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.

My little boy is growing up!

Noah's seems to have aged a lot in the last couple weeks. He's a pro at crawling, and is now pulling himself up to standing at every chance he gets. He loves it when we help him walk and is also starting to "cruise" by walking along furniture. He's also gotten 5 teeth in all at once. We bought him his very first toothbrush yesterday. He thinks it's funny to brush his teeth. It's very cute to watch him try to laugh with a toothbrush in his mouth. :)

Noah at the park playing in the creek with Momma.

Feeding the ducks.

Already practicing for his future as a percussionist.

Playing outside.

My Goals/New website

So I recently joined a gym. I've decided that I want to try to lose 15-20lbs by my birthday at the beginning of November. I think that's a pretty realistic goal. That's less than 2lbs a week, and from what I've read, that's how much per week you're supposed to lose.

I've been looking around on the internet the past few days trying to figure out exactly how I should be working out and everything, and trying to find healthy recipies that taste decent (Maybe even Josh will like them) and I ran across this health forum. It's got a ton of info about how women specifically can lose weight and general nutritional information. It even has a section about how to save money in general, which I'm all about. Anyway, just thought I'd share.

Politically correct childrens songs

Every night Noah and I have a routine. Well, actually, we have a routine for the entire day, but this story really only applies to the bedtime routine.

I give him his bath, and then I feed him in his room, while singing to him, before he goes to bed.

A few nights ago I was singing "Jesus Loves the Little Children," and I thought, "wow, this is really politically incorrect." So I thought I'd write the politically correct version of it. It would go something like this-

A higher being has a non-sexual agape feeling for the young people

All the young people of the world

Indian, Asian, African-American, and caucasion,

They are precious in his visual abilities

A higher being has a non-sexual agape feeling for the young people of the world

Today I.....

I finished my tree skirt today! I got this thing for Christmas 2 years ago. I finished the stitching on it last January, and had to wait to get a sewing machine to finish the rest of it. I got a sewing machine for Mother's Day so.....today I finished it. Yay hoo!

All is well

We're all still alive here in the Brahm house. I just thought I'd give a quick update. Noah will officially be 6 months old in a couple days. He can sit up by himself now for a few minutes before he tips over. He also likes to hold on to stuff so that he can stand up by himself. He's getting so big! He's very tactile. He tries to touch everything. His hands never stop moving. We just got his "big boy seat" in the mail today. He's grown out of his infant seat so we had to get him a new one. I found a good deal on one at Costco. Yay hoo! Now Momma just has to figure out how to get the thing installed in the car.

We have a pediatricians appointment on Tuesday. We'll get to see how many billion pounds this little boy weighs. He's gotta be at least 20lbs. He's also getting some more shots. He's done pretty well with the last two sets of shots, so hopefully we won't have any problems this time either.

We're planning on going to GA a week from today. I'm a little nervous about taking Noah on the plane. He was awesome last time, but he was only 2 months old then and slept all the time. Now he doesn't sleep nearly as much, and is much more active. He does seem to be a pretty happy camper when there's people around for him to watch, so hopefully he'll be a happy boy on the plane. Maybe we'll get a window seat....he loves to look out windows.

We're going to be there for about 10 days, I think. We have some family coming down from Ohio to visit us. Noah's going to meet his other set of great-grandparents, a great aunt, and see Momma's cousin Amy again. It'll be quite the trip for Lil' Bit.

Time to actually attempt to get something done.

Adios!