Happy New Year

Have a blessed 2009! Be safe this week, and I'll update you when we return from Massachusetts.

Christmas week #1

We spent most of the last week in Ocean City for Christmas #1. We had a great time; Ben, of course, was spoiled by his Grandma and Grandpa. We were able to spend great time with family, give and receive great Christmas presents, see the Winterfest lights (an annual tradition it looks like we are starting), play at an arcade, have a great lunch on mom, and celebrate the birth of our savior.


Here are a few pictures from the week...

My favorite present.


At Grandma and Grandpa's we open the stockings first. Each person opens one gift at a time. Ben opened one present first, then Kim and Uncle Steve, Grandma & Grandpa, J.R. then me. Then Ben got to go again. With seven people and about 15 gifts in each stocking, I really didn't know how long Ben would last. He did great! He opened up his gifts and played with them or visited with everyone else until it was his turn again. He was extremely patient. In fact, by the end of the stocking, he didn't really care to open any more gifts, and he really didn't care too much about opening the gifts under the tree. He just wanted to visit, and when a cool new toy or book was opened, he'd play with that. Here's a picture of him opening a gift from his stocking.


Ben's cool new coat.


Ben with some of his arcade tickets. Ben (we helped a little - I personally kicked butt at skee ball) won 395 tickets, and with that, he was able to get a 500 ticket car. The woman behind the counter was very kind to give him that even though he didn't have enough tickets. Ben is very into cars right now so he loved it! After we played there for a while, we walked on the board walk for a little bit. The beach was deserted, even though it was a nice day.

Ben (Grandpa in the background) on the train to see the Winterfest lights. We went to see the lights last year too...we are starting a tradition. As you can see, Ben is starting to become a little ham when the camera comes out.

Now it's on to Christmas week #2 - after a visit from our friend Rachel, we are heading to Massachusetts for the rest of the week. Happy New Year!

Phanta Claus

OK, I did it again. What a new mom I am.

Anyway, we took Ben to the Phillies ball park so we could have his picture taken with the Philly Phanatic dressed as Santa Claus. We thought if the picture came out good, we could use it as our Christmas card picture. Last year, Ben did great with Santa. In fact we think this is the most precious picture of the two of them.

So, I naively thought this year he wouldn't be afraid of Santa. What was I thinking? He's 18 months old! Isn't every 18 month old afraid of Santa? Especially if he's big and green? This is the result.

I'm not as hormonal as I was last week, so I'm actually laughing pretty hard at this. And here's the kicker - notice no J.R. in the picture? We got in line at 10:45 AM and pictures didn't start until 11:00 AM. We had to wait outside so we were freezing. Ben was getting antsy so J.R. walked him around for a while. Then Ben started getting cranky, so I thought I'd take him into the store and walk around in there. Upstairs there is a life size Phanatic statue, so we thought that if Ben couldn't take much more, we'd just take a picture there. Well, not long after I got out of the line, it started moving. J.R. stayed, but when I didn't come back right away, he started letting people ahead of him, then finally got out of line. Ben and I were upstairs looking at the statue and he was calming down pretty good. "Phanta Claus" was there too; we could see people getting their picture taken so we were watching them. That really calmed Ben down. Finally I decided to get back in line. I didn't realize J.R. had stepped out, so I went through the entire line, excusing myself as I went, expecting people to get mad and think I was cutting (actually, everyone was really nice). I got all the way to the front of the line, and the woman who was originally standing behind me told me J.R. got out of line. She and her husband let me get in front of them, and I tore off our coats to get ready - there were only like 1 or 2 people in front of us. I didn't even have time to call J.R. to tell him to join us. I put Ben down and he immediately made friends with a Mrs. Claus (a ballgirl I guess). He seemed really happy so I was happy. In fact, when it was our turn, he was ready to go. The security lady said the same thing. Well, there was another Mrs. Claus near "Phanta" and she picked him up. That was the beginning of the end. Cry, cry...sigh. The picture is obviously the result. The Mrs. Claus that took our picture was cute - she said "I got him looking at me". Thanks. I just said "Awesome, thank you very much" and we got out of line. There was a fanfoto guy there too so crankybaby's picture is on the website too.

Guess we need to come up with something else for our Christmas card.

Christmas Tree

We put up our Christmas tree tonight. I don't know what I was thinking. I wanted Christmas music, a cozy atmosphere...I wanted to reminisce with each ornament I took out, wanted to show things to Ben and have him be into it. Yeah, right. He was carrying around a heavy candle holder and broke it, he smashed a small glass candle holder into the computer screen, I think there was an ornament he broke too. He was stepping in everything, he was cranky, and it just wasn't the evening I hoped for. Sigh. Again, I really don't know what I was thinking...I mean, he's 18 months old and has no clue whats going on. Oh well. Here are couple of pictures we managed to take.

It's a.....

well, what do you think it is?

Everything is going well. The quad screen I took at the end of October came back negative. The doctor couldn't find any indication of any abnormal chromazones. He did say that an ultrasound isn't the perfect way to find anything wrong, but they can be reassuring. He ended by saying, this was a reassuring ultrasound. So...all things point to good :) It's definitely a relief, but I'm still praying for a healthy baby.

The technician, and the doctor, took some 3D or 4D (whatever it's called) pictures - it was so cool! I wasn't expecting it at all. All of a sudden, the picture on the monitor completely changed and there was this yellow baby! It wasn't just a black and white picture, it was a baby! It was absolutely awesome! Here are a few pictures of that. He's hiding behind the placenta.

J.R. and I were talking after the appointment and we realized that we still can't use the name Emma for our child. I thought maybe we could find a name that was a boy version of Emma, or similar to Emma. The first name I thought of was Ernie. J.R.'s exact quote was "Over my dead body". So, of course I said, from now on, I'm calling him Ernie. Well, he has to have a name, right? Right? J.R's response to that was, "Do you really want his name on a Masque sweatshirt to be Ernie? Come on now?" The Masque is the theater group I advise, and when someone is inducted into the club, they are given a Masque name. Ben's is "Jack Bauer" since that's what I called him when he was in-utero. We'll see I guess.

I'm thrilled to be a mom of two boys. It would have been nice to have a girl, but I think in my heart I was hoping for a boy more than I was hoping for a girl. As long as the baby is healthy, I OK with whatever the gender is. I'm blessed to have the opportunity to be a mom again.

Allergy update

Well, first we had a great time in Massachusetts for Thanksgiving. We saw lots of family, went to Edaville Railroad where we rode on a train and saw Christmas lights, and we went to my 20th High School reunion. I'll post more pictures later as I haven't downloaded them to my computer yet.

When we came home, J.R. called the doctor's office and asked about the "D" and "pareve" markings on food labels. We were concerned because even soy milk has the "D" on it, and the pareve marking didn't make sense to us, especially after a good friend of mine (who is Jewish and often cooks kosher) seemed confused by that statement as well (see my previous post...and thanks Maani for being such a good friend and helping me once again to cheer up while I have the baby blues). The doctor said that basically those markings just mean those products are made in a facility that also processes milk. He said not to worry about it; nowadays manufacturers really keep their products very separate from each other. We can give Ben those products, but if he reacts, then we should stop giving them to him (obviously). I'm thrilled because this opens up so much more for us, including the products specifically labeled as being processed in the same facility as milk can be processed. Ah...I'm feeling better.

I'm still a little stressed about it, but I'm very thankful it isn't a gluten or peanut allergy. I think those would be worse! I feel this is minor compared to those, and compared to what some other people can have. I met a student today who is basically allergic to everything outside (grass, ragweed, pollen....)pet dander, I think she said dust, mites and oh....is lactose intolerant. She has to get shots on a regular basis. Thank you, God, for blessing us with a challenge that can easily, by comparison, be overcome.

I'll post pictures of the cuteness that is Ben soon.

Kisses.....