I'm a horrible mother v2.0

Ben looks like he's been in a bar fight. First there's the bruise on his cheek. Then there's the bug bite he scratched until bleeding, on his other cheek. And on Friday the following happened:

We were at a big playground walking around on some of the equipment. Ben was getting around really well, until he tried to move past a girl to get near the slide. He tripped on her sandal and went forehead first into the plastic step. He didn't even catch himself with his hands, it was all forehead. Ouch.

So now he has a big bruise across his forehead, to compliment his other injuries. Can you imagine how much smarter we'd all be if we were never toddlers?

I swear he has it in for me (you can decide which "he")

I'm starting to notice a pattern. All this week Heath got up with Ben in the morning and Ben slept until 6:45am. Then yesterday Heath left at 6am to play golf, which gave me wake up duty. Ben woke up at 6:20. Where did my 25 extra minutes go?! I'm adding them to Ben's bill, to be delivered on his 18th birthday.

It's the same thing on the weekends. Saturday is my day to sleep in and Ben's been known to sleep until 7am. But on Sunday morning when Heath gets to sleep late? It's a 6:15 wake up call.

I think it's a conspiracy. Somehow Heath is training Ben to wake up early on my mornings to spite me for leaving used paper towels on the kitchen counter or forgetting to close the lid on the container of baby wipes. Or, god forbid, leaving clothes on the toilet seat while I shower! How will we survive?!

Now I just need to figure out how to use Ben to get back at him for leaving his pants on the living room floor and keeping piles of stuff on the utility counter for months on end. And, yes, just so you know, my grievances are legitimate and his are CrAzY!

Needles are icky

We took Ben to the doctor on Saturday and here are his new stats:

Weight: 27.8 lbs - 96th percentile
Height: 31 in. - 90th percentile
Head: 49cm - 96th percentile

His weight gain is slowing down a lot. He only gained 1.5 pounds since his last check up three months ago. He grew two inches, though. He's still chubby, but he's definitely thinning out and supposedly eating can drop off when they enter their second year. Between that and the walking (soon to be running) I think we'll be seeing a leaner, sleeker Ben model in the future.

He only got two shots and one was the flu vaccine. It seems to have affected him, because he's had a runny nose ever since. No fever, but the nose is like a faucet. The doctor also said they do a routine lead test at one year, so yesterday I took Ben to the lab. They took blood out of his arm, which I wasn't expecting. What I was expecting was crying and thrashing around and maybe even trying to touch the needle. So I had a death grip on Ben as the technician tied off his arm and started to take his blood. However, Ben didn't even seem to notice anything was happening. He was still cooing at the technician while the needle was in his arm. The guy got two vials of blood and Ben didn't protest at all. We were both amazed. He was better at that than I am. You just never know, because he was not happy at all when he got shots on Saturday.

I'm a horrible mother

I know the title of the post isn't true, but I feel like it after what happened yesterday. We visited the City Garden, which is a cool urban garden with sculptures and a splash area for kids. Now that Ben's becoming an accomplished walker he was having tons of fun walking around to the different water jets and just exploring. I was walking near him, but letting him have some independence to walk where he wanted.

Well, in the middle of the water area is a fountain in which kids are allowed to swim. It was too deep for Ben, but there was a nice wide stone platform to hold onto and watch other kids. He was headed for the platform and when he was almost there he lunged a bit, as he often does when he's near his destination. Only that time he misjudged how far away he was. His hand slipped and he fell face first into the platform and then onto the ground. I knew it was going to happen the second before, but I wasn't close enough to stop it. I just watched in horror.

Of course Ben started screaming and honestly I was expecting blood and a possible trip to the ER. However, his face was just pink where he'd hit on his left cheek. I thought the bruise would be massive, but it's not. Still, between that and the bug bite he scratched he looks like he's been in a fight. Playgroup's getting rough.

I feel very lucky that it wasn't worse. The platform was rounded, so I think that saved us from more injury. I don't know what I'm going to do when something really serious happens.

A place filler

I will do a write-up of Ben's birthday party soon, but in the meantime here's the video of him eating his cake:



Here's the link, if that video goes too slowly: Let Ben eat cake!

On the eve of our first kid birthday party

We are furiously preparing for Ben's party tomorrow. The house is now presentable and lots of food has been procured. Presents have been wrapped and there are balloons floating in the laundry room (protected from both toddlers and felines). I forgot about them and then they scared the crap out of me when I opened the door. Good thing Ben's not old enough to remember that, because I'm sure I'd never hear the end of it. Tonight I have to bake the cakes and then we're pretty much ready.

Wednesday we had a good day. Unfortunately Heath had caught a bad cold, so he was down for the count. It's good Ben won't remember that, either, but I know Heath felt pretty badly about it. However, we made the best of the day and headed to the Botanical Garden with a few playgroup friends. We saw koi and then we played in the children's garden. They have a splash area and Ben had a great time in the water.

One complete revolution around the sun

Dear Ben,

One year ago on this very day you came into our lives. Daddy and I were so happy to finally meet you. Getting to know you over this past year has been one of the best experiences of my life.

We've done a lot this year. We joined a playgroup and met a lot of new friends. We took three road trips and one plane trip and you were excellent all four times. We've gone to the mall, to the movies, to the park, to numerous playgrounds and we spent a lot of time walking around our own neighborhood.

You've also changed a lot. A year ago you were this tiny blob who couldn't even lift his own head up. You could barely stay awake long enough to eat. Now you're crawling and walking around the house and soon you'll be running and climbing (Lord, help us all). You laugh a lot now and you seem to be a genuinely happy person. You have no idea how wonderful it is to just lie on the floor, tickle you and listen to you laugh. As Daddy would say, it is a Lifetime Moment.

One big aspect of your personality that has emerged is that you're very investigative. Anytime you come into contact with something new you have to turn it over and examine it before you play with it or stick it in your mouth (so far you haven't deemed anything unworthy of being stuck into your mouth). It's also been the same way with big physical changes. As I've said before, you have to do a cost-benefit analysis before you attempt anything new. Thus, when you started both crawling and walking it was a few weeks before either really caught on. You had to figure out for yourself if this new mode of locomotion was really worth all the trouble of learning it. Everyone says you look so much like your Daddy and at least in that way you think like him, too.

Benny, I love you so much and I'm still in awe that I created a person like you. This year has been a total roller coaster and it hasn't all been good, but there was never a moment that I didn't love you. Today and on this day every year in the future we will celebrate the day we met you. I can't wait to find out even more about you and watch as you unfold into the person you are and will become. It is an amazing honor to be a part of it.

Love,
Mommy

What do you think about that?

It's been a month since our trip, but Ben is finally back to peaceful sleeping habits. He goes down for naps and bedtime without a fuss and he's waking up between 6:15 and 6:30. No more 5:30 wake up calls. I wish I could go back in time and tell my high school self that in the future I would be grateful to wake up at 6:30. The look of horror would be quite amusing.

By now I realize that peaceful sleeping isn't a "forever" thing. We go through good spells and bad spells and very, very, very bad spells. Right now I'm just trying to enjoy this good spell without spoiling it by over thinking. Not an easy task for me. If over thinking was an Olympic sport I would be a gold medalist many times over.

Defiance: Thy name is toddler

Toddler tendencies have been cropping up in Ben's behavior for a couple months now. The most infuriating one (so far) is with his sippy cup. It sits on his highchair tray during meals and he is apparently physically incapable of putting it back when he's done drinking. His DNA compels him to drop it onto the floor (I think it's the Y chromosome). At first he just dropped or threw it to see what happened, but now he knows it makes me mad. Sometimes he grabs it, doesn't even take a drink, and holds it over the side of the chair. Then he gives me this smirk like, "Give me all the cookies, or the cup gets it!" If I say no he laughs. I'm sure I have many, many parenting trials ahead of me, but him laughing when I say no strains my patience to the breaking point.

As Heath said, Ben's fortune was probably meant for us instead.

The times, they are a-changin'

Remember this post about 2 months ago, in which I lamented Ben's disinterest in food? It's amazing how quickly life changes, because now he's all about the table food. He still eats baby food, to a point, but he'd much rather be shoveling bread or cheese into his mouth. It's good in the long run, but it requires a thinking shift on my part. No longer can I just throw a couple containers in the diaper bag and have lunch for him. And since he can't have or wouldn't be able to eat certain foods yet, it can be difficult to find something for him to eat at a restaurant. However, soon he'll be able to eat almost anything, so that'll make his meals a little easier (at the 1 year appointment, most pediatricians give the go-ahead for most table food).

Ben's favorite foods:

Bread
Cheese
Peas
Corn
Cottage cheese
Yogurt
Deli meat
Applesauce

Foods he's not too sure about yet:

Strawberries
Raspberries
Asparagus
Blackberries
Potatoes