14 months and weekend recap.

bennett turned 14 months on friday. he is a little spitfire and such a ham. i feel like he has changed so much in the last couple of months! he's starting to talk, which is so fun! he says "mama," "dada," "ball" (sounds like "ba"), "book" (sounds like "buh"), and "hi." we thought he said "binkie" yesterday, too (that's his blankie). we love that he's starting to be able to really communicate with us. he'll also mimic us a lot and only usually needs to be shown something once before he's doing it on his own. he laughs when we laugh. he holds his play cell phone up to his ear and says "hi." he pushes the button on his elephant ball popper to make the music start and dances by turning around in circles (no clue where he figured that one out!). he grabs a "buh" and backs his little buns up to us to sit in our laps so we can read to him, although he rarely makes it through a whole book before he's on the move again. chicka chicka boom boom and goodnight gorilla are his current faves. he puts my stretchy headbands over his head and wears them around his neck.

notice the headband

we were having some issues with sleep over the last several weeks- he was waking in the night or early in the morning (4am) crying and was nearly inconsolable unless we'd give him milk. for a little while i just thought it was a growth spurt so i didn't have a problem feeding him (i'd just gave him a sippy with some warmed up whole milk, he'd drink it in his crib and go back to sleep). but after a while it seemed like it was becoming a habit more than a necessity. but joe and i weren't consistent about our response when he'd wake up (some nights we'd give him milk, other nights we'd say "he needs to cry it out."). naturally, the early waking persisted. it is easy to see now that our inconsistency was the issue, but at the time we were at a loss of what to do.

fortunately, after a looonnngggg morning (can you really call 4am morning?) of crying, it seems the early waking has ceased. the last 3 days ben has woken up at his normal time between 6:30-7. we've been intentional about giving him a snack before bed and we've put him to bed about 30 minutes later than his usual bedtime. he was going to bed between 7:15-7:30, but we started putting him to bed more like 7:45-8. except yesterday when he didn't take an afternoon nap at all (what?!). i think we're starting the slow transition from two naps to one, so his schedule may be a little wacky for a while. honestly, as long as he seems happy during the day and is sleeping well at night, i don't care if he does one nap or two.

we had a great weekend this weekend. we got our new appliances delivered (though that was a bit of a headache) and they look great! it honestly completely changes the feel of our kitchen and makes it seem so much more sleek and modern.

the cabinets are all on now, but we took this picture before then...

we have to get a plumber to come out to replace the faucets in our laundry room so we haven't gotten to use our new washer and dryer just yet. although apparently joe watched some youtube videos and is going to attempt to replace them himself. can i move in with you when our basement floods and/or we don't have running water? kidding. i hope...

i went to a cooking class at cooks of crocus hill with some of my girlfriends on friday night. it was fun, though i must say i wish it would've been more instructional on skills than it was. oh well- i learned how to correctly dice an onion, which i've been doing wrong for years. money well spent. saturday morning i went out to breakfast with girlfriends to celebrate my friend missy's birthday. we went to good day cafe and it was delicious. joe and ben had some good bonding time together this weekend!. he took ben to get a haircut (my least favorite thing to do) and then i took him to get new shoes at stride rite while joe went to home depot. that afternoon while ben napped we got some things done around the house- joe finished hanging the kitchen cabinets, i touched up the paint around the trim in the kitchen, etc. the house is really coming together and starting to feel settled.

saturday night we went to church for the first time in WAY too long. it was nice to be back and bennett loved playing in the "walkers" room. after bennett went to bed, joe and i started the first season of homeland which we borrowed from a friend. OMG. addicted. it's soooo good. although it is making me suspect that joe could be a terrorist (it could be anyone). i'll keep you posted. we're getting directv on tuesday and thank goodness we get a free 3 month trial of showtime so we can keep watching.

sunday i ran a few errands with ben and joe cleaned around the house. my brother and his wife and my parents came over sunday afternoon to watch the packer game.

the packers lost, but considering they played the 49ers who went to the superbowl last year, i'd say they played pretty well. we're heading to lambeau field for the game next sunday- our annual pilgrimage. can't wait.