Will's Resort

I mean … are you KIDDING ME!?!?!?

Seriously! Sorry for the rant, but this was the last straw. Hello, remember me...Bentley, aka “the Bentlers,” “Mr. Bentley,” “Bent.” You can reference the previous entries of this blog for more info. Yep, that’s me, the picture directly below my parents dated December of ’05, which by the way is over 3 years prior to the event that occurred this past January. The hairless dog my parents call Will has struck again. Just when I was about to be over this little change in lifestyle since my brother arrived, Christmas rolled around giving me a not so nice “kick in the gut” reminder. Not only does Will have his OWN room to sleep in, he now has a room allocated just for his toys. FYI… this is a 3 bedroom house we live in, so technically he has taken over half the house, IN LESS THAN 1 YEAR. What do I have? 2 flipping corners! One for my bed and a corner for my toys.

Is that it? Nope! The hits just keep on coming. It took me 4 years to accumulate my basket of toys. It took my brother 2 days to fill the whole house!

Anyway, just wanted to hit on this little soap box that popped up during this what-could-have-been lovely holiday season. Oh and Will, if you’re reading this, I would be very careful about which toys you choose to put in your mouth.

Regards,
Bentley

Cookies for Santa

It started with all of these yummy ingredients...

We waited patiently for the wet ingredients to mix...Then we did a little bit of stirring... And a little bit of tasting... And we made some delicious treats for Santa to enjoy when he stops by our house tonight! They are double chocolate chunk which just so happens to be Mommy's favorite kind! What a coincidence!! CAN'T WAIT!!

That's My Husband!!!!

I never ever thought this day would ever be here. Last Friday, December 18, John graduated from Auburn with his MBA. Since we got married, one of us has been in school. I started my masters in May 06 and finished in June 07. John then started in August of 07 and is now done with school work...FOREVER! I hope I never have to hear the words, "I have to watch a lecture tonight," ever again!!!!
The weather on Friday was terrible. Freezing cold, raining. Not exactly the weather you want to get yourself, much less an 11 month old, out in. But we did. Of course we did. It was important to John, so it was important to us. Here are a few pictures from the day! Way to go, John!

The hood!

All bundled up to head back home!

ELEVEN

Only one more month until Will turns one!!! Hard.To.Believe. No really great pictures to share. I have very few these days because it is impossible to get him to sit still for even a second to snap a picture. And you can forget sitting still AND smiling. Just not gonna happen. A few fun facts about our BIG boy!

-He got his first ear infection last week :( I guess it was gonna happen one of these days.

-He gives precious hugs. I'm talking both arms wrapped around your neck, face snuggled into your shoulder. The real deal! And I can't get enough of them!!

-He is into this new thing of laying his head on any and everything that he sees and wants to feel. Instead of reaching out first, he lays his little cheek on there. It is adorable. He has done this to people, Bentley, stuffed animals, the mat under the sink in our kitchen (ew!), the cofee table, the couch, the list goes on. It is his way of checking it out.

-He says Dada all the time. John finally convinced me to write that in his baby book as his first word. He said Mama early on and has said it a few times, but says Dada all the time, and I think he knows what it means. This morning I got up with Will and let John sleep a little while longer. When we came into the den, Will pointed at our bedroom door and said "Dada." We almost went and woke him up right then, it was so precious!

-He is working on 7 teeth! 2 on top and 2 on bottom are fully in and have been that way for a while. He is getting 2 more on top, on either sides of the ones that are already there, and 1 on the bottom.

-If you yell loudly, he will mimic you. He and John go back and forth-it is hysterical.

-When he hears the garage door he makes a bee line to the front door and stands up to look out the glass.

-Surprisingly, he has not really messed with the Christmas tree. His eyes get huge when we turn on the lights, and he does crawl over and touch ornaments every now and then but not nearly as bad as we thought. However, we also don't have anything wrapped under the tree. I have a feeling paper boxes and bows would be a bit more tempting!

-We are getting ready for his monkey themed birthday party in just a little over a month! Time flies when you are having fun.

Thinking Outside the Box

This is what I found after I gave Will about 3 minutes of independent play time while I folded some clothes!*In case you can't tell, that is a small bottle of baby powder that he put in his busy ball popper!

Transitions

We have entered into a transition phase. For starters, Will began drinking whole milk on Saturday! This was a big milestone for us and a huge relief that he adjusted so well from momma's milk straight to whole. Another change is that he is only getting one bottle at night time. Every other liquid he drinks is from the sippy cup. This is such an answered prayer! I was really worried about him getting dehydrated because on Saturday he would not drink more than a sip of milk from the sippy cup. He does fine with water, but I think because the milk was now cold and not in a bottle it threw him for a loop. This morning, however, he drank 5 oz out of a sippy cup right after I got him up! I was so proud of him.

He is cutting 3 new teeth at the moment...all at the same time, poor little guy! He is drooling like crazy and I can tell he is experiencing some discomfort. The past 2 nights he has woken up screaming and had to be rocked to sleep. It is rough now to wake up in the middle of the night but I can't say that I mind. It was nice to just have him snuggle up with me and fall back asleep. Seeing as how I just ordered his first birthday invitations today, he won't be my little baby much longer!

Dinner has gotten so much better for us and actually fun these days. We put most of his food on his tray and he feeds himself. He is loving fruit-blueberries, strawberries and grapes are his favorite right now! Now that he feeds himself, we can actually all eat dinner as a family. John and I sit down and eat while he is eating. Last night I gave him some of my macaroni and cheese and he loved it! So fun that we can try new things now.

Prayers up for my friend Holly M. who is having Baby Jay tomorrow! This will certainly be a transition period for her as well. I can't wait for her to have a little BOY to love on!!

SANTA!!! I know him!!!!

Sorry for the Elf quote, but it is probably my favorite part of the whole movie! Anyways, we went to see Santa on Friday night. We took Will to Bass Pro Shop. We had never been there since it opened and we had heard they had a great "Winter Wonderland" along with a free picture with Santa! It was extremely obvious that we are first time parents and only have 1 child. Both sets of grandparents joined us to see Will with Santa for the first time. We had our camera AND the video camera. John and I had talked and predicted how we thought Will would react to Santa. Will didn't disappoint! He wailed the ENTIRE time he was in Santa's lap. I was just snapping away with my camera and John was videotaping. People probably thought we were horrible parents for not rescuing our child, but it was just so funny.

He just kept looking up at him and then looking back at us, expecting us to save him!

Saturday the only thing I wanted to accomplish was getting a Christmas card picture taken. I had already tried twice last week and after 123 pictures, not one was good enough to deem worthy for the card. I don't know why I thought it would be easy. Our last attempt was Saturday afternoon when it was FREEZING. Our neighbor let us borrow their little red wagon because we needed to contain Will in something. In between takes, we would wrap him up in a blanket! He thought it was hysterical!