Christmas

We had a great Christmas today! I have some nice pictures, but we switched the memory cards out in the camera in preparation for our trip tomorrow, so I don't have them easily accessible right now. Tomorrow we leave for Europe! We are all packed...tomorrow morning we do last minute things and clean the house and we're off at about noon! We're visiting London, Rome, Teramo, Italy, Austria and Switzerland. We're really excited!

Here is an ADORABLE video that I just took of Lamoni playing with Benjamin and I finally got his cute giggle on video! Enjoy!

12.17.13

Benjamin learned how to giggle! It's adorable. He's done it on two occasions... I tried to get a video of it but he doesn't like doing things on command. :-) So we'll have to wait until I surprise him with it. It's the same thing with smiling. Sometimes he's smiling so big and looks adorable but when I take my camera out he's so distracted by it he just stares at it and loses interest in me or smiling.

We went to Bloomfield to visit Grandma and Grandpa Sam for the weekend since they're going to Utah for Christmas. He got to open his first Christmas presents! He especially liked looking at the tree (not as much as cousin, Leena, did though! I'm regretting not putting our tree up this year. We never got around to it until recently but then we decided that since we're going to Europe the day after Christmas it's not worth the work of putting up and taking down. I'm pretty overwhelmed getting all the details for the trip finalized and starting to pack (sort of) that the thought of adding something else not necessary seems laughable. It's a good thing everyone else has a tree that he can enjoy staring at!


On our way back from Bloomfield we stopped to see Grandma Mary - Lamoni's paternal grandmother. She doesn't understand or speak much English so it's mostly smiling and communicating with the little Navajo that Lamoni knows, but she really enjoyed seeing Benjamin and held him for a good 30 minutes. He put on his best show for her too.
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                                                         Three Generations

Videos

"What Does the Fox Say?"

I try to get a video of his baby sounds, but as soon as I get the video camera he stops! Here are a couple, though.

Cousins having fun with Lamoni

12.4.13

He is held by so many students and students' moms! Even when the babysitter is here most parents want to hold him the whole time anyway and the babysitter just sits there.

I finally got a picture I like with him. My friend from church, Nikita, had us come over and took some pictures of him. 

He's in 3-6 month clothes at 7 weeks old!

His cheeks are so soft!

At Faith and Jared's baby shower

Yes, that is urine that leaked through his pajamas, but I thought his face was so cute!

Cute Stories

Cute things often happen with Benjamin and then I have the hardest time remembering what they were! I just thought of one, however, so I figured I had better post it quickly.

I was wearing him in the wrap one day (face in) and he was really grumpy. He finally fell asleep and I went to get something to eat. I very carefully opened a jar of peaches and was eating as carefully as I could because I knew if the fork even clinked on the glass it would cause him to wake up and scream (he's only a light sleeper when he's grumpy). Well, I ate a few peaches and all of a sudden low and behold, he woke up and screamed. I was really disappointed because I had been so careful and I couldn't figure out what caused him to wake up. I left the kitchen bouncing him to try to get him back to sleep when I looked down - a portion of a peach must have slid off my fork because there on the bridge of his nose was a peach just lying there!

We went to the pediatrician last week and as soon as the nurse took his diaper off he started urinating! She covered it in time, though. However, at the Sam's house for Thanksgiving Grandma Melinda changed his diaper and before I could get the new one to her she and everything around him had been sprayed!

This isn't a cute story, but just an update. At the midwife's this week (it feels like he is always getting checkups...) he weighed 13 lbs 6 oz! On his way to 14 pounds and only 7 weeks old! He is in 3-6 month clothes right now.

Noises

Benjamin has been making the cutest baby noises. After he's fed and pooped and therefore in a good mood he will play with us and copy sounds we're making (or maybe we copy him...). In any case, it's like we're having a conversation with him and he'll go back and forth a long time! He also enjoys playing with certain noise-making toys with us and having books read to him. He's so attentive to everything.

We had his baby appointment yesterday. He now weighs 12 lbs at 5 weeks! He is also 23 inches long. His weight is in the 80th percentile and height in the 75th percentile! He is getting ginormous.

Bringing him places is like being with a celebrity. Everyone wants to look at him and he is such a ham that he eats it all up. He's currently on Lamoni's lap next to me just staring at me. Nothing breaks his stares. :-)

11.18.13

He reminds us of a hedgehog when he's in the Moby. After he's been overstimulated by looking around he lays his head down on my chest and falls right asleep. 

Our first family picture. The cute suit outfit is from Debra Spencer.

We took Benjamin to Lamoni's Child Development class this morning. The teacher just ate him up. She held him and brought him to every student in the classroom while commenting on how far ahead he is developmentally (I'm sure being 2 weeks late has something to do with this...). He is such a ham! He just smiled, stared and made cooing sounds the whole time. He recently started playing a game with us where we stick our tongues out at each other and he played it with her! She commented on what a quiet peaceful baby he is and that we must have a very calm home. Little did she know that as soon as I got to the car with him he was back to his normal loud self now that he didn't have an audience! It helped that the classroom has florescent lights. He loves those.

His great bed head. :-)

Baby Blessing

Benjamin was blessed on November 3rd at the Montano chapel. Lots of family came to visit. Deruchette flew down from Salt Lake City and stayed a few days with us, Courtney drove from Utah with her three kids; Mel and Melinda, Sybrina, Jordan and Samantha, Grandma and Grandpa Bear all came from Bloomfield, as well as family in the area who came by. Lamoni's boss and her family even came!
Lamoni gave the blessing and in the blessing circle were: Mike Lanctot, Jacob Lanctot, Bishop Hemmert, Mel Sam, Kenneth Rayburn, Jerold Cole, Jarrett Decker and Jason Sam.
I will post a copy of the blessing as soon as I have it!
I'm sad that we didn't get a family picture with the three of us that day. It was just so crazy with so many people! We had a luncheon at our house afterwards and Lamoni and I counted 31 people who were here! Luckily a few people did get pictures of Benjamin so at least we have him on his blessing day.

Here's a picture with Jared in the background! Aunt Jacqueline made the beautiful baby blanket.

 This was actually the week after Benjamin was born at church.

Not the day of his blessing - 1st Sunday at church 1 week old. I taught my primary class that day too. :-)
 

1. Same thing - 1 week old at church.

2. Day of the baby blessing - 3 weeks old with Grandpa Mel

Baby Showers

I had two baby showers the last two weeks! One of them was put on by my friend, Crystal Boyack and former teacher, Susan Kempter. That was for the music crowd. The other one was put on by Charity and a friend from church, Lindsey Hemmert. That was at the church building and had church friends and students. I feel baby showered out because when I was still working at the Catholic school they threw me a surprise shower there, then Lamoni's work threw me a surprise shower a month before Benjamin came, and now I had these two!

I'll upload pictures of the music one later as I need to get the pictures off of my phone still.

"Antique"

This blue jacket and hat are a special story. Grammy had sent us a package with some clothes for Benjamin. In it were these:

I thought she had made them for us, but it turns out that they were made for Daddy when he was a baby! They are in such pristine condition they look brand new. When I sent a picture of them to Faith (we're going to take a picture with Jared in them too) she wrote back, "Wow, they're like antique!" I was only too happy to share that quote with Daddy at Sunday dinner. :-) They are adorable, though. We probably won't have the boys wear them too much so they stay nice and can pass them on another generation!

Just Hanging Out

One of the few times that he was happy in the swing                   My turn to bathe him.  

                   so we had to document it!                             

He likes to lay on his stomach - especially on Lamoni's back!

  Daddy burping during Joy's piano lesson.    Aunt Deruchette flew in for the baby blessing and held                                                                 and sang to him while I got a lot done around the house!

                             We went to visit Lamoni at work during his lunch break last Friday.                             The cute outfit and matching blanket are from Aunt Kathy!

Halloween

At our ward's trunk or treat. The theme for our ward was scripture characters so we were King and Queen Lamoni and King Benjamin from the Book of Mormon. :-) He slept through the whole thing except for at the end he exploded his diaper and then kept his eyes open for the picture.

This picture is bad quality, but it's the only picture I have from Faith and Jason's trunk or treat that we went to in Rio Rancho. Here he is a bear, but you can't tell because it's humongous on him. At both locations we took Benjamin around with his little bag and collected the spoils for ourselves! We got some funny looks but I assured them Benjamin would get the candy from me.

2 Week Baby Appointment

With midwife, Kelly Camden

Even though he asks like a starving orphan all the time, he gained 12 ounces since his 1 week appointment! At his one week appointment he was already back up to his birth weight - 9 lbs

He also grew from 20 inches at birth to 22 inches in 2 weeks!! He wears 3 month clothes now.

Accomplishments

I know all parents think their children are extraordinary - and we are no different. :-) Benjamin could pick up his head himself since birth. At one week he could pick it up and look all around. Our midwife was shocked when she had him at her shoulder and he did that! Here are a couple pictures of him on his belly looking around (Grammy made the blanket for him):                                                                                               

We have to watch it carefully because he will also roll over already! He has rolled over twice while leaning against a pillow and once on a flat surface! Unfortunately I don't have a picture or video of that yet, but we're working on it!

He also starting smiling this week. He would smile last week but only in his sleep. Lamoni even heard him giggle in his sleep! When he's well rested and fed he'll smile while staring at us. It's adorable. He lets out a little coo and then smiles! Here are a few pictures of him smiling in his sleep:

Grandparents

Lamoni's parents came yesterday to help Faith and Jason move and spent the morning visiting at our house. Benjamin liked the attention! There was also a lot of excitement when gunfire and explosions went off less than a block away from our house right after they got back (with Lamoni and Benjamin) - just a couple minutes after going through the intersection where there was a shootout with a guy and the police!

Miracle

Can you believe this picture? It's Benjamin actually sleeping!! We had a breakthrough. The first week and a half was extremely difficult. Benjamin literally eats all the time. The lactation specialist came and said that I should let him eat until he detaches and is done. So I did an experiment that night to see how long he would go. After 2 hours on ONE side I detached him because I was convinced he would never let go. He has to be sucking on something at all times. I didn't realize how extreme he is until Faith was telling me that she heard of a lady whose baby ate FOREVER - 45 minutes on each side. At the time I was detaching him after an hour on each side and he was still fussy and begging for food afterwards! I knew he was getting adequate food because he was back up to his birth weight at 1 week and the midwife was very impressed saying they like to see birth weight by week 2.

Even though I had decided that we would follow the AAP's recommendations and not do a pacifier or pump/bottle feed til he's over a month old, we've already done both. They're like magic! He's only satisfied after eating 4 ounces from the bottle (I'm still breastfeeding - just pumping too and then giving it to him after about a half hour of nursing) and then will usually suck on his pacifier until the next feeding. My mom slept on our couch the first night I pumped and took him until 5:30 a.m. when she had to leave. We caught up on some MUCH needed sleep and life has been a lot better since. Between the bottle and pacifier (and newly acquired Moby wrap) I'm starting to feel sane again!

Benjamin's First Bath

Benjamin's umbilical cord fell off on day 6 so we gave him a bath since he was smelling a lot like poop and milk! I remember him liking it, but Lamoni said he wasn't happy the whole time. Here are a couple happy pictures, though! He kept turning his head trying to eat so we had to watch it so he wouldn't drink the water!