Need I say more?

Adventures in Ba.. king! (Pumpkin Edition)

Get it?  Adventures in Baking instead of the hit '80s movie: Adventures in Babysitting?... yeah, I thought you would.  Anyway, I made a pumpkin pie for Joe's bday since he likes them and it's October.  I think the more I eat it the more I like it!  Well this year as I was making it I thought about what else I could make with pumpkin.  Well, i got online and found a recipe for pumpkin cupcakes- with cream cheese frosting!  They're great! 



I LOVE baking!  I've never done cake mix from scratch before.  It's not that bad!  I do see the need to make it smooth.  The great thing was that I could just set my stand mixer to on and then keep adding ingredients so that nothing could clump up. 

Now I gotta send any leftovers to work with Joe on Monday so that they don't stick around too long :)  Bit by bit the scale numbers seem to be going down (overall, but the fluctuation is agonizing) so I don't need anything to throw it off.  If you were here I would make you eat one! 

So far so good...

We went to see the Pediatric Urologist on Friday last week and got some good news.  Since it appears that the connection between Benjamin's navel and bladder has healed up from the outside (navel) then we'll continue to wait and let it close up.  He'll be on a low dose antibiotic til January when we have an ultrasound to be sure that it has healed up at both ends and there's nothing stuck in between.  I have a feeling that at that point all will be fine, but should it not be healed like the doctor wants then we'll proceed with surgery at that time. :(  Keep those prayers up if you can, they NEVER hurt!

Got to spend some time at my parents' house this weekend- what a joy!  I missed my brothers, but as usual the house was crazy with people anyway.  My cousins' car wouldn't start so we had her, her husband and 13 month old M. on Friday night.  Then another cousin came with my uncle showing up the next day along with open house guests all Saturday afternoon.  My parents are such an inspiration in the "more the merrier," "let us know what you need" kind of ministry.  Their example of patience is why I have any that I do now and the fact that I desire to have more.



so peaceful





On a different note- Ben slept through the night on Friday night- from 8pm to 6:30am!!!  Too bad I was downstairs highlighting my hair with my mom til 2am... so I got a good 4 hours instead of the 10 hours of uninterrupted sleep that Ben got.  I hope he'll do that again sometime soon, I hope it's not just an "at Grandma's house" sort of thing.

What a way to spend the Day...

I caught this act a couple of weeks ago.  He's NEVER this calm unless he's either about to sleep or just coming out of sleep.  I caught him doing mental telepathy with the Hippo and Monkey connected to his swing.  What would life be like if this was your job... to stare at your toys all day...

Getting Bigger every day



my little man



First off... Adorable, no?  ---->

I had a CT scan on Monday with some dye to see if things were going where they are supposed to, etc. and was told I couldn't breastfeed for 24 hours afterward.  No problem I thought, I have a nice little supply in the freezer for just this occasion.  Well, for whatever reason (i'm looking into it, doing experiments etc) none of the freezer milk smelled or tasted good- Ben wouldn't take it.  So I dug out the formula samples from the hospital and pediatrician.  I'm so glad I saved them just in case.  We had enough to get through the 24 hours although Benjamin alerted me to the fact that he didn't like the taste of it either, but at least I knew it was good for him. 

 

do I have to?!



When I don't like it, i don't care
 how much runs down my chin!

I'm sure babies that start on formula don't even think about the taste of it.  For a kid who takes vitamins and medicine well, Ben acted like this formula was disgusting- it took 30 min to convince him to drink it and he just spit some of it back out at me.  And just to quell my curiousity, I tasted and smelled it- I wouldn't want to drink it unless it was the only thing I had on deserted island!  I can't tell you how nice it was to finally have him back nursing, both of us felt SOOOO much better.

Week Update

Quick notes from the past week:

- Thank you to anyone who sent sympathy cards to me or my family, it means alot to know that people care so much!

Picture courtesy of Joe's mom



- Ben dropped a night feeding this past week (well, for a few nights at least).  I can't tell you how different I feel when I've only gotten up once in the night!

- We enjoyed some of Joe's homemade beer last night with his family, it turned out pretty well!  The brand is Ben's Best :)  This first attempt was an American Pale Ale.

-Ben got his 2 month shots last week- I didn't like it very much.  There's something about sitting there watching someone put a large needle with chemicals into your child.  It seems so unnecessary at that moment.  I know it's important so I do it, but it stinks.

- I did pilates 4 out of the 5 mornings this week and walked 3 days - credit to my cousin Theresa for inspiring me to get my Pilates DVD out... I heart Denise Austin!

- Got to spend some good time with some girlfriends.  I can't believe how lucky I am to have such great women around me who are also striving to be good wives and mothers.  More on this topic later...

I'm finishing up my chocolate mini wheats and going to bed now.  I have to fast from now on for some scans I have to have done in the morning... probably a good thing after eating my way through the weekend :) 

Big Squash or Big Baby?



it was so sunny and warm!



Fall is here!  Or at least that's what we're supposed to think since it's October.  It was so warm this weekend I had a hard time believing that last year on Joe's bday we sat outside with friends wearing winter coats, gloves, hats and blankets listening to music. 

This weekend we sweated it out at Tanners Apple Orchard with some of Joe's coworkers.  It was nice to meet and spend time with them.  One of them has a 1 year old daughter, so crazy to think what Benjamin will be like in a whole year!  I think the whole world thought it would be great to go to Tanners that day so we didn't get to do much.  Also, since we have a 2 month old there's not much we can do with him but show him pumpkins... which we did :)

soon he will be trying
to eat this

On a side note Ben went to bed at 9pm last night and didn't get up to eat til 4:15... I woke up by myself (which was freaky, I've woken to him crying since he was born) and when I gathered my thoughts I realized that he'd been sleeping for a LOOOONG time!  He then went back to sleep around 5:30 and didn't get up til 8:30.  I felt like a whole new person this morning!  I put him to bed at 9pm again tonight in hopes that the same thing will happen...  with more sleep I'll be holding myself to getting more things accomplished- next up: consistent exercise!!!

consignment cuties

great finds ready for the washing machine



God bless consignment sales!  What a great way to get cute stuff for $2 for $5 a piece!  I got tons of great collared shirts for Ben for church and nice outtings.  I'm such a sucker for preppy little boy clothes.  4 grocery bags of new clothes for about 50 bucks!  YES!



have you EVER seen an outfit that cute!? $10!



 I went to some of these sales while pregnant and just didn't know what to get or if I should get anything!  It's nice knowing that I can bee-line for the boys clothes and only pick things that I think are adorable and be good to go.  Next shopping... Halloween costumes!

2 month checkup

Benjamin had his 2 month check up this afternoon and the pediatrician says he's looking great!  He's 13 lbs even and now in the 75 percentile (meaning he's heavier than 75% of his peers at this age), He's about 22.5" tall (25th percentile) and his head circumference is somewhere around the 65th percentile I think.  We do have to keep an eye on him with the bladder/navel connection and infection possibilities.  We'll meet with the pediatric urologist in 2 weeks (see past post for the whole story if you don't know what I'm talking about.)

I feel incredibly blessed.  And he's cute to boot! :)

More in future posts about the funeral of my grandfather, my amazing grandmother (s), and travelling with a 2 monther...

-back to my Friday evening with my amazing husband!

Grandpa

First of all, I considered myself blessed to have made it to 27 years old and still had 4 grandparents.  Unfortunately, that is no longer the case.  My mother's father passed away this afternoon after having a massive stroke in the wee morning hours.  Every since I was little it seemed that  3am phone calls always meant that someone had died... it's funny, it only happened a couple of times but when my dad called last night at about 3am (between Ben's feeding times) I knew that something was VERY wrong. 



My mother, father and sister were able to make it down there before he passed which I'm sure was very good for my mom.  I haven't spoken to her since finding all this out and I hope that being in the presence of her mother, sisters and brother is doing wonders for her.  I (and Ben, of course) will go to Loogootee for the wake and funeral which will be early next week. 



He was a great dancer... that's how he met grandma! :)







Things I will tell Benjamin about his great grandfather who died on the day he turned 8 weeks old:

- grandpa prayed... alot.  He had a relationship with Jesus that I feel I will only every hope to have.

- grandpa used to fish and catch 100 in a morning with his buddy Carl, then grandma would fry them up for dinner.  SOOOOOO good.

- grandpa made rosaries for those who needed them... many, many rosaries and prayed the prayer often.

- grandpa had hands that were so strong you could hardly believe it... mom says it's from his work in the gypsum mine (he worked swing shift)

- grandpa prayed for all of his kids and grandkids with extreme passion, him and grandma would get up at 5am to start their prayers for all of us, I remember joining them once when I was really little
- grandpa would talk about meeting grandma and how she had a nice figure :)
- grandpa loved to work in his garden and the yard, this past summer he could be off his oxygen for something like 6 hours at a time at the most... he used this time to get on the riding lawn mower
- grandpa loved... he just loved... with one of the biggest hearts I have ever known



A picture's worth a thousand words



There's so much more I could write but I have to stop myself at some point.  It hasn't really hit me that he's not on this earth anymore.  I'm trying to come to grips with it, going to the wake and funeral will help.  I found myself talking to him today as I might do my patron saint.  I can't be more thankful to have the confidence of my faith at a time like this.  Now we're not physically separated like we were, 6 hours of driving away.  We're a part of the body of Christ and he's present for me in a way that he couldn't be before.  I love thinking that even though he never met Ben on earth he can see him now!  I just stood there looking at Ben sleep and thinking how cute it was with his hands over his head and asked grandpa if he thought it was funny...  You can be sure that I'll be trusting my grandpa as my intercessor for years to come.