What Can Happen In One Week...

We made it back! It was a fun trip. much too short, but fun all the same. Benjamin has learned to do quite a few new things while we were in California for Christmas. It's amazing how much he can learn in just a few days...

First, he is starting to venture to stand up by himself. He lets go of whatever he's holding on to and stands for a few seconds, about 10, before falling down. He started do this after church on Sunday and is getting quite good at it. Yesterday he even did a few dance moves before falling down.

On Christmas day Benjamin got this really cute car from Santa. He can either sit on it and push with his feet (or, be pushed by someone) or it converts into an upright walker that allows him to push it around the house. He loves it! When he saw it Christmas morning he grabbed the handle and starting walking across the living room right away without any help or a demonstration on how it works. He's such a smart boy :) This picture shows the car in the upright walking version.

Also, Benjamin has learned that cars go "vrrrrroooommm" He drives his little toy cars around and says "vrrrrrooooommmmm" and he does it while pushing around his car toy I was just talking about. It's the cutest thing. He's definitely a boy!

I don't have time to write about the whole week we were gone, but let's just say Benjamin's first Christmas was awesome. The weather was great (70-something degrees) and sunny. Santa came to visit Benjamin on Christmas Eve. Benjamin wasn't so sure about him, but he at least sat on his lap and smiled for Dad a couple times so we could get a good picture.

Benjamin had a lot of fun opening presents. By the time he got to the last present on Christmas morning he knew exactly what to do to get the paper off and see what was inside. His birthday in a few weeks should be fun now that he knows how to open a present! Some things Benjamin got were a wagon of blocks, a Tickle Me Elmo (that he absolutely loves), a toy cell phone, and lots of clothes and books. He seemed to really like everything. And our little family got a webcam from Grammy and Pepere... so now we can "visit" and talk with anyone who also has a webcam. Grammy mentioned that she bought herself one too... how convenient :) We'll let everyone know when we have it set up and ready to go!

We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and wish everyone a Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas from the Gibson Family!

Benjamin Gets His "Skills" From His Dad

Jonathan always jokes that it was his awesome dancing skills that made me fall in love with him. Well, I'm not so sure about that but Benjamin's dancing skills are the cutest thing I've seen in a while! He is really learning how to "get down." We love this little boy!

Today's the day! We're just finishing up the packing and loading the car this morning. Little guys need so much stuff for just a week! Goodness! But it will be worth it to spend a nice, warmer Christmas in California. Woo hoo! We'll see how Benjamin does in the car. We've got a few DVD's, a couple new small toys he's never seen, along with a few favorites, and lots of snacks to keep Benjamin's mouth full so he can't scream. This should be an adventure... we'll post again to let you know how it goes!

And if we don't talk to you before, Merry Christmas!

3 Days and Counting...

We spent Saturday and Sunday at Jonathan's parents house in Layton. Grandma and Grandpa have a few toys that stay there for the times when Benjamin and his cousins are visiting. Benjamin loves this little basketball hoop and is getting very good at "playing basketball" He makes his dad so proud! We'll be looking around to find something similar for Benjamin's birthday next month.

We also stopped by the "Lights Before Christmas" display that is set up at the park in Layton. We got out of the car and walked along the path looking at the lights set up on either side. They had lots of different animals and dinosaurs and cars and stuff all made out of lights. Benjamin just sat in his stroller with a completely solemn face. Which is why we didn't take the time to go to Temple Square in Salt Lake on our way home on Sunday night. Maybe next year Benjamin will show a little more enthusiasm.

We leave for California in three days! I'm so excited... but we also have a ton of things to get done before then. Jonathan is busy, busy, busy working on his statistics final. I still have to work everyday and take care of the baby boy. Benjamin is just having fun making a big mess in the living room and dancing to the Christmas Songs playing on the radio. He is quite the character sometimes.

We have a Creedance Clearwater Fan....

This is Benjamin "dancing." He does this when he hears music playing, even if it's a cell phone ringing. The Dance started with a pointed finger being waved, and he has recently add the bouncing of the knees (both while standing like in this picture and while kneeling on the ground) and a little more waving with both hands. PS- sorry about the shaky camera work in the beginning, that was me trying to encourage Benjamin to start dancing.

Big Boy Clothes and a Moment of "Mommy Enlightenment"

My baby is wearing size 18 months clothes! I can't believe how big he is getting. In September or October we bought him a bunch of 12 and 18 months clothes thinking he'd be wearing them until March or April... but here it is only December and he's outgrown some of the 12 months sizes and already wearing some of the 18 month sizes! Not 2 months ago he was still fitting into some 9 month size clothes. Let's hope he doesn't have a growth spurt too soon or else we may have to go on another shopping spree for toddler clothes. This shirt is a size 18 months and it fits great, except the arms are a little long. I had to roll them up a bit. But other than that, it's pretty much the perfect size.

By the way, Benjamin absolutely loves to sit in my desk chair by himself. It's pretty much a guaranteed smile if you stick him down and snap a picture. Bonus points if you spin the chair around a couple times! I love learning these little tricks that make a baby happy. For example, today while driving home from Target Benjamin was just screaming, screaming, screaming. I had no idea why. He wasn't hungry, he wasn't tired, he wasn't uncomfortable (that I could tell). But he just kept screaming no matter what I did. Granted, you can't do much from the front seat, but my usual "tricks" weren't working. Then, in a moment of ingenious "Mommy Enlightenment" I started rolling the back windows down two inches, then back up. Then down two inches, and then back up. Over and over again. Benjamin stopped crying and watched the windows going up and down the rest of the way home. I'll have to remember this for the next time he starts screaming in the car. We do have a 10+ hour drive to California next week... :)

New Blog Design

I spent awhile this afternoon updating the look of our blog for the Winter season. Legally, I have to give credit to http://www.shabbyprincess.com/ for the background papers that I downloaded to use. So, thank you Shabby Princess!

Also, for easy instructions on how to update your own blog, see this blog: http://sjhblogdesign.blogspot.com/ She does a wonderful job explaining the steps and made it so easy to follow! I've also added a link in the My Favorite Blogs list to the right in case you need to find the website later :)

And, thank you to the lovely ladies of www.pinchingyourpennies.com who pointed me in the right direction to find these great sites.

Happy Sunday everyone :)

Benjamin enjoying a roll

Normally when we feed Benjamin I give him small pieces of whatever food he's eating and let him take one at a time. Every once in awhile though, it's more fun to watch him tackle a whole food. As long as it's something safe to eat... and messy. The other day I let him eat a roll. He had a lot of fun, as you can see. and Jonathan had a lot of fun vacuuming up the mess. Te he he...

Benjamin loves to share his food too. Here he is offering me a bite.

And look at these big beautiful brown eyes... I wonder where he got those ;)

Benjamin also managed to find a way to get close to the Christmas tree and he went straight for my Baby's First Christmas ornament that is now 25 years old... (yikes!)... At least it wasn't a breakable one.

Update on Crying It Out

Sorry, no pictures and I know that's boring, but here's a quick update on our attempt at helping Benjamin learn to fall asleep on his own. It's been a week now and Benjamin is doing so well! He's down to crying for just a couple minutes, literally like 2. Then he'll sit in his crib and talk to himself. It's so cute! This is one of those times I wish we had a video baby monitor so I can see what he's talking to. We're so proud of him! And the best part is that once we put him down for the night, he's asleep for about 11-12 hours :) YAY!

Also, the other morning he woke up at 5am... too early for us! He was talking in his crib and shaking the crib railing. We decided to follow the advice in the book, "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" and ignore him until 6 am. Well... 20 minutes later Benjamin was asleep again and slept until 7:45am! This really works!

SNOW!

This is what we woke up to this morning.

Here's Benjamin out on the deck with Jonathan. He didn't like to touch the snow, but he sure had a lot to say about it!

Before and After...

I thought it would be fun to show everyone what Benjamin is capable of doing in a matter of an hour. This is a little glimpse into my daily life. I clean up this mess at least 3 times a day when Benjamin is down for his naps or sleeping for the night.

Here's his toy shelves before Benjamin woke up from his nap:

And here are the same shelves an hour after he woke up:

Here are the DVD's nicely lined up on the shelves before the baby woke up:

An hour later:

Just for fun, here is the "blockade" we put up to protect the precious Christmas tree from the wrath of a 10 month old. Notice the ingenious placement of (from left to right) the bookshelf, Benjamin's crawling tunnel, the banana chair on its side, the computer desk, and the big wrapped presents under the desk. Benjamin has tried to get around each and every one of them, but no luck yet. We're holding our breath, though, he's smart and will surely figure it out sooner or later.

We put our tree up the day after Thanksgiving. We decided to do it early this year for two reasons. First, I really wanted to put it up and start enjoying the Holidays as soon as possible. Second, we're leaving on December 20th for California and we wanted to enjoy the tree as much as possible before leaving. There was no point in only having it up for a couple weeks.

Ok, ok... I admit it. The second reason was just a logical excuse for putting the tree up so early. I just really wanted to and Jonathan was very nice to comply with my wishes. Thanks Honey!

BYU COUGARS WIN and letting Benjamin "cry it out"

Yesterday was the biggest football game of the year- BYU vs University of Utah. We went to the game and took Benjamin with us. We were really worried about him because he slept for only 5 minutes during his morning nap instead of the hour he normally does. But surprisingly, he did better than we thought! In fact, we even got him to sleep a little bit. The weather was really cold- only the mid 30s, but Benjamin stayed nice and warm in his new hat and mittens that Grammy sent from California. The mittens came in handy as teething helps too. Benjamin couldn't get his thumb in the part it was supposed to fit in, but it worked great as a something for Benjamin to chew on- he has another tooth coming in on top.

Tonight we decided to start letting Benjamin "cry it out." We've been rocking Benjamin to sleep at night and during naps. Most of the time he falls asleep within 5 minutes or so, but sometimes it's a struggle that can last almost a half hour. We figured it was time to let him learn to soothe himself to sleep. This was hard... but not as hard as I expected it to be. We went through his routine, and instead of rocking him I put him in his crib and said goodnight. I expected him to cry for a loooonnnngggg time... I was predicting at least an hour or an hour and a half. But.... 36 minutes!!! WOO HOO!!! I went in to check on him after 10 minutes of silence and he was asleep in the corner of his crib and all tucked up in a funny position- kinda like he had collapsed after standing up for 36 minutes of crying. So cute! I dared to lay him out flat and he hardly stirred as I put him in a more comfortable position. We are so grateful!!!

"Ben Jammin' " on the piano

I've been having problems posting videos lately, which is why we haven't been adding more than just pictures lately. Today I'm attempting at posting a video on Blogger again. So here goes... this is Benjamin playing the piano at Grandma and Grandpa's house on Thanksgiving Day.

Yay! That worked so here we go again with another video... this is Benjamin's reaction when he realizes he's going to get to take a bath. He is usually a lot more excited than this video shows, but it's a pretty good example of how cute he is!

Now that I know I can post videos on the blog again, check back soon for more!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wow, did Benjamin have fun on Thanksgiving! We spent the day in Layton at Jonathan's parents house. Benjamin got to play with all his uncles and cousins. He also was introduced to a piano for the first time and he was a natural! He did well at eating too... he loved the turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, and the rolls. He wasn't too interested in the sweet potatoes. We're hoping it's because they were too sweet :) He doesn't get sugary things except very rarely and when he does, he usually doesn't care for it. Hopefully this is a pattern that will last a long time...

But the biggest news of Thanksgiving Day was that, with Uncle Dave's help, Benjamin stood up on his own! He did it twice for about 5 seconds each time. And he was very in control and didn't fall. The first time he reached back out and grabbed Uncle Dave's arm and the second time he lowered himself, very slowly and carefully, to his knees. His grin when he knew he was "safe" from falling over was so big! He was obviously very pleased with himself and what he's learning how to do. Judging by the past, Benjamin should be standing completely on his own in a matter of a couple weeks. He learns so quickly once he starts to get it. We're so proud!

Anway, here are some fun pictures of Benjamin on his first Thanksgiving.

Mom and Benjamin at the dinner table



Benjamin enjoying his mashed potatoes and gravy



Benjamin playing the piano



Benjamin's first bite of pumpkin pie (with cousin Jordan)



Hmm, we're not quite sure what he thinks of it



We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with Jonathan's family. We're sorry we didn't get to speak with many people on Thanksgiving day, but we wanted to let everyone know we thought of you and counted you as one of our many blessings! Happy Thanksgiving!

I have such a good baby!

I think he understands so much more than we give him credit for sometimes. This video shows exactly what I'm talking about. It was the first time I asked him to sit back down in the tub and he actually listened! Now he does that every time I ask him to! I guess being consistent in taking him out of the bathtub when he stands up does work! Yay for Daddy and Mommy helping Benjamin learn to obey his parents and learning consequences! Ok, maybe I'm over thinking this and tooting my own horm a little, but hey, I'm a first-time mom, it's ok!

More Cute Pictures of Benjamin

I just can't get enough! And I'm sure there are a few of you out there who don't mind seeing more pictures of Benjamin... (Grammy!) This is Benjamin is his outfit for church today. His cute blue blazer and button up shirt just came in the mail on Friday from Grammy in California. They look so cute on him!

10 Months old today!

Time flies! I can't believe we've only had Benjamin in our lives for 10 months, but I can't imagine life without him! For comparison, I've posted a picture of Benjamin on his birth day and one of him today. He has grown up so much and we're so proud of him!

9 Month Pictures

We finally got Benjamin's 9 month pictures back. The studio had a problem with the DVD they burned of the pictures so it took twice as long to get them. But here they are. I think they turned out cute, but I think that of every picture I see of Benjamin. It's a mom's earned right :)

Benjamin Slept Through the Night!

So we got Benjamin down a little late last night. His usual bedtime is between 7 and 7:30, sometimes earlier if we think he's being too much of a grouch. He usually gets up sometime in the night, sometimes as early as 2am and as late as 5:30am and is up for about an hour to drink a bottle and then climb all over mom and dad as we are trying to sleep. But not last night! We put him to bed about 8pm... and he slept like a rock until 6:30am! This is wonderful! We think we may be on to something here- a later bedtime means a later wake-up time. We'll try it for a few more nights to see how it goes. Hopefully we'll have a well-rested parent - I mean, child - and life (and naps!) will go a little smoother for awhile.

Ha Ha... thought this was kinda fun.

I took this quiz and this was my result:

54%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

San Jose Dating

Not too bad! I just think blogging is fun and I love to read about other people's adventures. Plus, in a way, I think this blogging stuff is an outlet for all the pent up scrapbooking creative-ness that I can't unleash as often as I'd like to.

Just Hanging Out

I took this picture of Benjamin and Jonathan hanging out at home this afternoon. Benjamin is really good at smiling when I pull out the camera and say, "Benjamin, smile!"

Freezing (and fishing!) in the fog

Well, Jonathan went fishing yesterday and caught some pretty good sized fish. The pictures he took are amazing. Apparently, he was having fun because he said he'd be home by 1 or 2 in the afternoon... I didn't see him until after 5! But, I'm glad he got in a good day of fishing, who knows when he'll be able to go again.

Jonathan said it was about 20 degrees outside when they got there and there was so much fog that he couldn't see more than 25 yards away.

This is the fog as it started to clear up.


Here is Rob (our brother in law) with both the fish Jonathan and Rob caught at the same time.



Some nice Cutthroat Trout...



And these weren't even the biggest fish caught that day!

Happy Halloween!

Here's a photo recap of our Halloween activities this year.

4 Doctors in 1 week!

Well, Benjamin has had a busy week full of doctors. Last Tuesday was his 9 month check up. He is doing well, but they did a blood test and found out that he's slightly anemic. So the doctor gave us a prescription for a multi vitamin that contains iron and they'll check him again at his 1 year check up in 3 months. Other than that, he looked great!

Then on Thursday (yes, just 2 days later) I noticed Benjamin had something in his mouth that he was chewing on. I stuck my finger in there and almost got out what I discovered to be a staple! It was a closed one (like it had been used and then taken out of a piece of paper). Benjamin did manage to swallow it before I could get it out... so it was back to the doctor again! 2 hours and an x-ray later, they didn't see it in the stomach or the lungs so they assumed the staple was moving through the digestive tract the way it was supposed to.

We had a couple quiet days until Sunday when we were visiting Jonathan's parents in Layton (about an hour's drive north of us). Benjamin came down with a pretty high fever. It was about 103-104 degrees most of the afternoon. It did go down for a little while, but jumped back up. We put him to bed after several doses of Tylenol every 4 hours and several warm baths, but at midnight he woke up crying and when I picked him up I saw that he was bright red and felt hotter than he had all day. So we took him to the Emergency Room where they gave him Motrin and checked to make sure the fever wasn't anything more serious. The doctor said it was probably a virus or an ear infection that could be showing up in a day or two and to watch for it.

Monday and Tuesday Benjamin's fever kept coming and going. We gave him Tylenol and Motrin and that helped keep the fever down, but it would still spike to about 102 at times. Tuesday night Benjamin woke up at 3 am screaming crying and wouldn't settle back down to sleep until after 6am... that was a long night for me so I called the doctor and we took him in first thing in the morning, and sure enough - there was an ear infection! So since yesterday we've been treating him for the ear infection and he has been so much happier! He had a decent night's sleep last night (I was SOOO grateful!) and has been a pleasant, smiling little boy today!

We are so glad that he's feeling better, he hasn't had a fever since Tuesday night and we're very grateful for that. It's hard when a baby is sick because you can't make it better fast enough! Hopefully, we'll be doctor-free until Benjamin's 12 month check up in January!

Who Does Benjamin Look Like?

So I saw someone that had posted this cool little tool on their website and I wanted to try it out! So many people say Benjamin looks more like me, but some people say they see Jonathan in him more than they see me.... so here's what myheritage.com said:

Who do you think Benjamin looks like? Take the poll to the right and let's see how accurate this website is!

11/13/2007 Poll Update- Well, we had a grand total of 3 votes and it was unanimous- those 3 people thought Benjamin looked like Tabitha.

"Bab Bab Bab" has evolved...

Benjamin has been so talkative the past few days! I don't know what's gotten into him, but I love it!!! While running errands yesterday Benjamin had a conversation with me for 10 minutes. We "bab bab'd" and "ga goo'd" while driving around town. It was so much fun! Here is a fun video I took of Benjamin today talking to himself as he plays with his bead maze thing (I don't know what they're called, but it's one of the few toys that keep his interest for more than a couple minutes.) Enjoy!

Benjamin has been to the doctor's office twice this week. On Tuesday he had his 9 month check up-- we have a healthy 19 lb, 13 oz boy. He has grown to 29.4 inches long too! This is a far cry from the 7 lbs 4 oz and 19 inches long he started out as back in January. So the first doctor appointment was a good thing! The second, well, that was different. Yesterday morning I noticed Benjamin was chewing on something so I tried to get it out of his mouth. I assumed it was a small piece of paper because he loves to eat paper... but while I was trying to get the object out of his mouth I realized it was a staple! Benjamin was too fast for me and he swallowed it before I could get it out! The little stinker! We called the doctor and they wanted us to bring him in just to make sure it had gone down the right tube (not into the lungs). Since it was a used staple (the prongs were closed in, not sticking straight out) they weren't too worried about it doing any damage unless it wasn't heading out the right way. Anyway, after 2+ hours at the doctor and a set of x-rays we were told they couldn't see the staple in the digestive tract so it must be making it's way through just fine. Benjamin has been nothing but happy since the incident so I'm thinking he is doing well and we'll find the staple eventually : )