Life After the Man O War

Jon is doing great. And he actually has been for a while. It was a rough day/night but he went to school the following day and life went on. I will admit now, that I stayed up until about 1am that night, checking on him about every 1/2 hour. And then I went in again at 4am and checked on him (he slept in Vanessa's room to get a decent sleep). I was so worried he would get some crazy infection or delayed reaction to all the venom. I guess that's what us women do...worry. He was fine, I missed some sleep, but I did ease my worrying :) His marks/scars are healing. They don't hurt at all anymore. He will probably have some scars, but only time will tell. These beach pics were taken that fateful day ;) Vanessa really wanted him to play in the sand him with when he was leaving to go snorkeling. We have a bunch of pics or her trying to coax him back to the sand. They're really cute. And is it just me or are baby rolls the cutest ever? And tan lines in the rolls. Yes, Benson has both. That would probably make him the cutest baby ever.
This is Jon and Benson taking a nap in the loudest room in the house. Why they chose this spot, I have no idea. But, luckily we have a house full of deep sleepers because they didn't seem to mind the noise. Aren't they cute? Benson is seriously a super happy baby. He smiles and drools like crazy, they seem to come together. He isn't crawling, but he can pretty much get anywhere in the living room he wants to be by rolling around. I think he scoots a little too. I'm not honestly sure how he gets some places as fast as he does. Just yesterday I was helping Vanessa with something by the end of the couch and Benson was on the floor near the other end. I looked up and he was suddenly at my feet with a huge drooly grin. He also eats like a champ. He is eating baby food three times a day, most days. And, I even made him some home-made baby food. Go me! Sweet potatoes and green beans. In case anyone was wondering, I priced it out. Here were my calcuations.
I spend about $1 for 7 oz of Gerber baby food (this is with no sale and no coupon).
1.3 lbs of fresh green beans cost me $1.30 and this made about 35 oz. of baby food. That saved me $3.70. And it wasn't much time/work. The sweet potatoes are a little different story because I forgot how much the potatoes cost and can't find my receipt. I think they were around $2 so I only saved about $1. But still, it would add up after a while. Both these foods were super easy, I don't know that I'm all about spending much time doing the nitty gritty (like apples, they just sound tedious). But I guess we'll see. Benson does seem to prefer the fresh.

Vanessa starts looking more and more like a little girl everyday. She is no longer a baby. And she is acting more and more like a little girl too. My goodness! She is giving me and Jon a run for our money. She leaves us both shaking our heads, what feels like ten times a day. I wouldn't call it the "terrible twos" because she is still the sweetest, most adorable thing ever. But honestly, she has those tantrum skills down!
Enough of that. How am I surviving two kids that are 16 months apart? Well, I think generally well. Better than I expected quite honestly. I am exhausted and I wonder if I am doing anything right ALL the time, but I really did think it would be a lot harder. When Vanessa was Benson's age, I was just pregnant (though we didn't know it yet). Weird.
So today I went to Dollar Tree. This is a great store. But there are seriously some weird people here. I am walking up holding Benson, with Vanessa attached to my leg whining "cue, cue" (which means, carry you; but really me carry her). I was in the middle of telling her "I can't carry you, can I hold your hand?" When some lady walked up and started saying how cute my kids are. Really lady? I smiled and was polite, but I really didn't think my kid was acting very cute. But this lady was persistent. She continued talking to me. She wanted to know if we were going to have more kids and how many and when. Sheesh, honestly?! I realize this may be judgemental, but I don't think this lady was quite normal. I was worried for a minute that she was going to try to pick Vanessa up, to help me. Which probably would have caused all hell to break loose. But that's a topic for another story. This lady held the door open, followed me inside, and down the aisle as I am shopping. All the while asking me about my kids. It was freakin me out. Then another lady commented on what a flirt Benson is and my new bff told the lady for me that he was a really good baby. She did confirm it with me after she answered. It was about this time, that I stopped talking to her and just walked away. Was that totally rude? Probably. Was I also annoyed that I was there to buy pregnancy tests and didn't want 500 more questions from this lady? Most definitely.
PS...I'm paranoid, not pregnant. We don't actually have a need for pregnancy tests yet.
Since I am on a random tangent, I wrote up a scathing review on a doctor I saw once in Utah and absolutely HATED. I saw this doctor for my first prego appointment with Benson, so over a year ago. I don't know why I suddenly felt like writing this review. I was contemplating doing it and then when I saw he had a perfect score it suddenly became an obsession. Now I am wondering if I wasn't a little too harsh. I'm sure he's a decent person and a decent doctor. I take reviews on line into consideration, I wonder if other people do too? What would you do? I have an option to take it back, maybe I should?
Have I mentioned that I am considering getting certified to teach childbirth classes? I am pretty sure that I will eventually, it's just a matter of when and with what organization. There are lots of options. And I have to decide if I want to go to a conference or just do it all on-line. There are definitely pros and cons to both. I actually went to Nova's library to see if they had any of the books on one organization's book list. They didn't. But I did find two small, quick reads. One is called Childbed Fever and the other is Cocain Exposed Infants. I know, I'm weird. But these are two topics that I've wanted to know more about and they just happened to be there and the books I wanted weren't. So another decision I have to make with getting certified is what philosophy I want to go with. If I really go with my personal feelings on childbirth, they aren't exactly mainstream. But if I want to teach to make money maybe I should go more mainstream. Any thoughts?
I am so tired and really need to go to bed. There are a million random thoughts lately that I would love to post, but that's all the energy I've got for now and it'll be another six months before my whole family is asleep long enough for me to ramble this much. SO, I guess I'll spill the rest of my guts then.