The Bald and the Beautiful

Bennett and her Uncle Hazen. One is bald by nature. The other bald by choice. You decide which one is which.

We're here

My first trip to Texas.

By: Bennett Webster
More stories to come, but I have had a very busy few days. Let's see- I felt sad for the alternator in my parents (totally awesome) van, thanked my grandparents for loaning us their van, spent the night in Cajun Country and fell asleep listening to crickets chirping about a swamp, rocked out to Baby Mozart on my 12 hours car ride, met the rest of my family, watched my parents eat a lot of food, squealed a LOT, compared bald heads with my Uncle Hazen, cheered for Michael Phelps, hung out with my cousins, pooped in the swimming pool, laughed at Callie the dog, and slept a lot. Here are a few pictures, but there will be a lot more to share when I get home. Let's hope the alternator in my grandparents van works better than the one in my parents.

Hey Jameson- our Dads have pretty much identical DNA. Why don't you look more like me?
You may now kiss my arm
Meeting Max and Madeline
Hey Sophie. Good to see you again. I'm not quite as breakable now, so feel free to play with me. I hear you're going to paint my toenails pink.

I have no idea whether my Dad or my uncle is holding me, but I think they're both pretty cool.

See you guys later

I'll be chillin' with my cousins in Texas. I might just come back with a cactus tatoo, 'cause that's how crazy I am.

You can tell a lot about someone....

I want to give my neighbor across the street, Amanda, a shout out on this blog. I think I solidified in her mind last night what crazy neighbors she has, but to her credit she made me feel as normal as she could under the circumstances.

So, last night at about 9:00, I decide to go clean out our van for our upcoming trip to Austin. (Yes, we have a mini van. And we got it on EBAY. And it's totally awesome.) Our dog Meg runs out the door and attacks our neighbors who are returning from catching frogs. Amanda comes to the driveway and chats with me as I am cleaning out my van. As she talks I start loading the contents of our (totally awesome) van onto our lawn. First up- a box of costumes. She looks a little alarmed when she sees the huge life size ketchup and mustard outfits, but I explain to her that I teach drama to kids and these are some of our costumes. She smiles politely, but I can tell she thinks I am slightly insane. Next out of the van- a boogie board. I tell a mildly bewildered neighbor that I had taken some kids to camp and that one had left this in my van. She smiles weakly. The next item dumped on my grass- a bag filled with Disney princess streamers. I sheepishly told her that it had been my birthday and how my friends had thought it would be funny to decorate the church with princess stuff.... and I just let it go. Next item- a mic stand. "Oh, ummm... my husband is a worship leader and I guess this is from... well, I don't know." By this time she just stood and watched as a tripod, a glide cam, salt and pepper costumes, a travel bed, and damp swimsuits followed. She seemed completely relieved when I finally brought out a box of diapers. Maybe I restored a little bit of normalcy in her eyes with this last item.

So, I started wondering- does your car (or totally awesome van) give away who you are? I thought about this as I stood surrounded by costumes, streamers, a boogie board, a mic stands, camera tripods, diapers, strollers, and so much more. I guess my van would say that we are an artsy family who loves kids, drama, music, and fun. Or else it could say that we are procrastinators who never clean out their car.

But I like to think that we are young at heart and fun and hopefully my neighbor knows that she will never need to go out and buy a Halloween costume. Or a boogie board.

Somebody's Getting Old

Sigh....... 30. I remember when 17 seemed SO old. A friend of mine in elementary school had a brother who was 17 and I just couldn't believe it. Seventeen!!! How times change.

My day started with a baby spitting up on me and ended with a baby spitting up on me, but everything in between was pretty fun. I did feel slightly bad when the Wii shaped pez dispenser made me scream out, "Rob Webster!! you got us a Wii!!!!!" Well, I wouldn't have felt bad if it was true, but I felt awful when Rob sheepishly said, "Ummm, no, that's just a pez dispenser there."

Rob had decorated the house with streamers, gifts and roses and then when I got to the church (at 6:30 am!!) my dear friends Taylor and Corey had decorated our green room with streamers, balloons, and even a pinata. They got a cake for me as did my parents, so by the 11:00 service we were all on a massive sugar high. Well, they were all high on cake. I was just high on pez.

We then went to Shoney's for lunch. Yes, Shoney's. I have been teased all day because of it but I wanted to see my family in Birmingham and the town that is exactly halfway between the two cities only has a Shoneys. Laugh all you want, but it's not what you eat, but rather who you share the meal with. Still, the breakfast bar on your 30th is a little bit lame. But I got to be with my family and I'll take that over soggy cornbread any day.

I had to be at the church all night tonight (didn't the pastor know it was my birthday?) and then we went to dinner with some good friends. I had lots of e-mails, lots of calls, some very sweet and dear cards, and gifts sent from college friends who know me so well and still remember. Very fun. Very tiring. And I feel very old. Time to go wash off the spit up and go to bed. But first, here are a few pics from the day.

my peeps

Some Contemporary Worship folks hanging out during the sermon. Don't tell John that we weren't listening.

The two vandals who broke into the church at 10:00pm to decorate.

Ummm... didn't you get the memo? Blue smocked dresses with swimmers is so in this season.

We don't care what anyone says. Shoney's is the coolest place to celebrate your birthday. Where else can you get salad, creamed corn, AND french toast all on one plate?

Must be a growth spurt

Bennett has been sleeping like a newborn this week. She goes down at 8:30 and doesn't wake up until 8:00 in the morning. Well, she wakes up when she rolls over on her stomach, but when we roll her back over she's down for the count. Unfortunately this happens 4 times a night. But anyway, after her morning feeding she plays for about an hour and then is asleep again until 11:30 am. She takes a 20 minute nap in the early afternoon and then a 2 hour hap in the late afternoon, and then goes right back down at 8:30. My friends who "know" tell me this is probably a growth spurt. If so, I am expecting a head full of hair and a new clothing size by the end of the week because this is crazy.

When she is awake she is squealing at the top of her lungs. Apparently light fixtures are the greatest invention since the wheel. She can squeal (in delight according to those same friends who "know") for an hour without stopping. I guess she's making the most of what little wake time she has.

Here she is in full on squeal mode.

Saturday morning

We love having our cousins spend the weekend with us. I want my hair to look like Emmie's. Oh, wait. I don't have any.
I love you Sutton, but I am kind of not liking my incredibly cool Bumpo seat right now. Ummm....Mom..... my diaper is the other way. By the way, please note the two books in the background that I was reading this morning. Thanks Aunt Stacy and Uncle Frank.

Welcome to the World, Bradford Elizabeth Williams

My cousin Elliot and her husband Chris had an amazingly beautiful baby girl on Thursday. Her name is Bradford and she is just perfect. Rob and I are keeping our niece for the weekend so we all went up to the hospital in Birmingham to visit them yesterday. It is so easy to forget how tiny they are. Bennett is only 5 months old (today actually!) and I have already forgotten how tiny newborns are. Bradford is so adorable and we are so happy for Chris, Elliot, and big brother Wyatt.

We took this photo for my grandmother. We thought she might want to see two of her grandaughters and three of her great grandaughters all together. We sure do like girls around here!

While we were still in Birmingham we went to visit my other cousin Erin who was in town to meet her sister's baby. She and her husband Jay loved playing with Bennett. They are practicing for their new baby due in November. Bennett loves them and would have stayed with them all day.

Emmie loved playing with her Uncle Eddie. We were all so happy to be together and know that Bradford was here and safe and we can't wait until she and Bennett are old enough to play together, just like I played with her Mom when we were little.

New Friend

I had lunch today with my friend from elementary school, Anna. Her baby girl Addie is only three weeks younger than Bennett. I loved catching up with my old friend and introducing Bennett to her new one. I think Bennett was fascinated with her. As you can tell, she loved to reach over and play with the sweet sleeping Addie.

Go to sleep, baby Addie.

Random Thought

I don't know why I was thinking about this last night, but when do we stop getting excited as adults to try new things? I feel as if now that I have Bennett, every day is so exciting. She rolled over 4 times! She is grabbing her toes! She is making an "Oooh" sound. Brilliant child.

If I blogged that about Rob you would think I was insane. Guess what? Today Rob ate his cereal. By himself! Holding his own spoon! And he rolled over too. What a good boy.

I guess I am just wondering when we stop encouraging each other as adults for trying new things, and really why should we ever stop? Having Bennett has made me want to learn even more. I may not blog about myself sleeping through the night or being to hold my head up unassisted, but I would love to blog about taking a new class, learning a new language, trying something I have never done before.

Maybe soon I can post about not only Bennett's firsts, but her parents as well. I hope we never become too routine, but that we constantly challenge and push ourselves to learn new things along with our little one. Told you that was random.

Put another dime in the jukebox, baby

We got a lot of classical music CD's for Bennett before she was born. We heard that would make her even more brilliant than we knew she would be and I read somewhere that it would make her ace her SAT's by the 6th grade. So, I bought into it and started playing anything that would make her an early smarty pants- Bach, Beethoven, Mozart... all the good stuff. I have always assumed that she liked it. She never complained (not like she could) and it kind of calmed me down as well, so there you go.

So today I am holding her in my lap and I download a song from iTunes. It was just a pretty cool song I had heard lately with a strong beat and some cool guitar riffs. I didn't realize how loud the volume was on my computer so after it downloaded it just started playing. Bennett jumped a mile high so I reached over to the speaker to turn it down, but before I got a chance to lower the volume her legs started pumping. So I stopped. Then she broke into a wide grin. Then the legs started going faster. Then she smiled more. Then her whole body started shaking like she was in some smoky nightclub tearing up the dance floor. I think I played the song 5 times for her.

Tonight we are changing CD's. We honestly did get a baby Led Zepplin CD that I never really assumed she would like as much. However I don't think I have a smarty pants on my hand, but rather a future dancin' queen. So, tonight instead of Spring Allegro she's getting D'Yer Mak'er.

More Family Acquaintances

Bennett got to meet my cousin Erin this weekend, and see her Aunt Beverly again as well. Erin and I are only 5 months apart and we were practically raised as sisters. Don't get us started on white cars, Russians, personal memos, goobers, "All The Rivers Run," Edmund, Mayor, and so much more. She lives in SC now and so this was her first meeting with the little one. She is in town because her sister, my cousin Elliot, is having her baby next week (more pictures to come from that as soon as the wee one gets here.) Bennett loved meeting Erin and we can't wait to play with her little boy due this Fall. Now, we anxiously await our first introductions to Uncle Hazen, Madeleine, and Max in a few weeks and then Bennett will have met everyone in her family who loves her and who prayed so much for her to get here.