So much for writing more often...

Well, as you can see, but plans to update often went down the tubes.

We took Noah to have his very first pumpkin patch experience a few weeks ago. He was definitely a fan. He loved seeing, and or course touching, all the pumpkins, riding in a wheelbarrow, sitting on the tractor, and best of all, seeing all the animals that this particular pumpkin patch had.

Noah is now officially whole year old. He had quite the busy day on his birthday. We went and had lunch with Daddy at his office and then we went to the park to feed the ducks and have lunch on the grass, and then we went home for a nap. After Daddy got home, bringing our friend Kyle with him, Noah had his very first chocolate and very first cupcake all in one. He then opened his presents, and proceeded to take the tissue paper and shake it in the cat's general direction for the sole purpose of annoying her. He thought it was just hilarious. (Although, so did we.) I think that right there was his favorite part of his birthday.

We also had his 12 month physical. He's a happy healthy little boy. Apparently he's disproportionate though. He's like a little teapot- short and stout. :) He's in the 30th percentile for height, and in the 75th percentile for weight. I think he gets a lot of that weight from all the muscles in his legs. He's like a little ninja turtle. *grin*

He's still not walking, but I think he's starting to build up the courage to give it a shot. He'll stand up for a couple seconds but then turns to me and falls into my arms. Besides that, I don't think he feels the need to walk- he's such a fast little crawler. :)

This week we discovered that there's a lot for Noah and I to do at one of our local malls. We went there intending to stay only about an hour this week. We walked around and looked at all the people, and the fountains, and then I decided that we could have lunch in the food court. I was planning on leaving after that, but then I found a little play area for young kids. They have plenty of places for parents to sit and watch their little ones, so that's what we did. Noah LOVED it. I set him down and he was off to play with all the toys and the other little kids.

He came back every 5-10 minutes to check in, but then he was off again. It was slightly bitter-sweet for me to see my baby go off by himself to play with the others. It was fun to see him so independent, but also a little sad that he isn't as dependent on me as he used to be. I guess I'd better get used to it though since that's my goal- to raise an adult, not to keep him dependent on Josh and I.

Josh and I are doin' just peachy. I'm starting to think about Christmas....I already got Josh his present, which I must say is AMA-ZA-ZING. I'm proud of myself for this one. *grin* I love getting gifts for people. Especially Josh.

In other news, back in July...yeah, July, I set a goal to lose 15lbs by my birthday (Nov. 5), and as of today, I've made it. Yay hoo! Now I'm setting another goal to lose 5lbs by Christmas....unless something happens that would cause me to gain weight instead of lose it. ;)

Toyboxes, Carseats, and Peanut Butter

I'm sitting on the couch right now watching Noah go through his toybox. I'm trying to blog more often because I really do miss writing. I did it all the time in highschool, but not so much anymore.

It's hard to believe that Noah's going to be a year old in only 10 days. It doesn't seem like it's been a whole year already. Some of those nights early on seems like a whole year by themselves, but looking back now, it doesn't seem like it's been that long. Last year at this time I was shopping for the last minute things to get ready for my new baby to come. Given, I thought he'd be here at the end of the month, or even early November, but he had other plans. I remember people stopping me in the stores wanting to know if I was due today or yesterday. I really was gigantic.

We're not planning on doing a whole lot for his birthday. I plan on making him a cake, and we have some presents for him, but we're not making a huge thing of it. I never really understood the point of huge first birthdays. I thought it might be one of those things I understood once I had a kid, but nope, I still don't get it. He'll get to stick his hand in his cake, and then unwrap his presents, most likely play with the wrapping paper for a while, we'll take lots of pictures, and that'll be it. Keep it simple stupid.

We recently turned his car seat around so he faces forward now like a big boy. It really was weird for me the first time he rode in it. It was almost like the first night he spent in his own room- a little milestone that shows that he's growing up. He's also tried peanut butter for the first time this week....another little perk that comes with turning 1. He loves it. He's only had a teeny tiny bit in case he has an allergic reaction, but he loved what he had. He grinned and his little eyebrows shot up the moment he tasted it. It was pretty cute. Takes after his in the peanut butter department. :)

Well, he gotten bored with his toybox and wants Momma so it's time for me to go.

Heaters and "kids"

First of all, let me just say how stupid our heater is. It's finally gotten cooler outside, so we've needed to use the heat the last few nights. Noah's room is the coldest one in the apartment, so I'm always a little worried about him being too cold. This morning Josh, who is tall enough to reach the stupid vents on the stupid ceiling, realized that the air coming out of them was not warm. It was acting more like a fan, which is not very useful when it's cold. So, I called the repair guy to come and check it for us. It seems like we go through this every year. Why can't the heater actually work when I turn it on. Anyway, he said that our hot water heater wasn't turned up high enough and that we need to leave the heat on all the time when it gets "real cold." Psh, they don't even know what "real cold" is here in the fricken desert. So, we're supposed to leave it on all the time when it's "real cold" except for when we use the hot water. We're supposed to turn it off then because we'll either run out of heat, or run out of hot water. Why can't we have heat AND hot water?!? Is that really too much to ask? I mean, the women in Darfur, when asked rank their top three concerns, list not having hot water and heat simultaneously as their #1 problem.

DISCLAIMER FOR THOSE THAT DON'T ACTUALLY KNOW ME: I don't actually think that having heat and hot water is worse than everything that happens to women in Darfur. It's just to point out that when you really think about it, my problem is not really all that big of a deal. I'm just whining about something very petty when you think about everything else going on in the world.

Now on to what I actually meant to write about. The last few days, as I've watched Noah play/terrorize our cat Virginia, I've realized that they really are very very similar. Scarily similar. First, a few of their personality similarities-

1. They're both very curious/destructive.

One of them is always getting into something. I can't even count how many times I've not been watching one of them really closely and I hear something fall....or even every mother's nightmare...the sound of several small objects scattering across the floor. If one of them isn't knocking something over, the other one is. I think they might actually have this planned.

2. They both take after me.

They both hurt themselves all the time. Noah doesn't pay attention to where he's crawling, very quickly I might add, and slams his little head into something. He hardly ever cries about it though. Probably 'cause I usually ignore it unless he starts crying on his own. Or, he'll go to play with the stereo, open the tape decks, and then smash his fingers trying to close them. Or he'll be looking at one of his many many books and not realize that when he turns the page, and then sits on the book, he's actually smashing his hand between the cardboard pages. Just two days ago Virginia was trying to hop up onto our TV. We're one of the cool people who has a very thick tv that I could pretty much use as a kitchen table if I needed to. How many people can say THAT about their TV? Not only that, but we have bunny ears. That makes us ultra cool. We're retro. All that to say that Virginia was trying to hop up on the TV to just hang out up there. She completely missed her mark and only got her front paws up and maybe one back one, lost her balance, slid backwards, and fell flat on her back taking the bunny ears with her. Who said that cats always land on their feet?

Not only do they have similar personality traits, but they like to do the same things.

They both...

1. ... like to chase laser pointers. I know most cats like to do this, but who knew babies like to do this too? It could just be mine though.
2. ...love books. Books are Noah's very favorite "toys." Virginia likes to sit on them.
3. ...just sit in laundry baskets. I understand the cat wanting to do it, Noah...it's a little weird.
4. ...try their best to make you think they're starving for attention.
5. ...love to play with shoe laces. Once again, normal cat thing. When Josh gets home from work and takes off his shoes, Noah makes a bee line to them to just sit and play with his shoe laces for 10-15 minutes. He likes Josh's shoe laces the best because they're a whole lot longer than mine.
6. ...like to look out the window. They usually do it together. It's very cute. It's almost like a Norman Rockwell painting.
7. ...think it's amazing to make paper crinkle and crackle. This is something else they like to do together. Noah crinkles it and laughs, Virginia pounces on the paper.
8. ...put their "hands" in the cat's water dish. I understand Noah on this one. He just loves to play in any water. Virginia though.....she dips her paw into her water dish, and then licks the water off of her paw. This is how she drinks the majority of the time. She's "right handed," by the way.
9. ...chase balls. They both push tennis balls around and then go chasing after them just to push them away again.

Having 10 would just be too predictable. We can't have that. To be a non-conformist you have to dress in black and listen to the same music we do.