too cool for school

School is officially out for summer spring.  Noah's nanny started this week and it has been going really well.  I was kind of sad to take him out of daycare because the teachers loved him, but now he gets constant attention and plenty of naps.  Also, I selfishly love being able to hear his chattering all day while I am working.  It is slightly distracting, but unfortunately I've been so busy I haven't been able to sneak away a whole lot to see him.  I do feel a little bad for the nanny because her day is relatively boring since he is asleep for 4-5 of the 8 hours she is here (never mind, that sounds like a dream job).  I am definitely glad we went this route for now and wish we had done it from the start.

In addition to meeting his nanny, Noah got to meet Uncle Jake's girlfriend, Jocelin.  He loved having them visit and showing them around the city.  We were total tourists for the weekend - we covered CNN, the aquarium, the zoo and world of coke (yep, city passes!).  Noah's favs were riding the escalator at CNN, seeing the dolphin show, petting a goat, feeding a giraffe, riding a carousel and of course seeing real life zeebees.  Noah also accompanied us to a few brunches and got another night with his babysitter while we went out. 

As a quick aside, if you are planning to hit any of those highlights with a baby, know that CNN doesn't allow strollers.  We owe Jake and Jocelin a big thanks for being our Downton Abbey-style valets.   Also if you get a city pass, you can skip the line at the aquarium, and the cleanest and quietest bathroom at the aquarium is the one near the cafe.  The bathrooms at the zoo on the other hand are all disgusting and only one (the one near the gorillas) has a changing table, not that I'd use it.

The weekend before Jake and Jocelin came, Grandma Bea and Grandpa Art came to visit.  They had a lot of fun playing with Noah and got to babysit while we went out with Heather and Garrett.  Grandpa Art got the hang of swaddling and Noah was very well taken care of.  That same weekend Noah celebrated his first Easter.  Our friends and neighbors, Keith and Adrienne, were nice enough to have us over for a great meal so we didn't have to cook.

Unfortunately right after Easter, I came down with a nasty cold that lingered for over a week.  Noah didn't seem to catch it until almost a week later when he got very stuffy and his eyes started to water.  It was one of the saddest things I've ever seen, but he seemed relatively unfazed (still grinning and giggling a lot).  He did wake up one night almost every hour but thankfully that was only been one night.
Noah has gotten really close to rolling over from his back to his stomach.  Whenever he is playing on his back he rolls onto his side but can't quite get over from there.  I am thinking it will happen any day now.  He has also started to show a little bit of interest in toys and will firmly grasp onto anything nearby (he seems especially fond of necklaces and hair and yesterday went for a rattle).  He loves bubbles and peek-a-boo (he always laughs when you surprise him), so those are two of our favorite games.  We've still been going to the park to swing and play 2 grow classes and may try a music class next week.  I figure that since he is home all day it will be nice to get out and be around other kids a few times a week.  Also he has started to sound more and more like a pterodactyl from Jurassic Park (he must've know it was being released in 3D).  Ben took a video and we watch it constantly.

Play 2 Grow

Highlights of the past few weeks:

- Seeing Grandma Bea, Grandpa Art, Jake and Jocelin

- Starting with the nanny

- Seeing real Zeebees

- Feeding a giraffe

- grabbing onto toys

- making pterodactyl noises

And of course, more pictures:

Easter outfit #1

Easter outfit #2

CNN

Aquarium

Zeebees in the background!

3 months and lots of changes

It has been a very busy two weeks with a lot of changes and firsts for Noah.  He watched his first NCAA tournament (sadly not a good year for either of his teams), celebrated his 3 month birthday, celebrated St. Patty's day, led a parade, celebrated mommy and daddy's 5 year anniversary, had his first sleepover with Mads, had his first real babysitter, met his friend Carson and went to his first Play 2 Grow class.

He is smiling and babbling all the time and is just a very happy baby.  He has grown so much that sometimes when I pick him up from daycare I feel like I don't even recognize him.   Speaking of daycare, he seems to have adjusted okay to being there but we aren't totally crazy about it.  I thought long and hard about why and realized there are three reasons.  First it is just plain hard to leave him (which I can't do anything about), second I worry that since he is the youngest in his class he gets overlooked because he doesn't do much besides sit there and smile and third he doesn't nap well because he is distracted and can't be swaddled.  The teachers all seem wonderful and really like him, but in the end we decided to pull him out and get a nanny for the next 2 months until he starts at the Suzuki school, which was our first choice for daycare.  I figure by then he will be over 5 months old, close to taking just 2 naps a day and be in a class with more kids close to his age.  Finding a nanny was not easy, but I am really excited about the girl we hired and think Noah will love her.  They are meeting for the first time this weekend and she starts the second week in April.

Noah's first sleepover with Mads went very well.  As you can see he was in heaven with Michelle and Jordan.  It was nice to leave him with them because they followed the same schedule with Mads so they knew how to do all of his routines.   It also allowed us to have a fun time at our friends Jimmy and Sayako's wedding, which was at a winery north of here.  The wedding was beautiful and we had fun dressing up and being around adults for so many hours!

His first time with the babysitter was also at Michelle and Jordan's house when we all went to a charity event.  He did pretty well except that I got a text around 8:45pm that he had spit up all over his onesie, miracle blanket and pac n play.  Fortunately his sitter is a pro and got him cleaned up, in a new blanket and back to sleep. 

Sadly the same night of the event Ben came down with a nasty stomach flu and was out of commission for almost a full week.  That meant I got to play single mom, which was kind of fun and kind of exhausting.  I really have a new respect for single parents because doing it for more than a few days is really hard.

Noah and I also went to his friend Play 2 Grow class recently and discovered he loves to swing.  Luckily we have baby swings in the playground in our neighborhood, so I've taken him there a few times since.  I signed us up for a block of classes, so hopefully he continues to enjoy it and I meet some other moms with babies his age so we can have more play dates.

Play 2 Grow class

He especially likes swinging with his bff

Highlights of the past few weeks:

- Swinging

- Playing with Mads

- Turning 3 months old

- babbling

- leading a parade for St. Patty's day

- lots of quality time with mommy (ok, a highlight for me)

- play 2 grow class

And more pictures:

Leading the parade on his first full day  of daycare

his teachers and classmates

all the mommies

Aunt Heather

First run in the Bob (George hates it)

Play time with Carson

First time at a bar (mom of the year award for this one)

Meeting his friend Lamar