A Very Merry Christmas!

(sorry for the delay in the post-I've been trying, but my wonderful, memory-making new camera takes pictures that are too big for this so it finally clicked to me that I might need to resize the pictures and -it worked)

anyway...

Oh sweet Ben, how I hope you can remember some of your first Christmas. It was everything Daddy and I hoped it would be for you. Grams, Pops, Grammy and Pal all flew in to be with you on your first Christmas. You were a perfect little boy the entire time. You did everything you were supposed to do. It was like we had practiced before hand or something. We all had so much fun. Here are a *few* highlights:

On Tuesday night we went to Frisco Square for dinner and to see the lights/hear the music. Grams decided to dance with you. No, it wasn't cold out, Grammy was just a very worried Great-Grandmother and made you wear your coat. Sorry.
Your first time in a high chair (at a restaurant)! We forgot your cover at home. You loved sitting like this. You laughed and kicked your feet and tore this place mat completely off.

On Wednesday it was very beautiful out and pretty warm for December so Grammy thought you should open one of your gifts early. Your very own buggy! A parent from school recommended this to me and I'm so happy she did because...


you LOVE it! You zipped around smiling the whole time. Thank God for the seatbelt on it because you tried to stand most of the time.

Your first fruit! Sadly you're not as much of a fan of applesauce as your mommy is (for more on fruit read the very bottom).

We were dreaming of a White Christmas and it came true! Snow started falling on Christmas Eve. My baby's first Christmas was a white one!

not exactly a Christmas present, but Mommy was pretty excited about it. Your new car seats arrived on Christmas Eve. Dr. G told us to go ahead and get them at your 6 month check up. This one matches Mommy's car. Daddy got one to match his. So far-you love them!

Grams was SO excited it snowed. You-not so much.

our house on Christmas Eve, perfectly lit for Santa to find it

Merry Christmas my sweet boy! For Christmas morning we put/strapped you in your buggy for presents time. Not one groan or grunt from you for an hour. You opened your gifts (ate the paper) and inspected all of them perfectly. I don't have a picture of it, but Grammy gave Ben the book, Twas the Night Before Christmas that she recorded herself reading. We listened to it after dinner on Christmas Eve. Such a very special gift that we will read together every year! Thank you Grammy!

This cute bear and mouse also recite The Night Before Christmas. Look at that face!

I love this picture! Ben must have heard the funniest joke at dinner. Notice the ball? Ben went shopping with the girls Christmas Eve and saw this ball while walking with Grammy. One reach for it and it was his. Ben's got Grammy wrapped around his little finger, too.

Santa was very good to Ben this year-(and these are just his toys and books)

While Ben may have been given so much, we thank God daily for our sweet boy who lights up our lives and is by far the greatest gift anyone could have ever given us!

4 Generations

~

~

~

~

~

~

Update on fruit-so while he may have not liked the applesauce so much, at least his belly didn't mind it. We've had three horrible afternoons since trying bananas and then peaches today. Sweet Ben has been in so much pain from tummy gas. Nothing-and I mean NOTHING calms him down. He's finally fallen asleep in his wonderful daddy's lap after screaming/moaning for an hour. Daddy's not moving- we learned our lesson yesterday when we tried to put him in his crib after he fell asleep. And while all this is happening, we are experiencing another beautiful snowfall. Of course Dr. G's office closed early because of the bad weather so we will have to wait till tomorrow to see what they say.

So excited...

Oh I can't wait. Just a few more hours and our house will be full of the laughter and love of family! My mom, daddy, Grammy and Paul all fly in today. What a fun first Christmas for our favorite little guy. We are all ready for days of fun. Ben won't know what to do with all these people and B and I are already getting sad we won't get to hold our boy for 5 days. They better share!

Do you think this is what Santa looked like as a baby? Big rosy cheeks and a big belly?

Can you spot our favorite gift this year? Thank you Santa for your early gift. I guess we had Christmas in June this year, too :)

Merry (early) Christmas!

E is for ear infection

All the junk poor Ben has had has finally made it's way to his ear. I noticed him holding his ear Wednesday night and not wanting to eat and then yesterday the first thing his teachers said to me was, "something's off, he's just not himself." So off we went to the doctor. Monkey has an ear infection and is on a good round of antibiotics. Please pray this takes care of it. Seems like the sniffles and a cough have become normal. He got to stay home with Daddy and sleep today. The little stinker has even shared his cold with both of us. Everyone comes on Tuesday so we have a few days to rest up (and clean up).

On Wednesday we went to our neighbor Haley's Christmas program at school. She goes to Ben's school. Her mom had surgery and dad had an emergency meeting with his boss so we got to be her pseudo family. It didn't last long and Ben liked all the music. How cute will Ben be in a few years belting out 'Jingle Bells'!

looking at the 'big' kids

some kisses from Haley

with his fat tummy and big cheeks he looks like a baby Santa.

I'm off for two whole weeks and Daddy's off starting next Wednesday for a week and a half! Woohoo. Two of my students even got Ben Christmas gifts today. I love how he's a part of my class and my kids love him even though they've never met him.

A night without Mommy or Daddy

This was a big one for us! B's company had their annual Christmas party on Saturday and this year we decided to spend the night at the hotel afterwards. B's parents and sister (we love Aunt Tina) drove up for the night to watch our little man. Yes-I sat with my phone on my lap exchanging texts with Tina for the first few hours, but overall I did great and Ben was wonderful (of course). He LOVED playing with Aunt Tina and Grandma and Grandpa. I was jealous of the fun I knew he was having. He even cried when they left, so cute! Thank you all for coming up and taking excellent care of our Prince!

Our weekend started though with Mommy's faculty Christmas party on Friday. 9 babies were born from January to September at Tadlock (and one more on the way next month). 6 (plus baby to be Grady) were at the party. Here they are in order from oldest to youngest. It was so cute to see all the 'Tadlock Babies' together. It's been great having these mommies around to experience the joys of having a baby.

Such a Ladies' Man. Addie can't keep her hands off of him and Rylee is mesmerized by his good looks :)

While Aunt Tina was playing with Ben she put him in this walker we have. He'd never been in it before. Turns out he LOVED it. He loved being pushed just as much as he loved walking backwards.

Aunt Tina gave him one of his Christmas presents early. This is how Ben opens gifts.

Daddy's aunt Sheri, Uncle Nick and cousin Nicholas made a surprise stop while Tina, Grandma and Grandpa were here. Nicholas loved playing with Ben (and had no idea that half of his toys used to be his). He even helped give Ben a bath.

Another fun find in the pile of toys we've never used-Johnny Jump Up! Grandpa put it together for Ben. He thought it was lots of fun.

Mommy won something! This NEVER happens. I entered a contest for the 12 days of Christmas through a local mom's network and got an email on the 6th day that I won! This is a dinosaur play mat that zips up to a backpack to carry all the cool dinosaurs Ben will have one day. I debated giving it to my dinosaur obsessed student, but I entered for Ben so it's his.

Ho, ho, ho...it's Santa!

Daddy's company has a kid's Christmas party each year and Santa comes to visit! We were all super excited to finally see what this party was all about. Thank you Lord for blessing us with SCA. Daddy's sweet boss spares no expense for the kiddos. There were two HUGE bounce houses, food from Abuelos and Chick-fil-A, and best of all...Santa comes with presents! Ben was such a trooper through it all. It was such a long night for our little man and boy was he tired. He slept through his last bottle and got away with no bath for the first time in forever (Mommy's a little bath crazy). He never fussed and was so good with Santa. Such a good time with good people!

Ben's best buddy Wyatt was there. They loved playing/wrestling together. So cute.

When Ben wasn't eating his hands, he was holding Wyatt's hand. Probably trying to find a way to eat that hand, too.

the picture is sideways, but such fun playing on the ground

Ben meets Santa. And yes, the beard is real!

Santa told us he's been doing this for a long time and held many kids and we can be sure Ben will be a "big boy" because he's quite "solid"

After everyone got their picture taken it was time for presents! Each kid got a gift with their name on it. That Santa-such a good guy.

Ben's first present from Santa (it was a Baby Tad-guess Santa didn't get the memo Aunt Tina got him one for Thanksgiving-but very sweet anyway).

so this is Daddy's boss' house. It was too dark to get a good picture but umm, let's just say it's insanely big. Doesn't everyone have multiple tv's in each room, a panic room (complete with a tv) and a sauna in their bathroom? We got a quick tour of the downstairs before we left and their closet is bigger than our entire master bedroom and bathroom combined. We told Ben we expect a house like this one day from him!

A very fun night for our sweet boy. Already looking forward to next year's.

6 month check up

Ben had his 6 month check up today. Despite having an early appt. we had to wait and Ben was such a trooper. Dr. G said he looks great. His eczema is pretty bad, but that's just going to be life for Ben in the winter months. We're going to start veggies again, but give them to him earlier in the day and hope that helps. I asked about his stinky gas. Apparently it's just something he's inherited from Daddy :)

Physical Exam: A+
Development: A+

Weight: 20.1 (90%)
Height: 27.3 (90%)
Head: 18.5 (off the charts again). I asked if we should be concerned about this and Dr. G looked at Daddy and said, "nope, just takes after his dad."

He got 3 shots and wasn't too happy about it until Daddy scooped him up and made his feel better.

What happens when you put a naked baby on a table and make him wait 20 minutes. Paper is fun! After 5 minutes Daddy had me take him off and wrap him in a blanket so he wouldn't destroy anything else (sorry-took the pictures with my phone).

We're so thankful to have a healthy, very happy baby!

Six Months

Oh, Ben! Where have the last 6 months gone? You are so wonderful and we love you more than words will ever be able to say. Mommy and Daddy are in shock that you're already half way to being 1. Good thing you're living at home FOREVER because you'll be out of high school in a blink of an eye. WE LOVE YOU MONKEY!!!

The monkey is getting very small!!!

Yummy paper!

Ben has his 6 month check up next week. Can't wait to see his growth. Good thing they don't measure how round his belly is :)

He's interested in crawling, but nowhere near actually doing it. Right now just looks like he's trying to swim. I think his fat belly is making it hard for him to tuck his knees under and get on all 4's. We're having some trouble with baby food right now so until we see Dr. G, no more. Poor guy just moans all night with belly aches. As always Ben is the light of our lives. LOVE HIM!

So much to be thankful for!

Ben loved his first Thanksgiving! We have so much this year to be thankful for. We have been abundantly blessed with Ben.

We went to Austin to see Daddy's family. Everyone lives there. We're the black sheep who don't. Daddy's choice, not Mommy's. I think he was a little worried we were going to eat him since we call him a turkey sometimes. He was such a good baby the entire time. Ben even survived his first UT game with Grandpa. Let's just say Grandpa is very passionate about his Longhorns. Everyone had so much fun this weekend. He's already missing his wonderful family (especially Aunt Tina).

Turkey wasn't on the menu for Ben this year, but green beans were. He had his first taste Tuesday night. The first two nights he did okay, but Thursday and Friday he started making the funniest faces. But he's like his dad and will polish off the food even if he doesn't love it.
Aunt Tina got him a Baby Tad. He loves it (and we love how it helps him sleep). He loves playing with it, but loves Tina more.

Ben and Grandpa after a rendition of Gray Squirrel.

Love this picture. He looks like such a big boy. And yes, his shirt rocks, too!

Ben with Tina, Daddy's cousin Nicholas and Grandma.

Thanksgiving dinner was at Uncle Tommy and Aunt Kristin's house. They had almost 30 people over. They smoked 10 racks of ribs along with turkeys and brisket. Guess who was very jealous he didn't get to try any famous ribs?

Poor kid was pooped. Fell asleep with 30 other people talking around him. It was pretty noisy, but he was just too tired to stay up.

Daddy's cousins heard about geocaching so once Monkey fell asleep the 'kids' went treasure hunting. 11 'kids' in their 20's looking for treasures. Oh so much fun. And yes, Uncle Tommy brought his metal detector. Wouldn't you? We still don't know why he has one, but it doesn't surprise us one bit that he does.

Friday Uncle Tommy, Aunt Kristin and her brother Matt came over for a game of Balderdash. Oh so much fun. Ben will definitely NOT be playing with them for a long time. Here he is helping daddy.

Uncle Tommy and Aunt Kristin's GQ pose.

Ben's going to love having Tommy in his life...

...and Aunt Tina. There aren't words to describe their love for one another. He lights up when she walks in the room and LOVED playing with her. He is so lucky to have an aunt like her. They even had a sleepover one night (the only night in 3 months that he woke up twice!).

This is what our car looked like going home. All this for 4 nights away from home.

I took this one with my phone to send to Grams and Pops. Uncle Tommy calls this Ben's "command center." We love that name for his exersaucer.

~~

~~

~~

~~

~~

Be sure to check on the post below on Ben's first Baylor experience!