Born on December 3, 2008. She weighed 6 lbs. 8 oz. and was 20.5 inches long. Alert, perfect and healthy, and making us smile.

Chicago Shopping

Sat, 23 Jan 2010 10:59:36 -0500

Makena is slacking on her blog writing. The blog takes a little while to write and unfortunately her attention span is about 13 seconds so.....
Last Thursday we packed up and headed to Chicago for a Rotary Youth Exchange board meeting. Last year the day we made the same trip it was 16 degrees below zero and the poor girl was so bundled up. (And as I was packing that afternoon there was “breaking news” on the TV - a plane had crashed in the Hudson River and everyone survived.) She was a good traveler again, both ways. Playing some and sleeping some. Although my parents didn’t have to be at the meeting for Rotary reasons, they came to have grandparent time. My mom doesn’t even care that she doesn’t get to shop as much as before when she came to this meeting. She did get some shopping in, but I think it was all for Makena. And Daddy helped the local economy a bit as well. She’s on her way to being all set for next winter with 2T clothes. The best find of the year was a snow suit for this winter that cost $1.48! The ones we had she was busting out of as they were sized 9 months.
Makena loved being away from home for all the meal times. I brought her cereal for the days we were gone, but other than that she mostly ate off of our plates. She loves eating the same food we do so this was a big hit. Grandma and gpa continue to be impressed with how much this girl can eat! On our last morning there we went to Starbucks for breakfast. I ordered a bowl of oatmeal for Makena. I figured that Jeff and I would also get a few spoon fulls since this wasn’t a kid sized bowl. Nope! She ate it all, and the raisin topping, and her glass of milk, AND a few bites of our scone. My little Ms. Piggy.
Grandma and gpa left on Sunday, but we stayed one extra day since Jeffrey didn’t have to work on Monday. Sunday night we went out for our annual crab dinner meal. Yum, yum.
We had a pretty quiet week once we got back. Makena and I did pack up on Tuesday and go to Indy to have lunch with a girlfriend. It was fun to catch up with Amy. She has a little girl that is one year older than Makena. On Wednesday, Grandma Bennett couldn’t come over so Makena and I went on a play date. Our play mates were the other kids and their moms from the Mom’s group that we went to for the first year or so. There are 4 others that are Makena’s same age, give or take a month. The kids aren’t into playing together yet, but it sure is nice to have the adult conversation! On Thursday we continued with that theme and had our friend Hattie and her 8 month old, Brodie, over for the afternoon. Brodie is taller and heavier than Makena, so I’m not sure who the baby of the group was. :) We didn’t get to so to swimming class on Thursday as it was a sheet of ice outside and everything around town was cancelled. I attempted to go to Rotary that morning, but only made it to the end of the subdivision before deciding it wasn’t worth it.
A favorite toy:

New Discoveries and Snow

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 15:46:50 -0500

Makena started the week off with a bang. For me it was one of those days that I counted the minutes until Jeffrey came home. For Makena I’m sure it was all great fun and she I’m sure she schemed during her nap for what she could do next. All in one day she discovered how to lift the toilet lid up, how to unroll the toilet paper roll, how to open all the cupboard doors and drawers, and she found a tissue box that’s been reachable to her for some time and discovered how fun it is to pull out all of the tissues. Fun day for Makena. Not so much for the mommy.
The snow discovery was a fun one for Makena, and of course Jeffrey and I are happy to have the white stuff. We had a little snow earlier in December, but it was barely enough to cover the ground. On Thursday though we got about 5 inches. And then we got another inch or so on Friday. It was time to go play in the snow!! Like a good girl with Weting and Bennett blood, Makena took right to the snow and cold. She loved being pulled around in her sled. And I mean loved it! For 30 minutes I pulled her around the yard and driveway and for 30 minutes she jabbered away. If I stopped pulling the sled, she stopped talking. As soon as I started again she’d start talking. It was quite funny. (This video will make you sea sick to watch, but her noises are funny. I had to pull the sled and video at the same time.) She fell off the sled a few times and didn’t mind getting a face full of snow. She crawled in it, she ate it, and she sat and looked at it fall from the sky. She’s getting all geared up for next winter when Uncle Jeff teaches her how to ski.
Grandma & Grandpa Bennett came to babysit on Friday night while Jeffrey and I were at a function in town. They had a ball playing and by the sounds of it, Makena was very entertaining. She’s down to nursing right when she wakes up and then at bedtime. They found, as well as my parents, that she won’t take a glass/sippy cup of milk at bed time. If I’m not there to nurse her she just wants her pacifier and to go to bed. I’m glad she doesn’t pitch a fit about it at least!
On Saturday Makena had lots of Daddy time. They had a great time playing together and running errands. I went down to Indy to meet up with a friend for the day so Jeff was on duty. That night we had two other families over for a pizza dinner. 6 adults and 6 kids. I missed the ball though and forgot to get a picture. There would have been some good ones of Makena and Jonathan (9.5 months). She liked his hair. He liked her toys.
God, send more snow please, I like it....

Welcome 2010

Tue, 5 Jan 2010 17:36:06 -0500

Jeffrey was back to work on the Monday after Christmas. But it was moving day. They moved back into their renovated dental office. It was a mad dash to move out of the temporary location and unpack in the new office. It was a success and they were seeing patients on Tuesday. Everyone is very happy to be back at “home” again. It looks awesome! They have a few remaining projects that are being worked on amidst seeing patients.
Makena didn’t make it to midnight to welcome in 2010. In fact, none of us did. We went out to dinner that evening at our favorite Thai restaurant. They love her there and made her a special little dish of pad Thai -- without the peanuts and spice. I figured that 2010 would arrive even if I didn’t stay up and watch it. Plus Makena and I saw 2010 arrive and the fireworks in Auckland, New Zealand and Sydney, Australia so I think we had it covered. Now Jeffrey, I’m not sure what his excuse was!
The weekend was the kind of weekend I’ve been longing for, for months it seems. We took the Christmas decorations down and did some cleaning - so there was some productivity. Makena doesn’t seem to miss the tree. On Saturday we went down to Indy to do a little shopping and visit with some friends. We ended the night with a rented movie. It was a perfect day. Sunday we topped the weekend off by celebrating Grandma Linda’s birthday.
Makena isn’t walking yet, but she is still practicing. She’s also getting quite good at standing up on her own, without hanging on to anything. She’s also been playing around with a lot of sounds this week, like making a fish face. She has become an expert at signing “more”. But, we’re still waiting for her to say mommy or daddy. And of course she always loves bath time.

Christmas 2009!

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 07:35:21 -0500

It was a busy but fun week. Grandma and Grandpa Weting, along with Makena’s great grandma Punkie, arrived on Tuesday. The last time Punkie saw Makena was in May so she had grown a lot. She had a great week playing with her grandparents, and they ate up every minute of it. It’s always a shock when they leave and Jeff’s back to work since then I’m the only entertainment for Makena and I have to change all the diapers. Grandma actually volunteers to change stinky diapers. It’s so much easier with a household full of people!
On Wednesday during lunch we all went over to the renovated Dental Care office. They were showing it to those on the team who wanted a sneak preview so we went too. Dad had seen it about 2 weeks ago, but mom hadn't seen it since shortly after the demolition began. It’s quite a sight! Everyone was looking forward to move in day on Monday and getting back to their office. Wednesday evening we all went to church for the Christmas service. Jeffrey was on a camera for both services and I was serving in the nursery that night. Makena was with me in the nursery and there were 8 kids. It was a first... 7 of the 8 kids were crying and the hold out wasn’t Makena!! Church started at 7 and about 7:30 everyone started to melt down as bed time was near or passed for them. Mom, dad, and Punkie enjoyed the service on Wednesday night so that they could stay home with Makena the next night while I was at the service (and Jeff was on camera again).
Christmas Eve was a low key day as Jeffrey was off of work, and both of us came down with colds. Thankfully Makena is still cold free, but we are not -- this is really hanging around like we’re old friends. We did enjoy a nice dinner in the evening, after Makena was in bed. At least Jeffrey and I thought it was nice not to be juggling feeding Makena as well. But the others found us less entertaining than the darling one year old. So sorry!
Makena woke us up on Christmas morning wearing a Santa hat. After breakfast she was ready to dig into the presents. Let the fun begin!Present unwrapping lasted until about 3 p.m. Seriously! There weren’t that many gifts, it’s just really slow going with a one year old. We took a break for morning nap. Then she got probably one present open after her nap and it was time to stop for lunch. Some more presents to open, then she wasn’t interested in any of that for awhile, and so it went. I think this was my longest Christmas ever!
Makena did give us a Christmas present at dinner that night. For months we’ve been using some sign language with her, but she has never really done it back. We think she signed “more” a few times in the past months, but it was never more than once, and I think maybe she was just mimicking. But she figured it out on Christmas and uses it all the time now. I wonder what her next sign will be.

Christmas weekend was pretty mellow as Jeffrey and I were still laying low with our colds. Everyone just had fun playing with Makena and trying to get her to walk. She’s close -- she could do it if she had the confidence in herself. On Saturday afternoon they all got to babysit Makena while Jeffrey and I were at the Colts football game.
Makena ate some more new foods with everyone here. Lots of meals off of our plate of course. She’s a big fan of smoked salmon. And pickles. She liked the taste of a chocolate chip cookie that Grandpa let her have before I gave him the evil eye. Toast. The insides of an egg roll. She had beets to eat one day (she’s been eating these for a few months) and grandma loved her messy lipstick look:
A Christmas snuggle with daddy:
Reading with Punkie:

Christmas Has Begun

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 16:33:32 -0500

Swimming class came to an end this week. It was our last session until middle of January. I’m not sure what Makena is going to do without swimming! We’re gonna have to do a lot of bathtub time in the coming weeks. Maybe that will keep our water baby happy.
It was time to start wrapping Christmas presents this week. Our tradition is to do that while watching Christmas Vacation. Makena even got in on the action:
Friday night Christmas started with the Bennett Family celebration. Cousin Brittany leaves for Florida on Monday so we celebrated early. Everyone came over for an easy pizza dinner and we had a ball together. Makena had fun playing with all the wrapping paper. Brittany found the great hat the Makena is wearing, and there are matching booties and a little purse.
Bennett Family:
On Saturday we woke up to some snow. (For those of you from the UP, I mean “snow”.) It continued to snow for most the morning. In the end we had about 2 inches that had fallen, but it was melting as soon as it was falling in the afternoon. I sure wish we had the two foot snowfall that is out East, but I’ll take what we got over having nothing. We bundled Makena up and took her out in the yard in a sled to play. So in the words of our favorite Christmas movie.....
Eddie: I don't know if I oughta go sailin' down no hill with nothin' between the ground and my brains but a piece of government plastic.
Clark: Do you really think it matters, Eddie?