11 Months

Wow, 11 months. The big 1 year is coming up soon!

You're doing new stuff on a regular basis and continue to be quite the goofy boy. You still do your inchworm, military, special olympics style crawl, and pull up everywhere. You still like to throw balls and go get them. You're changing your nap schedule, which is good. You insist on sitting on my lap when I'm at my desk. You still love going out to eat, and we think you did your first flirting with a lady at the restaurant the other day.

I got you a mirror yesterday and we think you loved seeing/playing with yourself more than anyone else. You waved at and smiled at and kissed yourself in the mirror. It was cute and funny.

You take in the world with your serious face on. You laugh with us.

We still love you more than anything and love hanging out with you. We know you're just going to be even more fun in the future.

Favorite Video

So far Noah doesn't watch tv. That's 90% because there isn't a tv upstairs where we spend most of our day. But the times we are downstairs where the tv is, even with kids shows on, he doesn't really pay much attention to it. He's a boy in motion and wants to stay in motion.

Nerdstar and I both spend a good amount of time on the computer, and he likes to sit in our lap while we do. She watches entertainment/interview shows from Taiwan with him on Saturday mornings. We both find him a few kids' videos on you.tube.

We both think this is a really cute video for Twinkle Twinkle Little Star - and Noah really seems to like it.

Protect MY Family

Apparently, election season has begun. Oh joy. I think I read it's 505 days until the election, and yet, here we go.

Naturally, both parties become all about "family" during election time.

But I'm pretty sure none of them are about helping or protecting my family.

It got me to thinking about the "It Get's Better" campaign for gay young people. I think it's a great project, it's just not something I'm all that into.

I thought it would be cool to have a "This (insert family photo) is my family. Protect it."

Yes, that's a huge part of the gay marriage fight. But it's also about adoptions laws, property rights, inheritance, etc. (Gay marriage would solve all of it, but I'll take it piecemeal if I have to.)

But it's like my type of family doesn't even exist in the eyes of most politicians - local, state or national.

So, I was thinking last night how to change that. How to literally put our faces out there. Sure, there could be a FB campaign, or you.tube or whatever. I don't know. How effective are they?

Just my thoughts last night.

General Update

Things are good.

Noah's getting good at pulling up on things and trying to balance standing up more. He thinks it's a blast. I'd say there's at least a small chance he'll be walking by his birthday. He's so ready to run around.

We're still working to get Noah's skin all cleared up. Took him to another dermatologist Friday, she gave him some stronger ointments. Two weeks or so ago, his skin was at it's all-time worst. Today it looks just about the best it has. We think it's due to the Chinese herbs we get from Austin. The derm wanted us to stop using those with these new ointments, we think otherwise. We'll see if this is just a good part of the cycle or if maybe he's turning a corner and getting better. It's hard not knowing a real cause or cure, everyone says he'll hopefully grow out of it one day.

One of those little things about being a parent with a baby/toddler is the not going to movie theaters anymore. Now, we had gotten to where we didn't see a lot of movies in the theater anyway - too expensive, too many people making noise, hot theater, etc. For 95% of movies, I really would rather sit on my sofa and watch them in peace and quiet at home. But, that means I'm watching the movies when everyone else has forgotten about them. Watched True Grit over the weekend. Can't say I thought it was as great as everyone else seemed to.

Speaking of hot theaters - what's up with that? In Texas, where it's hot as hell half of the year, public buildings are generally freezing, as they should be. Here in Virginia where the weather is a little milder, the malls and theaters are hot and icky. Bleh.

King Of Beers

When Noah was just a wee tadpole in Nerdstar's tummy, we had a vision of this picture when we saw the jean diapers for sale. So we got some of those, found him some wifebeaters online, and finally got a beer to complete the picture!

We work hard to earn the name 2 Bad Moms!

Who Is This Kid?

We've been living with our Noah Maxx for almost a year now. Today we were talking about how we don't really know much about him yet. We have no idea what kind of music he'll like, what he'll like to wear, watch, do... you get the picture.

But, here's what we know so far:

He really, really can't wait to run.
He will yell between bites if you don't feed him fast enough. If that fails, there will be actual tears.
He laughs at his own jokes (we have no idea what they are) and will laugh whenever he hears someone else laugh.
He talks to beings in our house that we can't see.
He loves Ramen dog.
He's content to play by himself, but also loves to watch older kids playing.
He reads and talks to himself more than he talks to us.
If you say yes, or nod your head yes, he will only shake his head NO.

Standing/Pulling Up

Noah's been pulling himself up holding onto my hands and then pretty much using me as a jungle gym. (I know that I'll continue to be his jungle gym for a very long time to come.)

Today I heard him behind me laughing and all excited. I turned around and it was the first time he'd pulled himself up by himself with this step stool.

Our boy has wanted to run from at least the time he was about three months old. He's so excited to be getting closer and closer to being able to!