Updates!

Things Ben has done in the past week or two....

- Eaten 2 full pieces of pizza in one sitting

- Walked the distance of the room without holding on to anything

- Gotten used to have shoes on his feet

- Gotten his two top teeth (FINALLY....they took FOREVER)

- Packed up all the 12 month clothes and even some of the 18 month clothes

- Got a haircut

- Has learned how to "dance" to music. (Videos to come)

-Been invited to his friend Clare's 1st birthday party!

-Climbed the stairs about 10 times a day

-Taken many rides in his first car....it's pink

Things Ben has NOT done in the past week or two.....

SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT. Boo

Haircut

Forgot to mention.......

Mission #1 of the week while Mom was here was to find shoes.

Mission #2- haircut. See why????

Let the Artwork Begin

I'm now officially a mom. Ok...I was a mom from the moment Ben was born. Through the rite of passage of over 24 hours of pitocin induced, epidural failed labor I became a mom. Through the hazing/initiation of 9+ months of sleepless nights I became a mom. From the moment I looked at this tiny perfect human being who grabbed my finger, who knew my smell, who was at his happiest in my arms, who I realized I would sacrifice anything in this world for, I became a mom.

But now I'm really a mom. I now have my child's artwork hanging on the refrigerator. I've entered the phase of hanging awful yet wonderful pieces of "art" all around the house and displaying them like original Picassos. I still remember the hideous dog treat Christmas tree ornaments, and drawings of people who were built like ladders with purple stick hair proudly displayed in my house growing up. I remember how much pride I took in them and how much I loved it when my parents gushed about how great it was....and now I'll do the same for Ben.

Ben is too young to even realize what is going on, but it's never too early to start. Here is Ben's first "artwork."

Note: The flower stem is actually 3 of his footprints. Because of the previously mentioned "lack of arches" in his chubby feet, you can't really tell that they're footprints but look closely for the toes and you'll see them :)

Shoes?? Who Needs them??

Greetings and sorry for the delay in posting. We've had a busy busy last week and there just wasn't time to do everything. We had a wonderful week with my parents, who flew out from Denver last weekend and stayed with us for the weekend, then left in the middle of the week to head to Amish country, then came back again towards the end of the week and stayed until this afternoon. Our week was filled with fun- lots of good food, shopping, beautiful weather, a stroll in downtown Annapolis, the golf park (driving range and mini golf) and of course lots of playing with Benjamin. Thanks to Mom and Dad Ritsema for a wonderful week!

Mom and I had a mission this week- find shoes for Ben. I had one of those "bad parent moments" when the daycare kindly alerted me that Ben really needs shoes and is at the age now where he should be wearing them most of the time. He spends most of his time on his feet or crawling now- no more laying down in a play gym kicking around. So we needed to buy him some shoes. Normally this wouldn't be a problem- we could have gone out to any store that sells baby stuff and found tons of really cute shoes in any shape, size or color. BUT- not all children have feet like Benjamin's......

Ben has "bubble feet." From the bottom they look like normal feet.....big for his age and kind of chubby with a lack of arch, but normal. From the top, they almost look normal too. But if you look from the side, you can see our dilemma in buying shoes. He has this chub on the top of his feet....almost like they are stuffed with something soft and squishy. This chub makes it impossible to find shoes that will actually fit on his feet. Length- no problem. Width- no problem. Height- major problem. So we looked all over creation and this is what we came up with. The ONLY shoes that will fit him for now. Not extremely fashionable....but at least Ben has shoes and warm feet for the upcoming winter.

Nostalgia

Over the weekend, we were cleaning the house and I decided to tackle the huge bins of baby clothes in the basement. I've just been throwing everything "baby" in giant Rubbermaid bins, swearing I would organize it and label it so when the next child comes around (NO THIS ISN'T AN ANNOUNCEMENT), I would know exactly where everything was and wouldn't have to spend my first few exhausted days of newborn parenting digging through bins for clothes in the "NB" size and for swaddling blankets. So I tackled the project and was met with two main realizations....

#1- Ben has more clothes in those bins than Brian and I combined have in our closets. Even with the the loss of several onesies that were cut off his body and quickly disposed of to avoid smell and poop, he still has SO MANY CLOTHES.

#2- I packed clothes in sizes NB-12 months and couldn't believe my kid is almost a year old. A year ago at this time I was sweating profusely because of the heat and extra 50 pounds of weight I was carrying around. I was sleeping on the loveseat because that is the ONLY place I could get comfortable and not have leg cramps and reflux. I was nesting like a mad woman and preparing a nursery for a baby I'd never officially met but who I already knew. When we were getting ready to leave the hospital, we almost had to take him home in diaper and blanket because the clothes we brought were wayyyy too big. Maybe it was my fear of birthing mondo-baby, but I was overly concerned that there was no way my child would fit in those TINY clothes. My mom went out and bought some premie stuff because that's all that would fit him. Now I look at those same clothes and can't believe Ben was ever that small.

Updates from our world: Child care is going really well. Ben is doing great and so are mom and dad. he's getting a lot more used to it and really likes the social interaction. Ben is a super social kid....we went to visit our friends who have a daughter who is a few weeks older than Ben and he continually was trying to engage her in play. Poor girl was probably thinking " GO AWAY! STOP POKING ME." If you want to read more about our fun morning, read her blog. We're looking forward to a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Ritsema next week!

Baby on the Go!

Poor Confused Dog....Can't figure it out

Cruelty

I went to back to Grand Rapids, MI for a quick 24 hour trip. I attended a roundtable discussion on youth in the CRC...quite interesting. Anyway...Ben and Daddy held down the fort at home. I admit, I was looking forward to a night in a hotel room by myself with a full night's sleep. I was praying that Ben would be good for Brian and sleep well.

Well....I fell asleep at woke up around midnight thinking I was hearing things. I heard a baby crying and totally thought my poor brain was just conditioned to hear Ben at that time. Nope....they put me in a room next to someone with a baby who woke several times in the middle of the night. Not cool. Oh....and Ben slept 13 hours straight through for Brian without waking up. Happy for him...bummer for me.

These are pictures of Ben at his first baseball game- we went to watch the Washington Nationals game over the weekend.