Busier than I thought...

...I guess since I've never been that great at blogging regularly, no one is too shocked when a couple of weeks go by without any updates. I know, I know...you all want more pictures. It's just been easier to throw pictures up on FaceBook lately. I'll get to it, promise. I have been recovering fairly well. I probably didn't rest quite as much as I should have in the beginning, but I did better than I did the last time. Matt said that I did a lot less this time (since I didn't do laundry, dishes, etc). Of course I did get down on the floor to play with Noah a couple of times a day. I really wanted the transition to be as smooth for him as possible, so I was thankful that Chloe slept practically all the time the first few days. So I'm not fully recovered by any means, but I've pretty much resumed most of my normal activities (as far as chores go at least).
Today was my second full day alone with both kids while Matt worked. I was a little nervous, but we're all fine, so what more can I ask for? Chloe has decided that she wants to be awake when Noah naps, so that means no nap for me, but that's okay. It means that she sleeps more when Noah is up and playing so I can focus on him a good amount. While Noah is doing really well with Chloe, I have had to resort to a couple of interesting tactics to keep him form hurting her. Once I'm healed I think I'll keep Chloe in the Ergo (baby carrier) a lot...but I can't wear that yet...SO I have done the following:

...put Chloe in a laundry basket (empty) and brought her into the bathroom with me when I had to go.
...made Noah come to the bathroom with me every other time I've had to go (DUH, that's definitely easier than getting out the laundry basket).
...strategically placed Noah in front of the TV (on) while going to wash my hands.
...made Noah follow me into the kitchen to watch me wash my hands numerous times.

Seems crazy right? Well as great as Noah is with Chloe, he's not even 21 months yet. One time today when I finished washing my hands I came into the living room to find Chloe in the bouncy seat where I left her. Noah was standing next to her (I said "Noah, do not touch Chloe, NO touching" every 3 seconds while I was out of the room for the 45 seconds that I was gone) and on top of her blanket lay Noah's toy giraffe and his flashlight. So Noah may not have touched her, but he apparently thought she wanted some toys. Such a sweet, sweet boy I have. So aside from the "no touching her face" and "no hitting," choruses, I have now added "Noah, Chloe is too little to play with your toys" into the mix. It really is sweet how he tries to play with her. And hold her.

Okay, so lets see some pictures (and no, they aren't edited, I apologize for the redeye and anything else I should have fixed).

Noah's first time painting! He was pretty fascinated by the concept. Thank you Grammie for the fun (and NON-messy) paint books!

This kid was in desperate need of a haircut. It's need done now, but this is his shaggy look. Still cute though right?

The BIG SNOW! And yes, that is my hubby in shorts and a t-shirt. And yes, he is crazy.

I sent Noah outside with mittens on, According to Matt, "they were driving Noah crazy cause he couldn't play in them...and his hands aren't getting in the snow anyway." The evidence tells a different story.

Cold hands or not, the kid is his father's son. He had a blast and loves the snow as long as he doesnt' have to stand in a foot of it. I think we ended up with over 20 inches by the way. Insane!

Must sleep now. More later.

So how's Noah adjusting to his new sister???

This is one of the most common questions we've been getting. I thought a video would help to explain how Noah feels about his new little sister.

As you can see he likes to get in Chloe's face a lot. And talk...sometimes very loudly...and he likes to touch her face (we're working on that). But overall Noah loves his little sister.

Chloe Elizabeth

December 10, 1:13 pm

9lbs, 3.2oz.

Sweetest little girl in the world.





More to come soon...

Thanksgiving

We truly have so much to be thankful for. Praise the Lord for the daily grace he gives us and the blessings which are too numerous to count.
We had a great Thanksgiving (about 21 people this year but a lot more people cooking than last year...yay!) Noah was so excited to be back over at his Mimi and Papa's with his cousins that he decided he'd rather not take a nap. He did really well considering that he needs lots of sleep to be his usual sweet self (he is my kid after all). Anyway that explains the lack of smiles in these pictures.
Here he is with "chi-us" and "aun beff." Ever since he spent the night he has been obsessed with his Aunt Beth. He walks around the house talking about her...it's so sweet. Definitely glad to know that he loves being there so much so I wont' worry about him while I'm in the hospital.
After Noah's dinner he played happily with this tractor for the rest of the evening. It was pretty amazing how devoted he was to it.
So this is the face you get when Noah is playing happily with the above tractor...and his daddy picks him up (and not the tractor) to get a family picture. Obviously we gave the tractor back...but the damage had been done.
Micah missed the family singing "Happy Birthday" to Matt, so he serenaded him all by himself. Is this kid sweet or what?
It's hard for me to believe that Micah is already FIVE. The outfit that Noah wore on Thanksgiving was a hand-me-down from Micah, and I remember Micah wearing it. So to see Noah in it, and to see Micah at 5, knowing that it seems like just yesterday that he was Noah's age...oh gees, I just don't even want to think about it.
One of Noah's favorite things at Mimi and Papa's house is their cd player, which he knows how to turn on. Early in the day, before the missing nap, he turned on the music and danced.

Still all about Noah...

This may be my last chance in a while to update you all on Noah, so here goes...

Recently Noah has started asking for a book when we change his diaper...it keeps him still, so why not indulge?
Oh, and this was right after bath, so that's why his hair looks like that.
I was doing some reorganizing in the spare bedroom a couple of weeks ago, and Noah wanted to help...he's such a good helper.
Matt turned 32 last Tuesday, and Noah actually said "Happy Birthday" to him! I hadn't even rehearsed it with him, but he'll repeat almost anything at least once. I don't remember exactly how he said it, but it sure was precious. He also helped Matt open his presents.
This is proof that Noah is my kid. One of my favorite things to eat when it starts getting cold out is a good grilled cheese with tomato soup. He's been loving the grilled cheese for a while, but I let him try the tomato soup for the first time recently and he loves it as well. (the hubby doesn't like tomato soup...)

Due...Today!

Apparently we don't like to be on time in this family. That's really fine by me, cause I wanted to get in some Black Friday shopping and I'd also like to get the Christmas decorations up this weekend. This is probably the 3rd year (I think) that I've done the early morning Black Friday thing...and it was definitely not something I'd recommend for someone else as pregnant as me. The problem was the waiting in line...definitely not comfortable to wait in line for that long. There were definitely some rude people up and about, but for the most part I had some nice interactions with my fellow shoppers (of course I didn't go to WalMart). So while I think that the whole crazy shopping for stuff so that we can have more stuff we don't need (insert anti-materialism rant of my hubby's here) is indeed crazy...I did not finish up my shopping with all hope lost in the human race. There are still nice people out there, and I'm thankful for that. I'm even planning on hitting up a few more stores this evening after Noah is in bed...but we'll see if I'll have any energy left by then (I may not be that crazy). Tomorrow my plan is to have Noah help me decorate for Christmas...I'll let you know how that goes.

Veteran's Day...so thankful.

Technically Veteran's Day is over in my time zone, but not for most of the country, so I'm going to sneak this in. It's really too late for me to be eloquent myself...but I just read something that I had to pass on. A cousin of mine, (I believe we're something like third cousins but you'd have to confirm that Dad) Ruthanne, (who I've never actually met) posted this on her blog. I don't think I can really add anything to it...just go check it out.

Noah loves Chloe...well, her stuff anyway.

We've been getting out the baby stuff lately and Noah thinks it's pretty fun to have a bunch of new stuff to play with. The "Bundle Me" was a gift form Aunt Amy and Uncle Michael, and Noah loved snuggling with it when we got it. He never had to use one since he was born in April...so he's making up for lost time.
The bouncy seat has been in his room for a while now. He likes the music that it plays, and he likes to turn the vibrate feature on and off.
The carseat came out this past week. This was while I was washing the padding for it...just look at how big he is! Especially when you compare it to this.
Oh, and aren't his little slippers cute?! No, I do not like to buy kids stuff at Old Navy too much. Seriously I do NOT have a problem. I do however have to buy at least something when they're either having a sale, or I have a coupon (which I did). Just wait till you see what I got for Chloe on that trip...

We also got the double stroller this week. After much research I went with the Combi double stroller that Leah has and had recommended. It just so happened that I hemmed and hawed long enough for it to go on sale on Amazon. While I wouldnt call any double stroller a "steal" I think did alright. Noah has had lots of fun with the stroller itself. He likes to sit in it and he loves riding around it it. Matt made a comment about how he likes the double stroller so he can pick up chicks, and Noah responded with "Anya". So there you have it, he's pretty much in love with Anya. I think he'll like having Chloe sitting next to him too. The real fun so far has actually been with the box that the stroller was shipped in. See for yourself...

Cold again...but we still love it outside!

I brought home a garbage bag full of balloons from work about a week ago...ended up being roughly 20 balloons that are blown up the perfect amount. Noah can hold them with one hand and throw them all over the place without them popping. If you're wondering how I could have happened upon a bag full of balloons at my work...then you obviously don't work at a place as fun as Rosetta Stone. Every time Noah has come to visit me at work he's found balloons somewhere from someone's birthday or some other celebration. So the only thing better than the 20 balloons to play with in the living room is playing with a balloon outside.

Cutest Tiger Ever!

It's that time again. Noah was a stinking cute skunk last year (if you don't remember here's the proof) and this year he was a stinking cute tiger. Noah and I were flying solo this weekend since Matt had to work. We stopped by to visit Matt so he could see Noah in his costume before heading over to the Fall Festival. Mental note...never let anyone take my picture from below...it gives me a double chin that I do NOT have in real life.
Noah certainly had a fun afternoon. He started out on the toddler sized moonbounce which I think he would have been happy to stay in all day. I was only able to coax him out by telling him we had to go look for Anya and Atti.
Noah haphazardly followed Anya around the rest of the afternoon. He mostly ran around like a very excited toddler and every couple of minutes he remembered that he wanted to play with Anya. So we would find Anya and then he'd go off running again. It was a pretty exhausting afternoon but I had lots of help from the Ks (thank you!)

Pretty sure Noah thought this was a slide at first...
But Anya set him straight. (Watch out Lillian...you've got some competition!)
We were on our way out when Noah decided he needed to play in the little car. I'm thinking he needs one of these for the coming summer (this or a wagon - what do you moms out there think would be better?) Anyway he was pretty tired at this point, so he was done smiling although he was still having plenty of fun.
After we got home I thought it would be fun to have Noah hand out candy with me. Noah did a fantastic job of sharing candy with all the kids that came by. (We must have had at least a hundred in the 45 minutes or so we were out there - CRAZY!) And seriously...the kid below is super cute, but why does a kid that age need to go trick-or-treating? But that kid was SUPER cute...he wanted to stay and play with Noah - precious!
When we had a lull Noah still wanted to give his candy out so he kept giving it to me and our neighbor. "Here Mommy, have a KitKat."
It was so sweet how happy he was to just sit on the stoop and share his candy. This is the only year it will be like that and I LOVED it...I'm pretty sure next year he'll know what candy is and the evening will be much different.
Hmm, is someone getting a little tired? When Noah started rolling around on the stoop I knew we didn't have much time left.
We headed in a few minutes after Matt got home to get the little tiger into bed. Definitely a long day, but so much fun. Praise God for the extra hour we got last night. (Except Noah decided to sleep the lesser of his 11-12 hours and with the time change that meant he was up at 5:30 this morning...but my most excellent hubby got up and let me stay in bed till 7.) Praying Noah will sleep till at least 7 tonight...PLEASE!

Oh, and who likes Matt's new glasses?!
Oh, and one last thing. Since both year's Noah has been so stinking cute, I'd like to give a shout out to Old Navy for having some super cute kids costumes. Woot!

Happy 2nd Birthday Allison!!

We wish we could have been at your party - we miss you so much!

And the picture Noah was looking at and kissing is this one...

There's Matt, Noah, Allison, Amy (Noah's Aunt) and Luke. This is the best picture of the three kids that I have from our beach trip. Classic. Don't worry Luke, Noah really only kisses girls and his daddy recently. I'm sure he would have given you a big hug if he could have! We love and miss you all!

Thank you Elisa!

Check out Elisa's latest post...its "all about Noah!" And yes, that is some purple marker on his lip (still cute thought right?). He actually bit the tip off a marker that day. A couple of days later he did some serious damage to a purple crayon too. I'll take it as him telling me he wants to destroy all things purple...so no Barney EVER! *fingers crossed*

Summer's Final Curtain Call, Part II?

Can I post a "Part II" of something that I didn't post Part I of? I guess we'll see if my handful of readers get outraged at the idea. Elisa posted some pictures on a particularly beautiful day last week. Happened to be a day that Noah was over playing with Judah and Sofi...check it out. Noah cracks me up. He is clearly thinking, "Why are you wasting time taking pictures when you can be playing with a football or running around being crazy?" He's definitely a daddy's boy when it comes time to take pictures.
One of his new favorite things to do outside is to throw the football into the bush and then wait for mommy or daddy to get it back out. For added glee, the red leaves on this bush are starting to fall off...so every throw provides a little flurry of leaves falling.

Farewell Friends...

A couple of weeks ago I had to say goodbye to my all-time favorite pair of flip-flops. They're Reefs, but as far as I can tell they don't make this exact variety anymore. I must confess...the hole has actually been in the left shoe for about half the summer...but I love these so much I wanted to keep wearing them. So I did. Not if I was going to be going somewhere I thought I may have to use a public restroom of course, but I definitely wore them more days than not. When a hole finally emerged in righty I knew it was time to dispose of these babies. Thank you Anna for giving me such a wonderful birthday gift a couple of years ago. And thank you Reef, for making shoes that my feet love. Sigh.

So Funny!

I'm at work right now, but I had to take a minute to write this down. Noah is with Tabitha today...so Josh walked over to let me know that Noah had escaped out of his PeaPod during naptime, locked himself in their bedroom and proceeded to go through their drawers and make a big mess. Awesome! Tabitha was able to unlock the door using her McGyver-mama skills, and Noah hadn't done anything to hurt himself, so all I can do at this point is laugh. Okay, yes. I feel really bad that Tabitha now has a big mess to clean up, but it's still really funny. (When did Noah's unzipping skills get so good?) So now Matt and I are going to have to figure out how to get him to stay in his PeaPod for naptime...

30 lbs, 34 Inches!

Noah had his 18 month check up today and is now 30 lbs and 34 inches. I know, I keep telling him to stop growing but he refuses...

Goodbye Curls (sniff, sniff)

I could have resisted a little longer...but really friends, it was time. Noah's sweet curls were so adorable (I'm almost crying as I write this). The reason Matt has been asking me to cut them for over a month...is that they only look like this...

right after his bath. They smooth themselves out and then it starts to look like he has a mullet. I'm sorry, I loved the curls too, but no child of mine will walk around with a mullet. So Noah had his first (okay, 4th - but first time I cut the back due to the curls) haircut. He was SO good. I snipped away with him in my lap while he ate some Kix and watched Mickey. And yes, this was very hard for me to do. But I did it and I can't undo it and if you give me a hard time about it I may fly into an emotional fit of hysteria (which I will blame on the pregnancy). So do not tell me that I shouldn't have cut his curls.
I go back and forth thinking that the haircut made him look younger and older. Above I think he looks younger. (And thanks for the shirt Aunt Rachel - Noah is definitely too cute to lock up).
Yes, I look crazy in this picture, but Noah looks super adorable and happy, so let's just focus on that.
And here' s another picture from this morning (oops, yes, that's 3 posts in 1 day folks, sorry - one day I will be better about this blogging thing). Noah was telling me about the birds...and he was pretty excited about them.
My sweet boy also likes to help me do the laundry. If throwing clean unfolded laundry on the floor and climbing on top of any remaining garments in the basket can be called helping that is.
Okay, this is a good example of him looking older with his new haircut. He's now 18 months old people! That's insanity! Look at him...oh I just want to go pick him up out of bed and hold him...he's growing up way too fast.

Virginia Beach Trip...only a month later

We had an amazing time on our latest trip to Virginia Beach over Labor Day. We drove up Friday evening which is the normal routine. Noah decided to only sleep for 1 hour of the trip, so it was a rough night for us all (but we were SO thankful for the portable DVD player we invested in after the Rehobeth trip). Despite the rough night of sleep, Noah was AMAZINGLY good the entire trip (oh, of course he didn't sleep at all on the way home either).

The weekend as a whole was really a reunion...with a double birthday party and a baby shower thrown into the mix. Beth is expecting her first (GIRL!!) at the end of January. And yes, there was a LOT of baby talk that weekend. This was a husbands included trip, so Matt enjoyed filling Ted in on all the fun fatherly things (like poop and spit up) that he likes to talk about. Beth and Ted are going to be such great parents...okay, enough. You want pictures, so here they are...
For some reason we did not take a full group picture. I know, I can't believe it, but between these two pictures here we all are...Krista (award for longest distance traveled for the weekend), Southern, Beth (above), and Kate, me, Beth again, Anna, and Liz. It was so great to see everyone and of course we missed everyone that couldn't come.

Noah and Hakon had fun playing together. Although it looks like Noah is about to beam Hakon in the head, he was actually aiming elsewhere. I definitely think this picture does a good job of capturing boyhood though...

The hotel had a pool...and a water slide too.

On Sunday afternoon we headed over to Hunt Club Farm, a petting zoo close to Kate and Mark. Noah and Hakon still had fun together...

Tackle!! Hakon just wanted to give Noah a hug but Noah was too busy running around. This was hysterical. Major props to Liz for the great pictures! Oh, and for all you who thought Noah was a big boy...Hakon is 3 months younger than Noah.

Still loving the slide. Again, major props to Liz for the great pictures that day. I'm really, really wanting a NICE camera now.

Noah still likes to look rather than touch animals. He just wasnt' sure what to think about this zoo (and there were some scary looking chickens and roosters there, so I don't blame him).

Just love this picture of Beth.

Wow! A family picture...so rare! Enjoy...