Speed, Speed and More Speed

Noah was very excited when he got a new race car out of the Cheerios box today. Here he is with Justin playing cars. You'll hear him at one point say "speed, speed and more speed," which is said on the Cheerios commercial promoting the new toy.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope you all had a great Valentine's Day!

It's been really busy here , especially for me with conferences and workshops and ROCKE commitments. This next week is pretty busy too with Noah's PT and Speech appointments, two birthdays (mine and Mary's), a class I have and Mary's birthday party. But I thought before this crazy week starts I'd share some new pictures. It's really hard to get any pictures of Noah because if he's not totally absorbed in what he's doing he'll run after the camera and HAVE to have it. Justin was able to capture some quality pictures yesterday while I was at Sr. Lorna's workshop. J got me a curio cabinet for Valentine's Day/my birthday. So, here are some pictures of Noah "helping" daddy:

Catching Up

It feels like it's been a while since I blogged, although in actuality it's only been 13 days. All you teacher friends and family will relate to this: why is it that a 4 day week can seem SO MUCH longer than a regular 5 day week?!

Noah is becoming quite the t.v. addict. In an attempt to break this I've been trying different activities with him when we get home from school. He loves to play playdough- he'd do that for hours. But this week we tried water colors. To say he loved it would be an understatement. The catch is, he was more interested in coloring the water than the paper. And, this will not be a surprise to those of you that know my son, the only color he would paint with was red. He refused to try any other colors. He would touch them and tell me the colors but the only color he would paint with his brush was red.

Here are some pictures from our painting session (cousin Chris, you'll have to help us this summer when we see you!):

Here are the end results. I forgot to mention we also introduced scissors. He's doing really well with knowing which fingers go in which holes. I help him open the scissors and he can push them closed:

Here are my two boys, lounging on the couch:

I love that face!:

And in other exciting news, I bought bedding/etc. for Hannah's room! We went to the mall last weekend with the Shoes and I talked them into swinging by Target. I thought I would get her skirt for her crib and a set of sheets. When we got there the whole bedding collection was 50% off, and me being a sucker for a good deal, went a head and got all of her bedding. (Of course, we also hit three Targets stores to get most of it)

The butterfly, dragonfly and flower on her wall:

Her crib:

The teddy was a Christmas present from Daddy and my Granny made the afghan:

Her crib with the mobile and light switch plate:

Noah's favorite: the rug! And her butterfly night light:

And one more picture of my little man. This is the way he fell asleep this afternoon for his nap:

I Love My Cousins: Mar & El

If you ask Noah who his favorite cousins are, without hesitation he'll say "Mar-n-El" (Mary and Ellie). I'm so happy that my brother and I live so close and Noah gets to see Mary and Ellie frequently. This past week, I didn't have school on Monday and Tuesday, neither did the girls, so Noah spent two fun-filled days with his favorite ladies. Here are a couple pics:

Noah has also re-discovered my old shopping cart that had been stored in Granny's basement for years and then in one of the closets at our house. He played with it when we first got it but then, like all toys, it lost it's luster. So I put it away for a while. It was like having a brand new toy when we got it back out and it's fun to see how many of the food items in the cart he can now say.

Here's one last picture of the little "Big Man" wearing my shoes. He thinks he'd pretty big stuff walking around in Justin's and my shoes!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! We hope that you and yours had a great holiday!

Last year Justin and I decided we would start the tradition of making homemade spaghetti on New Year's Eve and invite all our local family over. This year we had both of our parents and my brother and his family. The spaghetti was yummy and the company was fantastic!

Here are some pictures from our evening:

Noah with his 2010 glasses (and one of his two favorite cousins, Ellie):

My two lovely nieces, Ellie & Mary:

Miss Ellie, in all her 2010 glory:

Noah, with his top hat (that he had to wear all through the store when we were grocery shopping but didn't want to wear for New Year's Eve!):

Ellie reading Noah a bedtime story:

New Year's Day. I got all the Christmas stuff packed up and stored down stairs! Noah caught the cleaning bug and decided to sweep up the deck of cards he dropped on the floor:

We had dinner tonight at my mom and dad's house. New Year's Day is also my dad's birthday so we were there to celebrate that.

Here's Noah "playing football (sans the football) with Uncle Aaron:

My mom holding Noah during the singing of "Happy Birthday" to my dad:

My mom's neighbors, Summer & Mic, who they informally adopted into the family and their kids, Giulia and Carrick who my mom calls their grand-neighbors, were also there for dad's dinner. Here's little Carrick on Summer's lap with Giulia and Mary:

Giulia, Mary and Noah helping blow out "Papa's" candles:

A Couple "Noah Videos"

Noah "playing Wii":

Making pasta:

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas family and friends! We hope that you had a great holiday!

Here are some pictures from Christmas at the Abbott household.

The living room, after Santa arrived with his loot for Noah:

The first thing that Noah ran to on Christmas morning: the Sponge Bob Square Pants pillow Santa left him:

Playing with this train that "Ma & Pa" Shoemaker got him:

His Handy Manny workshop that Santa brought:

Making sure Sponge Bob is relaxed on the baseball pillow:

Noah relaxing on his new Baseball beanbag:

With his new Handy Manny toolset:

Playdough!!! He got LOTS and LOTS of playdough!

Playing with Uncle Aaron (and the "Big Truck" that Uncle Seth and Aunt Julie got him) on Christmas day:

Starting to get really tired. . . . . it's tough opening ALL those presents!:

Here are some pictures from Christmas Eve,

opening the "Big Truck" from Seth and Julie:

Opening his croquet set from "Ma & Pa" Shoemaker- he's got to be ready for those 4th of July games!:

Playing with his new "Choo Choo." Every time he was asked what he wanted for Christmas he said a "choo choo," so Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Tom got him a Geo Track:

Making sure Uncle Adam's setting it up correctly:

"Pa" showing him hoe the remote control works:

And now he's a pro at the remote control!:

Merry Christmas everyone! Love, Amy, Justin & Noah