We Felt It

The tooth is finally here. YEAH! Ryan and I both felt something. It is on the bottom, but not quite in the middle so we will see which tooth it actually is. Hallelujah. There is a reason for all this fussing. Now, he keeps pushing his tongue over it and he looks hilarious, like he is sticking his tongue out sideways.

He was super cute at church today, so I thought I would share. The Sean John shirt is a hand-me-down and his Mama D and Aunt Can Can bought him the ripped jeans. We went to Kohls after church and every single person that walked by smiled and said how cute he was. Have you ever noticed where the kids sit in the carts at Kohls? They are facing out at the front of the cart like they are driving. Ben loved it and I loved getting all the reactions to my adorable child.

Crawling Video

I forgot to put this on the last post. Here are 1 1/2 minutes or so of Ben crawling.

Happy 7 Months

I am stunned by the weather change in this picture. Last month he was in shorts. Today, he was in long sleeves, sweat pants, socks and slippers.

Outtake

The rocker plays music and he does NOT like it.

Photo Shoot in the house today with this adorable hat!

It seems like a lot has changed in this past month. I mourned as I looked back at his 6 month stats and remembered he was sleeping 11 hours consecutively. His sleeping is completely messed up and I just have to believe it is teething or else I might go insane. He is waking once or twice a night. On the rare night he goes straight through, he wakes at 5am which totally messes up the rest of the day. I thrive in a structured environment, so I am feeling very lost right now as he is doing something different every day. And the weather is getting too cold to be outside much, so there is a lot of time spent cooped up in the house.

But, enough complaining. He has gotten more and more fun this past month! Watching him crawl makes me proud and makes me laugh. He can go perfectly and quickly when crawling toward something he can't have. If I am trying to get him to come to me, he moves one leg, then sits, then fall forward and moves another leg or two, then sits, then fusses, and on and on. Crazy kid. I am not fooled, I know he can do it. It is kinda nice he doesn't cruise around yet because I still don't have to worry that he will get into something off limits.

Playing in HIS cabinet in the kitchen which is full of plastic items and our wooden salad set. He has only figured out how to get the stuff at the very front. I love watching him find something new within his reach. 

He is eating a lot more solids now, including breakfast (which he used to gag and refuse). He loves the apple wagon wheel finger food, but is not a fan of the veggie sticks (even though he loves his pureed veggies). I offered some sliced banana and he just pushed it all over the tray and acted like it tasted bad even though he loves fresh bananas. Just not quite ready for finger foods and that is ok with me because it is just one more thing to think about.

He has increased his babbling and makes lots of sounds, especially b. He also "talks" when others are around now. When Grammy was visiting last week I had to take him out of a restaurant because he was talking so loud that people were beginning to stare. He wasn't fussing at all, he was perfectly happy, but soooo loud. We thought it was hilarious, but decided to be kind to the rest of the restaurant patrons that might not think my son was so cute (but really, who wouldn't think he is adorable?).

He is sitting up very steady now. He can control when he wants to fall forward for a toy or when to stay upright. If we are on the floor with him he crawls all over our legs and tries to stand up. No! Not yet kid. You haven't even completely mastered crawling yet. I know he wont be walking any time soon, but it is crazy to see him try to put his feet under himself already.

It is already getting very cold here. Today, we didn't get out of the 30s. Thank you to all my girlfriends that told me I had to have a Halo Sleepsack. Ben outgrew his first one (0-9 month size), so we got him the next size and he is snuggled up nice and cozy for the night while I type this and we will pass along his too-small ones to the new baby Jackson on staff.

Nite Nite

Lots of Random Ben

Here are lots of recent Ben pictures! He is still teething (I think), but there is nothing to be seen yet. His sleeping is still off balance, sometimes getting up once or twice in the night. Please Lord, let those teeth get here. Then, there is the worry of swine flu or even any sickness. He hasn't been sick yet and I dread it. With the seasons changing, I am trying to be even more proactive about watching what he touches (and then licks).

Enjoy the pictures.

Ben found my Newsweek and loved it. He barely tried to eat it, but loved the sound of the paper in his constantly moving hands.

A big boy outfit. We called him a Lumberjack.

He doesn't use the tunnel as it is intended, but he does love it.

Grammy came to visit for our RMO induction. We had tons of fun!

Ben will grab anything in sight...including Grammy's hair.

 We toured some of the most fabulous play houses / forts. Now, I have to choose between Ben's college fund or my desire to have a playhouse. Hum...

I really want Ben to have a miniature chair. I have seen this one in Target, but it isn't exactly what I want, but he was willing to test it out anyway.

Grammy went to the park with us while Ryan had to work. Ben loves the bucket swing.

We try so hard to coerce him to crawl. He loves to crawl toward things he isn't supposed to have like dirty shoes or my laptop.

Dreaming of being big enough for the playground.

Maybe I am big enough for the playground.

I love sliding.

This is Ryan working. Building relationships in the community is sometimes really fun "work." 

Cutest Baby

Sneak peak at Halloween costume.

When did he grow up?

Ryan Has A Blog

Ryan started a wonderful blog. Even if you don't want to participate in the conversations, it is quite enlightening to follow. He has already posted a few, so take time to look back through them.

Christian Matters of Taste

Religious Missionary Order

Last Saturday Ryan and I participated in our induction ceremony into World Impact's Religious Missionary Order (RMO). The RMO is a group of Christians who have committed themselves to living a certain way in order to accomplish a certain mission. World Impact's mission is to plant churches among the urban poor. As members of the World Impact RMO we have taken 3 vows and commited ourselves to 5 spiritual disciplines.

The 3 vows are:

1. Obedience: Joyfully obeying God's will for my life as revealed in His Holy Scriptures, and to obeying the leaders appointed over me as they follow Christ and the teachings of Scripture.

2. Purity: Not engaging in adultery nor fornication and with God's help keeping my thought-life pure. I understand that divorce is not condoned.

3. Simplicity: Searching after God with all my body, mind and spirit, not pursuing a life of materialism.

The 5 disciplines are:

1. Bible Study

2. Memorization

3. Prayer

4. Meditation

5. Worship

I must say that I was slightly overwhelmed at the evening's events. It was much more formal than I expected which helped me to realize the gravity of what we were doing. The vows were read to us and we repeated "we will." After making these vows, the leadership team of Wichita gathered around us and prayed a wonderful prayer for us and our future as missionaries with World Impact.

We now have our license as Ministers with World Impact and are even card-carrying members. (We have yet to figure out exactly why we need a card, but surely it will get us a discount somewhere and we look so official :)

I would like to take this time to ask you to continue to pray for us and the ministry that we have now officially committed our lives to unless God calls us elsewhere some day. We have greatly enjoyed our first year here and are looking forward to many more. One of the immediate needs we have right now is in our support raising. All missionaries raise 100% of their salary. Until very recently we were blessed to have 100% of our support. With the many challenges of our economy, that level has decreased. I know that many of you that read my blog do so because you love us so much and you are already giving to our support in one way or another. So, maybe you have a friend or family member that might be interested in giving or maybe you would like us to come speak to your small group at your church. We also have some printed materials that we can send to you if you would like a way to tell people about our ministry.

I know I pretty much only talk about Ben on my blog, but if you have any questions about our ministry or the work we are doing, please ask me. I will try to write more about it. Ben is my primary job and he is just so cute, so I can't help writing about it.

First Time Mom

Ben has still been pretty fussy, so I finally took him to see the doctor yesterday afternoon. My happy, perfect sleeper had turned into a monster and I wanted to know why! Thankfully, it is just teething. I spent a co-pay to find that out, but it was totally worth it (to me at least). Now, I can feel better about holding him extra or nursing in the middle of the night when he wakes up screaming. I don't want to create bad habits, but if my sweet, adorably perfect child is in pain, then he can have extra love from mom.

He was back to himself today. Who know what tomorrow will bring, but at least today was great. Grammy  arrives late tomorrow evening for our RMO induction ceremony on Saturday. We are very excited she is coming. The weather is gorgeous here and I can't wait to take her to the park or just run around town with the car windows down.

We went to the park with some friends this morning. This is Lincoln, who is a month older than Ben and Andrew who is 4 years old. Thanks for playing with us Kennedys!

And, this afternoon I kept Lincoln and Andrew while the grown-ups had meetings. Lincoln and Ben were hilarious together. If one had a toy, the other wanted it. As my friend recently reminded me, we are all born with a sinful nature :)

This is when Ben was 4 months and Lincoln was 5 months. Now, they are impossible to keep still. Lincoln crawls all over the place and Ben just rolls around since he hasn't mastered crawling completely yet.