7 1/2 Months!

I bet you thought I was over the Blog Thing, that, like one of my many high school boyfriends, I had carelessly discarded it and moved on. Well you were wrong, my friend! I am back, finally armed with 6 hours of nightly sleep-look out world!

So Ben is now seven months. He continues to laugh at everything we say and do (great for Nuni, who thanks to two decades of Joey and me beating her down, and destroying her self- esteem, was starting to doubt her endless supply of puns). He is also close to walking. And by "close," I obviously mean we have three more months, 12 more weeks and whatever 12 times seven is days of holding his hands while we circle the apartment-luckily I am so mentally stable, four hours a day of this activity does not wreak havoc on my state of mind at all.

Oh, we are also moving! Goodbye smokers on the street, goodbye Strange Crazy Lady on the corner and hasta la vista disturbing puddle by the curb that does not go away regardless of how many rainless days we experience. Hello Hastings on Hudson! Hello Gymboree! Hello supermarkets that sell yogurt for less than $1.99 a container. It has been 16 months since we were free, rested, thin and moderately attractive yet Eric and I can't quite figure out how we got to a place where supermarkets with good deals and local Gymboree classes were our nirvana, but alas, we have arrived. We can't wait for Ben to be able to run naked through the fields (okay, in a diaper on the patio, but still...) to pick apples from the trees (at the cheap market) and to milk the cows in our backyard (or the Mommy in the kitchen...ew, I know, but true). Regardless, he is going to love it and we are so excited to share all of these firsts with him. He continues to be the sweetest, most adorable boy in the world. I know I am biased but am sure this is true because my mother confirmed all of these facts just yesterday when she visited.

Ben-Three Months and Counting!

This morning I woke up with a deep, purple hickey right above my collarbone. At first I panicked. Had I cheated on my husband and in my post-baby delirium not remembered it? But alas, I soon recalled passing out at 4:00 a.m. with Ben on my chest, desperately searching for my breast but settling on my neck when he realized I was going to play hard to get (I had just fed him thirty minutes before). So that is my life now. Hickeys from my child, not a cute guy I met at a frat party. Oh well-all good things must come to an end.

On a brighter note, Ben is now three months old! The saying really is true: Time flies when you are doing laundry and changing diapers. Oh. That’s not a saying? I wonder why. But seriously, although I have begun to hit a wall (and by “hit a wall” I actually mean “lose my sanity in a way that I fear may be irretrievable"), Ben is even more lovable than ever before. He smiles now almost constantly and “talks” to us when we ask him questions by grunting and making incomprehensible coos-In fact, I believe he and Eric may be conversation soul mates.

We’ve also been getting out a lot more. We spent the holidays in Vermont with my family and, in spite of himself, even my brother fell in love with Ben. Nonetheless, Joey still refuses to read this blog, claiming “[I’ve] lost my edge and stopped being funny the minute Ben was born.” Tough crowd. Naturally Mom cried the night before we were set to leave and was so inconsolable we finally all broke down and told her where we’d hidden my homemade brownies. Due to a huge snowstorm in Burlington, coupled with Eric getting a nasty stomach virus, we ended up staying thru the weekend and had to repeat the whole crying/brownie hiding and disclosing dance 48 hours later.

We also started playing in our football league this weekend (cleverly renamed “All About the Benjamins”) and went to a friend’s 30^th birthday. I had my first shot of tequila in over a year (fine it was two shots) and Eric ended up wandering the streets until 2:00 a.m. (okay that's not true, he just can't remember where he was). If you are beginning to question whether we are fit parents all I can say is...Why did it take you this long?