Here's Ben!

Here's Ben
Originally uploaded by CreativeExile.

And his very happy big sis. Only my mom can get her into ponytails that STAY.

"Benjamin" wasn't even on the name radar...when I first saw him in E's arms Monday night, I told E he looked like a Benjamin. That's the story. Divine intervention, I think.

Right now he has his days and nights mixed up -- just like in utero -- but we're working on that.

E took Tess to the library and I'm off for a sitz bath (oh, joy). Then a feeding, if I can wake Ben.

More later...!

Five Weird Things...

Oh, yay, I've been tagged. Gotta do something to kill the time around here ;) Thanks, Eugenia!

The rules of the tag are: List 5 weird things about yourself or your pets.Tag 5 friends and list them. Then, those people need to write on their blogs about 5 weird things, and state the rules, and tag 5 more people.

1. We have no pets, but my daughter's weird thing is: she HATES to be comforted when she hurts herself. No hugs, no bandaids, no back rubs -- just LEAVE HER ALONE. She will physically shove you away if you attempt any of the above.

2. I have a certain way of putting away my dishes, including silverware, and nobody better mess with it.

3. Hubby and I sleep separately, because (a) he has to fall asleep with the TV on and I can't stand that; (b) he's a complete insommniac and is up and down all. night. long. (c) we married late in life (me: 34, him: 30) and were already set in our ways, and (d) he snores like a sawmill.

4. I have never had my hair longer than just touching my shoulders...it's very thin and fine and I just can't get it any longer than that. Grr.

5. I never re-read a book. Too many good ones out there to go on to...

Okay, I'm only tagging 3 people because I can't think of 5. There's Emily, who needs to update more often (and whose fiance needs to know her weird side), Lynne, who never never NEVER updates (ya, like this is going to motivate her), and Becky, whose answers will no doubt be very, very amusing.

T.I.L.T. 9/21/06

T.I.L.T. 9/21/06
Originally uploaded by CreativeExile.

I worked at BK through college...and gained my "freshman 15 (more like 23) eating their cake...and York peppermint patties...oh, and root beer floats with cinnamon ice cream! Yum!

I miss BK. They all closed. At least their cakes are still around.

Off and running...

Off and running...
Originally uploaded by CreativeExile.

...first day of school was yesterday. Of course, I had some running around of my own to do, including a weekly doctor's visit.

Seems I am further along in this, the week of my due date, than I was with Tess. So this one may not be 2 weeks overdue, as she was. Or, as I like to say, he's going to annoy me like his father does by consistently being on time.

Mom is freaking out. She calls at least twice a day to outline her plans for coming in to town early. She's attending a Michigan Quilting Network convention in Troy this weekend (if the baby holds off), which she's had planned since January, but also has a coveted doctor's appointment on Thursday, so she's decided to come in Wednesday night just in case...I've heard this plan repeated about 7 different ways in the last 24 hours so I've GOT IT.

She's also told my siblings that if I don't go this weekend, I will be induced Monday. Good to know, since all I told her was that I have a follow-up appointment that day, THEN PERHAPS inducement will be scheduled, mid-week.

I'm leaving it up to her to straighten out my sibs. As long as they don't start calling me. Why break with tradition?

Okay, sounding bitter.

Anyway, I knew something was going on this weekend when I felt an overwhelming urge to scrub my kitchen floor (really, it was disgusting) and put everything into the laundry that could be on Sunday...including blankets, pillowcases, sheets, and mattress pads.

It was the mattress pads and floor scrubbing that made me say, "NESTING!" That, and taking the dryer's lint trap brush to the underside of my fridge. I think I have a whole new cat after 4 or 5 passes under that thing.

Page-a-day album

SO cool. I've wanted to do one of these since reading about it in SJ's Big Picture Scrapbooking. I'm just waiting until we settle into a routine with our new little one (WHENEVER he arrives...and settles down...like, next June?)!

Marci did a beautiful job with this!

TILT 9/14/06

TILT 9/14/06
Originally uploaded by CreativeExile.

Okay, I'm really posting this on Friday, because that's when I made what's known in our family as "Pa Soup" (after my Italian grandfather, who we always called Pa. Now, it's my Dad's turn to be called Pa by his grandchildren...but the soup name always refers to my maternal grandfather, since it's his family's recipe).

It's a sure sign of fall.

1st hour: boil (on low) 2 beef shanks in full, deep pot of water with 1 large quartered onion, salt, pepper, & paprika.

2nd hour: add celery & carrots

3rd hour: add potato.

I like this best with egg noodles. I always love adding red wine to the soup (when I have some), other folks in my family add ketchup.

Tradition is, we then have a small piece of the shank meat (fallen off and floating around in the soup) and mashed potato with mashed carrot to finish.

It's almost better than chicken soup when you're sick. But only if you drink the broth as hot as you can stand it.

The Kid Takes Pictures

The Kid Takes Pictures
Originally uploaded by CreativeExile.

Here's the various pictures Tess took while wandering around the house with our new camera. Fun to see stuff at "kid's-eye" level!

Our little photog

Our little photog
Originally uploaded by CreativeExile.

E absolutely cracked up when he saw the photos Tess took with my new Canon EOS. Yes, I let a 4 1/2 year-old play with a very expensive camera. Hey, her dad did it first, when they went fishing a couple of Sundays ago (I was scrapbooking).

I was so geeked that E isn't uptight about her using the new camera either; they have been fishing together all summer on the Sundays I scrapbook, and OF COURSE I have been dying to scrapbook their special time together; now I have the photos to do so. Very excited.

I'm going to do a collage of her "portfolio" and post it next...now that I'm a...AHEM...Flickr Pro. La-di-da. I just went over my upload limit and figured, WTH? Why not.

Minor (VERY minor) complications

I ended up going to "triage" -- not the ER, just a special area at the hospital's Family Birth Center -- Saturday afternoon, after coming home from cropping with a wicked headache that Tylenol-every-4-hours overnight couldn't crack. It was painful enough to keep me up all night, calling the on-call doctor at 2:00 a.m. and again at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday.

The doctor's office was worried about Pregnancy Induced Hypertension (and I can Capitalize that, because they gave me an offical flyer on it), but I knew it was just a sinus/migraine headache that needed something more powerful than the children's -- yes, children's -- Tylenol I had been taking all night.

I keep forgetting my last pregnancy was nearly 5 years ago; things must have changed because at that time, when I had a severe head cold at 9 months, I was told to take nothing stronger than children's Sudafed, and only at night, so that I could sleep.

I walked away from triage Saturday with a prescription for Tylenol 3 (yup, the one with codeine), which I never did fill and the instruction that I could take Sudafed -- regular ole adult-strength Sudafed -- on top of the regular Tylenol they'd given me at the hospital.

I apparently still have my hangup from 5 years ago about taking anything too strong while pregnant, although I did take Extra Strength Tylenol before I went to bed Saturday night, which FINALLY kicked my sinus/migraine -- or perhaps just the moving on of a cold front did it...slept like a log, which I sorely needed after being up all night, in pain, Friday night.

I'm working on my first-ever Circle Journal at 2peas; it took FOREVER for me to get anything from the woman who started it, but luckily her package finally arrived (on Saturday, of course) and I've been working on three back-logged CJs little by little while Tess anaesthetitizes herself with Land Before Time videos.

At least she's moved on from Disney Princesses. I find it pretty cool that she's into dinosaurs now (and snakes, and mice). Still won't wear anything but pink & purple, though.

So...here's a fun quiz I found over at Dribble and Scribble.

So true.

Which Scrapbooking Paper Collection Are You?

You are KAREN FOSTER paper! The present joys of life you doubtly taste by looking back with pleasure on the past.You love to scrapbook to cherish the memories. Your albums no doubt have a clean natural look to them and for the most part might like to keep in theme with neutral colors and avoid brights.
Take this quiz!

How To Save A Life

First, read this longish post from my brave friend Becky.

Now, with all the hoopla surrounding Tom Cruise's apology to Brooke Shields (and her acceptance of his apology), I just want to be sure to point out: he hasn't changed his mind about medication for mental health. Which, in my mind, means he is still a tool (and an asshole...and, well, a guy, and guys will NEVER get what women go through in the hormonal changes of childbearing. Period. His Scientology reps need to -- Becky will appreciate this -- shut their pieholes).

My experience three weeks postpartum with Tess, while terrifying, was not nearly as harrowing as Becky's. It is still on my mind, though, as I head towards a second postpartum period. I have my ducks in a row this time, including medication (and the phone number, FINALLY, for a local chapter of Depression After Delivery, a number I so desperately searched for 5 years ago), and I'm not brushing off the possiblity of a second encounter with ppd.

Even if Brooke Shields did escape that bullet her second time around. Isn't she the lucky one?

Star Trek fun

...thanks to Karen D. It makes me happy to note that I'm not geeky enough to get EVERY one of these. Just enough to make it fun.

I was (embarrassingly enough) more of a Next Generation fan, anyway.

Getting tired, ready to pop. Technically, 2 more weeks to go. Could be as much as 4, though, if my doctor lets me go that long. Probably not.