Hapy Birthday Daddy and Noah!

Yesterday afternoon, we celebrated Waylon's and Noah's birthday with Nana, Granddad, Aunt Andrea and Uncle Sean. It was a busy day but I think Waylon had a perfect 30th birthday.... he got to clean the house (which he actually likes as most of you know), work in the yard, grill, drink beer, and eat pork... not to mention sharing the celebration with his son. I think the only thing that could have made it better for him was to watch football! :-) Noah got some really great toys that he absolutely loves - as you can tell from the following pictures!

the birthday boys

We also hung his swing yesterday (a gift from Grammy and Papa).... he loves it!!

Dump truck from Aunt Andrea and Uncle Sean

Push toy and baseball toy from Nana and Granddad

Trying out his new wagon -another gift from Nana and Granddad

The obligatory cake pictures....

He was really tired, so it was pretty mellow but he was shoving it in and really liked it. Every time he ate the icing, he kinda shivered... I think it was almost too sweet for him!

These are a few cute shots from tonight that I couldn't resist posting...

Lots going on!! - Picture Heavy! :-)

Hey everyone!!

We've had a LOT of stuff going on the past few weeks. Before our trip, we got a whole new living room set delivered, then we had our trip to the Dominican Republic and while we were gone, our contractor started working our our deck extention!! Not to mention Noah is officially walking now, so it's busy busy busy!

The trip was awesome... the place where we stayed left some things to be desired but the beach was beautiful, the water was crystal clear and the company was perfect!! It was a nice relaxing break from parenthood. I missed Noah like crazy on the flight down (I think in anticipation of missing him so much) but once we were there, I truely enjoyed myself. We talked to my parents twice a day and from what my parents said, Noah just beamed when he heard our voices, so that made me feel awesome. We got home late Tuesday night and it was like Christmas Eve... I was so excited to see him on Wednesday morning. Here are some shots from the trip....

In the airport at RDU

Standing outside of the swim-up bar when we first got there

Downtown Santo Domingo

Our room - after being upgraded for the last two nights :-)

This was waiting for us on our bed when we got home Tuesday night - my parents are the best! :-)

Since this is 'Noah's Adventures' and my parents take lots of pictures... here are some pictures from what he was doing while we were gone. Notice all the pictures of him looking sad and forlorn missing his parents!! :-)

Waking Noah up on Wednesday morning... he was much more interested in Daddy!! :-)

Noah is doing pretty well with walking. I still wouldn't let him toddle alone, but he can definitely go pretty far all by himself. It's crazy how quick he's getting it. It won't be long and he'll be running!!

Our deck is coming along great. Weather depending, we are supposed to have it stained this weekend and then they will screen it in and it should be done by the end of next week! It looks great and we are really going to enjoy having a screened in porch and a big extra open area, too!

Noah already got his first birthday presents from Grammy and Papa. They gave him a toddler swing, a fun water toy and a bell he picked out himself while they were here.

I can't believe he's is turning 1 on Wednesday. It's crazy that it's already been a year. So much has happened and I couldn't be happier!!!

We're off!!

Well, Noah is in bed (finally... he decided to stay up until 9:00 tonight!) and my parents are here and debriefed on his schedule. We'll be up at 4am tomorrow morning to catch our flight to the Dominican Republic so I'm off to bed now!

We'll have lots of pictures to post when we get home.... probably more from my parents than we'll take ourselves on our trip!! :-)

Talk to you all next week!

Happy Belated Father's Day!

Hope you all had a great Father's Day. Ours was nice. Waylon is still under the weather so that was unfortunate, but we did make it out for a quick trip to Panera and Target. I didn't get a shot of father and son together yesterday but here is a picture of what Noah gave to his Daddy. We had fun making it last week! :-)

If you can't read it, the poem reads....

Sometimes you get discouraged

Because I am so small

And always leave my fingerprints

On furniture and walls

But everyday I'm growing

I'll be grown up one day

And all those tiny handprints

Will surely fade away

So here's a final handprint

Just so you can recall

Excactly how my fingers looked

When I was very small

Here's a few other pictures for your enjoyment...

Now that he's movin' and grovin', he has so many bumps and bruises on his face!! People are going to think we beat our son! :-)

This is what he decided to do with his milk at Kohl's today!! :-)

Craziness

Well, it sure has been an interesting week!! The past few days have been crazy. I was supposed to have a busy day yesterday and today but the bug Noah brought home from daycare thwarted that! Let me start from the beginning...

All last week, Noah hadn't been sleeping well and we were answering his cries because we figured he was in pain... either from his surgery, his molars coming in, or a cold he seemed to have caught. On Sunday afternoon, he started showing the typical pink eye symptoms, so I took him to the doctor on Monday. The doc confirmed he had pink eye but said his ears looked perfect (thank goodness!!) and said he didn't think his teeth were hurting him at all. He took a tounge depressor and knocked around on his teeth and Noah didn't even flinch. The doc said he thought Noah was just 'jerking us around' at night! :-) So on Monday night, we started sleep training again. That night was pretty bad but Tuesday he only woke up once. By Wednesday, I heard one little whimper at 5AM but that was it. When we went in to wake him up on Thursday morning, he had thrown up in his crib!! :-( We thought maybe he had just eaten too much or something and went ahead and got him ready for school. When I was pulling into the daycare parking lot, he graced the car with two more presents. So I went in, got him cleaned up and went straight home.

Here's a few shots from Thursday... doesn't he look so sick! He's just amazing. :-)

By Friday morning, Noah seemed to be feeling much better but then it was my turn. I was sick all morning and by lunchtime, I could barely even watch Noah drink his milk, it was making me so nauseous, so I called Waylon and asked him to come home. When he got home, I went straight to bed for 2 1/2 hours and while I was down, the sickness hit Waylon. The big disappointment was that we had big plans for Friday and Saturday! Waylon's mom was supposed to come over to babysit on Friday and I was going to get my hair done and run a bunch of errands to prepare for Andrea's baby shower that Kay and I were supposed to be hosting at our house! We all decided it would be much better to change the venue, so last minute, we called all the guests and switched it to Kay's house.

Luckily, I felt much better this morning and was still able to go to the shower but Waylon was still feeling bad today (he has a bad cold now, too!!), so I took Noah to the shower with me and let Waylon relax some. The shower was beautiful and perfect at Kay's house and Andrea is such a glowing mother-to-be. We can't wait to meet Savannah!

So now the fun news... we have lots of fun times coming up!!! We ordered a new living room set and that's being delivered on Monday! Then on Thursday morning, we are leaving for our vacation to the Dominican Republic!! We are so excited about that. After we get home, we are having our deck screened in and extended. Then it will be time for Noah's 1st birthday!! We also have a big summer planned with lots of fun trips, so we are so excited. Stay tuned for lots of pictures this summer!

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST!!.....

Noah took a few steps on his own tonight!!!! He's been exploring with standing on his own and actually took a few steps from me to Waylon. It was so awesome!! I keep thinking we'll get home from our vacation, and he'll be toddling all over the house... wouldn't that be something? :-)

Sicknesses

I know it's been a long time since I've written but this time I have a good excuse. We started the week with pink eye and ended it with a tummy bug. Noah had it yesterday and feels great today.... but now Waylon and I have it and are miserable! We are taking full advantage of the Baby Einstein DVDs today. I'll write more later.....

Surgery and Weekend Update

This morning was Noah's surgery. We had to set our alarm for 4:30 to be at the hospital in Durham by 6:30. We actually left on time and arrived 10 minutes early! That's almost unheard of for us these days (of course we didn't have to (couldn't) feed Noah so we really just changed him and threw him in the car - okay so we didn't throw him... we wouldn't do that on a day he's having surgery!!). Anyway, we got there, did the paperwork thing, they called us back and we had a few people come talk to us, take Noah's temp, listen to his heart, etc. They took him back about 8:10 and he happily went with the nurse who carried him back to the OR. We were sent to the wating room and they came to get us around 8:30 or so. It was so quick. The doc said that he had a little bit of calcification in one ear which is okay and normal for kids with persistant ear infections - but they usually only see it in 3-4 year olds! So I think it was a good thing we did the surger.

He was obviously not too happy when we got back to see him. He downed his bottle and calmed a little bit in my arms. One of his ears was bleeding which they said was normal but that was of course scary to see. They sent us home very quickly and he was pretty upset on the way home. He fell asleep halfway home and when we got here, we all climbed in the bed together and slept for 2 hours! When he woke up, he was happy and totally normal. He slept again for over an hour around 2:30. This afternoon, he's happy and playing. I really hope this is the fix we need and expect. Here are a few shots from the hospital - pre-surgery and exhausted.

A quick update on the rest of the weekend...

On Saturday morning, as I was putting down mulch in the yard, we found a huge turtle in our natural area right next to the house. We put the turtle on the driveway near Noah to let him watch it but all of the sudden the turtle flipped out and started running - yes, running - straight towards Noah! He went right for his feet and ran over them. We were pretty sure it was just a box turtle but we weren't totally positive. Noah was unharmed and not even scared but it was a little exciting for mom and dad! :-)


Saturday afternoon, we went to Sharon and Michael's wedding. It was a beautiful ceremony and fun reception! We got to celebrate a new beginning and catch up with some old friends.... always fun!


We didn't take Noah with us... instead, Andrea babysat while we were at the ceremony and Waylon's parents came for the reception. Here's a shot of Noah suggling with Savannah - apprently, she gave him a few good kicks but it didn't seem to phase him. :-)

Some new firsts over the weekend... Noah climbed the whole flight of stairs on Saturday and has now done it who knows how many times. Today, he's been walking only holding onto one helping hand. His last front tooth is coming in. For a while, he had 4 on the top and only 3 on the bottom but now he has all 8 in front. Also, 4 molars have all broken through but still have more to go.

This isn't a first but yesterday, Jennie and I took him swimming at our pool and he had a blast. I was wondering if he'd kinda forgotten about swimming since it's been so long since our classes but he still loved it and still had no fear whatsoever!

So, that's the update... so don't get on my case this week, Jackie! :-)