Congratulations Uncle Willy and Uncle Joe!
Mood:  celebratory
Woohoo! Uncle Will graduated high school and Crazy Uncle Joe graduated middle school this year! Woohoo! We got to celebrate with lots of family and chasing Ben around the yard wore me out more than ever! The highlight of the evening was Ben finding a "Congrats" balloon. He also attempted some rock climbing. It's always good to celebrate -the company is always great and eating cake isn't too shabby either!

Mini Peg and Al Bundy
Mood:  cheeky

First Unrelated Babysitter!
Mood:  surprised
Tonight was a monumental occassion - James and I went out to dinner while Ben was watched by someone other than family! Miss Lucy our landlady was so gracious to watch him for a couple hours while we trotted off to dinner. Needless to say, we were a lot less worried knowing that our family wasn't watching him (ha ha ha...only kidding!).

I've always said I wouldn't be one of those pesky mothers and I would have no problems leaving him. Unfortunately, that is not the case. I called Lucy about 5 minutes after we left to let her know that Ben can fall down the stairs and off the couch - because obviously, a mother of 3 doesn't already know this. She laughed at me and assured me that the he wouldn't fall down the stairs or off the couch (and no, I am not making this up!). But I did feel better after that phone call and enjoyed our time away.

And if you are wondering, yes, Ben survived being watched by someone other than a Lesko or Haugh. He was fast asleep by the time we got home and according to Miss Lucy, didn't cause her any problems. Either he too enjoyed the time away from us, or she's just a good liar!

Future Mountain Climber
Mood:  accident prone
Ben's new favorite thing to do is look out the windows. Unfortunately, at 2 1/2 feet, it's not easy to do this. He has figured out that he can grab the window sill and scale up the wall for a better view. I sense a future Mountain Climber on our hands. He has no fear of the window sill and probably won't have much fear of Mt. Everest.

Pregnancy Update
Mood:  hungry
For some reason, I cannot eat enough Raisin Bran this pregnancy. Why? I do not know. I find myself wanting a bowl about 3 or 4 times a day. It must be that two scoops of raisins. I guess eating Raisin Bran is healthier than my Ramen Noodle obsession with Ben. Yummmm....Ramen Noodles.

Memorial Day Fun!
Mood:  celebratory
We trotted down to Fairfield for their annual Memorial Day Parade! This is by far, one of the only good things about Fairfield. The highlight of our day was seeing Great-Grandpapa riding proudly in the VFW convertible. The low point was when the Pirates lit off a "bomb" in front of us. Ben was not happy or prepared for that one.

COXSACKIE!
Mood:  lazy
Our sickly little boy broke out with another rash today. Since we've been battling every weird virus and disease for the past 5 weeks, it really didn't phase us, but we did call the doctor just be "good parents."

We got to see Dr. Mike since Rosina was off...his diagonsis was that Ben now has the Coxsackie Virus. This is by far our most favorite named disease to date and probably will be for a long time.

Ben is now our little Coxsackie.

Roseola and Kicks!
Mood:  down
After 9 days of Ben being sick, I thought the worst was over, but today, I woke up to find Ben had a rash all over his body. So we gave in and brought him to the doctor. He was diagnosed as having Roseola, which is some virus that kids pass around like every other spit-swapping disease they pass around. Some strange lady in CVS insisted I was saying it wrong and correcting me with "Rosacea." I didn't even have the energy to try to explain that my 13 month old son was not diagonosed with Rosacea! Then when I called James to tell him what Ben had, he responded by "You mean Ben has Rosacea?" Ben does NOT have Rosacea, but I'm pretty sure the old man who lives next door to us does.

On a happier note, after weeks of harassing James and telling him to feel my stomach so he can feel the next little baby move, he finally gave in and actually felt little Tom move tonight. I was much happier with his reaction with Tom than with Ben. He smiled and was happy tonight...with Ben, he said "that's not a baby, that's just gas."

Benny's First Popsicle!
Mood:  accident prone
I'm not a fan of people who can't seem to eat without getting food all over their faces. Unfortunately, 97.4% of these people happen to be children. Including my own. Benny's been battling every ailment in the book for the past week so I was desperate to give him anything to eat - as long as he was eating. Well I whipped out an orange popsicle. I expected the worst...all over the face, home, furniture, cats, etc. I was surprisingly shocked at how nice he just sat in my lap and ate the thing up. I don't expect this to ever happen again.

I'm being Optimistic - Half way done
Mood:  happy
I'm officially 1/2 way done with this pregnancy. It was 20 short weeks full of vomitting, hot dog cravings, and bloody gums. Only 20 short weeks left.