carrie's first pregnancy

Well, the time has come to combine the two websites I currently have into one. So as of today, I'll no longer be posting here with photos or info... instead, I'll be posting at our "family" site, since we pretty much have no life outside of Ben anyway ;)

This will still be here, and I hope to turn it into a book for Ben (well, for me, but also for Ben) so he can have something that documents and captures his first years. But if you want to find all the new updates, the new site is:

carrie.cc

Thanks and see you over there!

1 year 4 months 2 weeks 1 day old

Posted by carrie at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

Knock on wood.

We were crippled last week (and half of this week) with some tummy drama. Joe and I have been swapping Ben duty to take time off work to care for him, and we thought as of Sunday he was all better. We took him to daycare Monday morning only to get a call at 10am letting us know he was *not* at ALL better. So back to the doctor we went, and thankfully, everything was fine (still just getting over a yucky virus). Turns out Ben has a "sensitivity" to milk, so when we jumped the gun and took him off his pedialite/cracker diet and switched back to whole milk, his poor stomach wasn't ready. So we have been on soy milk since Monday afternoon, and voila, Tuesday he was normal and by Wednesday he was back at daycare feeling great. I don't think he was lactose intolerant, just sensitive to it, and we'll be right back with whole milk by Friday. In the meantime, we have discovered the wonderful taste of KETCHUP! I introduced him to chicken nuggets a few weeks ago, when he refused to eat any other meat/protein (no cheese, no beef, no cooked chicken, etc). He LOVED them... and then the other night we ordered take-out from our favorite BBQ place. I gave him some shredded pork, and he spit it out. But then I dabbed it in a little BBQ sauce and WHOA he loved it! So then when he started throwing his chicken nuggets, I figured I'd try dipping it in ketchup, to give it a different flavor. One taste and he was HOOKED :) So now that he's no longer sick, he's eating like a champ, and loving the chicken with ketchup! He also still LOVES bananas and most fruits, yogurt, will occasionally eat cheese but not as much as he used to, and still refuses all veggies, including mashed potatoes, and any/all pasta. We sneak some veggies in with the "fruit/veggie yogurt" we sometimes buy... but I'm goint to have to get creative to get him to eat other stuff.

We're also dealing with some major temper tantrums, and whoo-boy, are we UPSET! It started as whining and crying... and has morphed into full blown kicking, pounding, flaling and SCREAMING on the ground. Complete with hysterical tears. I'm sure our neighbors below love it ;) I can handle it at home, but when he does it in the middle of the grocery store (not on the ground, but in the cart), I always debate just leaving the store to save myself the embarrassment of being THAT parent with the hysterical toddler. I finally resorted to buying him a mylar balloon, and that entertained him happily for the rest of the outing. I'm in so much trouble :)

1 year 4 months 1 week old

Posted by carrie at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments

Finally got the videos online over the weekend, and we captured some great moments! The first two are from Grandma Dee's visit and shows off his walking skills:





Then Ben shows off his favorite animal:



And how he can sit by himself in his rocking chair:



And finally, showing us his belly and his new words :)



In other not fun news, we've been suffering through a bad case of the runs since Sunday, so we're back to the doctor's office to hopefully figure out what's causing them, and hopefully get some better diaper creme to make diaper changes less horrifying (for him and me). I originally thought it was due to the vaccination shots, but now that it's going on day 3 and a week later, I'm not so sure :( Poor little man!

1 year 3 months 4 weeks 1 day old

Posted by carrie at 9:52 AM | Permalink | Comments

More photos! Grandma Dee and Nonna Rebecca sent bunny ears for Ben for Easter, and unfortunately I wasn't able to get these up before the holiday, but they were too cute not to post :)







I also had to laugh at the dinner faces Ben makes. You can tell what kind of time we are having after a long day at daycare... poor guy. Tired and not wanting to eat your dinner = unhappy baby!















Today we took a trip down to the Mall today to get some photos of the Cherry Blossoms with a group of girls from a photography message board I participate in, but the blossoms peaked earlier than anticipated this year, so I had to make do with another flowering tree instead. We managed to get some great photos of Ben at the Monument though! And in his pj's watching TV, before we got dressed to go:































Still working on posting the new videos! Ben has started a new phrase and it makes me laugh so hard. He has traded his "uh oh" for "oh noooo!"... priceless. Don't know where he heard it from but we got it on video and I will definitely post it later :)

1 year 3 months 3 weeks 5 days old

Posted by carrie at 8:19 PM | Permalink | Comments

We had our 15 month visit today, and all is well! He's doing great on all his milestones, and weighs 28 lbs 6 oz (90th percentile) and is 33 1/4 inches tall (95th percentile) :) Still our big (little) boy! He was all smiles for the doctor and had us all cracking up... until the shots came. My heart breaks, and even though it's over in a second, it's still tough to see him in pain. But he's fine now, and I left him at daycare smiling :)

We've been trying to be better about catching more moments on video, so last weekend we got him while driving to Easter dinner. We had the car windows rolled down, and Joe noticed that when the wind picked up, Ben put his hands in the air, like a roller coaster ride. Cutest thing! So here's a clip of him doing just that:



I have more videos of him walking, and of figuring out how to sit in his rocking chair all by himself, and I'll try and post those tonight :) He has been doing great on the walking front, but twice now he's stumbled and smashed his head into the table (once at home, once at daycare). No major gashes yet, but I know it's inevitable. He gets closer to running every day!

1 year 3 months 3 weeks 2 days old

Posted by carrie at 12:49 PM | Permalink | Comments

Update: we're doing better on the eating/throwing food front. I realized that by offering him cheerios/teddy grahams before his real meal (to buy me some time to make it), he was filling up on those, and then didn't want to eat anything else. I also had to hide the boxes that used to be stored on the table (in plain sight), because he's smart enough now to know that those are the "cookies", and would refuse all food until I caved and gave him some, fearing he would starve at bedtime. My mom also tried the "one at a time" trick, and it has significantly cut down on the throwing! We also give him 3 tries... and if by the 3rd one he is still throwing instead of eating, we end the meal. It's caused a LOT less tears since I'm not yelling anymore, and we're back to actually enjoying dinner time instead of dreading it (at least I am anyway!) :) I also introduced some all-white-meat chicken nuggets, and WHOA are we a fan of those! He ate a ton, and I'll probably offer those a few times a week, to make sure he's getting enough protein. He even ate it without the breading, which makes me happy :)

I took a few photos of him this past weekend with my mom... and he got so worn out on Saturday that he passed out on Joe. Such cuteness!!!

































1 year 3 months 2 weeks 1 day old

Posted by carrie at 12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments

We have a walker! I captured this lovely clip yesterday... he walks on his own towards the very end (and I apologize in advance for the whining. welcome to my life during the week, after a LONG day):



And today he was a walking maniac! I tried to offer my hands, but he was adamant on doing it alone. And even when I put him down for bed, after I read him a story he proceeded to practice walking some more, in his crib! He kept backing up into a corner and walking the length of the crib... so cute! He's so proud of himself, I love it.

Grandma D shows up tomorrow for a few days, and I know he'll love showing off for her all weekend. We'll try to get some more videos to post... he's such a riot!

1 year 3 months 1 week 4 days

Posted by carrie at 12:03 AM | Permalink | Comments

We're making GREAT progress on the walking front. Ben will now take about 20 steps on his own, unassisted! But he gets so excited he falls down, or gets stressed/scared when he thinks things are too far away, and falls down. So we are still working on building up his confidence, and giving him lots of cheers and praise when he does it. We're also making an attempt to make him walk EVERYWHERE... even if it's just to the highchair for breakfast/dinner. I think it's helping!

I also recently asked for advice about the issue of food throwing and hitting. Basically, I indulged him on throwing food to the floor for far too long, and now it's a problem. It started off as fun feeding the dog (who sits politely next to the highchair, stalking his every move), and for a while I wasn't sure he could really control himself. Now I know better, and it dawned on me that he does NOT get away with that behavior at daycare. So we have RULES in our house for the first time. No dropping food, no throwing food, food stays in the bowl, or in the mouth. If food IS thrown, mommy says "Ben! No! Food in the bowl!", and is then met with hysterical tears and lip pouting. Followed almost immediately by fistfuls of food then thrown, and food promptly removed until we settle down. *sigh* BUT... yesterday he actually threw less... and this morning he threw almost NONE, and my scolds of "No!" were not met with tears, but with actual EATING :) So we're making progress. It's SO HARD to stifle my smiles and laughs when I see him take a piece of food, and then s-l-o-w-l-y move his hand to the side, and watch my face as he does so. He's WAITING for me to tell him no, and the look on his face is hilarious. I know laughing is COMPLETELY wrong and would make it an awful game, but seriously, how can you NOT laugh at that??

Same goes for hitting... he gets excited and hits Joe and I in the face when we are holding him. We have now implemented a "no hitting, we use nice hands on the face" mentality, and if he does it after we say no, he gets put down. I don't think he *quite* gets this yet since he is so easily distracted, but at least we are not tolerating it anymore.

And just to update with another milestone... Ben has officially dropped his second nap during the day. He was off and on for a while after he started his new daycare (where they only give them one midday nap), but for the past few weeks, he's been consistent with going down sometime between 10-12, and sleeping for about 2 hours on average. It's way easier to plan things now, we just circle around that time frame instead of trying to fit things around TWO naps.

We're also practicing a lot with forks and spoons, and Ben does a great job using them :) Well, until he throws them, of course... another thing we have to work on ;)

1 year 3 months 1 week 2 days old

Posted by carrie at 10:02 AM | Permalink | Comments

SO... there are rumors from Ben's daycare that he is WALKING on his own!! Yesterday I found out that he was leaning against the teachers, and then just decided to WALK off on his own! I tried to duplicate it at home, but he's being stubborn for us... you can bet we'll be trying extra hard this weekend to see it ourselves! And if we do, you can bet that video camera will be plastered to my eye ;)

Wish us luck!

1 year 3 months 4 days old

Posted by carrie at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments

Happy St. Patrick's Day! We're big fans of the Irish holiday, since Irish is the only heritage that both Joe and I share (my family are Kelley's, and Joe's family are Brady's). So while Ben is also German, French, Italian, and Swedish, we'll celebrate the Irish with pride today :)

Ben just turned 15 months, and in another two weeks we'll have his well-visit to get an updated weight/height (he was 27 lbs at our last sick visit 10 days ago), and to get his updated vaccines. He's STILL not walking yet, but VERY close. He'll walk for a few steps toward me before falls down, so it's just a matter of getting better practice with balance, and he'll be off and running in no time! I'm placing bets it will happen in the next week or so. We catch him saying "po! po!" for "hippo" when he sees the photos in his book, and when we play with his blue hippo in the tub. But no other words yet! We're practicing with using spoons and forks during dinner, and he's doing a great job!

Enjoy our photos from the weekend... Ben liked to chew the "Kiss Me I'm Irish" necklace more than anything else, but he did get a kick out of those flags! :)


















what a ham!!



























1 year 3 months 2 days old

Posted by carrie at 8:19 AM | Permalink | Comments