Hill & Eco come to town

I was lucky enough to have Hillary in town for my birthday this year, for the second year in a row! It was very exciting. It was difficult to top last year's surprise extravaganza, but she made a valiant effort, by bringing a baby with her this time. Maija and Eamon came over one night, and we put all 3 boys in their matching Grandma Anne sweaters. It was very hilarious. Thanks Grandma! It is also astounding to me that we have produced all these boys. I still feel like we are way to young and under qualified for this, and maybe instead of putting babies in their pj's we should maybe be getting dressed up for a high school football game, and arguing about who is going to wear what. The events of my actual birthday are escaping me, but other highlights of the trip included a party at Richard's, and a venture to TJ Maxx where I purchased a rockin' flat iron under Hillary's supervision. Also, how mischevious does Jam look in the photo of him and Emmett in their green pajamas? I will tell you, he looks like the definition of mischevious.

Dino Jammies!

The ever fabulous Auntie Weewee (Is that even the right spelling? Thats how it always looked in my head. You'll have to let me know. For the curious - Weewee was Hillary's younger brother Charles' early attempt at Hillary. ) gave us these irresistably adorable stripey fleece dino jammies months and months ago. When we got them they looked impossibly huge, and like they belonged on a big kid, and that it would be millenia before they fit Benjamin. Well. Got them out the other day, and they are just the right size. Which is a good thing, because his other fleecey green dino jammies that I like so much are (gasp!) starting to be on the small side. These may be my favorite jammies yet though. I alwasy enjoy the stripes. We also had to get all new shoes and onesies over the past couple weeks. The little laddie is growth spurting, apparently. Anyway, I thought he was very cute and funny in his new jammies, climbing up and down his toy box. He is all about climbing these days.

Hillary & Emmett come to town

Ok, I am total lazy blog slacker. I have no excuse. But since I am trying to catch up I will be brief. Hillary and Emmett came to visit us for a whole week, and it was SO MUCH FUN. And because I was in Spokane for the weekend, I got to fly in to town with them for Emmett's first flight, a monumental occasion. A selection of miscellaneous pics from the visit below. Come back and see us again soon! We miss you!

New Cousin!

On Sunday afternoon, Benjamin went to meet his new cousin Eamon, and take a Kidd Valley picnic to the crowd. It turned out to be Maija, Colin, Tess, Eamon, Vince, Aunt Barb, Mom, Dad, Judith, Madelyn, Annie, and Loren, Benjmin and me. The weather was bee-u-tiful, so we sat in the backyard and soaked up the sun. I even logged a little lounge chair time. Sigh. And I got to hold wee tiny Eamon. Now, I know this is beyond cliche, but I cannot believe Benjamin was ever that small! But he was. Smaller even. And so soft! New babies are the softest thing. And he has this little teeny tiny cry. Benjamin just looked giant next to him. Which was about what Maija said about Tess when they came to see us at the hospital.

Welcome new baby cousin!

After 42.5 long weeks of pregnancy, Maija had her baby last night! A beautiful BOY, with some dark hair. He doesn't have a name yet, that I know of, and I don't know the details about height and weight, but both mom and baby are doing great. Yay! I'm sure there will be photos posted on Aunt Cookies blog before too long. Per tradition, I went over to see him at 11:30 last night (Maija and I visited Henry at the hospital at 2:00 in the morning, and Maija came to see Benjamin at 2:30 in the morning). Maija was smiling and glowing, Colin was proud papa, and baby was a tiny bundle with hair and feet. Very sweet. Congratulations to all!!

ECO baby!

Welcome Emmett! Hillary had her baby last week on Wednesday, and I have been totally remiss in not posting since then. Emmett Cramer Ogg (ECO!!) was born in the afternoonish Seattle time, weighing in at 7 pounds and 6 or 7 ounces. (so my memory is not that great. Whatever.) He was 3 weeks early, which was a big surprise, but is the perfect size, and healthy and all that, so that was a happy surprise. No one really enjoys those last 3 weeks of pregnancy anyway. He has all kinds of nice dark hair, and is just beautiful. He has a very funny little squwaky cry, I can't even describe it. Not a regular baby cry. Almost like a cat. I think he may be trying to speak to the dachsunds. Judith, Madelyn, Benjamin and I went on a road trip to see the young laddie, taking off for Missoula on Friday night, and heading back on Monday morning. It was tons o' fun, and I'm really glad we went. Madelyn did an awesome job of entertaining Benito in the car, and leaving on Friday night really helped with the whole sleeping in the car thing. We stayed at the hotel across the park from Hillary and Mickey's, which was great. It was a block from their house, they had a pool we got to swim in, and we got to sit on hotel beds and eat ice cream and watch the Olympics, which was super fun. (Judith and I could so be synchronized divers.) Hillary and Mickey were still in the sort of dazed and confused parent stage, pretty tired, but doing great. Judith did a photo shoot of Emmett and the family, so check her blog for fabulous photos soon (Auntie Cookie link). Emmett is so tiny and cuddly, it is very hard to imagine that the great lurchy beast that is Jammeroo was ever that small. I know, total cliche. But it is so true. I wish we had a better photo showing the boys size differential, but really, Benjamin is so squirmy and flaily, and Emmett is so teeny, that I was kinda too nervous to put them next to each other in a photo. But we do have this one, which I love, because it so captures the moment. Hillary is engrossed in beautiful tiny infant, and Benjamin is blurry and trying to escape. Who would have ever thought we would have made it from high school to this? The mind boggles.

Teeth?!?...

Well, today was a big day all around! We had a baby shower for Hillary and baby Che, which was much fun. I will hopefully be swiping some photos to add here soon. Suffice to say, food was eaten, gifts were opened, fun was had. Judith also took some maternity photos of Hillary, which I think are going to turn out super cute (I was the stylist). Hopefully one of these might get added here later eventually too. Benhameen, as Mickey calls him, was not his usual sunny self today though. He was fussy and grumpy during the shower. He took a nap during the photo shoot, and woke up beside himself, just wailing and crying. It was really tragically sad. He was kind of pulling at his ears too, and so it seemed like maybe he had an ear infection. But he has also been really chewy and drooly, and it seems like some teeth are in the works. So Loren went to Target and bought a bunch of teething type aids - baby ibuprofin, teething tablets, baby orajel, "bighter biscuits", and these little mesh dealys that you can put frozen food into, and baby gets to suck on it, sort of like a popsicle. These were a big hit, since he is very intent on feeding himself. Hillary loaned out some teething rings too. After some drugs, and some icey pear treat, he was a much happier little guy. It looks like you may be able to see one little tooth poking through! Very exciting. I hope that the first one is the hardest. I'm not looking forward to repeating this performance 27 more times.

*Impressive teeth photo added one week after original post.*

Going to the chapel (... or arboreteum)... photos coming soon

Today was Clementine and Andy's wedding! Hillary was matron of honor, and Judith and Loren took the photos, so that was all very cool. The few sneak preview shots that I saw were gorgeous, and I will put up a link to the pics on the Fernstrom photograpy blog, just as soon as they are published. Benjamin sat this one out, and went to the park with Grandma instead. He went in the swings and everything, and was apparently quite the big kid. Very observant and interested in what all the other kids were doing. And a nice little big of sunshine too. Yay!

Surprise!

It was my birthday this weekend, and it was SO MUCH FUN!! I don’t have photos or time to do it justice, but I will give the quick overview. Also, it’s a little off-topic, as it is not really Jamcentric, so bear with me. Or wait until tomorrow, when I will doubtless post something much more Baby Jammy appropriate. Saturday morning, Judith and I had plans for girly high maintenance-ness at U Village. Because of the tragic closure of a la Francaise, we went to Specialties for our chocolate croissants, which is just not the same. Anyway, we are sitting at Specialties enjoying our breakfast treats (its not a la Francaise, but it is still pretty darn tasty), and I looked out the window and thought, geez that looks like Hillary. And Kate. And it was!! Hillary flew in from MT to surprise me! YAY!! Much shrieking and amazement ensued. And then Maija came too, which was great. So we had manis and pedis and brow waxes etc., and Judith and Hillary and I went to Atlas to have breakfast for lunch, which was also great. Mmmm, I love breakfast! Then Hillary and I went home, and vegged for a while, and then went to Title 9 to buy new sports bras (pregnancy and nursing really does a number on your chest). And then she wanted to go to Rosita’s for virgin strawberry margaritas, but not dinner, because she wanted to get Thai food for dinner. And I thought, well geez, isn’t she high maintenance, but since she is pregnant, I will humor her. So then we got home, and there was a surprise party! I was totally surprised, having always been pretty vocal about no surprise parties please. But this was just a small dinner party (so don’t feel bad if you weren’t invited!) with my best girlfriends, and Jammy and my new friend’s Wenmei and Zachary. Oh and they were all allowed to bring boys along with them too. So that was really fun, and involved 2 kinds of dessert, so obviously I was happy about that, and I had 2 glasses of wine, so Jammy was probably all drunk and things. Sunday was my actual birthday, and we went to my parent’s house for the traditional strawberry waffle breakfast, complete with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. Mmmmm, this weekend was clearly all about food. And I got a hilarious card from Henry, which I would scan and include here if I were organized, and many lovely gifts. We will be finding out what “Wine Gums” (famous from much British chick lit but very mysterious) are in Palm Springs next week, and I will be trying out all kinds of festive springy fashion. What else happened on Sunday…. We went to REI, I got my hair cut, and then we had an Ocean’s 11 and 13 marathon on the couch, with Pagliacci’s and birthday brownies. It was all very good. Many many thanks to all who participated! You rock! Thirty was a very memorable birthday.

Glamping - who's with me?

Please pardon the diversion from regular topic. This has nothing to do with Benjamin at all, so you might want to skip it. Has anyone else heard of glamping? I just learned about it yesterday from my coworker Lynn, and I am all excited about it. I have in the past said that I wanted to plan a girls camping trip, but I have never actually gotten my act together to do it. So anyway, I am now planning a girls glamping trip, and I am scheduling it in summer 2009, so those of you who are currently pregnant have no excuse for not going. What is glamping, you ask? It is glamorous camping! It is in fact not that glamorous, but involves teepees, and breakfast at the related bed and breakfast. Also, in this case it is in Yakima, and involves wine tasting at the nearby wineries, which one can do via horseback! Isn't that fun? I'm not sure if riding a horse after drinking a lot of wine is really that much smarter than driving after a bunch of wine, but it sounds fun. And I feel sure that a few glasses of wine would give me just the confidence required to return to my horseback riding career after a 19 year hiatus. I think in my trip it may also involve a t-shirt a la girls gone running, but with something clever about wine and camping and horses etc etc. So, all of my lovely blog reading girlfriends are invited, and so are the non blog reading ones, although they probably won't get invited quite so early. Lynn's glamping trip is in May, so I will give a second report on how it goes when she gets back. Her trip is all tri-delts, so ours will be infinitely cooler.

Bad Blog Mom!

Well, if I am not the laziest blogger ever, I don't know who is... (Yes I do, its Miss Doxie, who we haven't heard from since 12/4. grrr.) But I did go all week with nary a post, which is sad. Soooo, let me think here, and try to do a quick recap of the week.

1. Peps on Monday night. The highlight here was definitely Luca. Benjamin and Luca were engaged in a staring contest for much of the night. They were fascinated with each other. It was very funny. I haven't seem him notice another baby quite like that before. Highly entertaining. Also, girl scout cookies and wine were my dinner that night, so that was good too.

2. I don't think I mentioned at all that Hillary was in town last weekend. Obviously it was much fun. She was here for a convention, so she didn't stay with us, but I got to meet up with her for brunch on Sunday morning. Eggs Benedict at Maxmillian's at the market - yum! I also got to play a little bit of tour guide for Jen and her mom Pam who had never been to Seattle which was cool too. In some supremely poor planning, I tried to shop all day, only going home once to feed the boy. I was in the Gap downtown with Hillary and Maija, boobs killing me, t-shirt soaked trying to decide what to do. I ended up coming home a little earlier than planned. Sigh. But it was great to have some girl time and help the two preggos look for maternity wear.

3. Big week at work with Matt trying to buy the Sonics. He was all over the news, and I have been overhearing lots of conversations with important people. I am really hoping he can pull it off. The Oklahoma City Super Sonics is too depressing to contemplate.

4. Went to REAP on Friday night. This is the second time I have gone since the boy's arrival. I have to say the first time was more fun. After the snacks and the wine, when we actually got around to talking about stocks, I was struggling to stay awake. Yawn. Not that it was boring, I was just a tired girl.

5. Had lunch with Felicity on Friday afternoon. She is coming back to work at Pine Street in a month! Yay! I am so excited to have her back. It will be much fun around the office. She also gave me a manicure gift cert, and a hilarious card with an angry baby on the front.

6. Saturday morning Benjamin rolled over from his back to his front. Sort of. In a cheating kind of way. Loren woke up and brought him in to bed with us when he wanted to eat first thing in the morning. So he was laying between us on his back, and he rolled over to his front, toward Loren. The thing is, with our old and crappy mattress, Loren creates a good downhill slope in his direction, so gravity actually did most of the work. He is very close though, and any day should do it on his own.

7. Went for a run with Auntie Cookie Saturday morning. Well, more of a walk with intermittent runinng interspersed throughout. It was harder than I thought, in more ways than I expected. First off, I ended up wearing two sports bras, as I have not had time to purchase a more heavy duty variety one, since the arrival of my new ginormous chest. Well that worked out ok, except that it was so tight around my rib cage that it was hard to breathe. My knee also started to hurt pretty badly about halfway around the lake. Apparently hefting around a bunch of extra weight for 9 or so months may not have been the greatest on my joints. And then of course there was the general out of shapeishness. Also I felt like I might wet my pants at any moment, but fortunately my bladder control reigns supreme. And Judith was a really good sport and let me walk all I wanted, and we went out for breakfast afterwards. We have many grand half marathon plans for this summer, so I have to get my act together.

8. Scott and Josie came over for dinner on Saturday night with a suitcase full of clothes for Benjamin. He is going to be one well dressed little guy. His dresser is literally breaking with the weight of all this new loot. Expect many new fashion platey photos coming up.

9. Today Loren worked on reseeding the grass and doing general yardwork, and Benjamin and I worked on a lot of nice long napping. It was excellent. And then Grandma Pat and Grandpa Lee had us over for dinner, which was good too.

Donuts, Little Debbies, Cookie Dough, Ice Cream, Eggos and Cream Puffs, or What happens when you go to the grocery store with 2 pregnant women

Well it has been a whirlwind few days since my last post. One thing that I do want to mention, before I forget, is that Benjamin discovered his mobile this week. Before he didn't even notice it, and now he will lay on his back and stare at it, and he fusses when the little animal parade stops going around, and playing its little song. He is getting all grown up! The neck control thing is getting better, but I tried him out in the Johnnie Jump up and he just slumped over and started crying. Apparently not ready for that one yet. He is still laughing once or twice a day, and he is really starting to chat with us more and more this week.

So as the follow up to the nanny chronicles, Sara emailed me after the trial run on Thursday, and Sam is allergic to Bailey, so she won't be able to nanny after all. Grrrr. So we had the second Marnie interview this afternoon, which was fine, so she is going to watch Benjamin on Thursday for a few hours as a test drive.

In other news, Hillary came to stay this weekend. Yay! The big excitement is that after much trying and many trials and tribulations (see http://www.hillaryshope.blogspot.com/ for more details), she is pregnant. Wahoo! I have known about this for several weeks, and have had a heck of a time keeping it quiet so that she could tell people about it in person. In a fabulous and happy coincidence, Maija is also pregnant, and due within a couple of days of Hillary. I got to see them tell each other, and it was a classic moment that I will always remember. Those two and Judith came over on Friday night, and we went to Rositas for cheese enchiladas and strawberry margaritas (some virgin). Afterwards we went to the grocery store and purchased more desserts than I have ever purchased at once (see title), and ate them while we watched What Not to Wear. Hillary fell asleep on the couch, and Judith had to go back to Issaquah earliesh, but sadly, thats always been about our speed for night life. We can't all be crazy party people.


On Saturday Hillary and I went to Bellevue for Hillary's first ever scrap booking experience, and then spent the day shopping for maternity clothes. We had take out Thai and Maija came over, and I made them watch me try on all my work clothes and see what fit. It was like our own what not to wear. Lots of commentary about structured jackets and camies to hide a bit of a tummy. They laid in bed and tried to stay awake, I finished the cream puffs. Yum. Hillary had to go to Redmond to hang out with Traci this morning, but I have high hopes that Mickey will get a job here (interview February 2! Cross your fingers!)