Easter Picnic

Nannie, Grampa, and Aunt Amy all came for a quick day trip last Saturday. It was a warm day, but very windy so a picnic at the playground on the Eastern Prom may not have been the best choice... Regardless, Noah really enjoyed playing on the playground and was on day 4 with no nap, so he was daring enough to play, climb and even slid down the slides which is a shocking improvement over most trips to the playground.

Underwear and Cowboy Boots

Noah has shown little to no interest in potty training, but every once in a while he has one of these days. I think he chooses underwear over diapers simply b/c he doesn't want to lay on the changing table while I put a diaper on him. It only lasts about 2 hours at the most until he "has an accident" despite my coaxing to use the potty b/c he has his big boy underwear on. Anyhow, on this day it was all I could do to make him put any clothes on (he even played with his BBQ set on our porch in 45 degree weather naked for a bit). He insisted that I take a picture of his lightning macqueen underwear and woody boots... it was his idea to turn around and show me the backside... I am sure he will appreciate these pictures in 10 years:)

James at 9 months!

James is now 9 months old and growing well. He is not crawling officially, but has a pretty good military crawl to get him where he needs to go. I had yet to see him pull himself to the standing position until a few nights ago. I was home by myself bathing the kids, which proves a bit tricky since James can't yet sit up on his own in the tub reliably. I sit James on the floor while I bathe Noah, but on this day he was much too excited to get in the tub so he crawled over, pulled himself up on the side of the tub, and would have attempted his first dive if I had not been there to stop him.

Interestingly we are seeing more similarities in both kids' personalities than differences, which presents a whole different set of challenges. Almost every trip out I take strangers come up to me and say things like "you can tell they are brothers" or "they look exactly a like, huh?". Just for fun I found this picture of Noah around the same age as James climbing under the exersaucer... apparently in our house one of our gages of development is when the kids start to "crawl" under the exersaucer.

Noah Turns Three!!

Well, we officially have a 3 year old! Noah is definitely three and all that goes along with it:) He is talking much more than a year ago and is having far more spontaneous speech which is so cool to see how his little mind really works. He had an absolute blast at his birthday party this year. This was his first birthday where he was really excited for it to come. He chose a train birthday which he has talked about for about 2 months. The top picture is of Noah with his new baby stroller (Gabe was less than impressed that it was pink with flowers, but they just don't make baby strollers for boys;)). My goal here was to let him walk his baby so I could push James without Noah running him onto our neighbors' lawns. The second picture was Noah's face when Gabe brought the balloons in, not sure if you will be able to see his expression, but it was pure excitement. The third picture was Noah in his conductor hat with his ticket badge (everyone who came to the party had to have a badge too). Noah started asking to eat lunch at 10:30 and since it was his birthday (and he knew it) we let him, also why he is eating alone. He really had a wonderful birthday and, I am sure, can't wait to do it again next year!

When Noah watched this video he sat and waved at James each time he looked up to the camera:) You will have to pause the music at the bottom of the page in order to hear the sound in the video clip.

Conversations with Kitty

James is such a funny kid sometimes. I will often sit him down on the floor to play with his picnic basket while I change Noah or if I need to do something else in their room. On this day he had also found kitty. This is a little stuffed kitty that he got from our visit to great grammy and grampy Day in Florida... he really likes to talk to it (and chew on it's tail). He was having a lengthy conversation with kitty and these pics capture his thoughts, with facial expressions and all. I have some video of this I will try to put up later.

Quick Trip North

The boys and I recently made a brief (less than 48 hours I think) trip to East Millinocket to get our car fixed. The trip to Stanley's actually saved us over $300 so it was well worth it!! Anyhow, here are some pictures of Noah and James riding in the sled, which didn't last long... I think Noah was having flashbacks to the last time he and James did this when they fell out and James got a face full of snow:) The second pic was from when Noah was being very quite playing and when I walked into the living room this is what I saw. He just started laughing and saying, "I wear grampa's glasses".

James at 8 months

I love these pics of James b/c I think it really shows his personality. The first two were while Noah was playing with him and sitting on his back... he is a good sport:)

Gabe's Birthday (aka Valentine's Day)

Noah is really starting to get the concept of birthdays, so when Gabe's came around he was really ready to have a party for him. He had been talking non-stop about making daddy a cake and getting him a brown balloon. Noah is also a very funny shopper... I took him, by himself, to Marden's where he purchased a pair of baby blue crocks for James ($2) and a Sponge Bob Squarepants cake stand ($2) for daddy's birthday cake. We then went to Big Lots where he picked out an entire package of American flags ($1) to decorate the cake with. We had so much fun as we then had to go to purchase a brown balloon to go with the Handy Manny balloon he picked out. I think the balloon lady thought we were crazy;) I didn't get a picture of the balloons, but I think these pictures portray the proud boy well.

January 2010

Wow, I can't believe that an entire month has gone by since my last post! We have had a wonderful/busy January this year. Gabe was doing an elective in Hematology/Oncology this month and has most of his weekends free. So, we were very lucky to catch up with lots of great friends. One weekend we spent in NH catching up with friends in the upper valley. Another weekend the kids and I went to Boston to visit one of Noah's little friends who's family is also going through the first year of residency. I have not been great about taking pictures, especially when I have both kids by myself, so the pics are limited, but I did get some none the less.

The 2nd from the bottom is of Noah playing with his train on the track he put together all by himself. One of Noah's new favorite things are puzzles. He is unbelievably good at them. His incredible attention to detail, that at times can be frustrating, serves him well in this area. The bottom picture captures well how much the two boys really do love playing with each other:)

Winter Fun

We were able to spend a long weekend up north with family over the new year, during which time I got a GI bug and didn't think to take my camera out of it's bag the whole time... oh well! We did get Noah out on his snowshoes which, despite his delayed gross motor skills and his fear of trying anything like it, he did really well. These pics are from when we got back and found our yard filled with heavy sticky snow. Noah wanted to build a snowman, but what he really meant was that he wanted Gabe and I to build it while he ate as much snow as he could.

Christmas 2009

We were very lucky this year to have a WONDERFUL Christmas! We were able to stay at home with the kids, Gabe got 4 days off, and we were able to have lots of our family here to celebrate with us. Noah finally got the concept of what Christmas was all about this year. We spent Christmas eve as a family, went to the Christmas pageant service at our church, then over for soup at Gabe's boss' home. On Christmas Day we may have set a record for the longest time to open presents... 3 days!! By Sunday morning we were forcing Noah to open the last of the presents under the tree so we could take it down. The up side was that he really enjoyed every gift and insisted on opening and playing with it right away. And I mean everything, he even insisted on taking a pretend nap in his sleeping bag. We then had lots of family here for a great Christmas meal and company. Needless to say, I only remembered to take a few pics, the last several were actually 3 days later when all of the presents were finally open.

James' First Meal

Since James has officially turned 6 months, we thought it was probably time to start feeding him solids. These are some pics from his first attempt which went surprisingly well, except for the fact that he is insisting on feeding himself right from the start... oh what is to come...