Two Months Old!

On Monday, Ben had his 2 month checkup. He weighs 13 lbs. 8 1/2 oz. and is 24 3/4 inches long. He's in the 90% for both height and weight. He doesn't look fat...he's just a solid kid.
A couple of weeks ago, I realized I had made the mistake of trying to wing it with him based on my past experience with Abigail. Let's just say I was a bit rusty since that was 3 years ago, and they aren't the same kind of baby. After one afternoon of him being awake from 12 noon to 7 p.m. and being quite unhappy about it, I yanked those baby books out and did some speedreading that night. I reread Healthy Sleep Habits for a Happy Baby and got back on track. And I must say, "Sleep begets more sleep." He went from sleeping a little bit here, little bit there, and being a crank when awake to sleeping much more and being a happy little boy. Abby could sleep through anything. Ben needs his quiet and peaceful alone time. Plus I'm sure that with Abby around, we are a much noisier family now than before.
We're on a much better schedule during the day now, and he's sleeping from about 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. most nights. I wake up singing the Hallejuah Chorus. :)
Ben is also more mellow and snuggly than Abby. But then again, I think most babies would be more mellow than her. :) He does seem to go from zero to sixty when hungry. There's no in between time. Ben can be cooing and smiling one second and crying like crazy the next wanting to eat. Trust me, I can make a fast bottle. My favorite thing these days is when Abby is talking to him and trying to play with him. He just grins from ear to ear and follows her around with this enamored look on his face. It's the cutest thing ever, and Abby just eats it up.

The Big E (New England's Fair)

Last Sunday, we went with some friends from church to The Big E. The Big E is the huge fair from all the New England states. Our first stop was to see Kim Bensen, our dear friend from church. She has lost over 200 lbs. on Weight Watchers, and has become a celebrity. She created her own 2 point bagels (love them!), has written cookbooks, and appears on TV shows like The Today Show. She was doing her chef presentation at the Harvest Kitchen Theater at the Big E, and we were so excited to watch her. She is definitely an inspiration to Jason and me on losing weight in an easy and fun way. Check out her website if you want to know more about her: www.kimbensen.com.

Our next stop was the animal barns. We got to see a sheep shearing demonstration, pet some sheep, look at cows, and I got to impart some of my vast knowledge of sheep with Abby.



Next, we went to the free circus the fair had. I didn't have the highest expectations with this, but it was AWESOME! Abigail LOVED it (especially the popcorn and snowcones)! So much fun...



Towards the end of the day, we saw the "Air Force Man". Abby was quite enamored with him...especially since we told him that he was like Uncle Jeff.

How to Get a Free T-Bone Steak

Last night, Jason and I went on a much-needed date night. We just wanted to go out and have a nice dinner together-just the two of us. I can't remember the last time we did that...quite awhile even before Ben was born. So we pull into the parking lot to eat at Kobis, a Japanese steakhouse. But we changed our minds and headed down the road to Longhorn Steakhouse. We were both craving a good juicy steak.
Everything is good until we are in the middle of ordering our meal. I'm telling the waitress what I want and she looks up to the booth behind us and wrinkles her nose and goes, "oooh!" I glance behind me and see a man trying to give this (blue) elderly man the Heimlech Manuever. I go into nurse adrenaline mode and rush over there. There is utter chaos for a few seconds and I quickly realize the man is not just choking...he's in full respiratory arrest (blue, not breathing). We get him on the ground and there are about 5 of us nurses around him. One starts mouth-to-mouth, another starts compressions, and the rest of us are checking for a pulse, yelling for 911, and coaching the ones working on him. It didn't look good there for awhile...the man was clearly not breathing and had no pulse. We got him back only to have him stop breathing/lose his pulse again. And his grown daughter behind me is yelling and crying, "Daddy! Don't die on me, Daddy!" Thankfully, he started breathing again a few minutes before the ambulance got there, and I'm hoping that he is still okay.
After everything calmed down after the paramedics left with him, the manager came over to thank me for assisting in helping with him. And we got our meal for free (except for the alcohol-which I needed after all of that). So we had quite an exciting and cheap T-bone steak dinner for our date night.
Other than witnessing and responding first to a big car wreck back in Tulsa when we were first married, I've never had to respond to something like that in public. When I worked in Cardiac ICU in Tulsa, I was a Code Blue nurse...meaning if there was a code anywhere in the hospital and I had the code pager that night-I went to the code and "ran" it. So I've seen many a cardiac or respiratory arrest, and know what to do instantly. Although the CPR we did last night was effective, it wasn't the correct way to do it. They would do a few slow compressions, stop and check on him, do a few more slow compressions, then "oh-let's give him a breath". I was like, "Hello! He's not breathing! Give him a breath! Keep doing compressions!" There was way too much stopping and discussing in my opinion and not enough of following the CPR guidelines. But since there were 5 of us, it was a little crazy. Like I said, it was effective in that he did start breathing again.
So here's my soapbox: I firmly encourage every person to be certified in CPR especially if you have children. Before Abby was born, I made Jason and his mom get recertified in CPR. You never know when you will need to use that knowledge.

Hat Hair

Abby loves it when Mommy wears a hat. It's a big ol' game to try and get it off my head. Only problem is-she just doesn't understand that it's to hide a bad hair day. Today she got a hold of my hat and I just had to grab the camera.

Abigail's First Day of Preschool

(Sigh)-This was a big week for us. Abby started nursery school at Susanna Wesley on Tuesday. She goes two times a week for 2 1/2 hours each time. I was so nervous on her first day. She was excited and ready to go first thing in the morning. When I dropped her off, I had to leave quickly to hide the tears in my eyes. I cried for about 2 minutes in the car and then thought, "This is nice!" Ben and I went grocery shopping, and I realized that 2 1/2 hours go by fast! I had to hurry to get home, unload the groceries, feed him, and rush back to pick her up. I had lots of questions for her like: "Did you read a story?" "What did you have for a snack?" "Who did you play with?" She was like-"Yeah" "Pretzels" "I played with Wooke (Luke)." That was about it for details. But she was ready to go back the next day and was disappointed to have to wait until Thursday.
Here's our "front step first day of school" pictures. She just got wrestled down to fix the hair and she refused to give up the apple for the photo shoot. Hope her teacher is ready for this independent spirit!

A Bigger Ben

This kid is growing like crazy. The neck has disappeared completely. I have to go digging for it when I give him a bath. His smiles just melt my heart.
Last week:



Today:

Workin' at the Car Wash...

About a week ago, we had one of our last sunny and warm days. Jason and Abby got to work on washing the car. She just had too much fun. All of our neighbors came out to comment on Abby and her cute bikini.