Tuesday, August 20, 2013

6 Months! Uncle Erik Going to College.

Hello again everyone!

I am very impressed by the number of page views recently, thanks everyone for taking the time to read my thoughts and observations as a first time dad!

With my younger brother on his way to college as we speak, via road trip to CA, I wanted to take some time to wish him good luck and send him off properly. Erik is going to be missed by our little guy, but also by the rest of our family. However I know he is going to have a great time, and with all the technology we have nowadays (Skype, iMessages, Snapchat, Facebook, Xbox Live etc.) it should be relatively easy to stay in touch, even though it is not technically face to face. At any rate, we love you Erik and we know God has great plans for you!



Benson turned 6 months on the 18th! He is getting so old, I think I already see gray hairs on his head... Just kidding. But in all seriousness, he is so darn cute and just a joy to be around each day. His teeth are prominent now and very hard to miss if he opens his mouth. You can tell he feels them because he always has a goofy look on his face that he makes with his lips. Which unfortunately I do not have a picture of. Here are the progression pictures that Pauline posted to her Facebook, but I wanted to have on here as well:


You may not be able to tell very much from the pictures, but he is getting bigger and bigger. The way we have noticed is the fact that we have had to put his older clothes in storage and now even the 6 months clothes we have are getting tight... What a chunk! :)

Here are some additional pictures I took for the 6 month photos on the 18th. (I am a so good at taking pictures.... NOT):


Does not look happy in that last one... And he is kind of making that face I was talking about. Haha.

It's been so refreshing to see Benson interacting with others now. When he first came into the world, there wasn't much reaction to anything really. But now, whenever someone talks to him or when he interacts with the pets or one of his toys, there is always a reaction! Whether it be a smile, a "straight serious" (Pauline) look on his face, or sometimes if he is scared/doesn't get what's going on a frown or cry. He is also pretty independent, we can put him in his exersaucer or just lay him under the play gym and he entertains himself pretty well. There are times when he does want to be held though, which I don't mind, it is nice to be wanted!

Here are some pictures of Benson interacting with our dog Lana, our Goddaughter, Sabrina and her sister, Lily (aka Julie and Albert's kids, aka our flower girls, aka two of the cutest little girls I know), and finally, him interacting with Lucy, who is Julie and Albert's cat, but is also the sister of our deceased love one, Mousse.




What a cutie, props to Pauline for taking those last pictures.

Looking at all these pictures, I can't help but feel blessed. Not only for Benson himself, but for all the loving people in our lives that are so supportive and love him dearly as well. The best part of him growing up, is that we are becoming a more tightly knit family and we can only grow closer and closer.

So again, I thank everyone for their love and support, but also for all of the prayers. We most certainly wouldn't be the parents we are without such positive influences in our lives as well as the love and support of our great Savior!

On that note, I leave you with a few more pictures that I like, but again are probably already on Facebook, but whatever. :P





Thursday, August 8, 2013

BPK update!

Hello all!

I decided it was time for another update regarding our little guy Benson!

Benson and I have now had several times where it is just father-son bonding time. My favorite is when him and I have Saturdays together to spend the whole day. Yes, usually we just chill at home and do nothing, but that is one of my favorite things to do anyway! Here are a few stories of the Saturdays we have had so far:

Several Saturdays ago now, I ran, with him in the stroller, to the basketball court that is about a mile or so from where we live. There is a little trail that goes almost all the way there. Once we got to the park, it was time for me to feed him, so we sat in the shade while I fed him his bottle. It was such a nice day, I don't think he minded being outside at all. Unfortunately, I did end up having to change a diaper that he had dropped a deuce in... That's not fun, but it wasn't even that bad. Eventually, my brother Erik and friend Joe met up at the court and we played a little H-O-R-S-E while Benson watched from his stroller. Overall he did really well and didn't seem to mind watching, but after awhile he did get a little cranky from lack of a nap and I ran him back to our house.

Last Saturday, to start out the day, him and I were being a little dorky before helping Linda and Israel with the last day of our family garage sale. All I have to say is, Pauline is probably going to have two dorky guys on her hands for quite some time...

Sorry the face he made for the picture warranted the comment and yes those are his pants on his head. In my defense, his pants were sitting above his head and he kept pulling them down over his head, so I figured putting them on his head was what he was trying for...

Most other days, like I said, we just chill at home. I play with him, he plays with his toys, rolls around, I do laundry, I play video games, he naps, he eats while I feed him, he pees/poops, I sneak myself some lunch, etc. In other words, for those of you bored on Saturdays, text or call me, if you don't mind hanging out with a baby, I am generally open!

Speaking of rolling around (see last post), this little guy only rolls now when he is on the floor... He'll be playing around on his play mate and all of a sudden he will have rolled next to Lana (our dog) and she will be eye-balling me thinking, "uh, what am I supposed to do with this thing?" Not only that, but when he is on his stomach, he tries his darndest to crawl, Pauline has posted a couple funny videos of this and I believe has linked them to her Facebook page, so check them out!

Something Pauline may also post, is video of Benson eating his first "real" food other than the formula that he has likely been getting sick of (all I can smell is formula and formula bi-products)! We fed him some squeezable peas (with a hint of mint), which he did not seem to care for from his facial expressions, but did end up eating the majority of. The reason we started him on the real food is based on him teething the past couple weeks and finally having two teeth coming through on his bottom row, which is super exciting! It's unfortunately very true what they say, "they grow up so fast!"

Yesterday, I had the privilege of being able to take a day off in the middle of the week and spend time with my lovely wife Pauline and little B. We had a good time sleeping in, even though, when we brought Benson into bed with us, he kept wapping us both in the face several times... After we finally woke up, we got ready for the day and eventually made our way to the Maple Grove Hospital to visit a friend who recently had her baby, Emily, who had her son Sawyer on 8/1, a little early of the due date originally slated for September (don't know the specific date), but he is doing really well and is such a cutie! Can't wait till him and Benson can be buds! After the hospital, we made our way to Girvan Grille, the restaurant that is connected to Edinbugh Golf Course. There, we both enjoyed a nice meal and were able to enjoy the beautiful day outside and somewhat had a view of the golf course. 

We got home, Benson and Pauline were both sleepy, so they took a nap whilst I practiced my golf swing, on Xbox 360 of course! I'm too cranky when I take naps, so I am disallowed from taking them anymore... This is what I look like when I wake up:


At any rate, when they woke up, Pauline got ready for work and we went to Caribou Coffee by where Pauline works on Wednesdays and hung out a little bit prior to Pauline working at 7:00. Again we enjoyed the outdoors, I sipped some iced tea while she sipped ice coffee, and Benson sipped his lukewarm milk. After we said goodbye to mommy, Benson and I made our way to small group at Phil and Sara Mehrer's house, for some much needed prayer time as well as getting into our book study for the first time in a few weeks! Overall he did great, made me look like a champion dad!

Once small group was over Little B and I went back home to give him a much needed bath, his new nickname was almost "stinky" prior to that... It was a quick bath, but got the job done since we had to go pick up Pauline from work. We picked her up and while we were waiting for mommy to come out to the car, Honey BPQ fell asleep! Pauline and I took the opportunity to grab a late night snack from an undisclosed place (that happens to have a phenomenal bacon cheeseburger on a pretzel bun!), before returning home to finish off what was a wonderful day with the family!

I'll leave you with this thought, a quote that I just thought of, not sure if my brain thought of it or if I compiled a quote together and am now calling it my own, but her goes:

"Without Christ there is a sense of false fulfillment as we reach certain goals that we set for ourselves. With Christ there is true fulfillment as we set about to do His will, not by our own power, but through Christ's gift, the Holy Spirit."

And of course Benson in a hat:

God bless!