Our fleeting heat wave!

So not only is it spring in Boston, but apparently we are having a bit of a preview of summer as well. For a couple of days it was in the mid 70s and for one day the thermometers hit 85! It was very exciting, so we took advantage of the nice weather and went for a long (hot) walk and broke out the grill.

Noah now fits into his adorable green monster Red Sox t-shirt...it was so nice this evening while we were cooking dinner that he got to hang out in his seat with just a t-shirt (no long sleeves) and no socks. He was very amused by the sight of his bare feet...its a novel concept for a winter baby! Doesn't he look like he is up to no good in this picture? :)


I think this may be the most adorable smile I have ever seen. This was the day it was 85, so Noah got to try out a romper (it was super cute on him). This was right before we went for a walk to my doctor's appointment.


Since it was so nice out, daddy decided to give Noah his first lesson in grilling. Doesn't he look like such an attentive student? He was very interested in the hot dogs on there. Daddy has been having so much fun with him now that he isn't quite so wobbly and fragile looking.


This week we also had Noah's 4-month check-up with the doctor. Sadly this involved more shots, but thankfully they weren't nearly as bad as the last time around. He obviously was very insulted when the nurse actually stuck him with the needles, but after he woke up from his little nap after the appointment, you would never know he ever got them. The doctor was very impressed with his development and thankfully gave us the go ahead to find other activities to replace the dreaded tummy time. Now that he can hold his head up really well, we put together his Jumperoo and decided to test it out to see how he liked it. Although he still hasn't figured out exactly what it is all about, he does have a good time standing up and jiggling!

Noah at the BC Arts Festival

Once a year the BC community puts on a great family day. They hold an Arts Festival where the students can showcase their artistic talents. There are singing and dancing shows, theatre productions, all sorts of projects for sale, and activities for the kids. Memere and Pepere B. drove down to visit for the weekend and go to the festivus! Although Noah is a bit young to be getting his hands on the pottery wheel, we figured we could get his face painted so he could join in all of the fun. Noah didn't so much agree, and although we picked a super easy design (a cat nose and whiskers), he couldn't put up with the whole process and we ended up with a nose and 3 whiskers (not 4...3)! He was a pretty good sport since he didn't know what was going on and some strange girl was coming at his face with a wet paint brush. He kept going cross-eyed trying to see what she was coming at him with, but it was terribly cute! :)

Daddy is holding his hands to keep him from grabbing at his fresh kitty nose. Can you see the slight cross-eyed look on the little man?


The final product...this is as good as it got with this attempt...a black kitty nose and 3 (not 4) crooked whiskers. It's not the product but the experience that matters right??? By the way, this was the one picture we got with the face painted, promptly afterwards he started sliming his fingers and wiping them all over his face so we wiped off the paint to prevent a black tongue! :)


After we tapped out of the festival, we all went out to dinner. Noah was far to excited to take a nap much that day, so by bedtime we all paid for his exhaustion. Memere and Pepere saw the full extent of a tired wee man hissy fit. There was screaming and crying and then after a really good bottle he passed out in a heap of exhausted baby...poor thing. To make up for it, he slept pretty much the entire of Sunday, I think we saw his eyeballs for a total of 3 or 4 hours the whole day! Lesson learned, don't plan a big day out without a really good morning nap!

More of Noah being cute - week 17

This week, Noah has been getting really close to figuring out how to roll over. We keep hovering and watching him as he hangs out under the activity gym. He'll get the feet up under him, and get about 2/3 of the way over, but then can't figure out what to do next. He's figured out how to travel across the mat in a little circle on his side, but that's about it. It's coming soon though.
See how far he got this time!

Just waking up from a short nap with Elliot on mom and dad's bed. The crib was all torn apart and all the sheets in the house were in the wash, so Noah got plopped down for a nap on the featherbed and Elliot took advantage of the down comforter mountain for an all-day snooze.

Sitting on the couch like a big boy while momma helps daddy with his homework. He is just too cute!

Some tummy time with his Boppy pillow, which is about the only way he will tolerate tummy time at all...Noah is NOT a fan of tummy time!

Checking out the world from his new chair. Mommy bought him this seat this weekend and he seems to enjoy the view from there. We've also discovered that if you put small toys on the snack tray, Noah has figured out how to help himself and will pick them up and play with them. Hopefully this will make our dinner time a little less hurried...and the best part is when he starts walking, we can remove the base and toy tray and buckle it to an adult chair as a booster seat!

Trying on his new shades! How cool is the wee man now?!?!

Noah being cute - Week 17

Noah, hanging with his daddy on Wednesday while mom was at work. He is getting really cute to watch while he is playing under the activity gym. He is grabbing and playing with his toys and kicking his feet to make the elephant toy rattle. He likes spending the day hanging out with daddy, the boys have fun playing together.

Routing for the Red Sox while we were watching the game on TV. He is getting big enough now to fit into his adorable Red Sox outfit...all we need now is to find a ball cap that fits his little head.

Standing on daddy's hands!

How do you get it out of here?

Just a short little post to show you how a baby's mind works. Now keep in mind that during the week while at work, I pump the little man his milk so he can drink the real stuff while at Nana Lou's. Usually, when I get home from work, I take all of the milk out of the cooler pack and transfer it to the milk storage bags and get it in the fridge. This evening before I could get the milk into the bags, Tim decided to see what Noah thought of his little stash. Can't you just hear the little thoughts being tossed around in his baby brain?
"Hey, I know this stuff, this is my milk in here...milk is tasty, maybe I'll just take a little taste. Hey, how do you get into this thing...I want some milk, seriously people."

"Hey Daddy, do you know how to get into this bottle...can you help me get at the milk in there...I just want a little sample of the goods, really, I need help here?"

Noah's day out in Atlanta

After a weekend of conferencing, we all got out on the town for an afternoon Saturday to have some fun. Nicole and Chris joined us and we all went to the new World of Coca-Cola. First we started off with some lunch at a mexican restaurant in the CNN building. Noah was being a bit of a fussy pants while we were waiting for our food to arrive, so he came to hang out with me and decided that was a pretty good place to hang out. And yes, he is indeed wearing his Red Sox jacket in Atlanta (go Red Sox, down with the Braves!!!).

Family picture in front of the CNN sign. There were some insanely rude people who refused to move out of the way so we weren't able to get a shot of the whole sign, but trust us, its the actual CNN sign.

Noah and I posing (or me posing and Noah eating his fist) while we were waiting in line to get into the next section of the Coca-Cola tour. I think the adults definitely enjoyed the World of Coca-Cola more than Noah did, but he was a pretty good sport for most of it.

We desperately wanted to have Noah's picture taken with the Coca-Cola polar bear, but when the bear was hanging out, Noah was in the middle of pitching a bloody fit and screaming and then he promptly fell asleep. I was not going to be the one to wake him up and hand him over the huge (albeit very cute) bear. I don't think that would have gone over well. Oh well, we got a picture of the cute bear, imagine Noah sitting in his lap (that's as good as we are going to get this time)!

After a good conference and a few great days in Atlanta hanging out with Nicole and Chris, it was time to head home and back to our routine (and all of the baby accouterments that make life with Noah a little bit easier). We had a bit of a hair-raising experience getting back to Boston that no one enjoyed. Thankfully, our flight home was a little later in the day, it didn't leave Atlanta until 10:30am, so after fighting a really obnoxious battle to get gas in the rental car (who decided that in Atlanta when filling up a gas tank with a credit card you have to prepay and essentially guess how much gas you are going to need to fill up the tank??), we dropped off the rental car and got the the terminal. As soon as we stepped into the terminal we knew it was going to be a bad morning. Come to find out ALL of the baggage conveyor belts in the entire Atlanta airport were down (EXCUSE ME...how is that even possible???). We were flying Air-Tran, so we figured that the lines wouldn't be too bad....we were wrong. We got sent to the back of the line which wound back and forth on itself about 4 times, went down one hallway and up another. There was no way we were going to make our flight with the way things looked. After about 20 minutes of waiting in line and moving a grand total of 5 feet, an employee came down and pulled out people in line for 10-10:30 flights, we jumped out went to a much shorter line and started to wait there. At this point, Noah decided it was about time for his second breakfast, and everything went downhill. Envision one screaming and very unhappy baby, a mass chaos of people who have all missed their flights because of the baggage problems, another mass of people who are added to our line because American airlines cancelled hundreds of flights due to maintenance issues, and the prospect of missing our flight trying to get through security. It was badness defined! We managed to check into the flight and said good bye to our luggage (which we were sure we wouldn't see again for a long time). The lady at the counter told us the quickest line to get into for security, but it was also at least 100 people long. Just as we were getting to the line, Noah really started to lose it, I decided he probably had a pretty good idea and started to lose my cool with him (probably not the most wonderful idea, but it worked). Some really sweet lady near the head of the security line took pity on us and told us to jump in front of her. We made it through security, got onto our plane with about 2 minutes to spare! After fighting a little to get to sit next to each other (so I wouldn't have to breastfeed sitting next to a perfect stranger), Noah got some food and was a much happier baby.
We played a little peek-a-boo to pass the time. This is now my favorite blanket, and coincidentally it has little airplanes all over it! :)

There's Noah!! Hey this game is kind of fun!

My goodness traveling is exhausting. Noah had to take a nap when we got home while mom and dad were unpacking. Time for some cuddles with his lovey too.

Thankfully air travel is not a frequent occurence with all of the packing, the luggage (one huge L.L. Bean rolling duffle bag, a garment bag, a playpen, a diaper bag, the breast pump, my conference poster, a stroller, and a backpack...oh, and a baby), the security debacles, and the complete breakdown of our nice little routine, but at least we know that the wee man is a good sport about the whole thing and aside from the actual act of getting from point A to point B, we had a good trip and enjoyed getting the chance to hang out with good friends as well!

Noah first airplane trip!

Noah made his first airplane trip this weekend. I had a conference for work in Atlanta, the Cognitive Aging Conference, and since I am still breastfeeding as sad as it sounds it was actually easier for Tim and Noah to come with me rather than figure out how to pump milk all weekend and bring it back with me. We were a little worried about the little man since traveling these days can be a big enough hassle, nevermind trying to fit in the schedule of a little man. He was a trooper though and impressed all kinds of fellow travelers with his good behavior. The flight to Atlanta left at 6am, which is an awful time to be flying out...being at the airport 2 hours in advance...leaving time to park the car and take the shuttle over to the airport...leaving time to drive the the park and ride. It was nasty and Noah was rudely woken from a sound sleep at 3am. Given such an insulting start to the day, he had a little snack and promptly went back to sleep in his car seat until we got the park and ride. He hung out in his Baby Bjorn with me most of the morning and slept through most of the flight. Travelers around us on the plane said he should receive an award for the best behaved baby ever!

Here he is sleeping on the plane with me (I think I was asleep too!)

Here he is checking things out on the plane...what is this place and why are we crammed in such a tight place?

Here is Noah taking a little rest in his pack and play once we got to our friends Nicole & Chris'. They were such great sports letting us stay with them given the risk in harboring a wee man who is off his routine. They took his occasional fits in stride and Noah was a good house guest to boot. It was a really nice way to make the conferencing experience much more relaxing.

While we were all down there, I obviously spent my days at the conference, learning new things and meeting people. On Friday afternoon I presented a poster with some of my new research. Tim brought Noah over to visit and meet a few people, such a sweet visitor to my poster!

After the conference on Friday, we had dinner at the famous Varsity drive-in that is across the street from the hotel. While mom and dad were eating their tasty fries, Noah was testing out how he would look wearing the hats. Its a bit big and facing the wrong way, but its pretty funny! :)

Playing the hanging upside down game again to stall a cranky baby while momma finishes her milkshake.

After all that excitment meeting people and hanging out at the Varsity, it was time for a little nap on the MARTA back to Nicole and Chris'. Daddy makes a really good pillow and there's nothing like a tasty pacifier to make a nap on the go perfect!

It's spring in Boston!

It has been getting really pretty out lately. Of course we still have some cold days, but at least the warm ones are getting a little more frequent. Here is the little man before one of our Monday marathon walks around the neighborhood. As you can see he is really excited to get going! :)

Week 15 - Pretty Boring :)

Not much to post this week except a few more cute pictures. Nothing spectacularly exciting happened. Tuesday and Thursday, Noah went to daycare, and as usual on Wednesday it was Daddy and Noah day, which involved a great deal of cramming for a Calculus test (which never ended up happening by the way!). Friday, Nana Lou was on vacation, so the little man came to campus with me for the day to hang out. He was a good baby, but decided not to sleep at all during the day, which made for a less than productive day. He went for a little walk around the building with Barbara (since it was raining and cold out), and he hung out with Kristin in the afternoon while Mom went to a talk. Poor Kristin experienced the full realm of stinky messes in the less than 2 hours they hung out. Apparently Noah decided to drop the mother of all stink bombs on the poor thing, that outfit never stood a chance! She was a trooper though and took him to the ladies room and cleaned him all up...aside from the pile of really NASTY clothes on the floor of the lab when I returned, I would have never known anything happened! Thank the laundry gods for stain remover, we managed to get everything cleaned up so no one will ever know he violated Kristin like that! :) Since he spent the whole day being awake, he was a seriously cranky monster by the time it was ready to leave for the day. Sadly, we were planning to go out for a drink with Alisha to celebrate her graduate fellowship. That didn't happen obviously, but at least he was a good boy the rest of the day.
Here he is sleeping in my papasan chair in my office...this is during the 30 minutes he actually slept, the rest of the day he was awake and being social.

Saturday, we spent the majority of the day cleaning up the house, which desperately needed it. We swept up a fourth kitty's worth of cat fur tumbleweed from the floors. Since Tim was gone to work all day and Noah is a little young to push a broom, the boys weren't much help at all. As you can see here, they are much more likely to be found hanging out on the couch. Doesn't Noah look like such a little man sitting on the couch with his Daddy?

This coming weekend, we are off to Atlanta to visit Nicole and Chris and for Mommy to go to a conference for work. Hopefully the traveling will be uneventful and go smoothly (thank god for direct flights). We'll post all about the trip when we get back next week!