Good Job Jonathan!

Jonathan just finished a History of Psychology class and as one of his assignments he had to write a paper. A long paper- I don't know how long exactly, but it was long. After the class ended Jonathan got an email from his professor asking if he could use Jonathan's paper as an example for the class the next time he taught it! It's a little thing, but yet another reminder of how smart my honey is and how far he's come in school since we got married.

I remember editing his papers during his time at UVSC when he was getting his Bachelor's Degree and helping him a ton. Now I "edit" his papers and pretty much tell him I have no idea what he's talking about and he needs someone smarter than me to help him. The vocabulary this guy has is amazing, I need a dictionary just to get through his papers these days. Oh, and he helped me a lot this past semester when I was taking a class and writing a paper and because of him I got a pretty decent grade on it :)

I'm proud of you Jonathan! Look how far you've come and then look ahead at all the great things you'll be able to do before you finish school!

Oh, and I know this picture has nothing to do with school, but Jonathan would much rather look at a picture of himself holding a fish than a picture of him doing something school related.

I'm "Mommy"

Benjamin has never looked at me and said "mom" or "mama" or "mommy" or anything that would lead me to believe he knew his relationship to me was anything more than the lady who changes his diapers and gets him cheese from the fridge. At one moment, I was glad this was the case... but I have been working with him for months now trying to get SOMETHING out of him.

Saturday it happened. He didn't SAY anything, but he was watching his Sign Language Baby Einstein video while I was catching up on paying some bills and stuff at the desk. I suddenly felt this little finger poking me in the side. I looked over and Benjamin was poking me and watching the video where they were showing the sign for Mommy. Well I wanted to jump up and down and do a little dance and shout out loud that Benjamin finally associated "mommy" with me- but I settled for exclaiming what a smart boy he was and I was his mommy and I loved him. I gave him a kiss and told him to go get a book and we'd read it together.

Then I did a little dance when he wasn't looking.

Bottles, Nursery, and Other Benjamin News

A quick update on the bottle issue- well, there isn't one. After those 2 times Benjamin "asked" for a bottle he never mentioned them again. He seems to have no problem drinking milk from a sippy cup right before bed or at any other time during the day. We're so happy :)

Sunday we decided to start taking Benjamin to Nursery at church. He's about 3 weeks away from being old enough to go and we thought he'd do better if we sat with him in there for a few weeks before just dropping him off. He did really well until some other kid pushed him down. When we got there the teachers were putting out crayons and paper and Benjamin went straight for an empty chair and tried to climb up. As soon as I got him sitting he grabbed 2 crayons and started coloring. When the teachers put music on he went over and started dancing in front of the cd player. Then he sat down and started hitting buttons and turning the volume up and down. He does that at home too. About this time the teachers brought out bubbles and that interested Benjamin for a long time- until some kid pushed him over. He cried and then sat in my lap for all of Singing Time. He listened very intently and let me help him with all the hand movements. When it was his turn to pick a song (paper popcorn pieces velcroed to a picture of a tree) he went right for it and seemed to completely understand what he was doing. He had no problem giving the popcorn back to the teacher so she could read what song we were to sing next.

So... we're glad that Benjamin seems ready for Nursery. We'll have about 4 weeks of only needing to entertain Benjamin through Sacrament before the new baby comes.

Benjamin has picked up a couple new words. If you remember, he had three that he would say before- Dad, Jesus, and Please. We've heard him say Dog and Car in the past couple weeks. And his "babbling" has started to include some new sounds he didn't say before. We have a book of animals and we're trying to teach him what the different animals say. He already knew a dog says "woof" (but he really just blows air out through his lips in an "oooffffffff" sound) and now he knows a chicken says "Cluck cluck" which in Benjamin language sounds more like "cah cah." It's so much fun to see him trying to say new words.

Congratulations Jordan and Vilja!

(This is a long post, but there's lots of pictures so it should make up for the length of it!) Yesterday our nephew got married in Bountiful. The wedding was beautiful and we're so glad they invited us to be there with them. Benjamin had a good time outside the Temple with his Uncles Evan and Mike. His favorite thing was to go up and down the elevator and up and down the stairs. He had such a good time that he didn't want mom or dad to take him back when we were done with the Temple ceremony!

That cute little girl is Jonathan's second cousin's daughter- so she's related to us somehow. :) I'm not very good at naming relatives after second cousins...

Here's the happy couple...

After the pictures at the Temple we tried to put Benjamin down for a nap at a family member's house nearby- it didn't happen. We met everyone for the luncheon at Marie Callendars and Benjamin did really well considering he'd been awake since 8am and it was 4:30pm by the time we were done with lunch. We took him to Mike's house (that's Jonathan's brother) and on the way....

This is HUGE because Benjamin has not fallen asleep in the car since he was 6 months old (except for 1 long 14 hour car ride from California to Utah). No matter how tired Benjamin is, he refuses to sleep in the car and I have no idea why. Anyway, he woke up when we got to Mike's house and refused to nap again... lovely.

That night was the reception, and that was fun! Jonathan had a good time dancing with our niece, Savannah. He was nice enough to save one dance for me :)

And Benjamin had a good time dancing with his Uncle Derek.

Oh, why is Benjamin naked from the waist down and wearing a completely different shirt? Let me tell you... actually, let me SHOW you...

That was a relatively calm point in the whole splashing escapade. This was the result:

He is such a boy!

Overall, the day was wonderful and we're so happy for Jordan and Vilja. Benjamin fell asleep on the car ride home, but he put up a good fight for the first 20 or 30 minutes before finally zonking out. There is hope that in the future he may actually decide that sleeping the car can be a good thing. I hope he figures that out before our trip to St George in a couple weeks!

I'm in Heaven...

We got an air conditioner today. Let me tell you, it makes the biggest difference. I'm a happy pregnant woman today.

Update on The Bottle Game

So last week I wrote this post about how we've stopped giving Benjamin a bottle. He was doing really well for several days. It almost seemed like he'd forgotten about them all together. I commented to Jonathan about this exact thing on our drive home from visiting his parents on Fathers Day. I guess I jinxed myself.

As soon as we got home we put Benjamin in his pajamas and asked if he wanted some milk before bed. He ran toward the fridge smiling and laughing so I knew that was a yes. I opened the fridge and handed him his sippy cup that had milk still in it from breakfast. He took one look at it and pushed it away. He then turned to the cupboard where I kept his clean bottles and pointed and said, "uugghhh," which can be translated as "no, that." I said, "Here's your milk from your big boy sippy." He kept pushing it away and pointing toward the cupboard. I was hoping it was just because he was super tired from not taking a nap that day and being up an hour past his usual bedtime.

But then this morning he did the same thing when I tried to give him his sippy cup of milk for breakfast. Oh no... I hope it doesn't get any worse. He does ok once I tell him he can only have milk from his big boy sippy cup. But I think it's going to be a long week. Next time, I'm not making any comments about a B-O-T-T-L-E (I spelled it out in the car too, but apparently that doesn't matter. You can still jinx yourself even if you don't actually SAY the word.) Sigh.

Happy Fathers Day

I know I'm a day late, but we spent all day yesterday with family and by the time we got home and put Benjamin to bed I was ready for bed myself.

Benjamin woke up early on Sunday so he and I played and got ready for the day while Jonathan enjoyed sleeping in. When Jonathan woke up we gave him his presents. Benjamin had made a cute card for Jonathan (well, I folded it but he put on the stickers, glitter, and drew the pictures) and I was able to get him to let me get a couple of footprints onto some cardstock too. Benjamin was not happy about having paint on his bare feet, but he was a champ and it was not a horrible experience like I expected it to be. After Jonathan opened his gifts we had breakfast and Benjamin got a quick 45 minute nap in before church.

We went to church with my brother and sister in law, Dianne and Rob. My other brother and sister in law, Theresa and Dave, and their 2 kids, Matthew and Savannah, also came. It was nice to have plenty of people to entertain Benjamin while Jonathan and I got to pay attention in Sacrament meeting. I think this is the quietest Benjamin has ever been in church since he slept through it more than a year ago. It was very nice. After church we went to Dianne and Rob's house for lunch. Benjamin loves it there, especially when he gets to play with the kitties. Here's a picture of Benjamin and Savannah playing with sweet Hermie, the kitty that puts up with so much from these kids-

After lunch we went to visit Jonathan's parents. Benjamin refused to take a nap once we got there. But he did really well all day and wasn't as cranky as we thought he would be. He enjoyed playing outside, so much so that I couldn't get a picture of his face because he was running around so much.

He also like laying on the floor and eating Stropwaffels... those are these absolutely delicious cookies made in Holland (where Jonathan's mom is from). Jonathan's aunt had just come for a visit from Holland and had brought a bunch with her. We brought some, ok a lot, home with us :o) If you've ever seen the movie The Best Two Years it's the cookie they buy hot from street vendors.

Benjamin also really enjoyed playing the piano, especially with his cousin Savannah...

That was pretty much our Fathers' Day. I think Jonathan had a good day. Benjamin and I tried to make it special for him to let him know how much we love and appreciate him. Jonathan does so much for us. He is a wonderful father to Benjamin- always playing and laughing with him and supporting me in trying to raise him well. The three words Benjamin says are Dad, Jesus, and please, so I think that shows how much he loves his daddy and how well Jonathan is teaching him. We love you Jonathan!

He's Graduated!

No, not Jonathan. Benjamin.




Doesn't he look so sleepy? Today we gave him his last bottle before bed. We cut out the morning bottle a couple weeks ago. Then we decided to go ahead and get rid of the night bottle as soon as we were out of formula. And today was the day. After Benjamin's 1 year check up at the pediatrician's office we had discussed getting rid of the bottles by the time he was 15 months. But, that didn't quite happen. It seemed like Benjamin still needed them at night to calm himself down before bed. And the morning bottle was just because we were lazy and it was easier to make a bottle at 6am when you're not quite awake yourself instead of trying to feed Benjamin yogurt or cereal or scrambled eggs. So yeah, at least they are gone by 17 months! Now I just need to figure out what else to feed him during the day to make up for the calories he won't be getting from the formula. This kid already eats none stop during the day!

We're Free!!!!

For the past two years we've been with a certain cell phone company who seems to have bent over backwards to give me a horrible experience. (I won't name the company here, but if you click on that link you probably won't be surprised at all who it is.) The last time I called the bane of my existence I spent 1 hour and 45 minutes on the phone with Jarome just to have him tell me, "Yes, there is a billing error on your account and I'll have someone look into that for you and call you back." That was 3 1/2 weeks ago and I still haven't received that phone call. (I didn't pay the stupid fee they were trying to charge me and now it's no longer on my account, so I guess they actually did something right).

ANYWAY... so I've been counting down the days until we could get a new service provider. Jonathan started counting with me when we moved 3 weeks ago and he discovered that his phone gets absolutely no service in our new apartment. It's a pain to have to walk outside to make or receive a phone call. My phone still got service inside, but most of the time it was sketchy at best. Well, today was the day we could get a new service and not have to pay the ridiculous cancellation fee with Sprint- I mean the service company we had before. Because Jonathan works at BYU we were able to get a discount on our monthly service bill AND a discount on our phones. Oh, and we each were able to get 3 different accessories (wireless headpiece, music downloading cord thing, and extra memory card) for an extra $50. Pretty sweet.

So... this is my new phone, the EnV2:

And this is Jonathan's new Gleam:

We're pretty happy today. Jonathan can now use his phone inside the house and I don't ever have to talk to that other company again- unless of course they mess up our final bill (which they probably will now that I've jinxed myself by saying so.) And Benjamin is pretty happy with our old cell phones to play with. He has always loved playing with our cell phones so it's nice to give him our old ones that he still thinks work.

Eating Yogurt

Benjamin is getting better at feeding himself with a spoon or fork. Yogurt is still a little tough, mostly because it slides off the spoon before it gets to his mouth. But he is at least having fun and learning!

Playing outside

Now that we have a patio that is safe for kids to play on I often leave the door open and let him go in and out as he pleases during the day. I usually put one of his toys out there for him to play with as he watches the other kids running around on the grass. Here's a couple pictures of Benjamin playing with his blocks and stacking them on our oh-so-cool BBQ.

I hope that this summer we'll be able to make our patio a fun place for Benjamin to play. Right now we've got a little table and two chairs out there besides the BBQ, and I know we're planning on getting Benjamin his own little-man-sized chair and I have a little plastic pool that we'll get put together as soon as it's hot. I thought a little picnic table would be fun and functional, and low and behold Kmart has this one on sale this week for only $18.99.

I think pb & j sandwiches taste much better when eaten while sitting on a plastic bench outside, don't you? I'll let you know what we end up adding to our patio this summer...

So excited!

This is the picture I was able to snap today. The orginal is really dark so I had to play around with the color and brightness a little so you could see it. So much for the auto flash I had the camera set at...

This is Benjamin running in and out of our patio door, while screaming or yelling or whatever you want to call his excited noises. He loves being able to go out and watch the other kids playing, but I think he loves running in and out of the open door a little more...