I love you and good night

Much more to come on our awesome trip to T-town this weekend for the annual Serber Classic, but wanted to get a couple pics up for everyone.

I hadn't given much thought to the concept of "pride" as it relates to a baby. Makes more sense to me when you consider making a football team or doing well on a test. Yet this weekend I was overcome by how much pride I felt introducing the little guy to everyone. Not just because he is the cutest baby in the world (UO - unbiased opinion), but because he was such a ROCK STAR.

Traveling in the car. Sleeping in unfamiliar places. Not sleeping at all. Making the trip down to see great grandma in Lima. Lots of change for a boy who lives his life on a pretty tight schedule.

Yet he continued to deliver smile after smile, belly laugh after monster growl. He caught a couple cat naps when he could, but overall delivered the performance of his lifetime. And pride seems the most accurate way to describe how I feel.

Everyone was happy to get home tonight, perhaps most of all Ben. Who laid down in his crib and was too tired to even talk himself to sleep as he usually does. I love you buddy, and good night.

Why Ben?

My perfect, can-do-no-wrong, ray of sunshine has now hit the one-week mark of waking up at approximately 5am. Today it was actually 4:30. I'm not sure what is going on with him, but I am going crazy. Seriously, delirious from the lack of sleep.

Nevermind that I haven't worked out since HTC and can't get back into the groove b/c morning was my time to do so (in truth this isn't all Ben's fault but I had really committed to getting back into my routine this week).

And of course he is delightful, inspite of the early hour (it's still dark out for crying out loud). When I get down there he is smiling and laughing. But as the days go on I find I'm too tired to even talk to him. Ugh. What is going on Ben??

Six month birthday

Ben celebrated his six month b-day yesterday by downing an entire jar of applesauce. He loves his food, check him out...

Happy Belated Birthday

Happy belated birthday to uncle Gaston who turned 21 on Saturday. We've been celebrating for about 10 days straight. Here's to you and many more 801 sandwiches in the coming year. XO.

Enjoying Labor Day Weekend

Is there anything more glorious than a holiday weekend...we took Ben to the horse track on Saturday and had an awesome time. Daddy's lucky baby delivered a win, both on track and off. He flirted with anyone who gave him the slightest glance and made friends everywhere. Didn't really get the horses, likely b/c there were people much closer who wanted to hold and snuggle with him. Parties continued for mom and dad all weekend and I'm actually excited to get back to our quite lives this week. It has been non-stop since OR and I've fallen out of practice with this pace.

Off to Miami tomorrow for a turnaround and then looking forward to a nice week at home. A few pics from the weekend, glorious weather in Chitown. Hope you had a great holiday. Cheers!

Spoiled Ben

As mentioned, Ben was watched by my parents while we were in OR. My mom really pulled the heavy duty - arriving Wed night in time for our departure Thurs am and staying through the following Wed morning. My dad came in for the weekend, to keep her company and get in a few giggles -- you can see from the photos who the picture-taker was. They had an action-packed adventure, including swings, walks, and apparently some naked time wearing his madras hat :)

Ben of course, hammed it up for everyone. Enjoy!

An update amid the chaos

When you're attempting to take on the world, inevitably something drops at some point. This week it was the blog. Apologies for the lack of content. Pictures of Ben to follow tomorrow (that is all anyone wants, isn't it?), but a quick update in the meantime...

The trip to OR was awesome. Awesome. If the pictures don't communicate it, the race was an amazing experience. So many logistics and elements to content with, but at the end of the day I'm impressed with how we all outperformed our own expectations. For me it was a lesson in how much I underdeliver when it's just me out there running. When I have a team counting on me, I'm suddenly able to go faster and harder than ever before. Let that be a lesson on my next run (I've yet to lace up the shoes since...)

Ben was FABULOUSLY taken care of by my mom (and dad). I returned to a fatter, happier baby which I didn't think was possible. Honestly, it was surprisingly good to get away. We played as hard as we ran, and our schedule was so jammed that I didn't even have the luxury of missing him until Monday morning. But when it hit, it hit hard. I was dangerously close to taking a taxi from Seaside to the airport and actually shed a tear upon waking up (admittedly it also could have been a result of sleep deprivation, combined with dancing for six hours straight, and the after-effects of mass alcohol consumption).

That said I had taken the day off yesterday and was delighted to spend the day making out with him and snuggling as much as possible. He is truly the light of my life and the time away only reinforced that.

Pictures to follow tomorrow, and then a long, lazy weekend ahead. So excited.