Our Little Trip to Tulsa, Springdale, and Van Buren

For Labor Day Weekend 2009, the Barclay's took a little journey to Oklahoma and Northwest Arkansas to visit friends and family. (Really, an important high school football game prompted the visit for Jeremy, but of course seeing everyone was the best part!)

Noah was the best traveler ever! His napping was pretty bad the whole trip but he was fantastic on the airplane rides, sleeping and eating the whole time, both ways. (This was my first and only experience with public breastfeeding and it was really pretty easy to pull off on a plane!)

We flew into Tulsa on Thursday afternoon, rented a car, and drove to Springdale, AR, and stayed at the home of Jeremy's best friend Brian's parents, Ken and Janet. They were so sweet to have us and very accomodating of our 3-ring circus. That night, Jeremy and Ken attended the big Shiloh game (Jeremy's high school and team). Noah made himself very comfortable at the senior Nutt house...so comfortable that he pooped in the kitchen sink while Janet and I gave him a bath.

The next morning, Brian and Stacie drove up from Tulsa and took us down to Van Buren to visit Jeremy's grandparents. I have to say, the trip to Van Buren was the only non-shining moment of Noah's travels. He was really tired and fussed quite a bit at GG and Dubby's house, which is not his normal thing at all. Unfortunately, this was his first time meeting them but hopefully we'll see them again soon. I think they thought he was pretty sweet anyway!

Posing with Brian

Daddy, Dubby, and Noah

GG likes to teach the grandkids to play the piano.

Really, Noah, it's not nice to stick your tongue out at your great-grandmother.

Getting ready for his first airplane ride

Noah liked petting Candy and she did not want this baby out of her sight

Thank you Nutt's for a great visit!

Silly Little Monkey

Score!

I totally keep forgetting to post this!!

One baby, five months, a little exercising, and a whole lotta lactating later... I officially lost all my baby pounds!! This is amazing to me since I was pretty skinny when Noah was conceived. I was jogging 3 or 4 times a week at that point.

This actually was official a couple of weeks ago and then when you top it off with a stomach virus, I actually weigh less now than I did when I got pregnant. More like my old college weight. :) That metabolism is rockin!

It Was Not the "Break" I Had Envisioned...

I had just started thinking about how nice it would be if one of Noah's grandparents lived here in town so I could just drop him off with them, run errands, get some housework or shopping done, get a little time to myself....

When it hit me. Saturday night I came down with lovely stomach virus right after Noah went to bed. (Side note: What is up with these things?? I am an avid hand washer. I already had one last January or February while I was pregnant. I blamed it on pregnant women being more susceptible.) The more serious problem was that Jeremy was leaving town on business at 6:00am, right about the time Noah would be waking up for the day. He was to be gone until late Tuesday evening and my mom made plans to take off work and come stay with us.

Luckily, my mom did me the biggest favor ever. I owe her. Once again. She drove to my house at midnight and then took care of Noah for me...during the night and when he got up in the morning. I wanted to avoid getting too close to him and getting him sick. I think I am finally back to normal now. Thank you Mimi for saving us.

Today I am getting a whole day to get some things done. :) I have been neglecting the blog lately, so this was high on my list. Unfortunately, my computer still refuses to recognize that the camera is plugged into it, so I can't upload my photos. And I've been too lazy to try to do it from Jeremy's Mac. Soon!

Five Months Old!

And I haven't managed to post anything about our trip last weekend, but it's coming. I promise. Just need to collect a few pics from the Nutt House and find a little time....

Noah is doing so well these days, despite a few hiccups. Unfortunately, we had a sudden change of babysitter so he is now staying with a new one, away from home. This week has been an adjustment with me getting up earlier and leaving way earlier just to drive him 5 miles to the sitter but it seems to be going pretty well. She only keeps "teacher's kids" and has just her 2 year old plus one other baby to watch. I love my job. I love that I only work part-time so I can have time with Noah and I love that I work part-time so that I can get out into the real world some too! It helps me appreciate my Thursdays and Fridays at home.

We finally shanked (am I using this word right?) the old random 2:00am feedings and Noah has slept from about 7:00pm to 6:00am the last 2 nights in a row without making a peep! Its amazing. Now I just have to retrain my brain to stop waking up at 4:30 to listen for him. The only difficulty is that he doesn't go back to sleep until 7:30 anymore and is more tired during the day because he still does not nap well. Maybe I have just had it in my mind that all babies nap for 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon. I really, really want him to. The best we get is 30 or 45 minutes for each nap, occuring 2 or 3 times a day. I keep hoping that this will be fixed somehow, maybe now that he doesn't sleep quite as long at night, but no such luck yet.



He can now sit up by himself for a few seconds at a time before he throws himself over. This is a brand new thing I discovered last night. Check out the pics. And last Sunday, he managed to flip over from back to tummy for the first time!

We have discovered that Noah has some allergy issues, which seems to be why he has been so hoarse the past couple of days. It's funny when he tries to squeal and shriek (which he does a lot) and it makes him much more pathetic when he cries. :) I took him to the pediatrician on September 1st to have the allergies checked before we flew (yes, I am that mom I guess) and he weighed in at 15 pounds 8 oz. No well-check this month so that's the best I can do for stats. Somehow, we ended up with a boy with light brown hair and hazel eyes. I don't think he has the blue eyes I prayed for anymore. :) I still hold out hope that his hair will turn blond since Jeremy and I were both so blond as kids.

Last night, after bathtime, Jeremy and I were getting Noah lotioned up and ready for bed, and Jeremy was making that "wet razzing" sound (as the What to Expect book calls it) and Noah was imitating him to the best of the his ability. We laughed and it was so cute, it almost brought a tear to my eye. He is just so sweet lately. He gives me hugs around the neck (at least I call them hugs) after I get him out of bed and he actually cuddles with me every now and then! He also pulls my hair and tries to eat my face, but oh well. I just pretend he's trying to give me a kiss and hasn't quite figured it out yet.