18 months and feeling not so fine

Bennett had her 18 month appointment today. Eighteen Months already???!!??? She did as well as can be expected considering the fact that she had three huge needles jabbing her. :-( In some ways it's harder now because she sits on my lap and I have to restrain her while they give her the shots. Now she can cry, "Mommy! Uh Oh!" when they poke her and it breaks my heart a little harder with each passing check up.

Some stats:

-She's a little girl. She weighs 21 lbs and 4 oz. which keeps her in the 15%. She's gained a pound since her last visit so she's still growing on the chart, but my pediatrician told me to put some butter and syrup on her pancakes. Anyone who has been around B can tell you that she eats like a champ. But she also walks, crawls, and runs non stop so that must burn off what she does eat. Also, it's not good to tell someone still needing to lose pregnancy weight to hit the ice cream store. Just what I need. More excuses.

-She's very advanced verbally (Their words. Not mine. But I love them.) She talked to the doctor and spoke in 3-4 word sentences which the doctor loved. She really began saying a few words at 10 months and never really looked back. Our pediatrician would ask Bennett questions and B could answer most all of them with words or with motions. Dr. White pronounced her delightful and if I could have tipped our fabulous doctor, I would have.

-She was not delightful when we got in the van though. Just ask my sister who I was trying to talk to on the phone. We had to hang up because of the crying. And it has gone on all day despite Tylenol and a 3 hour nap. Bennett just doesn't do well with shots. I can't say that I blame her.

When we got home my cranky daughter showed her very first signs of jealousy. I was holding Will and trying to get him to sleep. Bennett wanted me to read her a book. She was trying to climb up on me and she kept saying, "Help, Mommy. Book." I told her that I couldn't hold her in my lap but I would read to her if she leaned her head against my lap. She insisted on climbing on me. "Help, Book, help," she kept saying as she tried to get a knee up on me. I told her again that I was holding Will, but I would read to her while she stood there. She stopped, threw the book on the floor, and said, "Bye Bye, Will." I put Will down and read to her.

She can play me like a fiddle

So Bennett was in time out earlier this week. I am not sure why this time. Usually time outs occur for one of three reasons-

1. She hit someone. Hard. In the face.
2. She stole Will's paci.
3. She threw her food on the floor. Even after three warnings to stop.

I am not sure what she did to get her in trouble this particular time, but I am sure it was one of the above. I carried her to her time out chair, explained the rules, and waited for her to say, "Sorry." Sometimes she cries and throws a fit and hits me again. Sometimes she laughs and looks out the window and starts yelling, "Tree," "Grass," Ruff Ruff." I never know how she will react.

This time she was melting down. She was bawling and saying, "Sorry, sorry, sorry, mommy." I wanted to let her out, but she has to stay in time out for several minutes so I just sat there and looked at her while she was crying. I kept saying, "I forgive you Bennett and thank you for saying sorry, but you have to wait a few more minutes. What you did was not nice." She kept crying and saying "sorry," but to no avail. I was discipline mommy on a mission determined to correct her bad behavior. Finally I saw her little mind start to work. She stopped and sniffed and looked hesitant. Then she looked up at me with big eyes and said hesitantly, "Row Tide?"

I burst out into laughter and was so surprised that I couldn't stop her as she slid happily off of her time out chair and ran into the living room. The child is good. Real good. And I'm a sucker.

My Baby Boy

I can't believe that I am taking Will in next week for his 2 month check-up. This summer has flown by. These past 2 months have been wonderful, hectic, sweet, insane, tiring, fun, and happy. Our home in Kansas has been filled nearly every day since the end of June with family and friends who came to visit the baby. We have loved having everyone here especially since I couldn't really walk or move for 2 of those weeks. But it is nice now to be settling down and getting into routines.

Will is a very sweet baby. He is pretty much sleeping through the night already. He has a late night feeding usually around 10:30 or so and then he will go until 5:30ish without eating again so that's been nice. He does LOVE to be held though and that is hard. Bennett was so easy and you could put her down anywhere, but this little boy wants you to hold him non stop. That is a problem when Bennett needs me or if I have to have 5 minutes alone (heaven forbid.) But we have made great use of our baby sling and are plugging along the best we can.

Some recent pics of Will. Look at that sweet smile in the last picture. God has truly blessed us with another sweet baby and I couldn't be more thankful or grateful.

She knows what she wants-edited

**I am changing the embedded video to links from Youtube for these videos of Bennett. I have had several people tell me that they couldn't see the videos. Okay, so it was only my Mom and a friend from high school. They are the only ones that would take time to watch them, but I will change them anyway for their benefit. :-) For some reason I am having issues linking the videos as well so just copy and paste these for those of you that still want to watch these even if you didn't give birth to me or spend four years with me during my adolescence.**

Bennett LOVES night night. She takes after her Mommy. We have been meaning to get this on video for awhile now and finally decided to charge the camera today and get it. This is what Bennett does when we ask her if she wants to go night night. She gets the snoring from her Dad. Pretty dang funny if you ask me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6iOnbedHgA

While we had the camera out we thought we would capture another funny thing she does. She loves to walk backwards now for some reason. We will catch her all over the house just walking backwards and babbling. If you listen carefully you can hear her saying, "Bye-Bye, Mommy." It kills me every time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlPVZ4-usz0

And finally, since we still had the camera out I recorded Rob getting Bennett to point out objects from her favorite book. She loves to do this and loves to point out everything in all of her books. And we are happy to oblige.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8USdS_Ls5T4

Park privileges revoked

They have a lot of dog parks here in Overland Park. What is a dog park you may ask? Well, they are parks where dogs can run around uninhibited by metal chains around their necks. We discovered these when we moved here and have thoroughly enjoyed them.

However, recently, we had to make a hard decision. We warned Kirby. We told him that if he didn't start behaving at the dog park, we were going to have to take away his privileges. And unfortunately he pushed us too far. These parks are huge. And as I have mentioned countless times on this blog, our dog has a brain the size of a peanut. So the meaning of the words "Come Back" don't resonate with him. We have had one too many times at the dog park where we have spent way too much time chasing him down, yelling at him for jumping in the lake, begging him to come back, and he never listens.

On Kirby's last trip to the park, we stayed for an hour or so and then we decided it was time to come home. We called Meg and she came right away. Kirby took off in the other direction. Again. Like he always does. And so I stood in the hot sun with a melting down Bennett and an obedient dog who needed water badly and waited and waited and waited while poor Rob chased him down and every other dog owner smirked at Rob as their dogs sat obediently at their feet and Rob chased Kirby through fields and over streams. On the way home, Rob and I made a hard choice. We cut him off from the park. Permanently.

So, Kirby will have to settle for walks on the leash in our neighborhood. A Kirby off the leash makes for an extremely frustrated Webster family. When Corey was in town we went to a dog park and the dog that obeys us was allowed to go. Here's Meg smiling because she is the favored dog.

Here is the dog who has lost his privileges and is therefore contemplating the injustices in the world. Who am I kidding? He's just staring.

Visit with an old friend

Okay, so Corey's not old. He's my age so if he's old than I am too. I guess I should say a visit with a friend that we've known for a long time. That's better. We have had a great weekend and we love the fact that a dear friend from Alabama took the time to come out here and visit us. Rob and I are going to lock him in our car tomorrow so he misses his plane and Bennett is going to miss, "Key." And I am stating publicly that I beat both Rob and Corey in Wii tennis. Phil Bowdle, I hope you're reading this.

Rob and Corey hanging out in downtown KC.

Me and Corey hanging out at a farmers market.

Bennett and "Key" hanging out.....I'm not quite sure where they are.
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I really don't watch that much TV

4:00 is my crisis time. Will's usually hungry, Bennett's nap is over and she is everywhere, I am starting to get stuff out for dinner, and we are still an hour and a half away from Daddy coming home. So at 4:00 I usually have the TV on to a certain game show hosted by Howie Mandell. It's not like I ever have time to sit and watch it, but it's usually on in the background. It's great filler in between the madness.

I guess I didn't realize how much it was on until today. Howie Mandell asked a contestant a certain question and Bennett who was running across the room chasing Meg stopped, looked at the TV, and said, "No Deal." I am not even remotely kidding!!

She's turned a corner

Maybe all of you parents out there have experienced this. Did you ever turn around one day and realize that your baby is well, no longer a baby? I wonder how this felt for you. It hit me today like a ton of bricks.

Rob has been saying for weeks now that Benentt has turned a corner. He means that all of a sudden, out of nowhere, she is acting far more like a 2 year old than a 1 year old even though she is right in between. She just seems..... older.

It's hard having two kids under 2 so I let Bennett help me with chores or else I wouldn't get anything done. She always helps me with laundry. I hand her clothes out of the washing machine and she "shakes, shakes shakes" them and puts them in the dryer. We high five when we're done. She helps me cook as well. She puts on her apron and stirs pretend soup while I cook. And she helps me dust. This is her favorite. I hand her a rag and she "dusts" everything. It also helps teach her objects. She knows so many household words and will yell their names as she dusts. Clock! Chair! Door! Keys! And of course she dusts things that don't need dusting. She will run her rag over towels and yell "TOWEL!" Clearly the towel does not need to be dusted, but whatever keeps her occupied is fine by me. Kirby gets dusted, flowers get dusted, and of course poor Will gets dusted.

Anyway, today she was dusting and was running all over the house dusting stairs, dusting me, and dusting the table (Yay!) and then Will sneezed. She turned to him and said, "Bess yooo, Wuh." What? When did she learn that? When did she start putting names with phrases? Who taught her that? How did she know how to say piano as she was dusting it? Why is she helping me with laundry? Shouldn't she still be a baby cuddling with me? I got tears in my eyes and realized that Rob was right. She has turned a corner. And am I going to blink and have Will right beside her doing the same things? Time needs to slow down and corners need to be turned a lot more slowly.

Why I don't like healthy people

Well, actually I do like healthy people. I suppose they are better than unhealthy people. So maybe I should say that I don't like people who exercise. Wait a minute. I do have some very lovely friends who exercise. I guess I need to change this post to "Why I don't like people who exercise outdoors." Yes, that needs to be the post. See, I'm from Alabama. There's a reason why we are the 49th fattest state in the Union. And that's also the reason why I am so not used to runners and bikers everywhere. I barely remember a time in Montgomery when I almost ran over a cyclist. If I ever came close to clipping a jogger, I can't remember it. But today, I almost hit 20 people. Seriously. Where did they come from? And really, do the cyclists need to wear bright yellow outfits at 3:00pm? it's not like I can't see them under the glare of the midday sun.

Anyway, it's crazy here. And I don't know the rules. When a cyclist is stopped beside me at a light, do I go first or do they? If we are both turning right, who has the right of way? It's scary. And I am not exaggerating when I say that I really almost injured multiple people today. Can't they just to go a gym far away from crazy Toyota Sienna's such as mine? I don't think I am going to do much damage to a treadmill with my monster van. I don't like it. And I am going to sit here and eat a cookie and stew about how much my insurance almost went up today. Oh yeah. And the fact that I almost hurt people. That's bad too.

Sugar and Spice and not so nice

I have to brag a little about Bennett tonight. Why? Because it's my blog and I can. And it's been over a week since my last bragging session, so it's about time. :-) She just cracks me up. I had my 6 week post birth check up today. I was forced to take Bennett out during the worst thunderstorm I have ever seen and drag her soaking wet to the doctors office. We were both so wet when we got there that I had to get her out of her stroller so she could run around and dry off. (Yes, I used an umbrella, but the rain was so bad that it didn't matter.)

So, a Bennett on the loose unrestrained by stroller straps in a very small waiting room turns out to be a hysterical thing. For 30 minutes, she held court in that waiting room. She walked up to every person and said, "Hi." She would then point to herself and say, "Hair wet." She would walk from person to person and talk to them. She was fascinated with one woman's shoes and would just stand in front of her and say, "Shoe. Sock. Shoe. Sock." She took a hat off of a man's head and said, "Hat! Head!" She climbed up next to a lady and pointed at her face and said, "Glasses!" She told pointed out to another one year old all of her body parts. "Eye! Ear! Teeth!" It went on like this for half an hour. She just stood in the middle of the room and made everyone laugh. One woman was reading a Dr. Suess book to her son and Bennett kept yelling, "HOP POP!" It was another Dr. Suess book but I couldn't believe she knew it was close to "Hop on Pop" because the artwork was similar. The boy lost all interest in the book. He was too stunned watching Bennett. I was too. I kept trying to get her to sit down. She would say, "Sorry," but other people would assure me that she wasn't bothering them and to let her run around. It was just too amusing. Even the receptionists behind the desk were standing up and looking over the counter and laughing at her.

Honestly, my trying to explain how adorable she was can't translate in words on a blog. All I can say is that for the longest time, nobody in the room read magazines or talked on the phone but rather watched Benentt and laughed as she told them everything from what an owl says to the fact that she had a belly button. And she asked everyone for a snack. Twice. And don't worry, I made sure that nobody was annoyed. I am quite aware of the fact that not everyone might have been as amused by the chatty red head as her adoring Mom.

But before you throw up over my gushing (again- what else is a blog for?) I will tell you another side of Bennett. The side that gets her put in time out at least 3 times a day. She is a thief. Yes, a thief. And I have photographic evidence.

Here she is being sweet and tender with her baby brother, right?

On closer inspection this is really what she is doing. The paci bandit strikes again.

Totally busted. And totally put in time out.

Today is the 4th happiest day of my life

What are the top 3? Well, in no particular order they are my wedding day, Bennett's birthday, and Will's birthday (obviously.)

And okay, today may not be number 4. That might of been when I was 12 and saw "Phantom of the Opera" for the first time. Or maybe when I sat at a cafe in Paris by myself and drank coffee and wrote in my journal. Or maybe the day I met Mickey Dolenz. So really, today might be the 8th happiest day of my life.

But I digress. I am SOOOOOOOOOO happy today because today is the day I am officially done with these.



That's right. NO MORE SHOTS!!! I have been on these horrible little things twice a day since October. I had to have them in order to prevent another blood clot. And now that I am 6 weeks postpartum, I am done. No more. Ever. Unless I get pregnant again. And the thought of that makes me want to have myself committed. Or at least it does now. Ask me again in a year and I may feel differently.

So, good-bye horrible little needles that have left my sides bruised for months and months. Your demise has made me a very happy lady today.

Can you summarize the Gospel in 10 words or less?

My dear friend Carmen posted a blog entry with the same title as above. She had read a blog that asked this very question. The blog host challenged his readers saying, "The thinking behind the post is essentially this: If you can’t summarize what you believe in ten words, do you truly understand what you believe?"

You can check out the original blog and all of the comments here. I am posting this as well because it has made me think about how I would summarize the gospel if asked. I think that this would be my summary- if I had to do it in 10 words.

Slave to sin. Christ conquered death. Grace and Life given.

Who wants to be normal anyway?

So, you know how when you take most kids shopping they want the standard things? Oh, I don't know, like a book, or a ball, or candy? I have taken my nieces shopping many times when they were little and had to buy them candy so they would quit screaming in the store. Well now that I have a little one of my own, I knew to expect tantrums. But does Bennett throw a fit for the typical toy or bag of skittles? Oh, no! My daughter had a "come apart" in the store today because she wanted a box of Arm and Hammer Pet Fresh Odor Eliminator. That's right. As she was being pushed down the aisle, she saw the box. Then she saw the dog on the box. Then she yelled, "Kirbeeeeee." Then she barked like a dog. Then she cried. Loudly.

Rob decided that we needed a box anyway, so he handed it to her. You would have thought that Willy Wonka had just given her a golden ticket. She laughed and laughed and said, "Tank you, tank you, tank you," and clutched the Arm and Hammer the whole trip. She screamed when we had to put it on the belt to pay for it. The guy checking us out thought I was insane when we asked him not to bag the Arm and Hammer, but to hand it to our one year old.

To make things crazier, she noticed the soda. My Mom drinks Diet Dr. Pepper. All the time!! You will never see her without a can nearby. So now whenever Bennett sees a can of diet Dr. Pepper she says, "Suttle." (That's what she calls my Mom whose last name is Suttle.) While she was melting down in the checkout line she looked to her right and saw the little fridge filled with sodas that every checkout line has. She started saying, "Suttle" repeatedly when she saw the diet Dr. Pepper. Then she would cry out, "Kirbeeeee" for the Arm and Hammer. Then would bark like a dog.

Like I said, who wants to be normal anyway?

Changing too fast

Well, these days are certainly interesting. It seems like so much has been happening and I haven't had the chance to stop and breathe, much less blog about it. But I am going to try to do a quick family update.

Me- My back is so much better. It still hurts a lot, but only when I move a certain way. I am able to walk normally, I can pick Bennett and Will up (Hooray,) and am able to do most anything around the house. I will still have a spasm of pain when I bend over, but I have learned to squat using my knees and am able to do most things. It really feels so much better and I couldn't be more thankful. I am still in physical therapy and they are going to do an ultrasound of a cyst on my back next week, so we'll see.

Rob- He got a haircut. That's about it. Oh yeah, and he has done absolutely every single thing for our house and our family for the past 2 weeks. I cannot describe how much he has taken on and how he has done it cheerfully and with a servants heart. And if I made a laundry list for you of everything he has done, you would be exhausted, so I will just say that he has been amazing and that I could not have asked for a better husband.

Bennett- Usually I blog about what she is doing. This makes me so sad, but I am going to blog about what she is not doing. She is growing up so fast and is becoming more and more like a little person rather than a baby. She is not saying, "Go bed Meg" anymore. When did she stop saying that? I wish I knew. She is not waving at everyone anymore. We took her to the store tonight and she didn't sit in the cart and wave at everyone. When was the last time that she did that? She didn't tell one store employee, "Bye-Bye." It was such a weird realization that she has already stopped doing some cute baby things that were so unique to my Bennett. It is almost as if I can talk to her now in a completely different way. I was brushing my hair today and I told her to go get her brush, take it to Daddy, and let him brush her hair. And she did. She went to her room, opened her drawer, got her brush, found Rob in another room, and told him, "Hair." She can understand nearly everything I tell her. She does have her new things of course that make me laugh. She was acting like an elephant today and was using her arm as a trunk and running around the room raising her arm up and down and making an elephant noise. She loves to lift her shirt, point to her belly button, and yell, "Bubbon." I love all the new and wonderful things, but I am already missing the things that she no longer does and I wish I would have known the last time she said them. I tried to get her to say, "Go Bed, Meg" all day and she wouldn't do it. Sigh.......

Will- We had his one month check up and his stats were exactly the same as Bennett's were at that age. Scary, huh? He now weighs 8lbs 2oz. and he is 20 1/2 length. That puts him in the 20th and 25th percentile. He is the sweetest and most relaxed baby and we just love holding him and watching him sleep with his hands straight up in the air. He snorts and grunts a lot at night and smiles when you tickle his cheek. What a sweet little boy.

Kirby- He stared at me all day.

Meg- She wasn't sent to her bed once today. She is the only one in our family that is relieved that Bennett is growing up.

Visit with the Texas Websters

Rob's brother and his family left this morning after being here all week. We sure do miss them. Bennett had lots of fun playing dress up with her cousin Sophie and she enjoyed having another toddler around- except when she was hitting him for taking her toys. (I promise, I will work on time outs again once I can bend over and pick her up without my back throbbing.)

Rob and his brother are identical twins (obviously) and so on the day they got here, we sent Frank in to wake Bennett up from her nap. She was oblivious. She called him, "Daddy," and laid her head on his shoulder like she always does. When Rob walked in the room she looked so incredibly confused, clung tightly to Frank, and wouldn't go to Rob. We stopped playing cruel pranks on the innocent one year old after that and she got used to the strange look alike Daddy in her house.

After 2 solid weeks of having both sets of cousins in the house, she is now exhausted, worn out, but so happy because she has been surrounded by family members who love her. We feel very blessed.

Bennett and Sophie loved to read books together.

Rub-a-dub-dub, three cousins in a tub.

Brothers and kids.

Twin-in-laws with the same motley crew.

Bumpin' up and down in my little red wagon.

Will wasn't confused by his Uncle Frank. He's just confused by life in general these days.

And I got some morning hugs too. Having family around means you can sit in your pajama pants for days and nobody cares. Fabulous.

A few more pics

The same picture as below, but now Will made the shot.

One foot in Kansas and one foot in Missouri

Waking Miss Bennett up in the morning. What a lovely way to wake up- surrounded by cousins. She's been wondering where they went.

My Mom with all of her grandkids.

You just never know what's going to happen at my house. Here we have Superman, a reindeer, and a clown Elvis. Don't you have this at your house as well?

Don't you wish you were having this much fun?

I do!! I mainly sat on the couch. But here are some pictures from our weekend with my family. My Mom, my sister, and my 3 nieces were in town and I will let the pictures speak for themselves. Although I wasn't able to do too much, I managed to do more than I thought possible. We had a great time and I miss them already. Here are a few of the (literally) hundreds of pictures we took.

And I am doing much much better. I can walk, but I can't really lift anything or bend over. It's been hard, but it could have been so much worse and I am just so thankful I had my family here to help.


The girls went to a farm here in Kansas and played with animals and had a wonderful time.

Bennett's cousins loved helping her down the slide.

Aunt Lisa showed her how to feed baby goats from a bottle.

They all walked down to our neighborhood park and pushed Bennett on the swings.

We all went down to Clown Fest in Kansas City.

And at home, they played dress up in Aunt LaLa's costumes.

At night the girls went on wagon rides in our neighborhood.

And we had to make banana spilts.

Afterwards, the sprinklers were the best way to clean up.

Who needs a pool when you have a good old fashioned sprinkler?

The 4 granddaughters had a wonderful time visiting together. They all love each other so very much.

And where was Will during all of this? Hanging out on the couch with his invalid Mom. Neither of us were very mobile so we chilled together.

Pic of the day

Will, I am your father.