The Latest Stats

At his 6 month well-baby check up,

Ben weighed in at 18 lbs, 3 ozs (90th%),

length of 26 3/4 inches (60th%) and

head in the 50th%.

Other than this nagging cough of his, all is well with Ben!

Big Post

I have noticed that I am not the only one slacking in the blog updates... Maybe I'll post, and that will inspire others (H,D,K,B,C) to update also!

**OK - I'm really showing how long it's been since I posted here** Not this week, but last week I attended the National Science Teachers Association Conference here in Portland on Thursday and Friday. It was nice to hear some new teaching ideas and to listen to the keynote speakers - Jamie and Adam from the MythBusters. I chose not to wait in line for an hour to get an autograph. I really want my students to get some "outdoor education" in this year. I need to get started writing some curriculum and grants for $$ for equipment, so this can happen this spring. I got some good leads on grants at the conference, but I have to come up with ideas that match their goals... In my spare time, I guess. (BTW - Did I tell you that I wrote and got a grant to have a SMART Board permanently installed in my classroom?? It's one of those interactive whiteboards like they had on some of the election coverage...)

We had parent/teacher conferences during Thanksgiving Week on Mon/ Tues/ Wed. but I came down with a nasty bug on Monday night (headache and 45 minutes of uncontrollable shivering) and Tuesday AM (fever, body aches, dizziness). Luckily it was just a 24 hour deal, so I missed just Tuesday and was back at it on Wednesday.
My parents arrived from MN a week ago Friday. It has been so great to watch them play with Ben - I think my mom had fed Ben his solids every day since her arrival, and changed many a diaper! It's going to be a hard transition back to reality when they leave. It makes everything seem so much easier when someone else is able to watch Ben. We cleaned out the gutters, tidied up the yard and got ready for Christmas lights on Saturday. My folks just left this morning, trying to beat a winter storm heading towards Montana.
We hosted Andy's family for Thanksgiving. There were 9 of us plus Ben and with my mom's assistance (OK, she pretty much did it all) we pulled off a nice spread of turkey, dressing, and homemade apple and pecan pies, and Andy's family brought in the squash, green been casserole, potatoes and appetizers. It was nice to have it here, so we had all of Ben's "stuff" handy, and we could just put him to bed in his own crib.

Andy and I got out of the house for a short afternoon jaunt to a local brewpub (without Ben! - thanks g-ma and g-pa!) to meet up with an old work friend, John, and his new girlfriend, Amy. So nice to be able to get away even for a short bit, even if I only had a glass of beer, not a pint.

As for Ben's sleeping issues - We have had some really good nights of sleep (8PM-5AM) and some others that did not go as smoothly. Ben, of course, has come down with another cold and had a few rough nights trying to breath through his nose. It has moved to his chest, so he has been doing quite a bit of coughing lately. All in all, he is doing so much better with sleeping through the night - On average, just one wake up with 10 minutes of crying.

I'm getting a bit anxious as December is already upon us tomorrow. Our preparations for the holidays are going to be a bit more squeezed in it seems this year - Is it just me or did the Holidays totally sneek up on us?? With Andy's family gatherings, work party, and possible visits from friends, there's not a whole lot of time left for the shopping, etc... I know, I know, the holidays are really about enjoying time with family, but there still is the "other" factor of all of the prep work - decorating, gift buying, etc. that we still allow to stress us out a little bit... :) I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Ferber-ization

So, a while back, I had stated that we were excited that Ben had slept thru the night with the aid of "Marliene's Miracle Blanket" and a nice cold. Since those heavenly 3 nights, it's been a mixture of semi-long stretches of sleep, with a typical feeding the middle of the night around 1 or 2AM. He is really good at falling asleep, just not so good at staying asleep. Lately, Ben has also been waking up at night and fussing until we go into the nursery and stick the pacifier back in his mouth. We put him to sleep with the binkie in his mouth, but he can't keep it in for very long. It has turned into about an hourly waking pattern with us up to put the pacifier in and walk away. Almost always, he would fall right back asleep, but we were ending up exhausted because we were only getting very short periods of sleep. It is such an easy "fix" to help him go back to sleep, that it sure seemed like the right thing to do at the time...

Now, are to the point of frustration, and have started Ben on the Ferber method of putting kids down to sleep. The idea is that the baby will eventually learn to self sooth, and put themselves to sleep (or back to sleep in Ben's case). This usually entails several nights of "tough love" from the parents. We have been letting him cry himself back to sleep - It is agonizing! My entire body tenses up during his crying fits, and it's all we can do to not rush into the nursery and calm him down. In the long run, this will be better for all of us, but it is SO hard! We started on Friday night - with 3 15-20 minute bouts of crying spread out thru the night. Saturday night he had just 3 10 minute bouts, so here's hoping that on the right path... We'll see what tonight brings.

We had a nice weekend at home catching up on errands and raking leaves. Today at 3 different stores, Ben started in with his "talking" (aka loud baby babble). It was so cute to see peoples' reactions - all of them just started talking back to Ben - trying to hold a conversation - "Oh, really, tell me more little cutie pie" etc. He was called the Gerber baby and someone else told us to send in a picture of him to Regis and Kelly - I'm not sure what that means, but it sounds like a compliment. Of course we think he's the greatest baby ever, but it's so fun to see other people's reaction to him, too!

I built a small paper mache volcano tonight as a model that I may have my kids make at school - kinda fun, seeing as I never actually made one in school before. I felt like a little kid myself. I also made some great pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

Pumpkin Gems:
1 pkg yellow cake mix
1/2 c vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
1 can (15 oz) pumpkin
2 tsp cinnamon (I used pumpkin pie spice)
Mix and bake at 350 degrees for 12-16 minutes in 2/3 full muffin tins lined with cupcake papers.

frost the cooled cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting from Betty Crocker
1 pkg of cream cheese, softened
1/4 c butter, softened
2 tsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar

Makes a ton - use the rest to frost graham crackers, etc.

Grandpa and Grandma Stokes are heading out this week to come visit Ben (and us). We can't wait to see them! I'm sure I'll have some good pics during their stay.

Again, G-pa Stokes is A-OK...

After another scare from grandpa Ron, all is well... Turned out that in addition to the blocked leg artery, he also had a blocked artery leading to his heart. So, back in the cath lab for another procedure on Monday. Luckily, a stent did the trick to open the 95% blocked artery! Grandpa is on his way to a full recovery. Can't wait to see him soon!


Saturday, we raked leaves all day, then we spent the evening at a family gathering - it's always so nice to get together with Andy's family - it makes it even more meaningful to watch Ben interact with everyone! He's such a good baby!


I spent Sunday in bed with a fevery stomach bug that had been creeping up on me for days... Andy took over Ben duty like a trooper. I'm still not back to 100%, but I have Tuesday off for Veteran's Day, so hopefully, I'll have time to recovery before heading back to school this week.


Here are some photos and some short videos that I promised grandpa...

Ben is getting to be such a BIG BOY!

More giggles...

Playing with grandpa's puzzle...

Eating rice cereal...

Happy Halloween!

Hope everyone had a nice Halloween! Thanks to Danielle for the cute costume (he just barely fit into it!)
"Why can't I have any?"

Ben was very into the leaves falling by the bucketload in our front yard.

Hobbies include: talking...

When Ben was born, both Andy and I started looking back in our old baby books, diligently kept by our mothers - we were both first-born, so there is actually a fair amount of info in both of the books ;) In my book there is a section "Special interests and activities", where moms fill in the favorite activities at each year. Under years 1, 2, and 3 my #1 hobby was simply listed as: talking. Maybe Ben has inherited this gene from his mommy... (along with 99% of my other genes - we're still waiting to see the "Andy side" of Ben - I'm sure it's coming soon...)

Last weekend we got a lovely visit from my old childhood neighbors Chuck (who I used to refer to as "Chuch" in my toddler years) and Colleen, their daughter Kelley and her daughter, Dylan. It was great to see them again!

Here's some backyard pics of our smiley guy from yesterday - I can't believe the beautiful fall weather we're having here in Portland.

And another post-bath, Michelin baby pic...

2 pictures

Mmmm, pumpkin.

One from a few weeks ago that I forgot to post... Can you say Michelin baby?