Noah and the Swim Nazi

Poor Noah is doing swim lessons this week. I say "poor" because: 1. I'm making him go to the Swim Nazi and 2. It was only 55 degrees outside during his lesson today. Remember the Swim Nazi that JM went to last summer?   Anyway, in the water it was really warm, like 80 maybe, but man it was cold when the little guy got out. Thankfully I brought warm dry clothes with a hood.

He's doing great! At home, he's been a major whiny PITA lately (and I mean that in the most loving way, of course) testing our limits as most 2 year-olds do.  But, man, that Gwen. I need her to come wrangle Noah at our house. She takes his little unwilling self, puts him in the pool and gets him swimming. She is no-nonsense, but gets the job done. I'm pretty sure I've burned one meelion calories getting Noah to swim lessons the past two days. He wants no part of putting on his swimsuit, getting in the car, etc. Sigh. I probably wouldn't either.

Anyway, look at him jumping in and swimming to the wall! This is his 3rd lesson with her. Starting out, he was not swimming at all, so he's come a long way. JM and Aaron and I were all there today as his cheerleading squad. It's been fun to watch his confidence grow!

From Drop Box

Walking man!

Please pardon the muffin top cam and focus on sweet Aaron.  Just before his first birthday, he started walking.  Now, less than two weeks later, he can go something like 17 steps.  I don't remember his big brothers "getting" the walking thing quite this fast.  He's pretty much going straight to running. 

Homemade Play Doh

This past weekend I saw some of the Hot Chicks, that is my good girlfriends from Marquette.  We gathered in Ann Arbor, MI, where my super awesome friend Meghan lives.  Meghan has what I call a "cool house" that is full of wholesome tasty food, cool and creative toys and art stuff for her girls (aged 6.5 and 4.5) and best of all, lots of love that you can see through all their family pictures and kids art displayed proudly on the walls, etc.

Inspired by Meghan, we made some play doh this morning.  Meg suggested home made play doh when I was complaining that I hate the store-bought kind because it makes such a crumbly mess.

This was so easy!  I even had all the stuff in my baking cabinet....

Play Dough Recipe:  Source: Mommyfootprint
1 cup white flour
1/2 cup salt
2 tablespoon cream of tartar (find it in the spice section)
1 tablespoon oil
1 cup water
food coloring

Mix first 4 ingredients in a pot. Add food coloring to water and mix it in to other mixture. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, for 3 – 5 minutes. Dough will become difficult to stir and form a “clump”.  Remove from stove and knead for 5 minutes.  Play dough will keep for a long time stored in a covered plastic container or plastic sandwich bag.

This amount of play dough this recipe produced was perfect. Probably about 3 jars worth of the store-bought kind.  Perfect for a nice clump for each of my two big boys.

Aaron turns one

When people post on Facebook that their babies have turned one, I can never believe it. When it's not your child, the time goes so fast.  With Aaron, even though I see him every day, I do have to say that a year went by quickly.  Last week I started putting together photos and decided I wanted to do a little slideshow for his birthday and it was sort of mindblowing looking back at the blur that was the past 365 days of his life.

Aaron is 1.  Just last week he started walking.  Just a step here and there, but we've seen up to 5 steps.  He loves food.  At his birthday gathering, he ate three!!! plates of baked ziti with sausage and devoured his cupcake like a pro.  The cupcake was in his hand.  The cupcake went to his mouth.  He knew what to do.  No crumb was left.  We love you, sweet stinker babe!

 

Easter bunnies

They may perish from pneumonia, but we got an Easter Bunny picture!

I love love love the annual Heritage Society Egg Hunt at Laguna Gloria Art Museum, mainly because little children in Easter clothes make me incredibly happy.  It's also fun people-watching, as a lot of their parents look like they are straight out of Nantucket.  The event has a lot of fun activities for the boys, including an egg hunt, face painting and a trackless train.  We've been out of town the past few years but decided to go this morning mainly because I was dying for a picture of our three with the Easter Bunny while they are all still little (sob).

A blue kitty and a frog

The only bad thing this morning was the weather.  The weather forecast was for 86 today and it was only 51 at 9:30 am with wind.  They ran out of coffee!  The good news is that the H boys got to ride the train multiple times because a lot of people went home early to get warm!

10 and 11 month round-up

Y'all, I swore it wouldn't happen, but I just opened Aaron's baby book and I haven't updated it since 7 months.  I don't know where the past two months have gone, but I did take Aaron's 10 month picture during month 10, but am just now getting around to posting both it and his 11 month picture (he'll be 1 in two weeks.  Where does the time go?!).  Bottom line: better late than never.  Aaron, if you are reading this in the future, I love you dearly, but do you know what I've been doing the past two months?  Keeping you alive!  You have in no way been ignored in this house.  If anything, your two older brothers are getting the shaft.  You are so curious, so fast, so determined... and just so ACTIVE!  Oye ve, child.   I open the dishwasher and you climb in and grab at anything that's glass.  I leave the stair gate open and you are upstairs knocking a lamp over.  I open the door and you find a way to weasel out in 2.2 seconds flat.  I try to change your diaper and you are flip flip flipping over and crying because you do not want to be still.  If we go outside, you are crawling in the flower beds. The other day I looked over and you had climbed up on the train table and somehow you were hanging from a door of the TV stand.  OMG.

10 months.  Aaron in a nutshell.  Stinker!

11 months.  Up to 6 teeth

Sigh.  I am pooped.  This child is so sweet, happy and adorbs, but he is a WILD ONE.  It's 9:05 and after this, I am going to BED.  I am also running at 5:30 tomorrow morning with my new running group.  That's going to hurt.  I digress.  Aaron got a bunch of hair a few weeks ago.  He is still pretty bald, but it's a little mullet-y in the back.  He is up to 6 teeth at 11 months.  He is still not walking, but he wants to really badly.  He cruises with ease and can stand alone very sturdily.  I've seen him take a single step here and there but quickly goes down to speed crawling.  Any day now I think he's going to figure it out and God help me, he's going to be running down the block!

P.S.  This babe was 19.1 lbs at 9 months (25th percentile).  I took him in for an ear infection the other day and two months later, he's up to 22 lb 15 oz.  He is eating like a horse! 

Guess who?

When mama was signing brothers up for summer day camp, guess who was rifling through the pantry and biting into a package of pizza crust mix?

Mr. and Mrs.

We took this at Michael's cousin's wedding the other week, when we were kidless and fancy free.  I am embracing my natural curl after a good 10 years of the Chi thanks to the nice stylists at Blo.

Boobs

When I walked downstairs this morning, this is the scene I saw.  I found it particularly endearing because: 1. Noah still does not have any interest in watching a show on TV,  2. Two similar-sized blonde boys on their bellies watching a tiny screen= adorbs  3.  The conversation about the show they were watching, Mighty Machines was hilarious.  "Then the garbage goes down the chute, Noah," said John Michael about the garbage truck-themed episode.  "The shoop?" said Noah.  "Noah, not the shoop, the chute!" said JM.  "I like the garbage shoop!" said Noah.  "Not the shoop, the CHUTE!" said JM.... and the shoop/chute debate went back and forth for a good 4 minutes after.  Noah was trying so hard.  Sweeties.