Happy 1st Birthday!

 

Well, here it is, March 7 of 2013.  One year since Benjamin Dennis was born.  Everyone has days that they remember with perfect clarity and this will be one of mine.  I remember getting up at 6:00 a.m. to go to the hospital to be induced and feeling really sad to leave Allan at home not knowing what big change was coming (dumb, I know, he's a cat!).  We drove the three minute drive in the dark and it was snowing.  The snow would melt away that afternoon.  I remember bursting into tears later that afternoon when I found out I would be having a c-section and laying there numb with shaking hands as he was born.  When I finally got to see him he was wrapped tight like a burrito and his hat was too small so they gave him a different one. 

 

First picture of a new person!



 

I still wish I could swaddle like this!  I never got the hang of it!  Good thing those velcro swaddlers exist!

 

This was taken on his first afternoon at home, a strange and unseasonable 70 degree day on March 10.  When I think back, March 10 is the day life really changed!  I remember changing his diaper that day and feeling suddenly overwhelmed by the enormity of the quantity of diapers I would be changing over the next few years.  And, what do you know, the cliches are all true.  It has flown by!  Imagine that. 

 

I love this picture.  I can't believe the way he slept as a newborn!  By that I mean...he slept on and off around the clock through noise and light. 

 

Look at that little guy on his first St. Patrick's Day! 

 

I miss his cute little newborn faces when every thing was so fascinating! 

 

When I think about the year I actually think about how amazing it is that I have come this far.  It fascinates me to think about those early months of complete delirium.  I don't know how I survived the month of March.  I was in so much pain and discomfort from the c-section and was so tired and had such an adjustment to make from my former self centered (and I don't mean that in a disparaging way as referring to anyone who doesn't have kids as self centered.  I refer to the fact that I really did just do whatever I wanted, and life was pretty simple and easy) lifestyle.  I think of those years often with longing and have tried to keep some balance by seeing friends and going on a few short trips (VEGAS!  FRISCO!) without the baby.  I pumped in many, many cars and bathroom stalls during those nursing months.  I recently was in Scheel's with my massive stroller and someone was occupying the handicap stall.  I waited until I realized that I could hear the subtle sound of a pump coming from the stall and made do with a smaller stall.  I relate, anonymous woman in the stall!  Do I ever relate!  It probably happens more that I ever realized before! 

 

Ben has come far, as most babies do in their first year of course.  I don't think I need to do a recap of a typical 0-12 month development continuum and if you read this regularly you have read about his milestones and funny habits!  The lastest it that he goes in his bedroom and swings the door closed and when I go after him he is just hanging out in there, playing with toys or books.  Already acting like a big kid and barricading himself in his room!  Hey...he wants alone time...I will never turn down alone time...maybe this is good!  Next think I know he will be cranking the volume of his sound machine and that deranged, chime-y "Twinkle Twinkle" tune will be filling the house.  Please NO! 

 

Happy birthday little baby!  It was a crazy year in a good way and you have changed us for the better!

 

We will be having a cake and presents this weekend so I will put some fun cake smashy pictures up after the festivities. 

 

 

Two Cats in the House

Baby Ben has decided that his favorite place to be around the house is standing on the couch backwards and looking out the window.  This is even better if he can play with the drawstring for the blinds.  Sometimes he will not stop fussing until he is standing on the couch backwards and he can, much to our dismay, clamber up there himself by grabbing handfuls of upholstery like a rock climber.  He also can take it a step further if he has a pillow or someone's legs to boost him and climb on the top and stand in the window. I can already envision the future of this furniture...run down, crappy, lumpy, and still in use because Ben and any future children will just ruin anything new that we buy.  Kind of like a certain set of dark brown furniture that was new in 1985 that my family had my whole life that my brother used to spend all day hurling himself over the armrest of while practicing diving after and catching a nerf football.  That end really creaked when you sat down. 

 

 

I took this yesterday but the same scene happens all the time, every day.  Allan is out of sorts because sitting on the back of the couch and staring out the window has always been HIS thing ever since he moved here. 

 

 

I found this photo in my 2009 files when he was just a little kitten!  He is so slim and small!

 

It makes me happy to think that he came from the shelter and never had a window before he came to our house.  A window should be a requirement in a cat home!

 

Lazy!

 

Growing up!

 

I guess they will have to learn to share!

Skeptical Kitten

 

Poor Mr. Allan has adjusted very well this year to having a baby in the house after spending his first few years here in solitude with us all to himself.  Often, though, I catch him looking at Ben with a look of skepticism and irritation.  It's like he is thinking, "this person is so annoying, loud, and smelly!"  I try when I can to get pictures of it because I think it is really funny how an animal's face can show his feelings!  Poor kitten...he tries...

 

 

 

Yes, that is the strings for the blinds.  He loves them.  Don't worry...I know letting your kid play with tangled lengths of string is dangerous but he only plays on the couch like that with my close supervision.  I just don't understand the things he is drawn to!

 

 

This is a favorite of mine...he's just looks so annoyed!  And yes, he is on the table and no I don't approve of that.  The thing about our kitchen table is that it is not only the table for eating but also the first surface when you come in the door so half of it (the half he is sitting on) is like a magnet for piles and piles of crap.  During these winter days it not only gathers mail, my purse, sunglasses, shopping bags and keys but also gloves, scarves, hats, and Ben's car toys.  It is infuriating but I haven't been able to come up with a solution that would fit in the space available.  So Al is actually sitting on that end of the table and not the eating end.  I remove him if I catch him doing this (after taking pictures of course!).  

 

 

Allan, calm down...he just wants to read his "Little People Let's Go to the Farm" book with you!

Tubes Update

The tubes procedure went fine.  The waiting around and food and liquid deprivation ahead of time was more stressful for me that the actual surgery.  The worst part for Ben was the groggy period after waking up.  I hesitate to even call it surgery although he was under anesthesia.  Only one of us could be in the pre-op room so Justin went with him.  They just used a gas mask and not an IV so that was good.  I went into the recovery room to greet a very groggy and disoriented baby!  He cried and flailed for about ten minutes and we finally got him to drink a bottle of glucose water and he calmed down.  He fell asleep on the way home, slept while we ate lunch at Pizza Hut and then slept for almost two more hours.  Then he woke up and was his old self again.  I am glad he got the tubes.  The doctor said there was alot of thick fluid in his ears which could have been affecting his balance in addition to being a cesspool of bacteria.

 

I don't think is very tasteful to put up pictures of kids going through medical procedures (would you want pictures of yourself in a medical setting on the internet?) but we took a few of Ben in his hospital issue pajamas this morning while we were waiting for his turn.  There was quite a line up for tubes since the doctor only does them one day a week.  The Children's floor is very nice and this play area was spotless and filled with very nice toys including these amazine tractors!  My brother would have been in a frenzy over these when he was young!  

 

 

This one has "duals" in the back! 

 

And look at this...a pedal combine! Pedal toys are common but I have never seen a combine before! 

 

 

The same day surgery patients are usually given a small area partitioned by curtains but they were full when we got there so we got him ready in a in a regular room and he was able to crawl around for awhile.  He looks so innocent with no idea what is going to happen! 

Bison Fix

 

Last Friday we went to Scheels to pose with the NDSU championship trophies.  The trophies were on a state tour apparently.  We saw the first one last year this same weekend and I was going to put a picture of my extremely pregnant self and Justin on here just for fun and comparison but it was so awful and I was so huge that I am just not going to do it.  I am usually a good sport about pictures and I don't mind if I look silly or not my best but those were just too much.  My face looked like a bloated, doughy marshmallow.  Wow was I big.  So I will just show the photo from this year...

 

 

They had a nice selection of baby and toddler sized National Champion shirts so we bought Ben's game day t-shirt for next year.  Only about six months until football season starts again!  Maybe we will make it to the spring scrimmage for some tailgating.  It's not really the same but at least we can get our fix for a few more months.  I don't know why he wouldn't smile in the pictures.  There was a crowd of people trying making fools of themselves trying to make him smile and he just stared. 

 

Tomorrow the wild man is getting tubes put in his ears.  I am nervous since it is surgical although it is very routine and many kids have them.  He has had a few ear infections and even when he was done with his antibiotics the pediatrician always saw fluid remaining and today we saw an ENT and audiologist and they confirmed that there is lots of fluid in there.  The doctor only does surgical procedures on Tuesday and they happened to have time tomorrow so we decided to go for it. 

Poor guy!  He has no idea what he is doing in the morning! 

Awards Season

OK I am going to be honest...I watch award shows (Academy Awards, Grammys, SAG, etc.) but I think they are pretty boring.  The best part by far is looking at the fashions.  The music related shows are slightly more interesting because of the live performances and they seem a bit wackier (for example, that wacky Kanye West outburst a few years ago when Taylor Swift won best video).  Right now I am watching the Academy Awards and I am really yawning.  I am also annoyed that I haven't seen any of the movies.  Not to get all "Woe is Mom" but it's not easy to get to a movie with a baby.  I have been to a movie theater since Ben's birth to see a certain summer release about a male stripper but for some reason that movie has not been mentioned during tonight's show!  I wonder why?  I want to see most of them except "Amour", which is a french language film.  I won't even pretend that foreign films are something I am very interested in.  Also, I could pass on "Skyfall".  The James Bond movies don't really do much for me although if I started watching I'm sure I would stay engaged.  I am most intrigued by "Siver Linings Playbook" because I just finished reading it this weekend and I really enjoyed it.  It's about a guy trying to recover his life after a mental breakdown.  The characters are all quite likeable.  Also, they do quite a bit of tailgating in the book and I hope the movie stays true to the original story.  I also would like to see Les Miserable.  I like most musicals turned into movies. 

I missed the red carpet show because I forgot about it and I was watching something else but not hearing it because I was listening to Ben being crabby and yelling loud enough to drown out all other sounds.  I will have to check out all the best and worst dressed lists tomorrow.  One that stood out to me tonight was Nicole Kidman's dress.  Ms. Kidman herself kind of terrifies me.  I don't care if people use cosmetic surgery and other procedures to feel their best but her face looks completely frozen.  But I love that dress!  So extravagant!



The other thing I was watching instead of the red carpet show was the NFL Scouting Combine!  I don't know how I never watched this event before!  I thought the draft was a delight for the eyes but this is much better!  Lots of displays of physical prowess by young 22/23 year old college players wearing tight fitting work out clothes!  It's on again tomorrow.  Yesssss...

Miscellaneous PIctures I have Been Meaning to Share

I took this picture almost a month ago and I keep forgetting to share it.  It is a shot of the two brothers lounging on the floor in the living room!  Haha.  For Ben this state of rest was very temporary but I captured the moment!  

 

 

That ottoman has become or makeshift baby gate to block Ben from that corner of the room, which contains a floor lamp with shelves, two magazine holders, an end table, and a mountain of crap we throw back there to keep it away from him.  Haha what a mess!  He is getting pretty close to being able to climb it so we will see how long it lasts. 

 

Here are a few other miscellaneous pictures from the last month.



 

 Looking out the window with the kitten!  This is Ben's new favorite thing to do and it is something they enjoy together!

I hesitated to share this because my face looks fat but I decided to say "who cares" and show it anyway.  These paper mule deer antlers that Justin's co-worker gave him lasted about 1 minute before they were snatched off the head and ripped to pieces.  That was fun while it lasted...

Try This Now!

I admit to being a Wal-Mart shopper for almost everything including groceries.  Well, not ALMOST everything because I do not buy clothes, shoes, or accessories there and probably never will.  But I have bought everything else, including picture frames, holiday stuff, cat litter, fabric and sewing supplies, makeup, sunscreen, well you get it because in America most people buy that and more there too.  And I admit almost all of our groceries come from there.  It is cheap.  It is noticeably cheaper to buy almost everything.  Regular items like cheese, pasta sauce, frozen pizzas, and tea can be almost $1 cheaper there and it adds up to a noticeable amount on a big haul and I have noticed a difference of $20 or $30 per trip.  Of course, as an educated person, I think about how Wal-Mart has caused the downfall of small businesses including the little Hardware Hank in my home town with its magical basement toy section (makes me sad just thinking about the creak of the floor and the bells on the door) and the many Ben Franklin stores around America that were filled with school supplies, toys and other fun goods that are now a remnant of the past.  I would like to buy local and try to but here in Bismarck, ND the choice is either Walmart, Target, or a few grocery store chains.  Here, especially in the dead of winter, there are no farmers markets brimming with organic locally grown produce or anything like that.  So, preferring to spent an extra $20.00 on formula, gas, some clearance clothes from Old Navy or countless other things I usually buy groceries at Walmart. 

Yesterday I was in Dan's, the very nice but more expensive grocery store chain that has many locations here and around Western ND, because I needed to go to the post office.  While waiting in line, I could see all the produce and noticed that, while alot of it was pretty costly compared to Walmart, there were several good deals on some of my favorites that were priced better than Walmart at the moment!  And I don't need to say that it looked very fresh and delicious compared to the often picked over shelves at Walmart.  I decided to buy a few things and that is when I discovered something wonderful...I had never heard of it before...Sumo Citrus!

This is a new citrus blend that just made it to the U.S. after being developed in Japan.  It is the combination of a mandarin and an orange and is large (with the peel it was softball sized) and has a loose peel that comes off with ease.  The sign said that it was the "sweetest citrus".  I was kind of hungry (you've heard the advice...don't shop for food when you're hungry!) so I bought one even though they were not in the Walmart price category at $2.50 per pound. When I was at the register it was $2.45 for one fruit. 

I ate it last night and wow was it delicious.  After the first bite I thought it was nothing special compared to a very good standard orange.  But the sweetness really built as I ate it and it was very juicy.  Everyone should try one of these! 

I looked at the website for Sumo Citrus and they are rare in the U.S. since they were developed in Japan. Last season they were mostly found at specialty stores on the west coast.  There is a farm in the U.S. that started growing them in California and the season lasts from February to May.  I can't believe they found their way to ND!  Everyone try one if you can! 

I Win! For a Few Minutes Anyway...

Ben and I are constantly at war over the technology in the house.  He wants it and I want to protect it from his destruction and also be able to enjoy the amenities I am so attached to.  I rarely have this computer opened anymore because he had pulled it onto the floor several times, chewed on the monitor and he mashes the keyboard whenever he gets a chance.  If I have to have it open I end up perched on the arm rest of the couch while balancing the computer on my knees while he whines and reaches for it.  The TV remote continues to be a obsession even though he has two old remotes to play with.  Nothing compares to the real thing.  And of course, my phone is a popular target even though he has two obsolete phones to play with as well.  And then...there is the most special treasure, an item he yearns for...the iPad.  It doesn't help that the iPad is also within my reach if not in my hands almost constantly if we are at home.  And if a baby decides to throw it on the floor, step on it, spill on it, or get some sort of fluid on it a replacement will not come cheap. 

 

I had a fabulous idea this morning.  I was reading the lastest blizzard related stories from Eastern ND (my parents came home from Mexico last night and it took them over two hours to make a 70 mile drive North of Fargo) and Ben was standing at my knees reaching and lunging and whining for the iPad.  I should point out that he rarely uses it for screen time and instead just likes to hold it, drop it, and chew on it.  I don't know why I didn't think of this before but I slipped it out of its protective case and gave it to Ben.  And he played with it for awhile! 

 

 

Oh...never mind...he's bored with it already...where is the real thing? 

 

I sometimes wonder, as I sit surrounded by my beloved technology, none of which existed when I was Ben's age, what new advancements will he see in his life?  It is strange to think that he will probably never remember phones with cords or computers and TVs that aren't two inches thick as opposed to two feet.  I don't want him to become a total screen fiend but does he stand a chance when both of his parents are just that?  I already know it will be one of my parenting challenges.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I tried to get some cute photos of Ben is his hand me down Valentine's Day appropriate shirt but it was not easy getting him to be still for a photo so you can kind of see the shirt...in the early afternoon he peed through his diaper so the shirt didn't make it through the day!   

 

 

Sharing the couch with his favorite kitten...

 

 There you can see the shirt! 

 

Earlier this week he wore this other shirt with hearts on it.  Not his favorite!  Haha...

 

 

We had a low key Valentine's Day.  I gave Justin a Sam's Club size bag of peanut M&M's.  I will try not to eat any...HA!  He gave me a replacement globe for my globe stand.  Ben broke the globe a while back and Justin glued it back together but it wasn't the same.  And we both bought each other the same card with two orange cats on it.  Oh, I got flowers too. 

 

I have to share this photo...it was on my phone and I remembered it when I was uploading the other picture.

 

 

I need to throw that box away but Allan loves it so it has been there for two weeks!  It's not a good hiding spot any longer!  You can see the wreckage surrounding him...I spy...a cat toy, a discarded pacifier, instructions for my electric toothbrush, an Easter basket, wipes...jeez what a mess!