Too many vistors, too little time!

We had a huge weekend in MD... the main purpose of the trip was for Waylon and two of his friends to go to a Redskins game on Sunday but it just so happened that we had lots of other events to attend and people to see... brace yourselves, this is a huge blog! :-)

Of course, I had the camera most of the weekend, so I don't have many pictures of Waylon's adventures! :-)

This first picture is at home before we left... about a week ago, Noah became totally into all things with wheels, so Waylon decided to pull out the Hotwheels and Matchbox cars that he played with when he was little. Noah loves them...



Since I'm now off on Thursdays and Fridays, I decided to head on up to MD on Thursday morning and the guysrode up together on Friday after work. Here is just a cute shot I took right before we left. You will begin to notice this wheels theme in all of his toys!! :-)


This one is in the McDonald's playplace where we stopped for lunch on the way up.

My mom had already had plans to meet her friend Kira and her son Austin who is just a few months older than Noah on Thursday afternoon, so it worked out perfectly that we were there and could have a playdate! Here is the two of them playing piano.

And here is the best story of the weekend... we got to town while my dad was still at work. When we heard him come in the door, Noah was sitting on the couch. I turned to Noah and said, 'Who's here?!' and he looked excited and said, 'Dada!!' I told him it wasn't Dada, so he got off the couch and looked around the corner and when he saw my dad, he screamed 'Papa! Papa! Papa!' while running into his arms!! It definitely brought a tear to my eye and my dad wanted to walk back out and come in and do it all over again. This is a picture right after they finished hugging...

Thursday night, we had a nice dinner at home and my friend Julie came over to join us. Julie has always been like my sister and my parents' 3rd daughter but recently, things are so busy when I come home that I don't get to spend a whole lot of time with her. This weekend, we got to hang out a lot and that was really special for me.

On Friday morning, my mom and I went shopping and after Noah's nap, we were walking around the neighborhood with his new shopping cart that my parents got him when we saw one of my old high school friends, Anna, drive by on her way home from picking up the kids from daycare. She stopped and hopped out to say hello. They all came inside for a few minutes, so that was fun to catch up! Here is Noah with Anna's kids Sophie and Tysen.


Friday night, we went out to dinner and watched a movie (The Other Boelyn Girl - I highly recommend the book and not the movie) while waiting for the guys to show up. They got into town about 10:30 and we all visited for a little bit before hitting the sack.

My dad and Noah had a new game this weekend... playing tent in one of the most unlikely places.

Checking out something on the computer with Daddy.

On Saturday morning, my sister came over to hang out with us and she, my mom and I took Noah to a pumpkin patch while the guys went into Baltimore to hit a lunch place featured on the Food Network - pit beef was not for us girls. :-)

Walking with Aunt Ditter

Feeding the goats with Grammy

While we were at the pumpkin patch, we just happened to run into another one of my high school friends and his family. Brian has recently moved back to the area - he just got out of the marines after being on four tours to Iraq!! Here are his kids, Caleb and Addison with Noah in the petting farm area.

A picnic lunch before heading home for a nap!

After we got back from the pumpkin patch, it was off to the next event... a baby shower for yet another high school (and middle and elementary school) friend, Katie. Her baby is due in December and it was so great to be able to be at the shower.

Julie, Katie and me

Playing 'tent' yet again... this time Daddy was sucked in.

On Saturday night, my parents babysat while Waylon, Cory, CW and I went into Baltimore. I didn't get any pictures but we had a great time! My friend Ali and her boyfriend Andrew picked a great restaurant and a fun bar in Fell's Point. Our friend Jessica met us out too... so fun!

Today was another busy day. The guys were out at the game most of the day. The game didn't start until 4:15 but they went out early to tailgate. They grilled out sausages and peppers and had a great time. It was the perfect football weather and the outcome was great, too! Couldn't ask for more!

While the guys were doing the football thing, Julie came up with a fabulous idea for us girls (and Noah)! :-) She works at Imagination Stage and they have a show right now that is geared towards little kids. We went to the 12:30 show which I was a little concerned about since that's smack dab in the middle of nap time but it worked out really well. Noah loved it and sat enthralled for about 45 minutes. After that amount of time, he started to get a little antsy but still was great. I never had to take him into the 'crying room' which I thought was great! They have a soundproof box where you can take your kids if they get restless. They can run around in there while the parents can still watch the show.

Julie and Leah with Noah

Noah obviously fell asleep on the way home and ended up sleeping for 3 hours (he did the same yesterday! - I think we've worn him out with all this, what do you think?)

After we got home from the show, Julie and I went over to our friend Keri's parents house to celebrate her daughter Lydia's 2nd birthday. Keri is a friend from elementary/middle/high school as well but now lives in Raleigh so it was pretty ironic that we were both home this weekend. Oh, and yes, Keri is the one preggers with triplets and yes, she is 23 weeks in this picture.... crazy, huh?!

Miss Lydia enjoying all of her birthday presents!

When we got home, we had a nice relaxing dinner - homemade soup and grilled cheese with my parents, Julie and her mom who wanted to come see Noah.

Julie surprised us with a present that she bought at Imagination Stage today... she's sneaky, I didn't even see her buy it! It's a basketball goal for the tub... he already used it tonight and loves it!

When Bev (Julie's mom) came over, she was bearing gifts, too! Crazy girls. She got Noah a Curious George book and stuffed animal. Noah loves the stuffed George and even went to bed with snuggling with him tonight.
This is Noah just before bath time tonight - with Curious George. He's exhausted!
The guys got home around 8:30 or so and worked on that homemade soup. They all seemed pretty happy with their day, too! Tonight, we've been just relaxing (although I swear I've been working on this blog for a few hours!). It's time to go to bed now. We're heading home tomorrow morning and looking forward to a few weekends at home coming up!

Here's one last cute shot of Noah. Have a great week everyone!

Weekend at the beach (and other fun things)!

We've had another fabulous week here! Pictures, pictures pictures ...

Last Sunday afternoon, we went over to Maddie's house to play with her and Stella Dot... so fun!


Wearing Daddy's shirt after he got home from work! :-)



On Thursday, I babysat for Savannah. I was really nervous about handling a two month old and Noah at the same time but it went great... in fact, I didn't even really get to enjoy them at the same time much. Andrea dropped off Savannah at 1:30 and Noah was napping. Andrea called just as Noah was waking up at 2:45 to say she was on her way back! I had the two of them together for all of about 15 minutes but did manage to get Noah eating his snack and give Savannah her bottle at the same time! :-) Here are some shots from that afternoon.



Friday morning, we went to Crowder Park - Noah loves checking out the turtles there. I was afraid he was going to get his head stuck after this picture but he actually got it out himself! :-)

Eating a sandwich like a big boy!

On Friday afternoon, we packed up and headed to Myrtle Beach for the weekend with Nana, Grandad, Andrea, Sean and Savannah. While we were there, we visited Phyllis and Clarence. It was so fun to have a long weekend with Waylon's family. Because they live in town, we don't get overnight trips with them very often so it was a nice treat. We've vowed to do it more! Unfortunately, I forgot my camera charger, but Waylon's parents let me snap lots of photos with their camera. Here are some of those (and a few I got before my camera died).

Nana and Grandad with their grandkids!

Phyllis, Clarence, and Andrea

Three generations of Parham men!

Andrea, Sean, and Savannah

Phyllis and Savannah

The weather wasn't great but we managed to check out the beach...

In the next episode... a trip to MD this coming weekend! :-)

Week in Pictures

At Pullen Park with cousin Savannah on Monday afternoon.

Riding the train at Pullen Park

Playing at dinnertime with Daddy

Last night, I had a girls night! It was so fun to get dressed up and go out on the town!



I'm switching my work schedule this week. Instead of working Tues, Wed and Thurs, I'm switching my days to Mon, Tues, Wed. So, today is a REAL Sunday for me! :-)

This weekend, we are heading to Myrtle Beach with Nana, Grandad, Andrea, Sean, and Savannah! We'll be visiting Phyllis and Clarence while we are there. I can't wait! I'm sure we'll have loads of pictures when we get back!

Videos from yesterday

Here are two videos of Noah, Stella Dot, and Maddie playing yesterday.





Watch Noah and Maddie imitating each other at the beginning of this one....

Lots of Fun!

We've had so much going on (again, still... whatever!). I guess I should stop saying that cause it's going to be this way for a while now, huh? :-) Anyway, I'll narrate around pictures again...

I'll start with these two hilarious pictures of Noah! :-)

sweet

sour

Last Sunday, we went to see our friends Kate and Vic who we haven't seen in forever! They have built a beautiful house out in Hillsborough and invited us over for dinner.



While we were there we visited their horses. Noah had never been this close to a horse before. He wasn't so sure at first but warmed up and even pet him eventually!

After that visit, he was super interested in this horse that Nana and Granddad got for him. He can even say 'horse' now!



On Monday, we had a playdate with Lydia and Keri. For those of you who don't know Keri, she and I have known each other since 2nd grade!! She has a daughter, Lydia, who is 9 months older than Noah and she is now pregnant with triplets! She just found out that they are all girls, too! Crazy.
This week was a good week back at work and school. I was a little nervous about how Noah would do back at school after a week's vacation but he did great! Slipped right back in like he hadn't been gone at all.

We had been having a little trouble sleeping at night and we are thinking Noah might be cutting his last set of molars - what they call the '2 year molars' - he's a little bit of an overachiever in that aspect!! :-) He has all of his teeth now except those last 4 molars. Should be some fun times ahead!

Waylon's parents emailed this week to ask if we needed babysitters (how lucky are we?!), so we decided to have a date night on Friday. It was so nice... we went to dinner and then to see The Dark Knight at the IMAX theater. So fun!

Yesterday afternoon, Noah and I joined Waylon for another NCSU tailgate. Such fun! Here's a shot of Noah with Brendan (one of the triplets).



Today was a great time!! We had some people over for the Redskins game/playdate! :-) Noah had the best time playing with Stella Dot and Madelyn. They all really interacted a lot which seemed like a breakthrough to me. Up until now, it's been more of the 'parallel play' kind of playdates, but tonight they were chasing each other around and giggling and having a great time. It was so cute.



Noah's vocabulary is really growing... he repeats a lot of the things we say now. Here are some newer words that I can think of off the top of my head:

go
please
cheese
(please and cheese sound the same but he uses them in the correct context)
horse
nose
Noah
cat
bird
duck
dog

He also loves to dance. He does motions to 'Itsy Bitsy Spider', 'If you're Happy and You Know It', and '5 Little Monkeys'.

Here are two more cute shots in some clothes that my mom sent for him...

Have a great week everyone!

Bye Bye Beach and Haircut

A quick synopsis of the end of the beach trip....

Wednesday - a semi-quiet day. It was a little cool, so we decided to ride around looking at house possibilities for next year's trip. Noah quickly let us know that wasn't what he wanted to do, so we turned around and my parents dropped us off back at the condo and went on without us. We tried to go swimming but it was too cold, so we just went back to the condo and had a quiet morning. I decided to clean up a little and Noah was a happy helper. I found this Noah-sized broom and he must have played with this for 45 minutes!! His dad is proud! :-)



After Noah's nap (which was not very substantial), we went out to the beach. It was a little cool but perfect if we weren't getting in the water. Noah was pretty mellow since he hadn't slept much that afternoon and actually snuggled with me a bit on the beach... that was so nice.



After Noah went to bed on Wednesday night, my dad stayed back with Noah and my mom and I went to a movie!! What a treat! It was so funny though.... we were the only two people in the entire theater - not just our movie either - the ENTIRE theater!!

Thursday was a fun morning on the beach - perfect weather - sunny but not too hot. Noah took a very long nap which was great. I actually spent some relaxing time at the pool! In the afternoon, we went back to the pool and played with Noah's new friend Delany again.




On Friday morning, we played for a short while just to say bye bye to the beach... Noah decided to rest a little while we were out there! :-) We took some video, too I'll have to try to get some of those uploaded here soon.


We stayed until lunchtime and had lunch at a little pizza place before we left town. We got home around 3:30 yesterday and Waylon was very happy to see us!

Today, Noah and I went out to tailgate with Waylon for the NCSU/ECU game. They had all sorts of yummy breakfast foods! We left before the game started and came home for a nap but the game was a good one!!

After the game, Noah and I met Waylon at Sports Clips to get his first haircut!!! The curls were so cute but they were starting to get a little out of control. It had gotten to the point where I had to style his hair!! I'd been ready to get it cut for a while but Waylon kept putting me off... he finally (reluctantly) agreed so we did it. I started to have second thoughts as we were driving there and I'm already feeling nostalgic about the curls - especially when I look at pictures! :-) I'm glad we did it though... he's now a little boy and he definitely looks like it now!

Before

After

He did great with the haircut, too! He just sat patiently in the chair, although he looked a little concerned about what was going on.

After the haircut, we had to show off the hair, so we went over to Andrea and Sean's to visit with them, Savannah, Nana and Grandad, and Uncle Royal. It was so fun! We had dinner over there and got Noah ready for bed before we came home. I can't believe it but my camera battery died while we were there, so I couldn't get any pictures there!!! I was so bummed. Savannah has changed so much since we last saw her... check out her blog linked to the right!

So, back to reality soon. It's going to be interesting taking Noah back to school next week. He's going to be confused when we drop him off! All this vacation and attention has been so much fun for him!