Baby Withdrawl

Noah is growing up a little faster than I would like these days. He has a singular top tooth, which makes him look remarkably like something from Hee Haw, but what can you do. He is growing out of his 12 month clothes. So I had a sappy moment in Babies R Us with the preemie clothes. I just looked at Stephen and sniffled about how they used to be too big. I have been assured that you have to ride the emotional hump of the first birthday and the oh I miss my little baby. Good thing I am watching my friend's son next week. It will give me my baby fix and then I can get a grip and move back to my 4th graders.

Speaking of 4th grade, I told my boss that I would move to 1st grade if they had a position. I haven't taught it in 10 years, so I'm sure I'm insane. I love 4th grade, but I wouldn't mind being with the little ones again. We shall see. If not, then I have the most amazing science units on roller coasters, and being a weather detective that I am very excited about.

I joined a website to post my pictures on. Okay I forgot the name of it, so it is a good thing I saved the email. But I thought this would be a blast especially since I got my new camera this Christmas. I'm having a ton of fun taking pictures of the munchkin although it takes me forever to get them downloaded. Like this one of Noah at Christmas. Check out the Santa suit...it says "HO HO HO" on his butt. I love baby clothes.



Latest birthday question - who do you address the invitations to? For example, my friend Michelle has two children and we will invite them. I can't imagine her husband wants to come to Noah's birthday, but I'm sure Michelle and the girls do, so do you include the whole family, or just invite the kids? My goal is not to alienate anyone and we are cool if every guests whole family shows up. It is in a park on what we hope will be a beautiful day, so where is the etiquette guru when you need her.

Loving the Weekends

Joyfully, I have had two 3-day weekends in a row. Snow days are a small perk in the teaching profession and I love them as much as the kids. We have just starting introducing Noah to feeding himself. It is quite a messy experience, but a wonderful one. I love to cook, but something about cooking for my son is even better. Yesterday he had a scrabbled egg and a piece of toast for breakfast and this morning he had a waffle. You are not supposed to let children eat eggs because of possible allergies. Noah grabbed a huge handful of egg off my plate a month or so ago and has been hooked on them ever since. Last night I made a rice and chicken casserole. It was so much fun to eat as a family with everyone eating the same thing. It doesn't always work out that we can feed him what we are eating, but this dish worked and he loved it.

Noah's top teeth are breaking through. I didn't realize that the top teeth would be worse than the bottom. He is miserable. It hurts his ears and makes his stomach upset sometimes. Poor kiddo. I will be happy when this part ends.

I did manage to reserve the park for March 29th. We have decided to have his birthday party at a park that way everyone could play and we would have cake and punch. I'm going to get him a large cupcake of his own to tackle. We will see how he does. I'm excited. It is hard to figure out what to do for a child's first birthday. Now I need to come up with a theme, so I can send out invitations. I wonder if there are Doodlebop plates and napkins.

Odds and Ends

It has been forever since I felt like I have had time to sit and write. Several weeks ago my ear drum burst and that has been an ever constant trip to the doctor's office. It is healing, but I am virtually deaf in my left ear. Makes teaching a bit of a challenge.

Noah went to the eye doctor and it looks like he has Stephen's eyesight. Everyone do a dance. Stephen didn't develop issues with his eyes until he was 16 and his can be corrected with Lasix. Mine on the other hand can not be corrected and I started wearing glasses at 18 months. Also, they didn't have to pry his eyes open this time which makes me very happy.

I went and did some retirement research and it looks like I am going to have to work until I am 57. I was kinda bummed. I thought I would be able to retire at 53, but all my moving around has cost me a little bit. In several years, I am going to figure out about buying some years. I had always figured that teaching would be my first career and I would have time for a second one. The second one of course changes regularly, so I'm not sure what it is going to be...

One silly Noah jumping on the bed....

It is official. I have entered the bad mommy club for not paying enough attention to my son and he fell off the bed. Actually, Daddy and I were having a moment in another room and he woke up and fell off the bed. Way to kill a moment. He is fine, but Mommy and Daddy were a mess. Daddy was convinced that a part of his head might have concaved, but I assured him it was supposed to be like that and the minuscule dent was really the shape of his head. I know this is just the beginning, but wowzer.

Suzanne came over today and we took our nine month photos. Is he a cutie or what?

We are mobile...

It's true. We are officially boy on the go. Over the weekend, Noah mastered the crawl. He is now up off his belly and fast. Today he decided to top himself and climb one of our flights of stairs by himself. Needless to say the baby gates and up and running this evening. I have never seen anything like it. Now he follows me whenever I am going. No more private bathroom moments.

He has also decided to try climbing. First it was me, and now he has moved on to the bathtub. This kiddo is going to send me to the funny farm, but he is awfully fun. He can pull himself up to a standing position, so we figure walking is just around the corner. Keep your fingers crossed that I don't lose him somewhere.

Schedule

So part of my 2008 hopes and dreams is to become more organized. Stephen got me a Franklin planner and I have been faithfully putting the important dates of my life in there. It is taking a while, but I have hopes that it will be fully implemented by summer. This also helps me remember when I need to get a sub for school due to Noah's doctor appointments. All this being said, Noah has decided to alter his schedule and I am having a dickens of a time getting him back on track. Pre-hospital visit, Noah would gladly get up around 8:30am and take a nap or two in the day and usually find his way to his crib around 9:00pm. This was great. I could still get school work done, before my bewitching hour. Post-hospital visit, Noah gets up around 9:30am, takes two nice long naps during the day and will not go to bed until 11:30 pm. So here I am updating my blog at midnight and Noah has just gone to sleep. I keep thinking if we could move him slightly in 15 minute increments, maybe I could get some sleep.

Home Again!!

We are back in Virginia. Thank goodness. Noah is doing well. He is off the nebulizer and free from his medications and back to his same energetic self. We made it back on Friday and were exhausted.

Today I returned to school. I am still exhausted. Noah's schedule has been thrown off, so he is now up until 11:00. This is rough when your day begins at 5 am. So I am here writing a blog while Noah is playing with his phone. I will be downloading some photos in the next day or so about our hospital stay. We got bored after a while and decided to play dress up the baby. Noah thought it was great fun. He is quite the entertainer. Reminds me of his daddy....