{5 Months & Mother's Day}

Well we have made it to 5 months!  Ben officially turned five months old yesterday so I thought I would share a few updates on him:

• Ben has become much  more active this month!  No more laying around for this guy.  He now wants to be in the action!  He reaches for things, flaps his arms and kicks his legs.  It is adorable!  But makes is much harder to hold him and do anything with him in my arms.
• He is starting to bounce when I have him standing on my lap and when he is in his exersaucer.
• He is almost sitting up on his own.  I have to keep something behind him because he falls backwards at times and occasionally he falls to the side, but overall he is doing great and has become very strong in the past couple of weeks!  I think a few more weeks and he will be a pro.  You can see him sitting in this picture...

• Ben is much more into toys now.  He reaches for them, can grab them and even change hands when holding them.  And, of course, he is putting them all in his mouth. 
• He doesn't have any teeth yet and no signs of them.  Woohoo!  I hope they stay away a long time because I don't want the effects of teething in this house anytime soon!
• I think he weighs about 23 pounds now and he seems very long, but I have no idea the measurement.  We will find out at his 6 month check-up in June.
• Ben has perfected rolling from back to stomach and has now become a 50/50 stomach sleeper.  Half the time he sleeps on his back (the way I put him down) and the other half the time he is on his tummy.
• Speaking of sleeping...no comment.  I feel the minute I discuss his sleep, you-know-what hits the fan. 

• Ben naps about 3 times a day now.  He sleeps only about 30 to 45 minutes in the morning, takes a longer afternoon nap and then another short nap around 5:00 pm.  I am trying to get him to take two of those naps in his crib.  It works some days and not others depending on where I have to be with Luke. 
• He goes to bed around 7:45 pm and wakes up anywhere between 6:30 and 8:15 am. 
• He is still not into food at all.  If you don't believe me, try.  You will quickly learn that this boy wants nothing to do with oatmeal or any pureed fruit or vegetable by the look on his sweet face. 
• Ben does love his milk though!  He is still a great nurser and eats about 5 times a day.  We are finally on a 3 hour schedule, so it has given me some flexibility if I need to run out for an errand.  He was doing okay with the bottle, but then we didn't give him one for about a week or two since he was sick and now he is refusing again.  Sigh.
• He is wearing size 4 diapers.
• Ben has discovered the dogs!  And he seems to be just as a crazy animal lover as the rest of us.  He will belly laugh when they are near and reaches out to grab them.  If Chloe or Trudy licks his hands or feet, he goes crazy with laughter!

• Ben is crazy in love with Luke.  He squeals with delight whenever he is around.  It is just awesome to watch as a mom.
• He is still a sweet, happy baby who brings me so much joy.  I just love him soooo much!

Oh and it is Mother's Day!  I brought Luke to get a haircut and then Chat and the boys took me to lunch.  We plan to head to my mom's house later tonight to celebrate with her.  Motherhood is not easy, actually pretty hard at times with a 2 year old and baby.  But it has been the most incredible experience.  I didn't know I could love two boys as much I do and I feel so blessed that I get to be their mommy.  Even on the hard days :).

{Bubba}

Chat and I have learned our lesson.  Luke has definitely starting repeating what we say.  Luckily it hasn't been anything too bad like a curse word or something inappropriate (because that could definitely have happened...oops!).  However, he is a little unsure as to what to call his brother Ben.  He knows everyone's name in the family -- dogs included.  But when we ask him what Ben's name is, he simply says "Bubba".  Yes, Chat and I tend to call Ben "Bubba" around the house, but it is more as a term of endearment rather than another name for him. 

But then the more we look at Ben, the more he seems to be a Bubba...Don't you agree?!?!?

{Mother's Day Gifts}

We have lots of mothers to celebrate around here....grandmothers in particular.  In preparation of Mother's Day this Sunday, Luke painted a few flower pots for the moms we love.  We bought some heap pots at Lowe's and let Luke go to town with his paint!  We bought some ivy and planted it in the pots and I wrote "To {Grandmother Name}" and "Love, Luke and Ben" on the outside rim.  Only down side was it was washable paint and when we watered the plants once we put them in the pots, some of the paint started coming off.  So they are now outside trying to dry and I am praying they stay looking good before the weekend.  I am hoping the grandmothers believe in the old saying, "it's the thought that counts"!

It was a fun activity for Luke as well as making gifts for the grandmothers in our lives.  Overall, success!

{Class Picture}

This is Luke's first class picture.  Such a milestone for my first-born and for me as a mom!  Why is it things like this make you realize even more so that you are an adult with children?!?!  He seems like such a big boy now that he has a school picture.  I just love it! 

How the heck they got that many 2 year olds to stand still is beyond me...

{Not Ready}

I have been randomly trying to feed Ben solids the past couple of weeks.  Such a second kid -- I planned so well with Luke and this time around I just try with Ben whenever I get the chance to sit down with him.  We have tried oatmeal and sweet potatoes a few times and neither have been a huge hit.  With being such a good "eater" (aka milk drinker), I thought he would love it.  But I just don't think he is ready for solids.  He barely opens his mouth, he never swallows and nver lunges for the spoon or next bite.  I think I will wait a week and try again, wait a week and try again, etc. 

Because this is how we start out....

And it quickly goes to this....

{Cookie Saturday}

We had planned to have a fun Saturday at the beach with some of our friends, but since this darn virus is creating all sorts of problems at our house, we had to stay home since Ben still was not feeling well.  Poor guy...

Luke was back to his normal self and had ants in his pants, so I thought it might be time for us to do something a little fun with just the two of us.  It was time to make cookies! 

{Confession...we didn't really make cookies.  We scooped them from a tub onto a pan.  We had this huge tub of deliciousness in our refrigerator that we were going to bake for our friends at the beach.  We coldn't let it go to waist, could we ?!?!}
 

At first Luke didn't quite get what we were doing, but he followed my lead...

But then he tasted a bit of heaven and quickly figured out that this was a very fun...and tasty activity!  He ended picking out all the chocolate chips on top of all the cookies while they were on the tray.  Smart boy.

This was Luke saying "cheeeeeese" for the camera.  He doesn't quite smile, more like squints his eyes and shows his teeth, but at least it is better than a frown :).

  Luke didn't understand the whole "baking" part of making cookies.  He thought you put them on the tray and you were good to go.  Hmmm...I struggled explaining the reasons we had to wait 12 minutes for them to bake.  This was him in front of the oven whining "cookies!" over and over again....for 12 long minutes. 

Guess it was worth the wait!  My little cookie with his cookie :).

{First Night Out}

Chat and I had our first night away from both kids last night since before Ben was born.  It was waaaaaaaaaay overdue.  It was the first time it was with a true "babysitter" -- not just a grandparent -- that took care of both boys.  It was a big step for me.  I always say that I want more opportunities to go out and spend time with just Chat but when it comes time to do it, I have trouble.  I feel like it needs to be me, especially since having Ben and he has trouble with the bottle.  But I knew it was time. 

So I got a recommendation from a fellow mom of a girl who is newly married who is living in Houston while her husband attends medical school.  In a nutshell, she is fabulous and I instantly knew I felt comfortable leaving the boys with her.

We had a very busy day, but got home and settled to make our date night.  I was trying to freshen up while Ben was taking a nap.  He wakes up and it is time to nurse him since he hadn't eaten in almost 5 hours which is just unheard for Ben.  I try to nurse and nothing.  He doesn't want to eat.

What?!?!

I quietly freak out to myself since I know something is wrong.  Is he getting sick?  First Luke, then me, now Ben? 

He didn't have a fever and acted somewhat okay so we continued on with our plan.  The babysitter got here and I let her know the deal about Ben and that I think he may not be feeling his best.  I am worried he won't take a bottle from her.  He isn't good at it to begin with and the fact that he wouldn't even nurse is just a recipe for disaster.  But we continue.

Luke is great with her which surprises the heck out of me.  I love that kid, but he struggles a lot when Chat or I leave him, but he was doing very well with her, so we quietly leave.

Chat and I head to dinner and eat and drink our way through the night.  Okay, it actually was just maybe an hour and 15 minutes.  But it felt like eternity though since we weren't shoveling our food in our mouths while cutting up Luke's food and bouncing Ben on our lap.  We talked and had a great time catching up as a married couple rather than parents.  Gosh...it felt so good.  I actually started to feel at ease with the kids at home with a babysitter.  Since we finished rather early, we headed to another place just for another drink since we still had about an hour before we had to head home.

After the drink, we head home and joke about whether or not we think Ben is up.  We joke.  Hmmm...maybe we shouldn't have done that.  We are walking up to the door and I see the babysitter holding a crying Ben.  My heart sinks.  I bring Ben to his room to try to nurse him back to sleep and Chat pays and sends her home.

We head to bed and within an hour Ben has me up with over 101 degree temperature.  The rest of the night was a blurr.  The poor boy was sick.  He moaned and cried out.  I brought him in bed with me at times.  We got him on tylenol which helped.  But all in all, we had a rough night.  Especially when trying to do it with lots of wine in my system.  Score one for me.  But I rally just as any mom would do with a sick child. 

I felt so bad.  For Ben.  For the babysitter.  I knew in my gut he was off, but we had gotten so far with actually possibly having a night out, that I just went with it.  I know it was okay to do, but hindsight is 20/20 right?  Next time I will go with my gut and stay home.

But we did have a great time and will definitely use her again when everyone is well! 

Today Ben seems to be doing a bit better and Luke is almost 100% now and was able to go to school.  So we decided to head to the backyard this afternoon and do some swinging...

{Nap Time}

I have been trying to get Ben to nap more in his crib.  He obviously has other ideas of what he wants to do there.  At least he is happy, because sleeping clearly isn't on his agenda!

{Brotherhood}

I have been surprised at the bond our boys have already made. It has been incredible to watch and incredibly rewarding that make the hard times (see bajillion no-sleep posts) seem less hard. I could watch them forever.  Chat and I just beam at each other when they start 'talking' to each other and look at each other with goofy grins.

Ben completely idolizes Luke.  No one can make him smile like Luke does.  Whenever Luke walks in the room, Ben just lights up and will just belly laugh at anything he does. 

Exhibit A

Do you see that smile on Ben?  It is constant when Luke is around.  He loves Luke and has eyes for him and only him when he is near. 

And it appears that it is not just Ben that loves the brotherhood.

Although not as obviously into his brother as it is with Ben, you can tell Luke digs it.  When Ben was in the hospital for those two weeks, Luke wasn't even two and Ben hadn't been with us for even 7 weeks.  Luke would say "mama, daddy, baby" over and over again to my parents who were keeping him.  He knew that we all belonged together.  Not just "mama" or "daddy".  It was all of us. 

One time I had to bring Luke to the doctor and I left Ben with my mom.  When we left her house, Luke acted panicked and just sobbed and sobbed once we got in the car.  He kept yelling "baby!".  He knew we all belonged together and when we left Ben, he knew we were missing someone. 

Since those early days, Luke has figured out he can make Ben laugh and smile.  He will now perform for Ben and get him laughing so hard.  Don't get me wrong, Luke still gets whiny and ticked the minute Ben's foot accidentally touches him (or any of his stuff)while we are sitting on the couch or wants me to hold him when I have Ben on my hip, but overall you can tell there is a bond.  One that is special to these two little boys.

{Three Words}

I am sick.

Thanks Luke.  I finally get you to share, just wish it wasn't germs.  I feel pretty bad especially since last night I only got about 4 hours of sleep.  Yup, Ben was up at 12:00, 2:00, 4:00 and 6:00.  But I am too tired to talk about and the fact that I have no idea what to do anymore.

But Chat was home today so he sent me to take a nap (omg...thank you).  He handled Ben while Luke napped and I slept 2 1/2 hours.  This is probably the 3rd nap I have been able to take since I had Ben.  The boys never like to sleep at the same time.  I would say it felt glorious, but I woke up feel worse than when I went down.  Which means I know for sure I am getting sick.

Sore throat.  Stuffy nose.  Clogged ears.  Tired.  Exhausted.

I am going to get through this week, right?  Scratch that. 

I will get through this week.  I will get through this week.  I will get through this week.