Additions

Noah has added two items to his "cuddle-buddy" list: his new toy container truck, and a chip clip.

One of Those Days

Today I had Sam in bed for the night at 6:30pm. Noah was in bed for the night at 6:45pm. I couldn't hold out any longer. It's been one of those days.

Cuddle Buddies

From birth, Noah has slept with his favorite pal, Monkey.

Then there was the "pots and pans obsession" phase, during which Noah insisted on cuddling with a pot at night.

Those were the simple days.

Currently, Noah's mandatory cuddle buddies at both nighttime and naptime, are:

• Monkey
• Froggie
• Big Baby
• Little Baby
• 3 little stuffed monkeys (called "baby chimps")
• 1 small bottle of bubbles with a monkey lid (called "4 baby chimp")
• 1 rocket bath toy
• 1 tube of Little Einsteins toothpaste (affectionately called "Leo, Annie, June, Quincy and Rocket"
• 1 wooden baton
• 3 miniature stuffed animals - a lion, an elephant, and a zebra
• whichever book or 2 which was most recently read
  

Noah also requires that Ben say "goodnight" to all of the above before exiting the room.

So far Sam's only requirement is his turtle fur blanket. Although we do put his stuffed frog in with him just in case.

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."