It’s a GIRL 8lbs 10oz

Yay.  After two contractions of pushing we got a girl!  Penelope Beth Willes (tenative)

Christmas Preview

So, I’m going to post a Christmas overview to make sure everyone gets a peek.   On account of I’m going into the hospital first thing tomorrow to be induced, and I don’t want Ben’s Christmas to be overlooked in the hub-bub of the new baby, so I’m going to post a couple of quick pictures and video.  I’ll try and get more up later tonight or maybe when my family is here next week.

This was really the first time that Ben was an active participant, and he was a real hoot.  We started the festivities yesterday morning making gingerbread cookies.  Ben really had fun with that.  We gave him a little rolling pin which he tried to use (video to follow, I’ll have to upload it).  Mostly, he just picked at and ate the dough.  We gave him a cookie cutter and he would push it into the dough, then start eating the dough he’d cut out.  He had fun decorating them too, but he was mostly pumped about the car-shaped cookie that his daddy cut out special for him.  Check it out:

(The one on the left is a zombie cookie that Jon made)

Ben took a really good nap and we took it pretty easy in the afternoon.  I had to run a couple of errands while Ben was sleeping.  We had some delicious sandwiches for dinner while we watched a movie, “The Nightmare Before Christmas” (Jon’s choice).  In hindsight, it might be a bit scary for little kids, but Ben liked it, mostly he liked the songs.  Ben went to bed like a champ after we attempted to tell him the nativity story.  Jon and I watched Christmas Story and I went to bed early.

As for today, I didn’t think Ben had any idea that today was Christmas.  We’d planned on doing a quick breakfast with Ben this morning before presents because he always wants to eat as soon as he gets up.  But when I went in to get him this morning he immediately started pointing towards the family room saying “car”, “truck” (it turns out the few presents he’d opened before today were cars, so he thinks all wrapped presents are cars or trucks).  Anyway, so we did presents first and breakfast later.  He got a real kick out of opening presents.  In typical small child fashion, he wanted to stop and open/play with every toy. 

Here’s a picture of the post-present-opening wreckage:

And here are some pictures of our delicious breakfast of Belgian waffles and bacon and cinnamon bread:

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And our little family in front of the tree (thank goodness for a camera with a timer):

We took video of him walking in for Christmas and opening some of the presents, but that’s on the video camera and it takes a lot longer to post and I have to track down the USB cable.  However, Jon’s parents gave us an awesome new webcam for Christmas (ours broke), so we took some video straight to the computer.

I’m sure this is what everyone wants to see, videos of Ben playing with his new toys.  He really loves everything he got.  He’s been a crazy little boy all day, running from gift to gift.  Here are a couple of the highlights:

Ben riding around the giraffe tricycle that Grandma and Grandpa Willes sent:

Ben put himself in one of the boxes.  He was highly amused.

And, last (for now), Ben playing with the spiral racetrack that my parents gave him.  The boy sure loves his cars.

That’s all for now.  I hope you all had as wonderful a Christmas as we have had.  Jon and I will do our best to keep everyone updated on the baby situation.

Hooray for the Holidays

So, I decided it was about time to post about Thanksgiving.  And, since Ben, Jon, and I are trapped inside enjoying a snow day, I figured today was a good day to post.  I haven’t been taking a ton of pictures lately, but we do have a couple from Thanksgiving and from today.

Thanksgiving was just the three of us.  It was actually lots of fun.  Jon helped keep Ben out of my hair when he wasn’t helping me cook.  Ben really likes to pitch in and “help” with the cooking too.  Sometimes I put him in the sling so he can stir and watch.  These aren’t my best pictures, but I feel that being pregnant and slaving away in the hot kitchen all day are a decent excuse to look a little under the weather.  Plus, it’s really about the food isn’t it?

Ben chilling in the sling:

And the spread:

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Everything was quite delicious, if I do say so myself.  We had to feed Ben a snack shortly before the meal so he didn’t eat a ton.  He did love the leftovers, though.  He gobbled them up every time we served them to him, even the vegetables.  So that was a major win.

As for today, we decided to take Ben outside in his first snowstorm.  It took about 45 minutes to get everyone all bundled up and then Ben was a little bit freaked out by the whole thing.  I don’t think it helped that we have about 6 inches of snow and it was really windy.  The snow in his face really bothered him, but he still wanted to be outside.  We’ll probably try taking him outside again later when it stops snowing.  Regardless of how much he enjoyed it, he looked really cute in his snow outfit.

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I’ll try and upload some videos later.