The end is near.

The breastfeeding goal I set for myself when Ben was born was 1 year. That's what the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends so that's what I decided to aim for. Now that Ben is 10.5 months (how did this happen?!) I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Or, the underwire bra at the end of a LONG year of ill-fitting nursing bras. A few thoughts on weaning Mr. Ben:

PRAISE THE LORD I'M ALMOST DONE NURSING!

Another part of me is really sad that Ben and I won't have this time together anymore. It's not so much that it's this really tender, sweet time -these days there is a good bit of kicking, pinching and fingernails involved. It's more that weaning him signifies the end of his "babydom" to me. I know in some sense I will still think of him as my baby when he's 37, but it makes me teary to think that we are almost done with this stage in his life.

I'm a little concerned about the extra calories I won't be burning once I stop nursing. I've developed a pretty serious ice cream habit. While I will hopefully be losing a pound or two up top (yes - they got that big), I may be gaining 3 or 4 or 10 around my midsection.

FREEDOM! Freedom to wear strapless bras, and dresses, and, heck, a one piece Speedo if I want to (don't worry Matt, I don't plan on rushing out and buying a once piece Speedo, at least not until baby #2 comes along.....) Freedom to go places and not have to worry if there will be an inconspicuous corner where I can whip my boob out and feed my child away from the public eye. Freedom to drink alcohol and not have to think about when I will be feeding Ben again, and should I really have this 2nd glass of wine and maybe I should just pump and dump but NOOOOOO that is worse than throwing the entire contents of my wallet into the toilet so I will just stand here and sip my water.

Ben needs to figure out this sippy cup thing ASAP. In the past month we've tried 3 different varieties of sippy cups. He hasn't successfully drunk out of a single one, but they are an endless source of entertainment for him and have survived being gnawed on by his squirrel teeth thus far.....

10.5 months down, 1.5 months to go!

Our attention hungry dog.

She's got spunk. See it HERE.

My husband thinks he's married to Lisa Leslie.

Don't know who Lisa Leslie is? I didn't either. For some reason Matt does.

Lisa Leslie. WNBA icon.

That's right. My husband, who skipped most Clemson football games while we were in college to go kayaking on the Tallulah, knows all about the WNBA.

Since having Ben, my daily wardrobe has pretty much consisted of a pair of athletic shorts and a large t shirt. Here's my reasoning behind this outfit choice: My Ben feeders are too big to fit into 90% of my shirts. The shirts that do fit are rationed for work, church, and the occasional social outing. Now that I'm a mother, I have an aversion to wearing my short shorts a la American Eagle. (I'm embarrassed to admit that I do own several pairs of shorts from American Eagle. When do you become too old to shop there? 10 years ago? Ok, cool. Just checking.) And let's face it, those shorts just don't look the same on as they used to. Which brings me to my third point: This is the ideal outfit for going on walks with Mr. Ben and Luna in an attempt to whip my body back into shape. Functional and practical. And comfortable. And, apparently, strikingly similar to a certain WNBA superstar. Poor Matt.

My love/hate relationship with my iPhone.

For my 29th birthday I finally got a smart phone. I used some birthday money and got an iPhone 4. I love it. You see, dear reader, before purchasing the iPhone, I had this gem:

I knew I was behind the times, but it really hit home when I shared an elevator with a 90-something year old man who had the exact same phone as I did. Matt got his iPhone a few years ago, but I have been resisting upgrading my phone for some time now. Why, you may ask? I guess the main reason is that was my way of refusing to become one of the billions of people who move through life with their eyes and fingertips glued to their phone. We've created so many distractions for ourselves that we can no longer be content to just sit. At the bus stop, in the doctors office, in the classroom, at dinner, in the car - the list goes on and on. And I didn't want to be one of those people. I wanted to enjoy going out to dinner with Matt without being tempted to pull out my phone and check Facebook while waiting for our table. I wanted to sit in a room with my parents and my sister and talk - without "needing" to beat my high score in a game. It makes me sad to look around and realize that while my family and I may all be in the same room, one person is watching TV, one person is reading an article on the iPad, one person is playing Words with Friends on their phone, and two more are on laptops. (Don't get me wrong - I was usually on a laptop myself). But now I've really joined in. What made me crossover? Ben, of all things. You'd think that having a baby would make me reject all of that even more - you know - in favor of living in the moment and savoring every second of this precious new life. But here's the thing: I'm kind of obsessed with taking pictures of Mr. Ben. If you're my friend on Facebook, then you know that I've uploaded about 9,700 pictures of him in the past 6 months. And the iPhone 4 does have a great camera. And Instagram, oh man, don't even get me started on that wonderful app. So I caved. I waited until I was in Tallahassee so my sister could go with me then teach me how to use it. As we were walking out of AT&T I held up my new phone and proudly announced that I had stepped into the future, at which point my sister corrected me and pointed out that I was actually stepping into the present, about 5 years late. Ehhhh, whatever. And now I'm truly a goner. On the way back from Tallahassee I played Bejeweled Blitz for ENTIRELY too long. I've saved about 35 pictures on my phone - all but 3 of which include Ben as the primary subject. I've blown up my Facebook wall by uploading Instagram pictures of - you guessed it: Mr. Ben! (Who can really blame me though, he is the SWEETEST!)

In conclusion, I love my new phone, but I kind of hate what it's doing to me. But if that's the price you have to pay to have millions of sweet pictures of your baby that you can easily share with friends, family, and strangers alike, then so be it!