I found my way home from Jen's okay today, except that I tried to purposely "get lost" the way I did when I came home last time, because it actually brought me home on a much more scenic route. But I swear they moved the road. Anyway, we're home now. Benjamin and I had lots of fun playing with Ryan and Jen! :) Have I mentioned that babies are fun?

Here are the boys!

We have a playdate today with Jen and Ryan. I still haven't mastered driving to Jen's new house and I got lost coming home last time, so this should be interesting. I'm sure a plethora of pictures are forthcoming sometime late this afternoon, so stay tuned. ;)

People really like buying clothes for babies. And who can blame them? Most baby clothes are pretty inexpensive and they're fun to buy. Benjamin's closet is bursting at the seams and he's probably only actually worn 1/100 of what he has. Anyway, this little number hadn't been worn yet, and worse still, its givers (Tom's Uncle Glennn and Aunt Cherie) never received a thank you note. (Tom was in charge of that batch, I should have known better). So here's the picture I took to send to them with the note. They also gave him the blocks he's playing with. Anyway, just thought the pictures turned out cute so I wanted to share. (the oufit is not really something I'd choose for him, but, let's face it, this kid could wear a plastic bag and look cute. ;)

This afternoon we took Ben for his 6-month checkup. Fun fun fun. Wouldn't you know the only developmental question the doctor asks us is the ONE thing my kid isn't doing yet? He could have asked if he was crawling, standing holding on to things, pulling up, sitting up, drinking from a sippy cup... but noooooo... he asks:

Doc: "Is he babbling mama and dada yet?"
Tom: "Uh..." (looks at me)
Me: "Uh... no... all he says is "mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!" a LOT."
Doc: "Oh, well does he point to things?"
Me: "Uhh... noooo... but he manages to communicate with us through a series of grunts and whining does that count?"
Ben: Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!

Anyway, the boy is 16.5 pounds and 25.5 inches. I think I saw on the chart that he's in the 44th percentile, though I may have read that wrong. His height and weight still sound on the small side to me.

We get to feed him meat for dinner now. Hooray! (actually, not so hooray. I hear the meat makes their poopy even stinkier... ick). If I remember the doctor's instructions correctly, we're supposed to give him cereal for breakfast, veggie for lunch and meat for dinner, with fruit after all three. Is it just me or is thatalotta food? I have a hard enough time getting him to finish a bottle NOW. I can't even imagine what it will be like when I start feeding him solids three times a day.

This appointment, we were due for four shots. The boy did okay, especially since, once again, I screwed up the numbing cream. In four visits, I have yet to get it right. :\ Mommy is dumb. :(

We go again next month for a flu shot and then not again until December, to which Ben says, "Mmmmmmmm!" (Benspeak for "Yay!")

Ben is motoring now and the cats live in fear. Today, he chased our cat Anakin all the way across the living room. Every once in awhile, he'd catch up with the cat and grab a nice fist full of tail hair. Poor kitty. ;)


Baby and cat sizing each other up


Baby is set on his target and he's off!

Not much to blog. Last night we went to my inlaws' house for a little six-month monthday party for Ben. It started well, and then went downhill. Not sure why... but a big contributing factor seems to be that Tom and I won't send Ben over there to spend the night. :: sigh :: What's the rush? He's only six-months-old! Is it so wrong that I don't want to leave my baby overnight anywhere yet? Does it make me a crazy, overprotective mother? I know his grandparents know how to take care of a baby and I would trust them to take care of mine. But overnight? Not yet. Am I nuts?Talk to me.

Sucky.

You know what else is sucky? Holidays. They are coming up and they always stress me out. Where are we going and with whom? Are things divided equally enough among the families? And now there's a baby. Talk about throwing a major complication into the mix. And the holiday talk is already beginning... someone make it stop. Can I just leave the country until January?

My mom's friend Wendy gave Ben these little squishy frogs. Tom discovered that we could get them to suck onto Ben's face. He doesn't seem to mind and usually pops them right off and puts them in his mouth. It's made for some cheap entertainment. Does this make us bad parents? ;)

Nice day. We spent some of it wandering around at The Avenue. Stopped at Starbucks and got my favorite ice mocha, Tom got a coffee and Ben, well, he just fell asleep. Very fun. :)

I also got to spend some time today working on Benjamin's scrapbook. I have been stuck on Father's Day for months now. (basically since Ben started demanding much more attention and entertainment when awake). I'm up to July 4th now. And I'll probably be stuck there until he's 12.

In other news, I heard a rumor that someone might be making me a margarita this evening. Ooooooooo...

And lastly... uh...Looks like Hurricane Jeanne might be making a pitstop at or near Disney World. This sucks for Krystyna, who is there until Thursday. I'm sure they'll still have fun even on the two days when they are calling for constant rain. It's hard not to have fun in Disney World. You just grab an $11 yellow poncho and keep on goin'! Zip a dee doo dah!

From our trip to the farm yesterday...

I'm smiling on the inside... really.


Mom, you'd tell me if these made me look stupid, right?


What is this and how do I eat it?


Seriously, anyone got a spoon? I left mine at home...


Well, Mom's obviously not going to help a kid out... it's just me and you Mr. Pumpkin.


Ah, now see, these are a little more my size... honestly though? This could use a little salt.

... or so I am learning. The other day I mentioned that I got screwed over TWICE with Ebay/Half.com recently. Well, I've been emailing the half.com person who never sent my DVD, but to no avail. So I left NASTY negative feedback (thus tarnishing her otherwise spotless record). That didn't feel quite vindictive enough, so I called my credit card and asked if I could dispute the charge since I never received the item. Well, since it was a small amount ($12.99) they just credited it right back to my account. (they DO that?!?) He did tell me if I wanted to, I could file a real dispute and get the bank to credit it but it would involve paperwork. As much as I wanted to further punish the bad seller, I realized I'd be just as happy if I had my $$ back. So I settled. Yay! As for the Ebay loss, I just accepted the liability for it and I'm going to go try and cash in the insurance receipt for the item. (since it was apparently "lost.") That means I'll only be out $7.95... :: sigh :: I do think I'll be staying away from Ebay and Half for a good long while. :\

Look who's six months old today! Wow! How fast did THAT go?

Ben is finally discovering some of his toys that didn't used to interest him. This is his fishbowl. He likes to dump all the balls out and then stick his face inside to see if there are any more. ;) I like how in the second picture, it looks like his friend Bear is looking on with much interest. ;)

A friend of mine, whose baby is a week older than Ben, calls yesterday --

Friend: Hiii...
Me: Hey, what's wrong?
Friend: I've just been feeling like crap lately...
Me: Aww... like how?
Friend: Tired, pukey, I've got this pain in my right side...
Me: (with my tired joke that all of my friends with babies hear from me) You're not pregnant again, are you?
Friend: Well, actually, I went to the doctor today and she thinks I might be... blood test and sonogram on Friday... it's either that or I have a cyst.
Me: (attempting to be reassuring) Well, come on, how possible is it that you're ACTUALLY pregnant?
Friend: Very. Considering I haven't been on any birth control in two months.

Sound Effect: RECORD SCRATCHING

(unspoken, internal monologue)
WHAT?!!!! Well DUH! Yeah, you probably ARE pregnant then! Do we need to discuss how babies are made? You DID just have one six months ago...

I then asked her if she couldn't just take a home pregnancy test and she said she didn't want to know. Honey, it's not like the result of the little pee test is going to change the outcome... you're either pregnant or you're not. Go find out. Sheesh.

She had a c-section the last time around too, so this could actually be a dangerous situation. I'm pretty sure you're supposed to wait at LEAST a year to get pregnant again if you've had a c-section.

She finds out Friday. But seriously, what the heck? I talk about wanting to be pregnant again soon, but my six-month-old is enough to keep that in check for at least a little while longer. Life is HARD right now!

Anyway, this should be interesting... we shall see!

I just got royally screwed over by EBay/Paypal. This has never happened before! I've always had great experiences. :( Anyway, I got an email this morning that one of the items I sold (the Playtex bottles, actually) was charged to a credit card that has been associated with fraudulent use. :: sigh :: Basically, unless I can prove within 72 hours that the item got where it was supposed to go (longshot, all I have is the insurance certificate), then I am liable for the $27.00. Lame lame LAME. I even got positive feedback from the person (of course, they were probably the person holding the stolen credit card).

And when it rains it pours, I suppose because I also never received the Baby Einstein DVD I orderd from half.com almost two months ago. The first time the seller emailed to say she was sorry, her son was sick and she forgot. And then I never heard from her again.

People suck and I am way too trusting.

People who are handy or who are close to someone who is handy should consider themselves blessed. Apparently, it will cost approximately $2,300 to put up a chair rail and crown molding in my living room. YIKES. Needless to say I'm either going to figure out how to do it myself or it just won't ever get done. Putting that amount of money out for something that's just cosmetic makes me sick to my stomach. So for now, we'll just get the bathrooms up to code and call it a day.

Running around like crazy today... house needs to be straightened, laundry needs to be started and meeting a friend for lunch at noon. Will post more later! :)

I finally found a handyman. This is a good thing because as I have mentioned before, my dear husband is most certainly NOT handyman material, and we have countless home repair projects that need to be done. (some of which may impact the results of a future home inspection when we decide to sell the house)

So Mr. Handyman came. I showed him my master bathroom shower with its falling tiles and grotesque rotting backboard. (we've used it TWICE since we moved in, so I figure the annoying people we bought the house from are to blame). He made lots of grumbly, important-sounding noises and talked to me about caulk and grout for awhile and how this was obviously not done right the first time. (yeah, even Tom knows that)

I showed him the crooked door and cracked molding that my father-in-law tried to fix but now it just looks worse. He looked at me like he really felt sorry for my handymanless existence and wrote some more things down. "Wow, this whole DOORFRAME just leans to one side!" (yuppers!)

Time after time, he just continued to be stunned by both the pitiful state of our house and our complete ineptitude when it comes to remedying said pitiful state.

He noted the huge crack that runs halfway across the wall in the bathroom and bedroom. "That's a REALLY big stress crack ya got there! Easy fix though..." He grumbled about how he really questions how houses are built these days and wrote some more things down.

We continued the tour to my other upstairs bathroom where I told him my sad story about the LAST handyman I hired and how he apparently knew even less about caulking and grouting than my husband. He took one look at the mess and grumbled some more. Then he told how easy it was to fix and how they'd do this and this and that and bada-bing good as new. OH ,and he pointed out our crappy builder-grade fixtures and said after we get all these other projects done, these would be an easy thing to replace with a nice pretty, modern single knob faucet thingy. SOLD. Where do I sign?

I am practically in love with Mr. Handyman at this point.

Then we wandered downstairs and on the way he noted all of our lovely nail pops and said his guys would fix those for us while they were here, no charge. How nice is that? Nail pops are easy to fix but, the way Tom and I procrastinate, they'd just stay that way until we moved out.

Then he measured my living/dining room for a chair rail and crown molding. (this is my current pipe dream project). He caught me off guard a little by saying, "You want crown molding in THIS room?" Um... (I'm still not sure what he meant by that, if anyone has any thoughts, I'm listening. Is there crown molding placement ettiquette I should know about?)

THEN he noticed that my ceiling needs to be painted from the water damage repair we had done two years ago. he's going to throw that in for free too with the chair rail project.

Very observant fellow.

I'm wondering if I can just pay him to live with us for awhile and wander around noticing things that need to be fixed. (and fixing them).

I felt like a kid in a candy store. "And I want this fixed and this and this..."

I had to bite my tongue to keep myself from telling him I'd like him to just rip my entire kitchen out and build a new one.

Maybe some other day. ;)

Okay, the problem about OB/GYN's having to close down their practices because of malpractice insurance costs is my only pet political issue. My doctor is one of the ones who can no longer practice OB because of the insane costs. So I'm glad that W cares about it. (point in his favor!) But the poor man... he just can't um... articulate things very well. I stole this little clip from R-belle.

Is it crazy that I am crying along with Lucy? She is like four months preg on the show and just had a breakdown about how she's not sure she can be pregnant, go through labor, be a mommy... wants to change her mind. Usually this show is pretty cheesy, but I was totally feeling for her character. I am such a dork. ;)

I have noticed something since having Benjamin. Whenever I go somewhere with him, I'm not fully "there" anymore. Like yesterday for instance... normally when we would go to Cumberland to see Tom's family (pre-Ben), I got to have actual conversations with people... participate in what's going on... yadayadayada. Now... I dunno... I could hardly tell you what went on yesterday other than that I fed and changed the boy a few times. It's weird, I feel like I'm in a total daze because I'm so preoccupied with making sure Ben is happy, clean, full and entertained... does anyone else know what I mean? And it builds up. By the end of the day, I was near tears because I just wanted to be at HOME putting my little (very tired) boy in his bed. Then he'd be where he was supposed to be and I could finally not be focusing on him every single minute. Seriously... am I alone in this? Am I just weird? Talk to me.

We went to Cumberland yesterday for Tom's Nan's 86th birthday. Highlights included:
* approximately 5 hours of driving
* Ben laughing in the face of naps (ALL of them)
* Aunt Krystyna breaking her six-month baby holding strike
* Ben eating cousin Brianna's pigtails every chance he got
and I'm sure there were more that I am forgetting... but anyway, here are some pictures, with captions written by a very tired mommy...


Aunt Krystyna holds Ben for the first time EVER... baby phobia cured? Stay tuned...


Uncle Marc and Aunt Krystyna discuss birth control methods for the first year of marriage. ;)


Cousin Brianna holds Ben's hand... "it's all wet!"


Cousin Shannon and Ben


Cousin Shannon, the baby aerobics instructor ;)


Tom reenacting the opening scene from the Lion King (minus the cliff)


Can someone show me how to check the score of the Ravens game? This is different from the one at home.


Great Nan checking out greatgrandanklebiter #8


We discovered Ben REALLY digs pigtails


Great Nan with five of eight greatgrandanklebiters and one Grandanklebiter (Ben still eyeing the pigtails)


Ben and Cousin Carter (who WAS smiling, I just caught him at a the wrong half-second)


This is what happened everytime we tried to get Ben to take a nap yesterday...

My Aunt Debbie and Elizabeth came to visit for the weekend so I took Benjamin over for a visit today. He was all kinds of social (who IS this kid?) and he absolutely LOVED my cousin. He gave her kisses! Up until today, he would only do this for Tom and me... we say "Give a kiss!" and he plants his open mouth right on our cheeks. Anyway, it's adorable and no one else had seen him do until he started planting kisses on my cousin this afternoon. Unfortunately, my camera has a delay and I managed to miss it everytime. But here he is either pre-kiss or post-kiss... it's cute anyway. ;)

I just went downstairs to move a load of Ben's clothes to the dryer. When I opened the washing machine, the unmistakable smell off baby poo wofted out. Strange. Since I had just WASHED everything. I started loading things into the dryer and discovered two lumps of poo at the bottom of the washing machine. Um. Yuck. But, I'm assuming, clean, right? ;) I used a dryer sheet to remove them. (it was the closest thing) and decided it was probably best to rewash everything. First of all, I didn't know there was a pooey outfit in there. Second of all, I thought that kind of stuff was supposed to break down in the washing machine and be wisked away anyway. No? What do people who use cloth diapers do? Ick Ick Ick.

I stole this from BusyMom... it's a riot. ;)

I'm SURE you are all on the edge of your seats about how I decided to remedy my vacuum situation.

Right.

Well, after much research (thank you all for your advice, by the way), and after discovering that hubby's paycheck was more than it should have been this week (?) I decided on the Dyson. I had a coupon for Bed, Bath and Beyond so it was a pretty good deal. Vacuuming has never been more fun! ;) I filled up the canister with just my living room. I'm not sure whether to be excited about that or totally repulsed by the filth we were living with pre-new-vacuum.

Hrm.

The bad news about the new toy is that the boy is PETRIFIED of it. His lip quivers when he sees it and he all out screams bloody murder when I turn it on. This is a problem because he wakes up if I try to use it while he's asleep. Can't use it when he's asleep, can't use it when he's awake. This will be interesting.

I would take a picture of my canister of dirt to show you how awesome this thing is, but the sheer quantity of it is really disgusting and frankly, I'm humiliated. ;)

We LOVE these overalls. Benjamin's Aunt Debbie gave them to him ages ago but they just started fitting really well. They are so adorable I can hardly even stand it.

I haven't had much time to write today, nor very much to write about. (hence the lazy quiz post earlier).

Benjamin is so busy today! (and every day, but today especially so) He just now went down for his last nap and he's an hour late on that, which means I am exhausted from three straight hours of constantly entertaining him. Don't get me wrong, I love it and it's SO much fun, but it WEARS. ME. OUT.

It doesn't help that my allergies are in full swing today and I have a raging sinus headache. :
Sunday we are taking a trip to Tom's grandmother's house (a 2-1/2 hour drive). Should be a fun change of scenery, but I'm dreading all the baby stuff I have to haul with me. I get spoiled most of the time just having to carry around my tiny little "just enough for a short trip" diaper bag. Sunday I'll be bringing the diaper bag mother-load with all the diapers, bottles, toys and other baby accoutrements. Complicated, I tell ya!

Ah well, that's all you guys get for today, I'm just plain uninspired. I'm going to go take advantage of Ben's nap and take a short one myself before Tom gets home.
:: yawn ::

This was interesting!
Take the quiz for your baby...

Who wants to come help me babyproof? ;)
(We'll start with the bottle of Windex next to the baby)

This kid wants to be ON THE GO.

Our vacuum cleaner blew up yesterday. I have only now gotten the smell of burning rubber out of the bedroom. When it rains, it pours I guess. First the washing machine, now this. Also, have I mentioned that I was working on removing the old grout from the shower in the master bath and discovered that the entire backboard behind the tile is wet and rotted out? (here's the best part... we NEVER use that shower. EVER.) Yeah. Figure that one out. This must be the rainy day everyone says to save for.

I've called someone to give me an estimate on fixing the shower. But does anyone have any vacuum cleaner recommendations? Of course I'm checking out that cool bright yellow Dyson one from the commercials. ("I was vacuuming at home one weekend...")
But if anyone has any less expensive suggestions, I'm all ears. With two long haired cats and a baby that eats everything he finds on the floor, it needs to work REALLY well.

Why is that babies start doing things so SUDDENLY? One day, the boy was staying pretty much where I put him, with the exception of moving a few inches to reach something and around in circles. The next day (this morning), he is army crawling from one end of the living room to the other. !? He is especially motivated by the phone and the remote control. It's amazing! I guess this means Tom and I will be going baby gate shopping this weekend...

The boy is napping right now... guess he wore himself out chasing the remote control. (which mommy kept MOVING!!! How RUDE!)

Fun little quiz... my results were um... interesting. After reading my description though, Tom says it fits. He says I have a very "screw you" attitude toward people who try to get me to conform to some sort of herd mentality. Uh... I *think* that's a compliment... Hrm.


You're a punk rock mommy! DIY is probably your
motto, because you're a punk mama at heart.
Your kids are getting your independent spirit
and guts, and learning to solve problems
themselves. You love it when they show their
independence, even when it's breaking your
heart.


What kind of a freaky mother are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

My to-do list is a mile long today... lots of cleaning. :( I also want to make Tom a yummy dinner tonight since we've had nothing but Hot Pockets and other microwave stuff for three days.

The Boy is cooporating nicely and being exceptionally cute, as usual (mostly). He played in his Johnny Jump Up for a half-hour while I cleaned the hall bathroom and then went down for a nap with no complaints. :)

I wish I had more to write, but life is otherwise uneventuful so far today. Maybe more later? We'll see...

Those of you who asked me what that thing was that I linked in my last post: It's a Baby Safe Feeder. (btw, found it for $9.99 at Toys R Us today) You can put regular food in it and the baby gums the mesh bag and gets tiny bits of the food out of it. (small enough that they can't choke). I got it because Ben loves the Gerber Biter Biscuits but hates when they get all slimy and he can't hold onto them. With this, I just pop them into the little bag and he chews contentedly. (exhibit 1 below)

Exhibit 1


I can also stick bits of fruit in there. We're going to try a chunk of banana later. I'll let you know how that goes. ;)

Warning, the bag doesn't eliminate the mess assocated with a self-feeding baby. ;)

Ah... that was a lovely weekend. I feel like I got so much accomplished! :) Yay!

Two things I learned this weekend:
1) If I ever have another job, I want to work at Build-a-Bear. Tom and I stopped in there on Saturday with Ben and it is the CUTEST place I have ever seen. We weren't actually there to "Build-a-Bear" but we'll probably go back when he's a little older.

2) I shouldn't drink Starbucks mochas after 5p.m. I was still bouncing off the walls at 9 (when I'm usually dead to the world)

Today, Ben and I are having lunch with my friend Mandy. We're also on a mission to get one of these. I'm pretty sure they have them at Target and I always like an excuse to go to Target. ;)

Ick. I HATE football. But I have worked out a deal with Tom over the past few years that has made me somewhat look foward to the season starting.

On Sundays, while he's watching the game, I get to go shopping... three blissful hours alone at my favorite stores. (which incidentally, usually aren't that crowded because the whole darn town is into the silly Ravens and their silly game.)

Anyway, now it's an even better deal because he says he and Ben are going to watch the games together and I STILl get to go shopping. Alone.
:: happy dance ::

Today's destination? I'm headed to Lowe's to burn through a gift card I've had for awhile. I want to get some pretty things for the house and some supplies I need to do some of my fix-it projects. :) I am loving life today.

The boy is in a good mood, despite the emerging teeth. Yes, I said tEEth. I'm pretty sure the two bottom front ones are coming in at the same time.

Where are all my blog friends this weekend? Everyone seems to have disappeared! Heloooo oo oo oo .... echo echo echo... anyone out there?

This little er.. big guy showed up on the outside of the door that leads out to our deck this afternoon. I'm just glad it was outside and not inside. Ick, yet neato! Check out the eyes on the closeup!

Click for the new movie... ;)

Ben visiting with Great Nana... (he didn't even cry!)

We have a tooth sighting!

I've been suspicious that one was on its way through for a couple of days now. I thought I felt a little bump, but I've stuck my finger in his mouth feeling for toothage so many times in the past few months I really wasn't sure. Well, I just pinned him down and got a good look and there is DEFINITELY a tooth coming in... I saw the little white sliver. I hope this happens quickly because the boy has been a MONSTER the past few days. No fever or anything, just fussy and icky icky icky!

The boy started getting on all fours and rocking back and forth the other day. I hear this is what they do right before they take off crawling and causing all sorts of new chaos. OH BOY! ;) I've been trying to capture it on video, but he hasn't been cooperating. So here are two "action" shots... just imagine him doing it over and over again. ;)

Up on all fours and back...


and forth...

I just ordered this book from Amazon about how to teach your baby basic sign language. I've been reading a little about it and it's really interesting. Apparently, babies have the ability to communicate what they want with their hands long before they develop the ability to communicate verbally. Anyway, I ordered it mostly out of curiosity. I promise I'm not one of those crazy moms with the flash cards trying to teach my 6-month-old how to read or something. It's mostly just a little experiment. If it works and he can learn how to tell me when he's hungry, tired, full, etc... we might have a little less crying around here. If not, it was a fun experiment. I always did like Mr. Wizard. ;)

Here's one article about it. I'll post more later.

Ugh... it's pretty gross and rainy here today so in between playing with, caring for, changing and feeding the boy, I've been wandering around the house obsessing about all the little things that we've been letting go. Our upstairs bathroom for instance, is a total wreck. It needs to be regrouted, recaulked, repainted... I put a border up that hasn't weathered the bathroom environment very well, so it's peeling off... and tons of other things. The rest of the rooms have similar issues.

Unfortunately, of my mother-in-law's three sons, the one I got is NOT the handy one. That honor goes to Krystyna's guy. In fact, if there is such a thing as "tool-impaired," that's what Tom is.
So if anything is going to get done around here it's up to me to do it or find someone who can. :: sigh :: This morning, I finally motivated myself to spackle the holes in the bathroom wall from where a shelf fell down about two months ago. Then I actually hung up the new shelf and took down the crappy, messed up wallpaper border. Then I pouted for awhile thinking about how I'm going to have to prime and paint the whole freakin' bathroom again. Argh.

If I think about all the things that are just sitting around waiting to be done around here I get overwhelmed. I've wandered into Home Depot four or five times now and just wandered right back out because I get so overwhelmed by how many projects we have.

I'm asking for tools for Christmas. I confiscate all the ones Tom gets anyway. (he has never touched any of them). I'm also thinking about taking some of those "just for chicks classes" over at Home Depot so I can learn how to do some of the bigger things around here.

A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. ;)

I couldn't get back to sleep last night, so I laid awake and started thinking of more boy names for the potential (inevitable, really) additional boys I'll probably have.
I think what got me started thinking about it was that one of Tom's co-workers had her baby yesterday (a boy, they hadn't found out the sex), and as of seven hours after his birth, he still had no name. Just "Baby Boy B." C'mon, that's just a little bit sad. I imagine myself ending up in the same position though... my list of girl names is a mile long but I used up the only boy name I ever really liked a lot.

I seem to lean toward names that are traditional "all-boy" type names, but are sort of soft-sounding. (I've noticed they also tend to be biblical) Here's what I came up with last night.

- Michael
- Aaron
- Joseph
- David
- Brendan
- Alex
- William
- Joshua
- Timothy (I like "Timmy" for a little boy)
- Jonathan

on the less-traditional side (most of which were already nixed by Tom before we even got married)
- Liam
- Camden
- Colin
- Sebastian

The middle name will probably be something from the family -- not my side since the pickins are pretty slim unless "Ellsworth" or "Cornelius" come back into fashion. Tom's got a few nice "middle-sounding" names floating around on his side though, "Louis, Davis, Douglas, Barnett... the list goes on.

Oh how I love my girl's names though... I could have 12 girls and still not be out of names. :: sigh :: Does anyone want me to name their child? I'll do it, no charge. ;)

Speaking of 12 children, did anyone catch "14 Children and Pregnant Again" the other night on Discovery Health? Holy cow. This woman and her husband decided after their first child that they would "let God decide how many children they'd be blessed with." Oy. They've pretty much been "blessed" every year since (and with two sets of twins, no less). I will say... even if I didn't believe in birth control and I was going to let God decide... I'd probably use some common sense a few times a month -- try and keep the clan under the double digits, ya know?

Oops, the boy is awake... gotta run!

My little sidekick and I dropped by my old office today to visit one of my friends and ex-coworkers, Amy. Here's Ben and his girlfriend... he was getting really sleepy, but he still had the energy to flirt.

The grocery store is truly a neverending source of amusement. Never once do I just go in, get what I need and NOT leave with a story. Today I have three...

1) Awhile back, I lost my little card thingy that hangs on my keys. You know, the one that gets you all the good discounts? I finally managed to find an old receipt so they could transfer all my "rewards" and whatnot over to the new number. The woman at customer service hands me my new card and $20. "Huh?" I said, ever so eloquently. Apparently my grocery store has a baby club and I've earned $100 some-odd dollars. I just figured you eventually got a gift card or something, never really paid attention to it. Well apparently, they just hand you cash now and then. The $20 was part what wouldn't transfer over to the new card. Interesting.

2) Old people stalk me when I have Ben at the store with me. This one couple in particular today followed me all over the store. One time I actually JUMPED because I turned around and the man was right over my shoulder talking to Ben. The best part though was when I was checking out (they were in the same lane) and the man says to me, "Your baby's hungry!" (Ben wasn't fussing, drooling or eating his fingers.... ) Ummmm... what the heck are you talking about!? I beg to differ sir, but no he's not. People are so weird.

3) The cashier said so me, "Is he yours?" (referring to Ben of course). I said yes and she gave me that look that a lot of people give me when they realize have a baby. Took me a minute to realize what she was thinking then it dawned on me. I quickly add, "I'm 27." "OH!" she says, with total shock and horror. "I thought you were 16! Has anyone ever told you you look REALLY young?!"
No, lady, never in my life have I had that happen... of COURSE I've heard that before... everywhere I go. I get carded at the freakin' movies. When I was pregnant, people looked at me like, "Oh that poor, poor, irresponsible, knocked-up teenager." Sheesh... she continued staring at me while she scanned my stuff.

I really need to start wearing makeup.... seriously.

Checking out the view from daddy

Grabbing Uncle Marc's nose

My phone rang last night at 10p.m., waking me out of a sound sleep. You can be fairly certain any phone call that wakes up you up at night is one of three things:
1) Bad news or 2) Someone who forgot what time it is where you live 3) One of those really annoying drunk, wrong numbers

This was the first. (and the second, actually)

It was one of my friends who recently found out she was pregnant. As soon as I woke myself up enough to realize who was on the other end, I knew what she was about to say. She had miscarried. :( I hope she doesn't mind that I am writing about this in my blog, but this news came at a time when I had already been thinking a lot about how much having a baby really changes your life.

For no particular reason, I was lying in bed the night before and a quote popped into my head randomly. It goes something like: "To have a child is to forever have your heart wandering around outside your body." I'm sure I don't have the wording exactly right, but you get the idea. To be honest, I always thought it was a little trite, as most quotes tend to be, but for some reason I really started thinking about this.

It's true. And it's probably the scariest thing I have ever realized.

I would do absolutely anything for my baby. When he hurts, I hurt. When he cries, I just want to fix it. I started thinking about what this means for the years to come and how he'll eventually succumb to the normal bouts of childhood scrapes and bruises. We'll probably have our fair share of emergency room visits and traumas, giving me heart attack after heart attack and grey hairs galore. And then I started thinking about the roller coaster of emotions you volunteer to put yourself through by having a child. Eventually, there will come a time when he'll hurt and I won't be able to fix it. Eventually, he'll grow up and go to school, get married... all wonderful, happy things, but at the same time, somewhat sad to the mommy who felt him move for the first time, who watched her tummy conform to the shape of tiny feet and tiny knees, who saw him take his first breath and his first steps.

How will I have the strength to let my child go out into the world knowing how many things and people there are out there to hurt him, to break his heart, to tease him and to tear him down?

I know there are just as many wonderful things out there for him. But it will be so hard to watch from a distance as he figures things out for himself, knowing life is not a painless journey.

My friend's phone call made me realize, you don't just make yourself vulnerable to feeling all of this when the baby arrives kicking and screaming into the world. You put your heart out there by making the commitment to have a child in the first place. Everyone knows there are risks to pregnancy. You might find out halfway along there's something wrong. You might have the baby too early. Or, like my friend, you might find out ten weeks into the whole thing the baby's heart just stopped beating. It doesn't matter that it was just a tiny embryo, you still put your heart out there, knowing the risks. And for those ten weeks, you were fully invested this tiny person, this little piece of you.

It's all so overwhelming when you think about it. But I wouldn't want to go through life not knowing such vulnerability, such real emotions.

My heart is now forever walking around outside of my body. Who knows what mischief it will find itself in. It's worth the adventure, don't you think?

Really great, really inspiring writing courtesy of The Sarcasic Journalist...
It's over here ================> Click me.

Benjamin was NOT a happy camper earlier this evening. After trying lots of cuddling and walking and just about everything we've learned in our short five months as parents, we decided to just take his clothes off. For some reason, this works wonders when he's really annoyed with life. I don't know what it is about being naked but the boy really likes it. That worked for awhile, then he started getting annoyed again, so we fed him dinner a little early, naked.

Yes, naked dinner.

Even better, we let him stick his hands in it, which really made us heroes. See the aftermath below. Click each image for the bigger version. :)

I think the boy's social skills are improving.

You see, somewhere around three months or so he figured out that there were two kinds of people, those who are mommy and/or daddy and those who aren't mommy and/or daddy. I've been told this is early for a baby to have stranger anxiety. Of ALL the "milestones" for my child to reach early, this was NOT one I would have chosen.

That second group of people, the non-mommy/daddys, get treated to his very VERY healthy set of lungs when they try to hold him, talk to him or even look at him funny. Sometimes, under ideal conditions, after a long nap with a full tummy, he will humor non-mommy/daddy people by staring at them intently without crying. If they are especially lucky, he might engage them in a lively game of "I'll grab that from you and put it in my mouth."

But the last two weeks, I think he may be begun to turn a corner. He didn't cry at all with my mom yesterday. He even played and smiled. Then, surprise of surprises, he let my DAD play with him. (men are generally less tolerated than women in Ben-land). Today he played almost gleefully with Tom's parents with only two minor fussy moments (mostly when he wanted to play on the floor and they were trying to hold him.)

There are really only a few people who I care that Benjamin will happily go to. The grandparents are among them, as are uncles and godparents. Other than that, he can be as shy as he wants. I totally understand SHY. I get it. I was a shy kid, so this is not new territory for me. I just hope he continues to warm up to the family enough that I can start leaving him with them once in awhile. It's good for him to be around people other than me... and there are people practically lined up wanting to babysit him for an hour here and there. So someday, Tom and I will get to go on dates again... I hope.

Do any of you still have back pain where the epidural was placed? This is so weird... for like a month after the birth, whenever I would drink something cold, I'd almost immediately feel a dull ache in the middle of my back. I did some research and came to the conclusion it was a side effect of the epidural. That eventually went away... but lately I've been noticing when I lay on my side at night sometimes, I get the same weird ache in the same place. It's very weird... and pretty uncomfortable! Anyway, just wondering if I'm the only one this has happened to... anyone? anyone?

Today someone found my blog by searching Yahoo for "3D Ultrasounds in Maryland."
This is all well and good except that they and their computer reside in GUAM.
Hrm. I'll bet there's a good story behind that one...

Benjamin helping me fold some laundry earlier. ;)

I am a firm believer in praising good service. And you all know from reading my blog how much I enjoyed my 4-D sonogram I had when I was pregnant with Benjamin. SO I finally got the time to sit down a write them a letter a few weeks ago... they were just so wonderful there and it was such a great experience. Anyway, I also enclosed the following side-by-side picture because I thought they'd like to see how their pictures measure up to the real thing. That's ONE accurate sonogram picture if I do say so myself.

Rachel's post about what she might need for her baby inspired me. I was going to do a tour of Benjamin's room to show you what we use and don't use on a regular basis (and I still might)... but I ended up with this sort of silly version of my original idea. ;)

Click on a thumbnail for the bigger image...

I have 6 GMail (that's Google Mail for those not in the know... ;) invites to give away. Who wants one?