I had a mostly baby-free day today since I spent it getting ready for and attending my future sister in law's bridal shower.

Now, I ask you, does this look like the face of someone who was surprised? I'm still not convinced. (but she swears she was totally surprised soooo....)


Also, all the months of time and effort were worth it just to see her in the bow hat opening sexy lingerie in front of everyone. ;) (sorry Krystyna, I had to get revenge for you posting that pic of me in the dress awhile back!)

Two babies + lots and lots of noisy toys +two bowls of cheerios = Easy babysitting

Sharing some Cheerios... both of them decided that the Cheerios tasted better when dumped on the floor.


Does she not have two of the biggest blue eyes you've ever seen?

I'm babysitting this morning. It's a favor for a friend of my mom's who watches her granddaughter all week. They work out at the gym around the corner from my house together... used to. Unfortunately, the childcare there won't take babies until they can walk, so poor Miss Hope has been banned from the gym since last April.

Anyway, I thought it'd be nice to offer to watch Meena for a couple of hours once a week until she can walk so her grandma can get back in there and hang with the other old biddies. (just kidding if you're reading old biddies!!) ;) Plus, Ben gets to spend some time with one of those people his own size and *I* get to practice wrangling two babies. Best to know what I eventually want to get myself into, right?

Which brings us to today... Meena is coming over to play this morning! Remember that Angel Baby/Spirited Baby thing? Yeah, Meena and Ben are on opposite ends of the spectrum on that one. She's as easy going as they come, so this should be interesting. My plan is to just get all the toys out and hang out in the living room where I can keep a close eye on Mr. Spirited so he doesn't bulldoze Miss Angel...

Pictures? Of course! ;) Wait until you see the blue eyes on Miss Angel. OHMAHGAH. She's such a little doll!

By the way, during this little photo op, I found out the keys on my laptop pop off. I'll go ahead and let you deduce how I learned THAT.

Ben and the laptop go way back. Check out my latest side-by-side. The picture on the left was taken May 5th of last year. :)

Lots of errands to run this morning... I'm hoping Ben will cooperate! I'm sitting here trying to figure out how to take care of said errands with a checking account that is virtually empty until Tom gets paid tomorrow and without a credit card. (Thank you, Ben!)

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, as Mr. Rogers would say. The sun is shining, the sky is blue, the baby is cheerful. Hooray! :)

More later. Gotta get moving! :)

Fifteen minutes to bathtime last night... I ran down to the laundry room to throw some clothes in the dryer. Daddy was on duty in the living room. Screaming ensued-- crazy, blood-curdling, something is dreadfully wrong screaming. Arriving upstairs I found Tom holding Ben and a handful of bloody paper towels.

"What happened?!"
"He cut himself."

Tom moved the paper towels and revealed a gash above Ben's eyebrow about an inch long and WAYYY deep. THe next part is kind of a blur, but somehow we ended up in the car headed to the emergency room.

How did he cut himself? WE HAVE NO IDEA. Tom said he was two feet away from him in the living room and Ben tripped over something... dust? the carpet? It appears nothing... and fell in the direction of a pile of toys. We came home last night and inspected the pile of toys... there is NOTHING sharp in the pile. NOTHING. It couldn't have been the table he hit because he doesn't have a bruise, just the cut, and the table has rounded corners too anyway. So it's a mystery.

Thankfully the emergency room is only ten minutes away. It's at the hospital where I had Ben, so we knew the ER route and drill from childbirth class. They also just rennovated it and it's all open and nice, and better yet, they fast track all pediatric patients. So we only had to wait in the waiting room long enough to wait for our paperwork to get into the system. After THAT we did have to sit in the exam cubicle thingy for about 45 minutes while they took care of another child with a broken arm and a few other mystery cases. But at least we were IN.

The nurse practitioner came in, looked at it, looked at us and said, "First baby?" "Yes." "First visit here?" "Yes." "Won't be the last," he assured us. "We know."

He told us what we already knew... stitches. And then explained to me that Ben would have be "immobilized" while they shot a bunch of anesthetics into his head... that Ben would scream like I've never heard him scream before because it would burn. After that, he wouldn't feel anything, but he'd probably still scream. I promptly lost it and he suggested that perhaps daddy step up and let me go elsewhere. I did, briefly, but then decided I could handle going back in and made it back just in time for the needles in the head. We sang "Wheels on the Bus" and "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" to him, then I caught myself chanting "Ten Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed", which I realized was just funny given the circumstances. I also found it amusing that the doctor was singing with us while he stitched Ben up. Ben screamed the entire time... BOY did he scream. It was so awful. But we made it through. And once he wasn't held down anymore, he was actually fine. He came home and went right to bed.

This morning he seems none the worse for the wear... in five days, we get to go back and have the stitches taken out which I'm sure will be a whole OTHER ordeal...but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Anyway, you've waited long enough... here's the picture of the big injury. ;)

Spent the evening in the ER with Ben.

Nothing serious.

I'm sure this was the first of many visits.

Five stitches.

Much screaming.

More later.

Need sleep.

And a drink.

An alcoholic one.

Benjamin just won't give me a break today...

He has somehow managed to program our cordless phone so that everything on the screen is now in french and instead of beeping when you push the numbers, it pulses. I have no idea how to fix it nor do I have the manual anywhere. Maybe I should just give it back to him and let him fix it? Oui?


Also, we just ran out for a quick trip to the craft store and the grocery store. Somewhere between the exit to the craft store and the poultry section of the grocery store, the kid managed to grab my wallet out of the diaper bag and LOSE MY CREDIT CARD. I know he lost it because it was wrapped in a receipt and I caught him waving the receipt around in the air triumphantly like a flag. After 40 minutes of running around the shopping center and asking everyone if they'd seen it, I finally called and canceled the card.

Ben and I are not speaking right now.

A few pictures from our playdate with Jen and Ryan!

Ben hanging out in the garden...


Soon joined by Ryan...


Playing with the puzzle together...


And taking turns with the drum!

If anyone ever needs to know how to get an entire gallon of white ceiling paint out of your carpet with a toddler running around in the same room, I'm your woman.

Ack.

It involves a LOT of water and a LOT of paper towels.

Somewhat ironic that it happened in the basement, the room for which we were getting estimates for new carpet yesterday. I guess that's a done deal now. Because, while I did manage to "clean up" the mess... I'm pretty sure there is a whole corner of the current basement carpet that will never quite be the same.

Stupid comments. My comment "supplier" has always been CommentThis. I haven't wanted to switch because I didn't want to lose all the old comments I had. But this weekend CommentThis' servers had some kind of major meltdown. I got annoyed that my blog wouldn't load, so I disabled them. I turned on Blogger comments for simplicity's sake, but then I got comment spammed by some bridal store (for whom English is most definitely NOT a first language) all morning.

So Blogger comments are gone now. I've installed HaloScan, which I like infinitely better, but this means if you've commented in the past couple days, your comment is probably gone. I'm sorry! :( I MIGHT bring back CommentThis comments eventually just because, like I said, almost two years worth of comments on this blog are stored there. We'll see... just wanted to apologize for deleting anyone's words!

:)

So I came across this adorable necklace on Red Envelope.

I'm not much of a jewelry girl, but I fell in love with it.

I told someone if they wanted to get it for someone else for Mothers Day that someone would probably love to have it.

(especially since someone didn't know they were supposed to give someone a gift when someone gave birth to their child after 16 hours of labor)

However, I was trying to figure out for the someone who wanted it if it can be ordered with space for future peas. Because if you only have a one-pea necklace and then you add another pea or two... or three... to your pod, well then your one-pea necklace is now sort of silly.

But then if you order with as many peas as you'd LIKE to have in your pod and you don't end up with that many peas in your pod, well... that'd just be depressing.

Sadly, they don't offer a pod with space to add peas. So now I er... someone doesn't think it would be such a great gift after all. But if you had all your peas already, and you were finished growing new ones, wouldn't it make a great mother's day gift?

Benjamin is 13 months old today! I wonder at what point you stop counting the months and just count the years? Well, as far as we're concerned, not yet. ;)



The pose in that picture looked familiar, so I dug around and... HEY, check this out! :)

Benjamin at three months/Benjamin at 13 months.


New this month:

He LOVES to be outside. Now when I open the front door I have to look over my shoulder for the cats AND Benjamin.

He loves riding his "bike." He even tries to push along with his feet now but they don't quite touch the ground. ;)

He holds up his arms when you say "How big is Ben" or "So big!"

He can put hats on his head. Though they rarely stay there for long.

SOCIAL SOCIAL SOCIAL. This kid makes me talk to perfect strangers in the grocery store. This is going to take some major adjusting on my part.

He no longer wakes up AT ALL in the middle of the night most nights. I am a very thankful mommy.

All four molars have cut through!

That's all I can think of for now. Ben is just more and more a little boy every single day! We can hardly keep up! :)

Happy 13 months little guy!

...because you may never see this again. The picture is blurry because I had to take it FAST! ;)

My husband weilding a hammer


I HAD to document it because it really and truly NEVER HAPPENS.

All this talk about baby personality types is interesting and all... Obviously, I wouldn't have brought it up if I didn't think so. And my child is definitely QUITE spirited, as they say. But he's not "bad." I worry often that this is the label he's going to get as he gets older, simply because he's adventerous and full of energy. I realize it's going to be a ton of work to raise this little boy... it will require strict boundaries and an amazing amount of patience and consistency on our part. But I'm sure he's still going to to go school and get in trouble for getting up in the middle of lessons, or running when he should be walking... and who knows what else. I hope his future teachers are able to see him for who he is and bring out the best in him. I just have these visions of him constantly being in the time-out chair in school because the teachers don't know what to do with him.

I'm probably just paranoid and thinking too far ahead... but I worry about these things. It was kind of set off today because I was talking to a friend of mine on the phone. She mentioned that HER friend, who has met Benjamin and me two or three times said "she has no idea how I do it and she would go crazy if she had a child like Ben."

Wow. That hurt a little. You have no idea how you would handle an adorable, curious, smart, fun little one-year-old?

Yeah, I do a lot of running around and I can't have anything glass in my house within his reach... but he's not BAD. He's not a menace to society... to our cats maybe, but not to society. I wouldn't trade him for the world. I do pray every day that he is not duplicated, because then I really MIGHT go insane. ;) But I wouldn't change anything about my "spirited" little guy...

Here are the five personality profiles...

Angel
Textbook
Touchy
Spirited
Grumpy

Like I said, Ben is a combo of texbook and spirited, mainly spirited. LOL.
I was reading the other ones and though my mom has yet to weigh in on the topic, I think I was probably a Touchy baby. Ack. I can actually see my CURRENT self in that description. My brother? I'm not sure... probably Angel or Texbook.

Anyone else?

Here's the baby quiz... I'll post the personality profiles later! :) Have to scan them... sorry for all the typos. I'm sure there are many! I was typing pretty fast...

Anyway, in the meantime, be sure and post your results in my comments section! I'd love to know how all the blog babies shake down! ;) Despite my posts about the Spirited Baby stuff, Ben actually came up a very strong combination of B's and D's. So there are MORE spirited babies than him out there... wow, that is scary.

Blogger was acting annoying ALL day yesterday and then last night, when I tried ONCE again to post, it was down for maintenance. So... no post yesterday. But I didn't have any news or anything fun to share anyway. Visited Target, saw Amanda and Hannah there, did some yard work, played with Ben (the one-nap wonder). The usual. You?

There are 12 more rubber ducky chocolates hardening in the freezer as I blog. I've lost count of how many I have now. This could be a problem. I also melted my first plastic squeezee bottle, so I had to make a quick trip to Michaels this morning for a new one and more yellow chocolate. I took the last four bags. Luckily, there are two more Michaels and a Joanne Etc within 6 miles of me. These craft stores are getting to be like McDonald's, I swear.

Benjamin is napping, trying to play the part of Angel Baby. He's doing pretty well, I must say. We've had a good morning. He even seemed to enjoy our early morning errands, babbling his way all the way through Michaels and Bed Bath and Beyond. I was going to reward him with a stroll through Toys R Us to try and find a sand and water table for the backyard... but they weren't open yet. Apparently, people do not shop for toys at 9:30 a.m. What's with that?

I am learning a lot from this book I'm reading. I've discovered that Tom and I have been accidentally doing a lot of things REALLY REALLY right, our bedtime routine for instance... and routines in general. We've also done well by making the main floor the babyproof zone so our bundle of energy can pretty much run free without us having to say "no" constantly.

I've also learned we're (I'm) doing a lot wrong... like not letting him try and feed himself enough. I have to get past that "But he's so slow and he makes a huge mess!" thing... apparently, if the baby is trying to grab the spoon/fork from your hand, it's time to give up control. I actually HAVE been trying this more lately and it's going okay... but he's still painfully slow and messy. I'll have to deal. I also need to stop handing him my wallet and keys in the grocery store when he sees them and freaks. It's a bad pattern and will only lead to bigger, uglier tantrums.

There's this whole section in the book about this mother who kept making excuses for her "spirited" child. "Ohhh, he missed his nap." "It's his teeth." "He's not feeling well today." Heh. Guilty. Also guilty of saying, "He'll be much easier to deal with when he can talk." (apparently OH SO not true. He will be the same baby he has always been, words or not)

I promise I'll put the quiz up soon. Just need to go crank out a few more duckies and straighten the downstairs while my spirited child is napping. ;)

"...They're climbing and jumping and throwing things, but the high-energy kid is the one who can get to the top of the refrigerator." (taken from here)

I am currently reading Secrets of the Baby Whisperer for Toddlers. (stop laughing, I know it's a cheeseball title, but it comes highly recommended)

Anyway, the book breaks toddlers down into five basic personality groups.
* Angel Baby
* Textbook Baby
* Touchy Baby
* Spirited Baby
* Grumpy Baby

You'll NEVER GUESS which one I've determined Benjamin is. (there is a quiz).

Apparently, he is "spirited."--- which, from what I have read so far, is code for 'tasmanian devil baby who breaks stuff, hurts himself all the time and makes his parents crazy.' The author considers the "spirited baby" the most challenging of the personalities.

Yep. That's my kid.

I have decided since reading the descriptions for Angel Babies and Touchy Babies that those parents have NO IDEA how easy their lives are. Of course, they probably all have NO idea how fun MY life is. (on the good days)

More on this later. I thought I'd post the quiz if I had time so the readers with babies can play along too!

Benjamin, due to a critical door opening error on his daddy's part this morning, was up BRIGHT AND EARLY at 6:15. How lovely. Of course, it really IS lovely now that it's 9:30 and he's asleep again.

I've been using my time wisely and cleaning, not blogging. Our new bedroom furniture finally came yesterday so there was massive cleanout that resulted in about 5 garbage bags of CRAP. I finished up in there and moved on to my utterly disgusting, very neglected hall bathroom which is now sparkling and diaper-free. (Tom likes to throw pee-pee diapers in the bathroom trashcan when he gives Ben a bath at night... I keep trying to change this habit... "The diaper genie is ten feet AWAY!" I'm NOT succeeding)

I was trying to take a picture of the bedroom in all its new furniture splendor, but have you ever noticed how hard it is to take a picture of a whole room? I'll keep working on that. Here's one of my failed attempts.


Since we ditched all the clutter, it feels all hotel-roomy... I hope it stays that way for awhile... I've dubbed it "Room 302." Hee hee! I told Tom I walk through the house sometimes now trying to see it through the eyes of a potential buyer... this is the first time I've ever walked into one of our rooms (as the buyer) and thought, "Wow! I WANT THIS HOUSE RIGHT NOW!" It's a good feeling... now we just have to work our way through the rest of the house over the next couple of years. When we WERE the potential buyers, the room that did that for me was the basement family room and bathroom, which is now soooooo NOT the room that would do that for anyone. We have a lot of work ahead of us... :\

I would say Tom has been waiting for THIS moment since ...uhh.. we saw two lines on the pregnancy test?






Unfortunately, after awhile, Ben's attention wandered and he found this pinwheel intriguing...

Today, Ben said "NO." Clear as day. "No." Up until now, it was "nuhnuhnuhnuh! (followed by high pitched whining).

The best part is that he says it BACK to you after you say it to him.

"Ben, you can't have the phone. No no!"
(Ben grabs the phone anyway, looks at at and laughs) "No!"

I fear this is one of those milestones that will only make our lives harder, kind of like when he started walking.

Just noticed I used "it's" in that last post when I should have used "its." I really do know better... college degree in writing and whatnot. I apologize to all those I may have offended with my improper usage. I am humiliated. ;) (No joke, it's embarassing to make a mistake like that and then have it published for all the world to see) It's fixed now.

Today is Tom's birthday. We're dropping Benjamin off with the grandparents and then heading downtown to the aquarium and to walk around the harbor. We've been trying to get down there for a few weeks now and finally the weather and various other things are cooperating. After that, we're having dinner at his parents house... should be a nice day.

I gave Tom his birthday presents last night: a Darth Tater and three episodes of The Muppet Show on DVD. :) You can infer from that just how silly we are.

And in baby news, Benjamin can moo now when you ask him what a cow says. "Muh!" What a fun age this is! He learns something new every day! And he has been relatively pleasant for a couple of weeks too... and nighttime sleep... well, I know I shouldn't mention it because it will probably jinx it... so let's just say things are going well. :)

Today, despite the fact that I was in charge of the offspring, I managed to be productive. While said offspring was napping, I scrubbed the siding out back, washed the windows and (get this) cut back what had grown to be the World's Largest Bush. I'm sure the neighbors had a nice laugh while I stood on the heat pump to reach the branches of the World's Largest Bush. After three years of neglect, the World's Largest Bush had grown up and over the privacy fence, thus earning it its title. After collecting a satisfyingly large pile of clippings for the golfing husband to deal with later, I moved on...

Ben woke up and we went to get a hanging plant for the backyard and I came home and mulched... WITH the baby. He played happily in his baby jail for about 20 minutes then I had to resort to holding him WHILE attempting to spread mulch. I am woman, hear me roar.

Oh... and while I was mulching, I overheard my next door neighbor, who I have dubbed "Frat Boy" talking to his friend, who I have dubbed "Frat Boy's Friend"

Frat Boy: Dude, I really need to get my MOM to come over and do some gardening...
Frat Boy's Friend: Yeah dude.

Good lord.

Why did the nice friendly lesbian policewoman have to move out? She was great. Kept her house nice. Hardly ever home. Very quiet when she was. When we sell this house, I think we owe it to the neighbors to at least screen the potential buyers to weed out ex-frat boys. Does that violate the equal housing opportunity thingy? But when that time comes, I guess I'll figure frat-boy cash is just as good as anyone else's. Heh.

Next... OH. The paint lady showed up. Well, first she called.
"I'm lost," she says. (I'm SO not surprised)
I give her more landmark directions and a few minutes later, while feeding Ben, I see her grab the paint off the porch and head back to her car. THEN there's a knock at the door... I take Ben, covered in greenbeans, out of his highchair and answer the door.
"I've just had a big accident," she says. "One of the cans of paint... I spilled it all over the street. Do you have any newspaper?

Are you KIDDING me? I look outside and there is a HUGE, oozing pile of white primer ALL OVER THE PARKING LOT in front of our house. I give her today's paper and shut the door. THEN she needed trash bags, THEN she needed to wash her hands...

All this time Ben is having a freak out because he thought he was going to get to go outside.

WHAT A FLAKE. Next time, the paint gets hidden in lawn bags and thrown out with the rest of the garbage.

Tom is home now. Ben is pissy. I'm thinking about going out for awhile to the store or something because I'm feeling like I can't say anything nice and therefore, probably shouldn't say anything at all.

Tom announced at the last minute yesterday that he is abandoning me to go golfing today. Grrr... I generally am annoyed by golf. I really wasn't until Ben came along, but now it really puts a cramp in my style. But since Tom is USUALLY pretty good about taking Ben off my hands on the weekends, I kept my mouth shut.

Okay, actually I didn't keep my mouth shut. I bitched at him about it for most of yesterday. Tom takes on guilt like a sponge soaks up water, so it was effective... almost too effective.

But now I'm resigned to my fate. A Saturday with Ben. This means I will get NOTHING done that I had planned to do today. I had big plans that involved mulching and planting pretty flowers, scrubbing the siding, washing the windows and cleaning my upstairs bathrooms. Yeah, I know, exciting, right? But it was going to be time all to myself. Now those plans are revised... I will be building block towers and chasing Ben and saying "no no" a lot. :: sigh :: My typical day...

I've been cranking out rubber ducky chocolates all morning. THIS I can do while Ben is under my feet. They are so adorable... I even painted their little beaks orange and their eyes brown. 32 down... 100'ish to go. Ack. These will be the favors, along with rubber duckie sugar cookies I'm going to make.

Thanks for all the tips about where to find rubber duckies... I ended up ordering the cheapy plastic ones from Oriental Trading to use for the blue "pond punch" and general decorating and also some 1" rubber duckies to freeze in cups for the "Whose Ducky Will Hatch First" game. (thanks to whoever suggested that, btw!) Yesterday I went out and got some blue mylar which will be scrunched up on the table around the food like "water" and blue and yellow paper goods. This is getting fun!

That nap? It never happened. That makes for a sum total of 45 minutes of napping for Benjamin today. My brain is fried and I'm feeling very witchy with a b.

On top of the no napping, I'm still having some back and forth emailing with people who are coming to take all this crap I'm giving away. It may be free for both parties involved, but it takes some coordinating.

The woman who is coming to take the cans of paint is being a big fat pain in my butt and I'm starting to be sorry I picked her. She asked for directions, so I gave her the world's EASIEST directions. (our house is three lefts off of a major highway). She wrote back to explain that she is "sixty two and a ninny" and can't drive highways. Great. Okay though, I understand not wanting to drive the highway... so I gave her directions another way.

That's where it starts to get annoying (and a little scary, frankly)

Get this.

She can't read signs so she asked if I could please just give her directions via landmarks.

Ohmahgah.

She has a driver's license... how?!?!

So I'm writing directions that sound like this.

Take Road X straight until you get to a stop light. You'll see a Home Depot on your right, a Burger King on your left and probably a panhandler or volunteer fireman asking for money in the median. Go PAST the fireman/panhandler, and take a left at the store that is painted blue, it's kind of a periwinkle blue, not a royal blue. Sky blue maybe? Then you'll see a house for sale on your right (Remax, in case you are interested, but the house is a little run down honestly), an office building and some really pretty bushes that are flowering right now. Aren't they nice? There is a Pepsi can laying on the side of the road on your passenger side....

Seriously. COME ON. How do you drive ANYwhere if you can't read a street sign?!
I'll let you know if she actually makes it here. So far, the paint is still on the porch.

Benjamin is in denial right now about the fact that he needs a nap. I'm listening to the crying while cleaning out our basement via Freecycle (thanks Val!). Did you know that people will take ANYTHING if it's free? And by anything I mean... old cans of paint, old mattresses and the world's ugliest bedroom furniture (even if you post a picture SHOWING them how ugly it is)

I'm on a hunt for rubber duckies in bulk... does anyone have any idea where I might find such a thing? I've been to Target and the local party stores. ??

This was a birthday gift from his Great Aunt Gail. We just got around to putting it together this afternoon, then we took it outside for a spin!

Doesn't he look like such a big boy?


Also, you'll notice I watermarked a pic for the first time. What a pain in the butt... I'm not sure how long I'll keep this up, but for now, watermarking it is... I REALLY don't want to password this place.

Our three "measuring" devices for comparison pictures are a teddy bear, a stuffed centipede with inch marks on it, and this wagon. He won't lay still to have his picture taken with the centipede anymore, and he just wrestles with the bear when I try to take his pic with it... so I guess the wagon it is.

Almost 5 months


Almost 13 months

I often complain that Elmo, along with a nice injection of political correctness and overall dumbing down have made Sesame Street a different show (that is nowhere near as good)than what my husband and I watched when we were little. However, it does have its moments, tiny glimpses of what it used to be...

I found myself laughing outloud this morning when I was watching with Benjamin and they had a segment called (ready?):

Grouch Eye for the Nice Guy

LOLOLOL! The "Drab Five" accost Bob on the street...
"Hey Bob, let's just say it's time for you to get in touch with your inner grouch!"
"What are you talking about Oscar and... who are these guys?"...
"We're about to make a nice guy like you into a grouch like us!"

Highly amusing. Thank you, Sesame Street for not going COMPLETELY down the toilet.

Christina asked if I actually spend the $700 a month that that $165K breaks down to... I'm not actually sure, so I thought I'd itemize... but that proved to be difficult. The only thing I could really put a number on was the diapers... those are about $26 a month. Formula used to be about $40 a month, but we're done with that. I do spend a lot on baby food still, since Ben is so picky with the real people food...maybe $30 or $40 a month? Depending on how much he grows in a given month, I might spend about $50 - $100 on clothes... but that's not every month. Initial "startup costs" (hee hee) were pretty high... nursery furniture, bedding and other things I didn't get as shower gifts. Ack.. I really don't know how much a baby costs! Maybe that $700 figure takes into account childcare? If you figure in the monthly amount I gave up so I could BE the childcare, it's higher than $700. Expensive!

Found this in Good Housekeeping:

"The average middle-income family having a child today will spend $165,000 raising that child through age 18!"

Do you think that is $165K PER child? Or do you think your costs go down a little with each one? You know, since you already have stuff... clothes, baby stuff etc...LOL. Just thinking long-term here.

Asking Benjamin "What does the kitty cat say?" now elicits a high-pitched "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeow!" His first animal sound... how sweet. ;)

I've been listening more carefully and I think he has more words in his vocabulary than I give him credit for (which would be umm.. NONE really, except "hi" and "momomom"). Want to speak Bennish? It's easy and fun! Just use the the key below! ;)

The Quick Guide to Speaking Bennish:

Kitty cat - Ditty! (followed by much pointing, squealing and running over to "kiss" the ditty)
All done - Ah-da!
Daddy - Dadeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
No - Nuhnuhnuhnuh!
Light - Dite
That - Dat!
I want that - Ha dat!
Doggy - DohEE (this is a rare one, only heard once, yesterday, but definitely in reference to a doggy)
Banana - Anana


He has also finally started NOT spitting out food that isn't mush. Last night he feasted on raviolis (spelling?!) and peas...round ones! ;) Adding to the food adventure, he started feeding himself with a fork! We have to actually put the food ON the fork for him, but he gets it to his mouth with amazing accuracy! ;)

We're working on moo'ing today. I'll get back to you with a progress report. Hee.

Not baby-related, but I thought this would make for an interesting discussion. :)

The other day, a friend of mine and I were discussing how personal cell phone rings really give you a quick glimpse into someone's personality. I'm sure you've all been in public and suddenly heard the cell phone version of The Adams Family, the Thong Song or Super Mario Brothers. If it's musical, it's a cell phone ring these days.

It's always fun to see who is attached to the phone that just rang. Sometimes it seems completely incongruous... other times, obviously apppropriate. My friend Amy is the one who got me into the personalized rings when she started making her phone play Under the Sea and the Mickey Mouse March a few years ago. So appropriate for her, by the way. My mom's plays We're Off to See the Wizard... Tom's just has the default ring (again, SO appropriate... though if he could find a decent version of the Star Wars theme, I'm sure he'd be all over it) I was so excited when I FINALLY (years after the rest of the world) got a cell phone that let me download rings! But choosing one was hard...

The first ring I had was the Linus and Lucy song from Charlie Brown. That was on cell phone that got stolen. :(

I think my current ring sums up my personality pretty well...

So... what's your ring? ;)

I got fed up with looking at the various stains all over my couch cushions... I noticed they have zippers, which means the covers are meant to come off, right? And if they are meant to come off, they must be meant to be washed? Hope so. Because they are all in the washing machine as we speak. (crossing my fingers)

This, however, presents a more immediate problem in that all the naked cushions are in the basement waiting for their clothes to be put back on. This means Ben is able to climb up onto the couches. Wouldn't be such a bad thing if he'd at least TRY to get down like a normal person... but he does that crazy headfirst move everytime. This is going to be a long morning... up, down, up, down, up, down...

Plus, I may or not have covered sofa cushions when it's all said and done. Stay tuned!

Not much interesting to share today. Benjamin and I have been running around all afternoon... now we're home and he's watching Sesame Street while I play on the computer.

Since there's really nothing much to write about, I thought I'd share this little video of Ben doing his latest trick. You can hear mommy and daddy in the background sounding like a couple of fools! ;)

If you get a moment, please vote in the poll I just put up over there. ===========>
Trying to make some decisions about my blog and I'm depending on your input!
Thanks! :)

Also, if the multiple choice answers don't suffice, feel free to leave any extended comments you have on the topic here. I'll read them all!
~*~

Benjamin is trying to throw things! And he's doing it with his left hand! Still nothing official in the handedness department yet, but I think this is another point on in the left-handed column. ;)

He also just started making the universal baby "all done" sign. I'm not sure WHEN he picked it up, just noticed him doing it yesterday. It's sooo cute. We have it on video, but my camera isn't playing nice with the laptop again. (historical evidence tells me this is the laptop's fault). So maybe later... :)

Funny story. I'm up in the bedroom this afternoon with Ben when our neighbor walks by with her three-year-old. Ben sees Andrew through the bedroom window and starts yelling his version of, "Hey! Hey! I see you down there!" My neighbor looks up and waves and asks if we wanted to come out and play because she is locked out of the house until her husband gets home. Sidenote, but very important... Tom was out at Home Depot at the time. (I know, those of you who know Tom are like... huh?!?! Does he even know how to GET to Home Depot?!) Anyway, we go outside... she is only two doors down, so I leave my keys inside and just shut the door, making certain that it is unlocked.

I guess you see where this story is headed.

We're sitting on her porch two doors down when Tom comes speeding back down the street. He apparently has forgotten something... he waves at us and leaves again.

45 minutes elapse. I invite my neighbor (she's locked out, remember) in to use the phone or the bathroom or whatever and she says she's fine but asks if I can just go see what time it is... "Sure!" I say. "Be right back!" Up to my front door... hand on the knob... THE DOOR IS LOCKED.

MY HUSBAND LOCKED ME OUT.

WITH A BABY.

AND NO BINKIE.

AND NO DRINK FOR THE BABY.

OR FOOD FOR THE BABY.

AND IT'S NAPTIME.

My neighbor's husband arrives home and the two of them are laughing hysterically at my predicament. OHHHH the irony. This is irony right? Or am I being all "Alanis" in my use of the word? Whatever. They offer to let me use their phone but Home Depot is a stone's throw from our house so I figure Tom will be home any minute.

WRONG.

SO VERY WRONG.

An hour and a half later and three walks around the block with a VERY TIRED, binky-less baby, he gets home. And guess whose fault he decides it is that I have been locked out all this time?

MINE!

Yesterday afternoon, the phone rang:

Me: Hello?
Woman: Hi! I'm nurse Yadayada from your Big Fat Health Insurance Company.
Me: Uh huh?
Woman: I'm just doing some followup on the survey you returned about a month ago.
Me: Yep.
Woman: Okay, well you checked the box on your survey that says you saw your doctor more than six times and had a hospitalization in 2003-2004?
Me: That would be true, yes.
Woman: Is there any specific medical condition that caused you to have to see your doctor more than six times that year?
Me: (starts laughing) Um. Yeah. I was pregnant.
Woman: OH! Yeah... oops! That would do it!

Seriously though... shouldn't she HAVE that information? Couldn't they easily have looked at that answer and cross-checked my doctor/hospital visit records and FIGURED THAT OUT? C'mon Big Fat Health Insurance Company... lets update our computer system, huh?

Do you have Comcast internet? Is it being a royal pain in the butt lately? Please share... we are having the WEIRDEST, most annoying problems with it lately. For two weeks it has been on the blink... cutting out multiple times a day. I'm forever running downstairs to unplug the modem and plug it back in again.

Then yesterday the REAL fun started. It started going in and out even MORE often and doing crazy stuff like letting me IM but then when I'd go to load a webpage, it would act like I wasn't connected. I was getting weird webpage errors left and right... I could get to some pages and not others. (not just cached pages either, it would show new content). I thought it was just us, but my parents are having the same issues and the Flingers are having similar issues and they are thousands of miles away!

Anyone else?

One of my favorite books about babies, The Girlfriend's Guide to Todders, has a whole chapter about "The Free One." Her theory is that all mommies get a free pass on ONE major childhood injury... I think I used my free one yesterday. Ben is only a year old. This is not good.

We were playing out front, he was wandering up and down the sidewalk touching the grass, tormenting birds and licking cars -- typical one-year-old stuff. He toddled about five feet away from me, toward the curb and in my head I was thinking, "He wouldn't just step off the curb, would he?" Then, in classic movie slow-mo, as I ran all St. Elmo's Fire-like toward him, he flipped HEAD FIRST off the curb and into the street. His head hit the cement first... made the most awful sound too. I just KNEW we were headed to the emergency room. He immediately started to scream and I scooped him up, inspected the damage... a little blood but where was it coming from? Ah... a scrape on the nose... teeth? All there! Head? Not even a bump.

The child landed ON HIS HEAD. I saw it. I heard it. He doesn't have a single mark on him other than this tiny little red scrape on the side of his nose.

Yep. Used up my free one. Now what do I do for the next 17 years?

Introducing the latest in babyproofing technology!



Hey, it may not be pretty, but the kid can't budge these doors NOW!


The story behind this is that none of the screw-in latches were compatible with our kitchen cabinets. I was getting tired of Ben tearing up the kitchen day after day, so I went to Michaels this afternoon and found INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH (read the box!) velcro! It works great! *I* have a hard time opening the cabinets now...

It's warm outside now. Really warm. Ben and I are both wearing shorts... all the windows are open. It's beautiful.

But with the nice weather comes... the ANTS.

Every year they come, from far and wide. It only lasts a week or two then they decide my house is boring and go elsewhere I guess. Or maybe the word gets out about me and my sidekick, RAID.

But when they first show up it's by the thousands. This year, I fear they will not find my house as boring... this year I have a baby who likes to hide Cheerios and goldfish under my living room furniture. Also because of said baby, I can't really be as liberal with the Raid as I'd like. I'm going to spray the outdoor stuff all over the outside of the house and hopefully that will have some effect.

The ants have always been partial to the living room, my theory is they come up the deck and through small spaces in the door. They always seem to show up just when I think they aren't coming. Like last year, I thought we were safe. I set a box of Juju Bees on the floor one night from when Tom and I were watching a movie. Later, I picked it up to eat one and ants crawled out of it. NASTY. It makes me itch just thinking about it. I vacuum like madwoman in anticipation of the ants... but I worry it's not good enough. They will find their way in anyway... and they will join the ladybugs in a big two-week insect party in my house. They also like the kitchen, especially the cat food dish. You can't exactly plaster the cat food dish with Raid. ARGH. I tell myself it could worse... at least they aren't "waterbugs." I saw ONE "waterbug" at our apartment ONCE and I couldn't sleep well for a week. ::shiver::

Ew ew ew. I like spring, but I could do without the whole rebirth of the bugs thing.


**update** Wasps. I hate those too. I had my deck door open, enjoying the warm spring day. The cats were laying in the sun. Everyone was happy. Then I came back downstairs from putting Ben down for his nap and there was a giant, ugly, mean and nasty wasp crawling on the screen. The cats wanted it, but couldn't get to it. I got out the Wasp/Hornet/Yellowjacket Raid, but chickened out. I didn't want to miss and piss it off... so I slammed the door shut. So much for enjoying the pretty spring day. I HATE BUGS!

I'm throwing a baby shower here at my house on May 14th for my cousin's wife. It's a nice small group(16'ish)and mostly family, so a good opportunity to get my feet wet as far as hosting something at my house. ANNNNNNNyway, other than invitations, which went out two days ago, I have NOTHING. So I need some ideas... ideas for food, ideas for decorating, games, ideas ideas ideas! The theme is duckies! More details? Well, she's due in June and they don't know if it's a boy or a girl... first baby (obviously) and the nursery is done in duckies. (I'm so original with my theme, I know)

**update** Found this! How cute!
Blue Pond Punch:
1- gallon blue sherbet (or white)
1- 2-liter of Sprite, 7-up, or clear soda
4 - plastic ducks
Blue food coloring
Combine ingredients in a punch bowl. Add food coloring until the punch is a pond-blue color. Float the ducks in the pond. Add sherbert right before guests arrive.

I want to direct your attention to the newest blog on my blogroll, Mothering from the Brink. Mari is a great writer...she actually takes the time to write thoughtful, essay-style posts everyday. When my blog grows up, I want it to be like hers. ;)

Mommies needing sleep (or at least more company in their lack of sleep) need to check out Choonkooloonks' entry today... apparently, little Alex is having the same problems as all the rest of our babies. I'm sorry Karen, I feel for you. Anyway, she reluctantly tried Ferberizing last night and it didn't work out for them. This is why I have never tried it with Ben... I know, like Alex, he would only work himself into total hysteria, not into eventual sleep... and if he gagged and threw up all over himself during the whole process, I'd feel like total dog poo. There are some babies this method JUST won't work for... Alex and Ben are apparently among them. Someone posted this link in Karen's comments... I found it very informative and interesting! I'm still hoping Ben will go back to his halfway decent sleeping once the molars are finished torturing him... :
~*~

Yesterday, during Ben's ONE nap, I did some more cleaning out and organizing of the basement/eventual playroom. (Had I known he was only going to sleep an hour, I'm sure this would not have been my priority!)

You see, we have a really nice finished space down there... seriously, probably nicer than the MAIN floor. GAH. And we never use it. Pretty recessed lights, a full bathroom with a jacuzzi (which is never used), a chairrail (you know how I feel about chairrails, I want to marry them) with gorgeous wainscoting underneath. When we bought the house, the finished basement is part of what sold us. The problem is that other rooms have come first as far as decor/furniture have been concerned and so the basement has become "the hole" where we put everything we don't have room for. I know you all must have a unused/abused room like this... PLEASE share so I don't feel so guilty about mine.

Anyway, now it has become apparent that all these baby toys have to go SOMEwhere and that they aren't going to stop coming... sooooo I came up with yet another huge pile of trash for poor Tom to haul out today.

And NOW it's time for another round of, "Will the trashmen take that?"

Among the haul today, a non-working vacuum cleaner, a cracked lamp (with shade) and several (okay 6) cans of old, hardened paint.) If they take all that then maybe next week we'll see if they'll take the leaky aquarium and the Leaning Tower of Scratching Post.(picture to come later, I just can't seem to find my camera right now)

I'm so glad our trash all goes into one big communal pile for our row of houses because otherwise this would be totally embarassing. I wouldn't want them to know WHO is putting out all this stuff! Really, they probably aren't supposed to take things like that, they should go to the dump... but the dump is 15 minutes away and my car is full of other things... like a carseat and a stroller!

**update** trashmen took vaccuum, paint, AND lamp!**

The whining, the crying, the no napping... I'm going nuts over here.
I'm wondering if the newer, 2005 models have this whole no napping/whining glitch? Rbelle?

Ugh. My doctor (the old one) sent me for some bloodwork a MONTH ago. Problem is, I was supposed to go first thing in the morning and well, you know how that goes with a baby. I've tried THREE times...the other times I'd walk in and the place would be STANDING ROOM ONLY, so I just left. Entertaining Ben is hard enough, but to have to do it for what would probably be over an hour IN his stroller? I think not. Anyway, I finally made it there today and there were only two other people there. Yay! Ben talked to them the whole time we waited and by the time it was our turn, a couple more people had come in and they had all sat down near Ben so they could play. HA! I should charge for waiting room entertainment.

I did have to let Ben pull everything out of my wallet and throw it on the floor while the technician was taking my blood, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do. The woman taking my blood thought this was highly amusing... I didn't, especially when I had to scrounge around on the floor for all the former contents of my wallet.

On our way out, just to seal the "cute" deal, he waved bye bye to everyone. (and they ALL waved bye bye back like a bunch of trained monkeys) Goooooood lord, the kid can already work a crowd. If I didn't SEE him being born, I'd seriously wonder if he was mine.

The napping finally commenced at 2:45p.m. It lasted approximately one hour at which point I was greeted by incessant whining for the next 3.5 hours. Ben's evil twin is in bed now, hopefully he just needed to be powered down and then rebooted in the morning. I hope. Another night like last night and I might be looking to give him away...

Also today, I went for a consultation with a new OB/GYN who came highly recommended. While she was very nice, I'm not sure she's the doctor for me. Those of you for whom this applies, what do you look for in an OB?

This doctor was a tad too busy... everything and everyone felt so rushed, plus my appointment was at noon and they didn't get to me until 1:20. The receptionist was REALLY rude and on one of those receptionist power trips. "No one crosses this bridge by me, until they answer my questions three!" Bleh. Then once I got past her, I had to contend with a nurse who kept trying to get me to pee in a cup and derobe. I told her, "I'd be happy to pee in the cup but I'm just here for a consultation." Then when she took a gown out in the exam room, I had to tell her again. "Seriously, I'm just here for a consultation... I can't even have another exam until after May, my insurance won't cover it!" She says, "Well I'll leave this out, the doctor might want to do an exam." Again I say, "That's fine, but I'm not paying for it and my insurance won't cover it..." DUH DUH DUH! She also saw my age on my chart and said, "You're 28?! You look 12!" Lady, you are SO not winning me over here...

I like the atmosphere at my old doctor's office... they were all so chatty and nice, even the first time I went. Like I said, this other doctor was nice enough but a little too... businessy? clinical? I need a hand holder, a back patter, a "there there, it's going to be fine!" kinda doctor. Know what I mean? My husband would argue that my old doctor wasn't this type, but she really was when it counted.

I have two more doctors in mind... I'll probably wait until I'm actually pregnant again to "audition" them though. Copays start to add up.

I DID learn today that you don't have to be off the pill for three months before you start trying to get pregnant. I had always heard that the miscarriage rate was higher if you got pregnant right after going off the pill, but apparently not so. That being said, I think I'll still play it safe and get it out of my system for a few months before any serious "trying" gets underway.

::yawn:: Please send "sleepy baby" vibes to us and the others tonight... the mommy bloggers need sleep!

Ben was up all night, like I mentioned in my last post. He probably got MAYBE four hours of sleep? And yet, there has been no napping today. I don't even think I could tell you what my name is right now I am so tired...

See title. Baby up every 20 minutes last night. Would only go back to sleep if we picked him up. Why? We don't know. He's not sick. He had Tyenol for his teeth. I gave him some grace because of the time change. Today I am a zombie. If he tries it again tonight, I may become the world's biggest CIO advocate. So tired...

When did you all go out and get lives? Your comments really entertain my mother and she called me today wanting to know where you all were... like *I* know... so out with it. What exciting things are you all doing this weekend and why wasn't I invited?

Actually, kicked up my heels yesterday too. (heh) Benjamin stayed with his grandparents most of the day and Tom and I went out on the town. When we left him, he was screaming his head off. Ready for a laugh? It turned out to be because dada had put his shoes on the wrong feet. AAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA! I almost wet my pants...

So anyway, our big date... we went for pizza, to buy a mattress (finally, after two weeks, Tom had decided he'd done enough mattress research to feel like an informed sleeper... shoot me...), ice cream (Coldstone is a whole other blog topic, by the way...I'm STILL feeling ill) and then to see Robots. (now I get Busy Mom's joke from two days ago.)

ParTAY.

The following two comics appeared just INCHES from each other in yesterday's paper.
What do you think about this? April Fool's joke or comic strip writer fraud exposed?




**UPDATE** Thanks to Heidi tipping me off about Foxtrot having the SAME joke, I was able to find THIS. Gotta love elaborate April Fools jokes. ;)

My brother and I are ten years apart... it wasn't a PLAN on the part of my parents to have children spaced so far apart, that's just how it happened. Still, I was TEN YEARS OLD when we was born. I tend to think this is why I'm obsessed with having my kids one after the other like little stairsteps. Ya think? Hrm...

I've always been interested in psychology and over the years, I've read a lot about birth order (interesting stuff by the way). Birth order is such a big part of peoples' personalities. Here, take a look at this and the descriptions linked below. I'll bet you'll read yours and think it fits you to a tee, I know mine does!

Oldest?

Middle Child ?

Youngest ?

Only Child ?

The interesting thing about my brother and I is that because we were born so far apart, we are both essentially only children, though I do have some firstborn traits and he definitely has some baby of the family traits. There are other family situations that "change" your birth order too... like having a set of multiples at some point or a child with a disability. (in both situations, these children tend to garner a lot of attention throughout their lives and this has an effect on the siblings born before AND after them.

Anyway, interesting stuff, just thought I'd share! I was thinking about getting this book. I read the first edition years and years ago and it's what got me interested in this stuff.

And now the thought that went through my mind that sparked this post... (somewhat unrelated, but you'll have to deal)

When my brother was a baby, I would always think, "Wow... when he's 12, I'll be 22..." or "When he's driving, I'll be 26." and it seemed always seemed like it would be forever until he was old enough to be any fun. Well apparently he did get fun at some point and I didn't notice. He's going to be 18 next month! When did that happen? Also, in keeping with his baby of the family traits... WHEN DID HE GET SO FUNNY?! (seriously, if you want a laugh once in awhile, check in with my brother's blog... it makes me laugh out loud)

Tom had to go to an awards thing at his younger brother's college this evening. Apparently he values seeing his brother get a mathematics award over keeping his wife sane, but that is neither here nor there. ;) (I'm KIDDING, by the way, just for any family members who might take that too seriously and cause a big ol' ruckus... of course it's great that Tom's brother is getting an award and that Tom went to support him... yay for all involved!)

So anyway, I survived my double shift and now Ben is in bathed and in bed. And the house is quiet. TOO quiet. I'm watching a TiVoed episode of The Baby Human. (which incidentally, people google a lot and get sent HERE...)

I found this silly little survey on Erin's (other one) blog. So here, for your Friday evening entertainment (unless you have something more exciting to do on a Friday night, because I totally don't), are my answers...

Name 4 books on your bookshelf:
4. Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith - Anne Lamott
3. Traveling Mercies - Anne Lamott
2. Operating Instructions - Anne Lamott (are you seeing a pattern here?)
1. What to Expect: The Toddler Years

Name 4 DVDs in your collection:
4. Gilmore Girls Seasons 1 and 2
3. Muppets Take Manhattan
2. Baby Mozart
1. Finding Nemo

Name 4 things on your walls:
4. A framed watercolor of a window on a cottage in Ireland (it's a set of three, the first "real art" I ever purchased)
3. A cobweb
2. Paint
1. Framed print from Guess How Much I Love You (in Ben's room)

Name 4 things in your closet:
4. My slippers that look like sneakers
3. My wedding dress that, four years later, has yet to be cleaned
2. A box of seashells from various beaches I've been to
1. Too many sweatshirts

Name 4 artists in your music collection (playlist or other):
4. Alanis Morissette
3. Alison Krauss
2. Norah Jones
1. Paul Simon

Name 4 real life stores you shop at regularly:
4. Target
3. Superfresh
2. Toys R Us
1. Safeway

Name 4 animals that you've come face-to-face with in real life:
4. A cat
3. A dog
2. A big hairy bumblebee
1. A seahorse

Name 4 things in your wallet/purse:
4. An insurance card
3. A pocket full of change
2. My cellphone (the new one that I had to pay full price for because some %*^! in Florida took mine and kept it... )
1. A binky (for the stressful times) ;)

We all slept okay last night... though Ben DID wake up around 3:30 with the screams. Hrm. I played possum though so Tom took care of that one. ;)

Today I'm meeting up with my friend Amy for what might be our last spontaneous lunch. She's moving to D.C. for a boy. I'm sure we'll still keep in touch, because she's obsessive about keeping in touch anyway, but it still makes me a little sad.

I've started work on my other blog, the one devoted to house projects. In case you were wondering where the big long post about redoing my bedroom went, it's over there. I'm only giving out the address by request though because frankly, I already have too much personal information put out there for the world to see. I don't need pictures of my home floating all over God's creation. Like I said, I mostly started the blog for myself as I motivation to finish projects, but you if you actually have an interest in reading, let me know and I'll send you the link once it's all put together.

That's all I have for you right now since Ben is standing here patting me on the leg and trying to bite my toe. That's his polite way of saying, "Get off the computer and come watch Elmo NOW!"