Basket o' Baby

I have been terribly dreadfully miserably sick since Wednesday. And today is Monday. Night. Count them, that is six days. Two of which I had to take off work. And do you think Benjamin cares? Is he a considerate little fellow who took right too his bed because mama needed a rest? Nooooo. He most certainly did not. Being sick while having to take care of someone else was a new one for me, and really not that much fun, in case you are wondering. And he was a tiny bit sick too, but either a) not nearly as sick as me or b) he is such a good natured uncomplaining little trooper that I should be ashamed of myself. But really, he does seem to be pretty happy and normal, just a little nose drippy and cough-y. Not like me, where the only plausible solution seems to be to cut off my head, which is where all the problems are. But I kept trying to find ways to entertain him that did not involve me getting off the couch, and came up with this brilliant strategy:

Pretty clever, eh?

Allergy Haiku

Lovely green grasses

Jam's summer garden carpet

Damn sneezy pollen!

Biter Biscuit

In honor of Benjamin's new teeth, I let him try out a Biter Biscuit. Its a sort of graham crackery affair, but more closely resembles an overgrown nutterbutter in size and shape. He very much enjoyed it, although I'm not sure if he actually ingested any at all. It turns out that when mixed with baby saliva, it morphs into a gravy-esque consistency that gets everywhere. We both had to do full costume changes, and I was picking it out of his eyebrows all afternoon. I wish my pictures did the event better justice, but they were Mount Rushmore's (taken at arms length by someone appearing in the photo. Me, not Benbino.)

Rubber Ducky, you're the one

Benjamin has never been real big on the whole bath thing. He isn't actively against it, he just doesn't quite enjoy it yet. It is a phenomena, like so many things, that concerns him. He does like his duck loofah though. (*note: I do not actually use it to exfoliate him. He still does have the world's softest baby skin. It is purely an entertainment loofah.) There aren't enough scratchy baby toys, as far as I am concerned. He has tons of soft squishy things, and lots of hard plastic things, but continues to be fascinated by all things scratchy. He loves to touch baskets, the woven foot stool, anything with that kind of texture. And look at how giant he is in his little baby tub! He practically fills the whole thing up. I'm not ready for him to graduate out of it yet. He'll be 12, and I'll still be trying to shoehorn him into the baby bath. Not really. Most likely. Anyay, he likes the post bath toweling process much better. We did use this opportunity to get a picture that demonstrates his super human gripping strength. When he grabs hold of something (necklace, hair), it just about takes the fire department to separate him from it. Its enough to make me consider an Annie Lennox haircut. Well. Not really. But its fun to think about.

Jaws!

I swear, this kid chews everything. He's like a hamster. Or a shark.

Play Station(s)

So, I have decided that its to difficult to keep track of the ridiculous names that Mattel or whoever comes up with for all the baby stuff. We have gyminees and exersaucers and all kinds of nonsensical names that are tricky to remember. Instead, I have renamed them all Play Stations. So there Nintendo! It just makes more sense to me.

Baby Lets Cruise

Jammy cannot stop walking everywhere! It is very distressing, because he seems so grown up. He needs to hold hands (well, fingers) in order to stay upright, but he has started to try and let go. He would immediately crash to the ground if you didn't grab on to him of course, but he definitely wants to do it on his own. He is also so bloody fast that it is hard to take his photo while he walks. I think these stripey pajamas with the bare belly hanging out are uber cute. If only I knew how to change the photos to black and white, he could masquerade as an old fashioned prison escapee.

Teeth?!?...

Well, today was a big day all around! We had a baby shower for Hillary and baby Che, which was much fun. I will hopefully be swiping some photos to add here soon. Suffice to say, food was eaten, gifts were opened, fun was had. Judith also took some maternity photos of Hillary, which I think are going to turn out super cute (I was the stylist). Hopefully one of these might get added here later eventually too. Benhameen, as Mickey calls him, was not his usual sunny self today though. He was fussy and grumpy during the shower. He took a nap during the photo shoot, and woke up beside himself, just wailing and crying. It was really tragically sad. He was kind of pulling at his ears too, and so it seemed like maybe he had an ear infection. But he has also been really chewy and drooly, and it seems like some teeth are in the works. So Loren went to Target and bought a bunch of teething type aids - baby ibuprofin, teething tablets, baby orajel, "bighter biscuits", and these little mesh dealys that you can put frozen food into, and baby gets to suck on it, sort of like a popsicle. These were a big hit, since he is very intent on feeding himself. Hillary loaned out some teething rings too. After some drugs, and some icey pear treat, he was a much happier little guy. It looks like you may be able to see one little tooth poking through! Very exciting. I hope that the first one is the hardest. I'm not looking forward to repeating this performance 27 more times.

*Impressive teeth photo added one week after original post.*

Going to the chapel (... or arboreteum)... photos coming soon

Today was Clementine and Andy's wedding! Hillary was matron of honor, and Judith and Loren took the photos, so that was all very cool. The few sneak preview shots that I saw were gorgeous, and I will put up a link to the pics on the Fernstrom photograpy blog, just as soon as they are published. Benjamin sat this one out, and went to the park with Grandma instead. He went in the swings and everything, and was apparently quite the big kid. Very observant and interested in what all the other kids were doing. And a nice little big of sunshine too. Yay!

The Very Sleepy Caterpillar

Benjamin has a new and very endearing trick these days. He sleeps on his stomach now, since he is such a big guy. That in and of itself, not that cute, I know. But now when you put him down in the crib, on his back, if he is a good sleepy baby, he does an immediate flip to his belly, the instant he touches the mattress. And once he is on his belly he does this adorable little caterpillar wiggle, to get in exactly the right spot, or exactly the right position, or exactly the right who knows what. It is so cute. And its very extended. Not just one little wiggle. But wiggle, wiggle, wriggle, wiggle, wriggle. And then he zonks right out. HOWEVER, if you put him down and he does not do the belly flip, he arches his back and loudly voices his disapproval of going to bed. I have to slink out then, and try to ignore the complaints. He usually does stop complaining and fall asleep within 10 minutes or so. Thank goodness. I on the other hand, no longer get to wriggle into exactly the right spot and sleep in extreme comfort. If I get to sleep at all, it is surrounded by children and animals. They are slowly ganging up on me to take over the bed. Not the most restful, actually.

The Arb... part 2

There were too many cool pictures from yesterday's photo outing to include along with the birthday pics, so I am adding a second part to the post, too commemorate a few of my favorites.

Happy Birthday Adventure Dad!

Today was a big day! We celebrated 5 birthdays (Loren, Madelyn, Lee, Andrea, Isabelle) and Father's Day. We had the traditional pancake breakfast at my parents, and the traditional bbq dinner at Loren's parents. In between, we scouted photo locations at the arboreteum with Judith and crew, and shopped at U Village. At birthday dinner, Benjamin ate some tissue paper, inherited one of his dad's baby blankets, and fell asleep in the car on the way home. It was a big day all around. Happy Birthday, June birthdayers!

The Cascades welcome a new hiker

Today was Benjamin's first hiking outing! He has snowshoed before, when he was just a tiny little guy, but this was the first real hike. Loren decided that he wanted to celebrate Father's Day in the great outdoors, and since his birthday is tomorrow, we rescheduled Father's Day for today. Benito got him a case of mac and cheese from Costco for Dad's day. It was a big hit, as I suspected it might be. We went to the BOB with Judith and Madelyn for breakfast, and hit the trail a little later than usual. It was a short hike though, so that was ok. We went to Talupus Lake, of I-90, and it was great. Pretty lake at the end, not too crowded, and lovely snow everywhere. Benjamin decided it would be a good idea to sleep for most of the return trip, which I thought was pretty clever of him. We also noticed that of the 7 or so groups of hikers we encountered, I think 5 of them commented on how cute the hound is, and only 1 even mentioned the boy. I guess its a different audience out there. After the hiking adventure, Grandma Pat came over to babysit, and I took Loren to Ray's for his birthday dinner, where we ate the traditional salmon, and watched the sun set. It was excellent. We had to stop on the way home and buy my Dad's Father's Day present, which can only be purchased at the liquor store. Well, we got to the Wallingford location at 8:50, and it turns out it closes at 8. So we are standing outside the door, looking bewildered, and trying to decide what to do, when a frat boy in a white car drives by, and yells out the window "The U Village store is open until 9", which I thought was pretty funny. So we raced over and made it on time. Yay team!