6 Months

Happy half birthday buddy!
I can hardly believe my little Benjamin is 6 months old already.

He has been such a delightful addition to our family.

I'm so proud to say that Benjamin and Chloe love each other. It's too cute.

He is growing and learning so much every day.

Benjamin is sitting well unassisted.

He eats like a champ, is sleeping well at night (finally) and is such a wonderful happy baby.

I can tell he wants to crawl... he has started doing the army crawl a little. He seems perfectly happy rolling and scooting until he gets where he wants to go.  His favorite place to go is under the coffee table.

We've checked and there is nothing interesting under there... he still loves it.

Even Chloe gets down there with him

My mom pointed out, it's like their first fort together!

He loves rolling around and playing in his crib....

and being silly!

What a silly boy, he loves sticking out his tounge!

We did a big online order last week for gates and other baby proofing things we need.  These last 6 months have been awesome and I know the next 6 months are going to be even more fun as Benjamin continues to grow and becomes mobile.

6 Month Stats:

Weight: 16.2 lbs

Height: 25 inches (my short little man)

6 Month Milestones:

• Rolling over (front to back and back to front).
• Sleeping well (unswaddled).
• Sitting on his own (and does great rolling into his fall!)
• Eating 2 solid meals a day, oatmeal for breakfast (sometimes with fruit), meats and veggies for dinner.
• Drinks water or expressed milk from a sippy cup (still with a little help).  I made the mistake of letting him sip from my water once, now everytime I fill up my water he jumps and squirms with excitment and starts grabbing at my water! He loves drinking from a big cup!
• Recognizes the people he loves (mom, dad, Chloe, Obi, and his daycare teachers). No one gets a smile quite like Dad when he comes home from work though! 
• Sometimes he cries when strangers talk to him. (Begining of stranger anxiety.)
• Laughing. It's really cute when he laughs at the dog. All he has to do is stand near him or walk by and Benjamin lights up!  Benjamin gets especailly giggly (at everything) in the evenings when he is tired!
•  Has learned how to splash in the bathub.
•  Beginning to babble, lip sounds "m, b, p" (I've even heard him say "ma" once or twice!)
•  He is the cutest, brightest, most wonderful baby in the entire world!

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Love

Funny that all my favorite pictures are of Chloe reading to Benjamin!

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Been Busy

Life is busy when you have two beautiful and wonderful kids to play with!

I'll try and give you a breif recap of the past month....

Chloe is having fun learning the basics of hockey.

Look at our little hockey player! Isn't she cute?!

She loves it and is having a lot of fun!

Benjamin is getting big and growing so fast!
He is starting to become mobile. He rolls, pevits and scoots all over the place trying to get somewhere (or everywhere).  I give it another month before he is crawling! (Yikes!) Not sure if I'm ready for that!

Benjamin LOVES eating!

After the OK from the doctor at 4 months, we decided to wait a little bit longer. (What's the rush?)  We started feeding him cereal at 5 months and he ate like a champ.  Since I hate pictures of babies with food all over their faces... this is Benjamin waiting on food... he loves hanging out in his high chair while I cook dinner!  He is still just eating one meal a day, at dinner. So far he loves everything, meats, vegetables, fruits and oatmeal! 
I also introduced him to a sippy cup. Sometimes with water and sometimes with expressed milk. He loves it (both with the water and the milk)! He needs some practicing controlling the sippy cup himself but with a little help Benjamin drinks from it and really loves it.

And, since he is eating everyday and sometimes it gets messy, that means more baths!

He loves bathtime!

Look at that cutie pie!

He has also been practicing sitting!

He does really well... but still likes to just throw himself backwards when he is tired of sitting (hence the boppy around him to cushion his fall).

No need to adjust your computer monitor...  he really is getting cuter and cuter!
He got his first professional pictures done at daycare last month and they turned out adorable!

And this pretty girl is getting sweeter and more beautiful every day!

She had a lemonaid stand a couple weekends ago. It was for the neighborhood yard sale so there was plenty of foot traffic and she made about $15.00!

Even with the age difference, these two love each other!

and I am one very proud mom!

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Bittersweet

On one hand, I am so happy it is Friday. On the other hand, tomorrow morning Benjamin has physical therapy at 8:00 a.m., 30 minutes away... which means no luck on sleeping in. Ha, not that we actually get to "sleep in".  "Sleeping in" in our house means between 6:30 - 7:00 a.m. we hear Benjamin talking happily to himself.... so we bring Benjamin to lounge in bed with us, then once Obi hears my husband's voice he comes jumping on the bed, then the cat hears us and runs around our room meowing... then Chloe hears that we are all awake so she grabs a book and comes and lays in bed with us and reads. It is perfect. It may not be sleeping in but it is better and makes me love the weekends even more!

Benjamin may be in cahoots with the other babies trying to keep us up all night... but we have been consistent.  Let me explain, we took away his swaddle blanket this week. He is getting too big for it. For one, he was waking up every 1 - 2 hours all night anyway, mostly to get reswaddled and rocked back to sleep. Then he started breaking out of the swaddle and pulling the blanket in his face in his sleep or when he woke up he would shoving it in his mouth to chew on it. It made us uncomfortable so we decided to break him of the swaddle habit.  He was very upset with us... for two nights.  They were very long, rough couple of nights.  On night three, last night, he seemed very happy not being swaddled! He looked so cute all sprawled out!

He slept better than he has in 3 months!  We also have started to let him self soothe. This is the first night he did well with that. He woke up at 11 and 4 to eat but no crying when I laid him back down without rocking him back to sleep. When I laid him down at 4 he squirmed and whimpered a little bit but no crying and was back to sleep within minutes.  He is amazing!  I feel refreshed after getting some sleep.

Benjamin woke up happy as can be.

Although honestly no matter how much or how little sleep he gets, he is always this happy when he wakes up.  Ok, honestly, he is always this happy ALL the time!

I am not expecting him to sleep like he did last night every night. It would be too good to be true.  It was our jackpot of sleep, which we may not see again for 3 more months! I don't care... one night of good sleep is better than none! 

Now we are all refreshed and energized for game night tonight.

Go Flyers!!

(Yes, I am reposting this picture. He looks so plump and adorable!)

We have had some pretty nice weather this week. I love sitting outside torturing my kids with millions of pictures relaxing and watching Chloe and Obi play in the yard!

Happy Friday, I hope you have an awesome weekend! Do you have anything fun planned?

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Sleeping Through the Night (From Benjamin)

*I've seen this online in quite a few places and do not know the original source to credit.  I thought this was too funny not to share!


SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT - A BABY'S PERSPECTIVE!

OK, here's my situation. My mummy has had me for almost 5 months. The first few months were great - I cried, she picked me up and fed me, anytime, day or night. Then something happened.

Over the last few weeks, she has been trying to STTN (sleep through the night). At first, I thought it was just a phase, but it is only getting worse. I've talked to other babies, and it seems like it's pretty common after mummies have had us for around 6 months.

Here's the thing: these mummies don't really need to sleep. It's just a habit. Many of them have had some 30 years to sleep - they just don't need it anymore. So I am implementing a plan. I call it the Crybaby Shuffle.

It goes like this:

Night 1 - cry every 3 hours until you get fed. I know, it's hard. It's hard to see your mummy upset over your crying. Just keep reminding yourself, it's for her own good.

Night 2 - cry every 2 hours until you get fed.

Night 3 - every hour.

Most mummies will start to respond more quickly after about 3 nights. Some mummies are more alert, and may resist the change longer. These mummies may stand in your doorway for hours, shhhh-ing. Don't give in. I cannot stress this enough:
CONSISTENCY IS KEY!!

If you let her STTN (sleep through the night), just once, she will expect it every night. I KNOW IT'S HARD! But she really does not need the sleep, she is just resisting the change.

If you have an especially alert mummy, you can stop crying for about 10 minutes, just long enough for her to go back to bed and start to fall asleep. Then cry again. It WILL eventually work. My mummy once stayed awake for 10 hours straight, so I know she can do it.

Last night, I cried every hour. You just have to decide to stick to it and just go for it.
BE CONSISTENT!

I cried for any reason I could come up with. My sleep sack tickled my foot. I felt a wrinkle under the sheet. My mobile made a shadow on the wall. I burped, and it tasted like pears. I hadn't eaten pears since lunch, what's up with that? The cat said "meow". I should know. My mummy reminds me of this about 20 times a day. LOL. Once I cried just because I liked how it sounded when it echoed on the monitor in the other room. Too hot, too cold, just right - doesn't matter! Keep crying!!

It took a while, but it worked. She fed me at 4am. Tomorrow night, my goal is 3:30am. You need to slowly shorten the interval between feedings in order to reset your mummies' internal clocks.


Good Luck,


Benjamin

P.S. Don't let those rubber things fool you, no matter how long you suck on them, no milk will come out. Trust me!


*I've seen this online in quite a few places and do not know the original source to credit.  I thought this was funny, especially since we are going through this right now, and wanted to share.

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Easter and Weekly Recap

It's Friday already and I still haven't told you about our Easter...

Well Chloe decided it was lame to just die eggs and wanted to paint them this year.

 We had a lot of fun patining some eggs!

Then Chloe had dad do the award ceremony, giving each egg their own unique award.

I thought it was a fun idea. 

Last Friday we took Chloe to get fitted for hockey gear.

Her basic hockey class starts this Sunday.... she has never been more excited about anything!!

Benjamin has been enjoying his new Bumbo seat!

He really likes sitting in his seat playing with his toes...

and watching Obi!

Benjamin got to meet the Easter bunny last week at daycare.

So cute!

His daycare is always doing fun things.  This morning when I dropped him off his class was about to go on a walk to visit the fish pond and enjoy today's beautiful weather.

He loves his daycare and is always so happy there!

It is supposed to be beautiful weather this weekend!

Have a wonderful weekend.  This is the best time of year, beautiful weather and hockey playoffs! 

Go Flyers!!

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Things I'd Rather Be Doing...

Hope you all had a fantastic Easter.  I really enjoyed my three day weekend!

 I have zero motivation right now. 

Things I'd much rather be doing....

Hanging out with my handsome husband and his sidekick, Obi.

 Being silly with Chloe.

 Watching Chris and Chloe practice hockey.

 Hanging outside with my little man....

 Watching my little monkey.

Relaxing in pajamas with two of my favorite people.

 Playing with Benjamin.

 Gardening.

 Sitting on the beach.

What are you doing right now? What would you rather be doing?

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