It's amazing that two little people can inspire so much guilt. Many of you have, or will soon receive Noah's birth announcement in the mail. Yes, I know he is 5 months old. But every time I opened his baby book that "Announcing My Birth" page jumped out at me and reminded me that there was no announcement to paste in there. Plus I had sent them out for Anna and I didn't want him to be the typical second child without the same mementos as his older sibling.


Who wears short shorts? Umm, that would be Noah. Tee hee hee!

Noah is taking his first nap in the helmet as we speak! I laid him down asleep, which I never do, but I was feeling guilty and thought he might not be able to settle down on his own if he was uncomfortable. Of course he woke up after I left, but he only gave a few minutes of complaining and then went right to sleep. That's just like every other nap he's ever taken!

I couldn't resist going in to make sure he was okay. The first thing I saw was this cute little hand:

And then this! Yahoooo! We are so glad that he's getting used to it so quickly.

I just noticed that the helmet matches his bedding. He totally planned that ;)

Noah got his helmet today and everything went well. They put it on him and then made a few adjustments so it wasn't too close to his eyes or ears. We go back to the plastic surgeon next Friday and back to the orthotist the following Tuesday, both visits being to ensure a good fit. There actually isn't much to tell so far about his reaction, because we were instructed not to begin the "phasing in" process until tomorrow so that we can have a full day to work on getting him used to wearing it.

But when they put it on him in the office he was actually happy and smiley! He was smiling at the doctor and waving his arms up and down in excitement. I liked how they kept referring to him as "little tiger", hee hee. He cried a little before we left but we think he was really just tired because we weren't on the road for two minutes when I looked in the mirror and saw him sound asleep. I guess he wasn't too uncomfortable! We took it off when we got home and we'll start tomorrow with 1 hour on, 1 hour off, and no sleeping in it. The next day goes 2 hours on, 1 off, then 4 hours, 8 hours, etc, until he gets to 23 hours a day including all sleeping. Mommy is a little worried that he won't be able to sleep well in his favorite tummy position, but that little bit of time that he wore it today went much better than we had anticipated, so maybe he won't be too bothered by his new "special hat" (as Anna calls it).

He's asleep now and we didn't get any pictures during that short time he had it on today, but there will be some tomorrow for sure! Oh, and we like how the pattern came out too! It looks a lot like that first picture in the Sneak Peek message. Groovy ;)

Thanks for all the prayers!

That's Anna's new favorite saying. She yells it out while flipping somersaults, eating her food, building with blocks, pretty much everything! Her current thing is "Look at me mommy! I'm a fish swimming in the sea!". Here's the fish face, and her version of swimming, which looks more like a zombie fish to us. :p

p.s. Tomorrow is helmet day for Noah. Say a little prayer that he adjusts well (and quickly!) and we'll be sure to get pictures up as soon as we can!

This weekend we were pretty busy, but we still had a lot of fun. First we went to a small family reunion for my mom's side of the family. We didn't know a lot of the people there, but it was still nice to see everyone and show off the kiddies.

Sunday was church and then brunch out with Ashley, Brian, Kendall, and Kate. It seems like we have been booked solid for the last few weekends but we can't complain when our schedule is filled with fun times with our favorite people :)

It has finally started to cool off around here, so for the last two nights we have done dinner at the park. The first night we went to a little park near our house and had some food before getting up to play. The second night we went to a larger park and sat at a picnic table right on the edge of the playground. Anna had a difficult time focusing on her food while there were other kids swinging and sliding so near to us. But after a half sandwich, some applesauce, and some helicopter watching, we let her up to play.

Chowing down on a nectarine:

It's not as exciting from the stroller, but Noah still thought the park was pretty cool:

Both mornings after we've gone to the park Anna and Noah have slept past 8am. Not a big deal for Anna, but that's crazy late for Noah and it's more than okay with mommy and daddy. We'll have to eat in the park every night until it's too cold outside!

• Now I have nothing to do!
• Mommy, Thunder is here! I hear it!
• I need to play with baby Noah!
• How 'bout some limas? (beans)
• Amy and Doug and Sam and Max!
• Nathan is at home. Noooooo, Nathan is at work!
• Anna draw Ming Ming? (on her magna doodle in her bed)
• Briiiiiiiiaaaaannnnnn!
• I need bread! Mommy get da bread!
• Look at me Mommy! I a penguin walking in the snow!

This weekend Nathan was going through a box that his parents had brought over. It was full of his old things from their basement, but he found something in there for Anna too. I was in the kitchen when I heard him calling for Anna, and then asking her if she wanted to wear an apron. It was a little apron that his mom had made for his sisters (we think? Did you make that Mom F?) and Anna just loves it. She wore it for the rest of the night, as I followed her around the house with the camera because it was so cute.

Okay so maybe I'm obsessing a little. Maybe I went through 20 or so pages of pictures of kids in England who have helmets to find some that matched the iceberg pattern that Noah will have. But I found a lot! It must be a popular pattern over there. I had no idea he was going to be so stylish, so European ;)

So these two pictures are both the iceberg pattern, but as you can see they look quite different. The orthotist explained to us that the patterns change and get distorted as they are stretched over the round shape of the helmet, so who knows how Noah's will turn out. But it will be pretty close to these photos. Although I don't think anything that Noah puts on his head will make him as chubby as these little guys, ha!




As of today it has been 2 weeks since the casting which means his helmet should be finished soon, and he will probably start wearing it next week. This is just a little preview of how it will look, but you can be sure that they'll be plenty of photos coming soon :)

The other day I was looking through old photos of Anna and I found this one that reminded me of the one we just took of Noah a few weeks ago. She was a month and a half older than he was in his photo, and even though he's bigger, they share the same double chin and floppy baby posture. I can barely remember when Anna was that small (sniff sniff) and it's only been 2 years!

Nothing to say really, just some cute pictures of the kiddies. Anna still loves bath time more than anything, and we love those smiley blue eyes.

If someone told you that you had to go to bed when you weren't tired, would you? What if they left you in a room full of toys, and you could get down and play as much as you want? Would you go to sleep? Of course not, and neither does Anna.

So after buying this book and being inspired by my crafty friends I decided that I too would try to make some baby bibs for Anna and Noah. My super nice hubby took the kids to Home Depot so I could walk around the fabric store in peace, and I found some pretty cute things for my first sewing attempts. By the time we got the kids down to bed I was excited to get started. Considering the fact that my sewing machine has never been used or even threaded, it took a little time to get set up and I don't think I even started my bib until about 11 p.m. Luckily we had about 3 yards of fabric in the basement (that we bought at a yard sale years ago, with no purpose in mind) so I didn't have to use my cute fabrics on my practice run. Everything was going fine on the straighter edges of the bib, but when I got to that curvy neckline....forget about it. The real problem was my lead foot. I couldn't seem to find a normal speed with the sewing machine. It was either barely moving or going 800 miles an hour, sucking the fabric away from me while I sat there helpless crying, "Oh no! Nathan!" and he would just sort of look at me wearily and say, "It's okay honey, it's just your first one".

I can't get on my laptop now without Anna making a dive to play with this website (once there, move your mouse around). I have to click for her to change colors and close out any files that she might open accidentally. But I confess that after she goes to bed I make a few original creations of my own. So fun and my brain gets a short break from laundry, big girl pants, and burping other people :)