Hot Child in the City

I think this is the perfect way to beat the summer heat. How cute are they?

The Park With Six Flags

Last weekend Noah and I packed up the car and braved the 5 hour drive to Atlanta to see my Mom. We made it there despite the fact that 5 hours turned into 6 and 1/2 hours due to crazy Atlanta traffic. All I will say about the car trip is this...turning around to pick up lost trains/change the DVD in the portable DVD player while whizzing past huge trucks at 75 miles an hour is not wise. Don't try it anytime soon.

Our main reason for going was that my Mom was taking us to Six Flags because they have a new addition to the park... Thomas Town.

The morning we left Noah came running into my room after Bebe got him up. He started punching me in my bed and saying, "Mama, wake up. We have to go see Thomas at the park with six flags on it!" Needless to say he was very excited. Thomas Town was our first stop when we got to the park. It was, however, all the way at the back so Noah very excitedly pointed out all the things that he wanted to do after Thomas. We almost didn't make those things because he really didn't want to leave Thomas town once we got there. We rode Thomas the train countless times, played on the playground, and stalked all the trains in the gift shop for a couple hours.

Noah and Bebe play on the playground with Bertie the Bus.

Riding in the coaches behind Thomas.

When we finally made it out of Thomas world I was pretty sure that the rest of the park would prove of little interest to Noah but he proved me wrong. He wanted to ride all sorts of things and was even brave enough to go on a ride all by himself.

Not the greatest angle, but you can see his little face peeking over the top of the plane. He was so brave and got all buckled in and waited for the ride to start all by himself, and then waved and smiled every time the plane circled around. It was soooo cute!

We ended up staying for 5 hours - a lot longer than I had predicted - and Noah finally agreed to leave when he got so tired that all he could do was be carried by me and put his head on my shoulder. As we left, he did announce that the next time he came he was going to ride a roller coaster. He meant it too!

Big Daddy

At least once a day Noah says something that cracks us up. Today he did not let us down.

Wes brought home some little foam baseballs from work - probably from a drug rep or something - and Noah was throwing them around. Wes and I were trying to get him to practice catching but he didn't want to because it is something he is bad at, and he doesn't like doing things he is bad at. Anyway, Wes and I were throwing it to each other, hoping to show him how to catch. "See", said Wes as he caught it in an exaggerated manner. "That is how you do it."

Noah thought about it, then shook his head and held up his tiny hands.

"No, I can't. I don't have regular hands like Big Daddy does."

Then he marched off, leaving Big Daddy and I in a fit of hysterics on the floor.

Dolphins and Cookies and Fireworks, Oh My!

We had a pretty busy fourth of July weekend. It started on Friday when, wonder of wonders, Wes had a half day off! That just doesn't happen in our house folks. When Wes doesn't work, Wes doesn't get paid, hence, Wes works a lot. But not this past Friday so we opted to celebrate by going out on the boat. Not our boat of course, the in-laws boat, which meant we did no work and simply enjoyed riding around. Noah had a blast swimming and we saw a ton of dolphins which he is still talking about.

Saturday we joined some other people from our church for a cookout that we were hosting at a halfway house in North Charleston. It was the first time that we had partnered with the staff and residents for an event and it turned out really well. Hot, but fun and everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves. Especially Noah who ran around with his friend Olin and spent a lot of time squirting people with his tiny water gun. (Not usually acceptable behavior but in the heat we were all thankful for a few squirts!)

That night we had birthday dinner with Uncle Cy and the rest of the family, which was fun but Noah was a smidge disappointed that Cy wanted birthday cookies instead of birthday cake. ("Why doesn't he want cake?" he kept asking.) Oh well, I guess we will forgive Uncle Cy for his dessert choices!

Finally we headed home listening to Noah's request for fireworks the whole way. We decided to pull over and buy some sparklers for him to play with when we got back to the house. It took some convincing, ("Mama I want the ones that fly in the air with the loud noise!") but we managed to get him to believe they were real fireworks. He used the whole package and threw a minor fit when they were all gone. By far his favorite part of the day.

Hope everybody had a wonderful 4th of July!

Well, at least I'm not worried about his fine motor skills....

This past weekend Wes and I finally broke down and bought furniture for our screened porch. Just in time to enjoy sitting outside in the sweltering heat! Whatever...at least it is no longer the place for bags of trash and the pool towels that are still wet.

In true Shealy fashion we found some great 50% off deals at World Market - anything to make Wes feel better about spending more than $20 at a time! Of course, the downside is that you have to put all the furniture together yourself, but Wes didn't mind. He was just happy to have scored his deal. He spent Saturday and some of Sunday putting together our new stuff while Noah "helped". (Meaning, he watched and tried to mimic exactly what Wes was doing with every tool.) Finally it was all finished and we enjoyed a moment sitting outside before the heat drove us back in.

At one point Sunday morning we could not find Noah, and after looking for a few minutes we found him outside on the porch.



If you look closely you will see that he is in possession of an Allen wrench and is removing the bolts from the furniture. And is quite proud of himself from the looks of it. He declared that he was "helping" and "doing it all by myself". So, a word of caution to those of you that may spend any time on our porch. Examine the furniture closely before you sit on it...you never know when all the bolts may be missing.

Thomas, Live!

Last week my friend Julie called and informed me that Thomas and Friends Live was coming to Charlotte and did Noah and I want to come up and see it with her. Of course, I didn't have to twist Noah's arm and before I knew it, Tuesday rolled around, and we were off to Charlotte to see Julie, Devin, their dog Maggie, and, most importantly, a live stage performance of Thomas!

Here is Noah as we were leaving Julie's - trains in hand, ready to go, and very excited!

After a parking misadventure - suffice it to say that is seems Julie and I will never outgrow our ability to attract disaster and mayhem - we headed in to see the show. Noah held my hand the whole way, grinning and talking about seeing his most favorite little blue train.

And when we got there he was not disappointed. This is a 3 year old's paradise....

And this is what he looked like as he watched.....

Please ignore whatever is going on with my chin in this picture and focus on how cute Noah looks!

He loved the show and sat the whole time just mesmerized. He clapped and sang and laughed and every time a new train would come out he would scream excitedly, "It's James!" or "It's Gordon!" When it was over he was a little sad, and as we filed out of the arena he kept turning around to yell, "Bye Thomas!"

We had such a good time seeing the trains!

To top it all off, we got to stay at Julie's house and play with Maggie the doggie which Noah just loved. We spent the next morning lounging with Maggie while we watched our Disney cartoons. Noah kept petting her and saying, "She's so cute. I love Maggie."

Please notice Noah's souvenir Thomas shirt which he has insisted on sleeping in every night since we went.

I think it was his perfect trip!

Magic Beans

For the last several weeks we have had The Funk. I call it that because it is somewhere between a cold and a flu and a general feeling of ickiness. Noah got it first, then passed it to me, who then passed it to Wes. We have been doing a lot of this lately....

This week we are finally emerging from The Funk and joining the healthy world again. Actually, Noah has been over it for a week or so now and Wes only had it a few days. I was hit the hardest and actually broke down and went to the doctor on Monday, begging for anything she could give me to rid me of The Funk. I must have looked exceedingly pathetic because she prescribed me an antibiotic and a cough syrup that she assured me would knock me out completely for a good night's rest (score!). Of course, my good mood about the medicine only lasted as far as the Publix pharmacy counter.

Let me just tell you that I didn't know a good thing when I had it. Military insurance...awesome. Regular old insurance with a high deductible? Not so awesome. I won't tell you what I spent on that medicine, but suffice it to say that I could have had a very nice new pair of designer jeans. Or several pairs of shoes....sigh. Anyway, when I told me sister what I had spent on my miracle drugs she put it best when she said, "What is that stuff, f&%$ing magic beans?!"

Magic beans indeed. I laughed until I examined the pamphlet that came with my medicine. The column where there is a description of the medicine says it all.

See, even the pharmacist knew what that stuff was! Well, liquid gold or magic beans or whatever you want to call it, at least I am finally feeling better. It was worth it...although I would probably rather have had the designer jeans!