Noah's Birthday Party Update

Last Saturday, we had a birthday party at Noah's Aunt Karen and Uncle B's house to celebrate Noah Wesley turning two. It was a fun time!! Noah, Emma, Drew, and Landon started off by running around the backyard while we finished getting the food ready. They were very interested in the awesome pool Aunt Karen found on one of her shopping trips a few days before. All of the boys got wet before getting into their swimmers and trunks!!! (leave it to the boys...) Before getting into the pool (after eating a wonderfully yummy dinner of hamburgers, hot dogs, scalloped potatoes, baked beans, macaroni salad, fruit, cole slaw, and more), Noah and Landon said their "goodbyes" and then Emma and Noah started playing in the pool. Drew was a little scared, but he got in for a while a had a great time!! After drying off and warming up, everyone dove into the yummy cupcakes (courtesy of Sybil!), and then Noah opened his gifts. He got many outfits for fall, a couple of books (one featuring Elmo), a Cars poster with his name on it, a Nemo decoration with little plastic characters in the cubby-holes, a puzzle, a Jeep with sand tools to take to the beach, a t-ball set, and a potty. Oh, and he got some money, too!! :) It was a great time!!!

Here are a few shots from the party...

My baby boy is 2!!!

Can you believe it? Two years have already gone by!! It's like they say...time does fly by when you have little ones. Before you know it, he'll be off to college!! :P Today I was able to work from home, so I got to spend the entire day with Noah Wesley. He watched several of his favorite "vi-vi's" (movies)...Cars, Jonah (the VeggieTales movie), Aladdin, and then Cars again before bed. :P Since it was his birthday, I let him watch what he wanted. hehehe

He got to watch the trash truck come this morning also...he oooo-ed and whoa-ed about that!!

At lunchtime, we went to Burger King, and Noah and I had lunch together. He had a lot of fun as he smiled and said hi to the other hungry customers coming in. I seriously think he will one day be a PR person, in some manner. He is very friendly! :)

After his 2 1/2 - 3 hour nap after lunch, he ate some dinner, and together we created his hand mold in a frame! It was a wonderful day, and I'm so thankful for my cute & handsome little 2-year-old!! :D

Here are some pictures that I took of our day...watching the trash truck...looking at movies...giggling...spending time with Mommy...oh, and who made this mess in Noah's room??!! ;)

First Haircut!

Well, it's getting close to Noah's 2nd birthday, and we decided he was long past due for a haircut...or trim. So, we made plans to go to the mall, get a trim, then get his photos taken for his 2nd birthday. (More about the birthday photos in a later blog.) We went to the Master Cuts in the Hagerstown Mall, and Noah did a wonderful job! He sat on his Papa's lap, while the lady first cut his curls off the back, then worked on the front and the rest of his head. He sat still very well, as I stood there taking photo after photo. :) It just so happened that while Noah was getting his first haircut, one of the employees of the Ritz Camera (just next door) came to get a hair cut also. He came back with his spiffy camera and took a few pictures for us also!! That was very cool (and they ended up being complimentary too!). The only thing that bothered Noah was when she would spray water on his head before cutting it...he's still a bit scared of that. But, all-in-all it was a great experience for Noah, and afterwards he thought he was hot stuff as he went running into the mall!! He now looks very handsome and extraordinarily cute!!! :)

Here's a little "photo story" of the occasion...enjoy!

Update from last week's ordeal

Well, GG and Grandpa took Noah to the doctor last Friday, and of course, he wanted nothing to do with any doctor coming close to him at all! He said that as far as the eye goes with the nail polish remover, it looked good...cleaned out well. However, with his eye and nose the way they were, he said he definitely has a viral infection. On top of that, when he looked in his ears, he said he had ear infections in both sides (the one side worse than the other, along with the eye). Why the doctor at the ER didn't see this, I don't know! It should be an obvious thing... But anyway, Noah is acting much better, and his eye looks back to normal! However, he is still not fond of getting splashed on by water, especially over his head. I guess it'll take a while for him to totally get over that.

Tomorrow is one month away from his 2nd birthday!!! I've been thinking of ideas and planning out what we can do to celebrate...we'll have to make them solid this weekend. Then we'll let everyone know! :)

Late night at the ER

Well, yesterday afternoon, there was a bit of an accident. A bowl of fingernail polish remover was dumped onto Noah's head and got into his eyes. After flushing his eyes out a few times, he seemed to be a little better, but I didn't want to take any chances with damaging his eyes, so I took him into the ER in Hagerstown. I got there right around 7:00, and he was doing great in the beginning. The longer we waited, the less amused he was...he entertained himself for a while, then would either try to run away from me or just fuss at me. Then he got to the point around 9:30 or 10:00 where all he did was just cry and cry. He wanted to leave and go to bed so badly - he was reaching toward the exit doors. After rocking him and switching positions several times (and struggling with my slightly-large-on-me pregnancy pants and shirt), he dozed off. It was so late, and he just didn't understand why we were still sitting around in such a boring place. By the time they finally called his name to see the doctor, it was after 11:00. Needless to say, when I stood up to go back there, he woke up and began crying again. Then having the nurse in his face trying to look at his eyes didn't help any. He was so very upset!! He kept crying and crying as we sat back there. I felt so bad for him. The doctor finally came to see him around 11:30. Noah immediately held on to me tighter and cried more as soon as she came in the room. She looked at his eyes and his ears too (to make sure the chemicals didn't get in there), and then she wanted to lay him down to put iodine in his eye to make sure there was no damage. We couldn't hold him down, so she had to get another nurse...and the 3 of us are holding him down all over, and he is screaming and crying and kicking and doing everything just to get back up to me. All I could do at that point was cry with him...I am such a baby. It hurt me so much to see him that incredibly upset and scared. Everytime someone else would come in the door, he would start up crying again. He was afraid that we weren't going home I guess. Finally, the nurse came back in with some ibuprofen and a drink for him, but he didn't want anything to do with it. So once again, we had to force him down as she put the medicine in his mouth. The doctor said that everything pretty much looked fine as far as she could tell. So finally, around 12:00 midnight, Noah and I were able to finally leave and go home. (And I could get some dinner...)

This morning, when I got him up, naturally he was very tired because of that rough, late night, so he was crying some and fighting the car seat. But as I drove down the road to my parent's house, he was crying more and more and was rubbing and covering his eyes. They must have been hurting and stinging again after waking up! His left eye was pretty red and puffy. So, this afternoon, GG and Grandpa are gonna take him to see Dr. Schiavone...hopefully the visit from last night didn't totally ruin his good nature in the doctor's office! Pray that nothing is serious and that his eyes look and feel better!

Big brother Noah

Well, come mid-December, Noah will have a little brother to play with!! Yesterday I had my ultrasound appointment, and we found out that it was definitely a boy...a well-endowed boy as the doctor put it! Noah got to see his baby brother moving around mommy's belly a little bit too as his aunt Kelly looked on also...he even said "bebe" (which is how he pronounces baby right now). We found out that I'm not as far along as we originally thought. I thought I was 19 weeks, but come to find out, I am only 15 weeks, which is kinda early for this ultrasound. But our baby was cooperative, and he immediately opened his legs wide open for us to know that he's a boy! So now, instead of my due date being Dec. 1st, it is now moved back to Dec. 17th. The doctor was very talkative and informative about everything going on, and she told me that, with the history of Noah's delivery, I will want to go with a c-section to avoid any tearage of the incision because of another big head. Makes sense. Nice to know ahead of time, that's for sure. And they would schedule the c-section a week before the due date, which would give me plenty of time to get out of the hospital and recoop before Christmas. And this year, we'll have an itty-bitty baby boy along with Noah Wesley tagging along!! :)

So here's some photos from yesterday of the new upcoming baby... I know they can be hard to detect, so here's what they are: the first one is a shot of his head and his hands on either side his face, the second one is the standard shot showing his back end and legs opened up to prove that he's a boy, and the third one I believe is just his whole body...you can kinda see the embilical cord coming from his belly button too I think!

Hooray for summertime!

Memorial Day is just about here!! That means we've made it to summertime!! :) Unfortunately, Noah & I will not be able to hang out with his Papa because he is in New York City for Fleet Week. After getting my help with last-minute shopping for supplies and packing, Paul left Monday morning on the ship that slowly made it's way to NYC. From what I have heard so far, it's been a good experience in that he's gotten his picture taken for "the cover of a magazine" (we'll see...), talked on a radio talk show, got handed money, went to a jazz club and a comedy club, and just got to meet lots of interesting people. I'm sure there will be many stories to be heard after he returns on the 31st. Until then, it's just me and my baby boy for the long weekend with no plans...we'll just see what happens!! Wednesday I will be going back to the doctor for my check-up; I will be 15 weeks and 5 days!! So far this time is very different than Noah...I haven't felt sick at all and I've waken up early in the morning having to go to the bathroom very badly already!! Does this mean it could be a girl? Probably next month we will find out! Keep us in your prayers for this and for us to get our house sold so we can all be together again as a happy and stable family!!!!