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..

As I was leaving the house this morning, I closed the front door behind me and reached for my keys to press the "lock" button twice. I was surprised when the car horn beeped from the driveway. I guess I thought that our house went keyless overnight. I hate that technology can't keep up with me.

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Today is the 8 year "anniversary" of the day Shiela and I met on the internet. I told her that I loved her 4 days later and she almost puked and got sent home from work because she looked so ill. Ahh.. the good ol' days!

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I wrote the following to some friends the other day:

"ok.. i'm one to typically snap a photo of the random temper tantrums that ben will throw.. they don't rattle me.. i've often said to him "let me know when you've gotten your "mad" out and we can... [insert activity here]".

the past week has been hard. last monday was clearly the worst day, post seizure, regarding him screaming... even so.. he wasn't really himself for most of last week.. wobbly, confused.. things that could clearly be after effects of the seizure. his neurologist agreed. each day these problems have faded.. his sleep has returned to normal.. his eating has returned to normal.. his sense of humor has returned to normal.

one thing that hasn't returned is his episodes of what i can only call anger. one second he'll be fine and the next he'll have this wild dog look and will hit you with a force that i've never known a toddler to have. if you try to contain him, he will head butt you. if you put him down and move away from him he will hit or head butt whoever is closest. if no one is close, he will slam his head either into something or he will hit it with his hands. he usually ends up crying in a heap on the floor/crib/whatever and then will slowly start to play with something close by.. like a car or train.. and after about 10 minutes or so he'll be back up and like himself again.

we want to write these fits off as him slamming head first (poor choice of words) into the "terrible twos".. but i just can't make that jive given the "coincidence" of the seizure marking this change in behavior. his neurologist said that it is common for children (and adults) to experience a lot of anger after a seizure.. this can last for a while. he thought that this could just be a temporary thing (like the fact that he was wobbly on his feet and his balance returned to normal a few days later). he said that he wouldn't expect any permanent brain damage from a seizure lasting less than a half hour, but that this type of damage would show up in developmental and/or behavioral changes. uh.. yeah.. not exactly helping.

there's always the lurking autism worry, but usually these fits are specifically driven at being angry with someone or directing general anger toward someone. he stares you right in the eye before he head butts you. he also grits his teeth.

i had a long talk with his daycare provider this morning. they have been struggling with him as well and i'm very very lucky that they understand the issue (as much as we do anyway) and they aren't reacting with a disciplinarian reaction.. they consider it to be more of a medical issue and want to keep him and the other kids safe while he has his episodes. yesterday he would start hitting the older kids but then would move on to the babies. they would separate him and/or hold him, but there were several times where he would end up hitting his head against the floor or wall/door. they ended up putting him in a stroller that he could thrash in but there wasn't anything really hard to hit against.

*SIGH*

we are calling his pediatrician and his neurologist this morning and will go from there."

We saw our pediatrician that night and he told us in no uncertain terms, "I'm so sorry.. this will be difficult to handle.. you are the mothers of a perfectly normal 20 month old..."

He did leave a little bit of an open door regarding the behavioral changes given his seizure patterns, but in general he thinks that the kid is absolutely normal. good grief! how long will this last?! *laff*

Ok.. I don't know whether to be mortified or not. I think the answer to this one is a resounding "YES".

It's bad enough that I get doctors and nurses at local emergency rooms saying "oh.. hi.. I've taken care of you before, right?".. but when Ben was at Children's last week one of the nurses took one look at him and said "oh.. i remember you!"

*twitch*

ok.. so I just called my pharmacy to get some refills on my regular meds. No biggie, right? It's over THE PHONE. After I give my list of meds and the woman gets the info into the computer and says "they should be ready in 20 minutes" (which translates into "don't come for at least an hour...")... then she says. get this. ready? "how's the baby?"

How's the baby?

I said.. "um... what?"

She then went on to say "Ben.. the little redhead.. didn't he have a seizure?"

Well JE-SUS..

Ok.. So part of me wants to get a new pharmacy because I'm just creeped out that people know who we are.. but part of me knows that some people like that "ye olde towne" approach to customer service. I like anonymity. If you know me.. pretend you don't and everything will be right in my world.

Ok.. so i'm kidding a LITTLE.

It's not like we live in Shelbyville, KY (not to single a location out or anything).. there are more than 40,000 people on this 5 square mile postage stamp of a suburb outside of boston.. I'm sure, based on the chaos that occurs daily at this pharmacy's parking lot, that at least half of the town uses the same pharmacy. I don't stick out THAT much.


RIGHT?! (remember.. just pretend that you don't know me.) i'm gonna go pick up my kid.

Ok.. so a quick update on my kid's noggin...

We had an appointment with Dr F, who is a neurologist at Children's Hospital. He's been seeing ben since his first seizure almost 7 months ago. The appointment went great. Ben was in top form.. He was skeptical about getting weighed and measured, but sat quite still while getting his blood pressure taken and only hit me once after the nurse put the bubbles away.

Dr. F. agrees with us.. which is a good thing. It's always nice when a doctor says what you want them to. It's even better when you trust that they know what they are talking about. It's almost enough to make you think that YOU know what you're talking about. almost.

The general consensus is that Sunday's seizure was clearly febrile. Is there a chance that it was epileptic brought on by fever, of course.. but there is nothing specific to worry about. His first seizure is the only one that was clearly not associated with a fever.. but it WAS two weeks to the day from his MMR vaccination. I've done a LOT of reading and it seems that there is a slight (VERY slight) risk of febrile seizure in the two weeks following the MMR shot.. coincidence? i think not. The second seizure could easily be said to be at the onset of a fever.. no fever to warn us it was coming, but he had a fever for a week afterward while fighting off a virus.

We're pretty sure we have the answer for the cause of his fever over the weekend -- Roseola. His temp broke and like two days later, just like the textbooks say, he got a rash.

Now.. the questions is "what do we do now?"

Both shiela and i agree that we were worried about starting him on a daily anti-seizure medication. these meds are STRONG and we were concerned about any impact to his development. he's so young. we're also concerned about brain damage from the seizures. We decided going into it that if the doc recommended a daily treatment, we would take that info and run it by our pediatrician before starting him on a daily med. Our pediatrician can practically walk on water.

The visit went great. The doc read over his ER report and, in between tossing a ball across the room to ben, told us that he saw no reason to start him on a daily medication now. two of the three seizures have been febrile in nature and he thinks a daily medication is too much at this point. if he has one or two more, in particular, ones that aren't associated with fever.. then we'll talk about it again. For the moment, we've got a preventative med to give him when he has a temperature. This should keep him from having a seizure even if his temperature spikes. Of course, it doesn't help for seizures that are at the initial onset of the fever (no warning), but it's something to do instead of twiddling our thumbs looking at the clock waiting for it to happen (like Sunday).

In other news.. he weighed in at 26.5 lbs and 33.5 inches tall.. just about 50% for both height and weight. his head circumference is off the chart.. welcome to the family of big brainy heads, benji!!

My hit count has been down right shameful over the past few weeks. As a result, I have only one option.. to post pictures of Ben playing with Snickollet's kids. It's a sure fire way to get my blog flooded with visitors!

The kids had a wonderful time of swimming and playing with balloons. Here is a cutie picture of Riley.



I didn't have as much luck getting pictures of Maddie.. here is an example.. I can't tell you how many pics of the kids that I have where the balloon floated RIGHT in front of their faces as I was snapping the picture. I did snag Snick in this one though! BWA-HA-HA..



Here's my little man...

I saw this sitting on Shiela's end table last night when we were getting ready for bed. ugh...



Ok.. so I have a few more minutes and wanted to fill in some of the blanks from Ben's seizure over the weekend. I'll start with the basics.

On Sunday, Ben woke up with a fever. This wasn't entirely unexpected as he had been an absolute BEAR on Saturday, which typically means that he's not feeling well. We started him on the Motrin/Tylenol cycle (Motrin every 6 hrs with Tylenol every 6 hrs spaced 3 hrs apart.. so the Tylenol still has some kick when the Motrin starts to wear off). We stayed in for most of the day and did "the kid is sick" stuff like eating pedialyte pops and watching Thomas the Tank Engine on "repeat ad nauseum mode."

Around 3:30ish, we decided that we had to get out of the house. Ben had his last dose of Motrin at 2:30 and Shiela and I hadn't eaten yet. We opted for a drive and went up to Burlington where we stopped at Wendy's so I could get a frosty and Ben got some nuggets and then we headed over to Taco Bell so Shiela could get a burrito fix. On our way home, we both noticed that Ben's cheeks were starting to turn pink.

The closer we got to home the sicker he started looking. When we took him out of the car seat, he clearly had a temp again. This wasn't too uncommon as he had been running a temp of about 101 even with the Motrin/Tylenol.

When we got upstairs a minute or two later, he was burning up. I've never felt skin that hot. I took off to the bathroom to run the water in the tub and Shiela stripped him and met me in there. We took his temp by ear on the way into the tub.. it was 104. While we had the water warm.. his temp was so high that it hurt his skin and his whole body was instantly covered with chill bumps. It was heart breaking because he got so excited to see the tub and then was crushed because he felt so badly. We tried to make the tub thing work for at least a few minutes to try to get his temp down. We finally decided that it was too much for him and Shiela took him in a dry towel and walked him into his bedroom. By the time I got half dressed and into his room with them, we both knew it was coming.

We just looked at each other and one or the both of us said "he's going..". Shiela got him down on the twin bed in his room and rolled him to his side. She yelled "get the time".. I was already on my way into our bedroom to check the clock. Note to self: get clock for baby's room.

I should remember what time this all happened.. because I was timing the seizure. I couldn't tell you for the life of me when this happened between 4:30 and 5:30 pm. The next time I had a time check, it was 6pm and we were in the hospital.

For five minutes, we hovered over the baby as his entire body seized. While we've experienced this before, it is just as terrifying when you know what is going on and have directions for what to do. I took turns hovering over him and running around the house like a chicken with its head chopped off. I finished getting dressed, got my wallet, got both of our sets of keys, got Shiela's wallet, got his seizure kit, called 911...

As a side note. There are so many people that do not have a land line anymore. The trend is to use your cell phone as your primary and only phone.. it makes sense.. you spend a fortune on your service and coverage is typically fine around here (unless you have AT&T.. but that's a different rant).. why not ditch the ol' phone company's archaic system? We did for a while. At some point, we went back to having a land line and our cell phones.. redundant, but Shiela couldn't get me to stop losing my cell phone and/or keep it charged.

The one kicker in all of this is 911 service. We take it for granted. When you have a cell phone, you can call 911.. but you get connected to a service that then connects you to your local district which then will send out a unit for whatever you need. This is fine and dandy.. but it takes being transfered and talking a lot.. at least a lot during a time when you don't remember your middle name. I use 911 from my cell phone to report traffic accidents and even used it about a week ago to report that a mentally challenged young fellow decided he wanted to get into our car.. another long story.

When you're in SuperMoms adrenaline-rush mode.. this is too much. I picked up my land line (which we get through our cable provider.. so we did ditch the phone company in the grand scheme of things) and said "my son is having a seizure" and the operator said "ok ma'am, a unit is on their way". simple as that. I stayed on the line to answer one question.. "how old is he".. i responded "19 months".. the operator responded "thank you.. would you like to stay on the line until they arrive?" I said "no thanks.." and that was that. I didn't need to know my street address, town name.. i didn't even have to give her my name.. they had the info they needed.. the security of having this service available is worth the $26.95 per month phone charge.

Ok.. now back to my story..

I called 911 at about 3 minutes. By 4 minutes we were breaking into his seizure kit. By 5 minutes Shiela was administering the Diastat and counting like they told us to in the video tutorial. This was the first time we had needed to use it. The seizure broke within seconds. He looked up at us with a confused expression and opened and stretched his mouth.. I'm sure it hurt.. at a minimum he had been grinding his teeth harder than I thought was physically possible.. but we also believe he chomped the inside of his cheek a bit.. not enough to bleed, thankfully.

After the seizure he was completely limp and very lethargic. He drifted in and out of sleep. I ran downstairs as the police and fire units arrived. Just after them was the ambulance. Between those three vehicles, the street was totally blocked up with flashing lights.

The whole crew followed me upstairs to ben's room where Shiela was waiting with him. Since the seizure had broken, they just needed to establish his vitals and get him moving to the hospital.

I rode with him in the ambulance again. They strapped me down to the gurney and then wrapped the two of us together and off we went. They got him rigged with oxygen just in case another seizure started. They also checked his blood sugar. Then it was just the ride.. from Arlington (suburn northwest of Boston) downtown to the Children's Hospital. We flew through traffic which parted like butter on a hot day (um.. maybe I've been typing too long.. I can't believe I just typed that)..

At the hospital.. it was pretty routine. At least when you've done this twice before. I held him while he cried and I tried to speak over his cries to get all of the important information to the nurses and doctors and registration staff while they all checked him over. Shiela arrived shortly after we did and was there to play tag-team-mommies. Ben would want one of us.. then the other... then the other... repeat this for several hours.

The biggest challenge of our ER visit was the fact that they needed to rule out whether he had an ear infection or not. This is a bit more challenging when both ears were impacted with wax. They ended up having to go in and clean out his ears, which was painful and confusing for him and just heart wrenching for us. Once they had ruled out infections, we were left to wait... wait for it to be time for more Motrin.. wait for the neurologist.. watch the olympics... play with the pink plastic puke buckets.. rinse the binky for the 1203rd time after it gets chucked across the room. Occasionally.. he would sleep.





We were released from the hospital late Sunday night/early Monday morning. We drove home.. Ben was VERY happy to be out of the hospital.. he laughed when he saw our car in the parking garage and said "yeah..."

[insert restless night of sleep]

Monday was pretty terrible all around. Ben was hurting, confused, mad and sick. This isn't a great mix for a toddler.. or his moms. He spent most of the day screaming and thrashing. There were a few brief moments of rest.. very brief.

By mid-afternoon.. we were going nuts. His fever had broken, but he was still just so distressed and our anxiety levels were through the roof after feeling so helpless during the seizure and then to feel helpless in finding a way to soothe him the next day. We took off in the car again. It was Shiela's idea.. I was skeptical.. but I couldn't stay in the house. We wound up in Concord's historic district and had "lunch" at a cute little place where one of the employees gave Ben some wikkistix to play with. It was the first time in 24 hours that he was calm AND awake. We're going to buy this wonderful product in bulk.

Ben got down and walked around a bit on the greens in Concord before we decided to start on home. We finished out the evening with some free form doodling. I picked up some markers from Walgreens and threw the rulebook aside.. He had a little bit of marker that made the paper.. most wound up on his hands, shirt, mouth and the table.



We ended the day on a more positive note.. although sleeping was difficult Monday into Tuesday. For reference.. the pic below shows Ben a day after the seizure.. those are TIRED EYES.



This picture was taken Saturday afternoon.. a day BEFORE the seizure. Note the eyes. (also note the pink babydoll stroller.. that's another story!)

Hi guys..

I just have time for a quick update. I'll try to log on later to fill in some of the details. On Sunday afternoon, Ben had another seizure. We knew it was coming and also knew there was nothing we could do to stop it (not a fun feeling as a parent). This time around it was fever related with his temp spiking to 104 degrees shortly before the seizure. After about 3 minutes we called 911 and at the 5 minute mark we gave him the meds from his seizure kit. The seizure stopped within seconds of receiving that medication (thank god for valium).

We spent the evening at Children's Hospital in Boston (i hate that place and love it at the same time.. I guess I love the doctors/nurses and knowing that such a wonderful place like that not only exists, but is so close to us.. i hate having to go there with our beautiful son).

Sunday night through this morning was very difficult on all (moms and Ben). Ben seems to be doing much better and is at daycare this afternoon. We have more tests to be done and more doctors visits in the coming week or two.. but for now we're just enjoying his eyes being bright again.

Ok.. I added some ads to my site.. thank you for your patience...

Now my concern is that there is an ad titled "Baby Anxiety?" that keeps popping up and it's starting to irritate me. If it said "Mommy Anxiety?" I'd be ok.. but WHY is that particular ad linking to ME... I guess those are probably the two words I use the most.. but sheesh.. it's giving me a bad rap.

Ok.. so Kid Rock is just genius in so many ways. Musically, lyrically.. heck.. he was one of the dozen selected to be filmed in videos with Pamela Anderson.. ok.. I digress.

I heard this song on the radio yesterday after just having stood on ground that used to be considered "the most dangerous city block in the country". It's not the best area right now, but it IS the site of a brand new school building. Anyway.. the song hit me as being profound and when I listen to it again I realize that it's another case of a straight talker like Kid Rock or Eminem just saying it how it they see it and I find that more times than not.. I tend to agree.



Now go smoke funny things and sing Sweet Home Alabama all summer long!!!

I know that our President has had a busy schedule these days.. oh with the Russia/Georgia issue and the Olympics.. but I wonder if he'd take my call..

I have to do some more digging, but it seems that I'm related to the Bush family. How mortifying is that? It seems that I share a link to the President and to the fellow who shot President Reagan.. we're all descended from Thomas Hinckley (born 19 Mar 1619, Hawkhurst, Kent, England; died 25 Apr 1706, Barnstable, MA) who was Governor of Plymouth Colony from 1658-1681.

Funny thing is that I'm pretty sure that I'm related to Robert E. Lee too (you know.. the dude who lost the Civil War). This isn't doing much for my self esteem!

Edited to add: Well it just gets deeper. Obama is also a descendant of Thomas Hinckley.

We went to a friend's BBQ over the weekend and caught up with a wonderful group of friends and their kids. The pic above is one of Benjamin and one of his bestest friends, Anna. The two have history man.. they've known each other "forevah!". I have a pic of Anna giving Ben a kiss last October that I'll have to find.. but the pic above is an attempt by Anna to give Ben a hug.. Ben was being shy.

Cute.. if I do say so myself. Anna's mom agrees!

So.. it shouldn't be a surprise to most of you who know me that I'm easily amused and easily distracted.. what.. wait.. look at the kitty! just kidding.

Ok.. so if you google "Benji and Shiela" just like that.. including the word "and".. my blog will come up as the #1 hit on google! I rock! Of course.. how many people are googling "Benji and Shiela".. especially with Jood's name spelled right, but wrong.. "i" before "e" except after "c"..

In other news.. you'll see that I caved and added some Ads. Irritating, yes.. but I promise I won't do more than just the side banner. no scrolling ads or "hit skip to continue" blackouts or even worse.. *gasp*.. pop-ups. I figured that it couldn't hurt. It's not the best way to make a dime.. but a dime is a dime.. so click away, my friends. Given the random things I tend to talk about.. the items in the Ad list could be quite wacky.