What's in a name?

I have a name! After three years, Noah has finally decided to give me a name. Up until now, he's just always assumed I've been listening whenever he decided to talk and never felt the need to use "Mommy," or "Mama," or anything. II can't really blame him, since I kind of do always listen whenever he opens his little mouth, whether I want to or not. Occasionally he'd use a "Maw-ee," if asked what my name was but never when he was trying to get my attention. This week, he's decided on "Momom." I think it started when William started saying "Ma Ma." Nothing like a little brother for some motivation, right? Now when he's talking to me, he'll start with "Momom, help with gate?" etc. I even get a "Thank you, Momom," when I give him something. Watch, in a week I'll be posting something about how I'm sick of hearing "Momom! Momom! Momom!" all the time. :)

William's Walking!

A Downer.

Yesterday was the 4th anniversary of the day we lost our first baby. I was ten weeks along or so, and we were in Wichita, KS for a job interview. I think I'd be perfectly fine if I never had to set foot in Wichita again. I still think often about what our baby would have been like. For some reason, I've always thought it was a girl. That might be part of the reason I have a hard time thinking of naming a future baby girl the same name we had picked out for if our first if it were a girll. Logically, that doesn't make sense, but I guess I'm not always as logical as I think I am.

The feeling I remember the most was emptiness....and the feeling of not knowing. There's very little I hate more than not knowing whats going to happen. It had taken us a long time to get pregnant the first time, and I worried that even if I were able to get pregnant again, that I would be unable to sustain a pregnancy. Three months later we found out that we were pregnant with Noah. That was a very long first trimester.

At about 12 weeks, just as I was starting to think everything would be okay, we found out that Noah was a twin, but the other baby had gotten stuck over by my ovary (an ectopic pregnancy) and had died at about 6 weeks old. The doctors told us that they'd keep a careful eye on it with ultrasounds, but there was a chance that I'd have to have surgery to remove it, but if it were before Noah was 18 weeks, I might lose him too. Thankfully everything went as well as it possibly could have, and my body absorbed the other embryo over time, and I didn't need the surgery.

I often wonder what it would be like to have two little three-year-olds running around. What would Noah's twin have been like? Would they have been similar, or as opposite as Noah and William are?

When Noah turned one we started trying for baby number 2. That time it took 5 months. 5 really long months. After finding out I was pregnant for the 3rd time it was hard to get very excited about it. I remember going to the doctor the first time with William and having her ask me if I was excited. I told her, "If everything is going well, then yes, I'll be excited." She looked a little confused, but understood after she took my medical history. I feel guilty about the lack of excitement, but it's just not as easy to get excited about new pregnancies after what we've had to go through.

It's days like yesterday that I look at the two boys we have now and I'm particularly thankful for them. We spent what seems like a long time thinking we might not ever have them, that I'm so glad that they're there.

Happy Noah Day!

Tonight I sang Old MacDonald so many times I lost count, and ran out of animals. Well, at least animals that I knew what sound they make which is pretty important in the world of Old MacDonald. I got so desperate that we were singing about Old MacDonald having a mommy on his farm. Who knows...maybe he did? Either way, the mommy says "Love you."

Since my last post, Noah has turned the big 3! We had lots of fun on "Noah Day." He got all sorts of fun stuff- light sabers, a slide, a new fort ('cause every little boy needs a fort), an easel and a tricycle, among other things. He's still workin' on figuring out the tricycle. Right now he sits on it, and William pushes him around, which is pretty cute. Especially when they both laugh. I love it when they both laugh. Noah Day was also Lovely Jan's birthday, so we had her come over that night for steak (at Noah's request) and "ice goop cake" (ice cream cake, also at Noah's request.) She even played light sabers with him.

Noah's 3 year physical was a few days after his birthday. I know, happy birthday! Bleh. Who wants to go to the dr. for their birthday? Anyways, Noah's slightly below average height, and a little skinny butt. Shocker.

William is getting a little braver in his walking attempts. Today I saw him purposely walk to something. In the past he's kinda let go and taken a couple of steps while he's been distracted by something else. He's only 10 months so he's got time to figure out this walking thing.

William has overcome his issues with food textures. At least, the textures he was having a problem with before. He used to gag on his oatmeal, but now he doesn't have a problem with it. The kid will eat anything. I made chili the other night, and he even wanted and liked that. Could it possibly be that I lucked out and got two good eaters? Wouldn't that be nice?!

This last weekend was my birthday so we took a trip up north of Sacramento to Apple Hill. It was William's first experience in the car for longer than a few minutes. Oh boy.... He didn't do so hot. Not terrible, but not good either. It was only a 3 hour tour (ha, I crack myself up) which makes me a little nervous about flying with him to GA around Christmas. Maybe he'll be better when I'm holding him? I sure hope so.

9 months and almost 3!

In honor of William's 9 month birthday (yesterday) a blog post! I didn't even realize it was his 9 month birthday until Great-Grammy reminded me. That's right, I'm Mother of the Year.

The last few days ever last one of the Brahm men have been sick with a cold/sore throat thing. Well, Bob the dog hasn't, or at least if he is, I don't know it. He seems happy enough to me.

This month....let's see....this month William has learned to recognize his name, and his brother's name, which has been useful since that kid gets in to everything. At least he stops what he's doing for a second when I say "William!." When he's asked where Noah is, he'll look around until he finds him, and then usually gets a big smile. It's fun having them like each other.

I almost always feed William in his room in the rocking chair because he's the world most easily distracted baby and there's not a whole lot in there for him to get distracted by. A few days ago I was feeding him, and Noah was out in the hallway talking. William heard him, sat straight up, and started talking back to Noah. They had a little conversation. I have no idea what they were saying, but there was some sort of happy back and forth going on there.

William's trying more and more to let go of whatever he's pulled himself up on and stand on his own- sometimes in the worst places. He had his very first bath today in the big bathtub, (he has been in the kitchen sink, but both boys desperately needed a bath so I decided we'd do a joint bath) and he tried to stand on his own in the bathtub. That kid's gonna give me a heart attack someday.

He's perfected going up and down the stair that goes into our now empty living room...bonus room...den, whatever.....and has fallen many times in the perfecting process. I'm pretty sure that kid is a super baby or something. He very rarely cries when he falls. He falls flat on his face, nothin'. He gets his fingers smashed by big brother in the toy box, nothin'. Rolls off the stair, nothin'. Tough kid.

I've decided that girls will either really like William, or be intimidated by him. He looks into people eyes forever and ever without breaking eye contact. So, either they'll feel special that someone wants to look in to their eyes like that, or they'll feel like he's reading their soul and be intimidated.

Noah will be turning 3 in just under a month. THREE!?! I think this is the first year that he'll understand what's going on when he has his birthday. Every time I mention that he's gonna have a birthday soon he starts singing the Blue's Clues birthday song and pretends to blow out candles. He's also asked for an icecream cake. Well, an "ice goop cake" were his actual words. :)

Our current endeavors are learning our ABC's, and counting to 10. Right now we're working on A, B, and C. He's learning to say them, what sound they make, and how to write them. "'A' says 'aaaaaaaahhhh,' like 'apple,' 'B' says 'buh,' like 'Bob,' and 'C' says 'ka' like 'cat.'" Problem is, that now he's walks around calling our dog, Bob, "buh. Bob." Oh well, at least he entertains me. :)

He's recently had a little bit of interest in potty training. We put on the big boy underwears, and he'll sit on the potty, but the problem is, that he tells me after he goes pee-pee and not when he needs to go pee-pee, so we have yet to be successful. At least he's trying though, right?

Our other problem in the potty area, is that he doesn't want to keep his diaper on. When he's supposed to be taking a nap, I'll go in to check on him, 'cause he's really bad at keeping quiet, and he'll have taken off his diaper. A few times we've sent him to his room to calm down and stop whining, and when we go to "have a talk" he's taken his diaper off. A few times he's peed his bed because of it. Anyone have any ideas on how to fix this?

Noah and his cats

Noah has always loved cats and dogs. More so cats, but I think that's because until recently, we had a cat but no dog. Noah has also always loved stuffed animals. For Christmas when he was one, I bought him a stuffed orange cat. Meet Orange Kitty.

This is not the authentic Orange Kitty. The real Orange Kitty is more orange and grey instead of orange and white, and is missing an eye. The real Orange Kitty looked like this at one time, a few years ago. For about a day. Orange Kitty, is the sacred bedtime stuffed animal. He has slept with this thing every single night and nap time since he got it.

About a year ago we went to a yard sale, and Noah managed to find Black Kitty crammed into some box marked "$ .25." The Yardsalees thought Noah was just SO cute, that they gave it to him for free, so Black Kitty came home with us and kept Orange Kitty company.

(Yes, we're very creative with our cat naming.)

Black Kitty, is not the favorite, but second favorite. Noah also sleeps every night with Black Kitty, but if he wants to choose a cat to play with during the day, Orange Kitty is the one that's always chosen. Black Kitty pretty much stays in Noah's bed.

Now for the reason I started this post to begin with. Noah also has a quilt I made him a few years ago that he also loves, and sleeps with every night. These three things, Orange Kitty, Black Kitty, and the quilt were getting pretty grungy, and I decided that today was the day to run everything through the washing machine. I had timed it so that I knew that the holy trinity would be clean and dry before nap time so that Noah wouldn't have to be without his favorite bedtime things when 1pm came, which is the boys' nap time. Sure enough, 12:50pm rolled around and I gave Noah his ten minute warning, and then went out to the drier to get all his stuff. I was impressed with how clean Orange Kitty came out....he was lookin' pretty rough. I gave Noah his cats and explained how they were clean now because Mommy gave them a bath. Then we talked about how when he gets a bath, he gets all clean too, just like the kitties.

I went to take care of William, and Noah went back to his room to play. Well, I thought Noah went back to his room to play. He was awful quiet, so I went back to check on him. He was at the end of the hallway, talking to his cats.....which he had put into our real cat's litter box to "go potty."

Blah! I explaining to him that only the real cat, Virginia (aka Miss Kitty), is allowed to go potty in there, and she gets angry when other cats go in there and use her potty. So, while trying not to laugh too hard, I took his two cats directly to the washing machine to get yet another "bath." Now, he's in his room where he's supposed to be taking a nap. Instead he is, for the first time ever in bed talking to his stuffed frog, and his grey cat, both of which, are not part of the bedtime brigade. Here's to hoping Noah takes his nap today...

Happy 8 Months, William!

Today is William's 8 month birthday! It's been a big month for him. He learned how to crawl, pull himself up, cruise, attempt to stand on his own, only to fail miserably, and, he got his first two teeth. He's also (finally) started to consistently sleep through the night. Well, sort of- He wakes up around 6am to eat and then usually gets up between 8 and 9am.

Noah has started to put two words together on his own, and is saying *gasp* FOUR syllables at a time. Oh, and counting. He's very in to counting. He used to be able to count to five, and then all of the sudden he started skipping over four. I don't know why, but we're workin' on it.

We've started a new thing around here with Noah. Every day he gets 30 minutes of Mommy Time, where I don't do anything except for pay attention to him. No multi-tasking, just paying attention to Noah. During Mommy Time, we do whatever he wants to do (within reason), except for watch TV. Today for Mommy Time, we attempted to make Silly Putty. Key word being, "attempted."

One of Noah's favorite things to do is to sit on the counter and help me make whatever I'm making. Especially if it's something he'll have fun with when it's done....or cookies.

What was supposed to be silly-putty-ish turned out to be silly, but not really putty-ish. It did however make an exploding bouncy ball, which might be even better. :) Noah spent the rest of Mommy Time throwing balls at me, that explode upon impact, which is apparently hilarious.

He just looks so grown-up in this last picture. On Saturday I called him "Baby Boy," and he looks at me and says "No."

"You don't want Mommy to call you 'Baby Boy?"

"No."

"Can I call you 'Little Boy?'"

"Yeah."

" Ok, Little Boy."

*runs off to play*

Oh well, I guess I'll just have to call William "Baby Boy" now. *tear*

Teeth and prayers

These last couple have days have been big ones for the smallest family member. William started crawling about 3 days ago, and then today he had his first tooth break through, with a couple more soon to come, and also started pulling himself up on furniture, which means that today I lowered his crib mattress so that I don't have him trying to jump out of his crib, which I fully expect him to try to do. That kid is in to EVERYTHING. Much more than Noah was at that age. Oh well, a little more incentive for me to keep everything picked up, right? Bleh. He's a fast little booger too. I dropped a teeny tiny little piece of a cracker on the floor yesterday, and he took off across the room to go get it. Thankfully, I got to it before he did. It's so funny to watch him- Noah didn't ever (and still doesn't) want to try something until he's absolutely sure he can do it without too much trouble. William is all gung-ho about everything, which means it's very entertaining for me to watch him.

Noah has recently discovered Veggie Tales. Gone are the days of only wanting to watch Blue's Clues. *happy dance* I don't hate Blue's Clues, but I'm definitely ready to hear something else. He only gets 30 minutes of tv a day, so it's not like I'm hearing it all day long, but still....a little variety is nice! He even has his Veggie Tales music that he listens to. It's SO cute to watch him dance. Last week Josh had his guitar out, so he played some of the Veggie Tales songs, and I sang them to Noah. He danced harder than I've ever seen him dance. It was hard not to break out laughing watching him do his thing. :)

As part of our bedtime routine, we say a bedtime prayer with Noah. Usually Daddy puts Noah to bed, to tonight Daddy was gone, so I did it. Typically we say the whole thing for him, but tonight, I thought I'd see if he could fill in the blanks. It went like this.

Mommy: "Dear Jesus, thank you for..."

Noah: "...Mah-ee..."

Mommy: "...and thank you for..."

Noah: "...Dah-ee..."

Mommy: "...and thank you for..."

Noah: "...I-em (William)..."

Mommy: "...and thank you for..."

Noah: *silence*

Mommy: "...Bob."

Noah: *jumping in quickly* "...Gob. A-men."

I just wanted to squeeze him so hard his eyeballs would pop out. Don't worry, I restrained myself. :)

Now for some pictures. Noah's not wanted his picture taken lately, but William still doesn't know what's going on.

Birthday wishes for Great-Grammy

I love chubby baby feet. (And hands)

Bat Baby!

Noah Nerf

Noah has recently started to become quite the little actor.

The Three Rules and Kiddie Pools

Yesterday was William's 6 month physical. The little Beef Cake is weighed in at 20lbs, and measures 28.5" tall. I knew that his pants were suddenly too short, but geeze, almost 2.5 inches in a month?! Dr. showed me a tooth that's about to come in, and also tested him for anemia. Test came back positive, so William will be on an iron supplement at least until his 9 month appointment. I guess 25% of babies are anemic, and bigger babies tend to get the short short stick. That'll teach 'em.

Believe it or not, Noah was a bigger baby, but he was never tested for anemia. For all I know he was anemic and we never even knew it.

We're a house full of sickos. Josh has a flu-like thing, Noah's got a bad cold, and William has a cold too, but that might just be the typical teething cold, I don't know. Either way, everyone's sick. Except for me. I mentioned this to Dr. Miller, and he said, "You know what the three rules are that you agreed to when you got married, right?" "Uh...no." "Rule number 1- When the husband gets sick, you take care of him and make him better. Rule number 2- When kids get sick, you take care of them and make them better. Rule number 3- When you get sick, you're terminated. So don't get sick." Hehe...sounds about right. Luckly, I only get sick about 1 day a year, so we're usually all good.

So that this post isn't all about William, I thought I'd throw in the token cute kid picture. We recently bought Noah a kiddie pool so that we'd have a way to cool off during these miserable summers. I'm telling you, kiddie pools are awesome now. Ours is TWO pools, with a slide, palm trees, sprinklers that spray out of the palm trees, and a ring toss. And the best part? It was on clearance at Target. Noah obviously has the most fun with it since he's able to play on the little slide, but William likes to splash around in it too. So without further adieu, here is little brown boy #1.

Happy summer, everyone!

My baby boy is growing up

It seems that this week, William has suddenly aged. I think it started with the haircut. I finally broke down and trimmed it up a little. He's needed it cut for the last two months, but I couldn't bring myself to give him his first haircut at only 4 months old. Noah was 14 months when he had his first haircut but William has more hair now that Noah ever did. Poor Noah- he got Momma's hair. Anyways, that's when he started to look just a little older. Then he started sitting up really well. Well enough that I can plop him on the floor, go do something, and he's still sitting. ....and then he started playing. Like, with toys. And my face. Playing with my face is one of his favorite pass times. He'll just sit in his chair, or lie on the floor, and play with stuff. He'll hold his key ring, and go through and look at each of the keys, giving each one a good looking over, and a good chew, or he'll play with the toy cell phone pushing all the buttons. Or the activity table that I brought out of Noah's room. He loves that thing.

After the playing, came the rolling/scooting/trying to crawling to get to the thing to play with. Or thing to chew on. That kid is a very efficient roller. I went to go check on him a few days ago, and he'd pulled his knees up under himself and was rocking back and forth like he was getting ready to take off.

He's into EVERYTHING. I think this one's gonna be a handful once he starts moving around more. He's so curious about everything that could possibly be in his reach (or in his mouth). It's impossible to burp the kid because he's always squirming to try to get something off the table next to us, or trying to get down on the floor, or get his chubby little hands on something on the couch. I can just see it now....William will find something to get into, and call Noah over to see if he can take it apart for him. I think our house better watch out for these two.

Poo-pull!!

Yesterday was Noah's first real 4th of July fireworks experience. It's so much more fun to do these things when there are small ones to do it with. The look of awe on his face during the first few was pretty darn cute if I do say so myself. The show lasted for a half an hour, which is a long time for a 2 year old to sit still, so he would run around our little area in the elementary school field, and take a few minutes on his back, to look up at the sky, all while announcing the colors of each firework. "Pink! Bwooo! Geen! Wed! (red) Weh-woah! (yellow)" and my personal favorite "Poo-pull! (purple)" Poo-pull....hehehe.

Cutest Spitter Ever

I realized a few days ago that I haven't done as much updating in blog world on little William. Eh, he'd better get used to it, right? After all, he is the second child. ;) No, I do want to update on him too, so here I am.

We had his follow-up at the GI specialist today to see how his reflux is doing now that he's on his extra special anti-spit up meds. Everything is going well. As of now, he still spits up just a little bit a few times a day, but it's nothing like the waterfall that spouted from his mouth several times a day a month ago. TMI? Eh, you can handle it. Once he starts spitting up only once a day, we're supposed to cut him back on his meds to see how he does. Hopefully we'll be all done with this by the time he's a year old. At his appointment we found out that he's just short of 20lbs, and a little over 26.5" tall. That puts him just above the 85th percentile for weight, and a little over the 50th percentile for height. Fatty.

He turned 6 months a on the 22nd. He's growing so fast! I don't remember it going by this fast with Noah. I don't know if it's because there are 2 kids now, of if it's just because I'm older and time is supposed to seem like it's going by faster anyways. Either way it's the same effect. Anyways, we started him on solid food the day before his 6 month birthday. He ate his rice cereal all-gone. He even tried to feed himself. Since then we've added a little bit of banana, and he liked that too. Hopefully he'll be a good eater like his big brother.

He's starting to sit up like a normal person now. Since he was about 3 months he'd sit up, but he'd have the baby fold-in-half thing going on. You know, where he tries to hold himself up with his arms, but after a few minutes, he just figures it's not worth it and lays down on his legs. Or tip over, whatever's easiest.

Noah's his usual self. He's starting to come out of his shell at

church, which is fun for all of those that have been trying to get him to like them for...well, almost a year. It's about time, right? Maybe there's hope that he won't be quite as shy as I was....am. He's really starting to talk now, which has been fun. I'm probably the only one that can understand him, but that's okay, right? He's always repeating things, and we don't need to prompt him very much anymore to try new words, or sounds, for all that goes. For example, every morning when Josh is getting ready for work, obviously he brushes his teeth. Never fails, whenever he starts the whole spitting process, Noah's right there to spit too. He's the cutest spitter ever. :) Noah, not Josh. Once men hit about, oh, I don't know, about 5, spitting just isn't cute anymore.

Right now we're working on his manners. He's learning to say "yes, please" when we ask him if he wants something, and "thank you" when he gets what he wants. He's also learning his colors. He's a little goober sometimes though- I'll ask him to find the blue M&M and he'll grin, pass right over it, and pick up a different colored one. He knows exactly which one is the blue one, he's just playing dumb. Stinker. :)

What About Bob?

Last March we got our first family dog. Sasha was a one-year-old lab/german shepherd mix who was very sweet. We were told that she was good and very gentle with kids, but might not know what to do with men since she belonged to a single woman. What that turned out to mean was that she was gentle with kids, until she got to know them, and that she peed whenever men talked to her. Or at least, she peed whenever the dear husband talked to her. The not so gentle with kids meant that she would pretty much run full force at my two year old and maul over him. It didn't take too long before Noah was afraid of her, and would put his hands up defensively even if she was holding still. Can't really blame him since at almost 70lbs, she would just about knock me over when she would jump up on me, which was eh, about once ever other second. I tried for 2 months to train her not to jump up on people, and it just seemed to be getting worse. Obviously, I couldn't let her be around kids, as much as she loved them, so that meant that since it's not to often that I'm not around the kids, that left a very limited amount of time I could spend with her. Added to that was that I couldn't have her around Josh because she peed evertime he'd look at her which meant that she couldn't be around me when I was with Josh either. I loved her though...as difficult as she was, she was still very sweet, and wanted to do anything to please me. Except of course, not jump on me. This week we made the decision to take her previous owner up on her offer to take Sasha back if for some reason she didn't work out. Her owner was very gracious and came to pick her up the next morning and appologized for not knowing that she isn't good with small children, and had no idea that she would pee around men.

All that day I was pretty bummed, but was looking forward to finding a new and improved dog for our family. After all, until Sasha started knocking Noah over, he loved dogs. Back to the inernet I went, looking for a new dog. That evening, this little citter popped up on CraigsList.

He'd wandered into a family's yard up in Madera, and they'd plastered their neighborhood with flyers and called the SPCA multiple times trying to return him to his owner. Now two months later no one had claimed him and their landlord wasn't too happy about them having a 3rd dog in the house. They'd put the ad up that I'd found, which I responded to right away. I asked a buttload of questions (to try to avoid our last situation), and then set up a time to go visit him.

We walked in and he came running up to Noah. The familiy had a little girl, so they'd had two months to watch how he was with little kids. He'd never nipped at her, which is impressive since she carried him around the house all the time. I'd nip at someone if they tried to carry me everywhere.

He's been great so far with Noah. We haven't had any warming up time at all like we had with Sasha. He made himself at home right away. He's even got his favorite sleeping spots picked out.

On the 40 minute drive home from Madera, we'd put the dog in a cat crate (he's only about 15lbs or so) and stuck him in the back of the van. He started whining really loudly pretty quickly. Noah got pretty upset and said that Mommy needed to go and help the dog. Hehe....what a sweet kid. We pulled over and we put the crate on my lap and the dog was quiet the rest of the way home. The family he came from said he hadn't ever been yippy, so here's hopping that he stays that way. We haven't had any problems with him yet...even when the yippy dogs on the other side of the fence starting going at it this morning.

We named him Bob after one of our favorite childrens books, 15 Animals, by Sandra Boynton. (There's a song based on the book if you wanna hear it.) Noah can say "Bob" easily too, so that's an extra little perk. :) Noah got up this morning and they played fetch for a little while, and then later this afternoon played tug of war.

Noah has a new best friend. It's pretty fun to watch. This afternoon Noah brought out his favorite blankie, and his favorite orange kitty stuffed animal to give to Bob. :)

As I'm writing this Bob is sleeping on the fireplace, in what used to be one of our cat's favorite spots. By the way, the cat isn't sure what to do with this fluffy little barking thing. Sasha, the 70lb dog was terrified of her, yet this one just stands there and looks at her wagging his tail. What's a cat to do?

He looks Corgi/Pomeranian-ish. If anyone has any ideas as to what he might be, let me know. He looks like a very miniature version of my dog growing up, but that's really no help since I didn't know what he was either.

A quick update on William

As some of you know, William has been spitting up like nobody's business since about 2 weeks after he was born. At first I just thought it was normal, but then realized that he spits up more than any kid I've ever seen, and is really fussy during most feedings. I mentioned it at his last pediatric appointment, (4 month check-up) and Dr. Miller told us it was really likely that he has acid reflux, especially since it runs in my family. (Sorry, kiddo.) He ordered an upper GI test over at Valley Children's Hospital, and then once we got the results from those, he sent us over to see the same GI specialist that we saw about Noah last year. It's amazing how much faster you can get an appointment with a specialist when they mark your referral as "urgent."

We had that appointment yesterday, and we found out that he does have acid reflux, and that even though 60% of kids grow out of it by the time they're 6 months old, William is not likely to be one of those- He'll probably have it at least until he's a year. The Dr. also noticed in his x-ray that part of his intestine is twisted. They only checked down so far during the upper GI test, so she doesn't know if it's also twisted farther down, of if it's just in that one spot. So, right now the plan is to instead of exposing him to more radiation right now, we're going to see if he responds to the medication, and acts like most the other refluxers and grows out of it around a year. If he doesn't we'll have to go back and get a second test done and check out the rest of his intestines.

Woof!

Meet Sasha, the newest addition to our family.

We've wanted to get a dog since we got married, but at the time, we were both working and knew we wouldn't have time for a dog. Then once I stopped working, we were still in an apartment, and that makes having a dog a little harder. So, we decided to wait until we were in a house. When we moved into the house, I was about to have William, so we decided to wait a little longer until we got settled into a routine with the new baby, before we took on another new baby. I'd decided that I'd rather have a young dog, a year or two old, that was already house broken so that I wouldn't have to deal with that. Then it was time to start watching Craigslist. Noah likes bigger dogs, and I prefer them too since they're much less yippy, so that narrowed the focus a little bit. A couple days ago, I found her. As soon as I saw her, I wanted her, but I had to run it by Husband first. After we did the responsible thing by making sure we could afford her and all that good stuff, I called about her. She's a German Shepherd/Lab mix, and the sweetest dog in the whole world. (And she was free, which makes it even sweeter.) She's a year old, house broken, is amazing with small children, and loves cats. Perfect! She's calm in the house, but likes to run around and play outside with little boys. Her previous owner came over this morning to check us out, and also to see if we liked Sasha. We decided that she was the perfect fit! Noah really likes her too. He even mimics her when she pants. :)

It's blurry, but that's just 'cause it's hard to keep a two year old, AND a dog still at the same time. William's been smiling at her too. It's pretty cute. The cat, Virginia, isn't sure what to think yet, but she'll come around.

Prior to being a mommy...

...I was not prepared for....

...Noah poking his brother in the eye just to find out what it feels like.

...having a baby (William) that is capable of spitting up on the back of his head. Multiple times a day.

...William pooping on his shoulders.

...watching Noah eat ketchup with a fork.

...seeing my babies grow up so fast.

...the amount of laundry such a small person can produce.

...having Noah pick up on everything we do, down to the smallest detail.

...Noah walking up to me randomly and asking for a kiss.

...William singing along with Noah.

...being so tired while having a newborn.

...Noah giving his brother hugs whenever he can, just because.

...all the bodily fluids that can fit inside such a little person.

...the fact that now I have an excuse to make funny faces in public.

...finding a banana in the microwave.

...the number of times and ways a boy-child can hit their head in one day.

...needing to find storage for outgrown baby clothes.

...the rolls on Noah's legs going away.

...how often I'd have to go to the Dr's office.

...how much fun it is to hear my kids' laugh.

...the amount of things I'm able to do one-handed.

...losing my voice from talking funny.

Our life in pictures

Since it's been several weeks since my last blog post, I decided I should come back and give the very few of you who read this your Brahm Family fix. This post is going to be our life for the past few weeks in pictures. Sorry about the awful quality. I usually take pictures with my phone 'cause that's what I have with me and it's so much easier than getting out the actual camera. Problem is, my phone doesn't do so well when it comes to low light. You'll get the general idea though. Anyways, on to the fun stuff.

My days lately have been spent....

With these two little boys.

The small one started smiling about a month ago.

Everyone loves a good baby smile. It helps if there are giant round cheeks involved.

Small has recently aquired some nice leg rolls. We're currently in the process of getting some more.

Large (Noah) has spent a lot of time outside the last few weeks playing t-ball. He just recently figured out how to swing the bat with two hands and is actually hitting the ball now instead of just knocking over the T.

Noah showcasing his organization ideas.

He's also been helping me with some baking.

A chocolate mousse pie....

...and then today we made chocolate chip cookies.

This is what happens when he thinks Momma isn't looking- He starts picking chocolate chips out of the bowl. :)

I managed to sneak some M&M chips in at the end. His whole face lit up when he saw the finished product.

He's also spent time with his Handy Dandy Notebook writing down clues with Steve as he watches Blue's Clues.

We've been reading new books...(thank you, Bella!)

...and playing with new toys. (Thank you, Meekers!) I'd like you to meet "Puppet," the 5th member of our family. (6th if you count the beanbag. ) Original name, right? We spend lots and lots of time playing with Puppet. We play peek-a-boo, feed toys, socks, shoes, and Play-Doh to Puppet, and run as Puppet chases us down the hallway. For some reason Puppet always seems to bring Mommy or Daddy with him. Nevermind that, though.

Here we are drawing pictures for Puppet.

Noah also throws some random things into his days too. Like making a meatball bridge.

During nap time it's my chance to get some stuff done that is hard to do with little boys running around, like hanging blinds...

...organizing junk drawers...

...organizing and making labels for kitchen cabinets...

...creating a spice drawer...

...and cleaning out and organizing closets.

At the end of the day, Josh comes home, we have dinner, and then every other day or so he watches the boys for about a half an hour while I go to the gym. Lucky for you, there's not a picture of me going to the gym. ;)

Since my last post, Josh and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary. We had a babysitter for the night, and we went out to dinner using some gift cards, then went to Old Town Clovis looking for an Italian Cafe, but they were closed. That's Clovis for you- 8:30 on a Friday night and they have all the chairs up on the tables. So, we went to Starbucks instead to get coffee. We'll have to try the Italian place some other time.

....and now it's time for me to go iron, my favorite of all household chores. There's a reason the "iron" box never gets checked off of my to-do list....

Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens...

While I was up feeding William last night I came up with a few more things to add to my last post. If you haven't read it yet, you should. Well, if the whole newborn thing is at all interesting to you.

So, this is-

Things I'd rather not be without Part 2

Angel Care Baby Monitor

This is something we got when Noah was born. I definitely slept better at night, especially once Noah moved into his own room. The way this works is that there's a sensor pad that goes underneath the mattress and makes sure Baby is breathing. If Baby stops breathing for more than 30 seconds, it sets off an alarm in both your monitor, and Baby's. After Baby is older and the chances of SIDS goes way down, you can just use it like a regular monitor without the motion sensor. I've really liked having it...this way I don't have to keep getting up to make sure Baby's still breathing when I start to worry. No alarm = Baby's still breathing.

Exergen Temporal Thermometer

This thing is the bomb-diggity. I just got it yesterday. It was on my list of "things I want to get for the new baby," and I finally bought it.

I can't even count how many times I've tried to use a digital thermometer under Noah's arm and kept it there for what seems like an eternity and never really seem to get a reading. This thing is awesome. You just wipe it across Baby's forehead, and you get an instant temperature. This will be SO nice to have for both kids now. It's cheapest by far at Wal-mart online, for those of you that want to get one.

Homedics Sound Spa

This is magic. Something about white noise, or "waterfall" on this, makes babies sleep through the night. Noah still uses his. If I need to wake him up, I go in his room, turn this thing off, and he's instantly awake. This was the most inexpensive one I could find, and also one of the few that doesn't have a bunch of lights and stuff on it that might keep Baby awake. It's also one of the few that are loud enough to make a difference. I've seen it online at Babies R Us, but once again, Wal-mart (online) has it the cheapest.

Mom's on Call Guide to Basic Baby Care

This book is my newborn bible. It's about time to break it out again for William.

This book is written by two pediatric nurses at Emory University, in Atlanta GA, where I'm from, and they each have about a bagillion kids, and a few sets of twin in there somewhere. They've managed to compile a lot of good information in a small inexpensive book, and also have set up a service where you can call whenever you have a question about anything and get an answer, hence "Mom's on Call."

My favorite chapters are the ones about getting your baby to sleep through the night, and the one about putting Baby on a schedule. If your baby is at least 3 weeks old, and gaining weight like they're supposed to, they can be put on a schedule. William has 1 week to go....

They've outlined several different schedules depending on the age of your baby. We started Noah on this when he was 10 weeks old, and we were both much happier because of it. He started sleeping through the night right away. (This is the book that said to get the white noise machine. Otherwise, I wouldn't have even known to try it.) We stayed with their suggested schedules until he was old enough that they didn't have any for his age, and then we just adjusted it ourselves a little bit as he got older. It's kinda creepy....Noah knows now when he's supposed to eat, and go to bed. We have to look at the clock, but he just knows.

I think that is officially everything I'd rather not live without for newborns. Maybe in a few months I'll do a "What I'd rather not live without- The older baby edition."