Movin' Right Along

First Foods

In one week, Emma will be six months old.  I'm not really sure how time is moving so fast, but she's already been here a half a year.  Wow!  It's about time to try some solid food... I'm hoping it will help her put on a little weight since she is still super little and still not interested in taking a bottle (although, it's been a while since I've tried.)  We started out with a little bit of rice cereal, which she did NOT like, so I decided to move right along to sweet potatoes.

Okay Momma... what are you going to try to feed me tonight?  I'm ready.

Although this face looks like she may not be enjoying her meal, this is sooo much better than the face she was making when I gave her the cereal.  Not to mention the crying.

I think she may end up liking this... maybe. 

I Love My New Toy

The book is written in a series of conversation bubbles mostly between Gerald the Elephant and his friend Piggie. There's lots of facial expressions to read, and the books are really funny. This particular story has Piggie showing his new toy, which he loves, to his friend Gerald. Gerald then proceeds to ask if it's a throwing toy. Rubbing his hands together in a slightly Machiavellian way says, "I love throwing toys." So, he throws it. It falls to the ground and  breaks. Then there's a series of back and forth between a chastised and upset Gerald and a sad and mad Piggie with both characters ending in tears and loud, "waaahhhs." The punchline comes when a small squirrel peeks from page corner and says, "Cool. Isn't this one of those break and snap toys?" The squirrel hands the snapped together toy to Piggie. The roles are no reversed with Gerald feeling mad and Piggie feeling embarrassed. The final lines are...

Piggie: Do you want to play with my new toy?
Gerald: No.
Piggie: You don't want to play with my new toy?
Gerald: No. I want to play with you. Friends are better than toys.

We've had this book for a while, and it is always good for a laugh, but it takes on a whole new meaning for me with Emma around.  She looks at her brother like he is the best thing ever, and whatever toy has her attention as soon as Noah is in her line of vision... forget about it. 

Brothers are much better than toys. Warms my heart!

Car Shots

Wednesday is our long day.  Noah goes from school to occupational therapy to speech therapy.  We are heading home just as the roads are starting to get crowded with the pre-rush hour traffic.  There is a bit of down time in between activities which is usually spent hanging out in the car.  I love my iphone because I got to capture this sweet moment with my kiddos last week.  I also specfically love my iphone 4 because of the forward facing camera function.  I could probably keep listing all the things I love about my iphone, but that's probably enough for a whole other post.  I'll instead stay on topic and say that I really LOVE these kids and all the sweetness and joy they bring to my day. 

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.