A day of Firsts

Kyle has been extremely busy with work. He got his Realtor's license back in December and has been selling homes for Edge, which is a company that builds new homes. Like everything new that Kyle takes on, he seems to be a natural. He is putting in long hours, but his hard work is paying off. I would be lying if I said I didn't want to throw his phone in our garbage disposal sometimes, but for the most part I'm proud of his success and happy that he has found something he enjoys doing. He had been working 6 days a week in order to keep up on all of his emails and calls, but recently decided to take Tuesdays off. His phone still rings off the hook, but Bentlee and I get to have him around all day which we both love. This last Tuesday we decided to go to an indoor Aquatics Center in Lehi. Bentlee loves taking baths so we thought for sure she would have a blast in a giant bathtub full of little kidlets. Well, we were wrong- I guess it was slightly overwhelming. She made a pouty face the second we set her in the water, and she clung tightly to us the whole time. Whenever she got splashed in the face she started crying. (Did I mention it was Spring Break and there were kids everywhere?) At first she wouldn't let us put her in the yellow buckets, but she slowly....SLOWLY warmed up to them. And at one point we were tossing her back and forth which she loved. I'm hoping next time we go to a pool she will be more relaxed, because I plan to have LOTS of pool days this summer!

Since we didn't stay long at the pool, we took her to a playground where she went swinging for the first time. Again, we didn't the reaction we expected, but she didn't hate it either. She was just more interested in the kids playing around us.

You asked for it...

This is a random video I took yesterday of her looking through a Target baby ad we got in the mail. She had been signing "baby" so I grabbed my phone to record, which of course meant that she stopped. But I got her jabbering which is just as cute. She talks like this all day long and I wish I knew what she was trying to tell us!

This is her half-hearted "please"

Sign Language, Mimis and Dancing

So much has changed in just a few weeks that I had to jot it down before I forget. Bentlee finally seems to be grasping sign language. The main one we've worked on is "more" and she usually just claps, which took months for her to catch on. But "please" she picked up within seconds. She doesn't do it very often, and we usually have to ask her to say it. But it is oh-so-cute when she does! She copies several other signs when she watches her signing movies. This is her signing "baby"...

The words she says on her own are mama, dada, "dee" for dog and "kee" for kitty, uh-oh, and my personal favorite, "mimi" for binki. I love it because she came up with it all on her own. She's actually been saying it for months, but we just figured out last week what it meant. It's so obvious to us now-when we're in the car and she drops it, she whines "mimi" over and over until we pull over and find it for her. And when it falls out of her crib, same story. She's not extremely attached to her binki but she always needs it to fall asleep and she likes it in the car, especially when she's tired. I also love that she named it her "mimi" because my niece Gracie calls it the same thing. So cute!

She's getting really good at mimicking us-from small things like putting lotion on our hands, to folding our arms when we pray. I first noticed that last Sunday when she copied the family sitting behind us. She's done it a few times since, and then this morning Kyle knelt down next to her in the living room where we always say a family prayer together. She knew right away what that meant and had her little arms folded and head bowed before he even did. We've never taught her to do that, it's always been on her own. I hope that she's always so willing to pray with us!

She's walking along furniture like a pro, and she's pushing her walkers. She still tries to climb stairs every chance she can get, but 95% of the time there's a gate in her way.

I love the way she bobs her head and/or dances whenever music comes on. Yesterday in the car it was especially cute because she happened to be drinking a bottle.

I love watching her personality develop. She definitely has a goofy side to her. A few days ago she randomly made up a game all on her own (that probably came from when I did this with a sock a couple months ago) where she puts her binki on her head and lets it fall off. She laughs so hard at herself and it's the cutest thing! I tried getting it on video the other day but she was kind of over it at that point.

More to come soon!

Maddie's play

Last night we attended the Bentlee Show the play "Peter Pan" in which our 12 year old neighbor, Maddie, played the role of Wendy. Lets just say, Bentlee was a big fan. Whenever the kids on stage would raise their voices, Bentlee thought she needed to as well. She clapped and squealed at inappropriate times, and when the kids ran through the audience she could hardly contain her excitement. I honestly can't tell you if the people around us, including Maddie's family, enjoyed the play more than the entertainment in my lap. Maddie's grandparents behind us kept urging me to get her on video so I finally tried which of course is when she brought it down a few notches.

But in all seriousness the play was great, and "Wendy" was fantastic. I can't believe what an actress AND singer our little Maddie is. Bentlee and I will be rooting for her all the way to Hollywood. I don't think I've blogged much about our neighbors, but we love them. They are currently looking for a new house and I will be so sad to see them go. Maddie and Ethan are just about the sweetest kids in the world, and I want them as Bentlee's baby-sitters and role models forever!!

Pretending

Bentlee likes to pretend to eat, and it's possibly the funniest thing I've ever seen. She must do it to try and get a reaction from us, which sometimes she does. When we're eating from a bag or box she'll reach in, or even just touch it, then quickly put her fingers to her mouth and take them away. But sometimes she'll do it to the floor so we really do think she put something in her mouth. It's hilarious. For the first and probably only time ever, I got a quick video of her doing it at the airport a few weeks ago. I was eating goldfish crackers out of a bag in her diaper bag, and she had to copy. As always, the video doesn't do it justice but you'll get the idea.

11 MONTHS

Bentlee seems way too little to be pushing 12 months, but on the other hand she is learning more and more each day. I am finally convinced that she is talking. My mom claimed that she was back in January, when she would say "hi" and "kitty". Yesterday, when we were at my Aunt Lisa's, her cat ran by and Bentlee pointed and yelled "kee!" According to the books we have with different animals, all seem to be "kee" or dee". But tonight she was correct in calling my Aunt Linda's dog "dee', and we had lots of fun chasing her chase IT all night long until it finally escaped outside....

...which broke her poor little heart!

For a while she copied me when I would say "uh-oh" (she pronounces it "uh-uh") and now she says it on her own and in the right context. She's copied "thank you" a couple times, and "mama" and "dada" are being used more in the right context. I laid her down for a nap the other day and she kept wailing "Mama" over and over. Needless to say, she received some extra cuddles. Yesterday she pulled everything out of her diaper bag and when she found my comb she put it right to her head. She's doing little things like that every day, I just forget most of them.

She still pulls herself up to things all day long, and will occasionally let go and stand for .01 seconds. Unfortunately for Kyle and I, she learned to climb stairs while we were in Michigan and that is now her second favorite pastime (the first is still hanging out in the bathroom).

This is something that amazes me, and I have yet to record it. Since she started giving kisses (I think between 9-10 months) she also seemed to learn sympathy. One day I asked for a kiss and was shot down. I pretended to pout, not really expecting it to make a difference, but she leaned right in! And it has continued to work every time. I hope she's always sensitive to other people's feelings, and I hope she is always so friendly to others. Everywhere we go, people get the biggest kick out of her. Strangers will stop us in stores and comment on what a happy baby she is after witnessing only seconds. While waiting in the check-out line at the grocery store the other day, she waved at literally every person in sight, which was a LOT. She waved extra enthusiastically at an older man with white hair and a long white beard....coincidence? She is so stinkin' cute and fun to take to stores now because she rides in the front of the cart like a big girl, yet she looks so tiny. My favorite is when we are minding our own business and someone walks by and says hi to her. Their reaction is always funny because they don't expect her to respond, but she almost always does with a big grin and sweet little wave. Oh, and if she just hears a child, just HEARS them, she perks up and starts looking all around until she spots them. I swear the girl could go a full day with no food or sleep, and still be happy as long as a child were around. I will never conduct such a test.

......but if I did I'd bet a trillion dollars.


I'm also amazed at how well she's copying hand motions. I'm sure it's normal at this age, it just doesn't seem possible that my baby is old enough to be doing such things. My mom sang her the bumblebee song (Bumblebee bumblebee come from the barn, gonna get Bentlee under the arm...and you wave your finger around like it's a bee) and after only a few times, Bentlee started waving her finger. The next day all my mom had to say was, "Bentlee is the bumblebee going to get you?" and she grinned and immediately started waving her teeny little finger! Kyle and I also sing her the 5 Little Monkeys swinging in the tree song and she caught on quickly to that one as well. She knows which parts comes next, and "helps" me make the motions.

I could EAT HER.

I don't know what it is about scrambled eggs but she always manages to get some on her head

Bentlee has gotten really cuddly the last couple weeks. She almost always will fall asleep in our arms after she's had a bottle. But even when she's not tired, we have been getting random hugs and kisses from her throughout the day. She's gotten more affectionate with her dolls and stuffed animals also. She hugs them to her, and has even started saying "Awwwww" which of course is the response she always gets from us. Now that I think of it, maybe she's just plain mocking us. I hope not, because the other day the sweetest thing happened and I just about melted in the Walmart parking lot. She was sitting in the cart and I started reaching over her to pull bags out of the cart. I felt her tiny little arms wrap around me, then pat me as she goes, "Awwwww." I may have reached over to grab imaginary bags just to hear her say it a few more times. And then when I picked her up out of the cart she wrapped her arms around my neck and gave me the tightest little hug! Imagine how hard it was to put her in her car seat and drive home after that.

Believe it or not, Bentlee is capable of cocking an attitude every once in a while. I can think of two specific occasions and that is when she's really hungry and sees her food but has to wait not-so-patiently for us to make it, and the other is when I de-snot her nose. I still use my bulb syringe we got at the hospital and luckily it works great, but you would think I'm holding up a knife the way she thrashes around dramatically when I come near her with it. Oh, but Kyle informed me the other day that she doesn't move or cry at all when he does it. I made him prove it and sure enough, she was perfectly still, staring adoringly at him while he sucked away. Whateverrrr.

This is her famous scrunchy face that every one loves (I can never capture it fast enough for the pictures to be in focus)

Climbed stairs almost effortlessly for the first time at Grandma Vibber's!

Upside down but I'm too lazy to fix it

If this gives any indication of Bentlee's antics, Kyle pulled a binki and small bottle of baby shampoo out of his shoe in our closet today. Between climbing stairs and getting into bathrooms, kitchen cupboards, pantries, closets, etc. she sure keeps us busy. But she also keeps us laughing and loving more than ever and we can't get enough of our little monkey!

Pros and Cons

There are pros and cons to having such a good baby. It was comforting to leave her for 5 days knowing she would be happy and well-behaved. However, it was a tad disappointing knowing we weren't missed, and downright painful when we walked through the door and she showed almost no reaction at all. Okay I'm exaggerating a little, and had it not been past her bedtime we would have possibly received a better reaction. We covered her with kisses (Grandpa called it smothering) and much to Grandma's and probably Bentlee's dismay, dragged her home where she was showered with more love and attention.

Crazy shot or what?

This was how we left her the day we were off. She was chillin' on the counter (supervised by Aunt Noel) playing with frozen rolls as Grandma prepared Sunday dinner. She was happy as a clam and so busy having fun that she wouldn't even kiss me goodbye!

Grandma Max doesn't appreciate pictures of herself so I sneak them whenever I can

Grandma and Grandpa made up for the fact that mommy and daddy neglected her on Valentine's day. 

There are nothing but pros when it comes to my in-laws. They are such great people, and are always willing to help out their kids and grand kids. They are both super busy, and no matter how well-behaved Bentlee was, she must have consumed a lot of their time. So thank you, thank you!! It meant so much to know that Benlee was in such loving hands.