Yesterday morning Ben woke up with a serious case of bed-head. I mean, it was sticking up like crazy everywhere. He was standing in the hallway and I was in our bathroom putting makeup on.

Ben: "What's that?" Pointing at the wall

Me: "That's your shadow."

Ben: "No. What's that?"

Me: "That's called your shadow Ben. The light makes it."

Ben: "No. It's a monster."

I cracked up. He thought it was a monster on the wall because of the way his hair was sticking up!

I detailed what has to be done for me to leave for church in a blog for last Sunday. So this Sunday while I was going through all that again I ended leaving for church wearing the following:

Pants with tea splashed on them as I helped Ben walk up the steps.

Tanktop with breastmilk splotches because Eli sometimes stops nursing and lets the last mouthful of milk drip out out of his mouth.

Shirt with spit-up on the shoulder from burping Eli.

(In my defense, the tea spots were down by my shins so you couldn't see them, the tanktop was under my shirt anyway so that wasn't visible although a little damp, and I scrubbed the spit-up so it was not too noticeable)

This was the first day that we took Eli to church. Sundays are a little crazy here because Andrew has to be at church at 8:30 for worship practice, but church doesn't start until 10:30. During my life before Eli it wasn't a big deal, sort of annoying, but nothing to get your panties in a knot over. Ben and I would drop him off and then we'd go to Target, hit Starbucks and just kind of chill until it was time for church.

Now, there is no chilling. Maybe chill days will come again, but for now they're gone. So this Sunday was the first Sunday that we were trying to get everyone out of the house in time. We knew that I was going to have to come back to the house after dropping Andrew off because a) Target is not a leisurely trip anymore and b) I haven't yet mastered corraling two children and a coffee cup and c) I wasn't ready. So, we all pile in the car, take Andrew to church and then the boys and I come home.

During my time at home which when counting in travel ...

I've started talking to Ben about what food does for his body...carrots help you see, chicken makes you strong, etc. So he was drinking some water the other day and I couldn't think of anything specific to say so I just told him that "water is good for your body". He gave me a confused look and then said, "water is good for my MOUTH"...

Ben was running around today and he tripped. He sat up and said, "I dropped me."

Ben was sitting on the potty and had just finished peeing. I said, "How about some poop?" And he said, "How about no?"

I'd just like to advance this notion on behalf of women who are "great with child" everywhere. Do NOT ask somoene close to her due date if she is "still pregnant". We don't like it. The closer we get to our due dates the less we like it. Once we're past our due date it makes us think violent thoughts about you and due to pregnancy hormones there are no promises that these urges will be met with restraint. Besides, if you are standing there talking to us it should be fairly obvious whether we are pregnant or not. If you're far-flung family on good terms with us the chances are that we're not going to forget to tell you about the birth of a child.

So, that's that. Moving on.

Since my last post things have improved. I don't know exactly what happened, I guess the baby moved farther down, but I am exponentially more comfortable than I have been for weeks. It's been about a week now that I've felt so much more comfortable that I c ...

It doesn't seem possible, but I am more pregnant every day. I do NOT remember being this uncomfortable for so long with Benjamin. I know I was uncomfortable toward the end, I just don't remember it starting so soon and being so disruptive to my life. I think part of it might have been the fact that I didn't really *have* to do anything last time. I wasn't working and it was just me and Andrew so I guess I could sleep when I was tired, be lazy when I ached and seriously do nothing all day without any kind of major disruption. Two year olds, as it turns out, are not really very into sleeping, lazing, and doing nothing so I don't get to do very much of it. At least I don't have a job though. I can't imagine having to get up and go to work everyday. I try not to think about still being pregnant at Christmas, or New Year's...Yikes!

Now, all that said, it's really all a matter of perspective. As much as I complain about being uncomfortable and impatient I'm not really as bad as I sound. ...

Last night we were all sitting in the living room playing cars when I noticed that it was raining just a little. The military has a habit of stationing us in place without real weather and so I try to draw Ben's attention to it when we have some. Plus, on a personal level I love the rain, mostly storms, but I'll take what I can get.

Anyway, this was just a nice drizzle of rain....you know, *drip, drip, drip, drip*

I say: "Ben, what do you hear?"

He stops driving his car and listens for a minute then says, "COFFEE!"

Yes, that's right. Instead of hearing soothing nature sounds my son thinks that it's the sound of coffee brewing...

The other day I went upstairs to get Ben up from his nap when he started banging on his wall. So, I was in there and we were talking.

I said, "Were you whacking your wall?"

Ben: "No."

Me: "What were you doing?"

Ben: "Making music."

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We were reading the magazine that Matt & Laura brought for him. One of the pages has pictures of words and you're supposed to pick out which ones rhyme. I was trying to show him how the words sound the same so I was just saying the rhyming words:

Me: Saying each word as I point to the picture "Log, frog, hog".

Ben: "That's a pig."

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Ben had his two year check up today. We were standing at the reception desk filling out forms when an elderly, plump, bearded man walked in. Ben looked him up and down and immediately started calling him "Santa Claus"... :) I'm pretty sure he didn't hear him. If so, he graciously ignored him. :)