Videos

 He loves to be thrown in the air

 6 months old taking baby steps

Trying to get him to drink apple juice for his constipation from his antibiotics

More updates

Benjamin had a staph infection last week on his pelvis area. Luckily we caught it early and he's just finishing his antibiotics and it's all gone! Medicine is like magic! I don't like to use it for everything, but it's sure nice in situations like this.

Benjamin likes to have spitting contests with people. He never runs out of spit! I caught a video of the very end of one he was having with Lamoni. Unfortunately he saw me recording on the phone and nothing will distract him from lunging for a phone...

He recently has been able to scoot forwards which is a big accomplishment, because for the longest time he could only go backwards and sideways. Then, just a couple weeks later he started crawling. It was really cute because at first he would go on his tippy-toes with his bottom way up in the air and crawl like that. The last few days, though, he's been crawling normally. He is so mobile now that he follows me when I'm in a different room (half crawling half scooting) while whining loudly.

He does this really cute thing where he keeps his pacifier in his mouth whenever he sneezes! He must hold onto it with his gums.

We've had a lot more time with Lamoni which has been nice. He quit work because he has a five hour class Monday-Thursday. They would have let him work just Friday and Saturday but we thought it would be too much since he'll likely have to study for his classes and then we'd rarely see him. So he quit! That was a little scary, but we'll be fine through the summer with our other income. The plan is for him to get a social work job in the fall so he can get experience in his field and so we can save some more since all of his summer school and his whole Master's degree will be out of pocket. Ouch!

Tuesday we went to the zoo with our friends, Rachel and Luke Michael.

 Cousin time

 Mother's Day flowers from Lamoni under the picture he drew me 7 years ago!

We're trying to transition the baby from the swing to the bed. Remember, the swing is the only place he will sleep longer than an hour. He is getting too big for it, though, and I'm worried he'll fall out and we won't hear him at night. I came in the other day and he had wiggled himself halfway out of the tie that we tie him in with. However, that means he is up most hours of the night. It has been a really rough last few nights. So rough that he actually stayed asleep for a few minutes in a public place!

5.23.14

This is Benjamin anytime a phone is around. He will do ANYTHING to get our phones!

UNM Lab School's "May the Fourth Be With You" concert

This is the two seconds before he ripped the sunglasses off. Cute idea, though.

Batman.... Lamoni finally got a batman shirt for Benjamin. He has wanted to since before he was born.

Sleeping baby footsies. <3

Saturday

Saturday I played with the New Mexico Philharmonic at one of their zoo concerts. I love playing at the zoo because the animals are so loud while we're playing and it's a much more fun, relaxed environment that a typical concert hall. It was a tribute to Benny Goodman and the clarinetist and his jazz band were beyond amazing. I don't even like clarinet that much and I LOVED the concert. Wow. That's all I can say. Lamoni also said it was hands down his favorite concert ever. Benjamin got to come too because kids are allowed at the zoo concerts! It was a late night since we didn't get home til 10:30 p.m. but it was fun! That whole day was crazy because I had rehearsal all morning, then I rushed with Benjamin to watch some of Charity's graduation from UNM while Lamoni went to a new business owner's house to set up a grand opening we were doing for her. It took me forever to find parking, then I had to speed walk for 10 minutes. I only got to see about 15 minutes (if that) of the graduation ceremony til I left Benjamin with my mom there and raced over to the grand opening to help with that. We left her house and went straight to my parents' where there was a BBQ for Charity's celebration, shoved down food, went to the zoo and finally got home at 10:30. It was crazy. The entire day was literally either double or triple booked. I won't even go into all the things we had to skip or reschedule that day.

 Lamoni and Benjamin at the zoo concert

Charity's Graduation

5.11.14

I can't go to sleep, so I figured I would blog some (instead of reading more of others' blogs!). It's too bad too because sleep is such a precious thing around here! The baby is up at least 2-3 times and it's so hard to get up for him. If I'm not able to take a nap during the day I'm about 20% there in the evening times. That does not equal a very happy Hope! The last week of my mission my mission president had me write a letter to myself and the office would send it to me two years after I returned home. I completely forgot about that, but a week ago the letter came! It's pretty funny because the last paragraph of the letter to myself says "if you're having a hard time or frustrated - say a prayer, take a long nap and eat something yummy. Then everything will be okay." Some things never change!

Oh yep. Guess who's awake and happy on my lap now? And it's almost 1:30 a.m. Good thing I didn't give in and go to bed...

Anyway, here are some pictures of our cute Benjamonster who thinks he doesn't have time for sleep!

Buying off-brand diapers that give him the coverage on the left lead to messes like this on the right! In the middle of teaching...without a babysitter...try giving a lesson with both parents observing and bathing your baby who has poop from his knees to his neck in the middle of it!

Charity, Joy and I were asked to play a few violin trios at a High Priests Social. Benjamin thoroughly enjoyed it.

 More pictures of the poor sick baby. He never got any symptoms - just a fever on and off for a few days. And no teeth popped out later either so I don't know what it was! The wrap saved me that week. Usually he doesn't like being constrained, but while he was sick he just wanted to be touching us at all times.

When he could only scoot backwards (he figured out scooting forwards a few days ago) he would end up under the couch to his dismay!

This table amuses him

They finally have matching batman shirts!

 This is how I shower - with Benjamin playing with his favorite dog. 

Changing diapers is interesting when he's sucking emphatically on his big toe.

Sometimes we give him little bits of our dinner to keep him happy while we eat. If you look closely you'll see cornbread all over his face!

Sucking on the cup and sticking his hands into it to grab the ice doesn't work so well. He was sure getting frustrated!

Ok, I'm off to see if I can get this guy back to sleep. I'm still not tired. :-/ It's going to be a long 3 hours of church tomorrow with my 7-8 year old class!