Tiny Peanut to baby Gap poster child

Loren emailed me a couple of photos this morning, and Benito was so tiny in them. I hadn’t realized how big he had gotten, and how bald. In the one picture, his onesie is all wrinkly and just hanging off him. And the other, he has the sweetest little soft baby hair head. And then Auntie Cookie posted photos of him today, being so cute you could hardly believe it, and looking so big! It was such a crazy contrast.

Tummy Time

I put Benjamin on his little play mat for tummy time the other day, and I was so impressed and proud of him for not fussing and complaining about it like he did way back when he was just a baby. I went to pick him up after a couple minutes, when I thought he was getting close to done with it, and he had spit up all over the mat. He was laying uncomplainingly in a little puddle of spit up, and one half his face was just covered. Poor guy. He was such a macho tough guy though, and didn’t make a peep about it. I felt terrible of course, and wished he had told me. What a trooper.

Baby Yum Yum or the Great Girl Scout Cookie Debacle

Last year we had a heckuva a time finding girl scout cookies. I did several missions driving to various Wedgwood grocery stores, where girl scouts have been known to push their wares in the past, to no avail. This went on for quite a while actually. I was finally able to buy a couple boxes from a cookie dealer on a corner downtown, flinging cash at her as I was diving for my carpool. Not this year! I had a plan of attack. It turns out one of Auntie Cookie’s neighbors conveniently has girl scouts, who were willing to sell me cookies on a pre-order. My strategy was to order 12 boxes, freeze them, and have one box a month. Good plan, yes? And then when my order was done, I remembered I like the shortbread kind too, so I added 2 boxes of those. Up to 14 boxes. So, I am all happy and excited. Next day rolls around, and the phone is ringing. I answer, and it is my little niece Maria, pushing, guess what, girl scout cookies! Why had no one told me she was selling them this year? Of course I had to buy a 6 more boxes from her, because that is what you do when children who are related to you are fund raising. So I am up to count them, 20 boxes, or $80 worth, of cookies. What else to do but pile them all on the couch and stick the baby in the pile? So here he is, cute and drooly as ever.
This will not be good for my stomach toning efforts. Still no further running, St. Patty's day 5k looming, along with a Palm Springs vacation. Sigh.

Ladies Man

The charming and accommodating child opted to sleep through the night again last night! Agreeable baby. It may have been that I had a glass of wine at PEPS, or maybe that we kept him up until 9:15, but whatever the reason, he went to bed at 10:45, and woke up at 5:30, so that was great for me. PEPS was really fun last night. He was happy and chatty the whole time, and must have been making faces, because people kept grinning and making faces back at me (he was on my lap), and at one point he was accused of being drunk. Its funny to have a baby on your lap, because people totally let down their guard and act super goofy at you. Toward the end of the meeting, Benito was on the floor on his back at a 90 degree angle to Anya, who is a month older, also on the floor on her back. She was shrieking loudly and happily, and he was fascinated. He kept craning his neck to try to see what was going on. He also got really close to rolling over. He would look over at her, and get turned all the way onto his side, but his right arm kept getting in the way, and he couldn’t make it all the way over. Everyone was cheering for him though. He was also smiling and talking to Amelia, another little PEPS buddy, so now they all think he is quite the ladies man.
When we were getting ready to go the poor little guy was beyond tired, and he started doing his singing the blues cry. Someone commented on what a cute deep voice he had, and someone else said, yeah, just like a little baby Barry White. And here, I had no idea, and just thought he had a regular baby voice. Funny Barry White voiced baby.

Sooooo Big!

Look how big and standy up-y he is! And also as drooly as a St. Bernard. Thats all I have for now. Too tired to write more.

My Fan Club

I was blow drying my hair this morning (one of the benefits of the 9-6 work schedule is the ability to get up at 6:50 and have time to shower, shave legs and blow dry hair. It feels very glamorous and high maintenance), and when I turned off the blow dryer, I could hear Jammy on the monitor. My first thought was oh &*^%!, he has been crying and I couldn’t hear him. But it turns out he was just happily chatting away with the baby in the mirror. I had time to do make up, brush teeth, and get dressed while the two of them just talked away. So that was great. But the best part was when I went in to get him, and feed him his breakfast. I walked over toward the crib, and he looked over towards me, with his confused/concerned eyebrows on. But, when I got to the crib and leaned over to get him, he broke into this giant surprised happy grin, like he’d just met his blind date for the prom and she turned out to be Cameron Diaz. Its like I have my own fan club. I can’t get enough of that face.
I’m now blatantly stealing photos from Aunt Cookie’s blog, as I just can’t take pictures of him from work. Anyway, this is a similar smile to the one he gave me this morning.

Drooly McChattypants

I'm realizing that the near daily posting is a thing of my lady of leisure at home past. This whole working mom thing is definitely going to limit my bloggyness. Unless I start actually posting at work, which is a distinct possibility. Anyhoo, the baby Jammy report. This past week the child has turned into a veritable fountain of drool. I want to stick him in the village square and throw pennies at him. Thats how drooly he his. It is of course, completely charming, and he is all soggy smiles and spit bubbles. I have him in the front pack for 30 seconds or so, and it is soaked. I think this is way too early for teething, so I'm just guessing he is a drooly kind of guy. Which is fine with me, I love him no matter what kind of guy he turns out to be.

The other new thing is the expansion of his vocabulary. Where he used to just say "ooh" and "ah" and sometimes "ha ha" now he has added a whole new repertoire of sounds. Sounds that I can't spell however, so you will have to use your imagination. Maybe tomorrow I will try to write some down phonetically. I probably need to figure out how to use the umlaut, and that little backwards french c that hangs down from the bottom of a regular c, and maybe some other fancy foreign accents in order to accomplish it.

What else has been big this week... The cat clawed him last night, while he was sleeping. His very first injury. Can you imagine a worse way to wake up? It was all very sad. The boy had fallen asleep on my lap while we were watching "We Own the Night" (terrible movie, don't bother. Transformers, which we watched on Friday night, was much better). Anyway, the cat was jumping off the arm of the couch onto the floor, and was trying to use the couch seat as a springboard, and somehow misjudged, and put a claw right into Benito's tiny soft foot. He started screaming bloody murder, and his little foot wound even bled a little. He has a tiny scab now. Its very sad.

It was beautiful out this weekend though, and we went on lots of walks in the sunshine, and got to show off the rainbow hat Grandma Anne knitted, to go with his rainbow mittens. He is ridiculously cute in them. He's getting much bigger these days, which you can tell from the car seat photos. The first one is at the hospital, on 11/12, the next one is at 2 months, and the last one was today, 2/24, so 3.5ish months. He has outgrown both the little head supports, and just stays in the right spot on his own now. Soon he'll be borrowing the car and sneaking beers into the basement with his hoodlum friends.

Sleeping Beauty? I think not.

The last two nights the little trickster has woken up in the middle of the night again, ending his streak of, I don't know, weeks of sleeping through the night. I think he is just trying to keep me on my toes. Surely tonight he will revert back to his sleepier self. He actually laughed in his sleep as he was drifting off last night though, which was so darn cute that I forgave him for waking up the night before.

Then today, he did another new trick which just about did me in with its supreme cuteness. He was giving me the fake desparately hungry cry. Its not seriously desparately hungry, but more like the moaning the Harry does in when Harry met Sally when he is feeling sorry for himself. Only a little louder. So anyway, I start to feed him, and with his mouth totally full, he gives me two little "mmmmm"s. It was a little bit like in a coke commercial, when someone takes a drink and then goes "aaaah", or maybe the dinner scene in What About Bob. He has never actually talked to me while eating before, and he just seemed so satisfied with the whole thing. It was hilarious.

In a totally unrelated topic, I forgot, for the third Saturday in a row, to go to the "belly after baby" class. At this rate I will always have the post baby belly. But several fun things did happen today instead. Loren went snow shoeing all day (I didn't say I got to do all the fun things). Benito and the hound and I walked Greenlake with Wenmei and Cowboy and Zachary. Cowboy likes to show Maisy up by walking politely on a leash. We love her anyway. Wenmei gets a Starbucks discount, which has to be one of the best job perks ever. Its not free airline tickets, but its up there. We bumped into Shana at Starbucks, one of the many reasons I love my neighborhood. She is one of only a handful of the Beermonsters that has met Benjamin, so that was fun. Then Aunt Cookie and Annie and Madelyn came over. Cookie took some fantastic pictures of the boy (Check out Smiley boy on her blog: http://www.fernstromphotography.typepad.com/) and we went on another walk. Maisy was in heaven getting 2 walks in one day, but poor Annie scraped her knee in the second block, and couldn't stop crying the whole way. At one point she actually started wailing "boo hoo, boo hoo". It was so funny and cute, I couldn't stop myself from giggling. It seems impossible that my baby will ever get that big.

eau de spit up and Cartier

Well, the first week back in the office is all done, and I feel like it was pretty successful. It was an odd combination of worker bee/mom. I was wearing the suit, with the laptop, and the flat ironed hair, but I was running into the phone room to use the pump, and spilling breast milk on my pants etc. The charade continues though, and no one at work seems to have figured out that I am actually a 14 year old masquerading as a competent adult yet, so thats always good. And while I was tired, I never felt like I would fall asleep at my desk, like in the good old first trimester. The various child care arrangements worked out really well, and the only injury the child sustained was on my watch, which figures. He gouged his forehead with one of those razorsharp little daggers he likes to call fingernails, in the night while he was sleeping. I think the resulting head wound just makes him look tough, like maybe a he's pirate. He doesn't seem to bear me any ill will for leaving him all week either. Of course, he still doesn't realize that he can wilfully move his hands around, so he probably won't get to the angst and resentment toward me until sometime in the future, maybe next week.

its like the first day of school all over again

Yesterday was the dreaded first day back to work. I was kinda nervous about it, but overall, everything went really well. Loren stayed home and watched the Benbino, which was great. He also drove me to work, which saved me hauling the breast pump and my laptop on the bus. It was really weird to be at work for about an hour, and then it was like I never left. I guess thats a good thing? I was definitely ready for a nap by 2:00 though, its a long day to be sitting at a computer and using my brain, especially after getting up at 6. I did manage to make it through without tears or shirt soaking lactation, so I count that as a success. I also got to start one of the books I got for Christmas, Waiting for Birdy, on the bus on the way home. I laughed out loud, its really funny. Not And God Created the Au Pair funny, but really, what is?

Then today was the first day with Marnie the nanny. I was so panicked, running around making sure she knew where everything was, giving last minute instructions, that I forgot to say good bye to the boy. So I stood at the bus stop hyperventilating, trying to decide if I had time to run back and say good bye (no). I was a little disappointed that she didn't have to call me to ask any questions. Talk about not feeling needed. I clearly miss him more than he misses me. Ungrateful little beast. I mean that in the nicest possible way. But everything seemed to go really well, and for that I am supremely grateful.

Date night(s)

This was a good weekend for getting out of the house. I got to see count them, not one, but TWO movies in the theater. On Friday, Grandma Pat watched the papoose while Loren and I went to Il Fornaio and saw Juno. Ok, I know I have already seen it, but it was the only thing playing that I wanted to watch. Then on Saturday Judith and I went to Thai Ginger and 27 Dresses. Love a chick flick about bridesmaid's dresses. I mean, it wasn't a film by any stretch of the imagination, but it was mildly entertaining. It was the longest I think I have been away from the young laddie, and when I got home my shirt was soaked and my boobs were killing me. I was even happier to see Jammy than ususal.

Both movies showed previews for a documentary about the Chicago marathon that is only playing for one day, 2/21. I'm all inspired to go, in hopes that it will get me back out running. A girl can dream, right?

Then today, my mom and I went and got manis and pedis, so I'm all glamorous for going back to work tomorrow. I'm going to wear a suit and everything. Its very exiting. Or scary. However you want to look at it.

My boy

• So, I was rereading some of my blog entries the other day, and I don't think I am really accomplishing what I wanted. I mean, it does sort of create a snapshot of Jammy's day to day life, but it doesn't really capture the things that I most want to remember. Its mostly specific moments of his baby-ness that I know will be short lived that I want to memorialize. Some examples:
  
  Little tiny baby mullet. Party in the back, business in the front. His little hair is so soft, and its darker and longer right above his neck, and then he has a little bald spot in the back. When he wakes up, the sides of it sometimes stick straight out, and he looks like he has funny little wings. It makes him look surprised, or like an Einstein-esque little scientist. It is totally adorable. Sometimes he wakes up having spit up, and it has dried on the back of his neck, and his hair is all crinkly from it.
  
• When he his finished nursing, his cheeks are flushed completely pink.

• Sometimes he sucks in his sleep. Its like he is dreaming about eating. It is so completely adorable. And then he will smile or frown in his sleep too. What is he dreaming about?


• He makes these little cooing noises that just kill me. He has such a beautiful little voice.


• He has the poutiest little lower lip. Sometimes it sticks out in his sleep.


• He gets heavier when he falls asleep in your arms. And he get so relaxed and noodle like, you can flop his arms around.


• He often has these very concerned eyebrows, like he is a little worried about the state of the world.


• Sometimes when he sleeps he sticks his feet up in the air. He will be this little bundle of blanket, and the lower half of it won't be touching the bed. Anti-gravity feet.


• He sleeps with his hands above his head, like he is cheering on some kind of secret baby olympics.


• When he wakes up, he does all these fabulous stretches, and makes these great squinty, grunty, waking up faces. Its just how I feel when I wake up.


• Sometimes he wakes up, and just talks to himself in his crib. When I go to pick him up, his face breaks into his big, drooly, toothless grin. It is the most endearing thing.

• He is a kicky little guy. When I change his diapers, sometimes his legs just keep kicking, like he is doing an imaginary stationary bike.


• When I change his diaper, sometimes he just laughs, like it is the greatest joke ever. His laugh is my most favorite sound in the world. Sometimes it is kind of gurgly, or he sort of gasps for air, like he is laughing so hard he can't breathe. Or else he just smiles, and I try to make him laugh with raspberries and kisses on his little belly, and his cheeks and neck. Its a toss up, whether he will laugh or just smile.


• He tries so hard to hold his head up, but when his neck gets tired, or when he is on his tummy, it wobbles like a little bobble head.

• His hands are so soft and kind of pudgy. There are little dimples at his knuckles.
  

• He so warm and soft and snuggly. He just melts into you when you hold him.
  

It makes me teary eyed to think about all this stuff, and the things that I will mis when he gets bigger. It makes me really reluctant to go back to work, because I don't want to miss out. But at least I know that I am the one missing out, and its not going to bother him at all. He will have all kinds of fun, and I know he will be taken care of probably better than I do. But I really will miss him. I was telling him that today was the last day of our special fun summer vacation together, and about how much fun I had with him, and about who was going to be taking care of him next week, and I just couldn't stop crying. He did his best to cheer me up though. What a nice baby.

The Great Exersaucer Caper

Today was Benjamin's first time in the exersaucer! He was a total exersaucer champ. I thought he was still to head wobbly ( a la the Dread Pirate Roberts), but his neck control was excellent. He played in it at the Fernstrom's for a good 45 minutes. His little feet barely touch the bottom of it, but it was enough that he could spin himself around. Mind you, he had no idea he was in control of the spinning at all. As far as he was concerned it was just another thing the universe was foisting upon him. Annie and Madelyn played with him and entertained him, and he was totally groovin on the whole thing. Until he decided he was completely done with it all. See picture #2.

Couch S'mores and Idol... a new cultural low, or sheer genius?

Maija came over tonight and watched American Idol with me. Talk about bad tv. It is so worthless, and yet strangely addicting. I was so desparate for dessert snacks, with no ice cream or baked goods to be had, that I invented a brand new treat. Necessity is the mother of invention, yes? They are couch s'mores, and involve graham crackers, frosting, in this instance rainbow chip, (side note - rainbow chip frosting makes me think of Hillary and highschool. It used to be her birthday cake frosting of choice, and I can recall eating it plain, and on one occasion for breakfast in our carpool.) and chocolate chips. All ingredients typically found in my cupboard, yet never combined together so brilliantly. Very excellent, and yet sadly, not only does it seem like my weight loss has stopped, I actually think I am gaining weight again.

PEPS

Well, we finally had our first PEPS meeting last night. It was ok, I think its going to be fun. The meeting was at the leader's house, which is 2 doors down from Pat and Lee's, so that was funny. There are 6 other couples, and Benjamin is right in the middle of the age range. He is way the cutest, and was complimented for being uber handsome a couple of times. We told labor and delivery stories, and again, I feel really lucky. One of the women was in labor for 60 hours. Unbelievable. She saved the little notebook she wrote down all her contractions in to show the child when he is naughty. Apparently it is 6 pages long. Also, there were excellent chocolate chip cookies. I'm hoping for wine next time. Is that wrong?

Guys Football Day

Today was so great... Loren and Benjamin went to watch the Superbowl, and I got to stay home all by myself and read a book (Best Friends, it was ok), and watch a chick movie (Sense and Sensibility, excellent). I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Fat Tuesday, or Any excuse to eat whipped cream slathered pancakes for dinner

Not much to report for today... Spent the day projecting. I posted stuff to craigslist, and Loren put up some of the wood work trim that we have been missing. The big excitement was that we got to have fat Tuesday dinner with the fam, which involves pancakes, whipped cream, chocolate sauce, strawberries, praline sauce, and sausages. Yum. I think its one of the most underrated of the holidays.

When Jammy met Sally

Yesterday was a big day for both Jammy and me. I had the realization that I only have 6 more business days left of leave. I feel like I have kind of wasted it. I have done a lot of worrying about childcare, and work in the sense of work around the house getting annoying stuff taken care of - stuff like budgets and contractors and tax documents and medical paperwork and all that kind of junk. But I don't think I have done enough fun stuff. And I certainly haven't focused on relaxing and enjoying it the way I should be. But instead of moping about that, I am determined to make the rest of the time off super fun and enjoyable. So, first off on the fun agenda, Jammy got to meet a girl! Judith came and collected us, and we all went to see Cousin Carol, brand new baby cousin Sally, and very big boy Charlie and eat pastries and drink coffee. It was all very satisfactory. Sally makes Benjamin look all grown up. Benjaim didn't really seem to notice Sally yet, but I think he was just playing it cool. And Charlie was like a little glimpse of the future, running around in his little tighty whities playing with dinosaurs. Totally cute.

Second item on the fun list was going to be REI with Maija. Turns out she needed to stay home, so instead Benjamin and I curled up in bed and took a big long nap. Sighhhh. Very nice. He is absolutely the most cuddly, snuggly invention ever. Of course I think he peed all over the sheets, but nobody is perfect. Then my mom came over and took him for a walk, so that I could prepare for the third fun thing on my list, investment club. I got to read a couple of articles about Starbucks (the stock I follow) on MSN money, and feel like I knew enough to say something vaguely informed.

This was the first time I have gone to REAP (Retire Early And Party) since the boy, and it was really fun. I got to eat pizza, drink wine out of a paper cup and talk to grown ups about economic trends, ethical investing, and the new Hannah Montana movie. Starbucks price is waaaay down, around $19. We looked at all the numbers though, talked about what is going on, (Howard in, breakfast sandwiches out, expansion slowing yada yada yada), and decided we think its going to come back, and now is a great time to buy it at a bargain price. Since the market sucks so badly right now, everything is in the buy range, except WaMu, which is so bad its laughable.

When I got home, it turned out naughty Benito had not been a benevolent dictator for his father, but instead a whiny fussy little bugger. I find the whole thing a leeetle hard to believe, as he was nice as pie, all smiles and spit bubbles for the rest of the night.