Gratitude Challenge Day 4

Yesterday I talked about how I am thankful for my oldest child, Andrew. And today I would like to focus on my youngest, Benjamin who is 3.

Today I am so very thankful for my sweet, loving, smart, funny, caring boy, Benjamin.

Benjamin is always surprising us. That is exactly how he came into this world in August of 2010, six weeks before his due date. My labor came on fast and hard and we almost didn't make it to the hospital on time! He was born less then 20 minutes after arriving at the hospital and was quickly rushed off to the NICU where he spent the first 19 days of his life the first 7 of which were on a ventilator to breathe. He was really sick but we had faith in God's plan and that he would be ok and he was.

So he had a very rough start in life but is now a very healthy little boy. 

He did have one more rough patch when he was 13 months old where his lungs got very sick again and he spent 11 days at Riley Childrens in Indy. 

But he bounced back from that too and since then has been very healthy, surprising his doctors who predicted he would be asthmatic and in and out of the ER when he got sick. We are so thankful that has not been the case.

Benjamin loves to play and he looks up to his big brother Andrew. Benjamin is sweet, handsome, caring, smart, and so funny. He loves sports, books and loves to socialize. We love him very much and cannot picture our lives without him in it. We are so grateful to God for entrusting us to be his parents. He is truly a gift in our lives.

Thanks for reading. What are you thankful for today? Have you been keeping up with the challenge? It's never too late to join in. 

Have a great day!!

~Rebecca~

Happy Birthday, Benjamin!

My youngest child, Benjamin, just celebrated his 2nd birthday! We can't believe he is 2 already. Time sure does fly with children, doesn't it?

I was reminiscing about his birth the other night. I think all mother's do that. I could tell you in detail, how things happened when both of my kids were born. Since I am a planner, I wanted things to be text book perfect with both births. Of course our plan is not always God's plan. With my first, things were pretty text book. But with little Benjamin, things certainly did not go as planned!

Benjamin was born 6 weeks premature. I guess we just sounded like a ton of fun and he couldn't wait to make his fast appearance:) I was feeling a little bad around 10:15pm, went to lay down, and realized that I may be having some contractions and they were getting closer and closer together pretty fast. We called the doctor, David went to get our neighbor to come and watch our almost 2 year old, Andrew, and rushed to the hospital. (running red lights and all because I was NOT going to have a baby in the car!!) We left our car in the ER drop off area at midnight and were rushed to the labor and delivery room where our little guy was born 20 minutes later. No time for epidurals or to think about what was happening.

He was whisked away and spent 19 days in the NICU. The first week was on a vent to breathe. He had a nasty pneumonia so we couldn't hold him for the first 7 days of his life. It was a rough time but Benjamin is a strong little guy and he got through it. Here is one of his first photos. Look at all of that dark hair!!

When I look at my son today, I can hardly believe all that he has been through. He had some more health issues at 13 months that you can read about on the Benjamin posts on the side of my blog. He is prone to lung issues because of his early start. But today, I am so thankful to say, he is healthy and strong. He is a wonderful little boy who is smart, funny, handsome and such a blessing to our family. We cannot picture life with out him! Here are a few pictures of our big boy (and a couple of big brother) as he turned two! My parents were able to come from Wisconsin to celebrate with us, which was wonderful. Enjoy!

sharing some new toys with big brother, Andrew.

He had so much fun playing with his new toys that I had to talk him into joining us for breakfast. He is usually the first one to the table. lol

Andrew had fun with the new birthday toys too.

Showing grandma the baskets.

reading a new book with grandpa

getting ready for cake! I realized it's pretty hard to find a place to make a dairy free Barney cake so Andrew and I made one for Benjamin instead. I realized I should probably take a cake decorating class. lol. But it sure did taste good!

Benjamin has been such a blessing to our lives and has taught us so much. The trials we have experienced around his birth and health issues made us realize how precious life is and what a gift from God it truly is. It has also brought our family closer together and closer to God. When times are tough, when life gets overwhelming, I just have to look at my son and remember all that he has gone through. Suddenly, life isn't so hard anymore and I remember to cherish all that I have been given. Life is a precious gift and I continually remind myself of that as I realize how blessed I am to be able to watch my boys grow and develop. They are only young once and each day is a gift.


Thanks for reading! Remember to hug your kids today! :)


Rebecca

family updates and Halloween pictures

Things have been very busy lately. When Benjamin got sick in September, it really made us re-evaluate priorities. Because of that, I haven't been blogging as much. I did try to get some pictures up last week but the computer wasn't cooperating so I decided to put it aside until now.

Benjamin had his follow up appointment with the neurologist from Riley recently. We were able to see her at her Carmel office, which was a little closer to home. And she gave him a good report! She was able to read the EEG that he had done in Lafayette the day before and said things looked good. We had this EEG done because we saw some possible seizure activity after he was done with the medication. But everything looks good now. The doctor thought it was just his body adjusting to being off of everything. We are really seeing our boy back to his usual self and we are so very thankful for that.

We also had a fun Halloween. We carved our pumpkins and Andrew and I even made some pies out of one. We also took the boys out trick or treating for about 30 minutes and then passed out candy after that. It was a lot of fun and wasn't too cold. They were so adorable in their costumes.


David enjoyed putting up his decorations. Some of them were so scary and motion activated.


One house in our neighborhood really went all out with their decorations. They even dressed their golden retriever up like an angel. Very cute!









Benjamin wasn't too sure what to think about this doggie on his head!







A couple days before Halloween...




Andrew and I enjoyed making pumpkin pies this year. They taste so much better then the ones we've had from a can pumpkin. Would highly recommend. And this group tasted better then our first attempt because we didn't forget any ingredients this time! lol


Yum! We still have some in the fridge and also in the freezer ready for Thanksgiving.

Our trees turn such beautiful colors this time of year. The red one is my favorite. We think it's an oak or ash tree. Does anyone know what they are?
Here are some more recent pictures of the boys...








David and Andrew baked ginger bread cookies recently. They were SO good!
The boys are so cute in their jammies


Andrew loves his doggie that great grandma sent from Texas almost 2 years ago now. He's part of the family:)
Thanks for reading! I hope you had a safe and good Halloween. I can't believe it's November already and Thanksgiving is right around the corner. We have so much to be thankful for.

Rebecca