BIG NEWS FLASH!

Benjamin is walking!

For the past week he has shown no interest in getting around on his own. (Not that we gave him much of a chance....see post entitled "Why I haven't blogged in 11 days....") Today he was suddenly displaying such bold stunts as standing in the middle of the room, entirely without support or provocation. Then, without warning, he took a step. 10 minutes later he took two! Things were getting serious. I called Seth. "You had better hurry home or your son will be walking by the time you get here!"

Before dinner he had gone back and forth Daddy & Mama a few times. After dinner we conquered the entire living room! (Don't get too many grand ideas; for those of you who haven't been here, it's about 10 feet square.) But the fact remains, his mindset is changed, his course is set. There were even a couple of times he initiated the "let go" or even pushed my hand away.

Like my dad said, I'm not sure if this is going to make it easier or harder.... Stay tuned.

Pregnancy Update

I am now just over 6 months along (27 weeks today) and everything is going well. 6-month picture coming soon.

I went to the doctor early last week for a check-up and he told me I was doing so well I didn't have to come back for another 4 weeks, although this is technically the time I should start every 2-week check-ups. And no news should be good news on my initial glucose screening for gestational diabetes. (Not that I was terribly worried.)

Baby Girl is quite a bit more active than I remember her big brother being in-utero. She certainly responds to outside stimulation differently. If I felt Benjamin "kicking" and put my hand on the spot or talked to him, he would get still immediately. Little Sis kicks harder in response to outside pats, rubbing, even voices. I've also had a couple of Braxton Hicks contractions, which I didn't have, to my knowledge, with Benjamin. It's much too early to be thinking about labor yet, but it's still exciting to know it's close enough for my body to be getting ready.

I do feel like I woke up one morning, a couple of weeks ago, suddenly enormously pregnant and awkward, and have remained so since. I am now having trouble with your common everyday household procedures, such as bending over to pick up a dropped sock from the floor or rolling over to get out of bed in the morning. The simplest tasks (such as: leaning over to plug something in) render me virtually unable to breathe for several minutes; forget arranging shoes in their rightful place underneath my dresser!

I know these next 3 months are going to fly by! The holidays are nearly upon us, which always seem to pass with warp speed, and then only 6 more weeks! We are not nearly ready. We still need a bed (we're looking for a "mini" or "portable" size crib [the size church nurseries often use], if anyone knows of one that is available), dresser, and all the items that a baby girl can't share with her big brother. Still, the essentials are covered (she already has some sweet little clothes in beginning sizes and all we really need to keep her adequately cared for are diapers and a warm place to sleep), so we are blessed.

Why I haven't blogged in 11 days...

Mima & P'pa (Kiersten's parents) have been in town, and what a week (+) we had!

Friday I spent all day packing, cleaning, and getting us ready to be away for the weekend. We travelled Friday night to Murfreesboro, TN to be at a birthday party for Benjamin's twin cousins, Paris & Zack (now 3 years old!) on Saturday morning. From Murfreesboro we continued travelling southeast about 200 more miles to Atlanta, GA where my uncle's family lives. We met up with my parents there and spent Saturday evening and Sunday morning all together. Sunday afternoon Mima & P'pa accompanied us back to Louisville. Complete with rest stops and meals for 4 adults and 1 baby (who's rest stop activities take longer than the 4 adults' combined!), our trip took over 9 hours. We didn't return to Louisville until after midnight! Unfortunately, late nights Friday, Saturday, and Sunday meant Benjamin lost a total of an entire night's sleep over the course of the weekend. Oops! At least he seemed to handle it pretty well.

The trip, although long, was worth it. Aside from the birthday bash in TN, we...
-ate at Mary Mac's in downtown Atlanta (good ol' southern cookin', for those who aren't familiar)
-attended a brass concert in which my cousin James was playing. Benjamin was a VERY good boy. The concert didn't start until 8:00pm (his bedtime), but he sat quietly and looked at his book the whole time (ok, he talked a tiny little bit, but it was happy baby sounds and only during the part where they reset the stage for the next group). When the music started he looked, wide-eyed at the ceiling, from which the sound was bouncing down on us. He just couldn't figure it out!
-had lots of opportunity to catch up with family and show Benjamin off to some relatives he hadn't yet met

The next week was filled with activity as my mom and I tried to do some projects around the house and get some errands done while we had the benefit of an extra (rental) car. We were out and about nearly every day, which is very unusual for Benjamin and I. Thursday we stayed home, for the most part, and Benjamin was unusually excited about crawling around the living room and rediscovering his toys.

We had a few interesting twists in our week, just to keep us on our toes! During the weekend's road trip our speedometer went totally crazy. By the end it was hardly working. So Tuesday and Wednesday the car was in the shop for the speedometer sensor. That extra car really came in handy! Another day Mom & I decided to measure the space behind our bed for a plastic bin to store sheets & blankets in (as opposed to the small open shelf that was occupying this same space). When we began to pull linens off the shelf we discovered that the area (walls & baseboards on an outside corner), was wet and molding...including the linens. Several trips to Target, loads of laundry, and hours of rearranging possessions later, the problem was resolved. It wasn't exactly my first choice of how to spend our short time together, but on the other hand if I had to deal with that all myself I think I would have just sat down and cried. So, ultimately it was good timing that Mom was here.

In case you are wondering where the men come in, my dad and Seth spent the week working hard at their jobs. We hardly saw them!

We said our goodbyes Sunday after church and a quick lunch. They still had to drive back to Atlanta to catch their plane back to CA.

Thanks, Mima & P'pa for a great, memorable week. We look forward to seeing Mima again in February for the birth of Baby Girl.

1 year pics and more birthday party...

I guess I'm really doing my catch up! I keep thinking of things I've been meaning to post....

Here are the professional portraits we had done for Benjamin's 1-year.


















































































We also got some GREAT pictures from Seth's parents of Benjamin's party, so here's part II.

Random Cuteness

I found a couple of fun pictures I wanted to share just for fun. The first one is funny because it's so typical... this is always how Benjamin sits in his chair: with his toes hooked on the bottom of the tray. (His toes are bare, of course, because we can not keep socks on this child to save our lives.) The second one was just a cute moment Saturday morning when we were having family snuggle time before breakfast. Benjamin is really starting to get a sense of humor. (He knew it was funny that he had his foot in Daddy's face.) And don't you love the Spiderman PJ's? Ha!

Friday, February 16, 2007 7:30 am

This is the planned time for little Baby Girl Rodriquez's arrival via planned c-section. In case of Divine Intervention, please ignore this notice. :)

News Flash!

Benjamin took 4-5 independant steps on Sunday afternoon! He walked from Daddy to Mommy, but we think he doesn't know that he did it because he has yet to repeat the task. If he's not walking before Mima & P'pa get here this weekend, he will probably be motivated by the opportunity to show off, so stay tuned....

Halloween

Yes, we celebrated Halloween. We even went trick-or-treating (because our church thing was cancelled.) Are we excommunicated? :)

Our first "festivity" was actually Sunday evening. We went with our friends Travis & Keri to the Louisville Zoo's "World's Largest Halloween Party." (Really? I'm not sure about that. But there were A LOT of people there.) They rope off a path through the zoo with sets, characters, and trick-or- treating stations. Benjamin had fun, although he was somewhat subdued owing to the fact that he "talked" through his whole nap beforehand. He, Princess Haley, and Brayden the Lion made a great threesome, don't you think?

Monday evening we carved our pumpkins. We thought Benjamin would enjoy the pumpkin goop, which he did...in his own way. "No, no Benjamin, you're not supposed to eat it!!" (But he was bound and determined to keep trying those tasty looking seeds. "Hmm...maybe this one will be good.") Mostly he was NOT interested in carving pumpkins and was much more content sitting on the kitchen floor reading his favorite book. Nevertheless, the finished result was cute. Our little pumpkin family!


















































Tuesday evening we went to a friend's neighborhood to go trick-or-treating with little 3-month-old Riley Jo. The weather was a bit...uncertain. It sprinkled for a few minutes, but mostly we had a great time walking around meeting her neighbors who are mostly either elderly or young professionals with no kids. They all loved the little cuties! Incidently, we were the only trick-or-treaters in the neighborhood so we actually came home with quite a large bag of candy, which the kids couldn't eat, of course. We split it up 3 ways, since another friend came along for the fun, so we didn't end up with too much candy. Just enough. :) Pictures to come.... (of Benjamin & Riley Jo, not the candy!)

5 month belly

WOW. I'm really far behind on blogging! I just downloaded the camera and found my 5 month pregnant belly picture. Now that I'm almost 6 months....














And, because it's fun to compare, here was Benjamin's:

Milestones update

It's been awhile since I posted about Benjamin's new milestones.

He is changing so fast in so many ways, it's much more complicated to keep up with everything new. He discovers new and wonderful things everyday. Like one day he just reached his little hand up and started exploring the piano keys. We have a digital piano, which I didn't keep turned on all the time, but wanting him to have the reward of his exploration, I turned it on. And it has been on ever since.... It's his new favorite territory. He's barely tall enough to reach the tips of the keys and since the bench is pushed in front, he can only reach the very high notes on one end or the very low notes on the other. But he goes back and forth between the two extremes, over and over again. And if his toys are arranged such that he can't get to the piano he doesn't get side-tracked to play with them. No. He cries. Until I move them.

He is also very close to walking. He has taken a single independant step here and there, between "props." Once he tried to take half a step into the middle of the room then lost his nerve and sat down. But he can walk just holding on with one hand now, instead of two, so it won't be long.

Unfortunately, we are being revisited by the ghosts of eczema past as the weather gets colder and drier. Fortunately we are not anywhere close to the disaster we had last winter, but he does have a few infected areas right now. You can pray for dilligence for me in his medication routine. There are so many steps to keeping this boy healthy! I get lost somewhere between the ointments and the vitamins. But especially during the winter I need "constant vigilance!" (10 points for identifying the quotation.)