It's been a while...

I have been lacking in my blogging duties lately. But, we've suffered several illnesses at our home the past few weeks. Last week on Wednesday, Noah woke up screaming at 4 am. He was inconsolable - we finally got it out of him that his ear hurt. Got him in to the doctor's and he had a pretty bad ear infection. So we get him all healed from that -- on Sunday he woke up from his nap and on his way down the stairs he puked all over the place. Fun times! He had a nasty 24 hour bug. I *think* we're all healthy now, and I hope that we got all of the cold and flu season illnesses out of the way. I'm sure this is wishful thinking considering that Noah's in pre-school now, so he's around a whole new set of kids, with a whole new set of germs.

He is back to his usual funny self. These are a few conversations we've had over the past few weeks:

Walt was watching the Steelers game, and the announcers tell us that Ben has called a time out. Noah's eyes get as big as saucers and he says "WHY did Big Ben have to get a time out???" Walt told him it's because he holds on to the ball too long. It's funny what the words "time out" mean to a 3 year old. (And we don't even do time outs at home!)

During dinner one night this week, I told Walt that we should scrap our plans for Light Up Night because of the weather. I told him maybe we could do some Christmas shopping and maybe we'd have dinner and just have an evening. Noah says "I want an evening with Momma!" Then, he comes over and gets really close to me and whispers, "Momma, what's an evening?" My parents are going to watch him for us tonight and take him to dinner. My mom told me to tell him that the three of them are going to have an "evening"!

Election Day

On Election Day, Walt stopped to vote on his way to take Noah to school, so Noah was with him. On the way out of the polls (and for the rest of the day, he'd tell anyone who asked him), he told everyone that he voted for "Big Ben". When I asked him why he didn't vote for "Fast Willie Parker" (his most favorite Steeler), he told me "Daddy voted for him". So there you have it... Big Ben in 2012! ;)

Pictures

I finally got a picture of our godson, Cameron, with us. Of course, we all looked much prettier in our fancy clothes at the actual baptism - but, since I didn't get a picture then, this is all I have. He's getting so big - he's only 3 months old and already in 6-9 months clothes. He's also started laughing and "gooing". He is just so sweet.

Below is Cameron, his sister Carlee, and Noah. Noah and Carlee are besties. (Don't tell her about Olivia, okay??) The day that this picture was taken, we had somewhere to go early in the morning. Noah said "I can't go with you, Carlee will be here any minute!" The rest of the day he kept asking "When is Carlee coming?". The two of them play amazingly well together - which you know, is a lot to say for a two and three year old!

Happy Halloween!

I'm a little behind, and I have a few things I want to blog about. But, we'll start at the beginning. Last Friday was Halloween, and Noah had his first school party. Walt and I volunteered to help out at the party, which was a lot of fun. Although Noah was really grumpy that morning, and while he did get better as the day went on, he was super clingy with us. Wouldn't go play, didn't want to sit in circle time. I almost felt like maybe he'd have had a better time if we weren't there!

The party was wonderful. His teacher, Miss Trudy, organized a few games in the classroom - like pin the nose on the Jack-o-Lantern, bean bag toss, and scooping ping pong balls out of a tub of water. We then went to the "big room" at his school, and all of the kids decorated their own sugar cookie (and they were saved for dessert after lunch), they were taken on wagon rides around the school, and another bean bag toss. I had a lot of fun helping the kids decorate their sugar cookies - oh the creations! I also enjoyed meeting and getting to know all of the kids in Noah's class. Then, the school paraded around the block in their costumes. It was like cuteness overload.

Here he is with his girlfriend, Olivia. He's known her since they were babies. And during the parade, he kept holding her hand and telling her she looked "pretty". AW!

Thankfully, the party wore him out and he took an excellent nap, so he was raring to go when trick-or-treat time came around. He and Walt just went on our street for about an hour, I stayed home to give out treats to the other goblins. Noah thought trick-or-treating was most excellent, in fact, the rest of the weekend, he'd go around the house with his plastic pumpkin, trick or treating. And I'd have to drop something in to the bucket. He keeps asking when he can trick or treat again. Thankfully, it only happens once a year. We have more candy in our house than a candy store!

That's 'sgusting!

I am happy to report that I am over the black plague, finally! Last night I stayed home from bookclub to make sure I was 100% recovered, so we carved our pumpkin. Noah was really excited, until he saw the "guts". Then he told us they were 'sgusting! (disgusting) He made Walt do most of the scooping and kept saying "EW!"

Noah chose the shape of the eyes and mouth - I can't say it's the most beauitful Jack-O-Lantern I've ever seen, but it's ours! And we had fun as a family carving him.

And just a note, be sure to bring your Jack-O-Lanters in tonight. It's Devil's Night, and sometimes mean little kids smach pumpkins for fun tonight. (Can you tell I woke up one Halloween morning to find the biggest and coolest pumpkin we ever had smashed to smithereens all over the street?) Here's everything all decorated, hopefully we get lots of Trick or Treaters!

What A Week!

Last week was a little crazy at our house. First, I caught the black plague that is going around my office. I even shared it with my mom. (Aren't I nice?) Then, on Tuesday, my Auntie gave us all a huge scare and had a heart attack. It was small, and she's doing great now and is home. But, man, we were all really worried about her!

Some good things happened, too. Saturday was our 5th wedding anniversary. I can't believe it's been 5 years. And thank goodness the weather was better 5 years ago, than this year. The day we got married it was low 70's and sunny. This past Saturday was rainy and chilly. That morning, we were honored to stand up for my BFF's son, Cameron as he was baptised. I thought it was very special to becoming Godparents together 5 years after we said our vows. And Cameron (I promise to get a picture of him!) is just precious. So sweet and lovable. The priest really got him with the water, it was running down in to his eyes - I was holidng him and I was sure he was going to wail. And then I'd have felt awful. He looked confused for a minute, then just went back to his usual chill self. He was back to sleep in no time. In fact, he pretty much slept all day.

During the service, the priest told Carlee (Cameron's big sister) that she was special. I think he was doing this so she didn't feel left out. Noah got a sad look on his face and said "I'm not special?" I whispered and assured him that he, too, is special. He had a great afternoon. He and Carlee are besties, and he loves to go to her house. He really didn't want to go home!

That evening, we dropped Noah off at my mom's - they had a special movie night - and headed to Monterey Bay. We got a window seat, not on the city side, but it was still a pretty view. Walt had lobster tail, I had something called Hebi, and it was tasty! It was served with these yummy potatoes and spinach. (I usually don't like cooked spinach, but this was soooo good!) We finished it off with some death by chocolate cake. It was a nice end, to an otherwise not so great week. Here we are on our honeymoon - sigh - to be back there!

Dinner Conversation

We had this conversation with Noah last night at dinner. He was telling Walt that Walt is no longer allowed to hug me.

Me: Noah says that you're no longer allowed to hug me.
Walt: Why?!??
Noah: Because she's my momma, and I hug her, not you.
Walt: Well, can I hug you then?
Noah: No!
Walt: Then, who will I hug??
Noah: Hmm...The Big Bad Wolf.
Walt: I don't want to hug The Big Bad Wolf!
Noah: Why not? He's very soft!

And there you have it. The Big Bad Wolf, may be bad - and he might huff and puff and blow your house down...but he's really soft to hug!