Seven Years Ago....

on this day, our Benny was born. He is the only one of my children that I have named. While I was pregnant with him, he just felt like a Benjamin. Here's the beginnings of our gorgeous boy. I think he was about the size of a jellybean here.

He grew much bigger than that little jellybean very quickly....JJ liked to kiss my tummy and say hello to him. Benny gave me most of those marks. He was such a big bub, my tummy always measured bigger than average when I went to appointments.

The last ten weeks carrying Ben were very difficult. I have a scare on my back from all the pushing Job and I did in that spot to relieve some of the pain. At 36 weeks I begged the doctor to take him out as it felt like my back was breaking. He agreed to at 37 weeks. One week later, he was born. He weighed just over 8 lb, 3 weeks early. The relief on my body was immediate. He was a gorgeous baby, he came out with rolls all over him and big chubby cheeks.

Mum was lucky to have a cuddle straight after he was born. She told me he'd been sucking the whole time she had him (while I was in recovery) looking for food. Such a Benny.

When I arrived into the hospital room, the nurse told me they needed to put Benny into an incubator as his temperature had dropped. She saw my disappointed face and suggested he try a cuddle with mum instead. I was still cold and shaky from the caesarean so it was nice to cuddle my brand new baby, skin to skin. Both of us warmed up and got our temps back to normal. The nurse came back, smiled and explained to me that mums bodies are designed to give their babies what they need. We both needed that cuddle.

Because of Bennys undiagnosed lactose intollerance and my huge supply of milk, he had lots more cuddles! His feeds went right through him. He had both vomitting and diarrhea. I had way too much milk, which just made it all worse. He had lots of tummy aches so he slept with us for quite a while. Since I smelt like milk and he always wanted to feed, we decided he would sleep with Job. Those two were always sleeping!!

He was always trying to latch onto my face whenever I gave him a kiss

   
                         Benny with his Uncle (John) who he is named after. Benjamin 'Apolosi' Tai

He was such a cute bubby, he used to do these funny model poses. People would laugh and smile at him in the street, I think because he was so big and rolly. I didn't mind, it just made him cuter to me.

Here's Grandma, doing some weight lifting. She used to call him a sack of potatoes because at this age, he weighed 10kgs.

The three musketeers (JJ, Charlotte and Benny)

Our family back then. The boys, me......and Elvis

He was one cute bub!

And now he's a cute 7 year old boy.

This is him this morning opening presents. He is completely in love with his new Collingwood singlet, if it were allowed, he would have worn it to school. He also got some lego (which he went looking for and found under my bed 4 days ago.) and a digeredoo.

We all had cocopops for breakfast (a birthday treat)  Here he is eating his.... Benny style

 He went to school but I picked him up just before lunch. More than anything he wanted sometime off school! We came home and had chip sandwiches for lunch. He spent the afternoon putting his new lego together while I sat with him and planned his party. This is the first year he's had a party, he's been too shy other years. I'm excited for him.

The Terrys came over in the afternoon with a special gift.....a rock. They know how much Benny likes to collect rocks, so Sam carved a 'B' in the side of one. Its such a thoughtful present and one Benny will love for years. JJ is going to put an order in for one for his birthday too :)

We had a family dinner with the Rogers who brought Benny a helmet and the number 10 to put on the back of his new singlet. In the past Benny has cut and stuck the number 10 onto his back, so he is excited to have a real singlet and now, a real number.

We had little pizzas, noodle pancakes, nuggets and garlic bread for dinner....

.....followed by the best part of the night - a chocolate fountain!! We had the choice of strawberries, cherries, manderine, grapes, marshmellows and lolly bananas....yummo!! I will need to do some extra burpees tomorrow morning!

We love you BENNY, our lovable, outgoing, highly imaginative and mischievious 7 year old!

Bring on another year together.

 

Hook, Line and Sinker!

No its not just a metaphor, we really went fishing over the weekend. The Rogers and us (minus Job who had to study) drove up to Liawenee to join in with the other mad Tasmanians who brave the cold to go and see some Trout. I go mainly in ignorance of what the whole day is about.....I care only that its a fun day out with the family and my kids get to catch a fish! This year we actually saw a guy milk the fish, he squeezes them and the eggs pop out. He assured everyone that its not painful for the fish but actually quite a relief to have them out after so long - I can relate to that!! Much like doing a big poo perhaps...

So here we are waiting in line for a chance to snag a trout

Apologies for not playing around with the photos and making them pretty. Its Bennys birthday tomorrow and I'm behind in blogs so I'm just chucking the photos up tonight with not much improvement to them..

    While most of the kids sat on the fence waiting, Parchie passed the time playing drums on dads head

Once we got in, JJ was lucky enough to get hold of a line that already had a fish on the end. The volunteers weren't reeling them in by the bucket load, it was taking quite a while to catch a trout, many children went home without one. We hoped to get at least one per family. I was relieved when JJ got one....

   Lani waited patiently, but nothing for her...

   ....until Kym called her over to the Rogers spot where their guy was catching them by the minute. He was there last year and we were lucky then also as he helped most of the kids catch a fish.

So with Kyms help at the net, Lani caught her first fish.

 Sisi wasn't interested in stroking the fish. She was happy just to look.

    Then it was Bennys turn. He didn't catch anything where we were so I sent him over to Kym as well.

    

   Charlotte and her fish. In the background is the news crew that were trying to shoot the story. Our kids got in the way a couple of times.

                                           Here are the kids last year with their fish

                                     ....and this year....we decided to leave the fish in their bags :)

The kids found a really big fish to pose with.

And a fun looking mural fish...thingy to poke their faces out of

                             Then we took some family shots before heading back home

                                                      The Kids last year..

And now..

I was telling Benny off for not co operating for the photo, he was being grumpy..

Then The Policeman came over and suddenly he's happy as Larry!

He's lovely, we met him last year also

We stopped on the way home to take a few photos too....the scenery was beautiful but it was freezing!

Poor Chelsea is freezing and Charlotte is such a nutter.......wonder where she gets if from...

                                           ....she must get it from somewhere....

                      And of course a day trip wouldn't be complete for Benny....

....without bringing home a rock.

Oh, I nearly forgot to mention, the kids made it onto the news that night, both Southern Cross and Win. Don't feel bad if you didn't see them, you probably just blinked at the wrong time.

They also made it into the paper. Joe and Parchie were in Sundays Examiner (I tried to stick the link up here but its not working, you can see it on Joes facebook page)

JJ and Benny were in todays paper. I can't get the link for that one either but I took a photo this morning:

I'm glad I took those photos because this afternoon while I was busy settling Sisi, who was having a mega tantrum, Benny decorated JJ's picture with texta. We will have to get another copy. 

If you feel like watching two minutes of family video, here is Job and JJ enjoying trout for dinner.