Photos are up!!

The photos from our recent photo shoot in Utah are up. I think they are pretty great. It definitely captures Ben's little personality, as you can tell that he was never really sitting still the whole time. My kids pictures are mixed in with pictures of my sister's kids, as well as some group shots so you might have to sift through it a bit to find Ben and Penny. Although I don't think that's too much of a problem as my sister's kids are just gorgeous. Check it out by clicking on the picture here:

They are just so cute.

Trip to Utah and More

So Ben, Penny, and I took a trip to Utah for about a week and a half.  We got back last Saturday.  We left so we could get out of Jon's hair while he studied for his surgery SHELF (which he passed, no problem, even though he was convinced he failed).  It turns out, Jon knows his surgery stuff and we're really proud of him.

Anyway, it was a really great trip.  We stayed with my parents, and my sister and her three boys were there at the same time.  Ben had so much fun with his cousins.  Owen (5) and Ollie (3) were really cute with him.  Ben spent most of the time chasing them around.  He was always the "monster", which he didn't mind, since it just meant that whenever they started running away screaming, he chased after them, screaming.  It made for a very noisy time, but also very fun.  Penny was her cute self, and even overcame some of her mommy clinginess by the time we left.  She's still not taking a bottle very well, though.

I'm sorry I don't really have any pictures of the trip, as we really only took pictures on my mom's camera.  She's been pretty busy, but as soon as I get a chance to get some of those pictures from her, I will post them here.  Also, we had some professional photos done of the kids as well, which I'll post the link to here as soon as they're uploaded.

In the meantime, while you're all anxiously awaiting those pictures, I did finally get around to dumping all my camera photos onto the computer, so here are a few of those.

Penny on the plane-ride to Utah:

Yeah, miraculously, she slept the whole flight.  No joke, she fell asleep as we were taxiing to take off and woke up on the descent. 

Benjamin on the ride to Utah:

Thank goodness for portable DVD players.  We got a portable DVD player that accepts SD cards.  Jon put a bunch of movies on one SD card (about the size of a quarter) and that way I didn’t have to pack any DVDs.  Ben still has a pretty short attention span and the plane was full of distractions, so this only worked for about twenty minutes at a time.  Still, it definitely helped, as he did that several times.  He also ate lots of sugary treats that he doesn’t normally get.

And I have to post a picture of Penny in the AMAZING knitted dress that Courtney made for her, although these phone pictures do not do it justice:

Can you believe that my sister made that? It’s very impressive.

Speaking of impressive homemade things, we have received so many great homemade things for Penny.  I’m blown away by the talented friends and family that we have.  Unfortunately, the only other one I have a phone picture of is the quilt that Jon’s Aunt Linda made for us.  I think it definitely warrants mentioning, though.  Check it out:

Penny enjoying her little baby straight jacket and waving to the camera:

Ben, outside in the warm weather, at long last.  He actually probably didn’t need the jacket, but when I asked him if he wanted to go outside he went and grabbed his shoes and brought them back for me to put them on him.  Then as we were going out the door he pointed at the coat closet and kept saying “coat”.  He’s so used to needing a jacket to go outside, he wouldn’t let me take him out without one.  Classic.

Plus a video of Ben outside.  He has discovered a new thing that really interests him, bugs.  I think this partly comes from the little bug cages and plastic bugs that my mom had at her house.  I think this video captures our very boyish little boy quite nicely.  He’s obsessed with cars/trucks and bugs.

Also from my phone, a video of Penny being ticklish and otherwise adorable.  Admittedly, her little laugh is more of a grunt.  Oh, and she loves her fist.

And last, yesterday Ben did not want to get out of his crib after his nap, so I gave him a couple of toys to entertain him while I got some other things done.  I heard him jabbering quite a bit and went in to find him intently reading Jon’s laminated pamphlet on Schizophrenia that had been stuck in one of Ben’s books.

That’s all for now.  I’ll try to update as soon as the photographer sends me the link to our pictures.

Sometimes life is just crazy

So, for those of you who didn’t know, we spent last week in the hospital with Penny, who had RSV.  It was very sad to see our little girl struggling to breathe, with a nasal tube for oxygen and an IV in her head.  Thankfully, Jon’s mom was able to drive out to help, which was a real blessing.  I don’t know what we would have done with Ben if she hadn’t come.  He had such a good time with his Grandma, I’m pretty sure he didn’t even notice that mommy spent pretty much 24/7 at the hospital.  Plus, for some reason, Geri thought that driving across the country with the car she and Richard bought for us, watching our son for five days, and cleaning up our house wasn’t enough.  She kept insisting on buying us dinner and doing other nice things for us, like watching both kids all day so Jon and I could get a day out.

Anyway, Penny has bounced back really well.  She’s already regained the pound she lost in the hospital.  We went to the doctor yesterday for a check-up and she got a clean bill of health.

Of course, just to make things even more fun, when Jon was on his way home from the hospital in the awesome new car that Geri brought for us he got rear ended.  Talk about a giant kick in the pants.  The car is probably going to take a couple of weeks to fix.  So, yay for that.

In other news, I thought I’d give a quick update on our little man now that he’s officially 22 months.  He’s growing up so fast.  He’s really smart and sweet and fun.  He talks up a storm now, although most of it is either gibberish or sounds exactly like another word.  Still, he pretty much parrots back whatever I say to him, but only when he feels like it, so it’s hard to catch on video.  I tried to make a list of all his words, but it’s hard since he seems to pick up a new word or two every day.  He’s gotten really adept at letting us know what he needs.  He even tells us when he has a poopy diaper.  He’s still obsessed with cars, but thankfully he’s moved on from the movie a bit.  His new favorite movies are WALL-E and UP, which Jon and I appreciate. 

So, now that things have settled down a bit, I thought I’d treat everyone to some pictures and video.  Consider it a reward for those of you who slogged through my update.

Photos from Geri’s stay

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Penny’s Photo Shoot

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Here’s a video of our little girl being back to her healthy, happy self.  She’s such a social and happy baby.

Quick Ben Story

So, yesterday a woman from church took Ben for the whole day and even brought us dinner when she brought him home. It was a huge help. Anyway, according to her, Ben was very well behaved for her and was just a joy to have. Don't get me wrong, I think Ben is a joy too, he just gets a little stir crazy here and lonely as well. I'm glad he got the chance to get out of the house and play with some other kids. She has a little boy who is just over a year old named Spencer.

Apparently at one point during the day Spencer hit Ben and Ben responded by going over to Spencer and gently rubbing Spencer's arm in the gesture we've taught him that goes along with the word "gentle". I think it's great that he actually learned what we've been drilling for the past couple of months in preparation for the baby. He's so smart (even if he is a little lacking in the verbal department) and sweet. Jon and I feel so lucky to have such a special little boy. He's adjusted beautifully to no longer being the only child. He loves his little sister. He tries to play with her and comfort her when she cries.

Quick Update

So, posting on the blog is a little bit tricky these days. For those of you who didn’t get the e-mail, I also posted a link to the pictures I uploaded to Walgreens (it’s the easiest place for me to pick up prints). I don’t really have any more pictures to post today, but I do have a couple of videos. But I’ll only share them if all of you promise not to judge my messy house keeping in mind I’m new to two kids and a lot of these videos were on my birthday.

Also, yesterday was Penny’s one month birthday and we went to the doctor. She tipped the scales at 11 lbs 9 oz and measured 22 inches (although I think she’s a bit longer than that because the nurse really didn’t try to stretch her out at all). She’s a really big girl.

Anyway, here are the videos:

Ben playing cars with his little sister:

Ben in mom’s shoes:

Ben exercising with dad:

And lastly, Penny’s smile (I swear, she’s an early smiler, she does this a lot, it wasn’t just a fluke we caught on video). Oh, and yes, she is very chubby:

Enjoy.