quite sure what to expect, but man was it fun! We picked one based on the fact that it had pig races. Brian really wanted to see the pig races. There was a huge crowd and they needed to pick a person from the crowd to represent each pig. Who was the third person picked? Well Grandma Karen, of course! Her pig's name was Oprah. Hence you can hear her scream "Go Oprah" throughout the video. Oprah came in second, but she was first in our hearts.

Ben did great. He seemed a little sleepy at first and I was worried we wouldn't make it. He rested in the stroller for the first bit then warmed up. Which was hard since it was our coldest day yet. He clapped at the pig races, climbed all over the pumpkins, and was mesmerized by all the displays. He was a trooper.

Other accomplishments? He now knows how to make the football touchdown gesture! It's so cute. He's getting really good at it. He now waves hello and goodbye. And we swear he's saying bye bye appropriately more and more. He's also working on tooth #7, walking like a champ up and down furniture. He also reaches out between pieces which sometimes ends up sort of messy. We're getting more and more bumps and bruises.

Enjoy these videos and pictures. We've had a lot of fun. I'm going to bed now!

Oct 2, 2009

Ben is busy!

Ben has been very busy lately. He is discovering his environment more and more. One thing I don't understand, though. He can have any toy he wants, yet the only interests he has are in cords, this computer (we're taking to doing our business on the internet during nap time), and the dog bowls. Poor Abby! You can see in this video her spirit is broken even more. The majority of day light hours her water bowl is at counter level. Meal time hasn't been affected because as anyone who knows Abby is aware of, she can eat all her meal in 25seconds flat!

Ben has also taken a particular interest in opening and closing cupboards. We are in the process of installing child proof latches. I think I'll leave the tupperware cupboard alone because it is too cute to watch him empty that thing out.

Updates: Ben is now crawling on hands and knees 100% of the time. I didn't think he would, but here we go. It's so cute! He's standing with more and more confidence and is even trying to reach outside his base of support and take a step between objects. We have had a predicament with sitting up in bed. He gets himself sitting up in the corner of his crib and is so tired he gets stuck there. He's still a wild child when he sleeps, he's just all over the place, and before we know it, he's stuck in the corner again. Aside from that he's still a good sleeper. Unless a tooth is breaking through he's still going about 10hours at night and one to two good naps a day. Can't complain, really!

Teeth: he's working on his 2nd front tooth right now. It's blanching under the surface nicely, so any day now. This will be tooth #7 that we can see.

Meal time: Ben's eating more and more solid food. He prefers feeding himself! He's still addicted to Puffs! We're also trying banana's and other soft fruit. He will eat cereal and fruit but any vegetable is becoming a challenge. Unless there's squash or sweet potatoes mixed in there I can forget it! He LOVES drinking from his sippy cups. Very independent!

Family: Ben and I spent last weekend re doing my sister's kitchen. We are quite the do-it-yourselfers! We also did this with four children at our heals most of the weekend! I'm pretty proud of us.

We are leaving either tonight or tomorrow morning for Kalamazoo. Brian is actually going on this one so we'll leave when he's available. My mother hasn't seen Ben in quite a while (Dad was here for the zoo trip) and is about to be very busy with all her performances so we're going to give her a baby fix!

We're back on Sunday, then on Wednesday Ben will get to see his other Grandparents! Karen and Barry are on their way for the following weekend to get their baby fix!

So, lot's of family which is just how we like it!

Hope all is well!

Hailey Slideshow

Slideshow for you!