Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Another year gone by...

It's a rare moment where I'm caught up on editing and I have some free time while Noah naps!  I wanted to make sure I got a blog post in for my sweet birthday boy.  Tomorrow is the day.  My little boy is slipping closer and closer to being too grown up & 'cool' for all this little boy stuff.



My gentle giant may want to do activities on his own more than he wants me to join him now a days, but I'll still hold onto the mornings where he will still kiss me at parent drop off before going into school, or will hold my hand anywhere we go.  We still giggle together anytime he toots or anytime Noah does something crazy.  He is still my favorite snuggle buddy.  I cherish our one on one time where we can just talk & he is more responsible than some adults I know.  I love watching him grow, but hate it all at the same time.

So here's to cake for breakfast, new Imaginex superhero toys to play pretend with, video games to dominate, and cupcakes & a Happy Meal with his classmates tomorrow!

Thursday, November 12, 2015

The latest

So here's what we've been up to lately...

We had a change of pace in the morning where we weren't giving Michael a ride to school since they were out of town and our neighbor, Lydia, needed a ride instead.  It was so funny to see the dynamics change in the car with a girl around my boys.  Lydia hopped in the car all chatty & C tried to discuss Fantasy Football stats and NFL players with her to quickly realize she had no clue what he was talking about.  They finally found common ground talking about AR books from school & it was so cute to see my 1st grader giving his kindergartener buddy tips on how to read, as if he was in kindergarten so very long ago.  We had lots of giggles in the car that morning.


This kid really couldn't be any funnier.  He's a mimic-er and makes me sing a variation of songs in the car now (a good mix of the "Wheels on the Bus," "Patty Cake," "ABCs," "Open, Shut Them," "Itsy Bitsy Spider," and "Mr. Sun").  He does the hand motions and sings the words along with me.  If he's not making me sing, he shouts out, "Animal sounds," and waits for me to name random animals, so he can tell me what the animals say.  It's easy entertainment, but tends to grow old quickly!

This kid still loves his ABCs all day and every day.  After his 2 year old checkup this week, the Dr. was shocked & stated that Noah is at the level of a 4-5 year old in VPK.  It's great to hear as a parent, but still makes me laugh inside.

Then, C had a day off of school yesterday & was finally able to make a fishing trip down to Papa's trailer.  He was up bright & early and was wiped out when he got home just before bed time, but boy-oh-boy did he have a good time!  He brought home a list of all the critters they saw during their day and all the fish he caught (22 total)!  Big thanks to Papa, Nana, and Uncle Pete for making C's day!!!

Countdown is on until C's 7th birthday celebrations are underway.  More photos to come!

Friday, November 6, 2015

Sometimes...

Sometimes...just sometimes...I take my camera out with my kids in hopes of getting just a few photos of them.

I knew I needed to get a few photos now, because 

1. The crazy rush of Christmas photo sessions is about to start

2. I opted to not buy school pictures of C since I knew I could save the money & do it myself

3. I am way overdue for cute pictures of my own boys together

4. I know I have a tiny time frame before C's front teeth grow back in and I wanted to always remember his toothless grin

I only had tonight open this week to get some pictures & with the time change, I knew I needed to get pictures done before 5:45pm.  I figured Matt would be there to help me wrangle the boys and keep tabs on Noah, but when he got called into a late meeting, I decided to tackle to mission alone.

While I couldn't get Noah to smile with Connor, I still managed to catch them being super cute together along our nature trail walk.  Noah didn't fall through any of the large openings along the boardwalk into the swamp and C was the sweetest, most patient child the whole time, so it was definitely a success!

(Noah refuses to hold anyone's hand 99% of the time, but he will hold C's hand.  They are becoming best buddies.)


Oh, the weird, silly words I have to say during pictures with C to avoid the cheesy face & get his real smile to come through!

My almost 7 year old.  He's my little boy one moment, then looks so grown up the next.  It's a very strange transitional age he's in right now.

Scoping out the fish and turtles, while I pray the moment I try to step back to get a few pictures, Noah doesn't fall through the huge openings into the lake!

Love these little moments.

C was so proud that he could carry Noah all by himself.  It would have been an opportune time to get Noah to smile next to C, but...nope.

Oh, but I got one smile.  Looking and smiling is way too much to expect at this age.

We ended the night at Chickfila and it was pretty close to perfect.  The boys played beautifully together, C helped Noah up through all the steps/tunnels, and I sat and watched them together.  

It was a great night with my boys!

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

One funny kid

The last few days I've been walking around telling Matt how we have got to video Noah more or I have got to write down his funny, adorable antics, so we don't ever forget how Noah is at this age.

So here is my best attempt to document the Noah-isms.

Noah will get hurt and ask himself, "You okay?!!"
I think it rooted from him falling a lot when he started walking and I continued to reassure him, telling him, "You're okay," or asking him if he was okay.  It's just too funny to see him wipe out, you brace yourself for possible tears, and he just stops and asks himself, "You okay?!"

This two year old phase is sooooo much easier with a talking toddler this time around.  I can ask him to use his words and he'll try to say it, or I'll ask him, and he'll respond with a loud and proud, "Yesssss!"

While Connor never ever tried candy and still is confident he doesn't like chocolate or soda (even though he's never really had it), Noah is quite the opposite.  While I stand firmly on the no soda thing, Noah will eat just about any candy.  When we were trick or treating, half of his candy was eaten before we made it back to the house.  Some of his fave candies are "pops" and "M's."


Noah repeats everything, especially if you say it with a tone.  We've had practice being extra careful with using "good words" all the time with Connor growing up, so we're accustomed to not saying words like "stupid" or "butt" or definitely no curse words.  Well, Noah has the tendency to drive you crazy at times.  Just this morning I was trying to wrap a present box to use as a photo prop for a Christmas session this weekend and I asked Noah to not touch since it had to be perfect.  He leaned forward and was taunting me, acting like he was going to touch the wrapping paper, and would look right at me the whole time.  When I moved him, he decided to pick up my tape roll and stretch out a good 3 feet of it before I noticed.  When I looked up, I said, "Oh crap! Oh my gosh!"

Then the pistol exclaimed, "Cap! Oh by doshhhhh!"

You just can't help but laugh at this child.

Noah is just now getting to the age where he likes playing with other kids, especially his big brother.  Every night at bath time, he runs to Connor and says, "Bath with me?" and continues to ask over and over until Connor agrees.

When we drop Connor and his buddy, Michael, off at school each morning, we drive away and Noah waves to the window and says, "Buh bye Dah-dah.  Buh bye Bi-cul."

At random times during the day at home, Noah will ask, "Fun with Ella?"  It's his way of asking if he can play with Michael's little sister, Ella, down the street.  He's learning to say the kids' names on our street and its so cute to see them come to the door to ask if Connor can come out and play, and Noah goes to get his shoes, so he can go play with him.

Speaking of shoes, Noah is the shoe patrol.  If we go outside, he makes sure we all have our shoes on.  When we come into the house, he will not stop telling you, "Shoes off," until we all take our shoes off.


When we go over a bridge, Noah will exclaim, "Papa boat," as we look outside to see if we see any boats like Papa's.

Noah says a lot of things pretty clearly, but continues to call chips, "poop," and Connor is "Dah-dah."

Noah will come stand below me and ask, "Up with Mommy?"  Can't say that will ever get old. :)

Noah knows how to go potty on his frog potty.  He just chooses when he wants to and how much he wants to go.  I have begun to promise him a sticker which gets him to use the potty, but my biggest hurdle with him is that Noah has the ability to push out a tiny bit of potty instead of letting it all out.  He will go potty, cheer "Yay," pick up his frog potty to help dump it into the real potty to flush it, and says, "More."  He then sits down and does it over and over.  He loves the cheering part and pouring his potty into the big toilet, so he just wants to keep doing it.  Yippee doo.  We'll see if it gets easier!

Noah continues to be crazy obsessed with the alphabet.  He knows his alphabet inside and out, his letter sounds, and can spell 4 words--cat, dog, bee, and Noah.

Noah is really easy and predictable at bed time.  He will grab his "kee-kee," turn on his white noise, run into the kitchen to grab a snack, run back into his room, wait for Matt and I to put him in bed, and he chats in his bed for a few minutes, then goes to sleep.  I thought life was going to get really difficult when he climbed out of his crib a while back, but I think he really enjoys his crib now.  He prefers to have a pile of stuffed animals, his ABC foam puzzle, and his ABC book in bed with him too.

Every morning when I go into his room, he says the same thing.  He does a role call to see where everyone is.  "Mommy, Daddy, Dah-dah?" and then he looks onto the floor where he launched each letter from his foam letter puzzle onto the carpet & says in the funniest big man voice, "Alllll dah wettttttttters."  It's literally groundhog day--every single morning.


I could probably go on awhile on all the funny things Noah does and says, but I'll stop here for now, so I can enjoy some quiet time while the little Monster naps!

Saturday, October 31, 2015

Happy Halloween!

This is my 1st Halloween away from my C.  I was not looking forward to it!  We decided to make it exciting still and planned a Halloween block party with all the neighbor kids.  It was a small get together of about 20 people that turned in a large gathering of about 40 people with a bounce house in our driveway!  

The morning started with C waking up and exclaiming, 
"My tooth is missing!"
We found it in his bed, so somehow it came out in the night.  He was SO excited to sport a new smile & hear his new lisp when he spoke!  My cute little Cat-in-the-Hat was ready for his Storybook parade at school with his cute new grin!

As I had plans to run to a few stores after I got C to school, the bounce house company decided to deliver the bounce house for the party a little early.  As soon as Noah saw the bounce house up in the driveway, I knew my plan for running errands was going to be postponed.  


Once the big kids were all home from school, it didn't take long for them to all migrate over after seeing the bounce house.  The party wasn't set to start until 5:30pm, but the bouncing started around 4pm.  It took some convincing to get the kids to take a break & get their costumes on.  
(These are most of our neighbor kids in nearby houses.  I tried to get a picture of the kids in costume before the party got hoppin'.  By mid-party, we had about 25 kids here.)

My sweet Mario & Luigi!
It was a miracle that Noah kept his hat on.  I wasn't going to push hard for a smile on top of that!

Connor and his best neighbor buddy, Michael

Another cute neighbor, Alyssa.

The Falcones--our neighbors from the other side of the community--in their home made "Nightmare before Christmas" costumes.

Heather & Ella (Noah's little buddy & Michael's little sister).
*Noah will be playing in the morning & just exclaim randomly, "Fun with Ella?"  They're only about a month apart in age & are starting to play well together.

Bowser & Yoshi
 (I had hopes of a family shot with our Mario & Luigi to complete our ensemble, but I didn't want to pull the boys away from bouncing).

I looked up some last minute easy games for oodles of kids that afternoon & found "Mummy racing." I may have cleaned out my toilet paper stash, but the game was a hit with the kids!

And...the coolest Nana & Papa that ever lived.

Friday, October 23, 2015

Nightly fishin'

There was a fabulous breeze, the fish were biting, snacks were yummy, and Aunt Kris was here!

It was a great night fishing!

(A blowfish and snapper combo at the start of our fishing evening)




Goobs

You never know what this Goob is going to do.

The other day while Connor was at school, Noah woke from his nap & said, "Kee-kee, ABCs, couch!"  Translation:  Noah wants to watch ABC videos on the couch with his blankie.

So I got the tiny boss situation on the couch and he proceeded to point to his toes and say, "Kee-kee toes."  Translation: Cover Noah's toes with his blankie.  

So I did as he asked yet again.

As I walked into the kitchen, Noah muttered something else, yet again.  "ABCs bay-her bed."  I asked him if he wanted his bear from his bed, and he explaimed "YESSS!"  So off I went to retrieve it.

When I handed him his bear and he hugged it so sweetly, he says, "Mouse bed?"  I then told him, if you want your Mickey Mouse too, this is it!"  I went in to grab his Mickey Mouse from his bed and brought it to him.  

He then hugged both stuffed animals and watched his ABC videos intently with this face....


This kid!

Then big bro came in from school and he immediately grabbed a blanket and cozied up with Noah on the couch.  The boys decided to watch videos of children opening 'surprise eggs' (basically easter eggs with random toys inside).  They just sat, Noah asked, "What's this?" after each toy was revealed and Connor sweetly explained each one.

They were funny to watch.

Then on Wednesday night just before bed, Connor went to bed later than usual.  Let's just say Connor's front tooth could have easily come out a week ago, but he was too afraid to pull it out.  I tried giving him tips, letting me wiggle it, etc, but there was no getting this child to pull his tooth out.  It was finally to the point the tooth was discolored since it wasn't getting any blood circulation and was literally hanging by a thread.  

Our night went like this.  Brush teeth, wiggle tooth a tiny bit.  Tooth starts to bleed.  Connor panicked thinking he was hurt, but I explained how it's normal & it just means the tooth is ready to come out.  Connor ran down stairs to show Matt.  Connor was convinced the bleeding was now hurting him, so I suggested a little ice to numb his gums.  Back upstairs we went.  Connor wiggled tooth to the point the tooth could now spin 180 degrees.  He was still afraid to pull it out, but we giggled so much at how funny he looked with his front tooth spun around, that he had to run downstairs to show Matt yet again.  When he finally came back upstairs, I told him the tooth was coming out tonight & we just needed to do it.  He was still afraid, so I got my hand in his mouth fast & popped it out!  He was overjoyed and ran back downstairs to show Matt his new smile!

Phew!!  This is the 2nd out of 4 teeth I've had to pull out when Connor wasn't expecting it!  Good grief! Haha!

"Mom, remember how I said I didn't trust for you to pull out my tooth.  Now, I do!"


The Tooth Fairy delivered a whopping $6 for his tooth this time!  She even left a little glittery dust on the dollars.  We have 2 more wiggly teeth too.  My sweet boy's smile is ever changing these days!

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Ducks! Ducks! Ducks!

I had to reschedule one of my weekend sessions for last night, so had to leave Matt with the boys for about two hours.  I received some sweet pictures while I was gone!

Our neighbors at the end of our street got their son LOTS of ducks for his birthday.  They created a koi pond on their patio, clipped the wings of the ducks, plan to raise the ducks until they are grown, then hope to have the ducks live in the lake behind our houses.  I'm assuming the ducks will be dependent on being fed, so I'm guessing they'll still have ducks to feed each day in their backyard.  Not sure how all that will work out, but excited to know we have lots of little duckies down the street!

A group of the neighbor kids (and parents) trotted on down to visit the ducks.  From the reports and pictures from Matt, our boys thoroughly enjoyed it!  I hate that I missed it!





I'm sure it won't be long before we go back to visit them again!

Sunday, October 11, 2015

Fall Festival with my boys

We ventured out to a nearby farm for a little Fall Festival.  It was refreshingly easy, low stress, and both boys were entertained.

AND they miraculously sat together without squirming for a picture.  This hasn't happened since Noah was immobile.

We thought we might look for a few fish on their little dock & were delightfully surprised to see baby alligators, fish, and turtles (what Noah likes to exclaim as "turdies",,,which always makes me laugh).

We explored the farm area & made our way over to the mini petting zoo.  Noah just loved the cow!  The boys got to feed the animals fruits/veggies.  Connor was apprehensive to feed the cow, donkey, and goats, while Noah dove in fearlessly.  Noah would have brought the cow home with us if we let him!


Noah spotted the playground & had to do the slide a good 100 times.  Mr. Too-cool-to-play Connor stood with me for a few minutes then realized it still looked fun & hopped on up on the playground with Noah.

Noah tried out the big boy swings for the first time and definitely loved them.  We made our way back to the car with two pumpkins for both the boys to decorate this Halloween.

We now have a napping toddler & my biggest boys are rooting on their Fantasy Football teams on the couch.

Happy Sunday!

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Dad's B'day!


Papa was surrounded by lots of people that love him tonight (mostly little boys) to help celebrate another birthday!  There was football, a variety of desserts, ice cream sharing with my 2 year old 'seagull', difficulty sharing toys, quick baths, and a race out the door to get home for bedtime.

"Buh Bye Papa" was on repeat out of a certain toddler's mouth for the first 5 minutes of our car ride home followed by a mini dance party to the Jungle Book soundtrack.

We know how to party it up!

Thursday, October 1, 2015

Look who's TWO!

My BABY is 2!  Over the past week or so, Noah has definitely been acting two!  Lots of whining & meltdowns over the tiniest things.  I remember telling Matt how when he's two, you'll know based on how he acts.  Man, was I right!

If he's not melting down though, he is the cutest stinkin' mischief maker ever.  He's talking so well, which definitely helps.  When I decided to do his b'day party with an ABC theme, I knew he'd be beyond thrilled.  Man, I was right again!

The first thing he noticed when he woke was the alphabet decor :).

Then we moved on to gifts!  Noah was really liking this whole birthday thing.


 After I got Connor to school, I picked up some balloons to use as party decor & as a cute photo prop.  I figured we could get an effortless photo of Noah by tying some balloons to his new bike and just have him ride it down the center of the road.  Well, Noah had other plans for me.  After a firm "NO!" from him, he trotted away, picked his nose, and chuckled to himself.

Oh, this child.


After waking up crabby from his nap & being very hot/cold for the few hours leading up to his party, this little stinker finally caught a 2nd wind & was one happy kid with his ABCs.


When family began to pile in, the fun began.
The babies enjoyed the balloons...


 Noah unwrapped oodles of great toys!  We were amazed at all the educational/ABC toys & we didn't get a duplicate of anything.

Connor was the sweetest big brother ever-- helping read Noah's birthday cards, opening Noah's gifts, and showing him how to use them.  He came to me after gifts were opened & asked for some crayons & paper.  He brought back a paper with the alphabet written on it & he said he wanted to give it to Noah since he didn't get him anything for his birthday.  I adore his sweet little heart.

Noah's favorite part of the party was when everyone sang, "Happy Birthday" to him.  He just sat there & was amazed.  When we were done singing, he exclaims, "Again!"  
Thank you to all who came & for all of the wonderful gifts!