4th of July...and then some...

The first week of July was Mike's annual summer trip with the youth group.  When Daddy is gone for many days in a row like that, I typically try to break up some of the time with the kids with some special fun and family visits if we are able.  This year since the trip was also over 4th of July and my Dad's birthday is the 5th of July, it was a great time to travel to see family!  We met up at Kristi and Casey's in College Station to celebrate both.

Before we left town, Noah and I had a "date day" where we went to see a movie and get sno cones while Emily spent the day with Mrs. Ruth.  There's nothing quite like a shaved ice sno cone on a super hot day!

I was so proud of all of us for packing and loading up all on our own without Daddy!  especially since we had so much stuff!  And all this for just a 3 1/2 day trip!  Well, I guess this also includes some baby stuff I was taking to leave with Kristi, but still--it was a lot! Noah did a great job entertaining Emily while I loaded up.  And the kids traveled great in the car--we left after work and dinner on Tue so Emily slept the whole way and Noah watched a movie.  We discovered that Cars2 is the exact amount of time that it takes us from our driveway to Aunt Kristi's.  Good info to know!

We had an awesome red, white, and blue themed day with lots of yummy treats and excellent grilled burgers and dogs.  And cold beer.  The kids (and Casey) played in the baby pools in the backyard.  We watched an excellent fireworks display from NYC on TV and then stretched to see a few random College Station fireworks from they backyard.  Noah was pleased enough with the fireworks we saw and the rest of us were glad we could be lazy and stay home. 

 Emily's first taste of a Cheeto puff.  It was love at first bite!

On Thursday, Thomas drove in town too and we all went out to Rudy's and had some BBQ for Dad's birthday.  We missed Mike but it was still great for the rest of us to be together

When we got back on Friday I let Emily hold her own piece of watermelon for the first time.  She LOVED it.  Such a big girl.  And this girl LOVES her food--especially fruit.

So I'm happy to say we survived another week without Daddy. They had a great trip but all were happy to be home.  And we were happy to have Daddy back home with us! Mike and I were both wondering how Emily would respond after he'd been away for a week.  I didn't really notice much of a change in her while he was gone.  He didn't get back until late at night once he returned, so the kids didn't see him till the next morning.  When I took Emily into the bedroom to see him, she just looked down at him in bed and gave him the strangest look, like "You?  You mean you're back?  Wait, I'm confused??"  She was happy and playful with him all day.  But what was really interesting came at dinner that first night back.  We went out to Rudy's and at one point he got up from our table to go get something else, as he walked away Emily had a huge meltdown.  It's like she was terrified he was leaving her again.  Off and on for the next few days she would really cry pretty hard anytime he walked away from her.  It was her special separation anxiety from Daddy and her way of letting him know how much she loves him and really did miss him.  

And finally, a big thanks to my family for spending time with us and helping us have fun while Mike was away!

Emily 11 Months

You know the saying, a picture is worth a thousand words.  So very true this month.  I was quite unsuccessful in getting a really good 11 month photo because Miss Emily is ON THE MOVE as it is so clear from my photo attempts!  Crawling fast, pulling up, cruising, standing alone for a few seconds at a time and even taking a few baby steps and transferring between objects or people.  She is fast and she is sneaky.  I'm convinced she'll be walking by her birthday next month.

We've been enjoying summer.  Emily has loved pool and outdoor time and has fun playing and visiting with lots of friends.    We've had lots of playtime with friends.  She still loves playing games with us--especially peek-a-boo and chasing after mommy or brother (while daddy holds her and they run after us). She likes to drop things just to have us say "uh-oh" and then she turns her hands over like "uh-oh, what did I do?" except she knows exactly what she just did!!

In addition to all the new movement, she also has learned to drink from a straw and is getting much better at drinking from a sippy cup.  She  now consistently signs "more" when she wants more food (though it's really just her clapping her hands) and eats more and more table food.  While signing "more" is really the only consistent signed or verbal word she has, she is beginning to experiment with some new speech sounds, specifically s/t/k/p.  This is really exciting because these are all "softer" speech sounds that lie in the upper frequencies where she has the hearing loss.  It's great to hear her produce these sounds and mimic them back to use when we make them to her which is a great indicator that with her hearing aids she is actually hearing those sounds.  

We continue to be reassured by her speech therapist and auditory teaching that she is right on track developmentally for communication but as Mom, I am still oh so anxious for those first consistent words.  

It's hard to believe that 12 months is so quickly approaching!  We can't wait to celebrate that first birthday with our sweet girl next month!

Playing with brother

Causing trouble

Noah's First Day of Preschool

Noah started preschool at Immanuel Lutheran Day School here in Pflugerville at the beginning of June.  He goes only two days a week on Tue/Thur which coincides with my new work schedule.  He was SO excited to start school.  He'd been whining for the last few months "Why do I have to go to Ruth's?  When can I go to school?"  He loved Ms. Ruth's but was really ready to be with the big kids and go to school!  I can't wait to tell him this a few years from now when he's whining about why he has to go to school when he wants to stay home!

A while back I scored a Dino lunch box and back pack at half price.  It was great to surprise him with these "big kid" things too.  And I got some great name label from KiDECALS to make sure his stuff doesn't get lost (washing machine and dishwasher safe!). 

School has gone great so far.   The first day I dropped him off, he walked right in like he'd been doing it forever.  And then cried when I picked him up because he wasn't ready to go home.  According to his teachers he laid back, well mannered, and has fit right in. It almost seems like it hasn't been an adjustment at all for him.  It's interesting as he's making new friends at school since this is really the first time where he's making his own friends--not someone that we're not already friends as parents.  

Emily is still at Ruth's but will move over to ILDS after her first birthday since they don't have a part time baby program.  I think she misses him--she seems more excited to see him when we all get home in the evening that she does to see me.  I'm not offended--I think it's cute and just a sign of how much she loves her big brother (since typically you can't pry her away from me). 

These kids are sure growing up!!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to the best Dad!  We are so blessed to have you in our lives!  We love you!

May Recap

May was quite a month for us in the White household.  Here are some highlights to recap.

We kicked off the month with our first visit down to the Houston area since Emily's been born.  This was only her second road trip and I'm embarrassed to say at 9 months of age her first trip down to Angleton.  A big thanks to all our family for coming to us during this past crazy year!

Mike met up with his siblings to go to The Woodlands to do some spring cleaning at his Dad's house.  Knowing they would have their hands full there, the kids and I went down to Angleton to see my parents.  My siblings came down as well which was a nice treat.  We got to see a bunch of my mom's side of the family and Emily go to meet them for the first time.  We also ended up getting to see both Vanessa and Thomas's places in Houston along the way.  It was a good time seeing and catching up with family.  

The first weekend of May we traveled to Houston, second weekend was full of Mother's Day fun.  The third weekend was full of celebrations for friends--we had the Smith birthday extravaganza celebrating the birthdays of all three of our favorite playmates followed by celebrating our friend Jon's graduation with his MBA from UT.  My sister came in town that weekend too to take stock of all our babystuff and she is into the major planning stages for baby Elise scheduled to arrive in October.  So excited that we also found out this month she's having a girl.  And already passed on two huge bags of Emily's clothes to her!

After the first 3 busy weekends, we enjoyed some "down time" for Memorial Day by filling it with fun activities with friends: Saturday--to Jon and Erin's for pool time and burgers.  Sunday--to the neighborhood pool with the Smiths followed by pizza at our house.  Monday--more neighborhood pool time with Vanessa who came in town to visit for the day.  Pool, pool, pool!  The kids love the water!

We've also had some excited changes that took place this month.  After wrapping up my last class for the semester I turned in my keys at UT.  I was able to get a long term position with Child Inc and let the School of Nursing know I would not be returning to teach in the fall.  I'll miss the students but won't miss a lot of the other stuff that went along with the job.  I may return once our kids are both in school but for now will enjoy a shorter more flexible work schedule which will allow me to spend more time with Noah and Emily.  I'll be working for Child Inc which is the HeadStart program in Austin (goverment funded preschool for lowincome/at risk kids).  I'll work with Health Services to provide health screenings/physicals/shots, etc to all kids entering the program and then monitor my assigned kids to make sure they stay up to date with all their medical care throughout the year.  I did some work with them last summer before Emily was born and it's a great group to work with.  The work is low stress and I get to work with one of my best friends from my old job at the CWC.  Plus I only work 2 days a week and arrange my hours to be whatever I need them to be to work for our family.  Lots of perks to that!

As my job stuff finally settled out, so did preschool for the kids.  We'd been working on this since earlier this spring.  And thanks to God's perfect timing it all came together right when it needed to.  Noah had his last day at Ms. Ruth's at the end of May and will be starting a Tue/Thur program at Immanuel Lutheran Day School in Pflugerville the first part of June.  This coincides perfectly with my new work schedule.  Once Emily turns one, she'll transfer over to ILDS too.  The school is well established and comes highly recommended from several families we know that have kids that have gone there.  Plus we love that it's a faith based school with daily chapel.  They have a huge playground plus a gym for when it's too hot/cold/wet so we know they'll gets lots of activity.  Ruth's has been a great place for them to be--crazy to think that Noah's been there since he was only 6 months old--but it's time for a change for them too.

Enjoy some photos with some other recaps from this month:

Yummy spaghetti!

Noah went through a phase of sleeping in a tent in his room.

This is what happens when you have an older brother and crazy Dad.  Those are bullets stuck to her headband.

Mohawk baby!

Emily 10 Months

Double digit months, baby girl!  Where has the time gone?!?

This month has been lots of fun and games for you Miss Emily.  You love to be silly and play with us.  You like to play peek-a-boo and giggle as soon as you know it's coming.  You like to tease us with your paci and try to put it in our mouth instead of yours.  We take it away from each other and both crack up.

My favorite thing this month:  You giving us kisses.  You know and understand what this is and are just so sweet in giving out kisses to us when we ask--and even when we don't.  They are usually open mouthed and quite wet and slobbery but there really isn't much sweeter than a kiss from my baby girl!

You are getting better at communicating with us--especially recepetively (meaning you understand lots of words) though we're still a little slow on understanding you.  You're finally starting to sign "more" to us though it really is just you clapping your hands and it's hard to tell most of the time if you really want "more" or are just happy and clapping.    You waved "hi" for the first time while visiting our family down in Angleton and sometimes it sounds like you try to say it also.  But you understand LOTS of words--eat, milk, bath, book, ball, cracker, puff just to name a few.  You get excited when we start talking about eating or taking a bath so we know you understand us.  And while playing we'll ask you to find certain toys for us and you can get a ball and bring it to us.  Even crawl over to your toy box, dig around and find what we're asking for.  Such a big girl!

You've gotten to be a pro and crawling around and pulling up.  You are oh so close to really taking off cruising on things and I know you want to move.

Another exciting development this month:  You are no longer a vegetarian!  Now that you are better at feeding yourself I've really been trying to expand the foods you eat and let you try what we are eating as much as possible.  This month that meant meatballs with spaghetti, chicken, mac-n-cheese, peas, lots of fruits, etc.  Honestly I don't think I've really found much yet that you don't enjoy.

You finally got your second tooth right before you hit 10 months.  Your bottom front tooth on the left came in on May 20.  10 months old and just two little teeth!  But that hasn't stopped you one bit from eating big kid foods!

We had a big month as a family--traveling to Houston/Angleton, celebrating Mother's Day, celebrating the birthdays of some of our special friends, and most exciting was finding out your baby cousin coming in October will be a girl!  We've already given Aunt Kristi several boxes of your baby clothes to share with Baby Elise.  I just can't wait for you to get to grow up with a girl cousin so close in age.  I hope you guys are the best of friends.

More silly pictures of a silly little girl...

Trying to give the bear a kiss

Playing with her new toy from friend Caleb (and showing off the cute ruffles on her bottom!)

Trying to tell us how much she likes it I think

Waving "Hi!"

Mother's Day

Thanks to my wonderful husband and kids for a wonderful Mother's Day weekend!

We went to Chez-Zee for brunch on Saturday.  We don't do brunch often but this has become somewhat of a Mother's Day tradition for us--3 out of the last 4 years.  I look forward to it every year!  Since Sundays are full with church, we always go on Saturday which also means I get to stretch out the pampering for 2 days.  This certainly works in my favor! 

Sunday evening Mike grilled steaks for us and I loved just sitting outside snuggling with Emily on a blanket, watching Noah play and Mike grill.  After dinner and Emily was put to bed the boys gave me a special treat. A bubble bath with chocolate and champagne!  

Noah couldn't quite get over the fact that I got to enjoy a bubble bath in the big garden tub all by myself with treats.  He kept asking when he would get to do that.  We tried to explain the concept of Mother's Day but that didn't go very far with his 4 year old mind.  He wanted to know when it would be his Mother's Day?  I explained that he is not a Mommy so he wouldn't have a Mother's Day.  His response: "Well, when will it be Brother's Day?"  That's right--he made up a new holiday!  Don't let the people at Hallmark know because I could see this one gaining popularity!  

I do so love how his little mind works.  He did get a special bubble bath in the big tub later that week though it was without food or drink in the tub (this was met with some resistance).  He also wanted to know if I was going to have to be quiet and not disturb him during his bath since this was the rule that was in place for him during my bathtime.  Love my silly boy!