Ben- First Hair Cut

Ben had his first hair cut about two weeks ago.  His cute cowlick/comb-over wasn't staying "combed over" and the sides were long enough to hang over his ears.  He did really well considering it was late at night.  Not a single tear!  I also realized I'm quite out of practice cutting boys hair.  

Before

 

After

Lagoon

Every Summer growing up, my family vacationed in Utah and we always scheduled a day to go to Lagoon!  We were thrilled to take McKenna for her first time thanks to my F-I-L's work.  We went after afternoon naps, got there at about dinner time, and stayed till about 9.  We decided to try the new roller coaster, Bombora, first.  Go big or go home!  We were pretty sure she'd scream (with fear) the whole time, and wouldn't want to try any other rides.  Boy, were we wrong!  We've got a little thrill-seeker on our hands!  Some of you know Kenna has a bit of a stutter when she gets really excited.  After her first ride on Bombora, she said, "Sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-should we ride it again!?!?"... which we did.

She LOVED pretty much every ride she went on. 

She called this the "Mulan" ride because it had a Chinese theme.  

She's next to Dan who's wearing the bright blue shirt.

 Bulgy the Whale

Look at that face!  Pure joy!  All the other kids around her were frowning or looked like they couldn't care less.  

  Poor Dan had to hold up his legs the whole time on these swings.  

I can't go on rides anymore that go around and around and around.  I get too nauseous.  

The Boats- she loved ringing the bell and splashing in the water.

Waiting in line for "Puff."

Ben had a great time too chillin' in his seat.  

He got to at least ride the carousel.  

We were wet from Rattelsnake Rapids, the Log Flume, and a crazy thunderstorm.  

What a fabulous evening! 

Big Girl Bed and More

We FINALLY brought home a big girl bed for McKenna (with the help of Gma and Gpa Webster and their truck). We had been building up to it for a while, so she was READY!

Buh-bye baby crib!

The big reveal in video form.  

My favorite parts are when she says, "Thank you very much guys." And at the end she says, "Wonderful!" 

Next thing to go will be that blasted binki.  One thing at a time...

Some other cute happenings with our Kenna girl.

A cute cell phone picture from the 4th of July I never posted.

Playing dress up

-

Our first time trying sponge curlers.  It didn't turn out so well.  We didn't even take a picture of the "after" until our third try.  It took me that long to figure out I needed to put them in the night before  and that they all needed to go in roughly the same direction.  

This was the first successful hair-do, post-curlers, that was worth taking a picture of.

She set the table for me, herself, and Ben.  Three bowls and three cups.  So smart...though I don't recall her spoon working out too well ;)

Pretty excited to try Ben's exersaucer too.

Playing with cousin Whitney and the baby doll binkis.

The Mulan Reflections song.  I love how serious she takes her singing.

This is a scene from Mulan which she has memorized.  She just started saying it one day during lunch and thankfully didn't get too camera shy when I started filming, though she kind of stops and starts again.  The second time the cup slams (15 seconds) is where to follow along with the "translation" below... :)  We've got a little drama queen on our hands.  Then again, we already knew that! 

Mulan: "You shouldn't have to go!"

Father: "Why not?" (This is not actually the line in the movie, but it made more sense in her head I guess)

Mulan: "There are plenty of young men who will fight for China."

Father: "It is an honor to fight for my country and my family."

Mulan: "So, you'll die for honor?"

Father: "I will die doing what's right.  I know my place, it's time you learn yours!"

Love this girl!!

Gma & Gpa Thompson and the Rodeo

My parents came to town for my dad's work conference in Salt Lake City.  This was also their last visit before moving to Chile!  As part of the work conference, the company invited their employee's families to a picnic dinner (Famous Dave's!!) and then to the Days of 47 Rodeo!  It was awesome!

 This was the best picture of the night.  Too bad it wasn't centered.  

 Also, while they were in town we got tickets to the Pioneer Day commemoration concert which turned out to be a wonderful tribute to our armed forces.  A nice send off for my parents who were getting ready to leave the good old USA for a while.  :) 

 They will be missed!  Luckily we know we'll at least get to see them in a year.  

  

Ben- Six Months

6 MONTH STATS

Height:  27in (1.5in increase in 2 months) 60th percentile

Weight: 14.4lb (2.3lb increase in 2 months) 5th percentile- He's a string bean skinny boy

Head Circ:  17.1in (.9in increase in 2 months) ? th percentile

(They forgot to give us the second print out with the head circ. percentile)


Nick names for Benjamin: Ben, Benny, Benny Boy, Ben Boy, Benna (McKenna came up with this one), Benny boo, Benhamin, Bug, Bug-a-boo, Buddy Boy. Nothing too out of the ordinary.  :)  

Other development in the past two months:

• Took his first road trip to CA to visit my parents Memorial Day weekend.  It was a l o n g drive!
• The night after we got back from our road trip, he ROLLED OVER (back to tummy)!  He could already roll the other way.  (I don't think McKenna rolled over until she was 9 months, most likely because her helmet held her back.) 

• Loves looking at himself in the mirror.
• Lots more smiling and interacting with McKenna (which she loves!).
• I noticed he's kind of a tense baby.  He clenches his fists even while he's nursing.  Possibly out of fear of being smacked around by his big sister (but she's getting much better at NOT hitting when she wants attention).
• Loved his toes for about a month and half.
• Loves his exersaucer.

• He's happiest at night after his last feeding (nursing and formula bottle as a supplement).  Maybe it's because he's so full. :) 

• Had his first trip to the Zoo.  He slept a lot. 
• Went to his first rodeo.
• Enjoyed his first fireworks show.  Probably because he was so sleepy during them.
• We still swaddled him up until about a week ago (Aug. 4th).
• Loves his baths and believe it or not, he loves getting his ears Q-tipped. 
• After tons of extra pumping, nursing, and herbal supplements, my breast milk supply did increase!  I think it almost doubled!  Hooray! I still give him one formula bottle at the last feeding before bed.  I think he got used to it while my supply was low and I don't know that I'll ever produce enough to fill him like the bottle does.   
• Ben is loving big boy food!  Our pediatrician is very pro table food early on.  He supports a study that says the sooner you introduce different kinds of foods to babies, the LESS likely they are to develop allergies to them because they won't develop an intolerance to them later on.  Therefore, I've lost track of all the new foods he's tried.  Here are just a few: carrots, applesauce, sweet potatoes, squash, bananas, bread, corn bread, tortilla, cheerios, chicken, green beans-from a can (he hates the baby food kind), yogurt, cheese, cottage cheese, crackers, tatertots, rice, eggs, oatmeal...

• Pretty good at sitting up on his own.
• Since I'm behind in blogging and he's 7 months old now, he got his first TOOTH (Aug. 3rd), bottom left.
• We went through a sleeping rough patch for a few weeks: only 40 minute naps, stopped being able to put himself to sleep at bed time, and was waking up about an hour and half before he "normally" did in the morning.  I don't know if it was a growth spurt, upset tummy from all the new foods he'd been trying, being over tired or not tired enough.  I hate the guessing game with babies.  I finally decided to buck up and let him do some serious "crying it out."  I would still rock him almost all the way to sleep for naps, but then if he woke too early I'd let him cry.  And at bedtime, we let him cry himself to sleep so he could relearn how to fall asleep on his own.  It only took about three nights.  Two nights of crying for 1.5 and 2 hours, and the third night he cried for 5 mins!  Now, he hardly squawks at all. :)   
• His right ear can do a cute little trick too.  We can make it stick out. :)  It will stay like that until it gets bumped.
• Normal 

Sticking out

And then here are some adorable pictures for your viewing pleasure!

McKenna gave him a red marker to play with.  The lid was off and of course everything he grabs goes straight to his mouth.  She said, "Uh-oh mama, he's red."  I looked and thought it might have been blood since he had just been chewing on the metal handle of one of his baby spoons.