All tea should be served equally!

Click on the picture to see it full sized.

Notice the clarification on sweet tea being "iced tea which is sweetened with sugar at the time that it is brewed." Down with the snow-globe tea! This just about made my day when my father-in-law sent this to me. It's a ridiculous law but I can't say I disagree. It should just be common sense. :) So, you think we could pass this in CA? I know, I know...wishful thinking.

Spider Baby!

So I've realized that my mood is considerably changed for the worse when there's a whole bunch of grey days all in a row. I wouldn't go as far as saying it depresses me, but I sure don't want to do anything. I like rainy days every now and then, but this is just bad- it's just grey. No rain or anything to watch and listen to. Just blah. I think it's time for the grey to go away. Hey, I'm a poet and I had no idea.

Noah's walking more now. He's only been crawling after he falls down and goes to use to stand up again, since he doesn't have the whole stand-up-by-himself thing down yet, or when he wants to get somewhere really fast....like to see Daddy when he gets home. :)

I've embarked on a new adventure- I'm sewing an actual piece of clothing for the very first time; from a pattern and everything. I've done quilts, and purses and stuff that I just cut out myself, but I've never made any kind of clothing from a pattern. I've seen my mom do it, but I never really learned how myself. So, it'll be a learning experience. I figured I'd start with something easy and go from there. Hopefully this spring/summer I can make my own dresses and stuff. That'd be awesome. I always have a hard time finding things I really like. Either I like the dress, but hate the fabric, or the reverse. If I can make my own, I can solve that problem. Cheaper and more fun too. :) Geez, a few years ago I wouldn't have even considered wearing dresses. Anyways, that's besides the point. I've really turned into a girl in my old age. Hehe.

Last night I was getting Noah ready for bed and I pulled out some 2T jammies that I'd bought for him awhile ago. They're Spider Man, and they're pretty amazing if I do say so myself. If I were a little boy, they'd be my very favorite. Anyways, I figured they'd be too big for him, but I can't wait for him to wear them, so I thought I'd give it a shot. They fit him. He's getting so big. Pretty soon he'll be running around pretending he's a super hero. My super cute Spider Boy-

That's Daddy's new video game chair he's sitting in. It was Josh's early anniversary/Valentine's Day present from me. Our couches are kinda far away from the tv, so he's been sitting on an ottoman while playing his games, so he asked for a video game chair. I found this thing on Overstock.com. Shipping was only $3. How awesome is that?! Anyways, it's a giant memory foam chair and the thing is pretty dang comfortable. Josh sticks a pillow behind his back and he's all comfy to play his game for a while. I use it to read Noah stories during the day, and Noah loves to play on it. Someday we'll have to take a video of him playing on/around that thing 'cause he laughs and squeals and everything. :)

My anniversary/Valentine's Day present is a pair of the Sketchers Shape-Up shoes. I know....I've turned into a gym rat. I like them for walking, but not so much for running. They make me feel like I'm gonna break my neck when I try to run with them. Not a great feeling. For walking they're great though. I used them last week at the gym for walking on a treadmill with a ridiculous incline, and I could feel a difference. I'll stick to the plain ol' sneakers when I want to run though.

Our anniversary's coming up soon. A whole four years. Wooo-weee! We started "dating" when I was 15, so I was telling Josh the other day that when I'm 30 I'll have been with him for half my life. That's a strange thought. He's gonna have to wait until he's 38 to say that though. :)

Ok, I think I'd better go get some actual work done while my little boy's sleeping. Yay hoo. Adios!

Thank you Mr!...or Mrs!

So this morning I took Noah to a lab to get some blood tests done before his next dr. appointment next week. I found the building, and then we went on an "adventure" to find the actual suite, since I didn't really know exactly where it was. Or course, I chose the wrong direction to start walking and ended up walking almost the entire way around the building, but that's okay- that's the hazzards of not knowing where you're going.

We went and got him signed in, and then after calling us back, Noah was the perfect little angel. He didn't even cry when he got stuck. He just sat there and watched the whole process. Even the lab tech commented on how good he was. "Almost all kids cry, if they're not trying to kick me or something!"

We left and walked out to the car, and I noticed there was a big piece of wood stuck behind my back wheels. It had little metal pieces sticking out of it, so my first thought was "Oh no, did I pop a tire or something?" and then I thought, "This thing is HUGE. I would have known if I had rolled over this thing." I figured it had just been lying in the road and someone got it out of the way and it just happened to be under my car. So, with Noah still on my hip, I pulled the thing out from under the car....and the car started rolling backwards. "Aw, crap...." I pushed the car back to where it was, and, with Noah still on my hip, got the big ol' honkin' pole thing and shoved it behind the wheels. We then went to unlock the door, and I saw that for some reason when I parked, I forgot to put the emergency brake on. I ALWAYS put the emergency brake on, so I must have been really distracted or something and just plain forgot. I reached in to pull the emergency brake, and then we pulled the pole out and put it in the median next to our parking space.

Then my next quandary- were on earth did this thing come from? Did someone drive by, see my car rolling backwards, and just happened to have this thing in their vehicle? Hmmmmm.... So, Noah and I stood in the parking lot and looked around trying to figure out where this thing came from...then I saw it. And it was so convenient too! In the median beside me was a tree. The mysterious pole was one of these thingies-

So, to whoever it was that saw my car rolling, and was resourceful enough to figure out what would be the perfect thing to stop it, thank you! If I ever see your car rolling, or really anyone's, I'll try to find a stake thing to stop it with. You made my life much easier today, and for that, I am thankful.

Christmas, Atlanta, and the Philadelphia Chickens

Since it's been about 50 billion years since I've written my last post, I thought I'd update all five of you on the goings on in the Brahm family.

Noah's playing by himself at the moment and we're listing to Sandra Boynton's "Philadelphia Chickens" CD. It really has a lot of cute songs on it, for those other mommies out there. I even danced to one of them...although that doesn't say a whole lot since I want to dance to just about everything. I'm gonna embarrass my kids so much when they're older. I can't wait :)

Christmas seemed short this year. I decorated the apartment the day after Thanksgiving, and it still seemed like everything came down too soon. Probably has to do with us being in the good ol' ATL for two weeks. We spent Christmas with our families and Noah even got to meet his other set of great-grandparents. He wasn't really his normal happy self though since he takes after Momma and takes awhile to warm up to people. Sorry Grammy, that he wasn't quite like he is in his pictures. I promise he's usually more fun than that. :)

While it Atlanta, we got to spend a day with some friends visiting from Alaska....whom I'd never met. We had a lot of fun with them even though Josh and I seemed to be in rare form that night. I was unusually quiet and anti social, and Josh was unusually loud. Quite a combo. At least we evened each other out. We were more our normal selves the next day though, so hopefully we redeemed ourselves. ;) *waves* Hi, Jessica!

Josh and Noah got sick somewhere around Christmas. They got what everyone else seemed to have, so I was the only healthy one there for awhile. It took them 4 or 5 days to start feeling better, but they were sick on the days we were planning on spending with our friends in Gwinnett, so we felt really bad that they got neglected.

Christmas was even more fun for me this year than last year since Noah was able to participate now more than he could last year when he was only 2 months old. He had his Christmas PJ's and everything.

Noah got to stay with his Bella and Grandpa (Josh's parents) for a couple days while we went up to the mountains to a little bed and breakfast for a little get away. We had a good time, and Noah had fun with his grandparents and aunt and uncles. Here's pictures to prove it.

Noah and Bella at the Chick-fil-a

playplace after a meal of chicken

nuggets, and chocolate milk.

Only a baby can make a grown man want

to get into a playplace. It's worth it though, right Grandpa?

Our room at the bed and breakfast....with all our stuff on the bed.

Trying to feed the fishies in the pond outside.

The good picture....

Me: We should look like fishies now.

Josh: Huh?

Me: Like this!

Josh: (blank stare. Slowly raises eyebrows)

Hannah: Oh, come on, you can do it!

Josh: Oh, ok.

For some reason he also felt the need to cross his eyes.

Makes it all the more interesting. Hehe.

We were the only ones brave enough to go hiking in the 30-something degree weather.

We found it!

Me getting as close to the water as possible.

A few days after Christmas, we used Josh's Christmas present from Noah and me and we went to go see Jeff Dunham at the Philips Arena. We were close enough we didn't even have to look at the massive screen above the stage. It was pretty cool. I wasn't really a fan of Jeff Dunham, but I liked his new material a lot. :)

We got home on the 30th and Josh promptly got sick again. Death Flu Lite, I called it. He was sick for awhile, and he still hasn't quite gotten rid of it yet. He's still got a bad cough. It sounds like his feet are trying to come out through his mouth.

Noah started walking more on our trip. Now he can walk across the room, but he still prefers to crawl to get from point A to point B. I don't really blame him...he's fast. He loves walking though. He loves to just walk from me to the couch, turn around and come back, over and over and over.

He also started to love dogs as much as cats on this trip, since both sets of grandparents have dogs. One of his favorite things to do was to chase the dogs around. "Gog-gee!" His great-great uncle Eldon was visiting with his two little chihuahuas and Josh and Noah would chase them around so often that eventually whenever the dogs even saw Noah they'd start barking at him. He though it was hilarious.

We're adding more things to the list of things Noah can't touch now. For awhile we would only leave a few things out that we didn't want him to touch. Nothing that would hurt him, just a way to teach him that there are boundaries. Our latest thing is teaching him not to get out all our TV seasons of DVD's. He's very obedient most of the time, but he does like to test things. He'll find something he's not supposed to touch, and put his little finger about an inch away from it, turn around, look at me and say "eh?" It's like he's saying, "How 'bout now Mom, can I touch it now? Am I too close now? Huh, am I? How 'bout now?" After telling him "No, don't touch" he stops. It's everything I can do not to laugh when he does that. Sometimes I can't do it without laughing and have to look away for a minute. He's just so cute!

Well, he seems to be running out of ways to keep himself entertained, and it's time for Second Breakfast (he's on a Hobbit eating schedule) so I'd better be off.

Adios!

First steps!

As my father-in-law said when he found out about Noah's steps, "Just remember what Lao-tzu said about that first step." So, I went and looked it up since I'm not fluent in Lao-tzu-

“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.”

So anyways, Noah took his first steps last night. I was such a proud Mommy. :) For his birthday, his great-grandma bought him (although, she didn't know what her money was going towards) a walker. It's the kind that he pushes in front of him. The last week or so he's gotten really good at it, and then yesterday he started a new game where he'd push it up on it's front wheels, and then let go of it while it falls. He likes the sounds it makes when it falls, and Mom likes it 'cause he's standing up by himself.

Also, for the last month or so we've been playing a game that he just LOVES that we call "Walk to Mommy." Creative name, I know. He stands next to the couch or some other large stationary object, and then will usually want to hold onto one of my fingers, and then he'll walk the two or three feet to Mommy, and of course, get a big hug and lots of applause when he gets there. Well, last night we were playing "Walk to Mommy" and all of the sudden, instead of reaching for my finger to walk to me, he just let go with both hands grinned and took the two steps to me all by himself. :) I was so proud. *tear* He took several more "one steppers" to me before falling into my arms, but then later on that night, he did a two stepper again. (Ha! A two step! I crack myself up.) I'll be chasing him around before I know it. Now we just have to have him do it in front of Josh....

In other news, I'm all done with Christmas shopping, except for one thing that I just need to go get for Noah from Toys R Us. If you read my last posts, you know how I feel about Toys R Us which is why I've been putting it off. At least this time I know what brand it is. It's an "extra" present for Noah 'cause last time I was there spending Noah's birthday money with him, we picked up Josh's Call of Duty game and ended up spending enough money to get a $10 gift card. So, I spent the money already that we had budgeted to spend on Noah for Christmas, but I still have one thing that I was going to use the gift card to buy, so now I just have to drag myself over there kicking and screaming to go get it. Blah.

Josh was in Trinidad (yes, the country) for 5 days so I kinda went Christmas decorating crazy to keep myself busy. This is the first time he's been gone for that long, and I'm definitely not a fan. It wasn't horrible or anything, and Noah was a little angel even though he was sick the whole time, I just miss him a lot, and have a hard time sleeping when he's not there. When he got home it was very Christmasy looking though, which he likes. :)

This is the first year since we got married that I haven't had some kind of long project for Christmas going on all year. Four years ago I cross-stitched Josh a stocking, the year after, one for me, and then when I got pregnant with Noah, I made one for him, and also that year I cross-stitched a tree skirt. This year, nothin'. Maybe next year I'll be able to make another stocking. :)

Adios amigos!

Play places are like dog parks.

Play places are like dog parks- If your dog doesn't play well with others, don't take him to the dog park. If your kid can't walk by another kid without shoving, punching, grabbing him by his face to push him over, etc., don't take him to a play place. Now, if my kid could say, WALK, and was able to fend for himself a little bit, I'd let him take care of himself as long as no one was going to get really hurt. But, when some 3-year-old kid come over to my 1-year-old, who holding on to the wall just to stay standing, and is minding his own business, grabs Noah by his face and pushes him over, yeah, I have a problem with that. Let's just say I wouldn't have really felt all that bad if that kid had accidentally been stepped on.

Two for the price of one

Today there's 2 mini rants. Lucky you.

I went to Toys R Us with Noah to spend the rest of his birthday money. I wanted to get him some big ol' honkin' blocks and a push toy to help him with his walking. Classic kids toys, right? So, I went looking for the block section. You would THINK that they would put all of the similar toys together, right?! NO! Of course not! That would be too much like all the rest of the stores do it. We couldn't have that. That would make it much too easy for parents lugging around their kids around with them. No, they have everything sorted out by BRAND. So, if you don't know what brand the toy is that you're looking for, you're completely screwed. I went up and down the aisles looking for the blocks I wanted. First I tried the educational toys. I didn't find them there, but I DID find some with the arts and crafts. Makes perfect sense. Too bad those weren't the blocks I wanted. So we went up and down some more aisles. After about 15 minutes of this, I tried the Lego aisle in the "big kids" section, and behold, there they were! Of course! Why wouldn't I have thought to look with all the Lego sets first!? After all, blocks for a toddler should be with all the Lego's for 10+ or whatever the ages on those things are.

After we finally found the blocks, we went in search of the walker. I remembered from my previous trip to Toys R Us that all the big outside toys were in the back corner of the store, so that's where we headed. Yep, I found them. Too bad they were the $60 walkers instead of the $20 walker that I wanted. I had previously checked the website to make sure that this particular location had the one I wanted in stock, and now I couldn't find it. Oh, but wait, this is Toys R Us we're talking about. They wouldn't have all the walkers in one place. That would be too logical. No. Some of the walkers, the expensive ones, are in the back, all together, no matter what brand they are. The cheap walkers are sorted out by BRAND over with all the other baby toys. What is WRONG with them!? Why can't they stick to one lousy system? Either have everything sorted out by brand, or by toys. You can't have both. Or at least, you SHOULDN'T have both. So, after 40 minutes of wandering around Toys R Us, we got what we came for- blocks, and a walker. I'm not bitter at all.