Noah's Baby Blessing

Alan blessed Noah on August 28th. He was a great baby during the blessing, quiet enough that I could hear the whole thing.  Noah was blessed to have a strong and healthy body, allowing him to do whatever he wishes to do, without any challenges from his body. He will have a sense of humor, during the ups and the downs (all of our kids were blessed with this...). Noah will know how much his family loves him. He will have a keen intellect, and will see his interests to completion. He will remember the Savior, the Plan of Happiness and his desire to return home to live with his Heavenly Father again. Noah will know his parent's love. He will share his love with others freely. Noah will draw others in with his happiness and kind spirit.

I love this blessing.  I can already see so much of it in our Baby Noah, especially the last part. We love you, Baby Noah!

On a side note, Noah wore the same little outfit for his blessing that Nate wore for his.  Here's a shot of Nate:

Nate was so tiny--This was at him four months old!

First Day of School

Well, this was probably not the best idea. Blogging about your kids going to school on the same day they go back to school is a recipe for disaster (i.e. smeared mascara). Abbie started kindergarten today and Nate started third grade. I miss them. A lot. Yesterday I cried while exercising because I realized that when I got on the elliptical today, I'd be all alone down there in the basement, with Abbie's little exercise bike completely empty next to me. So sad.

The kids did wonderfully today, though. This is my fourth year doing the first day of school alone.  That sucks. It was more complicated this year, though, because I had to take both kids, plus Noah. Imagine me with Noah in the sling, two paper bags full of supplies, a rest mat for Abbie, the camera, and Nate and Abbie. Thank goodness for our neighbor who offered to carry one of the bags for me. I put Nate in his line, left him with his supplies and promised to come down to find him in his classroom after I got Abbie settled. He was already with one of his friends from last year, Owen, so Nate was fine. I went back to find Abbie in her line, looking for me. That broke my heart. I should have had her come to find Nate's class with me, then go back to her line. But she was fine. We found out the a girl from Abbie's preschool class, Emma, is in her kindergarten class. I think it was a relief to see a familiar face for her. I walked Abbie into her classroom, helped her hang up her backpack, put her lunch in the lunch basket, and find her seat. Then, knowing I needed to check in with Nate, said my goodbyes. I gave her a hug and a kiss, let her kiss Noah's head and left. I think she had tears in her eyes, but she was a trooper and stayed strong. I did my best not to cry on the way to Nate's classroom. When I got there, he was already working at his desk and waved to me. What difference from his first day of kindergarten.

I swung by the cafeteria for the kindergarten parents breakfast, but didn't stay long because it was full of parents celebrating the fact that their kids are in school now. It was all I could do not to sob and they were asking for champagne. I left quickly and went down to Abbie's classroom again. I didn't go in, but just watched through the doorway. She was talking to the girl next to her and coloring at her seat. She seemed fine. She looked up and saw me, smiled and waved. I smiled and waved back, then left. I cried. A lot. I cried walking to the car. I cried in the car. I cried driving to my friend Michelle's house. I'm crying again now. These are such raw emotions for me. I have spent the last three years alone with Abbie, day in and day out. She turns six on Sunday and I've spent the last six years not letting her out of my sight. But today, I'm supposed to just drop her off and leave her? It's such a foreign concept, leaving my children in somebody else's care. I know that Nate's going to be fine; he has all his friends already. But what if Abbie gets lonely? What if someone is mean to her? What if she misses me? I just want to go back, pick her up, bring her home and hold her forever. This sucks. This just really sucks.

Here are some pictures of the kids from this morning. I stupidly forgot to take any pictures of them together. I'll have to get those after school. I love Nate and Abbie so much and I really really miss them.

Abbie at her desk

Nate at his desk

Summer Fun Day--Water Balloon Fight

Sleeping Baby

Little Noah has figured out his sleep.  I credit several things to this new development.  The first is just being big enough to not need to eat during the night. At his 8 week appointment, Noah weighed 11 lbs 6 oz and was 22.5" long. He's gained over 5 lbs since he was born (he dropped to just over 6 lbs in the first few days). That has to help, right? Treating his reflux has made a difference, too. We started him on Ranitidine BID and I can definitely see a change. Lastly, just plain luck. I have enough experience with kids now to know that sometimes they're good sleepers and sometimes they're not. As soon as you think you've got it figured out, something will change. So we've just been blessed to get between 6-8 hour stretches at night over the last few days. Noah has been sleeping from about 10-6. It's amazing. AMAZING.

He sleeps best with his feet crammed against something.  It must make him feel more secure (i.e. remind him of all those months crammed against my ribs).

Summer Fun Day--Legoland

This was my most adventurous attempt at Summer Fun Day.  My kids LOVE legos. Actually that's an understatement.  I think that if they had to choose between going to Disney World and giving up their legos, they'd choose the legos.  The majority of their days are spent building, creating, imagining worlds and then playing in those worlds with legos.  So what did I do? I took them to Legoland Chicago last Thursday.  Yes, just me.  Me and three kids.  Crazy?  Maybe.  Worth it?  Definitely.

Downtown Chicago

We used to go to Navy Pier a lot with Nate when he was a baby and we lived in Chicago.

Indiana Jones 

Noah wasn't so sure about the black light.

Noah was such a trooper.

Ferrarri

Look at Nate.  He's stealing Santa's bag.

I'm so happy that we went--I think that I won the coolest mom ever competition.  Noah was such a trooper on the trip.  He slept the ENTIRE way down, not even a peep.  We had lunch at Jamba Juice and Noah nursed while we drank our smoothies.  Then we went into Legoland and he had a really fun time.  He loved looking at the lights and displays.  He liked the Lego movies.  When he started to fuss in his stroller, I put him in the carrier and he fell back to sleep.  Once we finished in Legoland, we went out to the car where I fed him again.  Then we headed into Ikea for a quick look around.  He slept all through Ikea, too.  But then I guess that he'd had enough.

It was mostly my fault, the disaster that ensued.  Stupid me, leaving Chicago at 5:30PM.  The interstate was a parking lot (one of the main reasons we moved form Chicago).  I had planned to drive a little ways toward home, stop for dinner and to feed Noah again. But that little way ended up taking almost an hour because of the traffic and construction.  There was almost continuous construction from Chicago to Madison on I-90.  So we finally found a McDonald's, went through the drive-thru and ate in the car while I nursed Noah.  He fell asleep, so I was optimistic that the rest of the drive home would be peaceful, as he had already cried for most of that first hour.  But by the time we hit the road again, it was almost 7PM, i.e. Fussy Time.  And just being out of the state/in the car does not mean Fussy Time isn't going to happen.  Noah screamed and screamed and screamed.  I finally stopped in Janesville to try to feed him/soothe him again, but he was just as mad once he got back into his seat.  So I decided that we were just going to have to get home as fast as we could, even though he was so upset.  I honestly don't think I've ever sped that much in my life.  But with the construction, traffic and stops, it took us until 9PM to get home.  That was a 2 hour drive down and a 3 1/2 hour trip home.  Poor Noah.

Despite the disastrous return trip, I'm very glad that we went.  Nate said that his life dream had come true that day.  Abbie said that half her dream had come true.  (I bought them each a lego set from the lego store before we left Legoland, but Abbie's set had two parts and I was only willing to buy one...)  It was an awesome day and I feel proud of myself for driving all that way alone with the three kids.  I know that I was a good mom that day--This is something the kids will remember for a long time.

Singer-Songwriter

Abbie spends a good part of each day in song.  She loves to play the guitar and make up her own lyrics. I love hearing what she sings about and how happy she is while doing it.  Hopefully she won't hate me for spying on her...

Summer Fun Day--Tower Park

Alan has been taking the kids to this park for a couple of years now.  It's their secret park.  They call it tower park because there's a big hill in the middle, with a fire pit on top, that they use as a tower.  They defend their camp from orks and the Snow Monster on that tower.  We took a picnic for dinner one night--Two items in one trip!

This is where the Snow Monster lives.

This is the mines.  They mine for rocks to make battering rams and other tools here.

This is Tent Home, a hideout in case the castle gets destroyed.

This is the Snow Monster cave.

Really?

This is how I found my figurines one morning. Thank you, Nate, for making something so sweet so dirty.

Summer Fun Day--Paper Mache

Is there anything better than shredding old magazines and getting sloppy with some paper mache?  I couldn't believe how easy this was.  We're going to paint it and make it into a pinata this week.