Away for the Weekend

Isn't he "sweet"?

I won a basket during Basket Bidding at school the other night. It included a 5 pound Hershey bar, with graham crackers and marshmallows, of course! We brought the basket to Rob and Michele's for the weekend. Saturday night everyone (except Ben and I) went out and toasted marshmallows around a bonfire. The candy bar was so thick, it really didn't make the greatest smore, J.R. brought one in for me. I made a couple in the microwave on Sunday, and the chocolate became a little softer so it worked better. The rest of our weekend was just as sweet - it was fun to hang out with Rob and Michele. We haven't seen them for a while. Michele and I got to scrapbook a little bit, and J.R. and Rob killed a lot of bad guys (Halo 2). Chloe got to hang with Casey and Stella too - she had a blast.

We had a good weekend, but Ben had it a little rough. The poor little guy got his finger pinched in a door. I was in the other room when I heard Ben, and J.R. screaming. Even though there were five adults in the room when it happened, I feel incredibly guilty. I feel like I'm a bad parent. He's fine, by the way, just a bruise on his cuticle. I know he's going to get hurt - he'll fall and hit his head as he learns to walk, he'll skin his knee when he learns to ride a bike, he'll get pushed down, knocked over, and all the rest, but it still doesn't hurt me any less. I'm extremely thankful he didn't get hurt worse - I definitely gave thanks to God after the incident was over. I just can't help but feel I could have protected him. Will I always feel like this? Am I going to turn into the helicopter parent I speak against so often now? I guess I'll just take one day at a time and continue to pray he stays safe.

On an up note, Ben's giving high-fives now. He's also giving a lot of raspberries. He's really cute when he tucks his upper lip under his lower lip and puffs out his cheeks. He always did make the funniest faces. Oh - and he was quite the musician this weekend too.

Party Animal

Ben was a party animal this week. Monday he had a St. Patrick's Day party, Wednesday was the birthday of one of his classmates (he had cake, pizza and cheese twists), and Thursday was his Easter party. The Easter Bunny came to that party and Ben did not enjoy him (her). It's funny because he was fine with Santa, and he had his picture taken with the Bunny at the mall and he was fine. Oh well. Here's his mall picture.

Thursday night was exciting. Ben cut his first tooth! Yay - but it only took 9 months. It's very cute on him though. He of course had some pain this weekend, but it's really starting to come through, and it can be seen when he shows us his beautiful smile.

Easter was a party all in itself. We drove up to Grammie and Pepere's house for the weekend. We had Pepere's delicious ham and spent some great time with my family. My cousin Dan even showed up - I haven't seen him in 5 years! Ben received 9, count 'em, NINE Easter baskets!! Who gets nine Easter baskets? Easter at mom's house looked like Christmas with all the baskets for three kids! It was crazy! Ben is blessed to have family that spoils him so.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I told Ben this is his holiday, considering he was made in Ireland and all. Is this not the cutest little leprechaun?

And check out this face!!!!

This was so funny. We were just sitting there and looked at me and stuck his lip out!

Ben's really not feeling well. I think he has a stomach virus again. He's been throwing up all weekend (even stained my wedding quilt) and has had diarrhea for two days. I'm staying home from work tomorrow to stay with him. If I didn't know any better I'd say he had too much green beer!

Easter Egg Hunt

Yay! We took Ben on his first Easter Egg Hunt today. The hunt was at church. There were inflatables, a petting zoo, games and crafts. It was pretty fun. Of course Ben couldn't do the games and crafts, and wasn't interested in the tatoos or face painting. He thought the animals were strange. He was making the funniest faces. He didn't know what the animals were, but they certainly weren't Chloe.

After the petting zoo we checked out the crafts. J.R. and I decorated a sticky cross with tissue paper; Ben just tried putting the tissue paper in his mouth. End of craft. The egg hunt was tons of fun. It went pretty much how I thought it would. I put him down on the ground near a few eggs. Once he discovered them he picked them up, shook them a little, chewed on them a little. He was very cute. I think he had fun, I know I did. It was really cool to my child participate in something like this. :)

Nine months in review

Ben had his 9 month well visit this week. He's 18 lbs., 9 oz., and he's 28.5 inches long. We got a stronger perscription for his skin, and the Dr. told me to use the Aquafor on his skin three times a day instead of lotion twice a day. So far it seems to be working.

I can't believe it's been 9 months! Everyone told me it'd go by fast, but I thought since I'd be enjoying each moment...writing things down, trying to make each day last, that it'd be different. Nope! Wrong! It really doesn't seem like it's been 9 months. I had 12 weeks off from work, he's had his first Thanksgiving and Christmas and every other holiday between Father's Day and President's Day, we had our Relay for Life, took vacations, celebrated our FIRST wedding anniversary, been through a summer, autumn and winter and so much more! One of my students said to me today that she still looks at me sometimes and is surprised I'm not pregnant. She's was used to seeing me with a belly and talking about pregnancy (she can't believe I loved being pregnant). It's so crazy!

I love being a mom.

Ben at one week

Ben at 6 weeks

Ben at 3 months

Ben at 6 months

Ben at 9 months

Wave Bye-Bye!

Ben waved bye-bye today :) I guess he did it a couple of times at daycare today, and when leaving, the teacher said "Ben, show mommy you can wave bye-bye". It took me off guard at first because usually I'm the one saying "show so-and-so you can do such-and-such". When he finally did it for me, my eyes watered a bit. It was pretty cool.

It's not bye-bye, but here's some video we took the other day that's pretty cute. Someone from church gave us a new toy. Ben loves it, but as you can see, he has found a new use for it.

Ben does Baltimore

The three of us just spent a fantastic weekend in Baltimore. J.R.'s company meeting was Saturday, so we asked his parents to come up and meet us there, and babysit Ben while the meeting was going on. His parents rented a hotel room for the weekend and invited us to stay with them, so we did. Friday night we went down to the hotel bar for a drink, then went with a friend of J.R's to ESPN Zone. We had a blast (plus, I beat J.R. at hockey, bowling and one game of basketball). It was so nice to be able not only to go out, but to go out and not have to worry about getting back to Ben..he had the perfect babysitters. We showed Ben off Saturday morning, then he stayed with Grandma and Grandpa while we were at the meeting (J.R.'s branch won Branch of the Year!). Then the five of us went to the Baltimore Aquarium. It was a lot of fun. I think Ben enjoyed it too.

Later, we went to the Hard Rock Cafe. Again - we had a really good time. I brought a bib for Ben for dinner, but didn't realize the one I picked out would fit so perfectly.

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for a great weekend. We really had a blast. It was great spending time with you and we are both happy you got to spend so much time with Ben.

All good things must come to an end - I suppose

I had the day off yesterday, so I spent the day scrap booking! It was great...I dropped Ben off at daycare, J.R. was at work, and I created 4 pages for my albums. OK, so I didn't create a lot of pages, but it was still fun nevertheless. My car was inspected and only cost $82.82, so that was good. Ben had a good day at daycare too and stayed in a happy mood all night. So good stuff all around.

However, I've stopped pumping. Sigh. I new this day was coming, but I was hoping not so soon. I really wanted to keep breastfeeding until Ben was 9 months (I wanted 12 months, but I knew my milk production just wouldn't make it). I got to 8 1/2 I guess. Two weeks ago we were still sending 2 bottles of breast milk to daycare. Usually only because one was coming back from the day before, but two were going nonetheless. I thought last week I'd be able to send 1 a day. Nope. We'd put 2 oz in with 4 oz of formula. That's all I could get. By the end of the week, I stopped pumping. Wed. I didn't pump because I went to see Ben at lunchtime and nursed him there, Thurs. I pumped once at 10am, and Friday I didn't pump at all. I left the pump in the car all weekend, and today I didn't even bring it into work. I'm thinking I'll feed him in the morning before we leave the house, I'll feed him once when we get home, and if we wakes up in the middle of the night wanting to eat, I'll breastfeed then. My right side has pretty much dried up. I haven't pumped or fed him from that side in days. It's sad. I'm sad. I feel like I'm letting him down. I know he wants more, but I can't give it to him. Soon, he'll forget, I suppose. I won't though. I'm just really bummed. The first month of breast feeding was tough - toe curling pain tough, and I definitely spent my summer feeling like a cow, but I really enjoy it now. There are times where I want Ben to be hungry so we can spend some alone time together. It's a really cool feeling to know I can do this for him, and no one else can. It's our special bond. And now it's over. At least we did it for a while anyway. Maybe I'll be able to feed him twice a day for a little while yet. That would be good. For me anyway.

Active Little Guy

Ben is really racing around the house now. He's crawling like a pro. It didn't take him long to realize that now that he can move around, he can get to things and pull him self up on them. He's been reaching his hands up in the air lately. Don't know why, but it's pretty cute. He's also begun to terrorize poor Chloe. He likes Chloe's food dish. In fact, the other day, he found Chloe's food. Instead of telling him not to eat the dog food, what do I do? I take pictures!