That's one of my favorite quotes from Finding Nemo. Squirt is giving Dorie and Marlin a rundown of proper exiting technique and Marlin says "It's like he's trying to speak to me.."

That's been the theme with Ben for the past few weeks. He is talking all the time now.. we just don't always know what he's trying to tell us. Sometimes it is clear as day. Like when he chucks his binky across his bedroom and then says "Mooooommmmmmyyyyyyy... uh oh!... beeee!" I get that.. translation: "mommy, my bink ACCIDENTALLY got tossed across the room.. oh no! can you please come get it for me?"

Clear.. no problem.

This morning.. not so clear. The little dude has been having a lot of trouble sleeping lately. Actually.. he sleeps GREAT. It's getting him to sleep that is the challenge. We've been spoiled. He's always had a really short and sweet nighttime routine and we've never really had to struggle with it. Well, we're paying for it now. Last night we opted to let him "cry-it-out".. i.e. we weren't going back in to get his binky or put his tippy of water back in his crib or give him a hug or pick out a new book for him. We gave him an hour. He really didn't cry. He yelled, threw things, jumped, kicked, laughed, babbled, practiced running from one side of the crib to the other and then falling backward and seeing how much of a bounce he could get..

Shiela and I were watching 24.. sort of. We had it on, with the volume pretty low, and I was watching Ben on the video monitor and every time we'd hear a crash or a scream, shiela would say "what's he doing".. and i'd check and give her the low down on his activities. Every once in a while he would do something funny. Once he decided to try to shove his tippy cup out between the bars in the crib. He grunted and screamed. If we hadn't had the video monitor, it sounded like he got stuck somewhere for sure. Nope.. just mad that the cup doesn't fit through the bars.

About 40 minutes into our vigil, and after a lot of eye rubbing and blanket chewing (the bink had long since gotten thrown to the floor), he started truly sobbing. I went in and gave him his binky and a hug and he let me know that he was upset with me (tried to kick me as i was lovingly giving him a goodnight hug)... but when I left the room, he was laying down with his bink in his mouth and he didn't make a peep. He was out cold in just minutes.

Now.. I don't want to do this every night.. but at least he was asleep before 11pm last night!

On to this morning.

Since he's been going to sleep so late, getting him up in the morning has been torture. I can usually get him dressed before he even decides to open his eyes. This morning was no different. I poured him, fully clothed, onto the rocker with one of his blankets and put sesame street on while I packed up his lunch.

I was talking about Obama and explaining the inauguration to him (because he was listening.. right..). Then I said "whose special day is today?" and he says "bamama". Then he says "happy.. too youuu..." I was like wait.. what.. did he just say "Obama" and did he just say Happy Birthday? The kid is brilliant! It's not exactly Obama's birthday.. but it's close enough for a 2 year old!

Of course, following this epiphany, we stumbled out to the car where he kept screaming "NO... MOMMY... MU!" And I'm like "do you want your milk?" and he's like "NO... MOMMY... MU!" And I'm like "do you want your music on?" and he's like "NO... MOMMY... MU!"

It took me the entire trip to daycare to realize that he wanted me to put the hood up on my jacket because it's cold outside. It's like he's trying to talk to me...

Ok.. so Benji got his ear tubes yesterday and we are very proud of what a big boy he was. I have a long story to write about it.. like usual.. complete with pictures.. but I haven't had the chance to sit down and write.. doh! So.. to hold you over.. here are some pics!

I've always wanted a Jeep. Hugely unreliable and largely not practical. It would, however, help get Benji to daycare in the morning.

We have one of those ordinary regular minivan/wagon crossover vehicles with no all-wheel drive. I know.. how strange for two lesbians. Turns out that we were broke when we traded in my old truck for the family mobile and opted for the Mazda instead of the fully loaded Subaru. Go figure.

Ok.. this is hard to explain without a picture, but I'll try. Our daycare is located at the top of Mount Everest. On an unpaved street. Off a cul-da-sac. When we interviewed this particular daycare, my old pickup started to smoke and let out an odd groaning sound about halfway up the hill. If we hadn't gotten rid of the truck due to the fact that we needed a back seat for the baby and his gear, we would have burned it out within a week of driving up that hill.

It's winter.

It has snowed approximately 17 feet over the past month here in the Great Boston Area (ok.. so maybe that is a slight exaggeration.. but the stuff just isn't melting!). As a result.. driving up the dangerously steep hill to daycare has redefined itself once again for the winter months. To make it more interesting this year, it seems that the neighbor of our daycare has some parking challenges.. I have lost count of how many cars they are trying to smash into their lack of a driveway.

As a result, I have to gun it at the bottom of the hill.. try not to wipe out the school bus that picks up a child in a wheelchair that lives halfway up the hill (what were her parents thinking?) and make the corner without hitting any of the vehicles parking along either side of the street and then get up the 47 degree rake to the landing while dodging parked cars and the cars of other daycare parents who are trying to drive the other way down this narrow street (only wide enough for one car at a time). To top it off, while they managed to dig up the four rocks that were threatening to rip out my undercarriage over the summer, there is now a hole (pronounced "cre-vahhhhssss") that I imagine my entire vehicle will flounder in one morning.

Poor Snickollet is going to have to throw me a rope from HER Subaru to haul me out...
(btw.. snick.. maddie told me this morning that Ben's hat didn't match his boots..)

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For my new readers.. Here is a link to our adventure last March, when Ben had his first round of ear tubes put in.

Ear Tubes Round #1

They are supposed to stay in for about a year to 18 months. Ben's were out after 4 months. The ENT did warn me that since this happened once, it is very likely that it could happen again.. but hopefully this round will get us through this year's cold and flu season and maybe by next year he will have outgrown the ear infection thang...

While we were waiting for the surgical coordinator at Ben's ENT appointment today, he was all set up in the waiting room with an elmo toy across his lap. he was jabbering away and pointing at the various buttons and switches (all that didn't work because the batteries had long since been depleted). Our conversation went something like this:

Ben points to red button
Me: "that's red"
Ben: "re"
Me: "yep.. red"
Ben points to green button
Me: "that's green"
Ben: "yeah.."
Me: "yep.. green"

Then Ben turns and looks at me with those big blue eyes and his curly red hair was all crazy half from bed-hair and half from his winter hat and he says to me:

"Mommy, I like lellow"

Clear as day.

The woman sitting across the room smiled politely and commented about how cute he was. I was still trying to not cry over the fact that he just told me that he likes lellow. Then the woman says, "How old is he." I respond, "just turned two." Then she asks, "When did he start talking?" I respond, "this past weekend."

She nosed her Dunkin' Donuts Coffee. I laughed and said "I'm serious.. before that he was saying "yeah", "no", "mama" and "all done".. now all of a sudden he's talking in sentences!"

She laughed and said "Thank god.. there is hope for my son.. he's almost two and just screams "no" and "all done". Yep... been there.

Then.. just to show her that a child doesn't change completely over a weekend, Ben grabs my arm to get my attention and says "lellow!" and then proceeds to throw a total fit over the fact that the elmo toy has no lellow buttons.

I'm going to write to the folks at Seseme Street.. how could they skip lellow?

Frubom nubow ubon, Ubi'll bube bluboggubing ubin Ububbubi Dububbubi. Ubif yubou nubeed hubelp, gubo tubo thube trubanslubatubor wubeb subite ubon pbskubids.uborg

Buben wubill bube guboubing ubin fubor suburguberuby ubon hubis ubears nubext Thubursdubay (15th) tubo gubet tububes ubin buboth ubears fubor thube subecubond tubime. Subince hubis lubast UBER vubisubit, hube hubas hubad twubo ubear ubinfubectiubons uband stubandubing flubuid ubin buboth ubears. Tubo mubake ubit ubevuben mubore ubinterubestubing, hubis ubeye rubollubing ubepubisubodes hubave stubartubed ubagubain ubas wubell. uburgh.


Translation:
From now on, I'll be blogging in Ubbi Dubbi. If you need help, go to the translator web site on pbskids.org

Ben will be going in for surgery on his ears next Thursday (15th) to get tubes in both ears for the second time. Since his last ER visit, he has had two ear infections and standing fluid in both ears. To make it even more interesting, his eye rolling episodes have started again as well. urgh.


Ok.. I'll stop with the Ubbi Dubbi stuff.. but honest.. now that I found the translator.. I may write my letters at work with it...

Ben is doing just fine and I'll be happy when next Thursday gets here. He is a little ticking time bomb waiting for another double ear infection to blow up. His ENT is awesome thought and he was a big guy and sat on the exam chair (like an eye doctors chair) all by himself and let her look in his ears and nose and mouth. When she was listening to his chest, through his shirt.. he reached down and pulled his shirt up for her. The only down side is that she said that they may decide to put an IV in this time (they just did gas last time) since he has continued to have seizures (he had 2 before his last surgery.. has had 5 now).. they want to be sure to be able to get meds to him immediately if he seizes while under anesthesia. I don't blame them.. but it sure would be nice if they could give him some gas and then put in the IV. Poor little dude.

Well.. while it may not seem like it, I HAVE been up to things other than updating the colors on my blog and playing Guitar Hero World Tour. I *HAVE* been a bit of a space cadet though.. so I haven't really been sharing many blog bonding moments with you all.

First of all.. Happy Anniversary Mom and Dan! We had a great time spending Christmas Eve and morning with you guys and hope we can do it again sometime. Maybe someday, we'll actually have a room for you and you won't have to camp out in the back yard!

Other stuff.. Benji has spent most of the holiday break from school either being sick with an ear infection (flared up on Christmas Day) or with a rogue virus or two. He also is on a sleep strike. I'm sure that it's because our daytime schedule is out of wack with him not having been to school for two weeks. I totally feel for his daycare providers next week.. he's going to be a bear! The good news is that his development seems to have made a huge jump.. maybe it was all the birthday cake!

He's saying all sorts of words now (like "stupid", "hola", "ru" (Ruth), "Mommy" (instead of just MaMa), "I eat it", "no nemo", "nemo no", "no nemo no", "nemo no nemo" (catching a trend?) and lots of "ohhh noooooo's".. very dramatic.

I'm doing well.. no major complaints. I've decided to go back to work full time. It is a tough pill to swallow, but given the economy and the fact that things were already really tight.. well.. I want to keep ahead of the gang. This coming Monday will be my first time back in about six months.. I should be one cranky mom on Sunday.. watch out!

The other mom is doing well.. she's tired. Two weeks of vacation will do that to you.

Oh well.. I had planned on sharing a few pics from my fancy dancy new camera, but I didn't bring the cable and my card reader can't handle the high capacity card.. doh.. so I'll have to do that later. I also have more things to finish with the blog layout (there's a surprise).. given that my home computers are crap, i may pull an all nighter with some system install and norton disks.. fun fun fun! That's how I roll...

Ok.. so that little video just cracks me up.

Another thing that has been cracking me up is how so many of my blogging friends (how "hip" are we?) are apologizing for being blog-slackers over the holidays.. well, duh.. it's the holidays.. if we were up on our blogs.. that would mean that our real lives sucked.

I haven't had time to blog. I haven't had time to breath. I haven't had time to pee. I've had a wonderful holiday season this year and had a great Christmas. Shiela and I were able to spend Christmas morning with BOTH of our moms at our own home at the same time.. something that probably will never happen again given that my mom now lives down in Kentucky and shiela's mom lives out in Texas (and after being snowbound out here this winter, may never visit again). Benji made it through his second birthday and all of Christmas without really getting the concept of wrapped gifts. He did enjoy all of his new toys though.. we need to build onto the house to find a place for them all!

True to form, Ben had a fever on Christmas day evening.. not high.. but warm. It turned out that he was trying out another ear infection, which makes 2 in the last month. We got him some of the good ol' pink stuff and started the motrin drip (just kidding).. and we were good to go.. albeit a bit crankier than normal.

My poor sister's house was straight out of the movie Home Alone before the entire family left for france. Total Chaos. Fun, though.. lots of fun.

I think that i can officially say that it sucks to have my family live so far away now. My mom and stepdad moved to Kentucky last winter and while we've muddled through this past year, it's always very obvious how much we are missing them and how much they are missing out on the kids growing up. Prior to having Ben, I don't think it would have hit me as hard, but now it's just really difficult. Money is tight for all of us, although thankfully we all still have our jobs.. but hopping on a plane isn't exactly cheap. Hopefully we'll manage to balance our time visiting this year a little bit better. It still sucks.

Ben is growing up so fast. Just last night, on our way home from CT.. someone cut shiela off when we were merging onto the Pike. She muttered "idiot.." and continued to merge. In the backseat.. Ben started throwing his arms around and yelling and then.. clear as day.. says "Stupid!".

I.

Am.

Serious.

.....stupid..

He didn't learn that one from me..

Ok.. so I have big plans.. I was to freshen up my blog and fix my computers at home and get a new camera and rock out on guitar hero world tour... so much to do.. so little time!

Ben had his 2 year checkup this morning.. he's such a brave and smart little dude. Our pediatrician is friggin hysterical, but that's a different story. He dropped the f-bomb like 4 times.. classic stuff. Anyway.. back to the little dude. He had to have some bloodwork done, which sucked.. more for us than for him.. I got a bit woozy. He was a total trooper. It took two sticks because his vein hid, just like mine do. He wasn't entirely pleased, but he really liked the plastic lighted aquarium and the pink lemonade lollipop and he didn't even cry. Shiela almost punched the nurse, which would have been funny if I wasn't trying not to pass out.

In other news.. the little man is now 27 lbs 13 oz (up from his birth weight of 5 lbs 13 oz) and 36.5" tall (up from 19").. crazy crazy. He's in the 47% for weight and in the 92% for height.. he does NOT get that from me! Thank you, donor dad, for the red hair, and for the tall skinny body..

It's amazing how much a child changes over the first two years..


Two Years Ago:




One Year Ago:




This Year:



Now.. about that jingling christmas tree. I had the bright idea of replacing the glass balls that we normally decorate our tree with (non-toddler-friendly) with bright gold and red bells. The red bells are just for show.. no bell ringers. The gold ones are the real deal though.. jing-a-ling. It turns out that the tree makes a grand jingling sound when you throw toys at it. As a result, about 60% of the needles have fallen off of our tree making it look strikingly like Charlie Brown's Christmas Tree.. of course.. ours still jingles.

The little dude and I have a pretty established morning routine. On typical days, we run like clockwork.. I get up, showered and dressed just in time for the baby to start talking in his crib. I go in his room and turn on the light, raise the curtains and turn his fan off. We discuss current events. The little dude gets a new diaper and a change of clothes and then gathers as many hotwheels cars and binks as he can carry while I pick him up and bring him into the living room.

Until the past week, Ben would sit and watch Sprout (cable channel for PBS kids shows.. odd concept, but good toddler channel) with a tippy of milk while I got his lunch together.

On challenging days (like the one I blogged about a few weeks ago), this doesn't flow so smoothly.. most days, it is a very rewarding experience.. but it always feels rushed. We have to get ourselves ready to get him to school to get me to work.. rush rush rush.

Ben has just recently gotten hooked to Finding Nemo.



This morning, instead of turning on Sprout.. I started the movie. I took my time making his lunch (i.e. putting the pasta and broccoli dinner that Shiela woke up at 6am to cook into his backpack along with some fruit and snacks) and then went and grabbed out jackets. Ben saw me with his jacket and squirmed and told me "no... nemo".

I didn't blame him.

I said.. "do you want to sit with me for a few minutes before we go to school?"

Ben grins and says "yeah..."

I sat down in the rocker and Ben climbed into my lap. I already had my jacket on, so he snuggled right on in. We watched about 5 minutes of Nemo together. I couldn't believe how wonderful it felt. Yeah.. we still had a bazillion things to get done.. but for 5 minutes we sat together and snuggled (while watching Bruce the shark chase Nemo and Dorie).

Ben turns 2 a week from tomorrow.. time is flying. I'm glad I still remember to put the brakes on now and again to enjoy 5 priceless minutes.

Btw.. fish are friends.. not food.

I'm catching total hell for skipping a few days here in the blogosphere. Oops! It's really a long and boring story that includes me being tired/stressed/irritable and toss in some wacky weather and some PMS and I don't really think any of you would have wanted to read what I would have written over the past few days.. I've been cranky!

The good news.. just 9 more days until Benji's birthday and 15 more days until Christmas! YAY!

I have a few topics that I want to write about.. but alas.. I don't have time at the moment. Never fear.. I'll return to blogging 3 times a day!

Well.. who would have thunk.. the kid still likes veggies. I just stumbled across this old pic from August of 2007. He was about 9 months old.



Here he is last week at 23 months old..

I apologize for the lack of interesting blog postings this week. I warned you all.. I was totally wiped from posting at least once a day for NaBloPoMo and I didn't even win a santa suit for my computer..

yeah.. see.. i'm tapped. Nothing creative left up in the noggin... So without further ado.. I've got more photos to share...

Checking out the window holiday displays at Macy's in Boston




Reading a toy catalog while waiting for dinner at the Olive Garden


Don't worry.. he's just sleeping with his eyes open. This is what you get for buying a backpack carrier for $250.. no headrest!


Helping friends trim their Christmas tree


Dipping binky in hot chocolate from Starbucks on a cold Boston afternoon...

Some seemingly smart mother must have once thought "wow.. if I could just make Broccoli taste like a chicken nugget..." Well.. in my opinion.. it doesn't get any worse than tricking your two year old into eating veggies...







Actually.. I'm just kidding. I re-arranged the order of the photos from dinner a few nights ago. The little dude actually LOVES his veggie bites (I stuck to the mashed potatoes, thank you VERY much...).. he snarfed down a whole box of the things by himself.. dipped in ketchup, of course.

Btw.. the "time out" photo at the very end was actually taken once he had finished his meal and decided to throw his tippy of milk and his plate across the table and then grab my glasses and wishbone them after hitting me.. doesn't he look all pitiful? Three minutes later he was giggling and climbing onto the piano..

No.. this isn't a "SURPRISE" post.. and no, I haven't packed on any new weight.. *laff* I just stumbled over to my old blog and was surprised to see the goofball cartooned up version of my last belly-pic over two years ago. Well.. the last one that didn't have me strapped to monitors.

Crazy..

(I thought this was better that posting about how I measured the sound levels generated by about a hundred dead mice yesterday or how today I had a panic attack about the earth's gravitational pull changing.. those are boring.. must show old pregnancy pics!)