Emma Goes Camping

Emma was so happy to spend a few days not in the car.  Or was that Momma. Whatever the case, Emma was carseat free our entire visit to Mississippi.  And, it's amazing what happens when she has time to play.  We are going to go ahead and put a check in the crawling box at the absurdly young age of five and a half months.  Where do you want to go at five and a half months, Little Miss?

Zack or boy number two (as Noah refers to him) was happy to hang out with Emma during her floor time sessions.

I love this picture!

There was also no shortage of people wanting to hold this sweet baby girl.

Swinging on the porch with Grammy.

Chatting with PaPa.

Hiking with Aunt Mo.

Zachary sporting the Baby Bjorn.

M-I-Crooked Letter-Crooked Letter-I-Crooked Letter-Crooked Letter-I-Humpback-Humpback-I

No sooner had I hit "publish post" on my post about Noah's bout with car sickness, I started to feel a little queasy.  And, at 11:00 PM, over 12 hours since this stomach bug/car sickness blipped on my little boys radar for all of two seconds, I got knocked on my butt.  I was sick all night and could barely get out of bed on Wednesday.  Thank you to my fabulous husband who stayed home from work and left me alone all day Wednesday to try to recoup.  By Thursday, I was feeling a ton better, and by Friday, I felt the pressure was happy to keep my plans to travel to Mississippi to hang in the woods with my sister and her boys. 

The drive was about two hours longer than my normal trips to Louisiana, but I was planning to meet up with the my parents and sister about an hour and half from the campsite.  Get this.  Five miles before my exit to meet the family, I get stuck in bumper to bumper traffic.  It took me forty-five minutes to get to my exit.  Emma was crying the whole time.  Her crying woke up Noah who was covering his ears in the backseat.  We finally make it to our exit, and I hear this small voice from the back seat, "Momma, I'm sick."  And, he was.  Again.  For the record, graham cracker vomit is way easier to clean up than strawberry vomit.  Both totally gross and not fun, but if I had a choice.  Just saying. 

Thankfully, reinforcements were about a mile away and helped me clean up and get Emma fed.  I may or may not have had a slight breakdown at this point, but seriously, I don't like sick, and there was way too much of it going around this past week.  We made it to Mississppi, and the day dawned with one super excited little boy ready to do some stick gathering exploring.

The land of a million sticks.

Treasures found.

The boys took turns chasing Noah around the property.  Talk about some cardio.

Thanks Aunt Mo for convincing me to come.  Noah had a blast "camping."

Quote of the weekend: "Momma, you want to build a tree house?"

He wasn't kidding.

Giving Thanks

What a great day we had filled with yummy food and friends from both Louisiana and Texas.  Tonight as I was putting Noah to bed, I started rattling off a list of all the people and things for which we are thankful.  And, I couldn't help but think... wow, that's a big list.  Feeling blessed and happy today.  Happy Thanksgiving to you from us and the two little turkeys that top our list. 

Emma - Five Months

Just when you thought she couldn't possibly get any cuter... A dimple. Right in the corner of her chin.


Baby Emma turned five months. And honestly, the biggest is all the movement. If I put her down, she's immediately on all fours rocking back and forth. I'm pretty sure before the end of the month, she'll be scooting.


She's started playing with toys a bit. She'll grab at them and try to pull them in her mouth. I don't mind since it gets her fingers out of there. She sucks on her fingers constantly, and at night, I can hear her smacking away. My friend Care pointed out that maybe she's practicing being a Longhorn. Hmmm... That's a thought.

She is such a happy baby and very rarely cries. She's easily soothed by being held and sometimes just by being talked to. She loves people and will flirt with anyone who'll talk to her. When being held, she reaches out constantly to grab faces and hair (especially Noah's).


She is still an awesome sleeper. Going to bed sometime around 7:00 PM every night. I'll usually wake her around 10:00 or 11:00 for a feeding and then she's down the rest of the night. Of course, I don't really have a good guesstimate on how long she'd actually sleep, since big brother normally has her up bright and early.


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Thanksgiving Feast

The Friday before Thanksgiving break, Noah's class had a Thanksgiving feast.  We had spent most of the week at home due to our illness, but I knew we couldn't miss the big feast. 

All the classes in Noah's age group got together and feasted.  Noah's class was in charge of making the cornbread.  Apparently, the mix that the kids made was a bit inedible.  Too many fingers, coughing and such went into the batter.  The teacher brought a back up, but the boys got an A for effort.  The other classes took care of corn, mashed potatoes, and fruit salad.

The passing out of food went something like this... The teacher would ask, "Noah, would you like mashed potatoes."  Noah would respond,  "Nooo.  I don't like mashed potatoes."  "Noah would you like fruit salad?"  "Nooo.  I don't like fruit salad."

He finally spied the chicken nuggets, one of the parents had brought, and said, "Noah want chicken."  His teacher asked, "Noah, how many pieces would you like?"  Noah's response, "10."  Hungry boy!

Yay Thanksgiving!

Momma, Emma and Noah at the feast.

3 is a Magic Number

The morning started out pretty good. Uncle D had stayed overnight. He put in some really good quality time with Noah before he headed west for hunting.


Sword fights with Momma's Christmas wrapping paper.

We left school with plenty of time to spare. Our usual 32 mile, 30 minute commute was taking us a bit longer today. At about an hour drive time, I found out the culprit when we finally got to our exit and there was a cop directing traffic and a pretty fancy vehicle stranded in the road. Just as I merged onto the freeway, I turned to check my blind spot when Noah started vomiting. Over and over and over and over. That's four overs if you're keeping count.

OH NO!

Noah does not get sick. I have been fortunate enough that he has remained unscathed by any stomach bug in the four years of his little life.

-- Brief pause while I knock on every piece of wood in my house. --

Ok. I'm back. This is only the third time Noah has ever thrown up, and the culprit is always car sickness. So, I pulled off at the first exit I came to, I pulled into the first parking lot I found, and I formulated my next move.

I'll give you the cliff notes version of the rest of the gory details, but I cleaned him with a half a bottle of water, Emma's quilt and about 5 wipes. Luckily, there was a change of clothes in his school bag. I wrapped his carseat in E's quilt, strapped him into the very back seat of the suburban, carefully drove the six miles to Dean's work, grabbed the back up carseat out of the back of Dean's truck, and finally headed home with Noah feeling back to normal. The whole adventure - two and a half hours.

It is worth noting that Little Em was a rock star! She was up the whole time, but did not say peep.

What a morning!

** Update: "Knock on wood."  You are dead to me.  It was a stomach bug.  And, although my son bounced back from it in about 15 minutes, it knocked me on my butt for 24 hours.  I am just now lifting from the fog.  Thanks to my super duper wonderful husband who took the day off yesterday, so I could sleep it off. 

Bicycle?

I took this picture this afternoon. Beautiful day. Pulled out a couple of riding toys. Check which one Noah insisted on riding. Oh yeah... The one powered by Momma. Wondering if I should rethink asking Santa to bring Noah a bike this year.

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Five Things Friday 11.11.11 - Umm... How Could I Not Do a Post Today?!?

This week Noah's school had their annual "Dad's Day."  It is a day where dad's come to school with their kids and follow them around for the whole day.  The school has a mom's day too, but that's not until the spring.  Noah was super excited that Daddy was going to school, and we may or may not have told him about it a bit too early, because Tuesday and Wednesday he was crying at pick-up because he thought that Daddy was coming to school.  So, Thursday was the day.  These days are so great because you get to see a side of your kid that is usually reserved just for his teachers.  And, without further ado, here five things that Daddy has to say about spending the day with his little buddy.

1. Noah listens so well to start the day at school.  He is the first to volunteer... for everything.  During circle, Noah was chosen to sing the circle song.  Actually, it was more of a "Pick me! Pick me! I want to sing the circle song!"  He was a little shy, but got up in front of the class and sang out loud.  I was proud of my boy today.   

2. The teacher asked the class "what book to you want?"  Although Noah was the first to cast his vote, he was outnumbered twice.  I do think that there was a bit of collusion because I think the teacher was swaying the other student's votes.  Not in a conspiracy kind of way, but just to fit in accordance with her education plan.  I mean, who would really pick "Five Fat Turkeys" over the "The Old Lady that Swallowed a Pie."  Everyone knows that the old lady could die, and isn't that what a good book is all about. 

3. Thursday is gymnastics day with Coach B.  I was very impressed with Noah during gymnastics.  He did exactly what was asked of him.  Bear crawl. Big jump. Straddle stand. Forward roll. Hand stand. Balance beam jumps.  He  only struggled a bit with the forward roll.  But, really... who wouldn't.  The most amazing part was when Noah put both hands on the ground and climbed his feet up the wall and held the handstand for five seconds.  This display was followed by a chat with coach about private lessons. 

4. During social skills, the kids were playing cars.  Despite four other kids, three teachers and five dads all participating, Noah somehow ended up with three of the five cars.  Tricky.

5.  My only complaint was that they gave him five goldfish crackers on a paper towel for snack.  Little did I know that when I came home to complain to my wife, that I was talking to the school's snack coordinator.  Apparently, she's been a little busy and is planning to restock the snack closet really soon. 
 

I love my boy!

Carry On

Emma is in her car seat entirely too much for a baby, so lately I've been putting her in the soft carrier more and more. She's loving it.

She hangs.

She naps.

She laughs.

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Look-Alikes

I never really saw the resemblance between Noah and Emma until I framed this picture...  

Photo by: Natalie Wells Photography

And put it next to this one. 

Photo by: Kim Milburn

I am so going to be that Mom who looks at baby pictures and says, "now, who is this?"  Thankfully, Emma is the one with the bow.

You Know You're in Texas...

Your favorite place to eat is Whataburger.

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Seriously...

Emma turned five months old today.  And, she is already starting to scoot.  Let me repeat that...  Emma turned five months old today, and she is ALREADY STARTING TO SCOOT.  Do you know what comes next, my friends.  Oh yes, crawling.  Don't you think it's a little early for this Miss Em?

Any idea how many calories you are burning off with all this exercise?

Luckily, she is still working out logistics. 

And, she is sure to throw in frequent breaks.

Yesterday, I Was Tired. Today Is Better.

It all started the day of Noah's pumpkin patch field trip. It was cold and windy. And every once in a while a mist of chilly rain would fall. I grabbed our coats as an afterthought. I had Emma layered in a long sleeve shirt and a sweater, white tights and a knit hat. But, the field trip was outside, and I guess the elements proved a bit too much.
Emma started running fever Friday evening and although no other symptoms presented, she was cranky and feverish for the next few nights.

Noah started running fever on Tuesday night. Who would of thought little sis would be the germ spreader. The first night he was sick, Noah woke up at 10:30pm and did not go back to sleep until 4:30 in the morning! And, so it began. Tired. Waking up in the middle if the night. Talking and walking up his sister. And then, Friday when neither he or I could take anymore. He took a nap at 3:30pm and slept until 10:30 at night!

So, instead of a refreshing siesta, that nap catapulted us into a completely out of whack schedule which has somehow ended up with a 4:30 AM wake-up call for the past two days. So, yeah, I'm tired.

And, poor Emma. Perfectly content to snooze the whole night away, must be woken up to eat. A Momma's exhaustion coupled with a baby girl who needs a few extra calories has really not been a good combo. Since, I'm ready to crash pretty early.

But, last night I closed my eyes closer to 9:00 PM and Dean stayed awake to get me up at midnight to feed Emma and Noah slept until 5:30, so dare I say... I'm feeling a little fresh today. Happy Wednesday!

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Keep Calm

I never tire of the various evolutions of the phrase "keep calm and carry on." It's kind of my mantra, and now I have a new favorite.

Not sure how calm these guys were during overtime.

Leave it to the Tigers to get your blood pressure up.

Geaux Tigers! LSU 9 - Alabama 6

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You Know You're In Texas...

When your grocery store has a mascot!

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