Welcome back

Ok fine. I'll say something. Not like it's by popular demand though. I'm sure the last person looked at this blog about a month ago. If that. Including me. hehe. Admittedly I will never make my fame and fortune by being a cool blogger. I'm sure I've lost my HUGE blog audience due to my lack of posts. I'm pretty sure I was on the brink of fame until my blog took a dive and got moldy and stale. I'm sure of it. But, alas, I must continue. So, even though I am posting to the internet world of nobody...I will press forward.

So now that I'm back, I'm gonna blow your socks off by showing off my SWEET new ride--the Jamis Commuter 3.0. I was inspired by Jeff's drawing and I just had to share....

Look, I'm not trying to make everyone jealous. Please try to control the envy. I know it's gonna be hard---especially for grandmas and other old folks. Seriously.

But this bike rocks. It actually came to me in a dream. It's that good. One night a few weeks ago, I woke up and told Keith that I had a awesome dream where I was riding around on a cruiser bike. The next thing I know, Keith has researched the sweetest cruiser bike in the world. This baby has a Nexus internal hub so there is virtually no maintenance required. It shifts as smooth as butta. European mustache handlebars. 8 gears. No bending over. It rides like a dream. This is the ultimate grocery getter. How could you possibly haul a kid around on anything else?? And Bennett LOVES it! This was a real conversation with Bennett first thing this morning...

Bennett: "Mommy where are you?"
Bennett is laying in bed, trying to wake me up. After a while, I drag myself out of bed to go get him.
Me: "Hi love!" I open the door and walk into his room.
Bennett: "Daddy? Where Daddy go?"
Me: "Nice to see you too honey."
Bennett: "Bike ride?"
And so the day begins.

Bennett usually wears his helmet around the house to try to talk me into taking him for a ride. He's constantly asking. I'm easily convinced but it's just so funny to see him get all excited. We usually ride to the park at least once a day and you can see us cruising just about anywhere in Lansdowne on it. Keith is a convert to this bike as well. It's such a sweet cruiser that he prefers this one over his other bike anyday. I think secretly he just can't stand riding without a basket anymore.

So there you have it folks. My sweet ride. And if you come for a visit, I just might let you take a spin on it.

More reasons why I'm the luckiest girl ever.

National Keith Day was really fun. At one point during our party, I sang an improvised version of Happy Birthday. I think I ended in something like "Happy Birthday dear Rock Star Keith, You are the bomb." After which Bennett yelled "BOMB!" So, it's true. Keith is the bomb. So, in honor of him, here's a few MORE reasons why I love him....

#1--Just look at him. What a good dad. Who else would teach their kid to rock climb before age 2???


#2--Adventures. He's always planning something crazy and fun....



#3--My fence. I love this fence. Keith hates it. I finally convinced him to build it for me a couple of weeks ago. Even though he grumbled about it, he still did a fabulous job. I LOVE IT!!! Take that crankypants neighbors....



#4--He's a champion.




#5--Need I say more??




Seriously, I am the luckiest girl. Ever.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

Happy Birthday Keith!!! How could you NOT totally adore someone with Playdough facial hair? It's too good to be true, I tell you. Way too good. Happy Birthday!!!

Cookin up some bad habits

First of all, can I just say....neener neener!!!!!! Ha ha. You guys are suckers! :)


So we're in the hitting stage right now. When does this end??!! Bennett throws these little tantrums every now and then and swings punches at whatever is in range. Usually that 'whatever' happens to be me. It's so frustrating. I'm working on getting it under control but it's really annoying. Luckily, he doesn't seem to pull that card too often in public. In fact, now that I think about it, it usually happens right before lunch or dinner. Ok, never mind. I guess I figured it out. I'll just feed him earlier.


But he has this OTHER more public problem that is REALLY embarrassing. He likes to play "horsey". This involves taking some kid to the floor and piling on top of them and saying "horsey?". Usually the kid underneath Bennett is screaming and/or flailing desperately in hopes of rescue. Or, in other cases, the kid goes into shock and makes no noise. Or possibly they are being suffocated. In such a case, Bennett so innocently saying "horsey?" is the only clue. Look, I swear I'm NOT sitting on Bennett at home. I don't know where he gets it!!!


While I'm at it, I might as well expose some of the other bad habits that we are teaching him. Or at least, that he gets away with while we run for the camera. :)

Bennett is turning into quite a cook. He was "helping" me make rice crispy treats recently. He took a bite out of every single marshmallow before throwing them in the pan. Classic.

This one needs no explaining. This teaching by example thing is getting tough!!!!

And finally, Bennett found a keychain the other day that has Napolean Dynamite saying favorite movie quotes. It's was so funny to hear Bennett say "Cops!" and "Liger". He also tried to say "I like your sleeves, they're real big." He didn't pull that one off so well though. But the one that had us really nervous/laughing was "freakin idiot!" Seriously, who would let their kid say that? We're so bad.... Ok, we took the toy away. But it was still really funny for a minute.

BIG news

Happy and kind of sad at the same time.....

Keith and I came to a major decision in our lives. We are signing up for the military. Sort-of. Crazy huh? We've been throwing around the idea for a while but we really haven't told anyone about it. But we've recently been talking to a colleague that has been doing it and they absolutely rave about how cool it is and they've been recruiting us really hard. Why military? During times of war, medicine tends to make HUGE advances. Outside of war time, there aren't a lot of people getting thier legs chopped for no good reason so it becomes so much more difficult to do trials on new medical advances. But war time, sad as it is, makes medicine explode. There are tons of healthy, young people that are wounded and it makes it a perfect time to test new things. Like prosthetics.

That's where Keith comes in. He's going to be doing a special study (that's why I say sort-of military....it's for a military contractor but it's really pretty much the same thing) for three years where he'll be building prosthetic legs and feet for wounded soldiers. What a cool way to blend his surgical training with his mad woodworking skills. The only hard part is, it's probably going to be mostly in Germany. The main hospital for wounded soldiers in Iraq is in Germany and that's probably where they want Keith to be. Isn't that crazy!!! GERMANY!!! We've always wanted to live outside the US but we never really thought it would be a possibility at this point in our lives. So we are nervous and excited at the same time but we've decided that this is a super cool opportunity. We just can't pass it up.

We aren't quite sure what this might mean for our future chances in Price. We called the doc there yesterday and talked to him for quite a while. He still thinks we can make it work out somehow because, even though he really wants to retire, he still thinks he's too young to do it. So he thinks he might just keep working for a couple of years and we can see what happens. But we are keeping all our options open for now. With such a cool opportunity to research and develop prosthetics, Keith might not be all that interested in doing regular clinic care anyways. We'll see what happens. I know this seems way out of the blue because we really haven't been talking about it but this is an incredible opportunity. The pay is fantastic and--we might be in Germany! How cool is that! Ahhh!







April Fools.

Good riddance

I've never been a big fan of winter. Especially since moving to PA. Snow just doesn't have the same enchantment as it used to. Probably because in a big city, snow is just a nuisance. It turns cruddy black about 2 hours after it falls. And it's not like it makes for a pretty snow capped mountain view. There are no hills to speak of around here, much less mountains. Our views are of city skylines. Snow doesn't really add to the ambiance there. And after our trip to Utah filled with gorgeous spring weather, we were greeted in Philly with the remnants of a classic East Coast ice storm. Blech.

So naturally, I'm so happy to see winter leave. Even though spring officially started last Wednesday, yesterday was our first REAL t-shirt weather. I can't tell you how great that is! So, I don't want to jinx myself, but I'm thinking the snow is gone for good around here. So, I'll give you a peek at our last good storm. Adios winter. Don't let the door hit ya on the way out....

I'm.so.scared

I am literally crippled with fear. Flying. With a toddler. Alone. I don't know if I can do it. Maybe I'll show up in Utah as scheduled. But maybe when my alarm goes off at 5 am I'll just turn over and give up. I am DREADING this flight!

Don't get me wrong...I am well prepared for battle. I have a stocked bag of books and toys. And I literally have about 5000 calories in a massive assortment of snacks. But I happen to know that my flight is totally sold out. So I'll have Bennett on my lap. The entire 5 hours. I don't know if I'll survive.....that extra sleep is sounding like a really good idea.....

Bad Mother

Someone told me at church today that I'm a bad mother. In front of other people. As if I don't feel guilty enough without the public recognition.....

Maybe her opinion is based on an accumulation of observations of me and Bennett over the last year and a half. In that case, perhaps she is right. Otherwise, I'm taking her opinion with a massive boulder of salt. But still, who wants to be told in front of a crowd that they are a bad mother?

So Saturday I took Bennett with me to the Leadership Training broadcast at church (which, by the way, was really excellent). I had only expected that it would be an hour long and Bennett did GREAT in that first hour. He wasn't too noisy, he stayed right by me on the bench. He was a good kid. Then the second hour came. Needless to say, the control went out the window. A 19-month old does NOT sit still for much and even one hour was pushing it. But two? Ok, now maybe I'm a bad mother because I even thought that I could learn something at the meeting with Bennett in tow. Agreed, I'm a bad mom all the way--lesson learned by me! During the second hour, Bennett needed to push the limits and he wandered up to the front of the church and ran behind the choir seats. He really wasn't making any noise, but it was slightly distracting to see his spike of hair as he ran from one side of the bench to the next. If not for that straight up spike of hair, you wouldn't have really known that he was up there. So, big deal. I let him play. No one was speaking from the podium since it was a broadcast so he wasn't bugging anyone.

So, on Sunday, he gets in his mind that it's ok to go up there again. Bad idea. I realized my mistake. But, too late. He made a mad dash as soon as church started. I caught up to him and took him screaming out into the hall. After a while he settled down and we went back into the meeting. The little bugger escaped again and this time he made it. He wandered around on the stand and I finally coaxed him over to the side. Of course, he screamed like mad when I picked him up...more time in the hall.

Anyway, the organist had to tell me later that I should never have let him on the stand on Saturday because I was teaching him that it was ok to do it on Sunday. He could have been hurt, gotten his head stuck in the organ, something about calling the fire department, blah, blah. "Bad Mother" she said.

True, I am pretty stupid. And I often think I'm a bad mom. But, really??

The lady that said this was older and never had kids. So, basically I don't care what she thinks. Plus, she's a pretty wacky lady on a variety of levels. So when she said I'm a bad mother, I didn't say anything. But now I'm thinking--sweet. In her book I'm a bad mother. Which basically means that I'm doing things in a different way than she would.

Seriously, she's wacky. If she had kids, they no doubt would have been wacky. If she approved of my parenting method, then I would really be offended. So I'm a bad mom. (yawn) What's new? Bad and proud of it.

Lovin it

This is so stinkin great!!!! I am digging the stay at home life so far. Both days. : )

Seriously I haven't done all that much yet. I cleaned my house yesterday. It has been neglected for a few....years, actually. So I haven't done any major celebrating yet. But, I have to say how fun it was to have love breaks throughout the day. Bennett was generally happy playing while I was busy cleaning. But every now and then he would come over and need to hug for a minute then he would run off and play again. I think I can get used to this. : )

...plus a couple

They talked me into staying until at least the end of the week. A couple more days won't kill me, right? But tomorrow is Bennett's last day of daycare. That actually makes me really sad. I really love his teachers. They cried when I told them we were leaving. I love that they love my little man. Serious props go out to GOOD daycare workers and teachers who do so much for so little!!!! Did you know that the average doggie daycare worker makes more than a childcare worker in this country? And that, my friends, is injustice.

8.more.days

8 days. 8 WORK days, that is. I only have 8 more work days until I can kiss my career goodbye. Do you think it's too late to change my mind???

OK, I'm definitely not changing my mind. But I'm still pretty nervous about doing the mom thing full-time. What if I'm not good at it? What if my house becomes a complete wreck and I get all depressed because I never change out of my pajamas? What if I never teach Bennett the alphabet? What if I am bored out of my MIND????

Don't get me wrong. I'm super excited to stay home with Bennett. I gave my notice to my job in September(!) so this has been in the works for quite a while. But now it's so close. It's actually going to happen. This is my LAST full week of work. Then on the 31st I'm walking away. No more 1-hour commute. No more screaming, hungry, tired little guy in the back seat while being stuck in traffic. No more cramming every possible errand into Saturdays because there's no time during the week. No more getting home from a long, tiring day and thinking--"We have nothing to eat!" No more catching every friggin germ from the daycare.

I have high expectations of myself as a full-time mom. I want to take guitar lessons. I want to take a baby swim class with Bennett. I want to take him to the zoo and the park and the beach and tons of places that I've never had time to show him. I want to do art projects and playgroups and library story times. Oh, the list is soooo long!

But what if I never get out of my pajamas?

8 more days.

Christmas

Ok, so I'm a little slow at getting around to it....but Christmas was wonderful! Although, I could have done without Bennett breaking FOUR molars all at once! Thanks for that extra stupid little present, Santa... Poor baby.

He started getting sick on the Friday before Christmas--beginning with the puking episode on the way home from work in our new car. Then the fever came for a visit and we enjoyed the entire weekend with that unwanted guest. Sorta like uncle Eddie from Nat'l Lampoons Christmas vacation. Except that we didn't get radioactive waste dumped in our drain as a result. (Ha! I love that show!) Anyways, here's a few pics from OUR Christmas vacation....

This was at Bennett's Christmas party at his school. He looks awfully happy considering that he was spewing those cookies less than an hour later.... (sorry, gross visual?)

Bennett was just chillin, waiting for Santa...



Keith, whoops, I mean Bennett really enjoyed playing with his new toys!

We took the big airplane to the park down the street and played for a while. Or rather, Keith played and Bennett watched him until he fell asleep. Poor sick baby. Keith had to push me AND Bennett home in the stroller!

The Christmas Tree

Last weekend we did something I have always wanted to do....we chopped down our OWN Christmas tree. I don't know why cutting my own fresh tree has always had some mystical Christmas fantasy. But, nevertheless, it has always embodied some old fashioned Christmas spirit in my mind. So this year, we went for it. It wasn't like we went on a day long hike in the forest covering miles of ground before we found "the one" (as in the National Lampoons Christmas). Pennsylvania doesn't have tons of public land close to Philadelphia that would allow us to do that. Rather, we found a tree farm that had 11 acres of trees, all for the taking. They had tractor rides (we were way too tough for that), horse petting, free cocoa and cookies, and a 20 foot tall Santa to boot. It was like a Christmas festival compared to the tree shopping of my youth--a dimly lit cage of trees in the parking lot of Kings, every year.

We had a ton of fun and we found a really great tree. It's a bit on the short side because they charged us by the foot. But at least it's fresh. Putting lights on it the next day, I hardly had to sweep up any needles afterward! So, Christmas has arrived at our place. Santa is welcome to stop by anytime. :)

Utah

I'm finally getting around to the latest update on our recent trip to Utah. We had a GREAT time. Bennett really loved playing with his cousins! Just look at all those crazy kids..especially the crazy big one:


While we were there, Bennett got a new do. My brother, Steve, has always been the neighborhood barber and I got him to give Bennett a shave while we were there.

So unsuspecting...


Ahhh! What is this??


Torture..I'm gonna die...


Do they have locks of love for boys? There was a heaping dustpan full of hair when we were done. Where did this kid get all his hair??


Thanks for putting up with us Steve! One more pic I couldn't resist--Emily looks so cute here. Look at those eyes!! What a doll!


Thanks family! We had a blast!

Dr. Card

We got a house call the other night from the world famous Dr. Card. What a professional. Great bedside manner, very caring. Not to mention the excellent training he has. Graduated at the top of his class. Dr. Card is one of the best.


Just like a doctor, his pager went off right as we were sitting down to dinner. Typical--ARGH!!!


"Ok ma'am. Where is your pain?...Your toenails again?...On a scale of 1-10, how painful is it?"


Off to work! Dr. Card had to rush away to get his patient in for surgery. What a busy guy!


Happy Halloween!!!