Well.. the poor little guy had another seizure earlier this evening. Both Ben and I were sick last week.. me more than Ben. He was still a little off over the weekend and today.. not specifically sick.. just not acting totally like himself.

Today was a typical Monday.. I was home from work and Ben and I ran some errands (and ran into someone) this morning and then it was home for naptime. I built an awesome train setup while Ben was sleeping (I have pictures if I can get around to uploading them). When he woke up from his nap, it was like Christmas morning. He saw the train setup and giggled and laughed and clapped. He played well for a while. I noticed that his eyes never lost that "I just woke up" haze.

Shiela had a doctor's appointment downtown this afternoon, so Ben and I piled into the car and drove down to meet her. While we were waiting for her, Ben dozed in his carseat. Not the norm after a 3 hour nap. Not the norm with his eyes at half-mast.

We watched him closely as we drove home. We had done this before.. why does his temp decide to spike when we're in the CAR. It's probably because we're driving around at 4:30pm when a kid's temp is the most likely to start jumping up for the evening. ugh!

He got warmer and warmer and kept yawning. As we got closer to our neighborhood I stepped on the gas. Ben giggled as we hit a few bumps in the car (at least we weren't hitting any other cars this time). We got home and ran him upstairs where I went to strip him down and change his diaper/check his temp and shiela grabbed the motrin. After we got that into him, we moved out to the living room. his temp was at 103.2'F.

Shiela sat with him in the rocker while I went to crush up one of his Klonopin (anti-seizure med) and mix it with some jello. He took that down fine (along with several bites of jello sans med. Then he snuggled against shiela and we watched and waited. We do think that the Motrin and Klonopin helped, but in the end he did end up having a seizure still. We were both watching him and shiela was holding him and said that she felt a rush of warmth as his temp spiked up even more and then he got really still. I pinched his shoulder in a way that one of the original neurologists showed me to test to see if he was responsive. He wasn't. It only lasted a few seconds. Just long enough for shiela to stand up to bring him somewhere to lay him down and he was already starting to fuss. The seizure had broken as quickly as it started.

We called his pediatrician. He'll be going in tomorrow for a checkup to see if he's got a virus brewing or if his ears are acting up. We'll be doing the Motrin/Tylenol rounds through the night to keep his temperature down until we get in to see the doc. We'll also keep the Klonopin coming. We're supposed to give that up to 3 times per day while he has a temperature and is at risk for a fever induced seizure (regardless of if we're calling them febrile seizures or epileptic fever-induced seizures).

All in all.. we did well. Ben was wobbly and irritable for a while... but he played well this evening after the seizure and even had some dinner and some milk from his tippy. He's asleep now. We'll be waking him up in about 2 hours for his next Motrin dose.

Shiela and I exchanged a high-five once we were comfortable that we had moved past the "seizure zone" and Ben's temp was coming down and he was acting more like himself. I'm sure it will always be a nerve wracking experience.. seeing your child sick just doesn't get easier.. but it does help to understand what is going on and to feel like we can help him and make him feel better.

I REALLY want to watch a disaster movie on the TV in our bedroom while I doze off to sleep. Hmmm.. that goes against the no-tv-in-the-bedroom rule. Did I honestly only make it one night? I'll let you know tomorrow!

As I've mentioned before, we are of the full-disclosure opinion when it comes to how to raise a child who was conceived with a little help from friends. Well, that's not our story.. but I felt the need to throw in some lyrics for some reason.. I guess I'm feeling all Moulin Rouge this morning after crashing the car again.

Anyway.. last night we were on our way to dinner with my mom, sisters and my niece and nephew. My nephew is 8 and he came in our car with us. We're way cooler that his mom. The drive to the restaurant (when I'm not crashing into things) is only about 10 minutes). Like a typical 8 year old (at least in our family), he talked the whole way. At one point he was talking about/to Ben and said something about "ben will never have a father.." Shiela picked up on it quicker than I did. She did a quiet half-head-turn and said "of course he does, sweetie.. all people have both a mother and a father." He said "really?". I said "yes.. we don't know his name, but he wanted to help families like ours". He said "oh.. I didn't know that". And that was that.. he launched into another discussion about Nerf dart launchers.

Children are amazing. (btw.. beck.. forgot to tell you about this before we left.. so heads-up.. you may get a question or two.. *grin*)

Shiela and I have come to the conclusion that we do the majority of our "serious" talking during the 2 hour trips down to Connecticut and back. Since my parents have moved, we are making that jaunt less, and are therefore having fewer "serious" talks. By "serious".. I don't mean bad.. I just mean talking about us as individuals and as a couple and a family and what we like, don't like, etc, etc, etc. Time tends to fly by and we all continue to grow up in some ways and it sure helps a marriage when you coordinate things once in a while.

Life with a toddler is hectic. Life with two cats and a toddler is hectic. Life with two full time jobs, two cats and a toddler is hectic. We look forward to sleep.. but then when the time comes, we can't sleep. We embrace every second that we spend with our son (even while wrangling him into time out) and occasionally remember to embrace one another during this journey.

In short, we are probably two of the most in-sync people I've known.. we laugh ALL the time. I absolutely love spending time with Shiela and Ben (and the cats).

The topic of conversation last night, on our drive back from CT.. hit a number of topics, but one of those was the fact that we're flat out all of the time and it feels like we're barely keeping our heads above water in just about all aspects of our life. Work is work; nuff said. The time we're not working we spend grasping for time with each other and our son and trying to keep up with laundry (which is what I should be doing now instead of blogging) and dishes and the cat litter. Throw in a presidential election and some stirrings of current financial.. um.. what does Bush call them.. oh yeah.. "adjustments".. and we wake up running and fall into bed at night surprised that we're all still intact.

We decided to try a few things.

1. We're going to go on a real Date (capital "D") at least twice a month. This will include getting a babysitter and doing something other than going to a movie and spending two hours in silence. We can still go to movies.. but those don't count as "us" time. This will be time to spend together doing something that one or both of us enjoy (we're pretty in sync on these types of things anyway) and allowing ourselves to sort of check in with each other during a time when we're not responsible for doing any housework and the phone isn't ringing and Ben isn't losing his mind while we're calmly trying to wrestle him into his carseat after a trip to Target.. you know the scene.. that kid throwing a FIT and the parents saying quietly "please honey.. don't do that". I always walked by those families thinking "man.. MY kid wouldn't act like THAT". Uh... what the heck ever, man. Now when I see those families I stop and look at the parents and can see one familiar thing. EXHAUSTION.

2. Shiela and I have decided that the TV in our bedroom is not for TV. I've had that TV since I was about 15 and it has lived a good life. It is a boat anchor and we've gotten into such a habit of turning on something.. anything.. as background sound/light, while we try to detox from the day and work toward sleep. Occasionally we'll watch a movie or something, but usually it's just some random documentary or the second half of some 80's movie that we half pay attention to. At some point, usually in the wee hours of the morning, one of us digs the remote out from under the covers and will shut the stupid thing off. No more TV in bed. If we want to watch TV.. we have a perfectly good TV in the living room. end of story.

as an update to this one.. we tried this last night and it was VERY relaxing. shiela seemed to fall asleep better than I did.. i felt like I was awake forever and i kept checking on ben and having to pee. but eventually I did fall asleep and the world didn't come to an end.

3. We're going to try something new. One night a week we're going to have a family night, which, in itself.. isn't that new of an idea. The twist that we're adding to shake it up a bit is that it's a "lights out" family night. No electricity.. when the sun goes down, it gets dark. We'll light candles (we'll buy candles that we can keep toddler proof) and no TV, no radio, no computer. Anything else is fair game.. we can cook, we can read/play/whatever. But it will be like we lost electricity without things in the fridge going bad and the phones not working. Don't worry.. I'll blog about it. I can't guarantee that the pictures will be any good by candlelight.. but I'll give it a whirl.

Now.. big group hug...

Ok.. I'm going to the next town meeting. Living off of Mass Ave is just fine.. 99.8% of the time. There needs to be a "no emergency vehicle sirens on Mass Ave between 11am and 1pm". They wake the baby up. URGH

Hi guys..

I like to write. I have a subset of this blog that I've just written my first post to. It is a review of Thomas the Train products and a discussion of the brand in general. It is located on a separate site because I would like to keep this one clean from anything but an occasional reference to a review if I think it's particularly entertaining. I will probably put a link to the site up from this blog at some point if I find the energy.

As an aside, I'm being weird.. I know. I'm not getting paid to write any reviews. If I am given the opportunity, I'll be sure to note that, but for now I'm doing it for fun.. just to share some of my experiences with other parents. Hope you enjoy.

Thomas the Tank Engine post on Two Moms and a Baby - Product Reviews

OH MY GAWD! The kids are going to kill me for this at some point (probably around their junior prom when they stumble across it during a history class on the internet prior to the great fall of the US economy). I can't stop laughing...

On that note.. Snick.. when are we going to have a High School Musical watching par-tay.. I need to squeeze in on your busy social calendar for an ice-cream night.. :)

I have a new reader.. Melissa. Hi Melissa! I don't typically call out new readers because.. well.. that would make for a darned boring blog. The funny thing is that sometimes a commenter will get my attention and I'll check out their blog. It's how the blogging world turns, you see.

Well as it turns out, Melissa's blog is also called "two moms and a baby" although subtle differences can be found in that #1, she doesn't use caps in her header and I do and #2, she and her partner, Andrea are two different moms with an entirely different child (Ambrose.. LOVE the name, Melissa!). So all in all.. even though you might be duped into thinking that we're writing the same blog and that the content may be the same.. it's really like a Diet Coke versus Diet Pepsi sorta thing.

My solution to this challenge? I'll start reading their blog.

Maybe we have something here. I'm going to make a list of all the blogs that I read that are about two moms and a baby. I'm going to bet that all the moms are different and all the children are like snowflakes..

Oh my god.. I'm laughing so hard I think I cracked a rib. My son is looking at me like I'm a total goofball.. why would someone laugh so hard while sitting at the computer?

Here ya go...

Time for Some Campaignin'

(btw.. my ad service seems to like my posts.. they just linked to the Kentucky post and I've been getting a zillion hits.. so to any new readers.. HI.. i normally post about scraping cheerios off of Thomas tracks and the woes of having a kid going through a growth spurt and polishing off our organic-delivered-from-a-local-farm-in-glass-bottles milk a whole 3 days before their next delivery.)

At the request of Giovanna, I am now "following" her blog in hopes that she will also "follow" mine. Since I went through the incredibly challenging effort to modify my blog to include this widget, I hope that all of my faithful readers will scroll down on the right side to where it says "Stalkers" and add yourself to the list! If you don't have a blog.. you should have one.. it cathartic. Plus you get to feel popular when people stalk you.. it's rare in today's society. If I only have 2 stalkers by next week, I'll probably blow this script away because I don't want to show my advertisers that my friends don't like me enough to be included on my blog.

Or whatever. *hair flip* (oh wait.. i don't have flippable hair anymore.. doh!)

Gio posted a few days ago (or it could have been this morning) about her plans for the large amounts of cash that she expects to pull in with the BlogHer ads on her blog. I thought I'd share my plans. (btw.. I linked to her site above so that she could benefit from my vast reader base.. you know.. my mom.. my sister.. it totally ads up after a while)

Simple.

Nikon D60 Digital SLR Camera.



So far I've racked up $1.00 through my ad campaign.. I'm SO CLOSE to getting this camera! Only $898.99 (plus tax) left to save!!!

I've made some progress. Last night.. no Ghost Hunters for Ben. We stuck to Sprout and watched a few episodes of Thomas and Elmo's World. He even read some Bob the Builder books to me. I had a bad headache and Shiela was stuck in traffic from hell.. so Ben and I were on our own for a bit after work. This normally isn't a problem. Unfortunately my headache short circuited my brain function and I totally forgot that there was supposed to be a meal called "dinner". Shiela called at about 7:20 to say she was getting close to home and Ben was going NUTS in the background. I then realized what time it was and that I hadn't fed him yet. doh! He was in an incredibly good mood after he downed about half of the contents of our kitchen.

Ok.. this would piss me off regardless.. but I think it pisses me off MORE because my parents live in this backwards state (oh wait.. that comment is going to get me slammed by my ever-so-loyal Kentucky reader-base.. not).

Just yesterday I was talking to Shiela about my blog and was saying that "I don't have a hook".. she laughed and said "of course you do.. the gay thing.. it sort of grabs people's attention". The thing is.. i FORGET about it. Yeah.. I named the blog "Two Moms and a Baby".. it was a gimic and i admit that. On a day to day basis.. it honestly doesn't cross my mind that I'm gay or that I'm in a same-sex marriage or that my wife and i have a child. I also do not consider that beautiful little boy to be more "mine" than "hers" because I gave birth to him. If anything, my pregnancy and childbirth, not to mention the 4 years of infertility treatments, was harder on Shiela than it was on me. Add to it that she stepped up and took care of BOTH of us for the first 4ish months while I struggled with Post Partum Depression and I think that ANYONE who even has the audacity to believe that we're both not Benjamin's parents should be shot and quartered (isn't that what they call it in Kentucky?). Geez.

Anyway.. my comment about not having a "hook" was funny because I don't consider my blog to be a "gay parenting blog".. it's just a "mom blog". I am somewhat sheltered, living in Massachusetts, where we can not only be legally married, but where my wife's name was, by law, included on Benjamin's birth certificate. Ok.. I'm going to post this and then run to change my comment moderation settings so that I don't get hammered by Sarah Palin supporters.

Read this article..

Kentucky Forbids Same-Sex Stepparents

Posted using ShareThis

Ok all you grandparents and aunts and uncles out there.. Ben wants one of these T-shirts for his birthday or for Christmas. Do me a favor and coordinate between yourselves so that we don't get 12 of them. :)



Edited to add: He's in a 3T :)

Ok.. so I occasionally (hey shiela.. look.. i spelled it right!).. have aspirations of being a super-mom. See below.



Sometimes.. just sometimes. I get it REALLY wrong.

Last night was one example. Ben went to bed at 7:50pm. At 8pm, Shiela and I started watching the two consecutive episodes of Ghost Hunters that comes on SciFi every Wednesday night. We look forward to this. We buy Ben&Jerry's ice cream. We invite these 21st century "Ghostbusters" into our home for a cheap scare. It's sort of like watching the antiques roadshow.

Case A. - Antiques roadshow. A mid-50's homemaker comes in with a stool that has been passed down for thousands of years in her family that can be traced back to Jesus himself. She waits in anxious anticipation for the antiques "expert" to discuss the "piece" and give the.. *gasp*.. anticipated price that the "piece" would go for at auction. When the "expert" says "well.. if your great grand father hadn't fixed the leg.. it would be work $4 billion dollars.. but since it was fixed, I would estimate that you could receive as much as $4.50 at auction..." The homemaker has a classic "doh..." expression on her face. You know.. you've seen it.

Case B. - Ghost Hunters. A family with children call the team to investigate the paranormal experiences that they have been having in their home. One child has claimed to see a ghost-child with black eyes, nose and mouth and squiggly black arms staring him down in his playroom. The TVs turn on and off. The toys turn themselves on in the middle of the night. The father saw a shadow of a boy in the dark hallway outside his room. Scary shit.. right? The TAPS team sets up their equipment and investigates. At the "reveal" (that's what they call it when they sit down with the homeowner to go over their findings).. the tell the trashy looking mother that they found zip.. nada.. no ghost. No strange EVP recordings (yes.. we watch this show far too often).. nothing. Sucks to be you man.. you're on national cable tv and they just debunked your house. The homemaker has a classic "doh..." expression on her face.

Ok.. now that I've set the scene.. let's talk about how my mother-of-the-year aspirations were flushed down the proverbial toilet last night.

Ben takes longer than usual to fall asleep. After he threw all of his binkies (yes.. i said "all") and his "guys" (stuffed animals) and his blankets out of his crib.. and then started yelling "uh oh..." at the top of his lungs for the oh.. third or forth time in ten minutes. We decided that he probably would like some milk.

I go and get him.. bring him into the living room where the rocking chair now lives.. and he downs a tippy of nice cold milk. He hands it back to me. I'm watching the show. I had a fleeting thought of "SciFi probably isn't appropriate for him.. but it's at the end of the show and they found nothing.. so it's not like there will be screaming or anything". Well.. Ben put one arm over his eyes and used the other to wave around spastically trying to convey the fact that he DID NOT want to watch mommys' show. It still didn't sink in. Shiela says.. "uh.. i think he doesn't like it". lord. well duh.. of course he doesn't like it.. the only tv he watches is Thomas the Tank Engine, Seseme Street and various shows on Sprout.. no friggin SciFi channel! Definitely not Ghost Hunters!

Luckily it didn't seem to sink in at all and when I put him back in his crib he smiled and grabbed a few binkies and turned right over. What a good kid. I'm trying my best not to ruin him.

As an aside.. this picture was leaked to the press, officially eliminating me from the Mother-of-the-Year running..

Facebook.

It is the "These are the days of your life" website. What is the draw? Why do I feel like I'm missing out on something if I don't check it daily? What is the point?

So many questions.

Ok.. so here are a few for you.

1. Have you set up a Facebook profile? (and if so -- are you my friend yet?)
2. How many "friends" do you have?
3. Of those "friends".. how many do you actually know IRL (that means "in real life", mom)
4. Would you let your child create a Facebook profile?
5. How old would said child need to be before creating such a profile?
6. Do you have an opinion about Scrabulous? (do you know what that is?)
7. What are some of the groups that you participate in?

Ok.. so my answers...

Yes, I have a profile. My younger sister, Amy, talked me into it quite a while back. When I created it.. the only people I could find online were her and a few cousins that are in their early 20's... oh.. and my Uncle Bob. That guy is hip, I tell ya!

I currently have 71 friends.. all of which are people that I have at least met in real life.. There is only one person on there that can honestly say that she doesn't really KNOW me.. I just stalk her because I love her music. There are people that I've added that are family members (including Bob).. my wife is on there.. my sister.. 3.. count them, one. two. three. of my ex's. Several people that I went to high school with, including the captain of the football team who is now a southern baptist preacher with two adorable little girls.

Ben won't be allowed to go on the internet until he's 32. I have a feeling that Facebook profiles will be like totally old school by the time he's in Kindergarten and they are getting class update by txt message. My niece's swim coach had great plans of keeping the class up to date on things through Facebook. That would require my sister allowing her 14 year old, freshman in high school, to create a profile. Yeah.. not. Actually.. I'm not sure how that worked out.. beck..?

I am still quite irritated by the Scrabulous incident.

Some of the groups that I belong to include:

"I don't care how comfortable Crocs are, you look like a dumbass"
"I secretly want to punch slow walking people in the back of the head"
"When I was your age, Pluto was a planet"
"The League - an internet series" (check this one out.. Jimbo is a college friend)
"Unlike 99.99% of the Facebook population, I was born in the 70s"
"Why yes, I do frequently burst out in song"
"University of Hartford Alumni Association" (i know.. how boring)
"But you don't look sick"
"I use my cell phone to see in the dark"

and of course...

"I have more foreign policy experience than Sarah Palin"

Over the past year, we've become very good friends with another daycare family. You may have heard of them.. Snickollet and her twins. Over the past few weeks, Ben has started calling Maddie and Riley "by name". "By name", I mean, he calls them "Ya-Ya". Yesterday, on our way to pick up Shiela from work, we passed the train station and he said "Mamom?" and then a bit later in the same drive we were in traffic next to a the same make/model/color car that Snickollet drives. It took me FOREVER to figure out why Ben was going nuts yelling for "YA YA!!!". This morning.. when we drove up the hill to school.. Ben pops his binky out and says, in an excited voice, "Ya ya?".

At some point, Riley will belt Ben for calling him Ya Ya... at least when they get to high school. Of course, this would be contingent on Riley and Maddie starting to call Ben something other than "Baby". When Ben started at daycare, the twins were about 10 months old and Ben was "the baby" in the group. As they started to find words, Ben became "baby". I became "baby mama" and shiela became "baby other mama". Both kids now will say Ben.. and occasionally will call me Jen and the wife Shiela.. but more often than not.. we are "baby", "baby mama" and "baby other mama"..

I don't think I'm ready for these three to grow up quite yet.. so... here we go with some Then-and-Now photographs. Thanks to Ting Ting for taking the school pictures that are mixed in with the bunch!

Benny "Cheeks" Hinckley - June 07



Maddie "feeding" Ben - August 07



Riley and Ben - August 07



Madeline and Ben - August 07



Benji and his favorite babysitter - January 08



Ben showing enthusiasm - January 08



The three amigos - January 08



Maddie and Ben Chillin' - August 08



Riley and Maddie sharing Ben's toys...



Ben sharing his toys with Riley and Maddie...



Two Ya-Yas and a Baby - June 08

Ok.. scratch the girl crush on Jennie Garth (well.. just put it on the back burner for a few minutes). I've been hearing about the SNL skit with Tina Fey (awesome rockin comedian) impersonating Sarah Palin. I hadn't watched it until this morning. Here is a link to the NBC clip (you may need to watch an ad about toothpaste or buicks before the actual clip starts).. be sure to watch the whole thing.. it just keeps getting funnier. It's even funnier if you've heard Sarah Palin speak.. Tina really nailed not only the visual impersonation but also Palins speech and body language.. friggin hysterical!

"digital natives". That's what academia is calling the generation of children who have grown up with all of the digital gadgets that we have now.. cell phones, computers, digital cameras, ipods.. my 20 month old even knows how to turn on Guitar Hero for the Wii. I am serious.

Anyway.. this morning, Ben and Shiela went to the Library. Here is a picture that she sent me as they headed out. The picture was taken with her cell phone.. txt'd to me.. and i forwarded it to my online flickr account and then linked it to my blog. How's that for fancy. Here's the pic of our little guy.

Hi guys..

I managed to squeeze in with BlogHerAds and will have some new ads running on this site in a few days. I had given Google a whirl, but their program bites in just about every sense of the word. While I don't have a hit count that could really turn around any meaningful money.. I figure that it really can't hurt and heck.. if my readers keep telling their friends about this kooky mom with the red headed kid and another mom to share the parenting experience with... maybe i'll be able to quit my 9-5 job.

Not.

Anyway.. I'm going to have to change the format of my site a little to comply with the companies requirements.. no biggie though.. it's all part of being so mainstream. i'm one of the cool kids now.. watch out world!

As an aside.. I think that the reason they allowed me in their "club" when they aren't officially accepting new bloggers is because I know Snick. It must be. All the cool kids know Snick.

(of course.. snickollet has to remember to post even though she's swooning over her new friend)

Shiela and I have some pretty strong views about the idea of pre-school. Exposure to education and socialization is so critical.. but what about letting a kid be a kid? I'm not sure if it is like this everywhere in the country, but in the Boston area.. at least among my group of peers, pre-school is THE item to talk about once you've moved past moms bashing moms over issues like working outside the home or working from home or staying with the kid or.. you get the picture. It took about a year or so for everyone to stop discussing THAT. Now everyone is buzzing about pre-school.

Shiela and I had every intent to start Ben in pre-school some time before he started in Kindergarten. That's about as far as we have thought it and have done absolutely nothing to put the subject onto the front burner.

Ben goes to a family daycare 3 days a week. It used to be 4 days a week before I started my abridged (some call it sane) work schedule. It will be 4 days again at some point. We managed to find a family that has become part of our own. I didn't think it would happen. I figured that I would look for a place that made me feel as safe as I would if he was at my mom's old daycare.. but I never thought I'd find a place where I feel like he *IS* being cared for by family.

We lucked out. Not only are they awesome caregivers, but they have opened our eyes to things we had never planned on deliberately exposing Ben to. He is bilingual. He understands spanish as well, if not better than, english. He also signs. He has great social skills (aside from the hitting thing). Things are great.

Our daycare has recently split to have two main groups.. the infant group and the preschool group. Ben is on the young side for the preschool. Eventually they will be 2.5 yrs and up. Right now most of the kids are in the 2.25 yrs and up bracket. Ben is 20 months old (almost 21!). The main provider, who is in charge of the preschool "classes", has been Ben's primary care giver during mom-working-hours since he was 4 months old. When they decided to make this change of structure at the daycare, she came to us and asked if it would be ok to have Ben with the "older kids". She wanted him with her. The other providers are more than competant and are wonderful people.. she just wants Ben with her. Part of this is because of his history of seizures. It's also because she thinks he'll gain more from being exposed to the activities of the older kids than being downstairs in the infant area watching kids chew on elmo dolls.

Anyway.. for Ben, "school" has started gradually over the last two weeks. Yesterday and today were the first consecutive days that he spent in the school. They did projects, sang songs, played games, followed directions.. they even slept on "big kid" nap mats and ate their lunch and snacks without high chairs. Ben did GREAT. When I picked him up yesterday he was in an AWESOME mood. He took a 2.5 hr long nap (he usually naps for about an hour at daycare). He was a dream last night as we ran some errands and then he settled down for a full night of sleep at home.

I woke up to him saying "Mommyyyyy". My big guy. Of course.. when I went in to get him, he had three binkys and was dancing to the music from his old mobile. He's still my little baby. :)

I took this picture last weekend during a playdate that Ben had with a few of his friends. Later.. looking over my photos.. this one caught my eye. When I look at this picture.. I see a little boy. Not my toddler.. not my chubby infant.. not my stringbean preemie.. a little boy. He reminds me of my nephew, Adam.. not sure what it is about his expression in this photo.. but it's definitely Adam. I'm going to have to look over my photos of my nephew to find one to compare the two.

Of course.. this, and many other "big changes" have been a reminder that our little man is growing up. QUICKLY. It is so hard to reconcile the fact that he's ALMOST two years old with the feeling that he's been in our lives forever. The two don't match.

Shiela and I are tired. Without a question. Shiela and I recently celebrated the 8 year mark of the day we met online. That, in combination with the fact that today is 9/11.. another year past.. is a stark reminder to how fragile and short life is. We spent 4 years trying to have a baby.. it felt like a lifetime. That baby has been in our lives, in utero then in person, for almost 3 years. 3 years that have passed in the blink of an eye.

Or maybe it's because we're so tired.

90210 was on again last night. The same episode as Tuesday.. just a repeat. I watched it. I loved it. Yes.. life in the Hinckley house is about to start including lots of Beverly Hills slang.. like.. whatever...

This little tidbit about myself may seem surprising.. at least to those of you who don't completely grasp what a dork I am (and obviously always have been)..

Remember this?



For the first four seasons, i taped every episode of 90210. Not only did I tape them, but I editted out all of the commercials. For you kids, back in my day, tivo was something you drank with a scone and you recorded television on these huge plastic things called "tapes". The artform came with learning how a broadcasting station linked the show to the commercials so that you could hover over the pause button and seamlessly cut the commercials from each episode. This is a labor of love.

As the years went by, my interest in the show faded a bit. I was never a fan of the post high school years, although there will always be a special place in my heart for luke perry and of course.. jennie garth.

On Tuesday of this week, the NEW 90210 on The CW (for those of you not in the know.. this is a rockin channel that used to be "The WB" but they wanted to confuse us by changing the letters up on us.. if memory serves, the original 90210 was out way before The WB's days (ahh.. dawson's creek).. I believe it was originally on Fox. ANYWAY.. here is the trailor to the new show:



Shiela, Ben and I watched the premiere. Shall I say.. it was marvelous! It was just as cheesy and campy as the original and I loved every minute of it! (at least when I wasn't feeling really really sick.. but that's another story) While watching the antics of the high school crowd was enough to convince us to home school Ben, I found myself completely drawn to the older crowd.

Seriously.. was Jennie Garth always that hot? I now have a total girl crush on her. I was WAY more interested in her story with her son and the cute literature teacher than I was with the punk kids that all needed to be grounded for life.

Here is "THE SCENE".. the first time Jennie and Shannon (we're on a first name basis.. after all, we've known each other for like 15+ years).. anyway.. the first time they have played their "Kelly and Brenda" roles since they fought over Luke Perry and ended up saying really bad things to one another and holding an uber-grudge over the whole ordeal. Seriously.. Jennie Garth is friggin hot.



Now what am I going to do until next Tuesday?

Thanks to my good ol' pal WhataCard, I just received my very first blog award. Here it is.. in all it's glory.. the BFF Gold Card Award. Thank you WAC!




Here are the rules:

Rules: You may choose 5 awardees

Choose 4 faithful readers of your blog.

1 should be someone new or someone far away.

So without further bling... here are my choices:

#1 - The Kappel Family - This mom and I go way back to our college days a few decades ago. Her blog is a great combination of family updates and nose-your-pop funny stories (often one in the same as the family updates). Hey hick.. note that I said "pop" instead of "soda".. that was for you mid-western folk!

#2 - Moo's Moo - This mom cracks me up and not only is a regular reader of my blog (i.e. an instant BFF blogger).. but also is uninhibited enough to share that she peed in a subway cup over the weekend. Now THAT is happenin' blog content!

#3 - Amazing Trips - This mom of 4 started out as a message board friend and morphed into a blogger friend. She conceived her triplets while I was trying for my first.. ironically, she posted about her experiences in the NICU with the three babies JUST a week or so before Ben made his arrival 4+ weeks early. While our experience couldn't compare to her time with her children in the NICU.. having just read her blog, I was much more at ease with the NICU as I made myself at home there for Ben's short stay. I knew what to expect because she spent a HUGE chunk of time to share every detail of her stay. I'm still so very thankful for that. Now.. she has a fourth child to even out the mix.. and I'm in awe of her and her husband's sanity.

#4 - Mochimochi - Ok.. so this is totally unrelated and just shows that i'm well rounded.. or something.

#5 - Life at Number 14 - This is a blog that I've just started reading. This mom stumbled on my blog quite by accident, but that link led me to her blog which is flippin hysterical. I look forward to hearing an update about the pink nipple cream.

Congrats to you all.. don't party too hard..