Friday, May 28, 2010

Noah's garden friend

Lately we've spent a lot of time outside. We have lots of landscaping to do in our backyard, and it's been fun having the kids help out. Most of the time they play in our big patch of dirt, but occasionally they (Noah) help us pull weeds, and empty our buckets of already pulled weeds. The other day Noah found some fun little friends.
Good thing we found a new home for his friends; it looks like we were about to have lots of new friends!

Elliana could play in the dirt all day. She has so much fun getting dirty.
Look at my blondie!

garden update

I cannot believe how fast my garden is growing! It is so much fun watching the veggies grow.

Noah with our first radish:

Lettuce and Cilantro:


My first tomato:

teeth

Yep, 15 months and two teeth...I love it!

a little getaway

Hylke and I just got home from the most relaxing, enjoyable three day getaway. This was our very first getaway with no kids!!! Can you believe that? I promise that we made the most of our time away...we ate well, slept in, and laid by the pool. Monday will be our 7 year anniversary; this was the perfect way to celebrate the last 7 incredible years!!

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Under Construction

Please be patient with me as I attempt to give my blog a little makeover. :)

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Growing

Here are a few pics of the garden and just because she's growing too:

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

baba


Ah, the great debate. When should I take the pacifier from Noah? I know some of you are thinking, "ummmm, a loooong time ago" and others are thinking "take it away? why?" Although we've gone back and forth with how to handle weaning him from it, in the last month we decided that we weren't going to make a big deal about it, we'd wait for him to be ready to get rid of it. He only uses it at naptime and bedtime, it stays in his room. That's how it's been for quite awhile, just for sleeping. When he went to the dentist in February, he told me that there was no evidence of Noah's teeth being effected by the pacifier...and in my opinion, allowing him to have it wasn't causing harm of any other sort, so the paci stayed. I struggled from time to time....I almost felt like I should be getting rid of it....some of my friends had taken the paci away from their kids. But at the same time, I didn't see the big deal. In fact, I wasn't ready for him to give it up. He's my champion sleeper! He sleeps from 7-7 (going down with NO problem at all) and still takes a 2...sometimes 3...hour nap! I really didn't want to give either of those up. Just because I wasn't ready to take his "baba" away, doesn't mean I wasn't preparing him for when the time did come. We regularly talked about how some of his other friends didn't use theirs anymore and that as he got older, he really didn't need it anymore. We said that whenever he was ready to be done, we would get rid of it (give it to sissy...she doesn't even use one, but that's what he said he wanted to do...:) ) Wellllllll....two days ago, Sunday, May 9, Noah decided that he was all done using his baba. We hadn't talked to him about it in a couple of weeks, but while Hylke was putting him to bed Noah said, "I'm all done with my baba, I want to give it to sissy." So, they came in E's room, gave her his baba ( a fun toy for her!) and that was that. I thought FOR SURE we'd hear from him that night...I just KNEW he'd want it back; he didn't. He slept the whole night (his FIRST night in 2 years and 11 months!) without a baba and without a peep. The next day he took his nap, no problems...2 hours and 45 mins! I decided right away that I wasn't going to make it a big battle. If he was ready, great...if not, it would be soon enough. Long story, notquiteaslongasitcouldhavebeen, he slept Sunday night, Monday nap, Tuesday nap and Tuesday night (so far) without his baba. Monday night he did have it, but as soon as he woke up he brought it to me and said, "I don't want this anymore." This is really the way that I wanted it to go. I really didn't want it to be a big battle. I know that it has been a source of comfort to him as he falls asleep and I wasn't about it take it away from him kicking and screaming (atleast not right now. :) ) So, I definitely feel like we're on our way. With two nights and two naps under our belt, soon this will be the new norm. So, farewell baba. You've been good to us.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Eyes

I'm not sure I've ever seen eyes as beautiful as sweet Sofia's. Honestly, are these not the most incredible eyes you've ever seen?? (and no, there's no color editing...they are the real deal!)

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Dirt

I have one sweet little girl, who loves dirt:




This is one of my favorite pictures:



Nothing a bath with the hose won't take care of. :)