Obsess much?

When Cole was born, I wondered what he would be into at certain ages. What toys and games would he like? Would he be into sports or like to read? Since he has gotten to the age of really playing, he has pretty much been an equal opportunity kid in regards to his toys. But lately, I think we have found our first obsession. Actually there are 2 of them- balls and Elmo.

I don’t know what these things have to do with each other, but he loves them both. And this kid can spot a ball or Elmo anywhere. We walk into daycare and he shouts “ball!” We went to Target the other day, and he saw those big red cement things out front and called them balls. He has so many balls in our living room that he can’t possibly play with all of them, but he certainly tries. He throws them, carries them in his lacrosse stick, and I finally taught him to kick, so that’s a whole new thing. Any color, size, texture, he loves them all.

And then there is the Elmo fascination which is even worse. We enter pretty much any store and I hear “Elmo!” A cashier at the grocery store was giving him stickers and after every single one that she gave him (5 in all), he asked, “Elmo?” She was tempted to go back into the store looking for Sesame Street stickers. And of course, our trip to Sesame Place was overwhelming! We weren’t even in the gates and it was “Elmo, Elmo, Elmo!” And the funniest part of this is that he hasn’t learned to distinguish yet between Elmo and every other character/furry person out there. So the Philly Phanatic, all the characters at Sesame Place and just about any other thing that remotely looks character-like are all named Elmo, according to Cole. He now has Elmo cups, shirts, a bowl, and we even bought him a potty where he will get to high five Elmo when he uses it. We have even looked at Elmo Halloween costumes already. Now it’s just a question of who will get burnt out on this craze first, him or us. I have a feeling it will be us.

I got the fever

For those of you who are married, I’m sure you realized that once you tie the knot, friends and family will undoubtedly start asking that famous question- “when are you going to have a baby?” I think we started getting this before we had even walked down the aisle and it only intensified after we were married, with some people even suggesting that Kevin should “man up” when we didn’t get pregnant right away. (Yes, Dad, I know about that… haha.) But after only 6 months of marriage, we were pregnant… and happily so. We can’t imagine not having Cole in our lives and are lucky to have such a happy, well-adjusted kid. We fear with him being so good what we will face with the next child. (But that is another topic for another time.) Once Cole was born, people started asking the next logical questions- how many kids do you want and when will you have the next one?

We have always known that we wanted a few kids (I would like 4 and Kevin says 2, so hopefully we will meet in the middle at 3), but now is the question of how long to wait in between. It has seemed logical to us that even though we want our kids to be somewhat close in age, we need to consider factors like finances, work schedules, daycare, and most importantly, our living situation. Our condo is big enough for one kid, but 2 would be pushing it. Right?

But what I didn’t account for was this terrible sickness that has come over me- Baby Fever. It started with a girl at work asking me questions about her pregnancy and me living vicariously through her. Then the Facebook announcements came, one after another. Everyone seemed to be getting pregnant. The ones that especially got to me were those who had babies the same ages as Cole but were already getting pregnant again. If they are having another one, shouldn’t I? I don’t even necessarily know that I’m ready for another baby, but every time I hear about someone else getting pregnant, I can’t help but getting that little twinge, a yearning for another little one.

How do I cure my baby fever?