A Very Belated 9 Months

Oh boy!  I'm so late in posting this.  Ben is almost 10 months now and it's hard for me to remember what was new for him a month ago.  I keep thinking of all the fun things he's doing now and just can't remember.

What I do know is that he is a pure joy in our family.  So happy and easy going.


We were surprised how well he was able to sit on this little chair.  We had to catch him a few times but mostly he was pretty stable.

I just love how amused he is by simple things.  He laughs when others are laughing but also whenever he is truly entertained.  He was full belly laughing when I let he and Isaac play in the puddles from some rain.  Whenever Isaac would splash he would laugh and laugh.  So cute!  Impossible not to giggle yourself when a baby belly laughs.

He is back to sleeping through the night, mostly, now that he is not sick.  He even did great in Colorado Springs at the hotel.

 

He makes great faces and smiles and waves at everyone.

And his hair!  Oh I love his hair.  Jacob keeps saying it needs cut, and he's probably right, but I'm so worried I'll ruin it because it's so fine.  I'm too scared to try and clean it up even though his top is too long and there are some scraggly pieces by his ears.

 

He was working on a tooth (which is mostly through now) when we took this pictures.  His fingers are constantly in his mouth.

 

 

 

I love his bright blue eyes.  I'm hoping they stick around.

 

 

 

 

He was still picky about textures and eating table food but has made some progress in that department this past month.  It's now to the point that he is refusing the baby food purees.

Love this happy, smiley boy!  I'm pretty sure Isaac is still his favorite person, unless he is tired or sick.  Then he wants his mom.  He also LOVES his dad and gets so excited when he comes home for lunch and dinner.  He waves to daddy and crawls as fast as he can for a hug.

And then he fell.  The photo shoot quickly deteriorated at that point, despite Isaac's attempts to get a friendly brotherly shot.

Pacifiers, Cupboard Trains, and Sweater Vests

Isaac found the pacifiers that were stowed away in Ben's closet.

 

For two boys who never really cared for pacifiers at an appropriate or useful age, they sure had fun playing with them.

All aboard the Brunson Cupboard train!  Conductor (or maybe he's the engineer, I can't be sure) Isaac and a somewhat willing passenger Ben.

 

 

I love boys in their Sunday finest.  Especially when that means sweater vests.  Seriously, how cute are they.  Also, Ben is so big.  Stop getting older already!  Can you believe he's 9 months old (post on that coming eventually)?!?  And he definitely fits comfortable into the 9-12 month size clothing.  It makes me a little sad and a little excited for this next stage of babyhood all at the same time.

 

Sometimes they look so much like brothers to me.  Not so much in their actually looks but in the facial expressions they make.  Funny boys!  

 

Man they are cute!!!

Remember That Mini-Vacation That Was Supposed to Be Super Awesome But Wasn't?

We had this great idea to do a mini-vacation to Colorado Springs.  We put it on the summer bucket list and then kept putting it off thinking it would be fun to do it right when school started so things were less busy.  We did Mount Rushmore that way a couple of years ago and thought it turned out really great.

This little trip didn't.

I guess traveling when most of Northern Colorado is having a flood is a bad idea.  Hmm, who knew?

It goes like this:  It had been raining in our neck of the woods most of the week.  Wednesday Boulder and Estes Park started flooding pretty severely.  But we weren't going to Estes or Boulder so we though we were good.  We knew it was supposed to continue raining but we figured it would kind of carry on like it had been and we'd deal with a little drizzle while hiking around Garden of the Gods.  We woke up Thursday morning to some pretty major rain and continued flooding to the west of us.  But we got packed up and made our way down to Denver.  We stopped at Ikea for a little shopping and lunch, as per the plan, and then continued on to The Springs (I sort of hate that people refer to Colorado Springs as THE SPRINGS.  Sounds so snooty, but whatever.)  We arrived to slight drizzles of rain but mostly sunny skies.  So, we drove on to Garden of the Gods in hopes of some hiking and fun.  Fun was not in the plans.  They had the entrance to the park blocked off by cones and police.  At this point Isaac is in tears because all he wants to do is "hike the red rocks."  We let him know there is nothing we can do about it and try to think of an alternative.  We drove by Shannon's old house and then went on to the mall.  We figured the kids would benefit from being out of the car and running a little.  We took them to the play area and let them have their fill of playing.  Well, actually, Isaac was crying again when we left because he wanted to stay longer and ride escalators but he'd also just made a little girl cry (not sure what happened exactly because my back was turned.  So we left despite the protestations.

Our hotel was near by so we decided to check in and see what was going on that caused Garden of the Gods to close.  Well, they shut it down because there was a lot of rain forecast and they didn't want anyone to get stuck in the park.  We figured we'd try again tomorrow and see how things looked.  But, it soon began raining just as forecast.  We decided to get in our swimming gear and do a little swimming in the hotel pool.  The boys did love that part of the trip.  Well, we all did really.  And then we opted to eat at the hotel restaurant to avoid the rain and getting the kids in the car again.  We also had a $10 voucher for their restaurant.  Turns out they made a decent pizza and we were all happy.

We ended the night with some popcorn and treats and watching a little TV.  Then the wrestle began between Isaac and the parents.  He was less thrilled with going to sleep  and we were less thrilled with him staying awake.  I'm not going to lie, it got ugly.  But eventually he settled in and fell asleep.  And he still loved is in the morning so we are all okay.  Ben slept beautifully by the way.  He really is so easy going.  What a blessing.  He did wake up because he had wet out of his diaper and was cold.  A+ mom moment, I didn't have an extra set of pajamas because I can't even remember the last time he's wet out prior to that.  Oh well.  I did  have plenty of spare changes of clothes and a sleep sack so all was well.

But since we were awake at 3 anyway, Jacob checked the weather.  It was still raining hard in Colorado Springs and we learned that things were far worse at home.  Due to the huge overload to the West of us all the rivers were flooding.  The river running through our town was flooded and the river in the neighboring town was even worse.  We went back to sleep and figured we'd probably be in for a mess in the morning.

And we were.  Everything in Colorado Springs was shut down and schools were cancelled.  And it appeared we weren't going to get home.  The highway home was shut down just to the south of where we live because it was flooded over.  All traffic was being diverted East.  So, we packed up the car and figured we better try heading home on the Eastern route before we were totally shut out.

Colorado Springs is about 2- 2.5 hours from home.  It took us 6 hours to get home.  Every time we'd come to a bridge that was supposed to be open we'd find that it had been closed just a half hour before we got there.  And then we would sit in traffic, literally not moving at all, while everyone tried to get turned around, including semi trailers.  It was a nightmare.  Our poor boys.  They were troopers but they were done!  We finally found a bridge that we were able to get across, even more East than we intended to go, and then had to wind our way home.  Everyone was glad to be out of the car.  Everyone!

The next day all of the roads we had traveled on to get home were underwater.  And the freeway was still shut down through part of our city.  Jacob's work is off the river and they barely escaped flooding.  He has some pictures of the crazy river and the damage on the property that I'll try and find and post later.  Our city is still pretty undamaged and other towns have definitely not fared as well.  I feel really sad about the hundreds of people still unaccounted for and those that have lost lives and homes due the damage.  We were lucky.

So here are the photos I do have:


Ben liked playing with the air conditioner and heater.

Isaac liked playing with the new toy we bought for the boys.  It was a wise purchase since we ended up spending a lot more time in the hotel room than we maybe would have.  It bought us a little bit of time to figure out our game plan in the morning.

But they still managed to find all the cupboards and drawers and especially the fridge just their size.

You'll probably have to click on this picture to make it a little larger and see the water.  It looks like a lake but it is in fact the river that runs through town.  I don't think this particular bridge ever got shut down but the ones to the North and South of it were what had shut down the freeway, preventing us from getting home quickly.  It really was kind of a nightmare, but we both kind of laugh about it now.  And it certainly will be a memorable mini-vacation.  At least for Jacob and I.

A Few New Things

I've been meaning to share a few new things in our home for a while now, but you know how it goes.  Most of these things have been around long enough now they don't feel so new.  But, here they are anyway.


A little bench for our organ room.

 

and some book shelves.

A new chair for our living room.

And another view to see how it's situated in the room.  Just ignore the big polar bear and other toys strewn about.  It's how we roll.  I should have taken pictures first think in the morning, pre-toy hurricanes known as Isaac and Ben.

 

Some silhouette art I made for Ben's room.  His curtains have farm animals on them.

 

A Day in the Life of Ben

Ben is now 9 months old.  When Isaac turned 9 months old I did this sort of post and loved it.  I thought it was in order for little Ben too.  I just read through the one of Isaac and think it's so strange how similar but also different these boys are.


Ben starts his day by hanging out in bed with mom and dad for a few minutes.  Then he heads downstairs for a bottle with dad while I get a shower.

And then it's play time.  Ben is loving the stairs these days.  I am not loving chasing him away from then.  He already scratched his chin on the banister once but we've been lucky to avoid any major falls down stairs.  I am still looking for a good gate to put in the stair way.

And what would a day be without a bigger brother trying to steal the spotlight a time or two?

Just as Isaac did at this age, Ben loves being in the kitchen and dining areas.   He will pick up a few toys, stow them in his mouth, and crawl to the more desirable location.

 

 

 

He also LOVES the fireplace.  It's probably his favorite.  I had all the toys moved off the carpet in anticipation of the carpet cleaner coming between 9-10 am.  Well, that made the fireplace way more exciting.  And also, the carpet cleaner was late, like WAY late.  He showed up around noon and didn't leave our house until 3 or so.  As, you'll see later, it made for a long afternoon.  Hopefully the carpets were thoroughly cleaned and the guy wasn't taking forever because he didn't know what he was doing.

Back to Ben, playing peek-a-boo with a bib while waiting for me to get him his second breakfast.  Bottle with dad, and then cheerios and baby food with me.

 

 

And then a cute sleeping babe at nap time.  Oh how I love pictures of sleeping kiddos.  So peaceful.  You almost forget the whirlwind of energy they are when they are resting so soundly.  Almost.

 

And we do this about 4 times a day.  He doesn't actually love holding his bottle so this was a hard picture to snap.  He prefers to have his bottle held while he plays with the lid or a burp cloth or something else with his hands.  And we usually cater to his wants.  :)

Still toys on the fire place with no carpet cleaner in sight...what fun!

 

Ben's getting pretty good at this walking business.  I wouldn't be surprised if he starts taking off on his own soon.  I'm hoping not that soon though.  Stay little for just a little longer!

Oh yeah!  Daddy's home for lunch.  Ben gets excited every time he sees his dad walk through the door.  He gives hugs and kisses like crazy.  It's adorable.

So is a messy faced babe.  Yummy lunch!

 

And then the carpet cleaning began.  Poor Ben was relegated to the excersaucer just to keep him out of the way.  I feel bad.  He spent way more time in there than he normally tolerates and was so patient.  

 

He was especially excited to play with the puffs container.  He loves unloading and reloading containers with things.  He also really likes taking the lid on and off over and over again.

 

And this is how I kept Isaac out of the way of the carpet cleaning.  Loading him up with cookies and treats.  I guess you do what you gotta do right?

Oh look, those carpets do look nice.  Too bad they were wet FOREVER!  Seriously, I don't think I'll be using this particular carpet cleaner again.  And if you are really observant you will know that Ben is in his second outfit for the day.  He awoke from his second nap with an explosive diaper.  Aren't you glad I didn't capture that on camera?  I was going nuts with the wet carpet and Isaac had spent way too much time in front of the TV already so we ventured out.

This is my view of two cute heads as we took a little stroll around the neighborhood.

 

 

I think everyone was pleased to get out of the house.  Too bad it was stinking hot!  We started out with some cloud cover but by the end of the walk we were in full sun.  And I had opened the windows to try and dry out the carpet a little faster so we returned to a sauna.

But, I just love when Ben sticks his feet up on the tray in front of him.  I don't know why but I think it's so cute.  I also love that the sun shades on my stroller move all over so I can usually keep him fully shaded and don't have to worry too much about sunscreen.

We played a little longer in the sauna while we waited for Daddy to get home. 

 

And then, he had some dinner and played with his favorite puffs container.  The rest of us ate our dinner at Cafe Rio.  We thought we should probably take Isaac since he had requested it twice in the past week or so.  Jacob took some pictures on his phone while we were there.  I'll see if I can add them later.

 

And then when we got home it was straight into the bath.  

We don't often put them in the bath together because Isaac tends to get a little crazy with the splashing and trying to pull on Ben, but they sure look cute together!

And really, we probably should put them in together more often because Ben loves it.  Mostly, anyway.  

 

And we'll round out the night with books, scriptures, prayers, and one last bottle.  Oh, and some time with parents.  Actually, Ben sometimes doesn't even get his own stories.  He doesn't love just sitting on a lap with a book.  I try though.  Some days are more successful than others.

 

I just can't believe how quickly this Ben is growing up.  It will be a year in no time!  I kind of want him to stay 9 months old for a bit longer.  This is a fun age.  He's learning so much and starting to communicate.  It's so fun.  But I also really like the young toddler age too.  So much growth and change in such a short time.  I sure love this patient, loving, happy boy we have.  Can't imagine our family without our cute little Ben.  I can't imagine Isaac without a sibling.  He is lately talking about wanting his baby.  When Ben is napping it's "Mom where is my baby."  Or "Mom I want to hold my baby."  And sometimes he still calls him Ben.  "I want Ben in the organ room with me Mom."  I especially love that request when he had just asked me to move him away from the organ.  He wants some distance, but not too much I guess.  And Ben is happy to be right with Isaac.  He watches him play and imitates whatever it is that Isaac is doing.  So much so that he already shuns the "baby" toys and wants the kitchen gadgets or blocks or legos that Isaac is playing with.  I have a feeling I'm going to be spending a lot of time in the coming years playing referee between this two boys.  I better get to bed.  I'm going to need all the rest I can get!

Happy 9 months Ben.  Thanks for making my days better!  Love you!