This Week

This week has been pretty uneventful.  We're sorta bracing for a big life transition next week ... Will is starting graduate school!  We're so excited and proud of him, but it will definitely change the pace of our family life.

So this week, we've tried to "stop and smell the roses" so to speak.  We blew bubbles...

discovered grass...

and learned a new game to play with Mommy...

I think he could do that for an hour before he got tired.  Now excuse me while I go bubble wrap the legs of all my furniture. 

I ask you!

Why should I crawl, when I can do this?!?!

(Note: I was planning to edit the beginning of this video where Will is setting up the camera, but the look on Benjamin's face when he sees it was just too funny to cut - such a mixture of fear and wonder!)

Things have been busy around here at the Trautman house ... and not just Benjamin's antics!

On Saturday morning, Will rode in a bike race to support our local ministry to the homeless, the Rescue Mission. He did a great job, and its not too late to support him if you'd like ... just click here.

Then we spent Saturday afternoon hanging stuff on walls around our new place ... yahoo!

Sunday morning was church, then lunch with friends, and finally a pot-luck dinner at "our farm." In case I've neglected to share on here, we are part of a CSA this year - we get a box of fresh veggies from them every week! It's been lots of fun (lots of work too - all the peas to shell! :) but its really encouraged us to branch out in the selection of vegetables we eat and for me to find new recipes of what to do with things like fennel, fava beans, beet greens, and bok choi.

Anyway, so we had a potluck dinner at the farm, which was in an absolutely beautiful area of Central New York ... the nearby town of Skaneateles is now on our "must visit" list for any out-of-town visitors we have.

After such a busy Sunday though, the Little Man was quite exhausted and napped for a total of 5 hours yesterday! whew! Hopefully, we'll be able to slow down a little this week and enjoy just hanging out on our new area rug (featured in above video :)

Could it be?!?!

Benjamin has been jabbering more and more over the past few weeks, and as he randomly throws out vowels and consonants, he will accidentally throw together the right ones to make what sound like words... hi, bye-bye, nana, OK, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious...

ok, maybe not that last one, but you get the idea.

Anyway, I've been trying not to get super-excited and overreact like the typical crazy-for-her-baby-first-time-mom that I am (although I absolutely know that Benjamin is a genius, I try not to spread that around too much).

But, this morning, I do believe we had a breakthrough. See what you think...

Nothing Like a Good Belly Laugh

We are thoroughly enjoying our time with Aunt Mattie and will post pictures of Niagara Falls soon, but first I simply must post this video ... this was on Day 4 of Boxes-boxes-everywhere-and-still-can't-find-a-thing. We were all wearing down, but sweet Benjamin gave us a new dose of energy with this little moment ...

The throwing his head back is just the cutest, funniest thing I have ever seen :)

Avacado

Emboldened by our experience with sweet potatoes, this morning we forged deeper into the Land of Solid Foods with avacado ... it wasn't such a big hit - just watch and see...

(Caution: should be viewed only by the the brave and strong-stomached as it involves lots of oozing green goo)

Notice two things ... 1. I am trying very hard to follow the advice I've read in books to "stay positive and upbeat no matter what happens" I didn't realize how much easier that is said than done when your baby is spitting green ooze at you 2. The look on his face between bites cracks me up. I didn't notice it so much at the time, but watching this video make me laugh so much. "Really Mom? I have to eat more of that stuff???"

Update: We tried avacados again at dinner, and I'm happy to report it went much better - hardly any oozing or gagging!

Superman!

The First Bite

Well, we are home from our whirlwind week in Tennessee. We had an amazing time, so full of sweet family, friends, and memories. I'm still processing all that went on (and still working on getting all the pictures off my camera :) So instead, here's this little tidbit from Sunday...

Benjamin is now officially six months old! My word, how time flies! Anyway, its high time that the boy had some solid food, don't you think? So we decided Sunday was the big day. In hindsight, this was probably not a wise choice, as I was exhausted from our travels and Benjamin wasn't in that great of a mood either.



Note the growing look of concern on his face ... "What in the world are you doing, Momma?!?! It isn't enough that you've drug me all over God's green earth, and let a million strangers hold me, talk to me, and pronounce that I am so sweet, they could 'just eat me up with a spoon!' And now you're trying to feed me with a spoon?!? I have had it! I need a nap!"

So, since the initial feeding of cereal failed in every sense (except the fact that we got hilarious video of it), we tried just giving him the spoon to play with, thinking a little familiarity with this new utensil might be helpful...



Note that every other thing he gets his hands on goes straight for his mouth, but nuthin' doin' with this spoon nonsense!

So today we took a break from cereal, but we'll try again tomorrow ... he's got to get the hang of it at some point, right?

(Disclaimer: After watching these videos again, I realize that they are probably only hilarious and adorable to Daddy and me ... and grandparents. :) oh well!

Several random thoughts and a video

Well, my springtime allergies are acting up today, so my writing skills are reduced to a quick list of thoughts which seemed witty and well-tied together when I was up feeding Benjamin at 4:30 this morning, but now seem rather random and somewhat mundane ... but then, you're all used to that by now, right?

- I love Daylight Savings Time! Everyone was complaining about the time change in Facebook statuses at the time, but there is just no happiness like eating dinner when its still light outside!

- I miss my college roommies ... roomies ... room-ys - anyone know how to spell that word? The only alternative in the spell-checker is "roommates" but the formality of spelling the whole thing out just doesn't fit our friendships! Anyway, I miss my E31 girls today - such sweet times and hilarious memories.

- I've been cooking A LOT lately, but how can you blame me, when this cuteness is going on in the kitchen?



- Ok, listen to that video again, because I need help - do you hear the tune that the bouncer plays at the beginning? WHAT IS THAT?!?!?! I know I know it, but we can't figure out what it is! Plus, its continually stuck in my head these days - I find myself humming it in the grocery store, in the shower, etc., but I have not a clue what song it is I'm singing - please help!

- Also, on a video related note, I was clearing off the memory in our video camera today so a friend could borrow it, when I realized that we have all sorts of 60 second clips where we were obviously trying to catch Benjamin doing something cute, but when we got out the camera he just sat there and looked at it. But I can't bring myself to delete them, because, my gracious goodness, he's too stinkin' cute even when he's just sitting there breathing!

And with that, I say goodnight. I'm going to go blow my nose, and you need to go read some of the millions of more interesting things that are available out there on the crazy internets.

A New Favorite Pastime...

Making Benjamin laugh!! Last night, Will got to witness the giggles for the first time - what a treat!

Though we had hoped he would laugh first at Mommy's tickles or Daddy's funny faces, it really doesn't matter to us what he laughs at, we've never heard anything so beautiful as the sound of that giggle! And evidently, while Mom and Dad can certainly be amusing, nothing holds a candle to the comedic stylings of Tigger the stuffed baby rattle.



(On another funny note, did you catch the look on his face at the end? Like he was slightly offended that Tigger would have the nerve to land on his face. So funny!)

4 Months Old!

Well, I've been trying to draft something meaningful for this post all day... something about how much I desperately love this precious little boy and can't imagine life without him. But sometimes, there just aren't words. And so, instead, I offer this little tidbit...



The kid has the CUTEST LAUGH I HAVE EVER HEARD IN MY ENTIRE LIFE AND HOLY COW COULDN'T YOU JUST EXPLODE IT'S SO PRECIOUS?!?!

(Sorry that the video is kinda wobbly ... its hard to hold the camera steady in one hand while you shake the Tigger rattle like crazy in the other hand.)

The Big Snow

Though to some lifelong residents of this winter wonderland our recent snows may be no big deal, to us recent transplants from the South, this is CRAZY! WHO CHOOSES TO LIVE HERE?!?!

... oh yeah, I guess we did, didn't we?

Anyway, we've just been trying to keeping warm, drinking hot chocolate, watching movies, and enjoying Will's last few days at home before he has to go back to work.

So I thought i'd try to catch some footage of the winter shenanigans today with our cool new video camera - what an awesome Christmas gift! And as I was taping the snowplow men, it occurred to me - that is the perfect job for my brother Daniel! It requires a desire to serve people, precision driving ability, an enjoyment of snow and cold weather (i don't know if you can tell in the video but our snowplow-man was wearing short sleeves and had his window down the whole time - and just for the record the wind chill at the time was -2 degrees) and a desire for adventure ... dare I say even an amount of funloving recklessness? So come on up here Uncle Daniel! we've found the perfect job for you! Plus, we miss you and Aunt Hannah!

(quick disclaimer: the dogs at the beginning of the video are not ours - they just live in our building. Our dogs are living it up in Florida eating Grandma's hot rolls :)

(another quick disclaimer: sorry for the bouncy video. Benjamin has been kinda fussy for the last couple days - i think we're teething - and most of this was filmed with the camera in one hand while I bounced Benjamin with the other. I think you can even hear him start squealing at the very end of the video :)

A Good Sleep

This is going to sound weird, but I really love to sleep. I hesitate to say that sleeping is one of my favorite things to do - it sounds like I need medication of some sort - but I really do love it! I love that feeling of nestling down into the warm covers and a soft pillow. I love that weightless feeling you get right before you drop off for a good, deep rest. I love the feeling of waking up on your own ... that first good stretch ... there's no refreshment like it!

Honestly, that was one of the things I most worried about regarding being a new mom - the lack of sleep. And though there have certainly been some sleepless days and weeks, it seems that Benjamin is coming to love sleep as much as his mommy does! Can I get an Amen and Hallelujah?

At this point in the post, I could write something eloquent about how sleep is beautiful picture of trust, peace, and resting in the provision and protection of God, but let's get to the cute stuff about Benjamin - after all, that's why you're reading this blog, right?

He is super super cute when he's trying to wake up - little squeeks, grunts, even a snort or two - stretching his little arms and rubbing his eyes - so cute, my heart could just explode. He used to stretch his little fist over his head and rock it back and forth just like the sign for yes - but i think he may have outgrown that! so sad! If he ever does it again, I've gotta try my best to capture that little gem! Anyway, today I was able to catch a little of video of him waking up - super stinking cute!!

but, who am i kidding? He's super stinking cute all the time!

We love our Cubbies!

It's no secret that the Trautman's are big fans of the Cubs and Will was especially excited to find a Cubs mobile for the nursery. And now, I'm happy to say that Benjamin has fallen in love with the Cubs as well...



You'll notice at the end of the video, he spied me - sneaky mommy :)

yay for video!

Today, we discovered how to take short videos with our digital camera, upload them to our computer, and (hopefully) to our blog! :) Of course, Benjamin can be doing a ton of cute things (he's been smiling at us this week!) and then as soon as we get on the webcam with grandparents, or get out the camera, he decides to get all quiet - or start fussing! Such a little boy, I guess, not wanting to show off for the paparazzi!

But here is our first experiment with posting video to our blog ... to any of you from Tennessee who have worried about my losing my Southern accent since we've been up here in "the North" this video will definitely put your minds at ease! Just so ya know ... all the antics in this video were for the goal of getting that elusive smile! so precious!