Marliene's Miracle Blanket!

I got 8 nearly uninterrupted hours of glorious sleep last night. I fed Ben at 8:30PM, then put him down to bed around 9:30PM. He has come down with cold #2 and has been feeling a bit under the weather, so he is sleeping a bit more than normal. I crawled into bed about 10:00PM, and didn't fully awake until 6:00AM!!! Andy did have to get up at 10:15 or so to put the pacifier back in, and Ben woke up about 3AM coughing, but went back to sleep on his own. All in all that makes 8 hours of mommy laying in bed, not getting up at all! I am chalking this up partially to his cold, but mostly to a flannel blanket that I made, patterned after my daycare provider's swaddle blankets. My little receiving blankies just aren't cutting it any more - Ben can bust out of even the tightest swaddle because they are just too small and he getting too strong. This awesome new blanket is simply 2 large pieces of flannel sewn together, and I am kicking myself now for not making one earlier.



Here are some pics from the backyard today.

Some pics

Ben at 17 weeks
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Ben at 7 weeks
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Here is Ben on his awesome new ZZ Top-style truck from Jeanne and Doug

Future Trouble Makers of America

Here are play pals Levi (our friends Jim and Deb's son) and Ben - I can only imagine all of the trouble these 2 will conjure up together in the near future...


A multi-tasking daddy action shot


We had nice visit to Eugene yesterday - It's always great to see our friends Jim and Deb and their son, Levi. Can't believe the weekend is almost over - I still have laundry, grading, bottle washing, and maybe some more baking to do... We have a few zucchini from the garden that are just waiting to be shredded into a nice nut bread.

Deep conversation between Ben and I

All in all a good week... Ben has mostly recovered from his bottle strike earlier this week. We didn't give him any bottles over last weekend, (he just nursed) and he had a very hard time taking one at daycare on Monday and Tuesday, which makes his mommy very stressed out. We didn't realize what an effect this could have - we thought he was well established on the bottle - little did we know, Ben had other ideas. Seems like he is kind of back on track - But has only taken 1 bottle a day at daycare on Thursday and Friday, but ended up taking one soon after we got back home both days. We will be sure to give him 2 bottles a day over this weekend.

We're heading down to Eugene on Saturday to see Jim, Deb, Levi and the Eugene celebration.

15 week old Inch Worm

Ben inched his way from the center of the baby gym across the office carpet last night. Total distance travelled: about 2 1/2 feet. It wasn't pretty - hilarious, but not pretty.



Also, here is an great old pic (11 weeks) that I forgot to post... What a cutie!

Roll out the Barrel

This is for grandma Jan, who has requested some video... Ben has now begun to master "grabbing for" toys and has just started the "playing with" toys phase.


He loves to sit in the high chair and likes to practice standing on mommy and daddy's laps.

He also has discovered his thumb and will put himself to sleep by sucking on it (sometimes).

We just had a really nice visit from Grandparents Tom and Barbara - we celebrated our Nordic roots by having an Oktoberfest meal on the patio with grilled brats, sauerkraut, corn on the cob, rice, beer, apple cider while listening to a great polka music CD that my dad burned a while back. Feels like the leaves should start falling any day now. Tom and Barbara had a great time with Ben - he put on a good show - lots of smiles with minimal spit-up. It's so fun watching how Ben brings out the kid in everyone!

My first week with kids at school went very well. It feels very weird to leave at 1:00 when there are kids still in the building. I'm feeling pretty on top of my game - learning the names of my 100 students - still have a few to go... We'll see how this next week goes - the first 5 day week.

Crazy Week (End)

Well, let's see - 2 weekends ago, we spent Saturday at a small gathering at Auntie Rhonda and Uncle Aaron's house. What a fun time - We had good food, great company and they even put together a creative wine tasting game. There were 5 mystery red wine bottles - you had to guess the type of wine and what flavors were described as being in the wine on the bottle. For example: a Pinot Noir with blackberry, dark chocolate and spice flavors... Much harder than it sounds, but dangerously fun! I forgot my camera, so no pics from that day.

Last week was my first week back at work - Tues-Wed-Thurs for in-service meetings and time getting my room ready. It was nice to talk about something other than spit-up, poop and burp rags, and it felt good being back in the swing of a new school year. Of course, it was hard to leave Ben behind, but I felt OK knowing that he's in capable, caring hands.

I put together the high chair because Ben likes to sit upright and we don't have many "toys" that allow him to do that. He seemed to enjoy!


For Labor Day weekend, we headed to the beach to spend time with Andy's family at his grandfather's beach house. What a fun time - It was Ben's first overnight - he did a great job! He provided entertainment for the evening - we called it Ben-o-vision or Ben-TV, and he was entertained by everyone present!

Andy's old neighbor, Steve, and his son, Ethan, who is just 20 days older than Ben stopped by for an afternoon visit. It was great visiting with him and his wife, Dani, and it turns out that we have been living tandem lives - lots of crazy coincidences.

Ben's first trip to the beach on a cool August Saturday. (Neahkahnie Mountain in the background.)

That beach air will tire you out every time...

This is probably how I will feel after this week back at school! Wish me luck!