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.

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

Future Baylor Bear???

We stopped in Waco on our way to Austin and walked around Baylor for a few hours on Tuesday to show Ben the bears. It was an absolutely beautiful day. It was only my second time to go back since I graduated and Bill's first time back to see it. It has changed so much (a sushi bar on campus???), but also stayed the same in so many ways. Walking around brought back so many memories. The squirrels, swings, worn paths through the grass and the bells chiming-some of my favorite things. I looked at the Freshman leaving their dorms and realized they were only about 8 when I lived in those dorms. Ben-your parents are getting old!

Ben loved being outside and seemed to enjoy himself. He even took a sock off during our walk.

Poor little guy was so sleepy at the end. He did not want to take this picture.

I know I'm biased, but Baylor is just a beautiful campus.

This picture made us laugh. Sadly, the bears were sleeping in their 'caves' and you could only see them through the windows so Ben missed out.

Ben tried really hard to do the Bear Claw.

This picture cracks us up. We stopped in the gift shop to find a bathroom to change Ben (note to Baylor-you need baby changing areas in your bathrooms). Bill found these little chairs in the kids area and put Ben down. Then we found the wig. Love it!

Bill even made a comment that it would be great if Ben could go there one day. I know-surprised me too that he would say that. This coming from someone who loves to put down Baylor.

A great start to our Thanksgiving!

Pre-Thanksgiving Fun

Dr. G wasn't kidding when he said Ben will get worse before he gets better. The earlier part of this week was rough and Monkey did NOT feel well. Our hearts just broke listening to him moan and cough. Luckily he's improving a TON and is back to his happy self. Yay Ben! He is still waking in the middle of the night to cough and it's enough where he wakes himself up and cries for us. Last night Daddy had me wait it out and voila-the kid went back to sleep after a few minutes of crying.

Ben is about 95% on sitting up like a big boy and loves to do it. He has a new toy that has kept him occupied. Yesterday our friends, the Masons, invited us to the park to go on a walk. Bill and Jonathan played football and Ashlee and I took the boys for a stroll around the lake. Ben was so tired after that he fell asleep in the car so we stopped for Mexican and we actually got a whole meal in! Unheard of these days.

New toys are so much fun
Ben is really beginning to enjoy the swings. He sat back and just enjoyed being pushed. It was Wyatt's first time and he kicks his legs-so cute!

Hmm, notice who's missing a sock. Does this surprise anyone?

Wyatt is exactly 2 months older than Ben. He is also the tallest baby. EVER! I love how he's looking down at Ben like "uh huh, that's right, I'm taller than you, whatcha going to do about it?" (remember-Ben is fairly long, Wyatt's going to be a very young recruit for the Mavs.)

The boys chilling with their Dads.

**A sad note**-our freezer didn't close all the way one night and all the milk I had frozen thawed a little bit. It was so sad watching all those ounces go down the drain, but we weren't going to risk it. Daddy had to do it for me. Mr. Freezer, do you know how hard I work for that???

anyways...

'Aunt' Lucy is coming over tonight so Mommy and Daddy can go to the Stars game and then we leave for Austin tomorrow for the week. Looking forward to Ben's first Thanksgiving and his first taste of baby food!

Playground fun

Oh sweet Ben, how we love spending our days with you! Ben has had a pretty fun week for a sick kid. Daddy stayed home on Monday and Thursday with him. We went to see Dr. G on Wednesday because he still sounded awful and had a low grade fever at school. Good news-he doesn't have bronchitis. Bad news-maybe has bronchiolitis, but that doesn't need medicine. Worse news-could have this crud for 2 weeks and may feel worse before he feels better. We thought a day of rest on Thursday would do him some good. For the most part you'd never know Ben was sick unless you listened to him attempt to cough up a lung or the slight wheeze he has. He's pretty good until the evening and then he's just so tired and feels crummy and it's not a fun place in the Mahrer house. LOTS of tears by Ben and a few by Mommy who just doesn't know how to make her baby feel better (thank God for Daddy and his calmness -if that's a word). Daddy also emailed me pictures and videos of Ben on Thursday while they were home. My students loved listening to the 'fart' sounds he made with his mouth to get Ben to smile. We're all very happy to have just one more week of work and then a week off!

Sweet Bailey dog has dug a hole and eaten part of the fence not once, but three times since Ben was born and gotten out. Replacing the fence doesn't deter her so Daddy filled the hole with concrete so she can't dig at it anymore. We'll see how well that goes. It was very pretty out so Ben and I went to check out Daddy working.

Playing on the couch is lots of fun.

Daddy's been wanting to take him to the park to swing and we finally got a chance this weekend. On our first walk through there were lots of kids in the swings, but we were good to go on the way back. Ben seemed to really enjoy it!

This morning we went back to the swings, but they were taken so we walked on to the playground of my school where we were by ourselves and had lots of fun. We love having Ben as our 'excuse' to play like little kids.

I guess the slide was a little too much for me

Daddy taught Ben how to kick a football. He's been kicking up his leg lately so Daddy put a football out for him to hit. I guess he was actually doing pretty well until it bounced on his head. When I walked out I saw him posing with it. Note to my family-we need a Bears football before this kid learns to love the Cowboys!!! ASAP!

One week, one week, one week!

B is for bronchitis

Poor Baby Ben has experienced his first 'illness'. He had a cough the latter part of last week, but never a fever and always was his happy self. There's a lot going around his school and Mommy's had a cold so we've kept an eye on him. The only time he's been grumpy has been when his teeth are bothering him. So Friday night we took him to the FISD's Chili Challenge. I think there was a little too much going on. His eyes were like saucers taking it all in. That- on top of not taking an afternoon nap-the kid was exhausted. Saturday we took him to a park in Plano. My thinking was that fresh air would be good for him and he loves to be outside. The weather was perfect this weekend. Ben slept for half of our hike, but enjoyed the rest. Daddy took us to lunch at Noodles where we actually got a dirty look when Ben got a tiny bit fussy for his lunch. Barely anything at all. Part of Mommy wanted to let him start screaming instead of feeding him and then see their faces. After we got home I was playing with Ben and noticed he felt a lot warmer and his dry cough wasn't so dry any more. I could feel it in his chest and back. So off we were to Acute Kids. Poor baby has bronchitis. They said we caught it very early- yay for crazy mommy instincts! He's on an antibiotic. Thank goodness he doesn't know he's sick. He's still the happy, funny baby we love more than anything! It's harder on us than him. oh ya- they weighed Ben at the doctor's. Monkey is just shy of 19 lbs!
Today we chilled at home. He played and practiced sitting up. He gets stronger each day.

Picture time:

At the lookout at the park.
Notice his foot. He's props it up on his stroller just like he does in his highchair!

Waiting for the doc. I realize he totally doesn't match. He had spit up all over his outfit before this and we were downstairs and this was all I could find. Daddy HATES this outfit. The hoodie was in the car. It got cold as night fell.

How Mommy found her boys this morning when she woke up. Daddy let me sleep in. I rolled out of bed at 11!!! (I woke up at 6:30 to feed him, but then Daddy took him).

sometimes it's easier to eat cereal with no clothes on

helping Mommy with laundry this afternoon

Ben doesn't really like his medicine. We tried to get a picture of the funny face he makes. Mommy LOVES the taste of that medicine, but Daddy never has. I'd still get it in liquid form if it weren't such a pain.


We're going to try and send him to school tomorrow unless he wakes up miserable. We trust his teachers will let us know if something is wrong (and according to everyone we know who goes to his school-they will). Now if only Mommy could calm down...

***Update***-Daddy stayed home with Ben today. I'm sure he would have been fine, but we wanted him to get more rest. I know his teachers will miss their favorite baby today. I wish I were the one at home with him, but thank the Lord for SCA and Daddy's unlimited sick days.

Five Months

Sweet Ben is 5 months old today! I'm in shock at how fast the past five months have gone. If I could throw him a party to celebrate each month, I would! We love him more and more each day. He is more fun than we could ever imagine and makes us laugh all the time.

our monkeys
Best Buds

No doctor's appt until next month so here are some recent highlights:

*rolled over from his back to his tummy...FINALLY

*sat straight up by himself for 10 seconds tonight

*is happiest in the mornings after he eats and right after his bath before bedtime

*loves to kick and splash in the tub

*laughs a lot more-a real laugh now, not a quick giggle or squeal

*had his first 'sick' visit at the doctor (they thought he had a busted ear drum-turns out to just be wax...such a guy)

*reaches for anything and everything

*turns up to 180 degrees just about each night in his crib

*loves his exersaucer (or as Daddy calls it, the big blue chair)-spends forever in it playing

*poor teeth are causing pain, but haven't popped through yet

*would rather stand than sit or lay

*still won't cuddle with mommy and watch tv, only daddy

*lots and lots of new hair is growing very quickly. Sometimes it looks brown, other times blonde

*likes Target, but LOVES Walmart (what's that about?)

He's the most amazing thing in the world to us. Happy 5 month birthday Monkey! We love you!