Jumperoo

We went to Babies-R-Us on Monday after school and bought Noah a "Jumperoo." We can't decide if he likes it or not. He didn't have too much time to spend in it on Monday. He spent about 20 minutes in it yesterday and today he didn't seem to enjoy it too much. We'll see what the weekend brings. He might enjoy it more in the morning when he's "fresh". Being the happy baby that he is I did get a picture of him smiling in it yesterday.

Today was the first time in a VERY long time that he was actually awake from the time we got home until he went to bed. Usually he only takes 2 naps at Grandma & Grandpa Shoe's but today he took three! It was great to have so much awake time with him, he's such an amazing little guy. And it's so much fun to watch his daddy play with him, Justin is such a goofball!

A Fun, Busy Weekend

It was a fun, busy weekend. We actually didn't leave the house all day on Saturday. My brother Aaron called and asked if we wanted to play games. So, Aaron, Janis, Mary & Ellie came over after lunch. Long story short, we played games until 10:30 that night! We played Texas Hold-Em' (Mary dominated the first game!), Clue (I won the first game, Justin won the second), Disney Scene-It and during the second round of Texas Hold-Em' Ellie watched Sleeping Beauty. It was a great family game day.

Today, Noah woke up at 6:30. It was my day to get up early with him. My husband, being the sweetheart that he is, woke up with him and let me get an extra hour of sleep. After I got up he did go back to bed to get a little more shut-eye. We went to my mom's for lunch. Shortly after that I had to head off to the ROCKE meeting, so I dropped Justin and Noah off at the Shoemakers to watch the Giants/Cowboys' game. After that, we went grocery shopping, had dinner, played with our bundle of joy, bathed him and put him to bed.

With everything going on we did manage to get a few other things done. We got Noah's high chair set up. He's wanting to sit up all the time so we thought that would be a good way to promote his sitting without us holding him all the time. He really liked it. We also put a gate on the steps to the basement. Noah's not mobile yet, but he will be all too soon!

It was a great weekend!

Sleepy Head!

Noah has been quite the tired little boy when we've gotten home from Grandma Kathy's and Grandpa Tom's this week. I'm sure that the change in schedule this week has been hard on him. He took an hour and a half nap tonight when he got home. He was awake for about an hour after his nap before he started acting tired again. Hopefully tomorrow we can dedicate some time to being lazy, we do have a busier than usual weekend ahead of us. We're going to church tomorrow night and hopefully getting together with my brother Aaron, my sister-in-law Janis and their girlies, Mary and Ellie. Sunday I have a board meeting for ROCKE (the Regional Organization of Colorado Kodaly Educators. This is my 5th year on the board, my first as president. We have the national OAKE conference here in Denver in March 2008. I'm very fortunate that I am not the regional representative for that!) That will take a couple of hours and of course, Justin and I both have school work to do. I'm looking forward to whatever time I have to play with Noah and cuddle with him.

So, I'm not sure if anyone reads that comments on this blog, but someone (who will remain nameless) posted one on the last entry. The anonymous entry was wondering why I never mentioned Noah's dashing uncle that lives in Westminister. Well, Noah has two uncles that live in Westminister: Uncle Seth and Uncle Aaron. I will post a picture of both, you can decide which one is the "dashing" one. :)

Uncle Aaron

Uncle Seth

Of course, if I post a picture of Noah with his Uncles Seth and Aaron, I also need to post a picture of him with his Uncle Adam. . . although not of Westminister, but perhaps equally as "dashing".

Feet

You can't tell it that well from this picture, but Noah found his feet tonight. I snapped a couple other pictures of him actually holding on to them but, as you see, he has no diaper on and those pics showed a little more than just him holding on to his feet. Justin kind of laughed at me taking the pictures, but I was afraid that he wouldn't be holding them still after I got the diaper on. I was right, he didn't find them again this evening. (He's also wearing no clothes, because as Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Tom know, diaper changes can sometimes feel like you're cleaning up a volcano eruption. I call it "Mount Saint Noah.")



I made it through a long day. After school there was an hour of vertical teams and then a staff meeting where I found out that the CELA test is the Colorado English Language Acquisition Test. It was about 5:40, after the staff was trained how to administer the CELA test and teachers were working on scheduling their students to take the test that my principal came up and told the me, the pe and the art teacher that it'd be okay if we left. The pe teacher, Mike, has a 1 year old so we both bolted out of there, wishing that he would have told us that a half-hour earlier! The art teacher, Bill, is single and said he'd stay through the rest of the meeting. He may earn brownie points with the principal, but Mike and I got to spend more time with our kids this evening! And really, who wouldn't want to spend time with this little cutie!!

Back To School

So, we've made it through two days back at school. Justin hasn't had kids yet, he starts his new semester tomorrow. Noah is back playing with Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Tom during the day. I must admit that I'm jealous! It was so great spending so much time with my guys over winter break.

Tomorrow will be a long day for me- we have professional development after school. This consists of an hour of Vertical Teams, which is an intervention program to determine kiddos that need additional support. The second hour will be spent going over how to give the CELA test. I don't give it and honestly, I don't know what CELA stands for. It's given to students every year, I think has something to do with our second language learners- I'll know for sure tomorrow. (I don't see the point of making teachers that don't administer the test sit through the training. Am I a little resentful about having to sit through the training? Yes!)

Afterwards I will race home to spend an hour or so with Noah before it will be time for him to go to bed. If his schedule is like it was today and yesterday, he might actually take a nap while I'm still at school. I can't wait to spend all day Saturday and Sunday with him!

Last Day Of Winter Break

Today was Justin's and my last day of Winter Break. I go back to kids tomorrow, while Justin has an inservice day tomorrow and a workday on Tuesday. It's going to be hard to leave Noah tomorrow morning. It's been a great two weeks! I have never enjoyed a winter break as much as this one. It's been great playing with Noah, hanging out in our pajamas for most of the morning, holding him during his naps and spending all day with my two guys. I'm so going to miss it!

Noah is changing so much and I am really dreading the end of this month: one week I will have parent/teacher conferences two nights until 8:30 and following week I will have another night of conferences. I am trying not to think about it since it's a few weeks away, but it's going to be so hard to leave Noah at 7:30 in the morning and get home after his bedtime. I'm going to see if I can slip out early enough to get home to help put him to bed. I've come to cherish my time at home, it's definately my priority. There's nothing more important to me than being home with Justin and Noah. I know that I will have to two of them on my mind a lot tomorrow. The most comforting thing about going back to school is knowing that Noah is with two fabulous people who love and care for him. Thanks so much Kathy and Tom!

Justin, Noah and I spent the afternoon at my parents' home. I'm so thankful that my Granny is able to enjoy Noah. She turned 92 last September, he is her 3rd great-grandchild. Noah's so squirmy it's sometimes hard for her to hold him. I was able to get a couple pictures before the squirming began.

We missed seeing my brother, sister-in-law and their girls today, but we did get to see them a few times over the break, it was so nice. Aaron & Janis- if you're reading this, I hope that Ellie feels better!

Happy Birthday Grandpa Tom!!

Today is Grandpa Tom's birthday. He and Kathy are going to a fly-fishing show in Denver. We hope that they are having a great time!

Happy Birthday Grandpa Tom!!!

Justin, Noah and I spent the afternoon shopping. Santa brought Noah part of this train for Christmas. Justin and I found an addition car at Walmart and learned that we're still missing a car. There's also a couple other animals that go to it that we dont' have. We visited two Targets, a Walmart and Toys-R-Us and everyone was sold out of them. I did see them last night on Walmart's website, so guess what was ordered when we got home! It's good that Noah is too little to be spoiled!!!

At one of the Target's , I found this Roll-Along Musical Ark. The animals match the ones that go to the zoo train that we'd been searching for all day. I just couldn't pass it up, it's too cute! (Plus I had some winnings from this year's football pool- I came in second. Plus I told Justin that it would be a Valentine's Day present for Noah.)

Again, thank goodness he's too little to spoil!!! And even if he was old enough to be spoiled, I'd still have bought it. He's only a little kid once, right?!!!