Four

I stole this from someone else's blog!

1. Go to wherever you keep digital photographs on your computer, and click on the fourth folder.
2. Post the fourth picture in the fourth folder.

3. Describe what is happening in the picture.

4. Tag four people to do the same.


This photo was taken on Thanksgiving at Fred and Juliet's house in Dover. We had dinner with Grandma Norita, Brooke and Brooke's friend. I don't remember exactly why, but I think Dave had been holding Noah, and he was pointing to the head on the wall. Dave lifted him up high enough to "grab the bull by the horns!" Then we ate lasagna!

I'm going to tag Brandi, Jessi C., Andi and Jon (in hopes Jon will post some new pics!).

And now it's time for bed!

Weekend away

No trips to the ER this week, but we did almost have to go to the doctor again! Noah woke up yesterday morning with a fever and upset stomach. He was doing much better after his nap yesterday afternoon, and he seems back to normal today. Whatever it was, we're grateful none of us have picked up the gastrointestinal nastiness flying around this winter. Thank you, God!

The glue fell off Noah's head last week, and the wound seems to be healing nicely. It looks like a scratch on his head; hopefully, it won't scar too much. He's awfully little to have scars already!

Noah spent the weekend with grandparents while Dave and I went to Big Cedar with Brandi and Jason. Everyone I know who has been there raved about the place, and now I see why! We had such a good time in the two days we were there! Brandi and I both got massages on Saturday, but we had to go at separate times. We were just glad to get penciled in! My masseuse said it was hard to get me to relax. I thought, "Me? Do you know me? I'm the most relaxed person I know!" Then I thought, "Oh, no! I am the most relaxed person I know; you should see my friends!" She gave me a bottle of oil for baths, saying it would help me relax more. Then I went to pay and saw they keep a whole basket full of these bottles by the cash register! You'd think they could at least hide it a little better!

Then Brandi went for a message. I need to relax? Her masseuse told her she could have spent 30 minutes working out one knot in her shoulder alone! She told her she needs to get massages regularly and should consider taking up yoga in the meantime!

Other than being told we were tense, the weekend was . . . relaxing! We ate lots of good food, had some drinks, watched movies and went shopping. We went to Branson Landing and got some great deals! Naturally, the clothes we really loved were not on sale. But it will give us something to look forward to in the sale racks in a few months!

Dave using the teeny-tiny salt and pepper shakers on our dinner Friday night. They were less than an inch tall!

On our way home, we all had lunch at Lambert's in Springfield with Kristi. So good to see her, even if it was just for a little bit.

As much fun as we had, we were anxious to get home to Noah! We met Grandma Pat and Grandpa Rusty at Marshall Junction and headed straight home. We've spent the rest of the week playing.

Noah loves flipping switches and says, "lights." It usually comes out a cross between "lights" and "wights," but he enjoys saying it! He is also quite the be-bopper. He bounces half his body up and down or back and forth when he hears music, either on his toys or on TV. He'll also clap along when he hears that in the background. Such a funny little guy!

Another favorite thing to do is wear our shoes around the house! I never thought about someone wanting to wear my shoes and having them be too big for that person!

We're looking forward to a nice weekend at home. Grandma Pat and Aunt Kelly are coming for a visit Saturday morning, and that's about all Noah has planned for the weekend!

Noah Bob's ER Adventure

Maybe "grand" isn't always the right adjective to describe Noah's adventures!


We found out Tuesday Noah has an infection in both ears, on top of fighting the cold he's had for a week or so. I stayed home with him Tuesday, then we all went back to normal Wednesday.


Carol told me Wednesday evening when I picked him up that Noah had a low-grade fever that seemed to be climbing.


So Noah and I stayed home Thursday. He seemed fine during the day, so we were both ready to go to work/Carol's today.


I was at work for a little over an hour when she called again to say she thought he needed stitches! Apparently, Noah took a tumble OUT of the toy box. He didn't cry or make any noise about it - another little boy at daycare told Carol Noah fell when she came back from the restroom. Thanks, Charlie!


She said there weren't any toys on the floor in the area, and only Noah was covered in blood! We think he must have fallen and his glasses pushed into his forehead. Thankfully, they're titanium, so they didn't break in the fall!


I took him to Dr. McQuie's office first. She was hesitant to do anything in the office because of where the injury is - right in the middle of his forehead. She didn't want to do anything that would cause too much scarring, considering his fair skin. So she sent us to the ER, where they ended up gluing his head back together!


Noah was doing great until they wrapped him in a sheet, so he couldn't move his arms, and three strangers and I started hovering over him. They tilted the bed, and that was it! Poor little guy! It only took a few minutes, but it was the longest few minutes of the day.


The doctor washed his head off with cold water, then he put little tiny strips of tape over the wound and put a bunch of purple-ish glue all over the area. They said the strips will curl up and come off in about a week, and the glue should be gone by then, too.




So we just called it a week and came back home, even though he would have been fine to go back to Carol's. He's been in a great mood all day (scary strangers notwithstanding), and we're looking forward to a relaxing weekend (injury-free).


We're really hoping that the whole family can stay healthy after Regina's surgery next week. We could go for a hospital-free year, I think!


Hope you and yours are staying well!

The new year

What a wild, wonderful new year!

We spent New Year's Eve with Tad, Becki and Elizabeth and Jeanette, Matt and Nils. Tad and Dave used to work together at Socket; their daughter, Elizabeth, and Noah go to daycare at Carol's together, and she just turned one. Jeanette works with me at Res Life. They're from Chicago but came to MU, so Matt can pursue his Ph.D. in theater. Their son, Nils, is 10 months old.

It was so fun to watch all the little people running around! I didn't get any pictures, which I'll have to remember for next time. Noah realized Nils can't walk yet, so he crawled around on the floor with him! Everyone was gone by 9, so Dave and I cleaned up and read after that. He was sleeping and I was reading at midnight!

It was nice to have Thursday off together. We bought ourselves a new toaster for the new year! (We're really exciting people, if you can't tell.)

Noah figured out he can take his shirt off, so I guess he thought he'd sleep better that way on New Year's Day! His room was pretty warm, so we didn't bother fixing that one!

Then Noah's new glasses came in Friday, so we ran in to get those fitted. He's managed to get them bent slightly out of shape, but I really have high hopes that they'll survive longer than the previous pair.

We left for Lexington after work Friday night and spent the night with Grandma Norita. Noah didn't get to sleep til almost 11; he and Grandma had a camp-out in the living room, while Dave and I slept in the bedroom. The poor guy woke up screaming around 2 a.m. We ran in to check on them, but it seemed like having all three of us there wasn't helping. Dave and I left the room, and I thought Noah had gone back to bed within several minutes since I didn't hear anything else. I was wrong. He didn't go back to bed at all! He has a nasty cold, and it kept him awake. From the time he woke up from his nap at daycare Friday until about 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Noah had maybe four hours of sleep (and I think that's being generous).

We had breakfast with Grandma Norita, then went to Concordia for a quick visit. Grandpa Rusty is really sick, too; hope everyone else misses this nasty stuff. Noah got to see Grandma Pat for a few minutes before she had to leave. We went to Independence and did a bit of shopping, then we visited the Dunns in Blue Springs. Aaron, Erin, Tyler (7) and Lilly (almost 5) were going to stop by our place on Christmas as they were driving through Columbia, but Dave and I left for the hospital while they were on their way! So we had lunch with them yesterday and got to talk with Tyler and Lilly. They're both so funny and well spoken. Lilly had drawn us a picture and had a very elaborate story about Ghosty jumping down into the pool, then sliding into the hot tub. All the dots are people watching Ghosty, but Ghosty doesn't know they can see him. Then he got into a star and fell out of that into a water pump. This story covers both the front and back of the page! Too funny!

After that, we went to Independence Square for John's 30th birthday party. Nicci had reserved a bowling alley there for a couple hours. It was a small but very cool bowling alley! They seem to cater more toward the 30s' crowd. They played music from the 90s all night. The wooden floors had been redone, and they had soft, leathery couches instead of the usual molded plastic seats near the lanes. They had several pitchers of soda and water set out for us, and they had a marker out so you could mark your cup and identify it later. Even if Jonathan (John and Nicci's three-year-old) did beat me at bowling, I felt I made a pretty good showing, considering I had't bowled since before Noah was born and because my arms were incredibly tired from walking with and carrying him all day. Naturally, I picked up a spare in the sixth frame, then had two gutter balls in the seventh frame. I ended with a strike in the 10th frame! And lost to a three-year-old.

Considering how little sleep he had, we were really expecting him to not be so active. Wrong! We should have known better. If anything, he was wired that much more. There were other small children there, and he loved running around with them or having me walk him up and down the two stairs separating the eating area from the bowling area.

Another reminder of why we need to keep the door to the guest room closed when Noah's awake! If he notices it's open out of the corner of his eye, he makes a beeline!

This afternoon our next-door neighbors hosted a neighborhood open-house, so we could all meet a few new people. It was a lot of fun! We got to talk with people we see often enough to wave to but hadn't really spoken with before. We found out one of our neighbors up the street is a detective with the Sheriff's department, another is a local news anchor and another pours concrete. Dave needs concrete poured at work pretty soon, so that was a great connection! Two of the couples there met overseas, and another woman's dog is famous in the neighborhood! Apparently, everyone knows Gretchen the dog, and a few of the kids know Gretchen belongs to Heidi, but very few people know Chris, Heidi's husband! He said when he walks the dog, the kids run up to Gretchen to say hi, but they look at him like, "What are you doing with Gretchen? Where's Heidi?" It was a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon, and we're looking forward to a bbq this summer!

We came home and played after the party. Noah is starting to enjoy being in blanket tents and laundry basket forts with Dad more often, so he had a great time playing on our bed after we put clean clothes away!

No big plans for the coming week. We hope Noah gets over his cold very soon. He's been pretty good today about letting us blow his nose, but that is getting old fast!