Halloween and more

We had a great night on Halloween with Joshua being Thomas the Tank Engine and Noah being his conductor.  Daylight savings time happened the weekend before so it started to get dark by 6:00 and most of our neigbors were out by then.  Both boys were completely better from their illnesses from the week before.  The weather was absolutely perfect.  Not cold and not too warm - 80s.  I held Noah in my arms and followed Joshua and Steve as they went around trick or treating. 

Noah's first tooth came in Nov. 2  and his second tooth is coming soon.  Joshua's first tooth didn't come in till he was 13 months old and Noah got his at 9 1/2 months!  Noah still is not able to take solid food though, he has a hard time with anything chunky like 3rd stage baby food.  Even small pieces of soft bread or Puffs he starts to gag.  Oh well, I'm going to have to step up my efforts because we have about 2 months before he's 1 years old!  Can't believe it!

Last weekend,  Joshua and Noah had 2 birthday parties on Sat., though Noah sat out on the 1st with me and watched the maids clean our house.  This week, Steve had a work class and came home around 9:15 so I was exhausted by the time he came home.  Its always hard putting Joshua to bed because Noah wants to also be held at that time. 
Today, we went to the new HEB Lakeline store that we've been patiently waiting on.  Joshua had also slowly watched the construction and it was fun to tell him we were finally going to shop there.  This evening we all went to eat at Contigo in east Austin, a fun outdoor tapas restaurant.   I interrupted a taping of a new HGTV show there while trying to park Noah's stroller. LOL!

Here are some pics of Halloween:

                                                 Didn't realize it was a girl's shirt till afterwards - Shhh!

 

                                                                                Classic

 

 

 

 

Joshua held on tight to Steve's hand

 

A hard night's work

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a hard week

It's been over a month since I've written on this blog.  Its funny how much can happen in a month.
Noah turned 9 months 2 weeks ago and he's now a little over 18 pounds.  He also got his first ear infection last week and he caught a virus from Joshua resulting in mouth sores.  He had trouble drinking and eating this weekend due to the pain.  Despite that, he is bouncing back slowly and returning to his usual, happy self.
 He is my little adventurous guy - he pulls himself to stand into every closet, drawer, fridge and tries to pull everything down.  He is the opposite of Joshua in that he will pull at cords and put anything he can into his mouth.  He is a very happy baby and is adaptable to change.

Joshua had his second febrile seizure on Mon. night.  His first was on Easter Sunday.  Though I suspected it was coming, it is so hard to watch your child go through that.  You feel helpless and utterly useless.  I'm hoping that the next time he has a fever I will be more prepared to fight it.

On a lighter note, I will try to summarize some of the things we've done in the past month:
This past weekend Joshua and I went to Target and Walmart and Steve took him to the "mad scientist" party at our amenity center on Sat.  On Sun., we weren't able to go to church since Noah was still recovering but Joshua and Steve went to the Halloween party at the Little Gym.

On Oct. 19th weekend:  State Fair in Dallas with the Jacobs and the Mathews, Austin's 3rd B-day party, Grapevine Mills Mall, lunch at Trufire with Uncle Sunil and Aunty Julie, and Mom's B-day celebration with Joshua singing to Mom :)

Oct. 6th weekend:  Zilker Park with Joshua riding the Zilker Zephyr train

Sept. 22nd weekend:  Dallas Cowboys vs. Tampa Bay Buccanneers with Sunil and Julie

Here are some pics:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rain, rain, go away!

A phrase no one uttered this weekend though it rained all day today and off and on for the past couple of days.  We really needed the rain here in Austin, though it grounded us for most of the day.  We did manage to make it to church and Steve and Joshua went to Costco later.  Otherwise, we had a fun weekend with Joshua making two new friends on Fri.  Joshua loved playing with the twins and stayed up late at their house watching Thomas videos.  We were treated to several homemade pizzas and wine.  On Sat. Steve went to celebrate a friend's B-day with ziplining and later both of us joined everyone at Uncle Billy's for dinner while Mom babysat. 

Noah turned 8 months on Sat. and he does not sit still anymore.  He's able to sit and play without support, roll from back to stomach and stomach to back, come up to sitting, and now he's trying to pull up to stand.  Too fast!  He crawls to the nearest cord, doorstop, remote control, or anything else he shouldn't have.  I think we'll have to actually babyproof the house now since we never had to do it with Joshua.  Noah got his first cold/allergies last week.  He's still not recovered, though you'd never know it with him since he smiles and laughs all the time.  He is getting a tad bit needy; I have to be holding him or near him most of the time or he starts to cry.  I'm not sure, but I think I've spoiled him.  He's still on 2nd Stage Foods, I need to start Puffs or something else with him.  I'm also thinking of a sippy cup soon.

Joshua will be turning 2 1/2 tomorrow and he's a funny little boy.  He is doing well with potty training; we have the potty seat over the toilet and that works well.  He will tell us when he has to go, but he is leery of doing #2 in the potty so he waits till he gets a diaper on.  He rides his tricycle nonstop around the house and he's into Tball  more than any other sport.  Believe it or not, he's not even interested in golf now.  Go figure.   He rarely takes a nap which I'm trying to find a way for him to even do quiet time.  He's still a picky eater but I'm not as worried anymore.  He loves to make you laugh.  His favorite things now:  Thomas the Train, Sid the Sciene Kid, Word World.

Here are some pics:

                                                          Daddy being funny!

                                                              Noah's 1st time in the high chair 9/15

Joshua painted a cat on his face and wanted a pic taken

 

9/15 - 8 months old

Labor Day weekend

Aug. 26 - Noah is almost 7 1/2 mo. and just this past week has started to maintain sitting upright. He's able to play for about a minute sitting up and then will slowly lean to one side. He started to belly crawl about a week ago and can get from one side of a room to another esp. if he sees something he wants. He loves to grab hair and he loves to pinch. He's always opened and closed his fists and will grab your nose or arm and grab and pinch. I'm trying to gently tell him not to do that. Guess I need to be a little more firm. He has been teething for the past couple of months and will put anything in his mouth.  He still doesn't have any teeth and will hopefully get teeth before Joshua who got his first tooth at 13 mo.  He's constantly drooling so his clothes are always wet. He has the longest hair but I don't want Steve to cut it yet. I've let him cry for a few minutes but inevitably he ends up in our bed around midnight and I love snuggling next to him. He is the sweetest baby and smiles and laughs constantly.

Sept. 3 - Labor Day - We had a fun filled long weekend since we were both off.  We went to the mall like we usually did on Fri.  On Sat., Steve and Joshua went to the Y for a Beach Bash party while Noah and I got groceries.  In the afternoon, we went down south to Lick and got ice cream.  In the evening, we went to Mom and Dad's to celebrate Steve's upcoming B-day.  Sunday we went to church, ate at Pluckers and later went to Barton Creek Mall. (Let's say it's been almost 2 years since I'd been there)  Today, Steve and Joshua went to the splash pad while Noah and I went to Target.  We dropped the boys off and went to lunch at Second Bar and Kitchen.

Noah started crawling, really crawling this past weekend.  He even tries to put both feet on the ground and push up to stand.  He is moving around fast, rocking back and forth on his knees.  So so cute.  Here are some recent pics:

                                                                                    

                                                                                    

                                                                                

The Annual Samuel Trip

So much has happened since my last post.  We've had lots of fun with Scott, Betsy and the kids since their arrival on Aug. 10 in Austin.  Ethan and Joshua hit it off pretty quickly with Joshua looking up to him and following him around everywhere.  Ethan is so intelligent and could rattle off facts about plants, dinosaurs, rocks and other various topics.   Mia would always look after Noah and Eva and was playful and fun-loving.  I was so amazed at how she could play independently and often entertained herself.  Eva who is 4 months old loves to smile and watch all the siblings play with each other.

Since we had 2 full weeks we were able to relax and visit more and we did some fun stuff in between.  Steve and I took 2 Mondays off during their visit.  Some of the highlights:  Safari Champ, McDonald's (try it with 5 kids), Ethan's B-day, BBQ at Babu Uncle and Lena Aunty's, the Park at the Domain,  my Rudy's B-day dinner at the house.  Though it doesn't seem like a lot, we spent some part of the day everyday for 2 weeks and had lots of fun.  Joshua definitely had a blast and is already missing everybody.  Here are a few pics:

 

 

 

8/15 - Ethan's 5th B-day

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6 mo. pic. of Noah and 2yr. 4 mo. of Joshua

Here are some pics we took on Sat. July 28: