Benjamin the Big Brother

Luna will be 11 months old in a little over a week, and she'll be 1 year old in a little over a month! Where has the time gone?! I want to spend this post talking about Benjamin taking on his role as a big brother because it has been amazing watching him go from completely ignoring her existence to loving her - and sometimes loving her too much!

When I was pregnant with Luna, I taught Benjamin to point to my belly and say "There's a baby in there." Benjamin knew what a baby was - when he would see babies he would point and say, "baby!" or "uh oh, baby crying" - but I knew he didn't actually understand that we would be bringing a baby home to live with us.

When my parents brought Benjamin to the hospital to see Luna, he was interested in everything but her. He wanted to turn the lights on and off, open and close the doors and the curtain, push the keys on the nurses computer, and jump on the bed. When we asked him if he wanted to see the baby he said no, though we did convince him to say "Bye baby!" when he went back to my parents' house. Due to his lack of interest and refusal to sit still, this is the only family picture we got while in the hospital:

When we brought Luna home, Benjamin didn't care either way, he was too excited that his grandma was staying to help out! (The helping out was to take care of Benjamin and my home while I slept and took care of Luna.) My mom sleeping in Benjamin's room was the best week of his life.

The first time we tried to help Benjamin hold Luna he started bawling - it was kind of hilarious - and we got a picture of it!

He kissed her for the first time when she was 3.5 weeks old and held her without crying for the first time when she was a little over a month old.

For Luna's first Halloween we put her in the stroller and took Benjamin trick-or-treating at the mall and on my parents' street. He asked everyone who gave him candy "For baby?" So the little genius got two pieces of candy from everyone! But he actually was doing it out of love for his sister because he would put each second piece of candy into Luna's car seat and say, "Here go baby." (Let me take a moment here while my heart melts.)



















And Benjamin was comfortable enough with Luna that I got this beautiful photo of them during Christmas time:

Benjamin called Luna "baby" or "the baby" for the longest time. When we would ask him if he wanted to call her Luna he would say no.  He started calling her "Wuna" when she was about 6 or 7 months old, but continued to say "baby" as well. Now he calls her "Wuna", "Baby Wuna", or "Baby Girl"!

When Luna was about 5 months old Benjamin became interested in helping change her diaper. I let him bring me the wipes and put them away. In fact, now all I have to say is, "Benjamin, bring me the wet wipes please." and he goes running. If he hears me say that Luna pooped, he'll get the wipes ready before I even ask him! And very recently he has decided it is his job to throw the actual diapers away.  So now all of us get to wash our hands after a diaper change.

Luna started crawling when she was 7 months old and Benjamin thought that was the coolest thing ever. I would often find him a few feet from her, shaking a toy in her face saying, "Crawl, baby, crawl!" As Luna started interacting more with Benjamin, he started interacting more with her. They just love to touch each other's faces and laugh (don't ask, I don't get it either, but I love it). Of course problems still arise. Unsurprisingly, whatever toy Luna is playing with, Benjamin all of a sudden wants. If it's a small toy, I tell him to give her a new one (and he's starting to do that on his own without me prompting him); but if it's a big toy I make them share. Sometimes Benjamin is willing to share, sometimes a temper tantrum ensues.

When Luna was 9 months old I moved her into Benjamin's room. I had no idea what to expect, but it was an immediate success! Those two talk and play for almost an hour every night before falling asleep. In the beginning, Benjamin slept in his crib-turned-toddler-bed and Luna slept in the portable crib. Then one night we checked on them and Benjamin had tipped over the portable crib and Luna was crawling around on the floor! The next day we turned Benjamin's bed back into a crib for Luna, and put Benjamin on a mattress on the floor until we could get him a normal sized twin bed (he slept on the floor only for a week).

Around this same time Benjamin decided he was brave enough to start picking Luna up and dragging her around by her feet or hands.  I was actually really surprised because it took him so long to be willing to touch her and hold her without him crying, I didn't know if he would ever pick her up. For the most part he only picks her up if he doesn't like where she's at (ie. near him when he

wants to play alone), but if I ask him to bring her to me, he will. :)

We have always invited Benjamin to give Luna a hug and a kiss after family prayer each night. At first he would just put his forehead on her mouth. Then he started giving her a quick kiss. Now, he grabs her and pulls her down into a tackle/wrestle looking hug thing! She surprisingly loves it and laughs the whole time because she's grabbing his face and his hair while he "hugs" her.

The love that these two have for each other puts the biggest smile on my face. I feel so blessed to be their mom. I look forward to witnessing how their love and relationship continues to develop with their age and social skills. And I hope and pray that they will continue to be good friends.

Best Cousins: Bride and Matron of Honor

My cousin, Jamie Eisenstat, got married on July 5th, and I decided to write about it because she is my best friend and her wedding has been my favorite to be apart of since my own.  :)

Jamie married Christian Loveridge in the Draper, Utah LDS Temple on July 5, 2016. This was definitely the wedding of the decade! Words cannot describe how happy I am for Jamie and Christian. I knew I was going to be Jamie's Matron of Honor long before she met Christian, so when she told me they were getting married I was ready to go!

The first thing was to plan and host her bridal shower. It was a lunch shower so we had pizza, green salad, cookies and brownies. We played two games. The first was "Would They Rather?" I had a list of 10 different pairs of options that Jamie and Christian answered ahead of time (ie. live in the city or country). Some of the questions they answered the same, some they answered differently, so there was a total of 20 possible points. The three highest scores got prizes. The second was Wedding A to Z. Jamie, along with the guests, filled out a wedding word for each letter of the alphabet. Jamie's answers were the "correct" answers, so the top three papers that matched hers the best got prizes. Then Jamie opened her gifts and we had some honeymoon themed fun with that. ;)

The next thing I helped Jamie with was her bridal pictures. Our aunt Rochelle took the photos (she is a professional photographer), and Jamie's mom Selma and I held her shoes, lifted her skirt when she walked and helped with other things. They were so beautiful! (To see Rochelle's work, visit this page: http://pointedigital.com/)

Jamie decided that her bride's maids would each be in a different dress, our only instructions: pink. I already had a pink dress from a different occasion that Jamie loved so she told me to wear it, and Luna had a dress that matched mine (a baby shower gift) so Jamie wanted to Luna to wear that. We looked great! Jamie's other bride's maids were Jamie Prior, Jaelynn Hoffman, and Sydney Eppley. So it was practically a high school reunion.

The wedding ceremony was beautiful. I did fine until it was my turn to hug Jamie, and then I started bawling. We took lots of fun pictures outside of the temple and then had a couple hours to get ready for the luncheon.

The luncheon and reception were at Wheeler Historic Farm in Salt Lake City. The luncheon was mainly family with friends who were part of the wedding party like Jamie's bride's maids and Christian's best man. They served chicken cordon bleu that was so amazing it makes mine look like a 12 year old made it, but that's why I'm not a professional chef. ;) Christian's brother and I were each assigned to give a toast and then from there was an "open mic" for whoever else wanted to say something. I have to admit I was a little intimidated to go after Christian's brother because he has been married for 17 years and had wonderful advice to give; he even quoted President Uchtdorf! But my toast still went alright. :)

After the luncheon the bridal party took pictures. Jamie's and Christian's colors were pink and green (for those of you thinking "Pink goes good with green!" from Wicked, that's exactly where Jamie got her colors from). The bride's maids wore pink and the Christian and his groom's men wore green vests and ties.

Jamie and Christian had a receiving line with just them and this beautiful tribute to angel family members. Meanwhile the other bride's maids and I, with the help of Jamie's brother and his girlfriend decorated the car!

Christian danced with his mom to Phil Collin's "You'll Be In My Heart". Jamie danced with her dad to "Butterfly Kisses" (*happy sigh* I did too!).

And then the happy couple danced to Brian Adam's "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You".

After that all of the married couples danced and the DJ (our Uncle Mark) called married couples off according to how long they had been married. The couple who had been married the longest got to offer advice to Jamie and Christian. Our Uncle Carl and his wife Diane got to be that couple. Then it was time to cut the cake, toss the bouquet, and the garter.

Their exit was spectacular. The guests split the walkway and waved streamers at them as they ran through the crowd. Then they drove off to live Happily Ever After! Congratulations Jamie and Christian!