I know I am the biggest slacker/loser ever

So.. yeah.. about that. Ben is almost two years old. I have been so busy this year that I have forgotten to post any updates, yeah right. I am just too lazy to sign in and work with this complicated blog thing, even though it's so easy, so damn, I really have no excuses huh? Anyways.... let's move on :)

Ben at the beach, Memorial Day weekend 2012

I will try to wrap up the year 2012 in a quick nutshell. I quit my job, am a stay at home mom, start a new job after the new year and we have moved out of our condo and into a new house (with an awesome backyard). Are you tired/bored yet? Ben is still as amazing as ever. He is officially a little man child. Honestly, he is the most hilarious kid ever (so says every mom, about their own child, in the world, ever). He has hair now, so that's good :) It's so funny how bald he really was. I didn't really notice it until I looked back at pictures. Pretty funny. He is talking up a storm. Today he said "butt" for the first time, and wiggled his cute little rear. Funny now, until he's like 3 right? Wink.

We joined a church (I want to be pretty vague, in case someone wants to come kidnap me from church or something, obviously that's pretty rational, right...) last January, and since then Ben has been baptized and started preschool. He goes two days a week and seriously loves it. I seriously love it too. Those 3 hours are precious, precious time.

I could seriously sit here and gush about Ben the whole time, but I won't do that to you, although I'm pretty sure the only people that read this are my parents, so they would totally appreciate it.. anyways. I'll just do a quick recap of Ben's year and leave the nitty gritty deats up to other individual posts.

Ben is talking. Like, full on words, sentences, phrases, songs, anything, you name it. Of course when he says milk it sounds like eeek, but who cares? I know he means milk, so that's all that matters. Some words he is saying clearly: hey, bye, Chris, Lawren, mommy, daddy, Bec Bec, pops, Lolly, ball, house, wow, woof woof, butt, eye, nose, giraffe (impressed yet?), cat, anthropology (just kidding)... anyways, you get the point! He's a little genius baby! ;) His favorite songs are "Row Row Row Your Boat", "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Little Bunny Foo Foo". Love. He does all of the hand motions and everything. Super cute. I am a terribly proud mom and love bragging as you can see. I only like telling the world the good stuff so I will leave out the tantrums and the non sleeping (still) and the never-sitting-through-a-meal-ever-at-a-restaurant-ever parts... but regardless. A child comes with all of the bells and whistles, that includes the good, bad and ugly, and you, as a parent, have to roll with it, or else your child will seriously take you down.. I am not joking. They will take.you.down. Like literally, at the food court at the mall Ben one time wrestled my sister to the ground. Good Lord that boy is strong.


Ben loves playing outside, is totally into construction equipment, Elmo, and Winnie the Pooh. His favorite show is still Little Einsteins. He is really into Santa this year too, which is fun. Every time he sees someone/something wearing a version of Santa's red hat he says "ho ho ho". And since I've started playing Christmas music in the car he won't let me drive two feet without screaming "HO HO" until I turn it to his favorite song, "Santa Claus is Coming to Town". Evan and I cannot wait til Christmas morning. Santa is surely going to be good to that little boy!

Speaking of, we are HOSTING CHRISTMAS at our house this year. YAY! Ben gets to wake up in his own bed (who the h*#$ am I kidding, he will wake up in mom and dad's bed) and get to walk into our living room to see what Santa brought! So exciting!!! Love getting to be a kid again through Ben's eyes. It's one of my favorite parts about parenting.

So, I truly hope I can keep up more regular blogging. It's so fun to go back and read each of my previous posts... There is so much I can't remember.

Two Weeks Notice

So... I officially gave my two weeks notice at work today AH! It's such an exciting time for our family. It'll be hard at first, but my hours had gone down to barely 25/week, so I don't think it will be (too) much of an adjustment. We're starting the next chapter of our lives, and so I thought the blog needed a little face lift. I was never too in love with the original address of funnyfamilyadventures anyway. By the way, twoweeksnotice had already been taken.. and I liked "too" so I'm not an idiot that spelled it wrong :)

Anyways, back to the important things. I am officially going to be a stay at home mom for the next year or so. Ben's at such a great age, and since we are able, I am going to stay home with him. It's going to be tough, we're going to have to make some adjustments, but overall I think it will be a great experience. I know I will never regret staying at home with my child, I may miss the adult interaction of an office, but I will never get back this time with him. YAY for new challenges and experiences! I'm going to try to keep it real with how things are going. Because I know while some days will be wonderful, some days are going to ... let's be honest.. probably SUCK.  Let's hope Ben and I don't drive each other CRAZY! Here's to new adventures!

Party Like a One Year Old

This has officially been the most amazing year of my life. We as a family have officially come full circle. I have watched my little boy grow up so much in the last 12 months. There are certainly some stand-out moments, good, bad, and ugly, but overall I think the best way to describe Ben's first year would be amazing. We've been through his birth, the craziness of the first few weeks, the frustration and anxiety of weeks 6-12, the relief at 3 months once things settled down, and the comfort of knowing we were exactly where we needed to be in life- and we had fun the entire way. I am so proud of our little family of three, and can't wait to (hopefully) add-on to it (in a few years... patience please!).

I think (and I believe that most, if not all, parents will agree) that when you have a small child they totally become the center of your world. All conversations eventually turn (if they didn't start off there) to your child being the subject, your thought process is centered around your baby, and all decisions are based on the well-being of your little one. As overwhelming as it sounds, it really is second nature after about day 2. I remember someone asking Evan and I what the biggest change was after we had Ben. That is such an overwhelming question because when you have a new baby, your entire world changes, almost instantly. There isn't a "biggest" little thing. Your life changes completely. To someone who is expecting a child, this may sound scary and overwhelming, but it really does happen within a blink of an eye.

We had Ben's first birthday party at my parent's house on New Years Eve. It was SO much fun. My Paul Frank monkey themed turned out to be easy because all we had to do was buy some coconuts, bananas, and pineapples, and throw them on the table for centerpieces. I also worked so hard to make Ben his smash cake. It (luckily) turned out pretty good! Unfortunately, Ben cared nothing for the cake, and got mad when I stuck his hands in it. HAHA. We are so lucky to have such good family and friends who joined us to celebrate OUR first year. I know it was Ben's birthday, but it truly felt like a huge milestone for our entire family. We made it!

Here are some pictures!

Ben and Maggie!

11 Months

Wowzers... so we're in the final stretch to ONE year. I cannot believe how fast this year has flown by. I'll admit the first 12 weeks seemed to go by so slow, but after Ben hit 3 months, time has absolutely flown. We have had a blast, and when Ben turns one I'll write a post about my "stand-out" memories of the year, but for now I'll give you a quick 11 month update.

Ben can now officially stand for long periods of time by himself. He is also taking the occassional step or two, but still really not interested in full-on walking. I guess his official "first" step was taken sometime around Thanksgiving. I know, I know, I should have written it down, taken a picture, scrap booked it.. but, unfortunately I'm not that on top of things, and probably never will be. So, a monthly update will have to do.

He can also open the doors in our house. This wonderful little gem started a few days ago. We are going to have to add-on to the baby proofing this weekend. You just can't hold this guy down.. he will figure out how to get where he needs to go. It's really funny to watch too, because he gets all the way up on his tip-toes, and reaches high for the handle. It takes him about 30 seconds to pull the handle down, and open the door- but the look of determination in his eye proves he's going to do what he puts his mind to. I like that. I love watching him figure things out. I'm constantly letting himself figure out how to get himself out of "situations"- haha.. that sounds bad, but you know what I mean.. For example, if he is trying to pull his socks off, and can't get them, he will look at me to do it... but I just look at him and say "You can do it!" and he will eventually figure it out. He may get frustrated at first, but it's all worth it when he finishes something all by himself, and looks at me and laughs with pride.

He is adding to his vocabulary. He can now say:
"bottle" (dot-tle)
"diaper" (dia-perrr)
"da-da" (he is now pointing to Evan and saying da-da)
"bye-bye"
"wow"
"Bec-Bec" (Rebecca)
"Doggie"

Still no "mama" yet.. but that's Ok, he'll get there. I mean, I only stand in front of him everyday pointing at myself saying "mama" over and over again... he HAS to eventually start saying it, right?? :)

I'm in the process the process of trying to teach him how to feed himself, so we can make the transition from baby food to real food. He can already pick up the "puffs" and bits of bread, etc.. but I'd like for him to start feeding himself more fruits and veggies. I'm so sick of the jars of baby food... and I think Ben is too! Ideally I'd like to continue feeding him (mostly) organic food. I'd say so far he eats about 85% organic. I'm not a nut about it though, it's ok if he doesn't always get to eat it. But, the less chemicals the better, right?

I'm transitioning from formula to whole milk. Right now we're adding an ounce or two of whole milk to his bottles a few times a day. And, whenever he gets a sippy cup it's either water or whole milk we fill it with. He LOVES whole milk. I wanted to transition slowly because I've heard horror stories of quitting formula cold turkey and immediately switching to whole milk. Hopefully doing this will keep Ben's stomach happy. But, who knows, parenting is all trial and error- we all do the best we can and cross our fingers a lot, right??

As for Ben's stats.. I'm not really just the exact numbers, but I believe (according to Robert's scale at Oakwoods Grocery over Thanksgiving- HA) Ben weighs 22 lbs 2-3 oz, and I'd estimate that he's about 32-33 inches long. He is now wearing 18-24 month clothes... but can honestly still fit into 6-12 mo pants. He has the tiniest waist ever.

His favorite toy right now is his Baby Einstein music table- which he found hidden in my closet. I was saving it for either Christmas or his birthday, but when I saw the look of pure joy in that boy's eye when he found it, I gave in and let him have it. He was SO excited.

We are so excited for Christmas and his birthday. Like I've said in earlier posts, holidays are so much fun with a baby. I'm sure it only gets better as they get older and know what is really going on. I can't wait to tell Ben about Santa and his reindeer, for him to sing Christmas carols, and to see the look in his eye when he races down the stairs to see if Santa came! I know this will all be a few years down the road, but it is all so exciting. We are having Ben's first birthday at my parent's house in Wilkesboro this year. It will be nice to have it there. Much more room than our place in Raleigh. And, if weather stays the way it's been lately, we may even get to play outside.

Well, that about wraps up his 11 month update... any earth shattering news I forgot I will add, if it comes to mind. Oh yeah... and he's STILL not sleeping through the night- lucky us???! :)