Playtime for little boys and parents

Benjamin has been moving around all over the place when he decides he wants to travel, but when I put him down for some sitting play time he's been so cute!  I HUGE thank you goes out to my college roommates who got him a bus with some Fisher-Price Little People building blocks.  He mainly just trys to eat them but he does like to put his hand in the bus and swirl them around to hear the loud sounds.  Joe's glad that he's already liking building blocks. :)

On a separate note, Joe and I got to go to a good friends' wedding yesterday and Ben got to spend some time with his grandparents while we went to the reception last night.  We had such a wonderful time!  The place was beautiful, the food was unique and fun, and most of all, we got to be with some great friends. 
It was liberating to know that Ben was taken care of, I was with the man I love, I felt good and I got to dance!

Friday morning fun...
Benjamin looked up from his playing to make some funny noises between laughing and sneezing.  Then he added a little singing. :)

Creepy Crawling

We have forward motion!  Benjamin is creeping all over the living room now.  I can't leave him alone on the floor for more than a few minutes at a time because I"m always unsure of how far he'll get.  We switched out the coffee table for the plush ottoman but there's still plenty of hard things for him to head butt.  He often concentrates harder on getting moving than how close he is to something :)

Ben and I got to spend a week with my parents and it was wonderful.  It's great to have so much help around all the time!  I walk in the door and hand him over.  It was also great to see so many friends and extended family as well.  I have a couple fabulous friends who are a step ahead of me in the mommy game and it was such a strengthening grace I was able to receive to simply be around them and witness their lives.  It still cracks me up to think back to our high school days and contrast that to our lives now.  It takes such humility and confidence to be a mother and I'm in awe of women who do it well, I hope I'm on that path.

Peas mom, no more?

To continue with entertaining videos...

Ben tried peas a few weeks ago and sadly was not thrilled by the idea.

Happy Benjamin

Dad time

never know where he'll roll

Benjamin has been up to some fun stuff.  He's getting more mobile so the house is going to be getting some changes soon- padding on the fireplace, a padded toybox instead of the coffee table, etc.  He mobility comes mainly from just rolling and pivoting but we're starting to see signs of crawling.  He's started to pull his knees up to push his tush in the air :)

The last few Saturdays I've been busy with different things that have pulled me out of the house for extended periods of time- bridal shower, baby shower, lunch with a friend, and this Saturday is the Behold Conference.  Joe's been able to have some time alone with Benjamin.  It's so nice to be able to leave the house and do something without carting Ben and his stuff along and to know that he's having good bonding time with Dad. 

the list of foods we
like is getting longer!

I head to my parents' house on Sunday with Benjamin to spend the week there.  I haven't seen them since Christmas so I'm excited to get some time there!  I think I'll also get some time with the grandparents' up north, high school friends and more.

Gotta run to Moms and Tots at church...  I'll leave you with a quote from my morning -

Cat in the Hat: "Some birds like to eat seeds like a soup, then they carry them far away in their poop."

New day, new food...

Last week I froze a bunch of different puree baby foods.  Among them were carrots, sweet potatoes, pears, green beans and pumpkin.  Ben's a big fan of the pears, sweet potatoes and now prunes.  He pretty much gagged on the peas ha ha.  He's not a big fan.  I tabled that taste to try again later. 

It's very convienent to have my little ice cubes of food in the freezer to just heat in the microwave and stir.  It's worth several hours in the kitchen to have them on hand for the next month or so as we keep trying new things.

It's funny, as soon as you get past one phase you're onto another. :)

Doing his own thing...

 What could be more fun than tooling around the kitchen blowing raspberries?

Blizzard of 2011

I Looooove snow!  It's a good thing because we had tons yesterday evening. 
Overall it was pretty exciting but for a couple of nervous moments because of the thundersnow... yeah, thundersnow.  It was really crazy, there was a brilliant flash of lightning and then thunder that seemed more like a small eathquake that just kept going, meanwhile the snowfall would increase.  I knew that as long as we had power everything would be ok.  Joe took the opportunity to brew some beer and I chilled out.  Both of us shovelled today.

Blizzard of 2011

Resolution check

I know that it's as cliche as possible but I did it anyway.  I vowed New Year's Eve to lose weight in the new year.  This is important to me more this year than any other because of the, ahem, baby weight.  It's funny that while I was pregnant I gave myself the green light to eat just about anything.  I tried to make sure that I didn't get too sick with morning sickness by snacking almost constantly for the first 3 months.  Then there were the chocolate milkshakes and the many potatoes that I downed.  I kept thinking that I would have to work off baby weight anyway so why not have some fun while no one could tell if it was me or baby...  any other mothers feel that?!?

So I've worked very hard this month to keep my calorie count in check and ban all sweets from the house.  I'm trying to find little tricks here and there that help me stay on track.  (Like sugarfree gum and diet hot chocolate in place of desserts.)  I think the biggest thing to help me though this time has been Joe's desire to eat more healthy.  I feel like it's given me license to really try new healthy reicipes and habits.  Oh and I try to get some exercise in at least every other day in the form of workout tapes, 8 minute abs and pilates.

Progress so far... a couple of dress sizes I think.  About 10 lbs left til I get to prebaby weight.  Wahoo!!!  I'm slowly being able to wear more of my clothes but there's still many that I'm just not there yet.

You learn something new every...

For Benjamin lately he's been doing something new about once a week.  In the past few he's figured out how to roll over onto his tummy and sit up with a little assistance.  He ate some rice cereal for the first time last night and looks like he'll be an eating champ.  Also he has 2 new bottom front teeth!  No more chewing on mom's fingers in church.
It's funny how much babies change in the first 6 weeks or so as they change from newborn to infant.  I feel like Ben's look has stayed similar lately but he's just proportionally getting bigger or doing new things.  I watched some video's of his first week at home lately and couldn't believe how little he was... or how many forehead wrinkles he had!

We had some great time with friends and family this weekend watching the Illinois basketball game the Bears game.  Joe's started his new class for the semester and I have gone back to running the CCD program at church.  Just when I thought I was out of it... :)  it was strange but almost comforting to be walking the halls of the school again making sure that all the teachers had what they needed and that the kids were able to behave themselves.  There's many days where I wonder how I did all that I did at work for those 5 years.

Here's a peek at our first try with some really liquidy rice cereal on spoon.  I'll try to get the video working...