Pre-Christmas Festivities

We loved sharing all of the traditional Christmas experiences with our little Chandler for the first time!

Decorating the tree with him was so much fun. He loved looking at the lights, but was surprising good about not ripping ornaments off the tree. He only really did once or twice. I tried soaking up the awesomeness of that this year because I know next year he'll be grabbing them all off and throwing them across town.

Here he is with his baby's first Christmas ornament that Laurann made him:

I also made him a hand-print Santa ornament to commemorate how big he was on his first Christmas:

We always end by having Josh put the star on top:

The final product:

Chandler also had his very first Santa visit at our ward Christmas party!

Chandler is a very social and friendly baby and has never really had a problem going to new people, so he loved Santa! Especially when Santa pulled out a bag of goodies for him to play with.

I have always loved Christmas and all holiday and traditions; it has been a huge part of my life and my family. Being able to share these special events and experiences with my own little family has brought me indescribable joy. I am so thankful.

Chandler Gets Sick

Chandler has had a couple of colds before, but we recently had our first experience with him being really sick. After we got back from Utah he was slowly getting fussier over the course of a few days, had a runny nose, and was coughing. Then one night our usually excellent sleeper woke up and was wailing and would not go back to sleep for a really long time. Since Chandler also isn't one to cry hard unless he really hurts, we felt pretty sure that he must have an ear infection or something, despite the lack of temperature. So I took him to the doctor the next morning and sure enough, our poor little Bluebird had a double ear infection. So the doctor put him on amoxicillan and we went back home. Chandler continued to battle his cold for the next few days and since I'm an overly-anxious, paranoid mother, I spent a few nights sleeping on his floor so I could be there for him throughout the night. His cold seemed to be getting better, so I moved back to my room. One morning Josh was changing his diaper and noticed a rash on his chest and stomach. It wasn't too bad, so we figured we would take him to the doctor the next day if it got worse. Josh left for work and less than an hour later the rash was getting redder and was starting to spread before my eyes to his face, arms and legs. I called the doctor to get in, and by the time we got there, he looked like this:

After taking a look at the rash, the doctor determined that he was allergic to the penicillin they had given him for his ear infections. She also said it would probably get a whole lot worse before it got better (which it did, but I didn't get any pictures). So we gave him doses of Benadryl multiple times a day until the rash went away. Also, I dumped an almost an entirely full bottle of Benadryl upside down in my diaper bag, but that's another story.

Anyway, our sweet boy eventually got his perfect, smooth skin back, so all is well. As long as we keep him away from penicillin.

Thanksgiving in Utah

Josh's youngest sister, Jocelyn, left for her mission towards the middle of December, so we went out for Thanksgiving to be there for her farewell, say goodbye, and visit all of the Benson clan. Since Riley is in Utah going to UVU, he was able to come to a lot of the events, too!

We stayed at David and Amy's again and had a great time! They have a chicken coop in the backyard now, and Chandler loved looking at the chickens.

We also went to Hang Time again. Since I wasn't pregnant this time, I was actually able to participate! This is the most perfect place for a Benson event because it's huge and all the kids (and us adults...) can just run around and go nuts! Unfortunately, I was having too much fun jumping and didn't stop to take pictures.

We also spent an afternoon at the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point. Despite living in Utah for 6 years, this was my first time visiting there. They had tons of activity stations for kids. (Also, if Josh kinda looks like he's wearing lipstick in some of these pictures, it's because his lips got suuuuuper chapped. My husband does not wear lipstick. Promise.)

Since most of the family was all gathered together (we missed James, Suymey, and kids!) and Jocelyn was about to head into the MTC, we went ahead and did Benson family pictures. Our missing lfamily will get their picture taken at Christmas and be edited in. We also did some pictures of just our little family while we waited. We don't have the big Benson picture yet, but I"ll post that when I get it. I do have our family pictures, which I will share later. In the meantime...

On Thanksgiving Day most of the Benson kids go to their in-laws families so those of us that don't have in-laws in town headed to Golden Corral. It was a great meal and you can't beat not having to cook or clean up!

The girls went straight from eating to napping...

Chandler held off till we made it to our next stop (also, creepy photo bomb. Well played, Riley. Well played.):

Friday is when the Benson family does their Thanksgiving together. John and Caroline were kind enough to host and we all supplied the food. It was delicious! On this trip, we really opened up a lot with what we let Chandler eat.

And of course, we had a couple of game nights. Benson game nights are the best! There are usually 2 or 3 groups that have games going and others just hanging out. And as per their tradition, the boys always get to stay up late playing their Age of Empires game.

It was so fun to watch Chandler interact with his cousins. I wasn't sure how he would do in such a chaotic group setting since he hasn't been around it much, but he loved it! He loves kids and watching them run around. He also had a cousin, Sawyer, that is exactly one month older than him. It was hilarious to see them smile at and grab each other's faces and arms.

His cousin, Ivy, was so excited that a baby was coming to stay at her house! She asked to hold him and it was hilarious because she is such a tiny two-year-old that he was pretty much her same size.

Also, a Benson family dance party complete with glow sticks!

We had so much fun and can't wait to see everybody at the Benson family reunion in 2014!

Our 9 Month Old

Our little guy is 9 months old! We have been absolutely loving this stage and seeing more and more of his adorable personality. Here's a look at Chandler in this stage:

His favorite toys are books. He looooooves them. When he is in a bad mood, I can sit him in front of his book shelves and let him go crazy and then he is perfectly happy.

His favorite food is grape baby Tylenol. When he was sick not long ago and had some, he went crazy over it and was trying to dive out of my arms for the bottle. Unfortunately for him, he doesn't get to have much of his favorite food. So, beyond that, he has started eating baby cereal puffs and he loves those as well.

He has been doing a lot better with going down for naps and to sleep at night. Sometimes he goes straight down, but if he does cry, it's usually only for ten minutes or less. And he gets the saddest little face and turns so he's facing the door and cries for help. It's sad/hilarious. And when he wakes up he looks at the door through the bars and gives me the cutest smile and gets so excited when I come in.

For a awhile, he put on (typically successful) contortionist acts to reach the mobile above his bed instead of sleeping. One of the first times (actually, I think it was the first) he ever pulled himself to a standing position was to get to that mobile.He was on his knees trying to reach it and it was still just barely out of his grasp. So he pulled himself to his knees. I was spying on him through a crack in the door so I ran to get my phone to tell Josh and by the time I got back every stuffed animal had been ripped off the mobile and he was sitting on the bed playing with his spoils.

I love going in to find him sleeping in the craziest positions.

One time he was sleeping on his arm and woke up with a hand print on his face:

He still loves playing with his baby friend that lives in the mirror while I'm getting ready.

He still loves baths and the only toy he needs is his shampoo cup:

A lot of the time when he sleeps he has his eyes slightly open, which is part scary, part hilarious:

A few weeks ago, Chandler started army crawling around on his stomach. We thought he would be regular crawling withing a few days of that, but apparently he had decided that army crawling suits him just fine. He has started getting up on his knees a little bit more, but mostly sticks to his tummy.

His tongue is hanging out of his mouth most of the time:

Ever since he was about 2 1/2 months, we've had him watching the short "Your Baby Can Read" video. For the past month or so, we have fallen into the routine of watching it from his exersaucer first thing when he wakes up. He LOVES it.

He also said "Dada" for the first time on my birthday! But the jury is still out on whether or not it was intentional. He was looking right at Josh at the time, though. Over the last month, he has started babbling it all the time. He has waved and clapped a couple of times, but isn't consistent with it yet. And he pretty much says "Hi!" It isn't perfectly enunciated, but if you say it to him, he usually tries to say it back.

As of about a month ago, he also has two top teeth!

Here he is when he turned 8 months:

And at 9 months:

And the usual miscellaneous pictures:

What's wrong with this picture?

We were over at my parent's house one night and poor Josh was so tired. He had done that thing were you stick the back of the passie in your mouth so that you can use both your hands real fast before you give it to the baby. But before he gave it back, he and Chandler both fell asleep.