Here's a picture from New Year's Eve. We took it right at midnight. Ben's enthusiastic about it.
That was just a random picture because I can't post without at least one picture of something. I just can't.
I'm currently waiting on a few things. I'm waiting for some late Christmas presents to come in the mail (Chris and I used a gift card we got from amazon and ordered a new comforter, Elmo dvd for Ben, and Super Mario Kart for Nintendo Wii). I'm also waiting for a book I ordered for an Arkansas History class I have to take. I'll complain about that later. I'm also waiting for SNOW!! Everyone's making a HUGE deal about the potential winter weather we're going to have here in central Arkansas, which means that nothing will happen, but there's POTENTIAL. It's hilarious to come from Washington and then experience southerner's hysterics over the idea of driving in snow. Chaos. I'm not lying when I tell you that Walmart and Kroger are probably out of bread and milk. People see the little snowflake graphic on the evening weather forecast and lose their ever-loving minds. They think they're going to be trapped in their house without electricity for the rest of the winter. It was a big topic of conversation at work. We barely got any work done talking about if we'd be going to work tomorrow or not. So we'll see what happens. If Benton schools are cancelled, then I don't have to go to work!!
Okay, so let me complain about Pulaski Technical College. First of all, I needed to register, so I joined the 300 other people on the second floor and followed the directions on the sign. It said sign into the computer and wait for your name to appear on the screen. So I did. I got a prime real-estate seat right in front of the screen when one of the pleasant Pulaski Tech students couldn't wait for a cigarette break any longer and vacated his seat. I almost lost it to another girl, but stood my ground by throwing my purse over the back of the chair before she could take two steps. An hour and thirty minutes later (NOT an exaggeration, ask Brittany at my work who I texted the whole time ((I was texting her all of the interesting names that were popping up on the screen, such as Frenchelle and Lummie))), my name popped up on the screen. I went up to the desk and told the lady I needed to register for classes and she told me that I was supposed to do that downstairs. I told her that I had been waiting for an hour and a half and she said I'm sorry sweetie, but you'll still have to go downstairs. Saying I was mad was an understatement. I told her, as politely as I could muster ( It was past lunch time and I had to pee at this point) that there was not a single sign that said that registering happened downstairs. I just did what the signs told me on this level. So she said she'd make an announcement to the room, pretty much outing me and my inability to know what I was doing. I walked down the stairs as she was making the announcement and got in a line that would be just as long of a wait as what I just came from. About 30 other people followed right behind me as they were confused by the lack of signs as well. So I waited an hour and a half more in this line and learned all about the girl behind me and her pre-arranged marriage (she's from India originally), so it wasn't so bad since I had someone to talk to. I was then told that I needed to walk to the library and register on the computer, so I did. I got into the LAST online Arkansas history class that was offered, but my password wasn't working. Even the library tech guy couldn't figure out what was wrong. They still haven't solved the problem. I need to email him tonight. So I had left work at about 8:30am and got back to work to pick up Ben at 2:50pm. The only good thing was that, since this class is required for my teaching license, I can count the hours I spent there as hours at work, so I got paid.
Okay, on to more important things. Today Ben went and got his check-up. I thought that he was behind on his shots, but it turns out that I just didn't have the updated copy, so we kind of went for nothing, but I learned some stuff from the nurse that explains Ben's issues with food texture. Something about how a baby's tongue moves back and forth until they're about 6 months old, which is good for drinking from a bottle and slurping down pureed foods. Then around 7 or so months the tongue starts to move from side to side in order to sort out solid foods. Well, Ben sometimes throws up when he eats stage 3 baby foods, which often are pureed foods with chunks of stuff in it. So when Ben eats it, he doesn't know which way his tongue is supposed to move because it's got pureed foods and solid chunks, so he ends up gagging and throwing up. The doctor said it's best to just give him foods that are entirely one texture so he knows what to do with it. Now his stats....my big headed child has a 19" head circumference, which puts him in the 96th percentile. He's 30 1/4" tall, which puts him in the 82nd percentile. He weighs 21 lbs, which puts him in the 35th percentile. The doctor thinks that Ben's bout with RSV is why his weight is a little lower than it should be, but I'm just happy that he weighs over 20 pounds because that means, on his first birthday, WE GET TO TURN HIS CARSEAT AROUND!!!!!!!! Anyone with a baby who's rear-facing will understand why this is so exciting. A child has to weigh at least 20 pounds AND be at least 1 year old in order for their carseat to be forward facing. So yay!!!
We finally got 'winter' weather here in Arkansas! It was the best weekend! We didn't have school on Friday because of the ice and sleet. There really wasn't that much snow, but the ice was cool. This is a picture Chris took Friday night.
Ben stayed Thursday night through Saturday afternoon at Mimi's. We couldn't go get him because the roads were bad, but Mimi didn't have to work and loved spending the time with him, so it wasn't a big deal. She did lose power for a few hours Saturday morning, but it came back on before her house got cold. These pictures were taken in her backyard in Mabelvale.
Ben liked the snow. We took off his glove so he could feel how cold it was. I scraped a little snow off the ground and put it in my hand. Ben took it out of my hand and ate it. He really liked it because I did it three more times and every time I did, he took his pudgy little fingers and pinched a chunk of snow and ate it. I'd like to think that Ben has inherited his Washington and Alaska roots. 
Ben was doing a little dance in this picture. He wouldn't hold still or look at the camera. He was interested in the neighbor dog that wouldn't stop barking while we were out there. He was doing a good job attempting to walk on the snow, even taking a few steps without me holding on, but he didn't know that I wasn't holding on, so I don't count that as walking by himself. 
I just thought this picture was funny. Ben was disturbed by the hood of his jacket.
Happy snow day! I miss the snow, but not enough to want it every day. 
We've put child locks on all of our bathroom cabinets so Ben can't get my hairspray or hair dryer anymore, but sometimes we forget to shut the bathroom door to prevent this from happening. He always lets us know when he's crawling on his way to something 'exciting', though. He starts crawling really fast and makes little breathy panting noises (I don't know how to describe it) on his way to trouble. He makes those noises when he sees that the gate blocking off the kitchen was accidentally left open, and when the bathroom door was left open. He's gotten stealthier about getting to my laptop, though. No noises, just open handed keyboard slaps. The only time we worry about him is when he's quiet. That usually means he's eating something he found on the floor.
The floor still has some spots that need work, but for floor that had 80's carpeting on it, it's not bad! I was a little worried, but really anything would have been better. I'm going to be mopping and scrubbing the floor this coming weekend.
