.....And A Happy New Year!

The day after Christmas my Mom treated all of us to a trip to the Georgia Aquarium. It is a huge place that puts the Charleston Aquarium to shame! We spent several hours wondering around seeing all the cool tanks. Our favorite was the huge glass tunnel that you walk underneath and all the fish swim around above you. The giant Whale Sharks were Noah's favorite.

It was so funny to watch Noah looking at all the animals - he looked like this the whole time...

Noah also enjoyed seeing the penguins, the otters, the turtles and much more. He was also a little weary of the crowds so he was happy to find a less crowded area around one of the empty tanks where he climbed around on all the fake rocks and posed for some family pics.

And of course, my sister and I had to pose in front of the empty Beluga Whale tanks...

...But, where did the Beloooogaas go?

So, after a good weekend we headed home on Sunday...kid free! At the last minute my Mom and sister offered to keep Noah for a few days and then bring him back when they come to town on Wednesday. Wes are getting lots done and enjoying some time alone together. Although, I will admit, I will be very excited to see my little guy when he comes back tomorrow!

I hope that everybody had a wonderful holiday and that you enjoy a Happy New Year!

We Wish You A Merry Christmas.....

Wow, Christmas sure blew by in a hurry! We had a whirlwind week of family activities and now it is almost the new year!

Before we headed to my Mom's in Atlanta last week, we spent Tuesday evening having Christmas with the Shealy family. Noah had a blast opening all his presents with Nana, Pops, Aunt Carissa, and Uncle Cy.

He also entertained/scared the crap out of all of us when he decided to take a cannonball type leap onto his new Cars sleeping bag. It doesn't sound so bad except that the sleeping bag was on the hardwood floor and he literally jumped about 5 feet in the air, tucked his legs perfectly underneath himself, and landed on his kneecaps! He is crazy with a capital C!

Early Thursday morning (read 4am, we are Shealys after all) we got in the car to drive to Atlanta. We got there in plenty of time to hang out before heading to Christmas Eve church services. Noah even got to help Bebe decorate the cookies he was going to leave out for Santa.

And here he is putting them out right before bed...

I love how he is posing in this picture!

We woke up Christmas morning at around 7:00 and Noah excitedly headed downstairs to see if Santa had found us. He was very excited to see that the cookies were gone and even more excited to turn around and see his new Cars bicycle!

We spent the day relaxing, eating, and watching Noah play with all his new loot. All in all, it was a very fun day.

Congrats Aunt J!

This weekend Wes and I headed to the booming metropolis of Rock Hill, SC to see my sister graduate from Winthrop University. As much as Noah loves his Aunt J, we decided to leave him at home with Nana and Pops because I just didn't see him sitting through the ceremony. He was kind of mad at us though because we stayed with Julie and Devin in Charlotte on Friday night and he was bummed that he didn't get to see them (or their dog Maggie!)

Here we are at dinner on Friday night. It was a very yummy meal and we had a lot of fun!

Saturday morning we went and watched Jessie get her diploma and walk across the stage looking like "a character from a Harry Potter movie" - her description, not mine!

Congrats Aunt J! We are very proud of you and excited to see what you do next!

Christmas Fun at Preschool

I have been way behind on my blog updates. Sorry folks, I will try to do better!

We have have been enjoying all sorts of fun Christmas activities lately. Last week Noah had several fun days at school. His Christmas party was on Thursday and I got to help host it. The kids were all very cute and seemed to really enjoy their party.

Noah's favorite part was, of course, the reindeer cupcakes. He waited while all the other kids ate their chicken nuggets and fruit and just keeping eyeing the cupcake platter. Needless to say, he was very excited when we finally started passing out dessert. Afterwards they all played for awhile. It was fun to get to a part of his day in the classroom and see him with all his friends.

Here is Noah playing trains with some buddies. The little blond boy to the left of him is his best pal, Ryan. What's funny is that they look exactly alike and are the same size and Noah's teacher informed me that she is the only one on staff who can tell them apart!

The next day, Friday, was the annual Christmas program. This year's theme was Take Your Hats Off to Jesus (or something to that effect) and it was pretty cute. Noah was a towns person and was in the very back so I couldn't see him at all. I did manage to snap some pictures as he exited at the end with his class.

Noah is the one in the baseball hat.

Now Noah is all done with school for the holidays. We are here until Thursday morning and then we head to Atlanta for Christmas with my Mom and sister. Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!

"But I Don't Want A Brother!"

These were the words that Noah screamed in the waiting room of my Ob/Gyn yesterday after our 22 week ultrasound. Yes folks, that means we are having...another boy!

Poor Noah had his heart set on a little sister. Over the past several weeks he has become extremely adamant that we have a girl baby. (And also increasingly opposed to the idea of a boy baby.) Well, needless to say he was not happy about the news we received yesterday, and may still be in denial as he refuses to talk about it when we bring it up with him. He simply states, "But I don't want a brother" and then proceeds to change the subject. It's all pretty funny!

Wes and I are very excited. We were really fine with it either way, but we think it will be so much fun to have another (crazy?) little boy running around the house. I love being a Mom to a boy and, despite his protestations, I think it will be fun to watch Noah bond with a brother. So, that's about it for now. I wish I had a supercool ultrasound picture to post but I don't. In fact we were lucky we even got a glimpse of our baby's "junk" at all. The kid is still in a breech position and apparently that makes it really hard to get a good view of anything. We didn't even get any good face pictures - just a 2 second flash of penis that ruined Noah's day!

Dear Thanksgiving....

.....I want to apologize. For all the years of my youth that you went as an under appreciated holiday. When you were merely a pit stop to be endured on the way to Christmas. When I didn't realize how wonderful you were. How could I have overlooked all you great attributes? Turkey and dressing, sweet potatoes, all the many casseroles, and let's not forget the most important, pumpkin pie! I humbly apologize and promise to fully appreciate you from now on!

Okay, maybe I enjoyed it so much this year because I am a hungry pregnant women or something, I don't know, but our Thanksgiving meal was fantastic! The Shealy family came to our house this year and we enjoyed a smorgasbord of yummy dishes. I cooked all afternoon which, despite my dislike of cooking in general, was kind of fun, maybe because it's a once a year thing! Noah spent the whole day enjoying himself and talking excitedly about how he loved watching the circus. (To be clear: he means the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. No matter how many times I told him otherwise he insisted it was a circus. He kept saying, "I wish I could be in the circus!") He was very excited to have everyone at his house and he even stopped running around long enough to pose for a few family pics....



...well, by "posed" I mean was man-handled by his parents for the 12 seconds it took to take the pictures. See...



Hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgivings....and as Noah is now saying, "It's time for Christmas!"

What We Have Been Up To

Once again time seems to be flying by and I look at the calendar and realize that next week is Thanksgiving. Wow! Wes and I spent last week at an optometry conference in Orlando (yes, they are actually good for something!). We left Noah with Nana and Pops and headed down to sunny Florida to stay at the world's largest Marriott. Seriously, that is their technical status, not just me exaggerating. It was great, huge with many restaurants and several pools. While Wes went to lectures I slept in, read by the pool, worked out at the fitness center and enjoyed yummy food. It was very relaxing. Plus, Wes and I got to spend lots of fun time just the two of us which, lets face it, will be very rare from now on!

Because we knew we were going out of town, we had spent the whole weekend before doing fun things with Noah. The weekend before last we took him to the aquarium and he had the best time. Seeing the fish was great, yes, but his favorite part was seeing the giant barge that was parked in the harbor right in front of the aquarium.

We sat outside on the steps for 30 minutes just watching them dredge up gunk from the bottom and dump it onto the barge. Noah was amazed and got excited every single time the brought dirt up from the bottom. It was really cute! We had a great time. Noah is really fun to hang out with these days. He is interested in everything and always has funny little insights into every situation to share with us. I used to worry about having 2 kids and if I could handle it, but I know that we made the right decision by waiting a while to have number 2. We are in a great place with Noah and I am excited (rather than scared) to add another one to the mix.

Speaking of baby number 2, we find out on December 9th if it is a boy or a girl. Wes and I are really fine either way but poor Noah has his heart seriously set on a "girl baby". He even told me that if they do the ultrasound and say that it is a boy that he "will check instead and find a girl!" I have this vision of him leaping across the table and grabbing the thing from the ultrasound tech and saying, "No! That is NOT right. Let me show that it is a GIRL!" I wouldn't put it past him!

Halloween Fun

For Halloween this year Noah spent 3 weeks insisting that he be a ghost. Fine by me I thought. That is a simple costume to attain. Cut some eye holes in a white sheet and, voila, instant ghost. Except that with Noah things are never that easy. Two days before Halloween he declared that the sheet was "too stinky" and that he would not wear it over his head. So off to Party City where he picked, (insert eye rolling here) a Nascar driver costume. But being the good mother that I am I rolled with it. And good thing too because the minute he put on the costume he was in love!

On Saturday he was very excited to put on his costume, grab his ghost bag, and head out the door to join his friends from some trick-or-treat fun. We tried to get his picture with Bebe before we headed out but he was a little too crazy to cooperate. See.....

Anyway, we meant all the neighborhood kids on the corner for a photo op.....

...and then we were off! Perhaps in keeping with the theme of his costume, Noah adopted Ricky Bobby's motto of "If you're not first, you're last" and set out at breakneck speed at the front of the pack. Pretty soon he and his buddy Nicholas had left everyone in the dust in their effort to see who could collect candy the fastest. Of course, I should have expected no less from my little speedy Gonzales!

After going around to many houses - and getting extremely hot and sweaty in our polyester costume - it was time to call it a night. Noah finally headed home to enjoy the spoils of the hunt.

Hope everybody had a fun Halloween!

Happy Fall (From the Tropics)

We have been gearing up for Halloween here at our house. Everyday Noah comes home from school with a new Halloween themed art project, we went to Legare Farms for all the fall themed fun, and last weekend we carved our pumpkins. So, despite the fact that it is still 80 degrees outside, we are prepared for Halloween fun. And, oh yeah, Noah picked his costume the other day....he chose to be a Nascar driver. I have no comment.

Here is Noah at Legare Farms with the pumpkins we picked. This was after we did the "corn maze". (I say it with quotes because this year it was actually just a "maze in a random grove of trees" because their corn maze was destroyed by worms. Perhaps the sign that said, "Corn Maze: $6 per person" was a bit of false advertising?)

Noah watches as Wes cleans out our pumpkin. If you'll recall from last year, he is not a fan of the gooey pumpkin insides....

.....and neither is his Aunt J! It must be genetic.

Here are the finished products. Hopefully they won't rot in the heat!

Yikes!

I have recently been called out by my son.

(In the interest of full disclosure I will tell you this. Because of the fact that I am pregnant, I have been slightly more tired than usual lately. So, if given the choice between cleaning my house and say, taking a nap, I will pick the nap every time.)

Anyway. The other day Wes and Noah were sitting on the couch in the bonus room and they had the following conversation.....

Noah: "Daddy, I wish I had a pet baby elephant."

Wes: "What?"

N: "I want to get a baby elephant!"

W: "Why do you want a baby elephant Noah?"

N: "Because if we had a baby elephant he could squirt water out his nose and clean up this room!"

Yikes. I am off to clean my house. Come to think of it, having a baby elephant would be rather convenient!

A Great Weekend

Forget about another government stimulus. I think I may have stimulated the economy single handedly while shopping this weekend. Well, at least the economy in Charlotte that is.

In other news (and is my love of shopping really news?) I had a BLAST in Charlotte with Julie and Gray during our Charlotte girls weekend. We shopped, ate, laughed, and just genuinely had a great time. Julie and I even fit in a run each morning - it doesn't get any better than that!

I hope that we find another excuse to get together again soon! Love you ladies!

Fried Shrimp, Boiled Shrimp,.....

....shrimp kabobs, shrimp cakes, shrimp dumplings, shrimp and grits, shrimp wraps. No, I have not just finished watching Forrest Gump, I am just remembering all the yummy things I ate this weekend at the Beaufort Shrimp Festival!

Our friends Jan and Joe (Clayton's parents) invited us to spend the weekend with them at Jan's family creek house in Beaufort. So, Friday we packed up the kids and headed down for a weekend of fun. We started with crabbing on Friday afternoon.

Noah and I had never done it before and we both looked on with skeptical faces as Jan attached the turkey necks to the crabbing lines. (I didn't offer to help...are you surprised?) Anyway, Noah was very happy to play with the net and kept telling us how excited he was to catch a turtle. I tried to explain that we were catching crabs but he was convinced we would get a turtle. Turns out we got neither because the bugs were so bad we were driven inside pretty quickly. No worries though, we spent the rest of the night enjoying food and company and after the kids went to sleep the Shealys beat the Cruzes in a game of ping-pong. (Well, Wes beat them - I tried my best to lose it for us.)

We woke up on Saturday and had a relaxing breakfast on the porch as the sun was coming up over the water.

I know, I know...what a terrible view. It hurts my eyes.

Clayton, Wes, and Noah watch for dolphins in the creek.

That morning we headed into Beaufort for the Shrimp Festival. It was a beautiful day - hot yes, but that was okay.

Excited to be at the "Shrimp Vegetable"!

We did all sorts of fun things. Clayton and Noah did some face painting. There was music and tons of space to run around. Best of all was the food. So much to choose from - we probably tried it all! Noah's favorite part was definitely not the food - he liked the giant inflatable shark slide the best.

He and Clayton spent the better part of an hour going up and down the shark slide. They had a blast. So did the adults...

...don't you love our shrimp necklaces?

We finally dragged everyone home after several hours of fun and capped off the day with a sunset boat ride. After that, the kids were pretty much exhausted - and so was I - and we enjoyed some yummy dinner (thanks to Jan's parents!) and wine (yes, I had a glass -sue me.)

We had a great weekend - even though I may have gained 10 pounds from all the yummy food!

What's New Here...

I haven't felt all that busy lately but we must have been because the month of September has flown by!

Noah started school at the beginning of the month and is loving it. He is going 5 days a week, from 9-12, and he is excited for it every single day. He is learning a lot too. They are working on letters and are on the letter C this week and he is amazing me with things like, "Yeah, Mama, C is for cat." And, even though they are in different classes, he still gets to play with his buddy Clayton on the playground and even carpool with her some days. So he loves it - and lets face it, I love having 3 hours to myself every morning - so it is working out well.

Noah has also started tennis lessons. We go on Tuesday afternoons and he brings his little racket and water bottle and marches onto the court to spend 45 minutes with Ms. Denise learning the basics of tennis. I usually watch from a distance (if I am close by he gets distracted) and it is so fun to see him hit the ball with a big smile on his face. Of course the Popsicle he gets at the end contributes to his love of the tennis lesson!

And, in baby news I hit week 12 on Tuesday so I guess I am through the first trimester. I had a good 3 or 4 weeks where the nausea and fatigue were pretty bad but other than that it wasn't too terrible. Definitely better than how I felt with Noah. Plus, my whacked out taste buds are finally returning to normal (for the most part - I still can't stand peanut butter) and I am able to eat normal foods again! Wahoo!

So that's the news for now. I am off to enjoy a run this morning - fall finally decided to come to Charleston!

Noah has something to tell you.....

Yes, it's true. For those of you who don't know, we are expecting baby #2 around April 12th, 2010! We told our families this past weekend by putting Noah in this big brother shirt. We thought it would be so cute to just put him in it and wait to see how long before anyone noticed what it said. Well, never count on the cooperation of a 3 year old to carry out elaborate plans. Because Noah had just gotten new school clothes for the fall, he was insistent all day about wearing his new green, long-sleeved (yes in 90 degrees) shirt with the tractor on it. When we tried to put the other shirt on instead he pitched a fit and the best we could get out of him was to put it over the tractor shirt. However, even that was not to his satisfaction and he was completely cranky about it, so basically, we went ahead and just told everyone while Noah fussed in Wes' arms. (I do love his face in that picture though...it's like, damn, I don't know what to think about this whole baby thing. Will I have to actually share and help?)


So anyway, I am about 10 weeks pregnant and looking forward to the end of the first trimester when food might actually taste right again and I won't be constantly nauseous and tired. We went to the doctor for the first ultrasound yesterday and got a few good pictures of Baby Shealy.



This was the best one. It was really cool because he/she was moving all around, kicking his/her legs and waving at us! Noah was never that cooperative for ultrasounds - or anything else for that matter! I am hoping this is a good sign!

The McKees Visit Charleston

I am very behind on my blogging! I have several things to post about and I will try to get to them all sometime this week....

First of all, we had a visit from our friends the McKees the last week of August. Adam and Andrea and their two little girls, Maggie and Emma, came to stay with us for several days. Noah was very excited that we were having guests come and even more excited when he realized that there were "two babies". (I had been prepping him and he really seemed to understand that baby Maggie was coming - he has spent time with her before - but I'm pretty sure he was confused about Emma until he saw her and said, "Look Mama, there's another baby!") We had a fun time playing with all the kids and Noah really did some first class flirting with little Emma.

On Saturday we celebrated mine and Adam's birthdays with Adam's annual low country boil. We invited our friends the Morgans - with sweet baby Hamilton - and Cy and Carissa and we all enjoyed some yummy shrimp.

Here is Maggie "helping" Adam set up the cooker!

We also had a cookie cake for dessert. If you notice the cake says, Happy Birthday Adam and Kelly, but despite that Noah seemed to be under the impression that it was for him. He sat right in front of it while everyone sang happy birthday and then blew out the candles. This pretty much happens anytime there is a cake involved!

It was fun to see our friends and Noah had a blast hanging out with the girls - he was sad to see them go. Thanks for coming to visit McKees!

Lucky Strike!

Yesterday Noah and I did something new. We went bowling. They actually have little kid bowling, how cute is that? The lanes are shortened, with bumpers of course, and the balls are miniature bowling balls. We joined some of our neighborhood pals and Noah had a blast. He announced on the way home that he really thought we should "go bowling again tomorrow!" Here are a few cute pics....

Hannah and Noah wait anxiously to see how many pins Hannah will knock over.

Abigail wants to know when it will be her turn!

Clayton and Hannah ham it up for the camera while waiting for Ann Connolly to bowl.

Noah's bowling form? Questionable to be sure. He went with the overhead throw, which, when using a bowling ball, is a little on the dangerous side. Good thing the balls where small!

Boot Camp

So up until now this has pretty much been our only use for underwear...

....wearing them as a fancy head decoration. But this week we entered potty training boot camp and have been using our underwear in a proper manner.

We have been trying off and on for several months to get Noah potty trained but our little boy has the hardest head in the world and has brutally rebuffed all our efforts. So, I told him Okay, we will play hardball then!

Starting Monday morning we switched to underwear and I informed him that was it! No diapers, no pull-ups (except when sleeping of course) - we were going cold turkey. I would like to say that I had some sort of master plan for this but I would be lying. I have been flying by the seat of my pants with this whole potty training thing. I haven't felt so unsure of myself as a mother since Noah was a newborn. I mean, the most advice I can get from anybody is, Oh, just be patient and consistent or They'll let you know when they're ready. Well, thank you very much (not) but if I wait until Noah tells me he is ready, he will be on his way to college. He hates change and he hates having to stop what he is doing to have to go to the bathroom, hence his desire to just stay in diapers. He considers them more convenient.

Well, much to his disappointment the diapers are gone. Although, I do think he is coming around on the underwear, especially the Thomas ones. He has been doing pretty well too. A few accidents here and there. Day 2 was our breaking point. He totally tested my resolve by informing that he would rather piss himself (my words, not his) than go to the potty. I will just pee my pants Mama, and you can get me new underwear. He said this calmly and matter of factly and I went downstairs and cried. I mean, how to you motivate someone with that kind of attitude? Thankfully, I think he was just testing me to see if I would cave and pull the diapers back out. I did not.

So, today has been the best day yet. He has voluntarily peed on his own three times this morning and I am hopeful that this means he has finally accepted the underwear as part of his life!

**PS - i realize that there are no spaces between my paragraphs - it won't let me fix them and i am getting frustrated so you can just read it like it is!

"Fly Snuka!"

Over the weekend our friends the Bedenbaughs came from St. Louis for a visit. We haven't seen Jeremy and Amy for almost two years and we hadn't yet meant their newest addition Baby Sam. (Sadly, 3 year old Jude was at his Grandma's house and couldn't come be Noah's playmate. We wish he could have come but we do understand how the Grandmas get about seeing their grandchildren!)

We had a great time visiting and catching up over wine and cigars and Noah had a great time learning wrestling moves from Mr. Jeremy. His favorite was the move that Jeremy told him was based on Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka. Basically you start out with a jump...

Followed by landing on top of your opponent, who then gives the "double pump"....

And sends you flying through the air to crash on the couch!

It was quite the hit, and Noah spent the whole weekend begging Jeremy to play his new favorite game, "Fly Snuka".

We also spent some time at the beach. We drove out to Morris Island Lighthouse (yes, Jeremy it was worth the drive!) and wandered on the beach at sunset. It was really beautiful and we lamented the fact that we hadn't thought to bring the wine with us to the beach! Noah had a great time running around in the waves and Sam enjoyed being there, despite not being a fan of the wind.

And look, you can even do Fly Snuka at the beach!

We left as it was getting dark - and Noah was getting cranky - but I couldn't pass up taking a picture with this guy on the way out.

Sadly Noah missed out on all the Mr T action as he was completely passed out.

We were sad to see the weekend be over - thanks Bedenbaughs, for making the trip to see us. We had a blast! See you in Memphis for the half!