Everyone remembers the Folgers jingle right, "The best part of waking upppp is Folger's in your cup..." I totally agree with that. I need coffee in the morning, preferably first thing in the morning. Now, as a mother I don't usually get it FIRST thing, but it's pretty darn close. However, even as a mother NO ONE should have to wake up to what I did this morning...

I heard Ben fussing this morning. Now, because I live such a life of leisure and because Andrew works nights and gets home in the morning just before Ben wakes up he usually gets him up and they have some bonding time in the morning. So when I heard him I waited for a minute to hear if Andrew was home yet and to hear him clomp up the steps in his boots.

No Andrew. I roll over and look at the clock. It's 7:45. That's pretty good. Usually Ben is up at 7:00:01. So he slept late this morning. My alarm was set for 8:00 so I would have been getting up pretty soon anyway. All that to say I ...

This was a moment more of frustration than the first entry in this blog.  Not that I'm under the delusion that anyone who knows me is under the delusion that I am a perfect parent, but just so we're all clear about that I'm posting this story.

I've been sick for about five days so that knocks about 50 percent of parenting energy out right off the bat every time that I open my eyes. This morning Ben was really fussy and clingy. He wanted down, no up, no down, no up...and on and on this went. It didn't help that I was sitting at the computer and so I was really trying to do my own thing and wishing that he would do his own thing as well. As it turns out 15 month old babies aren't really into "their own thing".

So I'm sitting at the computer and Ben wants up and so I pick him up and he's fussy and wants down so I put him down and he's fussy and wants held again and so on and so forth. After about five minutes of this I've had enough on a ...

I hate our library on post. They have the worst fiction section I've ever seen, unfriendly librarians, and no board books in the children's section. In fact I have not found a library within thirty minutes of us that does have board books. Can you believe that?

Anyway, the library is not my favorite place to take Ben. He doesn't like his stroller, he's loud, and it's just not a child-friendly place. That said, I've found it easier to go once or twice a week and just stay for a very short period of time instead of trying to keep him occupied for a lengthy browsing.

I was there yesterday and within moments of being buckled in he was unhappy. So I'm hurrying along giving him various non-toy items to play with and picking them up after he has flung them to the floor. When I was in the last aisle I set him free by one of those round wheelie step stools thinking he'd just bang on it or push the stroller up and down the aisle.

He bangs on it. Once. ...

So this blog is going to function mostly as a dumping ground for information so that I don't forget to write this stuff down about Ben. This is actually the first time that I've written anything down so he's going to have a pretty sparse baby book. On that note, if anyone you don't clean out your email inboxes very often and you happen to have any of the updates I sent out when he was little and you want to send it back to me I'd really appreciate it. I thought that I had them saved, but can't find them.

This is Ben's list of words at almost 15 months:

Uh-oh: I threw something down and now I can't reach it

Tada: I am an amazing baby

Mama: You are an amazing mother

Dada: You are an amazing father

Ba: Book

Baba: Bottle

Wa-hoo: Man that was fun

Shh: Fish or crash

Kkkk: Kitty< ...

I find myself in this position a lot so I might turn this into it's own mini-blog. I say something to Ben and then wince and have to backtrack..."what I meant to say was...." Luckily, he doesn't pick up on these things yet so maybe I can get myself under control.

Today I had left my Bible on the couch and Ben had found it and was flipping through the pages. Then he started flipping...with great enthusiasm. The binding on my Bible is not great (unfortunately, since it was a gift from Mom and Dad and has my name on it) and so I didn't want to lose any more pages. So far I've got all the books I'm just missing some maps and reference material. :) Anyway. I didn't want Ben to break my Bible. So I said, "Ben, Bibles are not for babies."

OPPS!!!! What I MEANT to say was, "Ben, let's trade. Here's a book for you and please give me my Bible."

This blog entry is instructional in nature...a how NOT to exercise in, well, exercise.

Let's start with some background information. Travel with me in time to November 2007. It has been a year since my son was born, I went crazy and then back to relative sanity, had a baby, nursed him for a year, it was time to write a novel, the holidays were coming, I was as fat as I had ever been in a non-pregnant state. I was ready to get myself and my house fixed up. So I hung up a calendar and wrote down what I was going to do everyday: Drink a bunch of water, not a let a drop of soda pass my lips, do my devotions, work on my novel, and exercise. It was great. I was doing it. I was amazing myself. Okay, so I had a little trouble not drinking Coke, but I was working on it. I lost one pound. The angels were playing their heavenly trumpets for me.

Then I got appendecitis, my right ovary went beserk, I went to the hospital, they kept me there, my baby weaned himself, it hurt ...

Ben is 13 months old this Christmas. Clearly at age when he does not understand all the Christmas hullabaloo and in fact was at times overwhelmed by the strangeness of everything happening in his house. Unwrapping presents interests him for about twenty seconds for the first four presents and then no more. What he found instead fun instead was navigating his way through piles of presents and people and playing with toys that he already owned.

Andrew and I vowed not to go overboard this Christmas due to his age and his lack of attachment to the emotions of Christmas. As it turned out though our own emotional attachment was more than enough to compensate for his.... In reality, any by comparison, we didn't do to badly. He got a new outfit (tradition), a Fisher Price, a DVD, a couple board books, his first "classic" book, a Little Touch Leappad, Bubblebath, a pack of sippy cups, two little toy cars, a CD, and some various little stocking stuffers. (Plus the gifts fr ...

We got Ben's pictures back from Sears yesterday and they are so good! He is so handsome and adorable. They turned out great. There's this one pose where he has his hand in his mouth and his eyes wide open and it's my favorite favorite favorite. We had it printed in sepia tones and it is beautiful. We also got a big framed 10x30 wall hanging that has three different pictures inside in black and white and it's gorgeous. It's like art on our walls. So, I'm totally thrilled about all the pictures. His little skin is just flawless, he looks like a baby movie star newspaper boy. It's to die for. To balance out all this gushing I will say that I wish we had a couple more poses because we only have four I think, but he just didn't cooperate in those poses. I totally recommend Sears for having portraits taken. I didn't think that we were going to like it, but the prices were pretty decent, but we did like it. The girl did a really good job, the pictures are beautiful, and I love them. Of course, I wish that I ...

Benjamin had his one year checkup today. Unfortunately, we couldn't see his regular doctor and so we saw Dr. Idiot instead. First, this poor man gave off the most unmanly vibe I think I've ever gotten. He just seemed squishy...from his handshake, to his voice...his entire demeanor.

He did interact with and talk to directly to Ben, which is a big plus, but even while he was doing that he was so tentative about everything that I felt like I needed to whip out my "mom skills" to encourage him. It would have gone something like this. I see that he wants to listen to Ben's heart, but seems unsure about it. "Oh, you want to listen to his heart? You can do it. Just try. See, you're doing it. Yay! You're very brave. What a good doctor you are..." Ugh. GROW SOME BALLS, MAN!

So, I'm making it through the appointment, trying to get it over with as fast as possible and make things easy for him. He asked if I had any questions and I did h ...

Benjamin started walking yesterday. In the morning he'd only walk if he was holding at least one of your hands, but by bedtime he was moving under his own power. He doesn't so much bend his knees while he walks as he more just lists from side to side stumbling his way forward. He hasn't quite mastered steering yet, as he'll be looking longingly in one direction, but walking away not able to make the turn. By this morning he had added the ability to walk holding blankie, which is important.

We did catch the spectacle on video tape, which we were very happy about. It's a poorly taped event and Andrew likened it to the footage someone takes of a Sasquatch. The problem was that he wanted to walk to an actual person so whoever had the video camera was trying to catch Ben and film so his head just gets progressively bigger and off center. Then the focus disappears completely for a minute as we try to readjust to send him the other way, his wobbling takes him on and off camera and the so ...