Thursday, April 30, 2009

Baby Lady Bug is here






Juliana Rose has finally arrived, yeah!!!!!!
6 lbs 15 oz
19 inches long
Sorry I need to run as Noah is in need of attention!
Ryan

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Still waiting...

I am becoming horribly uncomfortable in the last 2 weeks of this pregnancy. In fact, even though I'm not superstitious in the least, I invited my parents to come down for the weekend (when I was pregnant with Noah, they were coming down and met us at the hospital). While I haven't gone into labor, we did have a nice visit with them. Unfortunately it rained the entire time they were down here so no one got to play outside, but Noah did get to play "play play", and drink "cose" from a big boy cup. Plus, Grandpa read him stories at bed time.

Saturday, Noah spent some quality time with grandma and grandpa, and Ryan and I went out on probably the last date we will have before baby ladybug comes. While we were out and about, we decided to stop at Toys R Us to see if they had a tricycle that we could get for Noah. At Christmas time, Grandma and Grandpa Mahlberg duplicated a Christmas gift that we had gotten Noah (the Little People Nativity set). So, we had a Wal-Mart gift card that needed to be used. We hadn't found a tricycle at Wal-Mart that Noah was big enough for, but we did at Toys R Us. In fact, it's adjustable, so he can continue to grow and still be able to use it. We also got him a helmet as well- helmets were hard to find, because Noah has a small head. The smallest size is 3+, which Noah isn't. Surprisingly, all the 3+ helmets varied in head sizes, so we bought the smallest one we could find. Guess who's on it? That's right, Mickey- I really wanted the Cars one for him, but that one was really big.

Anyway, Noah loves the tricycle! He's still trying to figure out how to pedal it- he'll pedal it when someone is pushing him, but otherwise he pushes it with his feet. So, thanks Grandma and Grandpa Mahlberg! (Even if Christmas was 4 months ago).

Monday, April 20, 2009

I get my imagination from grandma...

My mom has an amazing imagination that she has passed onto her grandchildren. Rori Rose likes to pretend from stories about the Disney Princesses. Noah and Liam like to pretend from Cars, especially "Oh No! Frank" (if you haven't seen the movie, sorry). Noah is also into Mickey Mouse. I can't stand Mickey- I think he is one of THE most annoying characters invented.

When Noah was first born, Jaime and Bill brought him an Easter basket for Easter. In it was a blue Mickey. Noah never really paid attention to Mickey until Spring Break of this year. Now, Mickey goes everywhere we go. When Noah is in his car seat, he feeds Mickey his snacks, he shares his milk with Mickey, he even shares his precious bagels (see previous post) with Mickey. He likes to have me wrap Mickey in a blanket and he carries him around like he's a baby. He gets a diaper wipe, wipes Mickey and says, "stinky, stinky". Mickey comes outside and sits in Noah's truck while he drives him around the back yard. You get the idea.

When I had the stomach flu last week, after I picked Noah up from Theresa's, he pretended he and Mickey were "sick"- like he saw me doing the day before.

Thank you, Mom, for passing on your imagination!

Easter part II...

Here are some more pictures from our Easter egg hunt. These ones were taken from my camera, so they're not as nice as the ones that my mom took.

This is from our second hunt with Noah...

Just like my daddy...

Since I met Ryan, way back in the late 90's, he has had the same thing every morning for breakfast. A cinnamon raisin bagel with cream cheese. Now, on the weekends he varies it and will settle for a bowl of cereal, but essentially the man has eaten the same breakfast for over 10 years. I myself would be bored with that, but not Ryan.
We have introduced Noah to the world of cinnamon raisin bagels, and I think he may take after his daddy. Let me know what you think...

Note the cream cheese is also on his glasses...


Friday, April 17, 2009

Easter!!!

We did our big family Easter celebration on Saturday instead of Sunday. This was smart on our part, as Sunday morning when we were getting ready for church, I came down with the very violent stomach flu (I will spare you the details- but I'm glad everyone else had gone to church when I didn't make it to the bathroom to throw up).


Anyway, it was a fairly nice day out, so the kids played in the back yard while grandma and grandpa hid Easter eggs in the front yard. Before we went to the front, Rori asked Jaime, "Which color do you like best, mama?" Jaime told her pink or purple. Rori told her that she would find all the pink and purple eggs then- that was so sweet!

Rori, Liam, and Noah used their Halloween buckets to pick up eggs. Noah ran around the front yard yelling, "My, my!" All the kids were so excited to find eggs. They were running all over the front yard. At times Noah didn't know which egg to grab or which way to go next. It was so funny! Here are some pictures of him hunting eggs. In fact, he had such a good time, Ryan hid the same eggs for him a few days ago and he had a fun time again.



Friday, April 10, 2009

Sweet Boys...

I wish the camera battery hadn't died, so I could have posted pictures from this morning, but what are you going to do?

So, Noah decided that 3 AM was an excellent time to throw a crib party. He partied hard until around 5 AM when things fell silent. I finally fell back to sleep after 5:30. Ryan, of course, slept through the party- he can sleep through anything, including me holding a crying child next to his side of the bed and saying, "Ryan, Noah threw up. I need you to help me clean him up and clean his crib up" (of course that was last spring, but still he didn't wake up). Anyway, Noah slept until 7:20, and Ryan got up with him (Ryan- Sweet boy #1) and I slept until 8 (thank God, because I was near tears at 5 this morning because I was so tired).

When I came downstairs, Noah ran up to me and gave me a hug- Sweet boy #1. Then, he wanted to watch Veggie Tales- Jonah that he got for his birthday. I turned it on, and Noah came, sat between my legs and put my arms around him- Sweet boy #2.

Ryan went to go grocery shopping, and offered to take Noah with so I could work on a paper for a class I'm taking, but I told him Noah and I would be fine (Ryan- Sweet boy #2). While Ryan finished the list, Noah started taking toys out of his toy box. He couldn't reach one of them, and pulled me over to help him. I asked him what toy he wanted and he said, "Teddy Bear". I got him the teddy bear, and he said, "Teddy Bear nigh nigh." He laid the teddy bear on the couch and said, "bye bye", ran to the steps, shut the baby gate and took off up the steps. I started to follow him, but by the time I got halfway up the steps, he was back at the top of the steps with a baby blanket. After he got back downstairs, he wrapped the teddy bear in the blanket, gave it his sippy cup, rocked it, and laid it down on the couch (see why I needed the camera battery to be charged?)- Sweet boy #3. Ryan kissed everyone good bye and left for the grocery store.

Noah and I went upstairs, of course bringing the bear with. We got to Noah's room, and he went to his changing table/dresser, took a diaper wipe, unwrapped the bear, said "stinky stinky", and "changed the bear's diaper". Then he brought the bear to me and I swaddled the bear. He threw the bear into his crib (it wouldn't fit through the slats), turned on the baby monitor, turned on his little heater, grabbed my finger to leave the room, and said "nigh nigh bear"- Sweet boy #4. Of course as soon as we were out of the room, we had to go back in, turn off the heater, turn off the baby monitor and get the bear out of the crib- Sweet boy #5.

I decided that I needed to take a shower, and Noah thinks he's really cool if he sits on our bed and gets under the blankets, so I asked him if he wanted to go play in our room, and he did. I showered while Noah wrapped himself and Mickey (he had lost interest in the bear) up. When I got out of the shower and got dressed, I sat next to Noah on the bed. He looked at me, smiled, jumped down and ran into his room. He grabbed both of his Nuks (yes, my kid still has a pacifier at bedtime), and brought them to the bed. He put one in my mouth and put the other in his mouth (Sweet boy #6).

Daddy came home while Noah and I were folding laundry. When we were done, I asked Noah if we should go see Daddy, and he said, "Okay!" I gave him my nuk back and he put both nuks back into his crib. Then we went downstairs and he yelled, "Daddy!" (Sweet boy #7).

Noah and I played a little more and then I noticed that Noah kept saying, "stinky stinky. it's nasty". He had an odor to him, so I changed his diaper and put him for a nap. Then, Ryan let me go work on my paper while he cleaned- Ryan sweet boy #3. I finished my paper, and now Noah is getting up from his nap. So far it's been a good start to the day, and makes me sad that spring break is coming to an end...

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Our weekend at grandma and grandpa's house

On Friday we left as soon as I got home from school to drive up to my parents' house. With ladybug's arrival getting closer we knew that this may be the only chance for a while for Noah to spend the night at grandma and grandpa's. We barely hit any traffic, which is unheard of on a Friday afternoon, and got there in about an hour and a half. Noah was very excited to see grandma- grandpa was on his way home from work. When Noah is with grandma or grandpa, Ryan and I basically become non-existant, so Noah happily dragged grandma from room to room.

When Grandpa got home, we got ready to go to our favorite mexican restaurant- Tacos El Norte. Noah sat on grandma's lap while we waited for our food to come. He drank quite a bit of grandma's water, so when his quesadilla arrived, he didn't want anything to do with it. The rest of us enjoyed our dinners. I recommend the chicken enchilada's with green sauce, but Ryan recommends the steak tacos (mine are better).

When we got home, it was getting late, so we put Noah in his jammies. Grandpa sat down with him and read him 3 stories complete with different voices. Noah giggled a lot- grandpa is a good story teller. Then we put Noah to bed and went downstairs with all the dogs so that it was quiet upstairs.

The next morning, Noah decided he didn't need to sleep in and got up promptly at 6. When I went in to get him, I noticed an odor in the room. When I picked him up out of the pack in play, I noticed that he was soaked. It's been a while since Noah has peed through a diaper at night time, but apparently he drank enough water that he soaked himself from his chest to the feet in his feet pajamas. I guess that's why he didn't sleep in- he was wet and probably cold. Ryan, of course, was already in the shower, leaving me to wash Noah- boy did he smell bad! He was a good boy about it, and then I wrapped him in a blanket and let him sit in our bed and watch tv- he thinks that he is so cool when you let him do that. Then grandma started a load of laundry to wash everything that was in the pack n play and got soaked with Noah.

Grandma and Grandpa were getting their hair cut Saturday morning by a friend of the family, and she was going to cut Noah's too. It's not like Noah was in dire need of a haircut, but the last place we had gone had given him such a bad haircut (it looked like the back was eaten by a lawnmower) that it needed to be fixed, plus he was getting to the point of needing one and I figured that would happen around ladybug's arrival. When Noah gets older, I will go back to cutting his hair, but right now, he fights me when I try, by pushing the scissors away and trying to put his fingers in the scissors. When we're at a haircut place, he sits like a good little boy. Here are some pictures from his hair cut with Patrice- of course, this time he didn't sit like a good little boy, but he did alright. She gave him a nice haircut and fixed the damage from the last one. He was a little scared this time, so he had to sit on Daddy's lap (since I don't really have one anymore).



After the haircut we went back to the house. Noah commandeered grandpa and they went and played the piano and organ. Then he went and took his nap. I, of course, brought up the dinner discussion (no we hadn't eaten lunch yet). Dad offered to grill steak from Madl's (it's fantastic). However, I wanted to go to Hackney's, and the pregnant lady always wins :-) So, for dinner we went to Hackney's. Noah shared part of my Hackney burger, and ate really well. Even the waitress was impressed by how much he put away. We didn't give him the opportunity to drink lots of water to avoid a repeat of the night before. When we got home, grandpa read him some stories again.

Noah slept in the next day. I think grandma and grandpa wore him out, which is a good thing. Grandma made us cornmeal pancakes for breakfast. Normally, Noah doesn't eat them, but that day, he yelled "pancakes!" and proceeded to inhale the pancake that grandma made for him. It was like he had never eaten food before! Noah seemed to sense that we were getting ready to leave, so he took that opportunity to drag both grandma and grandpa around the house to play. Unfortunately, we had to get on the road, and Noah wasn't happy to leave.

Thanks for the fun weekend, grandma and grandpa! We love you!

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Surprise Baby Shower...

*****My very neurotic mother made me edit this, so the conversation does not truly reflect the nature of my conversation with Lauren which was much better before I edited this post.*****

So, yesterday morning, I got to work a little earlier than I normally do. I was supposed to be observed by my boss during Early Bird, and we were doing a dissection that needed to get set up. I always get unbelievably nervous for observations, because I had a horrible student teaching experience (more on that later), so I had been up since 4 AM with the jitters. I dropped my stuff off in the science office, and my good friend Lauren cornered me. "Jenna, I need to talk to you." "Can we talk while I set up the lab? Tino's supposed to observe me this morning and the dissection equipment needs to get put out." "Okay." So, we started to walk to my classroom, which shouldn't have taken very long, but Lauren was walking slower and slower. I said to her, "Why are you walking so slow?" "Jenna, we haven't gotten to have one of our morning talks in a while." "Geez, you're kind of needy this morning". (I know, I'm very sympathetic when I'm nervous). We get to my classroom, and all of a sudden, Lauren throws herself into the classroom door. "What is going on with you, Lauren?" "Oh, nothing, I just miss our morning talks." "Well, I promise we can have one of those tomorrow morning when I'm not going to be observed." Then, Lauren blocked the door with her body. "Please, Lauren, can I get into my classroom?" She sighs and lets me open the door. I heard a desk move, and was like, what the heck? Then I hear, "Surprise!"

My early bird girls had gotten to school extra early to decorate the classroom, put out food and drinks, and display their gifts for a surprise baby shower! How awesome are they?!? Lauren hadn't really needed to talk to me, her job was to stall me at whatever cost, so they could finish setting up for the baby shower.

I wish I had had my camera, so I could have taken pictures of the Noah's Ark cake that one of my students had made- it looked so cool! She even drew animals on it! Desi is going to send me pictures of the cake (she took pictures of it before she left for school) when she gets home from Italy. There was so much food that the girls had brought, that we didn't eat it all. The girls also got me baby clothes, wipes, teething rings, lotion, etc. It was so hard for me to not cry. They also made me a really nice card. One of my students that I had had last year in Chemistry, wrote me the nicest card- she wouldn't let me open it in class, which was smart, because I cried when I read it at home.

Thank you: Kristen, Desi, Jocelyn, Vanessa, Courtney, Melissa, Kayla, & Lauren. That totally made my day! I will miss our special little group when I go on maternity leave.