OK, I've been looking back on old blog entries and noticing that I'm really good at keeping track of what we have done as a family, but not really mentioning the little milestones that our Ben has been tackling. I guess this means I better get working on the baby book entries! So here is a short synopsis of what our little ray of sunshine is up to as of late:
This is totally for my own purpose - I won't be offended if you aren't interested in reading this at all (in fact, I won't even know it!)!
1. He is sooo close to crawling - he spins in a cirle (only clockwise) on his belly, and is starting to skooch his hips off the ground. He does made progress, except that the only direction he's going right now is backwards. If he can't reach a toy, he will keep spinning circles until he gets closer.
2. No words yet, but lots of good hearty belly laughs. He is also doing the raspberry sound with pursed lips. He went through a phase of different sounds - 2 days of G-G-G, then 2 days of Wh-Wh-Wh.
3. Sitting - Again, so close to being able to go solo. He can sit up very well in his high chair (and has been for what seems like a very long time), and can sit on his own as long as something is there for when he eventually tips over trying to see something behind him. I had him in a shopping cart seat yesterday - a little tippy, bit did OK.
4. Interests - He is an observer. When we take him new places, his is content just looking around and checking out the scene. He likes to be outside. His favorite toys involve spinning something with his little thumb. He's really liking peek-a-boo and loves to be thrown up in the air, or startled with a "BOO". Today, we played with his new Christmas trucks - zooming them on the floor - he was enthralled! He likes to play with his soccer ball and new TrailBlazers basketball. He loves books - he has been turning pages (even at the right time) for over a month now. He also likes to play with the wooden animal puzzle made by grandpa Ron.
5. Sleeping - Before we left for MN, he had been sleeping thru the night (about 10-11 hours) with very few wake ups at all. In MN, we had some setbacks, but I think he's back on track to make it on his own. He's taking 2 naps during the day - usually one 2 hour and one that's about 45 min to 1.5 hours.
6. Food - He is now down to just a morning and night time nursing, with a bottle at 2PM. He has been eating solids for about 2 months now. So far he's a big fan of squash, pears, apples, bananas, and sweet potatoes. Strangely, he's having a harder time with peaches, and peas and green beans. He is eating a solid breakfast at about 10:00 and dinner at 5:00 - I'm thinking we need to add in a lunch soon. We just started offering "puffs" a few days ago. He had the chewing intinct right away, but will need to work on his pincher grabbing.
7. I almost forgot - He he sprouted a tooth in the past week or so - It is still working its way out, but you can feel it with your finger (bottom right), and we can see more of it everyday.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Happy Holidays everyone!
Here is a shot of Ben, Andy and I after a breeze-y time getting through airport security at PDX on Christmas Eve (finally leaving after a 4 day delay because of the horrible weather in Portland). The "family-friendly" TSA personnel were so nice and laid back and friendly, even offering to take our picture to document Ben's first airport experience (outside of my tummy, that is...). Ben slept about 2 hours of the 3 hour flight like a trooper, then we played a bit and fed him some squash and cereal for entertainment. No angry looks were shot our way, that's for sure. It was nice not being "that baby" on the plane.
Grandpa Ron met us at the airport and chauffeured us for the 3 hour drive to Little Boy Lake in -15F degree weather arriving at 1:30AM. The northern part of MN had about as much snow on the ground as Newberg did when we left. Grandma was sure happy to see us! We awoke Christmas morning got to introduce my brother and sister-in-law to their nephew, Ben. How fun!
Grandma and her "little elves" had borrowed all of the baby items that a little 7 month old baby could dream of, so we were set up pretty nice - a high chair, 2 excersaucers, crib, and boxes of toys, etc. 
We hung out at the cabin on Christmas Day - browsing food all day long, and began opening gifts after a great homemade dinner of ham and potatoes. Ben received so many nice things from G and G and B and P, and he got so tired from opening gifts on Christmas Day, that he had to continue the gift opening the next afternoon... thank you again for the wonderful toys, books and clothes! We ate lots of good food, and had a lot of fun watching our family interact with Ben. It was very hard to leave after such a short visit.
Here is Ben spending some quality time with Grandma Jan during meal time (nice view out the deck doors, huh?)
We got to spend 2 days back in Mpls visiting with my old college friends. My 4 girlfriends, their husbands and our collective pile of 9 kids got together for a great time on Sunday. Danielle posted a picture of the whole group (minus poor Henry, who was already in bed) on her blog. It is always so great to catch up with "my girls" and see how fast their kiddos have grown! Thanks to Hope and Chad for the deluxe accomodations! 
Grandpa Ron met us at the airport and chauffeured us for the 3 hour drive to Little Boy Lake in -15F degree weather arriving at 1:30AM. The northern part of MN had about as much snow on the ground as Newberg did when we left. Grandma was sure happy to see us! We awoke Christmas morning got to introduce my brother and sister-in-law to their nephew, Ben. How fun!
Grandma and her "little elves" had borrowed all of the baby items that a little 7 month old baby could dream of, so we were set up pretty nice - a high chair, 2 excersaucers, crib, and boxes of toys, etc. We hung out at the cabin on Christmas Day - browsing food all day long, and began opening gifts after a great homemade dinner of ham and potatoes. Ben received so many nice things from G and G and B and P, and he got so tired from opening gifts on Christmas Day, that he had to continue the gift opening the next afternoon... thank you again for the wonderful toys, books and clothes! We ate lots of good food, and had a lot of fun watching our family interact with Ben. It was very hard to leave after such a short visit. Here is Ben spending some quality time with Grandma Jan during meal time (nice view out the deck doors, huh?) We got to spend 2 days back in Mpls visiting with my old college friends. My 4 girlfriends, their husbands and our collective pile of 9 kids got together for a great time on Sunday. Danielle posted a picture of the whole group (minus poor Henry, who was already in bed) on her blog. It is always so great to catch up with "my girls" and see how fast their kiddos have grown! Thanks to Hope and Chad for the deluxe accomodations!For the late night (9:45PM) return trip, Ben slept on the plane (the whole 3.5 hour trip and all of the way to baggage claim). After catching a shuttle to our park-n-fly hotel parking spot, we had to remove the chains from my Jeep at 1:00 in the morning, and made it home, sweet home at about 2:30AM.
We will soon be getting together with Andy's side of the family for the holidays. Can't wait to see everyone!
Wishing a happy, healthy new year to all of my readers! Andy, Ben and I are so thankful to have such wonderful friends and family surrounding us. For us, 2008 was a great year filled with all of the joys that a new baby can bring, along with some scary moments from grandpa, but all in all, it was a very good year. Can't wait to see what 2009 has in store for us!
Sunday, December 21, 2008
I guess we can call THIS a true snowstorm.
We were supposed to fly out at 8:45AM on Sunday, but after watching the weather reports all day on Saturday, we decided that we would stay at a hotel near the airport on Saturday night to avoid the bad road conditions on Sunday early in the morning. That way we could do the park-n-fly option, where you can leave your car at the hotel parking lot and they shuttle you to the airport, avoiding the parking fees there.
It took us forever to finalize our packing here at home - Weighing the $15 charge for the first checked bag and $25 for the second bag, and figuring how we could pack most of the liquids in the checked bags only, reserving only the necessary liquids for the plane, of course packed in the clear, quart-size Ziploc baggie... On top of that - planning Ben's meals - bottles, baby food, spoons, bowls - in another Ziploc baggie, and of course another place to store the breast milk and baby food to present to security...
We got out of Newberg at 5:30PM and with the Jeep in 4WD started on the white-knuckle, harrowing drive to the airport hotel. The roads were full of about 6 inches of snow and we never went over 30MPH. I definitely breathed a major sigh of relief as we pulled into the hotel lot 2 hours later (normally a 45 minute drive). I continued to check on the flight status though the night and up until 3AM, the automated phone message from NW airlines still indicated that the flight was on time.
But, at 5AM our flight status message now said "Unfortunately, your flight has been cancelled." Bummer. So I stayed on the line for an hour, talking to a ticket agent to re-book our flight for Wednesday at 2:30 (the earliest available). Now, we had to decide whether to drive home, or to spend another night at the hotel, waiting for the roads to improve. They were requiring chains on all highways in the Portland metro area. We made the call to drive back home on Sunday. After a stop at an auto parts store about a 1/2 mile from our hotel, to pick up some chains for the Jeep, we headed back to Newberg - a much better drive this time with the chains. The roads were still very tricky, but we felt a lot better with the chains on the truck. We drove over 2-3 inches of packed snow (ice) nearly the whole way, with snow continuing to fall. Again, a 2 hour drive and we pulled into our house to find about 8 inches of snow, with a 1/2 inch of ice, then another 2 inches of snow on top of that.
On Monday, we awoke to MORE SNOW! and it has continued falling all day on Monday. I measured with a ruler at about 11AM: 12 inches. I have a feeling that another 4 have fallen since then. Look at the Jeep (on the left) in the picture below - It was completely cleared off at 3:30 the day before - this was taken about noon on Monday.
The Portland area has not seen anything like this in many, many years. My neighbor (who has lived here 28 years) says - nothing in the past even comes close to this. We had to knock the snow and ice off of our bushes with a broom, because many of them just collapsed. Last week may have made us look like wussies, but this is the real deal - I think we may have more snow here than Minnesota. Hopefully our flight will leave on Wednesday and we will be able to decide for ourselves who has more snow. It's actually still coming down as I am writing this at 3PM on Monday...
Monday at about noon (Andy's CRV).
It took us forever to finalize our packing here at home - Weighing the $15 charge for the first checked bag and $25 for the second bag, and figuring how we could pack most of the liquids in the checked bags only, reserving only the necessary liquids for the plane, of course packed in the clear, quart-size Ziploc baggie... On top of that - planning Ben's meals - bottles, baby food, spoons, bowls - in another Ziploc baggie, and of course another place to store the breast milk and baby food to present to security...
We got out of Newberg at 5:30PM and with the Jeep in 4WD started on the white-knuckle, harrowing drive to the airport hotel. The roads were full of about 6 inches of snow and we never went over 30MPH. I definitely breathed a major sigh of relief as we pulled into the hotel lot 2 hours later (normally a 45 minute drive). I continued to check on the flight status though the night and up until 3AM, the automated phone message from NW airlines still indicated that the flight was on time.
But, at 5AM our flight status message now said "Unfortunately, your flight has been cancelled." Bummer. So I stayed on the line for an hour, talking to a ticket agent to re-book our flight for Wednesday at 2:30 (the earliest available). Now, we had to decide whether to drive home, or to spend another night at the hotel, waiting for the roads to improve. They were requiring chains on all highways in the Portland metro area. We made the call to drive back home on Sunday. After a stop at an auto parts store about a 1/2 mile from our hotel, to pick up some chains for the Jeep, we headed back to Newberg - a much better drive this time with the chains. The roads were still very tricky, but we felt a lot better with the chains on the truck. We drove over 2-3 inches of packed snow (ice) nearly the whole way, with snow continuing to fall. Again, a 2 hour drive and we pulled into our house to find about 8 inches of snow, with a 1/2 inch of ice, then another 2 inches of snow on top of that.
On Monday, we awoke to MORE SNOW! and it has continued falling all day on Monday. I measured with a ruler at about 11AM: 12 inches. I have a feeling that another 4 have fallen since then. Look at the Jeep (on the left) in the picture below - It was completely cleared off at 3:30 the day before - this was taken about noon on Monday.
The Portland area has not seen anything like this in many, many years. My neighbor (who has lived here 28 years) says - nothing in the past even comes close to this. We had to knock the snow and ice off of our bushes with a broom, because many of them just collapsed. Last week may have made us look like wussies, but this is the real deal - I think we may have more snow here than Minnesota. Hopefully our flight will leave on Wednesday and we will be able to decide for ourselves who has more snow. It's actually still coming down as I am writing this at 3PM on Monday...
Monday at about noon (Andy's CRV).
Friday, December 19, 2008
OK - It turned into a snow WEEK!
So, no school all week. Man, we are going to pay for this in June... But for now, having a week off of school was a nice relaxing way to start my 2 week vacation. Ha-ha. Ben and I mostly just kicked it around the house, (Ben in his Bouncey chair, me - wherever)
with a few short excursions here and there. I did make it to do some solo shopping on Tuesday by dropping Ben at daycare for a few hours, and Ben went with (me) on a short trip to Target on Thursday, where I finally found Ben a medium weight jacket - so cute - at Target. So I bundled him up for a nice stroller jaunt to the Post Office on Friday for Christmas stamps. I did also put mittens on him (and they stayed on for the whole trip!).
We are off to MN on Sunday AM (weather permitting). Wish us luck! Hope that everyone has a happy joyous holiday!!
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Snow Day #3?!?
OK - this is getting ridiculous. This is our 3rd snow day in a row. 2 inches of the white stuff (on Monday) and the whole Portland metro shuts down. Granted, they don't have the hordes of snowplows to go out and plow all of the roads like they do in the Midwest, so they get the freeways clear, but people still have to get TO the freeways. There also was a layer of ice added in to the mix, but now it sounds like I'm making excuses... The forecast for today is for snow and freezing rain - I think we could have gotten to school OK today, but the getting home part would have been a bit more difficult. You're probably wondering why I would have a problem with 3 free days off to catch up on everything around the house. Well, our school district has already posted on its homepage that we WILL be making up these snow days in June by extending the school year into our precious summer. Bummer. Major bummer.
If you want to know what a true "arctic blast" looks like, check out my dad blowing snow (the 1st of 2 sessions of moving snow in the same day)
Ummm, my parent's little town of Longville, population 209 (or something), made the paper today...
Now really, Portlanders, take note. This is what you call a TRUE arctic blast.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Winter Wonderland
We had crazy Saturday of:
1. Making chocolate eclairs for Andy's family Christmas party (not too much effort for a pretty sweet reward)
2. Preparing for day on the go with Ben (gathering food, diapers, extra set of clothing, sleeper for the drive home, etc.) by making 10 trips out to the car.
3. Shopping for Christmas gifts for about 2 hours (Ben did an awesome job of traveling, as always!)
4. Attending said family party - which was a fun time - it was great seeing everyone! Poor Ben had only had 2 very short interrupted naps during the day and, needless to say, was long overdue for some sleep. Here is Ben crashed out on grandma Jeanne:
I'm so glad that we got so much done on Saturday, because a winter storm hit the Portland area on Sunday AM, immobilizing us here in Newberg. Here is Ben seeing snow for the first time! Now it really feels like Christmas is coming.
Our house all dusted in snow.
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