Sunday, November 28, 2010

Yes you! Nice and slow now. Hand over the turkey and nobody gets hurt!


We had a wonderful Thankgiving visiting Nana in South Carolina. The boys had lots of fun playing, particularly with these golfing toys, which happen to also make excellent sword and axes! Thanks Nana.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Monday, November 22, 2010

The nine lives of Benji...

Last Friday morning Benji was playing in our upstairs hallway with the gate securely latched while Su was a few steps away in a bedroom. She heard a "boom, boom, boom" and running out to the hallway, for a moment couldn't figure out where he was as most of the other doors were closed.

Then she heard him crying and COULD NOT BELIEVE IT when she saw him at the landing at the foot of the stairs. Thank all the stars in heaven, he was absolutely fine. Scared, and crying but fine. (She checked him for injuries and carefully monitored his pupils before and after he went down for his nap.)

She remembers racing down to him and assumed he'd managed to unlatch the white baby gate and somehow squeezed through. 

Later that night though, we decided to do a controlled experiment with him and were shocked to see that what most likely really happened is that he stepped through the permanent black railing and dropped more than a foot before tumbling down down our wood steps.

You see we have some plants on a shelf on that staircase that he loves to grab for when we carry him up or down. Apparently he REALLY likes this plant. In our little reenactment, he eagerly (seriously, he was delighted to do this) demonstrated how he could reach through, step over the small bar at his feet and, well, reach until he couldn't reach any farther (but this time we were there to catch him.)

Needless to say, a large barrier has now been affixed to that railing.

We are still thanking our lucky stars that our sweet boy did not get hurt. Word to the wise? Check out your railings if you have little ones folks. If you don't, they will. -M

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Candle surgery

This fall I picked up some really cheap Halloween candles which Danny thought were awesome. When one broke, he assisted Mama in performing surgery to repair it.

He does say he wants to be a doctor (and about 1000 other things) every day. ;-)

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Happy Eleven months Benji

Well, I wasn't sure we could do this, but Su set up our computer that was holding all our pics hostage, so we are able to post this little slide show. Whew. Just under the wire--one hour til midnight. Can't wait for your birthday party on December 17th!

Love, your moms

P.S. Here's a little teaser from the show.

Eleven months old today!

Good morning Benji! I know that today is the day that we are supposed to post an adorable slide show of your eleventh month but, oh no!, we have a problem!
You see with the office renovation our home computer, (you know, the one with all of your pictures on it) is not set up. So we are sadly pictureless. I promise the moment that it is up an running again, we'll make you a slide show.

In the meanwhile, this cell phone photo taken this morning will have to do. Clearly, bibs have no place any more in your life! Love you baby! -Mommy

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Apparently I am not a Super Hero...

Have you ever heard of a Super Hero getting hurt while saving the world? Me neither. That's how I know I am not one.

Well, come to think of it I was not actully saving the world. But I was doing the next best thing--rushing to the aid of my little boy.

This time it was baby Benjamin getting in a jam. He got his fingers caught in a grate that is part of a small door that houses the controls to our gas fireplace. There was no danger of him being able to actually operate any of the controls, so when I'd seen him playing with the door, I wasn't too concerned. We were all down the basement on Saturday night enjoying our first ever Movie Night (it was so much fun!). Our Disney flick was just about over when Benji started to shriek.

Su and I both jumped up, but I unfortunatley jumped up right into a very heavy coffee table with bare feet. You could say I stubbed my toe, but that would be a bit of an understatement. I hopped on my good foot to get him as I was closest to him and was relieved that he was okay. I handed him to Su and then realized that not only was my toe hurting, it didn't look so good either.

You see, I struck it so hard, I not only broke the bone in my big toe through and through, but I managed to sort of make the tissue round my toe nail sort of, well, explode. It's actually called an avulsion, and believe you me, it is VERY PAINFUL. Imagine throwing an orange against the wall as hard as you could. The skin would break and the flesh of the orange would pop out. Yeah, it was like that.

After seeing a doc in urgent care I've spent the past few days hobbling, resting, taking pain medication and now antibiotics. The podiatrist I saw yesterday predicts I'll be good as new by Christmas.

The antibiotics were just perscribed yesterday as this toe continues to bleed no matter how careful and ginger I think I'm being with it. On the bright side, today for the first time, my toe actually feels better. Or at least not horrible. One of those two.

But, looking on the bright side of life, Benji was absolutely fine. And movie night was fun. And next week is Thankgiving. Oh, and resting is not an entirely bad thing. ;-)

Onward and upward! -Monica

Thursday, November 04, 2010

I am NOT a hypochondriac!

Really, I’m not a hypochondriac! Or am I?  Maybe it’s like the Kinsey Scale-- everyone is somewhere on a spectrum. Sigh. I don’t know, but I do know one thing. Several times a day I think that I am having a catastrophic breakdown of my central nervous system.
That is until I remember, yet again, that when I put my cell phone on vibrate and then carry it around in my back pocket, well, it will vibrate when I get a call.  And then I am absolutely convinced, for at least one second, that I’m dying.
Well, at least it’s not as bad as the 5 second ordeal I suffered once. I’d lugged our two cats in to see the vet, and as I sank down in a chair in the waiting room, a painfully warm and almost slimy sensation began in my right hip and quickly spread to my thigh! I was on fire!

I jumped up, terrified that I was having maybe an embolism/stroke/allergy/cancer/dermatological attack of some sort when I spied a huge stain spreading down said leg.
Apparently I’d put a travel mug of hot coffee in my shoulder bag that morning and forgotten all about it. It managed to stay upright and covered until that fateful moment when I sat down.

Oh, and I wasn’t really on fire. In fact, our "awesome" travel mug had rendered the coffee tepid by the time it attacked me.
Good thing I’m not melodramatic or anything! -M