Better than a Hershey's kiss...

I think Ben may have been a cat in his previous life...

One of my favorite times with Ben is right as he has finished feeding and I hoist him onto my shoulder for a burp. He nuzzles right into my neck and turns his head so it is right up against mine. As I gently pat him on the back, he rotates his head like a kitten who is snuggling in for the night. A few times he has even pulled his head back to have a peek at me, then let it fall back into mine meeting his mouth to mine like he wanted a smooch.

Speaking of smooches, Emma - who used to be very stingy dolling out kisses, has become very giving with affection in the past week. Is having the 'bebe' in the house affecting this?

Remote Control

Soooooo, Emma has finally, at 18 months, found her 'words'. She has been full of toddler jibber jabber for some time now, but ever since Ben was born, she has started to use real vocabulary words. It has been fun watching and listening to her express herself.

One of the sweetest things she does is grab the remote control and wave it at the tv saying, "Oswald? Weenie? Daisy?" I've been pretty good at limiting tv time with her, but when those big blue eyes look at me with that, "Please, mama!" vibe - I simply melt and allow her 10 minutes of Noggin (Thank you tivo for allowing me an Oswald episode on demand!).

post partum 'Repression'

With kiddo 1, I had 12 hours of hard contractions, then an emergency c section at 8pm. With kiddo 2, the c section was scheduled for 9 am, with a decent night sleep and no contractions to wear me out. The difference was literally and figuratively night and day. I was so wiped out after kiddo 1 was delivered that I couldn't enjoy the first few hours with her. With kiddo 2, I was alert during the whole surgery, watched the whole procedure in the overhead mirror and enjoyed snuzzling with him as soon as he was cleaned up.

BUT,

I'd heard it said a million times - "You'll easily forget the pain of childbirth when they place that beautiful baby in your arms.." And, you know what, IT'S TRUE.

But what they don't tell you is, when you are about to give birth to your 2nd child, IT ALL COMES FLOODING BACK.

I wasn't nervous or worried at all in the final weeks of this pregnancy, just excited to meet the little guy who had been hanging out on my sciatica for the last 39 weeks. That is, UNTIL I WAS WAITING OUTSIDE THE O.R. and all the memories of the spinal needle, and the being rustled like a sack of potatoes on a cross, and the freezing temperature of the operating room, and the paralysis for hours afterwards.

I went from my joke cracking self to a shaking scared little girl praying to her heavenly father to make it all go quickly. And He must have been listening because even though it was all those scary things, and because I was so coherent, slightly scarier - when they snuzzled little Ben into my cheek and he was screaming his head off and I spoke to him and he immediately quieted as if he recognized my voice, I quickly forgot they were stitching up my uterus and replacing all the organs they mushed around to dig him out and immediately fell in love with my brand new baby boy.

super soaker

woo hoo! baby boy benjamin made his entrance on wed morn and breezed through security without needing a full cavity search. Looks like he has the hookup. Not to mention some velocity on his hydrant...JEEZ HE CAN PEE!

Big sis seems to love the idea of having a beebee to stare at, poke, prod, and basically terrify mommy and daddy with! I don't remember emma ever being THIS small and flimsy, seeing that she now tests her cranial durability on the coffee table, hospital bed, and any other inanimate object she can find. But he is pretty friggin cute. It was fun having gramma in the room to watch benjamin's birth, at least it was for me, since i got to see the aftermath of the c-section this time.

*********TMI ALERT TMI ALERT TMI ALERT**************

When emma was born, i was completely wrapped up in her in those first few moments, like i had to prove to the nurses that i was prepared to "dad" the baby, and so i didn't get to see what happens to mommy after baby comes out. This time around, i had a front row seat to the whole shebangabang.

So once baby is out, dr pulls on what looks like a white twizzler (a fat one - its the umbilical cord) that is attached to a cheapo sandwich bag full of sangria (where the baby cooked for 9 months kinda like the sleeve of a hot pocket). Once that is 86'd, he then proceeds to pull out hotel babyuterus, and places it on mom's stomach to be stitched up with a kitchen's closed sign. That goes back to its home and everything else is stitched back together. I never realized how similar a surgeon's job is to that of a seamstress.

all told i've got some killer pics of ben getting cajoled out of his crockpot, pics so good my own brother couldn't look. This is the same guy who feeds baby rodents to his snakes and watches! To each his own right?

daddy

all tied up in knots

I get the slice part, but what exactly are they gonna dice??

Was it wrong of me to be watching the biggest loser tonight while eating a pork chop on a fork?

Speaking of which, a commercial for some type of female contraceptive (some kinda slingshot looking thing without the sling) comes on, and apropos, grammalou asks brenda if she's looked into something like that; of course the response is neither yes or no, but simply fingers cutting through the air...wait a minute...

So that got me thinking, do they get tied in knots or cut and left open like a firehose? Bless google, the gift that keeps on giving. (me nightmares)

by daddy

Wish me luck!

Tomorrow (WED) is birthing day. I had my last doctor appt today and everything looks good to go. I go in at 7am and the slice and dice begins at 9am. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

I spent most of the day doing the last minute prep and trying to enjoy my last "alone" minutes with Emma. Gramma Lou arrived today to help out so Emma was happy to have someone else to entertain. It will be very interesting tomorrow to see how (and when) she handles the realization that she is no longer an only child...

Sleepy time now. I'll post some pics as soon as I find an internet connection...

Chattanooga Choo-Choo

I'm typing this in rhythm with the wall shaking snores of a 38 week pregnant woman who wets herself while laughing, sneezing, and well, snoring....The white noise machine has met its match!

Actually heard this week: "oh wow, baby must have dropped, I can't wipe my butt"...

It has been interesting watching Brenda through this pregnancy. My wife is the consummate professional at all times (except when laughing, sneezing, or snoring), she is a trained actor of course, but there seem to have been more "right-turn clyde" moments this time around. If you don't know what I mean, picture a woman sitting comfortably on a chair, reading a book, flipping a page, and them randomly throwing a fist out into the air or a kick into the ether at an unseen attacker. It's preggo judo!!

Or preggo tourette's with only slightly less vulgarity. That should be a 3rd trimester symptom, "preggorettes"... Maybe it's because there's a boy inside playing standup bass on her vena cava while tap dancing on her bladder. Or girls are more respectful of their mother's parts while in the womb.

Preggo brain fart of the trimester: We decide to try the spicy food bit to speed up #2's entrance to the world but were undecided where to order from. So I mentioned the thai place on Ventura that we had heard good things about, and Brenda in her phoenetic wisdom typed in "Toxic Thai" into the search bar...needless to say the results were less than appealing. Takzin Thai worked out much better.

Can you stop by Target for me?

I think Emma must have grown overnight as she was never able to reach my electric toothbrush on it's charger next to the sink before. And, now she can. Not only can she reach it, she knows how to turn it on. And, she knows just what to clean with it. Except she didn't try to clean HER teeth. I found her trying to clean Apollo's teeth. APOLLO - our 70 lb boxer, and he was LETTING HER DO IT. Perhaps Emma will enter the dental hygiene field when she grows up.

So if you happen to be on your way home this evening and you pass by a Target, can you please grab me a Sonicare replacement head for my toothbrush?

I was hoping to pop today...

I was hoping to pop today, but no such luck. Funny thing is, the more I think I want to pop so I can feel better physically - the more scared I get at the thought of being responsible for 2 little people!! Emma is 18 months old and I haven't 'broken' her yet, but that does little to soothe the panic attack I have here and there.

Of course Emma has been behaving like a dream. She got a few dolls for Christmas and I have been using them to introduce the idea of a new baby in the house. She even grabbed one of her diapers out of the closet today and brought it to me and had me put it on the doll - laughing the whole time. I then caught her feeding her own milk to one of the dolls, the poor doll was soaked with moo juice but I like the idea that she is not afraid to share!

On the not so angelic side, I found her sitting on one of her dolls while watching her (read MY - I am a sucker for the singing and dancing) favorite TV show, The Backyardigans. The doll laughs when you squeeze its tummy, except she wasn't squeezing, she was bouncing on it giggling away with the "bebe" as she calls it. Remind me not to leave her alone with her new brother!

I think we have finally settled on a name. Funny thing is, it was one of the first names we came up with then dismissed when we first got pregnant with Emma. He better make an appearance soon before I change my mind again!

I can't get no Satisfaction... or did I?

Yesterday was one of those awesome family days where we got to hang out all day, have some friends over in the evening, and hit the pillows early from a day of play. Daddy did the bulk of the entertaining of kiddo #1 while mama and her bulk relaxed here and there on the sofa, on the floor, where ever she could get comfortable.

As kiddo #1 is 18 months of go go go, daddy was on the move most of the day picking up after her, cleaning dirty butts, saying "No, Emma, that's not yours." and "Emma, leave the doggy alone." and "Emma, no climbing on the rocking chair!" etc. etc. etc.

At one point she got her hands on a box of recyclable wire shirt hangers that are due back at the dry cleaners dumping them all over the floor making a big giant tangled mess. I could hear him in the other room saying, "No, Emma, No!" as she was kicking them around the floor and I must admit a chuckle escaped from my mouth and a sense of satisfaction came over me as I felt daddy was getting a taste of my exhaustion from everyday of chasing around a toddler.

That's not so wrong. ...is it?

eco conscious and the bunny men

So I've decided not to let mommy be the only one having all the fun telling stories.

Somewhere in our 784 square foot house/room there was a break in the fabric of space-time. Call it a black hole, wormhole, pothole, or cornholio, but it had been swallowing up all of Emma's avent bottles. Now, why this creature demanded molded plastic as a snack is beyond my level of comprehension, but I was determined to go through the vortex and back to find some friggin answers. And maybe a missing sock or two.

Having a toddler in the house is a nonstop exercise in unintentional comedy if, and only if, you're looking for it. Whether it be a poopy handshake, or the exploration of the dog's eyeball with an index finger, or just a naked streak away from the tub, life with a toddler is like Forrest Forrest Gump's box of chocolates. Not to mention the oh so cute moments when parent is imitated by said toddler.

So after having wracked our brains for weeks turning the house/room upside down and not finding anything other than little people hiding from my daughter, Gojira the detroyer (i guess i killed their weekend), it was wholly satisfying to watch emma take the last shot of milk from her bottle and coolly stroll over to the cabinet which hides the garbage and recycling bins, and sweetly throw her bottle away, as it was empty and no longer had any reason to hangout here on Califa street. And just like dad, the recyclable went into the regular trash.

the bad things you do, and a whole lot more. Kids aren't comedy, they're mirrors...

Toys R Us is still fun...

Brian suggested we take Emma to the toystore today 'just for the fun of it, you know, let her run around and have fun!' I'm always up for a family adventure so after lunch we headed out. She's not at the age yet where she wants us to buy her anything - I don't think she comprehends the idea. Brian carried her through the parking lot into the store and set her down to wander around once we were inside the store. She was a little timid at first, not sure where to walk - but she slowly started going up to toys that caught her eye, pulling them off the shelf, handing them to daddy, then moving on to the next one. She did a lot of pointing, made a lot of barking noises when she saw various stuffed dogs, and was enamored with an Elmo lounge chair although she couldn't figure out how to sit in it and still see Elmo behind her.

We left the store without buying anything knowing the days of leaving our wallets in our pockets will soon be far behind us. "Me, mama, me!" I can already hear it...

Baby Batter #2 - who is still nameless, ("Noah" was vetoed when 3 other kids in Brian's office were so-named in the past month) is due in 10 days, although come Monday I am starting the spicy food/walking uphill both ways method of inducing childbirth.

The Santa Ana's are blowing...

The warm desert winds are blowing through Southern California warming up our unusually cold winter. We hit temps in the 70's today after a few weeks of 50s and 60s. Emma, our angelic 18 month old, was excited to be able to play in the backyard again with her "outside toys" and spent the morning wandering in and out of the house. At one point the security screen door in the kitchen blew shut from the winds and locked her outside and me and the dogs inside. She came running up to the door screaming, "Me!! Me!!" Then after a few seconds of no one rescuing her I watched her bang on the door and scream what sounded like, "Why? Why?" It was beyond cute! I'm sure there will come a day when "Why?" will drive me crazy, but not today. Today I will cherish the developing language skills of my baby girl who is no longer a baby...