Tuesday, February 9, 2010

A Snowy, Snowy Weekend

I've got some blogging to catch up on! I am still waiting on some pictures from the Nutt's so I can blog about our visit with them. And so I can share their exciting news! Ahem. Are you reading this, Stace? :)


Anywho, we expected to have a draggy, boring weekend last week because of the mass of snow. Quite the opposite! Saturday, we mostly just hung out, and did a little housework. Jeremy and I watched a movie while Noah took a nice, long afternoon nap. So nice to just snuggle up on the couch together and relax. :)


Sunday, we did not make another church attempt but will get back at it soon. Instead we had a little pancake breakfast and then headed over to Diane and Carlton's house for lunch with everyone. We had some great chili and a blast sledding down their driveway. Noah even got in on the fun!


That night, Diane, Carlton, Rob, and Khristina came over for a little Superbowl gathering. We had lots of good food but I didn't take any pictures. I was a little concerned that Noah might have his first ear infection but he woke up very cheerfully on Monday morning and seems to be doing okay. These darn colds just take forever to go away with babies!! I will officially swear by Zicam! I think I started getting his cold so I began taking the Zicam religiously and I assure you that it was a quick and pretty mild cold for me. That's my plug.

Enjoying his first pancake. Healthy recipe with blueberries. :)


















Mommy & Daddy like to sled too!




That's Jeremy and I taking off in the background.




Trudging back up that hill is hard work!



Rob & Khristina getting ready to take off. Expectant mommies like to sled too! :)



Diane giving Carlton a nice little nudge.




Don't you wish you were here?? Well, at least the snow was fun for a little while. ;)






Monday, February 1, 2010

S.O.S

Mayday, Mayday! Jeremy will be leaving Noah and I by ourselves for 3 nights in the near future for a business trip! I'm not good at staying by myself and have never done it with Noah. Not looking forward to it. Does anyone want to come baby-sit us??

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Snow Play

At least one person ought to have some fun in the fresh 7 or 8 inches we just got! Here is Noah trying out his new baby sled.



It was a hit I think.





Don't know why I decided to add this picture, I think because he looks so old to me. It could be the shaggy bangs. Yes, I know he needs that first haircut. We'll do it soon.







video

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Noah's First Playdate

Laura and Elijah Lee came to visit us today for lunch! Noah has never had a friend his age come over before, so I was excited to see his reaction.

Here is the first meeting. Noah was excited and wanted to touch Elijah.


Look, Mom!


Elijah checking out Noah's mouth.

And my camera.


In fact, it was all fun and games until Elijah decided to speak. He let out some yells and Noah was absolutely terrified. I mean, sad face, need my mommy, big crocodile tears, scared. He is so rarely is scared by anything (other than his Cowboys football and really loud noises) that I was surprised. And he loves other kids. I don't know what happened. Other than that, we had a great time!

video

Monday, January 25, 2010

What's the Story, Morning Glory?

Just a little update on what's going on lately...

The final things we are waiting on with the house are the arrival of furniture for the extra living room and having the kitchen cabinets painted. everything else is pretty much done, with the exception of us possibly painting the exterior of the house this summer, and adding shutters and a new front door.

We are eagerly anticipating the arrival of Brian and Stacie on January 27. We just adore having them around and always have fun. Best of all, we get to find out whether they are having a boy or girl since a friend of ours is coming by with her ultrasound machine while they are here! They were there when we discovered that I was pregnant with Noah and now we get to be there to see whether they need to buy some pink or blue! What could be more fitting?

Noah is doing very well. After a long adjustment period to the new house and me putting him down awake and letting him cry until he learned to fall asleep on his own (which only took a couple of tries), he now sleeps beautifully. We put him down around 9:00pm and wake him up about 7:30am. Then he sleeps an hour or so in the late morning and anywhere from 1.5 to 2.5 hours in the midafternoon. So much better!! Our new pediatrician gave the first advice I got that actually worked for Noah. He is not one of those babies that sleeps 12 hours at night and naps 4 hours a day. He hardly ever sleeps the average time babies his age are supposed to sleep. And he won't likely change that. The doctor explained that, though it would be difficult for a while, we just needed to shift when he sleeps. If I let him sleep too long at night, or in his case, the "average" amount of sleep, he will not get enough daytime sleep. And he needs both. So despite what some of the experts say (like put him to bed at 6:30pm), it just doesn't work for Noah.

Suddenly, Noah is refusing to eat foods that he does not like and only wants to feed himself. The struggle toward freedom and independence has begun. Sigh. The only problem is that he can only manage certain finger foods and even then has only about 20% accuracy. He has just started refusing to eat certain things in the last couple of days. He does not like avocado, raspberries, or baby food broccoli, carrots, and cheese, in case you were wondering. He spits them out, pushes the spoon away, hits the spoon (great messes), and makes terrible faces. He loves sweet potatoes, beans, broccoli, cheese, chicken, green beans, mango, and bananas.

Still no crawling. But what this boy lacks in skill, he makes up for in sheer determination. He rolls, drags, and scoots himself around and is busy looking for trouble most of the time. Why does Mommy always pull this yummy paper out of my mouth.? I just worked really hard pulling that sock off--for the 20th time today--why is she putting it back on? Why does this swing smack me in the forehead when I push it? Babies have such interesting little lives.

Jeremy is working hard and loving his job.  This is what I've been doing:


 
Cooking.  And lots of of it!  We love having friends over for dinner.  Along that line, I started my recipe blog and am working on finally organizing my recipes into a cookbook instead of looking up old emails and documents on the computer!
 
Have a great week and enjoy kissing January good-bye!  How much longer til summer??

*I have a video I've been trying to insert here but can't get it to go?  Anyone else had problems since the new editor only has "insert image" but no video?

Just Scrap It!




Digi-scrap that is!  I am starting to put together my blog into pages for a book of Noah's first year.  I made the first one for free on scrapblog.com.  Hopefully, I'll get more advanced as I go along and get some more materials to use but at least it's a start.  That first year will soon be up, you know!

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Nanna

My heart is heavy. This Saturday, my grandmother, Helen Snider, is moving into a nursing home, due to the Alzheimer's disease she has been suffering with for several years now. And she doesn't even know it.

My grandfather has been taking care of her himself all this time and doing his very best. The man truly must have achieved sainthood by now. Unfortunately, it has gotten to be too much for him to manage. My mom and her sisters had to help him make this decision and I know his heart has to be so torn and broken.

Nanna was vivacious, high-tempered, emotional, devoted, steel-strong, proud, and never met a stranger. Now she is a shadow of that woman and the glimpses of the true "Nan" are showing through less and less often. She still remembers something of who I am when I talk to her, though not that I have a child or which daughter I belong to, and I am certain that she will very soon forget completely. I can't imagine how frightening this will be for her, when life is so anxious and confusing already. After 65 years of commitment to this woman, I can't fathom how this ending feels for Pop.

It just kicked me in the gut last night. Hard. Suddenly, I realized that there are no more trips to Nanna and Pop's house in Bossier City, no more shopping for school clothes at the mall, swimming at their pool, going out for late-night TCBY runs with Nan, no more sneaking me 20 dollar bills and telling me not to tell Pop. I can't get any of that back. They haven't lived there in several years now so denial must be a powerful thing. Where did it all go?

And so we are saying good-bye. Not physically yet, but in every other sense. Alzheimer's is a horrible, horrible thing. And I'm not there. My family is packing, moving, and distracting both of them this weekend and trying to do all this with their best faces on. I don't envy them one bit but wish I could help anyway. Dealing with sad things in the family is none of our fortes.

But all glory be to God who knows all and does all according to his Good Purpose.

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary you have been grieved by various trials. 1 Peter 1:6
Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven... Luke 6:23

Love you all.