Wonderful Husband

Dave has been a wonderful husband and father. I cannot begin to say how much I appreciate him staying home with the kids on Mondays and Tuesdays. Not only do Benjamin and Ada enjoy spending time with him but he always welcomes me home from work with a hot meal. He always has the table set with supper on the table when I walk through the door. He has made a variety of things and has even used the crockpot. He has also went out on a limb and tried a few new recipes. He is becoming quite the chef, now if I could just get him to do the laundry! He has been so supportive of me working and so helpful around the house. Benjamin has already established his night-time routine with daddy. Benjamin always asks for daddy to give him a bath, help brush his teeth, say his prayers, and get him ready for bed and Dave does it without any hesitation. There have been nights when Dave has stayed up with Ada so I can get some sleep so I am not completely exhausted for work. Dave knows that I would prefer to stay home with the kids but it just isn't in the cards for us right now. I appreciate all that he does for me/us. I don't know what I would do without him. Thank you honey for all that you do. I love you very much!!

Starting Solids

Yesterday Ada tried rice cereal for the first time! I decided she was ready to try cereal because she keeps trying to grab food off of our plates and she is fascinated with our silverware. She was so excited to try her cereal; although, she didn't know what to think of it at first. She gave me this really confused look like "I think I want to try that again but I am not quite sure." Tonight she would grab the spoon and pull it towards her mouth. I can't believe that my baby is starting solids, it doesn't seem possible that she is old enough already (okay at the time of this posting she has only had two feedings). I am happy to report that Ada is still nursing like a champ! Things are going so well that our freezer in the basement is full of frozen breast milk.

Outdoor Fun

Ada getting ready to go outside
Benjamin working on his snowbunny

Putting on the final touches!

Benjamin and one of his snowbunnies

Dave and Benjamin working on a snowbunny

We took advantage of the nice weather on Sunday and went outside and played. I couldn't believe how nice it was. Benjamin and Dave had fun building snow bunnies "snow jackrabbits". Benjamin was only interested in making snow bunnies and not snowmen so that's what the boys made. It was pretty cute watching Dave and Benjamin work together to make their jackrabbits. There were times I was wondering who was doing most of the work as it seemed they were taking turns with the responsibility. They made their snow bunnies at the park. While at the park Benjamin enjoyed swinging and going down the slide. He is definitely an outside kid so this cold winter has been rough on all of us (not just Benjamin). Benjamin was in his element playing at the park. It was too bad his sister couldn't partake in the fun. We bundled her up, put her in the stroller, and as soon as we started walking to the park she fell asleep. She slept the entire time we were at the park and the whole way home. I think she would have slept longer if we could have left her in the stroller. It was fun getting out of the house for a change but the thing that I enjoyed the most was we got out as a family! I really enjoy family time and I must admit that there have been times where I should be cleaning my house or washing dishes but I have put it off in order to spend time with Dave and the kids. When I think about it, the kids will only be this age once; while I will always have dishes to wash and a house to clean. I can't wait for all the adventures we will get into this summer!

Benjamin Bowling

We have been going a little stir crazy with the weather being so cold lately that we have been trying to come up with different games to play with and different activities to do. Well we broke out baby bowling. Benjamin devised a new way to play the game. Line them up along the wall and hold onto the ball and say "roll" as you are knocking them down. He would play for hours like this; setting them up and knocking them down, setting them up and knocking them down, etc. He also liked to tell us the colors of the pins and what animal each one was. He would then connect color and animal. We are working on teaching him to count them. He can count beyond ten but we are trying to work on how many the respective number is. He understands one and two but we are working on the others.

All Things Girly

Benjamin has quite the imagination! He likes to pretend he is different animals (cow, horse, chicken, monkey, etc.), spider man and many others. He also likes to dress-up in our shoes, clothes, his clothes, and his sister's hair accessories! If Ada is wearing any of her headbands he likes to take them off of her and wear them himself. It is pretty cute. If you can't tell these are pictures of our little Turbo wearing Ada's head bands. Note the picture where he can't make up his mind about which one looks the best!

Adjustment

It has been a crazy couple of months for me. I was just getting adjusted to being back to work from maternity leave when I found out that I needed to have my gallbladder removed. So I was back to work about a month and then had my gallbladder surgery. I could only take two days off of work as I did not qualify for Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) (as I used this up during maternity leave) until September of 2008. Apparently, FMLA is a rolling year deal as opposed to a calendar year. Anyhow, I was lucky enough to have my surgery over the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday so I got an additional day off of work. My recovery has been pretty good except for the anesthesia withdrawal that I dealt with. I had such terrible headaches, fever, and threw-up. I could handle the pain from the incisions and surgery but those headaches put me over the edge!

January through March is my busy meeting time of the year. I have to organize and put on crop clinics, private applicator trainings (PATs), farm shows, different speciality programs, etc. I also have to attend trainings and meetings for my own professional improvement. I am based out of Turner County (my office is based in Parker, SD) and my new work area is in Minnehaha, Turner, and Lincoln counties. I used to work with seven different counties in southeast SD so I am happy that my travel has been reduced and that I work closer to home. I really enjoyed working with my old Field Education Unit (FEU). I have been having a rough time getting readjusted to work and to the new FEU.

Horsing Around

As you can tell from the above video, my kiddos enjoy horsing around with one another. Benjamin loves giving Ada "horsie rides". He will also pretend that he is a cow, puppy, goat, and a chicken. If you couldn't tell he has quite the imagination! Whether or not you want to believe it, Ada is almost always a willing participant for Benjamin. You can usually find her smiling or giggling when Benjamin is entertaining her. These two go together like two peas in a pod! There is never a dull or boring day here. We always go to bed exhausted around here--I bet you can't guess why!