Came and Went

Birthday month came and went and managed to kick my butt in between. October is not looking very promising as far as not getting my butt kicked goes.

The end.

Pajama Party

In my opinion, there are very - very - few things more irresistible than a baby in pajamas.

Month 5

Five months already. That is almost half a year. Benjamin is growing so quickly! He is so awesome.

He has had lots going on in his little life over this last month. He started eating solid food - well, I wouldn't necessarily call it "solid", let's just say it is something else besides milk. And it involves a spoon. He now rolls every kind of way, to the point where he wakes up facing opposite direction in his crib! He can reach his toes and has started discovering his hands (as of this morning!). He moves them in slow motion and stares at them mesmerized.

He makes all kinds of noises with his mouth. I am pretty sure he has said "agua".. twice. But still no mama or papa. He doesn't always take his pacie even when he is cranky and you try to force feed it to him. He sure has a little temperament and will let you know right away when he is ready to move on to the next activity. Or when he is done eating. Or when he has a burp. Or when he is tired of the car seat.

A big step for him this month is that he started school and he is doing so great! All his teachers love him - three of them are latin, so they speak to him in Spanish (win!). Another big accomplishment is that he is now sleeping through the night (for the most part.. and mainly on school nights, but hey, we'll take what we get).

He absolutely loves music - and with that, my singing! Maybe because I am his mother and he loves me unconditionally or maybe because he doesn't yet know the difference between good singing and cats dying. Speaking of singing, I think we might have been singing happy birthday on picture one! :)

"The" Calendar

Well, we are officially a household with a child. Tonight we finally put up "the" calendar on the fridge. You know, the staple on the refrigerator that keeps families with children as sane as possible.

It started with Norm needing to be off on this one Saturday because I have a wedding at work and will need to be gone from 8am on. Then it was followed by Norm not being able to drop him off on Tuesdays and Thursdays (usually Norm drops Benjamin off at school and I pick him up). Then it was followed by Norm "might" be able to pick him up on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but I should plan on it just in case. I forgot to mention that pretty much every Monday in September I have late night functions so Norm will have to pick him up from school, which is not a big deal since he is usually off on Mondays, but sometimes he has to work. It all ended up with both of our brains on overwhelmed mode. Exactly.

So here is our "the" calendar... it is very primitive - did you know that you can get calendar templates from Excel? me neither. I am sure as the months go by and as he grows up, the calendar will evolve, right now it got us out of crisis mode...

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!