General Conference and Stroller Walks

General Conference was nice as usual. My favorite quote:
"The joy of motherhood comes in moments." -Elder M. Russell Ballard
I've noticed a lot more of those moments since hearing that. One of my favorites: going on walks with Noah. He recently upgraded to a big baby stroller. It's a pretty sweet ride with a nice padded seat that reclines. But he doesn't like the reclining feature; instead he sits up and leans forward so he can see everything as we walk. Sometimes he will stretch his arm out, and reach for something in our path. Usually it is a bush or a tree. I slow down and swerve to the side so that he can touch whatever he reaches for. Then he’ll grab and stare at it like it's the most amazing thing he has ever seen. It seems like such a simple little thing--are bushes really that exciting? But seeing the way Noah looks at bushes and the world has helped me slow down a little bit and notice more little amazing things in life and in motherhood. Cheesy, but that's the way it goes.

Bathtime

Noah loves bathtime these days. We used to bathe him on the counter in his baby bathtub, but after he learned how to splash, the bathroom would flood every night. Now we put him in his little bathtub inside the big bathtub, and use the shower curtain to repel some of the splashes.

Here are pictures of a special haircutting bath. I put it off for as long as I could. I did not want to cut his long straggly hair because I don't like doing things that remind me that my baby is getting older and bigger. But Kyle said the mullet in the back was too long, and it was time to lose the white trash look. (After a few minutes of hair cutting, I stepped in and said "ok, that's enough" when I couldn't take it anymore, and so a few of Noah's long hairs escaped the scissors. If you see Noah today, you might be able to see a couple of those long hairs sticking straight up. It's very classy, and not at all whitetrashish.) Noah seemed happy with his new look.

5 months

so cute and turtley

Noah has this new habit of rolling over to his belly in his crib during the middle of the night. The problem: Something about being on his belly in the middle of the night really angers him. The other problem: He only rolls in one direction, so when he rolls over to his belly, he runs out of room in the crib, and so he can't keep rolling to get himself back to his back. So, he wails until mom or dad drags themselves out of bed to flip the poor thing over. He reminds me of a turtle that is flipped upside down and can't do anything about it. It's kind of funny now, but I probably won't be laughing tonight when he does again ten more times. At least he's a cute little turtle boy.

Where I was

Where I was:

20 years ago...
Beaver Dam Grade School, home of the Mighty Beavers. My most vivid memory: walking through the gym with my kindergarten class while the big kids were at recess, and getting nailed in the head with a basketball and falling on the floor. The beginning of my embarrassing moments.

10 years ago...
Being a sneaky little Mormon girl, trying to find ways to date boys without going on dates with them. My motto: “But dad, it’s not a date, because we are just going to meet there, he’s not even picking me up!”

5 years ago...
Provo, Utah BYU Don't remember much about that except for Dr. Mario, blue wigs, cereal time, honeypots, drama, floating Provo River, the testing center, refrigerator magnet poetry "Bitter Melons," the dumpster alley leading to Hampstead #7, Sugar and Spice, deciding and redeciding about going on a mission...

3 years ago...
Kensington, Maryland. Washington DC Temple Visitors Center. Doing the missionary thing. Good idea.
1 year ago...
Arcadia, California. Being a pregnant newlywed. Trying to control my raging hormones. I got into the whole Guitar Hero craze. On one particularly hormonal night, I attempted to conquer a tough song. I failed the level and when the audience booed me off the stage, I burst into tears.



So far this year...
St. George, Utah. Still adjusting to living here and being a mother. Traveling back and forth. Playing with Baby Noah. American Idol and Golden Spoon frozen yogurt.

Yesterday...
Easter. The Bunny came. Lots of chocolate. Church. Folded napkins in the shape of bunnies. Big dinner. St. George Temple Visitors Center. Sleep.


[Thanks Megan for tagging me. I tag everyone reading this with lots of spare time on their hands!]

good times

Being a stay-at-home mom with one child, I am running out of activities to keep Noah entertained. There's only so many minutes in a day that Noah can spend in his exersaucer, as much as he loves it. So I have been searching for fresh ideas. I have a cool book called "365 games smart babies play" and I have been looking online at babycenter.com for things to keep us busy. So we have done a couple of fun things this week that I think are worth mentioning. We did art the other day. No matter that I don't have crayons or other suitable art materials for babies. We used Sharpies, and I think it worked quite well.

Then, today we played the Hat Game. I collected random objects around the house that we could put on our heads. Sounds a little lame, but it was really a good time. Noah loved it. Here are some pictures. (a little disclaimer: I know I should not be putting the Bumbo seat on the bathroom counter. I feel bad about potentially endangering my child, but really, I never left his side. And I won't do it again.)

Happy birthday bag hat

Basket hat and baby wipes container hat

Diaper hat
traditional baseball hat

...and our favorite, the striped pants hat

Lampshades work well too.
So if any of you have good ideas for baby fun, please let me know. Otherwise, we will just keep playing this hat game every day until he's 5.

Noah eats

Noah seems to be getting hungrier every day and every night. I don't know what happened. He used to be "sleeping through the night", or at least only waking up once. Then, about three weeks ago, suddenly he turned into this crazy nocturnal creature. I don't know anything about parenting or babies, but I do have a couple of theories: Growth spurt. Either that or my milk turned all watery and weird overnight. That whole hunger thing, combined with his obsession with big people food, got us to break out the rice cereal. We got the ok from our pediatrician (because we are first-time parents, and I think that's what first-timers usually do before making big life changing decisions like this one) and then the other night we mixed up a batch and he went to town. I think little Noah was surprised. On a side note, I have this habit of letting him lick on my spoon during those meals when he's on my lap, after he starts to get fussy. He never gets much from those spoon licks, mostly just something to wake up his little tastebuds and keep him from crying. So on our first rice cereal night when we let him have the spoon, with more than crumbs on it, and then gave it to him again and again--wow. He was pretty thrilled. For the record, he is not sleeping through the night again yet, but I guess his happiness from his new little treat is worth it.