an entire year old

Well, the day has finally come.. I was in denial about it for as long as I could be, but.. Noah is officially and fully.. an entire year old.

Sigh.

In a lot of ways he still seems like so much of a baby to me.. he doesn't like wearing shoes, still has his binky (Lily lost interest in hers when her teeth started coming in), and the way he curls his legs up to sleep. But in other ways he seems so far from a baby- just in little tiny ways like.. he's walking. (Which Lily wasn't doing for another month or so.)

He still primarily crawls because it gets him to where he needs to be faster, but the ratio is steadily shifting. And the more he realizes he can walk from point a to b, the more he's finding points to walk to. And birthday balloons have certainly helped- the idea of getting over to them is a big motivator for him.

He LOVES dinosaurs. Lily had a few, but he's completely taken them over. He has even been raaawring at them the last few months. He also started taking over Lily's cars and other things with wheels.. or even anything that he can slide along the floor.

It's so interesting to me that he's gravitated more towards Lily's stereotypically boy things, but he does like her Lalaloopsy dolls too. Often to chew on, but he also seems interested in what they look like. There are a few medium-sized ones that he used to really like.. I thought it might have been because they looked a little like babies.. just like he was.

He likes Mickey Mouse, Harry the Bunny from BabyFirstTV, and smashing down on anything with buttons. He loves changing the tv channels, turning it off and on, and bangs on the box when touching it does nothing to the tv because Lily is  playing a video game instead.

One of my favorites is that he knows my name (ma ma ma ma ma) .. and says it constantly. When he's around me or when he wants to be around me (if I'm out). He's started talking about Jason too (duhduhduh).. now we just need work on how to say Lily.

He's very interested in observing things and 'taking it all in.' Things that roll or can be waved around are interesting to him. And he's mellow. Calm. Not at all like his sister. He takes all her craziness in stride.. and he loves her. The way he looks at her. They way he injects himself into almost everything she does. And he has the best laugh.. the biggest smile.

What else can I say? He's wonderful. In some ways his first year has flown by, but in other ways it totally has not. I've never gotten so little sleep in my life- so I've been awake for a lot more of the last year, but so much more tired and full of caffeine. But it's worth it. I wouldn't change any of it. My children are the best.

Happy first birthday, Noah.

blogger's block

I can't seem to blog lately. I don't have a lot to say about just one thing, but I do seem to have one thing to say about a lot of (unrelated) things.

I decided I need some type of crossbody bag- for when I'm out of the house and with any of my children. Which is actually the case almost every time- unless I'm going to the doctor. I don't know if that's sad or just shows how much I enjoy (I think?) having them around me constantly. Either way- that's the situation. Not having one has just become too impractical. Unfortunately I just cannot find one I really like.

All the snowstorm prep, the actual storm, not having power for 23 hours, school being cancelled, and whatever else has thrown the house further into disarray- and I don't know if I have the energy to start fixing it.

I really can't stand our bathroom.

Or the kitchen. The state of the cabinets are almost too much for me.

The hall needs to be swept and washed. But.. ug, I just don't want to.

Why isn't there ever any regular iced VIA at my Target anymore? Or frozen spinach? Although I don't think there ever was. It's not a popular enough vegetable for the small frozen vegetable section at our most local Target.

Lily has a friend at school. Ohmagoodness. Like, I'm pretty sure at real friend whose name she knows and he knows hers (yes, he) and isn't one of the vague "girl friends" that she refers to occasionally. He almost always says goodbye to her if he's near the door when we leave..and when I suggested she say goodbye to him today.. she added a Y to the end of his name. It made me laugh.

I still haven't gotten to the grocery store. In like.. two weeks. I've just picked up a few things here and there at Target. And never made it to the grocery store after that. Because.. my children just exhaust the heck out of me sometimes.. and going to Target first is more important than not going at all. Because it just is.

I wish I could get more sleep. I really do. I'm so tired constantly, it's kinda not fair. I tried to think of when the last time I got more than 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep. I couldn't. It's been at least a year and a half. I mostly get about 5 hours. Maybe 6. And certainly not uninterrupted.

Noah is down to just one binky. And now that he's on the verge of turning one, I don't want to buy more. There are a few others but he had 4 he liked for the last 7 or 8 months. One vanished- and has been gone for awhile. Then all 3 went missing over the course of a week. I went into full on search mode and found them all, but one was missing too long and had mold (!) growing in it. Then there was 2. Now one has been missing for a few days. So.. there we are. Nearly binkyless.

Taxes have been completed. Check mark. Exhale.

I need a haircut.

I'm hungry. Mmm.. macaroni and cheese sounds good. Actually.. no, maybe it doesn't.

More coffee does though.

Or maybe apple cider. Warmed up. Because my throat is a little sore.

And for gawdssake if I'm getting sick again.. !

what we did last week

1. All of us have been sick at some point (some of us are still sniffling) over the last week and a half... we went through 7 or 8 boxes of tissues.. I lost count. But on the glass-is-half-full side of it, Lily got some new shoes.

2. Pre-snowstorm sky. Love it.

3. Came across this during my pre-snowstorm supply-stock-up shopping. Cutest dog- I wanted it. For me.

4. Fond of stripes.

5. We lost power for 23 hours during the snowstorm. I was a little surprised how cold it got. Inside. Noah made it through the night okay, but he was so terribly cold in the morning- and spent almost the entire day sleeping. Even after we got the generator and space heater going. I believe his thoughts were something along the lines of "wake me up when it's over."

6. With the generator going, I finally got to have a warm meal. Everything from our refrigerator was already nicely nestled in the snow- and I didn't want to undo everything I'd packed up(not even milk for my coffee!) so.. microwave noodles it was..

Snowstorm: two years in the making.

I guess we're ready. Supplies have been bought. Overly so. We've charged everything that we can find. Even things that we haven't used in months (years?). If it can provide even a moments entertainment to any of these children.. oh ya, you better believe it's gotten charged up.

We put new games on the ipad, charged cameras, charged computers, even bought a board game. A board game! One without wires, batteries, or circuit boards. I know!

We've gotten out chargers, flameless candles, flashlights, glowsticks.. and I don't even know what else.

I'm sucking up as much internet and television as I can before all this power might just go away. The lights have flickered and flickered and flickered all night long. But.. at least I made and ate my (warm) dinner and watched Elementary and Grey's Anatomy.

So now we wait..

And in the morning.. we get to play in the snow! So so SO much snow!