to my little buddy

Dear Noah,

You were born just two years ago today. When you were on the way we had no idea what you'd be like or how you would change our lives, but now that you've been around a while it's hard to imagine life without you. You're as cheery as a little guy could be and always ready for a hug.



It's been great teaching you simple things like the letters in your name. Reading to you every night is a lot of fun. "Again?" "OK, one more time, and then sleep." "Then sleep." You just can't get enough of books, from board books to story books and onward.

Hearing your cry of "Daddy's home!" is one of the brightest parts of my day. I just have to wonder what the next few years hold for you. What will your favourite book be when you're eight? Will you love to swim? Are you going to learn to play music? I can't wait to see what happens, and I'm so glad I get to be a part of it.

Happy Birthday!
Love, Your Dad.

birthday

Noah is going to be TWO in two days. I can't believe that he looked like this only two short years ago.



Now, he's a big boy. He's a sweet child who loves his family dearly. He always wants his "huggies" and would love to cuddle in our laps and have us read to him all day if we'd let him. His vocabulary is growing a lot, and it's fun to hear what is in his head. We love him so much.

This last Saturday, we had a "small" birthday party for him at home. It was a monkey party theme and we decorated Christmas cookies. I made aprons for all the kids. It's so much fun watching toddlers trying to do icing on cookies, and to try to keep them from inserting it directly into their mouths. I also made "Monkey Bread" instead of having a cake this year. It reminded me a little of cinnamon rolls (which we had at our wedding instead of cake as well).

I wanted to invite so many more people, but we definitely had a full house. Maybe we'll rent a birthday facility next year... we'll see. Here are some fun pictures from his party!











Here's a picture of our packed house:


Happy Birthday Small Friend! We love you!

produce

We just started subscribing to produce delivery through New Roots Organics this last week. What a great concept! I'm always struggling with coming up with meals for us to eat each week, and now, I just look at what I got in my produce bin and meal plan from that. It's really neat. I think we'll start eating healthier (i.e. eating veggies more).

Here's what we got this week:
*5 Pink Lady Apples
*2 D'Anjou Pears
1 lb Satsuma Mandarins
2 Rio Star Grapefruit
2 Mishirashu Pears
1 BunchArugula
1 Butter Lettuce
1 lb Broccoli
1 Bunch Sweet Nante Carrots
1 Cauliflower
1 lbs Baby Bok Choy
*1.5 lbs Honeyboat Squash
1 lb Gold peppers
*NW Grown

It's also cool that they try to get a lot of their produce from the Northwest. Of course, in the winter a lot of it is from other states (mostly CA), but nothing travels too far.

Noah was very excited about the bin - especially since he saw oranges in it. I think he'll be looking forward to the weekly bin maybe even more than I will be. =)

grandma quilt

My Grandmother is amazing. She has made all of her grandkids a quilt for when they graduated from high school AND made baby quilts for all 13(!) of her great-grandchildren. She just finished Zach's, and I thought I'd show it off.



There's even a picture of Zach in it:


Zach likes it!


Here's a picture of Noah's. He loves his!

getting ready for christmas

mobile

Ok, so my almost 4 month old isn't actually mobile. But he sure doesn't stay still! Here's a look at what happened after one of our more recent "weekly pictures" photo shoot:



He's so proud of himself. This whole process took him about two minutes.

I did want to post these pictures in the opposite order just for fun.

growing vocabulary

Noah's been talking so much more lately. He's always been a talker, but now he's starting to string words together and repeat the words that we say. Here's some of his most recent comments...

"I found you" - he says this with a laugh whenever he thinks he's hiding or mommy's hiding.
"More juice" - a constant phrase of his
"Mommy huggy Zach" - Zach was crying in the car, and he was very sad for him.
"Mommy do it" - this is often the case when I tell him to pick something up himself. We're working on this.
"Hi Mommy/Zach/Daddy" - He loves saying hi to all of us. Probably because he always gets a big smile!
"Zach's crying" followed by "Zach's happy!" when we tell him that Zach isn't crying.
"2, 3, 2, 5" - his current counting scheme
"Daddy's at work" - said very matter-of-factly
"Yucky diaper" - after each diaper change
"Change him" - when he knows that Zach's poopy
"Two bellys!" - pointing at me when nursing Zach
"Daddy!" - when daddy comes home from work

In closing, here are some pictures of our almost two-year old!

zach's kidney update

Since Zach's been born, it seems like all we've done is go in and out of doctor appointments. We've had two well-baby visits, two appointments with the nephrologist, an echo and ultrasound done, and a VCUG. Mom's also been in for a check-up with her doctor and two post-natal appointments with her midwife. We still have another well-baby visit for Zach and one for Noah before the end of the year! And all of this since Zach's birth on August 20th!

You'd think with all of this medical intervention, there would be something wrong with our child. But there isn't. Yes, he's missing a kidney, BUT nothing else is wrong. The doctors have ensured us that everything is well, but only after making us do multiple tests on him (and a couple of hundred dollars later). It almost makes me wish I had never done a prenatal ultrasound on him.

The most recent test was his VCUG. This was a very invasive procedure where they took X-Rays of his bladder after filling it with dye. He had to be strapped to the table and it was very hard for a mommy to watch. Thankfully, as it came out negative (they were looking to see if there was reflux between the kidney and the bladder), they won't have to do it again. They have let us know that eventually Zach will develop high blood pressure, but that may not happen for another 40 years. In the meantime, we will need to get him monitored yearly which means blood pressure tests and ultrasounds every year.

In closing, here are some pictures of our healthy little Zach:

november

Time for yet another catch-up post! November was a very busy month for us: full of family, baptisms, and conferences. Not to mention every day life with two kids under two! So, in order for all our faithful(?) readers to know what we've been up to, here is a brief recap.

The first weekend in November, Phil, Loren, and Noah all took the train up to Vancouver, Canada for a day-trip. Noah absolutely loved the train, and had a great time just being the only kid again for a day. Mommy stayed home with Zach and had a very productive house-cleaning day. Here are some pictures from they boys' adventures:










We also got Zach baptized this last month at church. It was very festive:




Then, we had Grandma Hagelberg come visit for a couple of weeks. She got to meet her new grandson for the very first time. I think she likes him. ;-)





She was helping mommy out while daddy went to his annual RubyConf in San Francisco. Daddy even spoke at the JRubyConf on Sunday.



And finally, we had Thanksgiving with the Wisdoms down in Graham. We had a lovely, relaxing time with them (as always), except for the fact that Noah chose not to take a nap. Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures (boo). We'll try to be better at Christmas!