Weekend Trip with the Boys: Florida

Last Friday, my mom picked up my boys & me around 5:40 in the morning.  We had packed up her car the night before, so we were ready to jump in and get moving! 

We stopped for breakfast about an hour into the trip—this was a goal we had set earlier in that week and it worked! 

We stopped for a potty break and to administer morning snack at the Florida Welcome Center where Noah tried orange juice for the first time and LOVED it!  (They  offer free cups of orange juice or grapefruit juice at the Florida Welcome Center, and on this day, they even had free Shutterfly coupons for an 8x8 book!  So my mom & I each grabbed one of those!) 

About two to three more hours down the road, we stopped for lunch and my boys discovered their love of Burger King. J

We arrived in Ocala around 2:30pm our time, and it made for a long travel day but we still made pretty good time considering the amount of stops we made.

My Nana had prepped Tater Tot Casserole for dinner—it’s a super simple and kid-friendly recipe that I’ll make and share in the next week or so.  The boys loved it and I was so surprised at myself for not making this recipe at our own home!  It’s one of the favorite recipes of my younger brother and we ate it a good amount while growing up.  It just slipped my mind that it is so easy to put together.  We have out-of-town family coming to visit in a week, and I just might have to pull this together for one of our meals.

I ate mine with Chili sauce that my Nana and Popa make each year.  I’ll have to get the recipe for that because it is SO GOOD and Aaron would love it.

We played outside in the warm Florida weather.  The boys threw their little Spiderman ball around, and a Marshall figurine from PAW Patrol also joined in the “flying” (aka throwing).  I gave the sweaty headies a bath afterwards, and then gave them Greek yogurt for bedtime snack.  Greek yogurt is my FAVORITE thing to feed them for bedtime snack because it packs so much protein and really helps Michael’s blood sugar stay level overnight.

The boys had a blanket pallet on the floor next to the queen bed my mom & I would share during the trip.  I put a movie on our travel DVD player for them as they fell asleep. 

Mom & I got to have a nice visit with Nana and Popa that evening and catch up on some family news and events.  My two cousins have each recently had little boys and it’s fun to see the pictures of the growing, smiling babies!

The next morning, I walked around the neighborhood with Nana and her dog.  After breakfast time, we loaded up and headed to a nearby park.  The boys loved every inch of that park and played and played for an hour or so.  Noah is my fearless one and gladly went down the tallest slides.  Michael is my conservative child, and would walk up the stairs to the top of a slide and then decide he’d rather walk back down the stairs.  Eventually he found a stick that looked like a wrench and proceeded to “fix” all of the park equipment. I was glad to have my mom and Nana there too because trying to keep up with two kids at the park, with a growing belly of my own was hard! 

We headed back to Nana’s house to have a snack and play for a bit.  I had a headache and proceeded to take a rest/nap to try to alleviate the pain.  I really fell asleep hard, and my mom was a champ for feeding the boys lunch while I slept.  I woke up after a while and ate lunch when everyone had finished, and then when it was time for the boys to take their afternoon rest, I rested again. 

That evening, we headed to one of my favorite restaurants down in that area. We had a reservation, which was good because this place was as crowded as I’d ever seen it.  We had trouble finding a parking spot, and eventually, I got out of the van and stood in front of a spot so my Popa could swing around the parking lot and pull in.  We figured no one would run over a pregnant lady, so it ended up being our strategy that worked to ensure we got a spot. 

It took a looooooooonnnngggg time at the restaurant.  A lot of waiting.  And then some waiting.  We got a table fairly early on in the wait, but then we must have sat there for another hour waiting for our food.  The boys did fairly well during this time.  It was a long hard wait for a kid.  About four different parties in the restaurant were celebrating birthdays and one table had these gigantic mylar star balloons.  They happened to be at the table next to us, and Noah kept staring at them.  The wife of the birthday man saw Noah looking and offered a balloon to each boy before this party left.  They were ecstatic and I was less than thrilled.  I don’t LOVE balloons, and I didn’t really want my kids to be the owners of two large and loud shiny flying objects.

The next morning, I went with Nana and Popa to church and my mom stayed back at the house with the boys since there was no kids program at church.  When we got back, my mom had the boys performing a pretend parade while holding their balloons.  She’s so creative!  After church, we had a nice lunch at the house and I thought we’d be able to do our afternoon activity prior to a nap.  I was wrong.  Clearly my boys needed a rest if we were going to enjoy anything else that day.  So we rested.

After a good rest and a snack, we headed to the petting zoo!  Michael (conservative, remember) held my hand with a death grip and chose to stand with me several feet away from all animals.  This wasn’t a petting zoo where you could walk inside the fence, which was fine with me.  Instead, you’d stand at the gate of whatever group of animals, and they’d come up to the fence and you could feed them.  Noah and my mom and Nana, all fed goats, llamas, cows, emus, donkeys, sheep, etc.  Michael got brave enough to throw food into the fenced area with chickens, ducks, and peacocks.  Then he was all about “feeding the animals”  (still meaning, throwing feed into the gates and watching the birds peck it up.  He also got much joy in watching the ducks waddle around.  Just wait, little one. Mommy will soon develop a waddle that can rival that of a duck.

We came home and played for a bit on the screened porch while dinner was cooking.  We had lasagna and salad and crescent rolls and fresh fruit.  Michael and Noah can tear up some fruit!  They both enjoyed the lasagna and had seconds.  Michael particularly enjoyed the dried cranberries in the salad.  We played outside on the porch again until it was dark and the boys’ hair was so sweaty that I could shape it into mohawks on top of their heads.  I took them to get a bath and then promised them each a crescent roll for snack.  We set up a movie again as they went to sleep, and I started packing up our bags.  We’d leave the next morning after breakfast.

The boys were up at their usual early time on Monday morning, and we headed out after eating cereal for breakfast.  We made really good time, even with stopping for gas, and then again 30 minutes later when Michael finally had to go to the bathroom.  We made a big detour in Tallahassee while we searched for an old country store where my mom’s grandparents used to get smoked sausage back in the day.  We found the store and mom & I both bought some sausage to take home for a prize for our hubbies.  I got one pound of Hot smoke sausage for Aaron.  I also grabbed some Swamp Seasoning blend for him. 

We found a Burger King for lunch after some help from a GPS and hearing lots of made up songs about Burger King.  The trip seemed to fly by after that.  We made good time back to Alabama, and Noah fell asleep shortly after the first major town we came to after crossing the state line.  He stayed asleep until we were on the highway near our neighborhood.  Michael was glad to have the travel DVD player all to himself during the last two and a half hours of the trip.  

Mom and I had good talks during our road trips and it was fun to see her in the role of Grandma all weekend.  I’m glad we made the trip and I think the boys had a really great time.  We were happy to be home and done with the long car rides. The next day, the boys and I enjoyed a relaxing rainy day doing laundry and grocery shopping.  Lunchables were a good incentive in the store for good behavior, and the boys both had really good naps that afternoon, which meant I did too!

This weekend, Aaron & I get to take a weekend trip by ourselves and the boys will stay with my mother-in-law.  They are excited for a “sleepover” and I’m really excited for a little trip with my husband!  We have lots of things planned and I’m hoping we can get to all of them, but we’ll enjoy ourselves even if we don’t get to everything, so it’ll be a fun weekend regardless.

Until Next Time,

Much love, Reba

Baby 3: Growing Growing Strong

We found out we were expecting very early on in this pregnancy.  Baby was barely even a whisper in the womb.

They say (who is “they” by the way?) that a female body will “forget” what it’s like to be pregnant 7 years after her last baby was born.  For my first pregnancy, I so desperately yearned to show!  I was wearing maternity clothes wayyyyy before I ever showed.  In fact, maternity pants would just fall down for weeks and weeks.  I think by the beginning of the second trimester, I was finally showing a tiny bit.  It still took me several weeks into the second trimester before I even could wear maternity clothes.  Michael and Noah are 16 and a half months apart, so my body totally knew what to do for my second pregnancy and, by 7 weeks, people were asking me if I was pregnant.  This time around, since it’s been three years since my last pregnancy, I thought perhaps I wouldn’t show so soon.  I was even kind of hoping that I could make it through most of my first trimester without showing.  Part of this is because I am trying (well, Burger King and Valentine’s chocolate is making this hard!) to keep my weight gain to a minimum, and another part is because I’ve lost all of my maternity pants sometime in the last two years.  I think I packed them up somewhere smart when we moved, and I have absolutely no idea where they might be.  I found a few shirts, and a couple pairs of capri pants, and my maternity bathing suit, but that doesn’t help me with the January and February weather! 

By our seventh week, Baby 3 was the size of a tic tac or a blueberry.  So teeny tiny and still cute!  Even though Baby 3 was still so tiny inside of me, I was already showing. 

On week eight, Baby progressed to the size of a kidney bean.  At this point, I had to break down and buy a Belly Band from Motherhood Maternity.  My sister-in-law told me that she wore her regular pants for her whole pregnancy and she just kept them hoisted up with the help of the Belly Band, so I bought one.  It’s the only way I’ve been able to wear pants with a zipper. I cannot zip up pants anymore, so I use the Belly Band to keep everything in place.

During week nine, Baby became the size of a grape.  During weeks 8 through 10, I had very very nauseous days.  Eating dinner was very difficult, because what would sound good for dinner would suddenly sound and smell awful within an hour after eating.  I felt much sicker during these weeks than I did with either prior pregnancy.

Baby grew to the size of a kumquat or Brazil nut during week ten.  My nausea slowly began to disappear during this week. 

On week 11, Baby grew to fig-size.  During this week, I had my second OB appointment.  At this point in pregnancies, the baby is still too tiny for his or her heartbeat to be heard on a Doppler, so I was prepared to go to what I’ve deemed the most boring OB appointment to be weighed, tee-tee, and that’s it.  The doctor spent a good amount of time with me talking about any questions I had.  I did have some sleeping questions since that has been difficult so soon in this pregnancy.  I also had food questions this time around.  At the end of the appointment (which was in the late afternoon), I asked how they could tell everything was fine with pregnancies between weeks 11 and 15—when I’d go back and could hear Baby’s heartbeat on the Doppler.  I was really just curious as to how they decided things were fine during this time frame.  I asked if they checked the HcG levels in the urine samples.  He said no, and that the only way to tell was to do an ultrasound.  I said “Ok” and kept walking toward the check-out desk.  He said “So, come in here and get an ultrasound.”  I said “Really?” because I so did not want to be a bother.  He said “Yeah!  I like to sneak them in when I can!”  So, the ultrasound tech did a quick ultrasound and we could see a full profile of Baby 3, and saw him or her kicking their little legs, and turning over in the womb, with his or her hands right up by the face.  The heartbeat was 164.  I thanked them so much for the special treat of this unexpected ultrasound!

Today, we hit Week 12, and baby is the size of a lime!  I am feeling much more myself this week—well, aside from a pesky headache that’s been hanging around for several days.  I was on a headache medicine for most of 2016, and while on that medicine, the only OTC thing I could take to help when the medicine didn’t help my headaches was Tylenol.  Even though I pulled myself off the headache medicine months before I became pregnant, in pregnancy, I am only allowed to take Tylenol for pain—no Motrin, no Aleve.  In 2016, I got to a point where Tylenol would not even relieve the headaches, and neither would the headache medicine.  Therefore, I hesitate to treat my headaches with Tylenol now since I’m not sure my body has decided it’s no longer immune to the effects of it.  I try to relieve my headaches in non-medicinal ways—ie, naps when I can, small amounts of caffeine, etc. 

I am SO HAPPY to be at week 12 of this pregnancy!  At this point, I feel like pregnancy flies by!  My first trimester will be officially over in the next week or so, and second trimester is probably my favorite one.  Second trimester comes with extra blood in the body, which can give a boost of energy, and it also comes with the most fun ultrasound—the gender reveal!  I am 80% sure that I want this gender ultrasound to be like my other two pregnancies—where Aaron & I go to the ultrasound together and then tell our family the gender that night.   However, 20% of me wants to have a gender reveal party where we find out the gender at the same time as everyone else.  Decisions, decisions. 

On Friday this week, my boys and I are going with my mom on a 7-hour road trip to visit my grandparents and I’m really excited!  My boys have never been to my grandparents’ house and I love visiting there!  I’m a little apprehensive about the long car ride, but hopefully my mom and I can handle my little preschoolers in the backseat for 7 hours!  I’ll miss Aaron like crazy, though, but absence makes the heart grow fonder, right?  After the boys and I return home next week, I’m taking the following day off of work for us to just put ourselves back together again (read: do laundry and grocery shop). 

Thanks for catching up with us!

Until Next Time!

Much love, Reba

First Trimester for the Third

Wow!

God is so good and totally works on His own timing!  And you know what?  His timing is always best.

I'm not planning to publish this post until mid February, but I figured I'd keep adding to it over these weeks to keep track of our changes.


12/23/2016:
On December 19th, I had a doctor appointment to ask the doctor what could be done about the flabby belly I've developed over the last 6 months or so.  A few weeks ago, I switched from coffee to herbal tea and eating more whole foods and really really limiting my processed food intake and sugar intake.  I was desperate to try anything to get tone again!  After both of my previous pregnancies, I lost the baby weight in months and kept it off until Michael's diagnosis of Type One Diabetes when I turned to food for comfort in the wake of our lives being turned upside down.

Since August, I've been working out consistently and since October, I have been hitting my water-intake target every single day (minus only one day when I was a couple cups shy).  So, I was frustrated with why I weighed 4 pounds less than my Delivery Weight with Noah.  I knew Aaron & I wanted to try to have a baby in the late fall and all of next year, but I wanted to be back in my normal weight-- not this new "I didn't take care of myself" weight.  The doctor gave me bad news.  She said it's just flabby skin from having two kids and it won't go away.  I was distraught.  Wondered if I should even continue to exercise at all.  Wondered if it made any difference.  She asked me if I needed to take a pregnancy test.  I told her I had randomly taken one that morning (for a reason I'm not even sure of) and I told her that I wasn't due to even miss my period until the next day. I talked to my husband, mom, mother-in-law (pro-fitness expert), and older brother (fitness product distributor) about this.  All four of these family members told me "you can absolutely lose that weight.  It's adipose tissue-- that's fat.  It can be lost."  So, I vowed to continue my exercise regime and even go harder on my eating of whole foods.

The next morning, after my sons left to go to my mother-in-law's house for the day, I had to go to the bathroom again, so I told myself "If I haven't started, I'll take a test."  I hadn't started.  So I took my final pregnancy test.  I left it on the bathroom floor, washed my hands, and headed back to work (I work from home)-- assured that it would be negative.  In a few minutes, I wandered back in there to check and end the questioning I had within myself.  I squinted at the test on the floor because the words didn't appear as long as they once had.  I picked it up and I saw it-- "Pregnant."  I couldn't believe it.  I was shocked.  I immediately took a picture of it and sent it to Aaron.  He replied "Please don't be kidding me."  I called the nurse line for the doctor and told them I'd received a positive on the test.  They called me back within a couple of hours and told me that they hadn't drawn all the blood that they needed to the day prior and told me to come back in that afternoon and they'd draw blood for my thyroid levels, and to see how far along I was.

Aaron and I schemed how we'd tell our family and how long we'd wait to tell friends and social media-- aka, the world.  We decided to tell family that upcoming weekend since lots of family would be in town.  We decided to wait to tell friends and the world until the first trimester is nearly over-- which will be late February.  We planned how we would tell our family, and we planned what we'd do to announce the pregnancy officially in February.  Those ideas are all coming together now, and I'll put a little pause right here because we will tell our family tomorrow (Christmas Eve) and on Sunday-- Christmas Day!


Update:

On Christmas Eve, I wore an Auburn maternity shirt that said "War Eagle, Baby!" and decided that's how we were going to tell my family.  I imagined them reading the shirt and jumping up and down with excitement.
Note to pregnant self: Things don't always go as planned.
What really happened was that no one said anything.  We had radio silence, people.  They went about their usual business and no one made mention of my shirt.  The men decided to go to the range-- so off went my dad, my older brother, and Aaron.  Bryan (my younger brother) stayed behind because he had to work that night.  So, as he fiddled around in his room, my mom, my sister in law, and all of our little ones went out to the back deck.  Once my sister in law went inside to get some cider, I looked at my mom with a frown and said "didn't you see my shirt?"
She said, "Yes, but I wasn't sure if you meant it as a maternity shirt. People say the phrase 'war eagle, baby' and I didn't want you to be embarrassed if I brought it up."
I said, "But I don't say 'war eagle, baby!' I'm pregnant!"
Of course she was happy for us, and then had lots of questions like how far along I was, how long had I been keeping it a secret, how was I feeling, etc.  Later that day, in the kitchen, as my sister-in-law prepared a Christmas snack, I told her we were expecting our third.  She said she knew as soon as she saw the shirt but wanted someone else to say something first.
Guess my shirt plan was not the best plan. Too vague.
My mom actually had to tell my dad when he returned from the range, then he walked up to me and said "I see your shirt here.  Do you have something to say?"  And of course he was happy for us too.  Just didn't go as I imagined it would.  But it was still fun and a different way of telling family.

On Christmas Day, we went over to my in-laws house after church.  I wore a regular shirt and comfy pants.  We had gotten each grandparent a little gift (My husband's mom, his stepdad,  his dad, and his stepmom)-- we were over at his mom's house and everyone was gathered there.  We waited until our boys had opened all their gifts and then we handed out the presents we had bought.  To his dad, (who had lived across the country for both other times we were pregnant), we handed a jar wrapped in kraft paper and string. One of his favorite movies is "Sound of Music" and I told him his Christmas gift would be a brown paper package tied up with string.  He opened the gift and took out a jar of "Three Cheese" flavored Prego spaghetti sauce.  He looked perplexed and stared at the jar.  My step-mother-in-law said "what is it?"  He held it up to her and she gasped.  Then he said "No way!"  Then my other two in-laws looked up and realized what was going on.  Then there were hugs all around.  We told them we were not planning to tell any of our grandparents until after our first appointment on January 13th, and that we didn't want to tell Aaron's brother until after his baby was born during the second week of January.  We didn't want to steal their thunder.

*****

Eventually, January 13th finally rolled around and I went to my first OB appointment. My mom was off of work that day and came with me.  We had our early-ultrasound to count how many babies, and to check for proper measurement and heartbeat.  Everything checked out well, just one baby, and the heart rate was 148. Michael's heart rate was 141 at his first ultrasound and I think Noah's was 136 or so.
The baby measured one day behind how far along I thought I was, so my due date went from August 29th to August 30th, which is the same due date as I had with Michael! The due date won't change again.  From here on out, if the baby measures big or small, the doctor will not adjust the due date as other OBs would.  He says he prefers to find out why the baby is measuring that way and work on finding a solution to that issue.
I left the appointment with my starting weight and my targeted weight gain in mind.  I'm heavier this time around than I was with either boy and I attribute most of that to a headache medicine that I took for most of 2016.  Anyway, the doctor and I talked about what I could do to limit weight gain this pregnancy and we talked about how I would go ahead and act like I had gestational diabetes since I had it with Noah and probably went undiagnosed with Michael.  He says the odds of having it again are high, but that if I tested positive for it at 27 weeks, I would not have to endure the 3-hour fasting blood test again and we would just assume I had it and would press on.  I said I'd go ahead and adopt the low carb diet again and be prepared as if I had it.

Then came the grueling process of waiting 4 more weeks for an appointment.  I have felt so much sicker this time around than I did with either pregnancy before.  My cravings have been very similar to past cravings I've had, but I do believe my tiredness has ramped up significantly in this pregnancy.

I'll update soon with the types of cravings and how Baby 3 has progressed in size.

Until Next Time,
Much love, Reba

Update on my boys

Michael:

He is tall for his age. He wears 5T and size 6/7 clothing. He's got short legs and a long torso, so my ever constant battle is in finding clothes that are long enough to cover his whole tummy area. He's always had chubby thighs and those didn't go away when he exited the baby stage!  Finding pants that fit comfortably on his legs is a bit of a challenge- especially when he wears his pods sometimes on his legs.  That adds a good half inch sticking out that we have to be mindful of when pulling up and down pants during clothes changing, bath time, and any time he has to use the bathroom.  He does really well in acknowledging where his pod is and being careful in those situations. 

He wears size 13 shoes, which is technically the last size in toddler shoes.  The next size is 1 and that’s the first size in official “kid sizes!” 

Michael still likes to hold onto his “mommy blankies” when he’s tired, hurt, or stressed.  These are just cloth diapers (the old fashioned kind—we used this same kind as dusting rags when I was growing up!) and I used to use sleep with one or two when we were transitioning Michael from his cradle in our room to his crib in his own room.  I’d sleep with one or two, and then we’d let him hold onto that same one the next night so it smelled like Mommy—hence the name “Mommy blankie.” I obviously don’t sleep with the blankies anymore, and they certainly don’t smell like me anymore, but he loves to hold them in his hands and twirl them around and around by his face while he closes his eyes. 

His favorite thing to do is play Wii-U—a handheld video game that can also appear on our TV.  He likes to play all things Mario:  Mario Kart, Mario 3-D World, Yoshi’s Wooly World, etc.  His favorite characters are Luigi, Toad, and Yoshi.  Sometimes, in the evenings when Aaron “wrestles” on the floor with the boys, Michael will pretend to be Yoshi and will run around the living room saying “Yoshi Yoshi!” in his best Yoshi impersonation.

He’s a pretty good eater.  He still enjoys eating Greek yogurt; he calls it “coo.”  He thinks that he won’t like a lot of things that we have for dinner, but I always make him try a bite and he ends up liking it nine times out of ten!  We had chicken burritos earlier this week, and he was so certain he just wanted a tortilla, but I served him the burrito anyway and he ate his and Noah’s!  (Noah wasn’t a fan).  Last night, we had Beef Stroganoff and he was adamant that he wouldn’t like “beef and noodles” (what I was calling it for them), and I told him I’d make chicken nuggets, but that both boys had to try their beef first before they’d get any chicken nuggets.  Once we sat down for dinner, I served both boys a small portion of the stroganoff and noodles and they ate their entire portion and nearly forgot about the chicken nuggets (which I kept on the stove top just waiting to see if they’d ask for them)!

He is a good bath taker.  He doesn’t give me a fuss anymore about taking a bath.  He enjoys warm water, but nothing too hot or too cold, so it’s pretty difficult to get the “just right” temperature he’s always looking for. He plays with Minion toys in the tub, prefers a bubble bath, and still covers his face with a wash cloth when we wash his hair—which is SUPER thick by the way.

He’s got a very active imagination, which we don’t suppress.  He’s very friendly and outgoing and I’m so so hopeful that his school experience this fall will be one filled with fast friend making and joy.

Noah:

Noah can be described in one word as Spunky.  He can flash his super sweet 3-year old smile, but there can still be a glimmer of mischief in his eyes. He is doing really great at using his words, but still has moments when he chooses the temper tantrum route and we are being very consistent in how we handle that. 

He went to the dentist for the first time two weeks ago.  He did very well.  He wasn’t so sure about the moving chair, but he held my hand the whole time and was a real trooper.  He let the hygienist floss, brush with the mechanical toothbrush (which Noah approved of because “it turns!”), count his teeth, and let the Dentist also count his teeth.  He was proud of the new toothbrush and balloon.  The dentist did say that Noah’s teeth are already crowded in his little toddler mouth, and he is not hopeful that his jaw will grow enough by the time Noah’s permanent teeth come in.  He says we’ll need to start our orthodontist fund now to be prepared for an orthodontist to manipulate Noah’s jaw to make it wider or longer when he’s between the ages of seven to nine years old.  I’m choosing to go ahead and pray now that God will grow Noah’s jaw naturally in these next four to six years so that we won’t have to manipulate his jaw through whatever means they do that!

Noah is catching up to his age-based-clothes-sizing.  He still wears 2T pants because his waist is so small, but his legs are starting to be too long for the 2T pants.  I’m glad we’re approaching shorts-wearing season!  He wears 3T shirts and pajamas.  He wears size 10 shoes, which is a size bigger than Michael’s shoe size at that age.

He wears size 4 diapers, but he’s now been informed that he is on his last box of diapers and we’re not buying any more for him.  He’s had two or three successful potty trips in the past two weeks.  He’s had as many accidents in underwear during this time frame too.  He HATES accidents and totally freaks out.  He also prefers to say he’s “gotta potty” around 8:30 at night after he’s been goofing off in his bed instead of sleeping—though his bedtime is 7:00pm.  I’m thinking his “need” to use the potty at 8:30pm is his attempt to have something else to do to prolong going to sleep.  Also, this only happens when Aaron is at a neighborhood Bible study, or playing computer games in a separate room where he can’t hear the boys.  So, it only happens when I’m the only parent around.  He knows he has about 8 diapers left to use before he’s in underwear full time.  I’ll probably have to buy a box of pull-ups for him to wear when we go grocery shopping, etc.  My mom & I are also taking the boys on a road trip to visit my grandparents in a couple weeks, and I’ll bring pull-ups for the car ride and probably for his time at my grandparent’s house if Noah isn’t improving in this potty training department by then. 

Noah has always been a good self-entertainer.  Michael is very close in age with my nephew, and the two of them play together, but Noah was kind of left out of that loop, and really couldn’t care less.  My nephew came to visit over two weekends recently, and all three boys played together for the first time ever.  They did pretty well, but Noah did choose to separate himself and play alone for part of the time. 

He still LOVES the vacuum and admires my vacuum nearly every day.  He chooses to vacuum as his activity of choice at my mother-in-law’s house during the week. He also loves hair dryers, leaf blowers, fans, hand-mixers, and basically anything else that makes a whirring sound.

He loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (we have a couple of DVDs of the show), and Elmo’s World, and the real-person version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.  Those will be his movies of choice when he gets to pick.

These boys are so fun!  We’re really really blessed to be their parents and watch them grow.  It’s going to be so interesting to see how they adapt to having a baby in the house come August. 

Thanks for checking in with us!

Until Next Time,
Much love, Reba