Fashionable Man

Sometimes, Ben likes to pick out his own clothes. Who cares that it was about 90 degrees outside? He was happy, and so cute!

Ben’s Birthday List

:: Updated! Expanded! Slightly less Cars-intensive! ::

Hello everyone! Ben’s birthday is fast approaching, and some of you have been asking what kinds of gifts he might like this year. Well, here are a few ideas!

Generally speaking, he would love art supplies (paper, paints, markers, craft supplies, even an easel – we don’t have one yet), picture books or story collections, digging toys, a sled (maybe a saucer that he can ride with a parent) and money towards a class – he’s expressed interest in both tumbling and swimming.

Larger items include a covered sandbox, an inflatable backyard pool, other lawn or sidewalk toys, and child-friendly bookshelves (small, lightweight, maybe with books facing forward).

Clothes are a good gift, too. He is or soon will be wearing size 3T for shirts, 2T or 3T with a belt/size adjusters for pants, and size 8 for shoes.  Winter boots and snow gear are another good option!

Specifically, he has asked for bath markers/paints (to color the tub and also the bubbles). He has also specifically asked for Hot Wheels, especially of the Color Changer variety. He loves playing in the bath, and he loves sending his cars to the car wash.

Also, for the last couple of weeks, when Ben’s asked for something at the store, I’ve told him that we can take a picture of it and put it on his birthday list.

The observant among you will quickly notice a pattern.

This is a Lightning McQueen backpack. I honestly don’t know if this is still out there or not, since it’s a school supply, and I don’t know what he would use it for, but he seems to love it.

These are Cars and Cars 2 packs, at Target. I took pictures of the packs because he asked. However, he already has Jeff Gorvette (the yellow car in the Radiator Springs set and the second Racing 4-Pack) and Francesco (the white and red car in the middle pack).

The Radiator Springs pack is actually pretty great, and has some cars that I haven’t seen separately.  But, if you’re looking to buy singles, he most often asks for Nigel (a green, British car) and Raul (a blue, French car). He also loves the Japanese and German cars. I think that’s why he picked out those two 4-packs.

After playing with a Charge-Up version of McQueen at his cousins’ house, he’s been asking for his own. Here’s a photo of a Charge-Ups car and of the charger. There are several different cars that use these chargers.

He really has an eagle eye for anything that is branded with his favorite characters.  He latched on to this silverware set right away. I don’t even remember why we were in that aisle!

Please, don’t feel like all of his gifts need to be Cars themed.  If you are thinking about getting him something vehicle related, he’s just as enamored with Hot Wheels and Mattel cars as he is with the Disney ones, and they are way less expensive. He also loves trains (Thomas or otherwise) and planes, and pretty much anything else that travels.

Other characters that he’s excited about right now are Phineas and Ferb, Curious George, Angry Birds, Peanuts, Sesame Street, and Monsters, Inc.

Thank you so much, I hope this post is helpful to some of you!

Ben on Thoughtfulness

It has been a very stressful summer for me, and one afternoon I couldn’t help but cry. I did it in the kitchen, and tried to be quiet, but Ben heard me anyway.

He very quietly came in and handed me a card that we’d been working on earlier. He had, all on his own, put stickers all over it.  He told me, “Here, Mom, stickers will make you feel happy!”

Later, we were talking, and he explained to me,

“I just heard you crying, and I just thought, stickers will make you feel happy. So I put stickers on the card, and now you’re happy!”

And I was, though the stickers had very little to do with it.

Ben on Boredom

Ben has discovered the concept of boredom, but does not yet know the words to describe it. He had just watched an episode of Futurama, and asked to watch the same episode again. After asking that he was sure he didn’t want to watch something different, I complied.

Soon:

“Mom, I don’t want to watch Futurama again. Futurama makes me feel sick.”

 

Dan and I laughed so hard that I think we scared him a little.

A New Look

I’m trying to freshen the place up a little bit. I hope you like it!

A Room with a View

For over a week now, Ben has been sleeping in his own room at night, all night!  Hooray!

Naps are less consistent – he’d been napping in his bed most of the time, but after sleeping in his room at night, he started asking to nap in our room again.  That’s okay, I’m willing to make a concession here and there on the path to little boy independence. 

Anyway, today he only fussed a little when I told him he had to nap in his own room.  It didn’t take him long to settle in.

Ring Christmas Bells

I will be playing both handbells and oboe at this concert.  Come on out, enjoy an hour of Christmas music, and then join us for cookies!  The concert is free and open to the public, though donations will be accepted.  I’m happy to give directions to St. Mark, if you need.  I’d love to see you there!

One two! One two!

I needed to take a shower this morning, so I let Ben choose a show to watch (Thomas), double-checked the stairway gate, and hopped in.

Pretty soon I could hear him running around and playing. Good!

Then I heard him counting. “One two! One two!” Great! I love it when he counts. It’s adorable, and I love that he’s recognizing multiples of things and using words to describe them.

That’s when my mom-instincts kicked in. What on earth could he have more than one of? He’s already wearing his shoes, and he almost never counts his crayons. It could be my socks, but…where exactly was his voice coming from?

“Hey Ben! What are you counting?”

“This!” He proudly held up three sticks of butter.

 

Yep. I’d forgotten to close the kitchen gate, and he’d gone looking through the fridge.

At least he was too busy counting the butter to try to get any of it open.

Uncle Steve

On Monday, my uncle Steve was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, which had spread to other systems, including his bones.

On Thursday, he was sent home, put under the care of hospice nurses, and told that he had three to six weeks.

On Saturday afternoon, he died.

He was at home, with both of his daughters, as well as one of his brothers (though not my dad – he was on his way home from vacation at the time).

I can’t even begin to explain the shock I’m feeling. The first I heard of this was on Thursday. Even though I knew he had been sick, no one, including his doctors, had any idea how serious it was. In fact, a CAT scan from 13 months ago was entirely clear.

I’d been so disappointed that he wasn’t feeling well enough to come to his granddaughter’s first birthday party two week ago, but knew that he was recovering from pneumonia, so understood why he might avoid a crowd.

He gave me my first job, back in high school, at his restaurant. He always told the funniest jokes. He often hosted family parties, especially at Christmas. His daughters are the older girls I always looked up to as a child.

He was my godfather.

I’m in shock, and I’m desperately sad.

I didn’t even have time to go visit him. It all happened so, so fast.

I hope he knows how much I’ve always loved him.

Photo Dump pt 3 – All Dressed Up

In most of these photos, Ben’s wearing something silly, whether it be a Halloween costume, a bulky winter coat, or even my work shirt.

Sitting on poor Achilles.

A cute shot of Ben and Dan together.

A spider for Halloween!

Snow is cold on my hands!

Hamming it up for the camera – a favorite pasttime.

Yes, he knows how to work an iPod.

He insisted on wearing my work shirt.

Backwards, of course.

Playing in the snow.

It’s cold out here!

Footprints.

Photo Dump pt 2: Birthday Party!

Some shots from Ben’s party. He didn’t stand still much, so a lot of the pictures we took came out pretty blurry.  Here are the best, clearest ones.

Photo Dump pt 1: Birthday trip to the museum

So, basically, iPhoto causes me a great deal of frustration. We’ve never gotten along well together, and because of that, quite a few of the posts that I start don’t get finished. I just can’t take the time to battle with iPhoto and also write about each of the photos or the events that the photos came from.

But I really want to share some photos with those of you who are too far away to watch Ben play, or go to the park with us, or take a tour of Anderson Gardens with me.

My temporary solution: a couple of photo dump posts. Very little commentary, just a whole lot of pictures. I hope no one finds it too annoying. It’s all I can really manage at this point, until we can somehow solve the iPhoto problems that I’m having.

First up, Ben’s birthday trip to Discovery Center. Enjoy!

 

He looks so little!

Happy New Year!

I have high hopes for 2011.  Here are a few of my goals (best to put them down in writing, don’t you think?):

– Create a more peaceful, more joyful home.  I’ll be referring to Christine Carter’s book and blog, among other things, to help me with this one.

– To help me reach the previous goal, I will be finding at least 30 minutes every day for myself, either to knit, read, play a game, or maybe even just go to bed earlier.  And I’m going to encourage Dan to do the same, even if that means we have to take turns caring for Ben to accomplish it (though hopefully we can work it in when Ben is asleep).

– Be more social.  Now that Ben is bigger, he can handle day trips and the like much better.  We’ve been kind of isolated this past year, and I want to change that.  So, if you want to visit us or have us come visit you, let me know!  And, don’t be surprised if we start to contact you more often as well.

That’s where I’m going to leave it for now.  It’s not a long list, but I think it’s an important one.  My working on these goals should actually be good for all of us.

Adventures in Eating

Okay, so, no, this isn’t a post about Ben’s first birthday. I’ll get that up, I will, but this little incident just needed to be shared.

I’ve learned by now that if I plan on eating yogurt while Ben is around, I’d better be prepared to share. This afternoon, while I was poking around in the fridge trying to decide on lunches for the two of us, he took that a step further and just pulled the yogurt out himself. Decision made, for him at least.

It soon became clear that sharing with me was not exactly what he had in mind. He didn’t want me to eat any of the yogurt, it was his, he’d gotten it out himself, and it was his! And not only that, but he wanted to do it himself. My assistance with the spoon was not needed.

I have to admit, I hesitated. But, we just bought a tarp to protect the floor from exactly this kind of thing. If the mess is no longer such an issue, what reason do I really have to say no? So, I put down the tarp and handed over the spoon.

The first thing he did was shove his free hand into the yogurt container. Instant smiles.

Then he smooshed the yogurt around a bit with his hand, and banged at it with his spoon. Also fun!

Just as I was starting to wonder if he’d forgotten that this was food, he finally stuck his spoon into his mouth.

Then his hand.

Yum!

Cleanup took a little while, but he had so much fun, and even managed to actually eat some of the yogurt. Totally worth it.

(Hmm. It seems that, since I’m posting this from my iPod, all of the photos will be at the bottom if the post. I’ll try to fix that when I have a few minutes in front of the computer. Sorry about that!)

(Wow, and they’re in reverse order, too. Awesome.)

Hobbies

Ben has developed a hobby. It involves putting his (or my) things into Achilles’ basket.

One of his bibs.

My water bottle.

His sippy cup.

His jingly monkey.

The top of his shape sorting box.

His pinwheel.

A picture of a clownfish.

Are they gifts? Is he starting a collection? Is it installation art? I tried asking, but his only answer was “Bah bah buh boo! Wuh.” I suppose we’ll have to wait until he learns to speak before we can know the answer.

Of course, his very favorite thing to put into the basket is himself, whether or not it’s already occupied.

Nine Months!

Which means, of course, I haven’t touched this poor blog in over three months. That’s awful! But, rather than dwell on that, let’s just get to an update, shall we?

Benjamin is nine months old now, which is just astonishing to me. He weighs 17 lbs 7 oz, and is 27 in tall. So little! Who ever would have thought that I would have a little baby? I should find out how big my cousin’s son H was when he was born – he’s the only other small baby to ever be born into my dad’s family, that I’m aware of, and his mother is very petite. I hope Ben sprouts up when he gets older!

Let’s talk milestones! In the last three months, Benjamin has learned to crawl, pull himself to standing, climb up the stairs, walk with only one hand’s assistance, and cruise pretty much wherever he wants to go. He even took two unassisted steps on the 19th, four days into his tenth month!

He’s got four teeth now, too. His first two came in almost simultaneously. This is the first photo I got of his brand new teeth!

They’ve gotten quite tall since then.

I don’t have any photos of the top teeth yet, because he’s such a ham and always poses when I take his picture. I have trouble getting candid photos, too, because as soon as he sees the camera, he crawls right up to it!

Here’s a self-portrait we did together.

So, there you go! And since I have been doing a little bit of knitting and a little bit of oboeing, I’ll try to get back to this space a little more often. Because really, what good is a journal if it’s mostly empty?

Six Months!

Our little one has been in the world for six months now. It’s just amazing to me how much he’s changed in so little time! He’s becoming such a person. He laughs when he thinks something is funny, he can sit up by himself, he can reach for whatever it is that he wants (usually, that’s whatever we’re holding). He’s started putting his arms out when he wants to be picked up.

At his six-month checkup, he weighed in at 15 pounds 6 ounces, and measured 26 inches tall. He grew a pound, and two inches, in just two months! Amazing!

To celebrate his half-birthday, we gave Ben his very first taste of solid food last night, avocado. We laughed so much!

At first, all went well. He already likes to stick spoons into his mouth.

Then he actually got a taste of the food.

He kept coming back for more, though.

In the end, he made a fine mess, which he was eager to share with everyone.

Thank goodness for baths!

Bonus photo: The first flower of spring!

Hello Again!

I actually have several drafts started, but instead I’m just going to write a silly little post, because I want to, and to get back into the swing of things, hopefully. I’ve missed writing! It’s amazing how little time I spend in front of the computer these days. But I’m sure learning a lot! For example:

Things I can now do well with a baby in my arms:
– Read the internet (for a few minutes, anyway)
– Type an e-mail or two
– Assemble a sandwich
– Fix a cup of coffee
– Eat a sandwich or something non-messy that can be cut with a fork
– Drink my morning coffee, if he’s not too squirmy
– Vacuum
– Fill the animals’ food and water bowls
– Carry a laundry basket up or down the stairs
– Make phone calls
– Set up my classroom for a workshop, including moving chairs

Things I can now (usually) do with a baby in my arms, if I must:
– Eat yogurt or applesauce out of a small container
– Eat a salad or other slightly messy food
– Clean up a baby-induced food spill
– Brush my teeth
– Put laundry into the washing machine
– Write in my calendar
– Move a table in the classroom
– Pump (I feel like a supermom when I pull this one off!)

Things I cannot do now that I have a baby:
– Sleep for more than three hours at a stretch
– Sometimes, sleep for more than one hour at a stretch
– Remember a darn thing! (probably related to the above)
– Keep a schedule
– Leave the house with less than 1.5 – 2 hrs preparation (and no matter how early I start, I always seem to be five minutes late!)
But, most importantly,
– Imagine life without him. Having a baby was the best decision we ever made!

9/16 and 9/17

I remember that we had quite a few visitors on Wednesday, though I can’t be sure exactly who. I know my mom came again, probably Dad too. My brother and sister-in-law came, and got in trouble for bringing their youngest with them (no non-sibling kids under 12 are allowed on that floor). Grandma came up either Wednesday or Thursday morning. My cousin came on Thursday, I think – I know she was there when we filled out the birth certificate.

Starting Tuesday night, we basically lost all sense of time. We lived in approximately two hour cycles, feeding and changing Ben when he needed it, and either cuddling him or trying to sleep the rest of the time. Nurses were in and out at all hours. I know there were some tears, and some troubling with the early feedings, as well as some successes. I remember being completely exhausted, and very sore. Mostly I remember being so grateful that Dan was there with me, helping me get in and out of bed, and changing all of the diapers.

Thursday, though. Oh, Thursday. On Thursday, we found out that Ben was too jaundiced.

He was so jaundiced that he had to be in a light box for eight hours. It was torture on all of us. All he wanted in the world was to be held, or at least wrapped up tight in his blanket. But instead, he was totally exposed and alone inside that box, with his eyes covered (to protect them, of course) so that he couldn’t even see what was happening to him.

We tried to soothe him with a pacifier, and by putting our hands into the box to hold his hand or rub his belly or stroke his hair. None of it helped, though. He cried and cried. I cried and cried. He couldn’t settle down enough to nurse, so I had to pump what I could, then give him some formula as well. It was devastating. We were breaking all of the rules for establishing breastfeeding, of course, which was very difficult to handle, but mostly I just couldn’t stand that he was so upset and I had no way of telling him that it was going to be okay. It was only his second day out in the world, and it was miserable for him. I am grateful, though, that he was allowed to stay in our room with us. He didn’t have to go to the NICU or anything like that.

Again, a lot of details are blurry, and I have no good sense of the actual timeline, but we made it through the day somehow and were discharged sometime after 10:00 on Thursday night. Even though the jaundice was far from gone, he was allowed to leave. We had an appointment scheduled for Saturday.

We scrambled around, gathering up all of our belongings. We also ended up calling my mom and asking her to help us get home. I needed a little bit of extra support, plus I figured an extra pair of hands couldn’t hurt.

By the time we got home it was after 11. But we were home!

9/15/09

On Monday the 14th, I went in for a final ultrasound. He was squished in there so tightly that the tech had a hard time getting accurate measurements, and could only say that he was probably between 7 and 9 pounds. My doctor decided that that was big enough, and he was late enough, that she wanted to induce. She prefers to have her patients deliver no more than a week beyond their due dates.

I was kind of uncomfortable with that decision, but I decided to accept it because the stress of waiting was starting to drive me pretty crazy. So, before leaving the office, I had an appointment for 8:00 am on 9/15.

I called Dan and had him come home to spend the rest of the day with me. I needed the moral support. We got the last few things packed and had sushi for dinner to celebrate our last night as a family of two.

On Tuesday morning Dan made me a light breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast, and we headed to the hospital (with a quick stop at the grocery store so he could pick up a couple of snacks).

We checked in at about 8:15 and were set up in a room on the labor and delivery floor. By 9:30 I was hooked up to the pitocin and the fetal monitor, and we settled in. I was ready for a long, long wait, based on my sister-in-law’s experience and stories I’d heard from other friends about induced deliveries. I had some knitting with me, a book, and even had my mom go out to get me a copy of Scribblenauts, which came out that day, so I could play it while we waited.

At about 11:30, after two dosage increases, I was told that the baby wasn’t tolerating the pitocin very well and they were going to shut it off. Later, we’d see where my contractions were and reassess the situation then.

Dan went for lunch a little after noon. While he was gone, the doctor came in to say that my contractions weren’t progressing and she wanted to break my water. I asked if I should call my husband. She said, “no, it’s quick, no big deal.” Five seconds later, it was done, and holy crap. Yeah. I was not prepared for what exactly was involved. There is a lot of fluid in the amniotic sac. A lot. Seriously.

So there I was, trying not to panic, praying for Dan to get back quickly. He finally did, and was able to calm me down.

At 2:30, I was having contractions regularly every minute or two. I was dilated to 4 cm. It wasn’t terrible, but had moved a bit beyond uncomfortable.

At 3:00 or so I asked for the pain medication. It helped.

At 4:50 I was dilated to 5 cm.

At 5:03 I was dilated to 8 cm. I think it was at this point that I asked for more pain meds, because things had gotten really painful. I was told that even though it had in fact been two hours and my first dose had worn off, I couldn’t have any more because I was too close to delivery. I was not pleased with that answer, as you can imagine.

At this point, then nurse stepped out into the hall to have the doctor come in. By the time the doctor made it into the room (5:05?) I was at 10 cm and it was time to push!

I have to admit, I yelled. I swore. I had a hard time focusing, because everything was happening really quickly. All I could really do was grab onto Dan’s hand on one side and the bedrail on the other, and try to follow instructions. The doctor had to tell me to stop yelling and put that energy into pushing instead. I managed to do it after a couple of tries.

After a few minutes, the monitor showed that the baby’s heartrate was fluctuating. He wasn’t handling the contractions as well as the doctor wanted. She decided to help him out by using the vacuum extraction. I agreed right away, because of course I wanted him to be safe, even though I had really wanted to do it by myself.

Two more pushes, I think, and he was out. It was 5:18, barely 10 minutes since the doctor had stepped into the room. I don’t remember hearing his first cry, but Dan does.

They put him on my chest right away, after just a quick wipe. I remember it, but not well. It’s sort of a blur. After a few minutes they took him across the room to be cleaned up and examined, and weighed, I think.

Pretty soon, he was in Dan’s arms and they were both right next to me. The doctor and nurses left us alone for a little while, which was such a relief. We looked at him, and at each other, and talked a little I think, but I don’t know what we said. I do know, though, that we had to decide on a name. We’d each arrived at the hospital that morning with a different first choice, and Dan had talked me into waiting until we met him to decide. I didn’t think for a minute that it would make a bit of difference, but it really did. When I saw my little boy, I knew that Benjamin was the name that fit him best.

A while later, they took Benjamin to have his full exam and a bath. In the meantime, I was moved to a recovery room. We made a ton of phone calls, and my parents came up to visit us and meet Benjamin. My dad also brought dinner for Dan, who’d not made it to the cafeteria before it closed at 6:30. Everyone stayed long enough to hold Ben and hear about our day, then left so we could get a little rest and start adjusting to our new little family.

And that’s how Benjamin David was born at 5:18 pm on September 15, 2009. He weighed 6 pounds 13 ounces and measured 20 inches.