I'm Not Going to Post About It . . . Much.

It's getting cooler here, y'all. As in, it's not going to get out of the 70's for the forseeable future (for at least the next week, anyway). Today it's not even going to hit 70. I am barely holding myself back from getting excited about fall. So I'm not going to post about how much I love fall and how much I will enjoy apple picking and pumpkin dip.

Dang! I just realized I can't have fresh cider this year because it's unpasteurized. Stink! I'll have to be satisfied with butternut squash soup and crisp air. I am already inspired to make a scarf. And speaking of which, I need to go buy some maternity sweaters! I love sweaters!

That's all I'm going to say about fall. Until later.

Boy or Girl?

So I have been noticing a few subtle differences between this pregnancy and the last. Knowing that some moms have different symptoms according to the gender of their baby, I'm wondering whether or not this means I might be having a girl. I'm 14 weeks, so it'll be at least a month before we find out the gender for sure, and I thought it might be fun for us all to guess!

So here are my differing pregnancy symptoms:

• I was pretty tired during my first pregnancy, but there was about a month in this pregnancy during my first trimester when I was incredibly fatigued and would have been happy to nap all day. It lasted four or five weeks. I don't think it was quite that severe when I was pregnant with Noah. And, yes, I know that having a toddler makes you more tired, but it went beyond that.
  
• During my first trimester, I had what I can only describe as hot flashes. I didn't ever end up drenched in sweat or anything; it was more like my skin was emanating heat. It would last for three or four hours, then all would go back to normal.
  
• I've been having a hard time sleeping. When I was pregnant with Noah, I think I only had trouble sleeping during my last trimester, when it was just hard to find a comfortable position. Now, my mind races and goes into hyperdrive as soon as my head hits the pillow sometimes. My doctor actually had me take Benadryl before bed for a few nights to help break the cycle, but it still happens from time to time. Also, for a while, I would wake up in the middle of the night and just be totally awake for an hour or two. That ain't cool at all. Luckily, that hasn't happened for a couple of weeks.
• I also need it to be colder in the house at night in order to sleep. I've never had that problem before--I sleep quite well when I'm hot. In fact, Nathan cannot believe I can sleep under as many blankets as I do sometimes. But this go-round, I absolutely cannot get to sleep if I get the least bit hot. Often, I have to move to the couch to sleep at night because it's closer to the air conditioner and is cooler.
  
• I'm not gaining much weight. I may have gained a pound so far this pregnancy. This is in huge contrast to my last pregnancy, when I gained way too much weight. I just don't have the urge to eat as much. Although I do think I developed some bad habits early on the last time, I also think there must be a difference in my hormones or something, because looking back, I really think that some of my eating when I was pregnant with Noah was hormone-driven.
• Although I've only gained about a pound, you would never think that by looking at my belly. (Yes, I already have one.) I swear, I was showing at six weeks this time around. I don't think this has anything to do with the gender of the baby, though; I know that after you've already had a baby, your ligaments and stuff react faster to the relaxation hormones or whatever in subsequent pregnancies. Anyway, I think I'm definitely bigger this time around than last time. I'll have to take a picture sometime soon and post a comparison from when I was pregnant with Noah.

So does anybody have an opinion? Boy or girl? Just to be clear, I'd be thrilled with either. But it's fun to think about who we might be meeting in a few months.

My mom's Salvadorian friend told her that it was a girl because Noah is kind of wild these days, and if it were going to be a boy he'd be more relaxed. Do you have an old wives' tale to add to the mix?

Leave a comment with your vote. :)

Sleep Update

I am hesitant to write this, because I have to confess that I'm a little afraid that putting it on the blog will jinx it. But I want to celebrate the fact that Noah is back to his old sleeping schedule. I did a combination of cutting his nap back a little bit, making sure he got more dinner in him, and following the advice many of you gave by moving his bedtime back to 7:30 or 7:45 (from 8:00). And lately he has been sleeping until about 7:00am again! AMEN! Thank you so much if you prayed for that, because it is seriously helpful!

Old Tyme

Hey peeps,

If you like old timey country boy stories, check out my grandpa's blog. My mom started typing up some of his stories during the period when he lost his vision.

By the way, my grandfather got his vision back on the exact same date this year that he got it back last year. Crazy!

One-Tomato Summer

We are evidently having a one-tomato summer.

I planted a tomato plant this year that produces yellow heirloom tomatoes, and I was so excited when I got it. The growing season is so short here, though, that I was a little disconcerted to see that it takes like 80 days to mature, but I was willing to wait for some good old yellow 'maters to show up.

However, although we got maybe five blooms, only one tomato developed. One. And that sucker took its sweet time to mature. We have been watching that green tomato sit there for months, I'm telling you. Finally, it turned yellow:

So there is our one tomato. Celebrate it, y'all, because it's the only one we're getting this summer.

We ate it the other day on turkey burgers, and I have to say, it was really really good. Was it worth all the trouble I put into that entire plant to have one good tomato? I'm not sure. But I bet you that next spring I'll get excited and optimistic (spring is just like that, isn't it?) and do the exact same thing.

Just Keeping it Real

Hey peeps,

So I realized that the last several posts have been all about the little spots of fun and perfection in our lives. In order to keep any of my dear readers from thinking that all is perfect here (we are real people, after all), I thought I'd share some of the other stuff going on:

1. Noah has cut out an hour and a half of his nighttime sleep. He now goes to sleep later in the evening and has started waking up much earlier in the morning. This morning it was 5:45. This is no good--NO GOOD, I tell you. Mom and Dad do not want to wake up at 5:45. The only thing I can think to do is to cut his nap shorter and hope he sleeps in a little in the morning.
2. The problem with cutting Noah's nap short is that I nap when he naps. I have been pretty tired this pregnancy. During the first trimester, there was about a month when I found it hard to peel myself off the couch. Now I have more energy, but I'm having trouble sleeping now, so there are some days when taking a nap is really essential for me . . . especially for my attitude. :)
3. I had a horrible day the other day, mostly because my pregnancy hormones made me so moody that I ended up having a crazy pity party. I think I did have a legitimate need to get out of the house and do something that did not involve mommy-ing, so I went to see Julie and Julia that evening by myself. It was really good--very charming. Speaking of which, I didn't know Julia Child lived in Cambridge. Turns out, her house is just a few blocks from Nathan's office, so I tried to find it the other day, but I got totally lost. I'm going to try again after looking at a map.
4. Noah is going through a disobedience surge. As in, he thinks it's funny to run down the middle of the street when you call him. He is also not eating much dinner at night, and we are wondering if one of the reasons he's waking up so early in the morning is because he's hungry.
5. Pretty soon, Nathan is going to be away in Canada for another week, which stinks for Noah and me. Grr. We will make it, though.
   

So there you go. Real life at the Beneshes' house. :)

The Missing Remote

We have been missing our TV remote all day today, so when Nathan got home, we decided to initiate a thorough search for it. We knew it had to have been Noah who "lost" it because it was not in any of the regular places.

After searching for 10 or 20 minutes with no luck, Nathan finally found it in the cardboard box for our electric grill in the kitchen, along with Thomas the tank engine, a block, and some deodorant.

Splash!

Noah and I did something so fun today! We went to a splash park! Believe it or not, it was the first time this summer we've had the opportunity to break out Noah's swimsuit.

He wasn't quite sure what to make of it at first. Getting sprayed by water took a little getting used to. But it wasn't long before he was having a great time.

"Mom, did you see that?!"

"HI, LADY!"

Here are Noah and his friend, Nathan. We went to the park with Nathan and his mommy and baby sister.

This is what Noah ended up doing most of the time: standing on the fringe of where the water fell, just barely getting wet, and venturing in only sometimes. He had a fun time, though.

I enjoyed myself, too, even though it was over 90 degrees outside. Even though it's halfway through August, it only just today felt like summer to me. Something about playing in the water on a hot day just really makes for summer fun. And to top it all off, we're having Granny's Banana Pudding tonight. Can't get much more summery than that.

New Noah Stuff

Noah said three new words today--this is a big deal for two reasons. First, he doesn't say many new words. He sticks to the ones he's got. For example, he can get pretty far with "No" and "Wow." Usually, when we ask him to repeat a new word, he just smirks at us, like, "Whatever. I don't have to do it." So for him to even attempt a new word is kind of unusual right now. Secondly, the three new words he said today were all two-syllable words. Yay Noah! They were: breakfast, vitamins ("vi-mih"), and yummy. We noticed that they all had to do with something that tastes good. Ha!

A few days ago, we had a get together at our house for two couples who are leaving Boston: the Walters are moving to The Netherlands for a job, and the Williamses are moving home to Australia. Seriously, after living in Boston for five years, we now have friends all over the country and all over the world, which is pretty darn cool. Anyway, there were some little kids who were at the party, and near the end of the evening, when it was nearly two hours past Noah's bedtime, he and Hannah were dancing away to one of Noah's music CD's. It was so darn cute. Hannah's dad, Jason, took a video. I apologize in advance for my son's bad dancing. He used to have more rhythm; we don't know where it went. Noah's laugh at the end is probably my favorite part:

New Duds

How do y'all like Noah's new shirt? ;)
We are due March 1!

Tumbling

This is Noah's favorite new activity. It makes me think that we need to get him into gymnastics soon!

Living with Noah

This boy is something else. Today, the whole church was witness to it.

This morning, we arrived at church early to go to a meeting for the nursery workers. Noah had to go with us, because all the nursery workers were supposed to be at this meeting, so there wasn't any child care at that time. He did great. A few other parents were in the same pickle, so there were a handful of kids playing at one end of the room while a meeting went on. He was happy as could be.

We dropped him off in the nursery and headed off to the service, confident that he'd do fine. He is great in there--he is not one of those kids who needs their parent for 10 minutes while they transition; in fact, we get lots of compliments from other nursery workers on how easy he is and how well he plays with the other kids.

So I was surprised when we got buzzed a little while into the church service. I told Nathan I'd go check it out and headed back up to the nursery. Turns out that Noah was not doing so well. We hadn't considered the fact that he got a terrible night's sleep (for some reason he kept waking up crying, and we never figured out why--bad dream? teething?). He had just been kind of whiny for a while, which is why they paged us, but then as soon as I walked in, he tripped and fell, which was the last straw for the poor kid. He totally lost it. He wailed for "Daaaaaaddy!", who is his absolute favorite person right now.

I took him out of the nursery, but then my problem was how to tell Nathan that we needed to go. There were a good 40 minutes left of the service, and he wasn't likely to come looking for us--he'd probably just assume I stayed in the nursery with Noah. I realized it was pretty dumb for me to have left my purse (and therefore, my phone) in the pew with Nathan, when the easiest thing to do would have been to text him that we needed to leave. My only option was to walk into the sanctuary and go get him. We had to sit near the front today, too, dadgummit.

Since Noah was already unhappy, I knew he probably would not go into the sanctuary quietly. I considered leaving him with the nice greeter lady who we kind of know, but I knew he'd lose it again. So I risked taking him into the sanctuary and walking all the way down to the front to grab Nathan. Maybe I should explain that our church is a little on the formal side, and although there is frequently a crying baby in the service, there is never a yelling toddler. Plus, the pastor was about 15 minutes into his sermon, and I didn't want to cause a big distraction. I was hoping we would come out of this unscathed and that Noah would be quiet, even though he was upset and loudly whining and asking for his Daddy.

Thinking that it would be good to occupy his loud mouth, I pulled out his sippy cup and asked him if he wanted a drink. That was a good plan, except that he didn't need to drink for as long as it took us to get down the aisle. However, he was pretty good until we saw Nathan. I walked up to where we had been sitting, quickly motioned to Nathan that we needed to go, and spun and quickly started to walk out. This turned out to be kind of a bad move, because Noah got upset that we were walking away from Daddy, and started wailing his name again. Loudly. In the middle of the service. Loudly. I covered his mouth with my hand, but that didn't do much good.

So there we were, walking back down that aisle that never seemed longer, with Noah loudly wailing for Daddy, and all the people kind of looking at us and snickering (though not unkindly). I think we must have been a sight to see. What's more, when we got to the lobby of the church, Noah let out a piercing scream, which I know must have been audible in the sanctuary. I was a little paranoid and extra embarrassed, wondering how much of a disruption we actually were and hoping it wasn't that bad. I will have to ask my friends if it was as bad as it seemed to me at the time, but then, I was the one with the really loud kid yelling in my ear.

Sigh. My mom did always tell me that your kids will humble you.

------

Here are some pics of this crazy kid.

Here he is, looking all innocent, after covering himself in dental floss.

Bathtime Jedi

Nathan's Canada Trip

Every summer, Nathan goes to the Canadian Rockies with his advisor for a field trip or two. They take all the Earth Science undergrads for a field trip, or they do the same course for people in the oil industry.

The Canadian Rockies are good for teaching a course because they're not covered in forests or too much snow. Because of this, you can see the different layers, like in the picture below:

This is another good example of how you can easily see the formations:

Nathan also experimented with our new camera by taking some pictures of the local wildflowers. :)



Although it's a bit hazy, I still think this is a pretty picture of Lake Louise, which is actually where we went on our honeymoon. It looked quite different when we were there, though, since we went in December, everything was white, and the lake was frozen. So pretty!

So if you're ever thinking of taking a trip to Banff and have questions about the area, now you know who to ask! Nathan has driven all over the area so often that he could tell you pretty much whatever you want to know.

Arbonne Sample Sale

Hey peeps,

There are a couple of cool things going on this month with Arbonne that I thought you might be interested in.

--

First, they are extending the free 20% discount offer through August 10. This gets you 20% off all your purchases for a year if you place an order of at least $150. You also get to choose a free product (up to a $79 value), and you'll get 20% off that $150. I wrote more details about it here.

--

Secondly, I am holding a sample sale on all my makeup. I'm selling all the items I've used as samples at parties for CHEAP. All of these items have potentially been used at a party--however, it is highly unlikely that they were used more than a couple of times. Some of them have not been used at all.

Here's what I've got:

Here's the price list (you can click on the link to see all the colors and the regular prices):

• Lipsticks - $7
• Prep & Plump Lip Gloss - $8
• Mascara - $5
• Pressed Powder (Light, Medium, and Dark) - $5
• Loose Powder (Light) - $5
• Mineral Powder (7W and 8W, brand new) - $17
• Eye Makeup Remover - $5
• Eye Shadows - $5
• Blushes - $7
• Lip Liners (not pictured - please note that these are pencils, not the newer version) - $5
• Eye Liners (not pictured - please note that these are pencils, not the newer version) - $5

Please note that the eye shadows and blushes will not travel well individually unless they are in their own compact. So for every one blush and every two eye shadows you order, I will add a compact for $3. Alternatively, if you want the whole set, I'll quote you a price and send them all along in the case you see in the picture.

Also, for each of the products, once a color is gone, it's gone! So the first person to request that color gets it.

best,
Lauren

For the Rice Grads

The Rice alums out there who read this blog will be happy to know that Noah learned a new word today:

"Owl"

:)