Gatlinburg

Two weekends ago we took a trip to Gatlinburg to celebrate my mom's 50th birthday! It was a great trip mostly because we got to relax and have good company. The house we rented was perfect for us! Here is Noah hanging out

And this picture represents what we did most of the time. Play with technology and lay around:

And this is what the kids did most of the time. Pour out all the toys and have a ball

Birthday princess!

Here is the view from our house. We didn't get to enjoy it much because there were wasps all over the porch area. We just had to admire the mountains from inside.

Here is the birthday banner that Mary and I spent a week making!

Noah would only consent to a picture if he got to keep holding the broom:)

Riding the pillow pal:

Cuties:

My ingenious cousin also had the idea to have a treasure hunt in honor of St. Patrick's day. Here is Mary opening her map:

Now they are hunting for treasure using their maps (and their moms)

Yay treasure!

Enjoying the plunder.

It was quite a good trip and I'm so glad we got to celebrate a great mom and grandma!

20 months

Noah is 20 months old now! He is more fun than ever. Loves to follow his sister around (well anyone really). I mentioned to Ian that Noah doesn't like to be alone and Ian said he had never noticed because Noah is so content to just play by himself. So I told him to get up and walk out of the room. Sure enough...Noah came following right behind us. He just loves to have people around even if you aren't directly interacting with him! And he's talking up a storm. I'm blown away by how communicative he is. If you don't have kids you probably don't care and have no idea how big a deal it is that he speaks in full sentences...but it's pretty crazy. I'm a big fan of it though. It's already rare that I can't understand what he wants, which means he doesn't whine a whole lot, which is awesome. 

This is his "earth to Noah" face, which is the face he usually adopts when I pull out the camera. For a while he was saying cheese and totally hamming it up for the camera, but he's over it I think.

He said cheese in this one though:)

And finally, after chasing him around the yard for 20 minutes I get a genuine smile!

He loves to cuddle and totally has us wrapped around his finger. When we get him ready for bed and turn out the lights he will say, "Chair mommy!" So we will sit and cuddle and rock him for a bit. He also has a few favorite songs that he will call out and we obediently respond by singing those songs to him. I wonder how this little ritual of ours will change when baby comes and Noah is sharing a room with Mary. I hope we can still preserve it at least a bit. Mary is not a cuddler...so it's really nice when Noah snuggles into us and just sits for a while. But HE decides when he's done! He will sit up and say, "Night night mommy!" and point to his crib. Usually before I'm ready, but trying to get him to cuddle again is futile.

One last note that will show you how weird we are. Noah LOVES naked time. Mary does too, but Noah gets all revved up for it. As we're getting them changed into PJ's we ask them if they want to be naked butts and they both get so excited. As we get down to just Noah's diaper he gets his feet going like the running man and chants, "diaper off mommy!!!" The moment that diaper comes off he is gone. He runs around the house like a mad man and it is hilarious. But when it's time to get PJ's on he's usually not too happy. He's too cute naked!

Fun in the kitchen

We had a little moment the other day. While in the kitchen playing. Mary has been big on things being "hers" and this stool is one of them. I noticed that Noah was trying to sit next to her on the stool and the other day she had pushed him off (grrr) so I told her to be kind to him. Well I went back to what I was doing then I heard them giggling. Here's why:

He kept trying to sit on her lap that day, but as you can see her lap is not proportionate to his body so it didn't work out too well. When they got up I opened the cabinet behind them and Mary saw the spray bottle that I let her use to spray spots on the floor. Yes I mean let. She LOVES to help clean the floor because she gets to spray the vinegar...note to moms, spray bottles are fun! Anyway, She yelled, "I get to spray mommy!" I told her no that we weren't cleaning the floors I just had to get the dishwasher detergent out. But Noah didn't hear that part. He had already sprinted over to the drawer to grab his wash cloths (that's his job) and he went right to work:

Ha! We've only cleaned the floors a couple times together so I didn't realize that they already had this down. I guess they just loved it that much. There are worse things they could want to do I guess:) But technically he's not allowed to get in that drawer by himself...I couldn't bring myself to correct him though.

Big girl

Is it weird that I almost cried the other day when Mary did this jigsaw puzzle by herself?

Every day I look at her and I just can't believe how far she's come and how big she is. Even when I hug her she just seems more substantial or something...broader? Like she's a girl, not a baby. I still call her baby girl:) And she can still fit in Noah's laundry basket:

So she's not THAT big.

Photo update

My goal was to get some pictures for Noah's 19 month page in his scrapbook. But we ended up taking more pictures. Mary during learning time:

Noah running amuck:

My kids are always happiest when they first wake up:

Ah...here are the pictures of Noah! He loves to say cheese and "i see too?" because Mary always asks to see the pictures I take right after I take them. So this results in taking one picture at a time...

This is his 'please no more yogurt' face

Loves as always

Noahzilla

Reflections on my second birth

A week ago today I attended the birth of a beautiful baby girl. She was quite the surprise as her mommy has two boys and I think had resigned herself to raising a brood of boys. As you can see in the picture...they lack pink, but I'm sure there will be plenty in the future!

I just keep thinking back over that day and how blessed I feel to have been there. It was such a reminder of God's goodness and faithfulness. I prayed that mom would not experience pain, or deal well with what she had. Check. She was totally awesome. I  thought she was about 5 centimeters when we got there and had a while to go. She was coping so well and cracking jokes between contractions. But when she was checked, she was fully dilated and pushed her baby out about 30 minutes after she was admitted to the hospital. I prayed that the staff would be supportive of her decisions. Check! When we walked in the nurse was all about it and very encouraging. Then the doctor comes in and the first things she says to mom are about how she can push whenever she feels ready and however she wants. So...uncharacteristic of hospitals.

The second reflection I have is that dad's are probably my favorite part of the team. I think when a woman goes into labor, men just click into action. They don't always know what to do or say, but when the marriage is good you can see the love they have for their wives and their desire to support them. I loved how this dad stayed totally calm and collected. He prayed over his wife and held her. It was sweet and perfect for the moment. My absolute favorite part of the labor was when we first got to the hospital. Mom wanted to hang out for a little bit before going up and getting checked in so I walked with her over to the bathroom. When we got back to the lobby we couldn't find dad anywhere. "Do you see him??" she asked. Nope. So she tried to call him. No answer. Then she gets a text a minute later that read: went to grab a slice of pizza. Back in 3 minutes. And then we died of laughter. As we're sitting in the lobby, mom having contractions every 2-4 minutes I'd guess, dad finished up his pizza and we harassed him about leaving his wife during labor.

My final reflection (for today) is how awesome natural birth is AFTER the birth. Moms are beyond thrilled and energized. Not like they could get out of bed and run a marathon energized, but emotionally energized. They are so pumped about what just happened and everything they just felt. This mom pretty much summed it up when she talked about how it felt great to push and how it didn't feel unbearable until the end, but she's so glad she stuck it out. Babies born naturally are also usually super energized after birth. This little girl was vigorous from birth and nursed for a solid 45 minutes about 20 minutes after she was born. She wiggled around for another hour or so and then crashed in her daddy's arms. But not before I got to hold her:)

My mission as a Doula is that each woman would feel surrounded with encouragement and support during her birth. That she would have the birth she wants, and if things have to veer from her original goals that she would feel well informed and in charge of the choices about her care. Later that night I got a text from mom saying that she was blown away by the whole experience and that she couldn't stop thinking about it. It reminded me of how Mary (Jesus' mama) stored up all the things that happened in her heart. In the words of Little Einsteins: mission completion!

Ghost Noah

For a while Noah really enjoyed walking around with blankets on his head. He would bring a blanket to us and then just walk around with it on his head. We cut him off when he started to run with them. Because he is not that stable anyways so when you add a blanket on his face you get huge knots on his head from running into walls at full speed. Here is a video of him being a goof: