The Nose

Hello? Hello? Is anyone still out there?

I know. I KNOW!! I haven't blogged in FOR-E-VER, FOR-E-VER, FOR-E-VER (just a little reference to the movie The Sandlot...sorry if you haven't seen it). Really, the only excuse that I have is it just takes too darn long to create a post if I want to include pictures. And we all know that I like me some pictures in my posts. Honestly, and I'm totally not exaggerating here, if I want to post more than 3 pictures, I can pretty much guarantee myself about 2 hours waiting for everything to upload. It is ridiculous. So, I just end up neglecting my blog. Which stinks, because I truly do enjoy writing it. I finally made the decision that I'm just going to have to be super picky about what pictures I post and to keep them to a minimum...even though that isn't as much fun...but, whatever.

Ok, on to the good stuff. A Ben update! We are in the very final stages of waiting. We could get "the call" next week....or 6 weeks from now. I'm thinking it's probably closer to the 6 weeks though. The waiting is starting to become pretty difficult now because his room is very close to being finished and we have quite a few baby "items" thanks to a couple of wonderful baby showers that my mom had for us. Not only that, but Greg's co-workers are throwing us a shower next weekend and Greg's brother, Mike, is throwing us one the weekend after that, AND some friends of ours from church are throwing us one after that! We are so incredibly blessed to have such caring, supportive friends and family in our lives who share in our excitement and anticipation of Ben's arrival.

We received his most recent medical check up results via email yesterday. Looks like we're going to have a short little chunker on our hands :-) He is in the 75th percentile for weight (22.9 lbs) and between the 10th and 25th percentiles for height (28.2 inches). He is doing really well developmentally. Not walking yet, but he is pulling up to a standing position, so I'm sure walking is just around the corner. He just turned 10 months old earlier this month so he seems to be right on target, especially given the fact that he was born prematurely. Here is a pic from when he was 8 months old...



Now, you're probably wondering what the title of this post has to do with Ben. The answer to that is...nothing. The title was inspired by an event that occurred on a recent trip to Colorado. Greg and I went on a 5 day trip to Denver last month. One of the days we were there, we decided to visit the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. It was breathtakingly beautiful and we decided to be "at one" with nature by going on a hike. We were about half way through our hike when Greg noticed a pile of poop that he swore was left by a mountain lion. I disagreed. An argument ensued. It went something like this.....

Greg: Brooke, come look at this, I'm pretty sure it's mountain lion scat.

Brooke: That is NOT mountain lion scat. It just looks like dog poop. Mountain lion poop would be huge.

Greg (grabbing a stick and poking at the pile of poop): NO, this is NOT dog poop. Dogs don't eat rocks. Look at that, there are rocks in there.

Brooke: Those rocks are probably from the ground. And why would a mountain lion eat rocks???

Greg: Oh my Gosh. There's a NOSE in there. It's a DOG nose!!! Look at that!!! Now do you think it's dog poop??

Brooke (getting uncomfortably close to the pile of poop): Holy crap! That IS a dog nose!! I can't believe it.



Brooke: Give me that stick!

I then proceed to poke around at the "nose" to completely separate it from the poop (there's a sentence I never thought I'd type), only to turn the "nose" over and see that it had a plastic piece on the back that is commonly used to sew on to a stuffed animal. Yes, it was a stuffed animal nose. And we were looking at dog poop. Or, if you are Greg, you are convinced it was the poop of a mountain lion who ate a child AND his stuffed animal.

What can I say, we live exciting lives.

Love,
Brooke