Water slide in the backyard

Yesterday, Noah played in the sprinkler while we worked in the yard. Inadvertently the sprinkler was hitting his slide. You could see the wheels turning when he declared he had a 'water slide.'. He went pretty quick but I'm not sure how much faster. He was pretty fired up about it.

Of course it ended badly when he decided to go down backwards on his back. Instead of landing on his back, he skidded on the wet grass and got a 8"X12" strawberry for his troubles. A small price to pay for a couple of hours of fun I guess.

Here's a video before it all went downhill.

 

 

Big boy has wheels

Noah's buddy Jack outgrew his bike so Noah has become it's temporary owner. He does great on it. He has to stay on the sidewalk since we don't have a helmet yet but he still goes pretty quick.
Watching a kid on a bike is so nostalgic. I can remember being a kid and thinking I could go anywhere. Of course, our generation was allowed to go anywhere.
We've gone for family walks the past 2 nights with him leading the way so it's actually been a good addition to our routine.

That's my boy

Last night we went to eat at Hooter's. Jenna and I used to eat there a lot when we lived 1/2 mile from there but we rarely get there anymore and we had a hankerin' for wings, so.....

The waitress talked to Noah a lot and he was in a pretty charming mood. About halfway through dinner, he leaned over and said "Dad! Dad! I can see part of that girl's hiney (sp?) coming out of her pants."

We had a pretty good laugh but thankfully she didn't hear.

Good follow through but needs to extend...

Noah has decided he wants to hit a baseball right handed but the legacy of holding his hands like a lefty lives on. Yesterday, we decided to play the game where he tries to hit the ball off the tee and hit me. Of course he smoked the first few right at me and had me dodging and weaving. This is the best one after I finally got the camera out.

Home screen on iPhone 4

I love my new phone. The main reason I wanted the iPhone 4 was for the camera. The old saying 'The best camera is the one you have with you' applies to me doubly so. In the year+ I had my iPhone 3G I took over 1300 pictures with it (according to my smart folder on iPhoto) that I kept. So the early reviews of the iPhone 4s camera had me Jonesin' for one.

The pics (with the back camera) do impress but I have a new favorite feature. Wallpaper. I know this is on the 3GS and I know we've had wallpaper on computers forever but I love it. On the third day I took one of my favorite photos and after a half hour with Photoshop I had a wallpaper that isn't distracting behind my icons and puts the fam front and center. With folders I just don't use the 4th row for icons.

It's been a week and I still haven't gotten used to seeing them everytime I turn on my phone. I catch myself taking a second to look at them each time. Sometimes it's the simple things.

simple moments, precious memories

My little Noah is growing and learning so quickly. His heart is growing too and the emotion that boy can display never seizes to amaze me. On Friday afternoon, Chad returned home from his annual golf trip. No doubt our boy missed his daddy, but he was showing a bit of "tude" if you know what I mean. We had finished up a fun afternoon swimming at Annie and Pops condo and were changing clothes preparing for dinner. Noah asked for another yogurt (you know that sugary gogurt stuff) and Chad and I both said "No". At that point, Noah threw down the yogurt and stomped away. Chad immediately told him to "have a sit" and that is when Noah really turned on the tears. What normally occurs is after Noah gets all the emotion out, Chad or I will reason with him. This did take place and all was forgiven. A few moments later Noah was sitting in Chad's lap getting tickled by Daddy. When they stopped a moment to get their breath, Noah cupped Chad's face with both hands, looked right in his eyes and said, "Dad, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I threw my yogurt." I was so happy I had witnessed that moment. It brought tears to my eyes. To have a little boy who already respects his parents to that level and shows remorse for his actions is a blessing. Hopefully it is an indication that Chad and I are on the right parenting track and that Noah will be an exceptional teenager!! : )

Noah's golf swing

I had to post Noah's golf swing this year.  It is so much more mature and consistent than last year.  As always I don't give him any instructions just hand him the club and tell him which way to hit it.

To tell you the truth- I just love the way he says, "Tell me when to Go Dad."

 

Newspaper profile

I wasn't going to post there was a profile piece in the paper on me yesterday. I certainly wasn't expecting to see a photo of us taking up over half a page. I've had so many comments on the article the past 2 days it's been overwhelming. The photos of our family were terrific. Debbie Miller did a great job writing the piece and she made me very proud of my family. They are more than I have ever deserved.

If you are a subscriber to the Democrat-Gazzette you can follow this link to read the article.

http://www.nwaonline.com/news/2010/mar/28/paying-it-forward-20100328/


Newspaper portrait

Playing with Noah

Equinox and racial harmony

Noah has gotten into Batman big time. It started with the Lego Batman video game but it has expanded to cartoons. We won't let him watch 'Batman' or 'The Batman' cartoons because they are meant for older kids. We do however, let him watch Batman:The Brave and the Bold. It's campy and funny and has over the top lines like "Crime doesn't take a holiday."
He likes it a lot and after the video game he thought he had a handle on the 'good guys' and the ' bad guys.' Then, The Brave and the Bold comes along and introduces a lot of super obscure characters.

Last week he met Equinox. If you don't know who equinox is go here, http://batman.wikia.com/wiki/Equinox. I'm not sure what else to say except Equinox is half black-half white and he wants to balance everything in harmony (kind of a Yin Yang thing).

I also don't know why Equinox struck Noah's fancy so much but he did. Noah couldn't stop talking about him all night. In fact, all he would say is he wanted to tell Mr. Robert about Equinox. Odd but he talks about Mr. Robert a lot. In case you don't know, Mr. Robert is Noah's preschool teacher. He's also African-American. You'll know why that's important in a minute.

When Noah has something on his mind at bedtime, the sweet slumber of sleep does very little to defuse the anticipation in the morning. The first words out of his mouth "I gotta tell Mr. Robert about Equinox." I heard that 25 times before we got to school. At this point I still have no idea why it is so important to tell Mr. Robert about Equinox.

We get to school. Noah runs as fast as lightning to Mr. Robert. "Mr. Robert! Mr. Robert! Mr. Robert!..." You get the idea. When he sufficiently had Mr. Robert's attention he started talking at the speed of light. Mind you I can't type at the speed of light but if you read this as fast as you can in one breath you'll get a sense of what it was like. "Theres this guy Equinox and he's a bad guy and he fights Batman and he wants everything to be good and bad and and and and he's half dark like you and half light like me!!!!!!!! Isn't that awesome?!?" Then he threw his arms around Mr. Robert's legs and went to wash his hands.

At first I was embarrassed but as time went on I was proud that Noah sees Mr. Robert looks different but that we really aren't different at all. Later Mr. Robert and I talked about it and he actually didn't understand anything Noah had said so I had to tell him. We shared a good laugh. I can only imagine Noah laying in bed all night waiting to tell Mr. Robert about a guy who looks like both of them.

Great holiday

You know how I hate to blog when we are out of town (well you do now). I have just a touch of paranoia about being robbed I guess. The fall out is I got out of the habit of posting. I had done pretty good since Campbell was born but not so much lately. So here we go.

We had a great 3 week holiday. Christmas with a three year old is so much fun you'd almost have a whole herd of kids. Not to mention the fact that we had A WHITE CHRISTMAS. Of course, Noah had no idea how special that was. He just said, "Eh." It's funny how just last year his cousin Jana was being driven over the state to try to see snow since she had never seen it and Noah is so bored by snow it elicits an "Eh."

Santa brought him a John Deere Gator for Christmas. He wanted to ride right away but I convinced him to wait for it to warm up. I think we'd still be waiting if I'd held to that. Eventually I shoveled the driveway off and made him a loop through the garage. He was out there maybe 3 minutes before he told me his cheeks hurt and he went in.

We did the south Arkansas tour with stops in Texarkana and ElDorado. We were gone 6 days and although it was great to see everyone it was about 1 day too long to be away from home. The best part of being gone was all the willing help we had with Campbell. In ElDorado, Magga and Holly took turns with her through the night so we were able to catch up on some rest.

Highlights of the tour:
-Seeing little Finley-I hadn't seen her awake since the day she was born
-Seeing Holly pregnant-the changes in her are so dramatic, at times she doesn't seem like the same person-it's awesome what the power of love can do
-Watching Noah and Jana together. They love each other in such a profound way. I grew up with cousins like that and it is awesome to see them develop that type of bond
-Gumbo-enough said
-Amanda and Sarah coming over to Texarkana before Amanda flew back to Portland

Lowlights of the tour
-The drive down. Campbell was good for the most part but we had to drive on so much ice it took about 7 hours to get to Texarkana. Towards the end Noah wanted to fall asleep but his new big boy booster seat just wasn't comfortable so the last 45 minutes was basically him crying.
-Campbell had a stomach bug almost the entire time. She was spitting up and had diarrhea although she acted fine. We were really nervous she'd dehydrate and have to be hospitalized but she kept on eating (every hour) and wetting diapers so she pulled through fine
-Grandparents went way overboard. Not really a lowlight but worth mentioning it was a little over the top-Magga I'm looking at you :)
-Mamaw Rotton being sick and not getting to see Campbell.

We got back without a hiccup. Tried to hook up with Bradford. I haven't gotten to see him since his surgery but our timing was just off. It was good to be home.

Noah's little buddy, Banks, lives about 4 houses down and he got the exact same Gator for Christmas so we spent a few days watching them terrorize the neighborhood like a Gator gang. They are pretty funny.

The 3rd week of snow and ice was brutal. It was too cold for any outside play and we only have 1 4-wheel drive vehicle. Most places were closed and we were all a little stir crazy. On Wednesday, Noah's preschool opened. I think they knew there were some toddlercides about to happen if they didn't open. I'm all for a snow day, but a snow week?

Things are back to "normal" now. At least they are back on routine. Noah has been an absolute angel the past two days. It's amazing how good a schedule is on his life. Campbell's doing good too. She slept last night from 11:30 to 5:30 this morning!!!!!! That actually deserves a few more exclamation points but you get the idea.

Christmas program disappointment

I hate being disappointed but it just kills you when it happens to your kids. Noah's Christmas program at preschool was tonight. They were singing Christmas songs and he was number 11 and number 4 in the 12 days of Christmas. I've been proud of him because he knows all the words to the song and when he practices, he'll only say his part. It was tonight at 6:30. Grandparents were in town. The camcorder was charged and then...

He threw up this afternoon. He was in the car with Jenna on his way to get his holiday haircut. I went and picked him up from her so she could get her haircut. I took him home and while initially he was pale, he colored up and was in a really good mood later in the afternoon. He never ran fever and he was acting normal so we started to think maybe he had gotten car sick. So we were still debating on what to do tonight when...he got sick again. With an empty stomach even which makes it worse.

Poor kid just didn't understand it when we told him he wasn't going to get to sing at his Christmas program. He didn't cry but he was really quiet and you could just see the hurt in his eyes. Tonight we cuddled up in the chair and watched Frosty the Snowman. After dinner (us not him) he didn't mention it again so I think he kind of forgot about it. If you see him the next few days I'm sure he'll tell you the story of his oatmeal "coming back out of my mouth" because he told it about a gabillion times tonight. Before bedtime he told Jenna he was hungry so she fixed him a piece of toast and it's stayed down for about 5 hours now so I think we're good to go. On a funny note, when he told his mother he was hungry he said, "but I don't want any oatmeal, okay?"

UPDATE: 2AM and he's been up twice. Poor kid. Nothing worse than throwing up with an empty stomach.

Settling in

We're settling in to a little bit of a routine at the house. I bathe Noah and get him down while Jenna goes to bed. Then I feed Campbell her 11PM bottle and then Jenna is doing the 2ish and 5ish feedings. Campbell is still a good eater. She's up to 2 1/2 oz every 3-4 hours. She wimpers instead of crying when she's hungry. It's pretty cute. She's not sleeping as soundly as she did the first week but she's still asleep 15 hours a day. We've had a few times where she's been awake. Like really awake for over an hour, but mostly she sleeps and grows. Noah is even settling down into his big brother role. We caught him singing "Jesus loves me" the other night to her but when I went and got the camera and made him do it again he was silly instead of sweet.

Home Sweet Home

We got home yesterday afternoon about 1. The pediatrician and Jenna's doctor both gave the all clear and we were out of there. We got home with all our stuff and got everyone settled in.

After awhile, Noah and I went up to Nick and Leslie's house for Thanksgiving dinner for a couple of hours while Jenna's parents stayed with the girls. It was nice to have so much family around and Leslie was the perfect host. Noah even got to wear home Jackson's old Buzz Lightyear costume and he's beside himself. He already has it back on this morning.

Last night was a pretty good night. So far so perfect baby. We're digging the non-breast feeding since we don't have to wake her up for feedings. She slept one stretch of over four hours last night. I know that may not last but we never even had a two week break in period with Noah. He just never slept.

I tried posting this last night but our site had its first downtime in its history. If it had happened 2 days ago it would have been bad.

We're home and settled in so give me a call if your in the area and want to stop by. Love you guys.

A family of four

I had to share this picture. Magga took it right before leaving us for the night. Right before this picture, Noah was helping his Momma hold Campbell and she was looking so hard at him. I said "She wants to talk to you Noah." He got very solemn and leaned down to her face and said "What do you want to talk about Campbell: Batman, the Ninja Tuttles, or Wobin (Robin-the boy wonder)?" We were rollin.

Noah and Campbell

Noah has had a big morning. He's excited about Campbell but he's more excited about everybody being here. He's surrounded by grandparents and he is loving every minute of it. He wore his 'Big Brother' shirt and the banner his preschool class made for him yesterday. He was the first to greet her out of surgery and he has worn a huge grin.

But all things come to an end and the combination of getting up at 545 AM and all the excitement finally wore off for him. His interest started to wane so Magga and Mamaw Rotton took him home to play for a little bit, but not before we were able to catch him being sweet to his baby sister.





Lucky or cute

The reason for this blog post is two-fold. First I wanted to share a story about last night, and secondly I wanted to test out Wordpress' new iPhone app. Wordpress is the software that powers this blog. When Noah was born I blogged the entire day but I had a lot of time since he didn't exactly get in a hurry to come after Jenna's water broke. Campbell is scheduled at 730AM so their isn't going to be excessive time to get the laptop out and tell everyone what's going on. So I'm trying put blog tools for the iPhone and I really wanted to see how the photos would upload. So here goes.

Last night Noah and I went to the Razorback game. I have sat in basically these seats for 8 years and I have never been on the jumbotron. Nick has been to at least 4 times more games than I've been to. He's never been on the jumbotron. Noah's first game ever? Jumbotron. Here's the link to that day.

This was Noah's 3rd game and what do you know-we all get on the jumbotron. Not once but twice. Unbelievable.

I didn't get a pic this time but here's a pic from the game.