What a difference a year makes!

What a difference a year makes....

Seth Benjamin, born March 1, 2008 at 33 weeks gestation ~ 4 lbs 13 oz ~17 in. long

Seth Benjamin at a year old! Nothing preemie about him now.


Sweet little fingers
Sweet chubby fingers

A tiny preemie foot.
A fat little foot ready to explore!

Mommy holding Seth for the first time when he is 3 day old.
Mommy still loves loving on her baby boy!
We give praise and honor to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, for healing our little boy and making him the healthy baby that he is today.

Every good and perfect gift is from above...
James 1:17

Farmer's Almanac

Kevin has been looking at the Farmer's Almanac to see when we need to plant our garden. We were looking at it together over the weekend and saw in the "Best Days" section that there is a best day for potty training. For the month of February the best days for potty training were the 14 and 24. So I decided that I would work on potty training with Luke for the millionth time on February 24.

Did it work? Was there something magical about February 24? The answer is ........ NO! He didn't even sit on the potty. I tried to convince, bribe, manipulate, and any other thing I could think of to get him to finally throw those diapers away and become a big boy. You might say (like Kevin) "You need to make that boys sit on the potty. You are the one in control." After much battling with Eli on potty training, I learned that you can not MAKE them do it. As bad as I would like to man handle him to make him do it, it just leads to fustration on my part and his part. So last night I went to Wal-Mart and bought another package of diapers in a size 5. I couldn't find a size 6 (the biggest size) in the cheap diapers and I refuse to pay to pamper his big bottom in those expensive name brand diapers.

About a month ago, we did get him to tee tee in the potty once. So I am living on that small victory that maybe we can get him to do it again soon. Maybe we might try the Farmer's Almanac's best days for potty training again in March. But I am beginning to believe that the Farmer's Almanac is a bunch of hog wash.

I couldn't resist taking this picture of the boys last month doing their paperwork together!

And if you have any tricks or suggestions on how to get a 3 1/2 year old to use the potty, please leave a comment.

New Motor + Antique Tiller = Newique Tiller

When we bought our house last year, we inherited 40+ years of junk from all the previous owners that we found in our attic and in the shop in the backyard. Kevin actually collected up enough scrap metal from the shop to buy a bass guitar. And there is more scrap metal out there. Kevin is always in the shop trying to organize it and clean it up. He says he still has a way to go. I wouldn't know. I don't go out there because there has been sightings of rats (some might call them field mice but they are ALL rats).

One of the things that he discovered out in the shop was an old rusty tiller. When we were looking at buying this place last year, we talked about planting a garden. So when Kevin found the tiller he got excited. Honestly, when I saw the tiller, I didn't think there was any hope for it. Kevin took it to a small engine mechanic in Hughes Springs, and he thought the same thing I did. Kevin was told that it would cost more to fix than it would to buy a new one.

Kevin didn't like that answer. He called a company that he worked for right before we got married that is a wholesale distributor of small engine parts. They quoted him a price for a new engine. It was a little cheaper than a brand new tiller. So he ordered it. I really thought it was going to be a waste of our money and his time. But he showed me....it actually works now!

Our Newique Tiller

Here are some more pictures of the condition it was in and of the little mechanics helping Daddy.

We aren't sure the manufactor of the tiller. After uncovering some of the filth, we discovered it used to be bright green.

Luke, the farmer, is happy with his tractor that "that man" worked on for him. And if you are wondering, Luke farms acorns, flowers, and corn.

Hopefully a garden post and pictures want be too far behind!

Prince Luke goes to a Royal Tea Party Birthday

On Valentine's day, Luke was invited to a Royal Tea Party to celebrate his friend, Campbell's 4th birthday. The invitation said the the Princesses and Princes should wear their royal attire. Umm.. an easy thing if you have a girl but a little more challenging if you have a boy! Lets see, we have a cowboy outfit, spiderman, batman, superman, a couple of Star War costumes, LarryBoy, but nothing that was anything close to prince attire. Kevin suggested him using his Armor of God gear to be a Knight in Shining Armor but Luke was determined to be Prince Charming. So I put my thinking cap on, went through the closet, bought a crown, borrow a slipper and finally came up with a Prince Charming outfit.

Prince Charming calling Cinderella!

Tana, Campbell's mom, is a very creative and talented lady. She put tons of details and time into making this party special.

Tana made tutus and put them on the girls chairs. They got to take them home as a party favor. The boys had a wide wire ribbon on their chairs.

A place setting fit for a princess!

Place setting fit for a prince!

I was asked to speak at a MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) meeting in January on party planning. As a door prize at the meeting, I gave away a certificate to make a child's birthday cake. Tana won the cake. I had fun making a girly cake. After seeing this party though, I think Tana should have been the party planning speaker instead of me!

All the children had a blast at the party as you can tell.

The Birthday Girl
Princess Campbell Claire and Prince Luke

Luke got to set at the table with the birthday girl!

All the kids in front of the castle and Tana and Greg made out of cardboard!

Update and a story

Things have been crazy busy around here the past few weeks. I have actually had several blog worthy things but just haven't had time to post any of them. I actually started a post on January 27 that I never finished. I am hoping to play catch up this week and possibly get caught up if that is possible!

But for now, I have a funny Eli story.

Today in school we started learning the letter U. One of his activity sheets today had him looking at the word in the box at the beginning of the row. He was to find the match word in the three or four words that were listed following the boxed word and place an "X' on the matching word. I had him sounding out the boxed word for practice and because I was loading the dishwasher while he was working at the table. He got to the last word on the page and he started sounding it out.

Eli "b ...u... "

He stops sounding the word out and proclaims "Momma this is a bad word."

I stop doing dishes walk over to check out what four letter word that has the letter U in it is my my son's reading workbook. I scan the the page and the last word on the page was but. I try to explain to him the meaning of that word was different than from the word he was thinking. It is extremely difficult to explain when you are trying not to laugh!

Mystery Solved

The lost is now found!

For nearly a month, I have been searching for some missing Christmas presents. We made a whirlwind trip to Arkansas the weekend after Christmas. We left our house at 10 am on Saturday and returned home around 10 pm on Sunday. In that 36 hours, we had three different Christmases in two different towns. In all the unpacking and repacking of our stuff, several items went missing. Seth's brand new sippy cup, a bib, and a little lion chime that we gave him were missing, along with the pot to the Pampered Chef micro cooker that I received. The lid to the micro cooker made it home but the actual pot was MIA. I called all over Arkansas (well maybe just my mother in law, sister in law, my sister, and my mom) and the items were no where to be found. I searched high and low around here. The items had disappeared into thin air.

Yesterday, I was getting my nephew's birthday present together to be mailed and I found all the missing items in our stash of birthday presents we bought on our way to Arkansas for Christmas. We stopped at the mall in Texarkana on the way to Arkansas because I had to get a gift for Seth for one of our get togethers. While I was shopping, Kevin took the boys to KB Toys. The store was in the process of going out of business and everything was 50% off. After looking through the store, we decided it would be worth it to buy up a few things to have when we get invited to birthday parties and for our own boys' birthdays. When we got home, I stored the bags in our hiding place so a certain red head wouldn't see the Star War stuff that we got him. When I put the bags up I assumed that the bags just had the toys we bought at KB Toys in them. I never once thought about looking through those bags for the missing items.

Kevin told me all along that he remembered seeing all the missing items but he couldn't remember what he did with them when he was packing us up to leave. Why he untied those bags to stuff those few things in, I will never know. I am just glad to know where they are now!

I didn't think the pjs would fit

Seth in his Christmas Pjs

When Seth was in the hospital, my mom or my mother in law and I would have to pass a little time each afternoon before we could go pick up the two older boys from daycare. Seth's last feeding during the day shift and the boys nap time at daycare overlapped so we usually spent that 30-45 minutes running errands. One day, my mom and I went to Kohls to look for Eli and Luke an Easter outfit. On the clearance rack, I found a pair of Christmas pjs. The pjs were a size 12 months and looked HUGE. I thought there was no way my 4 lb 13 oz baby would be big enough to wear the two tone green stripped pjs. They were marked $6 so after debating with my mom if Seth would be THAT big at Christmas, I decided to go ahead and buy them. I thought even if he isn't that big I could save them and give them as a baby gift. After all, I was only going to be out $6 so it wasn't that big of a deal. I got even more excited about buying the pjs when they unexpectedly rang up for $4 at the register!! I hung the pjs in his closet and kept wondering as the months passed if they would fit. As you can tell from the above picture, Seth was just the right size for the bargain Christmas pjs! He turned 10 months old on New Year's Day. I had to take him to the doctor for his second flu shot on the 2nd of January. They weighed him with his clothes on and he weighed 20 lbs. Here are a few things that are new with Baby Sefy, as his big brothers call him.

• Teeth - He now has four teeth- two on the top and two on the bottom. He likes to try out his new teeth by biting on things. This would not be so bad if I wasn't still nursing. OUCH! OUCH! OUCH!
  
• Sitting alone - Seth started sitting up with out support around Thanksgiving. Just give him something to play with and he will be in the same spot you left him -- that is unless a certain big brother decides that Seth needs to lay down. You never know what Luke is going to do when he "helps" Seth.
  
• Crawling/Scooting - Seth is not crawling but he is trying to figure out how to scoot to what he wants. Most of the time, he reaches his hands and kicks his legs so hard that he gets off balance and ends up on his back. So he rolls over and tries again.
  
• Talking - He is still saying Dada in a sweet tone and with excitement. He says something that sounds like Hi/Hey but not all the time. So I am not sure if it is actually just sounds or a word. In the last Seth update, I said that he didn't say Momma. Well maybe that wasn't exactly true. I have decided that he is indeed calling me but it isn't the sweet tone I prefer. When he gets aggravated and upset, a fussy, whinny "Ma Ma Ma" can be heard. I would much rather hear a sweet loving tone of Momma but I will take the whinny Ma Ma for now and we will work on tone and attitude later.
  
• Eating - Around the first part of November, Seth decided that he would start eating solid food better. I guess he decided that I wasn't going to give up. He enjoys eating solid food now. To save a little money, I am making his baby food. Don't worry, I am not going green or getting all earthy on you, I am just trying to keep a little green in our checking account! I found a website that has lots of information and recipes on how to make baby food. He is exploring a lot more food than his brothers did. He has tried rice cereal, oatmeal, bananas, applesauce, pears, pumpkin, carrots, sweet potatoes, avocado, green beans, peas, lima beans, cauliflower, broccoli, eggplant, and butternut squash. I am starting to add some flavoring to his food. I have only tried garlic powder but I plan to add more soon. Lima beans win the award for the most yucky face made and avocados come in second. As you can tell from his orange tinted face in the picture he enjoys his veggies rich in vitamin A!
  
• Sleeping - At his 9 mo. well visit, he was still waking up and wanting to eat during the night. Dr. Delisi told me that he should be sleeping through the night without being fed. His stomach was big enough to go at least 8 hours without eating. He suggested that I just let him cry it out instead of jumping up and feeding him. He thought Seth had grown accustomed to eating during the night and was waking up just out of habit. Dr. D said that he and his wife also had the same problem with the last two or three kids that they had . (They have seven or eight and with another one on the way!) It took a couple of weeks but he is finally sleeping through the night! He is also going to bed a little earlier too!
  
• Clapping - Seth has just started trying to clap his hands. He hasn't mastered it completely but he is so cute trying. Give him a couple more days and he will have it down pat!
• Signing - Seth is taking after his cousin Karis by using sign language. He isn't using correct sign language by any means, but he lets us know when he is ready for a bite. He opens and closes his right hand when he is ready for another bite. It is like he is saying "Give me more". It is funny to watch his hand stop moving while he is eating and as soon as he swallows he starts motioning for more.
  
  

We look forward to celebrating Seth's first birthday in a few weeks. Wow, how time flies when you have three active boys!