A little post-lunch nap

Tom thinks he looks like Jabba the Hut

This is Ben on Christmas Day, as we set out for a romp in a local park.

He's being a very calm big brother, so far.
He alerted Tom to the fact that Alex was wailing piteously in my arms while I tried to feed him with the phrase "Babies cry to tell us something, " which was straight from one of our 'new baby' storybooks.
At the time (as I struggled to latch him on for the gazillionth time in an eight hour period) it did feel rather patronising, but I love that he's taking ownership of the new Big Brother role.

I am missing spending time with him terribly. I tried to get down on the floor and play with some blocks this morning while Alex slept in the rocker, and hurt myself. I feel so good, in general, that I forget about minding the stitches.

Alexander Martin arrives!

He was born at 11.54pm on Wednesday 26th December, after an exciting drive through a torrential rainstorm. My waters broke at 10pm and we left the house around 10.30, having called friends who were taking in Ben for us. We started the 50 minute drive to the hospital, during which our windscreen wipers stopped working on a rather busy road. We crawled to the family who were taking Ben for the night, and Ellen bundled Ben off to bed while Bob drove us on to the hospital. Happily for us there were no further delays, as we arrived around 11.30pm and Alex was born at 11.54pm!

I'd had off-and-on contractions for all of December, and so had wondered about a relatively swift labour, but from my waters breaking at 10pm to a baby in my arms in under 2 hours was beyond all imagining.
As well as the predicted kidney reflux, which is being treated with a low- dose prophylactic anti- abiotic, Alex has a little touch of jaundice, which we are keeping an eye on. He's alert, relatively placid, and feeding well, and Ben seems to be coping well with the changes. More photos to follow!

We are doing something right.

We have a book called " What Mommies Do best / What Daddies Do Best" It's a nice conceit, you read halfway through the book about what Mummies do best (teach you how to ride a bike, bake a cake with you, give you a piggyback ride,) and then turn the book over and read the other half, which shows children doing the same things with their Daddies, as of course, these are also things Daddies do best. 

This morning, we were halfway through the book when I turned it and said "let's turn it over and see what kinds of things do Daddies do. What do Daddies do, Ben?"

"Cuddle."

Tom took this one of Ben as they were about to leave his daycare last night. Ben is getting into doing things for himself (very handy, as the more he can do before #2 arrives, the better!), and so with very shortened straps, he can carry his own backpack, which has his lunchbox, cups, and blanket inside.

Doesn't he look so very, very grown-up?

Polly in the snow

It should have gone by the end of the day, but oh how she loves it! Ben less keen so far.

We are finally emerging from coping with the aftermath of Hurricane/Nor'easter/ "superstorm" Sandy. Our power and heating came on around 4pm yesterday, six days after we lost power on the night of the storm. It was just in time really, as temperatures dipped to -2c overnight, and it's a very brisk 4c with a colder wind this morning. The day after the storm something like 70% of our town was blacked out, as of yesterday it's down to something like 35%, so much credit to the people working to restore all the power and heat in the area.

We've had a couple of cold nights and chilly days, and it's been very draining trying to keep Ben warm and entertained once daylight went and it became too cold to feasibly play outside. He's been an absolute trooper, totally unbothered by most of the big changes and resolutely cheerful and energetic, despite all of us having a foul cold, and his ending in a lingering cough that still sounds awful at night. 

We've spent a lot of each day in the town library, which had power after Thursday, and Ben is now a dab hand at lots of their jigsaw puzzles. He's always loved going there (generally a Saturday morning activity) and so this week has been quite the adventure for him. It's been lovely seeing how very grown up, thoughtful, and funny he is becoming. I can't wait for everyone to see him again.

Tom has been amazing, keeping all the balls in the air (and all the candles lit!) and giving me valuable breaks to put my  feet up and drink something hot when things got a bit much. I'm at the stage now where too much lifting, standing, or walking brings on quite strong and uncomfortable Braxton-Hicks, so at least I get a strong message to stop what I'm doing and take a brief break.

 I do feel for everyone whose lights haven't come on, it's so tiring and depressing being cold all the time. Today Ben is back in his daycare, Tom is heading into work this afternoon, and I'm about to go and get in a queue for petrol. There's statewide rationing to try to control the queues, depending on the last number of your licence plate you have to go on 'odd' or 'even' days. Tom has enough petrol in his car (which needs to see a mechanic, but can be nursed through this week) but mine, the smaller more fuel-efficient one we've been using to get around this week, is almost on fumes. I've seen a lot of people run out of petrol while waiting in   queues to buy more, and needing to push their car along - here's hoping that doesn't happen to me, as I'll have to beg strangers to help me!

I hope we can post more photos and news about Ben soon. We're getting closer and closer to meeting our new child, too, so I'm enjoying the last weeks we will spend together as just the three of us, before everything changes.

                                                                                    

Scrunching leaves

And refusing to leave the park, at present. We are getting ready for the landfall of hurricane Sandy tomorrow.

Launching

This expression usually indicates glee at the prospect of achieving something really quite perilous.

Chasing!

Beautiful day here, lots of running.

King of the castle.

Saturday mornings

The requirement is always described as "Daddy and Ben and a blanket" and the current viewing is 'curious George.'

Things we love in the woods:

Climbing

Not a pool!

Ben loves the water table his Phayre cousins sent him for his birthday. Really, really loves it!

Ponderosa splash park

A playpark with built in water fountains, optimized for running, shrieking, and splashing. Ben loves it!

Videos to follow, I am still learning my new phone.

Ben is 2

Ben is now two.

We had a party in our garden, invited a couple of friends and had a blast.

There was a rather smart water table from Aunt Ursie and co.

 

An exciting bike from Grannie and Bumper.

 

 

Lots of playing.

 

 

Cake!

 

Even a chance to jam with Helena!

 

Under a shady tree...

The exciting Ben purchase of this week was this:

Which meant we could bike to a nearby park, making this possible:

Ben with an icecream

It's a classic look

Ben's bath crayons

Artistic genius.

Ben in a box!

Marina bought some new storage boxes. Ben was incredibly interested.

Ben at a party

On Saturday Ben went to a friends 2nd birthday party.

Ben likes parties.

He also went in a paddling pool willingly for the first time. He even fell over in it and it wasn't the end of the world.

I know it doesn't look like much, but this is huge progress!

New garden toys!

One of my co-workers spotted two great toys left out on the curb by her neighbors.

She swiped them, pressure washed them and dropped them over to us.

Ben is in heaven

Ben and his guinea pigs

A few months back a colleague of mine gave me two (thankfully) incredibly calm and long suffering guinea pigs. These lived in my classroom and tolerated my students poking and prodding them, along with visits from Ben every weekend.
He was in love with them and would get out of the car shouting "geee piiiiiis!"

My replacement science teacher is allergic to them so they moved in with us. Ben is SO thrilled!

Here he is hanging out with them while I clean out their cage.

A two year reunion (almost)

Ben had two friends to play this weekend. Ellie and Helena are both about a week younger than him. We were friends with their parents when the mums were pregnant, and while we have all since scattered to the four winds it was a joy to see them all again.

Musical genius (part 3?)

Once in a while (more often than we admit) Ben gets to watch his favourite musical videos.

One of his big heroes is a musician called Laurie Berkner, you can see a sampling of her music here and here.

When given this chance he often ends up like this.

I like to think he is composing wonderful music in his head.

New job (for me, not Ben)

While this isn't technically a Ben post, it's a big change that effects him.
A of today I am no longer a classroom teacher, instead I am the technology integrator for our school, in charge of making sure we use technology well. I have a job title, but no job description right now. I am kind of a "tech person without portfolio" currently.
Exciting, but a big change. Especially since I went to our head and told him to Crete the job, now I ave to live up to my original claims.
So from today this is my new home at work. No big classroom, just a little desk in the corner of the tech office. Hopefully I wont spend to much time at it.

Where does it go Ben?

When we try and get Ben to let us change his nappy we have a new game.

When confronted with several ridiculous options for where the nappy goes, he will eventually tell us it goes "on my bottom"

Cutest thing ever.

Musical genius (continued)

We will tour the land, delighting young and old with our musical stylings.

In which I remember Ben is a mutant

These two are 2 days apart in age.

Playing with his ladies

Ben's friends Hannah and Kate (often known by Ben as Hammerkate or Cakehannah) came to visit on Sunday.

Hannah is 4 and good at organizing games for the two little ones to play. Ben was in love.
(click on the "youtube" button to view them in youtube, you can go full screen there)

 

That's not Peter

Martin and Anita gave Ben this book last summer, it is still a great hit.

Pictures of Ben exploring his world

Ben's latests obsessions

A set of videos detailing Ben's latest obsessions.


Mummy got him a toy piano, he also loves sweetcorn.
Here Ben is combining these two things. (He also loves sesame street)

This was inevitable.














Ben now also loves climbing frames.

We've also cracked his bike.

Muscial genius

The boy is clearly a musical genius.

Sadly he gets his sense of style from his dad.