Michael Mommy Date

Whenever Lily or Michael do a chore, read or write, or don’t get a time-out all day (that one hasn’t happened yet!) they earn a sticker on their sticker chart. Once their chart is full they get to pick a fun activity to do with one parent. Maybe two months or so ago, Michael filled up his sticker chart and for his date chose to go to the zoo with Mommy. It was so much fun for both of us! I was actually surprised by how much I enjoyed myself. Michael and I haven’t spent a whole lot of one on one time together before this, and he’s a lot different when he’s not interacting with/reacting to Lily. I didn’t take a ton of pictures while we were at the zoo, but here are some of them.

Hello Mr. Penguin.

Look at this cool kid!

Love my little boy!

6 Years and Counting!

I typically make Emily a card for our anniversary, but instead, I’m blogging it!  I’ve been married to the love of my life for 6 whole years now. It all started out here:

1 year later she was already pregnant with Lily and life couldn’t get any better, or so I thought.

Then came Lily.  She turned our life upside down in the most perfect way.

Just two years into our marriage, and we just kept falling more and more in love…still haven’t stopped.

Then came Michael.  That kid can melt your heart in an instant with his perfect little inflections and expressions.

I can’t seem to find a 3rd anniversary picture, but I assure you.  We were still smiling (though quite exhausted from a 3 week old, hence the lack of pictures)

By year 4 we were just spoiled rotten with like the perfect life ever.  Look at that smile.  I’m so glad our kids have Emily’s smile.

P.S.  My Emily, I love your freckles…

Last year I celebrated 5 years with my beautiful bride.  Adam was well on his way, we had a new house and well, could it get any better?

Then came Adam to prove that yes, it in fact can get better.  That boy smiles like it’s his job.

Then fast-forward to now.  This is us.  Ben and Emily Lemmon.  Married for 6 years.  I can’t wait until I can fill this blog with 50 years of beautiful memories together.  (Well, 44 years from now I doubt we’ll be using blogs, but you get the point ).

Sleep-training

This little guy

has been making me lose sleep in a big way.

He looks so cute and innocent

and acts so tired!

But then he’s up, two hours after I put him down for bed. And then three hours after that. And then two hours after that. And again. And again.

Yeah, I don’t know what’s up with that either.

So a few days ago I started sleep training. Like clockwork, he was up at 10:30 looking for a snack. I picked him up, soothed him without nursing him until he calmed down, and put him back down. And he screamed like I had poked him with a pin or something. Repeat about 12 times until he finally stays calm and falls back asleep. I did nurse him at 1:30 (another of his self-designated feeding times) because it had been 6 hours since I nursed him last. But then he was up again at 3. And at 4. And 5. And 6. Oh boy.

It’s gotten a little bit better each night. Last night he slept six hours straight without waking up, and then another 4. Which would have been awesome, had I been able to sleep the same amount of time. But nope. Last night I was woken twice by this guy:

Yes. Twice.

And once by her:

So I was still up about 5 times. Grrrr.

It has to get better, right?

At least they’re all really cute.

A few snapshots

Besides being really bad at blogging the last 6 months or so, I’ve also stopped taking pictures as regularly as I once was. But I do have a few favorite pictures from the last year or so that I really want to share. It’s quite the random assortment; hope you enjoy!

 

 

 

The poor baby acne stage… but I love his first smiles!!

 

I just love my sisters hair here.

 

 

 

Family Picture

It’s been a few millennia since I posted, so I’m breaking out of my shell with a nice family picture. Excuse the sunburns – I’m still very happy with how this turned out. For the record, Lily initiated the hand-holding herself. Such a poser.

And I’ll top it off with a close-up of Adam. He’s really good at close-ups.