My Family

Ben woke up very early one day, just in time to see his daddy before he left for work. He was not happy when he left, but this prompted my first conversation with my son.

"Mama?"

"What Ben?"

"Where Daddy?"

"Daddy had to go to work, honey. I'm sorry, I know you're sad."

"Daddy bye-bye."

"Yes, Daddy had to go bye-bye. You'll see him later, ok?"

Totally normal conversation, but it was amazing to me.

***

My husband and his weird mind. Here is an example:

We were on our way home and hubs starts talking out loud to himself.

"April showers brings May flowers......Mayflowers bring Pilgrims......Pilgrims bring syphilis. Heh."

"Huh?"

"Just going on this train of thought. April showers brings May flowers. Mayflowers bring Pilgrims. Pilgrims bring syphilis."

"uh..... okay."

"Syphilis. Syph........Revenge of the Syph. Hahahhaha...."

"You're weird."

***

On the Thursday before last, I had an ultrasound to measure the baby an make sure everything was okay with the baby.

"Did you want to find out the sex of the baby?" the sonographer asked us.

"Yes!" we said together.

"Okay........it's a girl!"

"Really?" I asked.

"That means we're done!" hubs says. Yes, that was the first thing he said.

The sonographer asked me to wait while she got the doctor and left the room.

"It's a girl," I said, as tears started to roll down my face.

"I knew you were gonna cry." H said.

"I would be crying even if it was a boy. Now we know who the baby is. We can call her by name, not just baby!" I said.

"I know," H said, and kissed me. "We're having our girl."

We're having our girl. We move into our new house next month. Only 23 days of school left. Life is good.

Stories that I don't want to forget

Tomorrow my beautiful baby boy will be 20 months old!

A few days ago Ben was asking me where Daddy was. "Oh honey, Daddy had training and then had to go back to the office. He probably won't be home until late. I'm sorry honey." Ben looked at me and shaking his finger back and forth, said, "Daddy bad! Daddy bad!" I couldn't stop laughing. "Why is Daddy bad, honey?" He replied simply, "Daddy bad!"

Last week, I was sitting on the couch and he walked up to me, looking sad and holding his head. "Oh no," I said, "did you hit your head?" I picked him up and held him close to me, stroking his head and back. "I'm sorry honey." He pulled his head back slightly to look at me, then leaned back in and put his forehead against mine. And then, sweetly, he leaned closer in to me and kissed me on the lips!

This sweet, simple act brought tears to my eyes. "Honey," I cried, turning towards my husband, "Benny kissed me!" As I told my husband, Ben leaned forward and kissed me again on the cheek. *Sigh* I love being a mom. I'm scared for this next one, but I DO love it.

Next week I get to find out if it's a boy or a girl....

Haha... every day my ass (and other news)

Man, I knew I wouldn't stick to the every day blog. What was I thinking putting it out there for the entire internet universe to read? I've never been able to keep a regular journal. The most regular one I kept was when I lived in Austria for a few months for school, and that's only because I took a journal class so that it would force me to keep one!

Lots has been happening on the home front. First and foremost......

Baby #2 on the way!

How did this happen so fast? It took me THREE years to conceive my baby boy, two surgeries and meds. For this one I was only off the pill for two months and BAM! It's been so easy that I still feel a bit in shock and like it's not real, even though my stomach is growing before my eyes. My kids are gonna be almost exactly two years apart, this one also due in September.

Second, I didn't get laid off! Woo hoo, I guess third job's the charm? It's a tough market out there right now and teachers are getting laid off left and right - the arts are ALWAYS the first to go. The thing is, now that I'm teaching at the secondary level again, my classes are again required for kids to graduate/go on to college, so I feel pretty good about where I stand.

And third...... WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!

Finally.

It's in the process of being built right now and is due to be finished in early July. They're doing pretty quick work on it - one week we were looking at the rooms framed out and the next week they already had all of the drywall up. it's really exciting to watch the home that you're going to be living in being built. At first I was worried about the closing date being too close to the baby being born, but I still have another month and a half after we move in, and this way I don't have to worry about moving during the school year. I can finish up the year and then focus my attentions on the house and baby.

Wow. I never thought I'd get here. It feels good.

Back to school

I was dreading going back to school today after two weeks off, but I found that if I acted cheerful, I actually felt it. Not a huge surprise - I mean, I am a generally happy person, and if I don't get any trouble from my students, I am a very peppy person. Maybe peppy is not the right word - I'll stick with cheerful. There is something about the word peppy that is weird.

Benny boop went back to daycare today. He love love LOVES his daycare, which is great. How and I are already wondering what we are going to do when we move, because we love his daycare too. Its hard to find someone that you feel you can trust to watch your baby, especially if that person is a complete stranger. Our daycare lady has really been so loving and kind to Ben and her kids love him too. It will totally be out of the way when we move, but we are thinking about finishing out the school year with her. Then I would have Benny for the summer and then we would only have one more year of daycare to go until we could put him in preschool in my district.

Gotta go catch some zzz's, my eyes are starting to go blurry.

ok

I'm gonna write again, try to write every day. This is my new years resolution. I need to be able to look back and remember!

Its late, so I'm making a list of words that Benjamin says.

1. Mama - most often said when he's upset and/or crying.
2. Daddy - says this ALL THE TIME. And when he's happy. I carried this kid for nine months and this is the word he uses most. Not fair.
3. Uh-oh! - said after he's dropped something.
4. No - what can I say, this kid knows what he wants. Hmm, maybe we say that too much to him?
5. More - more drink, more food. He even does it along with the sign language.
6. Wow! - when he sees something impressive, like Christmas lights or ceiling fans. Yes, ceiling fans.
7. Yeah - really only said once, after I said, Benjamin?
8. Here - again, only once, after he said yeah, I said, Where are you? and he said Here. Swear to God. My 16-month old is a friggin genius.
9. Hello? - holds up my cell phone to his ear, usually upside down and backwards.
10. Yeh yeh - Grandpa in Mandarin
11. Oh God - he totally repeated after me, I think I said it when I had to clean up after a particularly disgusting poop incident.