17 months and 22 days

Last week, Noah was sick for the majority of the week.  He was already a little cranky because of teething and the splitting headache from his aforementioned tumble off the chair, but add 102 fever to that and it is just plain unbearable.  He ran fever for about 3-4 days straight and was miserable.  The only silver lining for me, I guess, is that for the first itme in his life he actually wanted me.  The downside was that he wanted me ALL DAY LONG and did not ever want me to put him down.  I took him to the doctor early on to have his ears checked out- they were fine probably just a virus.  And of course I, being the pediatrician, accepted that as true and didn't worry about his ongoing fever... FALSE.  I would love to say that I gleened from all my training and knowledge and applied what I would tell every other kid walking through the door to my own child, but that would be a lie.  Throughout those four days, I diagnosed him with a cheek abscess, a brain abscess, mastoiditis, and meningitis.  Even Brian was having to tell me that he was alright and to settle down (usually the roles are reversed).  

Why is it that all training, knowledge, logic, and reason fly out the window when it is your own kid?  I can only hope that the next time I won't be so crazy.  One possible bonus from Noah's sickness and Mommy phase is that after 17 months and 22 days, yesterday he FINALLY said 'Mommy.'  I heard it multiple times and it was witnessed by Brian as well.  He may never say it again, but I know that he can and that he does in fact know who I am. :)

Not the best quality of pictures, but good enough to show that he is defintiely much happier now.

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A couple nights ago, we decided to wash the car together as a family.  It ended up more like one of us wash while the other watch Noah.  He was pretty excited about all of it, especially the puddle that formed in our driveway.

His favorite thing to do was actually to lie down in the puddle, but this was as close as we got to capturing that.

Finally, he started pulling his own weight and contributing to the car washing efforts.

He was very proud of himself for handing the sponge to Daddy.  

It was good to be outside.  It has been so hot lately that we haven't been out nearly as much and we have all been missing it.  Trying to continue our nightly outdoor activities, we went on a walk the next night.  It was not nearly as enjoyable as spraying each other with the hose while washing the car.  Brian keeps coming up with ways that we can install a pool in our backyard so we can go swimming every night.  It is obviously not going to happen, but wouldn't it be nice.

Brian's Birthday

Brian's birthday was this past Sunday.  We went to church, went out to eat, and then just hung out at the house for a while.  In the late afternoon, Brian's sister and her family came over for some cake and ice cream.

Noah mesmerized with the candles.

Noah's cousin and buddy Solomon.  Noah still mesmerized by the candles.

Brian's cake with all 32 candles on it.

Blowing out the candles.  Noah still mesmerized.

Victory!!!

After cake and ice cream, we all loaded up (all nine of us) in Rob and LaRhesa's van and headed to the ball park to watch the Traveler's play.  A little history, Brian grew up going to the Traveler's games.  His dad was the team chaplain, and when Brian was younger, he was the batboy.  When we started dating and early in our marriage, we would go to the Traveler's games a lot.  A few years ago, they built a new ballpark in North Little Rock.  We haven't been to very many games since then.  It was not as convenient to get to, you had to pay for parking, and we were just down-right boycotting the closing of Ray Winder field.  Rob and LaRhesa had eight free tickets and wanted to take us for Brian's birthday so we went.  Immediately we were loving the new park.  We had never been to a game with a child and soon learned that the berm section is perfect for them.  

Noah picking flowers.

Fern, Solomon, Tessa, Brian, and Noah watching the ominous sky.

Under the shelter during the rain.  This picture cracks me up because the girl in it looks just like my sister.  

There was a little bit of a rain delay, but it didn't last too long and then the skies cleared and it was a perfect night.  

Noah supervising the tarp removal.

Noah and Solomon getting the water off the chairs for everyone after the rain.

After the rain, we had so much fun.  The kids ran and played.  We ate hot dogs and polish sausage.  Oh, and watched some baseball.

I am not sure if Noah is getting in trouble in this picture or getting a lesson in the game of baseball.

Watching the game together

This picture didn't turn out very well because I was zoomed in all the way on my phone, but I took it to show how Noah would clap after every play.  He loved it!

He was very busy all night running around the grass.  

His new hairdo courtesy of his cousin Tessa.

Everything was perfect, UNTIL about nine o'clock that night.  Noah was sitting on one of the metal chairs in the front row.  We looked away for one second and he decided to nose dive off the chair onto the concrete.  By the time Brian picked him up (which was about 1 second later), he already had a knot the size of a golf ball on his forehead.  He scraped his face on the concrete and nailed his head on the corner of it.  Poor baby!  We ended up leaving the game after that to the sound of Noah's screams, all the fun forgotten in the moment.  After we got home, he perked up some and started acting a little more normal.  We didn't have any Motrin in the house so I headed to the store while Brian played with Noah.  Thank goodness for 24 hour Kroger!  We kept Noah up for a couple hours just to make sure he was okay and acting normal. He went to sleep a little after 11:00.  This is a picture of him right before bed.

By the time he went to bed, I was exhausted!  When we went to bed, I was out and didn't move until the next morning.  I learned the next morning that Brian had not been able to sleep very well all night because he was worried about Noah and had been up three times during the night to check on him.  He is such a great Daddy.  Noah has since been pretty cranky, a combination of teething, having a cold, and a huge headache I imagine.  He has been through a lot lately and I hope he feels better soon.  It is so hard to watch him not feel well and not know why.  The good news is, his head is looking much better now and we did actually have a good time at the ball game.

Family Reunion and the Glamorous Days of Motherhood

This past weekend we went to a family reunion for Brian's extended family at the YMCA of the Ozarks in Missouri.  We got there late Wednesday night and left Sunday.  It was a good long weekend of swimming, archery, lots of eating, and lots of laughs.  Sadly these are the only two pictures we got of the weekend.  

We stayed in a four bedroom/four bathroom cabin with all of Brian's immediate family.  Their were eight adults and seven kids in our cabin, plus two other cabins.  The food was provided and I think I ate more in those 3 1/2 days than I have in the last two weeks.  It is probably good that I don't have someone to cook for me three meals a day.  Two nights while we were there, they had firework shows.  I was nervous about Noah getting scared, but he, in usual Noah fashion, loved every moment of it, clapped after every firework,  and cried when the show was over.  We stayed up late every night visiting and playing games.  We (at least Noah and I) were very worn out by the end.  We had a lot of fun and look forward to going back in 2012.  

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Today was one of those days that just don't seem real at the end of the day.  It started out like any other day, Noah and I eating breakfast together.  That's where the routine ended.  We have a very old stove, circa 1980s.  It has a timer on it that we never use and I had never heard it before until Noah figured out how to turn it on a few weeks back.  The noise scared him and he hasn't really messed with it since then.  Until today.  He managed to turn it on again.  I quickly turned it off, however about a minute later, it came back on.  I, again turned it off, and it again came back on after about a minute.  We did that for about 15 minutes until it came on and I couldn't turn it off at all.  After several futile attempts to turn it off, I decided to turn off the breaker.  Unfortunately, our box is not labeled very well, aka barely at all.  I spent the next 30 minutes running back and forth between the oven and the breaker box trying to find the right switch while carrying Noah and Rudy was of course tagging along close behind. In the midst of everything I received an encouraging and helpful text message from Brian  saying "Don't turn the refrigerator off."  Thanks Sweetie.  What would I do without you?  

After all the excitement, I tried to lay Noah down for a nap hoping for some rest myself, but to no avail.  He would have none of that.  Oh well, at least he will take a long nap this afternoon, right?  We packed up and headed to Wal-mart before lunch.  Our trip there was actually quite uneventful.  Then came lunch where Noah, our little tortilla snob, decided that he did not like the brand of tortilla that we had purchased and proceeded to take all the tortilla off his cheese quesadilla and eat only the cheese.  After a while, he gave up and just threw it all to Rudy, another no-no.  After lunch we played for a while and then it was really time for a nap.  Did Noah agree?  No.  He cried for a while, but eventually fell asleep.  FINALLY time for me to get that nap I was hoping for.  False.  Just as I was about to lie down, Noah wakes up screaming.  So much for the nap I was hoping for.  We layed on the couch together for a while and watched an episode of Handy Manny, Noah's favorite cartoon. After a while, we had a snack.  While Noah was in his high chair eating his snack, he pooped.  Dirty diapers are never fun, but especially not during your first trimester of pregnancy.  I get him out of his chair and start walking back to his room to change him.  I was rubbing his back and felt something.  When I looked at my hand, it was covered in poop and up to Noah's shoulder blades.  He hasn't had one of those in about a year.  I stood him up on his dresser and start the difficult task of undressing him without making any further messes.  I got him undressed and diaper off and then the morning sickness (why is it called that anyway when it lasts ALL DAY LONG!) got the better of me.  I started vomiting in Noah's room.  I puked into his dirty diaper, grab Noah (still covered in poop) and race to the bathroom.  I continued to vomit trying to keep Noah back while he is laughing at me and trying to both stick his hands in the toilet and flush it.  Meanwhile I am yelling at Rudy while he is trying to lick all the poop off of Noah's back.  It was a pretty memorable experience.  I finished up, wiped Noah down, and threw him in the tub.  While Naoh was still in the tub, Brian calls to let me know he is coming home and see how our day was.  It was FANTASTIC!  Fortunately for me, I have the BEST husband in the world, who after a long day at work, came home only to clean up the trail of poop and vomit we left all over the house.  I think it is safe to say that we are both ready for the first trimester to be behind us. :)  Here is Noah after his bath, looking like it was the best day ever!

And, yes, that is a TV cable that my son is playing with.