OH NORA...

So, this morning Nora was making a flute out of a paper towel roll. She wanted me to draw a mommy and daddy on the flute. I did the mom and she liked it. I drew the dad and she said "that's not my daddy". Then proceeded to tell me...
"Mom good job, but that's not a good job-sorry."

As sad as I get sometimes that she is just growing up too fast, I also LOVE some of the funny things she says!

UD Reunion!

 Go DAYTON FLYERS!!!
"IT" Finally happened!  A reunion with our friends from Dayton. We have been planning this for months and it all came together this past weekend. The last time we all saw one another was at Gabe's wedding (I think). Since, then we have all had babies, some of us two or more. I loved meeting the babies I haven't met and spending time with everyone. We went to a water park in Ohio. This was perfect because all ages we entertained.
 
 Nora LOVED the water. I think she was in the water for 7 hours on Saturday!


 Teddy thought it was totally over-rated and fell asleep. :)

 


 This was really funny to me. Most of the dads followed the kids around in the water. However, this is their idea of "watching the kids"
 

All the kiddos!

On Sunday before we headed back we went to this African Safari in Ohio. Ha. 

But, it was SUPER cool!  The animals come right up to your car and stick their massive heads in your window. 

 This is a young moose I think and it stuck his/her head in the front window.

 A Buffalo that scared the poop out of TJ

SOOOOO BIG!

Stud Muffin is 8months old!

 I TOTALLY cannot believe that my little boy is already 8 months old. This is CRAZY. I feel like the time goes even faster the second time around.  Teddy is so much fun. He truly is a happy, chill guy these days. Holy Cow though, he is a mover! I recall much more movement in my belly during the time I was pregnant with him then with Nora and he continues to move, move, move!
At 8 months old Teddy is...
* CRAWLING!
* putting his arms up in the air when we ask him "how big is Teddy?"
* Sleeping much better but not through the night very often. He still wakes up some nights once or twice.
* He is starting to pop a tooth on the bottom left
* He loves to put everything he can in his mouth.
* He eats rice and oat cereal, bananas are his favorite, apples, pears, prunes, squash, peas (he dislikes), mangos, sweet potatoes, and carrots.
* He gets quite distracted while nursing if anyone or anything seems more interesting.
* If he wants something-he will try with all his might to get it.

 See, he won't even sit still for a quick photo shoot.

 "Come on mom, I got things to do"

 "Whatever, I am just going to grab this off."

 I LOVE his smile!!!!!!!

 And there goes the sign. Photo shoot over.

 Such a big 8 month old!

 This past weekend we took a little trip to Indiana to go to this organic farm I have been wanting to visit. It was smaller then I had anticipated, but really cute and a nice reason to get out of town for a night. We met some friends for dinner that live close by. Nora had a great time hanging out with their son and dancing.
There was a young guy singing on a stage for the 15-20 people eating out on this deck. After his first song, Nora started shouting to him to sing Farmer in the Dell over and over again. He just laughed at her and said he didn't know it. Many of the other patrons started laughing too. Yes, our 3 year old was heckling a singer. But, in all honesty-we were at a farm. He should know Farmer in the Dell. :)

 Good night kisses in a big comfy bed at the hotel. By the way, the kids were so over-tired they didn't got o bed till 10:00!  AHHHH!!!

 Lesli was in town this weekend for a friends party and we were able to visit with her today. Nora was really excited and Teddy cuddled up too! We miss you Aunt Lesli.

 Teddy was showing off some serious personality today. I think it was for his daddy since it is Father's Day. 
We had a nice Father's Day. Went to a yummy diner for breakfast, hung out with Aunt Lesli, and went to my parents for dinner. And, TJ is going to try out guitar lessons. It's been on his "bucket list" for years so I decided it was time to do something about it!

DancingDancing

I caught Nora dancing on the porch the other day and thought I would share.

Teddy at 7 months

 Handsome little guy at 7 months old. Fitting I should post this two days away from him turning 8 months old. At 7 months Teddy was sitting up just fine, giggling at all of us and becoming extremely curious at everything going on around him. He seems to be especially curious while nursing. Little stinker. Nap time is getting a little tricky some days. Nora realizes she can make Teddy laugh by doing just about anything. So, when I am rocking him and nursing him prior to his naps, Nora will purposefully walk past his door and come into the room and PRETEND she has something to tell me. She does this because she knows he will stop and look at her and Crack Up. It is funny, but makes the nap time process a bit longer.

 This is a picture of Teddy attempting his beginning crawling moves. It did not take him long to move from this to full on crawling. Honestly, it was about a week!

 Another pre-crawl picture.

tactile fun!

 This morning, I boiled some pasta, put it in a big bowl and let the kids play with it. They both LOVED it. Who knew this would be so fun? I swear, late night browsing on pinterest is going to get me in trouble. Nora pretended she was cooking and Teddy just got really excited every time he touched and would start flapping his hands so the pasta flung everywhere.

 He only tried to eat it twice. I thought that was pretty good actually considering he puts EVERYTHING in his mouth.

 We ended up adding food coloring and making it purple which was also a fun experiment. Eventually, Teddy just got a tupperware of water and splashed like crazy!

 Tonight, I made this...

 It's a binder that Nora can work on at home or in the car. We have a few road trips coming up this summer and I want her to have some fun stuff to do. I am going to try and add more things to the binder but this is what I have so far...

And, the hidden picture page of the toddler Highlights magazine. I hope she likes it. It worked out well that I had some school supplies on hand. :) The silliest thing, I make this stuff all of the time for my students but don't take the time to make it for my kids. I hope I can do more of it this summer for them.

First Daddy/Daughter date night

 

Nora had her first official date night with her daddy!  This was so FREAKIN" cute!  Our minor league baseball team in the area- The Kane County Cougars, had a Daddy/Daughter Princess night tonight. Nora was so excited to go as we were talking about it for the last 3 days. The night started off with a parade around the field. Nora proudly waved to all the spectators. She also got a picture with some of the players and her dad, of course...

 Ozzie the Cougar, (Nora thought it was a bear), was one of her favorite things of the night. TJ said she wanted to go find him and chase him throughout the game.

 Nora had to get a hotdog at her first baseball game. She looks like such a big girl in this photo...

 Apparently, they moved seats often throughout the game and Nora WOULD NOT take her Cinderella dress off until the fireworks started. TJ said she was entertained the entire time!

 After the game, they were able to go on the field and watch fireworks set to Princess music. She was SUPER excited. The videos are really cute. She thought she could catch the fireworks. She would "catch" them and bring them to TJ.

We definitely have to see the fireworks this Fourth of July!  She said this was her favorite part along with Ozzie the "bear".
I love that they had a little date night. I hope many more are to come!

planning ahead

I saw this on pinterest and decided I would give it a whirl. This past Sunday, I made a bunch of ready-to-go meals that I just have to throw in the crock pot. It took about 2 hours to find recipes I liked, chop veggies and meat, and put it all together. I was so excited! (pathetic to get excited about this I know). To be honest, my thought was to start doing this for when I go back to work at the end of August. Then TJ and my mom looked at me like I was nuts because the food will probably be freezer burned by then. So, we will use them this summer on days we just want to hang at the pool or play all day and I don't feel like cooking. My new plan-when I make something that I know I can freeze, I am just going to make double and freeze it for the crock pot. I hope this works because honestly, I have frozen things before and they are still in my freezer 10 months later. I am thinking this will be different since I actually still have to cook these meals.

Check ups!

 I took the kiddos for their check-ups a few weeks ago. Nora and Teddy both needed wellness visits.  They were both great at the doctor and things went smoothly. Nora is obviously still off the charts for height and weight is 90%. She is all set to start 3 year old preschool in the fall two mornings a week! If I was staying at home again, I don't know if I would put her into the program. But, since I will be going back to work and we will have someone coming to our home to watch the kiddos, I think she needs time for the interaction with others.
Nora is extremely outgoing. At times, it actually worries us because she will talk to any other child she sees. Most times, this is fine and we let her do her thing while watching closely. But there are times when some interactions do not go so smoothly. It already breaks my heart. Nora will go up to another child and say "hi", introduce herself, ask them to play, or even touch their arm. Some kids do not respond so well. I completely understand that other children may not be as outgoing and Nora usually doesn't seem to mind that either. But, there are definitely some children that are just not nice. These are typically children that are a few years older than her. Her feelings definitely get hurt but she overcomes it pretty quickly-luckily. We are trying to teach her that not everyone wants to play with people that they do not know very well. Needless to say, I think she will LOVE preschool!
She had some ice cream with her cousin after the doctor appointment.

As for my big dude...
Well, at 7 months, this guy weighs 23.5 lbs!!!! He is tall too. He measures 30 1/4 inches. This puts my guy at the 97 percentile for weight and height! No wonder my back hurts so bad. On the good side, he is healthy, strong, and so darn squeezable! I'm also getting some killer arm muscles. :)

 He started getting up on his arms and knees around Mother's Day. He was so proud of himself. After that, he was rocking back and forth. Here he is practicing his moves at 7 months.

 He is such a happy guy. He loves watching us.

 He plays really well on his own as long as there is plenty of "stuff" around him. This has been a blessing at times especially when I need to rush Nora upstairs to go potty or get meals ready or snacks ready. To be honest, I really don't like letting the kids play on their own. I know it is good for them to do at times, but I always feel bad as though I am ignoring them.

 And, when I leave this guy alone for 2 minutes, this is what happens...

I brought Nora to the bathroom and came back to his room and seriously could not find him for a second. He scooted himself backwards UNDER the crib!
Since I took these pictures, Teddy has actually started to CRAWL!!!!!!!  Last Wednesday, May 30th, he took 1 knee forward and sort of did that for a couple of days. He would get on all fours, take 1 knee forward, pivot and sit. He managed to get wherever he wanted to go by doing this. But, on Sunday, he REALLY crawled. He did at least 4 hand, knee, hand, knee, moves!!!! And, that same day, he started clapping!!! He was so proud of himself and we are so proud of him!
I love 7 months. It is such a fun age for babies.