Friday, April 25, 2008

self-esteem

I don't want to say too much, but when Ben is using the potty, he proclaims his pride for his...ahem...assets. He is very proud of what he has, and he is also quite confident about it. I know that most men feel this way about themselves, but I didn't expect it to start already.

He certainly didn't inherit this from me...

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

poop

Tonight I went on a walk with Elliott and Ben, and Ben kept pointing at lumps of dirt and saying, "What kind of animal poop, Mommy?" And I said, tiger, whale, skunk, raccoon, dog, cat, lion, tiger, elephant, hippo, etc. for every lump of dirt until I couldn't think of anymore animals and I got a little desperate, and I said fish. Ben shook his head at me like, whatever mom, fish don't poop on the sidewalk. "No, mommy," he said. So I said, "Giraffe?" And he said, "Yes!" Like that makes so much more sense. In any case, this walk represents the longest sustained conversation I have ever had about poop, and I have Ben to thank for that.

Thursday, April 03, 2008

welcome baby cameron!

I had food poisoning the day that Cameron was born--I had tried to drive to work earlier that morning, but kept having to pull over and throw up. After an hour and a half on the road (this is normally a 30 minute commute), I said to myself, "Stop being stubborn. Go home." Actually, Ryan said that to me and I debated it with him. Cuz that's how I roll. I was exhausted all day from the vomiting and lack of nutrition, and I got the call at around 6pm that Sally was in the hospital. I left and went there around 9pm, and Sally and Terry were relaxing in the room, enjoying a game of Mancala and an epidural. David showed up a little later. We all chatted. I read my textbook. David read his textbook. Sally and Terry talked. At around 12:30, I debated going home because I was still throwing up at the hospital and I had to be at work the next morning at 8am. But Sally really wanted me to stay. I couldn't leave. Terry put a blanket over his head, David pushed two chairs together and laid down, and I put my hood over my head and tried to get some sleep. This is when the moaning began. Sally was starting to feel her contractions. I won't lie to you and tell you that a part of me really wanted to go to sleep and let her and Terry work it out, but I got out of the chair and held her hand and made lame jokes to get her through it. At around 1:40am, little Cameron was born. I watched them ease his head out of her body, and it was terrifying and amazing. I have never seen a birth in person, and I was surprised that I not only could handle it, but that I am ecstatic that I was there to see it. And I wish I could lie and say that when I held him, I felt no maternal twinges, but dang it, they were there--those warm, urgent twinges we have that make us do crazy things like have babies. My solution: pretend the twinge never happened and hold other people's babies to get it out of my system. There are plenty of babies around to do the trick. That night, Dave and I went to Denny's and I ate some oatmeal, which, thankfully, I kept down. David and I had an nice talk, which we haven't had in years, and it was a good night.

I took Ben to see Cameron today, and he was so excited to go...until we got there. All he wanted to do was eat cookies and give Sally, Terry, and me stickers. Then he said he "wanted out," which meant it was time to leave. When we were in the hall, he told me he wanted to give Sally a kiss, so we went back in and he kissed her. Then in the car he told me, "Want Cameron. Want Sally." He enjoys things in his own way.

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