To help curb some of Samuel's immense excitement about Christmas, we baked and decorated some cookies today and brought them to our local fire station.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Gingerbread House
Every few weeks we go to Lowe's and pick up their free woodworking project for kids. Last year around this time we made a wooden gingerbread house. Unfortunately, last year's house met an untimely death by falling in the toilet a few weeks ago (don't ask), so I was glad to see Lowe's had the same kit this year.
This was the first project that Samuel was really able to do by himself. All Ernie and I did was help hold the pieces together so Samuel could nail them.
Here he is hard at work:
The finished house:
This was the first project that Samuel was really able to do by himself. All Ernie and I did was help hold the pieces together so Samuel could nail them.
Here he is hard at work:
Putting on the stickers:
The finished house:
If you have a Lowe's near you, I'd highly recommend checking out their Build and Grow workshops. They have a different kit every few weeks. Samuel has made a school bus, a fire truck, a helicopter, a truck, a pirate ship, and some other things. We especially love that they are free!
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
2 Months
Becca is 2 months old today! Here is her picture next to the teddy bear:
She has grown a LOT in the last month. I don't know her weight or height statistics for sure since we don't go to the doctor for another 2 weeks, but I would guess she is almost 11 pounds now. And she is definitely taller than she was because when I put her in the Bjorn, her head used to be way down below the top, and now it is about level with the top part.
In honor of turning 2 months old, last night she slept for 5 hours straight! I hope this continues!
She has grown a LOT in the last month. I don't know her weight or height statistics for sure since we don't go to the doctor for another 2 weeks, but I would guess she is almost 11 pounds now. And she is definitely taller than she was because when I put her in the Bjorn, her head used to be way down below the top, and now it is about level with the top part.
In honor of turning 2 months old, last night she slept for 5 hours straight! I hope this continues!
Thursday, December 3, 2009
New Pictures
When Samuel was born, we received a playgym as a gift. He loved to lie on his back and watch all of the toys, especially the part that lights up. We took the playgym out for Becca this past week, and she seems to like it too.
Becca:
And here's a picture of Samuel when he was about 2 months old. I think Becca kind of looks like him here:
And here they are together:
Note Becca's expression here, like "help me!"
Becca has been doing 3-4 hour stretches of sleep at night, which is great. In the beginning, she was getting up every 2 hours. I'm hoping the 3-4 hour stretches turn into 5-6, and hopefully sleeping all the way through the night will come soon. When she is awake during the day she loves to look at the lights, the ceiling fan, and the wallpaper in our dining room (which has a sort of bold flower pattern.) She is smiling a lot now, and is working on perfecting her screaming if you do not pick her up, feed her, or change her diaper as soon as she would like. She will be 2 months old this week, so I will have to take her picture next to the bear and post that on here.
Here are two other pictures of Samuel. He was cleaning (which he loves to do. Long may that last!), and for some reason just wanted to wear his underwear to do that:
Samuel with the playgym back in 2005:
Becca:
And here's a picture of Samuel when he was about 2 months old. I think Becca kind of looks like him here:
And here they are together:
Note Becca's expression here, like "help me!"
Becca has been doing 3-4 hour stretches of sleep at night, which is great. In the beginning, she was getting up every 2 hours. I'm hoping the 3-4 hour stretches turn into 5-6, and hopefully sleeping all the way through the night will come soon. When she is awake during the day she loves to look at the lights, the ceiling fan, and the wallpaper in our dining room (which has a sort of bold flower pattern.) She is smiling a lot now, and is working on perfecting her screaming if you do not pick her up, feed her, or change her diaper as soon as she would like. She will be 2 months old this week, so I will have to take her picture next to the bear and post that on here.
Here are two other pictures of Samuel. He was cleaning (which he loves to do. Long may that last!), and for some reason just wanted to wear his underwear to do that:
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Visit with Gran
We had a fun visit with Gran last week. Samuel was quite concerned that she know the rules and not come out of her bedroom until there was a 6 on the clock in the morning. However, he apparently decided the rules did not apply to him the first morning, as he paid Gran a surprise visit at 4:12 am.
Here are some pictures from our visit:
Swinging (only on the blue swing. Heaven forbid we suggest he swing on the red or yellow swing):
Checking out a ladybug on the ground:
Meg and Lilly came to visit one day too:
Becca is just starting to smile, which we love! Here she is smiling for Gran:
Becca is a month old now, and growing like crazy. At her 1-month checkup she weighed 10 pounds! She continues to be a very happy, calm baby. The other night at dinner, she even slept through the GIANT screaming fit Samuel threw about trying some soup. No need to tell most of you about that fit as I am sure you could hear the screaming with your own ears many states away.
When Samuel was a baby, we took a picture of him each month with a toy dump truck. It was neat to see how much he changed from month to month. We're going to try the same thing with Becca using a teddy bear as a growth marker. Here she is at 1 month:
Here are some pictures from our visit:
Swinging (only on the blue swing. Heaven forbid we suggest he swing on the red or yellow swing):
Checking out a ladybug on the ground:
Meg and Lilly came to visit one day too:
Becca is just starting to smile, which we love! Here she is smiling for Gran:
Becca is a month old now, and growing like crazy. At her 1-month checkup she weighed 10 pounds! She continues to be a very happy, calm baby. The other night at dinner, she even slept through the GIANT screaming fit Samuel threw about trying some soup. No need to tell most of you about that fit as I am sure you could hear the screaming with your own ears many states away.
When Samuel was a baby, we took a picture of him each month with a toy dump truck. It was neat to see how much he changed from month to month. We're going to try the same thing with Becca using a teddy bear as a growth marker. Here she is at 1 month:
Monday, November 2, 2009
Happy Halloween!
For the past 6 months Samuel had been telling us he wanted to be a frog for Halloween. He has this cute frog towel that I was somehow going to convert into a costume for him, until the hairdresser asked him a few weeks ago what he was going to be for Halloween, and he said Spiderman. Really? News to me. (However, this should not have been a surprise as he is slightly obsessed with Spiderman. One day we were watching a TV show where the character tells the kids at home to say their name, and Samuel said his name was "Samuel Spiderman Norwood")
So I attempted to find a Spiderman costume for him to wear. First we went to Walgreens, but they only had size 8-10. I tried to explain to Samuel that that size was too big and we would need to look somewhere else, but he had a complete meltdown. I told him we would drive to another store, and I stopped at a Halloween costume store down the road. Ye Olde Expensive Halloweene Shoppe to be more exact. They had plenty of Spiderman costumes in his size, but they cost $40!!!! Note to self: Do not ever enter that store again. Especially with a child who sees the costume of his dreams, has already been told no at one store, and has decided he needs a Spiderman costume NOW. From now on, I'm going someplace like Target. Alone.
Behold, the $40 costume:
Don't you love the muscles?
We went to a Harvest party at our church Halloween afternoon. It was really nice. They had all kinds of games and activities set up for the kids. Here are some pictures of Samuel playing some games:
Pumpkin rolling:
Ball toss:
Beanbag toss:
After dinner we went trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. To say Samuel enjoyed this would be a giant understatement. He was so excited that he could get candy from every house. He was also really good about telling people who tried to give him Reese's peanut butter cups that he was allergic to those.
If it's possible, he enjoyed handing out candy at home more than trick-or-treating. Each time the doorbell rang, he'd run to the door and give out candy. He tried to guess who each kid was dressed up as. One middle schooler was some sort of gory goth-type person, and Samuel said "here's some candy for you, big scary clown." Oh, he makes me laugh.
I had planned to make Becca a little spider costume to go with the Spiderman theme, but just did not get around to it. It's cliche but true about the 2nd child not getting as many pictures taken, etc. For Samuel's 1st Halloween, I made him a tiny Superman costume before he was even BORN. It's definitely more to juggle a newborn and a 4 year old. Maybe what I should do is go to Target now and buy Becca a costume for next year. Then, I am super prepared, and I bet all of the costumes are on sale now, so no more shelling out $40. Win-win!
So I attempted to find a Spiderman costume for him to wear. First we went to Walgreens, but they only had size 8-10. I tried to explain to Samuel that that size was too big and we would need to look somewhere else, but he had a complete meltdown. I told him we would drive to another store, and I stopped at a Halloween costume store down the road. Ye Olde Expensive Halloweene Shoppe to be more exact. They had plenty of Spiderman costumes in his size, but they cost $40!!!! Note to self: Do not ever enter that store again. Especially with a child who sees the costume of his dreams, has already been told no at one store, and has decided he needs a Spiderman costume NOW. From now on, I'm going someplace like Target. Alone.
Behold, the $40 costume:
Don't you love the muscles?
We went to a Harvest party at our church Halloween afternoon. It was really nice. They had all kinds of games and activities set up for the kids. Here are some pictures of Samuel playing some games:
Pumpkin rolling:
Ball toss:
Beanbag toss:
After dinner we went trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. To say Samuel enjoyed this would be a giant understatement. He was so excited that he could get candy from every house. He was also really good about telling people who tried to give him Reese's peanut butter cups that he was allergic to those.
If it's possible, he enjoyed handing out candy at home more than trick-or-treating. Each time the doorbell rang, he'd run to the door and give out candy. He tried to guess who each kid was dressed up as. One middle schooler was some sort of gory goth-type person, and Samuel said "here's some candy for you, big scary clown." Oh, he makes me laugh.
I had planned to make Becca a little spider costume to go with the Spiderman theme, but just did not get around to it. It's cliche but true about the 2nd child not getting as many pictures taken, etc. For Samuel's 1st Halloween, I made him a tiny Superman costume before he was even BORN. It's definitely more to juggle a newborn and a 4 year old. Maybe what I should do is go to Target now and buy Becca a costume for next year. Then, I am super prepared, and I bet all of the costumes are on sale now, so no more shelling out $40. Win-win!
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Recent Pictures
Last week I took both kids to get their pictures taken at Portrait Innovations. Here are some of the pictures:
The photographer told Samuel that if he did a good job, he would take his picture as spiderman shooting a web:
And here are some pictures from around the house the past few days.
Samuel wearing his birthday present sunglasses from Aunt Erin, and "doing his work" as he likes to call playing with this old adding machine:
Becca in the cute hat one of the nurses made her at the hospital:
Things are going pretty well so far. Samuel has been having some issues listening both at home and at school, but he seems to be doing a little bit better each day. He is really interested in Becca, and any time she makes a noise, he always asks "what's she saying?" We still have to stress being gentle, as he is apt to shove her pacifier in her mouth with a little more force than necessary, but I think he is liking being a big brother. It doesn't hurt that he has received tons if presents from people for becoming a big brother. Who wouldn't like that?
The photographer told Samuel that if he did a good job, he would take his picture as spiderman shooting a web:
And here are some pictures from around the house the past few days.
Samuel wearing his birthday present sunglasses from Aunt Erin, and "doing his work" as he likes to call playing with this old adding machine:
Becca with Aunt Meg:
Becca in the cute hat one of the nurses made her at the hospital:
First bath, which Becca seemed to like until it was time to get out and then she peed all over me and her towel:
Things are going pretty well so far. Samuel has been having some issues listening both at home and at school, but he seems to be doing a little bit better each day. He is really interested in Becca, and any time she makes a noise, he always asks "what's she saying?" We still have to stress being gentle, as he is apt to shove her pacifier in her mouth with a little more force than necessary, but I think he is liking being a big brother. It doesn't hurt that he has received tons if presents from people for becoming a big brother. Who wouldn't like that?
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
It's a Girl!
Around 3:00 am last Friday morning I woke up with contractions. They weren't very strong yet, but strong enough that I couldn't sleep. So I got up and walked around the house for a while, waiting to see if the contractions would come at regular intervals. After they were coming every 4-5 minutes for a while, I woke up Ernie and told him I thought we should head to the hospital in the next few hours. I didn't want to go right that second because I was worried they would check me out, say I wasn't far enough along, and send me back home.
We called Barbara and Bob to come over and take care of Samuel, and we left for the hospital around 5:45 am. Before we left, I woke up Samuel and told him where we were going. We had been prepping him for this for a long time. When I told him, though, he started crying and saying he didn't want us to go. That is, until I told him that he could go have a special breakfast of poptarts with his grandmother downstairs. Then he was all smiles since he very rarely gets those.
We got to the hospital at 6:00 and they took us to a labor and delivery room to get checked out. By this point my contractions were a lot stronger, and coming closer to every 2-3 minutes. They checked me and said I was already 6 cm dilated! I had a pretty quick labor with Samuel (he was born 4 hours after we got to the hospital) and with this being the second baby, the nurses said things would probably happen quicker. They were right. They put a call in to my doctor, who arrived just in time to deliver the baby. She seriously got there just as I was about to start pushing. At 8:26 am, we welcomed:
Rebecca (Becca) Elizabeth Norwood
October 9, 2009
7 pounds 13 ounces
20 inches
She was about 6 days early. I love that we waited to find out that she was a girl. It was such a nice surprise to hear the doctor say "It's a little girl!"
Here are some pictures of us in the hospital:
We came home Sunday afternoon, and everyone is doing fine. Samuel seems to really like being a big brother and loves to enthusiastically hug Becca. We have to stress being gentle a lot. For some odd reason he told everyone at school that we named her Olivia. The only reason I can think of for this is that sometimes he likes to watch this show on Noggin called Olivia about a family of pigs. One day last week he asked me if the baby would like to watch Olivia, too. I said probably. Who knew that to a 4-year-old, that meant we would be naming the new baby after a cartoon pig?
Yesterday when he came home from school he ran in and the first thing he said was "Is the baby here?"
This morning he said to me "I really like that cute little baby. Can we keep her?"
So, I think things are going as smoothly as possible in that area.
Here are a few pictures from the past few days at home:
We called Barbara and Bob to come over and take care of Samuel, and we left for the hospital around 5:45 am. Before we left, I woke up Samuel and told him where we were going. We had been prepping him for this for a long time. When I told him, though, he started crying and saying he didn't want us to go. That is, until I told him that he could go have a special breakfast of poptarts with his grandmother downstairs. Then he was all smiles since he very rarely gets those.
We got to the hospital at 6:00 and they took us to a labor and delivery room to get checked out. By this point my contractions were a lot stronger, and coming closer to every 2-3 minutes. They checked me and said I was already 6 cm dilated! I had a pretty quick labor with Samuel (he was born 4 hours after we got to the hospital) and with this being the second baby, the nurses said things would probably happen quicker. They were right. They put a call in to my doctor, who arrived just in time to deliver the baby. She seriously got there just as I was about to start pushing. At 8:26 am, we welcomed:
Rebecca (Becca) Elizabeth Norwood
October 9, 2009
7 pounds 13 ounces
20 inches
She was about 6 days early. I love that we waited to find out that she was a girl. It was such a nice surprise to hear the doctor say "It's a little girl!"
Here are some pictures of us in the hospital:
We came home Sunday afternoon, and everyone is doing fine. Samuel seems to really like being a big brother and loves to enthusiastically hug Becca. We have to stress being gentle a lot. For some odd reason he told everyone at school that we named her Olivia. The only reason I can think of for this is that sometimes he likes to watch this show on Noggin called Olivia about a family of pigs. One day last week he asked me if the baby would like to watch Olivia, too. I said probably. Who knew that to a 4-year-old, that meant we would be naming the new baby after a cartoon pig?
Yesterday when he came home from school he ran in and the first thing he said was "Is the baby here?"
This morning he said to me "I really like that cute little baby. Can we keep her?"
So, I think things are going as smoothly as possible in that area.
Here are a few pictures from the past few days at home:
Becca, so far, is a great sleeper. I hope that continues. It seems like Samuel never slept, not even as a newborn. Becca wakes up to eat, looks around a little bit, and goes right back to sleep. She seems very content and laid back. We are loving that!
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Birthday Boy
Samuel is now 4 years old! We had his first real party this weekend - the kind where you invite friends and play games. The kids had a great time making crowns, playing beanbag toss games and pin the tail on the donkey (actually, the version we got from Oriental Trading Company was stick the tail on with a sticker), playing with toys, and eating cupcakes.
Samuel was super excited that people brought him presents. He got some really neat things, and is especially loving the spiderman stuff and the transformers. As I have mentioned before, he is all boy!
I'm not sure how the parents of the other kids feel about pictures of their kids online, so I am just going to post a few of Samuel at the party (and one of Lilly as I'm sure Meg won't mind.)
Pin the tail on the donkey:
Figuring out how a transformer works:
Lilly displaying the crown she made:
Hanging out after the party was done:
In pregnancy news, I am almost 39 weeks now, so just over a week to go! Here is my picture from last week:
At my past two doctor appointments they have checked me to see if I am dilated at all. So far only 1 cm, so not much to report. I know that can change at any moment though.
I am having a lot of trouble sleeping lately because I'm really uncomfortable. Every time I turn over in bed at night, I wake up. Sometimes I am able to go back to sleep, but some nights I end up lying awake in bed for hours, or getting up and doing things like folding all of the newborn clothes we have from Samuel (hello nesting, nice to see you again), or posting on our blog at 3:30 am. I suppose it's good preparation for getting up in the night when the baby arrives.
I have my next appointment at the doctor this Thursday, and I'll post an update after that.
Samuel was super excited that people brought him presents. He got some really neat things, and is especially loving the spiderman stuff and the transformers. As I have mentioned before, he is all boy!
I'm not sure how the parents of the other kids feel about pictures of their kids online, so I am just going to post a few of Samuel at the party (and one of Lilly as I'm sure Meg won't mind.)
Pin the tail on the donkey:
Figuring out how a transformer works:
Lilly displaying the crown she made:
Hanging out after the party was done:
In pregnancy news, I am almost 39 weeks now, so just over a week to go! Here is my picture from last week:
At my past two doctor appointments they have checked me to see if I am dilated at all. So far only 1 cm, so not much to report. I know that can change at any moment though.
I am having a lot of trouble sleeping lately because I'm really uncomfortable. Every time I turn over in bed at night, I wake up. Sometimes I am able to go back to sleep, but some nights I end up lying awake in bed for hours, or getting up and doing things like folding all of the newborn clothes we have from Samuel (hello nesting, nice to see you again), or posting on our blog at 3:30 am. I suppose it's good preparation for getting up in the night when the baby arrives.
I have my next appointment at the doctor this Thursday, and I'll post an update after that.
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