Photos from the front

On Sunday we made a trip to Grandma's house so Noah could spend some time with his cousins (second or once removed?) Evan and Aelan. And afterwards we went out to dinner with Pa Joe. It was a gorgeously beautiful family-rific day.


We took advantage of the gorgeous spring day on Tuesday and headed to the zoo. Along with the rest of the free world. Noah got SO excited when he saw the zoo train that he nearly ran in front of it. He pleaded to ride. Wendy and I scraped together the $6 it took to put the kids on the ride and just before it started Noah panicked and said he didn't want it to go. I promptly took him off and offered Wendy his place. Noah's been reliving that drama for days now and I have promised numerous times that he and I will ride together next time.



Last night we went to South Philly to meet Jen & Mark's new puppy Hugo. He's a very sweet and sassy French Bulldog. Hugo was a bit too puppy rambunctious for Noah to really enjoy him - what with all the licking, chewing and frolicking. But he talked about him alot today, while I just kept wishing we were still having pizza with Jen & Mark and Marra's. YUM.

The size of things

This is for you evil folks who keep emailing me asking for a belly shot. Yes - I still have three months yet. And YES - there is just ONE in there.

Let them eat cake?

If you haven't yet read it, please check out this article "You are what you grow."

"The article is about the Farm Bill, and the choices we make as a nation to subsidize the least-nutritious commodity agricultural products, at the expense of the healthy stuff. He describes the consequences that these choices have on our health, as well as our environment, immigration policy, our schools, and more."

And once you've read it, and feel adequately overwhelmed and outraged - please follow the call to action put forth in the comments section of this post. It only takes a second to send an email to congress. Thanks again to Allison for bringing it, and so much more to my attention.

Oxfam has provided the following nutshell synopsis of the Farm Bill issue, but please read the article for more enlightening detail:

"This year, Congress will debate a new Farm Bill, which for five years will set policies that could either help small farmers at home and abroad-or keep them struggling.

The current Farm Bill represents a broken promise to America's farmers and rural communities, and it falls short of meeting its obligations to families that depend on food stamps and conservation programs that protect rivers and streams. To make things worse, the current Farm Bill actually hurts poor farmers in developing countries.

Please contact your members of Congress today using the letter below (available HERE) and ask them to create a Farm Bill that reduces misguided subsidies and shifts those resources to support the programs that really need the money.

Members of Congress listen to their constituents. Your voice could make all the difference! Use it now to tell Congress to put your tax money to work for farmers, families, and our future."

Hairy saucy dizzy eggys?

KEYWORDY
I mentioned on Patrice's blog that because I blog so infrequently I will occasionally keep a list of keywords near the computer so that when I get around to it I can remember what stories I wanted to tell. Of course this means my posts are now insanely long, seemingly random and probably a pain in the ass to read. So I've decided to use some keywords within the posts to break up the random tidbitiness and confusion. Hope it helps. Someone.

HAIRY
A few of you caught me. Despite mentioning in a prior post that I left my hair long at my most recent shearing, you noticed the short hair in the circus photo. Well after that hair-lamenting post and viewing a horrible photo taken of me at Easter- I had a mini-meltdown and went into the nearest cheap chop shop to get an emergency haircut. The length was just feeling stringy and sad – and it was decidedly not complimenting my round face shape. I couldn’t really spend a lot of cash on another cut with my preferred stylist – so I went to Jane Doe at the Cuttery and said “Cut off everything below this layer.” Well, actually I tried to explain in more detail a more complicated cut but she obviously wasn’t following – so it became “Forget that – just bob it.” The result isn’t the hippest haircut in the world. I’m sure if I went to my stylist she would have done a lot more tapering and razoring – but it feels a million times better than it did. And that’s good enough.

SAUCY
Last Saturday we went to a unique gathering at our friend Holly’s place – it was a pasta sauce tasting. Holly and her neighbor are endeavoring to start a business marketing pasta sauce – and so they had a research tasting to determine which sauces were the best. We tasted and scored 12 sauces and also indicated our top three. I was really impressed with how amazingly good the sauce was – and I picked the spicy sauce, the goat cheese & mushroom sauce, and the bacon lovers sauce as my favorites. I’ll be sure to let you know when you can buy them at your local grocery store or Target. And the party itself was tons of fun too – we got to hang with a few friends while the kids played happily. Good stuff.

DIZZY
We had no plans on Sunday – so we asked Noah what was on his agenda. He asked that we go to Franklin Mills Mall and ride the rides. In the past this meant walking him around to the different rides so he could pretend to drive them – but not spending a dime since he doesn’t really want them to move. However this time he said he wanted them to go. Mark and I were nearly giddy with excitement when we took our boy to the mall with pockets full of quarters. Needless to say thirty seconds after we put quarters in the first ride Noah said “I’m DONE” and no matter how we tried we couldn’t get him to let us put quarters in anything. At least he’s a cheap date.

SWIMMY
After Noah and Victor’s last art class on Monday we took them to the YMCA to get them memberships and sign them up for swim lessons. Afterwards we got changed and took a dip in the pool. The water was a bit cool and at first I assumed Noah was asking to get out because of the temperature, until I realized he was a little afraid of the water. It took a couple of minutes to pacify his fears and get him to splash around a bit until he got totally into it and didn’t want to leave. He reacted the same way at the beginning of the pool season last year and by the end he was a regular water baby. I plan to take him once a week for fun and next Saturday he’ll start the swim class. Mark will probably take him to those. It will be a good bonding experience for them both – and also I won’t have to whale around in the pool twice a week.

SPOOKY
On Monday night Noah stayed home to play with Mark while I had a solo-Mom date with the grocery store. Maybe I’m a slow shopper, or maybe it’s that I buy so much food – but it normally takes me about an hour to shop from start to finish – not including driving, unloading or unpacking time. I was three quarters through my shopping trip when the lights went out in the Super Fresh. I was flabbergasted. We all were. At first I continued to look for crackers in the dark – there was some light coming in the front windows of the store – assuming that they would snap on in a moment. But soon it was clear that wasn’t going to happen. I called Mark to tell him of the odd development. A woman next to me snickered when I said to him “Everyone’s just standing around with full carts looking really pissed off.” Eventually a store manager came around and told people they had to ask everyone to leave the store. Still people lingered, not wanting to abandon their carts. Surely the lights would be on momentarily. One woman who had been shopping with her THREE kids looked like she was going to cry. “I’ve had to deal with four temper tantrums here and now THIS!” I finally gave up and filed out with everyone else and was amazed to realize that it wasn’t a local power outage – the other shops in the shopping center were still operating. By the time I got home downhearted and empty handed Noah was already reenacting the power outage. It was such a stunning story that as soon as Mark got off the phone with me and told Noah the lights went out in the Super Fresh Noah asked to go get his shopping cart so he could act it out. It’s been a whole week and except for a trip to Trader Joe’s to stock up on some favorites and necessities I haven’t been on a full scale shopping trip. And several times a day I think “Where are the razors/apple juice/crackers I just bought?” before realizing that I never did get around to purchasing the damn stuff. That some sad Super Fresh employee had to empty my cart and put it back on the shelf.

EGGY
I was certain that in the days following Easter we would be doing nine egg hunts a day. And I was stunned when there wasn’t a mere mention of an egg hunt for a whole week. Imagine my surprise then when the egg hunting craze reared its ugly head later with no warning and Mark and I have been forced to hide and hunt eggs endlessly.

DROPSY
A couple of weeks ago I did a lot of babysitting of Noah’s pals – three of them on different occasions within one week. One night Noah started saying something about me dropping him. At first I thought he was telling me a story about a time I dropped him, but I didn’t remember dropping him so it wasn’t making sense. Then he said something to the effect of “No. Like Kate drop Ella. And Wendy drop Victor.” And I realized he was talking about how their Mamas dropped them off at our house to play. And then I understood he was ASKING me to take him someplace and drop him off – to leave him at a friend’s house. I was amazed – and a mixed bag of emotions. But mostly I was proud that not only was my little boy ready to have a bit of time away from his Mama – but also able to articulate it. This week I dropped Noah at Wendy’s house while I went downtown to get labs done for my glucose test and more iron screening. When I was leaving he turned to me from their table and said “I’ll miss you Mama” and then went back to nonchalantly eating his breakfast. I was gone a little less than two hours and Wendy said he was happy and sweet – but that he started get a bit quiet right before I got back. I think that both Noah and I felt really proud though – and it made me realize just how grown up he is becoming. Oh, and also how lucky I am to have access to a wonderful circle of local mothers who not only can I trust to watch Noah in a pinch, but also that Noah WANTS to spend time with.

BITCHY
And finally I have a tale of consumer woe for you. It’s a long story, but I’ll TRY to abridge it a bit. Last year Mark did our taxes with Turbotax and we got a nice sized refund (sadly not so this year.) Mark mentioned they had a deal with Expedia where you could allot $250 of your refund to buy a $300 Expedia gift card. Mark and I scanned the fine print and since there didn’t appear to be any weird limitations listed and because it seemed like a good way to force us to put money aside to go on some sort of vacation we decided to do it. But in the year that followed I tried several times to try to use it for possible vacation scenarios and the Expedia rates and locations were still too high and inconvenient so we never used it. But we decided we wanted to use it on a trip at the beginning of this May – a little trip someplace close for just the three of us while there was just three of us. We had no real destination in mind except we didn’t really want to drive more than three hours. So Mark started working up sample vacation destinations and itineraries on Expedia. I had mentioned Pennsylvania Dutch Country because I knew that Noah would enjoy the farms and trains in the area and it would be a great way just to get out of the concrete jungle. But Mark was eying the Chesapeake Bay area since we’d never been – and with his trip planning he won me over. However when he tried to book it online he wasn’t able to apply our gift card. In a series of three different phone calls with Expedia – totaling approximately four hours – we were informed that we had to choose an “Expedia Special Rate” hotel – of which there were none available to book in Chesapeake Bay. We also found out that we had to spend the entire $300 gift card on our hotel stay, not including fees. And since we didn’t want to spend any additional money for our lodging it took FOREVER to find a hotel that cost exactly the right amount of money without going over or under. In the end we finally booked a hotel in Lancaster for three nights, though we originally only wanted to travel for two. But we were so relieved to finally book the damn thing. All that vacation planning caused us to need a damn vacation. Luckily we leave a week from next Saturday and now we can look forward to it. And FYI Expedia sucks.

Greatest Show on Earth

Our circus night was a roaring success. Noah LOVED it and will be acting things out for weeks to come. And to ensure some authenticity we purchased the souvenir DVD - which we are currently watching for the second time this morning. The best part of the show was the one hour pre-show that started an hour before showtime. We got to go down on the floor and see some of the acts close-up, including the gentleman to the left to whom Noah referred to as "that flippin' clown."

From the mouths

- Noah has offered his own wisdom to the baby naming debate. Since we've been trying to decide between Ray, Konrad and Cyrus he's suggested Rayus and Konray. Oh, and Ice Cream.

- On Thursday it seemed impossible to get Noah out of the house for playgroup. He kept playing with everything in the vicinity as if it were his favorite toy ever and they should never be parted. I said "I'm going to go see our friends at playgroup. I would really like it if you would come with me." To which he replied "I want to stay trapped in the house."

- The other night I ran out for an errand just before bedtime. When I came back Mark and Noah were playing upstairs. I started asking questions to discover if our bedtime ritual had begun. "Daddy, did you get Noah's water?" "No." "Did you get Noah's pajamas?" "Not yet." "Okay, I'll go get both." At which point Noah turned to Mark with a very serious look on his face and said "We didn't do anything."

- I don't make Noah sandwiches. He prefers to make his own. I cut up pieces of bread, cheese and meat and he assembles them. Today while he was constructing ham and cheese sandwiches he asked if I was eating ham. I told him "No. I'm having tuna fish. Would you like some?" Noah paused and said "No thank you. I'm not a big fan of tuna fish sandwiches."

- Whether it's nature or nurture I can't say, but it sure is odd to see your kid adopt some of your quirks. As Mark said this evening "He's my kid when he's shy and won't talk to anyone but then wants to put on shows. He's your kid when he eats cheese, won't let you zip anything all the way up to the neck and doesn't like his food touching."

Higgeldy Piggeldy

Despite the decided lack of Spring-like weather and fertile natural rebirth that I consider Easter to be a celebration of, our Easter was rather delightful. Noah enjoyed hunting for eggs four times, and received a landslide of art supplies, toys and candy. We saw a bevy of family at two lovely gluttonous meals – and everyone seemed happy and to be having a fine time. I was very impressed by the fact that not only did my Dad hide eggs for Noah in 38 degree weather – he also had dyed them himself. And I was overjoyed watching Noah scampering around Grandma’s house with his cousins – those by blood, and those soon to be by marriage. It was really a nice day. Some folks dread the family functions, and I admit at times I have been in that camp. But with Noah I have a newfound appreciation for our family circle and how much love we get.

I have a bunch of pedestrian mis-matched stuff to mention, so please bear with me while I get some of this out there. First off I have to talk about something that has been causing me great agony – my hair. I got it cut a couple of weeks ago and though at first I didn’t mind it much, over time I’ve grown to hate it. And you know how when you get your haircut and noone comments on it you can tell it looks BAD – because if it looked good at all people would compliment you on it. There are a few problems. First off – I now have bangs. My problem with this is that bangs don’t work for me. By the end of the day they are oily and not lying correctly and I want nothing more than to get them out of my face. The second problem is that the cut is probably too long for my face shape, which is totally my fault because I’ve been hanging on to length as a novelty. The third issue is color – my hair has been it’s natural mousy brown for about two years now and I’m very sick of it. Because I never stopped nursing and I did a bunch of hair color/cancer research for a freelance client – I swore off dying my hair. And as I get older it gets more dark and mucky looking. I hate it. But I’m pregnant and afraid to do anything about it. Plus – it’s so pricey to get color and it’s a never-ending cycle of dying roots and whatnot. And speaking of pregnancy, color and hate – I’ll also mention that I’ve been meaning to whiten my teeth for three years now. I told myself I would do it as a reward for quitting smoking three years ago (YAY Me!) but because of the nursing and the chemicals I’ve kept putting it off. And after ten years of smoking they REALLY need it. REALLY. So yeah – I’m getting bigger by the minute, have bad skin, bad hair and yellow teeth. I’m a real winner.

On a more positive note – I’m very excited we made it on the list to join the Greensgrow CSA this year. With all the commentary (and blogs) I’ve read on the importance of eating more naturally and more locally – I think this is going to be a great step for us. Not only does the CSA provide fruit and greens – they also include milk, eggs, meat, fresh flowers, bread and the occasional local beer! It should be fun and challenging to figure out what we can make with everything we receive each week. I’ll keep you posted on any fun recipe discoveries.

I have a bunch of other stuff on the local front. A couple of weeks ago, thanks to all Mark’s efforts to help green our neighborhood, we got a street tree planted in front of our house. Right now Mr. Tree looks like a large twig, but hopefully he’ll soon be far more picturesque. Mark is doing a fine job thus far giving him 15 gallons of water every Saturday – and I think that is a huge accomplishment because every plant I’ve ever had died due to lack of water. This is of course why I am not scooping up a garden plot in our community garden at the end of the street. Mark said “Don’t you want to teach Noah how to garden?” My reply was “As soon as someone shows me, I’ll be happy to do so. Plus – I’ve never gardened before and I’m not going to start the summer I’m 8 months pregnant!” However we did help clean the garden this past Saturday, so hopefully just helping the other gardeners out will be a good lesson. Anything else community related? Oh – we’re supporting Matt Ruben for Philadelphia City Council at Large. He did an incredibly job as the Northern Liberties Neighborhood Association president – and I know he’d be a great advocate for change on the City Council. So if you're voting in the Philadelphia primaries I highly recommend him.

Do I sound like some sort of developing urban hippie? We’ve just tried to become more aware and involved since Noah was born – and honestly Mark does the bulk of the legwork on most stuff. But I try to be moderate in most things – striving to be thoughtful but not extremist. But then again maybe it’s ridiculous to give your kid very watered down organic apple juice and then feed him Twizzlers. Who knows? I guess we’re all just trying our best.

Hmmm. What else? Noah’s art class ends next week. We’ll be sad to see it go. He really loved it. For his next class I’m planning to enroll him in swimming lessons at the YMCA. That should get him water ready for our beach trip at the end of June. And I'm in a tizzy over considering whether to enroll him in some sort of limited preschool program in the Fall or just hold off - but that's a whole other post.

OH the baby! I’ve dreaded mentioning this because it’s such a minefield and though I want to hear opinions, I also don’t. But here it is. NAMES. We are still at a loss for a baby name for this boy. For the longest time Ray was at the top of our list – not Raymond, just Ray – and I still really like that. But I’m not feeling convinced. What do you think? Somehow completely independent of any connection to Billy Ray Cyrus (I SWEAR!) I also like Cyrus – Cy for short. I picked it up from Cy Tolliver on Deadwood – and I like that Cyrus means “the sun,” but anytime I mention it to people I don’t get a very positive response. Thoughts? Also on my list, though not necessarily Mark’s – are Quinn, Luke, Gabriel, Konrad, Lee, Reed, Dean, Alden, and Glenn. Though Mark has specifically said we should not pick another biblical name so as not to convince others we are Bible thumpers – and that he doesn’t like Glenn or Dean. I like Konrad, it’s a family name, but I don’t want my boy called Connie. Input? I can’t promise I will take your opinions as gospel, but I will consider them.

Doctor Bozo STAT

Typically I schedule my prenatal checkups very early in the morning so Mark can go into work a little late and stay home with Noah. I know he'd be an angel at the doc office, it's just easier not to have to take him. And it's one of the few times I get to wander around alone - which feels sort of weird and timewarpy since my doctor's office is in the same building that housed my former place of employment. Anywho - this week my appt. got rescheduled to a later time so I took Master Noah with me. He was very excited to come along and very well behaved. However he eyed me suspiciously when I took him into the bathroom with me and then I peed in a cup. I explained that the pee was another way the doctor used to check that both me and the baby were healthy - and that seemed to satisfy him a bit. After my checkup and a run around Washington Square I took Noah to the Gallery to have his photo taken with the Easter Bunny. We got there at 10:50 AM and the sign said the Bunny we would be in at 11 AM. So imagine my surprise, disbelief and frustration when it was 40 minutes until we got to sit with said Bunny - and we were the first photo taken! The kids running the booth came in late, got McDonalds, chatted and fielded many calls on their cells before one of them scurried off to get the damn costume on. (You see Santa has to be an older guy, who talks to the kids and is personable -but any schmoe can don a bunny suit and sit silently in a chair while kids sit on him.) Seething though I was on the inside I kept cool and explained to Noah that the bunny was late, maybe he had to go potty. At which point Noah asked me "Does he have to pee in a cup?"

And the results of said Doc visit were mixed. Things seem very good (good ultrasound, good quad screen, good growth rate, good heart beat) except for my iron. My levels are still weird - and the two blood tests they have already done are odd and inconclusive so I have to go and get another test series. Not sure what they are looking for, and not sure I want to know unless they find something bad. Also Noah was really pleased because the Doc let him help by allowing him to hold the fetal heartrate monitor. It was super cute. He also keeps informing me and others that pregnant women are very tired because it's hard work to grow a baby in your belly.

I've mentioned it a million times - I gained 75 pounds when pregnant with Noah. And though I started out 10 pounds heavier this time, I've only gained 18 pounds thus far and therefore hopefully I'll complete this pregnancy with less than a 40 pound total weight gain. So though I'm not a small pregnant woman (or a small woman EVER) I'm not HUGE. So imagine my surprise when I had this exchange last week: "Nicole, you're really looking alot bigger all of a sudden." "Yeah - I just sort of popped out suddenly. He's getting bigger and bigger." "When are you due?" "August first." "OHMIGOD! THAT LONG??? WOW." "Ummm... yup...." WHAT person in their right mind thinks that this is an appropriate response? WHY on God's green earth do people assume it's peachy keen to talk to a pregnant woman about how large she is? Seriously. These people must be stopped.

Other super exciting news: THE CIRCUS IS COMING TO TOWN! I was so thrilled when Mark informed me that I almost peed my pants. We immediately bought tickets for opening night in two weeks. I hope Noah loves it as much as I think he will.

I still get Baby Center emails about Noah's development. These things seem ridiculously rigged to make you think your child is a genius. The one I got yesterday said about my 29 month old child: "Conversations with your child are a wonderful opportunity to help build her verbal skills. For instance, if she says 'Car go,' you might say, 'Yes, that red car is going down the street very quickly.' She won't be able to imitate your bigger words or complex sentences just yet, but she's learning from your example." CAR GO! ARE YOU SERIOUS? My kid is saying things like "Where is my water? You usually put it on the dresser." I mean at this point there is little Noah doesn't understand, and if he doesn't grasp a word he asks for clarification. In fact I was saying that last sentence verbatim to Mark last night and Noah said "What is clarification?" Of course the email also said he should be able to put on two articles of clothing himself - and since I've not been prompting him to do that at all he hasn't a clue.

And it seems like Noah has come down with a little something. What - I have no idea. He's running a bit of a temperature and he seems sluggish, but he has no other symptoms as of yet. Whatever it is I hope it's fast and relatively painless for all.

Hippity Hoppity

We made an impromptu visit to see the Easter Bunny after my Doc appt. on Tuesday. Noah was totally at ease about sitting on his lap. His observations were as follows "He was a very nice bunny," "The Easter Bunny does not talk," and "I didn't get any candy." Of course we then made a stop at CVS where I procured the lad a small chocolate bunny - because I'm soft like that.

Showman

Noah’s new obsession is the circus. We read a circus counting book at playgroup the week before last and ever since we’ve heard constant talk of clowns, fire eaters, tight rope walkers, and trapeze artists. And once again I’m lending fuel to the fire with the Youtube clips. I love having access to the internet to give him more knowledge on the things he shows interest in – but it means I’m also kicking myself when he asks to see them nine million times. I can’t sit in front of the computer without him saying “I want to see something.” Of course it isn’t just the online video clips that use to encourage whatever short-lived fascination he is harboring – we act things out, look for things on TV (when the hell is Cirque coming back on Bravo), and read any books we can get our hands on. Last night I ordered him an “All About the Circus” DVD. If it gets here in time it will go in his Easter basket along with a bunch of art supplies. Rather than loading up on a million chocolates and jelly beans, Noah’s getting stickers, paints, beads, paper and Play Doh. And just a little bit of candy to make it more interesting. We dyed some eggs today with Wendy and Victor but since Noah wanted to eat them all right away, we already have plans to dye more before the end of the week. And Easter plans? We’re once again having two dinners – at my Dad’s at noon and at my Mom’s place (with the in-laws) at 4pm. It should be a hectic but very fun day.

Oh – back to the little entertainer. We still have the occasional lion or dragon dance but the bulk of our time is spent dancing like clowns or balancing on things like tightrope walkers. The thing that kills me is that the boy is constantly putting on a show – and exclaiming “Audience clap!” If I ask him to say “Hello” to someone he doesn’t know well he’ll hang his head, yet he’ll walk up to complete strangers and say “I’m a clown” and start dancing.

What else is going on around here? I can’t think of too much. Spending lots of time out of doors, with Noah’s pals, with family. Ya know - the good stuff. The boy is growing – his 2T clothes are too small, yet the 3Ts are ginormous. He’s also been dropping a lot of naps lately. He seems to manage without for a day or two but on the third day he’s exhausted. He must have told me eight times this morning that he was sleepy and he went down this afternoon like a ton of bricks. But it seems a near certainty that naps will soon be a thing of the past, and I’m already mourning them.

I’ve been pricing and comparing bunk beds for Noah’s room. I figure with two boys they’re a good thing to have since I’ve heard lots of siblings actually prefer to sleep in the same room. Plus they’re good for sleepovers and whatnot. Not to mention that I wanted one desperately when I was a kid. I’m leaning towards getting him a model with a full mattress on the bottom and a single on the top. We have both size mattresses and we have to do something with the full mattress that was moved to “OUR ROOM” on the third floor when we move our queen mattress back up there from the “guest room” where we have been sleeping to be closer to Noah. And with the babies room as the former guest room we’d like to eventually put a futon for guests in the office. In fact I realized yesterday that we’ll have to get that sooner rather than later since Grandma will need a place to sleep when she comes to stay with Noah when the baby is being born. You following this? I barely am. I have the IQ of a flea – blame it on pregnancy stupidity. After telling Noah that a daffodil was a dandelion it took me ten minutes after realizing that wasn’t right to think of the word for daffodil. And this rambling post is a mess.

I’m looking forward to my OB checkup tomorrow – I like knowing everything seems copasetic. Gestation seems to be going pretty well. I feel much more energetic, which means I overdo it until I’m completely wiped out – but that’s just the price of doing business. The only thing that’s getting on my nerves is all this round ligament pain. I constantly feel like my left leg is going to just fall out of its hip socket.

I know – you want cute anecdotes. And I should have a million but I haven’t been good about taking notes lately. I’ll have some soon. I promise. That is if I can remember how to string words together.

Singing, swinging and mingling

He writes the songs that make the whole world sing!


Ms. Janette gave Noah his first trapeze lesson on Tuesday night. It's just a matter of time before he's a Cirque cast member, and also the tallest person recorded doing trapeze.




Our neighborhood playgroup sits outside observing the main event - the TRASH TRUCK! And yes, we have a neighborhood nudist.

A breath of fresh air

Last week we got a gust of some warm weather and we were determined to enjoy every minute of it. Just knowing that spring-like weather is on the horizon makes everything seem brighter and more vibrant.

Mark and Noah jump around at Penn Treaty Park.



Noah and Victor enjoy some sliding time at a playground near the Art Museum.
Noah dragon dances in the backyard, while Ella (the little one I watch on Wednesdays) leaps for joy.

Tip of the iceberg

I’ve been trying to load new pictures on the blog for the last week but having no luck. I adored the ease of Hello’s Bloggerbot – but now that I have to use Blogger to put my pictures up I’m having such issues. Any bloggers have suggestions?

Sunday was a great success. Everything went as smooth as silk. Noah was on his best behavior for Daddy in the car, and had a blast playing dress-up with Nana at Pop Pop’s place. I remained in fantasy land while they were away. I saw The Queen which was enjoyable, had a quick salad and then watched Pan’s Labyrinth which was STUNNING – and got home ten minutes after the boys. Easy peasy.

We have another momentous occasion on the horizon. Tomorrow night I have the amazing good fortune (and stellar mother) to go see Spamalot – and as a result Mark will be putting Noah to bed for the first time EVER. Even though it’s been ages since I nursed him to sleep at bedtime, Noah was just so accustomed to me staying with him until he fell asleep that to even suggest Daddy put him to bed would get you an earful. But he’s been warned and so far he seems okay with it. Worse comes to worse they are both still awake when I get home after 11. We’ll see what happens.

In the last month Noah has started to blossom a bit socially. He’s gotten a lot less shy with his playmates, is playing more interactively and has gotten a bit more assertive when he needs to be. Rather than just pouting and allowing another child to take a toy out of his hands, he will now say “I was playing with that” and look to an adult to intervene. Thankfully he still wouldn’t DARE grab another kid’s toy, he’s very comfortable with appropriate adult mediation and he’s very capable of sharing. He’s just becoming a little less of a doormat – which is great.

Oh and A BOY! As you know we are having another boy. The gender of a child is a 50/50 proposition (hopefully) and I would probably have been feeling both a bit excited and a bit disappointed either way. I’d been feeling a bit convinced I was having a girl since my pregnancy was feeling so different and I admit I was a bit excited (and daunted) at the idea of raising a girl, but I’m also quite excited and relieved to be having another boy. Many folks say “So now you have to try again for a girl!” And though I always thought I wanted three – I now have my doubts. And they are primarily financial. I’d like to envision us taking our kids to see plays, to do extra activities, to travel, etc. and that seems near impossible to afford with three. But who knows. The heart wants what it wants, and sometimes that’s stronger than better judgment. It saddens me so to think that this is my last pregnancy – and I’ve always thought of my self as an older woman surrounded by my BIG family – so who knows. (Did I say that already?) Maybe we’ll win the lottery or something. The baby lottery. Right now we'll concentrate on birthing and raising number two.

I have more cute and clever Noah things to report, but I need a nap. Seriously. And SOMEDAY I’ll get some new photos up. Sheesh.

Suspension of disbelief

I don’t much enjoy alone time. It’s how I’ve always been. And I’ve had plenty of it – being on my own, living on my own in the years before Mark. To me alone time is good for reading, and that’s about it. I’d much rather be with the ones I love – sharing my experiences makes them that much richer. Sometimes I feel like the years I spent alone didn’t really happen. If I’ve lost touch with the friends I’ve had at a certain time it makes me feel like that period happened to someone else because I can’t exchange the memories with a friend. My years at University of Pittsburgh, my living in London – was that me? I can barely recall it since I don’t talk with anyone that can spark the memories.

Everyone says Moms need alone time – and I understand why generally that’s true. But I also realize every Mom is different and needs different things. That being said – today I have some alone time. 6 hours of it. I’ve not had that many waking hours to myself since Noah was born – not because I couldn’t have had it but because I didn’t really want it. But today Mark took Noah to visit Nana and Pop Pop. It’s their first road trip without me – and I’m trying to hold it together. Mostly because I fear fatal car accidents more than anything else. But this trip needs to happen – because Noah and Mark need some time with just each other. A new baby is coming and with two kids dividing and conquering is a necessary method of pareanting. Noah needs to adapt to spending time alone with Dad – and Dad too. Oh, and me too.

So here I am – worrying about my boys on the road. Other than that, I know they're fine. In the past few months their bond has really flourished. Noah didn’t squawk once about leaving Mom behind, he was excited to go on a trip with his Daddy. I’m the one most at a loss. So what am I going to do with my alone time? I’m headed to the theater all by myself to see a double feature. I could have invited a friend to join me – but I didn’t want anyone judging me for feeling worried or eating too much popcorn, didn’t want to have to pick out movies with someone else, or work around anyone else’s schedule. Yet being in the movies isn’t really like being alone – it’s being wrapped up in someone else’s experience. And today I could REALLY use the distraction.

Message from numero dos

ROAR!

I took Noah to The Philadelphia Flower Show for a few hours this evening. Mostly I just followed him around reminding him he couldn't walk on the exhibits - but it was still a good experience. I really enjoy taking him out into the world and showing him new things. It's fun to see him wide eyed aand enthusiastic when he experiences something new. Of course he was a little disappointed at first because he thought The Flower Show would be more of a "SHOW" and less a bunch of flowers. Luckily however the theme was Ireland this year and they had an Irish dancing performance which fit the bill. It diverted him briefly from dancing around the exhibition floor doing his Chinese Lion Dance - a pose from which you see here. His favorite part of the evening however was the Subaru SUV he got to sit in and pretend to drive on the show room floor. Maybe he would have preferred going to The Car Show.

Snippets and tidbits

- As I’ve said before I’m a Stay-At-Home-Mom not a Stay-At-Home-Maid and Mark does more than his fair share of chores around the house. In fact we have things pretty much divided up evenly, though I swear sometimes he cleans more than I do. Apparently I’m not the only one. I do all the cooking at our house since Mark’s not got much experience aside from canned soup and pasta and as a result Mark does almost all of the dishes. One afternoon this week after Noah and I made brownies I was rinsing out the batter bowl in the sink. Noah asked me what I was doing and when I told him I was washing out a dish he said “Like Daddy does?” I chuckled and said “Yes. Like Daddy does. But Mama does dishes sometimes too.” To which Noah responded “That funny Mama.”

- Ever since we happened upon the Chinese lion dancing in Chinatown on Sunday, it’s all Noah can talk about. We’ve watched videos on Youtube a million times, and we just keep dancing, dancing, dancing.

- At the El’s birthday party a clown gave Noah a balloon twisted into the shape of a teddy bear. It’s actually pretty remarkable. The other day Noah picked it up upside down and pointed to the end of the balloon knot which is used for the bear’s nose and asked what it was. When I told him it was the nose he said “I thought it was his penis.”

- This weekend Mark spent an hour fashioning a Play Doh universe with Noah. The game included making spaceships and space men and then introducing the space men to all sorts of earthly Play Doh delights like ice cream, banancas and dogs. On Monday morning after breakfast Noah asked to play Play Doh again, but this time he was stuck with Mama. After many failed attempts and much hemming and hawing I had to call Mark at work to ask him to instruct me in the construction of a proper spaceship. I just wasn’t doing it RIGHT.

- As I’ve mentioned before Noah has two TV times – one every morning while I shower, and one most afternoons while I prepare dinner. He typically watches Sesame Street in the morning, with the occasional change up to Zooboomafoo. In the afternoon it’s almost always Jack’s Big Music Show – and though I think the show is great, even I’m getting sick of it. For quite some time I’ve been thinking Noah would probably like Mr. Rogers, but curiously there aren’t any episodes on On Demand, and aside from things I DVR that is the only way we watch TV. So last week I started recording Mr. Rogers, and Noah adores it. I mean how could he not – there is a trolley. But it really is right up his alley since it’s real people and puppets – and I love all the real world knowledge stuff about people in the neighborhood, jobs, feelings and whatnot. GOD does it bring back memories.

- Art class continues to be a big hit. This week they worked with curvy lines. The coolest of these projects had the kids painting with marbles. We put a sheet of paper in these plastic bins, and then the kids were given a paper plate of paint on which they could roll marbles and then put them on the paper and roll them around. Noah took it to another level when he poured the entire plate of paint directly into the plastic bin – I couldn’t stop laughing. And though the paper was soaking wet with paint, and may have never dried properly, by the end the design looked incredibly cool. He’s a visionary.

- On Monday night we went to Target to pick up a few things, which of course turned into a few million things. When we were leaving the store and the automatic door opened we were greeted by a rather hostile wind. It took my 8 pack of papertowels and threw them off the cart. And Noah, who HATES wind, started screaming bloody murder and crying, since obviously we were all going to die. I hustled him into the car quickly and then went to collecting all our stuff up. While I was stepping away from the car Noah cried out desperately “Mama! Get the paper towels!”

- Noah continues to be a very musical boy. He’s always singing, sometimes real songs and also just singing his words and making stuff up. We’ve been spending a great deal of time recently listening to the Big Band & Swing channel on Music Choice – it’s really fun upbeat listening for us both. And Noah has become familiar with a few of the bigger hits – most notably “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree.” He likes it so much I had Mark download a version by Glenn Miller. Every once in awhile I’ll catch him singing “Til I come marching home.” My other favorite little song tidbit that keeps popping up is courtesy of his Dad. Noah was playing with his plastic dinosaurs on a plastic illustrated backdrop to which he referred to as the jungle. Which of course led Mark to sing a bit of “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns N’ Roses – and now quite often I catch Noah singing about being in the jungle, very much in keeping with Axl.

- As the weeks go by Noah gets more interested and invested in the idea of the baby in Mama’s belly. Since I recently explained to him that the baby eats what Mama eats, he will occasionally hand me something like a grape and say “The baby wants a grape, Mama.” And I nearly cried last night when he was talking to the baby and in addition to his normal “Nice to meet you baby. I love you. When are you coming out?” he added “Be safe for me!”

What? Me?

So I’ve been kind up until now and haven’t mentioned the headaches. The migraines. The ones I’m getting almost every day – and even when I don’t have a full blown one I still have a knot of pressure behind my right eye that feels like someone deposited some buckshot in there. Luckily I’m not the vomiting migraine sort. Just the blinding blurry vision, splitting pain and sensitivity to light sort. So not SO bad. Sources have been consulted and yes, these are a pregnancy symptom though I did not experience them last time. Fun. However I can try to avoid common trigger foods that may or may not be contributing to my headaches – peanut butter, dairy, yeast, beans, bananas, avocados, and chocolate. Um… right. Oh and today I overextended myself and hurt my pelvis muscles, so severely at first that I cried because I was worried it was going to cause a serious problem. I’m way better now, but that was scary. Need to knock that off. This pregnancy as a whole seems more difficult than the last, which aside from being voraciously hungry and having some mood swings was pretty pleasant. But maybe I’m just about to turn a corner.

As you know I have an advanced degree in worry. Last time I worried about being inexperienced at caring for a baby, being ill suited for it, going batty being at home and being apt to forget I had a baby and leave it in public places and in harms way. Luckily those fears are resolved, mostly. Now I can concentrate on other things like how hard it would be to raise a girl in our over-sexed society, how we’re poisoning our children with plastics, how I’m going to make these two the bestest and most closest siblings ever, how to make them not hate me and how I’m ever going to balance the needs of two children and ever get any sleep EVER. So ain’t no big thang.

Despite all the time I’ve needed to ferret out for the headaches and the worrying, we’ve actually had a really pleasant weekend. We had the in-laws and Janette, Perry and Jules over for take-out Indian food on Friday night. Yesterday we took a jaunt over to West Philly to visit with the family Juliloquy for a short playdate, had a frolic at Liberty Lands playground before nap and then had Grandma come by to watch Noah for an hour and treat us to dinner at Isla Ibiza. Today we were whisked downtown by the El on it’s 100th birthday – where we happened upon some Chinese lion dancing in Chinatown and then hung at the Septa celebration for the El’s big day. After a sparse, long and sad February – March is more than welcome respite.

As artful as a pregnant lady grocery shopping in pajama pants

Noah started an art class at Fairmount Art Center this past Monday. He seemed to really enjoy it. The class is for two to three year olds and in the one hour period they do about four projects so the kids don’t get bored or lose focus. I was thrilled that the class was only five kids, including Noah and his friend Victor. I think more than that may have been a bit overwhelming. But since the kids are seated working on structured projects with parental assistance and teacher guidance it really is an ideal situation for him. He’s a great listener and student – unless there isn’t any structure and then he just clings. (At playgroup every week he sits on my lap during free play and isn’t happy or comfortable until we get to circle time for the song, story and craft.) Monday’s class focused on making dots – so they drew dots in their sketch books, painted a variety of different sized and colored dots on a large black paper dot, tapped dots in a little piece of copper, and then poked dots in a piece of clay that will be fired and painted during a later class. This was Noah’s first time working with clay that wasn’t Play Doh and he was really disturbed at the residue it was leaving on his hands. He spent half the time picking at the little bits around his fingernails while I reassured him we would clean them off when class was over. The class series itself is a bit costly for only six sessions, but it includes materials and will provide me with more ideas of art projects we can do at home – so in the end it’s worth the dough.

I’m horribly ashamed to admit that yesterday I went grocery shopping in pants I normally wear to bed. Unfortunately I’m in that horrible stage where my normal pants no longer fit and yet my maternity pants aren’t suitable either. Whenever I wear my maternity pants I spend half the damn time hiking them back up over my ass and well it’s hard to carry grocery bags while holding up your pants. Today I am once again in “house pants” but since I was babysitting Ella this morning we haven’t yet left the house. Hopefully I will have the wherewithal to don actual pants when we go to the library this evening. But likely not.

I still haven’t gotten my butt over to Whole Foods to get that Floradix iron supplement. But two things just made it a priority. After I read Missuz J’s comment that cream of wheat was an excellent source of iron I made myself the only two packets I found when I dug through the cabinets this morning. And this afternoon is the first one I can remember in a long time where I didn’t feel like I was going to collapse in utter exhaustion if I didn’t immediately take a nap. So it seems like iron might indeed help me out – which caused me to call the herbal store down the street to see if they carry Floradix so I don’t have to drive across town to Whole Foods. And indeed they do. (Oh and Lonna – it’s vegan safe so maybe you should check it out if you’re still having iron issues.) So if I start taking that liquid gold, or iron as it were, and eating insane amounts of cream of wheat I should be able to conquer the world. Or at least potty training.

Speaking of the evil deed, I haven’t really started potty training. He pees on the potty before bath time every night and again before we put on his pajamas, but that has been the extent of it. Last week I started putting Noah in Pull-ups and encouraging him to tell me when he needs to pee. Rather than doing that we’ve just been having a lot of leaks and rashiness – the pull-up are a bit big and cause a lot of chafing. He really doesn’t seem remotely ready or interested in being potty trained. And since I keep reading that children often regress to needing diapers after a sibling is born, I’m not really in a hurry. Why bother if I’m going to have to do it twice. Right? So I guess I’m going to get him back in diapers for awhile.

There are a few other big things that need tackling in the next few months. The naptime nursing behemoth which remains the same and doesn’t bear repeating, and our nighttime debacle. Noah goes to bed fairly easily every night. We read books, he kisses and hugs Daddy good night, he sits in the rocker with me for awhile, he lies down in the crib and paws at me sitting on the floor next to the crib until he nods off. Between lights out and sleep it typically takes about a half hour, and I’m pretty cool with that. The problem is that he also typically wakes up sometime in the early morning at which time I take him out of the crib and lay down with him on the twin mattress on his floor until morning. Obviously this has to change real soon as come August 1 I will be up at all hours of the night entertaining a newborn. Occasionally Noah will sleep all night in his crib, but the occasions are few and far between. After recently reading an article on sleep incentives I started offering him rewards for sleeping all night in his crib, and though he wants the rewards they don’t affect his behavior at 3 am when he wants to sleep with Mama. So I guess soon I’m going to have to lay down the wretched law and refuse to pick him up and lay down with him. And I feel just awful about this because as I’ve said to Mark “We don’t like to sleep alone but we expect him to want to.” Of course I need to make the change soon so he doesn’t blame the change in the sleeping arrangements on the baby. Ho hum. So much to do and yet it’s so much easier to just avoid it. And yet time ticks on. Only two more weeks until the ultrasound. I can not wait! However it's occurred to me that it will mark the halfway point in my pregnancy and GAH that is SO SOON. We won't ever be ready in time!

Not filled with iron-y goodness

The days fly by, except for the period between lunch and naptime – which drags on for what seems like eons. At my most recent checkup my doc said my iron was low. She didn’t diagnose me as fully anemic but she ordered more tests. It was kind of a relief to hear that there may be a reason I feel like I’ve been put through the ringer. Now I need to start taking some sort of iron supplement. My friend Janette recommended a liquid supplement that she uses claiming it to be a cure all. Of course she also described it as tasting like flowers and metal. Yum. But I’ll probably soon be heading to the store to get me some – as soon as I can summon the energy.

Mark’s been hard at work on his mini-album for that online music challenge. One day each weekend Noah and I have gotten out of his hair for a few hours by going to the Please Touch Museum to see a different jazz performer. They have a Junior Jazz Festival in February and we’ve enjoyed seeing three different performances – Erin Flynn did jazzy kid songs about trains, Louis Miranda did a latin influenced set of singalong songs, and today the drum ensemble Fandango spanned the globe with beats from Brazil, Cuba and Africa. Noah has been really loving the performances and I’m sad to see the series end. I have to figure out what other live music I can take him to see soon.

When we came home today we went to check in on Mark in the basement. A couple of weeks ago when we were at the Franklin Mills Mall Mark pointed out a child sized guitar to Noah and asked him if he might like to have one some day – and since then Noah keeps bringing it up saying he wants one now. Today he told Mark that when he gets his guitar that Mama and Daddy can go to the Please Touch so that he can play in the basement. It certainly seems Noah is catching the music loving bug, and with his shy streak that is a blessing. As Mark says the main reason he decided to learn how to play the bass was because he figured it was the only way in the world he’d ever get girls to talk to him. And well, I met him when he joined a friend’s band so the proof is in the pudding.

I’ve recently become a bit concerned with Noah’s speech. As I’ve noted he is totally verbal, incredibly so and at home he never stops talking and questioning. But he’s also started stuttering a bit. My Mom and Mark reassure me that it’s probably just because his little overdeveloped mind sometimes surpasses his mouth’s ability to get the words out, and that he’s getting stuck on the first sound of a sentence because he’s thinking about everything that comes after before he says it. But it’s still a bit scary. I hope it’s just a common toddler thing and he’ll grow out of it. I can’t imagine how shy he’d become if grew up having to overcome a stutter.

On a more positive note, we’ve had a few good meals as of late. We eat out about once a week, nothing extravagant mind you, but since Noah enjoys dining out and so do we it’s become a regular thing. Sort of a mental health necessity. Just recently my prayers were answered and an Indian restaurant named Tiffin opened in our neighborhood – and better yet they do takeout. Good takeout. Last Saturday we went down to Chinatown and had amazing Burmese food at Rangoon. We hadn’t been since Mark surprised me with a get together of friends there for my 30th birthday. And yesterday we had a lovely lunch at the famous Melrose Diner. Believe it or not our waitress has worked there for 35 years! Can you imagine!

The Oscars are on tonight and for once I can’t be bothered. I’ve always really enjoyed them but this year I’ve seen nothing. Worse yet – I don’t even know what any of the films are. It’s weird to think about since I’ve been a movie geek since I worked at West Coast Video at the age of 16. But our lifestyle just doesn’t allow for movies to be a priority right now and I’m cool with that. I’ll always have a bunch of stuff to catch up with later. Which is something that can’t be said about the cinematic genius that is Amazing Race All Stars – which is currently awaiting me on my DVR so I must go.