"What Happened to Bryan"

No, something bad didn't happen to me, I didn't lose my ability to write, I haven't lost access to the internet, I haven't been too overly busy. To be honest, I kind of forgot about my blog for a little bit... Weird...

Well, it has been a couple months since my last post and since then Benson has become 8 months old, odd how time correlates with age! He hasn't quite figured out how to crawl yet, he has the motion and stance down, but all he can seem to do is face plant and move backwards. If he can just get his little arms one in front of the other, he would be cruising. One thing he has developed though, is a bit of character. Whether it be him letting out a scream, just to make sure you didn't forget he was there, or maybe he'll flash you his cheesy smile. His cheesy smile consist of him doing his "toothy" grin along with squinting his eyes. It's a little bit of a rarity to see, he'll either do it randomly or every once and awhile he'll flash it when I am doing my "Donald Duck" voice. At any rate this little baby is growing up!

Yup, there's the cheesy smile, hope you enjoy having your heart melted. Credit for the last photo goes to Joe Nguyen, make sure to check him out: http://fungifotos.com

Here are a few of Benson's favorite things at the moment, in no particular order:

- His pacifier, recently it has been his go to, not only to suck on, but to bite, play with, throw, etc.

- His mommy, even though he likes to say "dadadadada," this boy is definitely a mamas boy.

- Apparently, he loves my xbox controller, recently I have been playing my xbox and holding Benson, every time I do he grabs for my controller. So because of that I sat him down next to me with his own (non connected of course) controller. Let's just say we have ourselves another, "I just mash buttons when I play," gamer!

- His brothers and sister (pets), Lana is his best bud, I often see him smiling at her and laughing at the things she does, he also tries to roll to her whenever he is on the floor and "pet" her the only way he knows how, which is by taking two handfuls of her fur and trying to pull his face close to her. Gizmo is a sly one, he'll only go to him and if Benson tries to get close he runs away. 

This is as good of a time to segway to our newest addition to the family, Lambeau! Lambeau is our new little Munchkin (literally), he is 10 weeks old, and is already proving to be quite the cuddler! We have discovered he loves Benson's play gym, most likely more than Benson even does. He'll run through it and swat at all of the hanging toys. Benson seems to get a kick out of his running around and tries his best to play too.

No new pics yet, just the one's from Facebook.

Overall I feel so blessed right now to have such a loving family. Coming home to Benson everyday is such a joy, he smiles at me and wants me to hold him. I can't believe the amazing things and people God has blessed me with.

I thank every one for their help and encouragement as we raise Benson, you are all so wonderful!

God bless!

-Bryan

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