My kids and their Raisin Bran

This is one of Paul's all time favorite pictures of Noah. One thing we could not babyproof is locking our pantry shut. Just the way it was built/designed, we can't do it.

Noah still is always getting into things in that pantry and is a growing boy who is constantly hungry, so when I came downstairs to find Elliot in a big Raisin Bran mess in the living room, I knew Noah was to blame for bringing it in there in the first place. Elliot seemed to like eating it, as well as grinding it into the rug.

And to prove it was one of "those days", as I came into the kitchen to get the vacuum cleaner, I found Noah & Hudson with pancake mix everywhere. I had to change the vacuum bag that night. It was about to burst!

Tuckered out little E

Little E is still fighting his ear infection/fever. He was up several times overnight last night. But this morning he had a good nap, ate a good lunch and nursed well. I gave him some tylenol and he had only a mild fever and was in good spirits, so I felt fine about leaving him with our babysitter for a couple of hours to have a movie date with Noah this afternoon. I planned on being home before his normal afternoon nap time.

I got a picture/text message from our sitter on the way home with a picture of Elliot asleep in the bouncehouse with the following text: "Haha he was seriously bouncing and laughing minutes before but then he laid on his belly smiling while I was bouncing it and he's passed out! Should I keep him awake till you get home or just let him sleep?"

Of course, I told her to let the poor guy sleep. Obviously, he needed his rest.

His temp was going up this evening before bed and starting to affect his mood. I gave him some Motrin and he's had his 5th dose of antibiotics tonight. Hopefully, he'll rest better and be back to 100% tomorrow.

Sled Fest 2009

We had a blizzard on Christmas Eve, carrying on into Christmas Day, which dumped enough snow for some serious sledding this year. Thanks to a late March snow, we already initiated Noah earlier this year to the joys of Suicide Hill, but he was really starting to get the hang of it this year.

So far, we've been sledding three days in a row. The first was Christmas Day, when it was so cold and windy that neither Mandy or me could stand to be out in the cold for more than a couple of runs.

Christmas Day. It was too cold for snapping a bunch of pictures, especially at the top of the hill where the wind was blowing sleds out of kids' hands left and right. Even though a ton of snow fell, the top looks grassy because it was all blowing away. This first video is of Mandy and Noah going for their second ride down - note the 'high five' given just before they go airborne, and the loss of boot as they regroup. Noah didn't seem to mind the snow on his sock feet and down his mittens. That's Elliot making some noise at the end.

Looking back up the hill after a fast ride to the bottom.

Noah staring at me impatiently while I take a pic. There is sledding to be done.
Passed out shortly afterwards - with a little windburn. Even with the brutally cold wind, he still didn't want to leave but Mandy and I couldn't take it anymore. His feet and hands were wet and his face seemed almost frozen.

The day after Christmas. Noah and cousin Charlie sledding at the Grandparents house, at the same spot their moms went sledding, in the steep front yard that empties the sledder right into the street. No safety issues there...
Noah "hurt his shoulder" sledding into the jeep - according to him, he needed some candy to make it feel better.
Charlie's turn.

Two days after Christmas - better mittens, boots on tighter and another, thicker hat - now we're ready for some serious time outside. Uncle Todd and cousin Dylan joined us for the fun. It was mid-20's, wind still blowing hard at the top, but sunny and nice once you were down the hill a few feet.

We went down together about 10 times (with Noah getting "tired" at the bottom, and wanting to ride on my shoulders back up the hill). After a while, he suddenly announced "Daddy you can't go with me" and wouldn't let me ride on the sled with him any more. After begging a few times (hey, it's fun for adults too) I said OK and told him he was on his own. His first solo ride on Suicide Hill, he went all the way down. We took him on the more child-friendly (but not entirely safe) side of the hill, but Uncle Todd is spotting him just in case.

His first crash. It was inevitable. He laughed.

Mixing it up a little.
We lasted over two hours. Noah, as might be predicted, fought me pretty hard when I told him it was time to go and I had to carry him to my Jeep kicking and yelling about only wanting "five more times". Afterwards we all went out for pizza, and he almost passed out on the five minute drive there. Mandy and E met us there, and we devoured two large pizzas pretty quickly.

Noah is still dressed in his PJs under his snow bib, and sporting some rosy red cheeks.
This is what a tired boy looks like when we tell him we're out of St. Louis-style cheese pizza and he has to eat the regular crust combo. Seriously.
He passed out shortly after I loaded him back into the Jeep and ended up sleeping for 2 1/2 hours. If he had stayed awake, we would have seen the face above all afternoon. Instead we were treated to this one, and a happy boy once he woke up.

All I Want For Christmas...

...is two more front teeth and antibiotics, stat!

Elliot has several nicknames - Ed (derived from "Ed-uh-wit" - Noah's initial pronunciation), E, and Easy or Easy E. The latter is because Elliot is just so chill most of the time. So when he wasn't quite as happy with his new presents as he should be, Mandy figured there was something wrong.

The day after Christmas, while she and Noah attended the annual Bingo extravaganza at Grandma Lois and Grandpa Gene's, I took him to the doctor. Turns out he's cutting two new teeth and has a double ear infection resulting from his recent cold.

While we could tell something was wrong, he didn't complain a whole lot, so it was tough to tell how much he was going through.

As you can tell from the picture above, taken right before his appointment, the teething is causing us to go through about four shirts a day because of all the drool.

Christmas Day 2009

Paul & I stayed up pretty late on Christmas Eve so we were in a sound sleep when I heard Elliot wake up on his baby monitor around 7am. I stood up half asleep and realized the hall light was on. Noah's door was open and his bed was empty. I quickly woke up Paul. We were so upset we were going to miss his reaction to his big Santa gift. I walked into the playroom expecting to find him playing, but it was empty. I am freaking out at this point that he's out wandering the streets in his sock feet in the snow, when he walks out of the kitchen holding a box of club crackers and casually says "Want a cracker, mom?" as he's already munching on one.

We got out the video camera and recorded most of our Christmas morning and didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked. The boys enjoyed their stocking stuffers (especially Noah). He got in his the only thing he asked Santa for: Diesel 10 & Toby, along with lots of other goodies. The thing he plays with most is his Lightning McQueen flashlight. He also loves those big punch balloons. E got a new bath toy, some cups and a phone in his. E loved playing with his new Leap Frog activity table. Noah is enjoying his new kitchen, especially with the addition of some accessories from Aunt Sarah and Grandma Anita.

With the blizzard, there were high drifts and snow plows unable to clear many streets. We opted to have a lazy morning at home and take the kids sledding over our traditional brunch at the Nicholson's. We already had plans to get together the next day at Grandma Lo's for bingo and dinner, so we could exchange presents then.

Noah helped Paul shovel, both boys played lazily in their PJ's, E had a good morning nap and we drug out gifts the whole morning. We didn't buy much and when they opened a gift they wanted to play with it at that time. So it was easy to enjoy for a long time.


After sledding (pics posted seperately), we decided to try to head to Belton for dinner at my parents house. The roads had some snow and it took awhile, but it wasn't bad by that time. We enjoyed our time with family.
Elliot wearing the same Baby's 1st Christmas hat that Noah wore
I love this of E with his Great Grandma Lois

Despite missing our traditional brunch, it turned out to be the most fun Christmas I've ever had. Noah is at a really fun age and finally gets the Santa thing. The blizzard was SO fun and forced us to just slow down, stay home for awhile and enjoy some family time. I'm positive that Elliot's first Christmas will be one that I won't ever forget.

Preparing for Santa

This is the first year Noah gets the whole Santa concept. We had Noah write a note and bake some cookies for him. Noah dictated what I was to write on the letter: "Merry Christmas". Then he colored it. We left out 2 cookies, milk, and his note before going to bed.

Christmas was always fun as a kid, but I think being Santa when you have your own kids is even more fun!

Noah writing his letter to Santa:

The letter Santa left for the boys:

This was a seperate letter that was in Noah's room, along with his huge collection of trains. Him & Hudson have been recently finding great fun in throwing things down the laundry chute. Including trains. The 3rd time they were doing it, I let him know if they do it they would be gone for good. Well they did it. And I stuck to it. It's been nearly 2 weeks. Noah keeps saying how he and Hudson threw them down the laundry chute and now they are gone "FOREVER!". So he found this note, along with his trains on his train table:

Santa washing down his cookies with milk (we put it in a sippy cup so Noah wouldn't spill it carrying it from the kitchen to the fireplace - haha)I had to take a picture of Elliot in bed on his first Christmas Eve.

I don't know why I didn't take a picture of the milk, cookies & note. Or the stockings and presents Santa left out. I think it might be because we were so sleepy ourselves! I enjoyed watching It's a Wonderful Life while playing Mrs. Claus. What a fun Christmas Eve night.

Christmas Eve sleigh ride in the blizzard

A blizzard came in on Christmas Eve. After our family left, we couldn't resist getting the kids out in the middle of it all. What a magical Christmas Elliot got to experience for his first Christmas ever! We loaded the kids up on their sleds to deliver presents Noah picked out for Hudson and Addison a couple of doors down.

We went inside their house to warm up for a bit as the kiddos exchanged their little presents. Then we decided to just walk down the block to the church and back. We didn't even make it to the end of the street. The wind was just bitter cold on all of our faces. I kept looking back at Elliot. He would be grinning so big and then the wind would blow his face and he'd just get this surpised look like it would almost take his breath away.

When we came home and made Noah hot chocolate he was sipping it and said "There's nothing like hot cocoa." <3

We had just enough time to gear up for Santa and bake him some cookies before getting ready for bed.

Christmas Eve with the Thomas Fam

We had a great time with our family on Christmas Eve. We had all of us who live here in Kansas City, but the Johnson & Stuckey family were unable to travel and join us. The Johnson's just had baby #10, Finn at the end of October and were staying hunkered down at home. The Stuckey's recently brought home our neice, Oliva from a lengthy NICU stay after being born more than 2 months premature. They were definately missed, but we still had a lot of fun.

One of the funniest parts of the evening was at dinner when we were all debating Joann on direction. She was turned around and was insisting that "this way" (West) was North and that "this way" (North) was east. We were all telling her she was wrong and she was having none of it. She was saying she goes "this way" when she leaves and if that was West she would end up in Kansas, not Kearney. I was telling her that in fact State Line (Kansas) is in about 3 blocks that way. She would NOT believe me. Or anyone at the table. I was laughing so hard. Just because we are so much alike. If one of us KNOWS we are right, we will not give up the argument! Although, Joann was outnumbered she was INSISTING that Wornall was "that way" (north). I was telling her after dinner we were walking to the end of the block and I would prove to her that Wornall was "right down there" (east). Finally she says, "Well, this is Pennsylvania right?" pointing out the window to 67th Street. Then when we all told her it wasn't, she's like "Ohhhhhhhh. I was turned around." hahaha! It probably doesn't sound funny to those of you who weren't here, but we all were getting a kick out of it, and this story will make us laugh again when we read about it later :) I love you, Joann, even if your barings were a bit off just this once ;)

Noah & Dylan had fun playing with flashlights in the dark and listening to flying saucers outside of Noah's windows. And of course, Uncle Todd had to read books and be silly with the boys. I'm not sure who was more excited when the blizzard started. The kids, or us. I think it was us adult kids! None of us were born before 1962, the last time we had this much snow on Christmas, so we were stoked!

"It's not over yet"

We had an awesome Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Christmas Eve at our house with the Thomas side. By the time everyone left the blizzard had started. It was so exciting. Then Christmas Day we got to go sledding along with presents and family of course. Last night at around 9:30 I asked Noah what his favorite part of the day was. He looked at me like I was nuts and replied: "It's not over yet." I guess he was holding out for something better - haha. It cracked me up.

More to come on our awesome Christmas (and Elliot's FIRST!) soon.

Cute E nursing story

When E nurses he always has to do something with his free hand (pulling my necklace, pulling my shirt, patting my chest, scratching me, etc). Well yesterday he was puling on his own shirt and scratching his side lightly. All of a sudden he started laughing while still nursing. I realized he tickled himself. It was so cute and sweet. Then he did it again - haha! I love that he continued to nurse while laughing. That boy has talent.

This is the view I get when nursing. I love those blue eyes looking up at me and will miss it when we are done. The only thing better is when he falls asleep and that is pretty darn precious too <3

"No", "pat-pat" & "hi/bye"

Elliot started on his own patting me (and Paul) on the chest in a way of showing affection. We have said when he's done it in the past "pat-pat". Well now if you tell him to "pat-pat" he starts patting our chest and smiling so big, knowing he's performing. It's so cute!

Today he started shaking his head "no" out of the blue. I asked him if he was saying "Nooooo!" and shook my head no. Now he does it on command anytime I ask him to do it. And he smiles SO big when he does it, so it's just cute as can be.

He started waving "hi/bye" a few weeks ago, too.

I haven't really been consistent (nor has Paul) on working with him on sign language. Noah had a huge signing vocabulary and we loved it. It prevented the tantrums and really helped him communciate with us since he was kind of a late talker. I didn't even start with Noah until he was 15 months. I am going to start now being consistent with E because I can see he's ready. I do "all done" a lot when I'm doing something he doesn't like and he definately knows that one. I sometimes do "more" or "sleep", but very inconsistently. So now, we will get on it! Time to dig out the Baby Signing Time videos so Paul, Noah & I can brush up and teach him.

Elliot standing so big!

I posted a few weeks back when he first learned to do this, but just now getting around to pics. He can do it for quite awhile, but usually starts giggling and leans/falls forward to hug us after a bit. He shows no interest in taking any steps yet and is a fast crawler. I think he's afraid walking will slow him down :)

Look at him grinning at his Dad! I love this expression.

So proud!

Just the boys

They love their dad.

Dancing

Noah is suddenly quite into dancing. He wants to dance a lot. He woke up two mornings in a row at 6:00am. I walked into the hallway (which was all bright since he'd turned the light on) and told him it was still dark out so he needed to go back to bed. He looked at me like I was nuts and said he didn't want to sleep. He wanted to go downstairs and dance. I couldn't argue with him because it made me laugh. I turned on some music quietly and he started cutting a rug at 6am. The next morning he did the same thing, but Paul was able to coax him back to bed.

Last night after dinner we had a dance party too. We had to repeat the Hot Chocolate song from the Polar Express I don't know how many times for him to dance to. Later on he came into the bathroom when I was getting ready and told me out of the blue "You are a GREAT dancer mom! You are a fantastic dancer. You're the fantastic dancer in the whole WORLD!"

Today Paul was looking for Noah's cup at lunchtime and Noah told him it was by the "dancer". Paul was confused for only a couple seconds until he realized he meant our ipod docking station. That's where we dance :)

Second annual trip to The Polar Express

We went on our 2nd annual trip to ride the Polar Express last weekend. We were thrilled that it's now in Branson! Although, Durango was an awesome experience, it was not a trip was up for with both the boys at this age. This was a doable roadtrip. Best of all, we were with extended family as well.

After the train ride with Sarah, Charlie & Greg, we joined Mom & Rick, Grandma Lois & Grandpa Gene, Sam & Keith for a belated birthday dinner for Sam. Then we had cake. Wish we would have had more time to spend together. Next year, we'll go for more than one night for sure. Warning: this post has a ton of pictures, but I can not and will not apologize :) I love them all!

Our best attempt at a family pic.

Me with my boys

"Tickets, please! Tickets!"

"Hot Hot....yeah we got it.....Hot Hot Hot Chocolate!"

Notice my son had to pick his own, as the chef is trying to hand him one. Silly, silly chef!

And the sugar high has kicked in. We had dancing in the aisles. And wrestling in the aisles.

Maybe we should have tried before the sugar high kicked in? With Uncle Greg

We are now in the North Pole. Elliot was bashful at first meeting.

So I took his bell for him.
Charlie & Noah are ok with the big guy...
E tested to make sure he was the real deal. Yep, the beard is real.

Wild? Yes. Out of control? Maybe. But, no fighting. Only love.
This face makes all the effort worth it.

My sweet little E was passed out halfway through dinner. He woke back up when we went to the hotel for cake without a fuss. Such a trooper! He fell back asleep on the way to our Condo and was out for the night. Big day for my little guy.