Poor Baby

It's official. Little Ben IS allergic to Amoxicillin. During the summer he had an ear infection and developed a mild rash after starting Amoxicillin. When he got another ear infection around his birthday, he was put on a different antiobiotic that didn't contain Amoxicillin. When it didn't work, the Dr decided to try Amoxicillin again and this is what we ended up with...

At church on Sunday I noticed a few little spots on his neck. They looked like mosquito bites. Later in the day more appeared. I thought maybe he had something on his clothes so I stripped him down and gave him a bath. We went to dinner at Aunt Lorraine's house and when we got home, he was covered in spots. He didn't seem to itch so I put him to bed and called the Dr. She told us that he was probably allergic to his antibiotics and to stop giving them to him. Around midnight he woke up screaming. For about 3 hours we couldn't get him to go back to sleep. He was scratching and crying. He finally went to sleep but could only sleep for about 30 minutes at a time. We took him to the Dr. first thing this morning and sure enough, it's an allergy to penicillin. He got an epinephrine shot and the Dr. gave him an oral antihistamine. Then we got some Benadryl to give him throughout the day. He's feeling much better now and we're really hoping he can get some rest tonight.

As you can see from the top picture, he tried his very best to be happy. He's such a trooper.

Thanksgiving

Getting ready to dive in.

Yum!

I kept giving him more and more food until I realized he was actually feeding it all to the dog. Silly boy.

At Woolaroc with Daddy


At Woolaroc with Grandpa

My Sweetie Pie

This year we spent Thanksgiving in Oklahoma. It was a weekend filled with lots of food, a day after Thanksgiving 5K to burn off some of the calories (in 70 degree weather!), a trip to Woolaroc, LB's b-day cake (not that we needed more food), and some great picture taking. It felt good to relax and enjoy each other's company.

Thanks Grandma Morris for putting up with all of us!

Happy Birthday Buddy!

Little Ben turned 1 a few weeks ago! We had cake and ice cream during my break from work (lame, I know) and then we had more cake and ice cream in Oklahoma. Even though he was sick on his birthday he had tons of fun with his new racetrack, laptop, ball giraffe, and pop-up toy.

Happy Birthday Buddy!

Big Boy Stats:

24lbs (75th percentile)

31 in (85th percentile)

Huge Head (99th percentile)

Sadly, he's losing a lot of his baby fat. I knew this day would come. :(

Anyway, here are some pictures from his big day!

I don't know how much cake he actually ate, but I do know he had fun demolishing it!

Making a mess in the bathtub

So Proud

His basketball cake. I know my lines are off. That's what I get for trying to draw lines using a baggie full of melted chocolate chips. Next year I'll use real supplies. I promise.

Cheese!

This little boy is ALWAYS giving us this insane cheesy smile. It makes my day.

Happy Halloween!

5K!

I can't believe it, but I left our stake 5K out of the last post! It's kind of hard to believe (I even have a hard time believing it), but Ben and I ran a 5K last month! I'm sure that's not such a big deal to a lot of people, but I am so dang proud of myself. Before the race people kept asking me if I was going to train for it. I considered it a few times, but I knew that if I trained for it, I would remember how much I HATE running and back out. I figured it was best if I just showed up and saw what happened. Well, my time was pretty slow at 33:54, but I did so much better than I ever thought possible! I'm kind of addicted to 5K's now. I'm already planning on running 2 of them in the spring. I haven't been running since the first 5K, but I mapped out some routes around work so we'll see if I can find some time during work to run. I really want to be able to run my next 5K in 30 minutes or fewer. Wish me luck!

Life...

Not too much has been going on with us. We've been super busy, but not with anything overly exciting. First piece of good news... We finally got a dishwasher! I realize we're potentially moving in about 7 months. If we do, we'll sell it. If we don't... well, then we'll have a dishwasher to get us through. I really like it. It is really compact and sits on our countertop. It's amazing how much extra time I have in my day now! I started feeling like I was neglecting little Ben because I would spend so much time doing chores (even though you usually can't tell). I figured it was time. I know it's sad that I get so excited about something so simple, but I do.


The main focus we've had lately is on what we're going to be doing in the coming year. I can't believe Ben is going to graduate in 7 months! I thought it would never come. We have no idea what we're going to do. Masters in Accounting in the fall? Work for a couple of years and then get an MBA? Occasionally Ben considers doing another year of undergraduate work and getting a second Bachelor's in finace. Then I give him the evil eye and he reconsiders. :) It's stressful not knowing what we're going to do. It's also really exciting.



As for little Ben, he is becoming more and more fun everyday. I love the games he makes up. His favorite is tag. He will start crawling across the room and then look back and give me "the look" that tells me it's time to play. So I crawl after him. He laughs and crawls as fast as he can. Then I tag him and crawl away. He'll follow me, but then stops and decides it's my turn to be "it" again. He doesn't play very fair, but I don't mind. I will say that I'm not surprised he's thinned out since crawling. It's hard work! I get tired so quickly. I really love watching him grow up. I can't wait to stay home with him. BTW, all stay-at-home moms have to read Dr Laura's "In Praise of Stay At Home Moms" A friend recommended it and it's amazing!!!! It's so uplifting. I was amazed that such a positive and inspiring book could come out of her. I cannot wait to stay home! I've heard a lot of negative comments at work about how I'm wasting my education and how stay at home moms are lazy and gossip all day. Whatever. My education has served its purpose and if I ever have to go back to work, I'll have a degree and experience.



Here are some pictures from the last couple of months. I really need to take more. I'll get on that. In the meantime...



This was little Ben's first ride on the carousel at the zoo. He absolutely loves going to the zoo. He screams at the animals to get their attention. It's pretty funny.

I have a new craft buddy so I'm actually accomplishing all the crafts I've wanted to do for a while. You'll have to click on the picture to really see the details.. I really love them. I'm thinking about adding a JR at the end. Any thoughts?

Here's little Ben at the worst of his cold (hence the snotty nose). He tried so hard to be happy. He gave us a lot of courtesy smiles. He had a runny nose that didn't stop for 2 weeks. Then last week he got a fever of 103.7 and we took him to the doctor. Sure enough, it turned in to an ear infection. To top it all off, he has a tooth coming in. Poor little guy. He's on antibiotics now so the ear infection seems to be getting better but who knows when the tooth pain will end. At least we only had a couple sleepless nights through all this.

His favorite hobby. Pulling EVERYTHING out of the drawers and throwing it on the floor.

A Whole Lot of Random Stuff

I guess I'm down to an average of 1 post per month. Sorry, guys. We're just a little busy around here.

First off, little Ben is going to be 9 months old on Monday! I can't believe it! We went to the Doctor today and to our surprise, Little Ben has only gained 2 lbs over the last 3 months. He's now down to the 75th percentile for height and weight but his head is still in the 95th percentile. He also got his first flu shot. We figured we might as well get it done at the same time he was getting other shots.

Here's a fun story...

The other day we went to Walmart (I know...don't judge me). After waiting FOREVER to get down an aisle of the parking lot, we started commenting on how people are SO LAZY and will do whatever it takes to get a good parking spot. Just then, we saw a car that was going to pull out. Consequently, the woman in front of us threw her car into reverse (to get to the spot) and rammed right into us! I got out of the car and the conversation went like this.

Lazy woman: What happened?

Me: You backed up and hit us.

Lazy woman: Were you trying to go around me?

Me: No, we were sitting there waiting and you backed up and hit us.

Come on, lady. How oblivious can you be?

Later, she really showed her smarts with a lecture:

Lazy woman: A good rule of thumb is that if you can't see my mirror, I can't see you. My brother is a trucker and he said that if someone is in your blind spot and you hit them, they cannot sue you.

Me (silently): Well, lady. A good rule of thumb? Look behind you and don't hit people. Oh, and we CAN and WILL sue you (let's just hope it doesn't come to that).

By the way... We were not in her blind spot. If she had looked in her mirror, all she would have seen was us. Even if we had been in her blind spot, it's HER responsibility to check it. I don't know what law book she and her brother have been reading, but... yeah.

On a happy note, I am already getting so excited for Christmas! I know it's only August, but I feel like I missed Christmas last year. Now that I look back, I think I had a little case of post partum depression. I couldn't get motivated to go Christmas shopping, put up the Christmas tree, or to simply relax and enjoy Christmas music while drinking hot chocolate. I didn't even really enjoy Christmas morning. The holidays are such a wonderful time of year and I fully intend on going overboard this year with the festivities. My co-workers are going to HATE me. I made Ben agree to making this Christmas extra special which, to him, simply means not complaining about how commercial it all is.

Finally, I have to show you Little Ben's new trick! Watch his belly closely...

And here are some random pictures. I have a video of little Ben dancing, but I can't get it to load. Check back to see that.

Showing off his teeth and crawling skills at the same time

The aquarium

The Grand America Hotel after a YUMMY rehearsal dinner

Typical Ben on an outing. He's just so happy and has a permanent smile.

MAJOR milestones

Little Ben has been VERY busy reaching major milestones the last couple of weeks. It seems like everything has hit us at once.


He's officially crawling! He started by army crawling for a couple weeks. Last week our hometeachers were over and he crawled on all fours for the first time! I don't think the hometeachers realized what they were witnessing. He's so adorable when he crawls and he gets faster and better everyday.


He's also done with teething for a while. Hopefully. One tooth popped through and then just a couple days later another came through. With this comes biting during nursing. I've heard the biting doesn't last long. Today I yelped when he bit me and he got so stunned he cried. It was so sad. I don't think he realizes what he's doing. Anyone have tips on teaching babies not to bite? I'm afraid he's too young to understand.


He has also learned to pull himself to standing. It's so cute when I go into his room and he's standing in his crib smiling at me. He doesn't know how to sit back down or move once he's standing which causes some falls and cries, but he'll figure it out soon enough.


I can't believe all this has happened in just a week and a half. He amazes me with his determination. I'm thinking his little rolls are going to go away very soon because he moves so much. Boo. :( I love his rolls. Oh, and another stranger called him juicy. It's still my favorite term!

Independance Day

This past weekend was tons of fun. Ben's sister and her cute family came to town so we spent some quality time with them. On Friday we went to an awesome pool in Tooele. It had a great kiddie area and in some areas the water was only a couple inches deep. Little Ben had a blast splashing and crawling around in the water. He didn't have a decent nap all day, but he was still all smiles. After having so much fun at that pool, he loves baths again and loves splashing.

All smiles! I couldn't believe how much fun he was having.

Waiting for the fireworks. He was awfully happy for being up way past his bedtime.

We were really hesitant to make any plans for fireworks because we thought little Ben would be scared. Saturday night we decided to give it a try. Little Ben LOVED the fireworks! He was mesmerized by the light and sounds. Big Ben missed most of the show because he was watching little Ben's face and taking videos. It was very cute. I was feeling nostalgic the whole time because I really felt little Ben move for the first time during the fireworks last year. I had felt him a little bit before, but during the fireworks he was practically doing somersaults. Ahh... The sweet memories of pregnancy. :)

Anyway, here's a video of little Ben during the fireworks. You might find it kind of boring, but we're glad to have the event documented. The first of anything (even if it's just fireworks) is a big deal.