Nothing Like a Good Book

Ben has recently become really interested in books. It's adorable how intense he is when he is looking at the pictures. We have always read to him but now it's more fun because he so serious about it!

No More Sweet Potatoes...

Shortly after the mini party (or "half" party if you will..) Ben broke out in a rash around his mouth and the parts on his torso that weren't already red turned red... I was certain it was the sweet potatoes and we gave him some bendryl to stop the reaction. Now I wonder if it wasn't the balloons he was playing with and putting his mouth to. Latex is a pretty common allergy so I will wait until his poor rash clears up and then try the sweet potatoe again. I hope it was the balloons since I don't have a freezer full of them!

Happy Half Birthday Ben

Ben is 6 months old today!

We celebrated this half milestone with a half a cake... Balloons... and his first real food experiance, in his birthday suit of course! We gave him sweet potatoes to try today. I have been making him fresh organic baby food and freezing it for awhile now and would have been sad if he spit it back in my face. He LOVED it however and ate it all. He also managed to grab a hunk of birthday cake and got a little in his mouth before I could grab his hand (if you click on the picture to enlarge it you can see the cake in his hand...he doesn't look too impressed with me when I took it away)! I can't honestly call this his FIRST food though. His first was a chocolate he licked at christmas time. I thought he was just bent over looking at something when I realized he had been licking a chocolate in a box on the counter. He also had a few licks of my pure juice mango popcicle the other day and I let him suck on my apple yesturday... I think that was just accidental practice though and I don't plan on giving him chocolate, popciscles and whole apples for real any time soon.
I am really looking forward to his first year birthday party. He has grown up so much in this short time I can't wait to see who he becomes in the next half of the year!!!

Daytona 500

Anyone who knows Jon knows about his love of Nascar. I know when we found out we were having a boy (if we had a girl she would just be wearing a pink number 88) that Jon had visions of his son beside him sharing in his love of racing. Today that dream came true for him as Ben sat on his lap enthralled with the cars going around and around (I on the other hand am bored enough to write this...). Ben does look awfully cute in his Jr. outfit though!

New Floors

Ben had allergy testing done last week...here is the verdict-
NO:
Eggs, rice (rice! I know) dairy, rye, spelt, oats, citrus, berries, and dust mites among others.

Jon spent yesturday then taking the dust catching carpet out of Ben's room. We have enough flooring for the whole house so fortunatly yesturdays attempt went well. It also became obvious that doing ANYTHING with a 6 month old is virtually impossible. So our little almost crawling baby got to spend a significant amount of yesturday afternoon (of course he wouldn't nap yesturday!) in a laundry basket with toys. With the daycare of course I have at least 4 extra playpens kicking around but Ben kept toppling over in it so the laundry basket helped keep him upright...

I am thrilled with how his room turned out but next weekend for the mater bedroom and hallway a babysitter may be in his future!

Happy Valentine's Day

Ben had a nice first valentine's day. He got lots of Valentines from his friends at my daycare (they really do love him!) and got spoiled (as usual) by his grandparents. He really wanted the chocolate covered strawberry flowers J's mom made us. She also made heart cookies for him but his dad ate them all. She will make him some dairy, sugar and corn free ones next year with banana icing mmmmmm mmmmm.... J and I went out for dinner. There was a magician there with a rabbit (I wonder if the food services health board knew about this?) and balloon flowers. We both had ribs and Seeing as I had been on a very bland diet the last few weeks could not really handle it ( I also had fries and pop which may have also contributed to the problem) and spent the second half of our meal in the bathroom trying to keep it down (it was an eighteen dollar entree, I didn't want to waste it!!) Otherwise I think we all felt very loved and so the day was a success.

Hi From Ben

Oi2uO@z9a HYUJGTULU} IJHUFUTS7Y9IUHHHHHH

Whenever I am blogging Ben usually sits on my lap. He is showing a lot of interest in typing himself and you can see by the expression on his face he takes blogging very seriously!

Social Butterfly

We had a busy weekend. We usually have busy weekends and Ben happily joins us for whatever we have planned. He loves new places and faces and will usually sleep well in his carseat when it's time for him to go to bed. Not anymore it seems. I went to a home interior party on Friday (and won a clock...) and brought Ben (who can't stay home because he won't take a bottle) which is usually no problem. On Friday however I concluded that he is addicted to attention. As long as there is someone who will laugh, smile, play with or compliment him he will NOT sleep. His 7:45 bedtime came and went but he was still shmoozing by 11 when I had to drag him away from his admirer's and bring him home! We went to a friends birthday party on saturday night and he pulled the same thing! He went to bed at 11 again but was still smiling away until the last minute when he finally fell asleep in the car on the way home. I think that smile is going to get him his own way more then a few times as he gets older. He already knows how and when to flash that toothless grin and his mom is wrapping herself around his little finger!

Don't Blink

I sold Ben's carseat that he grew out of last week. Before the woman took the carseat and stroller home for her new baby I asked if I could snap a quick picture of Ben in it now to compare to the picture of him coming home from the hospital. I just looked at it now and am marvelling at how much he has grown and changed in the last 5 (almost 6...) months!

Football Fan

Ben's first Superbowl game came complete with a football cake from Gramma and a quarterback outfit. He really seemed to enjoy watching the game, although he fell asleep before halftime...

What About J & J ?

I realize this blog has turned into mostly a tribute to "B" and not so much about J & J as the title falsly claims. This blog entry will be entirly devoted to us and I won't mention the "B" word once...well I will try anyway!

Jon unloaded a 65 boxes of lamanant flooring into our garage today. We are ripping up the carpets to see if that will help with "the name we are not mentioning's" asthma. I was very encouraging about this project when we saw the sale at Home Depot. I told Jon that really dumb people install flooring all the time and so it would be no problem for someone as smart and resourcful as him to do our entire house...(1200 of our 2000 square feet...) in what?... a few hours?...a weekend? Now that I see this HUGE pile in the garage I am beggining to wonder about how realistic this is. The new compromise is that J will try in "you know who's" bedroom first and if he really feels like it is too much can return it. I also know the odds are on my side since he really won't want to lug 65 boxes back to the store.

I have accepted a new part time child into my daycare. From Monday to Wednesday then I will have 4 children under the age of 2. I am waiting for someone to take power of attorney and commit me. Clearly I have lost my mind... maybe I can room in with Britney...

I have also lost 15 Ibs this month by following my new very conservitive diet (as a result of you know who) It seems I couldn't do it for me but I can do it for him. Now I only look like I am 5 months prenant, my butt doesn't look pregnant at all anymore and my jumbo jeans are falling off. Great! Just 2 more months then and I should be back to pre preg form for the spring:)

....Okay now back to Ben :)

Where Did the Time Go?

Ben will be six months old this month! It will be half a year since we brought him home! I can't believe this. I also can't believe how much fun 5 months is. If I could freeze time at any certain point it would be right now. Ben is so much fun! He rarely cries and has a smile on his face more times then not. He is also very funny now and knows how to make us laugh. He is still very convenient too. He is not eating solids yet so I don't have to worry about his meals and he will sleep anywhere in his portable carseat baby carrier. 5 months is the best!

Mommy's Boy

I love having such a cuddly baby. I have to remind myself of that sometimes, like today when I had to make an entire apple crisp with one hand (fortunatly I have an apple peeler that can be operated with one hand only or it may not have happened)! There are some days when Ben's bum does not touch a surface for more then a few moments since that is as long as it takes for him to screw up his little faced and wail to be back in Mommy's arms. Today I really let him have his way and even joined him for a nap...twice...in our bed (creating bad habits?!). I am trying to savour these moments when my little boy is completly happy just by being in my arms. Who cares if baking doesn't happen, laundry lays wrinkling in baskets on the couch and dinner isn't on the table until after he's in bed? I won't remember those things but I will always remember Ben's sweet smile he flashes me right before drifting off to sleep, in my arms of course.

We Have a New Milestone!

Ben is sitting on his own! I put him on the bed and
lifted my hands off him for a moment expecting him to fall to the side as usual...but he never did, until he laughed too hard and met his "topple point"!