Dinosaur sheets

Tonight is a big night in our house. We've been hyping it up for months. Benjamin is sleeping in a big boy bed as I type. Since we moved into our new house we have had his bed set up in the baby's room. When I was still pregnant with Ellie we started talking about how Ben was going to sleep in what has been, up until now, our guest bed. And when we had company like Auntie Bekah and Grandmas and Papas "Gold Tooth" and "Kitty", we had Benjamin show off his big boy bed and asked if he would share it with them. He happily agreed to share every time. Yesterday we went to Target to pick up some big boy sheets and we took Grandma and Papa Kitty along. Benjamin was pretty excited to go to the store and seemed to like a set of sheets with balls and another set with dinosaurs. Benjamin held his sheets all the way to the check out and kept asking for us to open them.

Grandma and Papa Kitty went home today so Jeff and I decided that this was as good a day as any for Ben to make the switch. He seemed excited about his new bed and Ellie is starting to outgrow her bassinet already. I've been talking to Ben about what it's going to be like in his new bed all day long...he has to stay in his bed unless we get him...he should try to sleep up by his pillows so he doesn't fall off the end and get owies (we have blankets and pillows laid out just in case)...his bed is not for playing or jumping, just for sleeping...and so on. We didn't bribe him or threaten him (at least not yet). I just talked about it throughout the day and thought we would wait to see how he handled the transition.

Jeff disassembled the crib just enough to maneuver it out of Ben's room and into what will now be Ellie's room. Then he took apart the guest bed, moved everything into Ben's room and reassembled both the bed and the crib. As you can see in the pictures below, Benjamin offered his assistance every step of the way.

Ben helping by playing with his nightlight at daddy's feet.

Helping by showing daddy his toys.

Here he is helping by throwing his puppy at daddy.

Actually helping by holding things for daddy.

Just making sure daddy tightened things up enough.

Here daddy, let me help you with that.

Ben helps me make up his bed with his new dino sheets by sitting on them.

All finished. Think he's excited?

After all of that Jeff attached a safety railing on the side of the bed, gave Ben his bath and tucked him into his new bed. It took him a little while to fall asleep, but he was such a good little boy and stayed in his bed just the way he was told. I'm not sure if it was the thrill of having a new bed, the motivation brought on by having fun new dinosaur sheets to sleep on, or the fact that Benjamin is just a really good boy, but he is sawing logs next door and that is music to my ears. I know the first night isn't over yet and he may try to get out of bed in the morning, but so far the night has been a huge success in my opinion. Now my little Ben is a big boy and Ellie is in her big crib (she looks so teeny-tiny in there) and I'm lying in bed awake worrying about them both. Here's hoping we ALL get some good sleep on this big night and that this transition remains as easy as it seems.

More family comes to town

Grandma and Papa Kitty (Jeff's parents....who have kitties and are therefore called Grandma and Papa Kitty) visited us this past week. We haven't seen them since last spring, so it was great for them to catch up with Benjamin and to meet our little Elizabeth in person. It was so nice to see them and watch them love on our kids. And although I had started to settle into a routine with the kids, I still appreciated having extra hands around. I'll admit there are times when I'm home alone with the kids and I feel a little outnumbered. Most days had been going well overall, but when Ellie was hungry and Ben wanted to have a dance party, I was thankful that Papa and Grandma could host the dance party. If you've ever tried to feed your baby while dancing you know what I mean ;) And help with things such as dishes and folding laundry were really nice too. They even treated Jeff and I to a date night which is something we haven't had in quite some time. And of course there were plenty of laughs to go around...especially when Ben was awake and entertaining us.

Thanks for the visit, Grandma and Papa Kitty. We hope you had a nice time too.

Meeting Ellie

Grandma's first name is Elizabeth too.
She is one of the wonderful women with whom Ellie shares her name.

Smiles for Grandma

Grandma and Papa brought a few gifts for the kids including Ben's first guitar.

Grandma knit this hat for Ellie

Cuddling with Papa

Our little music man

Jeff entertains the family

Playing catch with Grandma

Hugs for Grandpa

We took G & G to the Arch.

Watching sea lions at the zoo

Benjamin wants to make friends

Ben and Ellie with Gma and Gpa Kitty

LOSER

This summer Jeff started leaving me sweet little messages on the fridge with Ben's refrigerator alphabet and I would write back to him. Sometimes we had to get creative as there are just the 26 letters. His first message to me was "SMILE Q T".

My folks came to visit recently. We had a great time together and of course there was plenty of teasing involved. You know how people say that girls are attracted to guys who are like their fathers. Well in my case, at least when it comes to a sense of humor, I'd say that statement is pretty accurate. Let me elaborate. My dad decided to join in on our refrigerator messages.

Here's what he wrote...

Here's Jeff's reply....which of course is supposed to read "Beat it".

A good time was had by all.

The water is clean, but it tastes like garbage.

It's easy to take things in life for granted, don't you think.? Like the fact that I can turn a handle on my faucet and have fresh, clean water. Or that I can boot up my computer and Skype with my mom and dad when I'm lonesome for them. Or that I married a man who works hard and is dedicated to his job and to providing for his family. And it's especially easy to take things for granted when there is potential to look for the negative side of things. For example, there is running water back home (yes, North Dakota is that advanced now) and it's clean enough, but in the spring time when the river floods, it tastes like garbage. Or once in a while the quality of a Skype session may be really choppy and annoying. Or I can easily get lost in thoughts about how my husband's work can keep him away for entire days (literally), and there have been times when Benjamin has gone days without seeing his daddy because of it. There is a lyric in an Alison Krauss song that says "every silver lining always seems to have a cloud" and it's entirely possible to see things in life in such a light, especially when you come up against hard times. But then there are moments when it becomes impossible to take something for granted. Moments when God throws something so wonderful your way and you just can't help but bask in the beauty of what He has done for you. Moments like this...

And those types of moments remind me to appreciate the smaller gifts in life that can be so easy to overlook...like seeing a hummingbird flit around outside my kitchen window while I'm washing dishes, or watching my mom laugh so hard she cries, or the banjo....just kidding. The banjo thing is a joke, although I do feel the banjo gets a bad rap and is one of the most under-appreciated instruments ;) But on a serious note, may I not lose sight of all of the gifts God provides, whether big or small, during good times or bad.

A breakfast symphony

If you have ever eaten a meal with my Benjamin you know that he loves his food. It doesn't really matter what he is eating, but when he is eats he is....well let's just call it expressive.

Here's what he sounds like...

Mmmmm....mmmm..mmmmmm........mmmmmmmm..mmm..mmmmm......mmmm

Truly. Nearly every inhale of breath is followed by long exhales full of "mmm's" until he needs to take another breath. And it could be anything from Rice Krispies to pasta. The sound is always the same. You just know he's having a good time with whatever it is he's gobbling up.

Turns out our little Elizabeth enjoys her food just as much. She makes the same "mmm.mmm.mmmm" sounds and adds in some snorts and lip smacks for good measure. It can be a little embarrassing. For instance I was at a lunch at our new church the other day when Ellie expressed her need to eat. So I went to go sit in the back of the room to feed her so that we wouldn't be a distraction from the speaker. I got all situated and started to feed her. Sure enough, even though I had removed myself from the group, heads turned as Ellie carried on with her loud "mmm's", snorts and smacks for the duration of her feeding. You can just see the heads turn and the smirks that followed, can't you?

Benjamin used to do the same thing when he was nursing too, only once he was older and could anticipate that he was going to be fed he added in an excited grunt as he saw me get ready with my nursing cover. There was one instance when Jeff and I were at an appreciation dinner for his work that was particularly entertaining for our table. Ben got hungry so I started to get ready to feed him. I just stayed at the table because even though everybody there was dressed up and it was a somewhat formal occasion, we were sitting with friends. As I prepared to feed my baby boy he started in with the grunts and continued to grunt until I was able to start feeding him. Then he kept on with a chorus of hums, snorts, smacks and grunts. The group we were sitting got a good chuckle out of it.

Well now Ben and Ellie eat at the same time on occasion (like they did today during breakfast) and the whole meal turned into a symphony of food appreciation. Here's what the concert sounded like...well as best as I can replicate it with words (the lower case letters were performed by Ellie and the upper case were performed by Ben).

mmm...mmm...mmm

MMM...MMM...MMM

snort

mmm...mmm....mmm

MMM...MMM...MMM

I LIKE IT

smack

snort

MMM...MMM...MMM

mmm...mmm...mmm

snort

MMM...MMM...MMM

smack

snort

mmm...mmm...mmm

ALL DONE MAMA!

snort!

So, if you're ever passing through our area and you're looking for something to do just let us know. We're a small venue but between our mealtime symphonies and other silly musings we've got entertainment in spades.

When family comes to town

We were fortunate to be able to spend our first week as a family of four together. Jeff was given a really nice amount of time for paternity leave for which we were so thankful. I wasn't sure how I was going to tackle being a mom of a newborn and a 2 year old while I was recovering. My parents were able to make a trip to meet Ellie when she was just a little over a week old. It was perfect timing really because they arrived just in time to help us celebrate Benjamin's 2nd birthday and to help me out when Jeff went back to work. One of my sisters was also able to make a quick trip to see us for a weekend when she was given a surprise day off from work. Here's what our time together looked like...

Benjamin was thrilled to see Grandpa and Grandma "Gold Tooth" pull up in the driveway. They were wonderful about making a fuss over him before they met the baby and he LOVED the attention.

Grandma meets Ellie.

These two have the same middle name. She shares her middle name with my mom's grandma too. Elizabeth has the same first name as her paternal grandma and great-grandma and Elizabeth was her maternal great-grandmother's middle name as well as her great-aunt's name. I love that her first and middle name are a reflection of so many wonderful women in our families.

Benjamin catches up with Grandpa and Banjosie. He just loves that dog.

Grandma gets to know grandchild number 7.

Grandpa meets little Ellie.

Benjamin shows grandpa how he does his chores, one of which is sorting the silverware after it comes out of the dishwasher.

One of Ben's birthday presents from Grandma and Grandpa. I think he likes it :)

While I made the birthday cake.

Osa is worn out from tussling with Banjosie.

So sweet. I remember pouring over books for hours with mom when I was a kid. It's so fun to see her share that time with her grandkids now.

Good company. Mom and dad were so helpful. Not only did they entertain Benjamin, but they helped with housework. One day they watched both kids while I napped. When I woke up mom had swept the whole house for me. They vacuumed, washed dishes and helped with dinner not to mention lots of other little tasks. Seriously such a blessing to this tired mama.

Auntie meets Ellie.

Mom and dad's first visit to the Arch.

This is the second time my sister has been able to visit the Arch.

When the rain from Hurricane Isaac cleared we celebrated Benjamin's birthday at the zoo. Here we're waiting for the sea lion show to start while Benjamin sucks down some lemonade. The kid doesn't normally drink anything but milk and water, so he was really going to town.

And just to prove that I was there.

Rob the sea lion wows the crowd.

My family being "wowed".

The kids and I took mom and dad to the butterfly house. On a side note, in a few months my folks will have been married for 50 years. Pretty awesome, eh?

Benjamin loves him some bluegrass so he was happy that grandpa brought his mandolin.

This picture is terribly blurry but I love how delighted Benjamin looks that he gets to sing and play with grandpa.

Josie was really interested in the baby and took every opportunity to cuddle near her.

Mom and dad with my babies just before they left.

Hours after they left Benjamin waits for grandma and grandpa to come back.

So happy to have had the company and the help from family. Now we are looking forward to introducing Ellie to the rest of her family.