love

6 months

Bennett is 6 months old!  I can hardly believe it :)

At 6 months: 

• I have no idea what she weighs??  Maybe 17-18 pounds??
• sleeps 11-12hours a night {8p-7/8a}
• takes a morning and afternoon nap
• sits up a little {but not very well--see pic below ;)}
• has TWO bottom teeth {and I think some top ones are coming soon}
• not a huge fan of solids, but eats about 1-2 jars of baby food a day along with rice cereal
• not much hair yet :)
• jabbers all day long
• loves watching porter
• loves being held ALL.THE.TIME
• is more of a "schedule" baby than porter was--she likes sticking to her schedule and gets upset when its disrupted {porter was never like this}
• has outgrown almost all of her 6 month clothes, and is now in 9 month clothing
• loves the jumperoo
• showing no signs of crawling (thank goodness!) and just seems content to stay in one place when you put her down
• likes to be outside
• not a fan of the sippy cup or juice (we've tried twice so far and she is not a fan!)
• will take a bottle better, but still prefers to be nursed

 In other news, we did not do Christmas cards this year--I just couldn't get it together in time.  SO I promised myself that I would do either New Year's or V-day cards...of course New Years came and went, and I had just about given up that I would do Valentine's day ones as well...UNTIL I saw Mixbook had a Groupon for $50 worth of products for $15!!  They happened to have cute Valentine's day cards, and I could get about 85 cards for $15.  So I bought it, and then of course it rained the entire week, so I had to wait until yesterday to get a good picture of the kids outside {cutting it close for my cards}...but the cards are ordered and should be here by next week so I can get them sent out :)

Considering these cards cost about one TENTH of what Christmas cards normally cost us, we may make this a yearly tradition!

And I couldn't not post this picture of my little buddy!  Mimi & Pop gave the kids an Audubon membership for Christmas, and we finally used it and went to the zoo last week!  It's the best gift ever!  We will definitely enjoy it all year.

We're off to enjoy our last few hours of being superbowl champs!  I'm thinking of making Ryan wear his SB ring for the occasion (kidding) :)  I guess we'll cheer for the Steelers tonight, but after going & winning the SB, it sure makes it hard to get into it this year!!  Hopefully we'll be back in the BIG GAME next year!

happy birthday...

happy birthday bongbong!!

we hope you have a great day!

it's also bennett's HALF birthday...she's SIX months old today :) 

Porter & Bennett--Jan 2011

Some pictures of Bennett & Porter--hopefully I can keep it up and take pics of them EVERY month :)

I should be sleeping...

I should be sleeping instead of blogging...seeing as BOTH of my kids are asleep at the same time (I don't think that's EVER happened!!)...sadly the reason they are both sleeping is they are both sick :(  

Porter had Strep throat last week, recovered, and then was fine...until last night.  He woke up from a late nap (which for Porter to take any nap is unusual) in severe pain and with a fever :(  His ear was KILLING him, and it was heartbreaking!  He didn't sleep hardly at all, so I made an appt first thing this morning, and as suspected he had a very BAD double ear infection and had to get another SHOT!  (the fact that he had just been in the ped's office LAST WEEK for the same very painful--as in can't walk on his leg for an entire day-- shot sure didn't help--he started screaming as soon as the nurse walked in).   So hopefully this last shot, and another round of antibiotics will keep him healthier a little while longer...and maybe he can get some rest tonight!

And poor Bennett has RSV AGAIN :(   BUT I will say, the Dr. didn't even think she was sick (I know they were wondering why I wanted both of them checked out since NOTHING seemed to be wrong with Bennett)...after I called this morning and made Porter's appt, Bennett woke up a little congested and with runny nose and eyes.  VERY VERY MINIMAL, but after the last time she had RSV with those same mild symptoms I wasn't taking any chances (especially since I was bringing Porter in anyway).  So i called and changed our appt to both kids...and glad I did!  Because poor Benny boo tested positive for RSV so we'll have to start breathing treatments, and antibiotics again.  Luckily, we caught it very early again, and so she'll hopefully have no side effects and do as well as she did last time.

They weighed her at the office, and she's pushing close to 17 pounds (guess all those midnight snacks are catching up to her!) and she also has her first tooth!  She is sleeping better and only woke up once last night at 2am (then slept til after 8am) and I think it was Porter screaming that woke her up :(  

Hopefully we can survive one more week until Daddy comes home...we are ALL ready for him to be back for a little while!!

global wildlife

Saturday morning, we got up and decided to go to Global Wildlife, since it was Ryan's last day home for a couple of weeks.  We had never been, and it definitely did not disappoint!  Porter had a blast seeing all of the animals up close, and feeding a few!  Bennett wasn't too impressed and enjoyed a nice nap during the tour!

 feeding a buffalo:

 bennett was so serious the ENTIRE time she was awake, just staring at all the animals

Porter (and bennett below) up close with the camels:

If you are ever in the area (it's about an hour from both New Orleans and Baton Rouge), it's definitely worth a trip!

5.5 months

I know I say this every month, and I'm sure you're tired of hearing it, BUT I cannot believe sweet Bennett is just a couple of weeks away from being SIX MONTHS OLD!!! 
She is still the sweetest thing BUT she has now decided that it's not so fun to sleep through the night :( 
I know I really can't complain--she started sleeping through the night at about 5 weeks, and by 7-8 weeks was sleeping 10 hours a night--but now she thinks she needs to wake up in the middle of the night :)  She's a little spoiled!  It started a couple of weeks ago, and at first I attributed it to gas (we now eat our veggies in the morning, and just do rice cereal at night), and/or teething.  But now, she's just realized if she wakes up and "talks" that I'll come in and nurse her back to sleep---BAD MOMMY for starting this!  It was just easier to nurse her back to sleep for 5 minutes so I could get back to sleep faster :)  She is NOT hungry, nor does she really cry--it's more of a persistent "whine" :) but it's one of those things that I just can't sleep through, so I usually give in (which I know is only continuing the cycle!) and give her the attention she wants.  Hopefully she'll be back to her good sleeping ways soon!
But she's just so darn cute, it's hard not to give her what she wants...

She is still just so happy almost all of the time!  She LOVES LOVES LOVES Porter, and he LOVES LOVES LOVES her!  It just makes me so happy to see them interacting/playing with each other.  She also is very attached to her Daddy :)  I see a lot of difficulty of Ryan saying "no" to his baby girl in the future!! 

Giggle

Bennett started laughing about a month ago and it is the cutest thing! It makes us all laugh, especially porter :)
And as much as me and Ryan try, she only really gets tickled with porter! She definitely loves her big brother!

I finally got a little on video (hopefully it will post??!)

big boy

he's growing up SOOO fast...

and he now picks out his own clothes :(

5 months

sweet bennett is 5 months old...

at 5 months:

• is on the MOVE--rolls all over the place
• weighs somewhere between 15-16 pounds
• loves to EAT!  as long as it's not in a bottle 
• eats rice cereal, bananas, applesauce, and sweet potatoes
• sweet potatoes are her favorite
• sleeps pretty good at night--she's started getting up earlier (6am) but goes right back down until about 9
• loves her sophie the giraffe
• teething like crazy
• wears 6-9 month clothes
• didn't even cry when she got her 4month shots (at 5 months)--tough girl
• loves loves loves her big brother :) good thing the feeling is mutual
• takes a long nap before afternoon, but then is pretty much awake til bed time
• is ticklish under her neck, and her fat little thighs :)
• is teething like crazy!! but no teeth yet

this is one of my favorite pics I've taken of the kids:

and the sweet big brother (before the last home game of the season)