Benjamin 7 months

Benjamin 7 months

This past month has been full of noises, lack of sleep and lots of changes. The biggest change being food.  The big boy that he is, Benjamin really needed to start getting into a good rhythm with solid food.  After not wanting to take a bottle last month and having a harder time with using a spoon, we were hoping that being in his home environment would help.  But not really, he still doesn't want to eat anything off of a spoon.  You can offer him a piece of food from your finger which he eats happily, and then right after offer him the same food from a spoon and he will turn is his head and close his lips tightly! It is so bazar and a bit frustrating as well.  HOWEVER, Benjamin has quickly learned how to chew small pieces of food and does an excellent job grabbing the food and getting it into his mouth.  So I guess he just wanted to skip over all the pureed foods and go right to the manly food!  It makes for a big mess on the floor, his face, hands and chair...but it is also easier as we can just put food on his plate and let him eat.  It doesn't seem like there are any foods he doesn't like, but he definitely likes variation.  If you only have 1 food item to offer him at a meal, then he will whine until you offer him something new and then he will chow down again.  Some of the daily foods include: rugbrød with liverpaste or cream cheese, rolls, potatoes, sweet potatoes, pasta spirals, cheese, cucumber, nectarines, plums, avocado, melon, oatmeal. It's quite fun to watch him master this skill of independent eating so early!

Due to the increase in solid food, Benjamin now nurses only about 4-5 times a day.  1 time during the night and then 3-4 times during the day.  Usually in the morning, before the long nap, later afternoon and always right before bed.

Benjamin takes about 3 naps a day. In a normal day he usually sleeps two 45 minutes naps and a longer nap of about 2½ to 3 hours.  The long nap is sometimes in the morning and sometimes in the afternoon. We never really know, but the 45 minute naps are often exactly 45 minutes! He is in bed between 7 and 7:30pm and wakes up to feed some time during the night.  On a good night it can be 4am when he eats, but sometimes at 1am and then he wants to be awake for two hours afterwards...yawn!

In general Benjamin is still a happy baby who seems quite content.  He can sit on his own now, and that has really expanded his world! He doesn't like to lay on his back really anymore, that is for babies! He likes to make laughing noises (which sound more like a cough) across the table at Silas and the two of them can go back and forth smiling the whole time.  It is quite sweet.  However, as much as Silas enjoys laughing with Benjamin, it has begun to be a bit annoying that his little brother can take his toys and play with them...aka have them in his mouth!

Other traits:
1) Can sit up in the stroller.  He loves to look around and take in all the new sights.
2) Fall asleep on his own.  We started a good night ritual. Reading a book, singing a song and then praying.  After that we might have to go in to give him his pacifier once or twice, but usually he is sleeping within 10 minutes.
3) Loves to swing.  Both on his round swing inside and the baby swing outside.
4) Wears size 74 shirts and 68 pants.  (9-12 month shirts and 6-9 months pants)
5) Loves taking baths.  Even if he is really tired, he will kick like crazy and have the hugest smile on his face the entire time!

Bye Bye "sut"

Since before we left for vacation in July, we have been preparing and telling Silas that when we got home he was going to say goodbye to his "sut" (pacifier).  Well finally we have a nice quiet weekend, so today was the day! In the morning we gathered up all his suts and Silas put them into a bag.  When I picked him up at pre-school I had the bag with and he put his pre-school sut in the bag as well. Then we drove to the toy store where he would trade his suts in for a firetruck.  The week before, we had told him what the plan was, and asked him what he wanted to trade his suts for....he at first said "tractor"...then right after said..."no wait, a firetruck!!".  So all week he has been telling people that  "on FridayI am going with  my suts to the lady, and then I get a firetruck!" (Lady being the woman working at the toy store) I had ordered the firetruck earlier in the week so when we got to the toy store the "lady" was expecting us.  She showed Silas that there were actually quite a bit of other kids who had traded their suts there.  They were all hung up on strings in the corner.  So Silas wanted to have his suts there too.  He helped the lady put them on the string and then said "okay now I get a firetruck?!"... She came out from the back with it, and Silas was so excited.  He wanted to go home right away to show Far. He played with it non-stop until we went to swimming, and the whole way home from swimming he said. "I go home and play with my firetruck!".

When bedtime came around Søren and I were very interested to see how it would go.  At first it went really well. Silas asked for his sut, but pretty much accepted that we didn't have it anymore.  However, you could totally tell that he had a difficult time settling down and kept coming out to see what we were doing.  By 9pm he was getting really tired, and therefore was really missing his sut a lot! At one point he was crying really hard that he just wanted his sut.... I tried to get him to re-tell the story about where we went with the suts, etc and that calmed him down a bit.  I ended up putting his new firetruck  by his bed so he could touch it if he needed.  After more whining and a little crying, Silas finally fell asleep at 10:15pm.  He woke up once in the middle of the night but was able to fall asleep quickly again.

The next day at nap time he really missed his suts and was not able to sleep.  We insisted on him at least resting in his bed for an hour, and that went okay with only a few interruptions...after I finally calmed him down with a story.  Luckily Silas was still in a great mood during the day, even without his nap. And then tonight he fell asleep within 15 minutes without his sut.  In fact we actually never heard from him after his routine asking for a drink about 1 minute after you leave his room. YES! I guess he was just more tired, and already getting used to it.  Our big boy!  (PS. He also made his first poop on the potty today..he really is getting big!)

Just for fun

This weekend I have been thinking about how much Silas has grown in the past 6 months. Not just in appearances, but his way of acting and thinking. Just a few months ago we were really struggling with Silas refusing to do things, looking at us right in the face and saying "no", or actually running in the opposite direction when we ask him to do something like get a new diaper, etc.  Well this past month we have gotten to spend so much time together, and I've realized that he is so much more agreeable these days. For example, I told Silas we needed to leave for pre-school in 2 minutes, after the 2 minutes had gone by, I said "okay Silas, time to go." He just looked at me and said, "Okay Mom, let me just pick up my toys quick"....He then put the Legos back and came and put his shoes on.  You can really talk some sense into him, and explain things.  He seems to really trust our opinions and respects when we say "no". Of course, this isn't all the time, but in general. :-) 

Silas also has such a sweet heart. He will ask you, if you've had a good day, when you see him. Or he will ask if you have slept well. If you say "ouch", he will respond, "are you okay Mommy?" and often give the spot a kiss or blow on it. He also tries to comfort Benjamin if he is whiny or crying. In the car for example he will say "it's okay Benjamin, we are almost there!" in the sweetest voice.

Finally, Silas is very polite. He will say please and thank you without you asking him to. Today I helped him with something and he said "Thank you so much Mom!"  Later he said "Mom, I can't find my wheel, can you find it for me?"....When I showed him where it was, he just turns to me, looks me right in the face, and says "Great, thanks alot Mom!".... Or today before nap time. We were outside playing  outside and I said we had to go in and take a nap after 5 more kicks of the ball.  Silas answers "Then I say, okay Mom!"...After the 5 shots he looked at me and said "Okay, now we're done...time for a nap!"...he then ran inside, found his blanket and stuffed animals, and got into bed! And I could go on and on.  It's just the way that he says it, that sounds so sweet! I will try to get it on video.  He just has this light in his eyes when he says "Okay Mom."   

So yeah...my Mom has always told me that when I turned 4 I sprouted angel wings...I guess Silas is in a period of angel wings at the moment...I'm sure there will be many conflicts ahead, but for now we smile and are thankful for the amazing little boy we have.

USA vacation part 2

As usual we kept ourselves busy while in the US.  Whether it was visiting family and friends, or shopping for things on our must have list, most days involved some kind of activity.  This year we really had beautiful weather, there were only 2 days that were super hot and muggy, otherwise the temperatures were in the 70s or 80s (20-30degrees C) and the humidity was quite low.  This was great, as we were able to enjoy the outdoors even more.

The 14th of July, we set out west for the Black Hills.  We drove about 8 hours (with stops) the first day and stopped in Murdo, South Dakota.  The drive there went quite well. The boys took pretty long naps, and Silas was entertained for most of trip just looking out the window and spotting tractors and motorcycles. It was only the last 2 hours that we even brought out the Ipad!

The next morning we drove from Murdo and took the Badlands loop. It was amazing! The rock formations were so beautiful, and Silas thought it was so much fun to climb and crawl around.  We took a hike around and Silas ended up with a bump and scratch on his head...but recovered quickly and was back to climbing. We stopped at the famous Wall Drug for lunch and drove the remaining 1½ hours during nap time.  We couldn't check into our vacation home yet, so we stopped at Old McDonalds Petting Farm. It was pretty lame for the price, but Silas enjoyed it and even tried riding the horse all by himself.  The highlight of the farm for Silas was, however, the mini playground and a blue sand shovel.

Finally we made it to our vacation rental and checked out the space.  It turned out that our rental was one half of the house and the owners lived in the other half.  No problem... But then as we were exploring we saw a curtain in Silas' room so we opened it, and just on the other side of a sliding glass door was the owners living room! So the only thing seperating us from their house was a curtain and a glass wall. Ha ha! We had to keep Silas from opening the curtain, otherwise it wasn't really a problem...aside from when their 4 dogs started barking. But luckily they only barked the first night.

Day 3 of our Black Hills trip consisted of visiting all the major tourist attractions around there.  Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse and then Bear Country.  It was cool to see Mt. Rushmore, but actually Crazy Horse impressed us even more after we saw the video about the process of making it.  Bear Country was cool, we saw wild animals from the area as we drove around in our car. Silas had fun trying to spot the different animals.  That evening, our friends Anna and Jason drove out from their home in Wyoming, to see us for just a few hours.  It was so fantastic to see them!

Mt. Rushmore

Crazy Horse Monument

Day 4 was a trip to Custer State Park where we went to 2 different lakes, drove along the beautifully scenic Needles Highway, drove on the Wildlife Loop where we saw thousands of buffalo in the wild, and snaked our way up and down the mountain side through rock tunnels. It was so gorgeous! We also went on a "short" hike.  We thought, great...1 mile, that won't take long! Well it ended up being a hike that went 400ft up and then down again. It was pretty strenous, but Silas hiked the WHOLE way!! We were so proud of him!

We did it! 1 mile hike up the mountain!

Up close and personal

Nice dinner outside on "our" patio

Evening soccer with Far

Day 5 it was time to go home, but we couldn't leave town without visiting the Storybook Island park. A free park where there are figures, character etc, from the different childrens storybooks. It was awesome, and Silas could have stayed there all day.  After lunch we drove and drove and ended up back at my Mom's around 11:30pm. Benjamin was pretty whiny and had a hard time sleeping in the car, but all in all it went well.

Storybook Island

Storybook Island

Picnic lunch before a long ride home!

After our Black Hills trip we had lots of plans with friends. We went to the Mall of America and saw the Okee Dokee Brothers with our friend Julie and her two kids. After a wonderful lunch, we went to the amusement park area and Silas got to ride a lot of rides.  Grandma came along and we all had a nice time. That same evening I met with my old college brass quintet friends. We played together for an about an hour before our lips were hurting and went out for a drink afterwards.  (I had to go home in between to feed Benjamin, as he would absolutely not take a bottle!) It was so much fun to see them all again, and to play my horn again!)

Quintet

Other events include:
Going to the splash pad and park with Mo and her new husband Stephen.

Storytime and hanging out with Grandma and Uncle Johnny

 Visiting Dan and Tara a few times, seeing their new house and playing with the kids.

Visiting with my highschool friends Crystal and Andrea and their Jason's..and all our boys. (5 total!) We had a BBQ and hung out. Silas got to ride with Westin in the Powerwheels Jeep...it looked so weird just seeing them driving off togehter.  We also went to the lake one day and the boys loved playing at the playground and splashing in the lake.

Playing at the beach

 Visited Julie, Josh, Alexander and their newest baby Ruthie. We had a nice dinner and the boys played together being very silly!

Went to Holly and Dave's new house. They just moved in, and their place is huge. They have a pool so we went swimming, played a lot in the playroom (they also have 2 boys ages 2½+ and 8 months), had some adult time while all 4 boys took naps, and after they all went to bed, we sat by the bonfire with a beer and some S'mores!

Goodnight stories

Water fight with Grandpa!

Visited my Grandma and took a 4 generation Adrienne/Adrian picture.

Benjamin and I went to my cousin Henry's play "Les Miserablé" with my Mom, Aunt Eileen and Grandma. It was a great time and very professional. As I had to bring Benjamin, due to the lack of taking a bottle 2 days prior, I ended up watching some of the play on the small tvs in the lobby, but the experience as a whole was fun.

Enjoyed lazy mornings where the boys didn't wake up until 8 or 8:30! We could then lie in bed watching TV or just talking.

I played softball for my Dad's team. It was a double header and we won both games. It was a lot of fun, but boy was I sore afterwards!

Had dinner at my Dad's with Aunt Anne and Kim.

Went to Minihaha Falls with Dad and Liz. Saw the falls, walked around a bit and had an outdoor lunch.

Had a date with Søren for our anniversary, where we went to a Mexican restaurant, out to a movie ("Begin Again"..it was great!!) out for frozen yoghurt, and to Target to end the date. It was wonderful! We also had a date night where we went to Applebees and grocery shopping, oh what things give us joy these days!

Took Silas to the movie theater. They have free childrens movies in the summer, and we had 2 free popcorn bags from the parade, so it was a cheap enjoyment as well.  The movie they showed was "Turbo" about a snail who enters the Indy 500 car race.  During one of the scenes Silas shouts out "I wish I had a snail too!". He had a great time and was mesmorized the entire time, talking to us and telling us what he saw.

So that about sums it up. We were ready to come home by the end, but had a lot of wonderful experiences and visits. Both boys did a great job getting dragged around everywhere, but we could tell they were ready to come home too. Silas' English was great from the moment we arrived, but it was fun watching it improve so much as well. Thanks to family and friends for a nice month!

Random pictures:

Messy potatoes and avocado