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?

Show Mommy How the Piggies Eat

We had mini-strawberry shortcakes for dessert last night. Ben didn't want the cake or the Cool Whip. He only wanted the strawberries. And he wanted to eat them in a most peculiar way.

My face hurts

That title reminds me of an old joke.
Person 1: Does your face hurt?
Person 2: No, why?
Person 1: Cause it's killing me.
And....rim shot...and scene.

Anyway, the past few weeks I noticed that when I feed Ben, my face starts to hurt. I couldn't figure it out. Am I grinding my teeth on the ride home from work? Damn traffic! What's up with my face hurting? Well I finally figured it out.

I noticed today that with every spoonful of food I give Ben, as he opens him mouth, I open my mouth. I open it wide for every bite. THAT'S why my mouth hurts. Did that happen to anyone else? I wonder when it till stop. I realized I was doing it and I made a conscious effort to stop it tonight, but to no avail. I'll keep you posted.

Anyway, enjoy a picture of Ben enjoying mixed vegetables and chicken.

Happy Father's Day to me!

Holy cow am I behind on posts. It's not because I haven't been trying. I have 5 posts in draft mode. I'll bang a few out tonight if all goes according to plan.

June 20, 2010 was my first Father's Day. Well that's not exactly true, it all depends on who you ask I guess. If you ask me, last year was my first Father's Day. While it's true Ben hadn't been born yet, I was already doing one of the my jobs as a Father. I was taking care of him by taking excellent care of Allison. But if you ask anyone else, that does not count.

Oh well, water under the bridge. Let's talk about Father's Day 2010. Aunt Donna and Uncle Doug called to wish me a happy fathers day. While we were talking we asked Doug if he remembered his first fathers day. He didn't really remember what they did, so they said to make sure I documented it. Well, good thing I have a blog, the perfect place for it.

Father's day actually started out on Saturday night. I was invited to go down the block and play poker with some of the other dads on the block. There were 8-10 of us. The girls had their own get together two houses down. They were supposed to go swimming, but it rained all night. From what I hear they still had fun though.

Poker was fun. I finished tied for 5th. Three other guys got knocked out on the same hand as me. I was bluffing that I had a straight. I didn't scare the guys that had 2 pairs or the guy that actually had the straight. I had a pair of 8s. Yeah, I'll go all in with a pair of 8s. Makes playing poker with me fun, I'm unpredictable.

Once they finished up we started another round. Only five guys played the second go around. I won! That was a nice little Father's Day gift to myself. I had a few beers and a few shots of tequila. I wasn't drunk, but I was feeling good.

I woke up on Fathers day around 8:30. I heard Ben crawling across the bed, then he finally got to me and I woke up. He is always so happy in the morning. (he's happy all the time, but especially when he first wakes up)

Allison made waffles and brown-n-serve sausage. My favorites. We gave Ben some waffle and he liked it. He's my son after all, was there ever any doubt that he would? Allison gave me four shirts and two pairs of pants that all had to be exchanged because they were too small or because I am too fat, depending on how you look at it. I choose to believe they were too small, I suggest you do the same. That was a good gift, I really needed pants and shirts. Ben gave me a really cool travel coffee mug with 10-15 pictures of me and him on it. I'm not supposed to have caffeine, so I've been filling it with water.

We went to the pool and played for about two hours. Before we left, Ben had to practice his survival swimming. If you've never seen it, it's rough to watch at first. It really looks like we're trying to drown the baby, but it's quite the contrary. We're doing this so he doesn't drown. He was a champ. He floated, flipped then floated and floated again. There were some ladies at the pool who at first thought we were crazy, then were amazed by my boys mad skillz! LOL

We went home, showered then had lunch. I don't remember what we had, but I'm sure it was good. Ben and I sat down and watched some of the Mets vs Yankees game. The Yankees won 4-0 but it was still a good day.

Try to follow me on this one. Somehow Hy and I got wrangled into cooking dinner on Father's day. Allison cooked dinner on Mother's day and she suggested the boys cook for Fathers day. Before I even knew what was going on, it was too late. I was on the hook for dinner. I said that's fine. Burgers and Mac & Cheese it is. And that's exactly what we had. I made my homemade recipe that I got from Susan many years ago. It's awesome. The last time I made it for Allison, she had just gotten over mono. It was the first time she was able to eat in over a week. She'll deny it, but I swear she ate almost half the tray. She then puked her brains out and I was no longer allowed to make it. I warned her to pace herself this time. (she's gonna be mad at me for telling that story)

Dinner was good. Allison made an awesome cake. Strawberry cake with her butter-creme icing. It doesn't get much better than that. In case you can't read it, Ben's shirt says "I get my handsome from my dad." I can't argue with that. ;)

ORANGE ALERT! EMERGENCY

Last night Allison had to work late so I was in charge of Ben. No biggie. I've been alone with him before and I get the job done. Well he didn't nap well and was a little cranky. Not good for me, but still I did a good job.

I was feeding him his 6:00 meal (rice cereal mixed with formula) when Allison called. She said what are you doing? I said "poop eating" she said "WHAT!?!?!" then she realize I meant Ben was pooping and eating at the same time and not eating his own poop.

He ate his food and he was done pooping so I decided to change him. I lay him on the changing table and I can already smell it, not good. Ben did his 3 days of carrots and now he's on day 2 of sweet potatoes. I take his pants off, unbutton his onesie and WHOA! ORANGE POOP EVERYWHERE.

The poop escaped out of his diaper and over his belly button. His belly button actually looked like the middle of a scale or a see-saw with a line of poop going across his whole tummy. Poop was all over his onesie, so I didn't know exactly how to undress him. I got poop all over my hand and arm, but got the onesie off of him without spreading the mess on Ben.

I started to clean him up, but I was making it worse. There was a pile of poop gooped onto his but and peeps area and the poop that was on his tummy, was now spread up to his nipples. He needed a bath stat. I picked him up and carried him to the tub. Shit! How do I turn on the water and get the shower head down? He's covered in poop. I worked it out and he got clean. Never a dull moment, but I felt good giving him bath time all by myself.

Fast forward to tonight's bath time. I got home from running and Ben was already in the bath. I washed up and went to visit. Ben was playing with his toys and splashing around. Allison and I were talking about his day, nap time troubles, eating schedule and stuff like that. I guess we stopped paying attention to him for a second. He reached out for a bath toy and went head over heels. I immediately picked him up from the water, but he bumped his head on the bottom of the tub and went under. He was fine, but he got scared. He cried a little bit, but was happy again after 30-40 seconds.

Sorry little buddy, didn't mean to let you down like that. You can bet all future baths will be spent with all eyes on Ben.

Happy Half Birthday

Ben is six months old. During his six month checkup, he got two shots one in each leg. He didn't like that very much, but he did really well. He's 18Lbs 0.5 Oz - 27 1/4 inches long. The doctor said he looks like a 9 month old. She also said he could start solid foods.

What does Ben and a rabbit have in common? They both like carrots. We gave him carrots first, sweet potatoes are on the menu for tomorrow. Check out Ben's first taste of carrots.

The carrots gave him an orange beard, orange fingers and orange poop.

We also started giving him baths in big boy tub. That's just the regular bath tub to you and me. He loves it. He spends the first few minutes splashing around. Then a few more minutes trying to catch his bath toys. When we finally wash him, he's exhausted.


Lastly, I have told everyone who's asked how much I love being a dad. I love everything about it. Well, that's not exactly true. I found something I hate doing. I hate, two things more than anything in the world. 1) I hate changing crib sheets in the middle of the night 2) I hate washing bottles.

That's all for now. Make sure to leave some comments and stay tuned for updates on Ben's first plane trip, coming soon.