Today we celebrated Noah's birthday...and what a day! We packed up a picnic lunch, hopped in the car, and headed to the mall. We figured a trip to build-a-bear would be the perfect start to our day dedicated to Noah. After much deliberation, a floppy-eared bunny was the chosen one. Stuffed to just the right stuffiness, with a special heart with a kiss placed gently inside, and decked out with a birthday cupcake, and Birthday Bunny was born.
After a quick stop at the Lego store, which was the first time we had ever been, we loaded up and headed out to a splash park that we had yet to explore. Liam and Jude dove right in, birthday Noah hung back a bit, and eventually got into it. There was a park attached that was loads of fun as well (and a path which lead to a creek!) and we ended up staying until 2:00pm. The olders managed to keep their eyes open all the way home, but sweet Noah was out by the time we pulled out of the parking lot. After a break of watching Wild Kratts while Noah slept, a quick bike ride for Liam and Daddy (and a longer one for Daddy) we ate dinner, sang Happy birthday and had birthday cake, opened some presents from Liam (a Thomas the tank engine spin brush tooth brush) and Jude (a huge snuggle puppy of Noah's very own) then loaded up and went for our first swim of the season! It was great! Liam and Jude splashed and tried to remember their swim techniques and Noah clung to Mommy. Daddy played shark and crocodile and chomped at the boys and amazed everyone with his fast sneaky swim moves. He gave Liam a ride on his back and it reminded me of how dad used to do that with Cath and me. After a good long swim, we trekked home and sat around in a circle and enjoyed some popsicles for the kids and a beersicle for Daddy and a sangriacicle for Mommy. :-)
Then it was bed time.
Definitely one of the best days we have spent as a family together. We were lucky to have Scott with us the entire day. He drives up to Detroit tomorrow morning for his next race, so Noah's official birthday celebration will be on Friday with the four of us.
Happy early birthday my sweet baby.
Love
B
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Celebration
Friday, August 17, 2012
Changing Seasons
Although it's still summertime, there's a shift in the air! The August birthdays have been celebrated, Liam started school today, there's rain falling after a long drought, and there's a chill in the evening and early morning air. I get excited thinking about all of the fun activities that happen in the fall and early winter--I remember last year being busy with fall festivals, Canadian Thanksgiving, Halloween activities, American Thanksgiving and our very special Friendsgiving with our good friends and then a good month of magical Christmas excitement!
Liam started school today--preschool in Ms. Shelby's class on Tues/Thurs at Interactive Academy. He, and his 7 classmates, have art/music, phys ed, Spanish, lots and lots of playing and a healthy prepared lunch each day. Apparently we lucked out with the teacher--she's supposed to be the best in the school. We're all pretty excited for Liam's school year. He will go to Kindergarten in Sept 2013 at Pleasant View. We applied for him to go early, since he misses the cutoff by 2 weeks, and he was accepted (with flying colours, of course!!) but hearing that there were kids turning 7 that will be in Kindergarten alongside him made us question our decision. He will always have the intellect, but going to Kindergarten next year will give him a whole year of maturity, size and strength. So, another year at the awesome IA it is. Win-win!
We celebrated Liam's 5th birthday yesterday. We had a party here with some friends (Andy, Evan and Gus and their siblings, and Luke) and had pizza and ice cream cone cupcakes. After everyone left, we all napped then got up and went to Oobatz for a birthday feast! After dinner, we went for a swim in our neighbourhood pool. It was a fun day. A great day to turn five.
Jude is 2 weeks into being three and has embraced his big boy status wholeheartedly! We started potty training a few days ago, and after the first couple of days of an accident or two, he has done fabulously!! I would love to say he's "trained" but we need a few more weeks of practicing being out and about. Jude is just the sweetest three year old going! He is so funny and really quite conscious of how he behaves and treats others. He handles different situations so maturely (example--when his balloon car popped a balloon, he held in his tears and proceeded to tell me, "Mommy, no...it's not okay." It almost broke my heart!) and uses his words so well. His grasp of language is amazing. He speaks fluently and with a great vocabulary. He loves to dance and read stories and hear my crazy made-up songs. He is truly a sunshine boy!
Noah is my little hip-baby. He loves his Momma and can't stand to be too far away at any moment--to the point of screams and all out crying, especially when I'm gone and he needs me. I spend a lot of my day toting him around or sitting near where he is playing to keep the peace. He is a sweet, cuddly little monkey and he makes me laugh with how EXCITED he gets about things! He just vibrates with energy and squeals with his mouth in the biggest grin! He's climbing on everything and loves climbing up on tables and dancing. I joke that I'm raising a Chippendale! :) Poor Noah is working on his teeth--a molar popped in without us even seeing it until the other day. I only noticed because it looked like he was chewing on a black marble. I looked in his mouth and the upper left gumline where his molar will be coming in was a black ball of pain! He has a blood blister where the tooth is pushing through. It looked horrible and it explains why he has been very fussy for the last few weeks. I called the on-call doctor, who made sure he didn't have a fever, and let me know that it's normal and to get his pediatrician to see it. Dr. Jones took a look and said hopefully it will break through soon. Poor little monkey. Tylenol hasn't been working, but luckily Advil has been more effective. Ugh--I'll be happy when those teeth finally come in. Anyway, with all of my checking on this massive blood blister I noticed on his right side he already broke a molar through! That also explains his fussiness from the past few weeks. It's funny because he only has his four front teeth and for the past 2 months the top two teeth beside his front ones have been trying to poke through, but haven't yet. I was sure they would be in next. Sneaky little guy! ;)
Noah's not much of a talker, but he can understand anything you say. He can say "yeah" to whatever you ask him or he whines if it's a "no". He says Dada and once in a while can say Mama. Since I'm with him all of the time, he doesn't really get a chance to practise. ;)
Noah is a bolter. He runs full-out for the road whenever he gets the chance. I have to be sure to not focus on anything else but him when we are outside playing. It's a challenge--Liam was the exact same way, but I only had Liam to worry about, so it wasn't that bad. Jude was, and still is, very aware of rules and never ran away. He stays close and plays on his own. But Noah...oh that child! He will play in the sand or the water and I will turn to help Jude get his helmet on and he will break and run! What a monkey!
Scott starts his crazy schedule next week, although for the past couple of weeks he has been putting in more hours to get ready to teach full time and work at Andretti part time. That means lots of time spent with just me and the three boys. It was nice having him around a bit during the summer, although he did spend a lot of time catching up on his exhaustion. Well, back to me and my musketeers again for the next 8 months. We'll be sure to keep ourselves busy with all of the fall fun.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Love song to Noah
You lie in bed and hold your hand up above your face and admire your own little sweet chubby fingers as you open and close your hand. You slowly turn your hand and look at the front and then the back. It's like you are in awe of knowing what those little hands are going to accomplish as you grow up into a big man.
You clutch at my hair, my neck, my nose and hold on with all of your might. You don't want to let go. You are happiest being close and cuddling with me. And I love it. It's the best feeling in the world to be loved by such a sweet little boy.
You're moving now. You scoot along the floor, picking and choosing where you'll stop and what you will spend your attention on. If your big brothers are within range, you head toward them since you know that's where the action will be. If I'm nearby, you will move yourself closer and closer until you can lay your head in my lap and beg to be picked up and cuddled and kissed.
Your giggles elicit smiles and laughs from everyone. Your favourite giggle-prompts are kisses and zerberts on your neck under your chubby little cheeks. Your smile is infectious.
Your brothers adore you and look out for you, while at the same time they are a little nervous that you are on the move. You are not too little to tackle and they make sure that they include you in their "sandwich-making". I try to help them so that you are not the bottom crust.
You are so so loved, sweet one.
Love,
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Catching Up
Trying to do a blog posting for each monthiversary is a bit out of reach right now, so I'm going to see if I can try to post once a month--that's my goal. I can cover all of the exciting happenings of our lives including monthiversaries in one shot. Right? I'm hoping to, anyway.
Liam has been moved from the Mother's Day Out program at his school to the Prekindergarten program. That puts him on track for entering Kindergarten next fall (2012). It's a big issue here in Indiana, because August 1st is the cut-off, and with Liam's birthday on Aug 15, we're in a bit of a quandry: because of his academic skill-level, Liam might get pushed into the class as the youngest kid. To add to the mix, parents here have the option to hold their kids back a year in order to be the biggest all-star in the grade, since sports are organized by grade, not age (and apparently sports take precedent over anything else). As a teacher, this irks me to the core. Therefore, Kindergarten is filled with kids who are closer to 6 years old, while Liam will be just a fresh-faced new 5 year old. Combine that age-difference with an intellect of a third-grader and we are forced to make an important decision. Academically, Liam is more than fine. Social-emotionally, he's a little kid--easily influenced, trying to make good choices when there is so much going on in his head, wiggly and mischievous when he's bored or uninterested. Both areas are important to consider in this decision--do we "sacrifice" academics or maturity? Is there a way to meet the needs of both? We may end up putting Liam into a private Kindergarten (most likely at his current school) to try it out in a smaller setting so he can gain some maturity while cultivating his skills, without throwing him into a 30+ group of 'big kids' at the local public school. Then in first grade, throw him to the wolves. Sigh...I know in a few years this will be a non-issue, but right now, it's pretty important. Liam loves loves loves to learn and I want to make sure he doesn't lose that sparkle in his eye because a big, cool 6 year old influences him the wrong way.
Liam has been growing in so many areas lately. He is a voracious reader--often grabbing a book and laying down right where he is to get lost in its stories. He loves reading the Magic Treehouse series, laughs at his Chirp magazines and finds any type of non-fiction book fantastically interesting. His math skills have developed past basic math skills--he now can add two digit numbers together by grouping. His mental math skills are amazing, as are his abilities to hold multiple numbers in his head and manipulating them (ie 12 + 12 = ? Well, 10 + 10 is 20 and 2 + 2 is 4, so 12 + 12 is 24). He can count by 2s, 5s and 10s quite easily and could probably count well over 10000 if he had the patience. We've been looking at place value and how to read big numbers since he's always interested in saying numbers he comes across. His calculator skills have improved, and his calculator is one of his favourite toys. Liam has shown more eagerness for writing and has taken it upon himself to write notes (This is Liam and Jude's rocket. Please don't touch it.) and make himself a Christmas wish list. He can create his own birthday cards for his friends from start to finish (complete with artwork and stickers) and only needs help with spelling his friend's name. The letters are all there on the card, but he's working on actually grouping them in lines from left to right. Ha--sometimes you have to rotate the card a few times to find that missing y in "Happy". But it's there!
Liam has been pushing the limits of his language--he's so verbal and creative (ie rhyming, singing, etc) that he can get into trouble by hyper-focusing on a word. Like Poopyhead. Oh my...our nerves. We're working on it and it's getting better, but boy does that child have some perseverance.
Jude has been as sweet as ever. His language has exploded in the past few months and he now speaks in complete, grammatically-correct, vocabulary-filled sentences. It's amazing to hear his little, deep, two-year-old self express himself so proficiently. Jude is such a great balance of mischief (just a tad), sweetness (loads and loads), intelligence (so much!) and hilarity (tonnes!) that being around him just buoys you. I have to prevent myself from laughing at times, because he is so so funny while trying hard to be serious (...or while I'm trying to be serious!). I don't want him to think I'm laughing at him. Although, when a giggle does slip out, he's happy to laugh right along with me. He's just so very cute.
Noah, sweet-sweet, cuddly Noah is doing fabulously! He is like a teddy bear--one who grabs your face with his sweet hands and places kisses all over your cheeks. He cuddles into the space under my arm next to my body when he sleeps at night and it's just perfection. As the third child, he is magnificent. He is happy, smiley, and very very interested in the goings-on in our household and beyond these walls when we venture outdoors. His beautiful eyes and long, sweeping eyelashes just invoke smiles from everyone he meets. There is so so much to him that I can't express. I predict he will be quite a force--although a gentle force--as he grows and develops into a full-grown big boy.
Well, my eldest has been pacing the hall upstairs and not napping OR being quiet during nap/quiet time, so I think it's about time to put him to work. Testing Christmas lights will be a treat for him and it will give us some fun quiet time together.
Happy Saturday!
Love,
b
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Happy 2nd birthday, Jude!
You are just so loved--you warm my heart, sweet Jude. I enjoy every minute of learning and laughing with you and look forward to seeing you grow and blossom into a handsome, charismatic young man.
Happy birthday, sweet boy.
Love,
Mommy
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Happy 1-monthiversary, Baby Noah!
Happy monthiversary, Baby Noah! It's your first of many monthiversaries. Today we went to see Dr. Jones for your one month check up. You are a healthy 10 lbs 4 oz and 21 3/4 inches of sweet baby boy! All looks good--you're already rolling over from your tummy to your back in an attempt to keep up with your brothers. I predict you will be walking at 2 months and running by 4 months. :)
This month you have slept and eaten like a champ! You have taken well to nursing and you sleep most of the time. You play on your playmat or swing in your swing or get mauled (ahem, I mean hugged) by your big brothers the rest of the time. You are very loved by everyone and people exclaim how sweet and beautiful you are. We are very lucky to have you in our lives.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Noah Anderson Blair
Little Noah was known as "Baby" for a few days while we went back to the drawing board to choose a name that would suit such a calm and gentle child. Our original two boy names that we wanted to pick from weren't good enough, or sweet enough, for this child in our arms. It wasn't until moments before packing up from the hospital to head home that we decided that Noah, meaning "peaceful and gentle", would be his name. And from that moment onwards there couldn't have been any other name that would have suited him. He is definitely and positively Noah.
Anderson, his first middle name, is a tribute to John Anderson, a friend and a mentor to Noah's daddy. John was a very sweet soul with whom Scott worked a few years back at deFerran Motorsports. John was the manager of the team, and the team was like family to its members. He was well loved by many and died suddenly just before Christmas. On Mother's Day last year, John invited us up in his little cessna to give Liam and Jude a chance to fly. Liam loved it and now calls his little pilot toy, Ando, in memory of that special day. Ando's memory will live on in our little Noah.
Noah has been a calm and peaceful baby since the moment he was born. He loves to watch his big brothers play and loves to cuddle up to Mommy and sleep in anyone's warm, cozy arms. Liam adores Noah and will ask to hold or play with him many times throughout the day. Jude likes to pat baby Noah's head and say, "Hi, No-no!" or "Hi, No-no-ah!"
We are very blessed to have such a beautiful family of five.
love,
b
