Wordless Wednesday

This kid...

Just another typical day with Noah. Mess on top of mess. Earlier Noah found the paint in the craft cupboard and I left it because why clean up the same mess twice as he would have surely dumped them again. Then I run out to the car and come back in to find pretzels ALL OVER.

He keeps me on my toes, that's for sure.

Busy Time Activity

Some days kids go looking for something to do or make and I know with mine, many times all they find is trouble. Enter Pinterest. Glorious Pinterest. I found a new activity that kept the kids busy for quite a while and didn't cause any fights. Win win!

You will only need a pan/dish, small bowl, medicine dropper, baking soda, vinegar, and food coloring.

This activity is pretty self explanatory. Vinegar and baking soda cause an explosion-like reaction that kids are fascinated with. And the fact that they can do it themselves made it even better! I put the vinegar in a bowl with some food coloring and the baking soda covering the bottom of a dish. I couldn't find medicine droppers and could see turkey basters ending up making a huge mess so we made do with straws and just held our fingers over the top, then releasing them to drop the vinegar.

Once all the baking soda was covered and wet, we poured the remaining vinegar in. The kids discovered you could "write" in the mixture. Fun!

 Cleanup was easy as all I had to do was pour it down the drain. And BONUS: Vinegar and baking soda are great for cleaning so I used a little to scrub the sink nice and clean!

Giddy up

This past Monday the family drove out to a friend's ranch for a visit and some horseback riding. Alena has been begging for riding lessons for a while now so we wanted to see how she would do on a horse before shelling out the cash for lessons. We had a great time and the kids loved being out in the country because they had lots of room to run and could be loud without any neighbors nearby.

Christian liked it but got bored quickly. I think he was expecting to cowboy up and ride free rather than a simple walk around the corral.

You can see the joy radiating off of Alena. She loved it and listened to my friend give her directions about getting the horse to go, stop, turn, and so on. We may just have to go forward with getting her those lessons.... BUT! My wonderful friend did offer to let us come over any time to ride and if Alena was serious, she would give her some lessons herself. Score!

Meanwhile, Noah had to "suffer" through watching his older siblings get their turn at the horse. He was being extra fidgety and whiny and we just thought he wanted to get down and move. But when we took him to the horse, he smiled and got really excited. So I hopped into the saddle and put Noah up with me. Oh the look on his face! Pure glee. Once he figure out that we weren't moving, more fits and whining. My friend lead the horse around the corral and Noah was on top of the world. Smiles for days and lots of giggles. He absolutely loved it!

It was a great end to our long weekend and we're looking forward to doing it again. :)

The First 5K

I've been looking at running 5Ks lately but kept putting it off because of a certain someone. *cough cough* Noah. Well, as soon as we heard Run or Dye was coming to our town, Gabe and I signed up. Last Saturday, the 15th, we dropped the kids off with a sitter and ran our first 5K!

Aside from playing soccer last fall, I had not trained at all and neither did Gabe. Oops. We regretted it and were sore. Still, it was fun and we were covered head to toe in bright florescent colors.

 

We managed to be in the very front at the starting line and ran with the first wave of people. We probably made it a good K and a half before walking! Then we just alternated walking and running.

 

One of  the dye stations after the race. The road was completely covered!

We got complimentary packs of dye to save and throw with the crowd at the end of the race (as shown in video above) but we kept it for the kids. When we got home, we covered the kids who thought it was just the greatest thing!

Such a fun but exhausting day!

Noah - 10 Months

 
Weight - 18 lbs No weight gain this month.

Height - 29 in Getting long and skinny.

Appearance - You have blond hair and blue eyes, although in certain lights you definitely have hints of red in your hair. Your face is very much toddler like and less babyish.

Eating - You still nurse every 2-3 hours but you have started having longer stretches here and there at random times. You are eating table food with us and are very good about eating everything. There are definite times where you prefer food over nursing and I'm OK with that because you are still very much a booby lover. Hah.

You hate to sleep without mommy.

Sleeping - You sleep from around 8 or 9pm - 7am. This month has been hectic as far as your night sleeping goes. Some nights you'll sleep good and only wake once but you have had a lot of nights where you are moving a lot and nursing a lot. We're debating on moving you out of our bed but once you fall asleep for the night you have to have me nearby or you will scream and cry. You have set your own napping schedule which is pretty much just napping about every three hours.

Sizes -  You wear some 6-9 month and have started wearing 12 month clothes and size 3 diapers. You rarely wear shoes but they are size 3.


Milestones - WALKING! You are up to 10 steps or so before you give up or fall down.


Daddy and I swear we have heard you say "more" several times.

You slept in a crib for the first time at your babysitter's house.


You are beginning to babble and "talk" and it is the cutest thing! You like to make your presence known to everyone.

Likes - wrestling, being outside, food, chewing on everything, watching Alena and Christian play, looking out the windows and doors
Dislikes - baths (this is new), having things taken from you like toys or something you shouldn't be having, when you have a dirty diaper, you HATE diaper changes, driving in the car at night

Noah, you are such a funny boy and almost always have a smile on your face. You are getting better and better at walking and should have it down this coming month. You love to give kisses, doubly when we give you something you want. Speaking of what you want... You know what you want when you want it and make sure to let us know or even throw a fit if you don't get it. And for some reason, you have decided you don't like baths anymore. You are very content to play on your own, making a toy from almost anything. We love watching you grow and learn. Happy 10 months baby!

Wordless Wednesday

 Isn't it great to see siblings interact? Even though he doesn't like to admit it, Christian is smitten with Noah and I catch him playing with his baby brother a lot. I see the brotherly bond forming and I love it!

Easy Valentine Card Holder

I'm going to show you one of the quickest and easiest Valentine's Day card holders you can make.

All you need is:

Cereal box
wrapping paper (non-Christmas or white side turned out)
Scissors
Glue or tape
Stickers and other decorations you have on hand

The first step is to take your cereal box and either measure how much wrapping paper you'll need or eyeball and tape it as if wrapping a gift. You can cut a hole ahead of time or after the paper is on like we did. Gabe helped wrap it but then Alena took over and added a handle and decorated it. Ta-da!
That's it, it's done! So easy it practically doesn't need directions. :)

Easy Peasy and super cute!

Playing Catch Up

That's the name of the game around here lately. Gabe was on a week long business trip that ended last Saturday and not a moment too soon. I had another fancy shmancy long post about a typical day in my life but alas, that will have to wait because Christian thought it wise to delete it while playing on the Ipad and pushing any button that popped up because surely his game would come back on!

 Moving on...

I worked in the nursery at church on Sunday and then again for our local MOPS (mothers of pre schoolers) group on Monday and somewhere along the way Noah crossed paths with a contagious baby because Tuesday night I was awoken from my slumber by Noah crawling on me covered in puke. Oh yes, life of a mother. Annnd then he couldn't keep anything down.

Thursday he was back to mostly normal minus the nasty messes he was leaving in his diaper (again, a mother's life. envy it.). It was 70 degrees and I was feeling cheerful so I thought it would be fun to take Christian and Noah to the Farmer's Market and park before we picked up Alena from school. But no, a pleasant outing would be asking too much. As I'm getting Noah situated in his carrier (of which I had to wake him up to get him out of the car!) Christian complains of an upset tummy. "Mommy, I think I'm going to throw up."
Oh joy. Back in the car and I managed to find a large Ziploc bag to use as a makeshift barf bag if need be. And it was. Juuust as I pull in the driveway, I hear the unmistakeable gurgling sound coming from the backseat that only a parent would recognize. Child #2 down for the count.

 Just a couple hours later we get Alena from school where I hear the oddly familiar upset tummy confession from the oldest child. Christian's got the only (fresh) barf bag, which oh yes, was put to use once again and I'm racing home to prevent Alena from needing one. We get home and child #3 was down for the count.

Sensing a pattern and feeling like a ticking time bomb myself, I whizzed around the house cleaning the bathrooms (confession: I can't throw up in a dirty bathroom.), trying to get ahead with the laundry, swept the floors, and anything else I could think of that I could not but would need to do in the next couple of days. I shot Gabe a text warning him of what was going on and not to be surprised at the condition of the house when he came home.

 I managed to survive until after the kids were put to bed and then held off for as long as I could. Parent #1 down for the count. The night was long and rough but I survived and we all spent Friday recuperating. I just kept throwing anything everything washable in the washing machine that we came in contact with or dirtied. At this point we were almost out of bread, milk, and other groceries since I had not had the chance to go at all during the week. I guess it was good we were just living on crackers and water anyway...

Saturday was another recovery day as Christian was back to normal and Alena was almost there. I really just wanted a nap! Gabe came home and took the kids' attention for about five minutes or so, so I got a smidgen of a break. But Noah was/is teething so it's mommy mommy mommy all the time and I really hope this doesn't last much long because he is still like that on Monday night!

 Sunday, Suckybowl Superbowl. We didn't get to go to my friend's Superbowl party that I was really looking forward to going to because we had a babysitter lined up and it was going to be an actual fun grownup party. But you know... sickness and all. So we stayed home and watched it which was just as well because that was just the gosh. darn. worst. game. I. have. ever. seen.

So what's my point? There is none. Vent/rant over.

Oh wait... Monday. Gabe came home sick from work early and has been sleeping for going on 11 hours (lucky guy) and still has the rest of the night to go. Parent #2 down for the count.

And that's all she wrote folks.