dedication.

dedication seems to be the theme of the weekend.  bennett was dedicated yesterday at our church, eaglebrook.  parent-child dedication is different than infant baptism, which our church doesn't do.  basically dedication is the parent(s) making a commitment to raise their child(ren) in a God-honoring way, to model what it means to love and follow Christ, and to teach them about Him so that they might someday make the decision to put their faith in Him.  joe and i take this commitment very seriously and want to make sure we are intentional about teaching bennett, both through our words and actions, what it means to be a follower of Jesus.  we are so blessed that we had all of our family there to support us yesterday.  joe's brother and sister-in-law and their 4 kids came in from sioux falls, south dakota to be here for the dedication.  joe's mom and dad and his younger brother jake and his wife allison came.  my mom and dad and my brother and his wife jeanie came.  my best friend katie came.  my friend and coworker meghan, her husband mike and their son landon came.  other friends/family members texted to say they were thinking of us.

it's amazing the outpouring of love and dedication from our family and friends.  we are so thankful to have so much support.  we understand that our committment to raise bennett to know God will take more than just us, and i can't express my gratitude enough for the people in our lives who are willing to be there for our family.

joe flew in sunday morning from california, where he'd been for several days at his company's national sales meeting.  taking the red-eye from LA showed some real dedication!  [he also dedicated his afternoon to napping :)]

since jeff, robin and the kids were coming for bennett's dedication, we decided to have my niece taylor's 4th birthday party on saturday while they were here.  taylor was so excited and seemed to have a great day.  we got her a princess purse set complete with princess cell phone, princess car keys, and princess credit cards.  i knew she'd love it.  joe was bummed to have to miss the party, but i tried to keep him in the loop with pictures.  plus, not that he doesn't love his nieces and nephews, but i don't think playing golf at Trump International was too bad of a trade-off for him.

not happy about the snuggles

grabbing martin's face

playing with cousin marty

push ups

whitney is 3 months younger and weighs 3 pounds less than bennett :)

baby whitney!

playing with cousin taylor

i had a semi-difficult weekend with bennett as far as nighttime sleep goes.  he woke up both saturday and sunday nights in the middle of the night just hysterical.  i really don't know what's going on.  he's got a stuffy nose so that makes keeping his nuk in and breathing at the same time practically impossible, which just flips him right out.  he just got done with antibiotics for an ear infection, so i don't think it's his ears (although seriously what do i know?).  is he teething?  is he hungry?  some things i've read say that there's a sleep disruption nearly everytime a baby is about to meet a major milestone (sitting up, crawling, walking, etc.).  he is close to crawling, so that's possible.  i just don't know.  i've said it before but truly there is nothing that makes you feel completely inadequate and clueless quite like parenting.  i don't foresee it getting easier, either.  good thing he's so darn cute (ha).

i started giving bennett some formula this weekend.  thus far bennett had only had breast milk, and i've been exlusively pumping for the last 4 months.  working full time and trying to pump enough for a growing babe takes some serious dedication (see what i did there?).  i really didn't want to have to pay for formula if i could help it, but it's gotten to the point where i can barely keep up.  honestly, i'm struggling with feeling guilty  for tapering off and moving towards using only formula.  it's not that i feel that there's anything wrong with formula feeding your baby.  not at all, actually.  it's just that i feel guilty that i *can* keep breastfeeding but i'm choosing to stop.  it's an increased cost to feed him formula and i know that breast milk is what is recommended.  at the same time, i know i need to give myself some grace on this.  i'm working full time and i do think getting to 8 months is no small feat.  bennett is loved like crazy and we are doing the best we can as parents.  that's what matters and i need to get past feeling guilty for the things that really don't matter in the long run.

joe had a little health issue this weekend as well.  he's been taking an antibiotic for a sinus infection and also started using some nose spray so that he can breathe (which i hear is important).  well, all of a sudden on thursday he noticed a rash (more like hives) all over his body.  it didn't itch or anything but it looked pretty bad.  he flew out thursday afternoon for california.  i got a call when he landed in LA that his eyes had swollen up and that the rash had gotten a lot worse.  he got some benadryl which seemed to help, but all weekend he had to keep up on the benadryl to keep the rash from flaring up again.  it's monday morning and it's still there.  not sure if he had an allergic reaction to the antibiotic or the nasal spray, but either way, it's bad.  my sister-in-law, who's a resident at methodist hospital, said it can take a week for meds to get out of your system.  so, let's hope it's on its way out.

we got some great family pictures at brunch after the dedication thanks to my sister-in-law Allison (she graciously agreed to be our photographer).