Our Resurrection Weekend

Jeremy was able to leave work a little early on Good Friday (been a long time since we've had that treat!), so we headed out to an early outdoor dinner.

There's not much cooler things than having chips and salsa at The Oasis on the balcony overlooking Lake Travis--while wearing your Winnie-the-Pooh shades.
Hot salsa makes you thirsty. It also might make you drool a bunch.

These shots are part of my attempt to tempt the Nutt's to come visit us soon! And anyone else who might enjoy the lake. :)

Might be the prettiest lake I've seen.

I thought this was pretty funny. This guy has the trademark apparently.

We stopped in a little cove to let Noah check out the water. Sorry for so many pics, I really liked these!

He loved the water! I am so excited to take him to the real beach!

Saturday morning, we attended the neighborhood Easter egg hunt. It was Noah's first official hunt.

He actually managed to pick a few up and put them in his basket before they were all gone.

This morning, we headed down to the TU campus to the Frank Erwin Center (a relative? no idea.) for the big Austin Stone Community Church Easter Sunday service. It was awesome. There was a boys choir from Uganda there and the worship was such a blessing. I think we will stick with this church. Unfortunately, Noah woke up early this morning with a little fever and was really feeling poorly by the time we reached church. He slept on me throughout the whole sermon, which has never happened. It's been a rough day (week, for that matter) for him, so we are heading to the doc tomorrow!

The boys looked so handsome this morning!

I was a bit late with the Easter basket (it was more of an after-nap thing) but here is the actual basket Jeremy purchased on Easter two years ago that we bundled our little Easter baby into!

I bought some Easter activities to do with Noah (such as dyeing eggs) but we only got as far as making cards for his grandparents. It was just a crazy week.

Happy Resurrection Day! Sing praises to our Risen Lord!

Operation Bye-Bye Paci

Here's what has been up around here lately. I have been avoiding the blog like crazy since I have an overwhelming amount to get posted! Yes, I need to post about our cruise, but there's only around 1100 pictures to wade through, so I've been putting it off.

Things have gotten a little busier for me with work the past 2 weeks (really starting to love the job!). I was supposed to work 3 days this week but tomorrow has been derailed by a little man and this run of diarrhea he has been having since at least Saturday.

Also, we have been intending to eliminate the use of the pacifier for some time now but the timing kept not working out. Saturday, Jeremy said, "We need to git 'er done" and so we snipped the tips off his paci's. (We restricted paci use to bedtime long ago.) This produced much anger and screaming in our son. He would not use them. He kept throwing them out and screaming. Since then, we have less screaming but lots of waking up too early. Naps have mostly been too short, it takes him longer to fall asleep, and he has been waking up between 5:30 and 6:30 every morning instead of the 8:00 hour we had been achieving prior to Operation Bye-Bye Paci. Help! My hope is that either this has something to do with the upset tummy or that he will learn to sleep well again very soon. Anyone else have this trouble? I know it must be hard since we have been pushing a paci at him since he was about 4 months old to try and help him soothe himself back to sleep. I guesswe have to start over with sleep training again!

Anyway, that is all that is new with us, I believe. Just praying that after putting the paci's in the trash with him today, they will soon be erased from memory!

Grab Your Boots and Get in Gear...

Because Noah's 2nd birthday is here! We hosted the party from our home and Noah was pleased to celebrate with both sets of grandparents, aunt, uncle, and three cousins. Unfortunately, the night before the party, Noah came down with a little cold and fever, so he wasn't feeling his best, but managed to have fun anyway. This cracked me up. Not his name, just that he felt the need to add the "A." In case other Dominicks came to the party. ;) The chefs. I made lasagna and conned Mandi into making the salad and Debbie into freezing the homemade chocolate and banana ice cream recipes. The sandbox from Mamaw and Papaw and sand toys from Mandi, Dom, and Sophia were a hit. His favorite thing has been the tractor from Scott and Madison. He sits on top of it and says, "Whee!" Thanks everyone for all the gifts and to those die-hard Noah fans that made the trip down for a quick weekend! We love you!

2 Years Old!

How can it be? On April 10th, our delightful boy turned 2 years old. Now we have to count him in years. It's so hard to figure out where the time goes. I guess you just go to bed one too many times and they change on you. I have been snuggling him at bedtime, trying to squeeze him hard enough to keep him little.

These days Noah is boisterous, busy, energetic, enthusiastic, loving, affectionate, determined, friendly, always on the move, and needs constant activity. Not much has changed with his adjectives over the last year. He still loves most any fruit, hates most any vegetable, and has become quite the picky eater. He loves Elmo, Baby Einstein, tractors, and stars. He is definitely an outdoorsman and thoroughly enjoys going to play at the park.

Yesterday, Noah had his 2 year checkup. Here are the stats.

Weight: 26lbs, 13.5 oz (50%)

Height: 34.5 inches (55%)

They also measured his head but did not write that down for me. His BMI was 30%.

Everything is fine except for his speech. He has around 35 words, when he should have 50. A stranger is supposed to be able to understand 50% of what he says, and I feel this is probably not the case. Dr. Sperling gave us an ECI referral to have him evaluated for speech therapy, which I will call to schedule on Monday. I'm excited about that because Noah's baby-sitter's son also has used these services and is doing very well. I'm not upset about this because I know that Noah is smart, I just feel guilty because I am a poor teacher. Noah did great on the autism checklist, something that must be in the back of every parent's mind these days.

Here are his recent portraits. I included some of the bloopers because they are funny and show a little bit of what our session was like. :)

And here is our sweet Easter baby, on his DOB 2 years ago.

Party Like a Five-Year-Old

The weekend of March 26, we celebrated So-So's 5th birthday in Arlington. Noah had a great time playing with his cousins! It was a princess affair. With lots of fun on the playground.

Some girly group hugs.

Tasty Cupcakes. This young lady was hard to pin down for a picture.

Patty-cake with Mamaw and Papaw.

Lots of presents. The boys had some fun of their own during the girly stuff.