Juice Box Junky

I reluctantly decided to give Noah his first juice box about a month ago and now he is hooked. Ava was hooked at an early age and it became difficult to give her anything other than juice. So with Noah, I held out as long as I could because he was a good water drinker.

Now he is hooked.

I gave them both a juice box yesterday and they were gone within 2 minutes...

This and That

Our life lately in bullet points.

• We had a good Father's Day. We actually pretended like Saturday was father's day because the kids slept in and were very well behaved. But we still enjoyed our day on Sunday. We started with a walk, had a nice breakfast and then I sent Mike out to do something fun for himself. He went to the archery range. Then we went to my sister, Jacy's house, for Prime Rib. We had a ton of fun as did the kids.
• Noah has started talking more. He is a lot like Ava was and just says first syllables. He says: mama, dada, dir (dirt), mar (markers), sis (sissy), wa (water), diii (diggers), ba (bed), buuu (book), dahh (dog), and some others. 
• Noah likes to drink water like a big boy. No lid on his sippy cup or no straw. He wants it like a big boy. 
• Ava is going to preschool this fall. I finally signed her up. I hope she will do ok.
• We pulled the baby pool back out this weekend and kids have been really enjoying themselves. They mostly swim naked and the other day we didn't notice, but Noah pooped in the pool. Fun stuff.

• Ava started blowing bubbles in the pool at swim lessons. It has only taken 2 months to finally do it. I have let her go under the water once and she hated it, but she has to try!

This Boot Was Made For Walking

As some of you may know, I workout daily. It has become a part of my life. I do it first thing in the morning after I get the kids settled with a little food. I workout at home and the kids play around me. I have done programs I found online and making up my own from research. (Two websites that I love are: www.blog.shareitfitness.com and dailylifeplusfitness.blogspot.com).

Well, I was 6 weeks into a Total Body Blitz workout that I was loving that had a lot of box jumps, plyometrics, jumping rope and running. All that new found impact took it's toll on my foot.

About a week ago, the top of my right foot started bothering me. I adjusted the way I walked for about a day or two and it got better. Then I did an intense cardio workout one day (HIIT running for an hour. It was 30 seconds of sprinting followed by 1:30 min of running for an hour, followed by a 3 mile walk with Mike and the kids). Two days later, I did a 30 minute jump rope/15 min plyometric workout. Then a couple of days later, I did 100 box jumps at the end of my workout. During all of this, I noticed the top of my left foot bothering me. But, I just ignored it hoping that it would get better like the right foot did and powered through my workouts. Dumb, I know. I just love working out. So last week, I tried to take it easy and just went to walking in the morning. We have a 3 mile route down that I did Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. My foot was still bothering me, but again, I ignored it. By Tuesday, the pain was different and decided to go and see the doctor. Sure enough I have a metatarsal stress fracture beginning. The doctor gave me a soft cast and gave me a walking boot that I have to wear for a week.

 I still got the ok to do upper body workouts, so I am back to my push/pull/ab workout days. I am ok with that. He said that hopefully in 3 weeks I can be back to cardio and plyometrics.   You would think this would slow me down. I just don't know how to sit still so that will be the challenging part. Thank goodness my mom was here yesterday and today, so I can attempt to put my foot up and rest!!

Noah is 17 Months Old

My dearest Noah,

You are ever challenging and sweet at the same time. You can change on the drop of a dime.

You have been very frustrated this month because you don't say a lot of words. You mostly point and grunt. If I ask you to say something, you just get down right mad and scream at the top of your lungs and cry. Sometimes you walk over to the "thinking chair" (It has been renamed by Mike from the Time out Chair) and crawl up on it and just sit there. I don't usually have to tell you to go there. If you do something wrong, you just walk over there on your own. The past couple of days you have actually started saying some words and we have been praising you tons when you do.

You are so smart. You watch your sister do something once and then you do it. Ava has this book that has a pen that you scan across the pages and it tells you words, plays songs etc. (From your Aunt Jackie and Uncle Nick). You LOVE it. You will sit for a long time and run the pen across the page and just laugh and smile. The car book is by far your favorite.

You love car and truck books and animal books the most. You are the most curious kid I know. (Well, maybe your sister has you beat on that at the moment).

You love to dance and you will sometimes sing when mommy sings to you.
You love to play ring around the rosie with your sister. Right now, Curious Buddies video is your favorite. You like to watch Mickey Mouse club too.

You can be the sweetest boy. You LOVE to be held. You are a snuggler. I love it. I love to give you a short nap on my chest. I cherish those moments the most. I know some day you won't like it as much, but your sister was never a snuggler, so I am soaking up those moments.

You are not a good eater. It must be a second child thing. You love yogurt and anything sweet. Not a big meat or vegetable eater. You love ranch though. You will eat it with your fingers most of the time and just ignore the pizza.

You are still at one nap a day. They are getting longer, closer to 2 hours, but that is usually only if you don't get a short nap on mommy that day. You sleep through the night, usually from 6:40-5:25am. You still sleep in your sleepsack with your dog, buddy.

Swinging at the park

Mommy and Daddy and Sissy love you so much. 

Our May 2012 Staycation

Yes, I have been a bad blogger....We had our annual vacation in May and I am just now getting time to sit down and type it out....gah!!!

Anyway, we started this vacation by celebrating our 10 year anniversary. Yup! 10 YEARS. And boy have things changed. We used to spend our anniversaries vacationing in Hawaii or Mexico. This year we spent it with a nice bottle of wine and Friday night pizza. It was perfect though.

The next day was my birthday. My mom and Dwayne came down to watch the kids and Mike and I went out for the day. I went out and got an IPhone and then we did some shopping and reading at Barnes and Nobles. Then we went to PF Changs and had a drink while we waited for our take out.  It was an amazing birthday. Now, I am loving my IPhone. I love the camera and I took a ton of pictures documenting our vacation but for the life of me I can't figure out how to download them to my computer. Any IPhone users that know how, please let me know!!!

We really had no plans. We had our carpets cleaned on Wednesday, but it proved to be a pain, but worth it in the end. Ava ended up getting sick on Tuesday night. Throwing up and all. This is the first time EVER that she has gotten sick like that. It started out with her waking up about every hour until 1:30 in which she finally got sick. We made a bed on the floor of our bedroom after that because I knew she would never go back to sleep. And she didn't. After a while we finally put the TV on for her to watch. At 3am, I had finally had enough. She made Mike sleep on the floor next to her and she finally fell asleep until 6 ish waking only once at 4:30am. We were tired the next day. She woke up saying she was feeling better, but within about 2 hours she went downhill. Now she just has a runny/stuffy nose.

Noah ended up with a fever of 101 for about a day on Friday but nothing other than that and Mike and I never got it. Yay for that!

Due to all the sickness in the house, we didn't do anything else.
Boring, huh?!?! Well, you now can see how things have changed!

A Bunch Of Blogs All In One

It's been awhile since I have blogged and there have been some fun things going on and just some things that I want to have so that I can remember them later in life!

Recently, we decided,...I think...., that we are going to send Ava to Preschool. It has been a hard decision and I think that it is the right decision. We went to visit 2 Preschools over the past week. I wanted something specific. I want something that all the kids go for a couple of hours 2-3 days a week. I didn't want something that she would go for part of the day and then other kids would stay for full days. That has been really difficult to find. I like the first school because it offers that. She would go from 9-12 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It would really be perfect. Ava came with us and she liked the school too. We have been talking about it and that mommy would leave her. This particular school as an open door policy and if I want to drop in at anytime unannounced, then I can. I can also hang out with her to get her settled too if she is scared. I like that. Once we sign up, I will let you all know.

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Ava and Noah have really started playing together. Sometimes nicely, sometimes not so much. Ava will be doing something and call for Noah to come and help her. Most times, they are stealing toys from each other and both end up screaming....

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Most recently they have been playing ring around the rosie. They like when I play too, even though I get dizzy, but so much fun.

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Noah has officially and fully hit the climbing stage. He can get himself up on the couch. We had to spend a good day or two teaching him that it is NOT okay to run from one end of the couch to the other.  He has to sit or crawl around on the couch. The hardest part of that was telling Ava that she had to do the same. Because we all know, what Ava does, Noah does.

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I have mentioned before that Noah takes a short 10-15 minute nap around 10 am to get him to his regular nap. Well, one day I was prepping lunch and Ava and Noah were watching Doc McStuffins. Noah usually came to me for his nap, but he hadn't yet, so I went to where he was and this is what I found.

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Slurpees were a part of Mike's upbringing. He gave Ava her first one after church a couple of months ago. The other day, Mike went out and got one for both of them. It was officially Noah's first one and he LOVED it. He would take a big sip and then make a face and go "brrrr". I think he was getting a brain freeze.

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Ava recently found her DOC band again and she loves to wear it.

As does Noah...

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Noah Is 16 Months Old

Noah,

Happy 16 month birthday! I feel like I just did your 15 month post. You are growing up before our very eyes.

You are a spice nugget, but we love you. You are not afraid to show us how you feel. You want what you want, which by the way is usually what Ava has and you aren't afraid to try to take it. You will scream very loudly when you don't get your way. I have said that you are our tantrum boy.

You dropped your second nap literally the day after I posted your 15 month blog. It has been a difficult transition for everyone. You can't quite make it until Ava goes down for her nap so I let you lay on my chest and take a 15-20 snoozer around 10ish and then you can make it until noon for your nap. Your naps are not great. You sleep anywhere from 45 mins to an hour and 45 mins. You usually wake up once during your nap and cry, but usually go back down.

You also started waking up again at night. You will cry on and off for an hour an a half. I don't know if it is separation anxiety or if you are just so overtired. Who knows. It is a mystery that will never be solved. Because you don't sleep so well, you also wake up crying.

You like to pull one arm out of your sleep sack when you sleep too. It freaks daddy out. He thinks you are going to cut off your circulation.

You want to do and have whatever your sister does or has. If we go to the store and the cashier gives Ava a sticker, you have to have one too. You just love stickers in general.

You will only color with markers because that is what Ava loves to color with. Luckily they are washable, but man, do you make a mess.

See those hands!!!

You love Katy Perry songs like your sister and will stop what you are doing to go and dance. You will sing part of "The one that got away". (Just the part where she sings woa-woa). It is super cute.

You like to dip things too when you eat. Last night you were dipping your hot dog in your cottage cheese. 

You love playing in the baby pool. I just hope you will like the big pools for pool parties.

You love to take things apart and put them back together.

You love your sister soooo  much. You like to roll on top of her and as a sign of love, you love to bite her too!

You are still very shy. I think you will be a lot like Ava in this department. You are a little more open to people to you know, but when you don't know people you are very shy and bury your head.

You are starting to talk more. You say boo, dog, wa-wa, sisss (for sissy), nana (for banana). You know most of your body parts and love to play boo.

You still love buddy!

I know that Aunt Jacy says we need to cut your hair, but we love it. Your wings are what give you character. Don't worry, I won't let anyone use these pictures against you because you don't have a say in it right now!