Wii've lost our minds!

Tyler is home for the summer. He is here all day, every day. We've joined our local pool to give us all a break from hanging out at the house, but still there's a lot of time to pass. We try to do fun things, but sometimes it is hard to find things that a 1, 2, and 12 year old all enjoy. Not to mention, Aaron and I do have to get some work done during the day!

Enter the wii. I have been dead set against getting any kind of gaming system because I don't want the kids to sit and veg, but our friends the Skinners brought their wii over a couple of times and it's just different. We've played tennis, golf, and bowling interactively and had a blast, but the other night they brought over Rock Band, a fun game that comes with a drum set, a guitar, and a microphone. One song and Aaron and I realized we'd missed our calling. Oh don't worry, we were meant to be together, but there is no doubt we were meant to be Rock Stars. When our friends left, we missed the wii and vowed that when we saved enough money, we'd buy one. The very next day we got a nice little check we weren't expecting. We were at Gamestop within 24 hours. Now buying TOTALLY non-practical stuff is not commonplace for us, so it felt a little weird, but between Aaron, Tyler, and I someone's been playing non-stop practically since we got it. Grace and Noah love to watch us play -- they are cute dancing to the music -- it really is a group activity.

So, if you call and wii don't answer, wii're surely cleaning the house or working or doing something completely productive. Don't worry about us, wii'll call you back just as soon as wii get a spare minute! :)

When the cat's away...

The mouse will sleep with her Teddy!

We have been trying to help Noah find a "lovey," but none we have tried interest him as much as GRACE'S scraggly, scruffy, PINK Teddy. He's learned the hard way not to take it from her when she is around, but he was sick and throwing up this morning so he and I stayed home from church. Grace usually takes him with her, but today she forgot. So, at nap time, guess who Noah came carrying? Yep, our sweet Teddy.

Excuse Me?

I apologize in advance if this is TMI for some. Part of the purpose of my blog is to help me remember funny/cute things the kids do or say so I can terrorize them with it when they start dating. :)

Aaron and I have always worked with Grace on manners...please, thank you, excuse me, etc. Usually she remembers and if she doesn't, a gentle reminder usually elicits the appropriate response. Tonight, she forgot. Nonetheless, she had Aaron and I laughing to near tears.

The scene: Aaron is putting Grace in the car when she burps REALLY loudly.
Aaron: Wow Grace, what do you say?
Grace: I say that tastes like GATORADE!!

Can't argue with that!

Guess who finally started walking tonight?

That's right! At 14.5 months, Mr Noah beats Grace's time by 2 weeks. Who says boys are slower than girls? =)

He's been teasing us for a while now and has started standing up on his own in the last few days. Last Sunday, I predicted he'd be walking in the next week and apparently he didn't want to make a liar out of his mommy! Aaron put him down on the bedroom floor tonight and he just walked across the room to me, not a step or two but a full-on walk. Of course, we kept having him do it until he got totally tired and frustrated with us, but those first steps are just too darn cute! Yay Noah Balboa!!

This picture is also to record his first goose egg on the noggin'. He took a little tumble on the patio yesterday. It's always scary to see those knots pop up on the head, but he seems to be feeling fine now.

Don't Tell ME Not to Jump on the Bed!

Duly Noted. But Grace, sweetheart, it really isn't nice to use those hand gestures. Especially to your parents. Love, Mommy.

Fiesta Night!

Our neighbors have been feeding us so much for movie nights or other get-togethers lately that tonight we decided to take a turn at hosting and we had such a great time! We called it fiesta night and the food had a Mexican theme.

We had 4 families from the neighborhood over (Cortney, we missed you...next time we will pick a weekend you are in town! :)) In total, there were 10 adults and 10 children age 6 and under. I made shredded chicken in the crock pot, Aaron grilled beef brisket (with a kick!) and we laid out all the fixin's (homemade guacamole and pico de gallo, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes). Our friends brought homemade salsa, watermelon (Grace's favorite item of the evening), veggies, tres leche, and pecan pie. I ate soooooo much I think I'm good for the next month or so!!

We ate out on the newly poured patio and then the adults got to chat, while the kiddos played on the swing sets and with the sand table. My ONLY regret is that I forgot to bring the camera out and take some pictures. Oh well, maybe next time!

I am pretty sure I have already spent more time outside this spring than I have in the last 5 years combined. It helps to have kiddos who are now all old enough to find fun things to do outside (and to not be pregnant and miserably hot!!) We also joined the pool this year. We went a couple of days ago and Grace and Noah both LOVED it!

I used to be a big fan of Fall, but Spring sure is winning a spot in my heart this year. Summer (which brings NC humidity) is just around the corner though, so we'll enjoy it while we can!

The Great GOOSE Outing

Grace just turned 2.5 and man oh man, what fun and creative stage this is!!

For background, nearly every time we leave our house, we pass my parent's church. There is usually a church bus parked outside and when we pass Grace says "There's papa's bus!"

One of her favorite things is seeing the geese in the neighborhood across the street from us. Quite often, they're just standing around as we ride through but if they are not, she says "I wanna go see gooses!" (We are working on "geese" but it just hasn't stuck yet). Let me just say that Aaron and I now totally understand the phrase "wild goose chase" because we have scoured that neighborhood time and time again for geese.

One particular day, as we went through the neighborhood we were completely unable to find the geese. Grace was really sad and kept saying "Where did the gooses go?" We explained that they were probably taking a nap (we use this one to account for anyone and anything that suddenly goes missing and that usually satisfies her curiosity). As we continued down the road, she noted that papa's bus was missing from the church parking lot. "Where's papa's bus?" she questioned. When I told her I wasn't sure, she said...."The gooses took papa's bus!" Amused by her creativity, I said "ohhhhhhh, is THAT where they went?" "Yep" she confirmed. "They got on papa's bus to go out to eat pizza!"

The mental image she created at that moment still makes me giggle! Ah, it just gets better and better! :)

Missing Daddy

Aaron has been in Los Angeles all week and we are all missing him. So I can keep my business going when he's out of town, the kids and I always spend most of our time with my mom and dad. They are a GREAT help (thanks mom and dad), but that means changes in routines, lots of running back and forth and well, I'll admit it, I miss my sweetheart.

Luckily, these week-long trips only come around a few times a year. It's been about 9 months since the last one (I totally lucked out!) and this is the first time Grace has really "noticed" her daddy was missing. It's been a good opportunity to work on days of the week with her. Starting Monday morning she woke up with "Where's Daddy?" to which I responded "He is in L.A. He will be back on Friday. Today is Monday, so we have Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and then Daddy comes home." We've been through this multiple times every day and she now tells everyone she sees "my daddy is in L.A. He'll be home Friday." It's really very cute, but not as cute as the conversation I overheard her having on the phone with him last night....

Hi Daddy...you in L.A.?
You coming home on Friday?
I gonna see you and give a BIG HUG to you!
I love you.

Aaron thought I had prompted her, but that was straight from her sweet little heart.

The kids have been so well behaved -- I've been so thankful and so proud of them. But we are ALL ready to have Daddy home with us. So hurry home, Aaron! We love and miss you!!

We've been hit by a VERY nasty bug!!

(Note: do not read this blog while eating! :))
I should start by saying that generally we are a very healthy family. Grace had her very first fever AFTER she turned 2 (it accompanied her first ear infection). Noah has never had a fever and other than a runny nose here and there has never been sick. Tyler has not missed a day of school so far this year (that will change tomorrow) and in the time I've known Aaron, he's had sinus infection or two, but NEVER a stomach bug. Other than my kidney stone, I've avoided any "blog-worthy" illnesses as well.

Having said all of that, some kind of super germ kicked our trash this week! It started Tuesday night with little Noah throwing up. We thought it was an isolated event until it happened 45 minutes later...and 45 minutes after that...and 45 minutes after that....and so on and so on for the next 12 hours. The next morning we took him to the doctor. We assumed it was some kind of virus, but wanted to be sure it was nothing more serious. Sure enough, the doctor said there was something going around. Noah was very lethargic for the rest of the day and then seemed to feel much better (though his illness moved South...let's just say we bought some disposable diapers to get us through the week).

On to Thursday, Grace went to Mother's Morning Out as usual, came home, ate lunch, took her nap and 2 hours later woke up SCREAMING at the top of her lungs. I went in to get her and found her pitiful, covered in vomit, trembling, and saying "I'm sick." I think she was scared by the mess so I tried to comfort her while stripping her down, stripping her bed, and identifying which stuffed animals needed cleaning up. I got her bathed and cleaned up just in time for round 2. Like Noah, she had an episode every hour or so for about 12 hours.

By Friday morning, both of the little ones seemed to be past the worst of it, but at about 5 am, Aaron started throwing up. Same 12 hour deal. Now, I have to say during all of this I felt very queasy and very tired (24-hour laundry perhaps?) but so far I have yet to hit the vomiting stage. We all felt well enough by Friday evening to do the movie on the lawn with the neighbors.

On Saturday, both kids were still dirtying lots of diapers, but they acted very normal and Aaron was well, so we ventured out to the store. Bad idea. On the way there, Grace begged for some water so we gave her some. 10 minutes later she was projectile vomiting in her car seat. Thinking it was caused by too much water too soon, we proceeded into her store where she had a VERY. MESSY. DIAPER. Aaron took her out to change her while Noah and I finished the shopping and we left very quickly. On the way home she had another episode that was probably the worst I have witnessed in three kiddos. Aaron is not that easily amused and even HE was impressed. Bless her heart, we felt so bad for taking her out. We got her home, got her out of the car seat and cleaned up. We pulled the car seat out of the car and washed every part of it we could figure out how to get off. We cleaned the carpet, pulled the 3 outfits she had gone through out and washed them (let's just say my washing machine has had a heck of a workout this week). In the meantime, Grace took a nap. When she woke up she felt much better and has done very well today.

To be safe, the kids and I stayed home from church today in an attempt to not infect all the other kids at church. Wednesday through Friday, Tyler was on a trip with his school and I prayed that he was not experiencing this during his trip. He got home and reported he had felt fine through the trip. HOWEVER, he started throwing up at 3 pm today and seems to be on the same track as the rest of them. He'll be missing his first day of school this year tomorrow.

I'm feeling guilty that all my family has suffered through this bug and I've escaped relatively unscathed. But at the same time, I know they have needed me to comfort and clean and I am thankful I've been able to provide these things for them. I just hope Tyler recovers quickly and we can put this nasty bug behind us because it has been one messy, miserable week at our house!

It's a beautiful NIGHT in the neighborhood...

At the risk of things sounding too perfect, I have to say... I love my neighbors. I love my neighborhood.

One of the things that tipped the scales for this neighborhood when we decided to build a house was that we already knew 5 other families nearby (3 in our immediate neighborhood and 2 in the neighborhood that connects to it). When we found a floor plan that included EVERYTHING we were looking for, we called our search to an end and started building! When we moved in, it was just comfortable from the start. Over the past 10 months, we've been able to meet most of the other families in the neighborhood and we are so blessed to be surrounded by some of the nicest people I've ever met.

Our backyard backs up to two other families and since the warm weather arrived, we've been doing lots of stuff with these families and several other neighborhood families. The kids all love playing together and inevitably we end up eating together at least one weekend night. Last night, one of our neighbors ordered pizza and we all ate pizza and the kids played outside until dusk. Then the guys hung a movie screen up on the outside of the screen porch, we laid down blankets, and watched the Jungle Book. The kids LOVED it. The mommies got to sneak inside for a while for some pleasant conversation and the daddies hung out and watched the movie with the kids. I snuck away at one point to grab my camera because I realized I was witnessing a great blog entry. :)

I think there's something about moving into a newly built neighborhood...where everyone is new at practically the same time. I observed close relationships forming in my parents new neighborhood and am so pleased to see the same thing happening for us. We're happy, our kids are happy...yes, we are really HOME.

Why I wish I could safely have more children...

Yes, we're busy. Yes, our hands are a little full. But look at these little faces...(these pics were made at Grace's preschool and I scanned them so they are a little blurry, but you get the idea)

Say WHAT?!?!

You know how sometimes well-meaning strangers make comments that make you go hmmmm? Like the time I was at the mall with Grace and Noah and a lady came up to me and said "Are they ALL yours?" I was thinking "um, yeah...all TWO of them and *gasp* I even have another one at home!" Well, tonight I think I heard the best one ever...

We took the kids to Panera to eat and apparently they were REALLY hungry because all three of them stayed in their seats, were relatively quiet, and ate their food. For the record, this is not normal, but it was a completely enjoyable time. As we were getting close to finishing up, a very nice lady at another table was leaving and she came by and said "You all have such a sweet family." Of course Aaron and I beamed and said thank you. She followed that up with a comment directed to Aaron....

"Thank you for being such a good daddy. I am a school teacher and I wish you were the daddy of MY kids."

Yep, she meant well...but we sure did get a good laugh out of that one after she left. :)

The Appliance Series

Noah loves babies. Noah loves looking at babies in books and kissing them. Noah has found that a VERY cute baby lives in our oven and that baby's twin lives in our washing machine.

The "Perfect World" of Bloggery

I went to Girl's Night Out last night with some friends and fellow bloggers and we were discussing how almost everyone's family appears "perfect" on their blog. Surely, even television's most "imperfect" family (pictured left) would have appeared to be living in complete bliss if they had had a blog (well, maybe not, but the important word there is television, they aren't a real family at all.)

I like to think that at the end of the day when you consider everything that happened, it's the positive and funny things that are noteworthy enough to get mentioned, but I also think that blogs have become the daily or weekly equivalent of the Christmas letter or the high school or family reunion. Who mentions their marital counseling in their Christmas letter? Or comes to the high school reunion to report that they've been fired three times in the last year?

The more I think about it, I don't think it's really about painting a perfect picture for the outside world, but about preserving the memories that are really important, the things you WANT to remember. I am NOT anywhere close to perfect. I have some major shortcomings that I am painfully aware of. I'm thankful that my husband doesn't post these things on his blog and I give him the same courtesy. We're married, we're a team, and while a blog is a great way to share things with family and friends, there are some things that should not be hung out there for the world to see. I suppose I could post about Grace hurling herself to the floor in more than one grocery store to scream at the top of her lungs for whatever it was that her little heart desired and we said no to that day or I could talk about Noah being grumpy when teething or Tyler getting in trouble for texting his friends before finishing his homework, but if I forget about these things in time, what's the harm? I'd rather devote MY blog space to remembering the precious moments.

So, to dispel any myths..we are not perfect and neither are our kids, which makes us all PERFECT...for each other. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it! :)

ABCs...Grace Style...

OK, Grace can sing the alphabet song. Some letters aren't really clear and if she's not sure she fills it in with "uhuh." Sometimes, she gets sidetracked and makes her own lyrics. For example, several months ago she bellowed "A B Daddy E F G." This morning in the car I heard a new Grace version. She sang through as much as she could clearly singing "Q R S -T U V -W F - Wake Forest Deacons." Genius--maybe not -- but ya gotta love the creativity! :)

An "Eggs"cellent Week!

The last few days have been filled with fun Easter activities and my children are reminding me - once again - what life is all about! Seeing things, I mean REALLY seeing things, through the eyes of a child brings such an exciting perspective that it makes you wonder WHY we all grow up and start seeing things any other way.

On Thursday, Grace had an Easter Parade at Mother's Morning Out. I did not have a camera when we went to pick her up, but I will paint the picture for you as well as I can. Aaron went in to get her and she came bounding out the door with a little bonnet made out of a paper plate with a plastic bowl on top, donned with hot pink silk daisies (her sweet teacher Mrs. Pauline made this for her). She had a plastic Easter bucket in one hand and a little rabbit basket with flowers made from pipe cleaners and cutouts of her hand print in the other. She literally had a grin from ear to ear as she made her way to the car. No, I didn't have a camera, but I know that I will NEVER forget the image. It should be in the dictionary beside the word "elation."

On Friday, we went to my parent's house and dyed Easter eggs, followed by a Grace/Noah Easter egg hunt. Grace had such fun looking for the eggs and sweet little Noah had fun trying to stuff them in his mouth. As I pondered how much they enjoyed such a simple activity, I decided we didn't need Little Gym or the likes. It is possible to have GREAT fun without paying big money for it. Again, something I KNEW when I was a kid, but sometimes forget as an adult.

Today, we had our neighborhood Easter egg hunt. We took all the kids out in a neighborhood common area and they "searched" for eggs. I had been thinking earlier in the day "now where will they hide the eggs? It's just an open area" Silly adult me! They just get dropped in the grass....it's not fun if you have to look TOO hard for them! :) Again, the smiles on all the kids faces were priceless. Nobody was rushed, nobody over-scheduled and NOBODY was misbehaving. Makes me wonder if our attempts to keep our children "entertained" is to blame for some of the newer behavior problems (but that's a whole other blog).

Tonight, we went to see the Easter Bunny. We figured (correctly) that the lines would be much shorter for those of us who procrastinated until the very last second. I didn't know what to expect from my children. I know lots of kids are scared of the Easter Bunny and Santa, but I'd been talking to Grace about it and she was adamant the SHE wanted to see "the Bunny" so off we went. Thanks to our procrastination, Grace was able to run right up to the bunny as soon as we got there. It was like he was her best friend. One down. Noah has developed a little stranger anxiety so I thought surely he'd have a meltdown. He calls his stuffed animals "Deacon" (long story) and as I walked him up to the bunny, he patted it's "fur" and said "Deacon, Deacon, Deacon." It was love at first sight for him too! We got a great picture and had a hard time getting Grace to leave. She'd walk away and go right back to check him out again.

It has been such a fun weekend! Thank you little munchkins -- for reminding mommy of some things she needed to be reminded of. I LOVE LOVE LOVE you!!

What fun!!

We went to see the Harlem Globetrotters tonight! It was so much fun. Tyler has been wanting to go for years and this year I managed to remember to get tickets and I am so glad I did. Grace danced and had a grand old time through the whole show. It was in the coliseum where her Wake Forest Demon Deacons play and while that was a little confusing at first, when we left she said "I had fun at the Deacon's house!"

Noah was a little overwhelmed at first, but was dancing and clapping in short order! Aaron, Tyler and I laughed quite a bit -- it was a great show!

Thank you Ty Ty!

The little kids in our family tend to get a lot of press on the blog because they are learning and doing so much new stuff in such a short amount of time, but tonight as I took some clean laundry into Tyler's room, I looked around and realized how lucky I am that he is such a good kid.

Yes, we have our battles. I tease him and tell him I'm going to have to start sending text messages to let him know it's time for dinner. We've had to limit phone and computer time because it's gotten ALOOC (A Little Out of Control). But so far this year, he's made straight A's in highly academically gifted classes, while participating in Scouts and keeping up with a demanding soccer schedule. And, although he is 12, he keeps his room darn near spotless. Yeah, I have to remind him to hang up his clothes and empty his bathroom trash, but when I think back to how MY room looked when I was 12, I'm amazed at what a good job he does.

He is also a great emergency babysitter. Some days when Aaron is visiting a client and I have a business phone call to take, he steps right in and entertains the little ones. They both adore him, so it's a really easy transition.

So, thank you Tyler! We love you and appreciate all you do!

Curly Sue (and Noah too!)

If you've met Grace (and even if you've just seen any of her pictures on this blog), you understand why I sometimes call her "Curly Sue." She has VERY. CURLY. HAIR. I mean the kind of curly that causes strangers to cross restaurants to comment on it. It was around her first birthday that we started to notice some little ringlets forming in the fuzz and as her hair grew, it didn't get longer, the curls just got tighter and more defined. If you pull her hair out straight it is shoulder length, but it's impossible to get it straight (and I would never want to, I love her little curly locks!)

Anyway. Noah's hair has developed a familiar fuzz and sure enough, the curls are forming. I couldn't be happier that they have both apparently gotten daddy's curls. I'm sure when they are older, they will both fight them and try to straighten them, but as long as I'm the "stylist," let the curls be free!!

Don't pay attention to this entry...

I know you want to skip right over it and read about Noah's birthday anyway, so please do.
I had a bad, bad week on the weight loss thing. I can blame nobody but myself. Between spaghetti dinner at Grace's school and very tempting birthday cake yesterday, my willpower crumbled into dust. And a busy work schedule kept us from the gym. Oh well, there's always this week. And starting the 30th is the Feel Great in 8 challenge. THAT ought to keep me on my toes.

The results:
Start of the week: +13.9 from goal
GAIN This week: +1.2
To go: 15.1