Noah has had a rough time as of late. He's teething (I think...), and caught a bit of a respiratory virus, so he's not always his usual good-natured self. Despite that, we've had lots of snuggle time. He's still cute even when he's feeling punk, so here's a few shots to demonstrate the ongoing cuteness...

This is one I took after the poor baby finally fell asleep after a particularly pitiful crying jag. I wound up getting him down to his diaper and rubbing his back until he fell asleep. He slept hard, and for about an hour and a half I was stuck (ha!) holding my sleeping angel. There are worse ways to spend your day, I promise you that. It's amazing how much things that mattered before simply don't matter any more. My favorite thing to do in the whole world isn't to go see a show, or play games, or anything like that. It's just to spend the afternoon snuggling my baby and hanging out with my husband. One look at a sweet picture like this, and you'll know why. I don't need some fancy job or title, although a big paycheck would be nice. I'd be happy right now if my only job title was "Momma." I always thought that I would do these amazing things in my career, get an academic title (that may still happen, but later), and go on to a high-recognition, high-paying job. Now I know that this little guy in the picture is the best thing I could possibly create, and more important than any thesis or vacation. Sounds trite, maybe, but I didn't realize how important I thought those things were until Noah snuggled with me for the first time and gave me some much needed perspective. Now, that's enough of the rambling, take a look at some more cute pictures!

Kyle and I are working most Saturdays helping his brother and sister-in-law with their catering business. They work weddings, so now we work weddings. It's a necessary thing for the moment, but having to spend yet another day away from Noah really wears on both of us. Luckily, Grandma and Grandpa usually babysit, so at least we know he's being spoiled. There was a Del City wedding on Saturday, so they came with Noah. I wanted to get a picture with the cool gardens in the background, but he was so enamoured with the water that he wouldn't turn his back to it. I settled for a picture of Daddy and the baby admiring the water together. I have pretty adorable boys, huh?

Noah really likes his feet, and has since before he was an external baby. During his first ultrasound, the tech took a picture of him sticking his toes by his nose. He loves to play with his feet (and has managed to fit them in his mouth a time or two), so it seemed like a good picture to take. The hand belongs to Grams, as we were at her house today for Auntie K's going-away party. She leaves next week for Australia for an as of yet undetermined period of time to do mission work. All the more reason for me to keep throwing pics up here...

Is it just me, or does Noah seem sublimely unimpressed with the culinary wonder that is Sweet Potatoes? He stared solids a couple of weeks ago, and these are his favorite vegetable so far. He loves bananas, hates peas, and seems to like green beans. Burton and Annette use a feeder with him, which is kind of a modified bottle- not the gerbil feeder that Kyle loves to envision.

This weekend was a big weekend. It was my first Mother's Day with an external baby, and Mother's Day happened to fall on our wedding anniversary. Kind of a two-fer. We spent Saturday with my Mom, celebrating her a little bit, and then drove to surprise Annette at church on Sunday morning. (I'm skipping completely over the huge and beautiful bouquet of flowers that Kyle got for me for our anniversary. You just haven't gotten all sniffly over flowers and a card until you've done it at 4:00 in the morning with a breast pump in one hand and the card in the other. I'm just saying.)

You would be amazed at how hard it is for a youth minister to take off on Sunday.

At any rate, the day didn't go exactly as planned, but here are a couple of photographic highlights:

This is a great shot that we took for Annette- Gary doesn't have shades because the only ones he had were the ones he stole from Noah...cute little sucker, isn't he? Then there's the popular Daddy and Noah shot...and some good pictures with Grandpa. It's hard to tell who's happier in those.

Just a quick post to share a really, really adorable picture of my exceptionally cute son and his beautiful cousin, Abigail. We took this at the house the other day- Noah is four months old and Abbey is five and a half months old. She's much more tactile than he is, but at least he smiles at her when she grabs his face.

This is a rarity, gentle reader- a post without a picture of my adorable son. Despite his continued cuteness, I had a couple of thoughts to share that don't require photographic evidence. One is something that annoys me slightly, and the second is something that you just have to shake your head at.

Kyle and I were walking through Wal-Mart when I left him unattended with the stroller for a couple of minutes while I went to rescue Noah from an imminent Huggies failure. When I came back out, he handed me a surprise- a little package from the photo studio that said it was a thank you to mothers in honor of Mother's Day. Since this will be my first Mother's Day with an external baby, I immediately awwwww-ed and opened the bag. Aside from the obligatory "Come to our studio and buy pictures of you with your cute baby" flier, there were the two goody bag samples. One was a small container of pure fruit juice for babies. Apparently it's supposed to be better for their teeth, which is something that I'll remember when Noah starts drinking juice in 8 or 9 months. The second was something that any mother would cherish: a disposable toilet scrubber.

Nice, huh? Note to Wal-Mart, because I'm sure you care about my opinion: if you want to make a goody bag for mommies, you shouldn't include household cleaning items. A nice foot scrub sample would be well-received. So would 8 straight hours of sleep.

The second thing is something that I heard on the radio this morning. I listen to the Morning Animals on my drive- they're local sports people. I used to listen to NPR, but have stopped for several reasons: they take themselves too seriously, it's too depressing, and I wake Noah up when I argue with the radio.

At any rate, someone wrote to them about a wedding they attended this weekend at which the mother of the bride was escorted down the aisle wearing this season's must-have fashion accessory: a bluetooth earpiece. Seriously. She was wearing an expensive dress and nice jewelry...and her bluetooth. Apparently an important family member was late to the wedding, and she was afraid that she would miss their call when they called for directions. Isn't there a point at which you hand the thing off? What's she going to do, answer it during their vows? So today's salute goes out to all of those people who insist on wearing their earpieces at all times, even when you really get or make about three calls a day. You're not as cool as you think you are.

And neither is giving a new mom a free toilet scrubbing utensil.