It is time!

So I figured it was time to change the blog from being just about noah to our family with a few comments here and there from me on life with the Blake boys. It is amazing to me how different boys really are than girls. Growing up in the girl family and then being an aunt of four girls, I knew life would be different if had brothers or nephews but I didn't know how different. I had my first exposure to what living with boys might have been like when I married Art and we were at his family's house for Christmas. He is the oldest of three boys. We were flipping channels and I saw the Nutcraker on a channel. They flipped right pasted it and stopped at The Christmas Story. I asked them if they had ever seen the Nutcraker all the boys said "no". I was amazed because this is sort of a tradition in our family we will go down to the performing arts center to watch the the beautiful dancers, take in the elegant scences and of course the music. This Christmas, just us girls went to see the performance. We left the men home to take care of the small children who were too little to go. I was still surprised that none of them were disappointed that they didn't get to go. Below is a snapshot of the girls at the performance so that you can take in the moment. My mom or course is not in the picture because being the sefless person she is, she took the picture. Anyhow, back to my story with Art's family. So the shocking thing was that they were just as amazed that I had never seen The Christmas Story. I thought to myself why would I want to see that the only parts I have seen in passing is some kid getting his tongue stuck to a pole (ouch) and hearing his mom say "You will shoot your eye out". Doesn't sound like fun to me. But now after living with boys, I see how they think these things are an adventure.



The funny thing is I always wanted to have boys. There are so many things I absolutely love about them: their protective nature , humor, wisdom, good looks, boldness, and unexpected gentleness. I always envisioned these things about them. Don't get me wrong these things are still definately there, I just wasn't expecting the daily life differences. Like watching Star Wars over and over again, playing with army men, playing board games like Risk which is a game about total world domination and crossbows and battleaxes, shooting bee bee guns at pumkins or really anything, making the wierdest guy with legos and having another person vote and tell why they picked that one, playing football, soccer and basketball outside on nice days (I really enjoy doing this), watching noah laugh when we hit him with the pillow and he falls over, doing zerberts ( I was calling them serberts but was informed that was an ice cream they are called zerberts when you make a funny sound with your mouth) with noah back and forth. I have been surprised to find that any joke that has "butt" in it is a sure laugh. Also when boys fall and get a bruise, it is cool to have a 'war wound' as they call it. It is such a joy to know that boys are still boys even when they grow older. This Christmas was a perfect example of the difference between boys and girls. At my house we watched my nieces do a musical performance which was a first for Paul. At his house, the boys built two fortresses with snow and then threw snow balls at each other until one decided to storm the other person's fortress. Here is the contrast for you in pictures.

















Well this blog has become a lot longer than I anticipated. It is probably because I had a cup of decaf coffee last night on our date night. I did this because I am not eating sugar for a couple of weeks expect on Sabbath because it is a celebration day. Just in case you are wondering why I am not eating sugar one of the reasons is because I think I have eaten sugar almost every day since Noah was born (that is almost 8 months for those of you counting), something needs to change. However, I am learning that drinking coffee when I want sugar effects me more than sugar. I have been up almost the whole night expect for between 3-5 when I finally fell asleep but then woke up to noah crying. So after laying in bed for an hour praying and thinking about all kinds of things, I decided to do this instead. I'm hoping I'll be able to function today.


Noah has been keeping me pretty busy lately. This month he has learned how to pull himself up on his crib so that he is standing. Thus, I just lower the bed with the help of my wonderful sister-law, Leah. He is taking first steps at crawling. He can go from laying down to sitting up in many different ways. Here is a video of him in action.
He also got his first tooth! In addition, he has been taking more hour to hour and 1/2 naps instead of 30 to 45 minutes and is going around 7 to 8 hours in the night without feeding! All of these deserve a loud Praise the Lord!


Harrison has been excelling in his basketball skills. He has made already 8 baskets this season. It is fun to watch him play. If anyone is interest in coming to a game to watch one of his last two games they are: Sat. Feb. 9 at 11:00 and Feb. 16 at 10:10. I am hoping to get some action shots or video for you.


Paul has also improved his "Sequence Game" skills as he has beaten me 3 to nothing the last couple of nights. We really enjoy the time we have just being together. It is funny though how your idea of date night changes once you have kids for example: Our date night last week consisted of going to Costco to stock up and eat pizza, playing sequence and then snuggle time. This week consisted of going to Target getting Noah's high chair, eating at Chick fil A (where the cashier said "Mr. Blake"?, he was a 7th grade student of Paul's when he taught, now he is in his senior year and wants to be a pastor so of course Paul gave the plug for Jewish Classes), back to the date, we came home Paul put the high chair together while I feed noah and put him to bed, then a game of sequence and snuggles until I came to do this.

On a sad note, one of the boys in my house left, our friend Mark who was living in our basement moved back to the Grandview area. We will miss his smile, songs, good food, books and conversation. Okay I need to stop rambling now. Next time I won't post after a coffee and no sleep high. Thanks for your patience.