The Chronicles of Us

Noah at 4 1/2 years...

2012-02-09T18:11:00.000-05:00

What is your favorite color? Blue and green. Both.

What is your favorite toy? My favorite toy is the one with Woody sitting in it. The one that makes a sound when I shake it. But it doesnt make a sound. Even when I turn it to on.

What is your favorite fruit? Watermelon. Watermelon is fruit. And tomatoes.

What is your favorite TV show? Spongebob Squarepants and Moose A. Moose- well, that kind. I like it so much I like to watch it all the time.

What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? My sandwich at school.

What is your favorite outfit? My skateboard shirt and my gray pants.

What is your favorite game? I like the copy game. Where you say something and the person copies what you say. Like I say "Blah" and Daddy says "Blah".

What is your favorite snack? Popcorn at school that my class brings me

What is your favorite animal? Lizards! I love them!

What is your favorite song? Fruit of the spearmints! (Fruit of the spirits) and Moves like Jagger.

What is your favorite book? My favorite book is the books at school. My favorite book is "No David!." you know, the one at school.

Who is your best friend? Christopher. I play with him a lot on the playground. So much.

What is your favorite cereal? Lucky charms.

What is your favorite thing to do outside? Go out and play with my scooter and my bike.

What is your favorite drink? The chocolate milk that we got with Kayla.

What is your favorite holiday? Halloween. Because you get candy.

What do you like to take with you to bed at night? My dragon and my smurf and Alvin but Alvin's clothes fell off. Remember, he has a dress with a "A" on it but its not pink. Its just red. Like blood is red.

What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? A healthy chocolate milk and cereal.

What do you want for dinner on your next birthday? Fruit salad. You take broccoli and some fruit and some celery and uh, then you stir it. Then put some cream inside. Thats all. (Ewwwww?)

What do you want to be when you grow up? I want to be a science man. That does science. Like a scientist.

Juliana at 3 years...

2012-01-10T21:35:00.001-05:00

I found this questionnaire on Pinterest.com (my current obsession) consisting of twenty questions to be asked every year on or right before their birthdays so you can see how much kids change from year to year. Im a bit late on this. Six months late to be exact but better late than never. They change so much Im sure their answers will be much different in 6 months. Since Juliana is still awake tonight (wayyy after bedtime, as usual) I decided to go ahead and ask her the questions.

What is your favorite color? Ummm... purple.

What is your favorite toy? Unicorns and my Wobby. And my Lenny. (Wobby and Lenny are her stuffed lamb and giraffe).

What is your favorite fruit? Apples. I mean bananas. Or maybe an orange.

What is your favorite TV show? Princess and the Frog. and Rapunzel. and Beauty and the Beast.

What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Pisghetti (Spaghetti) and fruit.

What is your favorite outfit? My cheerleader outfit. Skirts and shirts. Not leggings. Not jeans.

What is your favorite game? Dora the Explorer on leapster

What is your favorite snack? Popcorns

What is your favorite animal? Unicorns. Purple Unicorns. Not Kitties.

What is your favorite song? Beauty and the Beast song.

What is your favorite book? My princess book. But I lost it. Daddy, wheres my Princess book?

Who is your best friend? Noah. Actually Dane.

What is your favorite cereal? Raisin cereal

What is your favorite thing to do outside? Run and jump and hop. And dig in the dirt with shovels.

What is your favorite drink? Chocolate milk

What is your favorite holiday? Christmas and Halloween

What do you like to take with you to bed at night? My Lenny and all my toys. And "Kanket" but I lost it. ("Kanket" is her pink blanket she's had since birth).

What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Pancakes and brownies (Where'd she get those brownies, eh daddy?)

What do you want for dinner on your next birthday? Cake!

What do you want to be when you grow up? A cheerleader with the Gamecocks with pom poms. 2 pom poms.

Making a memory

2011-02-24T01:30:00.006-05:00

I held my little girl a little longer and a little tighter tonight as I rubbed her back as she drifted off to sleep. I put her to bed ten minutes earlier and swore that I wasnt going back in her room, part of her new bedtime training (yes, training my 2 1/2 year old that tries to stay up until midnight night after night). I tried to ignore the "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy..." I heard coming from behind the closed door of her room. I buckled. I found myself sitting in her tiny toddler bed with her sweet face pressed against my cheek and her arms around my neck. Im so in love with a tiny 2 1/2 year old girl. I cant help it, I want to hold onto these moments, when I am still allowed to rub her back and rock her to sleep. My heart hurts knowing that she is growing up, that they are growing up so fast, changing from month to month in pictures and becoming more independent. The thought of my little girl one day not wanting her Mommy to hold her breaks my heart. I breathe her in, the smell of her hair, the softness of her cheek, her warm little body in my arms. I try to freeze this moment in my memory. This moment and many others.

Juliana is outspoken (for a 2 year old), animated, and not necessarily even tempered. Shes tiny and cuddly, lover of her 2 "cankets" and toter of all things stuffed and furry (right now her sheep and her kitten that she weaseled out of her daddy). Shes bossy and gets into quite a bit of trouble on a daily basis. She feeds whole loaves of bread to the dogs, dumps out boxes of cereal, pours shampoo in the cats dish, uses sharpie markers to decorate the house, and escapes from the house during "naptime" only to ring the doorbell when ready to come back inside. She still isnt a fan of sleeping, can throw one pretty mean fit, and loves her chocolate milk. She loves her preschool, names the little ones in her class she plays with everyday and loves her teacher, "Miss Sherie."

And my son, my firstborn is now 3 1/2. He has already lost his baby curls and some of the baby softness. He talks a mile a minute, is quite often a superhero of some sorts, and has quite the vivid imagination. He brings us blankets and towels to tie around his shoulders and both kids run around saving the world. I am so proud of him. I love it when he tries to use big words "I am so frus-er-ated right now!" and my heart is heavy when he comes home sad because the bigger boys at school told him he couldnt play with them. He can proudly write his name and wield a sword. He adores his new school and his teachers are his best friends. He makes us stop at the end of the hall and proudly walks to class by his self with his head held high. He is sensitive and insanely sweet, the first one to cry, and protector of his little sister. He changed my life 3 1/2 years ago, for the better.

I hope they will realize one day how much they are loved and adored, how special they are to us and how thankful we are that they are in our lives.

Disappointment.

2010-03-06T22:48:00.010-05:00

Have you ever felt just so utterly disappointed in someone or something? I have felt completely frustrated and disappointed lately.

Noah came home from daycare last Wednesday with a bite mark on his face. Not a bite from a child, but a bite from a dog. He came home with a red, swollen nose and some marks on his face. We asked him what happened and he said "The dog bit me. Hailey bit me." The dogs name is Hailey. She is the owners dog and is quite frequently there. And no, its not against the law for a dog to be at a daycare. I checked on that one. What makes me the most angry, is not that a dog bit him, but that they tried to hide it. There was no phone call, no note, no one mentioned it as he was being picked up from school. No incident report for us to sign. Not even a "boo boo" report. I was livid. Absolutely livid. This happens after I give so many referals about this new daycare, after I raved about it. I was excited about this place. I felt at peace with my kids being there. I feel so disappointed now. I feel so frustrated. How do you find quality care for your children, with people that you can trust 100% with your child when you cannot afford to provide that care yourself? The owner acknowledged that she knew what happened. Angry... Fortunatly, the bite wasnt bad at all and by the time I took these pictures that evening, the swelling had all but subsided.

But enough of that. Im working on forgiveness.

So what did we do this weekend?! See if you can tell.

If you guessed that Noah finally got a haircut, then you guessed right. On a whim I decided to take Noah to get his hair chopped off. It grows fast and I just wanted to see what he would look like with short hair and I was so very tired of battling it out with his curly locks. I love his curls (I really do) but now that he is getting older and his hair is getting less curly and thicker, I am constantly having to do something with his hair. I wash his hair in the morning (every morning if nothing else but to wet it down) and put both hair serum in it and gel. Otherwise, its a poofy mess all day. Like a Ronald McDonald mess. And after he wakes up from his naps, well poofy mess returns. Anyway- so far Im kind of diggin it. He looks like a completely different kid. Older maybe. Still a cutie pie. I am kind of missing his curls...

Finishing up with a little trip to the boardwalk.

I think by the end of the day, Juliana had enough.

Ch Ch Ch Changes...

2010-03-02T00:02:00.007-05:00

Sheesh, its been forever since I blogged. Its been forever since I even had the opportunity to blog (or watch tv, or get my hair done or clean more than a fraction of the house at the same time, or take a shower... ok kidding on the later.). But I didnt want to totally neglect this blog. Well, any more than Ive already neglected it. And besides, I finally have a new laptop to use and I absolutely LOVE it and might as well get a little use out of it. Its kind of nice not having to hold in the charger or hold up the screen with one hand while typing. Ive had some bad luck with laptops, Im just sayin'.

Im now back at work playing nurse 5 nights a week. The kids started "school" in December the week I started work and two months later, they started a new daycare (Today actually). Noah is 2 1/2 and Juliana is already 19 months. Its hard for me to fathom that Juliana is mere months away from being two. Especially since shes still such a teeny tiny little thing. And Noah is creeping towards three? Youve got to be kidding me!

Going to work wasnt as horrible as I just knew it was going to be. The first two weeks were the hardest and even though I crave the idea of being home with my children, Im trying to stay positive about this new season of my life. Daycare has really been an experience. We chose the wrong daycare for the kids the first time around and I really wish we had done more shopping around. It ended up being a terrible experience leaving my two year old terrified. I had a feeling something wasnt quite right at the daycare that he was at. I couldnt put my finger on it but I just knew something was very, very wrong. Its a mothers intuition. We finally ended up pulling them out after we realized there really was a very big problem in Noah's classroom and the kids stayed home with me for a short while. I was exhausted keeping the kids during the day and going to work at night. Today they started a new daycare in the area. We've visited a few times and let the kids get warmed up and they ended up having a great first day. I picked the kids up this afternoon and I was relieved... so very relieved. I NEED to know that my kids are in good hands. I never knew that I would be quite so hyper or anal as a mother. But Ive become very particular about my kids. Rightly so.

The kids (and Allen) heading in the building for their first day of their new school today:

Im going to really try to update more often. If nothing else but for my own memories. I still devotedly read blogs every single day and will try to become a little more active in the blogging community. Keyword: Try ;)

The importance of rear facing

2009-10-12T11:29:00.003-04:00

I wanted to share this video with those with small children that havent seen this yet. It just may save a life.

On being crafty

2009-09-20T23:06:00.004-04:00

Ive never considered myself crafty. I'm surprised I passed home ec. I don't sew, didn't cook (working on this one), and sure as heck never made hair bows before. It took me a year to finally get a little crafty and decide to stop buying bows for Juliana and give making them myself a real shot. Really, the prices for one bow at a boutique are incredibly rid-donk-ulous. Ive paid upwards of $10 for a large bow and Juliana takes it and throws it out of her hair when I'm not looking and it gets lost forever. I was faced with a situation recently of either cutting Juliana's bangs or finding a better way to keep her hair out of her eyes. Being a tad opposed to bangs myself as I'm a little scarred from having the most unattractive bangs growing up (Thanks Mom!), I decided that Id either have to go buy her more bows or make them myself. So, I took a little trip to hobby lobby a couple of days ago and bought an assortment of ribbon and alligator clips (and they were having a 50% off sale on all ribbon... score!). Last night I decided to put what I bought to good use, watched two YouTube videos (so of course I'm an expert now and everything) and gave it a go. I stayed up until 3am and by the time I went to bed, I had made 30 bows. I'm excited to say the least. Some of them turned out a little rough, but I made about 3 that look pretty darn cute. 3 out of 30.. not bad right? Actually... I have no idea what I'm doing.

So here's the finished product. Don't laugh at any of them... its a work in progress!

Needless to say, any tips one has to offer on bow making... or anything cute and crafty (Id like to make Juliana a tutu next. Or maybe headbands), I would certainly appreciate it.

I love having a little girl to dress up.

Rambling on...

2009-09-16T21:48:00.005-04:00

Gosh, it seems I never just blog for the sake of blogging anymore. Which I miss. I really miss laying in bed at night and recounting my day. There is just so much that you forget when you dont write it down. Especially me. I do believe I have the absolute worst memory. Maybe not. But it soo feels like it sometimes. I cant remember half the time what I ate for dinner the night before or the name of the people in my classes in school. Anyway...

So a year after I had Juliana (A year and 2 months EXACTLY... ya know, to be exact and all) I am still at home. I have LOVED spending this past year with my children. Ive said it so many times, but I missed out on so much of Noah's first year. And they change so very much in those first twelve months.. Everyday they do something new and I missed quite a lot of that. Working as I nurse, I would leave for work around 6:15 or 6:30 at the latest, before Noah got up for the day. Every day before I left for work I'd tiptoe in Noah's room and make sure he was covered up and rub his head for a minute before leaving. I didnt get off work until 7:30 pm and that had to be one heck of an awesome day because I think I only left twice at 7:30. Most times I left around 8:00 or 8:30 and many nights I had to stay much, much later. Noah was already in bed by then and once again, I would have to tiptoe in, make sure he was covered up, rub his little head, and that was it. Noah of course was his dad's little boy which is great. But I remember one night I came home a little early from work and Noah was still awake. He looked at me and cried. He cried! Not because he wanted me to pick him up but because I was a stranger to him. I was working 5 days a week, atleast 13 hour days and slept a good piece of the day that I was off. I didnt want that to ever happen again. I want to raise my children, I dont want daycare to raise them. I want to potty train my child. Not the teacher at daycare. I want to be there for all their firsts. I dont want to hear it from someone else...

That being said, I know that in order for my family to move forward, the time has come (badum dee dum...) for me to go back to work (though Ive said it before, the time has REALLY come). Ive applied for jobs, spruced up my resume and I'm waiting on a callback. Please pray. My nerves are, at times, on the verge of being shot. The idea of dropping my kids off at daycare and listening to them cry (especially Juliana... Noah warms up quickly) kills me. Though I dread it, I am also excited about this new chapter in my life. I cant wait to stop struggling AS MUCH as we do now. I owe that to my family. I owe it to them to find a job where they can have health insurance (as opposed to right now). I have applied for jobs outside of the hospital setting. While I LOVED (Loved, loved, LOVED, L O V E D!) my friends and coworkers at Trident (Did I mention LOVE) I dont feel like I can go back to being a floor nurse. The daily codes, the MRSA, crash carts, IV pumps, chest tubes, ventilators... nothing I miss. Ive applied at a few rehabilitation centers in the area for third shift (would prefer 1st but there were no openings).

Im ready to get the ball rolling on buying a house and helping to provide for a "better" life for my family. Though, I dont want to forget all my lessons in thriftyness that Ive learned in the past year (and 2 months). Before taking this past year off (and definitely before I started buying my own groceries) Id throw whatever in the shopping cart. Id go for the name brands, the flashy packages. I wouldnt take the time to compare prices and I definitely would not look in the newspaper for deals so that I could price match at Walmart. Anytime I go to the store, I now think on a budget. I dont want to forget that. I dont want to stop asking myself "Do we REALLY need this?"

So ready for new changes, but so not ready to let my children go... *sigh*

To end, I just wanted to post a few recent pictures from a recent mini vacation we went on during labor day weekend to visit the kids grandparents (and my Ma and Pa-in law) at a camground they were staying at. It was great seeing them and I know it was a good change of scenery for all of us. Juliana was quite the little fuss bucket and erupted a shiny new toofy the day after we left.

You know, one of the first things Id like to spend money on after I go back to work is a real vacation for my husband and myself. Thinking now... we've never been on a real vacation together. Things to consider!!

Trip to the State House

2009-08-30T20:15:00.004-04:00

Today we decided to drive to downtown Columbia and see what all we could get into with the kids. Our first stop was the State House grounds where we ran into (almost literally) what seemed like hundreds of (very tame) birds and squirrels. They would come right up to your feet and even try to eat out of your hand... the kids got a big kick out of getting so close to these animals. A guy walking by gave us a handful of roasted peanuts to feed the squirrels and we soon found out that the birds were pretty fond of the gerber graduate little puffs we had in the diaper bag for Juliana. We finished up there by letting the kids climb up the State House steps (allll thoseee stepsss... whew!).

We rounded out our trip by walking a few blocks down to visit USC (Memories... ). We spent a lot of time walking around reminiscing about our old school days and where we took our classes at. And all the walking we had to do while we were there. I remember it taking me 15-20 minutes to walk from one class to the other. Allen of course reminds me every time that he has me beat as he had to walk at least that far carrying an upright bass for school (taller than he is, mind you!). Oh the good ol' days. They were good then, and they are good now.

And yes, we forgot Juliana's shoes. She didn't mind. ;-)

Wordless Wednesday Wobbly Wednesday

2009-08-26T09:11:00.007-04:00

I shot a little video with my camera a few weeks ago as Juliana was just learning to walk at the ripe old age of 12 1/2 months. Though the quality is pretty bad, I thought she was just the cutest little wobbly walker (and you can hear me getting a kick out of it).

Also...

Im a tad bit late (Im always late... I just wouldnt be ME if I wasnt late to and late on everything) on this but we took the kids at the end of July for their 1 and 2 year physicals. We decided to be super brave and take them both at the same time and have them in the same room. What a handful! Neither one of them are overly fond of going to the doctor but Juliana was still too young to REALLY know what was going on. As soon as we pull into the parking lot at the doctors office with Noah in tow, he knows where he is and remembers getting his immunizations all too well and he is NOT a fan. I think it went about as well as could be expected though. Noah was 32 lbs ( 90th percentile) and 50th percentile for height (I didnt quite catch his height while they were measuring him; I was more concerned with the ear piercing screeching but he is between 34 and 35 inches). Juliana was 21 lbs and close to 28 inches making her 50th percentile for weight and 10th for height. She has stayed consistantly 10th percentile since birth so I think she may just be a little shorty- and thats fine with me! Everything else checked out A-Okay with them too. They are both doing well in the speech department, Juliana now has well over 50 words and occasionally puts two words together while Noah is stringing along full sentences and adds more words on daily. Some of Noah's words are starting to become more clear and I can pretty much understand everything he says. I guess all that worrying I did over Noah talking was not warranted after all... but Im a mommy and worrying is my job! I think... But so far, so good. No more checkups for Noah until hes 3 (::Whew!::) and Juliana doesnt go back until 18 months. I cannot believe I have a 1 year old and a 2 year old.

Birthday party

2009-07-30T15:14:00.003-04:00

A family friend created this slideshow for me with pictures from the kids birthday party this past Sunday at the Saluda Shoals spray park. I'll upload some pictures that I took later but for now I'll share this! Thanks Rick!

My girl

2009-07-19T13:14:00.009-04:00

My baby, my youngest, my little girl, my princess, my Juliana is 1 year old. One whole year has passed since the moment I saw her sweet little face. Love at first sight, without a doubt. Born on a hot wednesday evening at the hospital where I was working at. I came in early that morning to be induced and pitocin was started at 8:30am. I wanted so badly to go into labor without the aid of medication, in the familiarity of my own home. Around week 34, my midwife realized that Juliana had stopped growing well inside of me and the best option for her at that time was for me to be induced when she was full term. The ultrasound that I had before she was born showed that she would weigh very little over 5 lbs full term. My dream of my water breaking and going into labor naturally didnt happen. My dream of a daughter to love, did happen. My little girl came into this world a little after 7:00 that night with a head full of jet black curly hair and she weighed..... 7 lbs 1.6 oz. Not bad for what was supposed to be a 5 pounder. And you know who she looks JUST LIKE... Thats right, her daddy. While Noah is my mini me (for the most part) Juliana is a little girly clone of her daddy. We celebrated her first birthday by taking a trip to the beach for the day, just like we did with Noah last year. The kids had such a great time playing in the sand and water and we ate hot melted cupcakes in the sand and enjoyed the day. Happy Birthday Juliana.

Juliana always has a ready smile, showing off her 6 teeth.

3 bottom teeth, 3 top.

Born with blue eyes but now they change between blue, gray, and hazel.

Black hair was replaced with lightly curly brown hair.

More social than her brother.

Will let a stranger hold her, depending on her mood.

Prefers still to be carried around the house.

Still not walking but swiftly cruises all over the furniture and can stand alone briefly.

Has an amazing vocabulary including mommy, daddy, kitty, puppy, ball, eye, nose, ear, hair, toe, bottle, no, all done, thank you, duck, papy, milk, shoe, jump, and much more.

She hits (yikes!)

Is a water bug... loves to swim and even goes under the water.

Wears mostly 12 months clothes. Some 18 month tops.

Size 4 shoes

Hates her carseat... still.

Counts to 3 "Un... two... teee!!"

Size 3-4/4 diapers.

Toenails painted for the first time a few days ago just for fun.

Sleeps 12 hours at night.

Prefers to be rocked to sleep.

Loves to sing.

Loves to dance.

Loves her mommy and daddy.

And they love her too.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-07-15T21:06:00.004-04:00

Happy 2nd birthday, baby of mine.

2009-07-08T21:39:00.008-04:00

July 2, 2007 - 3:16 pm

My first born baby is two years old now. He came into this world at 3:16 pm on a Monday afternoon after Allen and I watched Titanic over and over on the hospital tv just waiting to become first time parents. He was born weeks early, two days before July 4th, and I was in labor for 17 hours straight. He was more than worth it. Two years ago I met that precious little boy for the first time and I had never been more scared and more elated at the same time. He was so beautiful... Looking into his face I remember thinking that he was flawless, amazing... much more beautiful than I had ever imagined. I examined his teeny toes, his little fingernails, his sweet little ears. He changed my life that day, he made me a mother. Every decision I made after that included him somehow. Most everything I do, I do it with him in mind. I am so thankful. I love that kid.

I love his hugs...

His blossoming sense of humor

His patience for his baby sister

His smile

I love when he sees me and excitedly shouts out "My mommy!!"

His love for "appa juice" "fruit nacks" and "chee toast"

His curls

How he has adopted the role of protector of his little sister.... "No sissy!! Not a toy!!"

How he loves me even when I lose my patience

I even love how he throws toys at us from the backseat of the car to get our attention

I love his everything.

Happy Birthday to my Noah. I am so proud to be your mommy.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-06-10T23:49:00.002-04:00

Sorta Wordless Wednesday... a few hours late.

2009-05-28T01:50:00.007-04:00

Playing outside in the rain in their diapers. One of my favorite memories as a child (minus just the diaper).

My sweet Noah.... the nurturer. Though cars, trucks, and rocks are the biggies for this 22 month old, he enjoys the occasional doll as well. Hugs, pats its back, rocks the baby, gives it kisses, puts it in the swing... and then makes it ride on his tonka trucks.

Noah pointing out the mommy and baby ducklings at the gardens. He was so in love.

Mommy's big/little helper.

Sweet girl, all smiles in the swing.

Taking some time to stop and smell the roses... at the rose gardens of course.
My sunshine.

Noah riding his tricycle... with a little help from mommy.

No explanation needed. Just a little picture to save for a few years down the road. Ya know, that... and the pink crocs.

An update from the slackest blogger out there.

2009-05-26T23:14:00.004-04:00

Well... am I not the slackest blogger on the block? I think I've started at least 5 blogs in the past month or so, write a paragraph or two, get distracted and save the post, and never come back to it. Seriously. I have this nagging feeling every time that I start to write, that there is something else that needs to be done instead. Maybe I need to wash a load of clothes, do some dishes, tuck some children back in their beds, or maybe there's a TV show out there that I've been looking forward to (cough cough Jon&Kate cough). But alas, here I am trying again. Hoping that this one wont be thrown into the pile of saved posts waiting to be published. Maybe. Just maybe.

Well the last time I REALLY posted Juliana was 8 months old... Well I'm proud to say that my once 8 month old is now a very active, very mobile (but still not quite walking) 10 month old. And Noah... what a handful- Hes almost 2! In a few short days, he will be exactly 1 month away from turning the big TWO. Can it be true? I feel more and more proud of my kids everyday, and I'm beginning to realize that I'm having so much more fun now that they are a little older. Especially with Noah. Noah's vocabulary has really taken off here lately. Once upon a time, I worried if Noah was saying enough... Did he say enough words? Is he delayed? What are other children his age doing and saying? Believe me, I'm the queen of google and yahoo answers. I admit that I've googled all sorts of things, sometimes on a daily basis such as "How many words should a ___ month old be saying?" or "What is an average ___ month old like?" Yeah, hate to admit it... ya know, unless YOU do it too! Then well, we can admit that stuff together. I don't really know a lot of kids the same age as mine, so sometimes you just have to guess what's normal and whats not... and sometimes you just have to google it (I'm sure that's a satisfactory substitute for real medical advice you know, from a pediatrician and all)! But I'm feeling better and better about Noah's speech everyday and while most people still cannot understand most of what he says, he is actually speaking in sentences fairly often. Albeit, he leaves a word or two out sometimes but he gets his point across. He lets me know what he wants, whether its apple juice or a new diaper, or to read a book or go outside. Today I told him to put something down that he didn't need to be playing with and he turned around and told me "Its not a toy!" He is growing up right before my eyes and though its bittersweet, I've been enjoying some of these new changes. What gets me the most about Noah is how sweet he is to his "little baby sissy." Days before I had Juliana, I worried about how Noah would receive her... would he be jealous or act out? And its actually quite the opposite. I don't often see jealousy from him. He is very loving with her. If he has two cookies, he gives her one. He tries to wash her hair in the tub, brushes her hair and brings her a diaper, pushes her stroller, shares his lunch, talks baby talk to her (ahem must have picked that up from somewhere), and hugs her often. He however is NOT a fan of sharing his toys and has learned to say "MINE!!!" Mine, mine, mine. Typical two year old jargon I hear. Still has meltdowns, still weary of strangers, still not your friend if he is missing even a few minutes of a nap. My Noah.

Juliana has been busy herself these days. While she does not walk yet, she is an avid furniture cruiser and toy stealer. She is loving, cuddly, and 100% different from Noah. Still not the BEST sleeper, but lately shes been sleeping through the night... you know, for the most part (Thank you God!!). I swore sometimes that pint sized little girl would be the death of me. She is nowhere near the good sleeper Noah is and the slightest noise or changes in light wakes her up (And I really mean slightest... even carefully opening the door does the trick) but she has started to go to bed with a little less fuss and has started playing in her crib (gasp) instead of screaming bloody murder the second she realizes that shes awake and there is no one right beside her. She "talks" constantly and even says a handful of real words. She likes to play with Noah's cars and trucks and even makes the sound effects "Vrooom!" lol She also loves her baby dolls. She still only has two teeth on the bottom, but has a couple more making their way in but can eat anything and everything. At ten months, she is just now starting to like baby food but has been eating table food for months now. She also gets her diaper in a wad if I walk away from her or even worse, leave the room. Separation anxiety... good times... Shes my sunshine though, loves to "sing" (cant take her in church for this reason, she loudly sings to all the songs), dances on command, blows kisses and gives real ones, and snuggles.

Lately we've been piddling in potty training with Noah. We were at his great grandparents house for memorial day (think I mentioned in the previous post from my cell) and his cousin that is 2 1/2 is potty training and Noah decided he wanted to give it a try "I pee pee potty Mommy!" and pulled his pants down and gave it a shot. Nothing happened, I think he just wanted to sit on it but we decided that was a cue. Today we all loaded up in the car and went shopping for his very own potty. It even has a bar next to it for the toilet paper just like a real potty. So when we got home Noah gave it a try, pulled off half a roll of toilet paper, and then decided that it was more fun to push it around the house and store leggos in the little storage compartment in it. Whatever, at least he's getting use to it. There will be a day when we no longer have to buy diapers for two kids... I'm ready!! Diapers don't grow on trees and they aren't cheap, especially when you have two kids wearing them. Ive even thought recently about using cloth diapers. Ive done my research, found out that its very effective in helping a child potty train because they actually feel wet and become more aware when they wet themselves, looked into the different types of diapers and looked at some of the earthy, crunchy websites that sell some of these diapers. But the up front cost is hard to swallow, especially for all the diapers we would need and would I really be up to the extra work involved in constantly washing diapers? Sure, its definitely the green way to go! I'll have to give it a little more thought...

Lets see... what else is there to write about? I guess a million things have happened in the past two months. I'll have to be a little better at updating. Sorry guys, you know, the few that read this. :-)

There, I did it. Finally. I made a post. Now I feel better. Now I'm off to read some of my favorite blogs (nightly ritual!).

PS- I didn't get to post about sweet little Kayleigh that went to be with Jesus after 11 months in the NICU. I had been reading Kayleigh's blog for several months and it definitely felt like a little piece of me was missing when she died. I think of her often, though I never knew her in real life. I am so, so, so thankful for my children. I am so, so, so thankful for their health. I am so thankful for so many things... my husband, my mom, my family, my friends. I thank God for these people. I thank God for knowing Kayleigh, if nothing more than through a blog. Her website, written by her dad Adam, is on the sidebar.

Potty time??

2009-05-25T22:12:00.000-04:00

You can see what our new endeavors will be with our almost 2 year old.
Time to introduce the potty!! Today was his first day giving it a try
while at his great grandparents house. His older cousin is potty
training and Noah decided to hop on board by telling us he had to pee
pee and whipping his pants down. He looked so adorable sitting on that
potty like a big boy. No luck yet... But were going out to get a potty
this week hopefully and some rewards! Wish us luck!!

Hooray for rainy days

2009-05-24T14:36:00.000-04:00

For if there were no rainy days, there would be no puddles for little
boys to jump in.

Day in Chucktown

2009-04-01T20:28:00.006-04:00

Just thought I would update the blog with some recent pictures of the kids, taken Monday when we spent the day in Charleston. Oh, how I love (and MISS) Charleston!! When we moved up this way, we didn't look back for a long time. We were done with the area, I was done with working at Trident. But there is just something so peaceful about being there, even if its just for the day. There is beauty that I have yet to see to that extent here. I do love Lexington, don't get me wrong. I just have a very special place in my heart for Charleston.

The day ended up being a lot cooler (and way more windy) than we expected and the kids decided not to nap on the way down so they were fussy and irrational at times (yeah so when is a 8 month old and a 1 1/2 year old rational anyway... especially MY 8 month old and MY 1 1/2 year old). Its definitely a lot harder taking two kids on a trip, even if its for the day. We didn't even bother bringing the double stroller, as we knew Juliana would sit in it for about 3 minutes and then would be DONE with it the entire day and would want to be carried (Demanding!!!) while we pushed the limousine around everywhere. So I carried her through the market and shops, in the Charleston Place hotel, down King street, in the Apple store so we could drool over some macs (Juliana literally... oh and spit up too! Not me, her.)

I borrowed my moms camera because ~~I broke mine~~ mine broke... itself and didn't realize that I had it in the mode to shoot these brown-tone shots half the time. They actually turned out fairly well though.

Juliana, 8 months old

Noah snacking. Full of energy, running up and down, up and down the park.

Juliana, sleeping in my arms while I carried her around Charleston.

After I realized that I shot the majority of pictures without color. Allen and his two monkeys. Arms full?

Noah, always trying to be helpful.

Father and son.

The day wasn't perfect. But I'm glad we went. We finished up the day by meeting my brother, sister in law, and new niece Megan out for supper at Allen's favorite Korean restaurant. We got stone bowls and sushi, yum yum. And that was our day!

I wish I could blog more, I do it when I can. Now that both kids are mobile, Ive been super busy chasing and cleaning up after them. Juliana has mastered crawling and pulling up. We took Juliana to the doctor a week and a half ago in which we talked with him about her refusal to eat baby food. He recommended going ahead and giving her table food, and letting her feed herself. So for every meal, we sit both Noah and Juliana in their highchairs and give them the same thing. And Juliana does fairly well. She only has two teeth, but she will gum food to death. Or otherwise hold it in her mouth until her saliva breaks it down. Its very comical to see her "chew." She has been sleeping (somewhat) better at night. Some nights she sleeps 12- 13 hours, some nights she wakes. We do the same thing pretty much every day so there is no rhyme or reason to that. She also claps her hands, and can wave and say bye bye... which is a shocker to me, since Noah definitely did not care to do that at this age. Apples and oranges, they are. Noah on the other hand, has started putting two words together. It doesn't sound like much, but its a pretty big milestone. "Mommy's shoe" "Sissy eating" " Bye Bye Daddy." So very ready for him to talk a little more. Other than that, nothing has changed for Noah. Hes way more predictable (except for his mood, then its Jekyll and Hyde). He still sleeps 12 hours at night, eats like its going out of style (perhaps that phrase is going out of style), is a monster when lacking sleep, and a bursting ball of energy.

I'll save Juliana's new found "tantrums" for a later post. Oh dear.

2009-03-18T23:47:00.005-04:00

Noah is well!! Okay, not really. But he is so so SO much better. The whites in his eyes are actually white. He is still looking pretty rough but nothing like yesterday or the days before. Its amazing and wonderful what just two days of antibiotics will do. Just looking at the picture of him 2 blog entries ago makes me shutter. I just don't do eyes... especially red, hurting, oozing ones. I remember when I was in nursing school, I was given the option of seeing someone have their lower limb amputated or seeing cataract surgery. I remember thinking that I could handle watching someone's leg being cut off better than seeing someone have their eyes messed with. Ew.

I was able to get a quick charge on the laptop long enough to download some semi-recent pictures. Here's my newly turned 8 month old little girl, showing off her two new additions to her mouth. And she bites too. And it hurts.

Noah again with his full beard. When I say that grow up fast, I wasnt kidding :)

Allen and Noah washing the car together. I forget how much fun this can be for a smaller child... before they realize that what they are doing is called a chore for most of us.

Noah brought out his own car to wash:

Big trucks and his pacifier and blanket. Its where the big boy in him, meets the little baby boy.

Allen is actually spending the night in Newberry tonight. He didnt get off work until midnight and has to be back at 6am tomorrow for the Gilligans Island show. Oh what fun!! He is missed. Goodnight all.

Ive got good news and bad news...

2009-03-17T23:46:00.002-04:00

First, the bad news. Severe double ear infection, double eye infection, and one bad looking throat- Noah's diagnosis today. I would have never known- he was running around, laughing and playing. I really find that children are tougher than adults when they get sick. But oh man, has it gotten hard to take a toddler to the doctor's office. Because he KNOWS. He knows exactly where he is and a general idea of what is going to happen... Someone is going to poke something in his ear and put that cold thing on his chest. If only he knew his mommy did that kind of stuff for a living. Oh... toddlers. Nevermind that he had an absolute cow in the waiting room because another little child about his age had the same sippy cup as him. Noah was given a script for Augmentin and Im preparing myself for the inevitable blowouts. Please pray that this little boy is feeling better soon though.

But the good news is... we finally got our taxes done! Whew!!

Poor little guy

2009-03-16T23:34:00.000-04:00

Hey Chuck Norris!

2009-03-12T01:44:00.000-04:00

Chuck Norris likes to relax in the bathtub and play with his submarine
after a full body workout on his total gym.

Doesn't Noah look spiffy with his Chuck Nortis beard made out of
icing from Allen's birthday cake? I thought so. See post below.

2009-03-11T22:47:00.006-04:00

Two posts in a row may just be a record for me here lately. I realized how much I missed my blog as well as recounting my days, good, bad, or just plain nasty; though I try to leave most of the nasty out (I have yet to mention Noah's pants at a recent outing to Carrabas after we picked him up from his highchair nor the faces of everyone in that restaurant as we walked out and stripped him down to his skibbies in the car... Did I spell skibbies correctly? Is that even a word?).

Juliana is nearly 8 months old (Wow did I just say that? Is my teeny girl almost 8 months old?) In fact, she has 4 more days before she hits the 8 month mark. Its amazing the difference between Noah and Juliana- they are definitely the "Odd Couple"... as much alike as night and day and it goes beyond looks. Noah loves his sleep and his food, Juliana cares for neither (Once upon a time she loved her sleep, all those many months ago). Noah didn't care too much about being held, Juliana wants to be held constantly. Noah loved his car seat, Juliana hates hers. And the list goes on. We're having a hard time with Juliana eating baby food. She just does not like it. Actually, I'm pretty sure that she hates it. I work so hard with her everyday to get her to eat a bite or two during mealtime. Its so very frustrating, especially when Noah at this point was eating 3 meals a day and loving every bite of it. Juliana cries, flails her arms and legs, spits food back at you. Tell me, is this just a girl thing? I am so in love with this little girl but I sometimes question how I make it through the day (or night) without pulling a few clumps of hair out. She doesn't like to sleep, her naps are sporadic at best. And as soon as we have a schedule worked out for her, she surprises you by waking up a few times in the middle of the night, or sleeping the entire night, or not napping the next day, or taking a 4 hour nap. But back to the food- shes so very small for her age and so I'm really trying not to stress the food so much because I know milk is most important right now so I will probably give it another couple of weeks. But for those that read my post yesterday- Juliana is somewhat better today. She has kept her bottles down and has had no fever but I do believe my child has seasonal allergies. We had a fresh coat of pollen covering everything outside and she had green coming out of both of her eyes and her nose today. I'll have to keep an eye on that.

But on average, today was a very nice day. We enjoyed the last bit of this warm weather stretch by grabbing a ton of toys and playing outside. I cannot wait until summer. We played trucks and ate lunch and snacks outside. Even Juliana helped herself to a sandwich off of Noah's plate when he took a play break from eating. She has been a bit fussy and was fussing on and off while we were outside. She quit suddenly and I was thinking "Yes, she finally resigned herself to the fact that fussing just isn't going to help her"... but then found her munching on a chicken salad sandwich. Okay, this kid wont eat baby food... or anything age appropriate... but will snag your hamburger, sandwich, oreo, or french fries in a second (and subsequently choke and I mean really choke). I forgot to mention that earlier when talking about her aversion to baby food. We had a wonderful time outside though and Im definitely not looking forward to the rain or cooler weather that is in the forecast.

Noah also "read" his first words today. We have the "Your Baby Can Read" kit. It was actually a gift, and it was one that I wasn't overly thrilled about getting in the first place. I followed through with watching the DVDs and showing the flash cards to Noah, not because I really cared about him reading at this age (I though it was a bunch of bull to be honest) but because it was a great resource to incorporate new words into his vocabulary and its very educational (And boring... yawwwn!). To my surprise, both kids actually watch the DVD and Noah can pick out a couple of words (By memorizing what the words look like, I still prefer the good old fashioned, CHEAP, way of sounding them out). I do think that its been really beneficial for Noah though. If you've seen the ads on TV or are interested in the program, I have a review ready for you.

I actually think that was pretty much the extent of my day. Both kids were in bed by 8:30 (gasp!). I call it a success!!

Im alive!

2009-03-11T01:27:00.004-04:00

Its been quite some time since my last post. When was my last post actually?! Oh I remember... When Noah was throwing the ABC magnets out the shopping cart at everyone in walmart day before Valentines. Got it now. Wow, nearly a month. My laptop is actually on hiatus right now. Well, my laptop has been out of commission and so I was borrowing my mom's laptop (which she didn't really use until recently... when she discovered facebook) and the charger died on that one. Which has left me using my husband's computer... which too happens to be broken, though usable but not very blog-writing friendly. Before, I would set a mood... I use to get in bed after the kids were asleep when it was nice and quiet, warm and toasty and write. Now I have to sit at the kitchen table (husbands screen wont stay up and has to be "propped" and has so many things attached that it has to remain stationary) and all I can think about is getting the dishes done, or vacuuming the rug, etc etc. It probably doesn't make sense to you, but it does to me! Ive attempted several blogs, I have a list where the saved drafts are... but the ADD that I swear I don't have gets the best of me every time. I end up washing the bottles that I earlier decided could wait until morning or doing laundry or something of that sort.

Today is my WONDERFUL husbands birthday. Well, actually as of right now- yesterday was his birthday. Twenty-nine years ago (and one day), my husband was born weighing only 3 lbs 4 oz... a bitty preemie, but 100% healthy. I cant tell you how happy I am to have him by my side today. I know I don't give this guy enough credit but he is absolutely wonderful. I couldn't ask for a better husband or a better father for our kids. He is so very patient, not only with the kids but with me and he has the most amazing heart. Happy Birthday my love!!

For his birthday present, his grandparents offered to take the children overnight on Monday so that we could actually spend some time together without changing diapers, wiping noses, and dragging a tantruming child to time out (This would be Noah of course. Juliana is too young for that wonderful toddler art). They get Noah every now and then but this is the first time in quite a few months that Juliana has been away from me for a night (bittersweet). We ended up grabbing some Mexican food and then just coming back home to enjoy some peace and quiet. Its amazing how much we have changed since having children. Its funny how our idea of having a good time has changed as well. Although I thoroughly enjoyed my evening, I had a hard time with wanting to check on children in their cribs that were tucked in somewhere else.

Allen's grandparents brought the kids back this afternoon and they looked pretty worn out. Apparently Juliana was quite the problem child and partied like a rock star a few times in the middle of the night and was quite an unhappy little thing and showed her cute diaper padded, frilled behind. Of course, we found out later after she emptied the entire contents of her stomach three times and her temperature began creeping up, that she had a perfectly good reason for showing out. She has already woken up once tonight and Im doubting that will be the only time. So far Noah seems perfectly fine and happy so I'm crossing my fingers that whatever Juliana has, she doesn't share with him.

As far as pictures go... I have so many to share! But that will be later. Goodnight!!

New babies and horrific shopping trips

2009-02-15T22:11:00.008-05:00

Wow. It feels like it has been ages since I last posted anything about anything! Really. Ive been so very busy and at night when I sit down to write a blog, I'm just too tired. Or I forget. Or I start typing up something and then feel like its not interesting enough or feel that I'm not doing a good enough job writing it... (list of excuses continues).

But none of that! I am so very proud to announce...

My niece! Megan Olivia Bozard was born on Wednesday, February 11th at 6:55am weighing in at a hearty 8 lbs 4 oz, 20 inches long, with blonde hair and blue eyes. She was a tad bit stubborn and came a few days after her due date but alas, she came when she was good and ready! Her mommy is doing well and both mommy and daddy are so, so, so proud of their beautiful little girl. We got the call late Tuesday night that Krystal had headed to the hospital with frequent contractions so my mom and I packed up, left the kids with Allen (who had to work the next day and ended up taking both kids to work with him... now THAT is a different story!), and headed to Charleston. We ended up spending the night in the hallway of the hospital and Miss Megan was born early the next morning via c-section (She just didn't want to come the normal way! And she was turned around backwards). We didn't get any sleep that night, but it was well worth it. Just call me Auntie Elizabeth.

It always takes a minute of getting use to when holding a brand new baby after holding much larger, sturdier ones. I think the biggest shock was holding my brand new Juliana after toting around a 25 pound 1 year old. I almost over compensated when picking her up that first time and flung her in the ceiling tiles. Okay, it wasn't that bad. But it is a bit of a shock.

I have realized that it is so much easier to write if I do it nightly, rather than waiting a week or two. I'm kind of left sitting here saying "Well... what else is there so say..." Lets start with Friday night. On Friday night I decided to take both of the kids to walmart to do a little shopping... by myself. This turned out to be quite a disaster. I have taken the kids places by myself, but I try to avoid stores. It started off great. Noah was happily sitting in the large part of the cart and Juliana was sitting in the seat. I'm pushing them around, they're laughing and smiling. Im thinking "wow, this is easy!" I go to check out Valentines Day card (yes, I procrastinate), Noah is smiling at other people, trying to talk to them, behaving. It was quite crowded in that one little aisle. I look over, and Noah is digging in a woman's pocket book who happened to push her cart up next to ours while she looked. I stopped him, we're still okay... I realize that I need to quickly grab a card... look at one to get and hear *riiiiiipppp* I look back, and Noah has ripped a jumbo gift bag in half. We grab the bag, a card, and quickly exit the aisle. Grab the necessary items on my list and stop to pick up a pack of the ABC refrigerator magnets and put everything in the cart. Juliana decides at this point that she has had enough of sitting in the cart and starts screaming... loudly... ear piercing. I pick her up and try to steer the cart with one hand with her in the other. Then I hear Noah shouting "B, B, B, B!!" As I'm looking for the "bee" I see a refrigerator magnet go flying out the cart at someone. Oh no... Noah hasn't really torn open the pack of magnets and started throwing them at people... has he? *gulp* He sure did. He had thrown half of them out the cart already. I try to gather them up while he threw the remaining ones out... Juliana is still carrying on... I have nice people following around behind me picking up the magnets as he starts pushing them through the bottom of the cart. It sounds like I have no control here, doesn't it? I have a 1 year old and a 6 month old... I have a limited amount. I thought about taking all the ABCs and shoving them on a shelf but decided that I needed to purchase it if Noah had wrecked it. Oh me, oh my. I see why some moms take xanax.

After leaving walmart (alive), we decided to stop by so the kids could visit their great grandmother. She has Alzheimer's and doesn't know who we are, but has the best time with the kids when they come. It is the cutest thing. She kept asking and saying (over, and over... and over) "How old are they?"... "Are they both boys?"... "You've got your hands full don't you?"... "They are cute little boys. Are they boys? " Its actually really fun and I never have to think of anything to say when I go over there. You just answer the same 5-10 questions several times.

Noah, trying to figure out her wheelchair.
Juliana, checking out her great grandma
Noah taking my grandmother for a stroll.

Oh! I have a video for you guys of Juliana playing in the sink (I'm starting to feel like I have ADD when it comes to blogging). Please press mute or turn the volume way down on your computers. I always cringe a little and feel like such a doofus when I hear myself on video.

Allen had to work on Valentines day this year. I feel like its a highly overrated holiday anyway. Since Allen was at work and Noah was invited to spend the weekend with his great grandparents, My mom and I packed Juliana up and headed down to see my brother and sister in law, and of course Megan. Juliana was absolutely fascinated with this real life baby doll and wanted to grab her toes and pull hair. Its kind of cute when you think about it. Noah gives Juliana such a hard time... hugging her, squeezing her, pushing her over... and Juliana is such a helpless little thing (or so we thought). But she was hard at work doing the same things to her litle cousin.

And lastly, tonight I decided that it was perfectly acceptable to wake your sleeping (or almost sleeping) child up by turning on the light and blowing bubbles. Allen and I had bought this super bubble wand at the store and I could not wait to try it out to see if Noah liked it. The picture speaks for itself. Goodnight everyone!!

2009-02-03T21:36:00.009-05:00

Happy 19 months to my first born! How fast they grow up. Seriously, these kids grow up FAST! I know most anyone starts talking about their kids growing up by saying "Seems like just yesterday, yada yada yada." Well, it doesn't exactly seem like yesterday that Noah was born and doing a whole slew of firsts, but it doesn't seem like we are just a few months away from his second birthday either. My itty bitty boy, born weeks early- with a preemie body and a not so preemie- sized head. We had to buy two outfits for him to come home in when he was finally discharged- one for the outfit itself (preemie) and another for the hat (0-3 months). They can, and they do grow overnight though (seemingly). I was completely in denial yesterday. Allen got Noah out of the bathtub in the morning and handed him to me to dress (he just does not attempt anymore after I started redressing him every time). I pulled a pair of jeans out of the closet, a pair that he wore last week, that fit him just fine then... they were about an inch too short. What?! Same thing happened with a jacket that fit him perfectly a month prior... too short. This kid eats his wheaties. But, here are a few pictures of my little bit, when he was a little bit bitty-er, still too young to eat his wheaties:

My red head, a few weeks old:

Oh, my Noah. Hated tummy time, loved to be held, hated his swing, never liked toys, always liked wires, cables, and string. Who stayed in the hospital after mommy had been discharged due to severe jaundice and came home with a bili-blanket looking like a pumpkin. Who could have won a record if there was a spit up distance contest, or longest sideburns on a baby, with an affinity for musical instruments, and even more of an affinity for his daddy. Loves to carry on long, drawn out conversations with his mommy in his toddler jibberish, expressions and all while sporting a piece of toast on his forehead. Funny guy. Oh, my Noah.

Have I mentioned how frustrating it is to not know where your stuff is? We have all of our wordly possessions, spread out in about 3 or 4 locations and we cannot find anything. This evening, Allen and I went out to our storage space and opened up a few boxes and were thrilled to pieces over our findings. Who needs presents when you can box your own stuff up, put it in a storage space for a few months and then reopen it sometime down the road? I am looking forward to some consistency. But seriously, I hate having to buy duplicates of things that I know that I have somewhere but just cannot find. Like a duplicate nursing license that I'm about to drop a chunk of change on. Hmmph. Ive got to get more organized. Organization is certainly not my forte and I will spend hours deliberating what I want to go in a drawer or how I want things arranged in the closet. I spend far too much time thinking and not enough doing. That's a whole other story.

Leaving you with a few pictures from yesterday. Noah has started hamming it up in front of the camera.

Noah wearing his Daddy's work gloves.

Bath time. He looks like one of those baby seals you see on an animals in arctic documentary. You know what I mean. The little baby seals that come up, put their faces up to and sniffs the camera.

Taking the Graham zoo to the Riverbanks zoo

2009-02-01T00:32:00.007-05:00

Allen had the day off today- yes, a day off... on a weekend. Can you believe it?! No, neither can I. Really. So we decided to wake up uncharacteristically early and seize the day by meeting some friends of ours and their kids at the zoo and making a day of it. Its actually rather neat since these friends of ours also have an 18 month old and a 6 month old (that makes 4 birthdays in July, we're booked!). This was Noah's (and Juliana's for that matter but she wasnt really all that impressed) first trip to the zoo. Noah was absolutely fascinated by all the animals, knew many of their names and knew what sounds they made (Well, mostly... things went "tweet tweet tweet" if he wasnt sure). His favorite being the reptiles and snakes (Sssssss) and fish (tweet tweet tweet... No wait, hmm).

Double strollers. A complete nuisance in stores. Great for field trips.

We figured Noah would be terrified of this guy feeding the fish during the presentation and that definitely was not the case. This little 20 something pound one year old pushed his way to the front and stood there for the whole thing.

Noah just happened to love the reptiles. Eww? Yuck Noah. The Koala bear that you had no interest in was much cuter. And no, we will never get anything that looks remotely like that.

Bad table manners... Chillin out having lunch after wrecking havoc upon mine. This little girl cant keep her hands to herself for one minute without slapping the cup of ketchup across the table, grabbing a handful of your food, flinging the tray, etc.

Noah and his little buddy Caroline checking out the wallabies

Noah and Allen feeding the "Birs! Birs! Tweet tweet tweet" *flaps arms/wings*

A mighty rough picture of me for sure...

Zonked out during the car ride home

Daddy and his two little monkeys at home

Happy Friday! Love, Noah

2009-01-31T00:55:00.001-05:00

25 random things...

2009-01-28T15:07:00.002-05:00

I got tagged a few times on facebook for this but figured Id paste it here on my blog. If you're interested in doing this- consider yourself tagged!

25 Random Things
Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 20 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

1. I will not eat canned food unless it has boiled first. I will also not eat anything semi-liquid out of the fridge unless it has boiled. All other food must be scalding hot. Unless someone else serves it.

2. I have a ketchup phobia. Stemming from Halloween when I was probably 5 years old and we were out to eat and I saw a kid with fake blood on his face which I thought was ketchup and immediatly was grossed out. I do eat ketchup, Im just VERY funny about it.

3. I have a fear of being paralyzed and unable to feel my legs. It all started with an epidural during my delivery with Juliana where I could not feel nor lift my legs and freaked out.

4. I check on my daughter every night, sometimes a few times. I have a fear of something happening to her. I never had that fear with Noah- I knew he would be okay.

5.I could seriously eat wasabi on anything and everything. I love it. My favorite is wasabi and chicken sandwiches.

6. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I would be 24 and married with 2 kids.

7. My kids are exactly 12 months apart. Meaning, I got pregnant with Juliana when Noah was only 3 months old. October is apparently my month. They almost had the same due date. I found out I was pregnant with both of them the day after Thanksgiving.

8. My kids are my greatest accomplishment. Hands down.

9. I dont go to church. I have issues with most churches and possibly organized religion in general. I do believe in God!

10. I couldnt really tell you my real hair color since Ive been dying it since middle school.

11. I have a dream of working as a registered nurse in a foreign country, perhaps with the peace corps. Not sure when or if that will ever happen with two small children.

12. I credit my friend Lucy with changing my life for the better even though I have not seen or talked to her in quite some time.

13. I love to clean the counters. A bottle of 409 use to be the greatest present I could think of when I was younger.

14. I hate taking laundry out of the dryer. I try to get Allen to do it.

15. In the past 18 months, I have lived in 3, soon to be 4 different places.

16. I quite possibly have the worst memory ever. Many times I cant remember what I did yesterday. However I have excelent short term memory. I could study for a test 5 minutes before and ace it whereas if I studied for days before, I wouldnt.

17. I get horribly mean when I feel rushed or if Im late to something.

18. Im always late. Always.Except to work. Ive never been late to work. Or school.

19. I hate skittles. I cannot stand the smell of skittles. I gag.

20. I love sleep and I love getting lots of it. I could sleep more than my kids if allowed. I however have nighttime insomnia.

21. I only partially named "Noah" after Noah in The Notebook. My husband claims otherwise.

22. Juliana is named after the group "The Juliana Theory"... which I dont listen to anymore. It was just set in stone.

23. Im the ultimate procrastinator.

24.I dream about writing a book. One day perhaps. Not sure what I would write about.

25.I stress constantly about the economy and everytime I hear about someone losing their job, My heart sinks.

Wordless Wednesday...

2009-01-28T01:30:00.003-05:00

Oh dear God help...

2009-01-26T23:47:00.005-05:00

What has happened to my sweet little princess?? Okay, I realize the first 3-4 months of Juliana's life couldn't necessarily be considered "sweet." Actually she was a tad bit of a terror. Please let me emphasize "tad" on that one. She had colic, and well, cried. A good bit. So much of a good bit that it wasn't necessarily easy for me to find anyone to keep her while I went say, grocery shopping. Or to Walgreens to pick up a thing or two. One of the first outings we took was when she was 4 weeks old and was just starting to crank it up a bit. On that particular night, I locked Juliana in the car. It was one of those "Oh %$#*" moments. Twenty minutes, three police cars, and the EMS later, she was free. That's actually a completely unrelated story. Anywho! After the first 4 months, she got much better. She was still a sensitive little thing, but the hours of crying turned into an hour, which in turn turned into several minutes, she started sleeping well, would play by herself in her exersaucer (for moms that don't have one of these things and have a small infant, highly recommended! Juliana hated everything BUT the exersaucer- swing, bouncer, etc) and cried for one of three things- food, sleep, and when she was done playing and needed some mommy time. But holy heck! Juliana has once again pulled out all the stops! The past three days she has been quite the terror. She wakes up (hours early!) screaming. Doesn't want to go back to sleep. Talks loudly then proceeds to scream, louder. Goes back to sleep for an hour. Then is up for the day. Doesn't want to play in her exersaucer. Wants mommy to hold and tote her around all day long and if I cant, she gets hysterical. Which she has gotten quite hysterical quite a few times today (HYSTERICAL!!!), screaming loudly, of the ear piercing variety because it just isn't feasible for me to walk her around all day. And God forbid you ever walk out of the room and leave her for 2 seconds to grab something in an adjoining room. Noah could scream at this age but it was never the kind that made the hair on the back of your neck stand straight up and make you grind a layer off your teeth. Juliana just has that knack. What the heck is this? Teething? Separation anxiety? Was it the regular formula we gave her the other day? Whatever it is, I do hope it resolves... quickly. Before I need a gray touch up kit or a set of dentures.

Today I really got to thinking how much moms (and dads, too!) really sacrifice. No, not trying to pat myself on the back here but to more or less give a shout out to all moms out there. I, by no means, should be the recipient of the #1 mom award. I don't wake up in the morning and take a shower and put makeup on before my kids wake up. Nor do I always greet my children overly cheerfully when I pluck them out of bed. The house is not immaculate, or always very clean for that matter for the most part. I lose my patience. And I will go to bed without having had a shower for the day, or put on any makeup, or changed out of my PJs (yes, Ive done this a few times). But seriously guys, being a parent is tough! I never imagined the sleepless nights, the worry, the stress, the mess... before having children 18 months ago. Today I had two babies, battling it out for attention, dealing with meltdowns and screaming... and when I finally got them in the bed tonight, I looked around and saw a disaster. Two highchairs covered in food, 2 outfits that needed spray-n-wash, a floor that needed to be swept and mopped, a sink full of dishes, dozens of toys scattered all over the place, an outfit caked in mud that needed to be rinsed out in the sink and prewashed, a pair of toddler shoes that were also caked in mud that needed to be cleaned, a tricycle and a 4 wheeler that needed to be put away, bath crayon that needed to be washed off the walls... ETC! *Sigh* I wouldn't trade it for the world though. *Sigh once more for effect*.

*Lacking a transition here* Noah discovered "dirt" today. Well, he gave it a name for the first time. He's all boy. And therefor, we let boys be boys:

Miracles and milk

2009-01-24T22:26:00.001-05:00

I wanted to post a picture of one of my best friends, Kayla with her son Nicholas with of course, my Juliana. Kayla and I have been great (if not best) friends since we were 9 years old and we are fortunate enough to have children around the same age. Kayla was told that she probably would never be able to conceive a child, yet found that she was pregnant a few weeks after I found out that I was pregnant with Juliana. A few months down the road in her pregnancy Kayla's baby was given the diagnosis of Trisomy 18, a disorder incompatible with life and she was told that he would likely die after birth if he was not stillborn. Nicholas was born nearly 5 months ago 150% healthy with absolutely no medical problems whatsoever and absolutely no indication of Trisomy 18. A little miracle.

Today we were all out of formula. Juliana has been on similac sensitive since I stopped pumping and was doing fairly well on it. We got the bright idea to go buy regular enfamil and see how she did. I believe the picture speaks for itself. She was not a fan. Yes I did stop to take a (very quick!!) picture before getting things cleaned up. That is what you call projectile vomit.

My little water baby, moments later:

Trying to "grab" the water. In complete amazement:

Juliana and I spent the majority of the day alone. Noah's great grandparents came and picked him up this morning to spend the weekend and see a USC basketball game tomorrow afternoon. It was such an awkward feeling without Noah around. It was so quiet that it was unreal. Noah "talks" constantly and you can always hear him making some sort of commotion or other. It just felt so odd today without him here. I even started to check on him before going upstairs only to remember that he wasn't here.

The husband is home from work bearing chocolate and most importantly, his presence. I must go.

Yawwwwwnnnnnn

2009-01-22T02:30:00.004-05:00

Why is it that every morning when my "alarm clock" goes off AKA crying baby, I wake up completely exhausted. Seriously- exhausted. I stumble out of bed, half fall down the stairs, settle the kids, and would stare at the wall for a complete hour if I could (Don't worry, I don't have that option). All I can think about is getting some serious sleep. I have no energy and I'm starting to think that I need to get my thyroid checked. I manage to have about 75% of the symptoms of one. Isn't there just always something?? But the real kicker in my case is that I put the kids to bed at 8pm, do a few things around the house and get in bed to go to sleep. And I cant. I'm tired. But I cant sleep. Yeah I just don't get it either.

Today was Noah's day. It was completely all about Noah as he made sure to make it that way. He started the day off, bright and early, after a few clementines by blowing out his diaper. All over the house. I had to think quickly on this one and ran him into the bathtub with all his clothes on and plopped him in the tub and handled it from there. A couple more incidents later, I was sticking some avocado and banana in the food processor for Juliana and Noah runs off. I'm thinking hes hiding because he doesn't like the noise. I finish up doing what I'm doing, put it in a bowl, put Juliana in the chair to feed her and call for Noah as hes still "hiding." I find him in the bathroom and he has completely FILLED UP the toilet with various er, feminine products along with a few other things including but not limited to a toothbrush (not mine thank God), an eyeliner pencil package, a toilet paper roll, and a small bath toy and has tried to flush. You guys must think I left this kid up to his own devices for quite some time but no really, give this kid a minute without your undivided attention, and he will multiply it. So tonight as I was digging stuff out the toilet (with my bare hands might I add. You would think as I'm a nurse I would have one pair of gloves around here somewhere but nope, not I) and gritting my teeth, I decided that Noah needed a little extra rest tonight and both of the kids went to bed early. I'm sure I'll pay for it tomorrow. But really, being a mommy is quite glamorous isn't it?

Snow day.

2009-01-21T00:53:00.006-05:00

We live in the south. Any amount of snow is a big deal. It was a big deal today. I woke up to see that it was indeed snowing. I was telling Allen that it reminded me of a snow globe. The snow just seemed to float around in the air and never really seemed to hit the ground- it seemed weightless. It was wonderful. Noah was quite impressed with it and even called it by name. It started to come down pretty hard and I told Allen that we needed to go to the store and get a few things just in case the weather got worse and the roads became yucky so that we wouldnt have to go anywhere. So off to the store we went to grab a few items along with some ingredients to make chili and cornbread- seemed like the appropriate meal. As we were leaving, we realized that the snow had indeed stopped (bummer #1) and we were missing the Inauguration (bummer #2). Noah did briefly get to play in the snow while it was falling but I just KNEW that it would still be snowing when we got back so I didnt snap any pictures then. He was trying to catch a snowflake. Can we have another snow day, please?

A view from the house:

At the store getting "provisions":

Juliana didnt quite get what all the hype was about:

Is that snow?!! Or did someone spill salt?

Noah, happy as a clam to be running around in wet soggy pants from crawling all over the ground. Yes, we put a hat on him. No, he wouldnt keep it on:

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

2009-01-20T02:07:00.007-05:00

So the forecast for tomorrow (today actually being that its nearly 3am) is calling for SNOW. Yessiree- we're supposed to get a whole 2 inches of snow (2-6 inches in Newberry where Allen works) and we don't know what to do with that kind of "extreme" weather. All the schools in this area are closing. Well, many were already scheduled to be closed due to the Inauguration. I should probably run spell check before I publish this post. So is anyone totally excited about the Inauguration? Anyone completely dreading it? Well, in a matter of hours it will be taking place. And as for me and my family, we will be watching it snuggled up on the couch with a big ol' blanket in jammies. Just the way I like it. But yes, a snow flurry or two would be nice.

The past few days have been so busy that I have forgotten to mention that I have a 6 month old now. Juliana is half a year old, has started eating baby food (loves squash) along with full 8 or 9 oz bottles, sits up very well (has actually been sitting on her own for some time now) and is just now starting to get around on the floor. Yes we SORT OF have a crawler. She can very easily move herself around in a circle and can go backwards and forwards a little. She still hasn't learned that she needs to tuck her knees under to really get around but shes working on it. Her favorite pastime is being held by mommy and swinging at the park. Allen and I took both of the kids to the park today while it was a steamy 50 degrees outside and we put Juliana in the swing for the very first time and she laughed and smiled the entire time. Noah had a blast too but hes not a big fan of the swings. He had the most fun chasing after every one's dog. Which scared the crap out of me as he ran up to what looked like a rottweiler mix. I happen to be a tad bit prejudiced against some dogs (initially- I truly love all dogs but I am more weary of some than others) as I was bitten in the face as a little girl and had visions of that in my head today. Oh Noah... scared of what he shouldn't be scared of and not scared of things he probably should. That's my boy!

OH! Birthday picture of Juliana-

At the park- taken with my iphone today. Hence- the poor quality:

So this weekend I got another chance to see Allen play with the band- Hannah Miller and the Misadventures at Wild Wings. Ive been trying to make it out to all his local shows lately. I missed a lot while being pregnant with both of the kids back to back and avoided smoky bars and late nights. Some friends (L&T) were able to make it out for the show and other friends were greatly missed. I always enjoy seeing Allen play.

Sunday was my sis in law's baby shower! Yes in less than 3 weeks we will have a little niece! And she got so many wonderful things and will get so many more wonderful things... yes as I'm going back to work (don't ask me why it has taken this long - it has been very frustrating lately) and will be able to splurge a little! I actually cant wait to have a little bit of spending money. I was on the Old Navy website today and found a few things I wanted for Noah.

Opening one of her first sets of gifts at the party before everyone arrived:

Krystal and Juliana:

The table. Did I mention that I had the absolute BEST cream puffs and would have stayed in the corner the entire time eating the entire dish if I could only pretend I didn't know any better?:

And today! Interviewing childcare providers before going back to work. Good times. Only not. I would love to expound upon our adventures today but I don't want to be insulting to anyone that may come across this blog in the future. It was interesting. Hmmph!

Allen has ventured off to sleep, and I think I'll quickly sneak downstairs and grab a cake square (yes there were some leftovers!), and go to sleep myself. Happy Inauguration today! Happy snow day to us in SC!

Stranger anxiety

2009-01-15T00:01:00.003-05:00

Well well, seems like Miss Juliana has finally managed to develop a whopping dose of stranger anxiety. We found this out today as we dropped her off at a family friend's house in our hometown so that we could get a bit more done with our house in terms of packing it up and shipping it out without her assistance. She started screaming... and I mean, ear splitting/piercing, deafening screaming. She most certaintly meant business and very actively protested being left with someone that isnt quite a stranger, but isnt quite familiar as mommy or daddy either. Shes actually spent a few nights with this family friend but hasnt been there in quite a few weeks (about 2 months). Oh dear... this will make it quite difficult to take both of them out somewhere (not that it isnt already), as Noah is actually quite shy too. I was very much shy at this age as well so Im hoping they grow out of it (and quick!!!). Oh the joys... ;-)

We did manage to get a few things done and throw in a visit with Allen's grandparents but still have quite a few things to do before we can officially put the house on the market. Or my mom rather, since its hers... I'll be sad though. I love that house. We actually havent lived in it since Noah was 3 months old and its sat empty since. Its amazing to think that we have lived in 3, soon to be 4, different places since Noah was born. I feel like a vagabond. How I would love to find a house (soon!!) and actually stay there for a while. All of our worldly items are spread out in so many different places. Its like Christmas finding a box and opening it up to find some long lost treasures (or sippy cups for Noah, or a beloved tshirt, or some lost flip flops). One day soon hopefully.

I'll leave you folks with some pictures for now!

Noah and Juliana enjoying each other's company in the sink. There is no better use for a double sink:

Juliana playing with my super good friend's son. This friend and I have been great friends since we were both in the 5th grade and I consider her one of my best. Im excited that we have children close to the same age:

"Here you go little lady"

Oh the joys...

2009-01-14T00:54:00.002-05:00

So tonight Im sitting here listening to Allen play a few things that he recorded tonight at the Opera House, of course, all the while working the sound booth... or whatever its called in sound engineer lingo. Im thinking that it sounds pretty nice and Im also thinking that it would be pretty awesome to be able to see all those shows and meet so many famous people.

I havent updated in a few days. Mainly because of lack of anything to write. Oh, Im sure I could write but would anything that I write be interesting? Is anything that I write considered interesting anyway? Oh sure, I could go on and on about poopy diapers, first words, and teething but Im not quite sure that you guys would be a big fan. Well of course, unless you are interested in poopy diapers, first words, and teething. In that case, you've come to the right place! No seriously, if you guys werent somewhat interesting in what is going on, you wouldnt be here. Unless you happened on this blog by chance, and actually made it this far into my post.

I knew from the start that Juliana was just like me in the fact that she likes her sleep! She slept through the night starting at around 7-8 weeks and through the night was 12 hours, minimum. She started sleeping through the night by other people's standards much earlier. Normally she sleeps between 12 and 14 hours at night but recently she's been protesting sleep. She gets tired around 7pm and I put her to bed, no complaints. An hour later, shes up. Another hour after that, shes up again. Then she wakes up one more time. Then wakes up bright and early, a few hours before she normally wakes up. What in the world is this? Teething?? I could only hope that shes getting some teeth and this is just a temporary thing, because I love sleep and love getting lots of it. Of course, Im flexible in that I can function pretty well with very little sleep too. I just like it, a lot. I wonder if I have somehow contributed to her increasing wakefulness? Juliana is so snuggly that I often find myself (Allen too!) sneaking in a few hours after shes fast asleep, scooping her up and hugging on her a little, or putting her in the bed with us for a short period of time to cuddle with every ounce of her sweetness. I resisted the urge tonight... after she had already waken up twice. Or three times. I dont remember actually. I just love how amazingly sweet she is when she wakes up... she doesnt care that you woke her up (accidentally) but shes so happy to see you! Noah was very much different as a baby and when you woke him up, he would holler until you fixed him a bottle and put him back where he belonged... in bed of course. Of course now he's much better with that but I cant really say that he's 100% happy to see me if I accidentally wake him out of his slumber. Of course, Noah was a lot easier in other ways. Someone recently asked me which of my children is the easiest and to be honest, I couldnt tell you. Juliana was probably the hardest when she was younger, due to colic which she has grown out of for the most part. She will just sit there and let you hold her all day long and make very few peeps. Noah didnt require being held as much, was perfectly content to sit in his carseat if we ever went anywhere. He was a breeze to feed and liked his veggies. Juliana doesnt care for baby food...

Speaking of baby food, we have started Juliana on the real deal... carrots, and peas, and green beans oh my! Of course pureed and put in convenient little containers (Thanks Gerber). She does not care for any of the above mentioned food items. She just makes a face and for the most part, spits it out. She does like carrots more and will take a few bites. I guess we will be waiting a while before starting fruits until she gets the veggies down pat. We did the same with Noah and now he loves his veggies! Of course, he loves fruit way more but Im happy either way.

And since we're on the topic of food (Still) Allen and I are starting to notice that Noah must be hitting a major growth spurt (or something!!). Hes absolutely insatiable but hasnt gained an ounce (yet). I would almost be embarassed to post what Ive been feeding this kid since many of you would think it was overfeeding but its all healthy food and once again, he hasnt gained a thing. He can eat an entire can of green beans or corn in a sitting, as a side dish to a full meal. He can eat 2 sandwiches at lunch (which shocked me silly)... He just wants to eat and eat. He is about due for a growth spurt since its been many months since he's had one. Hes eating us out of house and home... I cant imagine him as a teenager! Along with his possible upcoming growth spurt, he has reached a language spurt of sorts. He quite often adds new words to his vocabulary and imitates sounds. Almost daily he adds a word or two, or atleast tries to imitate a sound. Im very much looking forward to him being able to communicate a bit more. Still very thankful that he hasnt learned to use the word "no" yet. I hear that quickly becomes a favorite word. He will shake his finger at you and say "uh uh uh!!!" if you do something he doesnt agree with.

In other news, the time has come... for me to go back to work. I know Ive posted about it before but we were very passively preparing for that time. But Allen and I came to the conclusion that if we would like to buy groceries or pay a bill next month, that its time for me to get out there in the work force. *Heart sinks* We had called around about daycares a few months ago and found that there were no openings until January for hardly any of them... well we found one but at $300 or better a week for both of them, we think we need an alternative. I put an ad up on an online site (like I had done months ago) requesting childcare for two, with a resume and a background check. Ive gotten about 6 responses so far and many of them sound wonderful... I guess I will be making some calls tomorrow to find out about these people. There is just so much fear involved in placing your children in the care of a stranger. I did have a great friend offer to keep them for a seriously reduced rate but she has kids of her own and there would be a problem with picking up her oldest from school. Not sure how we could work around that. Im just not ready...

Well, Allen is no longer listening to the music from the show tonight and has ventured off to bed so I guess I will join him. Goodnight all!

5 Days and Counting...

2009-01-08T01:23:00.002-05:00

Since we started walking the lake Murray dam that is! Not an amazing feat or anything but doing a few miles every day at a super fast, wear you out kinda pace has really been great for us. We've been able to do it every day since Saturday even if we arent able to get out there until 10pm... which has been the case for the past two nights. Which is almost preferred since its pretty crowded during the day... but a tad but spooky at night being that the place is practically empty besides a lone jogger or two at night. Of course thats why we choose to bring our attack dog Sunny (Puhhhlease!). Who wouldnt attack a fly but packs a pretty mean bark, ya know... when she wants. But anyhow, the wind was blowing something fierce tonight out there which we knew it would anyway since there was about 15,000 reports of power outages in the Columbia area today because of it. We were one of the 15,000 of course.

Guess who got her first curls! It just happens to be a little pint sized itty bit named Juliana. Shes gotten her first curlicues in the past couple of days. 3 curls to be exact. Not sure if her hair was just kicking up or not but she definitely has little half ringlets. Im thinking that between Allen and me, she didnt have a chance for straight hair anyway.

Ive got plenty more to talk about but I guess I'm going to head off to sleep and perhaps finish up tomorrow. Because man oh man am I tired!

Wonderful news!

2009-01-04T22:17:00.004-05:00

So this may not be wonderful to you guys (or it may be if you've been trying to get in touch with me lately) but both Allen and I found both of our phones today. What kind of luck is that! My phone has been missing for over a month now and Allen's has been missing for a couple of weeks. The odd thing is, the phones were right where we thought they would be... even though we looked and looked in those places! We just didnt search hard enough. I also found a $10 bill. Oh the luck (not even sure I believe in luck). Or Someone is looking out for me. Whatever it was, I am beyond giddy with my finding (and Allen is super stoked too!). Its just a phone, sure! But its also communication with the "outside world" and we were fixing to dish out a bit of our savings for new phones (The idea almost killed me). Most importantly, it had all the pictures of Juliana on there that I took when she was first born up until she was a few days old. When packing to go to the hospital, I accidentally packed the camera in the wrong bag which incidentally went to NC with Noah and his grandparents that very first week so I had to take pictures with my phone. I thought about that last night and even though Ive uploaded many of the pictures to myspace and facebook and such, there are many more pictures that were taken that are precious to me and can only be found on that phone! Thanking God (and currently uploading pictures to an item that is less likely to be lost in the couch).

Today makes day #2 of walking the Lake Murray Dam. Its about 4 miles, there and back. Pregnancy weight just doesnt melt away like I totally think it should (wouldnt that be nice) and Allen and I both decided that we needed to do something for ourselves! And besides, Noah loves to see the "bos" (boats). Juliana did fairly well riding in the stroller but about halfway back, she decided that she had had enough and wanted to be carried. Ive realized that the extra 16 pounds makes the job pretty tough! We hope that we can keep this up as it may not always be what we want to do, but its what we need to do. Also, a friend of mine is getting married and has asked me to be in the wedding and I have lots of work to do! Thats a great incentive though.

And did I mention...... (Wait for it, waaiiiiit for it!)

Noah is 18 months old! Yes thats right kids, hes a year and a half. What a big boy he has become!! I actually made a post a few days to announce this news but I wasnt able to get any good pictures of him that day and felt that my post would not be complete without atleast a (very) recent picture or two. He is growing up right before our eyes. He understands most anything that you tell him (whether or not he wants to practice selective hearing at the time or not) and we're still waiting on the talking thing but we'll wait... anxiously... He does have quite a list of words that he may or may not choose to use including his two most recent words "bos" (boats) and poo poo... yes, Im so very proud haha. But he is an amazing little boy that never fails to amaze me almost daily. Heres are some pictures of my stinky little boy:

Noah and his daddy. Never am I able to tame all those curls:

Noah and one of his many faces:

Looking at the "bos" with Allen:

These pictures always remind me of ketchup and mustard. Noah and his friend Caroline playing at funzone in his most favorite thing, the firetruck:

I'll end with those. Hope everyone is having a good night. Allen has just come upstairs and we have a movie to finish! Oh, did I mention that I found my phone?

Happy New Year!!! 2009!

2008-12-31T22:24:00.005-05:00

Wishing you all a wonderful new year. I am most certainly looking forward to this year- a year of many changes for sure! Not that the past few years havent been full of changes... they have. I am looking forward to things calming down a little, and getting into a routine with two little ones and a new job and then hopefully a new house. Oh the excitement!! I spent the evening, ringing in the new year in bed watching movies and honestly, I could think of no other place Id rather be. Well, except maybe in Times Square. I could see myself there and hope to get there again someday.

We have been oh so busy this Christmas season! Allen had quite a few days off and a good many of those days were spent shopping (and more shopping) and then finally reaping the rewards of such hard work by spending time with our families! Okay, I really enjoyed the shopping part as well. We really had a wonderful Christmas and both of the kids got such great stuff. We are so very fortunate and blessed. We have such a wonderful family, extended family included and we always manage to stay afloat. Thats all I could really ever want or ask for. We are very thankful!

Happy New Year!

2008-12-22T00:47:00.003-05:00

Uh Ohs!

2008-12-21T02:16:00.005-05:00

Noah would like to share with you all what he managed to do tonight stemming from a very severe case of the "I gotta run everywhere I gos"

:

Now that, my friends, is a very nice and sizeable (for a toddler) gash to his eyelid. I was upstairs and I hear BOOM! and then hear Allen shouting out "OH MY GOD!!!" Now, very few things can get a reaction out of Allen like that... So I run down to see what could possibly be the problem and about that time Noah starts screaming hysterically and his entire eye is covered in blood. We had to hold him down and apply pressure to stop the bleeding which proceeded to make him more upset. It didnt turn out half as bad as I thought it would but still pretty darn bad for my ~~tiny baby~~ little boy. Lately he insists that running is a much more effective mode of transportation and although he has had many crashes, many bumps, knots, and bruises, not to mention bloody noses- tonight we had a pretty bad scare. I have a feeling that this is the first of very (VERY!) many scars for our very (VERY!) active 17 month old. Favorite pastime: jumping off the couch or anything up high. He is ALL boy.

FOUR days left until Christmas, just in case anyone needing reminding!!! Allen and I still have lots of Christmas shopping left to do but he had to work today and when he got home we decided to have a semi-lazy day (Until Noah put an end to that). We were also planning to get Noah and Juliana's pictures taken on Tuesday (after putting it off for several weeks because
of them being sick) but somehow I think our plans have been changed on that one as well. I wonder how well they can edit out a black eye and his little gash . Not too well, huh? I would think they could probably do something about the cut but his eye has continued to swell a bit since taking those pictures and its turning a lovely shade of purple/black. My poor baby!! I do take these types of things with a grain of salt because whether you want them to or not, they tend to happen. It was just an unfortunate event.

Did I mention that my husband has 11 days off starting tomorrow? Did I mention that I am ridiculously happy about that (Although a little nervous about the lack of income). Allen and I have been talking lately about what our plans are for the future and what we are going to do about working, buying a house, daycare for the kids, etc... We've come up with something but I guess I'll share on that later.

Did I also mention that I am half blind? We called for an appointment with the eye doctor to have my eyes examined because the only contacts that I had left were in my eyes and they wouldnt give me anymore since it had been so long since I was last seen. Well I have a very bad habit of leaving my contacts in entirely too long (mostly because Im completely blind without them... my vision is 20/2400... no, thats not a joke) and my contact in my left eye was just killing me... so I took it out and put it in a small container which Noah later on found and emptied out all over the floor and well, I have no more contact for my left eye. Seriously, I am blind and having difficulty adjusting to not being able to see anything with one eye. Oh yeah, and about the appointment- no openings until the end of January. No insurance to pay for an appointment or contacts until I start my new job either. What to do, what to do... I feel like we've been faced with way too many "what to dos" lately.

My grammar can be terrible Im afraid, so as you're reading, please disregard my forgetfulness when it comes to apostraphies and commas, subject/verb agreement, transitions between paragraphs, etc.... I need a refresher course.

And lastly, a few more pictures of the family from yesterday and today for family members (and interested friends):

Noah and his daddy, my handsome men!

Last night I was standing in the bathroom putting my makeup on before going out to Olive Garden for a friend's birthday and Noah was standing there observing. I finish up and quickly get dressed and find that Noah has decided to give the makeup a try. Really, its not quite your color Noah.

Noah and Juliana playing together. They make a pretty cute team. And they absolutely love each other.

Goodnight/Goodmorning everyone!!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the Grahams!

2008-12-20T15:16:00.001-05:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Happy Birthday to...

2008-12-16T22:23:00.003-05:00

Happy 5 Months to Juliana ♥!

My itty bitty newborn baby girl is no longer itty bitty nor brand spanking new anymore- Juliana is 5 whole months old today! She now sits up for short periods of time, rolls over, laugh a lot, can grab for things that she wants (including handfuls of Mama's hair), holds her own bottle (sometimes), and sleeps 12-14 hours at night. She loves her sleep like her mama! I'll post a few pictures that I took of her and Noah today to celebrate yet another wonderful month that shes been in our lives.

I love my kids!!

Kayleigh Anne Freeman

2008-12-16T19:01:00.004-05:00

I dont know if anyone has ventured over to the right hand side of my blog where you can find the "My Blog List" section. If you havent, you should. I mean, Ive got some pretty cool blogs on there- my husband's blog is there, along with the blog of one amazing photograper, and a story of one preemie miracle that is now home safe and sound after being born weighing 1 lb 12 oz (wow!!). But what I wanted to showcase tonight is the blog of a baby girl, born weighing only 1 pound that is several months old, has been through some major stuff, and is now fighting for her life in the NICU. Please check out her page, buy a bracelet if you are able and would like to help her family, and say a prayer tonight.

Busy, Busy, Busy...

2008-12-16T00:06:00.014-05:00

Its been quite a few days since I last posted. Im going to have to throw up the "busy card" on that one. Atleast Saturday was a VERY busy day.

On Saturday we headed to the chucktown area and I got to see my neice for the first time- yes, Im an auntie! We went to Small Wonders Imaging, this amazingly fantastically awesome place where you can go and sort of meet your loved ones, ya know, before meeting them. My brother and sisinlaw are now 32 weeks preggo (I still feel a little weird refering to a man as "pregnant" but I hear its the new thing to do... to say "WE' are pregnant) with their first child and here she is:

A precious, completely healthy little girl. Who do you think she looks like? Isnt new technology amazing?? I am so glad that something like that was out there when I was preggo with my two kids as well (you know, all those many years ago and everything? ;-) )

Noah at 32 weeks:

And Juliana- 31/32 weeks:

Aw Aw Aw.

And then after getting a nail in the tire of the car and waiting 2 hours or more at Firestone to get a brand new tire because of the placement of the nail (With two kids, one of them VERY unhappy) we finally headed back home. On Saturday night, A friend and I went to go see Hannah Miller and the Misadventures play at the 5 points pub. My hubby is one of the misadventures. Its always so much fun seeing Allen play his bass in a show, not to mention the music is super great. Unfortunatly, because Allen had to work the majority of the day before going to play his show, we missed his family Christmas party in NC. That was a big bummer for all of us, especially since Juliana hasnt had a chance to meet some of the family members on his side yet.

Does anyone watch Jon and Kate plus 8? Once again here, I'll never know since I still dont have a comment section. It's one of the very few tv shows that I actually watch but its getting quite annoying lately... I am very disappointed in the show...well, Jon and Kate really. Its not about the family anymore. Its becoming a documentary of expensive trips that they are taking, paid in full with several luxuries by companies to advertise for them... and the children have become a product. This is not reality, its a lie. Im actually watching it right now. Yeah yeah, I still watch despite all that. The kids remain absolutely adorable.

And on another note- I am absolutely amazed how fast Noah is growing up. He seriously surprises me every day. He has gotten super good with his sign language- he now fluently signs "eat", "drink", "no more", "down" and "more" along with a few other things. This afternoon I felt a little hand tugging at my pantsleg and a little voice saying "Mama, Mama, Mommy, Mama, Mommy"... "what Noah?"... He then signed to eat and then ran to his highchair. Im loving this communication! He also managed to let me know that his ear was hurting him tonight. Or I think thats what he was trying to tell me.

In closing, I'll post a few more pictures of the kids that were taken within the past couple of days.

Juliana found her feet. She now wakes up in the morning and talks to her feet, along with having various conversations throughout the day with them:

She also found the remote:

Noah undecorating the tree that I was busy decorating:

Juliana and her bubbles:

Kisses for Juliana

And cuddles with Noah:

And Noah doing what he loves to do here lately. Getting dressed. Putting his shoes on, pulling his pants up, pulling them down...

Goodnight everyone!

And you know you're a parent when...

2008-12-12T02:51:00.005-05:00

Allen had the day off today (and tomorrow too- How did I get so lucky? I most certainly dont know what to do with myself!) and it couldnt have come at a better time. I flat out needed a break (others mamas can understand that right?). Allen took the kids this morning, fed them breakfast, washed them both and got them dressed (Juliana was dressed back in PJs but hey, Im loving that attempt) while I stayed in bed and snoozed and took a ~~little~~ big bit of time to myself. Theres only so many noses that you can wipe, medications that you can administer, diapers that you can change, baths that you can give, tantrums that you can deal with, spitups that you can clean up, kitchens,living rooms,couches that you can sweep up (after a toddler has dumped out the entire box of cereal and bag of goldfish), toilets that you can fetch toys out of, and non machine washable rugs that you can rinse and scrub up (after same said toddler has dumped out the entire bottle of shampoo on) before you start feeling a bit nutty. Maybe not nutty, but a little worn out. A lotta worn out. So after Allen took the kids this morning and later on this evening, I felt he deserved (and well, needed) a haircut and we headed off to the mall. I wish I had a good before picture of him (I couldnt find my camera while we were waiting to get his hair cut- of course I later find that it was securely in my pocket... not sure all the nuttyness had quite left me just yet) but we concluded that he was either starting to look like Doc off of Back to the future, Ronald McDonald, or Willy Wonka. Not him personally, but the hair. Of course he was trying his hardest to fix his hair accordingly by pulling it up and out so it was well, sticking up and out on his head. The hair stylist truly had her work cut out for her... wonder if he tipped her... hmmm.... But heres an after picture, with me saying "Now Allen, just look natural for this one"

"No really Allen, look natural...."

"Allen! Just give me one good picture!"

"Okay, forget it!"

But really, it does look a lot better and I think Allen liked it. While Allen was getting his new doo, Juliana decided to get a little fussy because it was getting to be her mealtime, not to mention it was past her bedtime, so I told Allen that I was going to take her out to the car and feed her and see if she would settle down. So he hands me the keys and I stick them in my jacket pocket and walk out to the car, and pull out the keyring as Im approaching the car and then I notice...

I had the wrong set of keys! Okay I didnt get quite that close, but close enough before I realized that I was about to unlock the door with Juliana's teething ring that I had stuck in my pocket in case she needed entertaining...although there was no need- she decided to be the entertainer for the masses this evening with her loud wails, loud talking, spit bubbles, and well, just plain out spitting). And if anyone is wondering what to get her for Christmas, a plastic take out bag (with lots and lots of supervision) will do:

And if you're wondering where Noah was this evening- he was home safe, tucked in his crib. He's still feeling a little under the weather so after a few stories, a little bit of The King and I, and a sippy cup of milk he was ready for bed. My poor baby... but I must say, I am loving all these hugs and kisses Ive been getting from him these days. He can really be such a sweet boy.

And I will leave this blog at that, seeing that it is nearing 5:00am... yes, AM not PM... and unlike myself, my kiddos are morning people. Goodnight/Goodmorning all!

Ho Hum

2008-12-10T00:40:00.006-05:00

I can only describe my day today as 'ho hum." But tomorrow is a new day, a new beginning. And for that I am very thankful and I really should wake up in the morning and say "Thank you" because its new and I can start over. Each day that we are given is truly a gift. I choose not to carry over my frustrations and shortcomings from today to tomorrow. I hope to wake up tomorrow, grumble a little (Because well, Im just plain out not a morning person) and be a better mom tomorrow, a better person, and have a better day. After all, my time as a stay at home mom is coming to an end very soon. I will also hope for some much better feeling kiddies too. Its just oh so stressful when they are still sick day after day. It feels like groundhog day, every day around here. Most of the time I have to think hard on whether its a weekday or a weekend, and what day of the week it is, and I will have a super hard time telling you what the date is. I think the kids could probably use some fresh air (I know I could!) so I think Im going to bundle them up and take them outside tomorrow. It would do them some good. It would do me some good. I felt like a free woman tonight when Allen finally got home and I took the keys and drove to sonic, turned up the radio, and got myself a hotdog and a cherry limeade. Its the simple things, really.

Allen has the day off today but he ended up having to spend the first half of the day in Orangeburg and the second half at band practice... well, with a good piece of the morning here but I just dont do mornings. I spent the morning with my head covered up with a pillow trying to get just a little more sleep. Its nice to have him home and was really hoping to keep him all day but well, you cant always get what you want. They're practicing for an upcoming show at 5 points pub and I do believe I will be making that one. I need to go shopping though since my sweat pants and maternity shirts, which once served me well during my pregnancy, arent really that fabulous unless u got a little bebe under those clothes. On another note- I found some bows for Juliana. Well, I had contacted a fellow cafemom member (wonderful site for moms) a while back about having some bows made for Juliana and shes sending some for FREE so I'll remain giddy with glee until then. Yipee. And of course, I'll take pictures.

Okay, sorry my life isnt fabulous and interesting but Im happy about it because its mine. It doesnt make for a good blog but it gives me something to do in the evenings when the kids are tucked in their beds with their loveys and their nite nite music, drooling away and smacking in their sleep. I have so many pictures of Noah sleeping. A few of Juliana but the ones I have of Noah are the ones where you sneak into their room way late after they have gone to bed and snap a few. If I did that with Juliana she would wake up. Shes such a light sleeper.

Oh and yes, has anyone seen the Hallmark commercial with the little toddler, perhaps around Noah's age or a little older and the mom is trying to get him to say "Merry Christmas" into the recordable card? I'll never know because I dont have a spot for comments yet but that reminds me so much of Noah. I think I may go buy a few of those cards this year and record Noah's mumbo jumbo. Im really going to miss that in a year when he doesnt have his own little jibberish anymore. His new favorite word is "shoe"... 'Shhheeeeeew. Sheeeeeeeeeeew" as he carries around shoes and socks. His new favorite thing (for the past few days- perhaps stemming from boredum from not getting out the house) is dressing himself. Well, kind of. Today he helped put on his shirt and helped pull his pants up. Then when I wasnt looking he took them off. I told him to put them back on so he sat there on the floor and tried his darndest to put those pants back on. He finally got both feet in, stood up, and fell over. He also found one of Allen's socks in the laundry pile so he sat down on the floor and tried and tried and tried to put it on. He finally brought it to me for assistance so I put a pair of Allen's socks on him that came clear past his knees and he was a happy camper for the moment. I missed getting a picture of that. I think my obsessive compulsive picture taking stems from not having very many pictures of myself from my childhood and also because they grow up so darn fast! I didnt take near enough pictures (in my opinion) of Noah in the beginning because I didnt have my camera until he was a little older (I had another better one thanks to Clay but couldnt figure out how to use it). So I take too many pictures now, who cares, better than taking too few.

Well I'll close for now. The hubs is upstairs snoring away and I too shall join him. Remember- my big happy snoring family. Goodnight.

Update:

Decided to check on the kids before going to sleep: Noah was sound asleep, pacifier hanging out of his mouth, shirt hiked up, blanket kicked off, snoring... Pulled his shirt down, put the blanket back on him, figured he'd correct his pacifier if he wanted to and left.

Checked on Juliana and this is what I found:

Now I can pretty much guess how she peed out of her diaper but her arm was most definitely in that sleeve with her shirt pulled down when I left her. I am still trying to figure this one out. I was going to have to wake her up anyway so I snapped the picture (surprisingly, she didnt wake up).

2008-12-09T00:44:00.002-05:00

Kids seem to be feeling a little better today. I went in Noah's room a few minutes ago to check on him and for once in the past couple of days, he was sleeping soundly. I set a sippy cup of water down beside him in case he gets thirsty in the middle of the night and left. Juliana also fell right to sleep tonight, an hour early and is snoring a few feet away. My baby girl snores! So does Noah. We're just one big happy snoring family. My update for the night is short. No pictures either though I did take a few. Im off to search ebay for hair bows and headbands for Juliana... Allen has tomorrow off, first day he will be home for the entire day in a bit so Im happy about that. Goodnight all!

Case of cabin fever

2008-12-07T22:23:00.005-05:00

So as you all may know (all two of you that read this), the kids have been sick for quite a few days now. N began getting sick on Thanksgiving day. We figured it was his teeth since he was getting 5 teeth at once including 2 eye teeth. On Thanksgiving, we figured his reluctance to eat was because his cousin who had already finished eating was down playing- well what kid wants to eat when they have the chance to play. On Friday, he flat out refused to eat at all and gagged and actually threw up at the table when I pleaded with him to eat. We thought it was my mom's cooking (haha!- jk mom, I swear). So we stopped in at walgreens on the way home from my brother and sister in law's house in Goose Creek (who we ate Thanksgiving with on Friday) to pick up some pediasure. We held him down and sure enough, he was getting tons of new teeth. The next day we went to the Clemson/Carolina game at Jordee's (Maybe next time Gamecocks!) and Jordee gave us some baby food, which N ate. So I went to walgreen's after we left and stocked up on baby food... which he ate for the next couple of days. Thursday, he got much worse and here we are today... still very sick and not eating, at all. And thats only N. J still has her bad cough and a touch of a fever, but overall, shes the better one. Dont know what to do with these sick kids... So we've been confined to the house for the past week. Except for a brief excursion to walmart to get more baby food. Puh puh puh.

I seriously dont know what to do when I go back to work... What do people do when their kids get sick and cant go to daycare for a while?! In a way, it was nice having my husband at home to take care of N when we lived in Summerville, but it was also very hard, financially. Thinking hard about the future... should I go back to work and have Hubby McHubberson stay home with the kids, should we try and make it work with 2 incomes? We're more than ready to buy a house. We're so excited about the idea. The thought of going back to work as a nurse makes my heart sink though. Its a love/hate relationship there. Its not everything that I thought that it would be. You come in for work for the day, the night shift hands you everything that they couldnt finish over night, that HAS to get finished before doctors make rounds, a nurse (or two) calls out and you're assuming a greater patient load which is unsafe, the patients complain when they have to wait 15 minutes for pain medication (when 4 other patients call for it at the same time), you work so hard you dont get a chance to sit down all day long and you dont get a lunch break, you're practically running up and down the halls giving pain medications, dressing changes, doing blood transfusions on 3 patients at once (monitoring them every 15 minutes at first), one has a tranfusion reaction, checking orders, a good bit of the patients are MRSA positive so you have to gown and glove up before going in the room, getting chewed out by some doctor or the other for another nurses mistake, getting brand spanking new patients from Recovery who have come up with their O2 sats in the 70s and low 80s before, some hollering out in pain, not getting home until 9pm... oh dear Jesus. And thats how I feel about being a nurse, in a nutshell. In SC, there are no mandated laws for nurse:patient ratios- you take what you get. Ho Hum. Ah, sorry about the rant there. But even though I loved (Absolutely loved!!) my friends and coworkers, not to mention I had the greatest boss, at the hospital I was working at before having J, I have a bad taste in my mouth about going back. And it makes me so sad to think of leaving my kids, especially J, with someone else. I just have bad visions of someone I dont know taking care of her because shes still a little ~~colicky~~ sensitive. I think N would probably benefit from going to daycare, learning new songs and doing little kiddie projects while interacting with other kids his age. He has a few little friends and he just loves them, always trying to give them hugs (and pull/push them down in the process- rough boy). They're all girls, go figure ;-)

So yes, this post ended up being a little longer than I had originally planned. In fact, I was just getting on to briefly say that the kids were still sick. But the hubs is downstairs watching a CSI marathon of some sort and Im left up to my own devices. I dont like CSI. Looks like we're going to miss our playdate tomorrow with my "SC Midlands Mom's" group and the kids at funzone. *Pokes lip out* Well to end, I'll add a few pictures that I took today. Yes, I take pictures everyday...almost. Id love a better camera, and some lessons on how to use it. Im still trying to figure out what ISO means.

My little monkey, sitting up on her very own at 4 months:

My camera was too slow to actually capture the sweetness of this moment. N came over and laid his head on J's tummy and kissed her. Sweet babies:

Little man and daddy reading a book together:

Lastly, all smiles for the camera:

See! They dont look sick!

Life is like a gift, they say; Wrapped up for you everyday.

2008-12-06T00:20:00.005-05:00

Today was quite a day. The husband woke up again in TN and J woke up feeling better (or atleast looking a lot better). She kept about half of her bottles down today and besides an occasional cough, she seemed like her usual self. Overall, she was quite content, sitting up on her very own in my lap. N seemed just fine as well. They both took super duper long naps (unfortunatly, not at the same time). And then N wakes up with a temperature of 103.5. Out of the blue. He woke up screaming and as I picked him up I noticed that he was absolutely burning up. I stripped him down and put him in a tube of lukewarm water with all kinds of fun and interesting things to play with(to try and keep his mind off of the water temperature). It came down a great deal. It was 99.1 when I put him to bed tonight and he seemed just fine. I went in his room about 15 minutes ago to check on him and noticed that he was burning up again. Temperature was 103.3. I gave him something to drink which he absolutely snatched from me, (much to our amusement) and gave him a dose of tylenol. Oh... sick kids. What to do with them. I suppose that we'll be making a trip to whatever is open and available on a Saturday. Urgent care, here we come. Here is to another morning, afternoon, evening of Dr. W saying that he has no idea what it is but he will treat us for whatever I think it is. He has seriously said that to me the past couple of times Ive been there either for myself or one of my kids. Seems they always get sick outside of normal office hours. I got to see my guy for about 10 minutes this afternoon after he got back from TN with the band before he had to turn right back around and go to work. Hmmph on that one. Well, to end my post, I'll add a couple pictures from today.

J, happy as can be:
Little man loves to hold Itty bit's hand. Here she is wearing his outfit from about the same time last year.. and some really tall socks. Which also happened to be his. The hairbow, however, is hers:

And my sick little boy, in his cool bath with tons of distractive items:

The First blog... hopefully not the last.

2008-12-05T01:06:00.001-05:00

Okay so, I thought I would give this blog thing another try. I had a blog quite a few years back and got into it.. for a whole 2 months or so and then quit. I tried to google it the other day but apparently it no longer exists. And darn it for that. I thought it would be pretty cool to go back and look to see what I had to say once upon a time. But yes, trying once again! Im not entirely sure what the whole purpose of this blog is but I did think that it would be a great idea to let family members and friends that arent with us on a daily basis get a peek into what is going on, as well as have a place to share pictures (Yeah I know, its not like I dont already do that on myspace anyway) and have something to run my mouth to. Besides, Im now a member of the savvy blogging crowd (Pssshhh). So yes, an update.

We are getting ready for Christmas this year- Little man's second Christmas and Itty bit's first. This is entirely too exciting and wish we had a home of our own to decorate and start new traditions in. I'll look forward to that. We moved to Lexington after Itty bit was born to start over again (frankly, we were a little tired of Summerville and we werent even there that long. We miss it now... a little. very little. The hubs misses it more but doesnt want to go back.) Right now I'm staying home with the kids, which I know will not last as there are bills to be paid and a house to be bought but I am absolutely loving it for now! I love waking up every day and seeing my family. I worked until I was "38ish" weeks pregnant with J before being put out of work by my OB for a week and honestly, 3-4 (even 5 in the beginning) days out of the week, 13-14 hours a day, I was not there to see my son wake up in the morning and a lot of the time I wasnt there to put him to bed at night. My husband took care of all of this because he was a SAHD... Yes, a stay at home dad (Its surprising how many there are now... and this group continues to grow. I think its pretty cool). So I'd peek in on him when I got home (or if he was awake, I'd give him a bottle and put him to bed) and in the morning before I left for work, I'd cover him back up with the blanket that was then wrapped around his foot or his bear and head off. I feel like I missed a lot.

The hubs is away tonight. He's in TN doing a mini tour with the band- Hannah Miller and the Misadventures (www.myspace.com/HannahMiller). They're fabulous, truly. Unfortunatly, this tour fell right when both kids decided that it had been a while so it was time to get sick. N is getting 5 teeth (yes, 5!) at once. Two of them are sharp "eye" teeth and the other 3 are molars- Apparently, none of them are any fun. Hes also running a little fever along with those teeth but this is actually the norm for him during teeth time but this has been the worst teething experience yet. J is a whole other can of worms- shes coughing, puking, choking, running a fever, crying... Im thinking she may have bronchitis or bronchiolitis (caused by RSV). Since this is mainly caused by a virus (bronchiolitis) I had decided to wait it out a few days (since antibiotics arent effective and treatment is palliative) and Im not a biggie on getting antibiotics at the first sign of a sniffle either. Ive been suctioning, tylenol-ing, rocking, etc. Of course, my judgement is that of a newbie nurse and even though Ive been keeping a close eye on her, I'll probably be taking her to the doctor... possibly tomorrow. Or today rather, being that is nearly 2am. I should go to sleep but Im a night owl.

Sooo, well yes I think I'll try to sleep now. I was hoping to hear from the hubster about how the show went but Im assuming they're still playing. I could probably talk forever about all the mundane things that go on in my life (I love those things) but I think I'll do my blog day by day. If I even get it going at all. Atleast I made one post. Oh and yes, I dont pretend to be a great blogger. Not one bit. Goodnight all.