All About Ben.

What's Ben up to these days? Well, if you're a friend of mine on FB (and chances are preeeeeeetty good that ya are), you know most of his big stuff. Here's some stuff that maybe you didn't know and I feel like sharing:

• At posting time, Ben is 7 months, 1 week and 5 days old
• Ben is now a champion Army crawler. He is getting faster and faster, the more time he has to practice. I suspect he'll be up on his knees before I know it.
• He's made his way over to the fireplace a few times and (although I keep a good eye on him when he's scooting around) I have a feeling a head bump is going to come shortly.
• He loves to eat. He's not picky about anything (well, he didn't like peas but I haven't tried them in over 2 months). For those of you that might care (probably no one) this is what he's currently being fed: at breakfast (some time before noon) I give him 2 tablespoons of cereal (organic oatmeal) mixed with 1 scoop of formula, 2 tablespoons of fruit and enough apple juice to make it all the right consistency. At dinner it's again 2 tablespoons of cereal mixed with 1 scoop of formula and enough apple juice mixed in + 2 tablespoons of fruit + 2 tablespoons of veggies. Some times he needs more, some times he doesn't finish it all. I'm feeding him Earth's Best veggies and fruits (and cereal, as soon as he finishes this box of Gerber oatmeal) because it bothered me that most of Gerber's 2nd & 3rd Foods were made with a crapload of chemicals. I know, I know. But I figure he'll get plenty of time when he's older to load his body with chemicals, I don't need to do it now. the Earth's Best ones are pretty much the food it lists on the jar and water. I stay away from the ones that have added chemicals.
• He loves to play with his food. Some of his favorites: playing "volcano" with his food, when you give him a bite he'll push it out with his tongue to make like lava down his chin. Then he laughs. He also will take a bite and say "ah-mamamamamamaman" over and over with the food rolling around his mouth. Another good one is blowing raspberries with a mouthful of food (but he doesn't do this one as often any more).
• He sneezes at least once every time he eats (and food goes EVERYWHERE, because, as fate would have it, I've just given him a bite when he sneezes).
• He LOVES to sneeze. He'll grin so huge after every sneeze and usually makes some sort of cooing sound.
• He gets excited when I open his closet, turn on the TV or open the curtains to look outside. He does what I call his "peanut butter jelly time" dance (google it)
• For a kid that would get so mad at baths when he was itty bitty, he sure loves them now. With our bathtub, we put it in the big tub and leave the drain to the little tub open and keep the water running - that way the water is always warm and clean. He loves to reach forward and play with the water coming out the spout (we reminds me: I need to get a spout cover before we have a head bump there) and play with his duck or his hippo. When I lay him on his back to wash his tummy & legs he kicks about half the water out of the tub.
• He loves to look at himself in the mirror. Thinks it's the funniest thing ever when I play peek a boo with him in the mirror.
• He spends a great majority of his day laughing or smiling. As he gets older, he's more prone to more crankiness but still overall is a very happy little boy.
• He claps. Randomly. Which cracks us up.
• I think he has a bit of a sadistic bent. When we tell him "no pinching, that hurts" he grins. When we say "ow!" he grins. :-p
• Loves his Sadie
• Also loves his Kitty (who bites...not sure why Ben still likes him, but I reference you back to the sadist post)
• He is ticklish on the back of his neck and all down his spine.
• He's also ticklish on his booty.
• He sings along to the radio or when I sing to him (I cannot sing him good night because he just grins at me the whole time)...
• ...except for humming "Love Me Tender". That's the ONLY song that will put him to sleep
• Ben loves to people watch. And flirt with random ladies.
• This one is naughty, but it cracks me up as soon as I take his diapers off its WHOOM, hands to the parts.
• We can tell he's hungry when he opens his mouth as far as it'll go and huffs and puffs like a steam engine.

Well that's all I can think of. I just noticed how messy my house got today and now I'm distracted by the mess. I'm sure they'll be a "Oh How Much I Love Ben: Part Two" in your future. Goodie for you!

p.s.

Update on the sleep training - it's actually going really well!! He doesn't fuss for more than 5 or so minutes (and even that isn't even crying, it's more of really just fussing sounds) after we leave the room and is asleep within 10. Tonight was the first time I laid him down that he didn't FUSS ONE SINGLE TIME!! I'm SO proud of him, I could just burst.

the sleepeasy solution

So. I over share. I know I do - I look at what most of my other friends blog about or share on their Facebooks and it's not nearly as much as I do. I don't know why I feel the need to defend my oversharing but I do so here it goes (LOL). First - clearly, I'm a first time parent and I have no idea what I'm doing. I make mistakes, I get frustrated, my baby doesn't do things the way other babies do. Maybe, just maybe, by my over sharing, I can help some one else that doesn't over share that is struggling in a similar way. Second - most of our family isn't located close. My over sharing is a great way to help them be a part of Ben's life on a daily basis, even if it is from afar.

From previous blogs and Facebook rants, ya'll know that I'm struggling a bit with helping Ben to learn to put himself to sleep. I've tried so many methods, the Baby Whisperer, crying it out, etc. Nothing seemed to be working and we're all getting frustrated at our house. Don't get me wrong - Ben sleeps great. He's finally eliminated that middle of the night feeding and pretty much sleeps a solid 11 - 12 hours a night. He naps (for the most part) for at least an hour for every nap. The problem (which isn't really a problem) is that he doesn't know how to fall asleep on his own (unless it's in the car - he's a champ at car time naps). He must be held or nursed to sleep. On the one hand, I don't mind it. I like that bonding time with him. On the other hand, that's precious time out of my day for ME time (of which I rarely get - and I know - I'm not the only woman who hardly gets a moment to herself).

Anyway, I wanted to share and keep record of our new method, which we started tonight. I checked out "the sleepeasy solution: The Exhausted Parent's Guide to Getting Your Child to Sleep - from Birth to Age 5" by Jennifer Waldburger and Jill Spivack. I read through the book this afternoon and I agree with their methods like 100%. It's something I can see fitting with our family lifestyle and actually have a chance at working. It's not a "no cry" method but it isn't a "cry it out" method either. It's the perfect balance. I've established a bed time routine (which we already had, but I swapped it up a bit starting tonight). Our target bed time is 7:00 pm. This ensures that if Ben only needs to sleep 11 hours at night, I'm not up before 6:00 am (which sucks). Our routine is:

1. Final nursing before bed
2. Bath
3. Lotion/diaper/jams
4. Quiet music and fan on for white noise
5. Non-stimulating play/bonding in his room
6. A few minutes of cuddling/rocking
7. In the crib, say good night, out the door

Tonight we did all those things and he was asleep before 7:05. Now, today is probably the exception to the rule. He napped like crap today and was way tired by bed time. As I was typing this up, he began crying but stopped before the 5 minute check time. Fingers crossed!

According to this book, night time putting to sleep should be mastered with in a few days. Apparently, naps are harder. I'm gonna stick with it and hopefully with 10-14 days we're on smooth sailing. We'll see!!!

Yum.

Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate Chunk Cookies

INGREDIENTS:

2/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 6-ounce package Ocean Spray® Craisins® Original Dried Cranberries
2/3 cup white chocolate chunks or chips
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 375ºF.
Using an electric mixer, beat butter or margarine and sugar together in a medium mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs, mixing well. Combine oats, flour, baking soda and salt in a separate mixing bowl. Add to butter mixture in several additions, mixing well after each addition. Stir in dried cranberries and white chocolate chunks.
Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on wire rack.
Makes approximately 2 1/2 dozen cookies.



These are really tasty, and not nearly as sweet as I thought they might be. If I make these again, I think I'll try dark chocolate chips instead of white chocolate.

Emotional Fitness.

I get supremely bored on Monday and Friday nights. Ben goes to bed super early (about a half hour to an hour after Nick goes to school), TV kinda blows and I am not motivated to do house work (even though it would be far more productive than watching another stupid episode of freaking House Hunters on HGTV and playing silly games on FB. Some times I use this...I don't know what you call it, an app, I guess? It's called StumbleUpon and it's a little toolbar I have on my browser. It takes me to a lot of random websites (it's how I actually found my very favorite blogs). Today I found an article on relationships. I liked the list so I wanted to share (original source found here). (I bolded some of my favorite parts)

1. Successful relationships take work. They don't happen in a vacuum. They occur when the couples in them take the risk of sharing what it is that's going on in their hearts and heads.

2. You can only change yourself, not your partner. If you love someone and think that after a while he or she will alter behaviors you find uncomfortable, think again. If you want changes, put them on the table, so your partner knows what you need.

3. All arguments stem from our own fear or pain. When upset occurs, check out what's going on inside you rather than getting angry with your partner. Truth is that we usually aren't upset for the reasons we think we are.

4. Understand that men and women are very different. We're not from Mars or Venus; we're not even in the same solar system. Understanding and celebrating our differences will make living together more peaceful, interesting and fun.

5. Honor each other in some way every day. Every morning, you have the opportunity to make your relationship sweeter and deeper by recommitting to your mate. Feeling respected and cherished by the one you love makes life much nicer.

6. Anger is a waste of time. Anger also is a relationship killer because it makes you self-absorbed and won't allow you to see the good. If you are annoyed with your mate, give yourself some time to calm down and then gently discuss what's going on for you.

7. Get regular tune-ups. Go to a couples workshop, talk with a counselor or read a relationship book together at least once a year. Even if you don't think that you need ideas, and the process alone will strengthen your connection.

8. Find a way to become and stay best friends. For some, this sounds unromantic, but for those who live it, most say it's the best part of their time together.

9. Be responsible for your own happiness. No other person can make you happy. It's something that you have to do on your own. If you feel that it's your partner's fault, think again, and look within to find out what piece may be missing for you.

10. Give what you want to get. Our needs change with time. If you'd like to feel understood, try being more understanding. If you want to feel more love, try giving more. It's a simple program that really works.

Mean Mommy.

So, most of you know that I'm (I mean, we're) doing some sleep training with Ben. I've let him develop some bad habits in his short little life with us and it's time to help him create some better ones. My goals have been to get him to go longer between eating (he was eating every hour on the hour), to eat longer (when nursing he'd eat for 10 minutes and when using a bottle he'd eat a max of 4 ounces), and to fall asleep on his own.

I started by simply refusing to feed him before a minimum of 2 hours had passed since his prior eating - if he wanted to eat right at that 2 hour mark, I'd feed him, otherwise I waited for him to tell me he was hungry. I did that for a week or so and he's naturally spaced that out to eating roughly every 3 hours now, all on his own. Since then, we've also convinced him to now eat 6 ounces of formula when we bottle feed him. I've also been very slowly switching him from nursing to bottles. Right now he's getting 2 bottles a day but I think I'm gonna start adding a third one in.

As for sleep training. Well. That's been fun. He's really good now about going to sleep without being nursed or rocked to sleep but would still prefer to be held. I tried laying him in his crib and standing over him, patting, soothing and picking up to cuddle and laying back down as necessary. You can stamp that with a big gigantic FAIL. So I finally decided to just try letting him cry it out. I tried going in periodically to soothe and reassure him that he's not being punished but that just made it worse. Every time I'd go in, I think he'd think I was coming to get him and then when I left again, it would just make the crying like 1000 times worse. I've been doing the cry it out method since Friday afternoon. The first time I did it, it took about a half hour of crying before he went to sleep. Friday night I did nurse him to sleep because well, it was just the timing of it. He woke up about a half hour later - I went in, gave him back his pacifier and told him that it was night-night time and left. That one was a bit longer, nearly an hour before he fell asleep. Since then, only 5 or less minutes of crying/fussing before he realizes I'm not coming back and it's bed time.

This makes me feel like the most awful person in the world. It's the worst feeling ever to let your baby cry and cry and cry. I wouldn't do it if he was hurtful to him, but I can tell by his cries that he's pissed - not hurting. I'm not the first mother that's let her baby cry themselves to sleep and I certainly won't be the last. I know some of you that will read this don't agree with the cry it out method and I have to say that to a point I agree with you. I didn't want to do it, I was against it but in the end - apparently it's the method that works best for Ben. He will never learn to fall asleep on his own if I don't give him the opportunity to do it.

In other, non-mean-mommy news: I'm so excited for my brother and my nephew!!! Their Little League team just won State Champions!!! They're headed off to San Bernardino, CA in August for regionals and if they win that it's off to Pennsylvania for the Little League World Series. Such a wonderful accomplishment for them!! I'm SO excited they are having such a fantastic season!!

Horseflies, Mosquitoes & Butterflies, Oh My!

Well, we're back from Ben's 2nd camping excursion (and our 2nd of the year!) and boy, do I have the sunburn (and bug bites) to prove it. Ouchie!! But that's okay, a day or two of aloe gel and this burn will fade to a lovely tan. Camping was just okay. Certainly better than our last adventure but ding dang it was HOT. HOT! And the bugs....oh my the bugs. The horseflies were out in FORCE. As soon as the flies would go away, the dang mosquitoes would be at ya. And the butterflies...I am completely and irrationally skeered of butterflies. I HATE them. I don't even like photographs of them, I think they're gross and I freak out when one flies towards me. Go ahead and laugh - I know it's a stupid phobia but I can't seem to help it. I think I might be more scaredy-pants of stupid butterflies than of spiders.

Anyway, we had some frustrating moments because it was SO hot. Ben wouldn't nurse when I took him in the tent because it was too hot and I didn't bring enough formula to not nurse him. He spent quite a bit of the day on Saturday being slightly cranky from being too hot to nap or eat. Mostly, though, it was a good time. The sky was a gorgeous deep blue and at night the skies were crystal clear. I saw two shooting stars and 3 satellites roving around. :-) I discovered a new-to-me feature on our camera that allows me to take pictures with the shutter open for longer times, so I played around with that a bit. I drank an entire bottle of Bailey's (it was a small one...) and we had a great spot. Our normal spot closer to Barber Flat was taken so we camped a bit closer to Idaho City, near Rabbit Creek.

In Ben news - he's 7 months old today! Holy cow, time is going by so, so, SO fast. I'll be taking him in to his doctors tomorrow for a weight check to see how he's doing. He started waving hello a little bit today. He did it to Nana a few times at breakfast (we stopped at Trudy's in Idaho City on the way back home) and I "practiced" with him tonight and he did it a few more times - SO CUTE!

7 months later, I'm finally getting around to researching cloth diapers. I look at what we spend on diapers and I look at the sheer volume of used ones I throw away every week and it makes me feel bad for the environment (I'm a bit of a hippie in that regard, I guess) and my wallet say "OUCH!". I think we're gonna invest in some bumGenius ones. They are SUPER expensive, but I found a bundled deal on this site called Mommy's Own were we can get 18 diapers, 18 reusable wipes, 18 inserts, a diaper sprayer for the toilet, some detergent and a diaper pad for $350.95 (it's on sale from roughly $430 and right now it's free shipping). That's a LOT of money, but Nick pointed out that's about 4 big boxes of diapers. This bundled deal is an INCREDIBLE savings - I've found them on Target & Babies R Us for $38 for TWO diapers. The diaper sprayer (which I think is pure genius) is $45.

So this weekend, I am thankful for good times with family and I accomplished keeping all the bugs of Ben! :-)

Yesterday's Thankful

I forgot! I've only been doing it like 3 days and already I'm falling off the wagon. ha.

Here they are for yesterday:

thankful for: spending time with my beautiful mom, Bunco & friends!

accomplished: shopping for our camping trip and yummy (if a bit too salty) roasted potatoes

Today's Thankful:

Today I ...

am thankful for: the opportunity to chat with several lovely women at the waiting room at the St. Al's Cancer Care Center while Ben & I waited for my mom to get her treatment. I spoke with one woman who was waiting for her husband to have a bone marrow biopsy done (ugh) - she was playing with Ben and he was admiring her wedding ring (which was gorgeous). She told me that her husband kissed her under the Eiffel Tower on their 25th wedding anniversary and he gave her that ring. So romantic! I hope the outcome of her husbands biopsy is a positive one.

accomplished: made plans to go camping this weekend!

Thankful:

I'm trying something new, that I hope to remember to do every evening before bed. Things have been a bit stressful (self induced: I severely jammed my two little toes on my left foot yesterday and today I crashed (I'm clumsy, what can I say?) into the wall in our guest room, broke like three things, one of which leapt off the wall, smacked me in the head and made me bleed...10 minutes later, Ben grabbed a hold of the hair on that exact spot and gave it a good yank) lately and I forget to stop and smell the roses. Every night, I want to pause and reflect on my day and find one thing to be thankful for and list one thing I've accomplished (idea scored here).

Here are today's:

I am thankful for: mommy time

I accomplished: grocery shopping!

Not exactly glamorous items, but the mommy time (and time spent chatting with Susan) was a MUCH needed break. And as for grocery shopping - can we say hello coffee! Yum...... (and bye bye headache!)

Randoms.

Things I wanted to share but am sick of status updating like every 2 minutes:

• I got one of the free photo books I ordered from Pixable.com - it came out really nice! If you want one, go to Pixable.com and choose the 8x5.5 22 page photo book. You can have that site snag your pix direct from FB or from Flickr or Picasa and it'll smoosh 'em into a book for you (you also have the ability to do your layout however you want). You have to pay shipping of $2.99 but after using coupon code MKPHOTO the book itself is free. I may have to order some more - I did two, one for my mom and one for Nick's mom. I might do some more for the grandparents!
• I think Ben grew again. He seems SUPER long all of a sudden. Thing we're gonna have to bust out the tape measure and see
• He's finally mastered rolling from tummy to back. He's always known how to do it (he started doing it right on time) but I think he forgot the mechanics of it. Today he's been rolling all over the living room because he figured out where to put his arms so he can go back over. It's way cute.
• My parents are home from their cruise today! They sent me taunting photos of our favorite teriyaki place out in Enumclaw (they're a chain now! I guess there's one out in Black Diamond, too). I hope they had a good time! Me & Ben are off to fetch them at about 8:00ish.
• I've said it before, but I still think Friday night school bllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllows. Poo.
• Sleep training is going okay. I had a battle with Ben on his afternoon nap which I lost but it's okay. He fell asleep at his normal time, but we were in the car. He napped for about 20 minutes and then woke up as soon as we got home. I tried to get him back down to finish his nap but he wasn't having any of it. By that time it was after 4:30 and I didn't want him to nap anyway, since he goes to bed around 7:00. He seems to be in a good mood, so maybe he didn't need to nap when I was trying to make him.
• My sister in law is in her 3rd trimester!! I'm SO excited to meet her and find out what they're going to name her. I guess I better get going on that project I've had sitting in my dining room since like April...slacker
• I SO need a vacation. I haven't been anywhere in over a YEAR. We went to Florida in March of 09 and that's the last time I went anywhere (that little trip to Orofino in February doesn't count to me). I was hoping to get over to Seattle by the end of July but that just isn't gonna happen. Maybe in mid-August. And we DEFINITELY have to get to Florida this fall. I gotta meet the new baby and they've got to meet MY baby. ;)

okay that's all. resume with your normal activities. :-)

Ramblings.

I'm sure this will end up being another 40 paragraph novel into the absolutely thrilling details of my life...

While I often think my life is so boring or stressful or some times down right sad and depressing (having a mom with terminal cancer really isn't that great - I keep a lot of it inside, because really - I don't want to be that girl that constantly is bringing every one down with her personal traumas and honestly, I simply don't want to talk about it), some one told me recently that they're jealous of my life. Which sort of made my blink my eyes and think "really?? MY life?? WHY???"

But you know, I do have a nice life. I think we (for most of us, making generalities here) all tend to get bogged down in the tiny, stupid, irrelevant things in our life and let those consume all of our energies. I do have a blessed life (despite the fact that I feel like I've pissed off the universe in some way and I don't know how to fix it...).

I have an amazing husband. It's easy to point out his flaws (he's messy, he's forgetful, he's more polite (some times) to total strangers than he is to me, blah blah blah) but I forget to stop and be thankful for the wonderful qualities he has. He doesn't hit me. He isn't (intentionally) mean to me. He has a fantastic job that allows him to be home quite a bit and play an active role in our son's life and also affords us the ability for me to stay at home with Ben (even if it does mean I have to curb a lot of my previous frivolous spending). He's so helpful with Ben. We take turns getting up early with him so one of us gets to sleep in. He helps change diapers, he helps with middle of the night feedings. He gives me mommy time (he forgets to offer it, but is so agreeable when I say I need some). He makes me laugh like absolutely no one else. He gets me to the core and puts up with more than I think most men would. He does all of this on top of working 40 hours a week and going to school full time. It's not easy and often times I wish for school to just be over with but it'll all pay off in the long run.

I have a simply adorable child. He is so mild mannered and just a happy baby. He's healthy (6 and a half months and has never been sick - hooray us!) & happy. He's by no means perfect - he has his crabby days (today, for example) and doesn't do all the things that other babies do, but if that's the worst of our problems, I'll happily take them.

I have a pretty home. We worked hard for this house (we had some terrible credit issues in our younger days, but I like to think we learned from our lessons) but made sure we bought what we could afford. Sure, the yard isn't exactly what I'd like (but you know, you have to actually spend time and money - but mostly time - on a yard for it to shine and I detest yard work) and the inside is often messy and disorganized but it's ours. I'm in the middle of revamping our style, I think. I'm warring with myself on this. I heart, heart, HEART country clutter and I've collected quite a bit of it. But it's hard to keep clean. All those little berry wreaths and knick-knacky items collect dust that's hard to clean off (and I'm not that big of a fan of dusting, either). I really want something simple and streamlined. I don't necessarily want to get rid of my country crap but I want to pare it down and let the items I truly love stand out, rather than get lost in the jumble.

In other news, we're working on some new sleep training things with Ben. We had the Paquette's over to my parents house for the 4th and I have to say, I'm completely envious of the easy way Tiffany gets Ariana down for sleep. She just puts her down. Simple as that. If I try to lay Ben down when he's still awake but drowsy, he'd have a freaking fit. An absolute temper tantrum (I know, because I've tried a few times). I know this is my fault. I got him used to being held, rocked or nursed to sleep (or all of the above...at the same time). He's never learned to fall asleep on his own - so why would he know how to?

So tonight I started something new. Our previous bed time routine would be a bath (if it was bath night), change diaper and into jammies, say night-night to papa and nurse until he fell asleep and stopped eating. Then I'd kiss him good night, wish him sweet dreams and lay him in bed and softly creep out of his room. Tonight I fed him before the bath (which, by the way, he seems to be loving more and more - tonight after he was all washed, I just let him kick and play and screech in the tub for about 10 or 15 minutes), then jammies and I rocked him to sleep. I'll do a few nights of only rocking him to sleep before I try laying him in his crib while he's still awake.

I've been told over and over to just let him cry. It won't hurt him any and I know it won't hurt him physically. But to be honest, it just feels mean. All his little life, we've gone in to comfort and soothe him when he wakes up (now we don't rush in there at the first whimper, some times he's able to settle himself back down - so we wait a bit to see if he'll keep crying or go back to sleep) so why would he understand if suddenly we don't come any more? So I'm going to try as best I can to just soothe him with out picking him up at first and if that doesn't work, I'll pick him up and cuddle him til he's calm and put him back down. I'm going to draw on every well of patience I can find to continue that routine until he goes to sleep. I'm hoping it'll only take a few nights of repeated pick up-cuddle-lay back down attempts before he gets it. If none of those methods work, then I'll re-evaluate how I feel about the cry it out method. At some point, he needs to learn how to put himself to sleep and he'll never do it if I don't give him the chance.

He's also so incredibly close to crawling. He's gotten up on to his knees a few times and pushes himself backwards pretty well (but I don't think he intends to go backwards). He's started to do a bit of an Army crawl to get to things so I think we're pretty close to him taking off! He's babbling more and more. My favorite sound in the whole world right now is his "ba ba ba ba ba" - so cute!!!

I'm feeding him solids twice a day now. He gets his vitamin, cereal and either a serving (about 1 1/2 or 2 tablespoons) of fruit or veggie for breakfast and then cereal, a serving of fruit and a serving of veggies for dinner. I'm starting to wean him from nursing slowly. I wanted to do it 6 months and I'm proud of myself for making my goal. Nursing is HARD (at first, it gets easier). I had no idea til I started it. I'm starting to give him a bottle for one of his afternoon feedings. And I'm working with him on going longer and longer between meals. Ben is a snacker and seems to eat only long enough til he no longer feels hungry but isn't necessarily full. Then he gets hungry sooner and wants to eat more. I'm pushing him to about 2 to 3 hours between feedings now which is such a nice break from him eating every hour.

So there you go. More than you probably wanted to know about the daily life of the Casa Beesley but there it is anyway. :-p