Oh little pieces of felt...

For awhile now, Ben has had this fascination with sticking things up his nose (his favorite being his finger).  About a month ago, about an hour after we had finished dinner, Ben sneezed and out flew a mushed but still intact green pea.  From that point on, I knew I had to watch him like a hawk.  Well ok, maybe not like a hawk, but at least closer than I had been.  As time passed, he continued to try to stick things up his nose- crayons especially.  Of course, most things he tried to stick up his nose simply wouldn't fit, or were too long etc.    
I think you know where this story is going by the title of my blog...
So last weekend, after Christmas, we left Ben in Hot Springs with my parents b/c I returned to work full time, and pre-school was closed for Christmas break.  On Monday night, I received a phone call from my mom who reported first that Ben had gone to bed easily and she was watching tv, the norm.  Well she then proceeded to tell me that they also had a fun night because she had to take Ben to the ER.  I immediately freaked out.  So her story went something like this...
Dad had just left to go to work, and she was cooking dinner for her and Ben in the kitchen.  Ben was playing in the living room with random things.  She said about 5 minutes had passed and she didn't hear him making too much noise or talking, and he hadn't come in the kitchen with her (the kitchen is open to the living room so she could see in).  So she went to check on him, and realized he was playing with a set of coasters he had found.  Apparently on the bottom of each coaster, were these little round pieces of black felt (one circle at each corner of the coaster) and he had pulled each piece off.  So like a good mother would do, she thinks of counting the pieces to make sure they were all there.  There were 3 coasters, with 4 corners, so there should have been 12 pieces of felt.  Well there were only 9.  Ben sneezed.  Then she attempted to look up his nose and "thought" she saw something.  So she put him in the car and drove up to the ER (where dad was working.) She didn't even put shoes on him.  She said my dad told her "it wasn't technically an emergency".  lol.  So anyways I guess they weren't too busy, b/c dad took him into a room and layed him down and had a couple of nurses hold him down.  He used some kind of instrument to look up his nose and was able to pull out 1 piece of felt.  He looked for more but said he looked as far up as he couldn't and didn't see any more.  Ben didn't like him looking up his nose with anything either.  He apparently squirmed and cried/screamed the whole time.  My poor baby!  Mom said she didn't know if all the coasters really had all the felt in tact prior to when he started playing with them so we didn't know if he stuck just one up his nose or more than one.  
So mom brought him back home on Tuesday.  Everything was good.  Ben did sneeze a couple times but I didn't think much of it, b/c he does sneeze sometimes.  His nose was also just a tad snotty but I just thought maybe he had another cold or something.  
Well today (wednesday), Robert picked Ben up from his mom's house and apparently he sneezed out ANOTHER piece of felt!!  This probably came as a shock to her because I don't think we had told her about the incident beforehand.  
So now we've accounted for 11 of the 12 felt pieces.  I guess time will tell if the last piece made it up his nose or not...

2010 Year in Review

So after a really great, life-changing, 2009 it turned out 2010 was just as exciting. After all, once you have a child, everything becomes a little more exciting.   Maybe it's because it's not just what you do that you look forward to, it's what they do too.  Parts of 2009 may have been a little boring as a far as going places, and doing things, but 2010 was not lacking in this area at all!
In January, Ben started walking.  He was between 11-12 months.

We also cut his hair for the first time.  Just a trim, just a little.  He did really good.

We also got his first professional pictures taken for his 1 year photos.  He wasn't quite a year, but we needed them back to send out on his birthday invitations.

Most of January, and all of February up until his first birthday I was planning planning planning!  I wanted it to be a really memorable birthday for him(OK maybe not for him- for me:).  I chose a "farm" theme, b/c at Christmas, he had received a tractor toy w/ little farm animals on it that he really enjoyed.  His party was February 20th, on his actual birthday, and it turned out really great.  I remember being a little stressed out that day, but that's just me:)

My baby was 1 and growing up too fast already!! Here is another picture of him from February:

In March, Robert and I went on a weekend getaway to Mt Magazine for our 2nd anniversary.  We stayed in the Lodge, in a suite.  We hiked a few trails, and relaxed the rest of the time.

In April, Ben got to meet the Easter Bunny for the first time at the Hot Springs Country Club.  We went there for Easter brunch and an egg hunt.  Ben found (aka my mom put it in his basket) the GOLDEN egg!  

Ben, great granny, and I also took a road trip to Fort Worth for cousin Ian's 3rd birthday party.  Ben did great on the trip, and Granny kept me entertained with all of her crazy stories from her childhood and other times.  We tried to get a picture of Granny at the party with all of her great grandkids that were there.  This is the best we could do:

As it started warming up, we started playing outside a lot.  Especially in the water. So in May we bought Ben a little splash pool that he used throughout the summer.  

He also loved Nana and Papa's new pool and went swimming EVERY time he went to see them!

Wanda, Jessica, and her friend came to visit for memorial day.  I got to spend a little time with them, without Robert and Ben and we had a lot of fun.  We also laid out in the sun a little too long...

In June we made a lot of trips to Hot Springs, and went to the zoo a few times too.  The zoo is definitely one of Ben's favorite places.  We've purchased a membership each year now.

In July, Ben was invited to a neighborhood 4th of July parade and party.  It was one hot day, but really fun and something different.

At the end of July, we went on a family vacation with my parents to Sanibel Florida.  Mom bought us airplane tickets because it would have been too long of a drive with a 17 month old.  It was Ben's first time on an airplane, and he did surprisingly well flying there and back.  He slept a lot of it, and never really fussed at all!

In August, we tried to take Ben to a lot of playgrounds, parks, etc and let him run around.  We went to the Rivermarket's newer play area with a more "natural" playground and this fun water feature.  

In September, we hosted a Razorback game day party and had our friends over.  Ben had a lot fun giving high fives to everyone.  

October was probably the busiest month for us this year.  We went to Schaefer and Colins pumpkin patch with our good friends the O'dells.  Ben and Kirby loved the hayride out to the patch and loved running around the patch and picking their own pumpkins!

The we had a girls-only outing to Motley's Pumpkin Patch.  We watched pig races, and all of us bought some pumpkins and gourds to take home!  After the patch we went to dinner at Zaza's.  It was a super fun fall day.

Andrew and Suzanne flew in for my Dad's 60th birthday party. They stayed with us the first night in Little Rock, and went to dinner w/ Jen, Jessi, Jeff, and Faith so Andrew could hang with them a bit.  He doesn't get to see much of anyone from here anymore. 

 Dad and Dr. Baldwin had a joint 60th at Baldwin's farm.  Andrew and Suz loved seeing Ben and had more fun with him this time since he was older.  They day they left we went downtown HS to the promenade and walked around and let Ben see the Hot Springs.

October is also when the Hogs played Texas A&M in Arlington at the Cowboy's stadium.  We were lucky enough to get to go, and had a great time with our friends Alana and Travis.  We ate at a lot of great restaurants and did some shopping too!

Our friends Jason and Mandy's couples wedding shower was also in October! (See I told you it was a busy month!).  Brooke and Jeff hosted the shower, and it turned out lovely!  It was at Burns Park, North Little Rock.

At the end of October, Robert and I took Ben to the Memphis Zoo for the first time.  He loved seeing all the different animals that the Little Rock zoo doesn't have but he did throw an insane amount of tantrums while we were there.  Here is a picture of him looking at the giant bear through the glass.

In November, Jennifer and Travis drove down for Thanksgiving with the kids.  It was the first time for us to see Norah.  We took them to Garvan Woodland Gardens again to see the lights and let the kids play together as much as possible. Here's a picture of the boys playing in the sandbox.

December started off with Jason and Mandy's wedding! It was absolutely beautiful and Jason had this HUGE grin on his face the entire time!  

Robert and I also took Ben to see Santa at the Peabody.  I think the event was called "Storybook Holidays" or something like that.  Santa led the ducks off the elevator, and then they had free hot drinks, and the kids got their pictures taken w/ santa all for free.  Ben LOVED Santa, but when it came to actually sitting in his lap, he was a bit shy!

We also took Ben to see another Santa at "Christmas in the Wild" at the LR zoo.  This was our second year of doing this, and I think we are going to make it a tradition, as long as the event is held.  They had arts and crafts, breakfast, and different animals to see. Ben liked the opossum, and Laura the penguin the most.  He was shy at first w/ Santa, but by the end, he was giving him high fives!

and then we followed Santa as he delivered presents to some of the zoo animals.

On Dec 18th, Robert and I made a short trip to Mt. Ida for a little Christmas get-together w/ Travis and Alana.  We watched the Razorback basketball game, ate yummy snacks, and then Alana made us a yummy dinner.  We also watched The Polar Express - one of our favorite Christmas movies!  We have gotten really close to the Tarkinton's over the last year or so, and we absolutely love them!

Here is my parent's family Christmas card this year- (we took the photo in October when Andrew was down for Dad's birthday)

I am sure I will update this post later w/ a few pictures from today and tomorrow of Ben opening presents-

It was a super awesome year, and we can't wait to see what's in store for 2011!

2009 Year in Review (a year later)

2009 will be a year I will remember forever.  After Ben was born in February, things were pretty slow for awhile as I got used to being a mother.  But after a few months, things picked back up and plenty of unforgettable memories were made.

Our year started off with a Christmas Party/New Year's Eve party at the "Boy" house.  At this party, we all had stockings full of fun stuff, and we drew names and got that one person a small gift.  I was 31 weeks pregnant at the time, and needless to say Robert and I didn't last very long.  We had left the party, and were in bed, asleep by 10pm.

I had 3 baby showers in January, one after the other.  The first was with my girlfriends, along w/ my mom and grandma.  It was a "Bug" themed baby shower that coordinated with the nursery room decor I had picked out.

The second was thrown by my co-workers.

The third was thrown by my Mom and her best friend Pam, at Pam's house in Hot Springs, for all of the people I grew up with in Hot Springs.

My due date was quickly approaching and Robert's co-workers at Dillard's threw us another baby shower February 4th.  The next week, I went to a check-up and my doctor told me I needed to quit working due to the swelling.  An ultrasound done early, had shown the baby to be very large, and he suggested I have a scheduled C-Section.  We scheduled it for February 20th.  For the next 2 weeks, I basically laid on the couch with my feet up as much as I could, watching "A Baby Story" on TLC while I counted down the days until my due date.  On February 13th, Robert took me to Bonefish for Valentine's day. All I remember was feeling huge, and hoping they didn't give us a booth.  Luckily they didn't.

A week later, I went to the hospital to have Ben.  After a horrible cesarean section experience, Ben was born at 8:22 a.m.  He was 10lbs, 2oz and 21 inches long.  He has aspirated some amniotic fluid during delivery and ended up in the NICU for 7 days.

There was no immediate bonding like most mommy's get to experience, but I did breastfeed him, which I think helped with that a lot.  After Ben came home, I received word from my work that I would be allowed to work part-time.  This was a HUGE blessing because I was very worried I would have to go back full time and put him in daycare.  I was off for 3 months, and then returned part-time.  Days were split watching Ben by my mom, my mother-in-law and me.  It worked out perfectly.

March was full of learning how to raise a baby but not much else... I took a lot of naps, and made a lot of phone calls to mom needing advice.  If you look at my 2009 calendar the most exciting thing on it says "breast pump should come in mail"- written on the March 20th square.

In April, we had an Easter dinner at our house with both my parents and Robert's parent's and brother.

We got new bedroom furniture.

And Ben met his great-grandparent's on Robert's side for the first time.

I started back to work May 18th.  It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, and after 3 months of almost no social interaction I almost craved it.  Working part-time proved to be the perfect situation for me. Ben met his great grandpa on my side.

Ben met his uncle Andrew on May 21st.  He and Suzanne flew down for the weekend.

The following weekend, we took Ben on his first road-trip to Dallas for my cousin Madellon's wedding.  Ben cried in the car.  A lot. But slept through the wedding- here he is with his cousin Evan sleeping.

Not a lot happened in June.  Seriously...not much at all.  We did take a family picture.

In July, we attended Robert's 10 year High School Reunion.  We went to Cornerstone Pub and Grill the first night without Ben, and then the next day we took Ben to Indian Hills Baptist church for another event and lunch.

Not much happened in August either.  Ben and I did meet Alana at lunch one Saturday at Cafe 1217 though!

I started weaning Ben towards the end of September, taking away one feeding every couple weeks.  I had less than 2 months to get him completely off of breastmilk.

In October, Robert and I took Ben to Petit Jean State Park for a hiking adventure to see the waterfall.

We also took a weekend trip to Tunica without Ben, with Shannon and Brandon.  This was the first time I had ever been away from Ben since he was born.  He was 8 months old.  It was preparation for what was coming.

November was the big trip of the year.  I had it planned since before I knew I was even pregnant.  On November 7th, Robert, Alana, Travis, Andrew, Suzanne, and I headed down to the Dominican Republic for a week long adventure!  I thought I would miss Ben horribly, and that it would ruin the whole trip, but luckily they had Free wi-fi and I was able to e-mail back and forth with my mom about what Ben did every day.  I did miss him, but I needed a break from him, and it was perfect.

Then we celebrated Thanksgiving with my cousin Jennifer and her husband Travis and their boys Ian and Evan.  We took the kids to Garvan Woodland Garden's holiday lights for the first time!

In December, we took Ben to the Little Rock Zoo for Christmas in the Wild.  Ben met Santa for the first time.

Then, the next day, we went to Hot Springs, for Santa Brunch at the Country Club, where he met Santa again...

Andrew and Suzanne came down again for Christmas.  Ben's first Christmas was perfect, and he probably got way too much stuff, but it was the perfect ending to 2009.