Sunday Fun

We had fun hanging out today. Daniel had been given a huge turkey at Thanksgiving from his work and since he is moving soon needed to cook it. So we cooked it and made a ton of food to go with it and had a little Thanksgiving type dinner. We invited a couple guys from Dave's work and had a nice evening together. Benjamin was a little show off and tried to remain the center of attention at all times (I wonder where he learned to do that???). Here our a couple of pictures of us just playing around while we were cooking.

Benjamin having fun with the string to the blinds and looking out the window. I think he likes his new house!

Dave climbed onto our ottoman to do something, so Benjamin had to too! Trying to be just like his daddy already!

Daniel getting emotional because he just can't get over how much he likes living with us and hanging out with us!

No more pictures, please!

Benjamin doing one of his favorite tasks, bothering Daniel! He's really going to miss him when Daniel moves!

On a side note, Benjamin seems to be feeling a little bit better. He's still got his cold and his hand is still blistered but he doesn't seem to be in any pain. His ring finger blister has gotten enormous! The poor guy! I really hope they start going down tomorrow!

Well, I think we got some bad advice! We gave Benjamin a bath this afternoon so he could soak his hand like the doctor said. Afterwards though his blisters got much bigger and he even popped one! That seemed to cause him some pain, so I think we are going to hold off on getting it wet for a couple of days.

I just changed his dressing again before putting him to bed and the blisters were bigger still! Hopefully they are about done with filling up since it has been over 2 days since he burned himself!

Benjamin's still feeling pretty lousy too. His nose is running like crazy and he has a cough. I think he would have a fever too if he weren't getting so much Tylenol and Motrin. So he was pretty fussy and irritable. So we just took it easy today and spent most of it cuddling and sleeping! Instead of a lazy Sunday, we had a lazy Saturday! I'm really hoping he'll feel much better tomorrow.

He's so good though. He leaves his bandages on and doesn't seem to be in any pain because he uses the hand and everything. So it could be worse! I just wish he didn't have to be sick at the same time. He's really sweet with being so cuddly and clingy. He's gotten his hugs down really well. He wraps his two little arms around my neck so tightly....one of the greatest feelings ever! Dave's pretty jealous because so far the hugs have mostly been for me! I'm sure he'll share with his Daddy soon though!

Below is a picture of his hand I took before changing his bandage tonight. Its not very good because Benjamin doesn't really enjoy having his hand held still for very long and its hard to get it to show up on the camera. But you can see that its not really red, which we are thankful for. You can kind of see the blisters on his fingers and a little bit on the upper palm of his hand. If you click on the picture it gets bigger and you'd be able to see it better, if you're interested.

Burn Update

We went to the Dr. today to get Benjamin's hand checked out. His palm started blistering yesterday and got worse and red as the day went on. So we went in this morning since they didn't have any appointments left yesterday. The crazy office is open from 7-9 am on Sat, which is just silly if you ask me! So I had to wake my poor sick son at 6:30 so we could get there before the rush since its just walk-in appointments. Luckily we got right in. The Dr. said that the blisters looked ok and that its good that they weren't bigger so they didn't have to cut them or anything (ewe!!!). Thank heavens for that! She said that again we just had to be super careful about keeping it covered in the Bacitracin and wrapped up and try our best to keep the blisters from popping. She also said that it would be good for the hand to be soaked everyday. So that's nice because the nurse practitioner in the ER had said to keep it dry and only do sponge baths for awhile. So it'll be nice to get to let the little guy soak and play in the tub tonight since he has so much fun! Well that's about all for now, just hoping that he keeps the blisters intact and free from infection and that his cold goes away so he can get back to his fun self!!!! Below are some pictures I took of him eating breakfast when we got back, since I thought I might get some flack for putting a post up without any pictures! As you can see, he's still as cute and sweet as ever!

A Very Bad Day

We had another first for Benjamin yesterday, except this is one we didn't want....it was his first trip to the emergency room. It was a pretty bad day for us. We woke up and Benjamin had a full blown cold and was needy and just wanted to be held and cuddle all day and wouldn't eat anything really. I went out and got him some cold medicine and we took a nap together and when we woke up he was feeling so much better. He was walking all over the house and I thought it might be fun for him to look out our storm door because he has enjoyed looking out the windows so much. So I opened the front door and he went right up to it and was looking out and then he put his left hand on the open door and immediately pulled it back and started crying. I was confused what was wrong so I touched the door and it was crazy hot. I held him and tried to comfort him but nothing made him feel better. He just held out his left hand and was shaking it and getting more upset. So I called the Dr.'s office and the nurse told me to have him play with cold water in the sink and if he blistered to take him to the ER because he would need to be seen and their office was about to close. So we played in the water for awhile and it seemed to be working. Then all of a sudden he just lost it and started screaming and nothing would calm him. I asked Dave to come home so we could take him to the hospital because his fingers were starting to blister and he was inconsolable at this point. While we were waiting for Dave, I saw Benjamin pointing to the kids playing outside so I thought I'd try taking him out. Thankfully that worked. It was freezing but for some reason being out there calmed him. We came back in and I got him to eat and drink something finally. By the time Dave came home all of his fingers were blistered, so we got in the car. Benjamin screamed the whole way there and while they were assessing him. He just has minor burns and the blisters are only on his fingers which is good. They said if his palm had blistered that would have been worse because it could hurt the development and movement of his hand. So they put bacitracin on it and wrapped it up and told us to give him Motrin and re-apply the ointment and the dressing for a couple of days and watch for infection. By the time we got home he was feeling much better and ate a good dinner and then had fun playing the rest of the night. Benjamin and I were exhausted but thankful that everything was ok. It is awful when your child is hurt and you can't fix it. Never in a million years would I have thought that our FRONT DOOR could burn my baby, but it did! Crazy! But he's doing just fine today and his cold even seems to be improving already. So we are going to take it easy today and hopefully have a much better day!!!!

Here's a picture when we first got home. Dave called this Benjamin's hook.


The dressing the nurse put on was so big and bulky that Benjamin eventually pulled it off, so this is the one I did and it has stayed on since, thankfully! He's doing so good with it. It kind of looks like a mitten!!!!


Cuddling on the couch after our long hard day together!


And finally it was time to sleep!!!!! To be completely honest with you, when Dave and I were ready to go to sleep I put him into bed with us because I just wanted to be near him and I was a little nervous about him pulling the dressing off and then choking on it. (Silly I know, but it had been a pretty stressful day and I was a little worried about my baby boy!)

We're Back!!!!!!!!

Yep, you guessed it. We're back in Indiana! We are so happy to be home. We had a really nice trip down here. Benjamin did so great for us in the car and we were able to make it in one day and with pretty nice time. We are slowly but surely getting settled into our house. It feels like a mansion to us with all of this room. Benjamin's having a lot of fun too with all the space to walk around in and get into everything. He can walk through the whole house without falling down. He's really turning into a little boy! He's still being really affectionate and giving everyone tons of kisses and recently he has learned how to give some really good hugs too!

We are surviving the cold weather day by day. There was snow on the ground when we got here on Friday and then it snowed pretty much all day Saturday. The snow is pretty, but it will take some getting used to all the snow and cold...its quite the change! I do ok when outside for a short period of time, but I am freezing inside! Dave is being frugle and won't let me turn the heat up! We'll make it though!!!!

One reason we are so happy to be back here is because we missed our family so much. We stayed with my parents the night we got back here and had fun being with them again (and with Zoe!). Yesterday we had a really fun day. Dave's parents and Jimmy and Shawna came up for a visit. We had a nice time at our house and went out to eat together. Here are some pictures of us at dinner and Benjamin enjoying all the attention he gets from his Grandparents!

And the super exciting part of the day was that we learned that Benjamin is going to get his first cousin! Yep! Jimmy and Shawna surprised us with the very exciting news that they are going to have a baby the first of September! YEA!!!!!! We couldn't be happier for them! They are going to make great parents!!!

Here's the soon-to-be mommy and daddy!!! (Yep, there's a baby in her tummy!!!!)

Here We Go Again

I know I said that yesterday's post would be my last for awhile, but I forgot to mention Benjamin's accomplishment. He is cutting another tooth. Its been about 3 months since he's had any new teeth. He has been chewing on his fingers a lot so I thought it was coming and then yesterday I finally felt it! Hopefully these aren't too bad when they come in. He didn't show many problems with the last four like he did with the first four. But it appears these are a little more work. So its back to frozen teething toys (fortunately he's really good at using them on his own this time), chewing on fingers and everything else that feels good, drool, and my favorite......waking up in the middle of the night! Wish us luck as we try to go through this again but this time with a big move at the same time!!!


Here's a picture I took of the collage I got for Valentine's Day from Dave. Isn't it great?

Happy Valentine's Day

We celebrated our Valentine's Day today. We are moving the day after the real one, so we thought we'd save that day for packing and cleaning (joy). Dave was really sweet and surprised me with a wonderful gift. He made a huge collage of his favorite pictures from our time here over the last six months and framed it for me. My husband is very talented, I don't think I could have done nearly as good a job as he did! We had a really great day and went to the aquarium, went in a very unique boat, drove across the bridge and threw Mt. Pleasant and Sullivan's Island, and then went to my favorite restaurant for our Valentine's date!

Isn't this the most precious picture you have ever seen?????


We went to the aquarium for the last time (tears) and said goodbye to all of our favorite fish and turtles and otters. This is Benjamin in front of his favorite tank.

The following are pictures of a boat from New Zealand that is going to set a record circumnavigating the world. It has two Cummins Diesel engines in it and was parked in the harbor next to the aquarium. This is one of the signs they had put up outside the aquarium for it. Needless to say, Dave was very excited. Its a pretty cool boat, but a little too small if you ask me to spend so much time in it to go all around the world. But that's just my opinion!

Benjamin in the driver's seat!

Pretty cool boat, huh? That's the aquarium in the background.

And this is the front of the boat......

We are leaving for Indiana on Thursday, so this will probably be my last post for awhile until we get settled. Wish us luck as we spend the next week packing, cleaning, working on a presentation and working like crazy (Dave), driving, unpacking, and trying to get settled back into our house! Goodbye Charleston we're going to miss you.....hello Indiana!!!!!

The Joys of Being One

Well I think we had our first "toddler" day today. I know that Benjamin understands the word no....he often listens and follows it and will even shake his head no to me when he doesn't want something. Today I could not get him to stop hitting, biting, and pulling my hair. Now don't get me wrong, he's not a mean child in any way. He just gets really excited and sometimes the result is him doing one of the above. So I tried my usual stern no, pointing my finger, and shaking my head. This did no good. So I tried holding his arms to his stomach after he hit me and saying no. He gets very upset when his arms are held down and this used to work in the past. All he did was get mad while I was holding his arms and then as soon as he was free, sit up, laugh and begin hitting me again. So then I tried ignoring him and that just made the hitting turn into biting. Needless to say I was somewhat frusturated at my lack of parenting abilities! I decided to go make us lunch and hope that by the time lunch was over he'd forget about his need to hurt his mommy!

It got up to 72 degrees today (its been in the 40's) and I was so excited for us to enjoy the nice weather and go to the park. Well the time between his naps after lunch when I planned for us to go turned into a sleepy/fussy time (not a good time to go to the park). So we skipped it and then about 3:30 he all of a sudden perked up and was in a great mood. So we hopped in the car and enjoyed the wonderful day and were suprised to see our neighbor and her 3 year old at the park too. I had to skip his afternoon nap to make it to the park....but we made it! And we had a great time! Dave even joined us after work!!!!! The following are just some funny pictures from the last couple of days.....

Benjamin pleased to be sitting on his throne (just a pillow I know, but he thinks its really cool to sit on it like he's king)!


Look out Jeff Saturday, there's a new center in town! This is Benjamin's new trick, he puts his head on the ground and looks at you through his legs! So cute!


Ice cream bars are the best!!!!

Colts.....Superbowl Champions!!!!!!

Yea!!!!!!!!!!!! Our beloved Colts won the Superbowl!!!! We are so happy for them! We had a really fun day watching them. We all dressed up in our blue Colts attire and made lots of yummy party food and had a great time watching our team win! win! win!


Introducing the cutest little Colt fan ever!!!!!!!! Isn't his new Colts outfit adorable?!?!?!


Benjamin giving his daddy some kisses! He's so loving and affectionate, he gives Dave and I and even the cats kisses all day long!


Benjamin and Dave having a pre-game chat. I supposedly got "in trouble" yesterday for posting the picture of Dave in the tunnel......but here he is again. I think he may have more fun with it than Benjamin!


Milo and I doing a little Colts cheer! Milo is wearing Benjamin's Colts socks. I love my kitties!!!

Beaufort

Today we drove down to Beaufort, SC. Its a little over an hour away from us. Beaufort has a really cute downtown where we ate lunch and went in some little shops. Then we drove to Hunting Island where they have a state park and a lighthouse. We were going to meet Hannah that we went to high school with and that lives about 30 minutes away, but things didn't work out. We were sad that we missed her! We still had a lot of fun just the three of us!

It was pretty cold today (we are fearful of the Indiana cold that we will be experiencing in 13 days)!!!!!! Here is Benjamin all cute, bundled up in his winter gear!


This is a sign outside of the lighthouse. I just learned that you can click on the pictures and it will enlarge. So if you want to read about the lighthouse you can click on it and read about it. It was pretty cool. I had never climbed a lighthouse like that before. Benjamin wasn't allowed to go up it, so we took turns. I did ok going up (it was tiring as you can see by the picture and how many flights of stairs you had to go up, but do-able). However, going down totally freaked me out! I don't know what the deal was, but I did not enjoy it.....I went so slow, gripping the railing!!! Then when I got down my legs couldn't stop shaking! Crazy, but worth it!


Here's a picture of the stair cases from the bottom of the lighthouse. It was kind of dark in there, so the picture didn't come out great, but if you enlarge it, it might be better.


The lighthouse from the beach........

Here's Dave and Benjamin standing in front of the lighthouse.


And here they are when I took their picture from the top of the lighthouse (they are standing to the left of the ruins of the old keeper's house).

We got some good pictures today, but here is my favorite out of them all, Benjamin's cute feet on the ride home. He took one shoe and one sock off and then after listening to his song fell asleep. How funny is that????

Frankie said she was disappointed that I didn't get a picture of Dave in the "tunnel". So here is one that I am sure to get in trouble for posting! Hope its worth it!!!!!!

A message from Dave:

I just found out that Andee posted this picture on the blog. Let me start by saying that Andee is in big trouble. I know this picture looks very bad but let me put it in context. I was playing with Benjamin by chasing him through the "tunnel" which happens to be Benjamin size, not Dave size. He flew through the "tunnel" with ease, I did not. While trying to extract myself from a bit of a squeeze, Benjamin crawled over to get a drink of milk and to watch the show. My loving wife meanwhile, instead of assisting me, was frantically trying to get the camera out to take a picture. Unfortunately she succeeded. -- Dave