Puff Daddy...

Ben, aka Puff Daddy, is absolutely smitten w/ puffs. In case you are unfamiliar w/ said puffs, they are the small, melt-in-your-mouth, baby wonder snack. As you can see, Ben has mad skills w/ his tip to tip pinch and uses it regularly to grab his favorite thing in the whole world and shove it into his mouth! His little face lights up when he sees the bowling pin shaped container. Aside from the blood curdling screaming he unleashed this evening related to what I can only assume is horrible teething pain, Ben is at an adorable phase. He laughs and smiles almost constantly. He is babbling in an incoherent tongue. He is crawling all over the place, pulling up to stand (w/ several near-miss head injuries), and even cruising the furniture if there is anything 'good' (aka forbidden) with in easy reach. Today, he sat through an hour and a half HR meeting at my hospital, as we learned about our transition from contract to in-house employees, without much more than a peep. He sat in the lap of one of my co-workers, whom he had never met before, the entire time and was quite content. What can I say he is a mellow guy who loves the ladies. I'm sure Puff Daddy would be proud to call him his own.

Known unknowns.....

News from the Cathey household...... Ben is struggling to completely birth his first tooth and we are all struggling with him. I would post a pic or video of him (and I have taken them) but Brad has a compulsion for purchasing overly complicated audio-video equipment, as if he will be penalized for choosing user-friendly "mainstream" gear, (reminder: Brad is a computer programmer) and we have a new video camera. My still camera has been dropped one too many times and has now been rendered incapable of zooming and is, overall, useless. Sadly, I am the technologically challenged one so admittedly Brad is not solely to blame. LOL. As a side note, Brad is currently serving jury duty (grand jury....nice and predictable...every other Tuesday until September!). Also, I just found out yesterday afternoon that my company lost it's contract in the hospital I currently work at so I am crossing my fingers and saying prayers that we are all offered in-house positions. Yikes! Stress! The unknown is the greatest recipe for anxiety in my world.........

As we know, there are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don't know we don't know.
-----Donald Rumsfeld

Once Bitten, Twice Shy Baby....

They say breastfeeding is an intimate time of bonding between mother and child. Tender moments in the wee hours of the night; sweet baby's tiny hand grasping his mother finger while she is feeding him the sweet nectar of life. Insert coo's and smiles. And then the baby turns 4 months, starts teething and tries to gnaw off his mother's nipple with his rubbery gums of steel. LOL. As you can guess, Ben has begun teething. He is a drooling mess of a child who requires hourly bib changes and can't get enough of shoving things in his mouth, mostly his hands. His other latest feats include experimenting with bulimia via index finger down the throat after a big nursing session, rolling in the crib and getting his legs stuck between the bars, and grabbing both feet simultaneously in a spread eagle pose...all the makings of a cheerleader I'd say. Brad may want to kiss his football dreams goodbye. Fear not, I staved off biting during his last nursing session with a little gum massage and frozen teething ring action prior to the sit-down. He may live to see another day of breast milk instead of being converted to stinky formula (YUCK!!).

In other news, spring has 'sprung' around here....sort of. We had a fabulously sunny day with temps in the 60's. Brad cut our grass with the precision of a major league baseball team's grounds keeper (seriously--our front yard is diagonally plaid patterned and everything). He put down fertilizer and did some flower bed prep with countless bags of top soil for my planting pleasure. Tomorrow we are anticipated to have rain with weather in the 70's. Monday and Tuesday SNOW SHOWERS. WTF? What a tease!! I want spring!!!!!! Give me sunshine or give me death. Ok. Not really. So I'll stay in and clean my house. *sigh* We also need to head to Lowe's to pick out tile for the dining room (whose carpet has been forcibly removed secondary to one too many doggy incontinence incidences).

On a positive note, I'll leave you with pictures of Ben's latest exploits.....sleeping on his tummy and sucking his thumb (he has next to no interest in a pacifier) and trying out the ol' excer-saucer (much to his delight because he is so over the Bumbo and it's lame supported sitting action). I wish you all warm weather and sunshine.....maybe we will enjoy some of that for Easter next weekend. The Easter bunny has plans for Ben's basket and I am going to try to drag Brad to a new church during this time of renewal. Wish me luck on both fronts!

Ben is all thumbs these days as you can see. Also notice the
multitude of little fat rolls on the backs of his legs. I am very
curious to see what he will weigh in at on Monday at his 4
month check up (btw he is due for MORE shots).

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We put Ben in this shirt to avoid any confusion
about his identity.

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Every time I used some ridiculously high-pitched voice to get Ben's
attention for this picture, Henry came running. He is having
a very hard time being number two these days. Poor kitties hardly
get a ranking at all. I would love to find them a new home
where they would get more attention.

Surrounded by buttons and toys, Ben mostly
played with his thumb and his bib. What can I
say he's a resourceful child who is riding out the
recession quite well.