Boo Nana!

This is Mark writing. I thought I’d share a few fun things we’ve been doing with Ben lately. The big thing going on right now is the verbal explosion. New words come often, and it is loads of fun. Ben will try to say almost anything if we ask him to – friends’ names, food items or even “stud.” Referring to himself, of course.

When I think back to earlier days, particularly Ben’s first year, I had a pretty hard time adjusting to parenthood. The loss of freedom was really a jolt to me. I remember having dinner with some fellow parents in the orchestra when Ben was almost a year old; lamenting how very much I missed our old life. Things have gotten much, much better. Surely that is due in part to time passing, and me being more accepting of this new role as a father. But I think the biggest change happened when Ben started communicating. Our relationship started becoming just that – a relationship. And now, the words add that much more to the communication. A year later, I am able to revel in what a joy it has become to have a growing, loving relationship with this little man. Pretty cool!

I find it rewarding that he speaks a language only our nuclear family understands. Boo nana is, of course, a blue elephant. Perhaps you can figure out wellow nana and ree nana. There’s two things he’s really having fun speaking about – animals and colors. He often comes over to the computer and wants us to find pictures of animals, particularly elephants and cats (meemoes) with the occasional rhino thrown in. Thanks to Google Images, we find these pictures, even with the color requests.

Katherine’s aunts, Lisa and Tita, came to visit us for Easter. They live in Wimberly, TX, just south of Austin, most of the year and spend the summer at a family cabin near the US/Canada border in Minnesota. These two ladies, both retired, are really a lot of fun. They claim to be so technologically challenged, but in reality they do quite well. They both have modern cell phones, have downloaded ringtones, and Tita just signed up on Facebook. They brought a gift of a simple puzzle for toddlers. It consists of various animals, and when you put the correct piece in place it makes that animal’s sound. It does this with a little light sensor in each space. A really cool gift for sure, but it’s been scaring the crap out of us at night. Before bed, we make sure the doors are locked and turn out all the lights. When you turn out the light where this puzzle is (can you see where this is going?), if a piece is not in place the absence of light triggers the noise. “YAP YAP YAP!” screams the zebra when you’re least expecting it. Doesn’t seem fair a kid’s toy should be so frightening for an adult!

Here’s a few pictures.


Checking out blue elephants



Tita searching for friends on Facebook


Eating Peeps on Easter. How can one food be so yummy and so nasty at the same time?



Quite the artist, yes?

Beautiful Sunday

It's a BEAUTIFUL Sunday afternoon here in Houston, I am feeling MUCH, MUCH better, and Benjamin should only be about halfway through his afternoon nap. I'm in a good place right now. And here's a picture of Benjamin in a good place --- taking a pause midway through the performance of his original composition to obligingly say "cheese" for the camera:








I hope you are all enjoying a beautiful, restful Sunday afternoon as well!

Drugs, Glorious Drugs!

How is that for a header? :) And how's this for two posts in one week!!

So a couple of years ago, I don't think I would have ever envisioned myself titling a blog entry like this, or practically salivating at the doctor's office when he handed over his prescription for antibiotics (not to mention checking my bag for it three times on the way to the pharmacy just to make sure I hadn't somehow misplaced it).

But two years ago, I couldn't remember the last time I had been sick. I had perfect attendance in middle school, high school, and two bouts of college --- or at least perfect attendance due to health -- I can't vouch that I never skipped for another reason. My pregnancy was pretty easy... I did have fatigue and nausea in the first trimester, but I think I only actually prayed to the porcelain god a handful of times, and within in a few weeks it all blew over.

I was of the mindset that my body could, for the most part, heal itself of common ailments, and pretty much had to have a horrible headache or something to take any kind of pain medication. And that was pretty rare. I planned a drug-free birth, and even negotiated having a hep lock placed on my arm instead of an IV.

So when did this first change? Oh, about nine hours into intense back labor with the beautiful petri dish I now call my son. And the epidural, ahhh the epidural. It made the rest of the labor so much easier... and the 30 minute repair work that took place afterwards. And once the epidural wore off, it wasn't hard to be convinced to partake in the cocktail of available medications available in the hospital... and then those that were sent home with me too.

And I became even more of a fan of the drugs after the second trip to the Doctor last summer when the "cough/cold" I had wouldn't go away. After the first visit, I agreed with him, that my body was fighting this and would get better. But then when I did something to my rib from coughing so hard (pulled a rib muscle, is that possible?) that I couldn't twist at all, and it hurt to pick up my 1-year old child, I began to panic. My daily conversations with my husband entailed the questions "Exactly when do you have to leave and when will you be home? Are you sure there is no way to get out of it? Can't you reschedule..." So I went to visit the doctor again, who wanted to tell me just to go home, I was getting better, but to appease me had me get a chest x-ray that showed fluid (or something like that), which entitled me to the technical definition of "pneumonia" - which made me feel much more entitled and less lazy.

But I still hadn't learned the magic of drugs --- not entirely. Because those glorious antibiotics had a not-so-glorious side effect. And no, Mom, I don't blame you for not instructing me to drink cranberry juice and eat yogurt --- after all, I hadn't taken antibiotics since I needed more than two hands to count my age. So when that side effect came about, I was resistant to see the doctor. Oh, I can handle this, it will get better on its own.

One very uncomfortable and sleepless (even with the help of sleep pills) night later, I learned that in fact that side effect is best treated quickly and strongly. And it took two attempts to correct it.

So this time, I gave my body three days to heal itself. And when I woke up on the fourth day to a sore throat that had jumped the span from one side of my neck to the other, I made an appointment to the doctor. And hoped, hoped, hoped that he would give me that wonderful little white slip. And he did --- even without any begging (or even asking for that matter) on my part. And I was so delighted and proud that it was bad enough for even him to think it warranted antibiotics. And I asked for a prescription for that side effect just in case.

And as I waited for my prescription to be filled, I stocked my grocery cart full of cranberry juice, enough yogurt to last two weeks, and many, many servings of probiotics. Then I picked up a movie and a package of hostess cupcakes. Because I am that sick after all to need antibiotics, so certainly Mark would continue to entertain Ben while I watched my movie and ate cupcakes tonight. And I even feel slightly justified in writing this blog entry instead of playing out in the puddles with Ben (I am very sick after all, so certainly shouldn't be playing in puddles).

And much to my delight, when I opened my delightful little package of pills, I discovered that I get to take a double dose, TWO pills tonight!

The Other Work that I Do

Katherine here. So very long since I've blogged, and how infrequently I have posted over the last months! Too bad, as I really do enjoy blogging, and I think often of things I would like to blog --- and it helps me feel connected to all of our friends & family out there. So in an effort to improve this, I am sitting down to blog about the "newest" thing in my life, and what's fresh on my mind. I'll blog about the rest another time, including Ben's "first" Easter (first, in that it was the first Easter that we celebrated with him -- yes I know that he was around last Easter too).

I have a new job. It's with the same company, but it's totally different tasks and a in new group. So it might as well be a brand new job. My new title is "Recruiting Coordinator" -- and yes, I am now working in HR (although just for one year - end date of April 1, 2010)! I was surprised when I was "offered" the job in mid-March (I thought the greater powers out there were looking for a technical position for me later this fall), and it's really just been crazy since.

I found out two days before our Project's team building event (that I was responsible for planning), and then Ben and I were off to Ohio for Ben's spring break the next week. So it's been craziness ever since we returned. When they move people around in my company, it's a huge domino effect. The person who was the Recruiting Coordinator had to transition into his new role, while he was helping me transition into mine, while I was trying to transition my replacement into my old role. Whew! Yesterday, I handed off my final piece of work to my replacement, and tomorrow I move to my new office.

How do I feel about this job? In many regards, I'm totally excited. I am definitely ready to do something different (and this is definitely different), I like getting opportunities to use those "soft" skills, and I'm working with a bunch of women! I'm used to being the token female in a group - and HR is ALL (well, almost all) women! This is going to be a learning curve though, as I really do think women work a bit differently than men, and I'm going to have to learn to work with other females.

Apparently being "chosen" for this job is a big deal, and it has high visibility (I have a meeting with a VP on Monday). But it also entails needing to establish myself with a new group - and still being part-time, I have to re-establish expectations / boundaries. I had that pretty well figured out with my old group, which made working part-time doable.

Fortunately, Mark has been wonderfully supportive as I've been working longer hours to transition into this new role. I'm back to a full-time schedule in September, so perhaps this will help us transition to that point. And I've changed my schedule in the interim so that I work 4 days per week -- so even if they end up being close to full days, I still have glorious Wednesday's off (hence this blog post at 10 in the morning).

But now it's time to put a load of laundry in the washing machine, get caught up on personal email, and my work cell phone is ringing...

But at least today I posted on my blog, and that is another step towards feeling normal and like life is (relatively) under control. I've always said that being a part-time working mom afforded the best of both worlds. I told this to a friend, and she agreed, but said that it also brings about the worst of both. And I think we're both right.

Benjamin's Culinary Endeavors

Wow, sorry it's been so very long since a blog post! This is Mark writing. We've had a lot of fun recently with Ben in the kitchen. Since we've moved back in to the house, he's shown interest in whatever's going on in the kitchen. Occasionally he has helped with dishes. He likes to play with water in the sink, using cups or spoons to splash and pour water from one side to the other. Often when I'm cooking he really wants to be held so he can see what's going on. And whenever possible, we try to let him do some of the cooking duties. Obviously, this is not much. He has operated the salad spinner and moved things around on the counter. He also does a nice job dicing tomatoes. Just kidding - no knives yet! His latest skill is adding grated cheese to things. We often scramble an egg in the morning for breakfast and sometimes add some cheese to it. These are known as "cheesy eggs" which he can say remarkably well and asks for all the time now. This morning I cracked an egg into a bowl and poured a little milk in. Then he used a fork to beat it. I did the initial cooking, but he added the cheese and used the spatula to stir the pan. Fun!! Sorry, it took both hands so I don't have any pictures of this. More pictures later...

Ben has been pitching fits lately during diaper changes - lying down acting like he's exhausted, running around the bathroom, saying "No, daddy." This morning we bribed him. With what you ask? Iced chai with soy of course! Seriously, this boy LOVES chai. He learned to say the word quite a while ago and he really loves the stuff. Hilarious! Here he is reaping the rewards of a quick diaper change.


Ben and Katherine recently took a trip to visit Katherine's friend Kelly and her family. It was obvious then that Ben loves trucks! We recently inherited a bunch of toys from our friends the Wenigs, including a bunch of trucks - dump trucks, recycling trucks, etc. He has gone nuts with them. Today, he and I went to this cool park downtown which has a fantastic playground and a really cool splash pad. While he enjoyed those things somewhat, his favorite part was standing up on a hill watching the construction trucks across the street. They're building a big office building, and he stood mesmerized for a good 15 minutes by a forklift moving metal rods around. Truth be told, I had fun watching it too. :-) Be sure to check our picasa web site for a new bunch of photos. Here's some truck pictures and a few bonus ones.






White trash.