Oh, The Month of February

I don't really care for the month of February, it's never really been a favorite of mine. First off, Valentine's Day is stupid and I'll leave it at that. Secondly, it was this time last year that Rob and I were fighting for Bejamin's life as well as mine. As I look outside and see the wet snowy weather my mind rushes back to the gut wrenching day in which I was admitted to the hospital for the weather was the same that day. I felt awful to say the least. By this time I had a medical pump installed into my stomach that I had to repoke myself every day and fill syringes with the medicine that would eventually save me and my little person inside. At this time we didn't know we we're having a boy.

With February behind me, I enter a mind of thankfulness. Sheer thankfulness and joy. This time last year, these feelings were unthinkable and I am so blessed to have been given such a sweet healthy boy. I catch myself smiling in a little bit of disbelief everyday that it all turned out so, so good.

Benjamin is growing rapidly and doing something new everyday. Lately he loves talking all the time, pushing up on his arms, and now he's starting to draw his knees up under his belly. I took this a few days ago and now you can see why I'm so thankful.

Top 15 of the New Year

So I realized today that I am way overdue for an update and I can't believe that this much time has passed. Since today and the rest of the week Benjamin and I are running all over the place (he sleeps so much better at night when we're busy!) I'm making a Top 15 List. Enjoy!

Top 15 Things of the New Year

15. Introducing cereal has been fun and Sadie cleans the floor for me when we're done

14. Benjamin rolls over all the time, everywhere we go.

13. Duncan Granparents bought us a new carseat that goes into a stroller that we love!!! If only it would fit into the tiny Sunfire.

12. Our Sunday School class is growing and is so much fun.

11. Benjamin has stopped nursing EVERY HOUR.

10. Giving prune juice to Ben has made for lots of laundry.

9. Our pipes didn't freeze during the ice storm.

8. Benjamin reaches for us noe.

7. He also reaches for Sadie and loves to watch her.

6. I've been going to the gym and hope to go even more when the weather clears up.

5. We survived the winter storms and only lost power and telephone for about a day.

4. Benjamin has started to push up on his arms when he's on his belly.

3. He now has to be in bed by 8:30pm-his decision.

2. Every morning is a surprise since I don't know where he'll be in his crib. Sometimes completely covered by his blanket, sometimes he's at the end with a toy in his hand.

1. Rob still has a job.

So far, so good and that's how we hope to keep it.

This is Vacation?!

It's the pits when your sick over vacation. It's downright revolting when your entire household (minus the dog) is sick over vacation. It all started with Benjamin on Christmas and just went from there; luckily Benjamin recovered quite quickly. I'm also finding that it's hard to treat the winter yuckies when you're still nursing, nothing good is safe to take. Yuck!

On a much happier note. Rob has an extended shutdown this year due to the economy so he has been here all week and for one more and it's been quite nice. He's been able to see what Benjamin, Sadie and I do all day and I think he was a little surprised at how much effort it takes. In this picture, both Sadie and Benjamin needed something and I remember Rob saying, "I can't take care of both of you at the same time! Meghan!!" Too funny I say. I just had to take a picture of this tough moment!

I've always heard that when your baby starts sleeping through the night and then suddenly is up at all hours and wanting to eat every 1-2 hours that he's probably getting ready for a big step. Well, I guess they're right. About 2 weeks ago Benjamin started that and you get so spoiled by them sleeping through the night and it's just soooooo hard to go back to the I-just-came-home-from-the-hospital stage. It was worth it! He's always had his hands in motion but this week he can really grab things that he wants, not just what's around that he happens to find. He's found my nose and glasses this week. He's also starting to enjoy laying on his tummy. This took a while but he really seems to like it after his morning bath when I lay him on the soft flannel sheets. This little clip is cute to me and please forgive my 'mommy banter', I can't help it. He also produces a you know what sound at the end of the video but I'm going to post it anyway because it's cute.

I made a list but didn't check it twice.

Believe it or not, this is the first chance I've had to write in a while, Amy, I'm sure you understand! Christmas has come and gone and we had a good first Christmas with Benjamin. The grandparents came to our house on Christmas day where we enjoyed my festive spice drink that's been a tradition for us, good ham with the trimmings, and great dessert. Benjamin was a bit fussy since he had a cough but overall he was a trooper amongst the craziness that goes with the holidays.

Do you ever have a good idea in theory but come to find that's it's really a bad one? This year I thought I would get the grandparents those mold impressions of Benjamin's hands. Can we say disaster? I either got the mold way to wet or way to hard and I think I ended up sticking Benjamin's feet in it thinking that might work easier, once again I was wrong. Rob was holding Benjamin while I put his feet into the mold. Needless to say Benjamin loved the squishy feeling on his feet but Rob did not like it when Benjamin started to kick in it which resulted in Rob's arms being coated with plaster. Anyway, I quickly gave up this fantabulous idea and opted for sticking Benjamin's feet in blue ink and making a nice little token on his inky feet. This went MUCH better but he still has one blue toe. I'll take this one as a victory.

Sadie loves Christmas. She got a football for Christmas, the other 8 footballs that she has in the backyard are frozen and are waiting for garbage pickup.

It's funny and so nice to see how my father is totally taken with Benjamin. I don't think that Benjamin could do wrong in his eyes and he loves taking care of Benjamin. Don't get me wrong, his grandmas love him too but my father is just floored by him. Of course it doesn't help when Benjamin lights up like a Times Square Christmas tree when he's with him. In this picture, he's looking at his grandpa even though I'm holding him.

Christmas was great this year and we're thankful that our family as a whole is healthy and happy. Sometimes I can forget about that and it's the most important.

We Saw Santa!

We saw Santa and we barely waited in line. Of course it didn't hurt that we were first in line and then Benjamin fell asleep, hence the sleepy look on his face. I was so proud of my Little Man that he didn't cry or anything, he seems to be good with strangers.

I love consignment shops, I really do. I love the fact that I can go in, spend about $20 and walk out with 10 outfits-it's magic! They're in great shape too!

Tomorrow, Rob and I will attempt to make plaster molds of Benjamins hands but we're thinking that maybe his feet will be easier to do. Rob says I don't know what I'm talking about since I was completely out of it in the hospital when they inked his feet and hands. Apparently Benjamin didn't take to well to this. Maybe this is why it looks like he only has 4 toes on one of his feet....

It snowed soooo much the other night, it was quite pretty and I caught myself fast forwarding to next year and how Benjamin will be able to enjoy the snow, well at least experience it.

We're ready for Christmas, we're hosting it this year as Rob and I have done since we were engaged in 2004. I really do like to host Christmas, it's quite fun and it fabulous that the Grandparents take care of Benjamin so we get a little breather.

We've mastered two things in the past few weeks. One, Benjamin officially sleeps through the night and two, he's going back to falling asleep on his own at night. Even though I miss the snuggle time we always had at night, having him fall asleep on his own is quite nice.

It's going to be a great Christmas and I hope that all of my family and friends who read this will also have a wonderful Christmas. I know a lot of folks are down this year since money is tight but let's be thankful that we live in a free country, we have family and friends, troops who fight for us, healthy kids, and a God who loves us no matter what.

Merry Christmas!!!!

One of Those Moments

Today I had one of those feel good moments that have made the last few emotionally draining days fade away. Benjamin was sick again with a high fever and no other signs besides being absolutely miserable. No ear infection, strep, congestion-nothing. So as it was a few weeks ago with the same symptoms, minus the diarrhea, we headed to the hospital for some more tests. In the past 48 hours, Benjamin has endured a cath urine test which was unsuccessful so we had to put a bag on him to catch the urine, multiple sticks for blood, and me shooting saline in his nose. He's been miserable and yes, I've been exhausted.

Everything came back negative which is really, really good but still leaves the question as to what he's been fighting off. He's better now but next week we have to go for an echocardiogram on his heart to check out his cyanosis. If you look cyanosis up it gives a scary description of a condition that you just don't want. His is not that grave. He's always had the blue coloration to his lips and feet and hands but the feet and hands have since returned to normal, his lips have not. Our pediatrician whom we love, was not happy with the fact that it hasn't gone away so he's ordered this test to rule out any underlying problems. We would really covet your prayers on this one.

Okay, so I got a bit sidetracked but here's my moment that Benjamin shared with me this morning. He likes to take a bath but it takes him by surprise at first so there's always a whine or two. Today he had a poo poo explosion as we like to call them so off to a bath he went. I put him in slowly and he started fretting really loudly and he was looking away from me. Suddenly he turns his head to face me, locks his eyes with mine and I say something about how it will be okay and he smiles and stops fretting. This was the first time that he seemed like he meant to look for me for comfort. I know he's always done this, that's what I do, I'm his mom and I comfort him but having him actually look for me for comfort almost made me cry.

I love those moments and I know that there are more to come. Did I mention that he looks for Rob and I when we start talking....we love it!

Our Little Jar of Poo

It's pretty funny if you think about it-The things you willingly and selflessly do when you have a baby. You pick boogers out of their nose, defuzz their fingers and toes, lick your fingers to fix their hair and you carry around poo. Yes, that's what I said. I had to take a poo sample to the hospital today and let me tell you, I was never so happy to have Benjamin poo his diaper, stink and all. So here comes the funny part. How do you get runny, stinky poo off of a diaper and into a specimen jar? A spoon. Yep, I had to scoop up my son's poo with a spoon and dump it in a jar. Oh and here's the best part-driving in the car with a jar of poo in your console and walking through the hospital with it...can you imagine the looks I got? I thought it would be hilarious if I got pulled over and the officers would ask that question 'do you have anything suspicious or something that could hurt me in your car'. I would have to reply 'why yes, I have poo in a jar'. I wondered if they would believe me? I think I made a girl sick in the waiting room, sitting there with my jar of poo, she looked a little green... Oh, and I threw the spoon in the trash. No amount of clorox bleach would make me eat off of that spoon ever again.