It only took 7.5 weeks!

Today, my little ladybug is 2 months old. Where has the time gone? Last week, Noah finally acknowledged that he has a sister. I think before he just thought she was going to eventually go away.

Last Friday, I had Juliana laying on the couch doing some tummy time, and she got up on her side. Noah noticed, and ran over to the couch to lay next to her, and called her "sister". I've been trying to get him to say Juliana or Juli, but he's happy calling her "sister". Now, any time that she is crying, he lets me know that "sister crying momma". Sometimes he says, "i get nuk" and pushes a chair to the changing table, gets up on the chair, finds Juliana's nuk, and brings it to me. On Thursday, he actually got the nuk in her mouth and she stopped crying for us. I think he's going to be a good big brother, and it only took him 7.5 weeks to acknowledge her (it was a long 7.5 weeks for me, I felt so bad for Noah).

Now on to other stories...

On Wednesday, after we all got adjusted at the chiropractor, I took Noah to get his hair cut. As much as I love him to be shaggy, he needed shorter hair for the summer, and I think they did a really nice job on it. He looks so different now!

Before...

After...

On Thursday we had several doctor's appointments to go to. In the morning I took Juliana up to the cardiologist. Our wonderful neighbor, Pam, watched Noah for us and put him down for a nap. Ryan met me there. Juliana did not like the stethoscope at all. Any time the doctor put it on her chest, she began to scream. It was diva-ish behavior. I told her, jokingly, that we are only tolerating it because she's a small baby, once she gets older, we will not tolerate that type of behavior. The cardiologist laughed. He was nice and left the room 3 times so we could get her calmed down, because if you've heard Juliana scream, you know that you cannot hear anything over that! The doctor gave us some good news in that he thinks her smallest hole is closing- which is a huge relief to us!

Thursday afternoon we went to the pediatrician for a well-baby checkup and to get her belly button checked. Noah was really good and got to hold the expensive doctor equipment when Dr. Russell came in the room, plus he got a bunch of Thomas stickers from the nurse. Juliana is up to 9 lbs 2.4 ounces, which puts her in the 14th percentile for weight. She doesn't look like she's 9 lbs, but once he told me her head was in the 72nd percentile, I figured out where all the weight it. Lengthwise, she's in the 3rd percentile. Guess she's not going to be very tall, but then again, neither are Ryan and I.

And finally, yesterday I was able to drag out the kiddie pool so that Noah could play in it with Daddy. After almost an hour in it, Daddy made Noah come inside, because even though he was wearing sunscreen, Noah's nose was starting to turn a little pink.

My Dad...

This is one of my favorite pictures of me and my dad. We are in Florida on the beach. I'm 13- wow that was a LONG time ago.

Since Father's Day is coming up, I thought I would do a top ten list of why my dad is so wonderful.

10). One time when I was home sick in elementary school, and Mom wasn't home, he and I watched Rambo: First Blood together. Mom wasn't very happy when she found out, but I loved every minute of it.

9). He taught me how to play sports- from throwing a spiral football pass, to throwing a baseball, to shooting a basketball. The only thing I wouldn't let him teach me was tennis.

8). Whenever he got free tickets to Bears games, instead of taking one of his guy friends, he would take me... even if we had to leave at halftime because I was frozen and had already had 5 cups of hot chocolate.

7). When my cat, Snirt, fell out the window and ran away, he pulled all nighters waiting for him to come home- which he did.

6). When I was stressed out about my wedding, he told me he would put a ladder outside of my window (the house is 1 story) so that Ryan and I could elope.

5). As the only male in the house, he put up with a countless hours of "crazy" females.

4). When I was 13, he took me on a date to show me how a girl was supposed to be treated.

3). He just spent a half hour showing Noah his Corvette and letting Noah climb all over it and "drive" it, and it's very hot outside.

2). When I was in fourth grade, he helped me train to ride my bike in the Udder Century, and then we rode together in it- 33 miles.

1). When I was in the hospital for migraines in high school, he always came at dinner time so that I would never have to eat dinner by myself.

Happy Birthday, Baby Liam!

Yesterday we drove up to Jaime and Bill's to go to baby Liam's birthday party. Okay, baby Liam isn't really a baby anymore, he's 2, and Jaime has a baby on the way, but I think he'll be called Baby Liam for a while.

The day started out dreary and rainy, and we were all sad. Everyone was looking forward to the kids playing outside in the new bouncy house that Jaime and Bill had bought on sale. Noah had never been in a bouncy house and I wanted to see how he did.

Eventually after lunch and presents, the skies turned blue and everyone was able to go outside. We let Noah skip his nap because he was having so much fun, and he did remarkably well. Jaime made a very cool Lightning McQueen birthday cake, and Noah actually ate some cake! Juliana got overwhelmed by all the people and cried off and on. The real treat came when she cried all the way home- almost an hour. Noah fell asleep as soon as we got on the highway, but woke up 15 minutes from home and joined Juliana in the crying. By the time we got home, Ryan and I wanted to join in with the criers as well.

Here are a few pictures from the day...

Busy Saturday...

Yesterday there was a kids fair at the school down the road from us. They had sent us a flier with all sorts of cool stuff that we were sure Noah would be into. Unfortunately, we were sadly wrong. When we got there there were 2 fire trucks. Noah insisted on being carried by me, while Ryan pushed the stroller with the crying Juliana in it. A fireman asked Noah if he wanted to go inside the truck, Noah said No. He asked if Noah wanted to wear the helmet, Noah said No. So we moved onto the next activity. Noah lit up as soon as he saw the balloon animal guy. So, I got into the very long line with him while we waited for our turn to pick the balloon. I had him make Noah a sword, and Noah carried it around proudly as he hit me in the head with it. They had 4 therapy dogs there for the kids to meet, and Ryan took Noah back to pet them, but Noah was too afraid to do it- which was surprising since we have dogs at home.

It was very crowded, and if you know me at all, you know that I don't do crowds. So, we packed up and took the screaming Juliana and Noah to the toddler park. While I held Juliana (who fell asleep as soon as I got her out of her car seat), Noah and Ryan played in the big kid part of the park instead of the toddler park. Ryan showed Noah all sorts of different ways to climb the ladders. Noah was a fearless daredevil.

After that we went and got Noah McDonald's for lunch. When we got home, Noah ate it like he had never eaten food before, which was nice to see him eat. Then, Noah took a 3 hour nap. After he woke up, he played outside with Ryan. After dinner, he chased Finchy around with his balloon, and Finchy took it in stride, slowing down so Noah could get close to him, and then speeding up when Noah got too close. It was funny. He did this for at least 45 minutes, and then he went outside again with Daddy to blow bubbles, and then he went to bed.

I think it was a pretty good day.

I don't want to be Kate...

So, I've recently been watching Jon and Kate Plus 8. I had caught episodes here and there, but I couldn't watch it because Kate is always so mean to Jon. Over Memorial Day weekend, they had a marathon on of Jon and Kate Plus 8 and I got sucked into it while trying to console Juliana. I had seen on the cover of magazines that their marriage was in trouble, but didn't really know what was going on. All I saw during the marathon was Kate constantly yelling at Jon and being critical of him. In my head, I was judging, "Well, if I was constantly yelled at and criticized, I wouldn't be happy either." Then, of course, I was slapped in the face by God silently showing me that I do the same thing to Ryan. For example, this morning I fed Juliana at 2:45 AM. I was unable to fall asleep, so at 5:45 when Ryan asked me if he should feed Juliana before he left, I was not a happy camper. "What, are you new?" I asked him. He just wanted my opinion and I bit his head off. Then, I came downstairs while he was feeding her, and he had all the shades open to let the sun in and wake her up. In my head I had planned on Juliana going back to sleep for a couple more hours, so I say to Ryan, "Are you kidding me?!? You want her up at 6 in the morning? Are you new (yes, this is my new saying)?"

My prayer is that God will soften my words towards Ryan and everyone else I come into contact with. I don't want to be harsh and critical. I want to be slow to speak and slow to anger.

Our visitor...

Last week, Ryan was out of town for the whole week. My mom came down and stayed with me from Tuesday to Friday afternoon. We had a nice time. I was sure the weather would cooperate and Noah would get to play outside as much as he wanted to...I was wrong. We still had a nice time.

Here are some of the things we did. On Tuesday, I took Juliana to the pediatrician to get her weighed. She had gained a pound from when she was born- thank you Jesus! Noah stayed with Grandma and played outside and did dishes. Then it rained. On Wednesday, we all went to the chiropractor. Grandma took pictures of Noah and Juliana getting adjusted- I'll post those when I get a copy. It also rained again. I took Juliana up to school to visit my friends, it was nice to see them all again. I didn't realize how much I missed them until I saw them again. That night, Noah was chasing Grandma, and Finchy got too excited and ran into Noah. Noah fell and hit the back of his head on the corner of the toy box that Ryan had made. He cried for 2 minutes and then got off of Grandma's lap and kept running. Thursday, Noah woke up and was whiney, clingy and needy most of the day. Grandma thought it was from him hitting his head, but sometimes he gets that way. That night Noah began to run a fever. I had a feeling that in the night he was going to throw up, because that's how Noah rolls. Sure enough, while I was doing the 1 AM feeding, I heard Noah throw up. As I was putting Juliana back in her bassinet, I heard Noah throw up again. I went into Noah's room, and I didn't smell the vomit smell, but then Noah's head popped up and he said, "messy" and started to cry. When I got closer, I smelled that smell. I woke Grandma up so she could rock Juliana, and began cleaning up Noah and changing his sheets and blankets. He had a pretty high fever. After I got everyone cleaned up and laundry started, Noah wanted to rock, so I took him downstairs. He asked for some, "meelk", so I got him a glass and then we watched an episiode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I put him to bed, and he went down fast. The next morning he slept in, as I knew he would. Grandma was still worried about a head injury and him throwing up, so I took him to the doctor- I'm pretty sure he's cutting his 2 year molars (he always throws up when he cuts teeth), but the doctor said he had a virus. Of course, Thursday and Friday the weather was really nice, but Noah didn't feel good and just wanted to snuggle Grandma. Mom, thanks for coming and helping out. I wouldn't have been able to do it alone!

Noah didn't start to feel good until about Sunday afternoon, so he played outside that afternoon. Of course, it's been raining ever since.

The last time Grandma visited, Noah found a doll in her things (Great Grandma Rose had given it to mom to keep at her house). Needless to say, that dolly has become important to Noah. I've attached some pictures of Noah and his dolly.