Family Planning

I really wanted to title this post kid number 2 but that just felt cruel haha.

We are not pregnant, nor do we have plans to be so any time soon.  However, it seems to be a common question people are starting to ask me (is nine months when people think your life is back to sane?! more on that later . . .).  Mostly it's just friends who are also in the kid having stage and are curious what I am thinking about time line, but then yesterday it was Noah's doctor!!  He had his nine month checkup, and everything looks great.  She said he's pretty much the perfect nine month old.  Poor kid he never had a chance at having low standards.  Then she said you guys are really good parents and you should have more kids.  And it wasn't really said in a hey that would be cool if you had more kids kind of tone it was more like no seriously you should have more kids which caught me more than a little off guard.  Honestly the first thought that went through my head was "wait does that mean you see alot of people that shouldn't have more kids?!"  After that I thought man we are awesome.  Apparently I should have labeled this post my ridiculous trains of thought.  Then I told a friend at lunch and she said I think it's partly because we are surrounded by a Christian community that teaches us the gospel and lets us parent more freely, without fear of messing up because we know our kids and ourselves as parents are safely held in our Father's hands.  Way to crush my we are awesome bubble haha.  She's right though.  It is freeing to think God loves Noah more than we ever could.

Anyway, we want more kids but the memory of not sleeping is still all too real.  That and I finally fit in my pants and feel good running again and I'm not ready to give that up yet.  Plus Rach is trying to convince me to run a half marathon.  I can't decide if I want to up the ante and turn my run a 10k New Year's resolution into a run a half marathon resolution.

Okay so honestly 9 months post baby does feel really, really nice in some ways.  Noah is so much more flexible than a new born.  He doesn't need to eat exactly every 3.5 hours.  He doesn't need to sleep exactly 2 hours at every nap to not have a melt down later (in case you can't tell from this we are baby schedule people).  He can play by himself for decent chunks of time without freaking out if I'm not 2 inches from him.  Today I worked for almost a full hour with him just crawling around the sunroom playing with toys and letting Blitz lick him and then he also decided to crawl to Blitzy's crate and take her food bowl and bang it against the crate again and again and again.  He's so hilarious.  He'll just look at me and grin as if to say look mom I'm so awesome I figured out how to make more noise!!!  He can crawl around the house and follow me from room to room while I'm putting away laundry.  Basically I can multi task again and it is amazing.  That and he giggles any time you look at him and poke his little belly which is also amazing.  And he grins all the time.

And did I mention he goes to bed at 7:45 pm? Yeah life does feel a little normal again.  Except for the part where you have a small human with you 24-7.

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Today was just one of those days where you feel happy to be alive.  The sun was shining, it was almost 70 degrees out, and I got to drink two lattes and spend the day with this little guy.

After a normal morning full of topeca and napping, we went to lunch with a friend and ate some delicious queso and heard all the latest work drama.  Then it was back home for a some paper reading (aka working) and more napping for Noah.  Then I decided who needs to get groceries on Monday - instead we went to double shot, got another latte and a ridiculously expensive and delicious dark chocolate coffee bar and then headed to Guthrie Green for some fun in the sun.  Noah did his best to eat as many sticks as possible while I wasn't looking and Libby and I chatted about figuring out our lives.  After that we walked to the new Folks Urban Market downtown and bought eggs and ground turkey and mushrooms because I did need to still make dinner.  Noah played out on the porch in his exersaucer while Spencer fixed the fan and I cooked pasta.  We all three ate out on the porch and like any normal human Noah thought the pasta was way yummier than broccoli and apples he was supposed to be eating.  He was so full of giggles and smiles today and it was just extra beautiful to me. 

Tomorrow we see how fat he's gotten at his 9 month checkup!

We Made It!

Well I ran a 10k.  I never thought I would "be a runner" and sometimes I still don't think I am a runner since it still feels ridiculously hard to run half (most?) of the time.  When does that get easier?  I guess if I think about it, it has gotten easier to run a mile or two.  And three miles isn't always easy but now I can do it without ever having to walk - although sometimes if you saw me with the B.O.B. pushing Noah up the hill onto the 21st street bridge in the wind you might beg to differ :).  6.4 miles though - whew.  I'm glad I had Rach and Peter as running buddies even if the last two miles or so we were all pretty much done with the chit chat and just thinking about getting up the one big hill and then beating the two girls in front of us who kept walking and then jogging past us and then walking and then jogging past us.  We beat them in the last block just for good measure haha.

We ran it in just under an hour, which was sort of a goal.  First goal was to finish, second goal was to not walk, and third was to maybe, hopefully get it done in under an hour.  I'd done one 6 mile run in just over an hour with the stroller and Rach and I had done one in just under an hour without the stroller, so we knew it was doable we just didn't know how we would stand up under the pressure on race day - but we made it! 58 minutes and 57 seconds we crossed the finished line.  And then promptly ate a huge breakfast complete with tequila sunrises and bloody marys.

And Noah did this while we ate.  Whew watching races early Saturday mornings is so tiring.  Life as a baby is just so hard :).

Then we did a few touristy things around town since the siblings and friends were in town and well honestly we had never done half of them even though I've lived here almost 10 years (how did that happen?!!!).

Noah thought the center of the universe was pretty cool.

We also checked out the giant golden driller and then walked down 15th street and looked at some cool furniture stores and a few cute boutiques and of course the only thing we purchased were some cute baby leggings for Noah, complete with knee patches.

Then it was pizza, beer, valentine's day chocolate and olympics.  Oh and somewhere in there most of us showered haha.  And then some netflix.  And then sleep.  10k's do make for some pretty good nights sleep . . .

Noah's up.  Time for a walk to stretch out the legs and enjoy the 60 degree sunshine in February. 

Milestones

Noah is nine months old today!

Yes, I know it is also Valentine's Day today.  We actually did our Vday celebration early on Wednesday night since we are both running 10k's in the morning and didn't want to be running around full of wine and chocolate cake and heavy cream.  Haha TMI.

We started out at Hodges Bend for a nice pre dinner drink - I had a cappucino so I could stay up past 8 (our reservation wasn't till 7:45!) while Spencer had some odd but delicious cocktail with espresso in it.  Then it was off to try the new Tallgrass Prairie Table downtown.  It was so delicious.  I had theh fanciest fried chicken I've ever seen, complete with a curry dipping sauce.  Amazing.  And the restaraunt was beautiful too, complete with rustic wood barn doors and water colors of wild horses.  Too bad you can't just sit there and study :).

So yes, Noah is nine months and ridiculously cute and hilarious.  Guys, he is fearless.  I'm not really surprised in general but he still manages to surprise me on a daily basis if that makes any sense.  Yesterday I took him to a park with a friend and he just crawled right on over to the playground and pulled up a merry go round toy that way bigger kids were spinning on.  Of course he fell but he went right back to it a few minutes later.  He is just so curious and I love it!  He also ate too many leaves and puked when I put him in his carseat.  I don't think I have ever heard such a sad noise!  I was at a red light and couldn't do anything and he was just sitting in his own vomit screaming.  It almost made me cry!  And it was probably all of 45 seconds.

Okay Noah's awake! Time for a bottle and then we're headed to the park to soak up some sun!