Another week...

It has been awhile since I've posted anything. We've been busy but not with much that is too exciting. Bennett seems to be enjoying his summer at Grandma's house so far. I think he gets plenty of attention which he loves! And, I bet I can be safe to say that they are enjoying him and don't mind giving him all the attention either.

On Thursday Bennett & I had our first real "play date" (mommy play-date). We met up with my friends from grade school Melissa & Beth at a park in Waconia. All 3 of us were pregnant at the same time which was really weird since we were all really good friends back in the day. Melissa had Brynn who is alittle over 7 months, Beth had Kensley who is 6 months and Bennett is 4 1/2 months. And, guess who is the biggest baby of the 3! Yep, Bennett has those two girls beat in height & weight. I guess since he's a boy it's maybe ok. I can't wait till these kids are older so that we can actually play with them instead of just watching the other kids who were along play.

Here are a few pictures from last week. Mike is teaching him early. Bennett actually likes "typing" and

watching us type.

Bennett's new pj's - my little Shark Boy. The pj's say Ferociously Cute!

We are still working on the sitting. He is really getting the hang of it.

Here is a picture sequence of him practicing.

Pictures Only

The front end is very smashed but somehow the back is still in tack. A witness said that Josh was air born for about 20 feet and at some point during that was flipping.

Inside shot with the airbags deployed.

Bennett doing his favorite thing lately - sticking out his tongue!

Bennett is "sitting" ( I swear he's going to be sitting before rolling over. He has rolled but only a few times and that was over a week ago already)

Bennett loves stroller rides. Here is a before and after picture of every stroller ride! If he's very fussy or crying guess what we do...

Josh's Accident

Some of you already know - some of you probably don't... Josh was in an accident tonight on his way home from baseball practice. Thank God he is ok! He was on our road coming around the first curve when I guess the strong winds kinda pushed the back end of the Tahoe into the gravel on the side of the road, causing him to lose control. Then he went down in to a steep ditch and back up to someones driveway where he bottomed out which sent him to flip end over end and he then landed back on the tires. He said he tried to get the door opened and get out but it was smashed & stuck. There were people on the scene right away that called 911. He was taken in just for observation & to be checked out. Amazingly all he has wrong is a small scratch on his face!!! The seat belt & airbag probably saved his life. The vehicle is totaled but it's only a car. We joked that mom needed a new one anyways - now she'll probably get some insurance money to go do that :-) Now, I was driving home from work and when I drove past the road, I happened to see cop lights & a tow truck and a green vehicle on the truck. I thought right away that almost looked like the Tahoe but figured no so kept driving. But seconds later I decided to turn around just to be sure and sure enough... I freaked out! I could see the car and how bad it looked & knew that Josh drives that. I immediately drove over to moms when Laura told me he was ok. That was the longest two mile drive of my life though! So let's all say it - THANK YOU GOD! And let this be a reminder to everyone to wear your seat belt at all times. Josh only had a 6 mile drive and was less than two miles from home.

Latest & Greatest

Last week was busy busy busy. To continue from my last post - Wednesday Bennett was off to Shirley's, Thursday back to Christina's and then Friday with me. Friday morning we went with my mom and David to Mankato for Laura's college graduation. It is so hard to believe that she has 4 years of school in already and is done at Bethany - only 2-3 years to go! Bennett was very good the entire day! Saturday night Laura and I went to a new Mexican restaurant in Waconia which was very good. We were supposed to "share" a Strawberry Margarita but apparently I had alittle more than I should have. Laura didn't have her half! Too much tequila and the fact that I hadn't had any alcohol since Bennett... I was sleepy :-) Anyways, it was fun and it's great to have her back home for the summer. David is also home already and has his first year of carpentry done too! Then today Mike & I did a bunch of yard work and I got my garden & one of the flower beds planted.

Laura and her boyfriend Chris after her Graduation

New things for Bennett this week: he has started eating rice cereal! We have done this about 4 nights now and he doesn't do too bad. It doesn't work too well though if he is really hungry because all he wants then is his bottle and he gets very crabby that we aren't giving it to him. I think sometime this week I'm going to try mixing some baby fruit in with the rice to see if he'll like that any better.

He just chillin' out and watching TV in this pic - he looks so relaxed!

Also, he was giggling up a storm tonight which was so funny I had tears in my eyes. I always give Bennett kisses on the lips and say "Muwah" over and over again. He likes it when our lips smack. Anyways, we were doing this tonight and one time he missed my lips and got my nose instead. He had my whole nose in him mouth so I started laughing. And he then started laughing and giggling too which made me laugh even more which made him giggle even more and so on. So it was kinda gross that he had my nose in his mouth but it was soooo funny and it was the first time that we heard him giggle and laugh like that. We got part of it on video but missed the main parts. I don't know how to work the video camera yet to put it on the computer but I'll try to remember to post it later this week.

4 Months Old

We have had a very busy week so far. Yesterday Bennett was watched by Christina & Chris. From what I heard it went well. (Hopefully since he's back with them on Thursday). I wonder what Bennett & Gabriel think of each other...? 4 Months Old Today! I had the day off of work since I had to take him in for his 4 month check-up. What a big boy. He weighed in at 16 lbs 6 oz!!! I was guessing somewhere in the 15 lb. range so was quite surprised to see just how big he really is. Weight he came in at the 90% tile and length of 25 1/2 inches which puts him at the 75% tile. At his two month check he weighed 13.9 so he defiantly is growing. He is very healthy but does have a mild cause of eczema which stinks so we have to start using Eucerin Cream. But other than that he had a good report. Oh, and he also needed shots today too which he didn't like but they went much much better than his two-month shots. From here we ran over to Target to get him the cream and some rice cereal cause we can now start him on that at any time. He was very crabby tonight (probably cause of the shots) so we didn't get a chance to test this out tonight though. Then from Target we went to Mayer for the grade school Play Day to watch Kristen do a few events. Made me realize that in 5-6 years I'll be there watching Bennett. I have mixed emotions about this but we won't get in to that now. Then from Mayer we came home for just about and hour and then went w/ my mom to Mankato to pick up Laura from school for the night. The main reason that I went with was so that Bennett could get a good nap in the car since he was having problems taking a nap when we got home from Mayer even though I knew he was very very tired. So anyways long day so hopefully he/we get some good sleep tonight and that he is a good boy for Shirley tomorrow.

Happy Mothers Day

Mother's Day last year, I bought my mom a DQ cake that said Happy Mother's Day Grandma and told them that I was expecting. My how things change... So today we first meet up with Mike's Mom and Step-dad, sister Sarah, Devon & fiance Tony for a mid-day lunch at AppleBee's. We haven't all been together like this for a few months so it was nice for them to see Bennett again. Then after that we headed over to my mom's for alittle bit to deliver the picture of Bennett to her. Also, like cousin Gabriel, Bennett also had kinda a big day today and a nice added touch to my Mother's Day. He too is learning to roll over and was very close a few times this afternoon but did roll once tonight. It's so fun watching him learn all these new things all of a sudden! Gabriel is 6 weeks old and Bennett will be 4 months old (17 weeks) this week. I really think that the main reason Bennett is just learning to do these things is cause he is such a chunk and has waaaay more weight to roll and a big head to lift up. :-) Bennett will actually get to "play" with Gabriel a few times this week since Christina will be babysitting Bennett since our normal babysitter is on vacation this week. It should be interesting - good luck Christina!

Latest happenings...

Monday - In the morning our babysitter Emily called and said that their little boy Levi had just thrown up. Not a great way to start my Monday. So, not knowing what to do I decided to call Aunt Shirley just to see if she was by any chance not working. And wouldn't you know it, she was home for the day. And not only her but Amy and Evan were home from WI visiting for a few days!!! So, Bennett went over there for the day and I guess it went ok - alittle out of his nor but he did alright. And, it was GREAT to see Amy & Evan and was a very nice surprise for my day. Friday - Mike left to go fishing with a group of 7 friends of his at a lake up by Alex. They left Friday evening and are camping outside in tents for the night. Then the plan is to get up early, fish all day and come home Saturday night. Saturday - Well today Bennett and I went to Chaska to pick up a name plaque that I had ordered for him, (his name means Blessed by God - how cool huh), went to Walgreen's to pick up some pictures that I had printed and to Target to stock up on formula again and some odds & ends stuff. I did pretty dang good though - my original bill at Target was $185 and with coupons and a 10% off card, my final bill was "only" $131 saving me $54!!! I had $25 worth of formula coupons which was great. Mike got home tonight around 7:00 and he said they had a good time but nobody really caught anything at all and Mike said he didn't even really have one bite all day - boring! Hopefully my mom & Mike's mom won't look at this before tomorrow. The picture attached is their Mother's Day present. I read in a magazine that a great gift idea for any occasion is to make a sign that says Happy Birthday, Thank You, I Love You, etc. and have your kid hold it, then take a picture of your baby holding the sign and print that out and give it as the gift. So that is the pictures that we had to pick up at Walgreen's and then I bought some frames also. It turned out pretty good and I think I'll do this same gift in the future with different signs/occasions. And he really is holding the sign in the picture even though it looks like I photo shopped it in. I couldn't get him to "hold" the sign without grabbing it and wanting to eat it. So I would quick lay it on his lap, take the picture and then pick it up right away before he took it, and repeat until I had a good enough pic.

Happy Mother's Day to all of you mom's readying this.