Sign Here, Initial There

Those were the words we heard 1,000 times today as we signed away our souls for the next 30 years. We are officially homeowners. This is it. We're paying on this one item until 2037!! That's insane. And yet, we're excited! Our own home! Our own lawn, garage, and basement! All our own!! :) It'll be fun. Once we get over the shock.

As for Benjamin, he cut his 7th tooth today (on the bottom right side) and came down with a cold. Not a good combo. His gums were bleeding, he was sneezing, coughing, and he had a runny nose that required wiping every 30 seconds or so. Poor little thing was as miserable as I've ever seen him. I don't think he stopped crying all day - great day to need a babysitter! Any volunteers? :) Luckily a sweet woman from the ward was willing to sacrifice and help us out while we signed all the paper work. I really hope he's feeling better tomorrow. Here's a few cute photos of him to remind myself that he really does have good moments (sometimes after a day like today you tend to forget.)

We had a little pool party for German Mom's club. Benjamin just stood in the pool and ate the rocks that another little boy threw in.


Get a good look at this while it lasts. Starting next week that bottle is slowly going to disappear. He's already drinking from a sippy cup, but so far only water. I'm going to try to get him to take it for all drinks after he turns 1. I think it'll be as hard for me as it will be for him because I think he's so darn cute like that.

Today the desk, tomorrow the world!

Benjamin ascended to new heights today as he figured out how to use other objects around the house to help him climb to formerly unattainable places. Kelly's desk has always been a vast treasure trove of "off-limits" items. The myriad of pens, coins, papers, cables, wires, and other marvelous choking hazards has been calling to him for months now and he finally figured out how to get them. Who knew a laundry basket could be so useful? Simply pull into place, and voila - a step! Here's the result:


He just couldn't be happier!


We're also trying to have regular scripture study with Benjamin now. What better way to start, then with a lesson on King Benjamin? Kelly got out the picture and we read together in Mosiah chapter 3. He lasted about 10 seconds, but honestly, that exceeded my expectations. Not a bad start.


His favorite part was when we sung a hymn. It's always so fun to see him dancing to hymns.

You Win Some, You Lose Some

Good news first. Benjamin and I and several other moms/kids went to the water park on Friday. It was a wonderful day and perfect for the hot weather. It was cute to see how interested Benjamin was in everything and he did pretty well in the water, despite how cold and forceful it was. If only he could keep those shorts from falling off his cute little bum! :) We'll defintely be going there more in the future.



Benjamin didn't enjoy the water that he wasn't expecting, though. :)



The day left Benjamin tired, but in a very good mood.


Okay, now for the bad news. In the last month, I've managed to smash both of our cars. The first one I thought was so awful and I was so sad about it. Then I smashed the second and the first no longer seemed so bad! ;) Here's the first:



You almost can't even see it in the picture. The doors are smashed in and so the center panel juts out. It seemed so dramatic at the time and truly, it's worse in person, but then the next accident happened today and it put things in perspective. Here's the second:




There's some piece of something (forgive my automotive ignorance) that is bent outward and jutting off, there's now tape holding the hood down and the side panel in place, and yes, that's the windshield washer fluid container you can see from the outside of my car! That's not good. From the front it looks like a one-eyed pirate car. I'll never forget the sight of my headlight flying across the street and the shower of pieces as a subsequent car smashed it to smitherines. Although I think it's dwarfed by the memory of the sound of the crunch of my front end smashing into that cadillac. My first accident with a moving car in all my 14 years of driving. I guess my aim is improving - I'm now hitting moving targets! But, oh how I miss the days of hitting curbs and construction barrels. (The first accident was with a tree, by the way.) Alas, our house payment is no longer our only financial concern. Now I have the repair costs as well as the increased insurance premiums. As an added bonus, I get to spend the week stranded at home with a stir-crazy kid while it gets repaired. The real kicker though is that it happened on the way home from the temple!!! That's not supposed to happen! Well, I'm just warning all of you, steer clear, I'm on a bad streak here. Luckily no one has been hurt...yet.

Let's Go Outside Today; See what We Can Find Today

Benjamin loves being outside. He stands by the window all the time, pointing at the things outside and babbling excitedly. Once outside, he'll cry if I take him in too early. So, often I let him play on the balcony where there aren't so many things he can stick in his mouth and I don't have to chase him as much (as I do at the playground). He loves it! He watches the cars and people passing below, the insects flying by, and the trees waving in the wind. He also never tires of sticking his hands in my planter boxes and pulling out handfuls of dirt. In fact, today he was so riveted by the goings on that he actually let me take some pictures! He only rushed the camera once. I can't wait until we have our backyard. Speaking of which, only 12 more days until the house is ours! We still have no idea what colors to paint the basement but we found someone in the ward who is willing to be our consultant and apparently good quality, inexpensive carpet can be found in Dalton, Georgia, of all places. So we're going to check that out. It's all so new and so much to deal with, but we're getting there. Baby steps, baby steps.







Our little bibliophile can regularly be found examining his books. He scatters them on the floor and then proceeds to examine the pages, pointing at objects, babbling and turning the pages back and forth. It's enough to make a mother gush with pride. :)


He sure loves his daddy. In fact, I have a special ringtone on my phone for Kelly and when Benjamin hears it, he regularly yells, "Da!"

Dance Dance Baby

I tried all day to get a good video of Benjamin playing DJ and rocking out but alas, the camera is a bigger draw than anything else (other than the laptop) and so whenever he'd see the camera, the dance ended. However, I happened to sneak a quick snippet of a sitting dance he was doing while I was checking my email. Luckily the camera was next to me and so I managed to catch a few seconds before he came for me.



Here's a quick one of him walking with his other favorite toy - the remote control. It's not anything special, but I realized that those of you in Utah haven't seen him walking yet.