And let the grading begin!

So this morning I finally finished all of my course prep work for the semester. I got the last lecture finished this weekend and this morning was dedicated to finalizing the final exam...editing the last essay questions, pulling images from the lectures for identification questions, scrambling questions to create multiple version to avoid more cheating, etc. I had my TA look it over just to make sure that I hadn't been too harsh, or too easy and then it got printed...the culmination of all that work in paper form. I have been working on that nonsense since a couple of days before Noah's birthday...it's been a long exhausting road. Unfortunately, it is not yet time to put my feet up and grab a glass of wine since the 19 students in the class now have 5-8 page papers due tomorrow morning, all of which I have to read and grade in the next week. Then next Wednesday I give the final exam, which results in 19 final exams to grade, essay questions and all.  It will be a long, long week, but by next weekend you best believe that glass of wine will be large and all mine to enjoy! :)

Love, hate, and some where in between

An early summer hit here in New England and it was SO worth the wait!  We had fun plans and outings lined up for the weekend, and the weather did not disappoint.  Saturday started off cool, but by afternoon, it was sunny and almost 85!  Sunday's weather was almost identical!  Memere & Pepere B. drove down on Saturday to hang out for the day and attend BC's yearly Arts Festival.  We have gone every year since I started working there and it hasn't disappointed yet.  Its a great way to get out for the day, enjoy some spring weather and see some free performances.  I even get a chance to shop for jewelry...sadly, I didn't fall in love with anything this year.  The wee man had a blast toodling around campus with Pepere while Memere and I were checking out the jewelry and the pottery.  It was nice to have Pepere back with us, he missed out on Easter with some nasty cold induced vertigo.  He still weaves and swerves a bit, but its nothing we can't pass off with a few jokes of hitting the vanilla extract a little too hard (long back story on the vanilla extract...its a family jokes we've had going for years).  We stayed at the festival for a couple of hours and then got a chance to have the first cookout of the season...the hamburgers and potato salad were such a treat after a long and very snowy winter.  On Sunday we spent the morning playing outside in the yard and we managed to sell our old tank-esque mountain bikes that haven't been ridden in 4+ years.  It was pretty amazing actually.  I posted the ad on craigslist later Saturday night and within and hour we had 6-8 people trying to stake a claim.  By Sunday at lunch time, the bikes were gone to a new home and we had a little money to put to our planned new bike purchase.  The plan was to get rid of the tanks, which we obviously weren't using, in favor of some reasonable, lighter weight, and more comfortable bikes with a child seat and helmets all around.  After lunch and a nap, we executed said plan.  Tim and I ended up with matchy matchy bikes coincidentally (apparently, they don't feel the need to stock reasonably priced women's bikes for women over 5'2".  I ended up with a men's bike so that my knees weren't hitting the handle bars when I turn.  So far Tim and I are in love!  They needed a bit of adjusting to install the Noah seat, but after our first ride tonight, I can see them getting some serious mileage...what a fun family activity and a nice way to celebrate the end of a very long and stressful semester.  (LOVE)

So tonight we went out for our first ride now that everything is installed and ready to go.  Being that we are all on bikes, we all wear helmets...even the smallest member of the house.  We found a great helmet that is fully adjustable (and its massively easy to adjust), so it should fit him for a couple of seasons.  Unfortunately, Noah is not so much of a fan of the helmet.  He (HATES) the helmet.  He spent the first solid 10 minutes of the bike ride, which should have been amazingly fun, screaming his head off and trying to rip the helmet off his head.  Once he finally cooled down a bit, I got a look and saw that it needed to be tightened a tad so that it wouldn't keep drifting down near his eye.  Of course adjustments would require that he sit still long enough and not continually attempt to rip the thing off.  This is a work in progress and hopefully, Noah will get the drift that a helmet is non-negotiable and the suffering of a helmet is worth the fun of the ride.  Time will tell.

Finally, Noah and I had our first Baby & Me swim class at the Boy's & Girl's club!  I had a blast, Noah...meh, he could take it or leave it at this point (SOME WHERE IN BETWEEN).  When we first got in the pool I was holding him on my hip, the water hit him and I instantly felt him tighten his grip on me.  We played around and bounced a little before the class actually started and he grew clingy-er and more like a suction cup.  During the class, there was a lot of bouncing and singing and attempting to get the wee man excited about the water.  He wasn't having it until we played Humpty Dumpty (you know, sitting on a wall, "jumping" into the water when Humpty fell), then he was having it, laughing and smiling.  All was well with the world then.  Then we moved onto free play, and he was back to not really caring much about being in the water.  Right before the class finished, we did the Hokey Pokey, and instead of putting arms and legs in, his teeth chattered! :)  Poor dude.  He certainly didn't seem miserable, and this is his first organized class type experience, so hopefully, with some more exposure, he'll start to like it more and get more excited about the whole thing.

Noah-isms

Over the last week or so, I have been noticing some new things around the house.  While some of them are annoying little reminders that from the second a child is born, they are in a fashion attempting to separate themselves from you, others I must record for posterity.  And for review on those days with the annoying reminders get to be too much to handle!

Recent Noah-isms:

When Noah get his hands on a napkin or a tissue he will put it up to his little mouth and blow VERY loud raspberries in it.  I finally figured out what this means.  (Back story: When Tim blows his nose, he does so violently and it honest-to-God sounds like a fog horn).  Noah sees Daddy blowing his nose with the tissue and wants to be JUST like him.  Too much!

Last night at dinner time, I was eating a salad and sharing some croutons and fresh mozzarella.  Noah was munching on fish sticks and sliced carrots.  Lately, his favorite thing is to pick something up (or point to it if it isn't handy), and ask "Dis?"  He likes us to give names to everything, he is after all learning a whole new language worth of vocabulary.  So he picked up a piece of fish stick and says, "Dis?"  I responded, "yes, that is a piece of fish...yummy!"  Instead of being happy with that and eating the piece, he pointed to the fish tank and said "Dat."  He some how put 2 and 2 together in his tiny mind and realized that what was on his plate was fish and what was swimming in the tank is fish.  I don't think he really understands the implications of death and cooking up once live fish and all that nonsense, but it was a little disconcerting when he made the first leap in that direction.

Noah "helped" me get the laundry together last night after dinner.  I sorted all of the piles and went in the basement to get the baskets.  Once I got back and put the baskets out to be filled with the dirty clothes, Noah bent right down to start helping to load the baskets.  He did such a good job keeping the load separated until I decided that it was high time his blanket got a washing, then laundry wasn't such a fun game anymore!

During dinner time he has been getting much better about indicating that he is finished.  Usually we are well aware of the fact ahead of time given the food spitting that begins to take place.  Lately though he has been picking up the bowl or plate, handing it to us and saying "Ah-Duh" (All Done).  While the words need a bit of translation, the gesture is unmistakable..."I am done peeps, take this away before I get tempted to start throwing leftover bits on the floor."

Nearing the end of the plague

Our house has been hit with the plague.  If you were thinking of visiting, I would think again...really, it's for your own good.  I posted earlier about the start of it with Noah on Wednesday night.  He spent all day feeling yucky at home with Daddy on Thursday and then Friday he spent the day feeling yucky and being loved on at Nana Lou's.  She had already had the plague herself, Dante (the probable cause of the plague in the first place) was still throwing up at home, so it was just Noah and Nana Lou.  He got lots of love and attention and she got all the cuddles she could ever want.  Thankfully, I was able to get a lot of work done.  By Thursday evening Tim started to go downhill and by Friday night he was worshipping the porcelain gods.  He stayed home from work on Saturday and hardly moved from the couch the whole day.  I looked after the now mending wee man and kept the house in reasonable condition.  As Tim finally got himself settled back into work on Sunday, I started going downhill and by Sunday evening I made a visit with the gods myself.  I have, you guessed it, spent the entire day on the couch, occasionally getting up long enough to assist with a diaper change or something of the like.  I am beginning to feel like a human being again, just in time for me to teach class tomorrow morning.  Hopefully we are all on the mend and can enjoy next weekend and be in good health for the start of our swimming classes next Monday!  

Happy Birthday Uncle Tim!

Even though Noah's health is still under question and we therefore won't be able to make it to the celebration tomorrow, we wanted to make sure to wish Uncle Tim a Happy 28th Birthday!!

Hope you have an awesome time celebrating, we're sorry to miss it. Next time you are over, we'll have some cake and a belated mini party. Thanks for being such a great uncle, I am sure as the years go on, you and Noah will have such fun together. Many wishes for more excitement and fun in the upcoming year, but hopefully no more cross-country moves!

Happy Birthday Uncle Tim!!!

Oh the laundry...

Wednesday was a wonderful sunny day. Tim took Noah out to play in the backyard and after some lunch and a late morning/early afternoon 3 hour nap, the boys went to the park to play on the slides and the swings and in the grass too. Everyone looked happy and healthy when I walked through the door at 5:30. We got some dinner together, rotini with spaghetti sauce and garlic bread. Noah worked on his "forking" skills and we clapped and praised whenever a bite successfully made the journey to his mouth traveling on the little plastic fork. He was so proud. And while most of the sauce ended up on his face rather than in his mouth, he ate well and all was right with the world. See....

Then we cleaned him up the best we could and played with him in the living room. We laughed and chased each other around the dining room and we pounced on Daddy. When 7:30 rolled around, we started picking up toys and started talking about bath time. I picked him up and just as he settled on my hip, he wretched and I saw the look of concern on his face. I made three giant steps into the dining room, off the carpet and onto the hardwood floors, just in time to see 1/2 the contents of his dinner return from the great beyond. So gross. The floor got it, Noah's mostly naked upper half got it, my shirt was covered. Oh dear I thought, perhaps we played a little too hard after a big meal. So we cleaned up, I showered quickly and got the tub ready for a bath. After a nice tubbie, we got the exhausted little man ready for bed. I got him a bottle (BIG mistake) and we settled in for a little rocking and a story or two. About 1/4 of the way into the bottle, the rest of dinner came up, along with the milk he had just finished. Enter shower #2 of the night for me, change of clothes #2 for me, and a new set of pajamas for Noah. Floors newly cleaned and small man ready for bed again, Tim decided to rock him, no bottle, no milk, no juice, no nothing. Before sleep arrive, more vomiting ensued. The poor washing machine never saw it coming. Now on the list of victims of the stomach bug nightmare are 2 outfits for me, 2 sleepers for Noah, favorite blankie, back-up blankie in case of emergencies, Mr. Waddles the penguin #1 (there are a total of 3 floating around for nights like these), Easter basket monkey friend, 4 burp cloths, 4 bath towels, 1 pair of pants for Tim, a pillow case, and countless rags. I was smart enough to put down bath towels in the crib before we got him down to sleep, but there were 2 changing of the bath towel guards before the silence of the night arrived.

We aren't out of the woods yet, but the worst seems to be over. And we have now officially survived the first solid food throwing up experience, which are not ever to be confused with the spitting up episodes we had occasionally when the wee man was on breast milk only...oh to go back to those days. He is fever-free now and has managed to keep down 2, albeit small and pathetic, solid food meals and quite a bit of Pedialyte. Let's hope the weekend brings a bit less laundry and a healthier little dude. As a side note, we figured out where the plague came from as Nana Lou and Dante (the other little one normally with Nana Lou) were, as she says "throwing," on Wednesday night as well. Is it still too late to put the child in a bubble?

My projects

Its an extremely busy time right now with the end of the semester rush in the very near future, but I wanted to make a list of the projects that I plan on working on the the coming months in attempt to hold myself to them. Some of them are quick and easy, others are more lengthy, but they will all provide me with the opportunity to have some "me time" to do things that I find fun and rewarding. This semester has been so busy, I haven't really had the time to do any of those things, but I am making a pact to be better at it. I'll be more fulfilled myself, which will make me a better Mommy as well.

So far my list includes:
1) Choose & order pictures for Noah's first year scrap book (the book is done courtesy of all of my awesome co-workers...it just needs pictures!)

2) Sew the ribbon edges on to finish the duckie blanket for Noah

3) Make Diaper & Wipes cases (supplies purchased, pattern acquired, need time for sewing)

4) Help design, order supplies, & create earrings for Katherine's wedding jewelry (so excited to help out on this project!)

5) Make a family mini-book with a story about and pictures of all of Noah's closest friends & family so Nana Lou can show it to him every day (and hopefully stop calling all of the Memeres & Peperes Nannies & Pop Pops) **no offense Nana Lou, but we love our French Canadian heritage and we are keeping the Memere tradition going strong!

Check back with me in a month or so and see how I am coming along on my list!

The Easter Bunny was definitely here...

at least a couple of times! Noah, being the first grandchild on both sides, made use of his family status and cashed in on the Easter bunny's visit in a crazy way. Thankfully, there was more to be had that Easter basket fun though, we had just about EVERYONE over here for an at home Easter dinner. What was going to start out as an attempt to keep Noah out of a restaurant for Easter dinner and to lighten the cooking load on Memere B., we decided Tim and I would host Easter dinner this year. We planned the traditional ham dinner with all of the usual fixings...green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, crescent rolls, and pie for dessert. We invited over Memere & Pepere B. and Uncle Tim. Next thing you know, we decided it would be nice to invite all of the grandparents to join the Easter festivities, so Memere L. & Tom came, Aunt Beth, Pepere L. & Nana, great Aunt Pris came, and Uncle Tim's friend Elsie. Yes, you counted right, including Tim, Noah, and I, that is 13 people in our small place!!! Sadly Pepere B. was very under the weather, so he had to stay home and rest, but we did indeed do dinner for 12 (and with how much Noah ate, he definitely counted as a whole big person yesterday!). We had a great time hanging out with family, so much fun in fact that we forgot to take pictures...sad. We do have a few from Easter morning before Noah got all dressed up for the day though. He was opening his Easter basket that the Bunny left at home. Next year we are going all out with an Easter egg hunt and based off of the success of Beth's bunny tracks, we will probably borrow that tradition as well!! But for now, check out the stash of fun things that the Easter Bunny left Noah.

Easter Bunny's Basket at Home

3 new books

Sand wheel toy

bucket

shovel

rake

fish sand mold

dump truck

New monkey friend (in need of a name)

Evidence that the Easter Bunny has remembered Noah

Thoroughly checking out the contents of his basket. "Hey, there isn't any chocolate in here...what gives?"

"Vroom, vroom" says the dump truck.

The Easter Bunny also dropped off some baskets and packages at other people's houses for Noah. They were kind enough to hand deliver them to the wee man. The Easter bunny left a super soft bunny and an impressive chocolate bunny at Aunt Pris's place, an awesome John Deere shirt at Pepere L. & Nana's house, 2 balls, a sand castle, a small dune buggy, some baby chocolate bunnies, a bunny puppet book, and another sand wheel toy at Memere & Pepere B.'s house, and a big basket of goodies at Memere L. & Tom's house that had a wee man sized lawn mower, 2 books, a small white chocolate bunny, a bucket, a big shovel, and lots of fun shaped sand molds. **I probably forgot some stuff, if so, sorry and no offense...before I could take pictures or inventory Noah started playing and distributing it all over the house!!

I am so glad we got the chance to spend time with everyone, the food was wonderful and being able to get everyone together (minus poor Pepere B. who was missed) to share time with Noah really was the best part of all. Hope everyone else had a wonderful Easter as well. We'll try to be better about pictures in the coming weeks! :)

They've kidnapped my car!

Okay, so I hate bringing my car to the shop.  I hate bringing it for an oil change, I hate bringing it for routine maintenance, I hate everything about it.  I wish I could trade in my car and get a new one every time it starts needing work done.  It never ends well for my psyche or our bank account.  Over the last week or so, my car has been making a supremely annoying squeaking noise...like drive nails through my eyeballs annoying...make it stop immediately.  Since it was already overdue for an oil change (because I have been avoiding taking it in), I decided I needed to bite the bullet and make an appointment.  Now our lives are already busy enough with the 40+ minute commutes, the long work days, the carting around of the toddler to and from Nana Lou's, but when you remove one of our cars from the situation, things get scary.  So I scheduled the car for yesterday when I was already supposed to be at MGH scanning and Tim had the day off.  I figured worst case scenario, the boys could drop me off in the morning and I could take public transportation home.  We dropped the car off at 7:30am so the guys at Midas would have ALL DAY to  look at the car and work on it.  When I dropped it off, I begged and pleaded to have the car back by the end of the day since we really didn't have any good way to pick up the car after that and with my massively behind schedule work load, Noah needed to go see Nana Lou so I could be productive at home.  (You see where this is going right?)

So I am off scanning, I take the shuttle, the T, and the bus to get back home, and we have lunch.  By 2pm, we still hadn't heard a darn thing from the shop about the car, which means the jerks haven't even looked at it yet!!!  Tim calls to check in, they admit they haven't looked at it yet.  So by my count now, they had had the car for 6 and a half hours and had done NOTHING!  They called at 2:30 saying there was a crack in the fan belt and the harmonic stabilizer was very unbalanced, both of which would cause all of that annoying squeaking.  With the oil change, the estimate is $460!  Awesome!  Tim's next question was "Will it be ready to pick up today?"  The guy says, "It should be ready."  Okay, good.  So we go out to run errands and at about 5:15 (the shop closes at 5:30), we stopped by to try and pick up the car.  The mechanic comes flying out whining about how complicated of a job it is and he can't rush it because if he screwed something up, then he would have to take the whole engine block out and BLAH, BLAH, BLAH (incidentally, this is the same guy who decided in his infinite wisdom that he wouldn't change out my brakes the first time I brought the car in to "give me a few more thousand miles on the brakes" and when I brought the car in the second time a few months later complaining of squeaky brakes he said not only did I need new brakes, but I also needed new rotors.  He also said I should be thanking him for not charging me and replacing my brakes the first time because I got extra mileage out of the brakes...um, no jerk, if I had gotten the brakes done the first time, I might not have needed the new rotors too).  Long story short, there is no way that they will give me back my car, and hopefully it will be done tomorrow!!!  

Now, let me temper my anger a bit.  I am not mad that it is a long job and he is "taking his time" to do the job right.  These things happen and they need to get taken care of since we intend to keep this car for at least another 3 years or so.  What I am raging mad about is their complete lack of basic customer service.  Keep the poor customers informed of what is going on...that is what you pay the guy at the desk for isn't it, to answer phones and call people about their cars????  I am also quite peeved about the fact that I scheduled an appointment, and when I scheduled the appointment, I asked if they were going to be busy that day, they assured me they would not be.   In spite of all of this they never looked at my car until 2pm and what could have been done in a day had they looked at the car early was now going to be a multi-day missing car experience.  This is not the first time this has happened.  This is now multiple times that I have dropped my car off at this place and spent the rest of the day hoping, worrying, and wondering if I am going to have my car back at the end of the day.  One time we dropped the car off for an oil change and a 90,000 mile tune up, the car was apparently finished at 3pm, but nobody bothered to call us.  Tim called right before they close to check up on the car and they obviously said, yes, its done, but you'll have to pick it up tomorrow because we are closed!!!  What tremendous customer service!  Do they think we have a 3rd car floating around here as a spare just in case they decide to keep ours for an extra day or so just for kicks???  Needless to say that is the last time we are bringing any of our cars there.  I would rather pay a bit extra and know that I am getting treated decently.  One more time dealing with the whiny mechanic there may be just the thing I need to go over the edge.  Hopefully I will get my car back this afternoon, maybe not.  But, in the mean time Tim had to go in late so he could drop Noah off at Nana Lou's and he has to leave work a bit early so he can pick up Noah and then drop me off at the shop to hopefully pick up my car before he goes off to class.  So help those guys at Midas if my car isn't ready this afternoon... 

Chaos and drama

Whew, what a busy stretch we are in right now.  Both Tim and I are beyond ready for the end of our respective semesters.  I have about 3 weeks left of teaching or so and then I will have finished my first and last semester as a professor at BC.  I am only teaching 1 course, which is a god send since it is a new prep (meaning I have to create all of the lectures, assignments, & exams from scratch) and I am also trying to be a mommy, and continue doing my other full-time research.  As you might guess, its not going swimmingly and I am always behind on something work related.  This past Friday an abstract was due for a conference I am planning to attend in June.  This entails analyses to be mostly finished and discussed and a short paragraph to be written that highlights the rationale for the research, how we tested the research questions, and what the results indicated.  That would all be well and good except I was planning on talking at the conference about some fMRI analyses, which take FOREVER to do.  I started a few weeks ago and was plugging away at it, so by Friday morning when I had finally gotten all of the major preliminary analyses done (which usually ends up being about 85% of all of the analysis done on a project), I was about ready to collapse.  And as you might guess, with all of the analyses I was doing, there was a LOT of course prep work that wasn't getting done, so now I am massively behind on that...I give a lecture on Tuesday after Easter on a chapter I haven't even read yet...NOT GOOD!  In addition to that I will have nineteen 5-8 page term papers coming in over the next couple weeks, 2 more chapters to create lectures for, a final exam to write, and then all of the end semester grading to do.  The good news is come Friday May 8th I will have everything done and all of the grades submitted...I can make it until then right? (Did I mention I have another abstract due on May 15th for another conference???...Somebody help me!)

Speaking of class, I have had some extra drama to deal with over the last week or so as well.  I gave an exam on Thurs. March 26th.  This was the second exam of the semester, so if shouldn't have been as nerve-wracking as the first one.  Nevertheless, the following Tuesday after grades had been distributed, I get an email from my TA who informs me that she was approached after class by 2 students who claim there were 2 other students in the class who were clearly cheating!  What??? I thought these were supposed to be adults?  Nope, I was wrong, some of them are just as bad as kindergartners.  Supposedly one student had roaming eyes, which I of course can neither prove nor deny since I wasn't told about it until almost a week later (Funny thing is I was sitting at the front of the class checking on people to make sure that sort of thing didn't happen!).  A different student was accused of studying her notes in the bathroom in between essay questions and it was also suggested that she even attempted to consult another classmate about the answers while in the restroom!  I believe this claim wholeheartedly, the background of the student, the trustworthiness of the accuser, the lengthy disappearance of the accused student during the exam.  It all just seems fishy, but again, not much I can do about it since I don't have direct evidence that I can bring to say, the dean.  Believe me though when I say things will be changing for the final exam.  I will be creating multiple versions of the  test and there will be no additional time given to complete the exam.  Bathroom breaks will be more scrutinized...doesn't this all sound a little like preschool?  

In other news, we came within inches of deciding to move at the end of our current least (which ends May 31st).  Our landlord sent us an email indicating that he would be raising the rent $100 a month should we decide to stay for the next year.  He claims increases in his taxes, I have neither confirmed nor denied this claim.  He is also quite a source of annoyance when anything goes wrong in the place, which it does occasionally as he is the worlds largest cheap skate when it comes to building maintenance.  If it is the cheapest possible route to take while still maintaining legality, he is all over it.  For a number of reasons, including the annoying landlord, we had been tossing around the idea of moving (no insulation really any where, the obnoxious woman upstairs from us, the lack of any heat at all in the kitchen...general things that makes us pine away for our own house daily).  I was mentioning some of this to a colleague at work, who mentioned that his sister-in-law had a place available a couple towns north and it was really nice.  He sent pictures and I was excited, its a condo unit in an old renovated (well-renovated I might add) church building.  There is a lot of character, but there were also all stainless steel appliances, marble counter tops, and extra 1/2 bathroom and a few other amenities.  Theoretically it sounded perfect until we got to the part where there was no back yard, it was on the 3rd floor (lugging strollers up and down 2 flights does not sound like fun), and it is smaller than our current place with less storage room.  All in all, Tim and I would have moved there in a heartbeat if it was just the two of us.  But to pack up all of our stuff and move everything and unsettle our whole lives for 1 year (hopefully next year's job hunt will actually result in a job where we can buy a house), only to lose the back yard space where Noah can actually play this summer is sadly not worth it.  So here we shall stay, annoying landlord and all.  Oh well, let's hope this is the last year. 

Other than the apartment visit, we had a pretty quiet weekend.  Tim, Noah, and I spent part of the afternoon on Sunday at the "squishy" park on the other side of the river.  It is dubbed the "squishy" park since the whole thing is situated on that springy rubber stuff, so when you walk its, well...squishy!  Noah loves it there since its a huge park and we let him run all over.  I like it because he doesn't get hurt when he starts moving too fast and inevitably falls.  Hopefully some pictures of Noah playing at the "squishy" park will show up here soon!

Thankfully with all of the chaos lately, I do have a "shorter" week this week.  I am only actually going to be on campus Monday & Tuesday (and Tuesday's class is a movie day!).  Wednesday I am scanning at MGH, and Thursday and Friday I will be at home working like a mad woman at the kitchen table while Noah hangs out with Nana Lou.  Hopefully I can be super productive and actually have a lecture to give next Tuesday!

4) weekend happenings

Sometimes all we need is a good naked run around the table!!

After the week the two of us have had, we thought we would share with you a clip we took on monday of Noah. He had decided to sip and spit, a fun new game of his, so his clothes were soaked. Seeing as it was a bath night and all, we decided to let the little guy run around a bit in the buff, with the heat cranked of course. Apparently we don't need to purchase new toys to give the guy a good time, all we need to do is strip him down to nothing, as he LOVED every minute of it!! All he kept doing was running around and around the table, laughing the whole time. Frankly, it was exhausting just watching him! After the week we had, we both needed something to look back at and laugh along with, and we wanted to share it all with you.

As for my week, someone decided that it would be a good idea to sell a dozen large (white or brown) eggs for 97 cents. Again, that is 97 cents!! We are a week removed from easter and everyone wants eggs. Just out of curiosity I did an inquiry this morning to see how many I have sold so far this week. This is friday morning and I still had all day friday and all day saturday to do some more sales, however, as of this morning I had sold over 10,000 units of eggs. That's 10,000 dozen, or rather 120000 eggs!!! That is just sheer madness!! On tuesday, I had recieved 4 pallets of large brown eggs. There are 30 cases per pallet, and 30 dozen per case, so 900 dozen eggs per pallet. I called the egg people at 1 in the afternoon because I had already sold 2.5 pallets of the stupid eggs!! When the sale is over I will have probably gone through 16 pallets of eggs. I will be very glad when the week is over, to say the least. Oh yeah, on top of the eggs, we also had 24pks of water on sale for $2.99, which is also insanity!! It's an unheard of price, and as of this morning had sold almost 1200 of those as well.

Anyways, on to the goods!! Enjoy!!

I owe this blog some pictures

We are still having some huge issues with Tim's franken-computer at home, so I haven't been able to continue with my usual system of downloading pictures directly from the camera onto the external hard drive connected to his machine. Instead I am occasionally downloading pictures to my work laptop or bringing the camera in to work and downloading the pictures onto my PC, which also has a hard drive. This week I decided enough was enough and brought home my PC to reorganize all of the pictures and back them up both on this machine and on the external hard drive, which now doesn't really have a home. We desperately need to get Tim a new computer, but we are kind of waiting to see where things go in other departments before we make any moves. Hopefully in the next month or so we can at least get him a basic machine so the poor guy can at least have a machine with USB 2.0 connections! What a mess!

So without further adieu, a few of my favorites from the last month and a half or so.

Apparently, when you don't have to work, its a much more exciting prospect. Noah is all too happy to try on Daddy's name badge and take it for a spin.

Thoroughly enjoying the Valentine's day cupcake that we gave him. Not as messy as the birthday cake, but it was only 1/4th the size.

Over the last few months, Noah has been gradually getting better about feeding himself and has been trying out countless new foods. Here he is demonstrating the alternate ways of eating blueberry pancakes (i.e., stick blueberries to your nose and leave them there for the duration of the meal). At least he is having fun! :)

This is what happens when Mommy gets cabin fever and tries to do water play time without the proper equipment. Noah decided, hey, I like tubbie time, the water is warm, let's jump in. He is fully clothed, swelling diaper and all in the dish pan of warm water. Needless to say there was a monster clean up after this adventure!

Speaking of tubbie time, we got Noah some bubble bath. Here is what he did with it the first time we put it in the tub (and every other time too!). Nice bubble goatee dude!

Since Noah has become a lot more mobile in the last month and a half or so, he has been getting into a lot more things. The child proofing has been kicked up a bit and as a result, this was the only evening he has managed to get in to this cabinet. At least he did a good job of it while the fun lasted.

Checking out life on the other side of the play structure at the Children's Museum. It is so much fun to watch him explore on his own now that he is walking!

Tearing apart all of Memere & Pepere B.'s old videotapes. Hey people, you snooze and don't Noah proof, you lose!

As is typical of most childhoods, we had to stick Noah in the hamper. Leave it to him to be totally thrilled the whole time.


What an accomplishment and a huge relief to know that all of the pictures are now organized and backed up safely in another location! Now all I have to do is write an update about the week, but that will come after we have some fun this weekend. All work and no play makes for boring blog posts.