Big Boy

Noah has apparently made an executive decision that he now wants to sit in one of our regular dining chair and not his high chair anymore.  It's fascinating how he just decides these sorts of things.  We went and got him a little booster seat for it, but I have a feeling he won't want/need that for too long.  Now if we can just work on getting him to feed himself better!

Another Haircut

Before:


After:


It's such a shame we can't donate his hair - there is so much of it and it's so soft. So, yeah, this is his fifth head shave in under two years.

Sweetness

Of course, you know how cute Noah is. (Probably a couple of new pics on Sunday before and after we shave his head again.) This post will be about how sweet he is and how that does and doesn't work out in public.

At home, he used to not like it when I'd hug on Nerdstar. Then, we got him to come and do group hugs with us. When we're in different rooms, he'll run from one to the other and give us hugs. He also hugs on his Pooh bears and says "eeeeee" - his version of "sweet" which we say when he hugs us or Pooh. So sweet!!

When things get interesting is when we're either out in the neighborhood walking around or at a playground or other place with kids. If there is a boy from ages, say, 5-11, he'll start off watching them, and then get closer and closer and either reach out and touch them or hug them or lean up against them. There's a sweet boy across the street who's been very patient and let Noah hug on him a couple of times. Today, we were in a little shop and there was a boy and Noah went right up and give him a light hug. Yesterday, there were two brothers at a play area, I'd say 8 and 10 years old he took an immediate liking to. They weren't so big on the idea of being hugged by Noah. When they went to sit on a bench, he climbed right up and sat between them like he was a big kid, too. It was so cute.

Now, what's interesting to me is seeing the different reactions of the different kids, usually boys. (He's hugged a girl once or twice at play areas.) Some are really sweet, and Nerdstar or I are fairly close by and we tell them he's just saying Hi and he can't talk yet. No one has been anything near mean to him, but some looked a little disturbed. I wonder how much of that is the "stranger danger" that's drilled into kids. I wonder how much of it is a little boy hugging boys. (I have no idea of girls would react different to girls hugging them - probably not.)

But, I'm also interested that the parents are usually aloof or sort of ignoring the whole thing. I'd like to think when Noah is older and if some little boy comes up and hugs on him we'd at least say, "Oh, be nice to the sweet boy."

Anyway. I hope it's a long time before our boy learns too much about personal space and boundaries.

Grow and Change

Noah is a great kid 90% of the time. He's a great kid more of the time than I'm a great mom. He's smart, and sweet, but he's also incredibly strong-willed. He doesn't care how many times you tell him NO. He doesn't care how many times you pick him up and move him away from something, or smack his hand, or anything else you try to do to get him to not do something. So, we've set things up as much as possible to keep him out of trouble, but we can't put him in a padded room forever. Lately, he loves to get the mouse off the desk and click it. It's not like I want to have to remember to turn it off or take it with me all the time.

We just don't know what's going to be effective in disciplining him. I'm not even sure it's a problem of him not talking yet. He absolutely understands when he's doing something he's not supposed to. He just looks at us and does it again. When he's done the same thing several times, I'm starting to go put him in his crib and tell him it's time out. I think that's more for my sanity than his discipline though.

And my sanity seems to be the bigger problem some days. The times that are so frustrating are when I want "just one damn minute" to get "one damn thing" done. Like when it's almost 2 in the afternoon and I haven't had lunch and I just want to make a sandwich or something and he isn't taking his nap yet and won't stay out of trouble for three consecutive minutes. This is when I just don't have the patience to deal.

Now, it's not Noah's fault he has a mother with a short temper and lack of patience. And trust me, I apologize to him often.

Then there are the whole days, or half days, where I'm just too tired, not feeling well enough, or frustrated with Nerdstar, and it's a struggle to get through. I hate those days.

I know that Noah will grow and change. He'll learn to talk and get into different things. It won't always be the same struggles. But what I hope is that I'll grow and change. And that we'll figure out how to handle this very strong-willed boy!

Happy Birthday!

To Nerdstar! She might finally be a grown up now that she's 40. (She was about 80 when I met her, then she spent many, many years at 12, then went back to about 80.)

It was also ten years ago we got Ramen dog. Nerdstar had told me every day (really, every day) for about six months that she wanted a dog. She almost got a Palm Pilot for her birthday that year, but nope, we went and got Ramen. I talked her into naming him Ramen as a pre-emptive strike so that our first born human wouldn't be named Ramen!

Noah's food (this is all that he eats)

*Not shown are items such as yogurt, string cheeses, cottage cheese, apple juice, milk, sweet potatoes, fritos, bacon, nila wafers, ritz crackers, and blueberries.

Sigh. Our Food Desert

Ok, this one isn't about Noah. It's about the topic we talk about only second to Noah - food.

There's all this talk of food deserts and the idea that in urban areas a mile is too far to go to a grocery store. Whatever.

We live in Northern Virginia, home to several of the richest counties in the country. We live in the working class part. Our neighbors in the ten houses in our cul-de-sac alone are from several different countries. There are lots of people who work with their hands in a part of the country not known for that. You would think there would be tons of mom and pop, hole in the wall, ethnic restaurants around here. There aren't.

You know why there aren't? Because our dear leaders would rather have PF Changs come to our neighborhood instead - because they're better for the tax base. So, they make zoning laws and tax structures and rents impossible for "the little guy" in the name of "improving our community".

It sucks. And I'm not even talking about the idiocy of DC in regards to something as simple as food trucks. I'm talking about our little suburbia fifteen miles south. I'd say there are enough people from at least fifty different countries that we should have some of the most diverse food choices anywhere. And there are none. When I talk to people who've moved here from anywhere, food comes up and it's always the same - there's no good Mexican food, or Chinese food, or soul food, or Southern food, or anything. The exception is Korean food. The Koreans got it going on. But for us to even go eat some Korean food is a thirty minute drive in traffic. The Asian grocery stores are a forty-five minute drive. And those are all in other counties. We're in the minority, most people won't drive as far as we will for food. So they're stuck with chain restaurants or fast food.

It doesn't have to be that way, but our local leaders aspire to being even more like the rich county next door than to serve the people who actually live in this area.

So, every night when we talk about what we want to eat, we list off ten or twelve places we used to go to in Austin and wish we were there. When people ask if we like living here, I say I love the weather, and I do, but the food situation, along with the traffic and cost of living, will lead to us moving eventually.