Jenna took Noah, Campbell, and visiting Finley to get portraits on Thursday. Annie went with her and got a little dosage of trying to keep up with 3 little kids. My theory is that is why God invented wine.
You can check out the entire gallery above or click http://thesullivanadventure.com/photo-galleries/portraits-july-2011/
Friday afternoon was light for me, so I snagged my little girl for a lunch date. Jenna was thinking of taking Noah to a movie so I checked times for her and noticed Winnie the Pooh was opening today and 1 started in 30 minutes right next to us so....
She did pretty good. She giggled when Pooh was 'rumbly in his tumbly.' I noticed she stopped giggling about 40 minutes in so I checked on her and she was fast asleep. She spent the last hour with her head on my shoulder snoozing away. It was the best movie I've seen in a long time.
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.
Last week we embarked on a new adventure to the West Coast. We flew into Portland to Amanda and Sue's to be joined by The Jordan's, Powell's, and Magga.
We were the only one's in the group yet to visit here and I think we were 'digging it the most.' We were there for just a day before heading to Pacific City for the 4th. I acclimated to calling it the 'coast' instead of 'beach' right away since it was unlike any beach I'd ever experienced. I'll break the trip up into parts with more posts, but I think this picture sums up the trip pretty well.
I'd credit whoever took this photo, but I found it on my computer and have no idea who took it so speak up if you know.
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.
Damn right she's taken!
Mika asked me the other night if I treated my kids different as a boy and a girl. He asked with the admission his daughter has him wrapped around his finger and his mouth can't produce the word 'No' in her presence. I told him I didn't treat them differently and Jenna backed me up on this. Then I started noticing in all the pictures of she and I, she was in my lap being held...even when she was taking a nap. Hmmm...
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!!!!'
The race this year was unique for me. I was still on the committee serving as the PR/Marketing chair, but I was also able to participate in race day. Kind of the best of both worlds since I got the gratification of being on the committee but also getting to hold my wife's hand during the race. The day was fantastic with 16,024 people signed up!!! The Breast Brigade was in full force as well. Thank you to everybody who participated in this years race either by registering or giving to the cause. Thank you even more to everybody who gave their time and energy to making it happen. It is well documented in your choice of media how I feel about the Race for the Cure and how it impacted my family. I love you all.
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.
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Then I got derailed. The exact string of terms I put into Google yielded this link as the first result.
http://www.youngsfuneralhome.com/sitemaker/sites/Youngs1/obit.cgi?user=599_CRotton154
I see this picture most Sunday's when I open my Papaw's Bible to the verse Stephen wants to tell me about. This was the picture on the program at his funeral. I always open it and see all of his grandsons' names written there as pallbearers and I swear it never makes me sad. It's just a cool moment and then I listen to Stephen while watching the same 10 year old boy sitting in front of me and honestly doing his best to sit still. I'll smile and think when I was that boy and Mom would quietly pull my hair a little to get my attention then drop her "If you don't sit still...." stare. Then I chuckle at the contrast of Papaw never taking his eyes off the preacher and gently putting his hand on my knee and instantly he'd turn me into a statue.
Tonight the picture had a different effect. Maybe it was tonight's committee meeting for the Race for the Cure (April 30-Go Breast Brigade!) and sitting with so many there as survivors and so many there for those that didn't . Maybe it was being on the radio this morning listening to Stephna tell Jennifer Irwin about her Mom's struggle with breast cancer and the fear she has for her daughters. Maybe it was being with Alison a few times today and the memory of sitting at a table holding her Mom's hand while she cried listening to her daughter in tears telling 300 strangers in Fort Smith about her Daddy coming home from his oncologist time and again and proclaiming, "Good news! I got a 30 day guarantee!" Maybe it's reading twitter updates from Pat Fries and his courage keeping everyone up to date as he and Sara soldier on at MD Anderson.
All I know is I'm up at almost 2AM and I have no idea why but I cannot get this picture out of my head. My Papaw died of cancer but it didn't really rob me of him. He had a long, full life. Tonight though I just look at his picture and think how much I hate cancer. A couple of year's ago, Jenna's best friend Valerie watched me on a panel on TV and asked me why I was so serious on there since it's such a huge contrast to the real me. All I could tell her was I found absolutely nothing to smile about when I was asked the things cancer took from my wife. The things it has taken from all of us.
I hate cancer. I truly do.
http://thesullivanadventure.com/blog/2008/8/7/cloise-rotton-1924-2008.html
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 :)
I have to tease a little here. Jenna always laughs and can't figure out where she gets her temper. I tell her it's the Sullivan temper but she hasn't seen the Sullivan temper much in the decade we've been together. I guess we've all mellowed a little bit through the years. I call her little Melissa Jr. all the time but Jenna gets on to me. So now I'm presenting proof that she is related to Melissa. At least Melissa from 1983-2000.
I apologize up front for thinking this is funny. I've told everybody before Campbell is developing quite the temper. It used to require some slight or being told 'No.' Now as you'll see below, all it takes is for Daddy to ask her to not take her bow out of her hair. If you read that part softly and in an even way, you'll pretty much have the first 30 seconds of this episode before I turned on the camera. Thankfully she did let me off the hook at the end so I didn't feel bad all day. You know-feel bad for suggesting her not do something.
Follow the adventures of Chad and Jenna trying to keep up with the triumphs and tribulations of Noah and Campbell.
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