The Plunge

Yes! We bought a TV. 47 in Vizio razor, smart TV. It's pretty slick.
Did you notice? The first thing we watched on it was The Dark Knight Rises.
We celebrated "opening night" with our neighbors, the Ozzies, and homemade Italian food: pizza, pasta & sauce, salad, Dr. Pepper (Dr. Pepper is Italian, right? though I can't claim it's homemade).

Okay, I admit, we were planning on getting a TV anyway, but the kicker is we also bought a Tablet (with which the above photo was taken and from which this post was published). If you know Doug, you know he's sworn to never buy an iphone, ipad, etc because they're too complicated. But he surprised me by caving and buying a Blackberry 64GB playbook. I'm loving it, and loving that it's mine (it is mine... right, honey?).

Christmas came early in this household.

Am I eating because I'm bored?

Blog- what's a blog?

Update - oh, you can't read my mind?

So I've been horrible at blogging lately. I can't promise it's going to change, especially since we're spending a good chunk of time on vacation soon. But I thought I'd update you on a key change to Ben's lifestyle: FOOD!

YES! Ben is eating rice cereal, pears, avocado, and we're trying banana later today. He's loving it. And so am I. Who knew introducing new foods to your child could be so much fun? Only parents probably. Ben stares at us when we eat, eyeing the food (and drink) from the plate (or cup) to our mouths. Does every baby do that? Yes, and you don't care, I know, but really, it's so much fun.Try it. Get a baby, and you'll find out.

Lack of updates: Ben doesn't seem motivated to move around. Hence no sitting, crawling, rolling, nothing. Actually I'm sure he'll be sitting pretty soon, he's almost got it. I'm not worried - I think mothers worry too much. Oh, he's walking already? Your child sleeps through the night? You let him suck his fingers? She's still in diapers? You don't nurse her anymore!? You're still nursing her!!?? You don't buy organic food? You bought her clothes at the store?!  I mean, really, it gets a little ridiculous. I'd be lying if I didn't think those things ever (I mean, who doesn't exclusively sew their children's clothes?) but I don't like thinking them.

Didn't think you were getting a rant, did you? 

Anyways, apparently we don't take enough pictures, but here are a few from Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving, by the way! 

What I've always wanted - a baby on my lap.

Sporting his fav NZ slippers

Peek-a-boo!

Good

Better

BEST!

nom nom nom

Now on to Christmas...

In a few days I'll show you a BIG, I mean really BIG surprise.

That may or may not have to do with Christmas presents.

You'll never guess so don't even try.

I wouldn't have thought Doug would take the plunge.

But he has.

And I am thrilled!!!

So stay tuned.

Oops

Can you say, "airhead"?

I honestly don't know how that happened.

I'm tempted to not take out the 320 stitches required to fix it but to somehow patchwork it....

Please advise.

Ugh, I'll just do it.

Christmas (not so much) Surprises

Doug is too smart for his own good, it seems. And so are advertising algorithms!

I really can't think of one gift that I have given to Doug he hadn't already figured out. Wait - I take that back, I know of one. So this year I was going to try really hard and not give him any clues, intentionally or otherwise, so that I could actually surprise him! Is that really too much to ask?

I decided to get him a nice, indoor basketball. Exciting right? Well, you may not think so, but it's actually quite astonishing that we don't own one already. Naturally I look online (can I just say that I'm so looking forward to cyber Monday!). I even log out of Amazon so that they don't put it under "recent searches." Clever, right? Well later that day Doug is playing with Ben on the floor, listening to Pandora and guess what the ad is for? You guessed it - a new basketball!!!! "Sweetie, did you buy me a new basketball?" I hear from the living room. What is a woman to do? Sheesh. Instead of trying to play dumb (which I would have been horrible at) I get mad at both him and Pandora for making the connection.

Why me?

Don't worry, I have something else up my sleeve ;).

Politics

I voted! And it felt great. It really is electrifying to be participating in something with the rest of the United States!

I've always said I dislike politics, but in reality I dislike conflict. Most of the times those two go together though! I wouldn't say that I enjoy politics, but Doug would be happy to hear that I don't mind listening to (and occasionally participating in) friendly political discussions. In the privacy of my own home, when it's just the two of us, I will talk about anything and everything. That's one of the perks to marrying an intelligent, level-headed, considerate man!

So yes, I have thought through the issues (those important to me).
Yes, I have my own reasons for voting for Romney.
No, I'm not going to talk about them on my blog because the atmosphere is too tense.
No, I'm not arrogant enough to think that many of you care about why I voted how I did.
But if you do, you can ask me my reasons as long as you're respectful.
Yes, if I'm honest, I'd rather you don't ask... haha, but I'll answer you anyway.
And yes Doug would be ecstatic if you asked him :).

So, how about a picture of Benjamin?

A Night at the Zoo

Between nursing and napping it's hard to get out of the house sometimes. Doug makes it a lot easier and will watch Ben while I run errands or do fun things (hurray for an awesome husband!). Similarly, we don't go out as a family nearly as often as we used to so that Ben can fall asleep for the night in his own bed. Makes sense, right? So then you can understand why I got so excited for the Halloween ward party! Here was an activity that was all planned out for me, on a Friday night, and that ended at a decent time.

Sooo want to see pictures of some random zoo keepers and their pet tiger? 

Not so thrilled to be a tiger I guess.

Don't worry Ben, we're doing this for your own good.

It was surprisingly easy to decorate our trunk as a zoo.. seeing as most of Ben's toys are animals. Plus I only spent $5!  - on the candy and the hanging leaves. The costumes were all free too (shocker... wait, you weren't thinking, "where did she get that vintage camo shirt?"?). Speaking of, does anyone want a 3 mos tiger costume?

I'm looking back over the pictures and the trunk looked so much better in real life. Right? .... And some kids definitely reached for the toys - we got our candy from the dollar store so I don't blame them.

Happy Halloween!!

My favorite part of the day? 

Making Ben laugh

The most satisfying part of my day?

Calming his frustrated little heart.

I love being a mother.