Hilton Head Island

Josh and I took Bennett to Hilton Head Island for 4 days over Mother's day. We fell in love with Hilton Head and will definitely be back! 

Bennett really enjoyed watching the airplanes and trucks out the windows at the airport

 Traveling there was our biggest fear. Our normally very active, rambunctious toddler does not like to sit still for very long.......ever. A 3:30 AM wake-up prompted several catnaps throughout the day. He was such a trooper though, and I would call the airplane travel a huge success! He was loving it!

 Some shots of the condo we rented for the trip

Love this!!

Enjoying our first moments in Hilton Head at the beach and out to eat. Lot's of live music to enjoy everywhere we went. Bennett really enjoyed the music!

 Biking is THE mode of transportation in Hilton Head. We only rented bikes for 1 day while there, but we definitely got our use of them. We biked 9 miles to brunch and back, and later in the day we logged another 10 miles to Sea Pines and back. Bennett loved the bikes and continually asked about them the rest of the trip.

Some park fun before brunch!

Hilton Head had some awesome parks!

Mother's Day Brunch at Poseidon in Palmetto Dunes

We loved the rocking chairs located all over the island

1st beach day

The only bad thing about the beach......the jellyfish:( 

(Kind of hard to see in this picture, but they were scattered up and down the beach and you had to watch for them in the water)

 More Rocking chairs

We spent Mother's day evening listening to live music, admiring the boats, and eating ice cream at Harbor Town in the Sea Pines plantation.

Busy beach day! View from our condo

Beach day #2

We also logged many, many hours at the pools

Swimming with Daddy

Josh got lucky and even got to golf in Hilton Head

Our last night in Hilton Head we went to eat at the Salty Dog Cafe. They also had live music, where Bennett really enjoyed dancing with all of the other kids!

Our first family vacation was a huge success!! We fell in love with Hilton Head and are already discussing when we can come back!!

Bennett Update {17, 18, and 19 Months}

Yep, it is true. I suck at blogging. I say this every time, every post. Each week, I say to myself "I think I am going to do a blog post." And then I don't. I just spent the last 30 minutes reading through previous blog posts. So here is my new goal: not to make every post long, but to try to update it more regularly with pictures and captions. And let's be honest, what I read in Bennett's 15 month update is not much different from what he is doing now at 19 months.

In fact, at his 18 month appointment last month, I don't think he grew at all! He is still 23 lbs. and is still around 32 inches tall. He is still napping once or twice a day, although he is more likely only to do the 1 nap a day for 2-3 hours in the afternoon. Sleeping at night is pretty much the same-going to bed at 7:30-8 and waking up around 6:30 AM. He will eat just about anything with ketchup; chicken, strawberries, cereal, yup anything!

He talks a lot more nowadays. I can actually understand him, but he definitely understands more than he can say. He also learned how to sign "more" at daycare, which is so adorable! He is starting to put together words and small sentences. He repeats just about anything we say, so time to start being careful. He absolutely loves babies and puppies (and no, he is not getting either of them anytime soon).

He tends to get a little "hangry" just like his momma. And him and Josh have the most adorable relationship, although I won't always admit I like that. Josh will tease me about something, and then Bennett will repeat it, and then they will look at each other and laugh. Yep, I should have know that was coming, ganging up on me already.

Here are some pictures/updates from the last 4 months:

Visiting Santa for the first time this year went surprisingly well. No tears! Win in my book.

Bennett got a potty and a kitchen for Christmas. The potty is just for fun right now. We have not even attempted to start the potty training, nor do I want to!

He loves the kitchen!

 

Bennett got his first haircut this winter. He looks a lot more scared than he actually was. He did surprisingly well, just a little nervous. He also had his first dentist appointment in March, but I was not able to get any pictures of that.

 

Love these little overalls

I mean seriously, how adorable! He was just loving this arcade

First time in the snow

In Febuary, we visited the Science Center of Iowa. They have this adorable little kitchen, which Bennett never wanted to leave.

 They also have dinosaurs, which Bennett thought was kind of cool as well.

My new favorite play spot is Barnes and Noble. Seriously. If you don't know about this, you should. Barnes and Noble does story time, and crafts, and they have little play areas.

Again at Barnes and Noble. We attempted to beat cabin fever all winter by finding new spots to play.

 

He has been loving his hats lately, and I just thought this picture was cute.

 

 

We also visited Great Wolf Lodge in early March. Bennett was not feeling the best, so unfortunately, he was not enjoying the pool and slides as much as we would have liked. But he loves swimming, so I am sure we will be back!

Finally, these last few weeks have been warmer and we spend ALOT of time outside and at the park already. Seriously, does he not just look so big here?!

Bennett's favorite at the park is the slide. He is not a big swinger, but give this kid a slide and he will be amused for days.

Last week was 80 degrees! Yes, that is a hot dog dipping in applesauce.

I realized we haven't given Elin much love on the blog yet. In late October, Bennett met his new baby cousin, Elin. She is now 5 months old, and such a big girl sitting in the stroller all by herself. Last week we went to the park again, with all three kids, imagine that!

 

We are so fortunate to have found a great in home sitter for Bennett. Melissa sends up pictures throughout the day, and these are some of my favorites from the last few months.

 

Bennett Update {15 and 16 Months}

 I really wish I was better at this blogging thing, but I swear the days (and months) just fly by. I love the IDEA of a blog, something to track Bennett's growth and remind me what he was doing and when, but at the same time it is so hard to sit down and do this when all I want to do at the end of the day is just relax.

Stats & Recent Appointment: We had his 15 month check mid-November. Bennett weighed in at 23lbs and he is now 32 inches tall. We also had 4 shots this go around. Typically the immunizations have not bothered me in the past, but for some reason this time it just felt like Bennett knew exactly what was going on and let me tell you……he did not like it one bit! He cried more and harder than ever before. Lucky for us, we have a really tough little boy and after a sucker and some hugs and kisses, he was back to his usual rambunctious self.

Teeth: Finally getting more teeth! He really held steady at 6 teeth for what felt like 6 months! But, low and behold, all the drooling, rosy cheeks, and bottom-rashes did mean that two more teeth were coming in. Bennett has always been a good teether, we really have no idea he is teething other than seeing his drool (which, to be honest, he is always drooling), but rosy cheeks and bottom-rashes also alert us to new teeth.

   

Sleep: Some days he will take 2 naps and some days just 1. It depends on what he have going on and when he wakes up in the morning.  If we are out and about, he forgets about being tired and we can usually put him down between 11AM-12PM for a 2-3 hour nap. If we are at home, he can easily take 2 naps, one morning nap and one afternoon nap. Nighttime sleep is still great. Going to bed between 7-8 PM (sometimes later on the weekends), and FINALLY sleeping until 7 or 7:30 AM!!!! I swear this kid was always always going to wake up between 5:30-6:30 AM for the rest of our lives, but in the past two weeks he has made a breakthrough. YAY!

Eating: Sometimes picky, and sometimes great. He loves any pasta, mac and cheese, and hot dogs. He is less fond of any sort of potato (fries, hash browns, mashed potatoes, etc. I know….so weird!), he goes back and forth about chicken, beef, and pork, but recently has been better about eating meat. Still loving any and all fruit, and usually we wait to give him fruit until after he eats otherwise that is all he will eat. He has recently taken up an absolute obsession for dipping; dipping in ketchup, ranch, anything! If he sees you dipping your food, be sure that you will need to share. And typically, dipping just means sucking off the ketchup or ranch off whatever item he is dipping. Hope no one minds double dipping in our house!

Social: Still so, so social! Loves to run up and down aisles in the store, hiding from us. He loves to be chased! He loves to watch people, and does not miss a beat. His vocabulary has recently taken off, and it is so fun to listen to him say new words/phrases!

Best Friends, holding hands:)

dada

mommy

la-la = water

uh-oh

owie (and this one is recently VERY overused!)

ma = Milk

Ba=Bath, or Ball

peeassee = please

Bye bye

Gamma = Grandma

Gacie = Gracie

Baby

Ahh done = All Done

Hahhh = Hot

Eat

Foooball

Bah Ball = basketball

Puppy

 (These are all that I can think of right now, I am sure there are more)

Favorite New hiding place in the bathroom......

Likes: Climbing, playing with the kitchen utensils, pots, pans, etc. Dancing, being chased, reading books, helping mom and dad with anything and everything, he truly is our little helper. Toilets, he absolutely loves the toilet, flushing it, watching the water, etc. Toilet paper and paper towels (anything he can make a mess with), jumping (or trying to)


Dislikes: Waiting for dinner, when he is overtired, when he is told “no,” having his diaper changed

New This Month: 

- Learning how to use utensils, getting better every day! 

- He can point to his belly and toes when we ask “where is Bennett’s Belly?” “Where are Bennett’s toes?”, but is not sure where anyone else’s Belly and toes are.

- He follows simple instructions. “We are going bye bye” and he will run to his coat or shoes. “Please throw this away” and he will throw it away in the garbage.

- Recently started using “owie” to explain anything and everything. I know it does not hurt, but for some reason he thinks “owie” will get a response out of us if he does not want to be put him his carseat or have his diaper changed.

Surprisingly, our Santa visit went really well!! no tears at all