Owl Beanie for Little Man

My visiting teaching companion crocheted this adorable owl beanie for Ryder as a gift. Could I be more lucky to have a more talented companion? Oh yeah, she also cooks the most amazing poppyseed bread; I'm pretty sure Chad and I inhaled the loaf she gave us in about 5 minutes flat for lunch one day. Amazing. So, of course, I had to take a couple of pictures to show everyone else how cute this little man is.

...this is his, "I'm done taking pictures now!" face.

This poor kid didn't know what he had coming when he was born to this momma who loves to take his picture!

March Madness

March madness is upon us, which means lots of basketball on at our house. In order to celebrate the overload of basketball, we have a running bracket competition for exclusive bragging rights in the Bennett Home and one against the Brandleys. Winner in the Bennett-Brandley bracket contest gets a scrumptious dinner cooked by the losing team. Last year the Brandleys cooked delicious curry, so we're hoping for a second win! Ryder helped me pick out teams on my bracket and so far we're not doing too bad!Ryder has been loving all the basketball and even got in the spirit for the BYU game last week by dressing up in his BYU onesie.

... let's just say he wasn't happy about the outcome of the game.

The other madness in our life is that as of Saturday, March 17th I had to go back to work. That's right... 6 1/2 weeks off and now its time to go back to reality. This time, with a baby. Upon returning, I switched to the day shift and am now part time which means I only work 2 shifts a week now: Saturday and Sunday. It was a long weekend... over the course of two days, I worked 25 hours and slept 10. Last night after work I came home and completely crashed.

Although it was hard to go back, we do have a good setup which made things a lot easier. On Saturdays, I work from 6-6 and Chad works from 12-9. Chad watched Ryder in the morning and then his awesome sister Kimber watched him until 7 when I could pick him up. As for Sunday, it will now be the official 'man day'... a day of 1-on-1,father-son time. Chad did great taking care of him solo for the entire day! I came home to a sleeping baby, a home-cooked meal, and a big hug. Hopefully this routine will work for now and Ryder won't mind too much that he has a working mommy. Wish us luck!

Pi Day: Mini Apple Pie Bites

3/14 was Pi Day which always calls for a celebration of pie. However, one pie between the two of us just seemed like a little too much pie. The solution? I used my apple pie recipe and my mini muffin pan to make some mini apple pie bites. These were perfect little apple pie samplers and made pie-sharing a lot more doable. I packaged up the leftovers and we took them to some friends in our ward. Happy pi day!

Sticking it to the man.

Having a sister who specializes in child development has its advantages; she keeps us in the loop about what we need to be doing to encourage healthy development. In order to strengthen his neck and back muscles, Ryder is on a strict regimen of daily tummy time. He hates it. He pretty much cries the whole time. However, he has devised a devious avoidance technique. Instead of just enduring it, he just curls up and falls asleep.

That's right, our little man is only 6 weeks old and he is already sticking it to the man.

It's sure hard to be mad with that cute little bum sticking up in the air.

A boy and his dad

One of my most favorite things in the whole world is to see these 2 boys together. Ryder loves spending time in Daddy's arms and Chad is completely in love with this little man. I love to hear Chad talk about all of the things he wants to teach his son when he grows up... mountain biking, working on cars, little league (although he does not really want this one to progress as he does not really enjoy watching baseball), playing hockey, belching (they already work on this one together, playing in the dirt, hiking, how to treat girls right, how to tie a tie, etc. It melts my heart.

I'm lucky that Chad is one of those dads who is there every second of the way and views child rearing as very much a team effort. He holds Ryder close and rocks him to sleep. He loves to burp him halfway through feedings and talks to him about "manly things". He changes diapers like the best of them. My favorite comment from the week was...

"when I change his diaper, I feel like I'm a member of a pit crew. It's all about getting things done as quickly as humanly possible. Every second counts."

How lucky I am to have this husband of mine, to love and take care of this little man of ours right alongside me. I couldn't ask for more... except maybe to get a consecutive 6 hours of sleep. That sounds heavenly right about now.

{Ryder::1 month}

Ryder man was 1 month old last week , i technically counted leap day as the 1 month mark since there was no 30th of February. I, of course, took the opportunity to take some pictures of my sweet little boy. Its kind of ridiculous how many pictures I take of this little boy. I have totally become "that mom" who thinks everything her kid does is utterly and completely amazing and has to take multiple pictures a day to document it. Oh well, there are definitely worse things.

Here are some of the things that make Ryder the little man that he is...

• He's generally a happy baby, he has his moments but he is pretty content most of the time.
  
• He's started to smile a little bit... we can't really reproduce the smiles by any manner of cooing or baby talk to him, but that smile can light up the room.
• He loves to be held and cuddled, but he also likes to just be set down every once in a while. It's kind of nice that he can be happy just hanging out on his own and he doesn't need to be entertained all the time.
• He absolutely LOVES his bouncer and so does momma. When I need to do dishes, eat lunch, take a shower, he's happy as a clam to be hanging out in his bouncer and will usually fall asleep when the vibration is on.
• Breastfeeding was kind of rough for the first week or two, but he has gotten so much better and is now on a consistent 3 hour feeding schedule. At night he will go 3.5-4.5 hours between feedings. I'm hoping that any day now he will just decide that its time to sleep through the night. Keep your fingers crossed.
• As most little boys go, he seems to pee on himself at least once every other day while getting his diaper changed. However, he's quite the one upper and he has had at least 4 independent episodes of pooping all over when his diaper is off during his diaper change. This past Sunday, the poop episode was projectile, flying over the basket of dirty laundry, the blanket basket, and the carpet 3-4 feet away. It was quite the mess, and after throwing EVERYTHING into the laundry, I was even a little impressed at the force required to make such a mess.
• His eyes are definitely going to be blue... they've started to look grayish-blue.
• He loves to throw his entire head back and has been known to look an awful lot like a bobble head. He's gaining strength in his neck rather fast.
• He's an absolute doll and several times a day Chad and I pronounce him to be the cutest baby we've ever seen.
• He makes the funniest facial expressions and keeps me laughing all day.

It's been quite the adjustment to welcome this sweet boy into our family, but we are loving every minute of it. Without further ado, here are some recent pictures I took of this little man.

1 month calendar shots

Baked Scones with Strawberries

I've slowly been transitioning back into cooking/baking, finding time in between feedings and snuggling with our little bug. This was one recipe that looked easy, delicious, and fairly quick to prepare. We were rewarded with a tasty little breakfast treat and a recipe that can be easily adapted to any flavor combination you can imagine.

Basic Baked Scones
Our Best Bites

Ingredients:

1/3 C real butter
1 ¾ C Flour
3T sugar
2/1/2 t baking powder
¼ t salt
1 egg, beaten
4-6 T milk

Instructions:

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut in butter with pastry blender until it resembles fine crumbs.

Combine egg and 4T milk. Slowly pour milk mixture into dry mixture while mixing with a fork to combine. If you need the additional 2 T milk to bring the dough together, add it. I almost always need the full 6T of milk.

a baby in a white onesie

I'm pretty I have never seen anything cuter than a baby chillin' in a white onesie. It melts my heart. Especially when said baby is in a particularly happy mood.

Hope you have a great weekend!