Happy New Year!

What a year we've had... reflecting on this past year... I can't believe how fast it's gone by.

Here's my post from 1 year ago...

For New Years we baked a pizza (home made with Adam's dough!), made sundaes and watched movies... our kind of fun. (We'll probably be doing the same thing next New Years but with a 7 month old!)... Here are pictures from our evening at home... Us and "Little Shlimp"


and here's us from tonight! (Funny... we're still chilling at home, watching movies... except honestly -- who has time to make a whole pizza when we have an 8 month old... so we've ordered Thai food instead)...

I've been MIA...

What a week...

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to everyone... it's been awesome seeing family and friends over the holidays. Ben was a very lucky boy and got some super fun gifts. (Although, Adam and I have enjoyed playing with his toys more than he has!)...

Unfortunately, the holidays were marred by some unfortunate events. *Literally -- marred...the definition of marred is: "To inflict damage, especially disfiguring damage, on."...which is totally what I did. Email me if you want the pictures* On Friday, I slipped and fell down our stairs resulting in a pretty bad bruise to my back. I pulled muscles in both arms and hurt my left foot. Thankfully, I wasn't carrying Ben at the time. On Saturday, Ben came down with a cold and had a fever of 102. Not fun. He's now coughing and sneezing up a storm. On top of all that,...his top two teeth are coming in so he's not a happy camper either.

Here's a picture of the two of us on the couch...

So needless to say -- I haven't been online much. It hurts to sit on my butt!

Just for fun,...here are some pictures of the last week...

Ben's loot...
My sister and the rag quilt I made for her...
My new sewing machine -- to make more rag quilts!
My mom, lighting a hanukkiah. =)
Adam and Ben -- opening up a gift.
My mom and I at Christmas dinner...
My dad and Ben... My dad bought him his very own Montreal Canadians jersey. Adam was a surprisingly good sport about it. =)
My mom and I... exchanging some glances...
Ben -- on Christmas morning...
Us at our Hanukkah dinner...
Playing table hockey on Christmas night...
Adam won...of course.
Adam and his baby...
My mom and Ben
My mom and Adam...(this is an ad for Crest toothpaste)

Ben's stocking at my parents' house!

Crawling in water...

So we discovered last night that Ben can crawl in the tub... but not on carpet (go figure). During his bath last night,... he pulled his knees up and started crawling along the bath mat-thingy in the tub! Why can't he figure out how to do that on dry land?

New blog look...

I found this awesome website: http://www.thecutestblogontheblock.com/ that makes changing the background of my blog so freaking easy...

What do you think?

Ben, Daddy and the guitar... (part 2)

Ben, Daddy and the guitar...

Happy Hanukkah!

(and Merry Christmas Eve Eve)...

We've had a pretty busy week ...but honestly the best part so far is Adam being at home! He's finally!!! taking a much-needed break! It feels like every day is a weekend! I actually got to sleep in today until 8am!!! Best husband ever.

Here's some of our latest adventures...

Ben -- ~5 hours after his flu shot. Go figure. He's a pretty happy kid =) {This was taken after his tylenol had kicked in...haha}
Adam, Ben and Ben's hanukkiah!
Ben and I...and his hanukkiah!
Ben's face... after opening his gifts {first night of Hanukkah}
Ben's hanukkiah. We opted for a traditional one that he can keep when he's older. It's actually nicer than the ones we have...=)

Our visit with "the boys and their wives"... Ben fell asleep halfway through from all the excitement!
My boys...
Sarah, Roni, Adam and Ben...reading.
Jonny, Hannah and Ben.

Little do they know that they're future husband and wife. Hehehe...

Ben trying to show some affection to Hannah...although she's not very interested.

Ben. Showing off his pearly whites.

My life...in 12 hours.

Here is my today... from 7am to 7pm. Literally.

(actually -- Ben was up at 615...so technically my day started then)...

615am -- Ben wakes up. I change him. Poop. Ew.

630am -- I feed him... and complain to Adam that I'm super tired. (He woke up 3 times last night although I only went to him once)...

645am -- Adam gives in and takes him downstairs. I tell him that I'll be right down. I fall back asleep with the lights on. For a whole hour!

745am -- I jump out of bed...and begin apologizing to Adam. He waves me off and makes me a hot chocolate (yay, Adam!)

8am -- Adam decides that he should beat the winter storm and gets ready to take public transit. I feed Ben some oatmeal and pears. He makes the worst gag face when I re-try peaches. Oh well. 3rd times a charm?

9am -- Ben heads to bed for nap #1 and Adam heads to work. Peace and quiet. I make rice krispies =), stick in a load of Ben's laundry and take a shower. I start the dishes...

1020am -- Ben is up. I feed him...and we play, read some books and jump around in the exersaucer. Citynews is on in the background. I check the car and it's covered. No mail. Landlady is still sleeping. Laundry is done so I fold it while Ben plays. He thinks it's fun to play hide and go seek in the dish towels. Too bad he wasn't big enough to actually DO dishes. (The sink is still full -- I mean well.)

1130am -- Lunch! Ben eats my last cube of carrots and sweet potatoes {note to self -- need to make more freezer food}. He has the rest of the pears for dessert. I try again with peaches and it's still a no-go. {And I mean that literally...he shakes his head "no"...}

12pm -- Ben goes in his exersaucer and I make some lunch. I talk to my mom on the phone just to hear another human voice. I can no longer see our driveway.

1pm -- Ben goes down for his afternoon nap. I start making cookies. My kitchen is a disaster -- rice krispies, breakfast dishes, and now cookie batter! Sheesh. I have a conversation with Adam on the computer. Ben is up. WHAT????

darn it. 1 hour nap. Cookies aren't done.

2pm -- I attempt to put Ben in the carrier so I can finish the cookies. Doesn't work. I end up putting him on the floor to play so I can ice the cookies.

3pm -- I feed Ben and we do some more playing. By this point, ... my back hurts, my arms hurt and I'm exhausted. It's only 3pm? Darn it.

4pm -- Ben shows some sleep signs. I stick him in his bed. He never has 3 naps! He sleeps until 5pm. I start making dinner... (a mishmash of leftover stuff that amounts to a mini-stew. Surprisingly it actually tastes good. There's enough for 3 more meals though. Adam is at his work party and has no idea when he'll be home... )

530pm -- I feed Ben some peas and oatmeal. He gags at avocado (what?!?) and tries some more mum mums. We play on the carpet and I eat my stew. I talk to my mom again. We watch the news.. (more snow!) and then I start singing the bath song. {bath time,...for benjamin... is the best time of the daaaayyyy}... He gets excited so we head upstairs.

6pm -- Ben gets a bath... we play with his green duck... and then I feed him and he's off to bed. Only 1 peep. (so far). I check the snow status. No mail. Our car is completely buried. No pathway to the door. We're officially snowed in. No sign from Adam. I'm in my PJs already. And I'm so ready for bed.

7pm -- the house is quiet. Finally. I think I'll make some tea and try some of the cookies I made. They look terrible --- I think I iced them in record time. OH well... I hope they taste okay.

Ben from the nose up...

... is me!!!!

Here's the proof...

Here's Ben...

Is it 8 months already?

Seriously...where has the time gone?

In just a short 4 days...Ben will be 8 months old! Shocking.

Here are some latest pictures...

Ben attacking his toys...

Ben...

Attempting to get into his exersaucer on his own...

Rediscovering sweet potato...

Hopping his way to freedom...

I think we're going to skip crawling completely...

here's Ben... hopping!?!

But,... I don't like zucchini... (anymore)...

the kindness of strangers...

Maybe it's just the season... everyone is a little bit merrier. Maybe it's just random acts of kindness that people do every day? I've never really noticed before until having Ben though...

Random people do really nice stuff for us... (it's probably the whole 'poor woman pushing a baby in the dead of winter' mentality but whatever)...

People open doors for us -- all the time! I don't even have to be struggling,... sometimes I'm just APPROACHING a door and someone will open it for me. It's like I have a huge sign on me that says, "you had better open that door...if you know what's good for you!". Once, a guy opened the door for me and I wasn't even planning on going through it!

Most of the time, though, I kinda find it embarrassing. I'm not used to getting help doing anything. I like doing things for myself. Getting help opening a door just feels weird. It's nice though, and I do appreciate it...but it's hard to get used to. I wonder how long that lasts.

I try to return the favour as often as I can. I open doors for other moms and dads all the time. I know how much they appreciate it...

Swimming Lessons!

I felt like such a mom this morning. Granted...I am one. But I totally FELT like one...

I was fighting for a swimming spot for Ben...

I was up at the crack of dawn... (actually,...make that BEFORE the crack of dawn. It was still dark out.). I was frantically typing in the web address... frantically dialing the stupid phone number. There's only 10 spots and I've heard horror stories that they fill up very quickly.

By 7.10am, I called Adam downstairs and the two of us were on both computers AND had the phone doing redial. Not fun.

Thankfully,... all is well. We are now enrolled in a Wednesday morning class at 10:30am (post-first nap). It starts on January 7th and runs until early March! 9 weeks for $29! Sweet. I hope Ben is excited as I am.

I heart mom & I heart dad...

Thanks to Grandpa Jerry and Lucretia... Ben is able to show his love for his parents without even saying a word!!!

Leafs!

Today we took Ben to see the Leafs (Open Practice)...what an awesome time. Ben did take a nap halfway through though =)






Here's us at Union Station...

the always changing... always interesting...trials of Ben's poop.

Can I write a whole post on Ben and his poop???? You bet.

*warning... this post might be TMI (TOO MUCH INFO) first thing in the morning...consider yourself warned if you continue reading*

It amazes me how Ben's poop is constantly changing.

From meconium poo (a new parent's worst nightmare!)...to yellow/green liquidy goodness. Breastmilk poo smells like goat cheese. Leave it out in the sun and it's enough to make you gag. It also kinda smells like freshly made bread. Ew.

We were quite comfortable with breast milk poo... and then solid food started. Double eww. It became thicker, pasty, chunky and smelly! And by smelly ... I mean SMELLY!!!!!!!!! It is also every colour of the rainbow. Avocado in. Avocado out. Carrots in. Carrots out. I'm afraid to see what beets might look like!

Breast milk poo came out with no warning... just a big thunder in the diaper. Solid food poo requires effort. Work. Lots and lots of grunting. {I wanted to videotape Ben attempting to poop this morning but Adam said it was inappropriate...sorry folks.}

Today we had a new adventure in the world of poop... turds! I laughed when I opened his diaper today...and one rolled out onto the change table. (and I do mean that literally...it rolled!) He's gone 3 times so far today and they've all been the size of Hershey's kisses. He needs to seriously eat some prunes. The grunting is getting out of hand.

So alas...there you have it. A whole post on Ben and his poop. I'm sure he'll really appreciate this play-by-play of his bowel movements when he's 16 =) I love being a mom.

the honest truth about motherhood...

Here's my day in a nutshell.

-Ben is teething... so he's a clingy, whiny mess. Thankfully, tooth #2 poked through today so I think we'll be in better spirits tomorrow.

-I actually forgot to brush my teeth today (ew) and only realized once Adam was home.

-I thought the sweater that I was wearing was clean...until I smelled puke on it. Weird. Ben was still sleeping and hadn't puked on me yet. That's right. A dirty, spit up sweater that I had hung up in the closet. Gross. Sad thing is... I left it on all day. (double ew).

-The above-mentioned sweater now has pears, more spit up, oatmeal, and squash on it. So it's a good thing that I didn't bother taking it off.

-My hair has been in a ponytail since Sunday night. (I wash it,...but it gets put back up in a ponytail. I'm sure this is doing some serious damage to my hair. Sad thing is.. I don't really care).

-I left the house to mail some cards... thankfully my new jacket is long enough that it covered the gross sweater and my sweat pants. I had my hood up so no one saw my lovely hair.

-Today, I tried to do too many things at once. I learned today that I am not able to feed Ben AND feed myself AND bake a cake. I added an extra cup of water to the cake (as if I was watering a plant!) and so needless to say,...the cake didn't turn out so well. The cake is in the green bin. Yum.

-It's now 8pm and I'm on my 3rd basket of laundry. I haven't had time to fold them or put them away yet.

-I attempted to do the dishes. Really. I filled 3 racks of dishes... and they're still not done. I gave up. It got to the point that I started washing only the dishes I needed. Ben's spoon and dish. A pot. 2 forks.

-My plan tonight is to veg in front of the TV.

Is it Friday yet?