Cock-WHAT?!

Welp - it happened.

The first communicable disease at Ben's daycare.

We got the email Saturday morning: two kids had COXSACKIE.  (aka HandFoot&Mouth Disease)

My SIL was over that morning as we were getting ready to take Ben shopping and to lunch - and E begins a nuclear-level-meltdown:

"god DAMMIT.  SHIT.  I wonder who it is!!"

(proceeded to respond to the daycare provider's email - under my email! - demanding asking to know if either of them were in Ben's class...)

We quickly got a response that Yes, one of the kids was from Ben's class.  (I also felt I had to apologize and make clear that E had sent the borderline nasty email when the owner kept saying how bad she felt...)

When I began to hypothesize out loud that it was siblings at the daycare (one of Ben's classmates has an older brother) the nuclear meltdown went even higher:

"OH GOD DAMMIT - Ms. [Teacher] showed me a video of [Timmy] feeding Ben by hand! OH DAMMIT!"

I mean - the guy acted like Ben had been exposed to Ebola...

So, we watched him all weekend - nary a symptom sprouted.



Except then, today I got a call at work.  (First of all, I am just glad that the first line out of their mouths when they call me at work is, "Ben is ok!")

But his eyes were oozing.

He had a slight eye booger problem and just seemed "off."  She wondered if maybe it was pink-eye developing? And was that a symptom of coxsackie??


GREAT.

So after a quick pow-wow with E, we arranged that I would pick up and bring infectious baby Ben to the doctor, and he would take off of work tomorrow to stay home with him.

Ben and I sat in the waiting room (on the quarantined "sick visit" side) and I admonished him, DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING! you'll give everyone coxsackie!!

(if you're wondering how the hell to pronounce that, it's "cock-sackie."  But say it fast, so no one can quite tell exactly what you're saying... or just call it "HandFoot&Mouth Disease" and make it easier on everyone...)

Well quick visit (but long wait) later, Ben does not have coxsackie.

He has a double ear infection...

The Birthday Post

I think that a photographic narrative of the day would best suffice Mr. Benjamin's BigTop Birthday Bash...




Beginning with the fabulous invitations...


by tinyprints
45 invites
$67.69
(included tax + S&H)




















And you will all remember the tedious planning and crafting that went into it...
cleaned-out beer bottles (free after I bought and drank the beer!)
wrapped in striped paper (from Michaels - $0.25/sheet)


 (just a SNAPSHOT of what went on in the MONTHS leading up to the big day...)

used baby-food jars (free after Ben ate the food!) wrapped in burlap stuff (? lol) and curled ribbon

They became center pieces:

(homemade pinwheels, again from Michael's paper)

Photobooth props from felt and card stock and baking stick thingies from Michaels.

Wooden plates from Michaels (oh, say $1 each, $10 for the large heavy BigTop arrow) painted with

Acrylic paint (again Michaels - I basically made weekly trips...) maybe $8

Felt sheets from Michaels ($0.40 each) 

And I sat, while probably watching some trashy reality TV, and proceeded to TRACE AND CUT AND HOT GLUE all them bitches. 

Hot glue is MOTHER F*CKING HOT.

By the day before his party, my dining room table (heck the whole entire room) was covered in birthday paraphernalia.*

(*wow, spelled that correctly on the first go!!)


There was even a mini crisis when I noticed a few ants on the bags and bags (and bags) of candy for the next day's candy bar!!

None made it inSIDE the candy wrappers, and my adopted SIL's were great assistants helping me de-Ant...

















All that was left the night before was to bake cupcakes and his smash cake*:

(I got the idea for his smash cake (sprinkles around a "1") from Parenting magazine...
The popcorn cupcakes pretty much came from here.)

*Well, bake and hang yards and yards and yards of fabric in our garage circus tent! (don't kill me, I'm not sure where the pictures are of the fabulous garage-to-tent transformation, hopefully you can get the idea of it from other photos' backgrounds...)

We woke up bright and early on D-day, ready to finish setting up...

(Part II to follow, because HOLY PHOTO-OVERLOAD!)

Just wanted you to know...

I sat last night, in the "playroom" still in progress (old futon and bookshelf to be junked, etc) and watched my son play.

I even thought that sentence to myself: "I'm watching my son play."

It was such a surreal moment, filled with awe at literally the miracle that he is, made of particles invisible to the naked eye... How with just a different sperm (I still giggle like a school-girl at that word...) someone totally different would have been sitting in front of me.  Or even might not have been there... A different sperm and egg met over two years ago for my first BFP - the wrong sperm, or the wrong egg.  And nature took its course...

And with my bestie Dee having just had her baby a month ago (HOLY SHIZ-NAT how is he a month old already?!) I am so happy that she is along for the motherhood ride now.

My blog posts broadly range from shallow, short and/or silly (don't forget Husbands couldn't care less about mucous plugs!) to the philosophical-waxing type (somehow facing jealousy of "easy" pregnancies and remembering what even led to this blog)

I think readers range too - there are those of you that I'm so excited and happy for you to be riding the motherhood train with me, all in various shades of parenting - newborns, twins, after a loss, after IF treatments...

There are those of you that are boarding the train - pregnant after a loss, pregnant after hard and heart-worn attempts, pregnant and full of fear after what you've been through; and for you all I remember my boarding, fraught with nerves and fears.  I pray along with you (to whoever you might pray to) for healthy pregnancies, healthy babies and healthy mothers.

And there are those of you, and even some blogs I follow that may not follow mine - and believe me, I am in no way offended or hurt - You protect yourselves, and it's because you may have faced BFN after BFN.  You may have experienced a loss, or heart-breaking multiple losses.
And for you all I pray the hardest.  I am a tear-stained broken heart with you at every bump in the road, every hiccup, every unseen obstacle (I had originally intended to go for (hopefully humorously-) obnoxious in the number of cliches but I seem to have run out...)

As I sat last night with Ben in his playroom, I wanted this for you all so bad, my heart hurt.





My blogged snapshots of life and thoughts are just that - snapshots.  They're superficial scenes of fashion, and house tours, and fun-filled trips.

But it's deeper than that: we connect through this community we've all somehow become a part of...  (I mean, hey - I've got an  IRL-bestie over on Easley Street!)
We rally with hugs, joy, concern, trepidation, SQUEEEE-ness at all the ups and downs we each have faced and may face in the future.

As light and airy as It, and I, may seem being in The After - in the SuccessAfterLoss category - not a day goes by that I don't check my Blogger feed and hope to hell that your IUI worked.
 Or that your NT scan came back with an "all perfect."
Or that you made it past a loss EDD, or a previous loss-milestone, sanity (somewhat) intact.
Or hope that, even though you're not blogging of it, that your IF treatments are happening, and are happening successfully at each stage...
Not a day goes by that I don't think of you all - new parents, new pregnancies, new heartache - and I just wanted you all to know that.

Different this time, I Promise!

This time being - a new series! (I know, I know - the TourTuesdays didn't get done last night, but E has a hockey game Friday night so I'm ALL OVER THOSE!)

No, these will be short and sweet blurbs amidst the regular posting.

Introducing:

And the first happened a few weeks ago, when I realized the core difference between men and women:
E and I were talking about a local Panera Bread (zomg the yumminess...) and it's exact location, as I couldn't place where he was talking about.

((GUYS))
"It's right next to the

 you know, behind the A.C.Moore?"

And then I finally remembered - 

((GIRLS))

"Oh yea, that Panera! 

Right behind 

 and

Oh the difference between men and women...

Not what was promised...

But at least a little something...

I've been meaning to get over here and get some events and pictures jotted down, and I keep putting it off, wincing at the fact that I STILL haven't done the Birthday Post...

And if I waited until I had all my shit together (*ahem - what TourTuesday series?!) it would be another week until I posted...

So, as long as I can commandeer the computer from E tonight at home, I will get together 1 - The Birthday Post and 2 - the Tour Tuesdays (which I can hopefully just finish at least 2 and pre-schedule-post them... (also brewing in the Post-Pot is big boy's first trip to Texas! (we just returned Monday afternoon))

(He was SO SO SO SO good on the plane rides - four in total!!!)

We saw my friend Dee's little Cameron again the other day:

SO stinkin' cute (literally stinky - he farts like a true champ!) and Ben adored him:

Which, if I'm being honest, made my ovaries tremble just a bit... I mean, I don't really think I want 2U2... but Ben was so gentle with the baby! 
I was eating pineapple the other day at lunch and couldn't help but flashback to the core-eating days...
While I'm not on any BC at the moment, except the P&P (*pull&pray*) method, I think we're somewhat TTA for now...

In a perfect world, I'd like #2 to be born late next fall. (which means TTC begins Christmas time!!)
But also, in a perfect world, BFP#1 wouldn't have ended so disastrously, but that means... Ben wouldn't be here. 
Grateful for this imperfect world...

Oh to be Young and Hip...

So - we recently went on this EPIC work-event for E's company.

And when I say Epic, I mean Epic.

We partied on a YACHT similar to this one that I was actually able to find pictures of! We cruised around NYC Harbor for 5 hours!!

 (And it was at night! So we got some pretty awesome lit-up skyline views!)
imagine this:

We arrived a little early (we were one of the first 3 couples there!) and headed up to the top deck, where the bartender was stationed, ready to dispense any libation one could want!

 See bar in bottom right

The night we went cruising, the jetski on the left had been removed, and the deck was set up with ambient mood-lighting and glowing electric candles, similar to this:

There was a big food spread in the "formal dining room" (!) 

Sushi, salmon, some kind of fried rolls with brie cheese and raspberries inside ("Heaven" as E called it...)

Dude - we pimped out with champagne here, like ballahz!!!

 (kinda like this:)

Around the time we started to head back to the marina, they laid out a spread of fresh fruit and cookies up here:

There were probably about 30 people - coworkers of E and their spouses, as well as a few family members of the company owner.

Apparently he just wanted to take "his crew" out for a night, show them how much he appreciates their work!

All of a sudden, the bonus I got for the lawsuit work seems pretty dingy... lol

But the whole evening was pretty posh, as I got to wear my backless maxi-dress that I've had since February!

And as a few of the other girls there appeared to be in their early/mid twenties, I felt all hip and fashionable when one of them goes, "OMG I have the same dress! LUV IT!"

Pet Peeves & Fantasies

The only thing I hate more than hubby not washing any dishes?

Him putting the top 2-3 dishes away from the drainboard, and washing another 2-3 from the PILES AND PILES in the sink, and trying to pretend that he washed a whole new batch of pots and pans...



Also?

I have the worst over-active imagination.

So I heard on the radio the other day about the NYC Summer Streets tour, and was all - YES! I want to go and enjoy one of those Saturdays!

And then Muffin, my BFF who lives in the Upper West (Siyeeeeede!) text me that she was not working this weekend! SQUEE! And was I free to hang out??

EVEN MORE PERFECT! I thought - with E away on a canoe trip, Ben and I could head into the city ready to rule the Streets!
(But then Muffin wasn't free, oops - she got the weekends confused... sad panda...)


And THEN - on the car ride home from work, I concocted how our weekend would have gone, ending up with Hugh Jackman bear-hugging me for saving his child.

WHAAAA?!?!?

 
And here's how that went down:
We're at the Summer Streets tour, having a blast - visiting the PAWS and Play Dog Park and
getting our putt on the mini-golf experience designed by Risa Puno.

We finally make it to the SoHo rest stop where the REI Climbing Wall is stationed.

Only to be approached by a little lost child!

"ZOMG! poor thing, here stay with us, play with my cute child while we contact authorities..."

The boys (the lost child is a boy!) hang out, all cute - holding onto each one of my hands.

When, rushing up comes - HUGH JACKMAN! it's his child!  ((I dont even know how old his kids are really, probably in their teens. lol))

And how GRATEFUL he is! that someone as nice as us found his child! and ZOMG he can't thank us enough!
**BIG HUGH JACKSON HUG**

Oh, and YOU'RE WELCOME:

oh you, Over-active Imagination - You're a blessing, and a curse...