Ben's a Trooper

OK - In this corner, weighing in at 12 lbs 8 oz, is Ben the Goo-meister Clodfelter. His head was 15 inches around, and he was 23 inches long. He is following the growth chart to a T. He turned many shades of deep red and even purple when the nurse gave the 4 separate immunization shots, but he immediately calmed down and fell asleep in my arms. What a trooper.

A Boy Named Goo

Grandma and grandpa just couldn't stay away. I think I've enticed them back to Oregon with the cute little video clips. They should be arriving here tonight sometime. There is a house for sale directly across the street. Maybe their purchase of said house would save them some gas money. Ha-ha. Ben has his 2 month check up tomorrow, so I'll have to post with the updated numbers then. In the meantime, here are the latest pics.

From a get-together with Andy's fam at his 91 year-old grandpa's house 2 weekends ago.

Uncle Aaron

Auntie Rhonda

This last weekend, Ben attended his first ever brewfest at 8 weeks old! (For those that don't know - the Portland area is known as Beervana, and hosts many festivals to allow folks to taste the great variety of brews from all over Oregon, the U.S. and even the world) Ben was a total trooper. He just hung out in the stroller, with minimal fussing that was alleviated by mom with one finger on the pacifier to keep it in his mouth. I had 1 sip of a great beer: "Hop Stupid", but that only made me miss the beer even more. Andy did get to enjoy some(!) great beers, though I'd say that taking a small baby to a large brewfest with tons of people wasn't the most fun. This brewfest is the largest one of the year with 80,000 people attending over 4 days. In the future, I think we could handle a smaller venue brewfest with Ben in tow, but this one was a bit too big.

Our friends Jim and Deb came up to visit from Eugene with their son, Levi. I think this was his first brewfest, also!

The post beerfest celebration at our house - The happy boys.

Here's a shot of Ben's belly. It'll be interesting to see how his weight charts out tomorrow...

We think we've got Ben saying "Goo". You be the judge. (The post title refers to the 1995 Goo Goo Dolls album)

8 weeks old and who needs a pacifier...

when you can suck on your whole fist? (or at least attempt to in a moving vehicle)

Ben is finally enjoying his mobile over his crib...

and "grabbed" something for the first time - well, really, I should say - "got ahold of" something, because I had to uncurl his fingers, put the rattle in his hand and curl them back up around it...

Back to Reality

This is what Ben thinks of the girls having to leave...


The girls were here for about 3 days. Three days of bliss. They came bearing gifts. They cooked up a bunch of awesome food. They helped me sort through and organize boxes and boxes of baby clothes. They helped me make a swing lover of Ben. They gave me tons of much needed advice. They got me out of the house for a little shopping. They took Ben at 6AM so I could get some sleep.

It was so great having them here. I'm now going through serious withdrawl. Andy and I dined on leftovers last night (no cooking for us!), but now it's back to reality. At least it's the weekend - Andy took most of Friday off, and has been entertaining Ben for the better part of this morning, allowing me to get some stuff done around the house. We have some shopping to do, and have a family gathering on Sunday.

My girls are coming!

My girls from MN are about 2 hours away right now! The 3 of them have flown out to spend some time with me and Andy and to meet our little Ben. I can't wait!!

Here are some pics in the meantime. (I have been having some problems uploading pics to blogger lately - hopefully these work out OK).



More of daddy reading to little Ben - I think he'll have this Richard Scarry book memorized before he can even read!

Andy's friends from Santa Clara hosted an awesome baby shower - AKA - keg party with friends, kids, beer and festivities. They have been having these "Old School" Baby Showers for many of their college buddies - This one was Old School #4. Many of his college buds flew up (with kids!) from California just for this event - How sweet of them! Ben did a great job at the party - lots of smiles for everyone - it was really hot here, but he was a trooper. Here are some of the attendees.

This is Riad with Dylan at 3 weeks and me with Ben at about 7 weeks. Already, I can't even remember Ben being as small as Dylan...

OK - weird story from last week. Andy, Ben and I went out and ran some errands on Saturday last week for a couple of hours. When we returned home, we found that our glass patio table in our back yard had shattered! There were no signs of a branch or rock or anything crashing into it - It just spontaneously shattered into a million pieces! Any thoughts as to what happened here?

Almost 6 weeks

We had a pretty good week. Ben has been smiling and happy in the morning and afternoons (but NOT as night...). He is pretty needy though - seems like he needs to be held and moved around all day to keep him occupied. This means that I don't get a whole lot done, which is hard for me because I am such a task-oriented person. I get great satisfaction from crossing something off of "my list". I guess I should add "enjoy being at home with your baby" to my list, so I feel better! Ha-ha.

On Tuesday, I met with a daycare provider that I really liked. Her house was neat, organized, well-kept, and she had really nice kids at her house that day. I know it's going to be so hard to leave Ben with someone else while I go back to work, but she was so great with him... I will be going back to school at the end of August when Ben will be 3 months old. My plan is to work 2/3 time - which means I would be done at school around 1 or 1:30, so Ben would be in day care for about 6-7 hours.

We didn't do much for the 4th - Just hung out at home and tried to do some spring cleaning around the house. Andy's been power washing the house and cleaning windows, and I've been tackling the piles of dust that seem to accumulate overnight.

Here are some pics of smiley Ben