Daddy is not happy.
Mood:  sad
Today, Ben and I dragged Daddy to Babies R Us! He was excited! The mission? To figure out what double stroller would be a good one. We came to only one conclusion...they are all over-priced pieces of junk.

Happy Birthday To Me!
Mood:  happy
It was snowing for Ben's 1st birthday! Woohoo! It was an eventful day, for sure! Ben started it off by throwing up his bottle - compliments of the Rotovirus! We then trotted off to visit Rosina for our 1 year check up. She assured me that a piece of cake will not make a 1 year old vomit and have diarrhea for 3 days straight, but that the rotovirus would. I just think it's kind of ironic that his "sickness" started about 4 hours after he devoured his birthday cake. She said that sometimes coincidences happen.

Benny Boy weighed in at a whopping 21 lbs 12 ounces (a reciprocal if you will!). Though it sounds large and in charge, he's still only in the 35th percentile. We need to bring on more meat! Measuring Ben was quite a task, and the most accurate measure we could get was 29 inches - the same he was at 9 months. There is a strong possibility that Benny might be a midget. This will come in handy when his school's drama club does The Wizard of Oz.

Ben took a nice long nap in the afternoon and I trotted off to my 16 week appointment with Cara. Everything is going well and in 2 weeks, we should find out if Ben's going to have a little brother or sister!

It's My Party and I won't cry if I don't want to - but I will throw up!
Mood:  caffeinated
Benny survived his 1st birthday party - and so did his mother! Many thanks to the many friends and family who came out to celebrate! A big thanks to Mrs. Cindy Fitzgibbons (Fox 25 Weatherlady) who predicted a nice, sunny day for our party - she was correct! Although Benny was in great spirits all day long, as soon as the sun went down, so did the fun! That is when the first bout of vomiting occured. It was also about the time the last of the guests decided to leave. All night long we felt like bad parents - we obviously let Benny have too much cake and too much fun! The next day, Dr. Rosina suggested the Rotovirus. Too much cake or the Rotovirus? We may never know the truth!

Fun with Grammy, Meat, and the Easter Bunny!
Mood:  lyrical
We hopped on over to Costco today to buy lots of meat for Benny's big birthday cookout tomorrow! When we got there, we couldn't believe our eyes - the Easter Bunny was at Costco! Benny was fascinated with this large bunny and he was lucky enough to get a picture with him. Good thing Costco sells hamburger meat in bulk...if not, we might have never have gone and we might have missed the Easter Bunny.

A cold day for the Irish!
Mood:  cheeky
Even in the bitter cold, we bundled up and went to South Boston for the St. Patrick's Day Parade! Besides the horses pooping in front of us, Ben's favorite part was riding on the subway. He likes when strangers talk to him and lots of strangers talked to him today. I reminded Benny that he's not 100% Irish, but also part Hungarian. We're going to take him to a Goulash Festival this summer. I just have to find a Goulash Festival to take him to.

Less than 10 Hours Away!
Mood:  hungry
We will be sitting down, enjoying our St. Patrick's Day Feast in less than 10 hours! Because of the irrational pregnancy hormones rushing through my body, I have wanted to cook and eat the entire corned beef by myself for the past 3 days. I have not done this.

St. Patrick's Day holds fond memories for me! This time last year, I left work on a beautiful Friday evening and walked not to my normal T stop of Government Center, but walked all the way to Park St before I boarded. I was fat and 8 months pregnant so this was a big accomplishment for me. It was the only day that I thought "it would be fun to give birth today!" Being born on St. Patrick's Day seems like a fun time!

Ben was not born on St. Patrick's Day though. Instead, James and I met at home and ate the overcooked corned beef that I had cooking on low in the crockpot since I left that morning.

We meet Cara and we like her.
Mood:  a-ok
We met Cara today. She is not fluent in any language other than English but that is okay by us. Cara has a husband named James and a 14 month old son named Benjamin. Is this a coincidence? I think not. This was meant to be. The baby is doing well. 12 weeks along and only 28 more to go. Ben heard his future sibling's heartbeat and was very impressed. He had suspicions that we've been lying to him about another baby on the way, but now, he realizes that we are telling him the truth.

Step Step Hee Hee
Mood:  not sure
So Ben took a couple days off from steping around a bit. Well last night, he thought he'd try some more steps. And today, well today has just been a jovial day for all. Ben's new thing is to take 2 or 3 steps, start laughing hysterically, fall to the ground, and laugh some more. Is it fun to walk? Is it fun to learn something new? Is it fun to know that the inevitable is tumbling down? If it's this much fun to learn how to walk, imagine how fun it will be for him to learn how to potty train.

Gas Gas Gas!
Mood:  accident prone
About 3 weeks ago, I turned on the oven for the first time in months, and it smelled like natural gas. (James was pressuring me to actually cook dinner). So I did the responsible thing, for a change, and called the gas company. Unfortunately, our oven was leaking gas. I thought this was a good thing at first, because now I would have a good excuse to not cook. However, we got a new oven a couple days later. So my excuse of a gas leak does not work anymore.

Fast forward to today. We left for our Thursday morning playgroup and all was well. My cell phone started to ring. I didn't recognize the phone number so I thought "let it go to voicemail." Bad mistake. It was the gas company and there was a gas leak outside of our house. So Ben and I come home to the street blocked off, fire engines in front of our house and cops telling me I'm not allowed to walk down the street. I told them I live at the place that they're blocking off. So they said "oh, okay, well you can go inside and everything!" "Is this safe?", I thought. They reassured us that there was no gas leaking in the house, only outside the house but they had to shut off the gas for while. Oh schucks, I guess that means I can't cook dinner tonight!

So not even 11 months old yet, and Ben has already witnessed 2 gas leaks. He learned two things from these fiascos. 1, gas is no laughing matter. 2, Keyspan employs very nice individuals.

Haircut Time!
Mood:  accident prone
Although I am a fan of the longer, rugged look, James insisted that we give little Benny his first haircut. He's been insisting on it since Christmas. So I caved in today. I was just sick of his complaining that Ben looked like a girl.

For the most part, things went smoothly. Ben didn't start bleeding. His hair doesn't look bad at all. He actually let James finish. He started crying a little bit, but it wasn't anything that a little more cheerios couldn't fix. It was successful.