From 1979

"Is Your Child Ready for 1st Grade?"

Funny how it's the being able to walk around the neighborhood that's talked about. I guess I was a "free-range" kid growing up. My elementary school was just behind the house across the street from us, but due to fences, I walked all the way down the block, turned the corner, down half a block, and across the street. I mostly loved walking to school and back. My best friend and I would always make an adventure out of it.

But, to illustrate just how powerful my fear of Mom was, and how it would have kept me safe, I'll tell one story.

I was probably in 3rd or 4th grade and there was an after school cupcake sale. It was also pouring rain. I had four cupcakes on top of my old metal lunchbox and was walking home. Some lady in a car offered me a ride, and as miserable as I was, I said, "no." I knew I wasn't supposed to get in the car with strangers. Years later when I told my Mom this story, she laughed and said, "but she was a friend of mine," and I said, "well, I didn't know her."

Ok, one more story. At some point around that same time, maybe a little later, three or four guys, probably in their 20's moved into the house two doors down from us. I don't remember much about them, or how long they lived there (not very long), but I remember sitting right in the doorway because I knew there was no way I was allowed to go in that house.

From the time I learned how to ride a bike, I was riding it all over the neighborhood. The only time I got in serious trouble for it was actually for riding down our sloped driveway, out into the street, in front of a car. My Mom happened to see that out of the window, and boy was I in trouble!

I loved spending so much time outside with my friends, riding bikes, exploring places, walking to school and back in all kinds of weather.

I hope to find a way to let Noah have some freedom and adventure!

1 Year, 1 Month, 1 Week and 1 Day Old

Kinda fun.

I don't think there are any real, big changes going on currently, just the little every day ones.

We finally bought him a couple of pair of shoes. I think he has big feet - size 5W to start! So we got that size and the next size up. He won't wear them too often, but we'll have them for when he finally starts walking and we take him to the park. We have a Stride Rite outlet nearby - wow they're still expensive. We spent the same amount on two pair of shoes and some socks that I spent on his entire winter wardrobe at a consignment store. The consignment store isn't all that close, but it's a really good one. I got seven pairs of pants (corduroy, sweats and jeans), seven or so long sleeve onsies, 3 winter onsies to sleep in, and six or seven long sleeve shirts and fleece pullovers for about $74.

We joke that for Noah it's not the clothes that make the man, it's the man that makes the clothes! He just looks so handsome in his shirts and pants.

He also got his first real bruise on his forehead. He clocked it on the corner of a wall in the bathroom. He seems to take getting hurt pretty well. It takes a decent hurt to make him cry, and then he doesn't cry too long.

He's getting closer to walking, but doesn't seem to be in any hurry to do it. He'll stand on his own when he doesn't know that he is.

Mostly he's still just so fun to hang out with. I guess it was Friday night he decided to stay up until 11 to play and hang out with us. Poor Nerdstar and I were ready to fall asleep about 9! He loves when she's home. If she leaves for work when he's up, he'll cry as she's leaving, but is fine once she's gone. And he's always so happy when she comes home from work. I love it. And on the weekends he insists she does everything for him - which I also love!

He and I have our weekday routines. Wake up, bottle of milk, play, oatmeal, play, watch youtube videos, play in room, a nap in there somewhere, milk, play, lunch, tell him it's my turn to eat lunch - he ate his, apple juice, play, argue over leaving things like his night-light alone, maybe read his books, maybe watch his videos again, hopefully nap #2, more milk, wait for Ma to get home!

Crazy Week

The earthquake was followed by a hurricane. How weird is that? But, thank God, the hurricane did no damage for us. I truly believe it's a miracle how much area was covered by both, and yet in most ways how little damage was done or lives lost.

I don't think the preparation I did was a waste of time, I take it as a trial run, and I learned a few things. First is that it doesn't have to be expensive. I made use of things we already had - like 10 gallon buckets to put water in if we needed it to flush the toilets. I used an empty milk jug to fill with water and freeze to put in an ice chest, and filled some baggies with ice from the freezer - might as well put the ice maker to good use - and then filled other baggies partly full of water and froze them to use in smaller ice chests. We've got 4 good flashlights and a bunch of candles. I even finally bought fuel for the coleman camping stove we bought back when I was hoping Y2K would happen!

But it's nice to know that our house and neighborhood have done so well during all of the weather events of the past couple of years. Although I have to remember not to get into a false sense of security the next time a big storm rolls around.

In Noah news. He's never phased by any of it, and I hope it stays that way. He's an army/navy dude and hopefully will always be able to sleep through anything.

He's also getting closer to walking. He finally thinks it's a blast to hold our hands and walk around the house, or tonight it was the mall. It's so cute! He still shakes his head "no" at strangers who talk to him. What's funny to me is that they all shake their head "no" right back at him and say "no?" But, he says "uh-huh" all the time, and sometimes even means it - like when you ask if he's ready for lunch! And even though he can't talk yet - he sure can argue with me.

Life is good and I'm so grateful for all of it.

My grandmother passed this week. She was 92. I'll never know a more content, serene, giving person. I truly know she's finally in heaven, and that makes me happy for her instead of being sad.

First Earthquake

That was certainly a big surprise!! Even that may be an understatement. I've been through tornadoes and hail storms and blizzards, those don't scare me. The earthquake today, scared me.

At 2 p.m. Noah and I were hanging out watching videos online when it started. We live fairly close to Quantico and the house frequently shakes when they're setting off large ordinances. At first that's what I thought it was. Then there was this really strange sound, so I got up and carried Noah and sorta looked out the back patio, then it dawned on me OMG this is an actual earthquake.

By then I was trying to figure out what I'm supposed to do, and while thinking about that realizing it's getting stronger and I have no idea if it's going to stop or get much worse. So we stood in the doorway and it finally all stopped shaking. I didn't stop shaking for about another five or ten minutes. Noah didn't seem to notice anything out of the ordinary. And it didn't bother Ramen dog much either, which is weird because he hates thunder and loud noises. I think it might have scared the cat.

Nerdstar wasn't at her normal work location today, she was a little closer to home doing stuff for her pending transfer to a new work location. Her stuff started at noon and wasn't expected to last too long, so she was going to get to come home early. So, after it happened I didn't know when she'd start heading home, and there was no cell phone coverage.

Of course, this being DC, everyone started their drive home early today and the traffic reports were terrible. Ugh. No, it couldn't possibly end up being as bad as when the snow hit last year, but it was still an unknown. She got home about 4:30 - one of the good surprises today.

We haven't felt the aftershocks, well, Nerdstar might have felt one, but it was only a few seconds. No damage, no injuries. Just some frayed nerves.

Now we're just waiting to see if we're gonna get hit by Irene this weekend.

One of the C-Ville pics

Time Keeps on Slippin'

It surely does. The days mostly repeat themselves. That's not a bad thing.

Last weekend we headed down to Charlottesville to have a friend take some photos of Noah. We couldn't believe how well he did. Normally if you set him down anywhere, he takes off crawling as fast as he can. This time, he sat there with his books and had his picture taken. It was a hot and humid afternoon and we took pictures at three different locations and he was such a trooper. He's not great at smiling or laughing on command, but he did what we asked him to for the most part. Can't wait to see all the finished photos!

We were also lucky to hang out with RR and her two Moms. She's just so adorable!

The only down thing lately is that Noah has apparently decided that long car rides aren't any fun. That, or having Nerdstar in the car with us isn't any fun. (heh) We're learning he mostly just has to fuss it out, nothing really makes a difference. My guess is he's a little bored after a while.

These days he's still throwing books at us all the time and making us read them to him. It's crazy. He's got five books he wants us to read over and over. I'm already tired of them, and I tried putting them up and bringing in some new ones, he wouldn't have it. Sigh. One of them is the Dr. Suess ABC book. I put on FB the other day that I'm sometimes quite tempted to just make up cuss word phrases for each letter. (See name of blog.)

Sometimes when he's sitting on my lap I think, Wow one day this adorable little boy, who I can pick up and toss in the air and all that fun stuff, will be a grown man. It's cool and disconcerting.

He's not in any hurry to walk - he crawls so fast that walking would feel like a step back to him. That's fine with me. The big milestones can take their time. I think he'd like to be able to talk. Sometimes he seems to be making an effort to repeat us. Some days he talks up a storm, telling us who knows what. Nerdstar thinks he's telling us the winning lottery numbers and we're just out of luck because we can't understand him. I can't wait to hear his stories.

Tomorrow is his one year ped. appointment. We're waiting to see how tall he is.

Nerdstar and Noah Reading