Noa and Friends

Here is a picture of Noa with the other babies from my mothers' group. As a mother, I have lots of fears, many irrational, but one of my biggest fears is that I won't know how to help her learn to make friends. Even though I have many dear friends, I still feel inept at meeting people, and I have ancient memories of feeling like I just didn't know how to interact in social situations. I often still feel that way, like everyone took some course on Schmoozing 101 that I missed.
When she was with the other babies, I found myself projecting my own insecurities onto the situation, worrying whether the other babies were trying to avoid her or something. Many of them cannot even move on their own free will, but I was imagining them trying to worm away from her. Not only that, but Noa is one of the few who is rolling yet, and she took this photo op as a time to roll onto some of the other babies.

Here she is rolling onto Cole:




and Haline:



It is crazy what I do to myself in my head. The pictures are totally cute and it is funny to me now, but at the time it was just a wee-bit painful for me. My own memories of feeling too big and too awkward came flooding back. I often felt like Lenny from Of Mice and Men, feeling so eager to love on the bunnies that he pets them so hard he breaks their necks or something. I don't want my insecurities to become hers. I know how contagious fear and self-doubt can be.

The universe gives me ample opportunity to laugh at myself. When we arrived at the mom's group this week, Noa had had a poo of enourmous proportions and she was covered in it from mid-chest to mid-thigh! That stuff is mercurial. I had to change her clothes and put her in this turtleneck that I don't really like. (Remind me not to put clothes that I don't like in her diaper bag. Murphy's Law will see to it that she will be wearing them in no time.)

Back to the making friends thing. I shared my fear with Jeremy, and he pointed out that Noa already is good at making friends. She likes meeting new people and she is pretty good at it. He said that it was more important for us to focus on helping her learn how to be a good friend, which made me feel a bit better because I feel like we know how to do that.

No teeth yet!

She's been drooling like crazy for months. Every shirt she wears is soaked within minutes. She chews on everything in sight. Everyone is quick to offer that this means she is teething. But alas, here are three shots of Noa showing off her toothless gums.

Not even a hint of a white bud. She looks a bit nuts in this one.


Damn, she's a cutie.

In the pink

Someone's feelin' better




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Weekend Wrap-up

Once again, Noa had a busy weekend. We went to our friend' Marta's house to catch a little of the Colts/Pats game, and she enjoyed being tossed about by Auntie Pat.



Before we went to Marta's, we went to Whole Foods to buy apples and such. They have the best organic Fujis and we go out of our way to get them there. The arm in the blue batik shirt belongs to our friend, Christine, who we bumped into there.



We also had the pleasure of meeting Louie, a mini english bull terrier. He was a sweetie.



We stopped at a toy store on 4th Ave and Noa was transfixed by her daddy blowing the pinwheel.



Self-portrait of mommy and Noa as we wait for daddy to finish getting his stuff out of the car.


Happy and satisfied at the end of the day.

PEEK A BOO!

Lil' Sicko

Well, Noa is still sick. She's got herself a runny nose, a cough, and a minor ear infection. You can see in her eyes that she is a bit off her game, but her mood continues to be good and she can still muster a smile through her stuffiness. Plus her mouth is open all the time so that she can breath, so there is always a drool-pool on the front of her clothing. She had only had this sweater on for a minute or two, so she hadn't yet gotten it good and wet.

I realize that one of my character defects that is highlighted by parenthood is that I LIKE TO HAVE SOMEONE TO BLAME WHEN SOMETHING GOES WRONG! This situation is no exception. My mind scours every person who so much looked at Noa cross-eyed this week, anyone with a runny nose, anyone who touched her with germ-ridden hands, to find the culprit who caused her discomfort. I have a prime suspect, someone I am convinced is guilty of spreading disease like wildfire and undoubtedly a very bad and unlikeable person, but I will not mention them in detail because I am trying to surrender and be kind and serene and not someone who entertains thoughts of committing great physical harm on another. But suffice it to say, I have been ruminating on this JUST A BIT!

Similarly, I was thisclose to writing a very sternly worded letter to Fisher Price because their stupid swing that we depend on the get the girl to sleep sometimes messes up and stops swinging at a very crucial point in the Noa sleep cycle. A few times I have gone up to her becuase I hear her crying only to find that the @#%*! swing has come to a halt. When this happens, it is a crap- shoot as to whether she will go back to sleep after that, and then we have a cranky baby on our hands. SOMEONE MUST PAY!

But what was I saying about serenity? Ah yes. Let it go, Kellie. Let it go.

Here she is sucking on the bottle of airborne, thus ironically passing along her little germies to those wishing to boost their immune systems. Silly baby.

Snarfy Baby

Well, the little one woke up with a bit of a cold this morning. She was sniffin' and snarfin' but in a completely sweet and good mood. She has "sick eyes"--droopy, watery things. She is a trooper though, and she dragged herself to work anyway. Here is a video of her at the office. You can see that she needs a break in the middle of her shift and tries to put her head down, and she is moving slower and she s a bit wonky, but she put in her time. Daddy helped to keep her spirits up.


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Noa rocks a new skill

When Noa was in Michigan, her Grandpa played a hand in teaching her a new skill. Here she is perfecting it. I like to tell myself that this is her opinion of Bush's speech the other night.


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Blah blah blah..............................................

I have to say that I was a much better mother before I had a child. It used to be that I would see kids acting like lunatics in the grocery store, or I would see parents struggling to set healthy limits and I would say to myself that I knew exactly what was needed to remedy the situation. Jeremy and I would sit and watch those super-nanny shows and nod along with the advice being given as if to say "Yup, any buffoon knows that that is how you do it." I guess you could say that I was a wee bit arrogant.

But now that I am a mother, I fear that I don't know anything about anything. I saw a little girl throwing a whopper of a temper tantrum at Trader Joes today because her mother wasn't letting her get some food item that she wanted and all I could think was that I have no clue as to how to prevent such outrageous behavior. My heart raced as I walked by them with Noa on my chest in the baby carrier. I whispered to her, "That little girl is behaving badly. You are not allowed to do that."

Right now, we are on the verge of sleep training our little one. She has definitely grown in her ability to sleep independently for her morning nap, but she still requires a great deal of parenting and soothing to get her to sleep at night. She is in our bed and I nurse her to sleep and then slink out of the room when she is out cold. If she cries, I go to her and nurse her back to sleep. I need a change. I feel ready to start moving into the co-sleeper, and we are trying to figure out the best way to do that. We still swaddle her, so that will most likely need to change because I feel that if we aren't giving her access to her hands, she really can't do much to self-soothe. It isn't like she can meditate or think her way to a solution. I envy the people that I see who can just lie their child down wherever they are and watch them drift off. That just isn't our girl. We have let her cry it out a few times and she usually falls asleep within half an hour. The problem is that she doesn't stay asleep too long. That, and we are soooo not consistent. The other problem is that I feel that she doesn't sleep that deeply with me, her food source, lying next to her. I would have a hard time falling asleep if I had a chocolate brownie dangling in front of my nose, so I understand where she is coming from. We are so attuned, I notice that when I am downstairs if I even think about her, I can hear her stirring on the monitor. I visualize a bubble around her and I pull myself out of her psychic space and try to let her get back to sleep. Sometimes she does.

Oh poop. I don't know. Here's another picture. Irony of irony--she is reading the Going to Bed Book.

Mommy Cam

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Noa's Busy Saturday

As per usual, Noa wanted to be out and about today, and we happily obliged her by running some Saturday errands. She loves meeting new people (and pets).

Here she is with our friend Ruby's hands and Ruby's dog, Chloe. Chloe looks a little unsure, but Noa was having fun. Chloe used to be a service dog for her disabled owner who passed away. That is when Ruby and her partner, Barb, adopted her. She's a sweetie.


Here Noa is enjoying some super-baby flying lessons thanks to daddy. She is really getting the hang of it, and she will stretch her arms out to the side. We are busy composing her super-hero theme music.


We went to lunch at one of our favorite restaurants, Picante, and then we went to Urban Ore to look for a door to hang between the kitchen and laundry room. As you can see from Noa's tilted head, she was quite helpful to her daddy as he looked over the inventory. " Yup, that one looks good."


What would a Staurday be without getting a chance to hang out with Pat? Noa is starting to notice (and reach for) glasses.


A little smooching with her favorite bee................................

Happy Noa Year!

Happy New Year everyone!

We are back from Michigan and A LOT has happened! We put in an offer on a house in Ann Arbor and it was accepted! Gulp!

We were in AA meeting with a realtor thinking we would just start to get an idea about what the market looks like there, and we fell in love with the last house she showed us. We had no intention of writing any offers, but we couldn't resist. It is in the neighborhood we wanted to be in (Burns Park) very close to the elementary school that Noa would attend (1.5 blocks away). I remember walking through this neighborhood when I was in college and I always dreamed about living there one day. Safe, quiet streets, great schools, big park, close to everything.
The acceptance of our offer means that change is moving quickly through our lives and we need to take some time to catch up with it all. I am just tryng to trust on the universe and do the footwork to make it happen. I'll keep you posted.

In the meantime, it is much less anxiety -producing to focus on the big changes Noa is making.
Here she is on the floor with her Grandpa.


Noa had a great time with her grandparents--they kept her (over) stimulated and happy. She changed so much in the two weeks we were away. She can now roll from her back to her tummy, and when she gets going, she can do continuous barrel rolls across the floor. We put her down, and the next thing we knew, she was six feet away on the other side of the room! This kid will be crawling in no time.

I am amazed at how strong she is--it is almost a freakish strength. She is this long, slender bean, and she can stand on her legs and she can lift her head way off the ground. She is a force! She is doing amazing things in her office (exersaucer) and she is developing these fine motor skills. She can pinch and grab things and put them where she wants them to go. The other day, I held the phone to her ear so that her grandpa could say hi, and she grabbed the phone with both hands and held it to her own ear just like the "big heads" do. Amazing.

Nana and Grandpa got Noa one of those doorway jumpy things and she loved it. She would bounce and hop and spin around and then take a much deserved break and suck on the material. The chair also put her at the perfect height for my parents' dog to get in some guerilla-face licking before we could intervene. I found the whole thing just a wee-bit stomach turning, but Noa seemed to be enjoying herself.

She has also developed this new facial expression (see below).
I tell her that she is the cutest thing I have ever seen, and I explain to her that this means she is pretty darn cute, because I have seen puppies and bunnies and there is absolutely no contest.


As always, she continues to love bath time, and she especially likes it when you drape a cloth over her head as she bathes. I am not sure how I figured out that she liked this, but it works for her. Very cosmopolitan.

The weather was quite warm in Michigan over the holidays, hanging out in the 40's most of the time. No snow to speak of. Bad news for the planet in the long view, but it sure made for some nice long walks down the dirt roads surrounding my folks' house in the country. Jeremy would bundle Noa up in his jacket and she would be toasty and content for our walk around the lake. They look like some down-filled, two-headed creature of cuteness.


Noa also had her first airplane trip and she did great. No major fussiness, and her ears didn't seem to bother her at all. Here is a photo of her with the flight attendant who rewarded her with her own pair of wings and an official certificate from Southwest Airlines, welcoming her to the flying community.


Now that we are home, we are trying to settle in and prepare for a big move at the same time. I came home with a cold and we are still waiting to see whether Noa will get it. Fingers crossed!