Planning for Ben’s birthday

We do celebrate birthdays and this year we will be taking Ben to Chuck E. Cheese’s. The past two years we had a small party at our house but now that Ben is getting to a point where he can be actively involved in the celebration, we wanted to have something fun for him. Which cake should we get for Ben’s 3rd birthday? Considering it’ll only be the three of us celebrating at Chuck E. Cheese… We were going to get the one with Dora and Diego in their cars but it costs $60 and feeds 40 people. Um, no.

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Mommy gripes: reminiscing and writing

The Bucks

I was adding some new photos to the blog today and began to reminisce. I looked at posts from my pregnancy leading up to the first few posts after Ben’s birth, and I came to a conclusion: I had a lot more time to write back then! With my promotion a few month’s after Ben’s birth, the new job of being a working mother, the added responsibilities of maintaining a house, attempting to be a good wife, and the recent diagnosis of thyroid failure, I’ve been a little tired. I know for a few years now, it’s been by miracle that posts have even made it onto the site, let alone posts with more than a few sentences describing the photos. So for those who still visit the site, thanks for you support and encouragement. And I hope to change the content and frequency of posts.

Ben is coming up on 3 years old.

Being a mom isn’t easy, but it gets easier as we go. Looking back at the first posts, we were so worried about everything – he’s not eating, the organic diapers don’t work, he didn’t start to talk in line with the developmental milestones, yadda yadda yadda.

Now, I worry about the crashing sound I hear in the other room. I worry that he’s going to be a brat child because he is insubordinate to me. I worry that he misses me since he turns into a different person when I get home – one that is barely recognizable to Blake who is home with him all the time.  I worry that he’s going to be lonely because he’s an only child and because we don’t know anyone with young kids (although the Y helps with this worry because he meets kids while I exercise). I worry that he’s going to be a crappy eater because mom and daddy eat garbage, which then makes be worry that he will struggle with his weight like both mom and dad.

So many worries. And I tend to suppress them all. With all the responsibilities at this point in my life, I can’t be the neurotic mom I originally planned to be. Good, bad, or otherwise, I will be a different parent than originally intended.

But I think it will be ok. Somehow we’ve kept Ben alive for almost 3 years! With only one ER visit (see this post). Sure, he is spoiled with so many more toys than I ever intended. Yeah, he still co-sleeps with me and I admit I like it. But we’re doing ok. Ben is super smart, happy, sweet most of the time, adorable, and addicted to chocolate. I’m ok with all that, and I’m excited to see Ben continue to grow into an improved version of his parents.

Beach Day 9-14-13

Blake, Hana, and Ben went on a beach day in the Daytona area. They had a ton of fun. Blake buried Ben in the sand and, when trying to pull him out, Ben’s forearm was pulled out of the elbow socket. There’s video evidence that there was no foul play – Ben and Blake were laughing and playing up until the second it happened! Beach day ended with a trip to the hospital. After a quick adjustment for his “nursemaid’s elbow,” Ben was fine. Now we have to be gentle because this is now more likely to happen again until his ligaments harden around age 5. We also discovered that Ben’s health insurance is garbage – after insurance, Ben’s brief hospital visit cost $700.

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Legoland 8-31-13

Today we went to Legoland in Winter Haven. A local nonprofit offered tickets for $30 per person (a steal!) as a fundraiser last month, so we swiped a few tickets. Here are some fun photos of our long, hot, fun day at Legoland.

Ben and daddy build a Lego car:



Ben rides a roller coaster! The Dragon roller coaster had a minimum height of 40″ and Ben just made it. So at 2 years old, he rode his first roller coaster. In the photo below, he may not look super happy, but he was really excited afterward and said “Yep!” when asked if he had fun.

 

Other photos of our day:



 

Souvenir from Legoland: his hand print turned into a rubber ducky. Last year we purchased a print of his hand transformed into 5 penguins on a glacier.

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