Important Firsts

So I am a little behind on updating these things but what are you gonna do? At the beginning of September Noah started 4K! It is his last year in preschool and then he goes on to the real deal. I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around that fact so I have chosen to stop trying. We will focus on this year for right now, and that is good because he is loving school. I mean, he always has, but I am glad that he walked right into his classroom like it was no big deal. It helps that his teacher is super sweet and that he has a ton of good buddies in his class!

In other news, we started Liam on solid foods. (Don't you love that picture?! He totally looks like a thug!) Anyway, it has been a bit of an adventure. At first his tongue thrust reflex was still very strong and he spit out most of what I put in his mouth. We stopped, waited a couple of weeks, and then tried again. It went much better but the rice cereal constipated him (alot!) and so we switched to oatmeal. Which was apparently a huge mistake - as was evidenced by an afternoon spent projectile vomiting and gagging and choking and a trip to the pediatrician after he finally went ghostly pale and limp in my arms. Our doctor said, "Yeah, probably wouldn't do anymore oatmeal." No doubt!

So we will be doing more of the above - me trying to convince Liam to open his mouth while he looks at me like I'm an idiot - with rice cereal that is laced with some prunes! (A funny side note - even after vomiting all afternoon he still weighed in at 16lbs, 11oz. He's a biggun!)

And, last but not least, for the first time in about a million years Wes and I actually went somewhere all dressed up! (Well, it was just his cousin's wedding but it still counts right?)

My Week In Review

My weeks are going by so fast! We are very busy but having so much fun. Here is my week in review (more for the benefit of refreshing my own memory than for anyone who is looking for an interesting blog post!)

Monday: Took Noah to school, skipped my workout to clean my atrociously dirty house. Actually made dinner ahead of time so that after soccer practice we would not be left in our normal 8:00pm dinner quandary.

Tuesday: School, Bible Study, thought about going to the grocery but put it off because of my intense dislike of walking into Publix and having to make decisions about what to make for our meals. Spent the late afternoon with my pals Jan and Katy, my sis Jessie, a glass (or 2) of wine, and children happy to be playing outside without melting in the heat.

Wednesday: Not sure what I really did but I know that I did NOT go the grocery or workout. Oh yeah! That was the day my sister had off from work so we hung out a bunch. No wonder I got nothing done!

Thursday: Finally ran - 3 miles with a jogging stroller in sweltering heat. (Where, oh where are you fall?) Was too sweaty to go the grocery store so I resigned myself to eating quesadillas for dinner yet again. Went to my first Zumba class. Holy crap, that was fun! And funny - watching a room full of middle age women gyrating to latin music is pretty hysterical! (I know I am not middle aged, but I am including myself in the funny to look at - make a fool of yourself group.) Anyway, it is a great workout and I will definitely be going back!

Friday: School routine, and a low key afternoon watching the boys play sweetly together.



I love that Liam is already interested in playing trains with Noah - and that Noah is so willing to share them!

Saturday: Crazy day! Early morning 3 miler, Noah's soccer game, rug shopping (there was a red wine incident involving our dining room rug!), lunch, swimming pool, trying to get Liam to nap (unsuccessfully), going to a family wedding...crashing in bed!

Sunday: Church, lunch, more unsuccessful napping (Ahhhh!), sorting of all the clothes Liam has outgrown and finding the next size up from Noah's old things in the attic...and, in an hour or so hopefully, a refreshing beverage and cookout with friends down the street, followed by watching the end of the first season of Glee with my husband and sis!

Coming up this week...more soccer, more Zumba, (hopefully) more napping and the premiere of some of my favorite TV shows. (It doesn't take much to get me excited these days!) Hope everyone is enjoying their busy lives as much as I am!

Soccer

Things have been moving at warp speed around our house lately. September rolled around and, BAM!, our schedule became jammed packed for some reason. One of the things making our weeks full right now is soccer. That's right folks, Noah has joined the world of organized team sports! He is playing on a 5 and under team through a program here in West Ashley. They practice on Mondays and have games on Saturdays.

His first game was this past Saturday morning. I am kind of ashamed to say I was not there. (I know, yikes!) I was on  a women's retreat at Windy Gap, a Young Life camp outside of Asheville. In my defense I wasn't aware when I signed up that it would conflict with his first game (or with the visit of our good friends the McKees - double yikes, really sorry I couldn't spend more time with them!) So anyway, Noah, Wes, Liam, the McKees, and Aunt J headed to the soccer field for the big game, all the while trying to forget about what a delinquent mother I am. (By the way, my weekend was awesome! I should have some fun pictures to put up soon!)

From what I can tell, Noah had a blast playing with his fellow Cheetahs (that's their team name). He didn't score but he sure did get excited when his teammates did. Wes said he got more tired from all the cheering he did on the sidelines than from actually running up and down the field.

See, look at the excitement after his fellow Cheetah scored!

Besides his mild confusion about where to be on the field (and some weird little hop-step move he uses) he is a pretty good little soccer player. (I am a little biased of course!) I can't wait to see him play at his game next Saturday!

PS....Thanks for all the wonderful picture taking Jess. You got some great action shots!

Noah's Bicycle Monologue

Sometimes I wish that I carried a video camera around with me everywhere so that I could record all the funny things that Noah says and does. But alas, I don't, so the next best thing I have is recounting it here on the blog.

Tonight we decided to take a walk around the neighborhood with Noah on his bike and Liam in the stroller. Noah had to be coaxed because he really didn't want to stop playing with Wes' tools in the garage. We finally convinced him to put on his helmet and hop on his bike and at last we were off. And so was Noah's mouth. He literally did not stop talking for the entire mile loop. Here is a sampling of our (mostly one sided) conversation.

"Daddy, which way can we go? This way, past Miss Paige's house? Hey, wait! I haven't seen Miss Paige's new baby yet. I want to do that, when can we do that? Hey! I know, lets go fast. Okay, Daddy I will go fast and you will...." 

He stops, reaches into his pocket, and pulls out...a wrench!

"Wait, can you hold this? Its in my way."

We continue in much the same manner. Noah continues his running monologue.

"Can we ride down the hill please? I want to go fast down the hill. I will go down fast but push my brakes and not fall off. Okay. Okay Daddy? Daddy, can't we please go down the hill, I really REALLY want..."

"Yes! Noah we can go down the hill!" (Wes then turns and asks me if it would be bad to throw the wrench at him. I respond by telling him that it might be alright. I mean, he is wearing a helmet.)

As we wind our way to the back of the neighborhood Noah starts to get tired.

"Guys I am tired. My legs are scratchy, I have to stop!" We inform him that is not really an option. "But I can't keep pedaling, I am so thirsty. (Slumping over handlebars.) I can't do it! (Pause) Wait, I want to go really fast on this sidewalk and look for geese!"

We watch in confusion as our bipolar son begins pedaling at 90 mph down the sidewalk.

"Wow! Look at all this goose poop guys! Hey Daddy I have a great idea. Lets race! You run in the street and I will race on the sidewalk and we will race as fast as we can and I will win!"

"Noah, buddy I can't race you right now. I really have to pee and if I run I will pee all over the place."

Noah looks at Wes and scoffs, "Whatever Daddy, you're lying, you won't pee! Come on lets go!"

So, having used up the best excuse he could think of, Wes sees he has no choice and starts running. Noah is pedaling like a man possessed and I watch from a block back as they approach the corner/finish line and then die laughing as Noah's left pedal goes spinning right off his bike and he veers into the grass.

Under normal circumstances the broken pedal would have presented a bit of a problem but not tonight. Good thing we had that wrench!

Mall (Rug)Rats

So, what is a girl to do when her husband is out of town for 4 days and it is closing in on the witching hour? (i.e. late afternoon between 4 and 6. Moms, you know what I'm talking about right?) Well, I needed diapers and i figured a trip to Target always entertains so off we went. And on the way we picked up my sister Jessie (Aunt J to the under 5 crowd) to help us be even more entertained on our outing. And help us she did! Are you aware how much fun you can have at the mall with a four year old? Seriously even at our mall which is leaning more and more toward ghetto interesting every time I go. (There is actually a store there with the name Authentik...yes it's spelled with a "k" and it sells gold chains and the like. Seriously.)

So anyway, first we bought the diapers at Target, and then, because he asked so nicely, we let Noah eat at Chick-fil-a. And while there, Liam promptly decided that formula was for the birds and made a move for my fried food.

See, he is grabbing with his chubby little fingers every time I try to take a bite!

After that we headed a few stores down where I let Noah get a chocolate chip cookie because he was such a  good boy and finished all his nutritious fried dinner! :)  Then, we walked around and found a store that sells all sorts of old school TV series on DVD and my sister bought this.....

Here is proof that she is at least as big a dork as I am.

Outside this store was a mini-carousel with a train on it so of course Noah had to ride that. Personally I thought he was a little old to be riding that contraption but he did not seem to care how ridiculous he looked going around in circles at half a mile an hour on a tiny little train.

Finally, on the way out we passed Noah (and Aunt J's) holy grail...the photo booth. Much to my chagrin I contributed a dollar to this endeavor and those two promptly posed with some crazy faces in the photo booth. Noah really wanted to do it again but we had no more dollars and it was approaching 7:30 and I figured it was time to stop goofing around at the mall and actually go home and get my children to bed. But I was very excited that we had spent a whole 2 hours completely distracted and had not asked for Daddy one time! Thanks Aunt J and the ghetto lovely Citadel Mall!

Because sometimes.....

....you just have to be naked!

Four Months

Somehow my baby is four months old. How did that happen?

We went to the doctor for his four month appointment yesterday and got all the important stats. (Well, they are actually very unimportant if you ask me, I am much more interested in the more intangible things like is he a happy baby, but I digress.) However, I was excited to see how much he weighed because he is kind of like carrying around a brick all day long! So without further ado....

weight: 15.6 pounds/59th percentile

height: 24 inches/16th percentile (yep, he's a Shealy!)

head: 57th percentile (This one is the least interesting stat to me. I mean why do we care what percentile his head falls in anyway?)

Now for the things I consider way more fun to talk about. He is such a fun baby! So laid back and always ready with a smile. I call him my little smile whore because he will flirt with anybody who pays him attention. He is also giggling - most frequently at Noah. He has great head control now and loves to play in the exersaucer where he is starting to grab at all the toys! His newest trick is that he can roll over both ways now. In fact, at night, we now find him rolled over and sleeping on his stomach when we go to check on him.

We are enjoying Liam soooo much. I remember while I was pregnant, I was constantly wondering/worrying about how it was possible to love someone as much as I loved Noah. The truth is that it is the easiest thing in the world to love this little guy every bit as much! And having a baby is so much more enjoyable this time around. I am not a newbie trying to blindly figure out how to care for another human being. I have gotten one child to age four successfully so I am not so worried about the little things, and that leaves a lot of time to simply relish in the joy that is Liam!

***HELP! Does anyone have any suggestions on how you fix the spacing in this post? I CANNOT get it to post with the appropriate spacing and it is driving me crazy!!