This is how we roll

This picture makes me laugh, but on any given day, this randomness could be happening in Connisonville...2 dudes, eating bananas, one of them dressed like Thomas the Train.

Sidewalk chalk

We play outside in our driveway an awful lot.  O, P, and J have been coloring with chalk for a while now, mostly scribbles,  but O can now draw his letters.  Usually it is Momma or GaGa drawing letters, pictures, or hopscotch squares, but the boys do their fair share of coloring.  I have found sidewalk chalk on our cars, the front door, the garbage/recycling bins, the mailbox and even on our walls when we forget to confiscate a piece after heading back inside. 

Now Ben is big enough to get into the mix (although I did have to remove chalk from his mouth on more than one occasion).  Our littlest dude is getting so big!

Ben in a Big Boy car seat

Our baby Ben has graduated to a big boy car seat and he finally gets to see the world now. No longer riding backwards so we have reconfigured the Swagger Wagon once again. We removed one bucket seat with no middle and placed 3 car seats across the back. It gives us a makeshift changing table, easy access to the rear seats and Jen loves it. Nuff said. When Momma is happy…we are all happy.

Ben's Tooth Update

Ben has progressed into 3.5 teeth.  Yes, three and a half.  His first two bottom teeth have been out for a little while now and his top right tooth is pretty far along as well.  The left front tooth has broken the skin but it isn't really out like the other one so it looks like he has one Chicklet. 

You can kinda see that top tooth poking out.  

Doing a little light reading.

We went through a rough patch with his sleep patterns due to this new tooth, but I think we are past the tough part and only have to deal with ALL the others coming in...  Ben was waking up frequently during the night, and the only thing that would sooth him was Momma.  Thankfully we are over that now, but Ben has been starting to enjoy to early morning hours and has been waking up in the 5s.  This especially isn't great since I am usually at the gym by this time and Jen is on her own and forced to get up. 

Having gone through this a few times before, we know this little routine change will be shortlived, but until then...it is quite annoying until little Ben gets on the same schedule as his big bros!!

Ben's First Tooth

4 days before his 6 month birthday, Ben has sprouted his first tooth!!  It has just broken the skin, but it is still there...

He has been a drool machine lately and constantly has his hands or something in his mouth.  I was finally able to feel the first little one break the skin on the bottom right side of his mouth.  Ben was sleeping through the night from 2-5 months and he is still sleeping pretty good with his tooth pain.  Since his teeth are bothering him, he has now formed a little habit of arising to eat in the middle of the night.  Hopefully we can break that habit soon and the tooth pain will subside and we can all get back to uninterupted sleep!! 

Ben’s Bad Night

Newsflash: Ben isn’t perfect. I know it is tough to believe, but we had a not so great time the other night. He’s got the boogie-woogs and it pretty congested, so it isn’t his fault, but it still wasn’t pretty for us. It started with a 12:30am wake up call to feed him, another one around 2:50-3:45am which ended with me rocking him in the chair, and the last one was an hour and a half sleeping/feeding on and off with Jen around 5am. We were both exhausted and at that point realized how lucky we were that Ben usually sleeps from 8 or 9 something into the 6 o’clock hour. He is 3.5 months and sleeps like an angel, and so do we because of it.


I guess we have to take the occasional bad night in exchange for the peacefulness that usually takes place.

On a similar note of Ben not being perfect, the times that Ben is usually the fussiest is when he is OVER tired. If we miss that window of opportunity to put him down, he kind of goes berserk. We recently had one of those nights too when everyone else went to bed, he screamed for about 25 minutes. He fought me tooth and nail and eventually had to be soothed, rocked and passed out in my arms rocking in the chair…it was pretty pathetic. 

Ben, let's try not to do that again.  Love, Dad.

Ben's Baptism!!

Ben was baptized this yesterday at Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church by Father Paul Schott. Father Paul married Jen and I, and performed the baptism ceremony for each of the boys. P and J were co-baptized in BR with another Priest at St. George Catholic Church (and also with their cousin Kevin).

What I like about HNJ, is that the ceremony is after mass, where it is just your family and the priest. This is nice because you get to focus on it being a ceremony and not the fact that they are squeezing it in the middle of mass with everyone looking at their watches (oh, am I the only one who does that?). I know there is good reason to bring your child into the Catholic community during mass and all and I like that concept, but we have 4 kids, and corralling them all for the ceremony is no small feat.

Owen and Parker were in attendance while Jack proceeded to have a fit and was ushered to the church nursery by Pops (though we are pretty sure that it was probably his full diaper that was causing his fussiness). Park decided it was time to smack my bald head like a drum and spittle all over me as he chirped out some words into the echoing empty. Thankfully Owen and Ben were angels as Father Paul went on with the ceremony.

We all went back to GaGa and Pop’s house for a little party where we dogged out those delicious BLT finger sandwiches and awesome cake from Whole Foods. Vincent and Antoinette were excellent Godparents performing their duties for Ben, but I am still unsure why they left with Ben’s most awesome baptism present ever…a 2010 Chevy Avalanche. Vincent, I’m gonna need you to bring that back, I plan on teaching Ben how to drive soon!!

Here are some pics of the blessed event.

Halloweenies

I think we need to give some credit to Sissy for coming up with this idea, but much credit goes to Jen for designing and making these costumes a reality - One Dat (Parker), Two Dat (Jack), Who Dat (Owen), and New Dat (Ben).

We were all in NOLA for Ben’s baptism and thought it would be easier to have some help hitting the streets so we stayed until it was time to go Trick or Treating. We all took the dudes walking down Octavia ready to get some treats. Jen had been practicing Owen’s routine over the past couple of days and when the pressure was on, he shined. He went right up to the first house and said “Trick or Treat” with his little pumpkin out ready for some candy. He needed to be reminded (as he does with so many other things) about his “Thank You’s”, but he did great. We went to a few houses, and ended up at a block party on S. Rocheblave where they had the street blocked off and everything.

Owen cleaned up, which means I cleaned up. You see, I’m five years old and I love candy. Since Owen only likes DumDum lollipops (and of course M&Ms for pottying), we don’t need to give him any more sugar so I pretty much get to take the rest of the candy to work. WAHOO!! I guess Sour Patch Kids and Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups are an acquired taste.

He really loved the whole event, he was so excited to show us his candy. After we put him to bed last night, a few minutes later, he came out because he “had to check on his treats.” The same thing happened in the morning; he just carried around his basket of treats and didn’t even care to eat them. Now that I think about it, I’m not sure if he is even related to me…

More Halloween Pics!

Let's hope this doesn't jinx it.

Ben is awesome, really awesome. We have always had good babies; Owen, Parker and Jack have all been great, but I think Ben takes the cake. For each kid, the dynamic obviously changes; we had to only care for one baby, and then needed to worry about two babies and one toddler, and now we have a baby, two toddlers, and a legit big boy. First, we were new parents who didn’t know anything, then it was a learning experience with P/J at the same time, and now that we are professionals having such an easy baby is a blessing from the Big Guy. It isn’t all peaches, he has his moments, but it is usually related more to what else has to be done when he is getting fussy (all the meals – kiddo and parent, bath time, nighttime, potty breaks, injury timeouts, whatever). If Ben is tired of hanging out and wants to be held, by all means, he deserves some quality time by himself (but he doesn’t always get it).

Even at nighttime, he doesn’t wake up fussy and screaming FEED ME MOMMA!!! It is more of muffled grunts that are just enough to wake us up. The point is he eats and goes right back to sleep. He is two months old and sleeps from about 9:30pm-5:00am. We couldn’t be happier with that because we know that the key to our sanity is definitely getting enough sleep. That gives us enough sleep to be able to deal with anything that our days bring us. Again, he is awesome.

Thanks Ben, Mom and Dad really appreciate how accommodating you have been in this crazy house filled with dudes.

Tubs and Tubs of Clothes!!

We spend a lot of time right after Ben was born organizing the Rubbermaid tubs in the boys’ closets. They have been unpacked and repacked with corresponding sizes for upcoming seasons for Parker and Jack and mostly Ben who will be right in line with both sizes and seasons to fit in all of Owen’s old clothes. Seriously, Ben won’t need one article of clothing…but something tells me that we will be seeing some monogrammed “Benjamin” clothes!! Here is his first one courtesy of Big Lea and Sydney.

Vacationing in BR

Having our family in town has been such a blessing. Jen and I have been able to "relax" at Woman's Hospital with our only focus on Baby Ben. The room is much quieter than our house and we don't have to worry about our dudes, we know they are in terrific hands. It's like a mini vacation...

The minute we get released tomorrow and we are all back at home, I'm sure it will be a rude awakening. With 4 boys 3 and under, I doubt there will be many dull moments so we are taking advantage of the quiet time while we can! 

Like Jon and Kate said, it's a crazy life, but its our life.

Benjamin Daniel Connison

It's a BOY!

Baby Ben was born on Friday, August 20th at 12:51pm.  He weighed in at 8 lbs. 14 oz. and was 20 inches long.

The section went perfectly and Jen was such a trooper through the whole thing.  Momma is an excellent baby maker!

Welcome to the world big guy. We love you so much already.