Movin' Movin' Movin'

Benjamin is crawling! He's been taking a "step" (a crawl??) the past two days, this morning, he let loose before church and off he went, he even shot me a "now what are you going to do??" look...thanks, kid!

After church, he took the puzzle basket, pushed it out and then crawled to it, pushed, then crawled....all the way across the living room.

I think he likes crawling ;-)

Tooth #6 is here, 7 & 8 are on the horizon and bothering him ever so much! I feel so bad for him.

#5

Says it all...again, nothing that would make him "even"...not even a front tooth...it's the 'lateral incisor' - top left....crazy kid :)

2 year appt. and 4 teeth

Well, Keaton had his 2 year appt. today.

He weighed in at 27 lbs. (not sure why he was 30 about 6 weeks ago - probably lost it in the last week running/sweating in the back yard!) but they didn't say anything, and I didn't care :) He's 36.5inches tall...and his head circ. was 48.4cm.

He didn't get any shots, but did have his finger pricked to test for lead and his iron (since that was low last year) - both came back normal.

He was great on his ages and stages form (for fine & gross motor skills, communication, etc...) Communication was a bit low at first, but once the pedi and I communicated, he was practically at the top of the chart, haha!

He does have horrendous seasonal allergies, but other than that, he's perfect :) He threw a beautiful tantrum and Dr. W. said, "Yes, he is indeed two!" (as if we doubted....)

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Benjamin popped his 4th tooth today....bottom left 'lateral incisor' (thank you to the chart, again!) The bottom right lateral incisor will be coming very soon - but it doesn't look like any others are nearing showing...great...WAY uneven, haha!

He is very close to crawling. He's moving everywhere as an amazing scooter. OH how I've cherished 8.5 months of immobility!!!!!((way better than Keaton crawling at 6 months!))

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And other than Keaton's bubble lawn mower coming today, it was a fairly uneventful day!

90+ degree days...

So nice (says the one not grilling or mowing the yard, haha!) Wait...what?!! did you say grill?! I did! Zach went out and bought an AMAZING grill! We put it together yesterday while the boys napped (yes, WE, haha) and cooked out dinner...and then lunch today! Yummmmy! SO nice to have this back! For now, with his work schedule, we'll only be grilling on the weekends, but, hopefully if he gets his old position back (where he goes in super-duper early and get off at 330pm) we'll be using it a lot more!

And I confess - the wood that's on the front and sides...I spent the majority of our 'putting together the grill' time, smelling it....it smelled (smells!) soooo good! Can anyone tell us the type of wood?? It reminded me of the shops in Gatlinburg, so we're both thinking pine maybe?

In other news, Benjamin has popped his 3rd tooth...I thought it was his top right 'fang' tooth (eye tooth) but, I was wrong. It's not his front tooth, but the one to the side...(aka: lateral incisor, I just looked it up...haha)

Today was an exciting day in church as we commissioned TWO church plants! The first plants from our church (our church was planted about 20 years ago). One team will be going to Tampa to plant Covenant Life, and the other to DC to plant Restoration Church.

Finally, what you're really here for :)

Too funny not to show - he LOVES water bottles :) Who can blame him - so cold on the hurting gums!

Papa and Grandma Susan bought Keaton (B will use it eventually, when not everything goes in the mouth!) an oh-so-fun, classic turtle sandbox. At this point, it was a pool because we hadn't bought sand yet. Yesterday was a day of learning for K as he had to learn (the hard way) that sand stays IN the box!

He wanted a ride in his wagon. I asked him to wait a minute...and he got sad, haha

Ah, sweet Benjamin!

Both ready for a ride around the house in the wagon. I had dreams of going for walks with them in the wagon, but this is esentially pulling about 55lbs. behind me...whew...

For the record - that is NOT water from the bottle - that is DROOL! The next day, I saw the aforementioned 3rd tooth :)

B discovering....pine things. There's a TON of pine trees around our house, so it was this or very sharp, spikey pine cones ;-)

Couldn't resist...

Last night, the boys took their first bath together. It went great and will save a LOT of time in the future!

I take it all back...

About Benjamin being an 'awesome teether'....about being a 'great sleeper'....

I don't think we've really slept (I just typed sleeped....what does that tell you?!) in a week...

that's all I have to say....

((hoping if I take it back, normalcy will return...))

My Sweet B :)

While K napped today (and I use that term loosely) B & I took some pictures :) Here's the most recent of my sweet baby! Oh, Tooth #2 has officially emerged through...for those who care, he is LOVING biting while nursing (mama, on the other hand, is NOT loving this!) He continues to roll and roll and roll and roll :)

In his jumperoo, he LOVES this thing!

I just want to gobble up those cheeks!

My Growing Boys!

Well, B (finally) did it! ...and we missed it! We were frantically running around getting ready for church, he was on the floor on his back on his play mat. I turned around to grab something, Zach looked away to put on his sweater...we both looked at B at the same time and I screamed, "Did you do that?!" He was on his belly! He's just laying there, propped up on his arms, looking all around with this, "WHAT just happened?!" look! He didn't do it again today, but he now knows how...and the excitement is about to begin...

Tooth #2 is making it's entrance. I take back anything I've blogged, said to friends in person or on Facebook - he is not a 'great' teether. NOT as bad as his brother, but I think the pain of it all is finally hitting him. Naps have been few and far between the past 2 days, last night was a pretty bad night (I can't complain because it was nothing like VA Christmas or HFM)

Keaton has expanded his vocab some more: "stuck" (which he exclaims whenever he sits in the Bumbo...He has to sit in it or it gets no use...I can't get B out by myself...chunkster!) and "Q" (I got him a magnetic alphabet set and he was holding the Q, Zach told him what letter it was and for an hour, all we heard was 'Q')

This morning, he woke up and this is what I heard after a moment or so of fussing...

"Hey! Mama....Dada....B? Hey! Where is? Ok...oh no! One....no...no....GO GO GO GO GO!!!!! ::more fussing:: Mama?? bye!"

haha, I LOVE it! Of course it was screaming after that, but it was cute while it lasted! :)
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In grown-up excitement...We bought a Wii!!! We are slowly catching up with the rest of the world! ;-) We have been playing WiiMusic, WiiSports and WiiPlay since Friday night! I have since found out that I'm addicted to golf games!! And I'm not all that bad! I've been told that if I want WiiFit, I have to buy it myself...but I'm thinking about getting a kettlebell to work out with instead for now...

That's about it for now...


In random annoying news...

The latest...

The inevitable happened. I knew it was bound to happen. But I really thought Zach and I made big babies that don't get teeth til much later (K got his first tooth at 9 months-ish)...

Well, we make big babies...

But Benjamin has decided now is a good time to start getting teeth. I noticed last night his bottom teeth were right below the gum line.

Today we were eating lunch and he was ready for lunch too, but I needed to get K down first and I stuck my knuckle in his mouth to gnaw on ...and I felt it. Bottom, front right tooth.

Sigh. We're not even done with K yet - he has 2 more 2 year molars to go. I just wanted a week long break from teething. The hope is he'll get it over with quickly...maybe?

The good news - he's a MUCH better teether than K was/IS! You'd never know there was a tooth coming through.

I have a feeling K is working on one of those said molars. He's warmer today and clingy and fussy (the later two are nothing out of the ordinary, but the 'warmness' is usually his teething indicator)

And finally (because both boys are napping and I want to lay down and read!) head on over to my mommy blog and enter for a chance to win some Mabel's Labels! I had a chance to participate in this giveaway via The Giveaway Connection, a new blog in the momgeneration.com circle. There are 6 bloggers participating in this giveaway - and you can enter at all the blogs!

I'm the enV of all my friends...(and 4 month appt)

THAT'S what happened this weekend. ::headsmack:: I got a new phone! I got the enV2 in maroon. I'd been eyeing it for along time and, long story short, I have to give up some of my birthday money, but it was definitely worth it - I no longer feel the urge to throw this phone out the window anymore.

We had a very.long.night. Benjamin got to sleep for about 45 minutes and then woke up screaming...he never really slept well until again until about 5am when I decided to try to see if he'd sleep in the swing (future reference, this will be the first place I try!) It was a really long night and I was really worried he may have an ear infection. We tried everything. Rocking, bouncing, swaying, shushing, nursing, bottle, letting him cry, etc...nothing was helping.

We got to his appointment and they thankfully got us in pretty quickly. We got him weighed and measured (more to come...I know you're on the edge of your seat!) and I got confirmation that a few spots of dry skin on him is indeed eczema. He got one vaccine shot (Pentacel - DTaP, Polio and HIB combo) and the oral Rotavirus vaccine. I asked the pedi to make sure it wasn't his ears or throat or anything. She said it wasn't - both looked fine. But felt his gums and said that his two, bottom front teeth were fully in & the gums were "bulging" - she informed me that he may not get teeth for a couple months, or we could get them in the next week. Joy. (I'm not taking it too seriously as we were told at 2 months K would be getting teeth "any day" and he didn't til 9 months or so).

Atleast we only have Keaton's 2 year molars to go and we'll be done with his teething madness.

OK, stats:
Head cirum. - 42.5cm (50%)
Weight - 17lbs. 10oz. (90%)
Height - 27in. (97%)

To compare - at 4 months, K was:
15lbs. 12oz. & 27.5in.

We can scratch that off the 'to-do' list for the week!

Almost forgot! #16!!!!!!

Tooth #16!!!!!!!!! We are done until 2 year molars! Whew! The last eye tooth is breaking through and causing super pain for K. He stands and points at the teething tablets container! haha!

Hopefully, those 4 molars won't be too hard on him (and hopefully they will wait a while before trying to appear! It's been a long, full 11 months!)

Children are crying!

Update (#3) & THE tooth

I totally did update like I'd planned yesterday. It was a HUGE improvement (for B) since the weekend. He nursed great all day which was such a relief. And B showed improvements in the "diaper area" (ie: went to the bathroom A LOT!! YAY!!!)

K's tooth came in...#15, he's close to being even again - once we get the bottom, right "eye" tooth in...

And K has a new favorite saying (Ok, NO is still #1, haha!) "Choo choo" !!! The boy LOVES his trains! He'll push his wooden Melissa & Doug train around "Choo choo"ing the whole time! So precious!

I'm needed!

Update (#1), more teeth

I want to thank everyone for their prayers, advice/tips & encouragement!

Benjamin slept from about 9pm - 845am!!!!

Before that, he drank 6oz. at 3pm and 8oz before falling asleep last night (HUGE steps!!!)

He woke up, nursed for about 15 mins and then took a break and drank 6.5oz from a bottle!!!

I'm so thrilled!!!!

He is currently so tired, he can't keep his eyes open, but still fighting a nap...

I stayed home with the boys from church this morning. Zach has to play...but will hopefully be home soon because this mama needs a break!

Keaton has a tooth coming in (I think after this it's only 5 more to go!) and is fussy beyond belief and, of course, can't understand why Benjamin really needs mommy right now and I can't hold them both in my arms (I've tried...the only thing I haven't tried is K in the mei tei on my back and B in the wrap on my front! Much more screaming, and I may have to resort to that! ;-)

I'm hoping B will get a good nap in (K TOO!!!) I think that'll help him feel tons better! If I could just get him to understand that! :)

I'll try to update tonight on how the rest of the day goes... stay tuned ;-)

#15 & Oatmeal Cookies

To start, yes, Keaton's 15th tooth is making it's arrival! He's on his way to being even on the bottom front!

Keaton and I made cookies this afternoon.

He loves to "help" in the kitchen. Unfortunately, I couldn't get many pictures of him helping because flour would have ended up all over the floor....

We used the Quaker Oats Famous Oatmeal Cookie recipe.

First we gathered all the ingredients.

Keaton added a couple of ingredients...

After we mixed everything together, we put spoonfuls on cookie sheets & then put them in the oven!

We let them cool & then enjoyed!!!

They are so yummy!!!