6.21.2012

The end is near.

The breastfeeding goal I set for myself when Ben was born was 1 year. That's what the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends so that's what I decided to aim for. Now that Ben is 10.5 months (how did this happen?!) I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Or, the underwire bra at the end of a LONG year of ill-fitting nursing bras. A few thoughts on weaning Mr. Ben:

PRAISE THE LORD I'M ALMOST DONE NURSING!

Another part of me is really sad that Ben and I won't have this time together anymore. It's not so much that it's this really tender, sweet time -these days there is a good bit of kicking, pinching and fingernails involved. It's more that weaning him signifies the end of his "babydom" to me. I know in some sense I will still think of him as my baby when he's 37, but it makes me teary to think that we are almost done with this stage in his life.

I'm a little concerned about the extra calories I won't be burning once I stop nursing. I've developed a pretty serious ice cream habit. While I will hopefully be losing a pound or two up top (yes - they got that big), I may be gaining 3 or 4 or 10 around my midsection.

FREEDOM! Freedom to wear strapless bras, and dresses, and, heck, a one piece Speedo if I want to (don't worry Matt, I don't plan on rushing out and buying a once piece Speedo, at least not until baby #2 comes along.....) Freedom to go places and not have to worry if there will be an inconspicuous corner where I can whip my boob out and feed my child away from the public eye. Freedom to drink alcohol and not have to think about when I will be feeding Ben again, and should I really have this 2nd glass of wine and maybe I should just pump and dump but NOOOOOO that is worse than throwing the entire contents of my wallet into the toilet so I will just stand here and sip my water.

Ben needs to figure out this sippy cup thing ASAP. In the past month we've tried 3 different varieties of sippy cups. He hasn't successfully drunk out of a single one, but they are an endless source of entertainment for him and have survived being gnawed on by his squirrel teeth thus far.....

10.5 months down, 1.5 months to go!

3.24.2012

3.12.2012

My husband thinks he's married to Lisa Leslie.

Don't know who Lisa Leslie is? I didn't either. For some reason Matt does.


Lisa Leslie. WNBA icon.


That's right. My husband, who skipped most Clemson football games while we were in college to go kayaking on the Tallulah, knows all about the WNBA.

Since having Ben, my daily wardrobe has pretty much consisted of a pair of athletic shorts and a large t shirt. Here's my reasoning behind this outfit choice: My Ben feeders are too big to fit into 90% of my shirts. The shirts that do fit are rationed for work, church, and the occasional social outing. Now that I'm a mother, I have an aversion to wearing my short shorts a la American Eagle. (I'm embarrassed to admit that I do own several pairs of shorts from American Eagle. When do you become too old to shop there? 10 years ago? Ok, cool. Just checking.) And let's face it, those shorts just don't look the same on as they used to. Which brings me to my third point: This is the ideal outfit for going on walks with Mr. Ben and Luna in an attempt to whip my body back into shape. Functional and practical. And comfortable. And, apparently, strikingly similar to a certain WNBA superstar. Poor Matt.

2.20.2012

My love/hate relationship with my iPhone.

For my 29th birthday I finally got a smart phone. I used some birthday money and got an iPhone 4. I love it. You see, dear reader, before purchasing the iPhone, I had this gem:



I knew I was behind the times, but it really hit home when I shared an elevator with a 90-something year old man who had the exact same phone as I did. Matt got his iPhone a few years ago, but I have been resisting upgrading my phone for some time now. Why, you may ask? I guess the main reason is that was my way of refusing to become one of the billions of people who move through life with their eyes and fingertips glued to their phone. We've created so many distractions for ourselves that we can no longer be content to just sit. At the bus stop, in the doctors office, in the classroom, at dinner, in the car - the list goes on and on. And I didn't want to be one of those people. I wanted to enjoy going out to dinner with Matt without being tempted to pull out my phone and check Facebook while waiting for our table. I wanted to sit in a room with my parents and my sister and talk - without "needing" to beat my high score in a game. It makes me sad to look around and realize that while my family and I may all be in the same room, one person is watching TV, one person is reading an article on the iPad, one person is playing Words with Friends on their phone, and two more are on laptops. (Don't get me wrong - I was usually on a laptop myself). But now I've really joined in. What made me crossover? Ben, of all things. You'd think that having a baby would make me reject all of that even more - you know - in favor of living in the moment and savoring every second of this precious new life. But here's the thing: I'm kind of obsessed with taking pictures of Mr. Ben. If you're my friend on Facebook, then you know that I've uploaded about 9,700 pictures of him in the past 6 months. And the iPhone 4 does have a great camera. And Instagram, oh man, don't even get me started on that wonderful app. So I caved. I waited until I was in Tallahassee so my sister could go with me then teach me how to use it. As we were walking out of AT&T I held up my new phone and proudly announced that I had stepped into the future, at which point my sister corrected me and pointed out that I was actually stepping into the present, about 5 years late. Ehhhh, whatever. And now I'm truly a goner. On the way back from Tallahassee I played Bejeweled Blitz for ENTIRELY too long. I've saved about 35 pictures on my phone - all but 3 of which include Ben as the primary subject. I've blown up my Facebook wall by uploading Instagram pictures of - you guessed it: Mr. Ben! (Who can really blame me though, he is the SWEETEST!)

In conclusion, I love my new phone, but I kind of hate what it's doing to me. But if that's the price you have to pay to have millions of sweet pictures of your baby that you can easily share with friends, family, and strangers alike, then so be it!

11.01.2011

Cooking

I enjoy cooking. I really do. I'm no gourmet chef, but I think I'm pretty decent. I have to give my mom some credit, because she is an amazing cook. Growing up, I never tasted Hamburger Helper, canned green beans or Easy Mac. Matt enjoys my cooking, but let's be honest. He's been known to say, "I really don't care what it is, I just like having a big wad of food in my mouth." While this is true, Matt does enjoy good food, which is fun for me because that equals going to fun restaurants and trying new things.

But back to the cooking. I am a rule follower. I always have been, and always will be. I break out into a nervous sweat when I am not sitting in my assigned seat at a sporting event. I have never pool hopped. I really never disobeyed my parents growing up. I like to follow the rules, and this applies to my cooking style. When I'm following a recipe, I FOLLOW THE RECIPE. I figure the ingredients are there for a reason - this is how it's made. I do not deviate from the recipe. I may add a little more garlic than what the recipe calls for - I like garlic. Or I may substitute half & half for whole milk, or add a little extra lemon juice, but that is about as far as I'll go. Matt's only complaint about my cooking is that I don't experiment enough. In his eyes, a truly great chef can deviate from a recipe by adding a pinch of this, or a touch of that. The only problem with this, is that Matt does not cook. So, he doesn't understand that you can't just add a dash of paprika to your dish and have it turn out hunky dory. The most dangerous thing in our kitchen is not the knife drawer or the stovetop, it's an unsupervised Matt lingering near the spice cabinet. Really. Leave the kitchen unattended for 2 minutes, and you risk returning to find Matt standing over your linguine with tapenade, arugula, and roasted cherry tomatoes with a fistful of cumin.

10.25.2011

What's bouncing around in the ol' noggin

1. I've been dying to try the new V8 Fusion Smoothie. I'm not a big V8 fan, but I do love strawberry banana smoothies (we'd be bankrupt if Smoothie King was in West Ashley), and that just happens to be one of the smoothie flavors available. I finally found it at Publix, came home, and poured a glass. While it does taste surprisingly like a strawberry banana smoothie, it still smells EXACTLY like V8 juice. Blech. It is so odd to be drinking something that smells like spicy tomatoes, yet tastes like strawberries and bananas. So odd. I have to drink it through a straw, or I really can't stomach it.


2. Halloween needs to hurry up and get here before I eat all the candy. I thought I was doing myself a favor by purposely passing up the bags with the candy I really like (Snickers, M&M's, Twix, etc.) and going for the stuff I wouldn't be tempted to eat (Nerds, Sweetarts, Jolly Ranchers...) The plan didn't really work.

3. The McRib. What is America's fascination with this disgusting sandwich? It's return has been proclaimed all over the news, and apparently this gelatinous non-meat has it's own Facebook page. Barf.



4. Mr. Ben is so talkative these days! It is so much fun to try to get him to "talk", and sometimes we coo back and forth for 10 minutes or so. It's so sweet. Especially when I'm trying to put him down for the night and all he wants to do is talk to me :) I love this boy!

10.17.2011

Love this commercial:

View it here.

Not sure about the whole bath in the kitchen sink though. Maybe it's just us, but our sink always seems to have food and drink residue in it. I don't think Ben would appreciate taking a bath with floating particles of turkey and cucumber skins.

On an unrelated note, Ben and I went for a walk this morning with our good friends Alice and Hannah. We love those ladies! Here's a picture of the babies:


Hannah's face cracks me up. "Moooommmmm! You're embarrassing me!"

I'm so thankful to have friends with babies to walk with, talk with, nurse with (sorry if that creeps you out), and just enjoy life as new moms together!