Wednesday's Words

First, I keep forgetting to mention this kid has a whole vocabulary of Polish words that are lost on me. For ages he has said 'czah czah' which means 'boo boo.' Everytime he bumps or scrapes, it's a 'zah, zah.'

He also responds to 'how old are you?' with a Polish "One!" coupled with his pointer finger extended. Who knows what else he knows, maybe I'll get details and next week we'll highlight his Polish words.

Also on the list is to capture "moon" on video for the blog. It's on my list of top three words (along with 'mom,' and 'giraffe').

Our evening walks of late consist of the following conversation: 'moon,' 'stella,' 'mom,' 'plane,' and 'water,' pretty much on repeat for 30 minutes.

But it's the way he says 'moon' that gets me...

I'm not even sure we have any new words this week. Is that possible??

Let me give it some thought and get back to you.

In other news I'm still pregnant :) Was I ever this big with Ben? Ugh.

My doctor's response today when I told her my back is killing me: "how old is your first?" {me: one and a half} "well, there you have it."

Gee, thanks.

Costume Update

So I got my $5 back for the aforementioned pumpkin pacifier. And actually a much more valuable lesson in customer service that I look forward to sharing with my clients in the future.

As much as it pains you (client, company, customer service rep), you don't need to get the last word in, or reiterate your point. My buddy handling my case opened with a paragraph on the website policy, along with a history of how things with my order went down, all before saying "as a one time courtesy, we are refunding you for the Little Pumpkin Pacifier."

Frankly I would have been happier with that one line alone.

One of my colleagues always says 'less is more,' when dealing with media statements and consumer responses and this email really drove that point home to me. Nice that they gave me the credit, definitely, but to go the extra length to explain why I was still in the wrong, and that they were doing me a favor, not really necessary.

It's a good lesson to clients who are stuck on including the corporate language, or their point of view. The consumer just wants to hear their issue has been resolved to their liking. So if that is the course of action, you/company has decided on, just let them have it and be done.

Speaking of being done, I'm getting off my soapbox on this issue and will carry on with Halloween now.

Wait until you see the adorable costume...a LION!

Only problem is Ben refuses to put the head on. Naturally, I've been wearing it around the house myself trying to make it look more appealing. So far he hasn't taken the bait, though Stella is quite curious as to what's going on.

Wednesday Words

This was a busy word week, busy overall for Ben.

He is so hilarious, I need to start posting more videos.

His little "yah" in response to questions is the best and changes throughout the day. In the morning, "do you want some milk?" get's an enthusiastic, loud "YAH!" ... and at night, "do you want to take a bath?" gets a quiet, slow, almost pained, "yeeaahh."

"Mom" melts my heart, every time. But especially when I get home from work and it's usually coupled with a running leap into my arms. Seriously.

It doesn't get better than that my friends. Not to mention he is a seriously good hugger.

Anyway, enough from the obnoxious mom. Here are our latest words. He's getting progressively good at repeating, so some of these are one-hit wonders. Others, like "moon," and "this way," "that way" are said over and over throughout each evening walk.

moon
this way, that way
please
all gone
gage
josh
banana
duck
flag

We've been practicing "grandma" all week - my mom is coming on Friday and I'm pretty sure she will not get back on the plane until he's mastered that one so we're getting a head start :)

Happy hump day.

BuyCostumes - Scary Costumes and Customer Service

Ok - I finally made a decision on our Halloween costume, more on that later.

I ordered the costume one night after work this week on buycostumes.com. After clicking 'purchase' I get a prompt for an offer to buy face paint and a pumpkin pacifier. I actually pause and think about what a BS move this is to get you to buy more stuff...and then, in spite of myself, I buy the face paint. It's less than $2 and I'm thinking whiskers.

But when I click through, ii realize it also defaults to add the pumpkin pacifier to my order. I notice immediately on my receipt and email customer service, notifying them of the error. A real person responds in less than 15 minutes (impressive), however tells me my order has already shipped (at 10:30 pm) and therefore can't be changed.

Forgive me, I'm reluctant to believe this is really true.

I'm manipulated into a purchase, that can't be reversed, so my only course of action is to spent $7 (an estimate) to return something I didn''t order. Instead, I will keep the costume and pacifier (which I'm dying too return, but in the end it really only negatively impacts me - I'm out shipping costs, need a replacement costume, and obviously my point will be lost on them as they don't care about my business).

Instead I encourage you to shop elsewhere. There are many great options (try here, or here) for costumes online. Not to mention lots of great stuff at the Gap and Target.

I never bitch about this kind of stuff, but this crappy customer service really got under my skin. I don't know how in this day and age it's even possible.

Scary - and not in a good Halloween way.

Kiss the Baby

I taught Ben this really cute new trick, or so I thought, called "kiss the baby."

Given how much he has been picking up on things lately, I thought it made sense to start talking about the soon-to-arrive baby. The baby is super active in the morning so lately, when we're all hanging out in bed before I hop in the shower, I'll let him touch my belly. Sometimes he feels it move, but mostly he just likes to give my belly a kiss, and a hug.

He always lifts my shirt to do so, I think b/c my belly button looks really funny and makes him laugh.

Anyway, its super cute and makes everyone smile.

So while at dinner in a packed restaurant Sat night, Ben decides he wants to kiss the baby.

Those of you wiser folks likely saw this coming...and of course he doesn't want to kiss the baby through my shirt, he wants to lift it up.

The naked pregnant belly is a beautiful site to a very small minority, and even those don't likely want a glimpse of it while eating dinner. Yet, he would not be dissauded, so up the shirt went and he gave the baby a big kiss and hug.

Tonight while walking Stella, right around the time everything went to pot and I had to start carrying him far from our house, you guessed it. He wanted to kiss the baby. And I was wearing a dress. So we spent half a block wrestling and crying, while he tried to disrobe me on a major street in our neighborhood.

Seriously?

It's like a non-stop charlie fox trot these days. Image what a mess I'll be with another strapped to me. Haha.

Wednesday Words

Drum roll please.....

I think we may have nailed "mom!" I received a couple big, warm "moms" last night and this morning, we'll see if they stick around long term.

Also added to the list: cat.

(for the record, I think 'mom' came first, barely)

Grrrr

For some reason the grrrr continues to amuse everyone, perhaps even more so. Last night Ben practiced his sneak attack up to the lion statues in our neighborhood, quietly approaching and then growling.

This is just a snapshot of his performance.

Wednesday Words

We're picking up words at a pretty good pace these days, and I read somewhere recently that in a couple months he'll be learning 20 words a day! So I thought I'd try to commit to a weekly update of new words he can say, on Wednesdays...forgive me if there are any repeats from the previous list.

- giraffe (my favorite word of his yet - no one would be able to translate this without assistance but it is a very excited "Geeeaaaaf!"
- train
- whale
- plane

...potentially "Carrie" after his favorite aunt spent the weekend with him.

Still no 'mom.'

In other news of note, he understands quite a bit of what we say to him. He can throw things away in the garbage, deliver things from person to person in the room, get down the stairs by himself (backwards, finally!), knock on the door to get inside, and knows we walk Stella out the front door but run her in the mornings out the garage (back door).

He has also become quite the little performer.

Last night at Club Lucky he had hubby, sis, Tracy and I in tears over a couple of random tricks he is working on. Nothing earth shattering - but he hams it up and knows he is on stage, which makes it all the funnier. And he laughs when we laugh, and so on and so on.

He's pretty entertaining to hang out with these days.

Needless to say, we enjoyed the long weekend together.

Tee Time

Hubby took the little camper out for his first golf lesson today. He showed serious potential, as long as there wasn't an airplane flying overhead or a train on the el tracks, he was pretty interested.

We'll probably have to practice a couple more times before he's ready for the tour but I'm sure he'll be be out there in no time...

Sweet Discoveries

Given that I've overshared details with all those physically in my presence recently, I thought I'd take my dessert campaign to the blog. Only fitting on the heels of my Stay Puft Marshmellow post, right?

I've been trying new sweet spots in the hood, justifiably under the umbrella of my 'exploring new things' campaign mentioned awhile back. What's wrong with a little focus?

I wasn't the first to find Black Dog Gelato, but I'm certainly in contention for giving it the most free PR. This little shop, conveniently located just a couple blocks from me, serves up the most AMAZING gelato with creative flavors like sweet corn lavendar, vanilla malt, and oreo mint. My favorite pairing, however, is the salted peanut and mexican chili chocolate. Oh my. I literally dream of it every day.

Another place I was recently turned on to is Bake. Featured in the photo here are the smores brownie, the pretzel chocolate chip cookie and the OREO (two delicious chocolate patties with an unbelievable white frosting in between). Hubby and I actually took the Oreo down in one afternoon, sneaking visits into the kitchen to cut off small pieces, thinking the other wasn't watching until suddenly there was nothing but a little white frosting left (if you'll notice the artist positioning in this photo, 2/3 of it is already missing).

Who do I think I am?

A wreckless pregnant lady, limiting herself to just one dessert a day in the hopes that somehow that demonstrates a little self restraint, that's who.

Buddies

Cute pic I had to share. Uncle Frank has been visiting periodically for our evening family walk. Always nice to see him and Ben loves him :)

Stay Puft Marshmellow (wo)Man

Suddenly my shoes don't fit. My rings are tight. Wearing jeans is unbearable torture.

I'm fat and swollen and periodically catch myself waddling.

I'm the Stay Puft Marshmellow Man.

Thinking (longingly) back to the last pregnancy when I was (mis) diagnosed (in my opinion) with pre-eclampsia and was put on moderate bed rest the last month.

At the time I thought it was wildly inconvenient and annoying. In retrospect, it meant I could wear my Lululemon Be Still pants every-single-day without worry.

I may start working on faking high blood pressure to raise the red flags. Kind of like finishing a marathon with roller skates on but at this point, does it really matter?

Seven weeks to go my friends...remind me of this when I'm complaining about my extreme fatigue in seven weeks and two days :)