So I got up at like 8:30 this morning, ate some bananas and tofu and looked around for Mommy but instead found Daddy. Mommy went to go to a woman's thingy at church, no men allowed so Daddy and I spent the morning together. He dressed me in my favorite hoodie that says "Captain Awesome" on it. I think it reminds Daddy of Captain Amazing from Mystery Men.
We loaded up the wagon with my monkey and my ukulele(and a some other stuff dad brought along) and headed for the farmers market and got some lettuce, carrots, lemons, apples and strawberrys. We also got Mommy some nice Callow Lilies I picked out for her.
When we were walking back to the car I pointed out a playground that was on the way and we went over and played on the slide. Weeeeeeee!
After that we made one more stop! GUITAR CENTER!
Daddy apparently has been holding out on me. It was amazing. There were lots of guitars, and lights and drums! Daddy showed me how superior Martins were to Taylor guitars, I mixed some tunes and played with the lasers in the live sound room, and Dad let me hit some drums in the drum room. Thanks for a great morning Dad! Lets go do it again soon!
-Bennett
Last week my long time friend (we met in 1995, through Student Venture and riding the bus home together) got married!
It was such an awesome night! The decorating made you feel like you were outside in an awesome moonlit ceremony ... which is pretty impressive since we were in an industrial building at 4:30 in the afternoon! Jenny of course looked stunning! (as she was just precious as she tried to hold back the tears coming down the isle!
The ceremony was truly beautiful! The pastor said the most beautiful words about marriage I think I have ever heard (no joke, I want a copy of what he said so I can read it again)! I seriously was convicted while he was talking to Jenny telling her how it was her job to bring life and beauty into the home so that her husband had a place of rest to come to because without her doing that he would have no home. (He also had amazing things to say to Ryan as to what he was to do for Jenny!)
We didn't stay super long into the reception, but we did get to see the first dance and grab a little bit to eat (as well as more than a few creme puffs dipped in the chocolate fountain - So Good!)
My friend Rene snapped this picture of us (Thanks Rene!) I promise, no matter what you think you see in this picture I am NOT pregnant! I think it was the creme puffs - or just me having bad posture! Just looking at this picture again makes me want to go do sit ups!
We put Bennett in his PJ's, for the drive home and as we were doing that, his friend Caleb found him so we let them play for a little bit.
And then, lucky for us, as we were walking out we were able to talk to Jenny for a few minutes and snap a quick picture!
... so it's about time for those one year pictures to finally hit the blog!
Yes, those are the same blocks from this:
So, as you all know our boy is now...
...and we think that he is just about the cutest thing around. Here's a little update on all that he is up to now.
At his one year check up Bennett weighed 24 pounds (the 69th percentile) and was 31 1/2 inches (67th percentile).
As of right now Bennett's favorite things to do involve making noise (aka: playing music). He has his own piano, guitar, banjo, kazoo, 3 xylophones, harmonica, castanets and a tambourine. And that's not counting any of Adam's instruments that Bennett thinks are his.
Bennett has been doing really well at communicating. His words include: Mama, Dada (sometimes Diddy), Yes, Yeah, This and That. He has said No only a couple times but usually he touches something and looks at us and says "Yes?" It's pretty cute. Other forms of communicating include the sign for "more", he uses it while eating and while playing (when he doesn't want to stop what he is doing he will sign "more" ... yet again another way to avoid saying the word 'no' - funny huh?) Bennett has also recently (in the last week or so) mastered the art of pointing. He can direct us (as well as guests) as to exactly what it is he would like for them to get for him! (Uncle Brian and Auntie Lee-Lee know this one all too well)
Bennett has been exploring lots of new foods lately too! He absolutely LOVES the red beans and rice I made last week. He also has a new love for banana and pear! Some other new foods include steal cut oats, raw zuccini, raw broccoli, white potatoes and ginger cookies. He still loves his rice cakes (seriously, he would eat them for every meal and snack if I let him)! He also is enjoying some old favorites from his "puree" days now just steamed and cut into cubes like butternut squash and yams. He is an awesome eater!
Last but not least, Bennett is officially a walker! These first two videos were a few weeks ago when he was just starting out (don't feel bad if you laugh, I do every time!)
This last video was taken this afternoon as Adam and I were moving the furniture in Bennett's room around. I noticed just how much better he is doing at walking and pulled my camera out so you all could see just how well he's doing!
Bennett has been having a lot of good male bonding time lately, both with family and friends, here's a little re-cap:
His Great Uncle Tim came to town for about 24 hours last week- they ate rice cakes together and crawled around the house and the stairs. Uncle Tim needed to get some playing practice in before his son Jacob Lee arrived and good thing he did because "Baby Jake" made his entrance to the world just 5 days after Tim's visit!
Welcome Jacob Lee, we here in the Elwer home can't wait to meet you in person!
Speaking of sweet boys named Jacob, Bennett got to play with his friend Jacob the other night! The adults all got together for a great dinner and Bennett and Jacob had a blast together too! They played on the stairs (with parents right there, of course) for so long! We were hoping it would wear them both out but they just kept going!
They even had enough energy after dinner to tackle Adam!
More fun man time came this last week when Tio Pepe (aka Uncle Aaron) passed through Los Angles for a few hours on his way from Wyoming to Ireland! It was great to see Aaron for a few hours, Bennett always has a great time with him!
And then last but not least, yesterday, Bennett was finally starting to feel better from his strep throat and decided to wrestle his grandpa to the ground just to show us that he had regained his energy.
(Woo hoo! I hit 4 blogs last month, which accomplished my goal of one per week. We'll see how this month goes) So the other day my wife and I went to APU's common day of learning, a day of speakers and seminars when all the classes are canceled and most of the students bail and go to the beach. A friend of mine referred to it fondly as the common day of leaving. Well one of my favorite writers was the key note speaker so I took a "development day" off work to go see him.
We left Bennett with Grammie and made our way to Azusa, eating cold pizza and drinking hot chai. For the first session we split up. I went to a (to me at least) interesting class on the theological and philosophical ramifications of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum physics taught by two physicists and a philosopher/theologian. (Click the link, I dare you :) We watched a pretty awesome movie with "Dr Quantum" in it that takes a slightly simpler approach to the concepts. Sarah went to a class on Culinary Leadership that was taught by her old R.D when she was an R.A. at APU. I liked my class but hers sounded pretty cool too. They talked about food, and what passes as food for most people today, and gave tangible small steps to take towards food health and independence. Every garden starts with one plant, eat only meals you can recognize ingredients in, fast meat for one meal a week. I think this class lead to my wife's desire to start a food garden and her revelation that she would be okay living on a farm. There was an amazing Ted Talks (an amazing site if you have never been - ted.com) with Jamie Oliver (of the Naked Chef) on teaching people about food. If you don't follow any other links, invest the 15 minutes to watch the video. Its amazingly convicting and change inspiring. At one point he goes to a school where kids cant even identify basic fruits and veggies.
After that we went and saw Dallas Willard who talked about knowledge informing faith, and what it looks like for Christians when we give up knowledge to "just have faith"
It was hard to pay attention, not because he was boring, but rather it was, as Sarah put it, rather like reading one of his books. He speaks clearly and succinctly, and every word matters to his ultimate point. Its worth watching if you have 40 minutes or so. Its on iTunesU so if you click this link it will open up iTunes to download it.
We then went and had lunch at The Hat. Split a pastrami and an order of fries.
Then we went to a panel on the differences and commonalities between the Catholic and Protestant views of the Sacraments. There was a Protestant English professor, a Catholic English professor, a Protestant theology professor, and a Catholic priest on hand for discussion. Pretty much every one agreed that though most Protestant churches acknowledges 2 (and some times three) sacraments and the Catholic church acknowledges seven, the Christian life is supposed to be a sacrament of constantly turning towards God. And two of them confessed to taking the Eucharist at a catholic church without being catholic (though one eventually became Catholic)
We skipped out on the last session to beat the traffic, but stopped at Kelly's for some iced chai before we left. We made it home in pretty good time. All in all a pretty nice day.
When we got home from winter camp this is what we found on our floor! We don't know who brought it but really that doesn't matter, it's from the Lord and He deserves that credit for it anyways!
God is so good and we really do have our life and breath in Him! Large amounts of money appearing on our floor, spelling out a portion of Acts, is of course not a normal thing in our home, but the Lord providing for our every need - well that is something that is common in our home and we are so blessed to have his provision show up in such a neat and tangible way this time! Thank you Lord! Your love endures forever, your mercies are new every morning!
So, about 4 weeks ago, we mailed out this sweet little picture along with some basic party information and that was as far as we had gone with the planning! If you want to know details about crafts and food and such feel free to click here to go to my (sarah's) personal blog and read all the the crafty glory! (I really am rather proud of all that went down in under a month and came out looking oh so cute!) But for this blog, we will keep to the big story - THE PARTY!
One major thing we didn't plan for was the rain! Bennett's party was going to be a backyard park party! Considering we have play dates back there and that it basically looks like a park - I thought it would be the perfect location! And it would have been if not for the rain!
I mean seriously - who wouldn't want to play there?!
It was going to be a glorious party with flags and balloons and little circles hanging down from the trees.... instead our next door neighbors said "Move the party into our house!" and when we looked at the weather forecast and it said "90% chance of rain" we went ahead and took them up on their offer! So we just took all the decorations to their house and it turned out to be a lovely party despite the yucky weather!
Bennett took a two hour nap just before the party so we really couldn't have asked for a happy boy either!
We try... but you know how family pictures go... sometimes this is the best you can get!
We kept the party pretty low key, not any structured games or anything (There were way too many people crammed in the Prior's house for that!) We did all manage to congregate to sing happy birthday and watch Bennett have his first cupcake!
He became very serious while we were singing and at one point I thought he might actually cry!
But with a little taste off dad's finger Bennett had no trouble diving right in to his cupcake!
But really he did manage to stay rather clean (we've had much messier dinners!) After a little calm down time from all the cupcake excitement, we eventually made it to presents! The favorite of course being the 50 cent pinwheel! It's always that simple things! Bennett has been taking that thing everywhere ever since the party! One present I would just like to point out - the totally home made monkey! Can you believe how cut that thing is? Some times I think, "Yeah, I'm crafty" that is until I see things like this! I could never even dream of putting something together that is that cute! Amazing! One constant battle we had through out the party was with the drink "bucket". Seeing as we had planned for an outside party, the drink bucket was Bennett's wagon - cute, right? Well, Bennett was not very interested in his wagon being filled with stuff so he kept throwing the drinks out and trying to get in the wagon! As people started to leave, we finally just let him have his way, and his grandma gave him a wagon ride around the party with all the drinks in tow for a good 20 to 30 minutes! (I'm sure her arms were killing her the next day - those drinks are heavy and Bennett is no light weight either! Thanks Mary Beth! ) By the end of the night, we were totally picked up and out of the Prior's hair by just one hour after the scheduled end time (However I am still doing dishes from the party at my house - yuck!) Adam and I had a great time and we are so glad that we got to celebrate our sweet son with so many of our dear friends and family!
