Go Rebels Go

Just a few of my favorite pictures from this weekend.  Yes, I know Martin is the cutest kid you have ever seen.  It really isn't fair to other babies, is it?  He was a little grumpy the first half--but nothing a nap and a meal won't fix.  Then, people cleared out, and Martin really enjoyed the second half!  Even if we did lose.  Shh--we didn't tell Martin the Rebels lost.  

We are #1!!!!

 We had a busy and early morning.  We got up at 6 to leave at 8.  We made it to The Grove about 9:45, and had time to tailgate before and after.  Martin got 2 early birthday presents, and you can see one of them in the last picture.  He played with the penguin all over the tent after the game.  And, he has since figured out it is actually more fun on the wood floors at the house, because you can pick it up by the top and bang it on the floor and make a loud sound.  What fun!  Seriously, he is loving it.

Funny Faces

 We had an interesting morning this morning.  We woke up to jack-hammering at 7:30.  What is up with that?  I thought about carrying Martin outside to give him to the guys and saying "you wake him, you take him".  But, decided they would probably let him run some heavy equipment, so I better not.  They are paving our road this week.  It would be lovely if this would be completed by the birthday party this weekend, but I KNOW we aren't going to be that lucky.  I am sure the road will be a huge mess Saturday.  But, I am glad they are paving it anyway--just wish the timing was a little better.  Oh well.

Daddy and Martin

Playing at the Tailgate

By the time we got home Saturday night Martin was filthy and exhausted, and I was a bit tired too.  Now we are busy finishing things for the birthday party.  And, by we, I mean me.  I chase Martin around all day and pick up his messes.  I really believe I would have to sweep, mop and vacuum everyday for my house to always look presentable if we were to have company drop by.  He can't just sit and eat some snacks, we have to get two fistfuls of snacks, and crush them up while walking around the house. I mean, I have nothing better to do that walk around picking up crumbs, right?  I love this little guy, and cannot believe he will be 1 so soon.  Where did the year go??  Today was my due date a year ago.  And, I can't remember specifically but I am sure the day involved lots of walking around the neighborhood trying to walk this baby out.  This year has been the best of my life.  Happy Monday Y'all!

8 days and counting

Lots of things going on around the Benton house this week.  Most are in reference to the big birthday blowout that is in 8 days.  We have been deep cleaning the house this week (read scrubbing baseboards and cleaning fan blades)--you know all the fun stuff that you don't normally do when you clean house each week.  You can only imagine how my house has gotten a little dirtier over the past year.  The bottom 3 feet of my house have smudges and handprints, and I LOVE it, but I don't think my company will think it is as cute as I do.  A few weeks ago, I posted that Martin was being very particular about the texture of his foods.  Well, just in the last 3 days he has figured out big people food is fun and yummy!  He has had a waffle, a chicken nugget, some pasta, and a cookie.  I know--so healthy, right?  He enjoyed them all.  The cookie is a whole story by itself.

So, let's cut right to that.  I am making anchor and sailboat sugar cookies for the birthday party so I wanted to do a trial run this week to avoid a meltdown.  Well, let's just say I am glad I did the trial run, but I didn't exactly avoid a meltdown.  I feel certain it was close, but luckily I was too tired to do anything more than laugh about it.  I should have taken pictures.  Keep in mind this was the same day I cleaned every inch of my kitchen, AFTER I cleaned it, I decided to bust out flour and powdered sugar.  It looked like Christmas had come early.  I was covered, and so was all of my work space--I blame the Kitchen-aid stand mixer.  I love to cook, and I love to bake, but sugar cookies to me are the break apart and bake kind.  So, I went on the hunt for the "perfect" sugar cookie recipe.  Don't know if the recipe was perfect, perhaps it was the chef that was the issue, anyway, I digress.  I whipped up my dough and put it in the fridge to chill.  1 hour of time elapses, and I remove said dough to roll out and get my cookies cut-out.  Roll out my foot.  I kept adding flour, because it kept sticking to my rolling pin when I hear "are you sure the dough is cold enough?" from the couch in my living room.  At first I snapped my head around to see if he was being funny--he knows NOTHING about the kitchen except that I make a lot of noise and mess in there, and then voila sometimes he gets something fabulous to eat.  Well, no smile--is he being funny?  Guess not.  Next thought--did someone take over his body?  On further inspection it still appears to be my husband.  So I go straight for the jugular.  What the heck are you talking about??  I don't need an armchair sous-chef, what do you mean did it chill long enough?  It said 30-60 minutes, last I checked 60 minutes was an hour.  To which he quickly back pedaled and said, I was just wondering, seems like you were having trouble.  So, I dump some more flour, maybe it needs more flour and ignore the "help" from the living room.  So, Bryan comes to help, by help I mean inspect and offer suggestions while he gets a snack from the pantry.  You know, my home ec teacher always said "you actually CAN use too much flour". I about fell out.  He is still trying to tell me what to do?  Wait, more importantly....."you took home ec"?  I was probably giggling like a school girl at this point.  He then informed me that lots of guys took it and then said "I mean do you know how many girls are in a home ec class?  in high school that is a jackpot!"  After I ribbed him about it for a while I put the dough back in the fridge, and tried again in a little while.  The cookies took a lot of work, but I learned a lot, and they turned out very yummy.  I will take pictures of the real thing next Saturday.  I learned 3 huge things making the cookies, cookie dough needs to be really cold before you try to roll it out, you CANNOT use too much flour, and my husband took Home Ec in high school.  All in all a successful night.  So, then next day I decorated them, and Bryan and Martin both gave them two thumbs up.

Just a little icing for Martin

His new face!  What a funny kid

Martin is getting too big for his britches around here.  He loves to hold onto my curtains in the living room and walk far away with them in his hands, and then pull them down the curtain rod to the other end.  Don't worry, I am always right there, and we have baby safe curtain rods/rings so he can't get caught up in them.  And, he loves to play peek-a-boo anywhere.  This morning he was riding his walking toy around the house, and was in the hall way and would peek his head around the corner and scream to get me to look at him.  And, after lunch, he was hiding behind aforementioned curtains and would put it over his face, and then pull the curtain back and laugh when he saw me.  He really does engage in a lot of self-play.  Thank goodness, because entertaining a baby for 13 hours straight while your husband is at work makes you run out of ideas!!  Well, I need to get busy making food for the tailgate tomorrow, so I better go.  Hope everyone has a great weekend!

 Some of you may wonder what we do all day?  Well, first things first....breakfast!  Milk and then fruit and oatmeal.  Martin loves fruits and veggies.  Then, we play!  And by play, I mean Martin walks all over the house making a huge mess, and I chase him around all day cleaning up the mess.  He isn't content to just sit and play anymore.  Well, of course not!  You have to move around, don't want to get too bored.  

So, sometimes we play in the tub.  Not while we are bathing of course---if you get too serious about playing in the tub, someone might dump a cup of water on your head.  So, you must play outside of the tub with your clothes on.  He actually ended up in the tub by the end and I have a picture somewhere--maybe on my phone.  Guess I need to sync--it's been a while. 

 He loves to snack.  He loves baby puffs, baby cheese puffs, regular cheese puffs, cheerios, and our new found love GOLDFISH.  JoLinda had some at the tailgate, and he was a huge fan!  Yes, Martin went to his first Ole Miss game this weekend, unfortunately we left the camera at home.  Easy to do when you are busy trying to get 3 people ready, and food fixed for the tailgate, and baby snacks, and a packed diaper bag full of entertainment, and sippy cups, and somehow we forgot the camera.  Martin was GREAT.  He slept the first 45 minutes we were there, and played musical parents, but enjoyed himself.  He flirted with every single woman sitting within 5 rows of us.  Played peek-a-boo under the table cloth with Dad (Martin initiated) at the tent before the game.  And, showed everyone how great he can walk.  And, best of all, Ole Miss got a win!!  Go Rebels!

We spent our morning this morning playing outside.  Every time we get a little bit of cooler weather, I realize that before we know it winter will be here and we will be trapped inside.  Martin loves to be outside, and it is really funny to watch him now that he can walk around outside.  He is so curious.  This morning he was busy trying to get the sprinkler heads that were watering the grass.  He isn't a fan of walking in the grass barefoot.  It feels weird, and he will stand on one leg and hold the other foot up in the air, and reach up for you to pick him up.  We had a special treat today though, Monday is garbage day, and boy do we love that loud garbage truck.  So, we got to stand and watch them pick up everyone's trash on the back street.  Yay for garbage men!  The guy was so nice to Martin, and Martin loved watching the big blue truck.  Oh to be a kid again.  It's the small things.  Like the garbage truck, and the irrigation system.  And, here I was fussing because the grass was wet and I had to take the trash out.  I really should think more about what "bothers" me, but then again, shouldn't we all??  

Last I will close with a few pictures from the past few weeks.  Hope everyone has a great week!  Happy Monday

Puff the Magic Baby

Enjoying some ice cream at Jason's Deli

Do you think this is too many cheese puffs??

Walk This Way

Well, here are the videos I have been saying I was going to post.  It is hard to get much done during the day when Bryan is at work. So, we captured this last night.  

Walking to Mom

Walking to Dad

Is he not the cutest thing you have ever seen??  I certainly think so.  PS- I think tooth #8 may be about to show itself. Martin was up about 3 am--and very unhappy.  Then again, he can't be sweet all the time, maybe he just wanted to remind us that he rules this house!  Yes, darling, we know you are in charge!  Have a great Friday all.

11 Months and Counting

11 Months--as in one month from A YEAR OLD!!  I cannot believe he is already this old.  This time a year ago my house would have been sitting quiet.  I would have been at work, Bryan would have been at work, and Bailey would have been sleeping in the sunshine in the backyard having puppy dreams about unlimited tennis balls and squeaky toys.  Now our world is forever changed, and all because of one special little baby boy.  I know that I am biased, but I think he is perfect in every way.  He is a Mama's Boy through and through but I wouldn't have it any other way.  He says Dada all day long while he is playing and having a good time, but as soon as he is upset, sad, or sleepy--he says Mama.  Nothing much changes, because at 28 years old--when I am mad or upset I still want my Mama.  But, he LOVES to play with Bryan.  I mean what is there not to love?  Bryan crawls all over the house playing chase with Martin, takes him outside to water the grass, and gives the best baths.  I just have an advantage, because I am with him all day every day.

I am able to write this because he just put himself down for his morning nap on his palette on the floor.  How cute is that?  How have we been celebrating our birthday?  Well, we stayed in our PJ's til about 9:45, and then we had our birthday breakfast-- plums and peaches.  He loves the peaches.  They were really really yummy this time.  Guess they were at the peak of ripeness (is that even a word?).  We are trying to explore food a little more, and it isn't going very well.  He only likes smooth purees of baby food, and by likes I mean loves-even broccoli.  I don't know why--but the kid doesn't like chunky foods.  I gave him ground beef (organic-of course!) last week, and after about 5 bites, I realized he was swallowing the pureed veggies I mixed with it, and storing the ground beef in his cheeks.  After attempting to fish the beef out of his cheeks, he wouldn't be tricked anymore.  The kid has 7 teeth, he can chew it--but he won't.  Yesterday I sliced some bananas and put them on his tray.  He put one in his mouth, followed quickly by another one, and then he realized what happened, made a terrible face and gagged.  I tasted one of the pieces--the banana was fine, it was the texture.  And, then he wouldn't even touch the cheerios that were lingering on the tray from breakfast, because they might have been tainted by the poisonous banana.  What gives?  Short of continuing to try to introduce these foods--I am at a loss as to what to do.  Any mamas out there got some recommendations??  He gobbles up cheerios, baby cheese puffs, pinwheels, club crackers anything crunchy/hard--even those freeze dried baby yogurt bites.  Well, I know he won't be headed to kindergarten with a lunch box full of pureed PB&J or anything--but I do wish we could be finger feeding more than just snacks!

I also told Martin that we would take an afternoon walk around the neighborhood.  He really enjoys being outside, so we will go enjoy it!

At 11 Months Martin is:
*still in size 3 diapers
*still nursing, and not looking close to stopping (I had originally planned on stopping at a year)--but we will see
*eating 4 milk meals a day, and 3 solid food meals a day (usually fruits in the morning, veggies at lunch, and meat and veggies at supper)
*wearing size 9-12 months in clothing.  9 month pants/shorts and 12 month onesies, shirts, pj's, etc
*this kid loves a sippy cup (but hates water--I have to put a tiny bit of juice and lots of water)
*no idea what he weighs, he is very small, but always has been (10th percentile)
*in love with his paci--we definitely missed our opportunity to kick that bad habit before he noticed (sometimes he will have one in his mouth, and another in his hand--you just never know when you might need a spare)
*he talks ALL day--gibberish of course
*loves to clap, dance, holler, hear himself talk, and play empty the basket (ie-toy basket, book basket, diaper basket or all three)
*loves any kind of ball (loves to bounce it or roll it with/to you)
*he LOVES books, loves to turn the pages, loves to look at the pictures, loves for you to read to him, and loves to TASTE the books--some of ours need to go to the trash because we have pulled all the board book pages apart--on second thought, I will be making those into flashcards (reduce, reuse, recycle)
*is looking forward to his birthday party that is one month from today!

Happy 11 Months Martin

Touchdown Rebels!  Practicing for this weekend (sorry I was zoomed in)

Standing up and trying his best to get my camera

Hus future is so bright, he's gotta wear shades!

Birthdays are funny!

Camera, cell phones and remotes are the best toys