Bunko

First of all, thanks for the supportive comments on my hair - I'm really starting to warm up to wearing it wavy (in fact, it's almost 3 pm and I still haven't put it up in a ponytail today!) and it helps to hear that it doesn't look too bad.

In other news, I am LOVING being a mom of a toddler. At least once a day, if not more, J does something that totally cracks me up - lately it's been his obsession with baseball. Husband put up all his old framed Sa.int L.ouis C.ardina.ls baseball memorabilia on J's walls (his room is primary colors and so the Car.dinal red stuff looks great in there) and also bought J a baseball and glove for his first birthday. He's taught J how to put the glove on and "pitch" (complete with wind-up), and then last week he taught him how to hold the toy plastic bat with both hands and put it up by his head. J now walks around ALL day with the bat and glove and the ball, saying "ba-beeeeeeeee", which is his word for baseball (regular balls are just "ball"). J recognizes the Car.dinals logo everywhere - he went up to a woman at the children's mu.seum last week who had a red Car.dinal and bat on her shirt and, all while yelling "ba-beeeee", touched her bo.ob where the baseball bat was on her shirt before I could get there! Oops. Fortunately, she thought it was funny once I explained that he gets excited whenever he sees something that's Car.dinal baseball and that he was not going after her bo.ob (even though ba-beeeeee does sound like boo.bie!)

Finally, I want to start a Bu.nko group up with some friends. I just learned how to play at my MOP.S group, and I think it'd be fun to do on a regular basis. Any of you have experience with this and suggestions on what would work/what doesn't work?

Road trip

J. and I went for a mini road trip yesterday to meet up with one of my best friends - we live 4 hours apart (she's in Indianapolis), so we met halfway in a little town called Casey, Illinois at a restaurant I found through AAA. She is pregnant with their first child, and it was so fun to see her pregnant! She's at 33 weeks now, and it was fun talking and remembering what it was like this time a year ago. She's one of those friends that even though we don't get to see each other that often (the last time was over a year ago, when I was only about 12 weeks pregnant), we can just pick up right where we left off. I love friends like that, although I wish we lived closer and didn't have to go so long in between visits. J. and I will go out to visit when her little guy is born in a few weeks, so that is something good to look forward to.

Anyway, we chatted a lot about pregnancy, having a baby, and what life's like once you do. I love those kind of conversations as it really makes it clear how far I've come from where I was a few years and even months ago. I feel so much more confident as a mother (although I still have my doubts - like today when I asked the pediatrician what I should do for his dry skin, and the pediatrician just gave me a funny look and told me to put lotion on it! You think I could have figured that out on my own). It's so exciting to see my friends as moms and to have us share this new chapter of our lives.

J. did great the whole visit - he slept almost the entire car ride there, woke up and ate lunch with us, played, watched a DVD (yes, I let my child watch DVDs!), played some more, crawled on the table, took a nap, ate again, chatted with us a bit, and then fell back asleep in the car for the entire way home!

I woke up this morning though and wished that I was going to visit with my friend again today - it was a wonderful way to spend the day - I'm a social person and working at home now -while definitely the best thing for me right now - is a very quiet and non-social thing to do. I miss conversations with friends during the day and having people around who knew me before I was J.'s mom, since most of the adult interaction I now get is at playgroup or with other moms who I know now mainly because of J.