Happy Halloween

Who knew that Halloween could be such a tiring holiday... for us and for Ben! But it was a great one. We had a wonderful family day yesterday. When Ben woke up from his morning nap, we went out to the pumpkin patch. We did it last year, and really want it to be an annual tradition. I realized on Thursday that we only had this weekend to go take pictures, so Saturday was the day. Hector was a good sport about it even though I know he would have rather slept in. But as you can see, the pictures were well worth it! He had a lot of fun out there. We moved from the tiny pumpkins to the big pumpkins, from one photo op to the next. He was such a good sport... that is until he fell face first into the dirt. He literally had dirt in his teeth, poor baby. But he only cried for about 30 seconds, and then we were off to the next pose. I'm so glad we did it. The pictures were priceless.

Then, unplanned, we decided to head out to Lewisville to spend the afternoon with Hector's family. Needless to say they were thrilled, to see Ben of course! While we were there, we went to StrideRite and bought Ben his first pair of real shoes. Baby shoes are expensive! His feet better not grow too fast. Anyway, we put Ben is his costume to go try on shoes, and all eyes were on him! He was a giraffe by the way. I had bought two costumes for him this year, a cow and a giraffe. He wore the cow costume for his birthday party, so he wore the giraffe for Halloween. Before we left Lewisville, we stopped by Mary's to trick or treat. While we were there, Mary decided to strip him down to his diaper and give him a chocolate cupcake. He devoured it like he'd never eaten anything so good in his life. He literally inhaled it. It was hilarious! He is definitely a chocolate fan!

Then we headed to Mama Joy's to let Ben trick or treat there. Each place we took him to trick or treat, we would stand him up on the front porch and then hide so that all people would see when they came to the door was Ben standing there with his candy bag in hand. Oh, you'll notice in the pictures that Ben didn't have a traditional halloween bucket. Since we didn't know we were headed out to Lewisville, we didn't bring his cute orange bucket with us, so instead, Iris had a clown gift bag that had to do! Anyway, we went to MJs and put Ben on the front porch. She thought he was too cute!

He was so tired after we left Mama Joys. I didn't think he was going to last. Finally we landed at Mom and Dad's. Same thing. We put his on the porch. This time he would barely stand up, poor thing. When they came to the door, Ben had this look on his face like, "How many times are we going to have to do this?". As soon as he saw his Nana and Yaya, he reached out to them like "help", "get me out of this get up!" Then he spent the rest of the evening playing with Sammie, Jazzy, and Dancie (see previous blog "Oh Snap). About 30 minutes after we got there, the chocolate cupcake kicked in, and he experienced a major sugar rush! It was so funny. But by the time we finally got home, he was ready to crash. Our little giraffe had had a very long day. Oh the memories!

Fun at Abuelitas

With all that's been going on lately with shutting down the real estate office in Southlake, I kind of reached my max this week, and my husband knew it. So, he took off work on Monday, and we headed out to Lewisville to drop Ben off at his Abuelitas. He spent the night out there so that Mommy could get some things done and get a good night sleep. Needless to say, I haven't been sleeping very well lately, and neither had Ben for some reason. Probably sensed my stress. So, as much as I missed him and was ready to get him back, this one night away did wonders for me and him both! These pictures are priceless!

Oh, Snap!

So, it's become more and more apparent just how much my son loves music. He would listen to music all day long if you would let him. And he would dance to it pretty much the whole time. Any time music starts, or something that sounds like music starts, including phones and even pans clanking, he starts to dance. He sways back and forth bobs his head, and his latest thing that he picked up is that he snaps. He rubs waves his hands in the air rubbing his first finger and thumb together. It is the most precious thing you've ever seen. We think he picked it up from Dad. He also snaps if he wants you to turn music on.

The other night Mom and I hosted a jewelry party, and Hector had meet the parent night at school, so Dad kept Ben in the back bedroom since we had taken over the den. Mom has all of these singing stuffed animals that Dad has given her over the years for different occassions. Dad spread them out on the bed and let Ben go to town. He was in heaven. He made dad play the songs over and over. He finally fell asleep in the middle of them. Now, anytime he's over there, he wants 3 in particular, Sammy the singing Dog (sings Don't worry, be happy), Jazzy the singing Frong (sings what a wonderful world), and some funky pink guy that sings a disco song. You have to do it a certain way though. He wants you to hold him... and all three dolls. Then he wants you to play one of the songs. I think he thinks theyre all three singing together. It is hilarious. He never gets tired of it, but beleive me we do. But it is so cute that we just keep taking turns doing it. Yesterday, Dad was walking around with Ben and all the dolls and Ben almost fell asleep on Sammy (see picture). He loves them. But he loves his YaYa more. He is so attached to him right now. He would rather have his YaYa over his mom, dad, or nana. That's pretty impressive. I think his YaYa thinks he's pretty special too!

He's at such a fun stage. I treasure every moment.

Ben Turns 1!!!

I can't beleive it! There's no way it's already been a year. It seems like I was in labor just last week! The way he's developed in the last hew months has been insane to me. He's a little boy now! He needs a haircut badly, but I can't bare to give him one, because it's admitting that he's not a baby baby anymore. Anyway, I'm working on that... he'll have one soon. He has got such a personality now, with a little bit of a temper. Who knows where he got that from?

We had 2 parties for him... a family one and a friend one. Our house couldn't hold everyone at one time. Both parties were great and Ben did perfect as always. He didn't really smash his smash cake but he loved it. And he help me open almost every gift without getting distracted.

At his family party, his daddy got the biggest surprise when his brother Ernie that he hasn't seen in over 10 years walked in the door. He came in town from Puerto Rico to find work. The unemployment rate in PR is over 50% right now. Hector was thrilled and so was I. I had never met him. There were over 20 people in the house. When we all sang Happy Birthday, Ben about jumped out of his seat because it was so loud!

Then for his friend party, we had a costume party. It was priceless. Pictures don't capture just how cute they all looked. We didn't really want to do a Halloween party, but we thought that it would be fun for them to get to where their costumes so we just did a costume party instead.

Ben got so many toys! Hector and I got him a tunnel, ball thing... i don't know how else to describe it. Mom and Dad got him a kangaroo climber set with a slide. He loves it. Angela got him the Wonder Pets boat. Sav and Caleb got him the WP phone, Mere got him some great clothes. And MJ got him a musical zoo that he adores. That's just to name a few. We almost can't walk in our den. It made us really appreciate the great family and friends that we have.

Ben is so on the verge of walking, so I may be blogging about that very soon!

So much to say...

I am so frustrated with myself for letting almost 2 months go by without a post. Life has been nuts. Since I wrote last, several things have happened.

• Ben finally cut his first tooth at 11 months, followed by 5 more within the same month, for a total of 6. It was an interesting month. Our precious baby was very cranky and uncomfortable. I would be too if I had 6 teeth gouging through my gums! It didn't help that he was dealing with an ear infection at the same time.
• With that ear infection, we finally decided to take Ben to Dr. Brown, our chiropractor, to try to help his ears drain. The first couple of times Ben went, he wondered what the heck was going on, but didn't cry. The third time, Dr. Brown made a big breakthrough, but Ben did not appreciate it. He bawled and looked at him like "why did you just do that to me". This last time, our 4th trip, he just layed there like he was getting a massage. I think he likes it now. So far so good, when we went back for our ear recheck, they looked all clear! Praise God. The next cold will be our test, but we're claiming healing!
• Ben turned 1!!!! See next blog entry...
• Ben's taken dancing to a whole new place... See other blog entry

My Song Leader

Wednesday night after church we had praise team practice. Dad was keeping Ben for me, but he stayed in there while we sang. I knew as long as we were singing Ben would be happy because he loves music. But it was the sweetest thing. He wasn't just happy, he was singing. And he wasn't just singing, he was leading singing. He had that arm waiving through the air like he was running the show. My boy's a natural. I have no doubt music is going to be a big part of his life, and his first singing practice was when he was 10 months old! We need to remember that when he makes it big! :)

No Hearing Damage

Tuesday was our second attempt at Ben's hearing test. We tried over a month ago and they sent us home because he had fluid in his ears which distorts the test results. So, we tried again on Tuesday. But this time we were smart enough to go get his ears checked on Monday to make sure there was no fluid. So they told us to arrive at 7 even though the test wasn't until 8. We got there, and i filled out paperwork while mom stayed in the car with ben sleeping. Then i went and got them and the nurse took us back to his hospital bed. We put on his cute little hospital gown and waited! THen finally at 8, Ben and I went back to another room where they gave him a suppository sedative. Poor baby crawled all over me trying to fight it, but finally his head began to flop because he couldn't keep it up, and his little face was so sad. He didn't understand what was happening. Then he finally fell asleep. It took about 15 minutes. Then they made me put my baby on a hospital bed, they covered him with a blanket, pulled up the bed rails and rolled him away! I didn't like that part at all. We waited in the waiting room for about 45 minutes. Mom was nice enough to get us breakfast while we waited. By the time we finished eating, the doctor came out. The test was over, and the results were in... NO HEARING DAMAGE!!! Praise God!!! He has great hearing! And on top of that, the doctor said as soon as the hearing test was over, Ben just sat up on the bed and looked around... no fear, no crying, just curiosity. The nurses in recovery fell in love with him. They didn't want to give him back to me. They were used to crying babies and Ben was mellow as always. No kidding, he did not shed a single tear from the time we got there til the time we left. I had prayed that God would give Ben a complete sense of peace and calm, and obviously that prayer was answered! God is good.

Chillin in the Bounce House

Last night we went to Hector's teacher picnic. Ben is typically pretty serious when he meets people but then warms up fairly quickly. Last night, there was no warming up. People tried and tried. He was just plain crabby. There were two other babies his age there, and they were both smiling away. Ben didn't care. He kept his frown on the whole time. I think we cracked a semi smile once or twice. And of course these are people that Hector sees everyday, but Ben and I only see a few times a year. Oh well, we got some really cute pictures, even though Ben wasn't smiling in most of them. One picture in particular reminds me so much of my baby pictures. I used to make that same exact face. Let's see if you can guess which picture I'm talking about!

SUFC - Santiago Ultimate Fighter Club

So, Caleb came over the other night to hang out and swim. And as you all know, Caleb is a martial arts king, so Hector and I decided to take him on in a little Ultimate Fighting challenge of our own. We started out strong, but then things got ugly. As you can see by the pictures, Hector and I needed some serious help, so Ben had to step in and save the day! Then he decided to put daddy in an armbar just for fun. Such talent at such an early age. Randy Cotour, watch your back!