An overdose of cuddling...

Bennett's medicine of choice is a snuggle from his mommy... I never thought I would ever be tired of snuggling my boy but I am pretty sure my lap will be numb for a month, a 6 lb newborn snuggle is a little different than a 26 lb drugged up 15 month old... but I sure loved every second.

The 18 hour snuggle...

He has now been moved to a Tylenol regiment and is doing great. He is up running around like crazy and definitely seems to be on the mend.

Watching his dog out the window...

Not sure if there is anything cuter than a little boy in pajama bottoms...

Farewell Childrens Hospital...

We were only there for one night this time but, it is so nice to finally feel like we will most likely never again be overnight residents of Seattle Childrens Hospital. We have definately had a love hate relationship with the hospital. Although I hate the pain and craziness Bennett has been through, we couldn't have been through it at a better place. We will forever be thankful for the team that cared for Bennett during his hardest times. They made it as comfortable as possible for Bennett and all the family members that stayed and cared for him. He had some Dr & nurse vistors yesterday that just came by to visit and were thrilled to see him doing so well. I can honestly say Bennett and I have made some true friends there and they seem to genuinely enjoy seeing Bennett grow up. We look forward to showing him off to everyone on his routine check-ups there for a couple years.

I made the mistake of thinking that there was any such thing as an "easy" surgery. Although this was nothing compared to a couple of his other procedures and we were only there one night, it was still really difficult and scary to see him in pain. It didnt make it any easier that I didn't sleep until 5:30 AM because Bennett wanted to be rocked and they wouldnt let us put him in bed with us. He had a very long night and I was honestly a bit nervous that he wouldn't be ready to go home this morning.

But right about 7 (his home wake up time) he woke up and started wiggling to get down... I put on his little Crocks to attempt to keep germs from his feet... and he was off. I let him leave his room on his own, something he has never been able to do and that was the end of it. I looked at the nurse and said "we need to get going or this is going to be a problem" I would love to say that I kept him from rolling around on the floor of his hospital room, but no such luck. It was truly the only way to keep him from running out the door at every chance and ending up in places such as behind the nurses station and in other patients rooms. Although everyone thought he was super cute we quickly packed and were on our way.

We got some pictures of a few fun animal visits on the way out... I passed these animals numerous times a day while living there and it was fun to see Bennett run over to check them out. We couldn't be happier to have all the surgies in the past and with a smile we bid farewell to being an overnight guest of the hospital.

On the other side of surgery and feeling alright

Daddy helping him get in his surgery gear...

When they brought him back to us... snuggling mommy and his Aunt Pam blanket...

Enjoying his special surgery day toy... feeling ok...

Playing for a second before the codine kicked in and he fell back to sleepy land in mommy's lap... the Spiderman balloon was definately the best part of his day.

Bennett is doing great. He went into surgery around 8 am and we didnt see him until around 12:30. He has been really groggy but is sleeping soundly now and seems like he will wake up a little bit more of his normal playful self.

As we were getting ready he definately seemed to be a little more nervous and seemed to know that something was up... he cried all the way to the OR and broke my heart as they put him under. He seemed to do pretty well with waking up and was brought down to us snuggled in a nurses arms.

He wants to be held ALL the time and I must admit I am selfishly enjoying the snuggle time. We have watched Baby Signing Time, his favorite movie, about 7 times through and I am pretty sure the songs will be stuck in my head until he is 10.

His airway is pretty swollen making him not the best sleeper but with luck we will be on our way home in the morning. We appreciate everyones good thoughts!

Way too much playing with camera... way too little everything else...

As I should be packing up and getting ready for Bennett's surgery this Friday, I am spending way too much time playing with the camera and mostly chasing my child around with it.

We caved after a grumpy morning stuck inside and went to the mall play area. We have been on germ lock down for a while because of his surgery but Bennett was done playing in the living room and wanted to get out to explore.

We will be heading to Children's Hospital once again this Friday morning for *hopefully* his last surgery for a long while. He will be getting a circumcision, an adenoidectomy (again) and a cosmetic closure of his tracheostomy site (so that he wont have a scar later on). Just the full meal deal so that he is only under anesthesia once.

He had been doing wonderful sleeping and then a couple weeks ago he was snoring like his daddyy (not good) so being the crazy over worried mother that I am, I rushed him too Children's and had his surgeon take a look. He deemed, with a long camera inserted up his nose, that Bennett's adenoids had returned. We were warned of this when he got them removed last June that since he was so young and his adenoids were not done developing that "someday" he would start snoring and we would need to remove them again. Although we were thankful that it seems like a pretty simple fix, I was not happy to have him have a sore airway once again.

So keep our little man in your thoughts this Friday... I am sure he will once again amaze us with his strength.

Bennett has had a tough "teething" day with 4 molars coming in and some eye teeth on top on bottom... this kid can not get a break. Needless to say, we have been doing anything to keep him happy including walking around all over outside.

Sometimes change is good...

As you can see we changed up the blog a bit... It has been a crazy journey since our first post on this blog titled "We are having a baby" when we first found out I was pregnant in May of 2008. It has been a pretty fun past couple months since Bennett has been mostly healthy and we felt like we needed a bit of a change.

Another change is that mama got a new camera! It took a bit of researching (thanks Ryan!) and a lot of learning to go but I already love it. (We ended up going with the Canon Rebel T2i for those camera folk out there)

For the record we are definately leaving the photography to the professionals but I am so happy to finally capture those cute family moments with a bit more quality.

The battery was finally charged just a couple minutes before Bennett went to bath time tonight so I turned it on and snapped a couple pictures. Bennett is teething with 4 molars coming in right now so he was not the happiest little guy.

First Day of Pre-Pre-School

I snapped a quick picture of a few of the kids before snack time with my phoneI tried to take a "first day of school" picture... didnt go so well... hopefully he will hold still when we are trying to get his first day of real school picture.
1st art project for the fridge
Bennett had his first day of pre-pre-school or Toddler Group today. He will get to go every Tuesday afternoon. It is only and hour and a half and I stay with him. He has 7 kids in his class and they are all between 18 months and 3 years old. (Bennett got in a little early) It is at the elementry school right near our house.

He was a little nervous at first but soon joined right in with the free play time and sat quietly in amazement during the singing circle time. He was taking notes on table manners from the older kids during snack time and he even did his very first school art project by adding the pink leaves to his tree with real paint.

I was so proud of how well he did and how excited he was to be there playing with the other kids. It is going to be great for his communication and we feel pretty lucky to find this class they offer for kids like Bennett that had a bit of a rough go in the beginning of life.

Happy little camper

As many people know, Joel and I have always been camping people and made our first big purchase as a couple before we were married when we bought our trailer 4 years ago. It was not easy for us to stay at home all last summer. When I was pregnant with Bennett all we could talk about was taking him camping and playing all summer long...

This weekend we FINALLY took him camping. It was a beautiful weekend and Bennett did great. He slept wonderful in the trailer and loved being outside the whole time. From the moment his eyes opened in the morning he wanted to be outside playing in the dirt. A normal little boy playing in the dirt... it has been a long wait and we are so happy to be enjoying this new phase of parenthood.

He had fun playing with his cousins Reece and Evie... it was the very first trip out with the whole Jones family.... so fun!

I am so thankful for our little family and we can't wait to play tons this summer.

Busy making friends...

I have officially caved to the germs and started taking Bennett to anything with lots of toys and other kids to play with. We go to parks, play centers and even a couple mall toy areas.

We usually go places like this with his friends Charli and Hadley but the last couple times we have gone to the mall play area by ourselves. It is a very small area where the kids run wild and all the toys are really soft so it works out great for Bennett who is still prone to bumps and bruises.

It absolutely warms my heart to see Bennett play with the other kids. He will walk up to them and tap them like "Hi my name is Bennett" he copies them and loves to run after the big kids which requires close supervision from me because those older kids can wipe him out a little too easy. He followed a couple girls around today and seems to have not learned a good comfort zone yet and gets really close to them... not so good with the ladies yet :)

He is still the master of yelling "aaarrrrgggghhh!" to get people's attention but the other kids seem to like it as much as he does... darn it, I was really hoping we were going to get away from that soon.

He has a blast every time and does not like to leave. His little personality shines with other kids and it is hard to not take him to places like this everyday exposing him to all sorts of bugs I am sure.

Went to Red Robin... got a balloon...

Date night is definately not what it used to be... We went to Red Robin tonight and Bennett had fun as usual, putting everything in his mouth, trying to snag french fries and bouncing the balloon they gave him... but he just wasn't quite ready to give up the balloon when night time came.

I couldn't help but snap a few pictures of him and his balloon.

Watch out Easter Bunny... He is practicing...

Bennett has a new favorite game... He has forever loved his pumpkin "basket" as we call it, he loves carrying it around empty and loves when I put stuff in it. We have been working on Bennett setting stuff in it or "Put it in the basket".

Today I went and got a bunch of colored ping pong balls and it is endless entertainment for him. They make a funny "plunk" sound in the bottom of his basket that is very rewarding... as is shaking all the ping pong balls out of the basket.

He is so fun now that he is communicating more and wanting to play more organized activities.

Hurlie's Heaven on Earth

We definately had a fun day at, count em, 3 parks... our first was a trip to Greenlake in Seattle with Bennett's girlfriends, Hadley and Charli, then we met our friends Ryan and Emily at a park near our house for a quick second and then we finished the day off with Daddy and our dog Hurlie. We found this park near our house that is pretty quiet this time of year, it is on Black Lake and we are sure it will be crowded this summer. It was a beautiful evening and I am pretty sure Hurlie had the best day she has had since we brought Bennett home, no offense Bennett :)

Bennett and Daddy played bubbles and rode his trike while watching Hurlie swim about a million times for her ball. What a great end to a beautiful day. One of many to come in the sunshine.

Hey there Slugger...

Bennett had a great Valentines Day partying with his friends at Hadleys birthday party. He had so much fun running around that he lost his balance a few times and ended up with this great shinner. I think I would officially feel safer if I made him wear a bike helmet at all times. He definately has so much fun it hurts :)

Day in the Park...

Bennett and I went to celebrate his good friend Hadley's first birthday. We love her and her mommy and loved spending the day with them. We spent a little time down town Seattle with his other friend Deven and then off to Greenlake.

We went on his very first swing! He loved it and smiled and laughed the whole time. He isnt crawling at all anymore and has replaced it with some really clumsy running. So in the end he got a his very first outside big boy scrape... we had to take a picture :)

We ended the day with a walk around Greenlake, little did Mommy know it was going to pour down rain half way... It was a very wet walk but still fun!

Happy Birthday Hadley Rose!!

(for some reason the video is coming up black... just push play and it still works)

New Trike!

Bennett got a new trike from his friend Kyrra and her mom and dad. We took it for a spin immediately and Bennett loved it. He sat on it with his hands on the handlebars and loved going for a ride. I think he would sit on it for an hour if we let him. Too bad his legs are just a little to short to touch the pedals.

He is going to have a ton of fun with it this summer!

Zoo in January?!

Yep Bennett and one of his favorite gals, Hadley, went to the zoo today. It wasn't warm but it didnt rain so we were thankful. They loved the sharks because it was a good place for them to get out and run around.

Another new friend!

Bennett had a great play date with his new friend Dane on Monday. He is the son of our friends Erin and Josh, They live near us and also have another daughter that was at school. It was great to see Erin and it was hilarious to see the boys play. They are doing all the same stuff except Dane had perfected a few things and Bennett was taking notes.

We have been working a ton on sounds after seeing our speech therapist for the past couple weeks. We have been working on copying mommy with "AAAHH" and "OOOHHH" and I am constantly trying with the "mamama" just hoping that he will soon start babbling.

Well, after leaving Dane's house and hearing him babble away all morning I started in on the sounds in the car and to my surprise I heard a faint "mamamama, babababa" from the back seat. I was so excited I recorded the beautiful sounds on my iphone :)

He has been working more and more on his standing to walk and Grandma Sandy and I went out and got him some new shoes this morning. We spent some time outside chasing the doggie and loving a few minutes of outside air. Man is this kiddo tuckered out when nap time comes.

A short clip of our outside play time...

Standing up tall now

Bennett has been "walking" for a couple weeks and seems to get better everyday but has been mostly crawling with some steps inbetween. While Grandma Olsen was hanging out with him today he stood up in the middle of the room all by himself. I think he learned it from his friend Dane after a play date this morning.

Now that he has that figured out he is hardly crawling... He has been walking around just beeming all evening... He is sure proud of himself... as are we.