freedom has a scent like the top of newborn baby's head

I am a tired lady. It was hard getting Ben down to sleep last night - very whingy so was either having tummy pains (thanks to his irregular pooping) or he truly is in teething mode. I guess there could be a gazillion other reasons for a baby to be cranky but he's usually not so I assume it must be something biggish.

So yesterday when I was walking and listening to my music - on a low volume so I can listen for any Ben noises and any cars approaching - I realised I was listening to my labour music mix. Did I use music while in labour? Heck no, I didn't. I remember a midwife offering to get the iPod dock for me and me thinking that I would never enjoy any of those songs again if I had to hear them while contracting. I spent a considerable amount of time creating my labour mixes, "Labour Up" for when I needed up tempo encouragement (Born to Run, Lemon, Nutbush City Limits, etc) and "Labour Down" for soothing (lots of Josh Pyke basically & Miracle Drug by U2, my official newborn song). Turns out Labour Up is good workout music so at least it wasn't a total waste of time.

I've started on Christmas presents for Benny boy and let me tell you, I am loving it. So many beautiful toys and all around fun stuff. So far I've only bought two things but I'm terrified that his first Christmas is going to be ridiculously over the top. Must restrain myself. Check out these Rockin' Blocks from beebles on etsy - http://www.etsy.com/shop/beebles:

I'm in love with these things! I also picked up a penguin bath toy - it's a mother penguin with a baby on her back that are magnetised or something so when you pull them apart in the bath they swim back to each other. How perfect is that? And why in Thor's name does my font change every time I add a picture?? Makes me want to scream.

In completely unrelated news (dear heavens, my font is back), I forced my sweet husband to watch Dirty Dancing with me over the weekend. I didn't realise I could feel so much heartache for someone I never knew but Patrick Swayze played a delightful role in my development as a young lady. I think his would have been the first bare man ass I ever saw too, God bless him. Anyway that movie has held up incredibly well over 20 years and still makes me as happy as it did when I saw it in the theater when I was 10 years old. I'll never forget you Mr. Swayze so may your beautiful dancing self rest in peace.

Watching it started a hilarious conversation with Marcel because I'm always shock shock shocked that he hasn't seen all the 80s movies I grew up on. I forget he spent many of his formative years in the jungles of Papua New Guinea with his family. And he pointed out that his mom thought Dirty Dancing was evil! Follow me here because I will come back, but back in the day my parents used to tell me that I should marry a fellow Seventh Day Adventist and always thought they were bonkers because it didn't matter to me whether Bono was Adventist or not, our marriage would be built on true love and hanging out with Edge. Now I get it - every now & then it pays to have someone who has the same growing up experiences as you. When Marcel hands me his mom hating the thought of Dirty Dancing, I can give him the joy of my mother finding a heavy metal tape of my brother's and throwing it out the car window. This will never fail to make me smile. Literally every time she found one of his tapes in the car it went straight out the window. Not sure if he didn't realise what was going on or just didn't figure out not to leave his tapes in the car but the town of Greeneville, Tennessee must be positively littered with his Ozzy Osbourne and Megadeth library. I wonder if some of those SDA conservative roots will ever pop up in me now that I'm a mother. If nothing else, Ben will learn to salivate at the word "haystacks" just like the rest of us good Sabbath keepers.