Sunday Morning Ride

The last couple of weekends, Mandy has been riding her bike to Loose Park to do her Sunday morning workouts. Noah was still asleep when she left, but it was a nice cool fall-like morning and I decided to ride up there with the kids to join her after he woke up.

The park is two miles to the playground from our house, and the route has some significant hills - especially for a 3-year old who hasn't had breakfast yet (I offered, he declined). I figured Noah would tire out at some point along the way, but we'd probably meet Mandy on her way back and we could haul Noah back on her bike.

But I underestimated Noah's desire to a) see Mom and b) play in the park. He had no trouble keeping up, although on some of the bigger hills he wanted to stop and get a drink of water to help him up the hill. These pictures are kind of blurry because not only was I using a cell phone camera, but I was trying to take pictures while keeping up with him on the steep downhills, which he absolutely loved.

He loved going fast, but I couldn't get him to keep his eyes on the road. He kept looking around, and down at the road going oh-so-fast past him.

Look up, boy!

And straight ahead...

We finally made it to the park, but no sign of Mom...

Elliot decided to take a nap. That can't be comfortable. I probably should have tightened the straps a little more.

Still snoozing. Note my fancy sippy-cup water bottle...

Mandy joins us - E is still passed out.

I'm awake now!

And having fun on the swings!

After we finished playing, we locked up Noah's bike, put him on the back of Mandy's bike and rode the Trolley Trail back to Brookside for muffins and fruit for breakfast. I love mornings like this when we're out having fun/exercising and having family time.

Last weekend Mandy jogged up to Loose Park with Noah in the jogging stroller, still in his pajamas. He rarely likes to ride, but he was still pretty tired when he woke up, and enjoyed it. The fog made for some surreal, but beautiful pictures. I wish I had more than a cell phone camera with me.

The lost art of correspondence

Noah has recently gotten into writing letters and he really loves getting letters. It actually started between him and his best friend Hudson. Hudson is the one who started sending letters to Noah. Soon Noah was sending them to Hudson. They used to hand deliver letters daily in eachothers mailboxes. Now they do it frequently, but not every single day. Last week Noah was writing a letter to Hudson and he decided he wanted to write his Dad a letter and mail it to work.

Paul sent us this picture from his phone the next day. As you can see, Noah likes to bedazzle his letters with lots of stickers.

Noah was really excited to get a letter from Paul the next day! Paul typed out a letter and even printed a picture of him and Noah on it. Paul did his own bedazzling with a highlighter and a couple of sharpies. :)

I'm not usually the sappy type

But, when I was just going through the hard drive to find an old pic of Noah I browsed through his 12 month folder. Oh my gosh! I can't believe it feels like I've forgotten so much. He was so cute and fat and chubby and sweet and smiling and bow-legged and bruised and muddy. I love his fat self in those fitted jammies. And I was so tired I feel like I was in a blur much of that time and don't fully remember it. I can't believe he's turning 3 on Friday. I'm kind of bummed at how fast it's passing. I really can't believe how fast they grow up? I hope the years start to slow down.

One of my favorite pics of him

Bathtime was always fun for him. It was never a good wind down, get ready for bed routin. He'd jet out and run around the entire house naked as we chased him hoping to catch him before he slid and hurt himself.

Scrumptious thighs and cheeks!I picked this one just to show how small he was. I need to search the bins for that shirt. It should fit E now. I bet those jeans are still too big though.

I remember this picture. Paul actually fell asleep playing with Noah. Those were some sleep deprived days.

First ride in the cozy coupe

Elliot broke in his new (hand me down) ride today.

When I saw this picture of Elliot, it immediately reminded me of a similar picture of Noah. I had to dig out the hard drive to do comparison shots.

Elliot at almost 8 months

Noah at 12 months (this was Noah's 1st birthday present from us)

"I like your hair"

Last night we were going to our friend's house for an impromtu pool party and Noah was acting up. I told him that if he wanted to go swimming he needed to act nice and be obedient. He was sitting on the countertop at eye level and he put his arms out to hug me saying "I sorry mama". Then he pulled away, gave me the sweetest smile (totally fake though) and said in a high pitched really trying hard to sound sweet voice "I like your hair!"

I knew he was pulling a fast one on me but I still smiled so big and felt happy somehow. I'm in trouble.

Today he told me he liked my hair again as well as my shirt and my eyes, which are so pretty and blue.

Cherry Limeades

Not sure what he likes best - guzzling it or digging for the cherry afterwards.
(no, he didn't drink the whole thing himself - but he wishes he did)

Bathtime

We decided to let both boys bathe together tonight. Elliot did get to do regular baths on vacation, but I've still been keeping him in his baby bath at home. He sits up pretty well, but it's slippery and I don't feel confident quite yet not hanging on to him. But, we were short on time tonight so we went for it. Elliot had fun splashing like crazy and playing with Noah's toys (once we intervened and forced Noah to share, naturally).

This was Noah playing peek-a-boo with E

A very happy boy!

Gillham Park

We go to several parks right in our neighborhood that are so close and Noah knows them all and the route to get to them all from anywhere in Brookside. So it's nice to mix it up sometimes. This is a fun park that is on the way to Costco and also Children's Mercy. Since Noah had to tag along on E's eye doctor appointment this morning, he got lucky. We stopped by on our way home. This park has a lot of fun climbing things and it is so well maintained. Love it!

Perfect Eyes

We had our 6 week follow up appointment with Dr. Olitsky today. He confirmed what we already knew. Elliot's eyes are perfectly straight and he's seeing great!

We did notice the first week in August that Elliot had a red area on the inner right eye and it has a small bump on it. I emailed a picture of it to Dr. O and he said it was nothing to worry about. He confirmed today it is an epithelial inclusion cyst. It's harmless. Sometimes, they go away on their own. Sometimes they don't. It's not worth putting a perfectly healthy baby through sedation and surgery to remove it though, so we don't plan on it. Hopefully it will go away on it's own. If it doesn't and down the road it bothers him, I'll have it removed (when they are older they just use eye drops to numb it and do it quickly).

We don't have to go back for four more months! Ahhh, a visit to CMH just in time for flu and rsv season......

Here's Elliot & Dr. Olitksy:

Pearly Whites

You can probably see them better if you click on the picture to make it full sized. Elliot's first two teeth broke through on Sunday at the age of 7 months. I loved his gummy smile, but the 2 bottom tooth smile is cute too. I can't wait for them to show up more.