Elmo

Benjamin got an Elmo outfit for his birthday from Aunt Corrie. He absolutely loves it. He looked so cute, I had to take a picture to show it/him off!

Pregnancy brain strikes again

I used to think "pregnancy brain" was just an excuse to ignore your spouse or be lazy. However, I've learned that it is very real and very much affecting our household! I don't remember feeling like this with Ben. With Spud, I think I'm losing my mind! I feel like a complete idiot most days. I'm forgetting basic things I do every day at work. I lose my train of thought for no reason. I go to the store for one thing and when I get there, I have no idea what it is. Jon will ask me to do something and less than 10seconds later, I have no idea what we were just talking about! It struck again last night. I found out about a hayride in Strongsville. We got Aaron and Prasti and all the kids together and drove out to Strongsville to check it out. When we got there, about 10 cars were in the parking lot and none of the trucks were filled with hay. I was positive last night was one of the dates for the rides. Turns out it doesn't start until next week. We ended up at Malleys so it was still a great night. After we got home I checked the article, and it clearly states it opens in October! My apologies to the family for driving out to Strongsville for nothing. I fully expect to have a functioning brain back in 17days, but until then, feel free to question every word that comes out of my mouth, nag me about everything, make me write things down and please don't take it personally when I have no idea what you're talking about (even if we just discussed it 5 minutes ago)!!

Genius.....maybe not!

My son spent most of last night running into walls because he made himself dizzy by going in circles. Of course Jon was willing to help!

I think his head is used to all the trauma, so I don't think any real brain damage was done!

36 down, 3 to go

Well, we are at week 36. We had another doctor appointment today and are still measuring at 35cm. The doctor thinks he's evening out a bit. She is amending her original prediction of mammoth to around 7 1/2lbs. However, she did say she is really bad at guessing baby weights. I guess we'll find out soon enough!

Ben has acknowledged the baby a little bit more the past few days. He got to feel the baby hiccup, although I don't know that he understood what was happening. We've had a lot of belly pokes and "hi baby." He's been extra silly and extra playful recently too. I cant wait to see him interact with Spud.

Work of art

For the past couple months, my step dad has been working on painting some animals around the border of Spuds room to match the bedding we got for the crib. He finished last night. The room looks great! Thanks Tony for all the hard work. Here's the finished product:
Ben got some vans from aunt Prasti and uncle Aaron for his first b-day. He has finally grown into them and wore them today for the first time. He was very excited to wear new shoes. His sandals are getting too small. He was even more excited when I told him they were just like daddy's shoes!

Today was our weekly playgroup. Ben and dad spent some quality time together outside last night so I could get over my cold. So, I was ready to get out for a little while today. Ben always has a great time with his cousin Emma (and her snacks)!

Are you kidding?

I know, I'm slacking on keeping up with the blog this past week. We've just been occupied with the little things that get in the way. We had a weekend full of football parties, dresser issues and a cook out. Jon went to Columbus for work Monday morning and didn't get home until late last night. And now, once again, I have a cold. That makes 4 in the past 10months. Its getting a little old. Ben had a runny nose a few days ago, but no other cold symptoms. I don't know if this is from him or just one of those things. Either way, I don't like it!!

We had a doctors apt again today. I'm 35 weeks and actually still measure 35cm (I was 35cm last week). Maybe that means he wont be such a beast when he's born! Even with all the aches, pains and possible contractions, I am not at all dilated or close to going into labor! Its slightly reassuring since my doctor is going out of town at the end of next week, but at the same time, the possibility of going early sounds really good right now! We have our next 3 apts scheduled and then its baby time. The nursery still isn't ready, but we're getting closer. We cant find the dresser we want anywhere. Apparently we picked the most popular one b-c its out of stock until October. We found a changing table on e bay, so we ordered that so we'll have something for those late night changings and we'll get the dresser a little later.

No pics this time, but Ben has been very good to me today. He's been playing hard and letting me rest. We'll post more soon.

The magic of the internet!

We've had a bedroom and a dining room set we've been trying to get rid of for 2+ years. We finally put them on Craig's List today. I got the first call about the bedroom set about 20minutes after it was posted and in 3 hours, we had 3 emails and 4 more phone calls. We sold the bedroom set, had it packed up and out of the house in 5 hours! We even got a little more for it than we expected. While our buyer was here, he said he might know someone who wants the dining room set. I'm so impressed with the turn around. We also posted the "sperm lights" that came with the house. Something tells me they aren't going to go nearly as quick. We just went through the basement and found some old dishes we're going to post too. This could get addicting.

Ben and I went to a new park for play group today. Its a really nice park and its gated, but its big so the moms didn't have a whole lot of talk time. Here are a couple highlights.

"Walmartinization of America"

I had a professor in college that taught my Vice and Organized Crime Class and Child Sexual Abuse. Two completely different topics, but somehow he managed to give the same lecture in each class. It didn't stop with just one lecture. Out of 15 classes, at least 3-4 lectures were titled "Walmartinization of America" Basically, he taught that Walmart is a big bad corporation and is the cause for shutting down many mom and pop stores. This guy really hated Walmart and everything it stood for. I don't think I've met anyone that could hate a store so much (Aaron and Prasti are a close second)! I should have paid better attention. I don't go out of my way to shop at Walmart. I've probably been there once in the past year, but I've never been opposed to going there...until now. Jon and I found a dresser we liked for Spud. Walmart happened to have it for a lot cheaper so we ordered it on line. The top of the confirmation e mail stated we would have it in 10 days. The bottom of the e mail said it would be delivered by 9-9-08. Well, after not hearing from them, I called the store yesterday (20 days after the order was placed). They had no record of me or my order. They gave me the on line number who said they had the order, but have no information on where the dresser is or when it will arrive. After a couple more phone calls and losing some brain cells due to talking to a bunch of morons, I gave up for the night. This morning, I started again and was finally informed that the dresser never shipped, they have no idea why and by the way, its now out of stock! I can confidently say I will never shop at Walmart again. So now we're back to square one with only 5 weeks to go.

Speaking of 5 weeks to go.. I had another doctor apt today. We did another non stress test and Spud passed this one with flying colors! He is doing great and still measuring a week ahead of schedule. He has been rough on me this past week. I've had a lot more aches and pains. While talking to the doctor, she got my hopes up. She told me at 38 weeks we could strip my membranes. That usually causes you to go into labor in 24-48hrs. Since its not guaranteed to put you into labor, its "legal" to do before the 39th week. The risk of lung problems only goes up from 1% at 39 weeks to 4% at 38 weeks. I was starting to consider it, then she remembered I'm doing a c-section and she wont strip them if I'm not going natural. As excited as I am about having Spud, I'm so ready to not be pregnant anymore. The thought of 5 more weeks seems like an eternity. I'm sure that when the 5 weeks is up all the little problems, pains etc will vanish instantly!

Back to Ben. Not much new to report. Other than a day or two with no naps, he's been excellent. We have play group tomorrow at a new park so we'll be sure to get some pics.

Picture of health!

Ben had his 2 year doctor apt today. We heard the word perfect at least 8 times! Ben is at 50% for his height, weight and BMI. We started going through the usual routine of questions...Can he do this or that? Once she heard that he knows all his letters and numbers, she stopped and told us he was just fine! She gave us a few tips to help him transition to the new baby and to help with his tantrums, but basically said the smarter they are, the more tantrums they have! Something tells me that doesn't apply to every child, but we'll go with it in his case!!

I also had my doctors apt today. I'm measuring at 34 weeks (I'm 33 weeks today). She's not sure how much he weighs right now, but said she would be amazed if he weighed less than 8lbs when he's born. We did have to do a non-stress test today. Spuds activity level has been low the past couple days. She did see some movement today during the test, but when he would kick, he would kick off the monitor so they couldn't get an accurate reading. I have to go back next week for another test and then will have an apt each week until he's born. We've got 6 more weeks!

More airplanes

We've created a monster! Since watching the Blue Angels on Saturday and Sunday, all Ben wants to do is look for airplanes. Luckily, Jon works right next to the airport so Ben and I took a picnic up there and had lunch with Jon while watching more airplanes. We saw a ton of them. They were taking off and landing in every direction right in front of us. That is definitely going to become a new lunch time tradition for us.

Ben did take a few minutes in between the action to try on mommy's shoes.


I mentioned a xylophone video in the last blog, but we'll have to wait on that. He doesn't seem to like me getting him on video while he's playing. He probably just wants to perfect his masterpiece!