Six months old

Bennett turned six months old last week.  Better late than never!  It's been a little busy around here with the holidays and all.  Bennett is still growing and growing and all smiles!  He's just a sweet and cuddly baby.  Everyone stops and comments on his smile and I get asked all the time if he ever cries.  Honestly, rarely!  We are truly blessed.  He started eating vegetables last week.  I have been making all of his foods and he loves everything - squash, sweet potatoes, peas and carrots.  If you remember three years ago I was having the hardest time trying to get Ella to eat.  Bennett is the complete opposite!  I even had to get more food for him at his first meal!  He hasn't started moving around yet.  He sits up well, but he still hasn't rolled over yet.  He loves for you to hold him like he's standing up.  Maybe he'll try to walk before crawl. 

weight - 21.8 lbs +95%  Ella weighed 21.3 lbs at 1 year!
height - 28 1/4 in 95%

Hmmm...squash....not bad!

Mom decided to multi-task - cook and feed B in the sink before bath

Mom, just let me do it!

Ella teaching B pat-a-cake

Santa!

Ella was so excited to see Santa this year...until it was her turn.  She waited in line patiently and then when the lady said it was her turn she freaked out!  Bennett didn't care at all so I handed him to Santa but Ella still wanted nothing to do with the big, white bearded guy!  I finally got her to sit on him and took a couple pictures.  The next day she had a birthday party for her good friend, Leighton.  Santa was also at his party!  The kids came in their pj's and he handed them lollipops and took pictures with them.  She was again freaked out.  Her friend Madeline was also a little scared so she made her mommy go with her.  Ella and I went right after them.  Ella ended up giving Santa a big hug with a smile and Leighton's mommy caught it on camera - YEA!

SACRY!

All that crying from sister was exhausting!

Leighton's party - sweet

blinking red nose from the party

Lots of Smiles

Bennett is such a happy baby.  He is so easy going and laid back.  He's also quiet, so quiet sometimes you can forget he's in the room.  Not that I forget him, but you know what I mean.  He loves to smile and laugh.  Almost, and I emphasize almost, makes me want another!  I try to capture smiles all the time...

This is really because his legs are so cute!

He even smiles while chewing on his fingers

I love this one!

Thanksgiving

This year we had a quiet Thanksgiving at the Crawford's.  Quiet is very unusal at their house since there are so many grandkids these days.  It was a small group though, but we had a nice time.  Ella loves to play with Avery and Gabby and forunate for her they were the only other family there.  She was worn out and slept all the way back to Allen.  From there we went to the Doffing's to watch the A&M game.  Ella also loves the Doffings.  She and Graham got to stay up late playing and watching TV upstairs while the adults were downstairs watching the game or were they playing Guitar Hero?  Fun times!

Avery & Ella

Ella & Gabby

Avery & Gabby

What cute cousins!

Layne, Ella, Graham & Bryce

 

First attempt at cereal

I thought I'd kick off my birthday last week with something new for Bennett - cereal.  Surely he'd like cereal and want to eat and eat and eat.  I mean he is quite chubby!  He proved me wrong.  He would much rather suck down a bottle than eat bland organic cereal.  Every day I try to give him cereal and he insists that he doesn't like it.  As soon as I get to the grocery store I'm going to buy some vegetables to puree for baby food in our awesome "new" food processor.  I say "new" because it has been sealed in the box since we got married FIVE years ago!  If you ever went to the Marquita house you know we had no storage in our kitchen so it was waiting to be opened when we moved one day.  It's like opening a wedding gift all over again.  Chris had so much fun breaking it in the other night and can't wait to use it again.  Lost track there...back to the chunky monkey.  Here are a few pictures from his first breakfast.

Chillin' in the high chair for the first time

Not too bad!  Don't be fooled...

NOOOOOOO more!  Make it go away!

Thank you mama

This is what the high chair is intended for, mom, playing!