Lesson Learned

Today Randi, Noah and I headed to Champaign to meet my grandma for lunch.  She lives in Arizona but is staying in Champaign for the weekend for a wedding.  I hadn't been shopping in Champaign in almost 2 months. I think that might be a record for me so I was excited to get a chance to try and do a little shopping while we were there as well.  We went up early so we could get some stores in before lunch.  Noah watched his new favorite Clifford on the way up there and really did pretty good for being awake the whole time.  When we got up there we went to Target then the mall.  Old Navy is in the mall now so went there first and needless to say after that Noah and I were pretty much done.  I was tired of fighting with him already and he was done staying in his stroller, all he wanted was "down".  I figured he probably needed some time to run so we took him to the mall play area.  He loved it.  

I wish we had something like this closer that was indoor that  I could take him to play in more often. 

The first time he went down this slide he went down right, then he saw one other kid go down backwards and after that he tried it and decided it was much better.   

 Doing his happy dance

 No matter how many fits this little man throws in a day or how worn out he has me, this face still makes me smile

 We were walking away from the play area and we spotted Clifford or as we always call him  "Cliffy".  Noah loves Clifford nowadays, he absolutely loves his new DVD and still loves his stuffed animal.  As a matter of fact we had to bring him with us in the car and he held onto him most of the drive up to Champaign so we couldn't turn down the opportunity to ride him.

 Eating lunch with Grandma Lee, he decided to share his soggy ketchup covered fries.  Once she ate one, he wouldn't stop trying to feed her. 

We did have some good times, but overall I realized I'm done shopping with Noah for awhile.  He is just too active and can't sit in a stroller all day and not old enough to understand he can't just run everywhere.    Next time I will be leaving him home or will be shopping online instead.  Soon I know we will have Carson as well and I know there is no way at all to handle Noah and the baby on a shopping trip. 

Big Boy Bed Night #1

Well we tried, we aborted big boy bed mission this morning at about 5 am.

The beginning, went awesome better than I ever thought it would.  Noah has been playing on his bed alot and can get down himself and open his own door so I really thought it would be a battle to get him to stay in bed.  However last night we took off the pillows, pulled down the quilt and laid him down.  He tossed and turned a little, kicked his feet, all the normal things he does when he is going to sleep but never got off the bed.  Before we knew it he was asleep and I snuck in for a picture.  He looked so cute laying there in his big boy bed, but at the same time made me sad! 

 We kept going in and checking on him and had noticed he does move around a lot when he sleeps well at about 11:00 he started crying and we ran in and his head was hanging off the end of the bed so we put him back up to the top and put pillows at the end of the bed so it wouldn't happen again.  Then he slept fine until about 5 when before  I knew it Matthew was in there with him, he heard the boom and jumped out of bed to see what happened. Noah had fallen out in between the small space of the wall and where the bed rail starts.  It's not very much room, how he managed to do it I'm not sure but after that I didn't want to put him back in the bed until we figured out something we could do to prevent that from happening again.  The remainder of the night he spent in his crib, safe and content.  We felt bad, he didn't get hurt, I think it just scared him more than anything but it always just stinks when any accidents happen. 

So today for nap I just put him in his crib again, I'm getting ready to order another bed rail so that way they go from the complete top of the bed to the bottom and we can just barricade the bottom with pillows.  Until we get that though, we are just going to do the crib for a few more days! 

Things that entertain an 18 Month Old

Last Friday I was working on closets and working the old baby stuff back into the house and had some tubs and containers sitting around and they sure entertained Noah for awhile.  Here he was playing with the little one and kept getting in and out, and throwing his balls in and out!  It was so funny to me, that it was so fun to him!  

 He did the same thing with the big one, he would throw the balls in and then dump it over on it's side to get them out. 

 I didn't get a picture but he also has loved playing with his cars on them, so it's now Monday and the same containers have been sitting in my hall since then because 1)haven't felt like putting them in the attic and 2) he has just been having too much fun pushing his  cars around on them

Sunday we went to Grandpa John and Dinah's for lunch as usual and it started to rain right around when we were eating.  Well dad thought it was a good idea to show Noah the rain on the back deck, he let him walk out there and step around and then he didn't want to go back inside.  We made him and then after awhile everyone went out front to let him play some more.  Noah and dad played on the driveway and did Noah's happy dance and splashed around!  He sure had a good time!  His hair and face got pretty wet but he didn't mind at all.

 After being on the driveway awhile, they walked down the lane to the rock road, that is where the real fun was with the big puddles!  I didn't want to get wet so didn't follow but witnessed the fun and the fact that every time dad brought him back to the driveway he would run right back to the road and to the puddles. 

He's growing up so much,  I can't believe how skinny he looks here.  I was looking back at old pictures tonight and wow, he used to be such a chubster and now he's lean like his daddy but still so cute!

Big Day Tomorrow

Tomorrow we are going to attempt the big boy bed (I did say attempt).

We have now had the bed in Noah's room since last Wednesday but have just been letting him sit up there at night to read books because we didn't have a guard rail yet, well it came in today and Matthew got put it together and put it on the bed tonight. He can't get in it himself, but he can get down.  He loves it and thinks he is pretty big stuff in it. He also thinks its fun to plop down on his butt and bounce a little too, so we will see how this goes.  Bedtime tomorrow we will try it first, then Wednesday we are both off so we will try his first naptime.  I'm expecting bedtime to go a little better than naptime.  During naptime it's not completely dark so  I can just see him getting right down and helping himself to books or exiting his bedroom since he can open the door. 

I know he's still pretty young and most people don't switch this early, but Carson will be getting Noah's crib so we didn't want to switch him right when that happened, we want him in his own bed for awhile so he doesn't see it as Carson taking over HIS crib.  If it doesn't work right away we can keep trying every so often since we have some time.  We just thought we had it ready so lets try and see how it goes!  Wish us luck!

 Loves books, this one is a glittery color books!  This is one we pretty much look at every night!

Noah and dad reading the Hungry Little Caterpillar, he loves the junk food page, where he eats through lots of different items.  It's funny he looks for that page first every time!

Hate that he has the pacifier in his mouth, but this is the one of the 2 times during the day he gets it.  He gets it during naptime and after his bath at night we let him have it since we just read books and then put him to bed.  Then once he wakes up in the morning as soon as we get him out, pacifier comes out.  We still need to work on the this too!  The poor guy will be going through so much in the next couple months. 

Nesting

This week I'm definitely feeling the whole pregnancy nesting thing.  Ever since Noah's new big boy bedding came in I have been ready to start getting things ready. This week Matthew finished staining Noah's new bed and painted the boys room blue for me ( I wasn't allowed to help, so he was up until 2:30 am painting it Wednesday morning.  Wednesday we moved Noah's new bed upstairs from the basement where it had been hanging out and put the new bedding on.  It really is cute, I like it better than I thought I would and it does match Noah's old crib stuff really well.  Then last night I started washing all the sleepers/ onesies of Noah's that I thought maybe Carson would use in the first month or so and also the new clothes for Carson that I have bought.  Then this morning I got all those hung up and put away.  I started to try and reorganize the closet, but Noah was done playing in his room so I had to put that project on hold.  Hopefully soon I can get to work on that, because that is something I'm really excited/anxious to do.  I'm not sure why, but organzing closets is so fun to me.

 Also early in the week I had gotten an email letting me know my auto delivery diapers I order for Noah from Amazon mom were shipped and I realized wow Carson will totally need diapers too, because size 4 just won't do it right away.  So since when you set up a auto delivered subscription for diapers you get 30% off I set one up for newborn and size 1 diapers.  I figured I would just get a big box of each, cancel the subscriptions before the next shipment comes and  then reset it up once I know  how big and what size diapers I will really be needing for awhile.  It has been so nice for Noah, because he has been in size 4 forever and every month like clockwork I get close to the end of our diapers and the next box is already on it's way.  It's worked out perfect with him.  Anyone who uses disposables, Amazon mom is  a great program,  free  fast shipping ( I already got the diapers this week),  30% savings on diapers and wipes with auto delivery and savings on  other baby items and so easy.  If you ever need something later/ earlier than your scheduled delivery you just log on and change the dates!  I love it!

So now that the room is set up, clothes are washed and put away, diapers are everywhere until I get a chance to reorganize the closets/drawers, decorating the walls in the room are next on the list.  This afternoon I'm painting some canvases brown and Matthew has a design drawn up of what he is going to paint on them for the boys once he gets a chance.  I'm excited, we will post pictures when they are done.  Then I need to go through the attic and get down all the baby stuff from Noah that we have packed away.  I forgot how much stuff babies use in the beginning!  I know I have almost 7 weeks left but of course I still have that hope of going early and with Noah everything takes longer to get done that it used to so I want to have everything in order and ready with a month to spare just in case! 

33 Weeks

Tomorrow I will be 33 weeks along, Wow, can't believe I have less than 2 months.  I also can't believe I have yet to take a belly photo. I'm having another boy, really I look about the same as I did with Noah.  I'm wide and have a really low belly.  I think I look about the same size as I did with Noah but I've heard differently both that I'm bigger and smaller.  But hey I think now is when you really start to begin to get big, instead of just feeling big because I have definitely been there for awhile already.  Carson has pretty much seemed to be a much calmer child in the womb until yesterday. Geez he kept me up moving half the night last night and has been a lot today too.  Since he was breech I'm thinking maybe he flipped slowly all night long or something, I have no other reason to explain the non stop jabs.  If he did flip that would be awesome, we don't want a breech baby come delivery time. 

Anyways onto exciting news, Matthew is painting the boys room right now!  I was hoping to help but got booted from the room.  Matthew says I shouldn't be in there and he will do it alone.  Poor guy we couldn't start until Noah went to bed at 8:30, so it will be a late night for him.  He is hoping the one coat super paint will be fine and we won't need another coat.  But if so I guess he can work on it tomorrow our day off that way it can air out before Noah's bedtime tomorrow.  He has an air purifier running while he paints and we will keep it running all day tomorrow to get rid of all the fumes!  We have Noah in his pack and play in our room since he can't be in his tonight and he has never liked that thing ever. I was expecting a fit when Matthew put him in, but to our shock he didn't make a peep and went right to sleep.  I'm so proud of our growing boy.  

I can't wait to get Noah's new bed in the boys room and begin to put the room together for both of them.  Ever since we moved the walls have been white and nothing has been on them.  I am past ready for color and decor in there.  It is my own fault though for taking so long to decide what to do in there but with less than 2 months to go before Carson arrives it has been starting to make me nervous not having any of it ready.  After this I can get all the baby stuff back out and get drawers and closets ready for Noah and baby!  What a great feeling that will be .  I just don't feel ready yet, so I'm definetly needing that.  And with this summer heat, I'm totally not enjoying summer pregnancies, I'm hoping even more than I did with Noah to get to go early!

Rooms pictures to come soon hopefully!

18 Month Check Up

Today Noah had his 18 month doctor visit.  I was a little anxious for this one, just so I could talk to them about where he is at and where he should be.  First little man got weighed and measured and boy have his percentages changed in the last year.  He now weights 24 1/2 pounds and is 32 inches tall.  He is in the 32nd percentile for weight, which totally surprises me.  He was born and in the 90th percentile range the first 6 months of his life.  For height he is in the 42nd percentile.  He has grown 1 1/2 inches since his last visit.  So he definitely has gotten taller but pretty much stayed the same in weight. 

Other than that info we talked about eating, sleeping, and speech developments.  I could finally say at  this visit that he sleeps through the night consistently and finally has been for close to 6 months.  I could say he eats things with his fingers, since he has gotten so much better with his texture issues.  He still won't eat a lot of foods or even try a lot of things but at least we can get some healthy foods down and in a variety of food groups. 

Speech was my biggest concern.  We just were not quite sure if he was talking/ saying as many words as he should of been.  She asked me what he all said and said he is fine in that area.  Good news to hear.  She said over the next 6 months is when their speech really starts to take off so it should really grow from here on out.  Also they should start using words together soon as well, which I thought maybe he should of already been doing but I guess we are okay there.  So I guess in the next six months we will just really continue to work on getting him to talk more and not worry about him being behind.  We are already working on giving up the pacifier so that should help as well.  I am determined to have him done with it before Carson comes and hoping he won't want one back if Carson decides to be a paci baby as well.   We have him to where he only has it when he goes down for a nap/bedtime already.  That was easy we started that last week and if it's not around he has been doing fine without it.
Poor guy is going to have a lot of changes coming his way in the next few months and it's hard deciding when the best time to do things are.

Everything else she asked if Noah was doing, he does and does well (especially the stacking stuff, boy does he have that mastered).  So wheww!  We can just continue to enjoy our smart, energetic little boy!

Tent Fun

Yesterday my mom was having a garage sale with a friend of hers and had sent me a few pictures of things throughout the morning to ask if we had wanted them.  One picture was of 2 different sized tents.  She had told me they both folded down and I thought well that would be fun and something we could put in the basement. And the best part was, only $5 so I told her to get the Dora one which I could tell was bigger but didn't realize just how big it was.  Noah was sleeping as soon as she got here with the tent but we had it waiting for him when he woke up.  He wasn't quite ready for it right when he woke up since there were people in his house, and a huge tent in his living room.  After he woke up a little bit more it didn't take long for him to get right in and fall in love!

               Discovered the windows on each side, he thought looking at us through those was pretty neat!

                                          Getting ready to escape out the back door of the tent

 And of course like most boys he is good at destroying things, it didn't take long for him to realize he could knock the tent in by falling on it.  We will see how long this holds up.

Mom actually bought the tent for him but the $5 totally would have been worth it.  Tonight we moved it to it's new home in the basement, since there is no way this tent fits in the playroom with everything else already in there and it's definitely not hanging out in the living room.  Noah still loved it down there, throwing balls in and out of it and just running around it being one active little boy!  I can just hear him when he gets older asking if him and Carson can sleep in there some night.  Hopefully it lasts that long.  What a cute sight that will be, my two boys in their sleeping bags camping out in the tent inside.  Oh the fun we have to look forward to!

Yummy

We have found a way to get Noah to eat meat, BBQ sauce!  He LOVES it!  I don't even remember the first time he tried it and how we got him to but he does eat it quite often now.  We first tried chicken nuggets with BBQ sauce and he eats them like a champ.  Now the other night I tried just plain grilled chicken and gave him BBQ sauce on it.  Same thing still loved it.  I'm thinking that is the much better way to go.  I want to grill up some ahead of time  from now on so we have some on hand so it will be as easy as chicken nuggets are.  The only bad side of his new found BBQ love is the mess.  I don't like messes but am definitely getting better, I know that it's inevitable at this age during meal time.  I have to let him learn and do things himself.  Here are a few pictures of him eating chicken yesterday.

He's trying to give mom the strawberry he just picked up since obviously his mouth is full

                                                   Dipping his nuggets in BBQ sauce

Doesn't look messy yet, but he definitely got there!

Boys Room

So I finally did it, 31 weeks along, my due date is exactly 2 months from today and I finally ordered some more bedding.  I have been searching and searching for quite some time but wasn't sure just what to do.  First I was set on making a matching set for the boys and scouted out fabric from every fabric website I could find with nothing that really jumped out at me and said that's it.  I found one line of fabrics I liked but was having a hard time finding somewhere to purchase the whole line, it was always sold out, or could find some of it but not all of the different ones available.  So I gave up since time was running out and started looking at sets to purchase.  I had found a set awhile ago I really wanted but there was always something not available and sometimes it was just completely gone from the site all together.  Now it's hard to find matching crib and toddler sets there really aren't very many selections.Once it was all finally in stock again, I realized I couldn't get the crib and toddler set because Noah will be on a twin size mattress so the toddler sets are not even an option for us. For  the record, toddler sets fits the same size mattress as whats in the crib.  Grr... I had to start all over again.  Now I thought there weren't very many options for finding matching crib and toddler sets, they aren't any matching for a crib and twin mattress.  So instead of buying new crib bedding (even though I would love to) we decided to keep Noah's current set for Carson and find something for Noah that matched or at least comes close to the same colors.  I thought I would have to go with just a plain comforter or something but did find a quilt set that looks like the colors are pretty close to what will be Carson's crib bedding.  (It's nothing I would generally pick out, but it was the best option I could find) I ordered it Wednesday so when it comes in next week we will find out just how close the colors are.  I'm hoping the light blue color in both will be similar and then that is what I will plan on painting the room.  It's definitely not my dream room for the boys, but I'm trying to be practical Jen and save money so this just makes the most sense.  Then in a few years Carson will be moving to a big boy bed so we will have to re-do the room again then, and maybe then I will get to do what I really want. (Hoping Noah isn't too into anything that he begs me for Cars or a another character set because I'm going to try and stay away from that for as long as possible/ever) 
I tried to get pictures to show up on here, but when I saved them, they either came up super blurry or as white pictures, not sure why so here is a link to the current bedding Noah has that Carson will keep

http://www.target.com/Sumersault-Geo-Boy-Bedding-Collection/dp/B001NXE44G/ref=br_1_9?ie=UTF8&id=Sumersault%20Geo%20Boy%20Bedding%20Collection&node=51588011&searchSize=30&searchView=list&searchPage=1&sr=1-9&qid=1310087948&rh=&searchBinNameList=subjectbin%2Cprice%2Ctarget_com_primary_color-bin%2Ctarget_com_size-bin%2Ctarget_com_brand-bin&searchRank=pmrank&frombrowse=1

And here is the link to the set we ordered for Noah's new big boy bed

http://www.target.com/Circo-Color-Block-Quilt-Colorway/dp/B003F84MUI/ref=sc_qi_detaillink

Anxious for it to come in, so we can get painting and get the room decorated.  It looks so big, empty and white!  We will definitely post pictures once we finally get somewhere with it. 

Weekend Fun

What a busy but fun weekend we had.  Friday and Saturday we spent time with great friends and then Sunday and Monday we spent time with our awesome families!  Saturday the Smiths and us went to dads to go swimming and took the boys.  They both did really well.After swimming we just went back to our house and grilled out and hung out for the rest of the night. Sunday we went to dads again for a get together and it really cooled off so I really didn't want Noah to go swimming but with the kids swimming and his new enjoyment of the pool he just kept walking over to it and trying to step right in.  I realized now how nice it was that he didn't like it before and stayed away when we wanted him to.    Hard for mom to relax with a pool so close and a boy who wanted in.  After awhile we gave in and dad got in with him.

                                           Really paying attention to the big kids swimming

Noah just loves Ben, and loves sitting on the steps of the pool, they are his favorite spot.  I think he feels safer there than us walking him around in the pool

               We have put Noah on the trampoline a few different times this year and everytime he has hated it.  Not sure what was so different about that day but he loved it.  He just ran around, and fell down a lot but just kept laughing and had a ball.  We made him keep his paci in so he wouldn't bite through his tongue.  The way he is with his tongue always out I knew he would get hurt if he didn't have it in and it worked, no accidents. 

Yesterday on the 4th of July we went to Matthew's parents and Noah got to play outside all night at Nana Jill's and Papa Bob's with his cousins.  Boy did the kids have fun again.  They just have so much space for them to run and so much for them to do. After dinner they all played in the pool except for Noah who just went over to it to splash every now and then. 

Noah with Cole and Issie

                                     Noah playing in the playhouse.  He looked so cute in there!

Noah loving swinging with daddy and Papa Bob!  They have quite the swingset, big enough for all the "kids"!

 Now all the cousins, Aunt Amanda, and Uncle Trevor took a turn.  Boy do those kids all love their aunt and uncles.  Noah is so funny when he swings with Aunt Amanda, every time he just leans back and gets all relaxed.  I'm sure they slept good last night, the kids really kept them busy all night!

  Noah watching his first firework show.  Last year we didn't even try to keep him up.  He sure was tired from being outside and running around all night but he made it.  He just sat on dads lap most of the time and watched them with a cheesy little smile on his face.  After they were done we headed straight for home and gave little man a bath.  It sure was late for one but he was filthy and definitely needed one.  I think it was worth keeping him up for the festivities and he even slept in a little this morning, too bad we didn't get to too.  I was pooped after the weekend!  Tomorrow we are off again since it's Wednesday (our day off) so I'm looking forward to some much needed rest.  Overall it was a great weekend with lots of time with friends and family.  We are blessed to have so many great people in our lives and thankful to live in the country that we do!



Noah's New Buddy

Last week I was in Kohl's one night and noticed they had changed their Kohl's cares for kids theme to Clifford.  I know Noah is a little young to be into Clifford books but I couldn't resist picking him up one.  I got him a Clifford stuffed animal and book to go along with it.  Now Noah already has 2 friends, his Elmo and Eeyore which he carries around a lot or insists that they ride along with him in things but I really didn't expect him to love Clifford as much as he does.  As soon as I got him out the next morning he was flapping those happy arms and gave Clifford a big hug.  Needless to say he played with him most of the day and Clifford spent a lot of time crawling around on the floor barking and chasing Noah (with my help of course, haha)  I just was so excited that he liked him so much.  The book he wasn't as excited about he let me start reading but he mostly wanted to flip through the pages himself.  Oh well, maybe someday!

                                                            Giving Clifford Kisses!

                                               Laughing on the couch with his new buddy

                                  Same day, our smart little son, trying to "fix" the TV with the remote

 That afternoon he blessed me so much, I went to get him up from his nap and usually I carry him out but for some reason that day I didn't I set him right on the floor and he walked over to his books and started getting them out and looking at them.  I left the room and expected him to shortly follow.  Instead he probably stayed in his room by himself for about 15-20 minutes just looking at books.  Such a sweet boy, I just kept going back there, and standing in the door watching him seem so big!

I couldn't ask for a more perfect son for me!  We love him more than words!