family

Fiesta like there’s no mañana

~ alixbenton ~ Leave a comment

And just like that… the months of planning, hours of preparation and the days when my baby wasn’t one are all behind us. I have loved every second of it though! And I’m not as sad as I thought I would be. I mean sure, I miss him being a tiny little squishy baby, but I am so excited for him and all of the amazing adventures he will get to go on as he continues to grow!

Bur this day was going 100MPH until the party started. Everyone was decorating, cooking, cleaning or trying to help me keep El fed and watered until fiesta time! My family was, as always, such a huge help. I literally rely on them for everything. Jordan cooked, my Dad among others also cooked, my Dad’s Girlfriend helped me decorate, my little sister took pictures, and the rest of my family and friends played with Ellis and kept him uberly happy making everything go without a hiccup. Not that Ellis will remember this day, but we sure will. And it will be the fondest, most perfect birthday memory so far 😉

So- without further ado- welcome to the inside of Ellis’s First Fiesta!!

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(These chalkboards have literally been more useful than any craft I’ve ever made)

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Balloons- Bargain Balloons

Paper Flowers- Homemade

Cookies & Cake- Bearded Fox

Blanket, Maracas, Papel Picado, Mini Donkey Pinatas – Amols

El Pato Cans- Jet

Ellis Banner- Hooray Everyday

Sombrero Pinatas & Streamers-  Party City

Streamer Backdrop – Homemade

First Haircut

~ alixbenton ~ Leave a comment

Hey, remember me? The girl who says she wants to blog and then week after week just doesn’t? LOL. In my defense, the last month has been a very busy one, mentally and physically! Since I last posted, Ellis has gotten his first haircut and turned ONE- and I’ve been to LA and back! So lets start at the beginning: The Haircut 🙂

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We went to Lauren at Heritage Hair Studio and she was amazing! She also does Jordan’s hair, so it was an easy choice. But I still felt like she did very well handling Ellis swinging his head all around her scissors to see what she was up to. We also didn’t get very much cut off, just trimmed up his mullet a bit. Which was nice because it also didn’t make him look too much older, just cleaner:)

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This will be different for every kid, but if your kid is a maniac for food like ours, BRING FOOD! Our savior for this trip with definitely yogurt bites. And Mamaw of course:)

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Overall, his haircut was such a fun experience. We had our entourage there to watch/entertain/take pictures which was super helpful and made it more fun for him I’m sure. And Ellis even got a sucker out of the deal. So everyone wins.

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CELEBRATE!

~ alixbenton ~ Leave a comment

Two big things to celebrate today- Fourth of July & Ellis turning 11 months!! We spent our weekend with family and friends, food and fireworks! And due to a combination of weather, and me popping our car tire with a screw today, we spent Monday happily confined in the house. Luckily for Ellis, that made it much easier for Mom and Dad to shower him in extra special eleventh month old kisses 🙂 And when I say luckily for Ellis, I’m not at all joking. His favorite thing to do is give kisses! He will kiss anything and then look to me for a huge smile of approval. It’s the sweetest most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen. His second favorite thing to do is eat, followed probably by sleep,  and then playing. So a day in the life of an 11 month old Ellis- kiss stuff, eat stuff, sleep and play. It’s perfect:)

Short and sweet today, but had to check in for the holiday and El’s monthday! I’ll be back soon, swear this time!!

x,

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Zoo Babies

~ alixbenton ~ Leave a comment

I can’t wait to do so many fun things will Ellis this summer before our schedules get crazy again! I am going to try to make it a point to go do something new and exciting for him every week. Whether it be a pool or a new park, I’d like to spend the summer discovering all of the child friendly places of Bloomington!

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Last week we went on our first summer adventure and it was spent at the Indianapolis Zoo! I have always LOVED the Zoo and hope that Ellis will love it just as much someday! But for now, I think it’s still a little early. I think the biggest difficulty we had was the stroller. It’s hard to get up to the window to see the animals with any amount of other people there at all. And when I take him in and out, he doesn’t really like that:) It was also EXTREMELY crowded with last week of school field trips- so I realize that that many people/children isn’t the norm. But besides that, I think it was a pretty successful trip! El got to see lots of fun animals- but the highlights were  getting to meet a friendly flamingo, admiring giant giraffes, eating french fries and trying dip n dots! I definitely see another Zoo trip in this summers future, and maybe one where Dad gets to join!

 

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Where have I been!?

~ alixbenton ~ 1 Comment

Ohhh I’ve missed this. If there is anything this blog has taught me, it’s that time management is hard! Taking care of El, going to school, and nurturing my social life are about all I can keep up with. Tack on something like kidney stone removal surgery and I’m out! My lord, what a nightmare. I won’t go into all of my frustrations about the kidney stone thing- I’ll just say this- If it’s a week before your birthday, and they want you to get surgery that will involve having a stent placed for a week, and they tell you the stent WON’T be a problem whatsoever, and you’ll totally enjoy your birthday still- DON’T LISTEN. I’m not saying they are wrong in all cases, but they are definitely wrong in some. Because I went through something called stent syndrome, which is where your body rejects the stent and will land you back in the hospital for pain meds and fluids 🙂 But- that’s water under the bridge now.

I don’t even know where to pick back up now! El has turned 8 and 9 months old since I’ve been away from the blog- he is so much fun!! 4 teeth and working on 2 more, crawling- fast- laughing so hard he can’t breath, and clinging to his Momma.

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What else is new….

It’s summer break! So that’s a huge relief. I’m so excited to spend the summer getting to focus 100% on Ellis! I have lots of exciting plans for us, so I will have lots to post about 🙂

But other than that right now, I’m just checking in! Letting everyone (including myself) know that I’m getting back into blogging action!  And as always, some of my favorite pics of El from the past few months, X

 

Seven Spectacular Months

~ alixbenton ~ Leave a comment

EllisSensory

& he sits!!! ha:) I really was beginning to think he’d never sit. Now I’m wondering when he will be able to get into sitting position by himself? I think that’s when I’ll drop his crib down- I’m excited for that! Although I don’t know why because I’m fairly certain I’m too short to reach him down there. Also, he’s playing with his sensory box I made in this picture! He really only likes the plastic lid that he’s chewing on, and the box itself. 🙂

I don’t really have any new updates besides the sitting. He doesn’t say Mama anymore… only Dada (insert heaviest rolling eyes emoji). We’ve been battling sickness for the past few weeks with congestion and lots of coughing and snot. During which time he wouldn’t eat his regular solids, wouldn’t drink water from his cup, and wouldn’t do anything unless I was right beside him. But, I think we are in the clear now! (cross your fingers and knock on wood and spin around three times and whatever voodoo you do to make sure you’re right).

Other than that, it’s all same-old over here! We’re getting very excited about warmer weather so we can go on more outside adventures, and even warmer weather so we can start going to the lake/pool! And soon after that will be his birthday that I’m yes already planning and excited for 🙂

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To leave you, here’s a picture of a baby playing in a pile of wood chips. Happy Monday! You’re welcome!

Edit: If you have Snapchat- add me @ bentonalix for mainly more Ellis 🙂

 

I’m still here!

~ alixbenton ~ Leave a comment

Holy cow. I knew it would be hard to mom, school, life and blog… but I didn’t know it would be IMPOSSIBLE! Sheesh! But here I am- still alive and missing my blog. So a few updates since I’ve been away..

El has turned 3 and then 4 months old! Obviously inevitable.. but I’m definitely not ready!! He is growing out of his love for cuddles. I can sneak some in here and there but mostly he wants to be entertained. Which is perfectly fine with me because I love to try and entertain him. ( emphasis on try 🙂 ) He is getting soo big too! I am slowly but surely becoming incapable of rocking him to sleep. The 5 lb weights I’ve been exercising with aren’t helping anymore! We have his 4 month checkup on Thursday and I can’t wait to see just how big he is!

 His hobbies are: chewing on anything that fits in his mouth, mostly his hands- he loves his hands! He has also starting spitting! Like where you stick your tongue out and make that kind of fart noise? Lol I don’t know how to explain it. But I did that to him one day and he copied me, so we’ve just been spitting at each other ever since 🙂 He still loves to kick. We’ve started giving him fruit and veggie purees and his favorite so far is peaches:) He is still super happy, but will only giggle when you tickle his armpits! Ugh I’m sure no one cares, but right now he is napping and typing this is making me miss him!

In other unbaby related news- I have one more assignment today and them I am DONE with this semester! Looking forward to having a break before the next one starts. Also- I have a couple of crafts to post- so stay tuned for that!

x

Little 2 Man

~ alixbenton ~ Leave a comment

I’m late on this- I’d really love to blog more often! Hanging with the boy, keeping up with the outside world and also being in school is time consuming! But- I’m always going to make it a point to blog where blogging is necessary 😉

So without further adieu, LITTLE MAN IS 2 MONTHS OLD! Hims is still the best baby who ever lived. He still sleeps like a champ which is terrific for me for obvious reasons. He is smiling a lot now, which is also terrific for me for obvious reasons 🙂 The most recent discovery has been his hands- he holds them up in front of him and stares at them until he gets worn out and drops them on his poor little face. He has rolled from back to belly FOUR times!! None of which I have ever fully gotten to catch on camera, so Dad thinks I’m fibbing. Boy is also growing like a weeeed. His two month doctors appointment isn’t until the 15th, so I don’t know his exact weight and length right now, but wearing 3 mos clothes is a decent indication of where we’re at. Besides regular mile stones, he especially loves his bouncy chair, riding around in his Ergo, getting baths, playing with mommys hair (playing meaning pulling out) and kicking the crinkly spot on his activity mat.

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p.s. click on an image to find out where El gets his adorable clothes 🙂