Sunday, June 20, 2010

Something Clever Goes Here

Holy smokes guys, Ben is 6 months old! We all survived! And you know what, it really hasn't been that big of a deal. Parenthood is absolutely nothing you can prepare for. You just have to dive in and do it. Doing it with a huge dose of humor helps dramatically.

He had his 6 month check up on Friday and did really well for the whole thing. I actually felt bad, like we were tricking him because he was in such a good mood the whole appointment, flirting with all the nurses, thinking the oral vaccine tasted pretty yummy and then the cries. But I sang him his favorite song and had him calmed down before we left the exam room. He didn't gain much weight, he's at 16.7 lbs now (only 2 pounds gained in 2 months) which puts him at the low end of the percentiles & 27 inches for height. Doc wants us to bring him in next month just for a weight check now that I'm gonna be giving him more food. Cereal twice a day (which I'd already started doing) and fruit/veggies 3 times a day. Ben's a bit of a snacker when he nurses - he's always wanted to eat frequently (like every hour) but he only eats for 10 minutes so he's not getting as much nutrients when he nurses. I'm trying to stretch him out til at least 2 hours before I let him nurse again to encourage him to eat longer and so far it's working pretty well.

I swear, every time we get shots it's a different reaction. The first set of shots, he slept all that day to recover and was up all that night. The second time he got the fever. This time he was the most amazing sleeper. Every night since Friday he's gone to bed at about 7:30 (about an hour earlier than he used to) and has slept straight through til 4:00 or 5:00 for eats and then again until 6:00 or 7:00 before he's up for the day. Yay for us! He was a bit of a crab the rest of Friday (but fighting it - he didn't want to be crabby) and a bit feverish Friday night/Saturday morning but that's it! And the BEST news is I read on the hand out my doc gives us is that if he's current on his shots, NO SHOTS AT THE 9 MONTH APPOINTMENT!!! HOORAY!!!

Anyway, aside from check ups, Saturday morning we met with a photographer our friends recommended (she did their wedding, newborn and 3 month old shots of their daughter) and had some pictures done of Ben. We did them over at my parents house and I'm SO SO SO excited to see how they came out. I'm driving myself NUTS checking her blog to see if she's posted any sneak peeks yet. I'm not expecting to see anything til probably Tuesday but I can't help myself from looking. Ben did SO good for her, he sat all by himself for a long time and was so cooperative and smiley (when we could get him to tear his eyes away from the fountain my parents have in their courtyard that is) and didn't get too fussy until we were almost done anyway.

Today was, of course, fathers day. My present from Ben to Nick isn't here yet, maybe on Tuesday or Wednesday (grr...totally my fault, I had it picked out ages ago but forgot to order it until late). I attempted to let Nick sleep in but I didn't know Sadie was asking to go out while I was nursing Ben so Nick ended up getting up kind of early anyway. We went down to the Trolley House on Warm Springs Ave (if you go there for breaky, get the breakfast burrito - YUMOLA) and then did a bit of driving around aimlessly. Then we headed over to my brother's for a father's day feast with the fam and had a bit of a pinochle tourney while Ben played with the girls.

Tomorrow Carin and the girlies are coming over to watch Ben for me while I go see Jewel with Tiffany & Christina at the Botanical Gardens. I'm SO excited! I haven't been to many concerts and I love Jewel!

Friday is our 5 year anniversary and we're dropping Ben off at my parents and we're having dinner and then off to see our favorite comedian, Brian Regan perform at Morrison Hall. SO, SO excited!!!

THEN a few days after THAT, Tiffany and I are going to see the 3rd Twilight movie, Eclipse!!

Whew. :-) Busy summer so far and summer hasn't technically started yet. Gotta work in some more camping in July. We only went once all of last summer and we want to go more this year!!!

We're hoping (hoping, hoping, hoping) to get over to Seattle towards the end of summerish and then down to Florida about mid-fallish. Then before you know it, we'll be celebrating Ben's first birthday!!

Tee hee heeeeee!

Random: my new jeans (I bought them in February) are too big. I just put on a pair of jeans I haven't been able to wear in like 3 years.

I'm having like, the reverse of most women who have babies. I didn't gain much weight during my pregnancy - I lost weight. 6 months after giving birth, I'm down at least one pant size. I can almost fit back into all my super cute clothes that I've been stubbornly holding on to.

:-)

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Song for a Fifth Child

    Song for a Fifth Child

      by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

    Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth,
    Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
    Hang out the washing and butter the bread,
    Sew on a button and make up a bed.
    Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
    She’s up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

    Oh, I’ve grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue
    (Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).
    Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
    (Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).
    The shopping’s not done and there’s nothing for stew
    And out in the yard there’s a hullabaloo
    But I’m playing Kanga and this is my Roo.
    Look! Aren’t her eyes the most wonderful hue?
    (Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

    The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
    For children grow up, as I’ve learned to my sorrow.
    So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
    I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.

Friday, June 11, 2010

Goals.

Goal #1: Get my house clean, organized and to stay tidy every day.
  • Progress: So far, so good. I started this the middle of last week. I assigned myself specific areas to clean every day and so far I've stuck to it. I also made a mini-goal of keeping the rooms I've already clean tidy for the rest of the week so when I get back to that room next week, there isn't as much to do.
Goal #2: Try something new every month.
  • Progress: This month is full of new things. We already took Ben on his first camping trip which was an overall success. Next up for this month are going to a concert with some girlfriends.
Goal #3: Make baby food myself.
  • Progress: Awesome! I've made applesauce and carrots so far. As soon as he runs out of the boxed rice cereal I already bought, I'm going to make my own brown rice cereal.
Goal #4: Clean out the clutter & live more simply.
  • Progress: Just started. I've gone through some of my stuff and boxed up the nicer stuff to share with Susan. The rest I'll donate
Goal #5: Spend less, save more.
  • Progress: Haven't started. July is the month. We're going to try going Monday - Thursday of each week without spending any money. I've made a list of our most commonly bought grocery items to stock up on at Costco and see if I can't reduce our shopping from every week to twice a month. The last week of the month we're going to eat strictly out of our pantry to use up any straggling items so they don't carry over to the next month for infinity and beyond.
Goal #6: Tackle some of those "I'd love to do ______" projects.
  • Progress: Haven't started. We need to plan exactly what it is we want to do (travel to Ireland, travel to Florida, remodel our bathroom, plant a edible garden, etc) and do an honest cost approach for each and start SAVING. Then our dreams can become realities.
So, that's it for now. Wish us luck!

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Ben's 1st Camping Trip!

Well, we set out for a camping adventure this weekend. I was looking at my calendar for June earlier in the week and realized we had something planned for every Saturday this month except the first weekend in June. I looked at the weather and we were promised nice temperatures in the upper 70's with varying degrees of cloudiness. I figured that was pretty great weather for camping. My parents were game to go so Friday we loaded up our car, drove over to my parents where we put all the overflow camping gear that we don't have room for in Nick's PT Loser now that we have the kiddo to wedge in there too, dropped off our doggie for the pet sitter (our dogs are not camping dogs) and headed out.


Normally we go up to Idaho City and camp up by Barber Flats on the North Fork of the Boise River. Since it's been raining a lot here recently, Idaho City was under flash flood warnings so we decided to go to a new place. We went out by Mountain Home and camped in an area by Anderson Ranch Dam - there's a nice reservoir there. I guess I should say (for those of you that don't know): we are not go to camp grounds and camp type people. We don't want to chat with our neighbors - in fact, we don't even want to be able to know there are other people camping in our vicinity at ALL. Unfortunately, where we landed was a campground, with the Forest Service approved fire container, dumpster and portapotties. The spot we got was all by itself but really big enough for 2 or 3 families. We spread out our stuff to occupy most of the spot and settled in.







Friday night it POURED as we were setting up the tent. Nick & I got SOAKED (him more than me as I couldn't pass Ben off to my mom until their tent trailer was set up). The rain didn't last long on Friday evening so we sat out and enjoyed a fire and got to see some stars before it clouded up again. That night was fairly uncomfortable - it rained and was chilly and our air mattress sprang a leak, so half way through the night we were practically on the floor. Saturday morning was beautiful - slightly cloudy, mostly warm and we spent quite a bit of time outside. Ben was a FANTASTIC camper. He loves being outside and was content to sit on a lap and look at the trees or the water or the fire.








Saturday evening we borrowed a mattress pad from my parents (their tent trailer sleeps on both sides of the pull outs so we used the mattress they weren't using) and we slept SO comfortably. It wasn't as chilly as the night before and well, we were sleeping pretty great. Until about 4:00 in the morning. I woke up to Nick telling me to take Ben (he was taking a turn sleeping with him) in an urgent voice that had me nervous right away. I didn't hear it, but a truck pulled in to our spot at 4:00 in the morning on a Sunday in the pouring rain. What they were doing, I have no idea. They got out of their truck, made a lot of noise and then got back in and left. My dad took a walk around just to see and found another truck had come in at the same time (but strangely neither him or Nick saw another pair of headlights come in with the other truck....hmmm) and was parked up on the beach. He didn't see anyone in the truck, came back to our tent and chatted with Nick and then went back around for one more check of the beach. What did he find? Random people, wandering around the campsite with no flashlights (at 4:00 in the morning in the pouring rain on a Sunday I remind you). My dad asked if they needed help (as he was holding his shot gun over his shoulder) because he heard one of them say something about a tow truck. They said no, my dad wandered back over to our tent and then about 10 minutes later, we heard that truck leave.

I have no idea what that was all about but I tell ya they were up to no good, whatever it was. It made me worried and I felt really exposed in a dinky little tent (okay, our tent is freaking huge but still, it's a tent) with a baby. No one slept after that and we started packing up to come home at about 5:30 when Ben woke up to eat.



Other than that, though, we really did have a good trip. We saw deer and elk and Osprey and chipmunk and what we think was a marmot. Ben is an easy camper and I think we'll go again. With more guns next time, though.


Ben's 1st Camping Trip!

Well, we set out for a camping adventure this weekend. I was looking at my calendar for June earlier in the week and realized we had something planned for every Saturday this month except the first weekend in June. I looked at the weather and we were promised nice temperatures in the upper 70's with varying degrees of cloudiness. I figured that was pretty great weather for camping. My parents were game to go so Friday we loaded up our car, drove over to my parents where we put all the overflow camping gear that we don't have room for in Nick's PT Loser now that we have the kiddo to wedge in there too, dropped off our doggie for the pet sitter (our dogs are not camping dogs) and headed out.


Normally we go up to Idaho City and camp up by Barber Flats on the North Fork of the Boise River. Since it's been raining a lot here recently, Idaho City was under flash flood warnings so we decided to go to a new place. We went out by Mountain Home and camped in an area by Anderson Ranch Dam - there's a nice reservoir there. I guess I should say (for those of you that don't know): we are not go to camp grounds and camp type people. We don't want to chat with our neighbors - in fact, we don't even want to be able to know there are other people camping in our vicinity at ALL. Unfortunately, where we landed was a campground, with the Forest Service approved fire container, dumpster and portapotties. The spot we got was all by itself but really big enough for 2 or 3 families. We spread out our stuff to occupy most of the spot and settled in.






Friday night it POURED as we were setting up the tent. Nick & I got SOAKED (him more than me as I couldn't pass Ben off to my mom until their tent trailer was set up). The rain didn't last long on Friday evening so we sat out and enjoyed a fire and got to see some stars before it clouded up again. That night was fairly uncomfortable - it rained and was chilly and our air mattress sprang a leak, so half way through the night we were practically on the floor. Saturday morning was beautiful - slightly cloudy, mostly warm and we spent quite a bit of time outside. Ben was a FANTASTIC camper. He loves being outside and was content to sit on a lap and look at the trees or the water or the fire.








Saturday evening we borrowed a mattress pad from my parents (their tent trailer sleeps on both sides of the pull outs so we used the mattress they weren't using) and we slept SO comfortably. It wasn't as chilly as the night before and well, we were sleeping pretty great. Until about 4:00 in the morning. I woke up to Nick telling me to take Ben (he was taking a turn sleeping with him) in an urgent voice that had me nervous right away. I didn't hear it, but a truck pulled in to our spot at 4:00 in the morning on a Sunday in the pouring rain. What they were doing, I have no idea. They got out of their truck, made a lot of noise and then got back in and left. My dad took a walk around just to see and found another truck had come in at the same time (but strangely neither him or Nick saw another pair of headlights come in with the other truck....hmmm) and was parked up on the beach. He didn't see anyone in the truck, came back to our tent and chatted with Nick and then went back around for one more check of the beach. What did he find? Random people, wandering around the campsite with no flashlights (at 4:00 in the morning in the pouring rain on a Sunday I remind you). My dad asked if they needed help (as he was holding his shot gun over his shoulder) because he heard one of them say something about a tow truck. They said no, my dad wandered back over to our tent and then about 10 minutes later, we heard that truck leave.

I have no idea what that was all about but I tell ya they were up to no good, whatever it was. It made me worried and I felt really exposed in a dinky little tent (okay, our tent is freaking huge but still, it's a tent) with a baby. No one slept after that and we started packing up to come home at about 5:30 when Ben woke up to eat.



Other than that, though, we really did have a good trip. We saw deer and elk and Osprey and chipmunk and what we think was a marmot. Ben is an easy camper and I think we'll go again. With more guns next time, though.