The application is out!

In my obsessive search for faculty job postings, I saw that UNE had updated their website to reflect the new faculty posting in the psychology department. The traditional materials were requested, a cover letter, a CV, and reference letters. I included a couple of extra things, like my research statement and teaching philosophy to bolster my case and sent the application out late this morning! Wish me luck...I would love to end up back in Maine!

Holy crap he's a crankpot!

This is what Noah looked like at the beginning of the week. So sweet, so adorable, so HAPPY!


Look mommy, I can kneel with no hands now!


And I can stand by myself much better now.


Then it all went south...and I mean in a BIG way. I think some where along the way he realized that he was teething and decided that he was deeply personally offended by the whole thing. So, he spent the weekend slowly burning down every single nerve I had. He is still up and down in the nights, but to add to the ever increasing lack of sleep problems, he has now decided that he doesn't want to eat. As in, the child who, until the last week or so, rarely turned down a scrap of food and certainly never a bottle, is now needing to be convinced to stay still long enough to eat 5 oz of milk...oh and did I mention he won't nurse??? So not only am I now fighting the kid to get anything in him, but I also can't feed him the convenient way. I now have to pump and store the milk and when its time for a bottle, I have to prepare the bottle, wait for it to warm and then give it to him. All this means twice as much time dealing with the wee man juice...oh yeah, and then there is the clean up of all of the pumping supplies and the bottles. I don't usually like to spend my blog posts complaining, but this is GETTING OLD!!! The child has turned from a sweet, angelic baby who everyone loves to a demon baby that hits away spoons, spits out every ounce of solid food you try to feed him (including his all-time favorite yogurt), tears apart the house like the Tasmanian devil, and refuses to go down for naps. Picture an irritable tornado that is flying through your house refusing to eat and then screaming and throwing fits because he is tired...only to refuse to go down for a nap for hours on end until you just want to lay down on the floor and join him in the tantrum....check please...I'm done. How long does teething go on for??? I don't know if I can make it with my sanity. I'm sure Noah will survive fine though...fortunate for one of us.

So to put things in perspective, I realize that it won't last forever, we will eventually have our happy contented baby back, but for now the weekly update is that Noah's life sucks and therefore so does ours! Back to laundry...hopefully I can get a couple loads done now that Daddy is home and won the 3 hour long battle of getting the little dude to sleep.

Wish us a speedy tooth arrival and some extra patience so I can survive until next week's update!

We have the sauce!!

So I have an update on the applesauce front and I must say that I was quite a bit more successful this time around! I can't say that it was perfect, but I have room for improvement and might be convinced to share my secrets! :)

So the key is to NOT use a potato ricer....maybe back in the day the food mill I used this weekend was actually called a ricer, but in modern times do not be confused...you want a food mill NOT a potato ricer. Here's how it went. First, we had Uncle Tim come over and visit and man the wee one, leaving mommy free for at least a few minutes to get something done. Second, I cut the apples in half and put them in a big pot with about an inch of water. I then put the cover on, turned on some heat and forgot about them for about 1/2 hour. Once the apples had turned to mush, I just fished them out of the pot and threw them into the food mill. You crank the handle and out drops applesauce from the bottom, leaving your peels and cores at the top. You do have to clean out the top part every once in a while and fish the peels out, but overall it works pretty darn well!

In the future, I think I might actually core the apples myself before cooking them, mainly because I ended up with a few crushed apple seeds in the sauce that I then had to haul out, but overall, way better than apple sauce shooting up in the air!! I might also try to take out the peels before running them through the food mill. If you have ever seen really well cooked apples, then you know that the apple pretty much deflates and the peel falls off. I am thinking if I take out the peels after they are cooked and before throwing it in the food mill, then I won't have to clean out the food mill part way through and tiny bits of peel won't end up in the sauce. Who knows...its a work in progress, but at least I made a ton of applesauce without destroying my kitchen or losing my sanity. When all was said and done I think it probably took me about an hour from halving the apples to cleaning the pot...which isn't bad at all considering I ended up with about 2 months worth of apple sauce for the wee man. Let's just hope he likes it! :)

WOOOOO HOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Exciting news to share...so exciting I can hardly type in full sentences!!! I did my customary job search for my Friday afternoon (right before I leave because I don't feel like doing any other work) activity and I FOUND MY POSTING!!!!! It is out finally, the Assistant Professor position at the University of New England!!! If you have talked to me recently, you would know that I am currently on the job market, looking for my first REAL job. That is, I have seriously spent the last 11.5 years of my life either in college, graduate school, or in a training fellowship. Now don't you think its about time I got my own real job?? I think so, and perhaps someday we can extend the excitement and actually own a house too...one step at a time though, I wouldn't want to rush into anything.

Anyway, so the posting. I had been advised to contact the chairs of the psychology departments at schools I was really interested in during the late summer months to introduce myself and express my interest in the department should any openings come about. Basically, I get my name out there so if/when my application arrives the name rings a bell! So I got a super nice email back from the chair at UNE saying that a posting would be coming out in October and she strongly encouraged me to apply! This is a very good thing.

Now the reasons I am so excited about UNE are three fold; 1) it is back in Maine and that is ultimately where I want to end up and where I want to raise Noah and any other future small people, 2) it is the perfect size school, small, liberal arts, meaning a lower stress department where I won't feel like I am constantly struggling to be productive enough to make the grade, and 3) it is less than 20 miles from all relevant grandparent type of people....memeres, peperes, nanas, etc. That last point is a huge big deal for me...I not only love to have the social support network, and I enjoy hanging out with family, but I think it is EXTREMELY important that Noah have the opportunity to really get to know all of his grandparents. I only really knew 1 memere and when she passed away in 2005, I felt this huge sense of loss not only for her, but for the role of a grandparent in my life in general. I have no one like that left to share stories with, to learn really cool bits of things from, and no one to continue to provide the M&M dish on the second shelf of the kitchen cabinet (just far enough from small people reach)!

I want SO badly to get this position. So wish me luck and think successful thoughts for me!!! I'll keep you all posted with a blow-by-blow report...thus far, just a posting, still waiting to hear about the application details, deadlines, etc.

Crap, I should have been paying attention

If I hadn't turned my back, then maybe we could have saved the dining room. But alas, I turned to answer Tim's question and here is how I was rewarded...a stolen bowl and a HUGE mess!


Based on the look on his face, you'd swear the kid had died and gone to heaven! It wasn't heaven...it was a small disaster created with mac and cheese and sweet peas. Oh and the poor sippy cup never saw it coming!


His self-feeding skills leave a little to be desired, but at least the kid displayed enthusiasm.


Poor innocent sippy cup...it didn't deserve that fate.


Who me?? I saw nothing. The bowl tipped itself over, I swear.


Sadly, it wasn't a scheduled bath night...that is until we surveyed the damage. I don't think a mere baby wipe or 10 would have extracted the amount of mac and cheese and sweet peas that had found their way into Noah's nose...hair....ears...gross.

Any good food ideas out there?

Since I am making my own Noah food, at least for the time being, I wanted to take stock of what it is that Noah eats. Maybe if I do that, I can get better ideas of what else I can add in there, or at the very least, some new combinations that might be appetizing.

Here is a list of what he currently eats:
rice cereal (but only mixed in occasionally with other veggies)
baby oatmeal
sweet potatoes
butternut squash
acorn squash
carrots
pumpkin
applesauce
pears
peaches
bananas
peas (especially sweet peas)
green beans
prunes (only when needed!)
yogurt (plain & yo baby fruit varieties)
Gerber Puffs (banana, apple cinnamon, peach, & sweet potato flavors)
Earth's Best apple cinnamon graham cracker sticks (in his feeder bag)
apple juice
white grape & peach juice

Things we tried and failed with:
corn (hives?)
avocado (whole body shivers)
Cheerios (at least for now, I tend to avoid foods that result in choking noises)
adult oatmeal made with water and with fruit added (he spits it back out)

Foods we have bought and will try soon:
chicken
turkey
cottage cheese (attempt #1 was a failure, but we'll try some more)
beets
wax beans
lima beans
chick peas
kidney beans
apple cinnamon toddler oatmeal (thicker than baby oatmeal, but not at lumpy as adult)
biter biscuits
mac & cheese
brown rice

Any other brilliant ideas out there? I know we can make a ton of interesting combinations now, but its so hard to make combos when you make your own stuff. I just keep getting stuck in a rut and end up feeding him the same things over and over again. I suppose its the same with my eating habits, I eat relatively the same things repeatedly, but then again, I am not trying to develop a sense of like and dislike. As long as the list of things he eats stay much longer than the list of failed attempts, I guess I should count myself lucky!

Now all we have to do is get working on using that sippy cup. The poor kid just doesn't quite know what to do with it. He holds it well and seems to know what the spout is for. He will put it in his mouth and with a little help in tipping it back, he'll take a few sips. Then....he bites on the spout, bangs the cup around on what ever he is closest to, and then loses interest and tosses the cup. Usually it takes me longer to clean the cup than it does for him to lose interest in it. As with anything, I guess this is also a learning process too. I'll just have to put on a patient attitude and figure he'll get it eventually!

We go out in search of sleep...

and perhaps we will find it, perhaps not. I find that one of the most frustrating things about being a mommy is that it doesn't seem to matter how much I read, or how much advice I get, living peaceably with Noah seems to be one gigantic game of trial and error and I seem to frequently be on the losing team. It's not to say that I am not having fun, and I don't love my wee little man to death...but it just seems like he is doing a lot of winning and making up new rules as he goes along, while I am just in the game trying to keep up! For example the sleep situation currently. Its a bit up in the air and I think the dude is winning...at least temporarily. I don't usually like to talk about Noah's sleep habits, mainly because I am like the superstitious baseball player that adjusts the straps on his batting gloves between each pitch...I fear if I speak about how wonderful he is sleeping, my wonderful sleep through the night baby will disappear. And likewise, if I talk about how he is waking up in the night, not only will people think I haven't gotten him on a routine yet, but perhaps....and heaven forbid...the night time wakings will get worse. But, I have realized in my infinite wisdom that I know nothing about Noah or his sleep habits and that perhaps adjusting my metaphorical batting gloves really has nothing to do with it at all.

So, we'll start with the good news. Over the course of his life, starting at about 6 or 7 weeks or so, Noah has slept through the night more nights than he has woken up! That is always a great start. At about 5 1/2 months or so, just before he figured out how to commando crawl and about a week before we started him on solid foods, he stopped sleeping through the night, and demanded a night time feeding, which he downed and then promptly fell back to sleep. Once he learned to crawl and we started him on some cereals, fruits, and veggies, he went right back to peaceful sleeping from about 8pm until 6:30am and there it stayed until last week. Then it all went downhill again. Its not terrible, just one night time wake up where he demands a bottle (i.e., plunking the pacifier back in WILL NOT satisfy the little dude). He almost seems cranky and upset to be awake, downs the 7-8oz bottle, and then promptly rolls over and goes back to sleep without a peep. Now, I can't imagine this is a behavioral problem, he doesn't want to be rocked or soothed, he wants the darn wee man juice and then he wants to go back to sleep. Its like when you waking up at night and have to go to the bathroom...you don't particularly want to be awake, but you NEED to go, so you get up, go, and then fall right back to sleep. I figured we could just talk to the pediatrician today when we saw him for Noah's regular visit.

Speaking of that, we had our 9-month check up this morning, and I am happy to report that he seems to be doing wonderfully. He is on track with everything in terms of motor, language, physical, and emotional development. The doctor was very impressed with how social and happy he was, but if you know Noah, that is just like him! :) Here are his stats for today:

9 Months
Height: 29 inches (76th percentile)
Weight: 20 lbs, 4 oz (46th percentile)
Head: 47 cm (still huge at the 91st percentile)

P.S. In case I didn't post them (which I don't think I did), here are the previous statistics, just so you can get a good idea of how consistently the wee man is growing.

Birth
Height: 19.75 inches (50th percentile)
Weight: 7 lbs, 13 oz (50th percentile)
Head: 35 cm (25th percentile)

1 Month
Height: 22.5 inches (74th percentile)
Weight: 9 lbs, 12 oz (35th percentile)
Head: 39.5 cm (71st percentile)

2 Months
Height: 23.25 inches (64th percentile)
Weight: 10 lbs, 10 oz (27th percentile)
Head: 40.5 cm (63rd percentile)

4 Months
Height: 26 inches (78th percentile)
Weight: 15 lbs, 2 oz (50th percentile)
Head: 43.5 cm (78th percentile)

6 Months
Height: 27.25 inches (77th percentile)
Weight: 17 lbs, 8 oz (50th percentile)
Head: 45.5 cm (90th percentile)

Holy crap, the kid grew over 9 inches and gained over 12 pounds in the last nine months...its scary how fast it is all going!

Oh, and who knew...but he is popping another tooth! He is getting one of his top front teeth now, you can see it poking right out. He mentioned that the blood blister and the flap of skin that I saw after the face plant last week may have actually been a pre-eruptive cyst (which are very common) and the fall actually just burst the cyst causing a little bleeding. So trauma to the sweet baby's gums may not even have happened. Either way, there is no permanent damage and instead we have new teeth coming (which would explain the copious amounts of drool for sure!). We talked a bit about his new need for night time wakings and the doctor agreed that it is probably nothing behavioral related and instead is either a growth spurt or just an increased need for more solid foods. We got the go ahead for adding in meats, more whole grains (like brown rice), pastas (Mommy's going to try to make some organic mac and cheese with breast milk), and cheeses (we tried cottage cheese today and it went over like a fart in church...but there's always tomorrow!). We stopped off at the store to get a few more new foods to try out in an attempt to keep things interesting...perhaps the wee dude will like beets or maybe some beans. We'll have to try it out and see! I'll keep you posted on how many things he spits back out at me. In any case, it sounds like it is just a case of some more trial and error for us until we find something that will work for everyone. Preferably, we'll find a solution that will keep Noah full and us all asleep at night!

If I knew then what I know now...

I would have never bought that stupid potato ricer. What a waste of $20. So as you know, we went apple picking on Sunday. Naturally, being the conscientious mom that I am, I am all excited about making some super fresh applesauce for my little dude with our new found apple stash. My aunt told me about the way my grandmother used to make applesauce and it sounded pretty easy to me, so I figured I would give it a try. Here is how the recipe went and you can judge for yourself....

Step 1: wash apples, do not core, do not peel
Step 2: cut apples in half or quarters
Step 3: put apples in pan with a small amount of water and cook to death
Step 4: press the cooked apples through a potato ricer, which will keep the seeds, the skins, and the core from getting in the sauce and PRESTO you have apple sauce.

Seems easy, seems quick, so I attempted it and I would like to submit my formal complaint with whomever thought that would be a good idea. I cooked the apples, I didn't peel or core anything. There was the small amount of water, there was a potato ricer and THEN there was applesauce flying through the air in the kitchen!!! Some where I went wrong....terribly wrong. I thought about it, I consulted my mother in law who used to do such cooking type of things and lo and behold, perhaps it wasn't a potato ricer, but a fruit and vegetable food mill????? She said that is what she used for years to make applesauce. She was even kind enough to buy us one! I have yet to try out the applesauce making with this new contraption, but the logic seems more sound to me. At least it seems that the laws of physics will prevent applesauce from flying through my kitchen again. See for yourself...do you want to squish apple pulp through this thing or turn a handle while it spins gently in one of these??? I'll let you know how attempt #2 of my experiment goes, but my vote is for the food mill if not for efficiency purposes (hello 3 quart capacity versus 1 apple at a time and a guaranteed loss accounted for the flying portions).

An Emerson and some apple picking

Sunday was something fun and different. Noah had his first experience apple picking. It wasn't just apple picking though, he went apple picking with a GIRL!!! We finally got a chance to meet up with my cousin Ray, his wife Nikki, and their 7 month old daughter Emerson. She is even cuter than her pictures and it was really nice to spend part of the afternoon with other first-time parents! We went up to the Brother's orchard in Alfred and spent some time walking up and down the rows picking some juicy apples. Got to love knowing exactly where your fruit comes from. It was a great afternoon, the sun went behind the clouds and it cooled off a little. Of course we got lots of adorable pictures of both Noah and Emerson. Glad we got a chance to hang out, hope we can do it again real soon!

The boys ready to pick lots of apples so Mommy can make some wee man applesauce!

Emerson seemed to like Noah a bit more than Noah liked her sadly. Yet again, unrequited affection...check out the cutie hitting on Noah.

She is going in for the first move....

and sadly, the affection was not returned. Instead, Noah threw a fit and poor Emerson was left wondering where she went wrong. :(

He got over it quick though, and got right back to hamming it up for the camera.

Got to be the cutest couple of fall pictures. We do need to remember to take the bib off for pictures though....geez, you can't even see his adorable shirt.

Hmmm...so this is where applesauce comes from??? Not sure I get it.

Sitting in the laundry basket at Memere and Pepere B's checking out the loot wee man style. He has some fresh peaches in his feeder here.

Thanks for your votes, but....

we didn't side with any of you!! :) Just kidding...we did get Noah a snowsuit this weekend, and its basically a combination of the two options from the poll. While it is technically a bunting or a coverall with a hood, it is more of a snow suit type of thing in that you can pull the flaps over his feet and hands or you can pull them back and have cuffs with mittens and boots. We still need to get a hat and mittens to match, but we are getting there darn it!

Check out our final purchase here. It was at the store, but wouldn't you know it they didn't have it in his size. It will be delivered here sometime this week so we can try it on him. We got size 12-18 months, so that should last him all winter (god help us if it doesn't!!!). While we were at Bean's, we also got him a couple of presents, one for birthday, one for Christmas, but you'll have to wait to see those!

What a week...let's not and say we did

Dear lord, if every week was like this one, I would need some sort of medication...blood pressure pills, anti-anxiety medications, something...perhaps lots of things...as my brother always says..."Better living through chemistry!"

Let's start with Monday. Noah was sweet and cute as always and he had a great day! I, on the other hand, spent the day in an absolute panic trying to write my guest lecture for Thursday morning. I agreed months ago to teach a couple of class periods of my advisor's Affective Neuroscience class this semester and Thursday was the first...only I wasn't ready, and I had about 250 things on my to do list that kept getting in the way of preparing this lecture. Only now it was Monday, the lecture was Thursday morning and if I didn't get it done, BAD things were going to happen. Thankfully Noah slept like an angel for about 4 hours during the day and I worked like a fiend for about 4 hours after he went to bed and I got a good start on it.

Tuesday...as you read earlier, Nana Lou was broken and couldn't take the wee man. Thankfully, with Tim's new position he has unlimited sick time and so he took the day to stay home and hang out with the little man. Thank god, cause I spent the whole day working on my lecture, freaking out that my advisor had already covered a bunch of what I was planning to talk about, re-doing my lecture, making the powerpoint slides and in general being stressed out to the max. In the meantime, my advisor's husband, who works in finance was dealing with the potential collapse of AIG. If AIG went under, his company would go bankrupt, he would be out of a job and things would be really bad for them. Not necessarily affecting my life any, but still since she has been such a wonderful advisor and friend to me, I couldn't help but worry about the situation incessantly.

It's too bad Nana Lou is broken, but it sure is fun to play with Daddy for an extra day. I got into lots of stuff, but check me out...I'm still cute! :)


Mommy and Daddy thought the coffee table was a safe place to store their stuff....boy were they wrong. Look at what I can get into now!! Hope this piece of paper wasn't important.



Wednesday, I finished the lecture, worked on job applications, discovered I needed to write my class syllabus for the course I am teaching next semester (who really wants to think about next semester in the midst of all of this chaos???), and in about the only piece of exciting news for the week, I mailed out my first 4 faculty job applications to Smith College, Hamilton College, UMass Boston, and UMass Amherst!!! Of course in the midst of all of this, Noah spent the day at home with Daddy beating up on himself...falling every 10 minutes, making himself bleed, and in general being kind of rambunctious and pathetic at the same time.

Look Daddy, I like Tostitos...what are these things anyway? Am I supposed to eat the bag or what's inside...perhaps we'll start with the bag.

Thursday, as I was driving to work, I about died 6 times, including once when a black mustang decided to pull out of a Dunkin Donuts parking lot, pull into the lane next to me, all while going 50 miles an hour and fishtailing so hard I had to slam on my brakes so his back end wouldn't hit the front of our car (oh and did I mention that Noah was in the backseat at the time???). I HATE DRIVING IN BOSTON!!!!!! I always will, and for that reason I will end my tenure as a metro Boston resident with the flip of the appropriate finger and a bit of silent profanity!!! Thankfully, Nana Lou was able to take Noah for the day and she had a good day with him...one less source of stress I guess.

Friday was fairly decent. I finished the remaining 6 application packets and my syllabus, so those will go in the mail post haste. After work, we packed up the little man in the car along with his metric ton of stuff and headed to Maine for the weekend. It was nice to get a change of pace, but it was a busy weekend! Saturday was Uncle Tim's graduation party. He defended his master's degree in July and now that he is living back on the East coast, we figured we would celebrate the occasion with CAKE!!!! It was tasty cake too! Noah took a really long morning nap and woke up just as the party was getting started, so he was a super good boy during the party. He was making friends with everyone. It was so nice for Noah to get a chance to see relatives and friends that we don't get together with often...he saw great aunt Pris and great aunt Sim, Rachel and Pris Lamb, Earl and Lorraine, and Peggie and Tony. Hopefully we'll get a chance to see everyone again really soon, but for now congrats on the fancy education Uncle Tim and thanks for the cake! :)

P.S. Over the weekend, I decided that crawling on my hands and knees is the way to go. I am getting pretty good at it too! The commando crawl is almost a thing of the past now. Yeah!!! My belly might stay clean for a few more minutes now!

Last week's update in progress

I just need to post the pictures, please have patience, its been one heck of a week!

It's done, check it out below...I wanted to keep them in order...I know, obsess much!

Nana Lou is broken :(

POOR Nana Lou. She is broken and couldn't take Noah Tuesday. She was at a birthday party at her son's place and fell on the pool deck. She managed to fall directly on her elbow and dislocated it. She said the pain was so bad she passed out and had to be rushed to the hospital!!!! Poor lady, we love her so! She is is back in business now, with one of her nieces over to help her with the babies for the next few weeks. She commented this morning when I dropped Noah off how much she missed the boys and how much better she was now that she could spend the day with her favorite babies! :) Noah and I brought her a cute little card and a flower to help cheer her up and make her day. Hopefully the healing process is speedy and easy for her sake.

Ouch! Poor baby.

So Noah had his first "big" fall today and it was, as expected, worse for us than it was for him. He was kneeling on the living room floor hanging on to the couch and lost his balance as he was turning. He did a major face plant on the floor and bumped his forehead. The worst of it came from his two bottom teeth. They gashed his upper gum and the poor man was bleeding...YES real baby blood! I was traumatized, Tim (who was present for the whole incident) was more traumatized since he he watched it happen and couldn't do anything to stop it. He was needy the whole rest of the day and quite cranky when ever you touched his head (that made for a less pleasant bath night), but the good news is he will live...and we are pretty sure we will too! His gum is already starting to look better, the blood blister underneath is gone, just a little cut now. His head seems to be much better and if he could stop biting on hard things and making his gum hurt every 5 seconds, we could be back in happy baby land again!

Ho hum and the Arts festival

So I realize that I am insanely late for this weekly update, but cut a woman some slack, not only do I have my regular work load, the start of the semester at BC (which means a massive influx of undergrad research assistants who weren't around a couple of weeks ago), the whole faculty job search and application process, and then oh yeah I taught a class here this week!


Whew! I am exhausted. So anyway, last week...all I really remember is that Noah was cute, I worked a lot, skipped the department's welcome reception to hang out with my boys for an evening of lazy strolls around Davis Square and a Starbucks and then next thing I knew, it was the weekend.

Memere L. and Tom came up for the day on Saturday to hang out with the little dude. We walked down to Medford Square to check out their Arts Festival. It was okay...nothing to write home about really. Last year we happened upon the Somerville Arts Festival in Davis Square, and it was great, lots of booths, very cute jewelry and art and a ton of activities. The Medford Art Festival was about 1/4 the size, meaning there really wasn't much to look at. I didn't even find a pair of earrings to buy (and if you know me, you know that is a big deal). Oh well, lesson learned, pay attention and don't miss the Somerville festival next July. After the festival, we stopped in at Modern Pastry to grab a snack and headed back home. Sunday was relaxing, some laundry, and oh yeah, we had to deal with the leaking basement which needed a complete cleaning and rearranging of all of the contents (which we are only half done), and then we watched the Patriot's football game. Oh and Uncle Tim came over to visit, watch the game, and do some laundry too. Glad to have some company and some Sam Adams Octoberfest Beer!

The highlight of the weekend had to be the fact that some how Noah ended up naked in a cemetery. Yeah, I know it sounds like we are part of some satanic cult, but for real, it was just another case of a series of sordid events that leads to the point where you question yourself and how it was you ever got to where you were at that exact moment. I had one of those moments Saturday afternoon at the arts festival when I was kneeling in the grass on the edge of the cemetery in Medford Square changing Noah from head to toe. He decided that the arts festival was the place to have a massive blow out diaper and while he was sitting in the stroller, Tom noticed a little something "extra" on his leg. I looked around in panic and realized that the only flat semi-out of the way place to change this poo-covered offspring was in the grass in the cemetery. I ended up having to sacrifice my rain coat for him to lay on (and wouldn't you know that got poo on it too!). We changed out the NASTY diaper and then proceeded to strip the wee man down to get rid of the evidence. Next thing you know, there he is naked and in a cemetery and I am having a reality check. When did my life take this strange turn? I think it has something to do with the tiny company I am now keeping...I hope so at least...well that is what I am going to tell myself anyway! :)


The requisite wee man pictures for the week, as usual. Here is a picture of what has to be the happiest baby on the planet. He was hanging with Daddy for the day on Wednesday and as usual, they had tons of fun playing!


More standing to play. This has become quite frequent this week and its a riot to see how proud he is of himself every time he gets up there!


A very, very tired baby after the walk home from the arts festival.


More playing, different day. Doesn't he look like a big boy in this outfit?! He no longer waits for us to take out toys for him, he goes right in and gets them himself! We've lost count how many times a day we have to take him out of there.


Watching the Patriots play on Sunday. The thing in his mouth, while it looks like a drumstick is actually a baseball bat that makes crinkly noises. He loves to crawl all over the living room with that thing hanging out of his mouth. Strange, but entertaining.

Slow down kid...what's the rush?!?

So unlike many previous posts where its much of the same and I can just update everyone about the happenings from the week, this week I have forgotten what happened this week for the most part with the excitement from this weekend.

First, I must acknowledge the 2 Memeres (and Tom too!) for swooping in and providing us some backup childcare while Nana Lou was partying in Florida with her girlfriends over the Labor Day weekend! I neglected to mention it in my post from last week, but it was wonderful to know that while Nana Lou was taking a well-deserved few days off the wee man was having a blast with people that also love to spend time with him and will take really good care of him (including letting him get some naptime). From the reports I got from both of the Memeres, the little dude was an angel for them and had two great days of extra spoiling...just think of it from his perspective, he had Friday through Wednesday straight of one on one time with family! How awesome! Thanks again for the help and hopefully things can work out so nicely again next time Nana Lou needs a few days off!

I am going to skip the rest of the week cause really nothing truly exciting happened...there was cuteness and playing and an angelic behaved wee man, but nothing earth shattering that I can recall. Friday evening the whole clan went to an engagement party for Katherine & Tim and Chris & Alisha. The two couples got engaged about a week apart and so the whole lab got together to hang out, eat some delicious food, and be social. Noah was extremely well-behaved, he crawled around the living room, played with a few toys, took a strange interest in the shiny gold decorations on Elizabeth's shoes and then fell asleep about the usual bedtime. He slept in a spare bedroom until it was time to go home, slept the whole ride home, and then went right down to sleep when we got home. What a good boy!

The excitement came this weekend. On Saturday after Tim got back from work Noah and I were hanging out on the floor in the living room playing. Up until this point, Noah would sit up well unassisted and crawl nicely, and had gotten around to getting down from a sitting position into the crawling, but hadn't really figured out how to get from crawling to sitting. We were so excited to see him pull that one together that afternoon and couldn't believe how well skilled he got at it so quickly. Now you watch him do it and you'd swear he had that figured out months ago...he gets up on his hands and knees, tucks a little leg under and pushes himself up and there you have it...he is so proud of himself! :) This is a picture of the milestone in progress as a picture of the end result wouldn't look any different from all of the other sitting pictures we already have.

As if that weren't enough, he also crawled on his hands and knees for the first time this weekend. He won't do it often since he seems to be pretty happy with the belly drag technique. And I suppose if you saw him going along on his belly, he gets around really well, the friction really doesn't slow him down any!

By Sunday while we were playing, he decided that it was time to try pulling himself up to a stand. He especially likes doing this on people as there are clothes to grab onto. Unfortunately, we were so excited about all of this that we forgot to take pictures. Here he is starting the process, but believe us, it ends in a wee man standing up. He still needs to hang on for balance, but he is doing such a great job heaving himself up there! We are very excited for him...especially since the child has been wanting to stand since birth for the most part. I still remember the pediatrician who looked at him the afternoon after he was born commented on how strong his legs were and how much he liked to straighten them up and stand even then!

Random funny picture of the little dude. He is a nectarine and is apparently very happy about it. Too bad he is priceless so the tag on his forehead is useless! :)

AND...for the most exciting news of all. This afternoon the little man decided it was high time he start standing up to play. I had brought out his convertible activity toy that can transition with him. I figured I would see what happened if I adjusted it so that it was a table type thing. Amazingly enough he grabbed onto the bar, pulled himself up onto his knees, got his feet up under him and stood up to stand and play!!!! He stayed up there for a good five minutes, posed for pictures and then went back to playing...he was adorable and very very pleased with himself. I made sure to give him lots of praise and kisses and put a pillow behind him so when he fell he wouldn't knock his head too hard. He is not a huge fan of the falling part, he gets insulted and a little startled, but we figure this is just the start of it all and he'll get used to it eventually!

So in sum, Noah has had an amazingly busy week in terms of progress, but I would like to remind him that babyhood and childhood are such fleeting times in life and certainly nothing to try and speed through (don't you wish you could go back to being waited on like that?). Slow down little dude, you are scaring your mommy with the rate of your development and I want to make sure I can keep up! What's the rush little man, you have the rest of your life trust me, savor this all while you can...life's too short to grow up too fast! :)

Latest Mommy health update

So I went in last evening and had my blood drawn again so they could recheck the abnormally high sedimentation rate. When I got there naturally the lab had no clue why I was there as the doctor forgot to put in the order for the tests. But after a couple of pages and a half and hour wait, they finally got their act together. I got the results back this morning online and while the normal range for women is usually 0-20mm, mine was still high at 30. Its come down since the beginning of last week when it was 41, so I wonder if there will be more tests in my future. I am currently entertaining a record here of about 6 healthy days in a row. I don't want to say anything too loudly though and end up on my deathbed tomorrow! Hopefully no more updates to follow, let's keep our fingers crossed.

Reasons why I love being a mommy.

To make sure that I don't forget someday years from now how much fun I had with Noah while he was a baby, I wanted to jot down a few of the many many reasons why I love being his mommy. I will inevitably need to go back and re-read these reasons on the days in the future when Noah is not the sweet angel he has been for the last few days. So to the Christina of the future, read these and remember no matter how hard today might be, there is always a wee little man who really is one of the best things that ever happened to you and will be ready and waiting with unconditional love as soon as the horns disappear!


- soft, almost whisper, babbles that he thinks no one else hears
- smiles that are so big that his pacifier falls out
- sloppy drool baby kisses that I would never believed I would cherish as much as I do
- crawling into my lap so he can get a little hug before he is on his way again
- giggles that you can hear across the house when he is "wrestling" with Daddy
- the face of joy you see when you push him on the swing outside
- leaning around me to get a better look at something when I carry him on my hip
- the open-mouthed, full force hug he gives his penguin, "Mr. Waddles," when they are reunited
- looking down when he is finished nursing and seeing him grinning from ear to ear and looking up at me with such unconditional adoration
- the excited huffing and puffing he does in anticipation of the next spoonful
- the ridiculous way he reacts whenever the camera is turned on...immediately stopping what he is doing to look at the camera and smile adorably....EVERY TIME!
- snuggles into the crook of my arm when he is settling down for a nap
- the talking and singing to himself when he is in the car seat for a ride or in the crib before he falls asleep at night

We're happy its Labor Day, but...

we're sad to see the end of summer. It seems like it has literally flown by, where did the time go? It seems like just last week we were trying to pack up everything that a 5 month old needs for a week at the lake, now he is 8 months and that week of vacation seems like ages ago. The new family had a good summer, though there just didn't seem to be enough time in the days (or days in the summer) to enjoy more walks outside...or perhaps it was that I was either sick or it was raining everytime I wanted to go out! Either way, we are aiming for more evening walks this fall.

We did something fun this weekend, something we have been wanting to do for a while now. We finally got out for a day trip around the coast in MA. We've been around the Maine coast many times, but had yet to explore much now that we have moved to Boston. We stopped at Marblehead and saw quite possibly the ugliest lighthouse I have ever seen. See for yourself...Maine knows how to do lighthouses...not that I am biased.


The rest of the scenery was beautiful and the size of the houses kind of makes me sick, but it was a really quiet area that would be fun to go back to and explore some more.


We also drove through Salem and stopped off at a little beach for a few minutes to stick Noah's toes in the water. We hung out at a park across the street so the little dude could stretch his little legs for a bit...he was getting a bit impatient with all of the sitting in the car seat (who can blame him with the limited view he gets). After the short stop, we made our way through Glouster and onto Rockport. We spent a couple of hours walking around Halibut State Park. It was really pretty and very quiet there, but it was a bit small and since there wasn't much of a beach, it wasn't ideal for the wee man.


Noah did seem to have fun hanging in the front carrier with Daddy and was making friends with everyone on the trail. He developed an odd and frankly weird habit of cocking his baseball hat sideways. I would put it on straight and look back 2 minutes later and he had cocked it gangster style. Not sure what it was all about, but I was kind of hoping not to raise a mini gang lord...hopefully he'll jump on board with that plan soon! :)


I came to the stark realization while we were out hiking that we should probably stop using the front carrier really soon. He is getting really long and since the weight limit on it is just over 20 pounds (he was 19 lbs, 2 oz. a couple of weeks ago), we should really look into getting a backpack for our next outing. No need to require physical therapy after carrying around the little dude for a day! :) Check out how long he is, Daddy provides a good perspective!


In other news, Noah has developed a love for texture books. Pretty much anything with texture for that matter...Daddy's goatee, the kitty's fur, Mommy's hair...whatever is closest. We figured that perhaps books would be safer and result in less hair pulling for the whole family.


I am currently on the search for a Water Babies swim class for us to join. There are a couple of options, one on Saturday mornings at the YMCA and another one on Monday mornings at the Arlington Boys and Girls club. Both are about the same price, the one at the Y runs for more weeks, but its on Saturday, which tends to interfere with us heading to Maine for the weekend. Still debating, not sure what to do exactly, but I'll figure something out I am sure.

For those of you that I haven't emailed back recently, I would like to publish my formal apology. I am trying my best and failing miserably. I am lost in a sea of deadlines for work, hunting on the job market, and helping out the undergrads with preparing grad school applications. I will get back to you all, I promise, perhaps not in my usual timely fashion, however. In the meantime, feel free to send me more emails or leave comments on the blog, I am here, and I am listening! :)