Noah's First Haircut and a Cut for Ava

Last night, we had to run to Target to exchange a faulty humidifier that we bought. As we were walking in, Mike said that we should take Ava to the Kids hair cutting place next door. I was thinking the same thing, but it was late in the evening and we didn't know how she would do. Since we were there, we just decided to do it. Ava sat down in the chair, made me hold her hand,  but sat nicely for the lady to cut her hair.

Mike brought Noah over and said we should get Noah's haircut too. I said, "yeah right, like he will sit in the chair." We decided to just try it. As soon as we put him in the chair, he started to cry. Luckily there was a bowl of lollipops right there and I grabbed one and gave it to him and he was happy as a clam.

Ava went from this....

 to this...

Noah went from this...(shag)

to this...

He would really have pretty girl hair. It only took us a year and a half to get his haircut for the first time. 

Noah @ 1 1/2 years

Can you believe it, Noah is a year and a half. I can't. He has changed so much in the last month.

He is talking so much. He tries to say lot of words. He still mostly says first syllables, but sometimes we get some 2 syllable words.

He is now a big boy and sitting at the table. No more high chair. This was Friday night pizza dinner.

He also likes to drink like a big boy. He doesn't like the sippy cup anymore. He will drink with or without a straw. It makes for many messes, but he is happy and that is all that matters these days.

He loves to do puzzles, but gets frustrated when he can't get it in just right.

He is loving books too. 

He loves to dance and sing to the music.

He is definitely a daddy's boy. When Mike comes home from work, he just wants his daddy.

He has really grown attached to Buddy, his dog. He carries him around with him a lot these days.

He is still the pickiest eater. Some days, I wonder how he isn't starving. Give him sweets or chips and he is usually a happy camper. He discovered fruit snacks and those are his favorite. 

He and Ava love playing together. Some days he likes to be a pest, but some days he just loves to hug her.

He really needs a haircut. He has yet to get one professionally. He is just too scared of people he doesn't know, hopefully some time soon.

I can't wait to see what the next 18 months bring!!!

Love you bud!

Mama

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!