Brotherly Love

Noah loves to try and "play" with Carson. 

Carson loves to watch his brother Noah. 

I can't wait to really watch them play together. 

When Carson is awake, and is playing in something Noah has to be right there, whether it's his swing, bouncer, play mat or jumperoo.  I think he actually helps because he helps Carson get toys moving so he likes staying in things longer than a few minutes sometimes. 

Now it doesn't always fair well, because Noah isn't always gentle with his brother so we do have a to keep an eye on them when he is around him but I know in time he will understand more and more!  When Carson starts moving these two are really going to be great buddies!

 Giving Carson a hug, after he had just given him a kiss! So sweet!

 Carson smiling at Noah, just love seeing this!

These are the Moments

Lately, I just haven't had a lot of wonderful moments with my kids.   Noah had a nasty cold  for a bit, and was teething  so he wasn't his self for a little while and I think Carson could feel my tension with him and was crankier than normal as well.  I have just felt high strung and beat down for awhile now and feel like I have had 0 patience with them.  I have hated feeling like I just can't handle them lately. 

Then the weekend happened!  Friday night we had a wonderful evening out with the Sterchi's, dinner and the MercyMe concert, then Saturday I hung out with my sisters and the boys all day.  Saturday night we made crafts with Noah and then had movie night with the sisters and hubby!  Then yesterday Matthew and  I got to go shopping alone in Champaign without the boys.  It was such a nice day but I was ready to get home to our little men.  Last night I had a wonderful evening with both of them, I played with Carson before bed, gave him a bath then fed him and just cuddled with him after he fell asleep on my shoulder and just enjoyed my sweet sleeping boy.  Then I laid him down and came out to Mr. Noah who already had got a bath from dad and he did his normal mom-mom and hit  the couch to summon me over to sit by him (love it when he does this) and we cuddled on the couch and watched an episode of Jake then went to the playroom  to read books before his bedtime.  He has really been into books lately, and really seems to be taking everything in.  Then I got to tuck him in for the night.  Then the wonderfulness has continued today.  Noah has been an angel and we have played all morning with cars, trains, magnets, other toys and read a lot more books.  He has been super cuddly and pretended to get hurt so he could get some loving, I hugged him and sang to him for like 10 minutes (pretty unheard for him to just sit still and hug us for longer than 15 seconds).  It was great, I totally soaked that moment in.  Carson has been so good today too and has actually slept a lot which is the opposite of his normal 30 minute cat naps. 

It has been such a wonderful weekend of friends, family and great times with my boys, I very much needed this and am so thankful today for all the help we had this weekend with the boys while we got away and thankful for our two little wonderful blessings who have captured our hearts! 

Days like today make every diaper change struggle, the daily non stop mess of toys and baby items, lack of sleep, the tantrums, and crying all worth it!  Now I just need to read this on the bad days and remind myself, haha! 

Christmas Fun

Last night we decided to try some Christmas crafts with Noah. On Pinterest I saw a craft that was supposed to be a Christmas tree and it was simple, waffle cone turned upside down, covered with green icing and decorated with candy.  I thought it may be something he would enjoy so I bought  the stuff and decided to be lazy and bought store icing as well.  I was going to dye it green but as young as he is, knew he wouldn't know the difference and decided to skip that part and left it white to keep the mess minimal! 

Aunt Kate, icing the first cone and Noah wondering what the heck we were doing. 

 Ornery aunt Kate put icing on his nose and Mr. Picky about anything being on him didn't even notice because he was really paying attention.

 Just started and did not like once he got the icing on his fingers.....

 That didn't last long and he started putting the candy on the tree, then taking it right back off to eat it.  Apparently candy is much better with icing....

Next I found this cheap little gingerbread man kit so we did that after the cones.  Basically all it was, was stickers you could put on the foam gingerbread man.  Noah loves stickers so this was right up his alley!

 Carson didn't think craft time was too exciting, he fell asleep on me

 Our finished products!

Matthew and I have always decorated a gingerbread house each year since we have been dating and always thought we would have that be one of our holiday traditions but this year decided to do something a little easier.  Maybe next year we will try with Noah, but it will be a few years before Carson would get into it.  I've been trying to think of some more neat traditions to start with our kids, anyone have any neat ideas they want to share?

Proud

Lately (well a few months now) Matthew and I have been worried about Noah's speech.  He just really hasn't ever been a talker and we've realized that more after Carson started cooing and just making noises because Noah never really did much of  that.  At his last check up at 18 months they said they gain a lot of speech from then to 2 years so we have just been waiting for him to make up that ground.  Well he is almost 2 years old and he is finally starting to say more words each day, not as much as we would like but it's progress.  We have been going back and forth about whether to have him evaluated for it and possibly start meeting with a speech therapist but the last week he has really been showing us he can talk and has been doing it more often.  He also has moments that you can tell he is really listening to us and soaking things in.  We have really been trying to work with him more (Matthew more, he has so much patience and will tell him what something is 50 times to try and get him to say it)  He won't say anything on command and some words we have heard him say he may use one week but won't use it again for 2 weeks.  It's so frustrating for us, but I know it has to be for him too when we are always trying to guess what his signals and pointing mean and can't figure it out. 

 Tonight I was just so proud of him as he gave me a book and said "read this" and then he snuggled up next to me (which I love, he is such a lover sometimes now, a huge change from when he was younger) and he totally paid attention while I read book after book and interacted with me as I read it to him and asked questions.  In our Bob the Builder book, he loves the end where it has all the machines and he pointed to each one when I asked where that color was, then in another book he pointed out the cow, pig, duck and sheep, and in another he counted things with me and said his favorite number 6 when it was time.  It's nice to know he is learning because somedays it seems as if he doesn't hear a word we say.  We don't doubt that he's smart because he very much is and has proven that to us over and over but it's nice to have the reassurance that mom I do listen to you and I will prove it to you like he did tonight.  Now if we could just get him to vocalize all the things he knows, we will be so relieved!  I'm sure once he really does start talking he won't quit and I will look back and this and laugh. 

Our Little Fireman

 Noah definetly is a big brother, because he is quite the boss around our house (at least thinks he is).  Lately he has been in love with his fireman hat we got free awhile back at the Fire Station Open house. Noah has never worn hats pretty much since he was old enough to pull them off.  He just throws a fit if you even try but for some reason lately, he knows when a hat is for fun like his fireman hat or a cowboy hat he found at Nana Jill's and Papa Bob's.  It's so cute to see him just walking around wearing it.  Well today he wanted dad to wear the black hat all day and he wore the red one.  At dinner tonight Matthew was tired of wearing the silly hat and kept trying to take it off and everytime he did Noah would notice it immediately and point to him and  tell him to put his hat back on (the last picture is him bossing in action).  Funny kid! 

I Made It

I'm getting closer and closer to my weight loss goal.  With Carson I gained 33 pounds and had set a goal to have it off by Thanksgiving, right around when he would turn 3 months.  Well lately I have been getting closer and closer and knew any day I should of seen that last pound drop.  I didn't even make it up the last two days to workout so I really wasn't expecting to see that wonderful number today but I did!  Yahoo!   I have now lost all of my weight from Carson, but I'm not done, I still have some weight I never lost from Noah and some more I just want to get rid of.  So hoping I can lose 9 more pounds, and I'm setting a goal for that of February 1st.  I'm sure it will be tricky with the holidays so it might be borderline impossible but I'm going to try! 

What stinks is though even though the weights off from pregnancy and I can fit into a lot of my clothes, they still don't look good because I don't feel like my shape is back to normal.  Now I've always been wide but during and after pregnancy I'm extra wide.  Hoping these hips move back in soon! 

First Christmas of the year

Yesterday we had our first Christmas get together of the year.  Matthew's parents will be out of town for Christmas visiting his sister in Arizona so we had Christmas a few weeks early.  Matthew's sister Amanda and her new hubby in Arizona weren't able to make it (which we hated, becaues we miss them) but all of his other siblings and their spouses/kids were able to.  What a day we had.  There are 6 kids right now and 4 are under 2.  We had mexican for lunch and pizza (the Christmas tradition) for dinner, so it was an all day affair.  The younger kids all got naps but Noah's was only about 30 minutes, he definetly could of used more.  We had some crazy moments and pictures were borderline impossible with that many little ones.  Overall it was still a great day hanging out Matthew's family including his parents.  He loves hanging out with his brothers, and I love all their wives so it's always a good time!  And Noah loves his cousins, Carson is too young but I know he will someday as well!

I didn't know how Noah would do this year with presents because he hasn't opened any since his birthday which was in January.  Almost a year ago!  Well when he saw boxes in a pile he was ready to open them and did manage to do most of it, but I had to help a little.  Once he opened the first thing with little trucks, that is all he wanted was them out of the box to play with.  but we got him to finish the rest of the presents first.  He got some great things and I was excited too since we have some new toys to play with.  I don't think he does but I get bored with the toys he has.  Carson missed out, he was napping so mom opened up his presents for him! 

I have been a little forgetful lately and forgot the camera so we didn't get any pictures of Noah and the day or the presents but I did take some after we got home.  I think we were all ready for bed. 

Here is out tired little man, watching Chugginton before bed and notice all the trucks he got for Christmas, there are ten of them  next to him and he had to line them all up on the couch while he watched TV, funny kid!

(cute look with the hiked up pajamas, huh?)

Random picture of Carson from this morning, got a good smile out of him! 

 I guess he was excited about his new toys as well! 

 Noah playing with his new Chugginton trains this morning.  He got a  track too, but they didn't last long on there, he has been playing with them all over the house this morning

on the couch.......

 lying down playing with them, haha.......

                                           on the side table in the living room.......

Then  the trains ate lunch with him and are now in bed with him napping!!  I think we are going to have to get a few more!