May 7 - 15, 2011 in Norman, Oklahoma with Brent and Family

I (Ma) returned home to Rogers, Arkansas on Sunday night after spending a little over a week with Brent, Jessica, Anna Claire, Bennett and Sutton! Wow! That's the first time I have added Sutton's name to the family. The entire family is still so in awe of baby Sutton. So far, he has been such a good baby. He only cries when he is hungry or wet.

By my calculation he used about 30 diapers every day and a half. Huggie diapers are not working for him. I took all the Huggie diapers back to Target and exchanged them for Pamper diapers. He leaks through every Huggie diaper.

Anna Claire loves being "in charge" of baby Sutton. She has plans for every second of his day and most of those plans include putting him in the baby swing. She loves the baby swing more than Sutton does. When Sutton is not in the baby swing then you will find her two big My Little Pony's in the baby swing all covered up with a baby blanket.

The one thing Anna Claire will NOT do is change a dirty diaper. With much prodding she at least padded down the velcro tapes on the Pampers to help me out one day but she will not even touch a barely wet diaper.

Anna Claire and Bennett holding Sutton.

We were a little worried at first about the rash on Sutton's face. The rash spread to his chest, then his arms, and then a little on his legs. Jessica took him to the doctor and we found out that the rash is common in newborns; however, neither Anna Claire or Bennett ever had it. The rash has a long name but basically newborns sometime have it their first three weeks. By the time I left to go home it was all gone. 

By another calculation of mine, Bennett got in major trouble about 3 or 4 times a day. I have no idea what was going on in this picture but I could list a million things he could have done.

Jessica, Sutton and Anna Claire on the front porch.

Bennett loved kissing Sutton after he would fall asleep. The only problem is when Sutton would try to sleep that is when Bennett would want to feel of his hair, face, hands, etc. Bennett tends to pat Sutton just hard enough to wake him up.

I don't even want to know what Bennett was trying to do to the neighbor's cat. He found a rope and it does appear he was trying to tie the cat's legs together. Who knows?

Bennett is fascinated with sticks that he calls his "treasure." We can not figure out where he finds all these sticks. They do not have any trees in their yard, front or back. He has sticks in a corner on their front porch, in a nice stack in the fireplace, in a corner of his bedroom, and on the back porch. Oh, there are also sticks on the couch and on the dining room table. He does love his sticks.

Bennett, Jessica, Sutton and Anna Claire.

Anna Claire is dressed for her ballet rehearsal. I told the kids to smile big. This is what I got from Bennett!

Anna Claire is in a ballet recital on May 27th. She  has a different outfit for each scene. One scene is a daddy/daughter dance which is top secret. Anna Claire and Brent had to go to practice one night while I was there. Brent said it was hard and stressful!

Anna Claire is getting ready to leave to go play with Audrey. She is taking two of her My Little Pony's to Audrey's. Bennett and I went to Academy Sports to buy a basketball.

For real, I only put on makeup and fixed my hair two days out of the eight. Time management. That's all I could handle.

Bennett kept going over to the neighbor's yard and getting Max's basketball. He turned three on March 24th and can dribble an adult's basketball for a long time.

Such an innocent looking face.

Sutton in his University of Oklahoma outfit. I had more fun dressing him everyday. He has so many cute clothes. I love the new baby leg warmers!

Bennett goes to Mother's Day Out one day a week from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. He has his lunch box, nap mat, and back pack that has his blankies and doggie in it.

Anna Claire goes to Mother's Day Out two days a week. She loves going. Bennett...not so much.

The intention in this picture was for Bennett to put his arm around Anna Claire and Anna Claire to put her arm around Bennett. They tried.

Bennett in another cute outfit with football baby leg warmers! Love them!

I wanted to post a picture of the nursery but all of my junk was on the floor so I couldn't. Sutton is in his little travel bed that he will take to Florida in a couple of weeks. 

Ashley came over to visit with her five month old. We wanted to take pictures. This was as good as it got!

Bennett has gotten so good at holding Sutton.

Okay, this picture just proves that I am equal in posting pictures, good and bad. Early, early one morning. Bennett was up and already taking pictures with my camera.

Bennett playing on the floor with Sutton early one morning.

Anna Claire was dressed for Mother's Day Out. She wanted to hold Sutton before she left. Bennett is dressed to spend a day with Ma.

Anna Claire wanted to eat her breakfast of blueberry waffles, strawberries and chocolate milk on the floor so that she could be near Sutton.

Anna Claire holding Sutton.

Anna Claire and Sutton.

Anna Claire adoring Sutton.

Bennett in his hunting outfit.

Ma, Anna Claire and Sutton.

Bennett's books that he has to read have titles like "God, I Need to Talk to You About Bad Manners" and the Berenstein Bear's "Talk About Telling The Truth."

Brent and Sutton.

Sutton's first ever bottle. Sutton had been eating every two hours, 24 hours a day. The doctor told Jessica that she could not sustain that and that she needed to supplement with a bottle occasionally. Brent had the honors of giving Sutton a bottle.

Gary (Granddad) and Sutton.

Anna Claire had just returned home from a gymnastics birthday party for eagan. In this picture she is making a salad in a flower pot.

Bennett really is good at basketball. I am so impressed. He seems to be very good at all sports.

Memories I will cherish forever:

Every night Bennett, Ma and Anna Claire slept in the same bed. The routine was: Ma in the middle and Anna Claire and Bennett on each side of Ma. Ma would tell stories about when Daddy and Uncle Shane were growing up. Their favorite stories were when (1) Daddy and Levi went to Florida and came home in Ma's car with a pot belly pig, (2) Ma, Granddad, Daddy and Uncle Shane went to the camphouse and the electricity had gone out. Daddy and Uncle Shane went to the bathroom outside. (3) Daddy and Uncle Shane went snowskiing and Ma told them NOT to go down the highest mountain but they did and Ma was soooo worried, (4) Granddaddy tellling Ma that he and Brent were going to run an errand. They came back with a dog Daddy named "Snowbear." Ma was not happy, and (5) when Daddy was little he wandered off at a football game and we found him at the very top bleacher in the stands.

Every morning Bennett was up early around 6:30 a.m. and Ma would fix him some chocolate milk and then they would snuggle on the couch until Sutton woke up about five minutes later. Then, all three would snuggle on the couch. Bennett would eat two blueberry waffles and have a sippy cup of chocolate milk. He would request that the chocolate milk be "chocolatey." He told me that Daddy makes it "chocolatey."

Bennett singing LOUD "Blessed Be The Name" at Academy Sports and then asking "Ma, I sing good, don't I?" People around trying very hard not to laugh and Ma responding "Oh, Bennett, you sing wonderful."

Bennett and I were in the lobby where Anna Claire had ballet. I was visiting with some of the other grandmom's and mom's and Bennett came up to me, climbed on my lap, put his arms around me and said "Ma, I love you forever."

Bennett telling me everyday that Granddad is taking him to Sea World this summer to see the killer whales. Well, guess where we are going this summer? Yep.

Bennett mad at me one day and said "Go home, Ma. I don't love you." Anna Claire came up to me, put her arms around me and said "Ma, I love you."

Tickling Anna Claire's back every night until she fell asleep.

Bennett asking me to clean his hiding space in the backyard. I did but then Anna Claire came up to me and asked me if I could clean her flower garden. I asked where it was and it was the flower bed going the length of the house. I did that, also. It took an entire day. I had to trim many bushes and rake about six big bags of leaves. I stacked the limbs on the side of the house. Later, the next day, I walked to the side of the house and saw several limbs in the neighbor's (Bob's) yard. Bennett!!!!!

Bennett's favorite book is "Wild Cats." He asked his mother if he could have a pet. She asked what kind and he said a baby cheetah.  He also asked me if "any other animal was extinct like the dinosaurs." He does have a big vocabulary.

Anna Claire told me that she was glad baby Sutton had blonde hair because she "didn't like being the only one in the family with blonde hair." She told me my hair was blonde and gray. I've already made an appointment with the hair salon. I go tomorrow.

They both love playing the "Talking Tom Cat" game on the iPhone. Bennett has an old iPhone that he uses.

Anna Claire asked me why Bennett was not older since his birthday was first. I explained and she said "I'm glad that I'll always be the oldest one."

One afternoon Jessica was feeding Sutton and Anna Claire went outside to play. She came in a couple of hours later and Jessica was feeding Sutton (it was the second feeding). Anna Claire exclaimed "You are STILL feeding him?"

We gave Sutton a two-week old birthday party. We made the five minute chocolate cake in the mug and put two candles on top of it. Anna Claire made a sign that said "Happy Birthday." We decorated the table with some old birthday decorations I found (pink ones).

Granddad (Gary) and I left to go home on Sunday morning. Sunday and Monday night we  laid in bed telling each other Anna Claire, Bennett, and Sutton stories.