Eleven Months

I'm over a week late on this (surprise, surprise), but here are Sam's 11 month pictures (which were actually taken on time - okay, one day late). Thanks to my friend Joy for loaning me her camera (still haven't replaced mine - if anyone can suggest a good, relatively inexpensive digital camera, please comment!).

I feel like this past month Sam has really gone through a growth spurt. He looks so much older to me lately. He really is such a fun little guy. His big accomplishment this month is pulling up to things. He's getting very good at it. His favorite place to pull up to is the bathtub. Especially if Noah is in there taking a bath. He's still a little bit wobbly but he's getting used to putting all of his weight flat on his feet rather than on his tip-toes. He also loves to crawl over to me and either plop himself in my lap (which I find positively irresistible) or use my shoulders to pull himself up to standing.

One not-so-fun thing is that Sam has started waking up again at night, often twice. Ugh! I have read that when babies are in the middle of mastering a new trick (ie, standing or pulling up) or on the verge of a new developmental milestone (such as cruising or walking) they will often wake at night. So maybe that's what the deal is. Whatever the reason, I'm back to being a tired lady. I was reading this article on sleep and it had a link to some sleeping evaluation. I answered the questions (honestly and not dramatically, I might add) and my result was, "Seek the advice of a sleep specialist without delay."

Belated Father's Day

Even though it's now 3 days past, I couldn't not post about the wonderful fathers in my life. First, to the father of my two little boys. Ben, thanks for being such a great daddy and for all that you do for our family. I love that my sons will always feel loved and happy and safe with you. They completely adore you and I know they're so happy that you are their papa. We all love you!!

Ben's favorite Father's Day present from his boys was a set of boot-shaped root beer mugs. We're getting into this Texan thing.

And to my own dad. Dad, I could not have picked a greater father. Thanks so much for giving me such a great childhood and for being such a great dad and friend to me now. And thanks for being such a wonderful Grampie to my little boys. We all love you!!

Ben's on TV!

A couple of months ago Ben's firm (Stanford group) filmed a series of new commercials as part of their ongoing national TV ad campaign that began airing earlier this year. Houston is their domestic headquarters, and they always use their own employees in ads. So they sent out a casting call to all their local employees and then selected some of them for filming. Ben was one of the ones selected and spent 6-7 hours filming around downtown Houston back in April. The first commercial in the new series started airing yesterday, and Ben’s in two of the shots. We saw it yesterday on CNBC and got a good laugh. It was so fun to see my husband on TV! The commerical will be airing daily on CNN, CNBC, FoxNews, Bloomberg, etc with more showings on The Golf Channel and other “lifestyle” stations. So look out for Ben while you're watching the tube.

Here's a link to the commercial online:

http://www.stanfordfinancial.com/TVCampaign.html

He's the handsome one shown as the narrator says "unique work ethic." He's also in the previous shot where they show 4 men reading the newspaper (Ben is the one 2nd from the right).

Speaking of my hubby and his work, he is now officially a CFP (certified financial planner). YAY!

Bedtime Conversation

The following is a word-for-word account of a conversation between Noah and myself at bedtime tonight. As we were reading a story together I started picking up another book that was on the floor (Everywhere Babies). And then this conversation occurred:

Noah: No! Put Babies down, Mama.
Me: Oh, okay. Boy, you're getting kinda bossy, Beeju.
Noah: Yeah, that's right, Mama. That's right.
Me: (laughing)
Noah: What's so funny, Mama?
Me: You're funny, Beeju.
Noah: Yeah, I am funny. And I'm crazy.

I love two-year-olds. Constant entertainment.

A few minutes later we cuddled in his bed while I sang a few songs (the usual four that Noah requests) and Noah started singing along with me. He knew all the words and sang them in his sweet little two-year-old voice. Such a love.

Sympathetic Sam

Yesterday Noah was goofing around and, consequently, fell off a chair. He started crying and I went over and sat him in my lap and held and rocked him for a bit. Sam, who had been playing nearby, saw the scene and came crawling over to us. He got up onto his knees and reached up with his little hand to pat Noah on the head.

Thomas' Visit

I am very lucky to have three siblings. I adore them all (and their spouses - I really lucked out there too), and am very close to them. Last week my little (well, younger) brother Thomas came to visit. It was so fun to have him here! He just graduated from BYU and is starting his career as a civil engineer this week in Phoenix. While he was here we mostly just hung out together and didn't do anything too exciting but it was great having him here (and hopefully he wasn't too bored!). Noah loved having Uncle Tom around and gave him lots of extra long hugs.

Fortunately, Thomas brought his digital camera so we could take some pictures. The day he came into town my camera dropped and the lens broke. Sad for me.

Uncle Tom and his nephews

Noah and Thomas

Two Little Brothers

First Word!

This morning my Sammy said his first word. I went into his room to get him out of his crib and he was just sitting there and smiling all cute as a button. I stood at the opposite end of the crib and he crawled toward me and said...

"Mama."

What the ... ???

Okay, so it was a big night tonight. American Idol finale. Two-hour extravaganza. I recorded it to my beloved DVR of course. Well, DVR and I are now in a fight.

Tonight was really busy and I didn't get to sit down to watch AI until pretty late, but I had to see it tonight so I didn't hear who the winner was tomorrow before I got a chance to watch it. So I got the kids and Ben off to bed (he's not even the slightest bit fond of that show... I don't understand) and I sat down in my dark house with a basket of laundry to fold. So I'm folding and eating ice cream and watching the show. I even sit through most of the nonsense (ie, Golden American Idol awards). Well, it finally gets to the end and Ryan Seacrest is LITERALLY about to announce the winner when THE RECORDING STOPS. It just stopped recording. Inexplicably. Two seconds before the winner was announced. GRRR! So I still had to find out who won by reading a boring article on msn.com. Jordin won. Well, whoopidee-doo. I actually really wanted her to win but it's such a let down to read about it instead of getting to see it for yourself. I bet Jordin's reaction was really fun to watch too. And now I've stayed up very late for no good reason at all (yes, I know a very strong argument could be made for why AI is not a good reason to stay up so late anyway).

Sigh. Oh well, you all know how much I love my DVR. I can't stay mad at it for long. But if anyone finds an internet clip of the final moments of the show, please send it my way.

Sam at Ten Months

Sam didn't have a well-baby checkup this month but I did have to take him in for a weight-check. He's not packing on the pounds yet, but he did maintain his percentile instead of dropping again so that's good. I'm feeling a little more optimistic since his eating has improved a bit lately. So for the next two months I'm supposed to really push the cereal (which contains a lot of calories) and we'll see how he's doing at his 1-year checkup.

Sam's biggest milestone this month is teeth! He now has four of them. His bottom two teeth came in last month and his top two teeth have just barely arrived (they've cut through the gums but aren't fully in yet). Oh, and just this morning Sam tried to pull himself up on Noah's step-stool. He didn't get very far but at least he's starting to make an effort!

I didn't get very many good froggy pictures this month (they all ended up blurry since Sam would not stop moving!) so here are a few random cute ones of my littlest guy.

Happy Mother's Day

Here are my reasons for getting the royal treatment yesterday:


Thanks, Little Guys, for making me a Mama. It's the best thing I've ever done and I am so grateful for you both. And thanks, Hubby, for making Mother's Day wonderful for me (and for making me a Mama - you had a lot to do with that too).

Here's the most recent picture I have of me and my Mom.



I hope I can be as wonderful a mother to my boys as you were (and are) to me. I love you, Mom!

I hope all you fabulous mamas out there had a great Mother's Day!

Sneaky Little Rascal

This is Sam playing in Noah's room. When Noah is busy watching a show or eating lunch or something, Sam will often crawl to Noah's bedroom and play with all the toys Noah normally doesn't like Sam to play with. Then when I peek my head in to see what he's up to, Sam will turn and smile knowingly at me. It's so darn cute. I guess when you're the little brother you have to seize opportunities whenever you can.

In Noah news, a couple of new sayings he's been fond of lately are "or something" ("Can I have a sandwich or something?" "Should we go to the park or something?") and "I love you sooo much!" He'll throw his arms around Sam (or Ben, or me, or his monkey) and say, out of the blue, "I love you sooo much, Peanut!" So sweet. And finally, last week we heard quite an animated lecture from Noah to the garbage truck. He was asking about it because he likes to watch the garbage truck collect our trash so Ben explained that it only comes on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Noah jumped into a 10 minute (at least... seriously) lecture saying things like, "Don't come tomorrow, garbage truck. Just come Wednesdays and Saturdays. Do you understand, garbage truck? Ok, good, garbage truck." The lecture was delivered as Noah was in a lunge pose facing the front door (the place where he stands to watch the garbage truck when it comes) and shaking his hand. Ben and I tried so hard to hold back our laughter because our little man was totally serious. For the millionth time, I wished we had a video camera.

Politics

Ben is really into politics. He loves it. He's always sending me articles about various issues and candidates. I do find what he sends me to be interesting, but I still don't have quite the politics fever that my husband does. Still, I think I could really get into this next presidential campaign.

I was browsing on my friend's sister's (do you like that?) hilarious blog and came across a post that I wholeheartedly agree with. So I will second her opinion. On a superficial level, I hope the 2008 election comes down to these two:

I'm not exactly proud of my reason for favoring these two, but I can't deny it either. These are good looking men, and that's all there is to it. I think their inclusion in the Presidential race would really benefit me from an educational stand-point too. I would be unprecedentedly aware of all the political issues because I would most certainly tune in to all the interviews. I wouldn't forget to Tivo debates like I did when Bush and Kerry were running (but really, what was my incentive to watch then?).

This all reminds me of an embarassing moment from many years ago when I was a sophomore at BYU. One of Romney's sons (don't remember which one) was friends with one of my roommates. Or maybe he was friends with one of her siblings or friends or something. I don't know, the connection is pretty loose. But for whatever reason, he was over at my apartment one day. And after he left I immediately turned to my other roommate (do you remember this Annie?) and started going on... and on... and on about how good-looking he was (takes after his dad!). Well, he had stopped to talk to someone right outside the window I was sitting (and gushing about him) in front of. Come to find out later, of course, that the window was open.

Who Doesn't Like Pottery Barn?

I'm working here now. Just two weeknights a week. I'm incredibly suprised they hired me, considering my narrow and unflexible availability. My interview started off like this:

Manager: So what is your availability?

Me: I would like to work two weeknights a week, but I can't work on Wednesdays.

Manager: Okay. Typically, we ask that all employees be willing to work at least one day on the weekend.

Me: Well, I'm not available to work weekends.

A phone conversation with the scheduling manager included the following:

Scheduler: So I see that you would like to work 8 hours a week. Could we bump that to 10?

Me: Well, I'm really just looking for two weekday nights a week.

Scheduler: Our evening shift is from 5-10pm.

Me: I can't start until 6pm.

They hired me anyway (as a "casual employee") and I started yesterday. So far so good.

Weekend in Suburbia

Ben and I really loved living in a big city. But sometimes when the chaos would get to us, we would dream about spending lazy weekends in the suburbs where the big weekend plan was going to Home Depot and doing some little project around the house.

This weekend we made 4 trips to Home Depot (Ben made 3, we all went for the 4th). We started painting our dining room (and by "we" I mean Ben who, I learned yesterday, is a total painting control freak!). It took four trips to finally get the right color (we have the bottom half basically done, but we still don't have the color right for the half above the chair-rail moulding). It would have helped immensely if Home Depot could get with the progam and offer paint samples. Those little color cards (of which we have enormous piles sitting on our kitchen counter) just don't cut it in the real world. And why are there 8 trillion shades of every color? It's not helpful for the decision-making-impaired like me and Ben. We're in trouble if this is how it's going to be with all of our paint projects. Half of one room down, the whole rest of the house to go...

We do have approval from our son on our color choice, however. We painted the bottom half of the room a dark chocolate brown. This morning when Noah woke up and saw the room he said "Hey!! I love the brown... Hey!!! I love the blue too!" The blue he was referring to is the blue tape around the mouldings/windows on the wall that's awaiting its second coat. But hey, if Noah loves it then maybe we'll just leave it there.

Noah's Checkup

On Friday I took Noah to the doctor for a well-visit. It was actually a few months early since he won't be three until August, but I had called his pediatrician with a concern so since he hasn't had an appointment since moving here she just had me schedule his checkup early. He typically hates going to the doctor but he actually did very well. His pediatrician was really great with him (and she therefore just went up several notches in my book; I wasn't loving her before). His stats:

Height: 37 1/2 inches
Weight: 32 pounds

He's just over the 50th percentile for both height and weight, which really surprised me. We are constantly being told how tall Noah looks, that he could pass for 4, etc, etc. I would always repond that he is really tall for his age (because at past appointments he always has been) but I guess he's not. Good to know.

So at the appointment I talked to Noah's pediatrician about how he can rattle off the letters in order of the computer keyboard. Although I was impressed with him, at the same time I also felt just a little bit concerned because it seemed so unusul and I wanted to make sure it wasn't indicative of any potential problem (ie, autism). I knew in my head (and heart) that nothing was wrong but after talking to some family I decided it couldn't hurt to mention it. So we went through some checklist together and he passed everything with flying colors so no cause for concern. His pediatrician thinks what I did - he probably just has a little bit of a photographic memory or something. She said there was nothing in his behavior or development from her observations/interaction with him or from my descriptions of him that would cause her to worry. Phew! Funny how we (I) can get so paranoid about nothing - espeically when it comes to our kids.

And Then There Were Four

I just had this bad boy delivered yesterday:

Ben is pretty flabbergasted that we now have four strollers for two children (one stroller frame for the infant carseat, one single stroller, our other double stroller, and now this one) but they all serve their distinct purposes. I love love love our first double stroller, but sadly it does not fit in our car so I can't use it for mall trips, errands, etc. For the last 9 months I've been managing with the baby carrier and the single stroller, alternating between carrying Sam with Noah in the stroller and letting Noah walk with Sam in the stroller. It was all getting pretty old so it was time to just invest in double stroller #2. This little experience has taught me that perhaps big cars are handy even when you do only have two kids. I always thought it was kind of funny when parents bought minivans when they only had a couple of kids, but now I get it. It's just as much about needing the space for all the baby gear! Still, since we seem to have solved our little problem I think we'll be able to hold off on the minivan for another couple of years.

Zonked Out

Noah is in that awkward phase where he doesn't necessarily need a nap every day. Most days he does nap but then won't go to bed until 9 or so. It's a trade off because if he goes without a nap, we can put him down early and have both boys in bed at the same time at night. Still, I am quite fond of naptime so I generally go for the first option. :) This afternoon Noah got in his bed to nap but then came out of his room about 20 minutes later - clearly not in a napping mood. I told him it was fine if he didn't sleep but that it was quiet-time and he needed to play quietly in his room until I came in to get him (translation: when I was finished slowly sipping my coke). Well, sleep quickly overtook the boy and this is how I found him:

When he woke up I said, "Hi Sweetie! Did you have a good nap? You fell asleep playing with your letters - that's crazy!" He replied, "Silly Noah, falling asleep on my letters. Silly Noah."

Couple of Tid-bits

Just now as I was putting Noah down for his nap I asked him if we needed to change his diaper. He replied, "We already changed my diaper yesterday." Yeah, once a day ought to do it.

This morning Noah, Sam and I were playing on the floor in Sam's bedroom when Noah suddenly threw his arms around my neck and said, "I love you, Mama." As affectionate as Noah is, I think that was the first time he's ever actually said that without prompting. Happy Mom, over here.

Noah has also started giving us "options." Awhile ago I started doing that with Noah to get him to do things easier (works like a charm - he's always more inclined to mind me if he thinks he had a choice to make) and now he's doing it. He still ends up choosing in the end, but it's funny to hear him say things like, "Okay, Mama, which jammies? The trucks? Or the stripes?" and "Should Mama read the story, or Daddy read it?"

Smarty Pants

This afternoon I took Noah to get his haircut (he looks freaking adorable, by the way). The hairdresser was really impressed with him and kept saying how good he was being. Then at one point she needed him to look down so I crouched down and started talking to him so he would look down at me while she trimmed the back of his hair. Anyway, after hearing the conversation between us, the hairdresser was commenting on how smart Noah was. She said, "Wow, he is so smart! What do you do? Are you a teacher or something? He's just so smart!" I answered that I'm a stay-at-home mom and, in a very confused tone of voice, she said, "Oh... well, what does his dad do?" Because clearly I couldn't have contributed to his intelligence if I'm just a stay-at-home mom. His smarts must have come from his dad. I just sit home and drool. Ugh, I so wanted to make some sort of retort but of course I didn't. I just answered politely that he's a financial advisor. And I still tipped her too. Sometimes I hate being so nice.

I have to agree with her about Noah though - he is really smart! Seriously, it amazes me sometimes. And I think he may have a photographic memory. Last night during dinner he started listing his letters. He'll normally go in alphabetical order of course, but last night he started listing them randomly (or so I thought). He said, "Q and W and E and R and T and Y and U and I and O and P!" Look familiar to anyone? That's the top line of the letters on the computer keyboard. He then proceeded to do the other two lines of the keyboard in exact order. SMARTY!!

Boots at Bedtime

Tonight after baths Noah was reluctant to get into his pajamas. Not wanting to make a big deal about it, I told him he could pick some jammies out while I put his towel away. When I came back to his room I found that he had not chosen any jammies, but he had selected (and put on) some footwear. The scene was even funnier than pictured here because I had not yet put on his diaper. However, I felt that would have been an inappropriate photograph so I slapped on a diaper before taking his picture which, as you can see, Noah was all too happy to pose for.

P.S. This is my 100th post!

Tivo Catch-Up

When we moved into our apartment in October we were devastated to discover that Tivo would not be an option for us. Our apartment faced north and DISH requires a south-facing satellite; the cable company here had not yet rolled out a DVR (I use Tivo and DVR interchangeably, even though I do realize that they are actually different). "Devastated" may sound like an over-dramatic verb for this situation, but for anyone who has Tivo you can understand how your TV-viewing completely changes and it becomes painful to then have to resort to watching live TV. Plus, prime-time here starts at 7pm - who's ready to wind down and watch TV at 7pm??? We normally haven't even eaten dinner by then, let alone have a certain 2-year-old in bed. Alas, as a result I missed many a show these last 6 months. Happily, we are once again set up with DISH and our beloved DVR.

One of the shows that went by the wayside in my non-DVR days was American Idol. So last night I was finally able to jump into the season and I have several opinions about it. First of all, what the CRAP is up with Sanjaya??? I realize he is old news to all the other AI viewers out there, but seriously. How on earth is he part of the final 7 contestants? I felt like I was watching a junior-high talent show when he was performing last night. Also, I was not a fan of Blake. Inexplicably, the judges seemed to enjoy his performance but I thought it was dreadful. AND, he looks like he has no teeth when he sings so I found it difficult to watch him. However, how much do I love Melinda??? Oh my. I think I may have a girl-crush on her. She was awesome and her outfit was adorable.

Remember When

Noah's memory is getting better and better these days. Lately he is really into "remembering" things, and asking us if we remember them too. Here are some of the things Noah likes to remember:

"Remember when it was thundering and lightning on me? It was hard to sleep!"
"Remember the fire engine we saw'd and I got to drive it?"
"Remember the construction trucks and the farm trucks and the busy town trucks and the emergency trucks and the big trucks?"
"Remember I fall?"
"Remember we got hit by the sprinklers? It was so wet! Remember that? Silly sprinklers!"
"Remember we went to the park and I go on the slide? The blue one and red one and yellow one?"

It's pretty impressive how long his memory is getting too. The thunderstorm he refers to was a few weeks ago; the fire engine he got to drive was over a month ago, as was the time we got hit with the sprinklers.

Noah has also started being interested in dreams. I don't know if he really understands that concept or not, but I've started asking him if he had any dreams when he wakes up and now he'll always volunteer information about the dreams he had. Although, so far all he apparently dreams about are colors. "I dreamed about red" or "I dreamed about black" and so on. Then he'll say (like this morning), "Did you have any dreams, Daddy? Did you dream about yellow?"

Nine Months

Last Thursday Sam turned 9 months, so now he has officially been outside of my body for as long as he was in. I don't know why, but I think of that as a major milestone. It's amazing to think that a mere year-and-a-half ago he was just this microscopic blob of cells and now he's my smiling, laughing, cooing, crawling, playful baby boy.

We had his well-baby check-up last week - here are his stats:

Height: 27 3/4 inches (50th percentile)

Weight: 17 lbs, 7 oz (10th percentile)

Head: 17 3/4 inches (50th percentile)

So, although he gained a little weight, he dropped in percentile AGAIN. What's the deal?? His pediatrician isn't overly concerned since he's developing and seems healthy, but she does want him to come in for a weight check next month. I wish I could get Sam excited about solids. He goes to town on veggie puffs and wagon wheels, but other than that he could care less about food. Just yesterday, he managed to polish off a stage one baby food (bananas) for the very first time. And it took him two sittings. By the time Noah was 9 months he was eating 3 meals a day and I'm certain he was way beyond the stage one food. Oh well, I'll just keep trying and hopefully he'll pick it up a little more soon.

In other Sam news, we just completed day two of sleep training. It's way overdue as he has been waking up 3 or even 4 times a night. I was wary of doing it at first because of the whole weight issue (when your baby is in the 10th percetile for weight, cutting out 3 of his nursing sessions doesn't seem like the way the go) but I talked about it with his pediatrician and decided if I night-wean him he will probably be more apt to eat more during the day. Plus, it's high-time he sleep through the night, don't you think? So Ben's been going in to give Sam cuddles when he wakes at night instead of me. The first night he was pretty mad that he wasn't getting to nurse but last night was much better so hopefully it won't be long before he's sleeping all the way through.

One last thing about my Sam... Lately he's been doing the sweetest thing. When I'm feeding him he'll put one foot up on my arm and then feel around with his hand until he finds mine. One he finds it, he just holds my hand until he's finished nursing. How precious is that??

Okay, here are his 9 month pictures:

I love the middle picture - he's looking at me like he's trying to figure out what on earth I'm doing.

A Few Random Pictures

He sits!

Sam is finally getting the hang of unassisted sitting

Wearing their animal hats from a friend

The boys' first night in their new beds (a couple of nights after we moved in)

Belated Easter

I hope everyone had a happy Easter. Here are some pictures of our holiday.

Decorating Easter eggs

These next pictures were from last night - we never actually got around to opening Easter baskets on Sunday! We went to church from 9am-noon so there wasn't time beforehand. Then when we got home we had lunch and the little guys were wiped so we put them down for naps. They slept until 4:30 when it was time to go to dinner at some friends' house and we didn't get home until bedtime. Fortunately my boys are still little enough that they didn't notice the delay (plus, Noah got an Easter basket after dinner by winning the "slam-eggs-into-each-other-see-which-one-cracks" game, so that was exciting for him). Still, I'll definitely have to fine-tune things before next year.

Sam was most excited about the veggie puffs that were in his plastic eggs

This morning Noah was talking to my dad on the phone and, when Grampie asked how his Easter was, Noah said, "The bunny came and put candy in my basket and Daddy swiped it!" Guess he noticed when Ben took one of his pez. :)

Happy Easter everyone!

Yay!

Well, we're in our house. I'm suddenly feeling very much like a real Texas resident. My house is in Texas, my car license plates are now Texan and my Texas driver's licence came in the mail the other day (complete with visible baby spit-up on my shirt in the picture - nice). Kind of weird for this California girl.

Moving was, of course, ridiculous. As it always is I suppose. At the end of the weekend I really don't think I had ever been so tired. Ben and I were reminiscing about when we moved from downtown Chicago to Wicker Park. After we returned the moving truck we went back to the downtown apartment to get a few odds and ends. We were so tired that we thought we'd lay down for just a few minutes. But, of course, all our furniture was gone so we layed down on an empty cardboard box and fell asleep for 4 hours! On a cardboard box! Hahaha! Anyway, the move made me feel extra bad remembering how on our move down here in October I high-tailed it to California with the boys and left Ben behind to do it all by himself (that was Ben's idea though, just so you know). But at least we're in now and pretty well settled. That's not to say we don't have a few boxes still lying around the house. But we're basically set up.

Since we moved in we've started furniture shopping (only purchases so far are Noah's big-boy bed and our refrigerator - which I am embarassingly fond of). With the exception of our nursery stuff, we've pretty much been doing the hand-me-down or temporary furniture thing so far, so very few things are actually going to stay in our house. But since we have so much to get eventually, I know it's going to take a looooong time to get set up the way we want. Our formal dining room is currently furnished with a baby swing and Noah's play kitchen stuff - and there are really no immediate plans on changing that! But that's okay. I'm just excited to be in the house. This is the first time since Ben and I got married that we are living someplace with no plans to move in the near or semi-near future and that's actually a really nice feeling.

I'll leave you with a couple of pictures from moving day. The most exciting aspect for Noah was the big truck that Daddy got to drive.

P.S. Does anyone know why my spacing doesn't register when I publish my post? I keep manually putting spaces between my paragraphs but they disappear when I publish. Any ideas?

Things I Will Miss... or Not

Tomorrow we will close on our house and Friday is moving day. Yay!!! I'm really excited to finally get into our house, but I have to admit that there are a few things about the apartment that I will actually miss:

1. Being in walking distance to the grocery store (and a few other stores). I love being able to just put the boys in the stroller and do some grocery shopping (if I don't have too much to get) or mail off a package or get some lunch. I get some stares because people don't really tend to do their errands on foot here, but I feel like it's a little remnant of city-like living for me. I will definitely miss this.

2. The swimming pool/kids splash pool. Noah loves this so much and it's right in our complex. Now that the weather is getting hotter I will miss this a lot. There is a really fun pool and splash pool in the development we're moving to but the one in the apartment is directly across the street and open year-round (a plus in Texas, for sure).

3. Not being responsible for repairs that need to be done. This is very nice and will be missed a lot (remember my kitchen flood incident?). Our apartment even changes light bulbs for us.

Of course, there are a whole bunch of things that I won't miss too! Here are just a few:

1. Our upstairs neighbors. Nice people and a cute family, but they are so loud! And the kids are really rambunctious so we constantly hear them jumping off furniture and running around above our heads. Noah's always looking around with a confused look on his face saying, "What's that?" trying to find the source of all the constant commotion. Living on the first floor still beats having to climb stairs but still. I won't miss this.

2. Our next-door neighbors. They seem to really like each other a lot (wink, wink) but I'd really rather not hear it...

3. No yard, no garage

4. Not having a bedroom for Sam. My poor baby hasn't had a place to call his own since he was born. Since he wakes up at night I don't want him and Noah sharing a room. So Sam sleeps in the Pack 'n' Play in Ben's and my bedroom... until we're ready to go to bed and then we wheel him into the office for the rest of the night. Naps occur in one of those two rooms, depending on what I need to be doing during naptime. The poor kid never knows exactly where he'll be when he wakes up! He'll actually have his own bedroom in the house and we'll finally get to move him into an actual crib since we already ordered a big-boy bed for Noah to transition to. Who knows, maybe that will help him start sleeping longer stretches (fingers crossed)!

5. Paying rent (that's a given)

Migraines

Does anyone else ever get migraines? I get them sometimes and they really suck. I had one today, which started up while I was at the bank getting a cashier's check for our title company (we close on our house tomorrow). I'm sure the ordeal at the bank is what escalated my dull headache into a full-blown migraine. I went in to do a wire from our bank to our credit union but they said it wouldn't be guaranteed by the morning so then I wanted to do a check but didn't know the exact amount yet. So I'm sitting at the bank desk making phone calls to Ben, to our loan processor and to the title company while rocking Sam's stroller and bribing Noah (who was, very conveniently, acting as two-years-old as possible) with suckers and milk. I finally got out of the bank and by the time I got home (skipping all other errands) my head was killing me and I felt like I could puke. I was in rough shape - thank goodness for DVDs and naptime in these situations! Several hours later I still have the headache, but I am at least functional again, thank goodness.

Rough Go

This morning Noah got in trouble. Lately he has been teasing Sam (I can't believe this is starting... I guess teasing is in a boy's blood or something). He'll hold one of his toy cars out to him and then yank it away when Sam reaches out for it. Poor Sam gets so sad (just so you know though, Noah also has many moments of giving toys to Sam - overall he's a sweet big brother). Anyway, after gentle reminders to be nice to his brother and then stern warnings to stop teasing, I finally had to pull out the big guns. I took Noah's cars away and had Noah spend a few minutes in his crib. This did not make him happy at all. A few minutes after his release from time-out Noah layed down on my bed sulking and then said to me, "I'm having a rough go." We talked and hugged it out and then he sat up and said, "I'm okay now."

He's also lately been having fun playing in the walk-in closet. He likes to run inside, shut the door and wait for us to ponder, "Where's Noah?" Then he'll burst through the door exclaiming, "I came out of the closet!!!" :)

The Feminine Mistake

(Be warned, some serious ranting follows...)

My family and I just went out to dinner and then Ben and Noah needed to get haircuts. So while I was waiting for them at the haircut place I was flipping through magazines and I read an article in Glamour about "the feminine mistake" - which, apparantly, is quitting work to stay home with your kids. I probably don't have to tell how much articles like this bother me. Obviously, I'm annoyed on a personal level because I have done exactly that - quit my job to be a stay-at-home mom - so it's a direct offense to me and how I have chosen to live my life. But even more than that, I feel like these kinds of articles - along with "mommy wars" and working mom vs. stay-at-home mom debates - are so damaging to women in general.

I'm so tired of women being pit against each other all the time. In my opinion, it's hard enough to be a woman and a mother in our society. There is so much pressure to be everything and do everything and raise perfect kids. The last thing we need is to feel disrespected and devalued and to constantly have to justify ourselves. We should support each other and cheer each other on. And I feel like this on the flip side too - it also annoys me when working moms are judged and attacked. They shouldn't feel like they have to justify themselves any more than stay-at-home moms do. But I think both sides feel hostility from the other and so everyone is always on the defensive. Stay-at-home moms are portrayed as lazy and unambitious women with atrophying brains (the article I read today had a picture of a mom wearing slippers - like all we do is lounge around in our pjs all day) while working moms are portrayed as selfish and career-obsessed women who don't care about their kids. It's ridiculous! I'm sure there are lazy stay-at-home moms and I'm sure there are working moms who rarely see their kids. But this isn't the wide majority of either side. Most moms - working in the home or out - are fantastic moms who are doing the best they can, who love their kids and try to do right by them.

I just don't understand why women need to attack each other all the time. Why is it anyone else's business whether someone chooses to keep working after having a baby or not? We all make our own decisions and there are very compelling reasons, as well as advantages and disadvantages, on both sides. But why does anyone else care so much? If you think quitting your job is lame, then don't do it! If you think continuing to work is lame, then don't do it! But why the desire to tear the other side down? Shouldn't we all just be grateful that we live at a time where we have those choices to make in the first place?

Which leads me to another issue ("Oh boy," you must be thinking). I'm all about the feminist movement - for the most part. Our foremothers did a great job of demanding equal opportunities for women. But I think a HUGE oversight has been to devalue the (traditionally) feminine role in the process. Well, that wasn't an oversight so much as a deliberate tactic which I think has backfired big-time. It made the (traditionally) masculine role be the "better" one and totally demeaned the feminine. Rather, I wish that equal respect for the feminine had been demanded along with equal opportunity and freedom of choice. Now anyone choosing a more traditionally female role is somehow considered an enemy of the feminist movement.

So, to sum up. :) I hate mommy wars. Everyone needs to mind their own business.

And yes, I do realize that I need to stop taking these things so personally. I'm working on it.

Rant over.

Eight Months

Seriously, where has the time gone? Yesterday my little Sam turned 8 months. Here he is enjoying some quality time with his froggy.

I love this last picture - such a little ham!

So at 8 months, Sam:

• Still does not sleep through the night (which you are all well aware of from previous posts and probably sick of hearing about)
• Is finally starting to eat some solids - slowly (and very messily) but surely. So far he has tried rice cereal (which he will eat only when mixed with something else and warmed up), sweet potatos, squash, pears, peas, and veggie puffs. He's really not too keen on anything yet, but at least he's starting.
• Sits unassisted for about 3 seconds before flopping over (so I don't really think that counts as sitting unassisted).
• Rolls, flips, scoots, and army-crawls his way all over the place. Every time I look at him he is in a completely different place in the room. He is fast! It's very cute to see him army-crawl on his belly. He kind of grunts as he pushes himself along on his forearms.
• Is starting to get into proper crawling position. He'll push himself up on his hands and knees and rock a couple of times before lowering back to his belly.
• Gets mad when we take things from him that he shouldn't be playing with (or when Big Brother gets too territorial with his toys).
• Imitates sounds we make. One sound he likes to make is "ma-ma-ma," which of course I LOVE.
• Plays little games with us. For example, he likes to hold his hand up to our mouths cause he knows we'll kiss it and then pretend to gobble up his arm. When we stop he'll wait for a second and then hold his hand up for us to do it again. This is a favorite game for him to play with his Daddy.
• Is still just as smiley as ever. He loves people and will flash his biggest grin and do a little chuckle every time anyone looks his way.

Swinging Babies

This morning we met some other moms and kids at the park. Sam had his second swing experience (I forgot my camera last time) and loved it again. He was much more receptive to the idea of having fun on a swing than Noah was as a baby. Sam took right to it, but Noah definitely needed some convincing. He came around eventually though.

Here's Sam on the swing:

(swinging with my friend's baby Drew)

And here's Noah when he first tried the swing (at exactly the same age that Sam is now, within a week):

Noah's Perfect Day

Yesterday was a real banner day for my little Noah. Here's a run-down of the highlights:

1. When we left the apartment for our morning walk, we saw that the garbageman was here. We stopped and watched as he dumped the trash from the dumpster into the garbage truck (Noah was wide-eyed).

2. Midway through our walk we stopped at our normal stop so he could ride the horse and zebra toys on the side of the trail.

3. When we left the county building where I was getting our Texas car title/registration/license plates we saw a huge fire engine. Noah excitedly pointed it out so the two firemen inside asked if he wanted to see inside. Of course he did, so they lifted him into the truck, showed him around and let him pretend to drive. I SO wish I had had my camera. Noah was a little shy with the firemen, but couldn't hide his excitement. So cute.

4. While out driving we saw several school buses, vans, pickup trucks (this is Texas), dump trucks, giant excavators, and concrete mixer trucks. Heaven for a little boy obsessed with his trucks. Of course, after the fire engine experience, Noah wanted to see the inside of all the trucks.

5. Went to Barnes and Noble to pick up a new copy of My Big Truck Book, which has been read so much that our copy literally fell apart. Not only did Noah get the new book, he also got to play with the trains for awhile (with no drama this time, thank goodness).

As you can tell, almost the entire day revolved around trucks. That's just how it is around here lately. Noah knows all 40 trucks (I counted) in his book and reads it constantly. When we're in the car he'll recite it from memory in the backseat, taking breaks only to point out the various trucks he sees on the road.

So there you go - a 2 year old boy's idea of heaven.

A Little Much, I'd Say

So I was just reading an article on pampers.com about potty training. Here's an excerpt:

Life Is Unfair

As he sees it, your child is being required to give up part of himself when he goes to the bathroom in the toilet; it's something he has made, and he has to put it in an arbitrary and often inconvenient place... Then your child has to deal with the indignity — and even terror — of having his precious production flushed away, never to be seen again. The other things he makes are proudly displayed on the refrigerator. Why does this one have such a different destiny?

Is it just me, or does this seem like a little much to you? You'd think they were joking with this article, but they're not. Lest you think I'm making this up, (or if this beautifully-written excerpt has piqued your interest), here is the full article.

Just thought you'd all enjoy a little laugh! Or maybe now you can all go ponder the destiny of your poop.

Tickets and Shoes

This morning I got pulled over for speeding. UGH! It's completely my own fault obviously - I was speeding, with no good excuse whatsoever. And of course the policeman didn't simply give me a warning, I got the actual citation. I don't think I've ever gotten out of a ticket. I know there are women out there who do but I guess I'm just not charming enough. Anyway, so now I have to pay the stupid ticket or pay for the privilege of attending driver's safety school.

After I got back on the road I drove immediately to Nordstrom and bought some denim capris and these cute shoes (note: I used a gift card my parents got me for my birthday - thanks Mom and Dad! - and not money that will have to now be used for my ticket):

Nothing like a pair of green summer shoes to make you feel better! (That is, until you realize that two additional pairs of cute shoes could have been purchased with the ticket money, but I'll try not to focus on that).

Something's Gotta Give

This baby WILL NOT STOP WAKING UP AT NIGHT. Several times. Every night.

I'm tired.

I feel like it's fairly pointless to do any sort of sleep training so close to moving but come April, BIG changes are going to be made. Get prepared, Sammy - Mama's got plans.