finally, a video!

finally, after trying to figure it out for a while, i have learned how to post a video on this thing (thanks to heidi and jordyn for your help!). after figuring out how to do it i realized that most of the videos we have probably aren't very appealing to most other people. i do think this one is pretty cute, though. enjoy!


so, this is from quite a while ago (you can tell by the length of benny's hair), but i thought it was cute enough to share. benny's hands were cold so i started rubbing them to warm them up and he just started laughing and laughing! luckily spencer was able to get footage. i think it's so funny when benny laughs hard like that!

harry potter

we are both harry potter junkies. we admit it openly. as you can see, the final book of the harry potter series comes out in roughly 36 days. a few months ago spencer came into our room one morning while i was sleeping. he woke me up and told me to "guess when harry potter 7 comes out!" knowing it was coming out in july (don't ask me how i knew) and knowing spencer's excitement i said, "on my birthday." "yes!" spencer answered, "happy birthday, honey!" spencer was (and i'm sure is) much more excited than i am. i am very excited for the next and final book, but it was so fun to see spencer so excited. we decided that for my birthday i would be the one to go pick up the book from costco and i could decide when to come home that day. spencer has been willing to let me read to my heart's content. since then we decided we would order the book from amazon. they guarantee delivery on july 21 (i think before or by noon). they also guarantee the lowest price until july 21. we've already received notice that the price has gone down once since we ordered. i'm not sure i want to use my birthday present on reading harry potter 7 as long as i want, especially because it's so fun reading it together.

when book 6 came out we went to barnes & noble at midnight to get it. on the way home i started reading out loud. we went on to read together for a few more chapters. then, on our way to lake powell a couple of days later, i read out loud to spencer again. once on the house boat we had to read silently together. there were 3 or 4 other people reading all at different paces. we had a great time sharing that with each other - especially toward the end when we would stop and look at each other and re-read certain sections. because of how much fun it was to read it together and talk about it after, i don't think i will read it on my own first. we'll see how it goes.

two or three months ago we re-read books 5 and 6 in preparation for number 7. unfortunately that was too early to read those. there was way too much time left. spencer started reading over at number 1. i was busy reading another book, so it took me a little longer to start again. it worked out well for spencer to have a head start so we weren't trying to read the same book. spencer has made it back to book 6 already and is going strong. i am currently on book 2. that's the only one we've had to check out from the library. we have all the others here. at the library yesterday, the only copy they had checked in was their large print edition. i may go blind reading it, but it'll be worth it, right? who knows if i'll make it through book 6 again, but it will be fun trying.

spencer

i haven't done much besides post pictures of benny. i want to steer away from that for a minute and take a minute to express my gratitude for my husband spencer. i am so grateful for what a good man he is and for how much he means to me. i'm grateful to have someone like him to care for and about me. he always gives me good advice (and i know that even when i'm not ready to admit that). he works so hard to support me in everything i do. he wants me to succeed in everything i want. he cares for our son and has such a good relationship with him. i'm so grateful that he is working to be a good role model for benny. what has been making me think about this lately is what has gone on with spencer's preparation for the mcat. spencer's getting ready to apply to medical schools and he took the mcat in april. we found out that he didn't do as well as he was hoping. he immediately began looking for a place he could take it as soon as possible. amazingly enough he found a place in redlands, ca for friday, 25 may. amazingly enough we were heading to fontana, ca to watch bethany and nate's kids (my sister and brother-in-law) for a week. fontana is only 30 minutes away from redlands. spencer was originally planning on flying out friday, but we were able to change his flight with no problem to mine.

catching up

well, i think it's about time i catch up with some pictures of benny that i took a while ago. spencer has been saying for a while that our blog is not our blog so much as it is benny's blog. i think he's right. not that it's a bad thing to have the entirety of all postings to be about our wonderful son, but i want to try more to record more of spencer's and my life together. the trouble is that i'm always the one to pull the camera out, and the most engaging subject is benny (he's also the most available because spencer is busy with school and work). that all being said, i have more to say about benny.

just a side note. i read an online article a couple of months ago about the overuse of emoticons... (i bring this up because in the past i would have followed the last sentence of the previous paragraph with one.) it really is so trite to follow something up with :). i have done it quite a bit in the past; i'm trying to stay away from that now. i want to try to help people understand how i feel about something by the words i choose. the trouble with that is that often - even when talking directly to someone - people don't understand when i'm trying to be a little funny about something. maybe i need to work on my delivery. i think i need to choose my words more carefully - and probably develop my vocabulary a bit more.

and now, more benny...

benny's first taste of string cheese.


i'm still not quite sure how it happened, but that small piece of cheese ended up right in the middle of his head. i thought it was really cute especially because it stayed up there even with all of his arm flapping and moving around.


spencer was lifting benny up and kind-of wiggling him around. if i ever figure out how to post video on this thing maybe you'll see the video i took! benny was having so much fun up in the air.


at first spencer told me he didn't want this picture posted, but i couldn't resist. how much more alike can a father and son be?


this is to make up for the last picture!


although his hair kind-of makes him look like a girl in this picture, i really like it. i think he looks really cute, and as much as i hate to admit it, i am getting closer every day to cutting his hair.


and the costco card is back! along with benny's james dean look. spencer started putting him in the white onesie with jeans and rolling up his sleeves. i think the hair adds to the "devil-may-care" attitude.


even when he goes to the walker, he keeps the costco card in hand.


we still have his easter basket around and he plays with it every once-in-a-while. spencer and i were in the kitchen and we came out and saw him like this.


and at one point he was like this!



these following pictures may all look the same to you, and you may be wondering why there are so many. well, i loved benny's hair this day! i thought it looked so cute. i was finally able to get it to stand up again (i'm basically refusing to use any kind-of product to do that) and it just looked like benny was so happy about it.





benny always starts coming toward the camera when it's pulled out. he loves it. usually i'm able to get some good pictures, but sometimes it doesn't last too long because he starts crawling toward the camera. i was grateful for this picture because i love the way his hair looks!


the remote is usually considered contraband, so you can see how happy he was to finally get his hands on it. that didn't last for too long.


this picture i'm sure looks a little strange. benny's face is definitely washed out because i was holding him on my lap. if you look at the right side of his forehead (benny's right), you'll see a little bump. just a few minutes prior to this picture benny's hand that had been our our chair's arm rest slipped. i was really close but on the other side of the chair. his head hit pretty hard and shortly after there was a pretty good-sized goose egg. i felt horrible. he got happy pretty quickly, so i thought i would take the opportunity to get pictures. unfortunately he was happy enough to want to eat the camera, so i couldn't get a good angle.


another angle of the goose egg. after i picked benny up, i ran to the freezer to get his teething ring hoping to use that as an ice pack so the bump wouldn't get so big. that didn't work so well, but i think chewing on his little ducky helped to calm benny right down.