Friday, February 24, 2006

BAA! I said. BAA!

Baby nightmares. Patchy sleep. Tired mama. ‘Nuff said.

I burnt my arm with my hairdryer this morning. It’s so ridiculous I can hardly believe it happened. The brush attachment fell off while I was using it and fell in the crook of my arm, burning my flesh with white hot metal. Lovely, really. And this afternoon I have to take the boy to City Hall to get a certified copy of my marriage certificate. If you don’t know anything about toddlers, you’ve got to know how much they love standing quietly in line to fill out paperwork. It should be sublime.

I need some new music. I’m SO sick of listening to the same stuff. I went down to the basement on Saturday to find something different to listen to among our CD piles and came up with nothing but ABBA Gold. SAD. I’ve been listening to ABBA for almost a week now. Sadder still. Any recommendations?

I’ve got some new Noah stuff to report:

He’s enthralled by animals and animal noises. Of course in his world most animals apparently say “Baaa.” I got him a book at the library called “What do you say?” and it asks what you should say to each of the animals. Noah loves it. I’ve read it FAR too many times. But the punchline in the book asks “What do you say to a little fish?.... Hello little fish.” Noah loves it. He’s started waving and saying “Hello” to every fish picture. And yesterday morning he picked up the book himself and said “Hello fish.” Though it sounded more like “Aaaaah-ooooo Eeesh.”

So we all know he likes to stack blocks. But did you know that now when he knocks them over he says “DOWN” and bends over to touch his head to the carpet. He’s also started stacking our groceries. He tries to balance boxes of spaghetti, cous cous and pilaf on top of each other, and he gets frustrated when he can’t balance anything on the thin neck of the barbecue sauce.

One of Noah’s proudest accomplishments is learning how to get up and down out of the wooden chair in our office. He thinks he’s the king now. One day he decided he HAD to sit in it, but he couldn’t get up. So I’d put him in it, he’d sit back proudly and then clamor down by himself. It became time consuming and boring to keep boosting him up, so I remembered the little plastic bathroom stool we have and put it at the base of the chair so he could climb up himself. He was in love. Now he gets up and down to his hearts content, all the while saying “up” and “down.”

When my mom was here on Sunday she played the shell game with Noah. She put two shaker eggs under two of three cups and then shuffled them around before letting Noah pick them up. He loves it. Next we teach him three card Monty. He’s also started coloring with me, which is kind of a relief. I was a bit worried that he had very little interest in drawing before, but it just wasn’t yet his time. The funny thing is he only likes to color on top of what I have already colored. Forget blank space, he’s all about layering.

There was more… I know there was. Of course there is always more. I guess I’ll save it for later.

Yesterday afternoon Tripp and his mom Holly came over for lunch. It was nice to have some company. Tripp’s still a bit high spirited for Noah, he’s got boundless and unbridled energy and enthusiasm that he expresses by running back and forth while letting out high pitched screams of joy. But this time rather than crying Noah just smiled and pointed at Tripp as if to say “Did you see that?” It was kind of funny. And Holly left us with a giant plate of chocolates, cookies and brownies. Obviously because she’s evil.

This weekend my 10 y.o. sister Jessica will be visiting us. I’m picking her up tonight. Tomorrow afternoon we go to a bowling birthday party for Noah’s little friend Frannie’s mom. Not sure what else we’re going to get up to this weekend, though we’ll probably go out to eat at one point or another. I like to have special things to do when Jess is here, but I’m not sure what that is this time. We shall see.

Have a good weekend!

11 comments:

hazel said...

eeeooo, issheee. I love it. he's such a little man-man.

why do you need a cert copy of your marriage certificate, I wonder? I carry a raised-seal copy of mine in my wallet in case anyone wonders why my credit card name doesn't match my license. I'm such a procrastinator.

and the music thing - you guys have like 40gazillion cds, and you can't find anything to listen to??????

oh! and ask jessica if that was her on the news! I dvr'd it. it looks just like her.

Anonymous said...

My God, Noah and Shmoo are twins separated a birth! S. is also down with the animal noises and is intrigued with sitting in big person chairs! (I'll have to try the stool trick--thanks.) Turning light switches on and off and "helping" feed the cats and unload the dishwasher are also current obsessions. And pointing to nose, ears, eyes, etc. when we name them. I say this with every age, but it's such a fun age!

Marksthespot said...

Madam Afeet, have you any recent photos of this boy you describe? I scanned the entire current front page of entries in your blog but saw none.

thelyamhound said...

I need some new music . . . Any recommendations?

Based on your profile, and taking care to avoid any of my less strictly "listenable" tangents . . . If you like the White Stripes, I recommend the Kills (not to be confused with the Killers), another bluesy-rock two-piece outfit, this one with primarily female vocals, with shades of early P.J. Harvey and Captain Beefheart. TV on the Radio make great art-pop; think early Peter Gabriel by way of Dukes of Stratosphere era XTC. If you're feeling a little more daring, the latest album by Animal Collective, Feels, is their most accessible, and is achingly pretty when it isn't playfully languishing in heady dissonance.

For hiphop . . . I, like you, enjoy Outkast, but I don't know much party hip-hop; my tastes tend toward the more political end of the hip-hop spectrum (and if you're interested in that, Seattle's the Blue Scholars got GAME, and I've always love Aesop Rock). But an interesting foray into the weirdly whimsical can be had with the Danger/Doom release (with Dangermouse on noises and MF Doom on words). RJD2 is also a DJ I really like in underground hip-hop (and if you can track it down, he remixes Aesop Rock's "Kill 'em All" using a sample from King Crimson's "21st Century Schizoid Man"--priceless).

Stine said...

I was gonna answer the music question, but then I saw that my rainman husband beat me to it.

What other general genres do you like?

Jen O. said...

I'll make you a CD if you want. I know our tastes aren't quite identical, but maybe there will be something you like on it. At least it'll be some variety.

I know over the summer you really enjoyed the Spoon CD. Do you have their older stuff?

Have you heard "Shackamaxon" by Slo-Mo? I think you and Noah would enjoy it.

thelyamhound mentioned Animal Collective. I could put some of that on the CD if you want, but it's not quite dance-around-the-house, sing-along music. Animal Collective is to late spring what Sigur Rós is to winter, I think.

thelyamhound said...

Animal Collective is to late spring what Sigur Rós is to winter, I think.

Astute observation. Well put.

I just had acupuncture yesterday, and Sigur Ros was playing in the background. My acupuncturist noted that she doesn't really listen to them aside from at work, and I can sort of see why. I think it'd be a little to dreary to listen to outside of a body work setting--it was slow and moody like Mogwai, but without the edifying bursts of MBV-style dissonance.

BTW--Where is Sigur Ros from? We knew it was somewhere in northern Europe, but . . . Iceland? Greenland? Somewhere in Scandinavia?

NME said...

I can try to sum up my musical taste in a nutshell. I like big rock sounds and attitude on catchy songs that don’t stray too far from pop basics, but are still pretty heavy on the rhythm. And that applies to both my taste in rock, hip hop, dance and even world music.

I’m not really into emo, lo-fi or anything too experimental. Pop song structure is pretty key too me. And as Mark points out I lean towards acts with charismatic performers.

Did that make any sense?

thelyamhound said...

Given that, are you familiar with Pigeonhed? Seattle outfit featuring vocalist Shawn Smith (from Brad) and producer/keyboardist Steve Fisk doing a mix of Phil Spector-ish, wall-of-sound pop and dirty soul with big, fat techno/hip-hop beats. Highly recommended. Also, Maktub--another Seattle neo-soul/rock band (think early Stevie Wonder with a dash of Barry White, riding on big, Zeppelin-esque riffs).

NME said...

Those sound right up my alley. I'll have to have Mark donwload some stuff for me. Thanks!
I'll report back.

Jen said...

That is cool that Noah is an animal lover. How could he be anything but with the name Noah? It is too cute.