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!

Growth Spurt

Ben is officially gigantic. I just put him in the swing and I think he is going to break it. It is creaking and groaning like only a 16 IBS/ 3 month old baby could do to a swing with a 15 IBS weight/8 month limit...I like this growing he is doing now though because we are in to a new set of clothes... YAAAA

A Night Out

Jon and I went on our first babyless date last night. I wrote 2 pages of "paranoid mother notes" to his grandparents who were more then capable of caring for him with only one page I'm sure. We went to Jack Astors, Jon had the steak and I had Fajitas, it was good because I didn't have to make it... I would have eaten rocks for dinner for that very reason alone! We went to Homescence after dinner to get some Christmas gifts and a new Mirror for the bathroom. Jon's gift to me this year is a mini bathroom reno. It was painted last week and this week I am picking out the fixtures. I conjured up some semi interesting, clever topics of conversation not relating to babies and or toddler growth and development. For a couple of hours I was remembering who I was again and not only "Ben's mom". Then around the time Ben would need fed and we decided to get groceries before going home (Ben had a bottle at home for him of course..) I started to get the baby brain back. I forgot who Jenn was and became "mommy" again. All I could hear in my head was "feed the baby- feed the baby-feed the baby..." A little more distantly I could hear Jon's voice getting louder and louder. "What?" I said - "DO YOU WANT THESE NUTS!" I got the impression that was not the first time he had asked me. I had been standing there in the baking isle looking at an endless variety of nuts for my fudge but couldn't make sense of any of them. "Feed the baby- feed the baby- feed the baby!!!!" I gave up on the nuts as my shirt started to get wetter and wetter. We got some milk and went home.

As first dates go I would still say it went well. I was glad to have some uninterupted time with Jon and not have to worry (too much) about Ben (who had a wonderful time with his grandparents by the way). Jon did ask when my brain would come back... I said maybe by date 7 but really I fear it never will!