Life is Good

Just wanted to let everyone know what a pleasant day we all had. I feel like I've been all doom and gloom on here lately, so let me tell you about our good day.

It's kind of funny, because it didn't really look like it was going to turn out to be so peachy. Last night Bennett was up during the night with an upset stomach, so we had another restless night. We wound up keeping him out of Montessori today since he slept in and was still complaining about his belly when he woke up.

I had a doctor's appointment this morning that lasted way too long. How is it that you have to wait 50 minutes for an appointment that lasts 5? So frustrating. But everything looks great. I have been measuring pretty big at all my other appointments, but today she said I was right on target... but that I "have another big baby in there." Bennett was 8lbs 12oz, and she told me to prepare for another of the same. We'll see if this one doubles in size in 2 months like his big brother did. Tub-a-lub.

Anyway, I don't want to give a big detailed outline of our day. I just want everyone to know that we enjoyed each other's company very much today. Josh wound up working from home to help me out with whiny man with the stomach trouble, especially since my back was giving me fits today... worse than normal.

Bennett went back and forth between feeling good and wanting to play and climb on us and then feeling not-so-good and wanting to lie on my chest. We read lots of books, sang lots of songs, and this morning Bennett called everyone he knew and "talked" to them. This was a first. Josh called me as I was coming home from my appointment this morning and let Bennett talk to me some. Usually he just says, "Hey Mama!" "I wuh woo!" "Bye!" ... things like that. But this morning, he started in with all this mumbled 'talking'. It was like he was telling me this long story. He'd pause, and I'd say, "Really?" He'd say, "Mm Hmm!" and continue on with more. Then I'd say, "Are you serious?" And he'd say, "Mm Hmm!" and continue. I was laughing so hard! And I could hear Josh laughing on the other end. Neither of us had ever heard any of that before. So cute. So of course, we let him call Gigi and Pop, Poppa and Grandmama, and when Aunt Lauren called to talk to Josh, he told her a little story too. I loved it.

That's really all I've got. Nothing too exciting, but life is good. It's definitely got its hurdles (so many to come, I'm sure), but nothing we can't handle.

"Hat, Mama!"

Last night was a rough night in the house of Gibson. No need to get into details, but the supper table was less than jovial.

*Let me take a moment to tell you that Bennett is way into hats these days. He loves to put on a hat. Any hat. Usually Josh's stinky beloved camouflage hat, but any hat that he sees lying around. And it doesn't even have to be a hat. He'll take a cup and put it on his head and say, "Hat, Mama!" If he can balance it on his head, it's his 'hat.'

Okay, so back to the dinner table last night. Less than jovial. We were just sitting there, eating our supper, not really doing much talking. I'm not really paying much attention, but I realize that Bennett is saying, over and over, "Hat." "Hat." "Hat, Mama!"

So finally I look over about the same time Josh does, and we see Bennett sitting there with a piece of Mongolian chicken on top of his head.

It's all we can do to keep from laughing. We wanted to just crack up and enjoy that moment, but we couldn't exactly let Bennett know that putting his dinner on his head will make Mama and Daddy laugh a lot.

Leave it to the 2 year old to provide some comic relief. :)

Latest Faux Pas

I just got finished loading up our cabinets with dirty dishes.

I opened the dishwasher and assumed that it was clean dishes that I just hadn't finished putting away. (It gets done in stages here because when Bennett hears that door open, he darts in there and wants to help. But I can only stand so much 'help,' so I wind up closing it up and finish it later.)

Anyway, so I just opened it and started putting them away. It wasn't until I came across a greasy-peanut-butter-residue plate that I realized they were actually dirty.

I guess that's what you get for pre-rinsing your dirties before putting them in the dishwasher. And for slowly losing your mind.

A Day in the Preggo Life

You know how they say that pregnant women are prone to be scatterbrained? Well, I think that many (most?) women use pregnancy as an excuse to be forgetful and scatterbrained. Too many women use pregnancy as an excuse for EVERYTHING. They milk it for all it's worth. Anyway....

I never really had a problem forgetting things when I was pregnant with Bennett. This time, however, is a different story. There have been things here and there that I have forgotten or misplaced or just been kind of goofy about, but yesterday was the ultimate. What didn't I do wrong yesterday?

Let me just give you a run down of my day.

I'll start by saying that I had a breakfast to cater for the city this morning that I needed to prepare for yesterday. Miranda needed me to work at her house yesterday, so I told her that as long as I could bake muffins while I was there, that was fine. She said of course.

Bennett woke up during the night screaming his head off, so I wound up in the bed with him. Not good if you plan on getting any sleep at all. He is a total pillow hog. He'll be sound asleep and butt you in the head while saying "My weh-woah." This is pretty much what me and Bennett look like in his bed:

Except I don't have that much room and I can't lie on my belly like that these days. But I still totally rock the wonder woman pj's. Just kidding.

*This is me and my cousin a long, long time ago. I play the same role with Bennett as I did with Sandi. And, it's the same bed. Which makes me want to take a second and say how neat I think it is that Bennett is now using the bed that I grew up sleeping in, and as soon as we move him over to his new room, he'll start using the one that Josh grew up sleeping in. The moral of the story? Keep your children's bedroom furniture so that you can pass it down to them when they're having kids of their own and can't afford to spend money on new bedroom furniture! Thank you, parents!

So, I didn't get a good night's sleep. I woke up at 5am and snuck out of his bedroom.

That morning, I gathered everything I would need to make my muffins at Miranda's and then took Bennett to Montessori. I realized as I was taking him inside that I had forgotten the gallon of milk they asked me to bring for their cooking lesson that day. I bought it the day before, but forgot to take it. Thankfully, Mama and Daddy live very close to the school and happened to have an unopened gallon of milk on hand.

On to Miranda's house. When I got there and was ready to start baking, I realized I had left the milk and the eggs at home on the counter. Thankfully (again), her husband was still at home and let me run up the street to the Race Trac to grab some milk and a dozen eggs. And yes, he offered to let me use their milk and eggs, but first of all, I was making 75 muffins. That's a lot of milk and eggs. Second, I don't like using someone else's stuff, even if I am going to replace it.

So on to Race Trac.

Guess what? Race Trac doesn't sell eggs. So, I went next door to CVS.

Guess what? CVS was out of eggs.

So I decided to try this little Mexican grocery store that James is always talking about, and that Josh has gone to before. I had never been there. I knew it was close to their house, but didn't know where it was. I called James - no answer. I called Josh - no answer. I called Josh's work phone - no answer. So, I drive around trying to find it. It couldn't be that hard to find. Yeah, no luck. And all this time, the clock is ticking and I'm supposed to be at James and Miranda's house keeping their girls (who were napping, but it was approaching their bottle time). Josh finally answers the phone and gets me to the grocery store. Only after I had to sit in the middle of the road for 5 minutes while a tractor trailer turned itself around.

But I finally arrived back with my leche and huevos that were sobrevalorado. Look it up; I did. Well, the last word, anyway.

So, on to muffin making.

I was smart and bought baking cups to line the pans so I wouldn't have to wash pans between each batch of muffins. I could pop them out, put new liners in and keep on truckin'. Well, after the second batch of muffins, I noticed that big number 48 on the package of baking cups. Not good. I needed almost double that amount. It looked like more than 48 because they were foil lined cups that you don't have to use a muffin pan with. So, bad that I only had 48, but good that I didn't have to dirty a pan.

So I go ahead and make what I can with those, and then begin using the couple of muffin pans I brought and the couple that Miranda and James had. I had regular non-stick muffin pans and M and J had silicone ones.

It was after the first two batches of muffins were out of the oven that I noticed the full carton of eggs in the fridge. No wonder the muffins looked a little flat. I was blaming it on those silly "no muffin pan needed" baking cups.

So, in the trash those went. Along with half of the baking cups I had just wasted on them.

It was about lunch time at this point. Josh was in the area and offered to bring me lunch. Guess what? I got to divulge the location of the stashed $20 and enjoy a big plate of vegetables from Carver's! Yay! So maybe this day wasn't all bad.

While we were eating lunch around 12:45, Montessori called me and said, "Mrs. Gibson? We just wanted to make sure you knew that we had early dismissal today because of the weather." I said, "Oh, okay. What time will you be closing?" They said, "We closed at noon."

Lovely! I won't get into the 'and how was I supposed to know that???' question. I'll just say that I had to call Mama and have her go get little man.

So, since Josh was there and the girls were napping (again), I begged him to let me run to Kroger to get more mix since I had ruined two batches and had to make more. I couldn't afford to wait until I got home. There was plenty other stuff that had to be done once I got home.

*You may be asking, 'Why didn't she just run to Kroger earlier that morning if there was one nearby?' Well, Kroger is a little farther from their house than the Race Trac, CVS and Mexican grocery store. Had I known that I was going to have to go to all three of those places before actually obtaining the goods, of course I would have driven the couple extra miles to Kroger.

So I get to Kroger and get my muffin mix. I go to pay at the check out. My wallet is not in my purse. Thankfully (yet again), I was at one of six self check out lanes and the attendant was able to pause my transaction and let me run out to the car to get it. (and thankfully it was in the car)

Back to Miranda's and kissed Josh goodbye. Back to muffin making. Let's see, let me wash a muffin pan since I've used them all once by now and oh. my. gosh. why. didn't. I. get. more. baking. cups. at. Kroger??? UGH!

Oh well. Just keep going, wash a pan, make the muffins, keep your cool.

Once they were all finally made and cooling, I go to put them in the aluminum containers that I FORGOT to bring from home. You've got to be kidding, right? I mean, really? Can this many things happen in one day?

Guess what my next word is going to be? That's right, thankfully, Miranda is the world's most gracious person and is the first to make you a meal if you've just recently had a baby, had a loss in the family, had an illness... Whatever the case may be, she's on it. She's a wonderfully hospitable person that has on hand disposable aluminum trays with lids. I borrow the two that she has. I hope no one had a baby last night. :)

I'm getting a little tired of writing this, so I'm going to sum up this last part. Living it yesterday was bad enough. I don't need to spend any more time re-living it in my mind.

Suffice it to say that Josh and I spent a chilly evening in our house with the doors and windows open to let out the smoke from the grease fire I almost started in our oven trying to bake to bacon and sausage for the biscuits.

There. Done.

Went to bed at 1am last night and got up at 5am in order to have everything ready for the breakfast that started at 8am. It went very well, and no one would have had a clue that I had any trouble at all preparing their meal...

...if I hadn't just written a very lengthy blog about it.

Cutie

This is a First

Bennett never falls asleep anywhere besides in his bed or crib. He just keeps on going until you make him get in his bed, no matter how tired he is. It's even hard to get him to nap in the car - most kids love that. Not him.

This morning after breakfast, he got popped on the hand for not closing the cabinet door beneath the sink after I had asked him several times to do so. He got his feelings hurt and laid down in the floor, whining. I just continued to wash dishes, ignoring him.

The house was nice and quiet except for the light classical music we had playing in the living room. I was just finishing up washing the dishes from breakfast, and the kitchen was clean, nice-smelling, and relaxing because of the natural sunlight that was coming in through the door and windows. It was a nice morning.

Once Bennett stopped his whining, I guess he thought it was rather comfortable down there under my feet. He laid there for the longest time, just staring off across the floor. I thought, 'Surely he's not about to fall asleep right there.'

I was wrong.

Winter Wonderhome

Have I ever told you how awesome my brother, Greg, is?

He lives next door to us now, but we didn't get to play with them in the snow yesterday because our "going outside to play" times were opposite each other's.

So, no cute 'Greg' pics of Bennett in the snow yesterday, but that doesn't mean we went without getting a great shot from him! He always delivers...




This is our home, all wintry and wonderful. I love it.

Several years ago, my great Aunt Dot (who lives across the street from us) had someone take a photograph of her house and make it look like a painting and then she made it into a Christmas card. I have always loved that and thought I would like to do the same one year.

Well, I think Greg just unknowingly took the shot! And it has been enhanced. Greg has a program that allows him to play with the lighting and colors (sorry Greg, I don't remember what it is called).

Anyway, I love this and thought I would share. Now, try to forget about it so that you'll be surprised at Christmas when you get the card. :)