Magical bursting eardrum

Before Eardrum burst:

Sad, sad, baby boy. He needed to be held 24 hours a day.

After scary eardrum burst:

Completely back to normal, happy happy boy. Almost immediately.

What happened to his eye? Surely he didn't fall out of my bed..again. Surely not.

Send in the clowns!
Little Drummer Boy
He really might squeeze her till she pops one day.

I heart this plate my mom got us for Christmas with our family verse on it. How did she know?

Surely not because I picked it out. Surely not.

Ear Issues take 2 (or 4?)

Noah has a double ear infection. Again. Apparently it is a bad one (or two.) But, we experienced something a little different today...

I am pretty sure Noah's right eardrum burst this evening. He woke up from a nap with dried blood everwhere, on his ear, cheek, bib, clothes. I called Dr. Shauna/ Dr. Bob to make sure I didn't need to take him to the ER. Apparently not. I think it has actually made him feel a ton better. He was so happy tonight, and that has not been the case the last 2 days. Since my initial shock/overreaction/panic, I have calmed down, done some research, and apparently this is pretty common and should heal on it's own just fine. Has this happened to any of your kids?

Hope goes to the dentist

And Mommy forgets the camera. Oops. Some points for getting there on time though, right? And for taking an extra few minutes to really scrub her teeth before we left her school, right?

Hope was awesome. I was worried about her and the noises, because of her issues with sounds. (If you don't know Hope, well, she has issues with sounds. Big issues.) The very first thing she asked when we got there was... "Mommy, what's that sound?" Crap. Not a good way to start. I told her they were cleaning someone's teeth and they use a toothbrush that makes a buzzing sound. "Mommy, I need you to hold me." Double crap.

We sit in the waiting room and they have this book in there...

We read through some of it, and then they call her name. She grabs my hand and we go. This was the last of her nervousness. This dentist rocks. If you live in Central Arkansas, and you need a dentist, email me. They have a kid treatment room. The hygienist immediately gives Hope a box with DVDs in it and tells her to pick one and shows her the TV on the ceiling. Hope picks Arthur (ok, actually first she picked a shark documentary, but I was not sure that would help the apprehension!) Then she showed Hope all of the equipment, let her touch everything, gave her some cool sunglasses to help with the bright light they use, and introduced her to her friend "Mister Thirsty." Mister Thirsty was the sucker straw thingy (I'm pretty sure that is the technical name for it...help me out Lynley) and Hope thought that was the greatest thing ever. She laughed every time he got thirsty. They explained to me that they wanted this to be a happy experience for Hope and they wouldn't push her to do anything she was uneasy about. I'm not sure what I was worried about because Hope was a rock star. They were able to do everything they would do at a normal appointment, except the bite wing xrays (She gagged.)She got an excellent report. No cavities, good spacing, good bite, great job brushing. She earned a prize at the end. Tonight when she laid down I was telling her how proud I was of her. She told me that there was one thing that hurt at the dentist. I thought she would say the bite wings, but no, she said "It hurted my head when I had to pick a prize 'cause I didn't know which one to pick." For the record, she chose a sparkly yellow headband.

B B B B

Bath

Boy

Blue eyes

Beautiful Baby...

8 Sweet Months

Let me say that this "Bear + Baby + Noah" Monthly photo session is getting more and more difficult. . . He will do anything to not lay straight!

If you get him laughing though, he will stiffen up and kick his legs straight out!

He is sooo big!

He is now longer than the blanket, and he doesn't like to lay still... We might have to change the pose to sitting up like this!

Noah has brought nothing but love into our house. He is just the sweetest baby and we are all so crazy about him. I just can't even tell you how in love I am.

I think it's safe to say that sister is pretty crazy about him too. A little bit of jealousy here lately for the first time, but luckily she still takes it out on her mommy. She is always always sweet to her brother.

We were in the mall in Ft. Smith last week and they were in the sit and stand stroller. Hope was rubbing his hair so sweet and talking to him. Then she looked at me with a look that could kill (where oh where did she get this?!) and said "Mommy, his name is HARRISON! You should have named him Harrison because I LIKE THE NAME HARRISON!" Oh, the sass my friends. The sass is a little out of control. We are working on it. I got down and looked right into her eyes and said in the very sweetest voice I could muster and said "When you grow up and have a baby, then you should name your baby Harrison." (And then, because of the sass I took the little panda bear she wanted to buy and I put it back on the shelf and we had ourselves a little 'Come to Jesus' meeting about how we talk to our mommy... good times.)









But, seriously, I have the very best babies. Sass and many night wakings included, they are the best.

A Series of Events

Two things happening here:

Trying to take a picture of the happy bouncing boy

And

Playing with the settings on my camera. Here, no flash.

Here is a terrible picture, but so so you see what's going on. Hope keeps stepping in front of me so that I can't take his picture. She does this all the time right now. It doesn't matter if I have just taken 80 pictures of her, she doesn't want me to take 1 of Noah. I tell her to step out of the way and I will take her picture again in just a minute.

Back to the flash on, automatic settings because I can't figure my camera out for the life of me.

Super Baby!

I go to find Hope, who is now pouting in the chair. I take her picture, as promised.
Then, the sass gets out of control. She starts fussing at me. So, I take a Barbie out of her room. This is the biggest form of punishment these days. Not only do I take it, I put it on top of the microwave where she can clearly see what she is missing. Oh, and I don't take the naked barbies with scraggly hair. No no, I take the very beautiful, highly favored ones. Today, I chose Sleeping Beauty. Her attitude immediately changed for the better once she saw me looking for another one...

I don't know what to do about her sass. I told John that if we don't nip it in the bud right now, she is going to turn out exactly like me.

Mission Accomplished

This is my New Year's Resolution: To finish a project of my choosing every day. Be it organizing a closet, a page in a scrapbook, making tutu's to sell, or cleaning out the garage, I am going to get something done every day. Something above the feed the kids, go to work, take a shower, must do things of the day. I am really good at saying "I can do that tomorrow." So my New Year's Resolution is to do it today. And, just to add more to my plate, I am going to take a picture of my project every day and post it here. I don't promise to get on the blog and post the picture of the day every day, but I will take the picture and post to the blog when I can. I was inspired to do this blog by tallgirl. I am hoping she will hold me accountable!

So, follow along if you would like. www.missionaccomplished09.blogspot.com

A few milestones

The baby boy is 8 months old, which is just ridiculous. Time is just flying. His first tooth finally popped through. It has been a booger. Sorry about the food all over him, I was finally able to get a picture of the tooth.

He has also discovered Cheerios. He is a fan for sure. He also loves Wagon Wheels and Gerber puffs of any flavor.

He has also been saying Da-da all the time. I mean allllll the time. I am still waiting for a Ma-ma-ma. He can also identify people. I say where is dada, and he looks around time he spots him and grins so big. He will do the same with mommy and Hope.

Speaking of grinning, this baby does not quit. He is the smileyest kid you have ever seen. I have never seen a happier baby. I am so thankful that he is a happy boy.

He has been eating like a champ since getting over his bug and I am sure he has gained his weight back plus some. His belly is even looking chubby.

He is sleeping in his own bed. Alert the media. He is able to put himself to sleep in his bed alone. I did not ruin him!

Which is worse, cupcakes or squash & corn baby food?

Santa brought Hope a princess no bake cupcake maker. Basically, you are eating raw cake batter, only it tastes terrible. Hope thinks it's wonderful, and daddy tried to be a good sport.

Then, daddy lost a dare and had to eat 2 bites of Noah's Butternut Squash & Corn baby food. I'm not sure which was worse.

Noah says the squash and corn is no doubt worse. He will not swallow it. He gags on it and tries to vomit. Not fun times.
And here are some pictues of the happiest boy on the planet.

Maybe there has been a little too much togetherness

Hope was saying the prayer before dinner on Tuesday night. She ended with this:

"And God, I need to go to school. It's been a long time."

Christmas Day 2008

What Santa left for Noah

What Santa left for Hope

"Hey, what are we doing up so early?"

Santa knows Hope so well! She has been wanting this movie for a while!

She loooves her new life size Barbie. Barbie's name has changed several times. So far she has been Banilla, Lizzy and Sarah.

Hope was so sweet helping brother have a Merry Christmas too! She put all of his stocking stuff on his tray and helped him play with everything.

Yep, Barbie's naked.

Grandma Sharon sent tons of presents for both kiddos. They were the first presents under the tree this year, and Hope has been trying to guess what was in different packages for days! They were the first presents she opened and wouldn't open any of the ones we got for her until she found all of the gifts from Grandma Sharon. We love you Grandma Sharon and wish you could have been here to see how excited she was!

Searching for "Grandma Sharon" gifts!

Noah always studies Papa Paul. They definitely have a bond!

Hope stole Banilla/Lizzy/Sarah's outfit

Cute picture, until you see Noah's reflux in action. Sorry, people.

One happy family

Now, here, obviously you are saying how cute Noah is. And rightfully so...he is. But, what I really want you to notice is the package behind him to the left. It was my pride and joy for a few days. I bought Riley Kaye and Julia a gift to share, so I wrapped it up in two different papers to make it look like 2 gifts. Of course, the first thing Julia said was "Riley's half is bigger!"

I have so many more pictures. If you want to see them all, including some lovely ones of us all in Hope's purple wig, scroll through the Flikr pics on the right hand side of the blog!

Merry Christmas everyone!