Recent pictures and videos that make me smile

Rocker


Afro


Happy screaming


More screaming


Big smile for Mom. Also, some screaming.


Chomping





Wednesday night, 3/24/2010 about 6pm. First time eating carrots.




Same night, about 3 bites after the previous video ended. Not even kidding. This kid cracks me up!

Adventures on the Bus

Three early teen-aged boys with shaggy hair and skateboards get on the bus just after I sit down in the second row.

I hear one of them yell, "Dude, stop cursing. We're on the bus now. Nobody on here wants to hear that."

I roll my eyes as the first two pass me, making a bee-line for the back row, I'm sure. Isn't that where all the cool people sit? Why am I not sitting on the back row?

"Grandpa Young? Hey, Grandpa, it's me!"

The third boy of the group is talking to the grandpa on the row in front of me. Grandpa has hearing aids in both ears.

The boy leans closer and speaks louder. "Grandpa, it's me. I'm Cody's son."

He gets a puzzled stare back. Grandpa is trying really hard to remember. "Cody?... Cody... oh, Cody's son!" The words come out slow like he is trying to remember a foreign language.

"Yeah, Cody's son." There is a pause. Grandpa mumbles something neither his grandson or I can understand. The boy kindly gives a chuckle anyway. Another pause. "Hey, it's good to see you Grandpa!" The kid smiles a really beautiful smile, pats Grandpa's shoulder and takes off for his friends while Grandpa looks after him.

"Dude, my Grandpa's on this bus!" he yells, and he sounds sincerely excited.



Is it weird that this exchange made me feel really good inside? Blame it on the hormones (I blame a lot of things on hormones these days), but I almost teared up. I think that boy was more genuine in those 5 or so lines he exchanged with his Grandpa than most of us are in a day. Patting his Grandpa on the shoulder? What teenage boy does that? It was so grown up.

I hope that Bennett will love his Grandparents like that. I also kind of hope that if he bumped into his Grandpa on a bus one day, he would sit by him, too. But hey, let's not get to ambitious.

Rough Housing with Dad

Spring break has officially started here and we are in HEAVEN. Yesterday we spent the whole day together (all 3 of us!) and had loads of fun playing with Bennett. It just cracks me up the things he thinks are funny. He was loving this game with Dad.



Thank heaven for spring break.
Also, as a side note, we are all cured from our various ills. Hurrah.

Help me!

Bennett is like a foreign baby to me the past few days.

He hates his normal naps. He used to take 3 naps a day- one that was almost 2 hours, one that was about 1 1/2 hours, and one that was an hour. Then he got sick. And that could be the problem, I don't know.

He usually goes down for naps just fine. Maybe a little whimper because he likes being held (big surprise) but nothing terrible. Now he hates going down for naps. He SCREAMS!! He is SO tired, he will just lay there and alternate screaming with moaning (all with his eyes shut- he is so tired!) for about 5 or 6 minutes until he falls asleep. What the heck?! Then he will sleep for like 30 minutes (if I'm lucky) and be awake again (worst nap ever. I would almost rather he didn't nap than take such short ones).

If he doesn't do the screaming thing, he will sometimes just lay there and fuss and be cranky until I finally just guess that maybe he doesn't need 3 naps after all and I go get him after like 30 minutes. Then he is perfectly happy to be awake.

So I don't know if he needs 3 naps or 2. Or 4?! He is just confusing me so bad right now. And it could be because he is sick that he is extra irritable, and maybe he will go back to normal. He has been mostly better from his cold yesterday and today, though, and this is when the screaming has really kicked into full gear. I don't know. He sleeps from about 7:30 or 8pm to about 6:45 or 7:15 am, if that helps. For all you moms out there, how many naps was your baby taking at 5 1/2 months? How long were they? Did you have any issues going from 3 naps to 2? Did you ever feel like a crazy person? Ha. Please help me!

Anyway, any ideas you have would be helpful.

Look at him when he's happy! Such a sweetie!

Happy 5 month birthday, Bennett!

So Bennett's birthday was really last Sunday, so I'm almost a week late posting. But I have good cause. Bennett celebrated his 5 month birthday by getting his first cold! BOO. He started coughing on Wednesday and when he woke up Thursday morning, I could tell he had a cold. It has been a sad few days around here--today being the worst by far. He is really congested and has a nasty hacking cough (but luckily no wheezing and his chest doesn't fall with his breaths and he doesn't have a fever, so we've been able to avoid actually visiting the doctor). It has been breaking my heart to listen to him cough all day and even all night! It doesn't seem to bother him as much as it does me, though. For the most part, he has been his normal self. And happily, he seems to have learned to breathe through his mouth at some point between our 911 call and now! Go Bennett!

I celebrated Bennett's 5 month birthday by making an appointment to get his picture taken (which I had to cancel because he got sick), and committing myself to decorate his room this week. I am ashamed to say he's been living with the good ole white walls since birth! Well, NO MORE! We finished putting everything together tonight and I really like the way it turned out.

Here are some before and afters! Enjoy!

Before:

blah........

After:

What a transformation, right? And I'm proud to say that the total cost for all the decorating was under $20. Yeah, go me. I still have a couple more things I want to do, but this might be where I rest for a few days. We'll see.

Also, I'm looking at how the pictures uploaded on here, and some of the things (one of the poms and two of the letters on the pennant banner) look pink! They are NOT pink. Bennett is a boy. No pink for his little boy room. At least not in my house!

Bennett loved the new additions. He kept reaching for all of them wanting to touch them. As I walked toward Justin getting ready to feed Bennett, Justin tapped him with the measuring tape and he just started going nuts. It was so funny. You'll like this one. Swear.