1st day of preschool!!

Well, our big girl started preschool today and it went as we expected - a lot of fun mixed in with some tears. We've been prepping Bella for school hardcore the past week and telling her she is going to have so much fun with new friends & her teachers, Ms Ginger & Ms Suzy. I told her no crying when we leave, just big hugs goodbye and that if she needed to go potty, to make sure she tells her teachers.

First days are always tough, especially since she has never been without me in any sort of childcare so it's a big, big change. For Bella AND me. She was so excited this morning and we were taking all sorts of pictures/video to document this big milestone day. We got to school and it's just so chaotic with all the kids and cramped hallway but we made our way to the end of the hallway, she stuck her bag on her hook and the second we had her give the folder to Ms Ginger, she freaked out. It clicked that she was staying and mommy and daddy were leaving. She was screaming and trying to run the opposite way but Ms Ginger swooped her up faster than any of us could think and carried her into the class. I bet Ms Ginger has had this happen more times than we can think, she was such a pro. I looked back to see my crying princess and Ms Ginger gave me the thumbs up and mouths, "it's gonna be okay" I know she's going to be fine, she's going to have fun, learn so much & come to love it but it's still so hard, as a parent to watch your child cry like that. Suprisingly, I was able to hold it together and not cry at all. I got to take Noah into Trader Joe's alone to grab some groceries and then we came home and went for a jog in the neighborhood. As much as it annoys me to no end, I definately missed my little Bella asking me for a snack every 2 seconds on our walks. It was so easy with just Noah, I forgot what it's like with one kid. But those 3 hours definately flew by! By the time we got back from exercising, I showered quick & uploaded her pics to the computer and we were off to pick Bella up.

When we got to her class, there was a note saying they were at Creative Movement so I went to the room & her teacher was outside and she told me Bella was on and off all day. She would cry for a little and then be fine and play. I totally expected to hear that. She said Bella did not like to sit still during circle time and she had asked her to do criss cross applesauce & I kind of butted in and said, "Ohhhhh, did she get mad at you??" Ms Ginger started laughing and said, "You know exactly what I was about to say" I said, "Yup - that's my stubborn little girl" This will be a great learning experience for her bc I think (and hope) she will finally understand that she can't always have it her way and there are rules to follow. So I said I will practice criss cross applesauce at home with her & that's exactly what we did the second we got home. She still doenst know how to do it herself but we'll get there! :)

I'm so excited for her & to see how she matures & grows over the course of the school year!!! Let's see what Thursday brings!!!

posing by the front door

"gotcha nose, big sis!"

not the best pic of me but, eh, what r u gonna do...bella looks cute!

absolutely love this pic of Andy & Bella! New favorite!!

my awesome duo before loading up the car...

all loaded up!

heading into school!

her bud, Owen was waiting to walk in with her!! <3

finding her name & bag hook on the wall

and finally, a screaming Bella being carried away. Honestly though, did you expect anything less??? HAHA!

Bella's 1st Pedi!

I was due for a pedicure this weekend & decided to take Bella along with me for her first "official" pedicure in a nail salon :) She sat in my lap while we dipped our piggy toes in the bubbily water & then she got her toes painted with a color she picked out all by herself - a pinky/purpley color. They even painted silver sparkles on top of the color & it made her day because princesses love their sparkles!! I'm so happy it went well, I'm sure this is the first of many mommy/daughter pedi dates!!

sitting in the chair all by herself

not quite sure what to think...

We Survived...

...a double appointment for both kids at the pediatrician :) We had Bella's 3 yr appt & Noah's 15 month so I figured why not get the torture over at one time, haha! Bella's weighing in at 29.5 lbs and 36.5 inches tall & Noah weighs 22 lb, 12 oz & is 30 inches tall. Both kids did fairly well - Bella cried and screamed for her weight & height stats. Yes - the easiest part of the appt and she is crying. Gotta love her! She had to get a Pertussis booster for an extra strain that they've added & she had absolutely no idea the shot was coming, I felt so bad. I was holding her in my lap and the nurse was cleaning off the area on her arm and them bam, stuck the needle right in and she jumped so high and then kept telling me it hurt. Felt so bad but she got over it pretty quick when she saw the purple band-aid with alligators on it, haha! Noah was a trooper with the whole appt, like always. Such an easy going, sweet boy!

On a side note, I think I am nearly through with nursing Noah :( He has been weaning himself gradually for the past month or two and we are only down to one or two sessions a day and even those are so short, he would rather get down and play. It makes me sad but I'm so happy we made it nearly 15 months. I'm hoping that if/when the time comes for baby #3 that I have another fabulous nursing experience!!

I love....

...when Noah starts stomping his chunky feet and spinning around everytime he hears music.

...when Bella has puppet shows with all her stuffed animals while waiting for me or Andy to get her from her bed in the morning or after naps. Love the imagination at this age!

....when Noah will 'hide' behind the door and peer through the crack at me with those big ole brown eyes and then smile and giggle when I spot him!

...when Bella calls me 'Mom' Most of the time, it's mommy or mama but I think it's so funny when she calls me just plain 'mom' for some reason.

...when Noah runs away from me, laughing, as I try to catch him when he's doing something he's not supposed to be doing

...that both kids have their "lambies" as their security blanket. Bella has a pink one and Noah's is ivory

...when Noah points his finger and says 'waaa dat?' My favorite

...how Bella has to have the same songs sung to her before bed - in this order, Twinkle Twinkle, Jesus Loves Me, Mary has a Little Lamb & Part of Your World (Ariel). She is just recently, letting me incorporate new songs into this mix - Wheels on the Bus, Michael Row your Boat a Shore & Itsy Bitsy Spider. After songs, we must hug and kiss - followed by butterfly kisses & eskimo kisses. She then pushes me away and gives me a high 5.

Just a few things I love right now!

Bella is 3!!!!!!

I can't even believe my first "baby" turned 3 today! How did that happen so fast? Wow! I was a little bit emotional yesterday morning when I realized it was her last day as a two year old and I started to shed a few tears when Bella immediately grabbed a napkin, stood on the chair and started wiping my tears, telling me "It's okay, Mommy" And of course that made me cry even more...my sweet little girl growing up so fast before my eyes. It's so surreal how fast these 3 years have gone & I feel like she will be 15 years old before i know it.

Some things Bella is doing at 3:

knows her ABC's

can count to 25

can recognize many of her letters by sight

speaks so clearly now - full sentences - the whole shebang

her imagination has taken off & it's so fun to see that mind turning

Favorite Songs Currently: Ariel (Part of My World), Jesus Loves Me, Twinkle Twinkle, Row Row Row Your Boat, Itsy Bitsy Spider

Favorite Books: Disney Princess (5 minute stories), Marley & the Kittens, Marley Goes to School, Curious George

Favorite TV Shows: We havent' been watching too much TV lately but she still loves Curious George, Caillou & these On Demand Princess & Fairies shows

Current Obsession: Anything and Everything Disney Princess - castles, dress-up, tea parties, stickers, books, pop-up princess castle - this girl talks about being a princess all day!

Favorite Color: Pink

Favorite Foods: pancakes, oatmeal, yogurt, egg whites, ham/turkey sandwiches, PB&J, pizza, ravioli, spaghetti/turkey meatballs, any and every sort of snack you can imagine

Favorite Fruits & Veggies: strawberries, watermelon, grapes, peaches, trees (broccoli) and raw carrots with 'dip'

Recent Milestones: Potty Training - she's doing fantastic - still some issues with #2 here and there but other than that, wonderful!

Upcoming Milestones: starting Preschool! School starts next Tues and she will be going 2 days a week for 3 hours each day! I think she will do great - crossing my fingers the first day goes really smooth!

Family picture on her 3rd bday - kids still in their PJ's!

with her new bday shirt :)

That's it for now - will try to update more soon, we have been super busy - hence, the lack of updates recently!!

The things kids say...

I'm always saying I need to just start writing down the funny things Bella says and here is today's funny story:

Noah was walking around with her Disney princess sunglasses in his mouth.

Bella goes "Nooooo, Noah!! Mine!" and comes over to me on the couch and hands me the sunglasses & I wipe them off and put them on her face. She immediately takes them off and goes, "I need new sunglasses, new ariel sunglasses, these yucky!"

Ah yes, just because Noah slobered on your rad princess shades, I will definately go to the store and get you a brand new pair, LOL!

One more new thing for Noah is climbing up on the couch all by himself and then he thinks it funny to crawl up on the end table & proceed to give me a heart attack. Gotta love this age!

Summer fun!

This week has been a scorcher (mid 90's every day with the heat index around 102-105) so we've been at the pool basically every day trying to stay cool! Yesterday we had 2 pool playdates - one in the morning up in Woodstock at our friends neighborhood pool and then in the late afternoon, a pizza/pool party with our neighborhood friends in our community pool. It was a great pool day & the kids loved every minute of it! At our friends in Woodstock, their pool even has a waterslide so Bella was loving that! I had to go down with her, she was still too scared to do it by herself but I didnt mind, I love waterslides & I loved her little squeals the whole way down! On Tuesday morning, Kelly came over to help me with the kids at the neighborhood pool so we went down around 11am and stayed until naptime. The kids had a ball & it's so nice that they both LOVE the water!!! It was so nice having Kelly to help me out - that way I wasnt double teamed by 2 non-swimming kids. Especially with Bella potty training, half of our pool time is spent in the bathroom, haha! We are going to try and do swim lessons for Bella, I emailed a woman about private lessons so hopefully once we get back from FL, she can squeeze us in!

pool date on Tues with Kelly!

happy, chill boy!! loves just floating around in the ladybug, hehe

my sweet prince!

Bella splashing away!

the kids & I

the kiddie pool at our friends - Bella invented a new way to wear the swimming ring

smiley boy!

dipping the piggies in the water!

Ethan pushing Noah around the kiddie pool

sweet Bella

Potty Training Success!!

With the start of preschool fastly approaching, we really needed to get this potty training thing underway because if she isnt trained, she can't go to school and it's been stressing me out for the past few months. I decided the week of June 1 was going to be "the week" and made no plans whatsoever so we could just stay home & concentrate on potty training. It was tough not going anywhere for those 4 days, I'm not gonna lie, but looking back, I'm so happy we did what we did. In the past two weeks, I think she's only had 3 accidents (all of those were within the first 5 days) and she now tells me when she needs to go. She must have gotton sick of *annoying* mommy - I probably asked her every 5 mins if she had to go. She has truly amazed me. We had many, many hours a day sitting on the toilet - bribing her with games on my iPod, books, coloring, Youtube on the laptop...I was trying everything to get her to stay and sit. Apparently it all worked. Why is it the things that *I* dread the most & keep putting off, end up being the easiest things for her to figure out. For the first week we did a potty chart with stickers and she would get a treat everytime she went in the toilet. That worked really well and by the end of the first week, she didnt even care about the sticker or treats anymore so we don't even bother with it anymore. I did take her on a special trip to the Disney store though and I let her pick out a few things for doing so well. She picked out a pair of princess sunglasses and an Ariel straw cup. Go figure. She's gets to choose whatever she wants and she picks those things out. Ok. Deal, haha!

She has stayed dry every single day during nap (I still keep a pullup on her for safety) and she even woke Andy up in the middle of the night last week to go pee pee. We have a weeklong trip to FL this coming weekend so I'm hoping the trend continues :) So proud of my Bella! The only slight problem we are having is with #2. She was always my 3X a day pooper and now she's been holding it in and it's backing her up. We started giving her some Miralax this week to see if that helps a little bc she is in a lot of pain when she tries to go. She won't go in her diaper anymore so it's a constant running back/forth to the potty every 5 mins and it gets old quick so I'm hoping she figures out #2 real soon. We had a back-to-back playdate at our house the other day and I think I spent the majority of the time in the bathroom rather than playing with friends, haha.

Day 4 and posing with her sticker chart!

keeping her busy during potty time, hehe

Other than potty training, we've been trying to enjoy our summer - days at the pool & trying to stay cool has been a top priority. We have two family trips coming up in the next few weeks - I'm sure it'll be crazy and chaotic but we are looking forward to visiting with a lot of our friends and family btwn FL & Rhode Island!

Noah is doing great - his new favorite words are "Go" and "Clock"! Random, I know, but he loves the clock in the kitchen and loves to say "Go" to Emma when she goes potty outside, lol! I'll try to update again soon!!

1 year stats!!

I took Noah to the pedi today for his one year checkup and everything is looking great!! He weighs in at 20 lb, 13 oz and is 28.5 inches tall - right around the 10th-15th% for both. It's so funny to think that he was in the 90th% at 4 months and now he's a little peanut. Our pedi said this is very normal for active, breastfed babies so it's nothing to worry about. He's gaining weight and getting taller! He was also being quite the showoff at his appointment and making lots of babbling noises and one of his favorite things to do is grab my hand, put it to his mouth and start doing the "ah ah ah ah ah" sound with his mouth so he kept doing that.

Things are about to get really crazy here with traveling. Beginning next weekend, I'll be gone 5 of the next 7 weekends. There may not be much time for updating the blog so bear with me! 2 of those weekends are kid & husband-free for me which I'm having mixed emotions about bc I'm gonna miss my family but it's also going to be a good break for me. We have 4 weddings to attend (one just outside of DC, two in Florida and one in RI) and 1 fun girls trip with Amy & Becky in Los Angeles!

I'm debating running (or in my case - running/walking) my first 5K the weekend of June 5. A neighborhood friend is doing it and told me about it so if I can get my butt in gear and do some good running the next two weeks, I'm in. I'm nervous though. I know I can finish the 3.1 miles easily, it's just how much of that will be running? I've run 4 days out of 5 this week so I'm trying to push myself harder and harder. We'll see - it might be a week- of decision. Plus, I need some good running shoes (I currently have cross trainers) and I don't think I'd have enough time to break a new pair in and plus, don't want to spend the extra money right now with all these trips. A pair of shoes won't stop me though, I'll probably end up doing it with my cross trainers. Doing my first 5K would be a start & I have to try it at some point so I might as well suck it up and do it! :)

It only took a year but I finally have 2 kids that sleep thru the night at the same time!!! Noah has been doing MUCH better over the past week and is sleeping til 5am at the earliest and sometimes all the way to 6:45! It is wonderful knowing I can fall asleep without knowing I'll be up at 2am for a quick nursing session! And we've fixed Bella's sleeping issues over the past 2 weeks and it's made a world of difference and she's getting an extra 2-3 hrs a night because of our changes! We havent heard a peep out of her in 7 nights now so we are very happy about that! Let's hope this continues!!!

ONE!!

Noah's 1st Year Video Montage!! I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it!!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Emotional...

Noah turns 1 tomorrow and I've been reflecting on the past year all day and I keep getting emotional. I can't even imagine my life without this amazing little guy, he has bought so much joy and happiness to us that it's hard to imagine that only one year ago he was "pushed" into this world.

Over the past year we've labeled Noah as the easy-going kid. From day one he has been mellow and happy 24/7, making my job as his mother, very easy! He's the type of kid you can bring anywhere with you and he will sit there and take in every minute of it without fussing. The grocery store, a trip to the mall, restaurants and everywhere in between. He goes with the flow and adjusts to the situation without a squak. He got use to taking a quick 5 minute catnap in the car on the way to music class, storytime or a friends for playdates. He is THAT kid who I use to yearn for when Bella would be trying to escape from her booster seat 2 mins after we entered a restaurant or when she use to throw fits and not sit in the shopping cart for more than a few seconds. I love Bella with all my heart - she is my firstborn, strong-willed little princess who is the complete opposite of her baby brother. It is so amazing how these two individuals consume my world. I mean - I live for these two - nothing else matters some days bc without them, I don't know what I would do on this earth. They've taken up my life and I can't imagine it any other way. Some days, I am counting down the minutes to bedtime only to stick them down for bed and miss their teeny, soft bodies squished up against mine & the sound of their sweet voices. My heart aches sometimes when I think about what I was lacking in my life before having kids. One of those unimaginal things that you don't realize you were without until you have it in your life. Does that make sense??

The kids are at a great age right now - I think this is my favorite stage since having 2 kids. Bella can communicate her likes/dislikes without having meltdowns because we don't understand what she is trying to tell us and Noah is just our sweet, easy-going kid who rarely gets upset. Of course we have our moments, but the majority of the time, it's a really nice spacing of ages between them. I sometimes doubted our decision to have them only 21 months apart but not anymore - it's a thought from the past. I wouldnt of wanted it any other way. And no, I'm not indicating that #3 will be on the way shortly, LOL! It's funny to think that we started TTC the month Bella turned 1 year and now Noah is nearly 1 and I can't even begin to imagine having a 3rd child right now. Before I even consider baby #3, we must be in Florida & near our families. I don't know if I'd be able to remain sane without having more help around, haha!

It's crazy to think that at approximately 9:03am a year ago tomorrow, our lives - once again, changed & I don't think either Andy or I had any idea what a wonderful year it would be. I don't think we realized what we were missing until the moment Noah entered our world. And though it took Bella a few weeks to get use to her brother - it warms my heart to see them interact now & the love and joy that they share between one another (for the most part, anyway) is just priceless!

I'm sure I'll be a complete basketcase at 10pm tonight - the exact moment that I felt that "pop & gush" of my water breaking while watching the last seconds of the American Idol finale. I remember it like it was yesterday - only it was a year ago. What a fantastic year!!

Just a day in the park...

My good friend Kelly offered to take some pictures of the kids for me last week & I just love, love, love these pictures!!! The weather was gorgeous and the kids were happy making for some pretty fantastic photographs for our family to enjoy forever!! Some of my favorite pictures are the ones that aren't staged or planned but of kids being kids & playing, exploring, learning & Kelly was able to capture some great moments!

I am in shock that in one short week, my baby will be turning 1. It is amazing to me how fast this year has gone & we are celebrating his birthday this weekend with friends & I feel like I have so much to do before Saturday, including finishing up his 1 year montage. I start to tear up every time I start working on it and it brings back so many happy memories of the past year & I am so excited to share his video when it's all done!

Here are a bunch of my favorites - my beautiful duo!

A Dose of the Bella Funnies...

Our sweet Bella makes us laugh a lot some days & today is one of those days where I am constantly amazed at what she is telling me or what she is doing. I need to write these down more often so I remember to tell her one day bc some of them are just too funny and I know Ill forget

Bella Funny #1

When Andy sits down for breakfast in the morning, he usually grabs the laptop to do a quick check of his email & today, Bella decided that she wanted to do the same so she went and found her laptop. She was also enjoying her "coffee" (aka hot chocolate in her Santa mug - it has to be the Santa mug for her). Monkey see, monkey do

Bella Funny #2

She was running around and playing like usual when she starts telling me she was going to have a baby & I turn around to see this:

Bella Funny #3

I told Bella we had to go to Publix really quick & she insisted on wearing her Cinderella dress up shoes (despite me showing her all her other normal shoes to try to lure her to wear something else) and she also grabbed her cute Vera Bradley purse! Such a girly girl!! She did get quite a few compliments on her shoes when we were at the store though - she is such a riot!!

Happy Mother's Day 2010..

Happy Mother's Day - we had a nice relaxing morning. Noah gave me a nice 6:15am wakeup call but I quickly nursed him and handed him over to Andy so I could catch another hour of sleep. When I came downstairs at 7:30, he had some whole wheat pancakes waiting for me so that was a nice suprise! I went for a nice walk/run by myself & then got ready to go to Twist for lunch with our little family! It is a beautiful day out - high is in the low 70's so we sat on the patio and enjoyed the sunshine!! Now we are back home and I think I'm going to sneak in a quick nap while I can!!

this video is for the Gramma's!!!!

Noah Geismar - Red Sox All-Star of 2030.....

Our sweet little boy *LOVES* to play catch with Daddy and just recently started to hold his hands out to try and catch the ball!!! Our little athlete already!!!