All About Bennett

I usually write more about Lilly because she is more involved in our activities but I wanted everyone to get to know Bennett.

Bennett is a big boy. At his 4 month appointment on January 3rd, he weighed 17 pounds and 4 ounces and was 26 inches tall. That put him in the 81% for height and weight. Lilly wasn't 16 pounds until she was 6 months. Bennett has really long legs and is in a size larger pant then his tops. It makes me sad because his matching pants for his cute outfits show an inch of leg.

Look at those chunky legs

When people see or hold Bennett they usually comment on how big he is. They use funny words like stout, solid, healthy, etc to describe him. I am not really sure how I feel about it. On one hand I am glad my baby is healthy and growing and on the other hand he isn’t a tiny little baby anymore. I hate how fast the first year goes and how babies get so big. I ordered a baby not a 3 year old.

Bennett rolls over from his stomach to his back and is working really hard to get over the other way. He is also working really hard to sit up on his own and to use his hands with more coordination. He loves his toes ad has started eating them. It is adorable.

Bennett sleeps well at night. At first he would grunt all night. I thought he was just a grunty sleeper but Tyson was complaining so I tried a couple of things. I figured out he just needed to be swaddled. Now I usually get a full 8 hours of sleep. If I don’t get 8 hours it is because of other circumstances like a crying 3 year old or a messy house. He does sometimes need help getting his binky back in his mouth around 3:00 am.  

Bennett is a very sweet and smiley baby. He smiles at anyone that is smiling at him and if you make funny noises he will giggle at you too. At his last doctors appointment he smiled at all the nurses on the way up to get his weight and on the way back. He ended up getting a large crowd of nurses all smiling and cooing at him. I am so lucky to have such a happy and easy baby. I hope that he always keeps his sweet spirit.

Bennett loves his big sister. It surprises me because Lilly is always invading his personal space, waking him up from naps, taking away his binky and shoving toys into his face. You would think he would want her to leave him alone. But he just glows anytime she is around. You can see this by watching the video I posted of them together on Facebook.

Bennett doesn’t cry much. Some things he doesn’t like are being rocked to sleep when he doesn’t think he is sleepy and being burped in the middle of eating. 

Just some cute pictures

He has a bow tie on - so cute!! 

I told them to pull funny faces - just kidding! They did it on their own.

Christmas 2013

We had a nice Christmas season. We visited Santa, mailed letters to Santa, decorated the Christmas tree, made a gingerbread house, delivered neighbor gifts, ate candy from the advent calendar and did all sorts of other fun holiday activities.

Celebrating Christmas with a 3 year old was so much fun. Lilly was very excited and asked me daily if it was Christmas Eve. I had to show her where it was on the calendar each time. She kept telling people Santa was going to land on her roof, sang ‘Jungle Bells’ and ‘Santa is Coming to Town’ nonstop, and watched The Polar Express more times than I can count.

Because of Lilly’s obsession with The Polar Express the only thing she wanted from Santa was a bell from Santa’s sleigh. She also told me at one point she wanted ‘something that glows in the dark that goes in the sky’. What that meant – who knows. She only asked for it once.

On Christmas Eve Tyson and Lilly started the day sledding.  It was a really cold day so they didn't last long. 

We made Santa cookies and had a delicious dinner at Texas Roadhouse. Our family does like the Texas Roadhouse; however, it would not normally be our Christmas Eve choice. The only restaurants in the Quad Cities open on Christmas Eve are the chained restaurants. Our choices were The Red Lobster, TGI Fridays, Olive Garden, Chili’s, Applebee’s, and Texas Roadhouse – we chose the Roadhouse.

After dinner we took a drive to look at Christmas lights. Not very many people hang lights on their houses here. You have to do a lot of looking to see a handful of houses. Lilly got excited each time though so it was worth it.

When we got home the kids opened Christmas Eve presents. I got Lilly a nightgown and slippers. She continuously talked about her friends slippers so I thought she would like a pair. I am happy to say I was right. I think it was one of her favorite presents and she wears them all night and day. I tried to explain to her that they should be placed on the ground next to the bed at night but she likes to sleep with them either on her feet or on her pillow. Bennett got a stuffed alligator. His favorite part of the gifts was the pretty ribbons.

Before bed we hung our stockings, built a fire, put the cookies out and then Tyson read The Night Before Christmas to the kids. Lilly went to bed easy and didn’t wake up until around 8:00 when Tyson woke her up because he was excited.   

Before we got to the tree we stopped to take pictures on the stairs. Lilly was too excited and did not cooperate. When she went into the room she just kind of stopped and stared wide-eyed at everything. Santa left his bag and it was full of presents, he ate all of the cookies and left a note and the stocking were full. We decided to read the note first and then she dug into her stocking.

I am adding all of the stair pictures because I think it is funny watching Lilly hanging on to Bennett

We had a fun time opening presents; however, Lilly did get distracted playing with some makeup she got and she couldn’t seem to focus on opening more presents. I finally had to take it away from her so we could move on.

Lilly - Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Candy Land, highchair, books, flash cards, play makeup, Little Mermaid from Grandma and Grandpa, play food she shares with Bennett, and of course her bell from Santa's sleigh.

Lilly wanted to pose in front - haha

Bennett - stuffed alligator, PJ's, photo album, piggy bank, books, and some boy toys

Karen - toaster, clothes, a hat, movie, puzzle and journal

Tyson - clippers, socks, and family calendar 

I thought Lilly’s presents to me and Tyson were very cute. She got Tyson a box of movie theater candy, popcorn, and a gift card to the movies since she likes going to movies with daddy. For me Tyson had her pick one out a small figurine animal since I like them. She got two hummingbirds – one for me and one for her. I thought it was special she picked out the hummingbirds all by herself because my Grandma Whitney loved hummingbirds and had them all over her house. It was also funny she wanted one for herself.

After presents we did video chats with Grandma and Grandpa (aka: papa) Ballard and Grandma Kathy. Lilly then played with her toys while we prepared our Christmas lunch of funeral potatoes and ham. It was super yummy but we should have invited someone else over because we had WAY too much ham.

The rest of the night we spent relaxing, playing with all of our new toys, playing Candy Land with Lilly, napping, an enjoying being together.   

Church Christmas Outfits 

Lilly used the same dress as last year. 

He has a little tie under his sweater -SO cute

Thanksgiving 2013

We had another fun and yummy Thanksgiving. This is the first year our small family Thanksgiving has felt normal.  Tyson made the turkey, rolls, potatoes, stuffing and pies and I made everything else. He obviously made the more difficult dishes. Great job Tyson!

After dinner, naps and clean up we did a Thanksgiving craft.

Naps

 

We made these turkey doughnuts the day before Thanksgiving for Family Home Evening

 

 

We also got a newspaper to see all the sales and Tyson risks standing in line at Target to get an IPad. He was rewarded with a brand new IPad he doesn’t have to share with Karen or Lilly.

Another fun activity we did on our holiday weekend was going to the movie Frozen. I had to spend about 15 minutes walking in the entryway of the theater with Bennett but it was still a lot of fun. I thought the movie was cute. Lilly is always cute and excited to go watch movies on the big TV.

We also raked our leaves and made the largest leaf pile ever. Lilly was sad we had to pick them up at the end.