Ack!

I hate being sick. I don't do it well. Usually I just chalk it up to allergies and press on. But when you're running a 102 fever and it feels like you've swallowed a whole package of razor blades, it's hard to keep on keepin' on. All last week I was kind of feeling like I was trying to come down with something. Then Friday night, I couldn't sleep because I was hot, then I was freezing, hot, freezing. I figured I probably had a fever, and sure enough it was in the 101's. That is so unlike me to get a fever, so I knew I was getting something bad. Saturday the sore throat started and this morning it was so bad I ended up going to urgent care. My rapid strep test came back negative, but the FNP didn't believe it after taking a look at my throat so he went ahead and prescribed Penicillin to try to kick it out of me. Hopefully the meds will do their job quickly so I can begin to function like a human being again. This being sick thing is for the birds!

Bling Bling

I finally got my new wedding ring. I am so excited. My original wedding set just wasn't working for me anymore. About 8 months ago the stone broke off the engagement ring, the engagement and wedding bands had been soldered and come apart twice, and the wedding band was about 3 sizes too big. We figured it might be a good time to upgrade. I found a great little jewelry store in Mesa who bought my old set, and was able to set my original stone in my new ring. I decided on a 1 carat total weight 3 stone ring. I absolutely love it. And to top it off, I got a super smokin' deal on it. It was hard to get a good picture of it, so click on the picture to see an enlarged version. Yay for new bling!

Superstah!

Yesterday began as any other day would. Got up, got ready, got the boys up and got breakfast going. As Ben was sitting in his highchair eating his pancake, I noticed some lovely green goo in his right ear. Oh no, not again! So the decision was instantly made that we would be staying home from school and flying off to the doctor that morning. I really wish he would give us some kind of warning that his ear hurts before the darn thing ruptures! So later that morning we went to the doctor. Thankfully the left ear was clear, but of course the right eardrum was ruptured, hense the goo. So she prescribed oral antibiotics and ear drops and wants to see him back in a few weeks to take a look at the eardrum and make sure that it is clear without any scar tissue, which could affect his hearing.

So after the doctor, we ran in Walgreens to get the scrip filled. As we are waiting in line, Ben really turned on the charm for the rest of the people in line. He was smiling, doing the whole pretend shy thing. He was a celebrity! I had put him down and was letting him play with some hand baskets that were stacked up next to the pharmacy, and it was clear he was very aware of everyone watching him. He would move the handles around, and then look at everyone to make sure they were watching, and then flash them his sheepish little grin. They were all eating it up. It was really cute. A whole line of people who didn't even know each other were all talking to me, to Ben and to each other about Ben, and how cute he is. I guess he's just a little ray of sunshine that can bring everyone together. He's our little Superstah!

And He's Off

I know these posts about Ben's walking are probably getting annoying, but bear with me. I'm almost done with them. =) Today, Ben's walking took on a whole new dimension. He was walking all over the place! Not only that, but he was making very conscious decisions to walk. It was amazing. He seemed really excited to be walking around, like it finally clicked that maybe this wasn't such a bad idea after all. He was locking those knees every time I set him down. No Mr. Spaghetti Legs! He was letting go of things to take steps, he was changing direction, he was a walking machine! He hasn't been able to right himself after he falls down yet, but if you stand him back up, he's off. All I've got to say his Hallelujah and Praise the Lord! =)

Sleepy Pee Pee

Okay, so this is probably the most disgusting picture we have posted on our blog. But this story was just too funny not to share, not to mention we definitely needed to record this one for posterity! This morning at about 5:30 or so we heard Josh go into the bathroom, and then go back in his room. Nothing too out of the ordinary, actually we are stoked that he will go to the bathroom and put himself back to bed all by himself. Usually his path is lit by a night light, since the bathroom light is too bright for those little eyes just waking up. But this morning, there was no night light in the bathroom because the bulb burned out the other day. So instead of turning the light on, he just went potty in the dark. Apparently, he didn't notice that the toilet lid was down. We discovered this later in the morning. We were wondering why the house had a distinct aroma of urine, but hey, we've got two little kids and a dog, so it's not entirely uncommon to smell certain bodily fluids in our house, and everyone was dry, so whatever. After breakfast, Josh said something about there being something in his bathroom, and that he was going to go clean. He was playing with the broom at the time, so I thought that he was just making something up. After a minute or two I went to check on him, and found the large puddle on the toilet lid. Amazingly nothing had dripped onto the floor or anywhere else. I was a little impressed with that! So what have we learned today? (1) change the light bulb immediately!; and (2) leave the toilet lid up overnight in case Mr. Sleepy Pee Pee returns!

Walking: The Movie

We finally got Ben to allow us to take a short video of some steps. He seems to be getting more confident with letting go of things to try to take steps. He's just got to figure out how to slow down so he can keep his balance. We're so proud of him!

Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage

We had the most wonderful opportunity to attend what is probably the BEST marriage building seminar at our church this weekend. It was called "Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage". The speaker, Mark Gungor, is a pastor out of Green Bay, Wisconsin, and is so gifted in speaking on this topic. Oh, and did I mention he is absolutely hilarious. This seminar really helps you understand the opposite sex, which is probably the most effective step to making marriage all it can be! If you ever have a chance to watch his DVD's or see him speak, I would highly recommend it. It is definitely Christian based, but it is nowhere near preachy. I can guarantee you it is like nothing you have ever experienced before.

To top it all off, we were able to volunteer to help sell books, DVD's, etc. so we got into the conference for free, and our church even helped us out on babysitting. It doesn't hurt to be close friends with the director of the Family Life Ministry! Thank you, Jennifer, for providing us with this awesome opportunity to serve God through your ministry this weekend, and also for giving us the chance to attend this conference!

What a Cool Way to End the Day

Today ended up being a pretty cool day. At the end of the work day, my boss told me that he is taking tomorrow off, so I could have the day off too. Then he said he was also taking next Friday off too, so I could have that day off as well. Sweet! It's great working for a sole practitioner who can do those things on a whim and not have to worry about any office politics. I have been totally burned out over the last couple of weeks and have really needed a Mommy day, so praise God for providing me with two! So with my day off tomorrow, I am going to go shopping around for a new wedding ring, and try to find someone who will buy my old one. So after I got home, I started looking through my jewelry box to find my engagement ring (which broke about 8 months ago, so I haven't been able to wear it - hence the shopping for a new ring). I opened up one of the drawers and lo and behold I find a $100 bill that I had NO idea was in there. I don't even remember for sure where it came from. I believe it was from when I sold my 35 mm camera on Craigslist last year, but who knows. All I know is that was a very pleasant surprise to stumble upon today. I heart happy surprises!

Give me an E, Give me an H, Give me an L

What does that spell? Well, actually nothing. But those are a few of the letters Josh is learning how to write. He started doing this all on his own the other day in the car with his Magnadoodle. He was playing with the square shaped magnet and drew an L. He instantly recognized it as a letter, but couldn't think of what letter it was. So Andrew told him, and he kept making L's (at least that's how I understand it. I wasn't there, so honey, correct me if I'm wrong). This morning he was going at the Magnadoodle again, and tried to draw an E. He did a really good job, it just had a couple extra middle sticks. So I showed him how to do it and he kept writing E, E, E, E, and they were perfect little E's. So then I showed him how to make an H, and he was doing that really really well too, with only one demonstration.

He has been very interested in letters lately so we've been trying to work with him as much as possible. He tends to get frustrated easily if he doesn't know what letter he's looking at, so we're just taking it slow and letting him learn it at his own pace. He's doing so great. He'll probably be an early reader, just like Mommy and Daddy!

Walking Update

Since some of you have asked (and not at all because I'm completely obsessed about this issue - ha ha), I wanted to post a little update on Ben's walking progress. He's still going slow and steady and isn't totally excited about walking, but he's definitely getting a bit more confident on his feet. Last night was the most we have seen him walk yet. He took 11 steps before sitting down. Two other times last night he took 7 steps, and lots of other times he took 3-4 steps. If we can just put that all together, he's getting some good distance. Of course we tried to get video of these good confident steps he was taking, but as usual, as soon as the camera was on, the show was over. He's such a stinker! We'll keep trying. Over the last few days he has also started letting go of whatever he has pulled himself up on and has taken a few steps that way, which I think is huge forward progress. It takes a lot of courage to do that!

When we picked him up from school yesterday, one of the other little babies that is just about Ben's age, and from what we can tell, his best buddy, took about 20 steps across the room. It was really cool to see her doing so well, but at the same time a little frustrating. But they have been pretty much staying neck in neck in their progress, so maybe this just means bright things in our near future. It might also help now that Kaitlyn (his buddy) is walking, because it might motivate him a little more. Once he decides he WANTS to walk, he will be gone in a flash!

Wii!!!

We're always too darned responsible with our money. Bills, bills, bills, save, save, save. Last week, I got my first bonus at work, and it was sizable. Much bigger than I expected. I guess all my hard work is really paying off! So we decided to do something fun with a chunk of it, so we broke down and bought a Wii. I am not much of a gamer, but the Wii did sound like a lot of fun. So Andrew did some calling around on Saturday afternoon to see who had them in stock. These little buggers are hard to find, thanks to the marketing geniouses at Nintendo. He finally found one in stock at Best Buy after calling 3 other stores, so we jumped in the car and snatched it up.

This is a fun system, I must say. It came with a sports pack game, so we can play tennis, golf, bowling, baseball and boxing. Andrew and I played for a while after the kids when to bed on Saturday night. I beat him in bowling and baseball, and he beat me in tennis (barely!) and golf. It can actually be a pretty good workout. We were both sore the next day. One day we'll get some more games to play (Guitar Hero, anyone!). But we're having fun with what we've got for now. Maybe with the next bonus... =)

Let's Give Him a Hand

It's it funny how one day, these little people just plain can't do something, and then the next it's like a light switch has been flicked on and poof! instant ability. It's baffling. This morning, out of nowhere, Ben started clapping his hands. He has tried this before on a few occasions, just halfheartedly trying to throw us a bone and imitate us. But this morning, he climbed himself up on Josh's bed, sat down, and started clapping. It's such a cute little clumsy clap. Yay for learning how to do new stuff!

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

It's so funny to me how different these two boys are. When Josh had just turned one, and we were trying to get him to walk, he would go spaghetti legs on us every time we tried to set him down. Not once did he ever walk around holding onto our fingers. It was always "If I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it by myself." And eventually, he did. Ben has been a different story, completely. He takes a few steps on his own here and there, but really enjoys getting Mommy or Daddy's assistance in walking around. As soon as we set him down, assuming he is in the walking mood, he will stand strong on those little legs, and both arms will shoot up trying to find our fingers to grab onto so we can go for a little stroll. He sometimes can balance and get going really well just holding onto one hand. In reality, we are not doing much to help him. He just needs that little piece of security. We are the magic feather (thanks for the Dumbo reference, Dorrie!).

Last night he was doing really well and was taking very confident solo steps between Andrew and I, showing us his newest "forbidden treasure"... a drink coaster. Everyone together now.. Ooohhhh. Aaaahhhh. Every couple steps he would start to doubt himself and start to sit down, but then would change his mind and stand back up and keep going. He probably took about 5 or 6 steps at once.

He is definitely taking his time in learning how to walk. It just kind of goes along to the way his approach to life has been from day one... "Eh, I'll do it someday, but I'm in no hurry." But he is for sure getting there. I just need to remmeber not to try to push him. He'll get there. Until then, I'll enjoy our finger in hand strolls down the sidewalk.

Let the Weaning Begin!

Well, it's not happening exactly how I planned it, but I have officially begun weaning Ben from the breast. What I had wanted to do was eliminate his evening feeding first, leaving only morning and bedtime. But as I have previously posted, that didn't go over very well. So until this week I have plugged along at 3 nursings a day. Most mornings I am awoken by my baby's cries for milk at about 5:00. It sounds bad, but that's the time he's been trained to wake up to eat. But on Tuesday, he didn't wake up. So I decided to let him sleep and go about my morning routine. He didn't wake up until 6:00, which is when I would be getting him up anyway (he would always go back to sleep for a bit after nursing). So I decided to forego nursing that morning and see how we did. He didn't even seem to notice. Today is day 3 of not nursing him in the morning. I'm really excited about having this feeding knocked out (assuming we continue down this path). This morning I was even able to get up and exercise a little bit which I have been wanting to do for a long time, but when do I have the time to do that? I am just hoping that my body quickly adjusts my milk production. By the time we get home from work, I am, shall we say, more than ready to feed him! We'll see how long it takes to get him off of me completely. I'm not in any huge hurry, but, in the words of my friend Robin, I am also ready for my body's part in all of this to be over.

1st Birthday Portraits

We had Ben's 1st birthday portraits taken over the weekend. The kid is a natural! Click here to see them. We had them taken at Kiddie Kandids. They did such an awesome job... but then again, look at their subject! =)

Swiper, No Swiping!

Josh is a big fan of the shows played on Noggin. He actually requests to watch the channel by name... "I want to see on Noggin!" What's great is everything on this channel is completely age appropriate for him, so we have no problem letting him watch them. On the show Dora the Explorer, there is a character by the name of Swiper, who is a fox who likes to come around and cause trouble. To get him to stop, you have to say "Swiper, no swiping!" When Swiper has to stop swiping, he says "Ah, man!" and goes away. His part of the show can really only be described as a cameo. But for some reason, Josh REALLY doesn't like Swiper. Whenever Swiper shows up, Josh promptly turns off the TV and says he is all done watching, because he doesn't like Swiper. When we ask him why he doesn't like Swiper, he says it is because he says "Ah, man!" We have no idea why Swiper is so disliked, but we like that Josh sticks to his convictions!