Sunday, May 30, 2010

happy memorial day

Apparently, all Noah & Hannah could talk about at daycare Monday was how they made popsicles (despite the fact that we got to see fireworks, big trucks at the Vehicle Fair and their Aunt Angie over the weekend). So, they were very excited to get to EAT those popsicles on Monday!
Wednesday was an eventful night for the kids. Tuesday, Dad had tried to cook pizza for them, but the oven would not heat up and smelled like gas, so they got to be treated to McDonalds. Wednesday, Dad called a repairman, who told them to get out of the house immediately (since there was a gas odor the night before). So, Dad piled Noah & Hannah into the truck, bought Mac & Cheese at Burger King and brought it home to have a picnic in the bed of the truck while the gas company checked our house for leaks. We came out with no leaks, but Noah really enjoyed the picnic in the truck!
Saturday, they were very excited to put on their swimsuits and swim in our little pool! Noah immediately drug the slide over to the pool and put it in, while Hannah got the hose and started replacing the 4" of water that they splashed out of the pool in the first 3 minutes.
After swimming, they enjoyed just getting to play with each other and with their toys outside and inside. It's nice to just let them play and not have things scheduled for them every minute of the day! Hannah played paper dolls (for the first time!) and Noah really wanted to play Crayola BINGO, so he took the Bingo game and went downstairs. I came down to find he had set up the kids' size folding table and chairs, laid out the game and was ready for Hannah and me to play BINGO with him!
About 5 o'clock, the kids wanted to take a walk in the stroller (which had not been used for about a year!), so we walked to the grocery store to buy some chicken & mashed potatoes, then convinced Dad to take a break from laying deck boards and come to Fleet Farm to buy tomatoes with us.
As Hannah went to sleep Saturday night, she told us that she wanted to go to Target on Sunday...
She got her way - after we all got up, we decided to go to Target for some groceries. And, since Hannah's crib (which has been converted to her toddler bed) was recalled by the government a few weeks ago, we decided today was a good day to take the crib apart and take it back to Target.
Hannah and Noah helped Daddy take down the crib. Noah & Hannah were very confused as to why Hannah's bed had to go away. We told them her bed broke or could break, so we had to take it back to the store so she didn't get hurt. When we got to Target, we were very impressed that they gave us a gift card for more than we paid for the crib (we had a receipt to prove what we'd paid for it when it was on sale). We were very happy to have a "free" grocery shopping spree!
We have twin beds that can bunk (thanks to my uncle & aunt!) but don't have twin mattresses, so Hannah's crib mattress is currently laying on the floor where her bed used to be...Of course, Noah wanted to sleep on the mattress on the floor, so we had to take his mattress off his bed, too. Hannah diligently made each bed, covering them with every blanket she could reach. They seem to be having fun with the mattresses on the floor, so it's nice that we don't have to rush to get into a new bed right away.
It's been a fun weekend, and we're looking forward to one more day away from work & daycare to hang out as a family. (That's the phrase Hannah is using - when you ask what she wants to do, she says "Let's just hang out.")
Happy Memorial Day!
Mom (Shari)

Monday, May 24, 2010

Noah

Noah is such a sweet boy.
Yesterday morning, I was upstairs making something to eat and Noah was downstairs playing with Hannah. I heard him say "Mommy! I found your blanket!"
I asked "Which blanket did you find?"
He replied "Your Angel blanket!"
Soon, I saw him emerge up the stairs with my blue angel blanket (that normally is on our bed) trailing behind him, two washcloths hanging off the back of that blanket. It had been in the dryer with a load of blues, and he decided I needed my blanket.
Later, I went downstairs and found a trail of clothes from the dryer, through the laundry room and up the stairs. I just had to laugh because it was such a sweet gesture for him to bring my blanket to me.
-Mom

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Fireworks are cool!

We had a fun week - we got to play outside almost every day! Then, we come home, eat, play outside, sometimes see our neighbor Griffin, get ready for bed and we finally agree on which book we want to read when we go to bed around 8. (Usually, we have different opinions on which book we get to read before bed so whoever wins the Cow game on Wii gets to choose the book of the night.) Our favorite book is Dr Suess' My Many Colored Days. It's such a cool book. If we decide not to read that, we can sometimes talk Mommy & Daddy into reading books from our Disney storybook collection - those stories are long and we sometimes get to stay up later because they take so long to read...
Soon enough, we might be reading our own books! We are starting to spell words - "Mom" & "Dad" are our favorites but we're learning new ones like "mop", "dog" "yes" and "no." We (especially Noah) constantly ask"how do you spell ...?" whether the words are big words (like "towel" or "curtains") or small words (like "we".)
Friday night, Mommy & Daddy told us we were going to go to Menards to buy a new hammer for Daddy, then we were going to a fun surprise. We put our pajamas in a bag and set off in the truck. We helped Daddy pick out a new hammer, burned off some energy in the lumber section, then drove around a short time before we parked in a shopping mall and put on our pajamas. Daddy told us we were going to see fireworks - pretty lights, but they were very loud. They are not dangerous, but if we were scared, we could watch from inside the truck. We sat in the back of the truck in our chairs and waited...
WOW! It was so cool! Hannah watched with her fingers in her ears (she has to put her fingers in her ears when toilets flush, so she was very scared this would hurt her ears.) Noah watched for a minute before deciding he wanted to watch from inside the truck. Though he was scared the fireworks could hurt him, he kept shouting "more! more!" from the truck. We talked about it all the way home, and all day Saturday!
Saturday morning, Mom & Dad said they had a surprise for us. We went up to the community center to see the Vehicle Fair - we had a fun time last year, but this year it started to rain on us. :-(
We got to sit in a NASCAR racecar (the seat is so much lower than Mommy's car!), a police car, a police truck, Army truck, a tractor and a school bus. We saw only a few things before the people in charge decided the thunderstorm was too bad and we had to go. We got to see a few things, but were bummed we didn't see more. We did, however, get to use our umbrellas! We LOVE playing with our umbrellas, but it wasn't as cool to hold them all the time when it really was pouring rain. It's more fun to pretend it's raining in our house and open them.
Today, Mommy took us to a restaurant while Dad stayed home to work. We drove for a while, but she didn't tell us that we were going to meet Angie! We were so happy to see her when we drove up and saw her standing by her truck! Yeah! We had brunch with her, then headed home. We hoped Angie would come to our house, but Mommy said she had to go to her house. We wanted to go to our cousins' house after we saw Angie, but we just went home. Mom said we get to see Lauren & Ben in three weeks. I hope three weeks is soon!
This afternoon, Mommy hooked up our new Pooh sprinkler and we played in the back yard with our swimsuits. It was so hot that it felt good to get wet. Mommy & Daddy said we can go to the big pool when it opens this summer, so we can't wait for it to open! Yeah!
It's been a long weekend - we're tired & crabby and ready for a new week to start with our regular routine. Mom & Dad say they're looking forward to next weekend when they have an extra day to hang out with us. Maybe we'll get to see fireworks somewhere again?!
N0ah & Hannah

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Happy Birthday to Daddy!

We were so happy to see the sun on Friday. It was a gloomy week. We had fun at daycare, and were very good kids all week, but were very happy to get to play outside at daycare Friday. And, we were so excited that Ian came back Thursday! He got very sick in January, and wasn't able to come back until this week. Noah was so excited to find out that Ian was at daycare Thursday morning, that he ran to the basement to play with Ian and forgot to eat his breakfast first!
Friday was Daddy's birthday. On our way home from daycare, we stopped at the grocery store to pick up ingredients to bake him a cake! We went to our favorite grocery store - we get to push our own little carts. We came home, made cupcakes for Daddy, brought our regular kitchen table back to the kitchen (it was taken away last week when Daddy, Grandpa & Jason put in the new door), and made dinner just in time for daddy to come home and eat dinner with us. We made him cupcakes with sprinkles AND penguin cupcakes, then he opened his presents. We love Daddy!
Saturday, we got up and GRANDPA WAS AT OUR HOUSE! We were so excited though we were kind of confused that he showed up without Grandma. Mom said she had to stay home for a baby shower, and Angie was coming home to be with Grandma. Grandpa spent a lot of time helping Daddy work outside. They were making a lot of noise, but put up a bunch of wooden boards for a new deck. Dad said we missed the cool part when they dug really big holes and poured cement in them. Mom had taken us to a park to play Saturday morning. We were very good when she told us it was time to go, we got right in the car to go home.
We were very good helpers most of the weekend. We helped to bring things to Daddy & Grandpa when they needed stuff and we played nicely without getting into trouble or fighting with each other. We got to play with Grandpa today, and he showed us how to hammer a nail and take it out of the wood. He also showed us how to walk on boards on top of sawhorses - they were really high in the air! When we came in the house to eat, Hannah found a bug in her hair. It was a really little one, but she screamed and cried. She didn't like that little green worm in her hair!
We had fun playing on the deck boards that are up now - it will be really fun when Dad gets all the pieces up! We can't wait.
Noah & Hannah

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Big weekend

We had quite a fun weekend.
Friday, Mom picked us up and we went home. She told us our uncle Jason came and put a big hole in our kitchen. When we got home, we noticed the window was gone and SO WAS OUR KITCHEN TABLE! That was the first thing we said: "Mom! Our table is gone!"
She showed us that she put it in the living room, so we were cool, then we helped Mom order pizza just in time for Grandma, Grandpa, Dani, Ben & Lauren to show up...Daddy & Uncle Jason brought the pizza home and we had a big picnic in our living room.
Daddy put plastic up in the doorway - he said it was to keep the dust in the kitchen, but we thought it was to keep the COLD AIR in the kitchen since there was no window. AND we had so much fun running from one room to the other and going through the plastic door. Ben & Noah did it so much that Grandma & Mom put up plastic on a different door for them to play with.
Hannah & Lauren had a fabulous time playing together - they played dress up, house and dolls. Hannah really enjoyed having a girl to play with. Noah had a harder time sharing his toys with Ben. They played with cars, trains and musical instruments but nothing lasted as long as the girls' role-play-games. At one point, all four of us were dressed up in costumes: Lauren in one of Mommy's dresses, Hannah in her Minnie Mouse dress, Ben as Lightning McQueen and Noah as Elmo. It got to be a tiring night - Daddy, Grandpa and Jason made lots of noise in the kitchen WAY past our bedtime, so we got to stay up and watch Sesame Street and SuperWhy in the basement with our cousins. We were exhausted by 10 o'clock when we finally got to bed.
We slept in until 7 on Saturday. It finally quit raining, but it was still too wet to play outside. We played Crayola Bingo and Wii games and got to see Daddy Grandpa & Jason put a big glass door in the hole they made in our house!
Unfortunately, Jason & Dani took Ben & Lauren home right after we ate dinner, but Grandma & Grandpa stayed with us for another day. We were still tired, so we took a long nap Saturday afternoon. Grandpa helped Daddy with the door and we went to Target with Grandma. We were very good for her and Mommy at Target!(Hannah LOVES Target!)
We made sure to tell Grandma and Mommy "Happy Mother's Day" right away this morning. We gave Grandma her gift that we made for her, and Mom the gift that Daddy bought for her AND the gifts we made at daycare. We even got out our hammers and helped Grandpa & Daddy work. It's cool to have a new door to the outside!
We're getting very good at spelling, too. We are learning more words every day - mom, dad, mad, mop, red...And Hannah still loves to draw!
It was a very cold and exhausting weekend. But, we had a blast! Grandma talked about riding a train, so hopefully the next time they come see us we get to go see a train! Yeah!
Happy Mother's Day!
Noah & Hannah

Friday, May 7, 2010

Noah made it through the night with no diaper last night!

We are VERY proud of him!!

Today our house is going to get a bit of a face lift. Uncle Jason, Grandpa Mark, Grandma Diane, Aunt Dani, and cousins Lauren and Ben are coming to help us install a sliding glass door in the dinning room. Once that is done then Dad can start on putting together the deck that was dropped off in our yard yesterday.

On the way home from day care I asked Hannah and Noah who should help me build the deck. They both raised their hands and said "ME!!"

What a help they will be,
Stephen

Sunday, May 2, 2010


For the past couple of months, Noah has been doing something very cute - Hannah has picked up on it recently, too. At first, it started when we asked "Where's my hug?" and he would hug us and say "It's right here - here's your hug!" Now, he will hold his hands out in front of himself and say "here's your hug!", then slip his arms around our shoulders & give us a great big hug. It's so fun to ask "Noah - where's my hug?" Hannah sometimes will put her hands in front of her the same way, or just give us a big hug and say "Here's your hug!" It's so sweet to get such great hugs & kisses from such sweet kids.
Noah is also learning to read simple words. He's starting to understand to "sound out" simple words. He knows how to spell Mom and Dad, as well as No, his name and his sisters. Some of that may be memorization, but he's picking up on letter sounds. He has shown a little more interest in coloring and art projects at daycare, attempting to write his own name, but his art still "appreciates white space" and hasn't had the time invested in it as Hannah's art has.
Hannah seems a little interested in words, but really loves to draw and color. Her coloring pages are very colorful, and although she doesn't stay WITHIN the lines, she does a great job of keeping the color within the area of an object's bounds. She also has been drawing recognizable things - many people with long legs, short legs, long hair, knees...she really has variety in her drawings. Tonight she drew a tree, but when I asked where the green leaves were, she said she didn't know how to draw a leaf, so it was just a brown tree trunk. Oh, to understand what goes on in that creative little head would be fascinating...
It's been a routine week -work and daycare 5 days this week. We took the kids shopping for pirate costumes (for Mom & Dad) on Monday, and they behaved pretty well (we only had to take a couple of walks around the stores to quell tantrums...) and earned themselves a dinner out. How convenient that they asked for noodles in front of Noodles & Company!
We got to play outside many nights with the neighbors. The swings in our yard are definitely getting well used, as is the neighbor's castle playhouse.
Saturday, both kids decided they wanted to join Mom at a baby shower. Thankfully, the hostess has kids, so her house was beautiful but childproof. Though no other kids were there, Noah & Hannah were fairly well behaved and didn't destroy anything...Then we came home to play for a little while before getting Megan, their daycare provider's daughter, to come babysit while Mom & Dad attended a murder mystery party. Mom & Dad had fun and Noah & Hannah really enjoyed having Megan come to play and put them to bed.
Today was the last day of Sunday School. Noah & Hannah really enjoy Sunday School - Hannah asks to go to church & Sunday School often. (Honestly, we do to go Sunday School every week of class - though we don't attend church service quite as often.) We were a little bit late, so we missed the opportunity to sing "I wanna be a sheep" song that Noah & Hannah have been singing lately. (They sing that in large group before class starts) It's fun to hear them sing songs we hear often, although their interpretations of the words are often a little bit off. Next year, they'll be in the 3-yr old class! The past 2 years have been in the little lambs class with infants all the way up to them being the oldest. They've learned all about the bible stories, though, and talk about them even when we're at home. Next year will be fun to see what they learn when the class isn't in a nursery with lots of distracting toys.
Have a great week! We'll be busy this week getting ready for guests next weekend. Noah & Hannah will be so excited when their cousins Ben & Lauren come to stay the night and play with them!
Until next week...
Mom