If I Were an Oscer Meyer Weiner Everyone Would be in Love With Meeeeee!

Halloween Update...

So of course Ben and Jon were adorable trick or treating. They went up our street and got a good bag of candy (thanks Ben!) I had to stay and hand out candy as there are a TON of children in our neighbourhood...we were warned so we had a reserve stash of candy that we had to use for our 140 little trick or treaters!!!

They Grow up so Fast...

We had to buy a new camera on Saturday as our old one (really not that old at all and a Sony so we are not impressed!) died. This is certainly NOT the time to be without a camera so we got ourselves an early Christmas present and Jon spent the weekend snapping away!

In looking at the newest pictures of Ben I can see how much older he looks at 2.5 months then he did even a few short weeks ago. I think this is my favorite age though. He's still so tiny and cuddly but not so small I feel like I am going to break him and those smiles?...well those speak for themselves!

Happy Halloween

We realize that Ben is only 2 months old and has no idea what Halloween is but it sure has been fun for his Mom and Dad to rediscover this fun tradition!

We have some pictures of Ben and Jon in their costumes a little early because we trick or treated at G & G Neeb's house already on Monday- Gramma was of course prepared with halloween cookies!
Ben is a Hotdog and his adorable father is ...ketchup! He was a great help (by "help" I mean he did not cry through the whole thing) carving pumpkins and I had fun taking him to the Early Years Center today in his pumpkin outfit (he can thank Gramma Neeb for his matching socks, she always looks after his sock co ordination needs!)

We can't wait for Christmas!

A Day Off

Saturday evening both Jon and I started to feel a little under the weather. I think it was a combination of two months of sleep deprivation and cold and flu season approaching. We decided to call in sick on Sunday as we also realized that since Ben was born we have yet to spend a day just the three of us! We took the opportunity on Sunday to relax, fight off whatever illness had snuck it's way into our home and spend some quality time together. We stayed in our pajamas all day, baked cookies, watched movies and played with Ben who very much enjoyed having Mommy and Daddy to himself all day. Even Bayley who normally wants nothing to do with Ben (although he always comes to get me when he cries) sat on the couch all day beside him.

I think this was a well deserved day off and we topped it off with a Jacuzzi ( a feature we were excited about when we bought the house but had yet to try out!). This was the first Monday I have felt very refreshed and ready to start a new week. Perhaps we will have to do this every Sunday!

Big Ben

I was worried about Ben not eating as much as he once was since he has starting sleeping for 7 consecutive hours each night. I was wondering if perhaps he can't go that long without eating at this point. Well I found a growth chart and apparently he is in the 97th percentile for both height and weight. I had to look up what "percentile" meant exactly- it means he is bigger then 97% of the other babies his age! Wow go Ben! He is very proportionate though so rather then being just chubby (despite the pot belly he has going on...) he is the size of an average six month old. I guess skipping a few meals won't hurt him! So I will now sleep guilt free!

Sence of Humour

Ben has developed this little smirk that he puts on most of the day. I feel like he has some inside jokes he's just bursting to share as he always looks half amused with something. Whatever it is it's very cute!

He also has developed a full blown sense of humour. He likes certain noises that I make like rolling my "r"'s and when he sneezes he laughs. It's very refreshing to watch him as it reminds me to find the humour in the mundane.

This is also good for my dad you has been telling the same jokes and cliches for years. He doesn't need new material as now he has a new audience who I know will find him hilarious in the years to come!

- "When is a door not a door? When it's a jar" - John Price (aka Ben's grandfather)

Ben's Big Weekend

In our church babies receive blessings given by their fathers in front of the congregation. It has the same significance as a Christening and is an excuse for the baby's mother to dress him in a ridicules white tuxedo! We celebrated with a lunch after church with some of our friends and family. Ben was perfectly behaved the whole time and enjoyed yet another party for him!

Passing it on

About a month ago I was driving with my mom after a day of shopping. We stopped at a red light and my mom noticed two street kids about sixteen or so with a sign reading "Donations for food please". "Would you look at that?" my mom muttered. "I know" I said, thinking ya right- money for food. Those lazy, drop out drug addicts should go back to school and go back home. Before I could voice my judgment outloud my mom was passing them ten dollar bills out the window! "Those poor kids" she said. My face immediatly flushed in shame. "yes, so sad" I agreed. My perspective immediatly changed. Who was I to look at someone right in the eyes who is asking me for help and say no! Lesson learned.

Last night I was grocery shopping at a new store in a more urban part of the city. I was in a hurry returning the cart when an older homeless man approached me. "Please" he said with a kind of deperation I have never known. "Do you have anything to spare at all- a penny a dime anything?" "No" I said truthfully as my purse was in the car. As I went to start the ignition I noticed my wallet had fallen onto the seat. I looked at that old man through new eyes. I thought of the children he may have and the mother I know he has. She once looked at him like I look at my son now. She didn't want this for him and niether should I. I dumped out my wallet and chased him down the street to give him everything I had. He stared at me like I was the crazy one and looked me right in the eyes. "Thank you" he said sincearly.
No, thank you mom!

All 26.5 inches!

Gone are the days when my tiny newborn would curl himself into a tight little ball- Ben loves to stretch out now and sleeps in a new position with his arms and legs stretched out as far as they will go. I tried sleeping like this myself last night but found it terribly uncomfortable but he seems to enjoy it.

All Pants should be Elastic Anyway!

Ben was 8 weeks old yesterday... I can't believe that.. I also can't believe I still look 6 months pregnant! I brought Ben with me to my post partum appointment yesterday even though my mother in law was at my house watching the boy I also watch. I brought him because I was afraid someone there would ask me when I am due and I would have to say...uhhh 2 months ago!

I am still wearing maternity clothes which is horrifying but I am not buying gigantic new clothes- they are comfy anyway!

My doctor asked at my appointment how the weight loss was going and I told him I don't know since I don't know what I weighed before Ben was born (I stopped looking around month 7!). He looked up my chart and woo hoo I have lost 40 Ibs buuut I still have 45 to go (that's right your math is correct I gained 85 Ibs...lets not dwell on it!)

Wish me luck in my journey to button up jeans again- and next time I will gain 4 Ibs during my first trimester as recommended not 40!

A weekend of firsts...

Last weekend of course was Ben's first thanksgiving... next year he can eat the turkey. He was dressed in a very cute outfit which we managed to get a couple of pictures in until he had an explosive diaper and spent the rest of the holiday in his pajamas...

This weekend he attended both a wedding and a birthday party and was very well behaved at both! He is very social and LOVES attention... which he is in no short supply of everywhere we go... I think he's a little full of himself:)

Ben's favorite places..

Ben has become quiet particular about where he wants to be and when... He loves his sling if he is sleepy and feels like being curled up- I love his sling because its like being pregnant and being able to SEE the baby.
Ben enjoys his swing if I'm doing something in the kitchen and he watches me very intently- he has gone through three swings so far, one didn't go fast enough or recline properly, one was tolerated but not loved and finally the current swing swing side to side like a cradle instead of the traditional back and forth and he seems to enjoy this more.
Lately Ben also enjoys being placed under his aquarium play mat so he can swing and kick at the toys, his co ordination is really coming along!

Ben always without exception HATES his car seat and equally loves being in peoples arms:)

The Hidden Roll

Ben was stinky... I mean holding my breath when I was feeding him stinky and I could not figure out where it was coming from after what I thought was a thorough bath. All of a sudden Ben arched his back lifting his head back to an awkward angle and allowed me to see an area that had never been exposed before... and exactly what had congealed in there over the last 5 weeks... a roll inside a roll! This hidden crevice in his little roles of chub contained old rotting milk clumps and lint from a month worth of clothes. And the smell- Oh the smell was enough to make you gag... no wonder the poor child has been crying, his mother was letting him rot! Poor baby, now I run a baby wipe through there at every possible chance. Fortunately just as I was thinking that the "incompetent parent" sign on my forehead was growing a friend disclosed that her chunky baby also had some hidden rolls except they had accepted her stench as natural odor (please read my post concerning making too many excuses for your children) and left it at that until puss was oozing down her chin from the infection that left her poor neck raw. Now after applying ointment they have to peel back the neck roll and blow dry it. At least in every parenting screw up you can be safely assured that someone has done something worse!

Oh the Crying!

So Ben is showing us his super powered lungs lately. It has got progressively worse since week two and seems to have peaked by week six. Our super happy baby doesn't let out a peep until 5:59 pm each night when his mouth opens up and and doesn't let up until 9:59 when he promptly shuts it. We try EVERYTHING...we swaddle, sway, walk, rock, bounce, feed, sing, go for drives (he HATES this though...)I have cut out dairy, root vegetables, onions, garlic, tomatoes etc etc from my diet but all these measures do nothing but exhaust us so that by 10 o clock we go to bed with him. The crying itself has also got worse. Now the poor baby gets himself a shade of red I only thought nature created in a beet and catches his breath for so long I think he's never going to breath again, he's inhaled so deeply. Of course the shriek to come after is so sub human I swear his head is going to pop off and spin around on the floor. I find this horrifying nightly ritual heartbreaking and would do ABSOLUTELY anything to make it end... if he could only remember the endless promises I whisper in his ear he would be one happy kid when he's old enough to cash in on the multiple trips to Disney, child size Hummers, cookies and ice cream for breakfast forever... but to no avail. A few nights ago he fell asleep in the car so we thought we would take the opportunity to return something to Zellers. Well the little motion junky exploded the moment the car went to park and I carried him screaming at the top of his lungs into Zellers hoping and praying it would not last... this was not to be (God obviously could not hear my pleas over the wailing...) and Jon and I walked in prepared for the stares we new were directed at the "incompetent parents" signs on our foreheads.

Fast forward to last night (and Ben's first full day dairy free day). J and I thought that the clocks must have stopped when we looked up to see his mouth shutting at 7:30pm ... something must be wrong with him- he must be sick, he still had over 2 hours to go! We looked down at our quiet little boy to see the corners of his eyes turn up in unison with the corners of his lips as they spread slowly into a gaping mouth grin that melted our hearts and made the last six weeks more then worth it!