More December Fun

***Turn us up, we've got tunes now!***


So I jinxed us by putting it right here on our blog that Noah was all done being sick when he woke up on Christmas morning. He felt great all that day--I don't know, a sort of honeymoon period?? He woke up that night and got sick again. Ever since, he's been feeling yucky, but now we've moved on from vomiting to the other end of the spectrum. Sorry, I have been known to gross out all my friends and family who don't have kids. ;P I've had to get over the whole gross out factor pretty quick. I've done more laundry this week than I think I've ever done in my whole life. Let's just say I'm ready for everybody to feel better now. At least I haven't come down with anything yet! Did I just say that?? I've surely jinxed myself now! I'm going to knock on wood now. I'm not usually that superstitious, but I am NOT taking any chances. This was the flu from h*ll.

I got a cute pic of the boys together! And we didn't even have to do the M&M bribe here! He actually *asked* to hold Kyle. ASKED!!! After we all hung out with my Cranmommy friend Andrea and her family, Noah was considerably warmer to Kyle. I think it's cause he saw that Leah interacts with her baby sister Mallory. Thanks Andrea!!

Here Andrea, Kurt, the two girls and Noah and I were all decorating Christmas sugar cookies. Man, they made a MESS, but they had a lot of fun, and the cookies turned out really cute.

Our island is big, so it was a perfect setup for all the kids and cookies and sprinkles. It's not so good for dough though, it kept sticking to the Corian. Oh well, they were still good.

After they all went home, Noah said, "Mallory is Leah's baby sister!" And I told him yes, and that Kyle is his baby brother. He took more of an interest in him after that. Since he's been sick though, he's been a grump. I can hardly blame him though, he's been through the ringer this week. I told him that since we missed making our cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve, that we'll make New Year's cookies instead. Hey, maybe we'll even start a new tradition--New Year's Eve cookies!

"Santa Got My Message!!"

That was Noah's response to finding out that Santa had indeed brought the two remaining Backyardigans plush toys he's been itching for!

Noah must have unwrapped a good ten gifts today, and still, the things he played with all day, were those 5 friends.

Kyle enjoyed his new "older" baby toys too.

Of course, I have pictures of all of this, but just not now. So the pictures I'm about to post have nothing to do with Christmas. I couldn't do that. It would just make too much sense.

So here are some more recent but random pics.

Don't worry, it was washable marker:

Senor Kyle:

Chris' mom, A.K.A. Mimi, and Leprechaun Kyle:

Enjoying some sweet potatoes:

We're happy to report that Noah is much better today. Yesterday (Christmas Eve), he got really sick with the stomach flu. It was really bad, and so awful to see him so miserable. He ended up missing out on all the Christmas Eve fun with cookies for Santa and reading stories, but all was well when he woke up this morning. He was so much better today it was ridiculous. If I had barfed as much as he did yesterday, I'd have been laid out for a week! So we ended up having a very nice, mellow, in our PJs all day kind of Christmas.

Hope yours was fun too!

Testing, Testing, 123, Testing!

I think I am finally figuring out how to download my pictures onto the computer! Now I'm just trying to figure out *where* the pics all go once they are *on* the computer. For some reason, it is putting pics in lots of different folders.

These are my attempts at some up close shots of Kyle. I have so much to learn, but already, I love this camera. I can see their faces with so much more clarity!

A chilly Noah driving in his little car

These were probably taken about 3 to 4 weeks ago. I love how handsome Kyle looks here. He looks so big to me here. It's crazy how fast the second one grows. He's already up on all fours (hands and knees) and rocking. He'll probably start crawling soon. He's not even 6 months old yet. I don't think Noah crawled til 7 or 8 months. Kyle is just dying to keep up with Noah. He gets so excited when he sees him playing, or running, or dancing.

This is just the beginning of all the pics I've been taking recently. I'm going to stop here with the pics so I can go try to really figure this out, but I was dying to get some pics from the new camera up!

Last weekend and this weekend we went to a place called The Big Tree Plantation. It's a really neat outdoorsy place where you can actually chop down your own Christmas tree. Another thing you'd never find in California where it's 80 degrees at Christmas time! Score one for Ohio! I don't miss looking for my tree in one of those parking lot Christmas tree lots. This place was really close to where we live, but out in the country on acres and acres of land. We got to take a tractor/hayride out to the trees and go searching for the tree we wanted. We also saw Santa (a bit creepy if you ask Noah), and the real reindeer that pull Santa's sleigh. In fact, Noah was quite sure that the two we saw were Blitzen and Wudolph. He said to Chris, "Dad! Come see!!" it was really quite adorable. We went on to go into the little shop where they had a million things Noah shouldn't touch, but they also had an eating area to have free hot cocoa. We ate funnel cake, drank hot cocoa, and watched the little train they had set up. It really was a good time, and Kyle enjoyed himself as well. You really can take that baby anywhere.

Well, check back again in the next few days if you'd like to see more pics. I'm going to be updating the blog a lot over the next week or so.

Hope you all are cozy this chilly night!

Next time Noah will get more air time!

We've Got Pictures!

Don't get too excited--these are still from the old camera. I finally uploaded ALL of our pics off of the old camera--so this should be it. I've begun snapping away with the new one, but now I just have to figure out how to upload them. That will be my next project!

Here, Kyle's waiting for his very first taste of rice cereal.

Looking a little confused. For awhile, I think all of this was more for practice than anything. This was probably a month ago. He's since tried sweet potatoes and this week, squash! Such excitement in a baby's life! =)

Noah celebrating his third birthday! Yep, that's a Costco cake. I did, however, make him homemade cupcakes for his preschool class. That is if you can call Betty Crocker "homemade."

The candle on the cake is Pablo from The Backyardigans. We have a minor obsession with The Backyardigans over here.

Little brother watching Big Brother open presents.

Do I note a tinge of affection for Little Brother here? Maybe just a tinge??

The cool socks that Aunt Deb and Uncle Fred sent Kyle. These socks ROCK. Not only are they ADORABLE, they STAY on his feet. This is unheard of in the baby sock.

Hangin' out in the baby exersaucer, looking so mature these days!

Noah emerges from the depths of his tunnel! What a bright, smiley face! =)

Keepin' the Blog Going...

even with no new pictures. You really can't fault me, can you? I've still got an infant who doesn't sleep through the night. Who has time or energy to read through a camera manual as big as a bible? I've even dropped the ball on Christmas cards this year--my plan (still) is to get a good pic of the boys together. That should be easy, right? ;P



So yesterday I was telling a very hyped-up-because-it-was-cold-and-rainy preschooler to get his little behind over to me so I could change his diaper. I finally got a hold of him while he was standing and was planning to tell him to park it. Right then, as I was leaning over him, he decided to JUMP UP! His head bonked me in the chin. The force of his head hitting my chin was so hard I bit my tongue and my teeth got chomped together (does that make sense??). It hurt SO bad. He cried, I cried. I think my chin actually hurt worse than his head. A bit later, I told him I was sorry his head got hurt (this was AFTER I had a cow at him for being such a wild animal). He said, "I'm sorry you got hurt too." Awwww. I then decided to take us over to the Y. They have a playroom over there (which is right next door to where we live, so super convenient) called the "mat room." It's a room filled with all these cushion like shapes that kids can bounce off the walls on. I used to take him there in the mornings, but it was always such a zoo with a million kids going crazy. I started to avoid it like the plague. So I thought maybe if I went in the afternoon when everyone ELSE's kid might be napping, we might get lucky. We did! He got to jump and bounce and get so much energy out--it was wonderful. We stayed for a whole hour and Kyle didn't even mind. So we have decided we're going to be doing that a lot more often.



As for me, my neck feels a little out of whack and my chin is turning purple, but hey--it finally forced me to find an outlet for Noah's wiggles. We're much better for it.

Regarding the Post Right Below This One

Get your mind out of the gutter, people!!!

;P

You Want to See Pictures??

Yeah, me too.

Next time, I promise!

I took Noah to the doctor today for his 3 year check up. He's such a big kid now that he actually *stands* to get weighed and measured. He also got his blood pressure checked with a real band on your arm blood pressure thingy--I think he really thought this was big kid stuff! At the end of the appointment they even did a little vision check where he had to tell them what shape he was looking at. My little shape-knowing pro whizzed right through that test! ;)

So he was 32 lbs. which was much less than what I thought he would be. He really is a little lean machine, but boy picking him up you'd think he weighed a ton! He's 50th percentile for weight and 75th percentile for height at 38 1/4".

Well, Kyle continues to wail in his crib, so I think that's it for now. I promise to work on the pictures!

Stay warm all (unless you're in California!). We just got a heating blanket from Costco. It's a "control your own side" blanket. Now the highlight of the day is when one of us looks excitedly at the other and says, "I'm going to go PREHEAT the bed!!!" Yee haw! I highly recommend warming up one's bed. It's extremely cozy! =)

Out With the Old...

camera that is. I'm in the process of uploading and posting all the pics from what is now my OLD camera. This is good news! For my birthday/Christmas gift, I got a brand new camera! Yippee! So for the next couple of posts, I'll have the last several pics I took off of the old camera. In the meantime, I have a ton of reading to do to figure out how to take advantage of all the fun new features on my new camera. I can already say though, it takes pictures that are worlds better than what I've been taking. So exciting to me, since our kiddos are little--I want to be able to get really *good* pics of them. I've already taken a few, and the quality is just so much better.

Here's a pic with Noah and Kyle laying on the floor together. We told Noah if he held Kyle's hand, we'd give him a candy corn.



This is what happens when you mix sidewalk chalk that has been left out in the rain and is now so wet it's practically pastel-like, and an almost three year old.

Finally able to wear the New York shirt Uncle Brian bought him before he was born!

Kyle in the Baby Papasan chair. A chair that has been all but retired since this pic was taken. He is such a mover already, that this chair is used maybe once or twice a week now.

Where Santa Claus Lives

So this morning we were asking Noah different questions, amazed at all he knows. He knows that when I say "your parents" to Chris, I'm talking about Mimi and Papaw. So then I asked him, "who are Noah's parents?" and he said, "Mommy and Daddy." I then asked him, "who is Mommy's mommy?" He said, "Gigi" (what he calls my mom). I said, "who is my brother?" and he said "Uncle Brian." So then Chris said to him, "where does Santa Claus live?" and he answered, "in North Carolina!"

Cutie!!

The Last of the Pumpkin Pictures

Noah and I made Halloween cookies and he was in charge of tasting and decorating with sprinkles.

At one last pumpkin patch with our friends Kristie and Raegan.

This time we got to take a hayride out to the pumpkin patch. They must stock this little area with all kinds of kid sized pumpkins. There were hundreds of these little medium sized pumpkins laying around. We both were allowed to choose one--he chose one for me too. =)

Lift!

October Pics

Here are a few more pumpkin patch pics. Chris and I took the boys to a pumpkin farm where there were fields of pumpkins. That's not something you're used to seeing in Southern California! Southern California's idea of a pumpkin patch is setting up a mock field in the middle of say, a Target parking lot. Somehow, it's just not the same. ;P

We had some great weather in September and October with plenty of sunshine. Both boys wore their costumes that day. Noah picked out a lot of gourds and one pumpkin, and Chris had fun picking out the odd ones. I always like the ones with the really long, gnarly stems.

After we picked our pumpkins, we got to feed a donkey some carrots. We ended up giving our last carrot to another kid, cause those donkey teeth can be pretty intimidating--especially when he CRUNCHES that carrot in half--yikes! We ended our day with a yummy caramel apple that Noah loved (and slobbered all over). Yay for Fall!!

The Un-Potty

So remember all my bragging about how Noah had potty trained himself? Well, that lasted all of about a week. He *did* really potty train himself--poop and all, it's just that he decided that it wasn't for him. He's decided that the toilet is completely overrated, and I've decided that changing an almost 3 year old's poopy diapers is overrated. I guess the good news is that he *can* do it. He just chooses not to. So I'm not pushing it. For now. He will use the potty at night before bed--go figure. He'll say, "I have to go pee." Great, now do that like, ALL THE TIME.

Here's a pic of our little man when he was excited about the potty:






That's his Backyardigans potty seat he's holding. Now if I could just find some Backyardigans underwear. You'd think that they'd be making those along with every other marketable item imaginable. But nope--no underpants. If he could just wear Pablo, Tyrone, Tasha, Uniqua, and Austin on his butt, I'm sure that would get him *going* again! ;P

A Few More Random Pics

Before I upload all the pics that are sitting on our camera! I am so behind in keeping everyone updated. Kyle (and Noah too) are growing so fast.

Kyle turned 4 months on the 7th. I totally don't know how that happened. This last summer seems like a big blur in my mind! At the time, I was really pretty stressed with adjusting to a new baby and a high energy toddler. Things have settled down so much now. Kyle is definitely more in a groove--his colic is long gone and he's a pretty easy baby (except for the nighttime sleep thing!). He's fun, and screamy, and feisty already. He started rolling over from back to front and then back again the day before Halloween, and hasn't stopped since. He's ahead of Noah on that one, and I really believe it's because he can't wait to run around with his big brother!

I love that newborn stage, but in a way, it's a big haze. I have to admit, I'm glad we're past it now and on to the next phase. Noah is almost 3, and he has really shown us some growth lately. His "behavior" that he was exhibiting at around 2.5 has subsided a lot, and he is very eager to help Mommy and Daddy, and Kyle too. In fact, the last two days, he has let Kyle borrow one of his favorite blankets to nap with. He is such a good boy!

Anyway, these pics are random, but cute we think! Thanks for looking again! =)



Fabio. A.K.A. Kyle:

I picked up this furry little orange (pimp) hat at the Dollar Tree. That pink thing in his mouth is one of those lint remover thingies that you use for clothes. Who needs toys??

Kyle struggling after we tortured him with these sunglasses: