Scootie McScooterpants

Look who's walking.
 Now.
Too.
Ok...maybe we're at scooting, but still.
So proud:



Time to baby-proof the not-so-pulling-up-on-and-putting-everything-in-mouth-friendly-casa.
Any suggestions, mamas out there?

National Association of Stock Car Racing...This One's For You, Uncle Matt

I never imagined in my wildest dreams that I would be able to pick Jeff Gordon out of a crowd, know the winner of the Daytona 500, or give a hoot about young buck Brad Keselowski's aggressive and risky driving that doesn't seem to sit too well with most of the older drivers, including but not limited to Carl Edwards. But alas, I can tell you all about that and more. And I say that with a little pride, strangely enough. But you see, when you live in the country in East Tennessee you can't really avoid or escape it. It just kind of sneaks up on you like a bad cold that you can't get rid of...and though you don't like the cold, maybe a little embarrassed of the dripping snotty nose that takes over your life, you deal with it.
I doubt anyone ever loves a cold, but oh NASCAR, how I've learned to deal with you.
And maybe even like you.
A little.

But I think I know a little fella who might like you a lot.
Bless my heart.
 

But don't be too hard on him, he has an excuse:
1. We live in East Tennessee. Enough said.
2. We live in the country, twenty miles from town. No cable, no Direct/Dish TV (too many trees), no internet strong enough to watch other things. So we have an antenna...think rabbit ears for the 21st century. We get four channels on a good day and FOX happens to be one of our tried and true.
3. The cars are bright colors and go round and round.  What baby doesn't like those two things...parents pay a lot of money for toys that do that. (Apparently, they aren't too picky about sponsors...a pink Kim Kardashian car, are you serious?)
4. Noah's Uncle Matt #1 is a NASCAR fan...and anything that Uncle Matt does must be good, right? Every uncle needs a good racing buddy.
5. And he's cute while he watches:

All I can say is.

Boogity. Boogity. Boogity.

Let's crank it up.

Bless my heart.

The Other Side of the Lens

If you haven't noticed, you don't normally get the (ahem) privilege of seeing me in many of the pictures that appear on the blog. It seems that once my belly stopped morphing  from little to not-so-little (let's reminisce, shall we?), I ceased to be in a lot of shots.  I suppose that's the blessing and the curse of enjoying being behind the camera, limited supply of photos of yourself. Sad day. There's no way that it could be blamed on the fact that I spend most of my days in pajamas, sans shower, covered in creative juices...you name it, I've been covered in it.... including, but not limited to, vegetable soup.

Because most days I feel like I look like this:

It's nice to know that's not true.
All the time.

V8 Lady, Your Order is Ready

Oh, how I wish I had a digital copy of my beloved V8 Lady from the last time I was at Fuddruckers. Camp ladies of the 2004 Chickasaw nation, you may remember our dear friend rocking her red and white and green and orange sweater patterned with all its carrot juice glory.
Perfection. She is and ever will be my hero.

But alas, I do not have it on hand, so I will attempt to "replace" your V8 Lady Fuddrucker image with one that is maybe, hopefully, a little easier on your eyes:

There it is, folks. His first Fuddruckers hat. His daddy thought I was going to make him wear it.

First taste of spuds. Thanks, Fudds.

He liked his spuds (spuds = potato wedges = french fries), but was there really any doubt that he would dislike food? I think not.

As a side note, this was also his daddy's first time at Fuddruckers. He, as you can see from the lack of a photo, was not as enthused to wear the token hat. Party pooper. Though he did like the spuds...even requested to go back a few days later.

Fuddruckers is goooood. Deep Creek tubing anyone? How about ice skating in Greenville?
Or maybe just some spuds.

Whew.

Someone decided that it would be okay for Noah to sprint through a few "milestones" all at once. I am going to need to speak with them. Pronto.

Assuming the position...time to baby proof the house. Oi.

 Look at my new teeth...

And this is just too darn cute to not share.

Last night I was changing his diaper on the floor at the Smeltzer's house when he performed some impressive acrobatics. He was on his back as I was taking his diaper off when he flipped over to his belly and pushed up on all fours all in the same fluid motion. There he was in all his glory, on his hands and knees, with his bare hiney in the air and a big silly grin on his face. Oh, how I wish I would have had my camera. Of course, I called everyone over to look. For some reason, they weren't as amused as me.

Papa Comes to Town

We were home from Lexington for about 20 minutes when Papa Bo arrived! He came up to help Chris build the new deck for the archery program at camp...and maybe get a little sugar from a certain two foot tall guy. He was able to stay with us for almost a week and they were able to complete the deck over the weekend, even though, as dad says, they had to carry the lumber to the next county over. The site for the course is perfect, except that it's a far piece from the closest vehicle access...about 150 yards. Yikes.

Matt came over for dinner Friday night and then came back on Saturday morning to help with the deck. He was a tremendous help to Chris and Dad. We went to lunch at Los Padres on Sunday to eat with all the EE ladies and had a nice commissioning service that night with some of the folks from the board. Dad and I went and stocked up on some groceries Monday night, particularly food for the little guy...thanks for that. Sadly, he had to leave us Tuesday morning to go spend time with the Giustis, but he and mom will be back in a couple of weeks... Mom was a tinge envious of Dad getting to squeeze the little guy.

I stayed pretty busy with Environmental Ed training and teaching, so I didn't get to take many pictures. I will try and get one of the BEAUTIFUL deck that Dad, Chris, and Matt slaved hard over. Hopefully the weather will let me this week.

He may or may not have a FEW of these on his phone.

I think they like each other. A little.

Do the Jitterbug

My oldest nephew, Wilson (aka Wilbur Doug), and the Jitterbug Productions group from Fairhope, AL traveled to Kentucky to perform their rendition of Mulan, Jr. for a convention held in Lexington. Chris, Noah, and I headed up there for the day, as it's only about 3.5 hours from here, to see Kelly and Wilson. When we got to the Children's Theater I had specific instructions to ask for the usher with straight black hair wearing a black skirt and silver shirt. We were cutting it close on time (darn you, GoogleMaps) and we could tell the place was packed. The theater manager tried to tell me that we would have to sit in the lobby and watch it on the television. I told him, politely, not so much. Luckily he came to his senses when I told him that my sister was saving seats on the top row and he sent us in. Good choice, mister, goooood choice.

Noah loved all the colors and the music and was very mesmerized for the duration of the performance...almost two hours! Pretty good for a five month old. We are so glad we got to see the performance and it was well worth the trip. Wilson's face lit up when he found us in the audience...made me so proud. We grabbed a bite to eat, had a mini photo session outside the theater, and then parted ways. It was a quick but wonderful treat!

Here are a few photos from the day:

Wilson is all the way to the right, smiling at us.

 Wilson, front right, he's in the good army.

Stuck in the middle of the avalanche, now in the bad army.

Back in the good army, second row left.

Kelly, Wilson, Noah, and Me...love the color of the walls.

The boys...

Good lookin' fellas

We had a great time, though it was a very quick trip that made for a longish day.
But we knew we had a special visitor meeting us when we got back home...

Five in Photos

As promised, five months in pictures:

You're my favorite daddy, Daddy...

 

Meet Noah, the human pretzel baby.

Got him by the reins already...sucker.

 

Attempting to show you his teeth coming in...instead, a funny photo.

 

He's safe! He doesn't so much stay on his designated blanket anymore. 

Oh boy.

 

And my personal favorite...look mom, no hands!

Five

Noah is five months old today. Time flies.
Five new things, eat your heart out.

We love:
1. That Noah likes to fold himself in half while on the changing table. With clothes on, without clothes on...it doesn't matter to him.

2. His two bottom front teeth are poking their way through! And if babies are supposed to be cranky while cutting teeth, Noah missed that memo. I am not complaining.

3. The fact that he LOVES bananas. You can't shovel them in fast enough. Avocados, not so much.

4. He goes to sleep by himself. No rocking. No backrubbing (usually). Just kisses and love from daddy and mama and we lay him down in his bed. He talks for a few, then he's out. Naps and nighttime, he just started doing it on his own. Best. Baby. Ever. Now...if we can just get him to drop his midnight feeding...

5. When he reaches up/out and cups my face in his hands. Oh my... then he looks at you with those big blue eyes. Crap, we're in trouble.

This week our house and schedule have been turned upside down with the start of environmental ed training and Daddy Daycare has kicked in full swing. It's working great so far and Noah has really been good to his daddy. It's tough to be away from him most of the day, but it is amazing to see his little face light up when he sees me for the first time in a few hours. I am still nursing him every three hours or so and/or pumping, so the stretch of time isn't THAT long, but going from being with him ALL day to being apart for three hour stretches is quite the difference. It will take some time to adjust, for me anyway.

Adventures in making our own baby food is going wonderfully, minus the avocados. We have to hide them in other sweet potatoes and bananas, then he doesn't seem to mind them. Thanks to the Maslins we have a great system down...about once a week I prepare the fruits or veggies and freeze what we don't use right away. We use OXO trays with covers which makes it super easy and tidy, let them freeze, then pop them into a freezer bag until we need them. Pears and sweet potatoes are on the menu now...carrots are next. It's definitely worth the time and effort...saves a TON of cash.

I've also started making Noah's butt-wipe solution...oils, water, and baby bath. That's it. Super easy. Super fast. Super cheap. Super. It feels good to save money. Well, it feels good not to spend it.

I will supply photos at a later time...when it doesn't take a day and a half to upload.

Happy five month day to our little bearbear.