First Foods

It is time to start teaching this little one how to eat real food! And by "real food" we mean bananas, sweet potatoes and avocado for now. Here is a video and pictures of our first shot at eating - ever.

We pretty much ended up with more bananas on the bib than in his mouth... but it was a start!

My poor child...

Movie time!

Appointment Time

Every time I have to go to the doctor and have to wait past my appointment time (which is just about every time) in order to be seen my blood boils with anxiety. The double standard for honoring scheduled times in the medical field baffles me every.single.time I have to deal with it. And if you complain, they make you feel like a jerk because "the doctor wants to make sure he devotes his attention and takes his thorough time with every single patient" and "your turn will be soon and you will want to appreciate the doctor spending time listening to your ailments". Yes, I've complained more than once and have received these bogus answers more than once. Which make me even more madder. I know, that's not proper English, but this double standard with schedules in the medical field is not proper anything so everything goes as far as I'm concerned.

What if we went to Church and Mass started 45 minutes late because "the priest was listening to the parishioner's concerns and was delayed" or what if the airplane was 2 hours delayed because "the techs ran late inspecting the airplane that left prior" or what if the you get to a restaurant for a 7:15pm reservation and are not sat until 9:00pm because "we are making sure the servers take their time cleaning every table thoroughly before seating a new guests"

SERIOUSLY? You know what you have to do. You know approximately how long each task takes. Why has it become acceptable to book so many patients that the doctors cannot honor scheduled appointment times? Not to mention the fact that if you show up 15 minutes late for your appointment, they will charge you and cancel you...

Rant over. Until I have to go to the doctor again next time. Which at this rate, it just might be next week........................

Record Keeping

I've been looking forward to posting these pictures since the day I found out I was pregnant. No exaggeration.

We tried keeping these as consistent as possible, which was a task. Between the weather getting cold which involved pretty much freezing my behind to change from my nice big cozy red robe into the "bumpy outfit" and finding the energy on some days to get off the couch to get the picture, we made it happen. I do have to admit I had some nice hair days on some of these bumpy pictures!

Somewhere around week 32 I changed phones, so that's why the last 3 pictures look different.

I really had every intention of getting week 39 - since Benjamin wasn't born until 40 weeks and 2 days - but those last two weeks of pregnancy took such a toll on me. I was pretty much only able to eat, brush my teeth and pee.

I also had every intention of getting a picture holding Benjamin after we got home. I promise I had it on my to-do list for several days, it just never got done. Some other basic needs such as figuring out how to feed a new born and sleeping took precedence.

As lazy as I sometimes felt about keeping up with "bumpy Tuesdays", I am so grateful that we did! It is amazing to see my belly grow like this and even more amazing to see the little fellow that was growing inside it at the end of the pregnancy journey! Totally amazing.

Be sure to click on it to enlarge it and get the full effect!

Month 4

And just like that, Benjamin is 4 months old.

He has started to turn both from his back to his belly and from his belly to his back. He can't do it consistently, so when he does turn he always ends up with a quite puzzled look on his face that can quickly turn into crying if you aren't nearby to cheer him on and make him laugh!

He is still not sleeping through the night... he wakes up at least once in the middle of the night. Unless it is this past weekend when we changed the "strategy" and he woke up at 2:00am and 4:00am after having had an extra feeding at 10:00pm... we are still giving this new strategy a shot to see if it irons itself out and we can get sleep from 10:00pm - 5:00am.

He loves "reading" his books! He follows the pictures and likes to touch them!

Lately for whatever reason, he has decided to start peeing on people while getting his diaper changed... he did it to Norm and to my mom. Once he managed to pee perfectly over his shoulder, the other one he peed all over his face, belly, etc.

Unless he is hangry, he is a good baby that behaves great when in public. He loves going to Mass!

In a week he has his 4 month check up which is going to involve shots, which we are not looking forward to. Hearing him cry out of pain pierces my heart and soul.

Just for Fun

Here you go!

First Harvest

After we moved to the new house and removed the chain link fence from around the backyard, Norm had the fence guys set a portion aside in the back corner of the yard for "The Garden". We had plans to plant all sorts of things and herbs... well, needless to say that our Spring was somewhat taken over by Benjamin's arrival, so we missed the prime time to plant said plants and herbs.

About a month or so ago, Norm bought tomato and pepper plants, parsley and thyme and started the little garden!

Here's Cali enjoying a nice stick. She's not allowed in the garden unless she is supervised, and even still you have to stay on her to not eat the plants.

Mello always enjoying that green grass and blue sky!

So finally last night Norm and Benjamin harvested the first little tomato from one of the tomato plants. Norm doesn't like tomatoes and Benjamin can't eat real food yet, so I had the privilege of eating the first tomato ever from our first garden ever (or attempt-to garden). It was delicious! The tomato plant is full of little tomato clusters and there are 2 more turning red that will be ready to be picked soon!

Here is baby with his little tomato in his little hands!

The Early Days

I miss the early days when Benjamin first came home. As difficult as they were with trying to figure out a new baby and breastfeeding not going smoothly and getting little sleep and being in pain from giving birth there was something special about those days.

As ironic as it is going to sound, I had no worries those days. Didn't worry about work or money or the weather or traffic or the future. We got to live in the moment and eat lactation cookies. My one and only role was to take care of this new life that had been dropped in our laps.

Those days were so sweet. I miss them.

Benjamin 9 days old
4-19-15

He's a Keeper!

This weekend Benjamin went to the pool for the very first time in his life! After sleeping for the first 30 minutes after we arrived, he woke up and really enjoyed the pool!

I had bought him a float with a roof and everything but the county aquatic center didn't allow those in the pool... that was a learning curve along with the fact that there are no kind of lounge chairs either which turned into sitting on the concrete floor... quite third world-ish.  Lesson learned for next time.

Upon arrival:

Then he woke up and we had to put a plastic underwear (between the swimmy diaper and the bathing suit... which we had to buy at the aquatic center because we didn't have one with us. How are you supposed to know these things besides coming across them via trial and error?)

He's got his toes in the water!

Now he has his butt in the water!

It was a family affair! Thankfully they had a huge umbrella over part of the pool, so we got to hang out in the shade and didn't need my fancy float with a roof after all. I don't think I've ever been so conscious of shade at a pool ever in my life until this weekend...

There was no crying and no crazies. I'm so happy that my son likes the pool, which is my happy place! We can keep him now.