Playing Catch up

Life has been rather busy this fall, so I have been remiss in updating this blog. Beniah is almost 1 year old, is over 25 lbs, and has been walking like a pro since Halloween. Here is a little snap shot of what has been happening since September.

In September Tim, Beniah, and I went down to Roseburg to visit with my family who had come from back east. Beniah and I met my grandparents and aunt in Portland and had our 1st train ride down to Eugene.



Beniah turned 10 months old.


In October, Beniah and I traveled down to LA to introduce Beniah to his Great Grandma and Grandpa Gillies.


Beniah turned 11 months old.


Beniah's 1st Halloween. He was a lamb and didn't like having the hood on and his nose colored on.


Beniah is so proud that he can walk now.

Sometimes I have Days Like These

I Should Have Known To Leave the Lid On.

Battle of the Century

The Faceoff.


The 1st Move.


The Attack.


The Result.


Andy - 0
Mongkut - 0
Sliding Glass Door - 1

9 Months Old

Beniah is now 9 months old. He weighed in at his last doctor's visit at 24.8 lbs and is 25" long with a 19.5" head. Life has gotten a lot more interesting with Beniah around. He is pulling himself up and walking along furniture, walls, and giant overstuffed bears. We are constantly having to rearrange our area to accommodate his growing "no touch" zone.

Beniah is becoming more vocal and has a few words in his vocabulary.

"DaDaDa" (keeps repeating many times) - Daddy, Monkey, anything that is exciting
"DuDuDu" (again, keep repeating this many times) - Duck, Fish, Light up Frogs that don't light up anymore, any bath toy.
"Do" (The "O" as in ostrich) - Donny
"Bu" (as he waves) - Bye Bye!

Beniah staring down a friend's dog.


At OSU in Corvallis.

Beniah loves playing next to his cousin, Donny.



He also loves swings.



9 Months Old.

That's So Camping!

This past weekend, we took Beniah on his 1st camping trip. My parents, Beniah, and I found a campsite at Diamond Lake and was joined by Tim later that night. Within 5 minutes of arriving at our campsite, Beniah had a mouthful of mud, a huge grin, and a stick in his hand. He is such a boy. We awoke the next morning to frozen water and a campground of frost. We all donned 3 or more layers of clothes and looked like the marshmallows that we ate the previous night.

Mama and Beniah (notice the frost on the camp chairs). We all took turns cuddling Beniah that morning to keep him warm.


Beniah playing with Daddy.


We decided to tear down our campsite and find another one that was lower in elevation so we would be warmer in the night. While we did that, Beniah was off investigating the area off of the fake grass mat that he was put on.


His favorite campground toys, small pebbles.


We were joined by my sister and her family at Horseshoe Bend campground.

Cousins.


Beniah tried to eat pinecones.


Jeshu


We celebrated Evie's birthday (with trick candles, of course).


I made the cake for her. It was a yummy Lemon Poppy Seed Cake with a sweet Lemon Curd Filling and Lemon Buttercream Frosting. It was very sweet, but had a bit of tartness to it.


On Sunday morning, my dad, brother in law, and Tim went fishing. Ravi caught a couple of small fish for Jeshu to look at.

Jeshu looking at his "Ishy".


Jeshu's "ishy's"

8 Months Old

Beniah is now 8 months old. He got weighed at the doctor's today and he is now 23 lbs 11 oz. That puts him in the 90-95 percentile. Beniah has grown a lot this month. He has perfected the crawl and has actually taken 5 steps by himself. Not for the camera of course, but there were witnesses! He loves to hold someones hand and walk everywhere.

He loves to see what we are doing...


...unfortunately, he fell off of the couch and got his 1st goose egg.


On Tusedays, we watch his cousin Donny. They have the greatest time playing together.


Beniah has been eating solids for awhile now, so we thought that he would like to have his 1st taste of lemon.


Beniah has been enjoying his mobility and has discovered Mama's full length mirror.


With crawling comes rug burns, so I have devised a way to save Beniah's knees. We'll see how it works out.


I thought that I would add this picture, as this is typical photo during a shoot. Beniah really wants the camera and lunges for it resulting in this...


Beniah at 8 months.

Family Visits

Last week, my family came up to visit us. We met up with my sister and her family on Sunday at Multnomah falls. It was a fun, but slightly damp hike.

Cousins.


Evie and Tim


Typical Multnomah Falls picture.


We hiked a little bit beyond the bridge. When we got to the bridge, Tim looked over the side and said, "I had that made just for you." Ahh! How sappy sweetheart!


Evie and Ravi left on Monday morning and my parents arrived that afternoon. We spent the next 3 days visiting, touristing, and spoiling Beniah. I wasn't apart of the last item, but I let his grandparents have fun.

Mom thoroughly enjoyed giving her grandson a bath.


On Tuesday, we were going to hike up to Beacon Rock, but realized that the path that was touted to be good for young children was to rocky and steep for a stroller. We ended up walking on a nature trail that was back up the road a bit.

Grandpa and Beniah


Grandma and Beniah.


Beniah loved Grandpa's shoulder rides.


On Wednesday, we went to Fort Vancouver and looked around.

Not a very good photo of me, but it's a fun one. We are all laughing because Beniah just got done trying to eat my hair.

Grandpa and Grandma with Beniah


My parents.


Beniah was so tired by the end of the day that he fell asleep. He didn't even wake up when I moved him from the stroller to the car seat.


After the fort, my parents took us to Burgerville, where Beniah happily sat in a restaurant highchair for the 1st time.


After Beniah woke up in the morning, my parents would bring him into their bed and play with him. I had to take a picture because I remember doing this with my grandparents. I love the smell of Foldgers coffee (not the taste though) because they would be drinking a cup of it while I was curled up next to them.

Swing Time!

The wind up.


The unravel.


The stop.


The reaction.


Pure Joy!

4th of July

This was Beniah's first 4th of July and he loved it! It was a lot of fun to watch him see his 1st fireworks show.

Pool Time!



Sitting tall.


"Who put the P in my name?"


"Aargh! Weed roots!"


Sitting by the fire with Grandpa.


Beniah watching his 1st fireworks...


...and his reaction.

He actually clapped for them when they were over. He was more imitating me than cheering for the fireworks.

Cuddling with Mama.


Fighting off sleep while cuddling with Daddy.


Aaron and Danny with a sparkler.

Look What I Got For Free!

My parents and I toured around Fort Vancouver yesterday and saw a blacksmith make a wall hook. He then proceeded to hand me a smaller hook that he had made earlier and told me that I could keep it. Apparently, this hook is imperfect because of how short it is. I think it is perfect for a hand towel hook.

Baby Got Back!

I have taken a break from cloth diapering this past week because the diapers just weren't holding the liquid as well as they were in the past. Needless to say, I became tired of having to change the bedding and Beniah in the middle of the night. I was going to double up our liners until my wonderful sister suggested using the cheap-o Gerber cloth diapers as the doublers. This solution is still in the testing process. Whether or not this works, I got some cute big butt pictures of Beniah.



If you click on the picture, you can see his 2 bottom teeth.

Happy Birthday Donny!

This evening we went over to the Shire residence to celebrate Donny's 2nd birthday.



The cousins had fun playing with Donny's new ball popper. Beniah was mostly excited about putting the toy and balls in his mouth.

Beniah in Donny's new ball pit/ swimming pool.

All Aboard!

Today, we set off on a great adventure to see the Disney Christmas Carol movie train. This train is making its way across the country and stopped for one day at the Union Station in Portland. There were 7 of us piled into the grandparents' van as we drove to Portland, so Grandma Whittaker had to sit in the middle of the van on a padded stool.

Aaron enjoyed wearing Grandma's sunglasses.


We had a 45 minute wait in line and were entertained by some carolers.

Mama and Beniah.


Since we weren't allowed to take strollers on board, we had to take turns holding Beniah.


Beniah's favorite part of the day was playing with the greenery...


... and patting the picture Scrooge's (Jim Carrey) face.


Although walking down one of the cars was fun too!


Beniah looking at a figurine of the ghost of Marley.

Three Years Ago Today...

7 Months Old

It is hard to imagine, but my baby boy is now 7 months old! He has had many accomplishments this month. His top left tooth has burst forth (3 total teeth now) and he has learned how to creep. I keep thinking that my place is baby proof, but Beniah keeps proving me wrong. I will post a video of his feats once I can figure out how to download the footage to my laptop.

Getting ready to crawl.


Teething on Dwight Shrute.


Beniah loves our cat, Mongkut.


Beniah- 7 months old.

Whittaker Family Beach Trip 2009

Tim's brother, Danny, along with his wife, Betsy, and son, Aaron are here visiting from the great city country of Singapore. To celebrate, the Whittakers got together and rented 2 beach houses for 3 days and 2 nights full of sun, sand, surf, and six children under the age of 4. It was very fun and just slightly a bit chaotic. This was Beniah's 1st time at the beach. Keeping with his Norse heritage, he didn't mind the cold Pacific water. His only complaint was that his mean mama wouldn't let him eat the sand. Horrible!

Beniah's 1st look at the ocean.


Getting his feet wet. (Grandma Whittaker, Aaron, and Uncle Danny are running in the background)


"Hey Mama!"


Beniah trying to eat sand.


Tim was given his Jack/ Donny wake up call Thursday morning.


All 6 of the grandchildren.


On the way home, we had an extra passenger, Donny Shire. He chattered almost the entire way home. Every once in awhile, I would hear "Hi Nana!" (Beniah in Donny language).

Donny was all tuckered out.

Like Father Like Son.

6 Months Old

This is a bit late, but here is Beniah's 6 month pictures. At his last doctor's appointment, he weighed in at 21.6 lbs and is 28" long.



Beniah with Great Grandma Kjossness.


Beniah wasn't to sure about the Twist's oh so gentle dog, Bailey.


In the end, he decided that Bailey wasn't that scary and that grass was a lot of fun to play with.


"I am so cute!"


Beniah - 6 months old.

Happy Memorial Day!

It's Feeding Time!

Ever since we noticed Beniah looking at us and chewing with us whenever we ate in front of him, we have been thinking of starting him on solids. It has now come to pass that Beniah is eating solids. He had his 1st rice cereal meal a few weeks ago when he was 5 1/2 months old. He wasn't thrilled with the taste.



A couple weeks later we tried Sweet Potatoes.


We have also tried carrots and grean beans, all to no avail. My son just isn't thrilled with the taste of this new food. We'll get there eventually.

4 Months Old

Although Beniah is 5 1/2 months old, I thought that I should put up pictures of his 4th month. He has grown quite a bit since these pictures were taken, but that is another post for another day (i.e. we have a doctor's appointment tomorrow and can give the stats then).

This is the view that we saw whenever we put Beniah in his rocking chair.


Beniah loves his toys.


ChipnDale Beniah.


Beniah in waist high pants.


These are the feet of my favorite sleeper, unfortunately Beniah has outgrown them already.


Beniah was given a knock off Baby Einstein video for Christmas this year and loves it. He usually cries whenever I turn off the video.


Beniah at 4 months

When Beniah Met Beniah

A couple of months before Beniah was born, a friend of ours from high school gave birth to a son and named him Beniah. She and her husband had found the name, liked it, and purposefully misspelled it just like Tim and I did. Neither of us knew that the other was naming their son Beniah until after we had the name chosen. Today, we had the pleasure of meeting Beniah Lucas and hanging out with his parents, Jessica and Caleb.




As canned as the next two pictures are, the Beniahs did the posing themselves.

This pictures was taken seconds before Beniah Mark licked Beniah Lucas' head.


Beniah was tired of Beniah being in his Daddy's lap.

Cousins

The other day, the Whittaker siblings and their families came over for a dinner together. Beniah was able to have some playtime with his male cousins.


Jack would push Beniah back and forth on the piano musical toy. Beniah thought this was great fun and squealed with laughter.


Caught in the act of mischief.

All Moved In

After a few weeks of waiting, Tim, Beniah, and I are all moved in to Tim's parents daylight basement. We thought that we had broken Mongkut with this move because he was a lap cat for a few days, but he is now back to his attack cat practices. I haven't taken any pictures of our new place yet (mainly because it's still a mess), but here are a few of the things that I will miss from the apartment that I loved/hated.

I will miss the kitchen with the stove that turned on by just leaning against the edge.


I will miss the balcony that was only large enough to hold my bike.


I will miss the shelves in the bedroom that looked like they were going to break in half if you put anything on them.


I will miss the bathroom that had a horrible mold problem and a hole in the wall that we covered with an above the toilet cupboard.


I will miss the weird dark marks on the walls.


In all honesty, we will definitely miss our landlord, Steve, and property manager, Harry, who were wonderful people to work with.

Just for Laughs

What to do...

What do you do when your dinning room table is packed away in a trailer and you want to have a nice meal with your husband while your baby is napping?

Well, Duh!

When you peel apples, don't peel your thumb knuckle.

When you go to sit down, look where you are going to sit. There might be a cat laying there.

Cold Time Blues

The victim.



The tools.


The result.


Beniah happys up after this horrid treatment by finding the cat. The cat, however, can take only so much of baby time and is often found here.

In the Words of Beniah

Nhb87 g6n b ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,MKIJH
.KIG
2C3X51G

Bubble Bath Time

Tonight I gave Beniah his 1st bubble bath. He didn't seem to care that there were bubbles, he just wanted his toys and the camera out of his face.

In His Daddy's Clothes

Here are a few pictures of Beniah in his Daddy's baby clothes.

In Pursuit of Mobility

Beniah rolled over (from his tummy to his back) for the first time today. He looked more surprised than excited to find himself on his back.

3 Months old

Beniah is now 3 months old (and has been for 8 days now). We don't have an official weight but we know it is close to 20 lbs. We have a check up on March 5th, so we will let you know the official results then.

Beniah is starting to get the idea of rolling over, but hasn't been able to accomplish that feat yet...

... silly arm is always in the way.


Beniah LOVES playing with his Daddy.


Beniah gets to playing a little to hard in his seat and ends up nearly sliding out of it.


Beniah - 3 Months Old (I know, I know, the Alien head got cut off. This was the best picture of Beniah though. He was rather grumpy during this photo shoot.)

Based on a True Story...

The warm air whispered of spring.
The birds soared through the air.
I was envious of their freedom.

As I was contemplating the concept of flight, I was thrown through the air. I rejoiced in the feel of the wind--until I landed on the cold, wet pavement. There I lay abandoned while my master just rolled on.

My despair deepened as day turned to night. I lay there sodden while the sun rose in the sky and reached its zenith. I cried out to God in my despair.

Suddenly I heard a familiar sound of wheels clattering on the pavement. To my greatest pleasure I saw my master roll past me. I felt myself get picked up and lovingly carried home.

My joy was fulfilled the moment I entered the door and saw my mate eagerly awaiting my return.

Dedication

During our time in Roseburg last week, Tim and I had Beniah dedicated at our church. For those of you who would have come, if you had known about it, I'm sorry that we didn't invite you. We completely spaced inviting people other than our parents and my sister. We were going to put the video of the dedication on here, but we don't have the USB cord to download it to our computer. Here are the pictures that were taken though.

Our Pastor, Dave, with Beniah

Praying over Beniah

We made it through without Beniah either bursting into tears or erping all over Dave.

More Cakes - Mine this Time

This past weekend, Tim, Beniah, and I drove down to Roseburg to celebrate my nephew's, Jeshu, 1st birthday. I helped my sister out by baking and decorating the Monkey cake.

This was the original cake that Evie got the idea from.

This is my attempt at the cake. I thought of the tongue. Evie thought of the teeth.


If you can't tell, that is supposed to be a banana.


Jeshu wasn't certain about eating the cake.

Once he got into it, though, Jeshu approved of the cake.

He got the frosting from his hair to the bottom of his feet. He stepped on the highchair tray that had frosting on it.

Cakes

If you would like to see an interesting cake go to Black Widow Bakery.

Happy Birthday Grandpa Luse

On Monday, January 19th, Tim, Beniah, and I met up with my family to celebrate my Dad's birthday. We had a wonderful dinner at a Mongolian Grill and then got our bowling shoes on and hit the lanes in style.

Jeshu LOVES his cousin! He tries to be gentle when he gives Beniah a hug but...


Beniah and Grandpa.

Jeshu cheered for everyone no matter how poorly they bowled.

In spite of all the noise and commotion, Beniah fell asleep in the bowling alley.


Yes, the 60 year old man beat us all.

Happy Birthday Daddy.

2 Months Old

Beniah is now 2 months old. At his last doctor's appointment he weighed in at 15 lbs. 6 oz. That is exactly 6 lbs heavier than his birth weight. He is also 27" long. He is now in the 97th percentile for both height and weight.

Beniah in his Hugh Hefnerish outfit.


Yes, Beniah does sometimes sleep with his head at the weirdest angles.





Beniah at 2 Months.

A Smattering from the Holidays...

Life has been rather busy lately for Tim, Beniah, and I. In an attempt to update you all on our lives, here is a brief glimpse of the past 2 months. Just a side note, the text is very odd because Blogger is not the brightest crayon in the box and I am tired of trying to fix this post.

Tim's Birthday
Corvallis received a part of the snow storm that rocked Portland area this December. It was fun for Tim to wake up to a white birthday.


Here Beniah and Mongkut are trying to get Tim up.


Tim wanted to carry on his new found tradition of weird sounding birthday pies, so he asked for a strawberry kiwi pie. It did not turn out as planned. The recipe that I got for this pie calls for Strawberry Jello with Strawberries and Kiwi added to it. The pie didn't set up, so we had a very sweet soup in pie crust. Tim still approved, saying, "The taste is what's important!"


Kjosness Christmas Eve
On Christmas Eve, we drove down to Eugene to celebrate with the Kjosness's. It was a lot of fun to see the family and to introduce Beniah to his Great Grandma Kjosness.
We also enjoyed meeting David Patrick (Beniah's second cousin).

During the caroling time, Beniah decided that he wanted to join in on the festivities and sang along with us to "Joy to the World".

Luse Family Christmas
On Christmas Morning, we drove down to Roseburg to celebrate with my side of the family.
Beniah was, of course, loved on by everybody including his cousin who hugged on him and gave him kisses as often as Beniah was content with it.



Beniah received a quilt for Christmas from his Great Aunt Nancy.


Whittaker Family Christmas
The Whittaker family got together on the 31st of December to celebrate. There were a couple of additions to this year's festivities. Jim's Brother, Uncle Jeff, and Marie's sister-in-law, Aunt Kathy and her friend Dave were able to celebrate with us. I have tried 5 times to upload pictures, but the internet cuts out everytime! So, if you go to the family links on the sidebar, you will be able to see pictures from our Christmas celebration.

The 1st Month

Even though we promised to post sooner, life with a newborn is rather chaotic and posting isn't at the top of our to do list.
Life is starting to get back to normal (whatever normal is now). I'm healing up from the surgery and my energy level is almost back to pre-pregnancy levels. Beniah is growing very fast. He weighed in at 11 lbs. 14oz. at his last checkup. He is getting a slight 3rd chin (when his head is turned a particular way). His latest feat is responding to Mama and Daddy's voices with a smile.
We have had both Grandma's here to help Tim and I out this past month. Of course, both Grandpas came for a visit as well. Unfortunately, we only ended up taking a picture of Beniah with his Grandpa Luse.



Hanging out with Grandpa Luse

Beniah in the cradle. He is the 4th generation to sleep in this cradle. His Great Grandpa Luse was the 1st to sleep in it.

Asleep with Daddy.


The third chin poking out.


Here is Beniah's pouty face that we think is adorable (at least at this point in his life).


Beniah's 1st smile captured by the camera.


Beniah - 1 month old.

Beniah Mark Whittaker

After over two weeks of learning to care for a newborn, we are finally alert enough to post about our firstborn. After 41 hours of rather intense (yet frustratingly non-progressive) labor, Beniah Mark Whittaker was born by Cesarean on November 15th at 5:20 am. He weighed 9 lbs 6 oz. The reason for the lack of progress? His very large head. The circumference was 15 inches, while the average newborn’s is around 13 or 13 1/2. He has his daddy’s head!

Here are a few pics from our 6 day (!) hospital stay.

Heather soon after getting settled on the fourth floor.

Fingerless gloves are SO in!

Dressed in scrubs for the C-Section. (Obvious, right?)

Mama's first look at her son!

Jeshu Kumar being oh-so-gentle with his tiny cousin.

Beniah was hungry, and mama was busy. So, of course, Grandma Luse offered her chin as a substitute! Got a hickey for her trouble, though.

A less-drugged version of mama enjoying her sleeping son.

Beniah does NOT like hats!

All dressed up to go home. And though you can't tell from this pic, those little socks are quite embarrassing. Beniah's Auntie Jo bought them for him before we knew his gender, and insisted that our child wear them, even if it was a boy. So, of course, Beniah decided to be a male that wears socks with a picture of Ariel, the Little Mermaid.

A close-up of Beniah in his adorable hat.

The Whittaker Three on their way home from the hospital.

We’ll post some more pics of the newly enlarged Whittaker family later. Hopefully in less than the two weeks it took for this post!

Yesterday was my 1st official day of not going into work. My wonderful husband told me that I wasn't to do anything except relax all day long. So my day was filled with Fanny Price (Mansfield Park) and cups of Hot Peppermint Tea. It was quite nice to look at my basket of clean laundry and say, "I need to be submissive to Tim, so I can't fold the clothes that you hold."

While I am enjoying the relaxfullness (is that a word?) of being at home, I am realizing that there are some things about Selmet that I do miss.
I will miss the 1/2 mile driveway up to Selmet.
I will miss the speedbumps that rip off oil pans if driven over too fast.
I will miss the realization that plant I work in really does look like a prison (it is painted a grey-blue color, it has no windows except in the office, there is a chain link fence that runs along the perimeter of the property, and there is a guard shack).
I will miss the sheep that followed the sound of your voice when you walk up and down the driveway at lunch (until one of their members died. Then they looked at you with hatred in their eyes).
I will miss the drama of being a scapegoat just because I am in purchasing.
I will miss hearing the accountant's view on how many staples a paper bunch is really supposed to hold (by the way, it is 1 staple per bunch because more than 1 can cause the bunch to get really heavy when you have to box up all of the bunches at the end of the year. I never knew how 3 extra staples were such a work hazard before.).
Finally, I will miss working for a boss who is a slice of heaven to work for (her boss told her that when he was mad at her. I'm still not sure how that is a bad thing.)