Ouch!

Poor Ben scratches his dry head whenever he gets the opportunity (not often since I keep socks on his hands). He doesn't have control over how hard he scratches though and I am not even sure he knows he is the one doing it. He looks at me and cries as if I did it to him. This was the worst one so far and I don't like going in public with him because EVERYONE can't help but say "oh he has a scratch on his face..." one of these times I am going to explode with "I KNOW THAT!!!! I felt bad enough as it was thank you that my perfect child has an injury and your tone has an undercurrent of blame so while we are at it, no I did not give my 3 month old a razor blade to play with and yes I do cut his nails and moisturize his skin daily and it makes no difference!"

Belly Laughs

Ben's laugh that has just recently evolved from happy cooing to full out belly laugh is the most beautiful- melt- your- heart noise I have ever heard. It starts out as a giggle and then gets louder and harder until he is smiling so big and so hard that his whole body shakes with happiness. Thank God for Babies.

My Boys

Remember Bayley? He has, in the last 3 months, been demoted from king of the universe (or our house anyway) to lowly canine who gets a scrap of food now and then (well this is what he would tell you if you asked him). He has thankfully just recently come out of his funk and has accepted Ben as part of the pack. He now comes to get me when "his" baby cries and lays by him when he sleeps. He used to lay on the floor because he probably knew how anxious I got when he got to close to him. My anxiety must have decreased some because now he sleeps next to him when given the chance. Very cute.

Snow Day

Last weekend we got quite a bit of snow. While Jon was busy shovelling our driveway I got Ben dressed up in his snowsuit for the first time to see how he liked it. He didn't. He cried from the moment we went out (with a brief pause for this picture) until we went back in. I don't blame him...typical Canadian.

Introducing.... Santa

We went to a Christmas party at our church on Friday night and of course the big guy himself was there. Ben looked puzzled for most of the short visit but remained calm when we put him in his lap. We couldn't get a smile out of Ben but we did get a giant Hershey bar and a candy cane.

Confession...

We knew about the giant Hershey bar because a friends daughter came out with one. It was only then that we used our innocent baby who could care less about Santa... it was delicious no matter how ill gotten it was! It was also a good photo opportunity of course.

Rashy

Ben's rash started out as cradle cap. This is common enough and so I wasn't too concerned. Then Ben got a rash on his chin from drooling so much. I saw this one coming so got out the Vaseline. Theeeen Ben got patches of dry skin all over his body and started clawing at himself because he was so itchy, then it turned red and spread fast enough that he went to the Dr. today over that one... eczema AND another one on his forehead that consists of little red bumps that I hadn't even noticed in between worrying about all his other rashes. His bum is still soft as, you guessed it, a babies bottom so I am just waiting for the diaper rash to come and then he will be one big rash! I am taking him to the natural path Dr. next week to see if she can be of more help. Poor Ben is itchy but still a happy boy.

"Itchie, Bitchie Tiger"

Jon and I have a date night once a week now while Jon's parents look after Ben. I think this is really nice especially for Jon's dad who was gone a lot with work when his boys were babies. Grampa was saying that he didn't know any songs to sing to him and Gramma said "sing the insy winsy spider. My mother in law left grampa playing with Ben while she went to get our laundry (I know I am lucky to have such great in laws!) and heard "The Itchy Bitchy Tiger went up the water spout..." coming down the vent! HA well its' the effort that counts, and I'll know who to blame when Ben gets expelled from preschool!