What a Ham!

Noelle likes to be the center of attention. She has learned to wave, but backwards...more like "come here." Everyone has to talk to us while we are out and about. Sometimes that gets a bit awkward but what do you do? This weekend we were at Blueberry Hill and she had 5 different tables enthralled with her and she grabbed at and waved to all the waiters that went by.

Tonight we went to PF Changs for my back to school dinner only to find they took my favorite off the menu! Grrrr! So I got beef and broccoli and shared it with Noey. Their beef is flank steak and she ate it right up with the rice! Again, she was the hit of dinner and a nice lady commented on how good our little boy was waiting for us to finish eating. I didn't correct her, I just smiled.


We had Japanese crepes for dessert. Noey loves ice cream! We gave her some yogurt the other night and it was baby rocket fuel! I think the Trix kind has a bit too much sugar in it. I should have guessed by the name! Here she is trying to blow bubbles through her ice cream.


At the grocery store the clerk wanted to know how old our boy was. Sigh. People, she's got a pink watermelon on her shirt and a pink cart cover. Whatevs.

Little bug is starting to smile for the camera. I show her her picture after I take them and I think she's getting it! She's a smart one! She's not really smiling here. She was more interested in sliding the lens cap back and forth with her sharp little pointer finger. I'm sure that is why it said "lens error" later this evening!


She loves to climb in this basket. It's her new activity for the weekend. She gets in pretty good as long as she's on the side and not the end. Now getting out, that is another story!


We went to Pottery Barn Kids and got her shower curtain and hand towels. We found paint to match perfectly but haven't figured out everything in the room yet. I'm hoping we can decide this week and then maybe Home Depot will have a good Labor Day sale or I can find a coupon!

End of Summer

I figured I needed a back to school makeover so I chopped all my hair off. I wanted to go dark but can't afford the up keep. I also can't afford to get it curly and maintained like I want so off it went and then I used a box to lighten it. The box barely touched it (picture is pre-lighten). But I feel less frumpy with the shorter hair. It was falling out and wouldn't stop after I had Noelle. And she was pulling it. So much for that little girl!


I made an end of summer cake tonight. It's a watermelon. The cake is flavored tropical punch. It said to use Kool-Aid for color. I could have just used a couple red dye drops. The tropical punch taste is different! Dave likes it but I think it's a bit weird. The "seeds" are chocolate chips.


Back to work in the morning. Ugh. 5:30 is gonna come mighty early and we have an angry baby in the house. I am so over teething. She is miserable and SCREAMS bloody freaking murder every 30 minutes. Noelle is so testy and the slightest thing sets her off. Or nothing sets her off. She just cries to hear herself cry. The hysterical crying leads to some gnarly boogers that I swear are attached to brain matter and REFUSE to detach!! And the girl is gonna keel over from hyperventilating! She is gonna be a good time when we hit the terrible twos!

Rocking the Hawk!

I think she looks quite stylish, don't you?


We had strawberry shortcake tonight. She enjoyed her sponge cake thoroughly! And made one heck of a mess.




In other news, I can't wait for October! We are going to have a birthday extravaganza!

Here are a couple of the games I picked up for Noelle's party!

Lucky Ducks with Ernie!


Ants in Oscar's Can!


And this watering can is for her Halloween get-up. It's to hold our, er...her candy! The can was $12.99 at Toys R Us but I noticed it was cracked. It was on clearance but they still wanted $10 for it! I made the case that it's a watering can with a crack, hence it won't hold water so what it the point of that?! The manager let me have it for $3.98! Score for me!

New Bathroom

We are planning on finally remodeling our downstairs bathroom!! We have some of the major parts already but will be getting the tub and cabinet before October. This is what I have picked for the curtains and towels. Dave is still trying to wrap his head around pink. It IS Noelle's bathroom. He's gonna have to suck it up!

Houston....We Have a Tooth!

Noey's bottom left front tooth made its debut this morning during breakfast. Will try and pin her down for a picture later!

Tar-Jay

I swear we are in Target at least twice a week! We are stocking up for daycare and had to get more school supplies. Noey's butt is expensive and I mean that literally! I so wish the doctor had given the all-clear for cow's milk but I will have to endure 2 more months of formula purchasing. Our stock pile is just running out and now we are back to the scramble of keeping up with what she drinks (more like wastes!).

Mean momma finally let the baby sit in the cart. Normally she rides in her stroller or in her baby seat inside the cart. I forgot the cart cover so I wiped a cart down (twice) that had been sitting in the sun getting cleaned by the UV rays. She is such a big girl!!


We also went to the Border's clearance. We didn't find much but got Noelle a toy called Jumbles. Her daddy is enjoying them. I'm sure she will someday too! She does like to suck on them and carry them around in her mouth like she does everything lately!




I almost splurged and bought her "Royal" paper dolls. She could dress Wills and Kate up everyday!! I actually dreamed I was Kate's best friend the other night and was on the phone with her so upset that I was stuck out in the country picking something up for her that I was missing the wedding! Gasp! Clearly, I've been following them a little too much on the interwebs to be having such dreams.

I'll give you one guess as to who made this mess and it's not Three Amigos pictured.


Noelle loves Smurfs. We have purchased a couple of Happy Meals and she carries a Smurf in each fist most of the day. Last night we found "Gutsy" Smurf. We prefer to call him William Wallace. Noey assures us he's tasty.

Summer is Almost Gone

Summer is slipping away and next week at this time it will be back to work. Noey has grown and changed so much this summer. Joan is going to have her hands full! Still no tooth yet. We are waiting and she is crabby. The smallest things set her off. I love the little gal and will miss her but I admit it'll be a nice change of pace to not have a baby hanging on me. She got mad at Dave last night and screamed "mama, mama, mama" and crawled fast to me. I was just trying to get something done while she wasn't all over me but she wasn't having it.

Here is some random Noey from the last week or so.

We went to the Outlets to get Noey matching boots and hat to go with her cow girl get-up. The boots were pricey and she would not cooperate about the hat. So she got a pair of clearnance fleece pants instead.



Her new thing is to blow bubbles with her dinner in her mouth. She is using the food as the "vessel" for the bubbles.


She has been using her stand-up toys more. She has taken a few steps with this too! She's cruising on the furniture and before we know it, she's going to be running around this place!


We bought her some foam letters for the tub but she has been carrying them around the house in her mouth. I think it feels good on her gums.

9 Month Check Up @ 10 Months

We are a little off track at the doctor's but it's ok. We can go later too for all her 12 month shots he said.

She is 18 lbs, 5 oz and 29 inches long. He came in and said, "tall and skinny...don't we all wish we were." Yep! He said not to compare her to other babies. She's not malnourished and her length makes her look slimmer than she is.

Noelle is on track with everything and doing well. She is babbling away and pulling herself up. She is getting to the point where she is trying to stand up in the middle of the room without anything to pull up on! She doesn't love chunky foods but is going to have to learn to like them and chew a little better with those gums. She would rather have purees all the time but they are messy. She still doesn't like juice or the sippy cup. She just shakes it and throws it across the room. She also does this with her bottle when she is done!! She is loving ice water and wants it straight from a cup like a big girl.

The doctor believes her teeth are finally ready to make their grand entrance and that is why she's been so upset lately and feverish. Let's hope after taking so long to debut that these suckers all come in fast!

She earned a sticker today for getting her toe pricked. She was scared of everyone and clung to me like a little monkey. Attachment is normal and we're hoping we don't have too many scenes in the early morning hours when we drop her off at the sitter in a few weeks!!

Gnome Doubt About It...Cutest Baby Ever!

Blast Off!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxD1VAWp0ww

Just Say No....to Sand!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOvyMUKGfXw

Sesame Street Bay of Play #2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dv6MjA-7Xto

Sesame Street Bay of Play #1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXUOhpREiSQ

The video ends abruptly as there were some words after the theif appeared.

Shamu #2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbz2H-7d73g

Shamu #1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifQLCjsnBNI

His real name is Ulysess. I think he is older and doesn't do the main show. He was pretty beat up. I didn't get very good video of him performing. I was trying to watch, eat, and wrangle Noelle.

Daddy, Noey, and Shamu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNPuAYmwleY

Your Crazy is Showing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=et0w6kv9o5w

Dip in the Ocean

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGSB-oEVnVI

San Diego Adventure: August 7, 2011

We slept in since we were so exhausted from Saturday. We got all packed up and checked out of the hotel. It was decided that we would drive down to Balboa Park where the Zoo is located. Dave wasn't feeling well and we were both sore from carrying Noelle the day before. I would have liked to have gone in to the zoo for a few hours but that would have been expensive and probably painful! We wandered around Balboa Park for a while instead.



Dave wanted to stop at a Japanese Tea House and Friendship Garden so we did.









Noelle enjoyed herself.



We headed out of the city and thankfully there are not as many crazies on the roads on a Sunday, but again there were some near misses! What the heck people!? We even saw a very bad wreck that probably ended in tradgedy for someone, yet after seeing it so many just kept flying by us! So stupid! And it was hotter going home than it was going down so the misters really saved us!

On the way down we spotted the March Field Air Museum. Dave wanted to stop on the way back to check it out. There is a new base on the other side of the field but this was the original from the 1930s and 40s. They had a ton of stuff and Dave would like to take his dad there on one of his trips. It's just outside of Riverside.

Daddy and daughter with the fastest plane on earth.



Noelle tried out some of her flying skills. She was ready to shoot some planes down!





And then she blasted off into space!





We made it home safely and the kitties were happy to see us. I think they enjoyed their kitty buffet while we were gone and probably hoping we take off on an adventure again soon!

We have videos to post too. That will take me a while to get uploaded. Check back!

San Diego Adventure: August 6, 2011

It's Sea World Day!!! :)


We arrived bright and early and got rock star parking! We were just a few feet from the entrance and trust me, by the end of the day we were grateful for spending that extra $5 to be close to the gate!

Noelle wants a Shamu bug for her first car!


Flowers at the entrance.


I had heard from a man at work about the dine with Shamu program that they have at the park. I have wanted to do this for a few years since he told me about it and I looked it up! Breakfast looked like the cheapest option and had the most food on the menu that we would actually eat so I signed us up! We were the first to reserve seats for that day so we were right up close to Shamu as he did "behaviors" (aka tricks) and we ate breakfast. We had time to kill before breakfast so we went to the underwater viewing tank to check him out!





I would highly recommend doing the breakfast with Shamu. The food was good and it was nice to go to a "show" and be right up close to the action! Plus, we were full for the rest of the day and didn't have to buy anymore food in the park which saved money.



A lady approached us and said, "Ok you two, that is the cutest thing I have ever seen...that baby with that hat!" We know, she's gorgeous and totally stylish! :)

Shamu (Ulysess) performing.














Shamu waving bye to the crowd!



This is a picture of a picture so the quality isn't the greatest. But, it's the only picture of all three of us!



After breakfast Noelle was pretty tuckered out! We drove to Sea World so she could nap half the day! We decided she probably wouldn't do well at the other shows as they were loud and there were 35,996 other people in the park that day. We did hit up the "Pets Rule" show when she was awake. It was only 1/2 full and she did more people watching then pet watching!



They had dogs...



And pigs...



And high jumping/tightrope walking kitties!





We went over to the Sesame Street Bay of Play. Noelle will really enjoy that area when we go back in a few years! Lots of fun stuff. Even Dave was drooling over the rope and bridges course! They had one area for really little ones. It's a squishy blue play mat that is supposed to represent water. We got yelled at because she had her shoes on and then were chastised because she was sitting in some of the hot spots where the sun was shining. A kid fell on Noelle and then another came over and stole her toy. This momma just about lost it!

Noelle contemplating trekking out into the play mat.



Enjoying her blocks...until they were stolen right out of her sticky paws!



Due to poor mommy planning Noelle did not get to meet Cookie Monster but she got to meet Elmo and Abby Cadabby! She did so well and was not scared! She snuggled up to Abby and loved when Elmo pet her!







Dave didn't want to buy any of the shots that Sea World took but I wanted the frame for her first birthday so he was over ruled! Again, this is a picture of a picture so it's not the greatest but I love the frame! It will be perfect!



Noelle got a little nuts in the Wild Arctic exhibit! She was awake and enjoying herself!



Watching the Beluga whales. I think that if I was to pay for one of the up close encounters it would be with these whales. They are different and it would be unique compared to playing with the dolphins. I don't know. I guess it would be up to Noey!







Sleepy Polar Bears.





Someone was not that enthused about the penguins.





Even less enthused about the Sea Lions!





We probably should have called it a day but we decided to go to the beach again. Dave and I were sunburnt and we were feeling the muscle fatigue of getting Noey in and out of her stroller all day and carrying her around. Sea World really needs to rethink their "no strollers in exhibits" policy. Noey didn't want anything to do with the back carrier so we bit the bullet and carried her a lot!

We drove around forever trying to find a place to park. The place was packed! We got Noey suited up and added some sunscreen. We trekked down the beach again, lugging her and her gear across the sand. We put up our umbrella and laid down the towels. We busted out the sand toys and had a beach snack. Then it was time to play and she freaked out!! She hates dry sand on her feet. She is my child. She wanted nothing to do with playing in the sand! So much for that! No pictures but we do have video! :)





There was a guy behind us that I believe is famous. I watch a lot of HGTV and Food Network. I'm thinking he might be a chef and will have to research this. I wonder if he enjoyed the little show we put on for him!

We walked a ways up the beach again. By the time we lugged everything back across the dry sand we were done....just about ready to pass out right there. We burned all of our breakfast calories an then some!! We changed Noey and had dinner at Belmont Park and then headed back to the hotel.

Noelle loves her Shamu!


It was a good and tiring day!