Best and Worst of the Weekend

So I was thinking of ways to make sure I write more often. I see other people with daily themes on their blogs. I've seen Music Monday, Super Sexy Tuesday or Thursday (SST), Wordless Wednesday and other things like that. I'll do you all a favor and hold off on the SST until I'm back in shape and Super Sexy again.

Good for those people, but I want to do my own thing, so I thought I'd do something I heard on the Dan Patrick show, Best and Worst of the Weekend. It's not my original idea, but I haven't seen it on any blogs yet, so that's new right? It's not stealing, it's called homage! Did anyone see Cop Out?

After Steve Jobs died, everyone spent the next two weeks talking about how great he was and all the things he's done for the world. While I agree that Steve Jobs was a great man and he had a huge part in shaping all of our lives, I wonder, why do we wait until these people die? Why not honor them in life?

If you're my age, you grew up watching Dan Patrick on Sportscenter. He and Keith Olbermann are responsible for the way sports shows now show highlights in cool, funny ways. It's mostly a good thing, but like with all inventions, there are some downsides (BOO-YAH!)

If you know me well, I know you expect my best to be about food and my worst to be about lack of food or yard work. How boring would that be? So I'll skip the food best/worst unless it really needs to be said. For example, a few weekends ago, we had neighbors over to watch the Jets/Patriots game. We shared 2 pizzas and Allison made Daffodil Dip. Even though the Jets lost, that was probably the best of the weekend.

Anyway, on to Best and Worst of this weekend.

Best: On Saturday we went to Disney World to visit friends who were in town from New York. We're very close to them. She's partly responsible for Allison and I getting together (I'll explain this another time) and their kids call Ben their Florida Cousin.

As soon as we took the Disney World exit, we saw the sign for Disney World and Ben yelled Donald Duck! Then for the next 10 minutes, he laughed, pointed out all the buses and firetrucks and shouted "yaaaaaa, woooooo." All that "woooo"ing woke up Abigail. Now that she was awake, she needed to eat. She let us know in her own special way.

"WWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

Add the silly songs CD to the mix and I'm convinced we had one of the loudest cars in Disney World.  I was either gonna laugh or cry from the noise. I decided to laugh and take video so I could share it with all of you. This went on for a few minutes until we got to the hotel.

Worst: I'm not sure what the worst was. The Indianapolis Colts had a rough weekend, so the the Miami Dolphins. I guess my worst of the weekend was that I was traveling for work last Thursday and Friday and my iphone4s finally came in. It was sitting on my desk at work waiting for me and I didn't have time to drive to the office to pick it up. That's like opening toys on Christmas, but not being able to play with them. I activated it today and all is well with the world again. 

I'll post my best/worst every Sunday or Monday night. If you're not selected as a best, I apologize in advance. There can only be one best. If you end up being a worst, you need to step up your game! 

Have a good night.

Who's on First?

If I didn't know better, I'd think he was messing with me. Here is tonight's dinner conversation with Ben.


"Ben, do you want Pizza or Pasta"
"YEAH!!"
"Which one? Pizza or Pasta?"
"Pasta!"
"Pasta?"
"No, NO, NO! Pasta"
"That's what I said. Pasta, right?"
"NO! Pasta!"
"OK, Let's try this again? Pizza?"
"Pasta!"
"Ok, pasta it is."
"No dasda, pasta"
"My head hurts. So you want pizza, not pasta"
"Yeah, PASTA!!!!!!! HA HAH AH HA"
"How about I get you some milk? Honey, Ben wants you!"



What I learned today?
Ben pronounces Pizza as Pasta. He pronounces Pasta as Dasda. That's not confusing at all. For those wondering, Ben had pizza and pasta for dinner.

Have any of his babysitter shown him this video?

God Bless You

You think you have no time? Wait until you have a kid or two kids. Holy cow. I have so little free time now it's crazy. I can't imagine how people with 3 or more kids find time to do anything. I'm sure things will get easier once we get into a routine. It's only been 2 weeks.

It's strange that I need to prioritize my evening like I'm at work. I used to get away with doing nothing until after watching our shows. There's plenty of time, I'll just do that later. Well now, that's impossible. There is not enough time later. It's come down to: What's more important today, blogging or a shower. As you can tell by this post, I chose blogging. So you can then come to the conclusion that I also chose being dirty and smelling poorly. ;)

Ben has been a great big brother so far. He loves his little sister. He wakes up looking for her and shows her all his toys. When she cries he comes to get one of us. If she's sleeping, he makes sure she has her pacifier. He even gave her his pacifier once, but it was just a loaner. He needed it back when it was time for bed.

It's so cool watching him interact with her. He knows she's part of the family and he has to be good to her. How does he know that? We've been telling him about the baby in mommy's belly and reading him the 'I'm a big brother' books. Did he really comprehend all of that? Can he really get it? Look at the big brain on Ben. Good job little man!

Here is a little video of the two kids. If you can't make it out, he's saying "Bless you"

This is Why I Never Blog Anymore

When Allison was pregnant the first time, I had all the time in the world to write blog posts. (Take some time to read the old posts. They are pretty good, if I do say so myself.)

Since Ben was born, my posts have been few and far between, but my life has never been better.

Here is a clip of how I spend most of my time now. After watching it, can you really blame me?

Planting the seed

If you remember during Allison's pregnancy, she had little to no cravings. I'm trying to work on that now for the next pregnancy.

HOLD UP!!! Let me stop you right there. I am in no way making an announcement about an upcoming baby here. I'm not even announcing that we are trying for another one. Although when we do start trying I'm not going to announce it either. We very well could be trying right now, and you wouldn't even know it. But we're not...but we could be...but we're not. Seriously, we're not.

Anyway, back to the story. Just like Ralphie in A Christmas Story, I struggled for just the right pregnancy craving hint: (6:30 into the clip)


My hint.
Me: You know, my friend Melissa craved ice cream every night during her pregnancy. Her daughter had all her teeth by 6 months, was walking by 10 months and is currently 18 months and writes perfect cursive.

Allison: WHAT?

Me: Oh nothing. You look pretty tonight. (cough ICE CREAM cough cough) (I may have overplayed my hand)

I was very disappointed during the last pregnancy that Allison didn't have cravings. I was very excited to make midnight runs for ice cream or a jar of pickles. Or rush to the supermarket and buy a box of cookies and cool whip just as they are closing. You know heroic stuff like that. Nothing! Well not this time. I LOOOOOOOVE ice cream and of course the main and real reason, is that I want to do nice things for my pregnant wife. ;)

I'll let you if my tactics work when the time comes...which if you remember from above, is not yet. Have a good night.

Ben can walk

So I picked up Ben from the babysitter's house after work tonight and she says to me "he's a really good walker." So I said "yes, he's getting close. He still holds on though." She replied "What do you mean, he took 6 steps today, walking towards the TV."

We've seen him take 1 or 2 steps, then immediately crumple down to the ground, then start crawling again, but never a full walk.

So I put him down and he crawled around a bit, then the next thing you know, he stood up and took about 12 steps into the living room! Again, later on in the kitchen, I put him down again and sure enough...he walked out of the kitchen into the hallway. That's seriously an 8 to 10 foot walk.

I took Ben home and had to decide if I tell Allison what I saw or not. I didn't tell her, but as soon as she got home I put Ben on the floor and let him show her. He took about 12-14 steps. We tried to get him to walk a few more times. Check out some of the video we took.

To Run or Not to Run

Once again it's been about 2 weeks since my last post. An update on Ben, he is doing great. He's started to do an army crawl. He's getting pretty quick. It's hilarious when he sees something across the room that he wants. He will climb over anything in his way (monster truck style) instead of moving it or going around it. He is eating veggies. He likes carrots, sweet potatoes, peas, apples, pears and a few others. On the unsure list: Cauliflower.

Anyway, between work, Ben and running I just don't have the time to post like I used to. That brings me to the point of this post. To run or not to run?

Many of you know I have been in a running group for the last 7 months. When I started I could barely run a mile, now I have run a 5K (3.1 miles) in 27:45 and I've finished a 12K (7.46 miles) in 1:21:17. I haven't gotten thinner by running all these miles, but it's kept me from becoming a fat ass.

I've also made a few good friends from the group. How do I know they are good friends? Well, we're friends on Facebook now. ;) I run with a good group of people. Seriously I think I've made 5-7 good friends from running. It's hard making new friends as an adult with a child. So it's a great thing.

Those are the pros. The cons:

• Running group starts at 6:00. I get there around 6:15/6:20. Training starts without me, so I am missing out on part of it. And it's about to get HOT out there. I'm not good in the heat.
  

• On normal nights I get to see Ben from about 5:30 - 8:00. 2.5 hours out of my day is not a lot of time to spend with my son.

• On running nights (2 nights during the week) I get home, give Ben a kiss, change, have a snack, give Ben another kiss and go running. I get home around 7:30 or so. Which is when Ben starts his nighttime routine. Bath, bottle, bed. So on running nights, I see him for about 30-45 minutes. That sucks.
  

• It's getting harder and harder to go to running every week. Especially now that Ben is crawling and being more interactive. I just want to stay home and play with him. Look at the fun I'd be missing out on:

So what do I do? Miss out on hanging out with Ben twice a week to go running? Maybe I miss his first steps or words or the first time he throws a ball, but I stay in shape. Or skip running to hang out with Ben? Maybe I get fat. Maybe I miss out on making new friends and hanging out with the friends I have there, but I spend more time with Ben.

What to do...what to do......

Ben Crawling

Well Ben is almost crawling. I'm not really in the mood to write, sorry. Here are some videos.