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5 months 1 week August 19, 2005

How can the little baby I gave birth to just a short time ago be five months old already? Where did the month of July go? Oh, that's right, it was so unbearably hot and humid, I must have blocked it out.

We've been busier than ever trying to get Benji around to visit all of his doting Grandparents and making sure that no one gets to spend more or less time with him than the other Grandparent. Some weekends this has meant time alone for Jason & me. All we have to do is load a ridiculous amount of baby gear into our Honda Civic Wagon, hand the boy over to one of the Grandma's and away we go.

Earlier this month we paid off a loan we took out to help with the downpayment on our house. It's nice having no debt besides our mortgage, but it also means we'll have next to no padding in our checking account for a little while. For this reason, we've been choosing to spend our free time doing things that are free. Like visiting State Parks and staying with our relatives.

The end of last month we had a couple of nice picinics at Maplewood State Park. The first picinic was to meet with some old Christian friends from Illinois. It'd been several years since I'd had any contact with them and rebuilding that bridge was a blessing. It was odd because just that morning, out of the blue, I started thinking about them. Then I called my step-dad sometime during the afternoon and he said he'd just talked to them and that they were camping in MN and wanted to know if we would like to visit with them. So we enjoyed fellowship and shared wedding pictures around the picinic table until the mosquitoes drove us into their tent. Jason and I had decided beforehand to only stay until 9p.m. but I think it was closer to 11pm when we actually left.

The second picinic was with my Auntie Susie & Uncle Frank and their kids. Jason and I met them and my family (who'd watched Benji on Saturday night so Momma could sleep in) at the park. My sister also had a friend up from Nebraska to help her display her photography at the Art in the Park Festival in Pelican Rapids that weekend. We all swam at Maplewood State Park, even our little waterbaby. The water was a bit chilly and I didn't feel comfortable having Benjamin out in the bright sunshine for too long, but we let him float in a little yellow inner tube for a little while at least. Christian, Susie's son, found a clam and broke it open. It was fun to observe his curiousity about the creature.

At Maplewood:

It was a little awkward helping my sister Rachel out with her booth at Art in the Park. She looked so pretty and sophisticated there in her booth surrounded by her gorgeous photography. I partly envied all of the admiration she got for her talents and the sense of accomplishment she must felt in knowing that people were paying money to put her creative works in their homes. I guess I often find it difficult to feel like I am accomplishing something by being a "stay at home mom". Perhaps that is because motherhood has lost so much of it's esteem in our modern society...

Benji spent the night at his other Grandma's house the week before. He decided not to let Grandma Sherry get anymore than five hours of sleep that night, so she was quite tired at church on Sunday. But she enjoyed introducing Benjamin to her friends at church nevertheless. I think that was the same weekend Jason made me breakfast in bed; eggs, toast, jelly, and even a little yellow flower in a blue vase. I felt very loved.

On Saturday, August 6th, I brought Benji to my mom's and then Jason and I went to Glendalough State Park. I hadn't been there for a few years, but I remembered that there was a little stream that flowed into a lake with only one house on the whole entire lake. Jason and I found that stream and waded around for a bit. It was so beautiful! I loved the adventurousness and the spontaneity of hiking along the water's edge. We found a sandy spot to swim before we decided to hike back to the car.

The next day, after getting lost 3 times due to bad directions, we met my family at a resort on Ottertail Lake. They had rented a pontoon, so we spent the late afternoon out on the lake boating and swimming. We tried to fit Benji into a life jacket, but it came up to his ears and made him very mad. Having him out of the life jacket made Jason very uneasy, so we have agreed not to go boating again until we find a life jacket that fits Benjamin comfortably. Before heading back to the dock, we drove the pontoon up to Zorbaz, a pizza and Mexican restaurant, for dinner.

Last weekend Jason and I took Benji into Fargo to celebrate Jason's brother's 12th birthday. Jason and Carter worked on "modding" Carters computer case while we were there. It turned out quite nicely. Benji decided not to nap more than fourty minutes on Saturday, so I'm afraid to say, I was quite moody and worn out by the end of the day. Kelly, Jason's sister, had lots of fun making Benjamin giggle his little heart out that evening. Grandma Sherry bought Benji a travel crib to keep at their house, so now Benji will have his own little spot to sleep when he stays there. Jason and Kelly talked a bit about church membership over the weekend and how all Christians are members of the church just by virtue of the fact that they are Christians. I piped in a bit and I'm afraid I sounded a bit too harsh, but I was trying to follow the principles I picked up in scanning thru the book Kelly had left out on the coffee table. It was called, "Be Intolerant" by Bryan? Dobson. I don't believe that Jason's family is doing anything wrong by attending their baptist church, but I do believe it is wrong for any church to form a basis for "church membership". I should have expressed this rather than stating that my experience is that most church memberships are formed in order to guarantee the church a certain amound of money. That was judgemental and is ultimately totally irrelevant.

Carter and his newly modded computer case (notice the fan on front that lights up):

Kelly making Benji laugh histerically:

Jason and I were talking on the way home from Fargo that weekend and I told Jason that I thought that it would be easier for me to except being a stay at home mom if I didn't feel the need to bring in extra income. Jason then reminded me that, while there are many niceties I would like to have, we really have all that we need. And I suddenly realized that all of the teaching time I was neglecting Benji of while I was desperately trying to get a web design business established was worth far more than the extra money any at home business would bring in. So I've been spending more time on the floor playing with and tickling my rolly-poly boy instead of putting him in his swing so I could tweak some website graphics or some other such unimportant stuff. Playing with and teaching my son may not win the admiration of the world, but our family is the sphere that God has asked me to serve Him in and I have found that my spirit is not joyful in anything else.

Benji just recently remembered how to roll over. It seemed to take him forever, but now that he's got it, he rolls and reaches for stuff all around him. He doesn't care much for being on his tummy for very long though, so I flip him back over when he gets overly frustrated only to have him flip back onto his tummy just a few moments later. He is teething heavily and has been losing some sleep over it. His favorite thing to chew on is nylon straps--the straps in the stroller, the straps in his car seat, the straps in the bicycle trailer we finally got, even the strap on the diaper bag has had a healthy dose of Benji drool lately.

Oh, our most recent exciting occurance has been the appearance of Benji's full head of hair...sideburns, bushy eyebrows and a gotee! LOL, we had a bit too much fun in the tub this week.

Stylin':

Baby faced:

We found our bike trailer on ebay for $76 including shipping. Even though we were short on cash at the time, I felt we really couldn't afford to pass up the deal. Technically, Benji is too young to ride in the bike trailer, but we asked the doctor and the lactation consultant and were told that some experiences carry such minor risks that it's more harmful to be overprotective than to get out there and enjoy an activity. And we have certainly enjoyed it. We strap Benji's carseat in it. He seems quite comfortable and has fallen asleep in there the last two times we went out. This evening we biked to Dairy Queen. Hehehe. I guess that kinda defeats the purpose of getting excercise, but I've been craving ice creams so badly lately. I think it's all the result of the "Oatmeal Cookie Comfort" ice cream treat that my sister-in-law Kelly introduced me to. She works at the Coldstone Creamery.

Well, it's getting a little late, so I better wind things up. This is long, but I'm sure tomorrow a gazzillion things I forgot to mention will pop into my head. I really should consider writing more often.

I'm hoping to make a photo entry soon. I've taken so many adorable pictures of the Benjamin this month that if I posted all of them here, this page would be a mile long.

Links
15 wk Ultrasound
23 wk Ultrasound
Nursery Pic
Dad's Baby Pic