Five (plus a couple combined) Things I Love About...

Noah

1. I love that when you get super happy your smile takes up your entire face, and you let out a squeal.

2. I love the dark brown freckle near your knee.

3. I love your big eyes and pretty eyelashes.

4. I love your super sweet demeanor.

5. I love your little sausage toes.

Peyton

1. I love your imagination.

2. I love the way you dance.

3. I love that you are an encourager. "That's good coughing, Noah."

4. I love how much you like to read.

5. I love your self esteem. "I'm good at being hungry."

Cory

1. I love that instead of staying at work late you go in super early so that you can spend more time with us.

2. I love that you can play any instrument you pick up and that you can sing well. (Even though I ask you to stop often. It's only because I'm on sensory overload)

3. I love that you are usually always happy, and your bad moods don't last more than 10 minutes. 

4. I love your skin color (is that weird? ha.) and the two little moles on your cheek that are near your nose.

5. I love that you're not a picky eater, and say that everything I make is good.

Flashback Friday!

Hard to believe this was just last January. She sure has grown a lot this year.

Ten On Thursday!

1. Sorry about the blog slacking. I don't know why my time feels like its spread so thin. I can't seem to keep up with anything. 

2. Peyton had her free photo shoot that she won on Tuesday. It was lots of fun, and a nice break from being the one taking the pictures. It's going to be tough trying to decide which ones to order. Once they're on Mandii's blog I'll post the link. I tried to get the link from fb, but I can't get it to work.

3. I didn't do the 30 Day Shred yesterday. Sad for me. I got to cleaning and forgot about it. 

4. I really need the rest of February and March to hurry up and be over. I haven't seen my dad and little brother since July of last year, and my mom since Noah was born.  Plus I haven't seen Steph, and the kids since May of last year! That is far too long!!

5. Super stoked about going to Disneyland while we're in Cali. We're staying at Disney's Grand California Hotel & Spa for 2 nights, and we'll have 3 days of Disneyland and California Adventure fun. It will be nice to be able to take Peyton to the hotel for an afternoon nap, and have somewhere to pump and store milk for Noah. I'm sure Noah will knock out in the stroller throughout the day. 

6. Since there was only a handful of pretzels left in the bag I gave the entire thing to Peyton at lunch. 

Peyton: I ate the sprinkles from the pretzels.

Me: That's salt.

Peyton: Salt is not good.

Me: I don't really like salt either.

Peyton: Well, I like salt. You like lettuce. You're like a rabbit. 

7. I guess I should consider Peyton's nap time a fail today. She's been talking to herself for 2 hours. 

8. I know Noah's is a big guy, and he has a big head which sometimes leads to slower gross motor skill development, but I'm starting to get worried about him. What else is new? I was always worried about something with Peyton when she was a baby. Anyway, he just seems really behind to me. He was doing so good a couple of weeks ago working on his sitting skills. Now when I sit him up on the floor he puts his head between his legs. :/ He kind of leans to the side in his highchair, too, and he isn't pushing his body up with his arms at all. I'm anxiously waiting for his 6 month well check. I'm sure everything will check out fine, and I'll get the "all kids develop and their own pace" speech. But if he does need EI I want to get the ball rolling.

9. In other Noah news, he is quite fond of his hands. He just stares and twists them in amazement. I'm sure if he could reach his toes he'd love those too. Too bad his 5 roll belly gets in the way. :) I cannot wait until he can sit up so I can take a shirtless picture of it. It is so, so scrumptious!

10. Spring has sprung in the South. Looking forward to some spring cleaning this weekend! Seriously.

Snow day!

It snowed last night, and I was so excited that we still had some on the ground this morning. It's not much, but it was enough for Peyton to enjoy. She loved it, and didn't complain once about being cold. In fact, she didn't want to go back inside. I wish we had a sled. Fortunately or unfortunately there wasn't any snow or ice on the roads so Cory went to work. He did go in a little later than usual though. 

Round One

Round Two


The winter wonderland


Noah's first snow experience. If you can call it an experience. I just asked Cory to plop him down so I could take his picture. I didn't want him to miss out!

10 on Tuesday!

1. This morning Peyton woke me up with a barking rendition of twinkle, twinkle little star. Lovely.

2. Noah has been sleeping through the night since we started giving him rice cereal at lunch and dinner time. Maybe it's a coincidence, maybe it's not.

3. I'm making some green beans for Noah. Peyton hated green beans, still does. She still makes the same face she did as a baby when she eats them. Only now there isn't gagging involved. She just drinks a ton of water and declares herself "all better". But yeah, I've got the green beans steaming right now. I'm loving the Beaba. Such an awesome gift from my cousin.

4. Last time I posted about Noah sleeping through the night he stopped doing it. I hope I didn't just jinx it.

5. Peyton needs a Diego/Dora intervention. I didn't let her watch any yesterday because she is just too obsessed. She keeps waking up crying from dreams about the show. Well, at least that's what I think is happening. Yesterday morning she was crying, "Alicia! Alicia!" When I went to go get her she had tears rolling down her cheeks and she said, "you were locked in the magic door." Funny that she even cries for me as the character Alicia.

6. The one benefit from Diego is that she says baby Jaguar loves meat, so she is always up for trying some. She is a teriyaki beef jerky lover now. She calls it bacon.

7. Can't wait to find out if my friend's baby is a boy or girl! I don't know how she the patience to wait until the birth to find out. 1.5 hours!

8. Peyton's new Britax Frontier got here a few days ago. We haven't installed it yet. I'm still not sure if Noah is going to embrace his feminine side, and roll in Peyton's yellow flower Marathon or if we will buy him a new cover for it.

9. I'm starting the 30 Day Shred today. Krista and I are going to do it together, and buy each other a prize if we make it the full 30 days. :) Its nice to have an accountability partner even if she is across the country. I just got to keep my eyes on the prize. :)

10. This is from like a month ago.

Embracing Winter

It is cold. I know it's not as cold as the rest of the country, but cold is still cold even if there is colder. Instead of being angry at winter I'm going to embrace it. I'm trying to enjoy the season I am in because with every new one there is good and bad, well I don't find much bad in the south's fall and spring, but anyway. Instead of complaining about the things I don't like about winter...

Things I enjoy about winter:

1. No bugs!

2. My kids staying in fleece pajamas all day, it makes for good cuddling. 

3. Watching movies while a fire burns in the fireplace

4. Enjoying the heat from the stove and oven while cooking

5. Hot Chocolate

6. Heavy blankets on the bed

7. Burning candles

8. Hiding chub easier with layers of clothing

8. Hot baths

9. Eating at Panera Bread. Its just so cozy in there. 

10. Don't have to pull weeds or mow the grass (though I do like mowing the lawn)

If I lived where it snowed I would add: building snowmen with the kids, sledding, and snowboarding. 

This picture is from when we were in Clearwater for Christmas. Just relaxing in the parking garage, sipping a cup of pretend tea.

5 Months

My baby is 5 months old! I can believe it. Ha. I remember the first 6 months of Peyton's life going at a steady slow pace, and then the time just started flying. Maybe it's because its winter or maybe its because they both are slow with the gross motor skills so it seems like they are young for longer.

Noah is still not sleeping through the night, well at least not what I think is sleeping through the night. He always goes at least 7 hours at first, and some would consider that sleeping through the night, but I don't. He needs to go at least 10 hours for me. He's come so close a couple of times, but I can usually count on him waking up sometime between 2-4am. It is not fun. I can't tell if its out of habit or if he really is hungry. He'll always accept something to eat. I'm so tired and out of it I don't know if he is actually taking in a full feeding or just a little habitual snack. He started rice cereal a few days ago. He seems to enjoy the first few bites. He tried avocado yesterday. He didn't seem to be much of a fan. I'm determined to make him a better eater than Peyton. I think I'll keep offering it to him until he likes it, and then move on with something else. We'll see. I'm definitely going to hold of the sweet stuff for now. It's all greens for this guy for a little while. 

He is finally rolling from tummy to back. Cory saw him roll back to belly, but he only did it once. He's just super content to chill out on his back. He's turning his body sideways more to look around though. 

He has the cutest little baby laugh! It is soo sweet! He's a very ticklish little guy. He's also pretty emotional. I don't remember if Peyton was this way, but Noah will be smiling at laughing at something, and then all of the sudden he will start pouting, and his eyes will fill up with tears. I guess he just gets overwhelmed easily. 

His hair has grown a lot. I know you guys probably won't see it, but I've noticed. It looks so funny to me. He is wearing mostly 6-12 months, some 9 month Carters clothes, and he can squeeze into a few 6-9 months stuff. He can still wear is 6 month Carters fleece pajamas though. I don't get it. He's in a size 3 diaper, and I'm not sure of his foot size.

I  just bought Peyton's new car seat, so Noah will probably be moving into her Marathon soon. The infant seat is getting way to heavy to carry, so I think I'd rather move him into a convertible than just leave the infant seat in the car. I only like that seat for the convenience. We'll see. I might just try to get through the winter first. 

I just love his cute, chubby, huggable, kissable, squeezable self to pieces!!

ten on tuesday!

1. I cut Peyton's hair on Sunday. She didn't even notice because she was watching Diego. It's a little crooked, but I still love it. Here's a nice action shot. 

2. Noah is 5 months old today! He'll get his very own post tomorrow.

3. This morning Peyton asked for "another last bite" of my cereal. 

4. I tried taking Peyton's 2.5 year old pictures, and it was a total fail. My tricks don't work on her anymore. She would do what I asked her, but she would not look at my camera. She was more interested in playing "pirate play" than having her picture taken. 

She looked down, up, and away...

and did lots of stick playing.

5. Peyton said: Broccoli is a snack.

Me: Broccoli is a vegetable. 

Peyton: Carrots are vegetables, too. Blueberries are fruit, and Ketchup is a... uh, a sauce!

6. I really need to clean my camera lenses. There is a Peyon fingerprint right in the middle of my 50mm.

7. Some new grass is sprouting in our backyard! I'm hopeful that it will all grow in this year. I can't wait until it's time to bust out the inflatable kiddie pools!

8. Peyton hasn't taken a nap since Friday. She's had quiet time in her room, but hasn't fallen asleep. She still needs afternoon sleep. She is a little pill in the evenings. She went to bed at 6:45pm last night, and was asleep by 7, and didn't wake up until 7:45am. She woke up in a great mood, and is being so sweet. I hope the napping strike is over, and she sleeps for me this afternoon.

9. I love that Peyton always calls our car by it's name, Lola. My friends and I always name our cars, but I rarely refer to my car by her name. It makes me smile when Peyton does. 

10. Number ten, number ten, you get me every time.