speedracer

Let me just say that I love LOVE crawling Noah. He is so very much fun, even though I'm constantly running after him trying to prevent electrocution (loves the power strips), drowning (pulling up on the toilet is a nasty favorite), sutures (pulling up on an open dishwasher is often not a good choice), and other injuries... BUT he can entertain himself and me! I love watching him do his thing. It seems like he used to need my help last week to do things when he was a "slow crawler" and now he is practically changing his own diapers.

This is noah making a break for it...he likes to escape when I'm not looking. Adam & I have watched him climb the entire staircase (closely, of course) several times....we especially like to do it about 6pm to wear his little self out before bed. He thinks he is so big and bad when he gets to the top. He just squeals like "look at me, I'm so big, I just climbed the stairs" and wants to do it again. Another favorite of mine, which I don't have a picture of, is the Jailhouse Rock. There is a baby gate (thank God for those) in the hall upstairs and he loves to shake it and dance. I must get a pic and possibly a movie of this b/c it's too cute.

I'm ready for our move. Let's not say that I'm packing yet, but I'm definately thinking about it. Adam is constantly studying, so it's like we don't even live together anymore anyway! He lives at the hospital. And just knowing we have a big old beautiful house waiting for us an hour from shirley & jay makes living in this squeaky, tiny apartment that much more miserable! Not that I want to leave adam....I just want to move into our house....it just happens to be 450 miles from Adam.

Book recommendation for anybody who reads that reads this--The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. Not b/c it was on Oprah's list, but b/c it's a great historical fiction. Don't be intimidated by almost 1000 pages....it goes fast!

First Fever

Today is a milestone for me as a mommy...I've been through my first fever. And I feel terrible! Yesterday was mother's day out and he was acting puny before I took him. He didn't have fever but he was snotty. However, he's been snotty since November, so I didn't really think anything of that. Just to be safe, though, I had one of the anesthesiologists at Scottish Rite take a look in his ears before I took him to school...they said they were fine. In a nutshell, after I picked him up from school, he had 102 fever. I felt like such a bad mommy! And so we did the tylenol, motrin, humidifier, etc last night & I thought he would feel better this morning. 103.4 this morning, oh, he was so pittiful!!! The bad mommy feelings got worse. We have been having a stay-in-our-PJs-all-day today and I held him for his entire morning nap. Guilt goes a long way with me. I even let him watch TV....we never even turn it on, and today he watched 2 morning shows with me. (I still feel bad that someone else is probably sick in his class b/c I took him to school yesterday...nevermind the person he caught it from LAST wednesday). So, he's down for an afternoon nap, no mommy, just in the crib all alone. I hope he is able to sleep a while.







That is the thing with the first-go-round...you don't know these things. No amount of nursing would have prepared me for what it's like when your own child has a fever or is coming down with something. Looking back on the past few days, it's pretty clear that something was going on, I just chalked it up to teething or some other vague excuse that "they" always use (whoever "they" are). So now I know...if he's not wanting to eat, not sleeping well, fussy way more than usual...he might be getting sick. It seems so easy to diagnose that now. However, next time all of those things happen, it may be teething or some other such thing. I suppose you're never 100% certain when it comes to small people who can't speak English very well.

Noah & Ellie Scott at Chuy's (our favorite Mexican place in Dallas....we shall miss it greatly) He does great at restaurants...just stick him in the high chair & he's happy!

Noah clowning around trying to show off some new tricks, like standing up for a little while before bumping his little noggin on his table on the way down :)

Homeowners and Crawling

It is surreal to say "we bought a house last Friday". Really, because we can't actually move into it yet...it's just sitting there, empty, waiting for us to come home to it. But how fun is that!? Adam & I have a grown-up house now, and all of the stuff that goes with it, like a mortgage (which neither of us have ever experienced before) and the pressing urge to buy a lawn mower. Excited, but nervous. I'm excited about all of the shopping, but he is nervous. :) There are rugs to measure for, and furniture to buy...my list goes on and on. But, for now, I have to just be fine with having shelter because we have to wait on the decorating till Adam actually starts working & getting paid. Unfortunately, they're not paying residents enough to live in and decorate houses of this size. We know it's big, but we bought with intentions of filling her up with kids over the next few years. Looking around our apartment, I'd say we're about half-way full, just with Noah's stuff.

We are so unbelievably blessed with friends in Dallas that it is going to be really hard to leave...but then we're so very excited to be moving closer to grandparents and aunts and uncles and family friends that it makes the move a little more sweet than bitter. I'm just praying that we can find a group of friends in Jonesboro who are as supportive and loving and fun as our friends here in Dallas have been. Through all of my pregnancies and miscarriages and then having Noah, and not knowing what to do with him some days, my friends really pulled me through! Noah has been a little additon to my friends' families and their kids to ours & that has been so much fun!!

Speaking of the little devil...he's crawling. He's been working on it for about 2 weeks now, and I think he's got it down. He isn't lightning-fast yet, but I feel that will be here in a matter of days. Today, I was drying my hair in my bedroom and he was in his room playing on the floor. The mirror in my vanity faces out my door and into his room so I can see him playing behind me. Then I see him coming toward me. Before I knew it, he was there at my feet, trying to gnaw on the cord of the hair-dryer. Great. not only is he crawling, but he has a death-wish.

He's a happy kid from what I see. His teachers tell me (at Mother's Day Out) that he's "aggressive". I think he just knows what he wants....and goes for it. (hence, toys dragged all over my house) He's not capable of meanness or aggression, yet, in my opinion. So, I'm just going to ignore their observation for now. They also tell me he won't play alone, that he has to be held all day long. Right now, he's sitting on the mat by himself, playing with a tube of A&D ointment (his favorite toy...just try to take it away from him, you'll see. he takes it everywhere, but I digress), just talking away and smiling. I guess it varies day-to-day. And he did just get up from a nap & is extra happy. But he always does better at home with me. I need to resist the urge to take him out of the program, though, because he needs that socialization, I think. Also, he's entering separation-anxiety and it's getting worse by the day. When I see him cry for me, it just breaks my heart, and it is so hard to leave him there when he's crying. But I do. I guess I have to. And there he goes. He's had enough alone-time, needs some attention.