Softball

JB plays softball for a community rec league on Monday nights. Since this week's game was earlier than others, Max, Benny-boy and I went to watch him. I forgot to bring our camera so I took pictures with the sub-par cell phone, but you get the general idea. Here's Max in his favorite position, right behind the fence watching daddy play catcher. Actually, I think Max is watching another little girl there with her family.

Here's JB about to get one of his awesome hits. The girl Max was watching is now hovering nearby.

Here's Ben enjoying the game from the blanket beside me.

Singers

I think Max should join our church choir. He loves to sing and sing loudly. He even holds a hymn book on his lap during the songs at church. The opening hymn on Sunday had "Victory" in the chorus a few times. He caught on quickly and was singing "VICTORY! VICTORY!" so loudly that I think I heard giggles around me. Tears were in my eyes from trying not to laugh. I didn't want him to distract others but I also didn't want to shush him because he really was serious. He wanted to sing like everybody else (except a little too loudly).

JB said the other morning as he was getting the boys out the door Ben started to get sad so JB asked Max to sing to him while he loaded the car. Soon the sweet but shouting strains of "I AM A CHILD OF GOD!!!!" were filling the block.

Sometimes I think I may sing too loudly. Case in point, last week in Young Womens. I was hunting for something (probably a snack) so I joined in about halfway through the opening song. All of a sudden a few heads turned to look at me. Whoops, came in a little strong.

At the same time Ben is starting to discover his voice. Sometimes I wonder if he's yelling for help but it's just experimental squealing. So we kept putting his pacifier in at church so people wouldn't think we are just a loud family.

My hair

Do you ever go somewhere with different lighting than your home and realize you look different than you thought? I realized with a shock in a bathroom today that my hair is getting bad. I'm working on growing out highlights I got one year ago this month. Below is a picture I still have in my cell phone of that dye job:
It was pretty bright blonde! After this highlight job I found out I was pregnant with Benjamin. I was nervous to do too much to my hair while pregnant, so it started growing out. It was bad. I got over the nervousness and tried to dye it closer to my original darker blonde to disguise the re-growth somewhat. That dye job is now growing out, and it faded on the bottom, so I have tri-colored hair. Darker roots, lighter middle, even lighter ends. I thought I was getting away with it until the bathroom this morning with the different lighting. I took a picture just moments ago:

I must do something about this before people secretly tape me and nominate me for a make-over show ("Radio reporter/mom of two stops caring about her hair. The clothing goes next. Stacy and Clinton step in to help.")

It's not too bad in the picture I guess. But in the mirror it looked like candy corn. My sister says the best way to get rid of highlights besides a re-do is a haircut. Maybe I should get a bob?! But I've been thinking of trying longer hair again. This whole post may seem shallow but I really think a lot of women agonize over their hair -- I just blogged about my struggle.

I also found this picture in my cell phone I took last week of Max wearing a woven purse as a hat. Beside him is the other basket-purse his cousin Emily was playing with. Apparently he confiscated them both.

By the way, my foot is feeling much much better. No visit to the doctor, just some pain meds and rest. Remember that episode from "The Office" Season Two where Michael Scott burned his foot in a George Foreman grill and complained about it all day? In secret Ryan the intern crushed up some aspirin, put it in pudding and gave it to Michael and he felt tons better. That's kind of like me right now.

Doctor doctor

I'm going to try and go to the doctor today. My right foot really hurts. I think I did something to it running that 5k. I knew running was bad for you! But my foot really didn't start to hurt until Monday, so maybe it was my shoes I wore that day -- my new red wedge-heeled shoes I love so much that don't love me back.

Speaking of the doctor, the boys' ear infections are better! And the doctor's office visit wasn't quite as long this time. By the way Max now weighs 39 pounds and Ben weighs 17 pounds, 10 ounces. No wonder my back hurts all the time.

In an earlier post called "Some Observations," I wondered why doctor visits can take so long. Here's some insight from my mom, a Dr herself (a chiropractor. By the way I've never had to wait at my chiropractor's office. He gets me right in.)

"Answer to your question about why wait in doctors offices. Yes to all the reasons you have but I think the biggest one is in the way they schedule. There is a way to schedule that some doctors use that I hate. They will take an hour block and schedule how many patients they want to see in that hour say four, six, eight etc.They leave time before lunch to catch up and time at the end of the day to catch up. All the patients for that hour are assigned the same time to come in. Some will be early, some will be late.. So the first to come in for their appointment gets called in first etc. In the meantime, you have the talkers, who have made the doctor late. ( i once had a dr who wouldn't shut up.) any way they do that because then the doctors won't have to wait but can keep on going. I had another doctor that it didn't matter what time your appointment was she took first come first serve so if you didn't want to wait all day you got there at 7:30 am and lined up in the hall before her door. I would usually be first in line and seen then able to leave long before my scheduled 1 pm appointment. LOL. Love MOM"

A 5k to remember

This is the story of the 5k that turned into a bloody 10k.

It started out lots of fun. The boys were up, happy and fed early and we made it to the starting line in plenty of time for the race start at 7:30. We found a great parking spot a block from Liberty Park as well. Max was fascinated by all the other jogging strollers, the hundreds of other runners, the mayor, the balloons, the music, etc. Ben had his doggy-ears hat on. We looked all cute and ready to go.

We walked/jogged along the three miles, with JB getting ahead of me with the stroller as I got stuck behind a running gaggle of girls (kind of like the sisterhood of the running pants). But we made it across the finish line together at the Gateway. Our time was 37 minutes, 7 seconds. Not bad for no running training, just walking everyday.

At the end of the race they fed us bananas, chocolate milk, hot dogs and other delights.

We then waited by the finish line among the huge crowd to see JB's brother Jeff, sister Sarah, and her fiancee Joe finish the half-marathon. We cheered loudly as they crossed.

They amazed me with how far they ran in so fast a time.

We thought we could get a ride back to our car with one of JB's family members, but it wasn't working out very quickly so we decided to walk back. Good idea for him (he's tough and buff) not for me. By about a mile in, the dusty wind was blowing into my eyes stinging my contacts, my quads were burning from the unexpected amount of jogging/walking, and I was starting to feel really sorry for myself.

Then it happened, the bloody part of my story. Max had been clutching his new toy tape-measure all morning, and when he pulled out the tape part it sliced his finger. He started to drip blood all over and he and I both panicked. I couldn't get him to hold still so I could put pressure on the wound, so we stopped a policeman directing traffic along the race route and asked for a bandaid. He brought one from his car but Max was still screaming and wouldn't let us put on the bandaid. I was freaking out about the constant drip drip of blood pooling into the stroller, staining his pants, and almost getting on to baby Ben. But I didn't know what to do. If I took him out of the stroller there would be no getting him back in, and I did not have much strength left to carry a 39-pound toddler 1 1/2 miles back to the car. JB finally got Max to hold a blanket we had under the stroller, and that helped stop the blood and comfort Max. (It's a St Louis Cardinals blanket, already red so that's good!) But once Max calmed down I got teary-eyed. I have the worse imagination and I really started to think that he needed stitches or a tetanus shot or something. Despite my worst fears, it turned out to be a long but shallow cut with no need for stitches or drastic action.

We made it back to the car finally around 11 or so and I was quite happy the car was still there. If it had been towed or stolen I would have been a wreck. Ben started to squeal on the way home after being so good all morning. He was sitting in the fullest diaper! Once we got that diaper changed, a bandaid on Max's finger with some Neosporin, lunch and naps, we had a great rest of the day. JB smoked some ribs and we had his family over for the feast. Max had three ribs, I had several -- I tell you there's nothing like good food to cure the ailments of a bloody 10k.

PS I just talked to JB. He's not sore at all, and is rather surprised that I am. He wants to do the half-marathon next year. I'll wait by the finish line for him.

Aren't they cute?

I could just kiss those cheeks all day. This was Ben's first time in our single stroller, because as you see below, Max and his cousin Emily were in the double jogger.

I'm behind JB making all sorts of goofy faces to get the kids to smile. Can you see all the little things Max is trying to hold in his left hand? His fingers are all bent from the effort. Emily brought her little purse, and in the middle of our walk around the park and back she pulled out a peanut butter sandwich stashed in there and happily ate it. Despite some snatching of toys between them, the cousins had a nice time and love it when we exchange babysitting.

We are pushing Max and Ben in the double jogger tomorrow during a 5k downtown. My work is sponsoring it, so it was free and I signed us up. I haven't been running though, so wish us luck!

Oh deer!

Max is now talking to the deer on his little phone, and talking about them in his prayers. He was afraid the first time he saw deer at his Nona's house -- now he's fascinated with the whole subject. Every day when we arrive or leave he peeks around to the backyard looking for deer. He asks me driving down the road to point out exactly where I saw a deer one day too.

A couple of times he mentioned in his prayers at night, "Help the deer not to hurt me." But I think he's getting over that fear. Now when I help him by saying, "Thank you for my nice day" he adds "And the deer." He asks me where the deer are now and I say they went back to the mountains.

But the kicker came Monday night. He scampered off the couch in the middle of a story, found his little phone (JB's old deactivated cell phone) flipped it open and proceded to talk to the deer: "Hello deer, how are you. Are you in the mountains? Oh. Ok. I'm just reading a story with my daddy." Then he held the phone up to JB's ear and said "Talk to deer." He even did it to me and to Ben (Ben just tried to eat the phone). Max kept going but we said, "Can you tell the deer it's our family night right now and you'll talk later?" He said ok, told the deer a gracious goodbye and hung up!

Some observations

1)I love semi-sweet chocolate chips. I've stopped closing the bag in the pantry because I know I'll be back soon for another small morsel of goodness. I should save some for baking because I love JB's choc chip cookies even more. I did make a pie from them once, with a recipe from a yummy book my sister gave me for Christmas.

2) Why does a visit to the doctor take so long? Those with ties to the medical profession, please enlighten me. Our appointment this week for Ben's 4 month check-up took two hours from start to finish. The actual visit with the doctor was about 20 minutes of that, and the shots took five minutes. Yesterday I had a post-op check. It took an hour and a half before the doctor came in, and she was done in 2 minutes. The stuff with the nurse (weight, blood pressure, etc) took about five minutes. I get there on time but the doctor never does. Is it the office manager or receptionist not scheduling the appointments right? Or not rescheduling patients when the OB-GYN has to go deliver a baby (like yesterday)? Is it other patients taking too long with the doctor? Is it the nurse forgetting to tell the doctor that we are waiting with a hungry baby in the room? Or did the nurse forget to tell my doctor I was waiting on the exam table FOREVER, while feeling an increasingly strong and uncomfortable need to feed my baby waiting at home?

3) This girl cannot park! The first time I saw her pull in I thought, wow, maybe she thinks those yellow lines are suggestions. The second time on another day I thought, maybe she's crazy. The third time I thought, "I've got to take a picture." Perhaps she doesn't want anyone to park near her so the Mustang isn't dinged by car doors? This is almost as good as the Jeep I saw over the winter parked halfway up a snowbank in the last parking stall. One good push and that Jeep would have toppled over.

4) I sure shed a lot of hair these days. After Max was born I was shedding a lot, and my hair stylist said it's because when you're pregnant your body holds onto it all. But these last four months I just pull out handfulls of hair when I comb or brush. If you want to find me, just follow the trail of quasi-blonde hair.

My kitchen helpers

I sometimes put Ben in the Exersaucer while I cook (when I cook). He's still wobbles a little, but he loves to attack the toys.

Here's Max trying to climb in too. He thinks all of Ben's toys are his toys.

Then Max wanted to help cook, and saw Daddy's new apron. Instead of that one, I gave him this one in case he made a mess, because we were making tacos. It turned out he just wanted to eat cheese.


"How do I get out of this thing?"

Doctor, Doctor

My darling little (big) baby Benjamin is now four months old! At his appointment yesterday he weighed 17 pounds, 3 ounces and measured 27 1/4 inches long. That beats Max's four month measurements and I thought Max was big. It's 89th and 98th percentiles respectively. He was such a trooper for his shots but the doctor found an ear infection in his left ear. It surprised us because he's been happy like normal. Both boys have runny noses and Max has been sad at night so we had the doctor peek in his ears -- sure enough, Max's right ear has an infection again. We go back in 2-3 weeks to check how they are doing. Max was ticked when his ears were checked. He thought he was just going along to the appointment to support Ben.

Hip Hop Happy Birthday

It's my sister Rebekah's birthday today! Or as Max calls her, Hoombetah. This is one of the most recent pictures I have of her, showing off her new haircut. Hang on there Beckstar, I'm right behind you in the age department.

A fun memory of a past birthday was when I made a cake for her in college and decorated it with M&Ms. I think I may have walked from the dorms down to her duplex to give it to her. Or wait, was that my birthday and she made me the cake? Either way I remember walking and cake. I also remember she gave me the movie "Sneakers" and a special bowl for cereal with a straw attached, but I think that was my birthday a few months later.

My clothing

I bought two new shirts recently. One is bright blue, the other bright purple.

Last week I wore the blue one to work. A co-worker said, “Wow, that’s a bright blue.” I took it as a compliment and said, “I got it at Target!” He said, “That’s OK, sometimes I find clothes at Wal-Mart.” Apparently such shopping is something one does not admit. Or he’s saying we need to be paid more.

Today I wore the purple shirt with khaki pants. (That's a picture I took of myself in the mirror just moments ago.) The sports guys told me it reminds them of the colors of the Washington Huskies and Weber State. Then in a flash of horror I realized it’s also the colors of the Basehor Middle School Bulldogs, my middle school. All of a sudden I went from being a smiling, confident, 28-year-old news reporter, mother-of-two, happy wife -- to a painfully shy, awkward, pimply 13-year-old girl. I need my blankie.

Baby in the Hallway part 2

I wish I had a third bedroom upstairs sometimes. I'm too worried about Max's sleep to put Ben in with him, so he's still in his bassinet next to my bed. Maybe I should be more worried about my sleep and JB's sleep. Most of the time Ben is fine -- he's just about 4 months old now, so I'm still fine with a middle-of-the-night feeding or two. But occasionally he's just awake and talking to himself in the wee hours, and it keeps us up. I put the bassinet out in the hallway twice. Maybe I should do it everynight. But friends tell me their older child adapted and slept fine when the baby moved in to their room.

So is Max over-energetic or are other toddlers just like him? Some evenings when JB and I are tired after long days and drape ourselves on the couch, Max is still eager to play. JB says he wishes he could bottle some of that energy and sell it. It seems like we tell Max not to jump on the couch every day around 6 PM. I'll tell him, "If you want to jump, you can jump on the lovesak downstairs." He'll say, "Want to come too Momma?" I think it will be great once it's finally dry and warm outside and our swingset is hammered back together. He can get out some energy in the backyard.

Also, I'm finding other toddlers like to carry around little things too, and even take them to bed. I thought it was odd until I asked my mom and she said my younger brother would carry around small cars in his hands. Other moms say their toddlers take toys to bed, and I read in Parenting Magazine that this is normal -- it helps in a child's transition from play to bed or something like that. So I guess Max's empty containers (chapstick, floss, mints) or whatever he's loving at the moment are his comfort objects instead of a blankie or stuffed animal.