So, remember when Benjamin was just a little tiny guy, and had to take his bath lying down in a little tiny baby bath tub? A while ago, I don't know, a couple months ago maybe, I had this realization that he was way to big for the tiny tub, and I had to let him graduate to the big boy bath. I will dig up a tiny tub comparison photo to add later, but can't locate one right now. Anyway, look how big and sitty-uppy he is!! And how standy, because of course one of the things he wants to do in the bath, as with everywhere else in life, is to stand, and walk or run laps. These are very censored g-rated pictures, so he won't be embarrassed when he grows up, except look how cute his little tush is! 
In the past he has been kinda ok with baths, but not very enthusiastic, and then the other night in the spirit of the new and demanding big boy Benjamin, he threw a fit when I tried to take him out of the tub before he was ready. It was pretty funny actually. Next on the home improvement list is his bathroom upstairs, so that he can collect a whole fleet of rubber ducks, and get to have his bath in the same room that his towel lives in.
Well, I wish we had the before pictures, which must be around here somewhere, because the after pictures are just not that impressive without them. Imagine this room as dirty, drafty, yucky and unfinished looking. It used to all look the way the floor still looks, if you can kinda see the floor in one photo. Anyway, still need to touch up ceiling paint, paint trim, finish one tricky dry wall corner, and paint the floor. But most of the work is done - ie wiring, insulating, drywall, window replacement, door replacement, trim installation, shelf building, painting, hooks hanging. Now we have more organized recycle and garbage, and dog food and cleaning products from under the sink out of the reach of curious little fingers. And it is much warmer and more insulatey. And it was the last portion of the house that really looked super unfinished (well, not inlcuding basement and yard), so it feels really good to have it all improved. Yay!
As if the finger-meets-soda can-death-hole (thanks Chris! I think that is the perfect description) incident wasn't tramuatic enough for this month, I have a new Jammy injury to report. Benjamin usually wakes up around 6 or 6:30, and Loren brings him to me in bed to have his breakfast. When he was just a tiny baby, sometimes he would very charmingly fall asleep with me and we would get to go back to sleep and snuggle for awhile. No mas. Except this morning, (after a lot of awakeness in the night) he did it again. And he didn't wake up and didn't wake up, so I finally got out of bed, and got to get ready all by myself, which is a big excitement for me. I left him to snooze in bed, which is what I would do when he was just a little guy. So Marnie the wonder nanny got here, and I told her he was still asleep, up in our bed. Fast forward to 6:00pm. I called Loren to check in with him, and apparently (I know you could all see this coming) Benjamin fell out of bed and onto the floor. Marnie had the monitor on and heard a big thump! and went running to check, and there he was, on the floor. Poor guy had no idea what had happened. He was apparently more surprised than hurt, no big lumps or bumps or gashes, but I sure felt awful about it. Poor little guy. This photo is from the crib in the hotel in Missoula. From now on he only gets to sleep in beds with walls this high.
Welcome Emmett! Hillary had her baby last week on Wednesday, and I have been totally remiss in not posting since then. Emmett Cramer Ogg (ECO!!) was born in the afternoonish Seattle time, weighing in at 7 pounds and 6 or 7 ounces. (so my memory is not that great. Whatever.) He was 3 weeks early, which was a big surprise, but is the perfect size, and healthy and all that, so that was a happy surprise. No one really enjoys those last 3 weeks of pregnancy anyway. He has all kinds of nice dark hair, and is just beautiful. He has a very funny little squwaky cry, I can't even describe it. Not a regular baby cry. Almost like a cat. I think he may be trying to speak to the dachsunds. Judith, Madelyn, Benjamin and I went on a road trip to see the young laddie, taking off for Missoula on Friday night, and heading back on Monday morning. It was tons o' fun, and I'm really glad we went. Madelyn did an awesome job of entertaining Benito in the car, and leaving on Friday night really helped with the whole sleeping in the car thing. We stayed at the hotel across the park from Hillary and Mickey's, which was great. It was a block from their house, they had a pool we got to swim in, and we got to sit on hotel beds and eat ice cream and watch the Olympics, which was super fun. (Judith and I could so be synchronized divers.) Hillary and Mickey were still in the sort of dazed and confused parent stage, pretty tired, but doing great. Judith did a photo shoot of Emmett and the family, so check her blog for fabulous photos soon (Auntie Cookie link). Emmett is so tiny and cuddly, it is very hard to imagine that the great lurchy beast that is Jammeroo was ever that small. I know, total cliche. But it is so true. I wish we had a better photo showing the boys size differential, but really, Benjamin is so squirmy and flaily, and Emmett is so teeny, that I was kinda too nervous to put them next to each other in a photo. But we do have this one, which I love, because it so captures the moment. Hillary is engrossed in beautiful tiny infant, and Benjamin is blurry and trying to escape. Who would have ever thought we would have made it from high school to this? The mind boggles.
So, we had a little first aid incident at the campout.The picture does not really capture the bloody massacre that this really was. So, as you might know, Benjamin is a very grabby little guy. Lightening fast grabbing reflexes, and very strong grip. And he is also very interested in whatever I am doing. So, if I am on the phone, he is trying to wrestle it away from me. If I am having something he can’t eat - spicy thai food, ice cream etc. – he will lunge for it. And don’t ask me how he can tell it is something he can’t have. He just knows. If I were to eat say, green beans, he would totally ignore me. But he might try to steal the empty fork, so he could try to swallow that. So anyway, I was holding him on my lap, in my most outrageously fabulous camping chair, simultaneously with drinking a diet coke. And I did let him touch the can, which was nice and cold, which is very interesting to touch. But I somehow was not fast enough, and he got his little fingers into the… I don’t even know what you call it. The little hole on top of the can that you drink out of. Is there a good word for that which I just can’t think of? Or is there not a word. Its not a spout. The mouth of the can? Anyway, you know the part I mean. The part with the razor sharp edges. And being the clever mom that I am, I then tried to remove his hand from the sharp edges, which is what resulted in a tiny finger slice. Even though it was a tiny slice, to a tiny finger, it was a gusher, and produced copious amounts of drippy blood. Which he alternately wiped and dripped a) on his face, b) on my hands, and c) on his Gonzaga onesie. We eventually found a first aid kit, toweled him off, and got a band aid on. This picture was in the very short span of time when the band aid actually stayed on his little finger. As soon as I let go of his hand, he proceeded to stick his finger in his mouth and chew the band aid off. So of course then I was worried that not only would he bleed to death because the band aid wouldn’t stay on, but that he would also choke on it and die before he could finish bleeding. I ended up holding his hand in a towel until he stopped bleeding and he was fine within a couple of minutes. So he survived his first injury. I am switching to drinking only those funny little glass bottles of limonata from here on out. Because, really, who am I kidding, I was looking for an excuse to do that anyway.
Benjamin and his Granpa Lee found this kids bike just as we were about to leave the campout. Benjamin thought it was a pretty darn cool discovery. He looks so big to me in these pictures, like he might actually be able to ride the darn thing. Tempting to just let him tip over to make sure he can't.
Benjamin got his first successful shoulder ride at the campout this weekend. It was hilarious. Apparently this has been tried before, and he was too floppy for it to work. Now that he is a big strong balancey guy, its much better. He thought it was the funniest thing ever. He just kept laughing. I couldn't stop taking pictures, because he was just so happy and entertained by the whole thing. Was it funny to be so tall? Funny to be above dad's head? Who knows. But clearly it was very funny. They were having so much fun that I wanted to try, which did not go so well. Loren cleverly had a hat on, to protect his head from the killer death grip claws. Not so much for me. The ride lasted for about 30 seconds of extreme hair pulling, long enough for me to smile for the camera and then start shrieking get him off me.
The ride with dad did also provide some good opportunity for Benbino to brush up on his plant identification skills. He studies leaves very, well, studiously.
