Matt & Rachel's Wedding- Southwest Harbor, ME

Last weekend we were lucky enough to attend Matt & Rachel's wedding in Southwest Harbor!  We try hard to get to Mount Desert Island once a summer, so this was a great reason to go this year.  What an amazing weekend!  We joined the festivities on Saturday for the cruise around Somes Sound, followed by the wedding and luncheon Sunday afternoon and the "Barn Party" on Sunday evening. Thank you to all of you who watched our kiddos while we were able to enjoy ourselves, catch-up with old friends and relatives AND enjoy some amazing food and hospitality. I only remembered my camera for a few of the events, but it was so beautiful there I am sure you get the idea:)  Thanks Matt and Rachel for a wonderful weekend!  Congratulations!!

Noah- 3.5 years!

Noah is such a fun kid right now.  He loves imaginary play, building things, and has recently started drawing actual things and not just scribbles.  He continues to be a sweet, sensitive kid with a very tender heart.  He is always willing to help out with James or with doing chores, especially jobs with daddy.  The top pictures were of a "city" he built all by himself with "a door here and here, two rocking boats up high, that's silly.  One, two corn, a red triangle, and this blue thing".  He has made some pretty major and exciting gains in his overall development.  As I mentioned in a previous post his language has improved which has led to some pretty funny things.  Every time he says something cute I say, "I should write that down", and then I forget.  The few funnier ones I can remember are:

1- A few months ago we were backing the car out of the driveway, Gabe was post call and we hit the side view mirrors which made an awful sound.  Gabe and I sat there in silence and Noah, from the back seat says, "Uh... guys... we have a problem"... no damage done to either car, but Noah certainly lightened the mood in those few minutes:)

2- Noah has been doing SO WELL with potty training to now only wearing diapers at nap and bedtime (largely because he tends to hold his poop until then).  Over the past week or two he has started pooping on the potty and each time he does he labels it according to it's shape or appearance- banana poop, pine cone poop, crumb poop, whale poop, and raccoon/plain poop..... I am sure no further description is necessary.  It baffles me that he comes up with these things on his own. 

3- Last week I was getting Noah dressed for the day up on the changing table and I don't remember what we were talking about, but he says to me, "Mommy, when I get bigger I can reach my gummy bears, whistle, and drive a car".  Nice to see where his priorities are:)  Even better was next day I was trying to remember exactly what he said so I could tell Gabe, I couldn't remember one of them and he pipes up from the back seat and tells me exactly what he had said.

I could go on all day about these kids, but I will spare you any further rambling:)  We love them both so much and are enjoying every minute of this journey with them both as part of our family!!  We are off to Southwest Harbor this weekend for a wedding, pics soon after I hope!

James- Almost 15 Months

James... where should I start... He has become such a cool kid.  It has been so much fun to really see his personality take off.  He has started giving hugs, kisses and getting into trouble... he too has a very gentle and sensitive personality (shocking I know) so we have to be careful not to raise our voices too loudly at him, and at the same time he can throw an impressive tantrum when he doesn't get his way.  Over these past few months he has started walking confidently (this is the only decent video I have of it), finally got another tooth (he is up to 7 now), shows an interest in using utensils, and does a wonderful job feeding himself and using a straw. He still only says "dada", but that is becoming more specific with it.  Thankfully he has picked up the baby signs very quickly and has over 20 of those, so he still can get his point across. His latest fascination/developmental milestone/headache for us has been putting objects in other objects... he is good at hiding things, particularly in the diaper pail, the garbage can and the toilet. He is so funny with the toilet... he appears to just try and empty Noah's potty into it just like Noah. Luckily I have been able to rescue everything thus far (I think).  The garbage can is now locked, much to Gabe's dismay, and the bathroom door stays closed ALL of the time, and I just fish things out of the laundry when I wash the diapers.  Last week I found a phone, a cow, a music shaker and about 8 snappi's for the  diapers... luckily they all sanitize easily.  The best thing about James being #2 is that I know this is a phase that will pass.  Last night Gabe was playing with the kids for a few minutes before bed and his comment was "wow, James is really sneaky with putting things in the diaper pail".  It is almost as if he just needs it to go in there,  that's where he thinks it belongs... more OCD to come I am sure...

Brothers

Now that James is walking and getting into things, life has changed a bit for everyone.  The most exciting change (and the most challenging) is that the boys love to play together (most of the time).  It has presented challenges for us in negotiating between the two of them or letting them figure it out on their own, but those times make all the other times totally worth it.  They have started to be a bit devious together as well.  I usually sneak in to check on them before I go to bed... the other night I smelled something familiar and aromatic, but couldn't place it.  I walked over to Noah's bed and it was SOAKED.  I figured it was urine, but he was dry everywhere except his bed, the blankie and the floor... maybe he had spilled his water bottle... nope- HAND SANITIZER- almost an entire bottle!  The upsides: no one appeared to have eaten it, James appeared uninvolved AND it had all evaporated on its own by morning (I did try and clean it up, but I couldn't take his sheets or blankie away). The hand sanitizer was back in it's original spot "untouched"... the next morning from Noah "I put the stuff on my blankie".  Fast forward 3 days- this morning I walk into their room and James' mouth, face, hands, crib and diaper bucket are smeared with prescription steroid cream, and once again, the emptied tube was gently placed in its original spot. Noah is not all to blame though b/c on that same day before nap time James dumped a mug of warm coffee on himself and ate sidewalk chalk... surprisingly no trips to the ED or calls to poison control that day;) 

The first video was from the other night just before bedtime.  I had gone down cellar to get the laundry and when I came up all I heard was lots of laughter- Noah was jumping on his bed and laughing, James was "jumping" on the floor and laughing even harder when Noah would fall.  You can even see in one clip that James falls in an effort to get Noah to copy him.  The second video has no picture, just the sound (so don't forget to turn the music off at the bottom of the page). This is an almost nightly occurrence- I put the kids to bed at the same time, things are quite for about 30 seconds, then laughter, sometimes for a solid 30-45 minutes.  I have yet to figure out what they do in there that is so funny, but it must be something good!

Yukica's Visit & Other Summer Things

I realize that I have been terrible about blogging this summer, BUT things have been SOOOOO busy.  August has been a difficult month for us.  Gabe has been in the Pediatric ICU which is in itself emotionally draining, but the hours have also been long and we don't get to see him often; more over, the residency schedule is just getting old... ugh!  Looking back, we have had a great month, visiting with lots of friends and relatives, but all of our visits have been short. I have become somewhat of an expert on "efficient/quality" family time...  So, no time for pics and no time to blog.  Just know that we do think of you all often and appreciate what little time we get to spend with each of you (in person or otherwise)... some day maybe Gabe will have a real job and work less hours (I can dream).  In the past few weeks we have gotten to see: Alane & Silas and have a great morning visit; Nanny, Aunt Amy & the Pelkey's at the Folk Festival; "Oliver, Isaac, & Becca" -per Noah; and catch-up with many others over the phone or via email.  I realize that we are ALWAYS going some where or doing something b/c now when I pick Noah up from daycare he asks who is going to be at our house when we get home, or "where we going now?"... 

I was able to get a few pictures from the Yukica's visit last weekend. James was REALLY jealous that he wasn't able to get into the bathtub as well... I think this will be a good graduation party picture for HS graduation;) We went shopping in Freeport, "hiked" Bradbury Mountain, played in the sprinkler, and just had a great time!

Santa's Village- 2010

I didn't think we were going to make Santa's Village this year, but it was Noah's last year before we have to pay... so we made a bit of an extra effort:)  We have been very fortunate to be able to visit our summer parks AND be able to spend time with friends we miss from living in the Upper Valley.  We met the Burke family and Noah's little friend Reid who he had a ball with all day.  Let me start at the beginning... I had to "work" or at least be on call on Saturday until 1pm.  At 1 the kids and I hopped in the car and drove up to Jefferson, NH.  We got to the campground, I set up the tent while the kids played, or more accurately while James screamed (He started with a fever Friday night, by Sunday he had a raging ear infection, but we largely ignored it, treated him with ibuprofen and he was fine... except for when the ibuprofen wore off). Anyhow, we had a blast camping- we went for a hay ride with the Easter Bunny, attempted to play candy bar bingo, but they were full by the time I got Jammies on the kids, so Noah and I sat around and ate our candy bars ourselves:)  Then Noah decided he wanted to go swimming (7:30 at night) we were on vacation, why not?  There was a wading pool there which he thoroughly enjoyed while James and I froze in our pants, sweatshirts and sneakers.  After swimming Gabe (thankfully) arrived to stay the night with us, and just in time for s'mores.  James did well in the tent except for the fact that he was sick and woke up screaming, the upside though, was that he slept until 8:30 the next morning... Noah was up at 6...  Oh, AND, take note Pelkey's, it rained all night...

Sunday was Santa's Village... we took down the tent in the rain, it was freezing.  Unbelievably, it has not rained all summer, but the day we choose to go to Santa's Village it rains, which makes me look back and realize that I have never been there without rain or 30 degree temperatures.  Anyhow, it was down-pouring when we went into the park, I wasn't planning on staying long in the rain, so I didn't bring my camera... LUCKILY, Christ and Broc brought theirs and shared pics with us, THANKS GUYS!!  It turned out to be an perfect day to be at the park- after noon time it was light drizzle, no lines, no crowd, nice temperature.  Best of all, Noah got to spend time with Reid and had a great time. Yes, they are riding on the animals in the manger scene... Reid went on all of the rides, Noah went on almost all of the rides (I think we may have traumatized him a bit with too many forced trips on the roller coaster and log flumes;). Thanks for coming with us guys we had a great day! 

Dance, Dance, Dance

I am not sure what it is in these two, but they seem to have some type of inborn knack for music and dancing.  In the last few weeks James has started to dance (which is the cutest thing ever I must say) and his rhythm with the instruments is surprisingly accurate.  I haven't been able to get great video of James dancing yet, but I am sure he will soon rival Noah in his dancing skills (see August 2 and 18, 2008 blog posts) in the next few months;) In the video Noah is showing off his new moves.  I am not sure where he comes up with these, but break dancing may be the next phase. I have decided to save a bit of money this fall and skip the formal music class, but I did buy the CD for us to do at home so I am sure there will be more pictures/video of dancing to come!

Maine Wildlife Park- 2010

We have taken lots of small trips here and there this summer and most of them I don't have the opportunity to take many pictures... this was no different.  Gabe's schedule has been tight this month so we have had to be a bit more creative with our family time.  This morning we had about 1 hour to see the Maine Wildlife Park before Gabe had to go into work AND it was really hot, so I am not sure we would have lasted much longer than that.  Last year this park was my first trip alone with the 2 kids... though, I am not sure a year has made all that much difference in the difficulty of taking 2 kids here, but just a different kind of difficulty;)  Luckily Gabe was there and we all enjoyed the deer, bobcats, fischer cats, possums, skunks, bears, moose, etc.  It was a great morning together!

Noah & the campfire

One night James was so tired he couldn't possibly handle himself past 6:30 so he had a regular bed time and Noah had taken a good nap... SO, we let him stay up and have a campfire with us (we did also tell him we were out of marshmallows, which to this day he has not let us forget).  He was an absolute RIOT!  It was on this day we realized that his speech had come a long way... he just wouldn't stop talking.  We knew this day would come and here it is.  Mostly he was talking non-sense, but it was entertaining none the less... he kept telling us to stop talking while he would go on and on about nothing.  He was also in a great mood for posing for pictures, video and just seeing what he could get into.  Or, maybe he was just super excited to have a campfire and have mommy & daddy all to himself.... Enjoy!

Happy Birthday to Nanny!

My mom was visiting recently (and helping to get some chores done:)) and it just happened to be her birthday.  Noah is pretty excited about birthdays these days so here he is with his cake (note his continued fascination with American flags) and my new sunglasses singing "Happy Birthday" to Nanny.  The bottom picture is a rare shot of me playing with the boys... no other story... just that such a picture does exist;)