I really wish Noah would listen to us, take instruction from us, believe what we tell him...etc.
For the second year in a row, a complete stranger giving him swimming lessons has shown daily improvements in leaps and bounds. Before this year's lessons he was timid and didn't want to learn anything new. After 3 lessons this year he's diving, jumping in doing flips, swimming from one end of the pool to the other, and getting diving rings off the bottom in 4 ft. of water.
Go figure.
A guy and I were talking last week. He and his wife are starting to think about kid's and he asked me how great it was. My only response was it is everything you can imagine but this is not the week to ask because everyday I come home, Noah has paint on his hands. He won't tell me what it's from, only 'it's a secret.' Finally, this morning I was given the fruits of his labor. A blue box he painted for me. Inside was written, "I love you because..." and a bunch of notes. Jenna swears he came up them all without prompting. I also got a new apron with a new moniker that was pretty clever. Highlight of the day was hitting golf balls in the yard beside the trampoline while the kids jumped with a sprinkler on. Noah singing with VBS at church was cool too. All around great day.
Happy day to all the father's out there, especially my own. I love you man. Can't wait to tee it up soon.
We all have to be good at something...I guess.
Noah's birthday fell on Mother's Day this year. Kind of neat they got to celebrate together. Jenna didn't seem to mind sharing her day and Noah was oblivious to anything other than him being 5 years old. He had a pretty big birthday weekend. Hayden spent the night Friday and they slept in a tent in his room. Saturday we went and watched the Miracle League and then Noah had a soccer game. Sunday brought church and singing in the sanctuary for Mother's Day followed, a trip to ToysR'Us, baking a cake and getting a gazillion phone calls from people singing happy birthday.
As people who haven't been parents for too terribly long, we messed up one area. This is the first year Noah's party will be after his actual birthday and although we prepped him, he was upset he didn't have a lot of presents to open. We fixed it by that night and he was never bratty about it. Just one of those things where we forget he's only 5.
Monday morning was hilarious. He woke up and exclaimed "Yes! My first day of kindergarten!" Sometimes all the explaining in the world just can't undo what you previously told a kid. "When you're 5, you'll go to kindergarten," has probably been said a bazillion times to him. He took it with good grace that he was headed back to his preschool that morning, but I'm still not sure he truly understood why. Live and learn I guess :)
His birthday party was actually the next weekend so it was kind of a week long celebration. All his grandparents went out to eat with him the night before and he cheesed up from everyone singing 'Happy Birthday' to him. His party was at FAC and most of his friends were able to make it. Of course we paid for the slides/jungle gym/blow-up/etc. and they spent half the time in the 14X15 foot padded room. His friends enjoyed the Ben-10 theme and he totally loved being the 'expert' they all came running to for the superpowers of their alien party mask. He had another party of a classmate we were going to attend after his but the boy was pretty wired and and was a whiny mess. We went home and let him jump a little on his trampoline (his birthday present) and then bedtime came easy for all of us.
After the Race for the Cure, we had to rush off for Noah's first soccer game. He missed the first one and then the next 2 were rained out so a month in he finally got out on the field. He did pretty well for his 3rd time on a soccer field. He was timid when everybody bunched up but in the open field he was into it. By his third time out on the field his interest was waning but then he didn't want it to end when they called time. The most comical part of the day was his friend Anna yelling to him from the sidelines to 'kick the ball hard' and him stopping in the middle of the field and yelling back to her 'I'm trying!!!!'
Noah was in South Arkansas last week hanging out with Jana, Aunt 'Lissa', and all the grand parents. He was originally scheduled to come back Thursday but circumstances have held him down south til Friday-by circumstance I mean none of his grandparents wanted to give him back.
Here are some pics they sent.
Once he got back he didn't want to leave the house the whole weekend. He pretty much stayed in his pajamas or Spider-Man costume. We even converted the living room for him so he could 'camp out'.
Last Thursday was National Beer Day. An old tradition that celebrates the first legal day alcohol was able to be obtained legally after Prohibition. So I was minding my own business at work about 15 til 5 when I started getting texts from my Jenna and Noah showing off their view from the balcony at HogHaus Brewery.
I will not lie; I thought Noah would be in college when he started sending me mocking pictures of him at a bar while I was at work. Must be the Irish in him.
;)
This is filed away for me to bring out when he's 16 and I can prove that he used to have a much better opinion of his Daddy :)
Yesterday I found myself in the position of school being out and a lot of paperwork to catch up on. I had good intentions but Ron called me on the way to taking Noah to preschool and said he had his boys and they were going to Boingy Bounce. So we took a detour to Denny's, Boingy Bounce, and then to the Oklahoma Aquarium. Unbelievably, my procrastination has improved over the years.
Jenna and I had date night with the kids last night. Her and Noah headed to the lake while Campbell and I took in AQ Chicken's sweet potato casserole. Jenna sent me this pic of them going across the levy. I had to Instagram it and put it up.
Last year you may recall Noah got sick the day of his Christmas program, so this year Jenna has been nervous for the same thing to happen. Luckily, he didn't get sick so we had the dubious honor of having our first real Christmas program this year. I didn't get the first part on video (where the boy trains were wound by Santa's helpers) but I did get the last part of their caroling.
The church has a DVD we'll get of the whole program, where you'll get to see Noah yelling out 'Hey Dad!' at the beginning...and 'Hey Mom, hey Cam!' later on. I'll put that up as a download when I get my copy.
This video just makes me laugh. Noah was showing me how fast he can run and Campbell decided this was as good of a time as any to try to run for the first time. The results are comical as she tries to keep up with him.
Warning-File is big so give it time to load.
Unbelievably the Sullivan's not only have their tree up before December, it's up before Thanksgiving baby!!!
Yesterday was the kind of day you dream about. The kids' were good and agreeable and stuff actually got done. Last night when we actually started to decorate the tree, Jenna let Noah help out. It was the kind of thing I'm watching and know she wants it to go a certain way but I'm scared it will go another. He could have been uninterested or been too focused on the end result, but instead Noah was really into the story of each ornament (or "ordament") which was exactly what she dreamed it would be. It's her favorite part of Christmas.
My personal favorite was an ornament with a picture inside of Jenna and I running from the church with rose petals in the air. I showed it to him and he exclaimed, "That's you and Mommy getting married!!!" with glee.
Tonight at dinner we have two videos pitted against one another for the title of cutest Sullivan kid. In corner 1 we have Campbell with her powerful punch of Peek-a-Boo. In corner 2 we have Noah with his thotally thawesome thankfulness.
Corner 1
Corner 2
Wow. We learned a couple of things this morning before we even left the house. One kind of serious and one not so much.
Noah woke up early again (I despise falling 'back for DST) so he had to be sent back upstairs to get dressed while I got in the shower. While the water was heating up, I came out into the living room to see Noah still in his pajamas AND in his shoes. He was laying out his pants when I asked what he was doing. After he simply explained he was getting dressed with those patented looks at me like I have 3 heads-I asked how he was going to get his pants on over his shoes. With the same - go away Dad look - he told me he'd be just fine. We've had this conversation before and usually I insist he do it right but this time I decided to let him figure it out for himself.
I went ahead and got in the shower. I've always known this but the interchange with Noah really crystalized it for me. Parents can't teach their kids anything. We can only guide them, but they have to figure out on their own what we already know. Hopefully, we can control the lesson to be learned in a safe way.
In the shower, I thought of a scary moment in my life. A friend of mine and I were coming home from ElDorado on a weekend night. I was driving my mother's car and curfew was going to be a close thing. I hit the Thrill Hills of S Jackson going way too fast. I knew not to go that fast. I'd been told not to go that fast, but until that moment when all 4 tires left the ground, I didn't believe I shouldn't go that fast. Luckily we survived, but if chance had put a car in the oncoming lane we wouldn't have. I never drove like that again and I can still get chills thinking about it. Kid's have to make their own mistakes-we can only pray they learn some of them going down a hill on a deserted road on their bike.
When I emerged clean and dressed Noah was completely ready for school. I asked him how he got his pants over his shoes. He sheepishly whispered, "I had to take them off to get my pants on." I nodded to him and didn't say another word. I guess we both learned something.
***Oh yeah, the kid's looked awfully cute this morning so I took their picture. Noah wanted his stuffed penguin in the picture as well. That's when we learned Campbell DOES NOT like penguins.
Noah really got into the 'scary' part of Halloween this year. He was much more curious about the mummy's, skeletons, and ghosts than last year where he didn't sleep alone for a week following. The Green's came over and went trick-or-treating with us again this year. Noah wanted to be "black Spiderman" and Hayden wanted to be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. Since each was the other last year, we saved about $25 and switched costumes. The downside is the pictures are going to be difficult to figure out which year they are from because they look the same. Luckily, Campbell is in most of these so we can figure it out that way.
Campbell went with us on our street and we showed her off to our friends. She was so cute but she really wouldn't wear the hood of her costume for long. Ron and I took the boys over to Thornbury while Jenna and Valerie handed out candy. Annie and Pops came over too.
The best story of the night was a house with a teenage boy laying in the yard wearing a creepy clown mask. As the boys came up to the door, the kid started slowly commando crawling towards them. It was a little creepy but clown masks are always creepy to me. Hayden and Noah steered clear but after getting their candy Noah walked up to the boy and asked "Are you a good clown or a bad clown?" The kid didn't answer but the way Noah approached him had me concerned. I shouted to Noah, "He's a good clown, DON'T KICK HIM!" I don't know how I knew what he was planning but my mind could see it play out. Noah retreated to us at the road while the kid's mom laughed from the front porch. It got better because we went to the next house and the kid started crawling towards the next group of trick-or-treaters at his house. He was laying perfectly away from me so my considerable ninja skills took over and I snuck up on him. I pounced on him and yelled-the blood curdling scream from him sounded like a 1st grade girl with her hair caught in something. I thought his mom was going to have a stroke she was laughing so hard. Of course, she saw me coming and I could tell from her reaction she was okay with me giving her son a good scare.
We tried to call but...well you'll understand one day how hard your family is to get on the phone ;)
Despite my allergies going crazy I love crisp mornings and beautiful afternoons. Magga came up this weekend and hung out with us and the kids. Noah loves having her here. On Friday morning, I caught him straightening the spare room and he informed me he was "getting it ready for Magga." Saturday was tough. We laid a person dear to us to rest and then had to watch her beloved Hogs go down. On Sunday, we braved the crowds and went to the corn maze, pumpkin patch, corn cannon, etc. on Hwy. 112. The corn maze was cool but I'm glad we had a map, because we may still be there without it. The kid's had a lot of fun but it was exhausting for them. Magga made it safely home and we geared up for another work week. Hopefully we'll have a lot of crisp mornings this year. Not quite ready for icy mornings yet.
Note: Sorry I just published this but there was a photo I wanted to include from Jenna's phone but I just never could coordinate it.
Here's the quick news footage from tailgating at the Alabama/Arkansas game. It's funny how it was Cuz's tailgate but he left before his party was filmed. There's a second bit during the story with Frizzle (Kara) and Cleve front and center with Campbell in the background.
The above video is copyrighted. © 2010, Arkansas Hearst Television Inc. on behalf of KHBS-TV
It is provided here for personal use as no part of thesullivanadventure.com is used for commercial purposes or generates any revenue for its owners.
Noah has pictures at school today. We started to practice his smile because he has the worst fake smile these days in pictures. If anyone could tell me a secret to this, it would be much appreciated. He finally started making his crossed eye face and it got us all tickled.
Follow the adventures of Chad and Jenna trying to keep up with the triumphs and tribulations of Noah and Campbell.
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