Shake Out Your Arms And Legs!

Dylan loves to dance. She also loves Sesame Street. Here is a fun clip of her "Shaking out her arms and legs." The song is from a Sesame Street Sing-Along video. She's showing off specifically for the camera, and thus her storming for the camera after she is done so she can "see it! see it!!"

(We are at Grandma Karen's house...)
Enjoy.

Timeout, Broncos!

Dylan, Noah and I went to our first Bronco basketball game of the year on Thanksgiving Eve. Jason's team played Thornwood at the Lincolnway East Thanksgiving Tournament. Grandpa Warren and Grandma Karen met us there to watch the game/help me watch the kiddos.

Most of the game was spent doling out books, snacks and toys, keeping Noah from scaling the bleachers, and keeping Dylan from jumping down the bleachers. But then, there were moments when Dylan did watch the game. And then there was this..."Timeout, broncos!" All eyes on daddy and his team. Dylan looking very concerned..."Mommy...did daddy and his team get a timeout?"

Maybe this two-year old is getting a few timeouts herself lately...?

Halloween at the beehive

Halloween has come and gone. Dylan had the privilege of being a bumblebee once again. And I was lucky enough (although Noah might disagree someday) to find a honey pot (or hunny pot - as Pooh bear spells it) costume for Noah. The only thing that would have been cuter is if Jason and I would have dressed up as beekeepers (I really wanted to...just no time to make costumes...)

So here's a couple of shots from our day.

Dylan "fingerpainting" with orange vanilla pudding. Yeah, not so much painting but licking repeatedly.


Decorating Halloween cookies. Not so much spreading as licking.


The family all ready for trick-or-treating!


Daddy and Dylan finding another house with a porchlight on! Dylan can't stop staring at her candy. She would say, "Do I have SO MUCH candy!" and laugh.

Waiting patiently at a door for candy. She would usually say "trick-or-treat" at our prompting. But then would always wave after she got the candy...and say "Happy Halloween!" on her own. Oh yeah, and one time she took one candy and then reached back for more saying, "I should get one for my baby brother..." So sweet or so sly?


This is how Noah spent his first year trick-or-treating. He was pretty content considering it was bedtime.


Showing off her night's accomplishments.

Kalona, Fall Festival

The last weekend in September, the kids and I visited Jason's sister and bro-in-law Mo and Dwight and their kids Michaela, Eli and Caleb in Kalona, Iowa. They had a Fall Festival that weekend, so we went twice and enjoyed the rural fun! Dylan had a blast. Here is a taste of the weekend.

Grandma Karen and Grandpa Warren have HUGE pumpkins by their farmhouse. In the foreground is Gypsy, one of Dylan's favorite friends.


Dylan holds MVP, the most mellow of the kitty cats. She's in HEAVEN! Every morning she would wake up and the first words out of her mouth were "Can I hold the kitties now?"

Dylan and Michaela rode this little train around downtown Kalona.


They had this HUGE pit of corn for the kids to play in. It was awesome! A mega sandbox of corn! Dylan could have scooped and buried for hours.


My first apple fritter. YUM.


Yes, Noah was there too. But there wasn't much for a 7.5 mo. old crawling baby who puts everything in their mouth. So, we did a lot of sitting, slinging, holding.


"I got a golden ticket..." Actually, it's a ticket for a PONY RIDE! What joy.


Look at that big girl riding a pony all by herself. Of course, it was "Again, mommy!" as soon as the ride was over. No, I didn't give in.

dialogue

Inspired by my sister's post of a conversation with her daughter.

Recent dialogue between me and Dylan. I was going to teach a couple a Bradley Method of Childbirth Refresher course that night and I was telling her that I had new students. Sidenote: I just finished a couple of weeks ago my first series of classes with one couple who Dylan had the privilege of meeting.

D: Mommy, are your students broken?
H: No, they're not broken - what do you mean?
D: You had to get new students. Are the old ones broken?
H: (laughing hysterically). No honey, they're not broken...they had their baby.
D: (laughing hysterically). Can you believe it darlin'?

I guess I've made it clear that when things are broken, you have to get new ones. We obviously don't reduce, reuse, recycle enough...geeeesh...

Mourning

Jason went back to school this week. Well, actually, last week for teacher days, but he had students this week. The day before he went back I spent my time mourning.

Mourning the long summer days now getting shorter.
Mourning the end of vacation season.
Mourning my husband leaving everyday at 7:15am, only to return 9, 10, or 14 hours later.
Mourning the thought of cold weather and winter coats.
Mourning the idea of doing the 2 kid thing on my own again.
Mourning the fact that I would no longer get a leisurely shower during the week.
Mourning for Jason that he didn't get enough time to "just relax" this summer.
Mourning that our kitchen floor and walls are still not finished.
Mourning that daddy won't be home to play.

Now, it's been over a week of those long days, and they happily don't really seem so long. The anticipation of the scary is always way scarier than the scary itself. And while, of course, I wish neither of us had to work, and I deeply miss Jason while he's at work, I have really enjoyed getting back into the routine that is two children at home. We are finding our groove again as a threesome and that is a familiar, jovial experience. Playdate anyone?

Summer Pics, Round 2

I haven't showed you any summer pics lately, so here's a few. Note: these are from before our vacay to So. Carolina. I'll put up some from vacation soon when I get pics from other family members.

Enjoy!

Noah is trying his first bite of rice cereal! His sister wanted to do the honors...
Notice...most of it is not in his mouth...


Dylan is really getting good at holding her brother now, and he's all for it!


Spending some time at the Kalona pool when we went to Iowa to visit Jason's sister Mo's family. Dylan starts to show us what a true waterbug she is! She wanted to jump off the side of the pool into your arms the whole time!


Some auntie Mo-Mo time for Noah - he loved the zero depth pool. SO cool in those shades, man.


They had new kittens in Iowa! Dylan was attached and asked me every day if we could take one home. "Can we have one to my house, momma?" She held them gently around the belly ("not the neck!")... most of the time.


Noah is starting to crawl! He was scooting around a bit in Iowa in this picture. But So. Carolina sealed the deal. He's a crawler! Let the babyproofing begin.


Dylan is becoming quite the little girl. She just looks so old in this picture to me. She has so much curly blond hair. I could just eat her up! Well for that matter, both kids are pretty delicious these days. :)

house with a view...

We currently are inhabiting a GORGEOUS beach house on Folly Beach in South Carolina - about 10 min. south of Charleston. AMAZING. We are having the time of our lives with my family and the house is perfectly set up for our needs. Each family has their own little suite with a jack and jill bath, two bedrooms (one for parents, one for kiddos), and a master suite for my parents. The main living area is a huge great room with a massive kitchen, large living space (with plasma TV...who says you don't need to watch 'So You Think You Can Dance' on vacation) and 10 seater table. We have porches spanning the backs of both stories of the house.

Now get this. The house in ON the beach. Like walk out the back door and you are in the sand dunes. It's so beautiful. We walked in on Saturday evening and looked through the back windows to the most amazing view of sand, water and peace. NATURE! It is amazing and so fun.

Our days are spent on the beach, of course. Dylan is a waterbug and is having an amazing time splashing, digging, throwing sand, jumping waves, etc. Sometimes I have to pinch myself as she runs up from the water with a bucket in hand, looking so much like a commercial for special summer family moments.

We ate at the Folly Beach Crab Shack last night and Jason and I split a big bucket of crab legs! Those of you who don't know, crab is one of my favorite foods, if not THE favorite. It was succulent, melt in your mouth delicious and I enjoyed every bite.

Noah is enjoying the vacation as well. He is army crawling around the wood floors like nobody's business. He sleeps pretty well on his stomach under a tent on the beach, and the one time I took him in the water, he just wanted to nurse the whole time, and he kept getting interrupted by the waves splashing all over him.

Now, I'm currently enjoying the A/C while the kiddos are all asleep. It's a scorcher out there, so we're taking a breather...

on the road again...

We've been logging miles. This past week we put exactly 1000 miles on my mom's van as we toured a triangle of Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois. We first headed to Marshfield, Wisconsin for the Rhodes family reunion. It was great fun and I (and the kids) got to meet some of Jason's other first cousins we had never met before! We did lots of swimming, eating good food, chatting, playing sports (not so much me as Jason and the other dads and kids), and just being together. It was wonderful.

From there, we headed down to Kalona, Iowa to spend three days with Mo, Dwight and the kiddos (jason's oldest sis and fam). SO FUN! They have a gorgeous new home which we fit right into. We spent some time at the Kalona pool, the Iowa City mall, and Jason worked the IMS basketball camp.

Traveling with 2 kiddos was really quite a blessing compared to what it could have been. They were amazing. Dylan was mostly occupied with music, snacks and books. Occasionally I'd try to pull out a new activity or puzzle or something, and it was quickly boring to her. Next time I'm just going to bring 100 books along (for the record, I did bring about 30 and it was not enough). Noah was awesome and slept record amounts of time, and then he would wake up and we wouldn't even know it - he'd be looking around, hanging out and just chill. He did eventually get sick of the car on each trip - crying on and off the last hour or so of each trip. But considering we were in the car a total of about 20 hours all 3 legs, it was pretty impressive.

Now, we're at home for a few days - Matt, Emily and Olivia Rittenhouse were just visiting for awhile, and Mo and the kids come to Chicagoland on Monday. We'll be out in the burbs hangin with them most of the week.

It's getting sort of depressing for me that it's august. Jason is of course home and it's AMAZING, but I'm starting to get all sad about him going back to school and that our uber-family time is drawing to a slow close. :( I need to take some deep breaths and realize we still have some time.

summer picture update

It's been way too long. So, here's what we've been up to lately...enjoying the summer heat...

enjoying some beach time at the indiana ogden dunes, where good friends christy, carson and caroline recently moved. so fun on their private beach!

sharing some pringles at grandma cindy and grandpa clark's house. my sister lara's kids, anya and evan, were there for the weekend too! so fun.

anya (2.5) and new baby evan (3 months old)

ooohh, daddy's head is so fun to rub.

dylan and noah have recently become real buddies. noah CRACKS up at everything dylan does. true giggles. and dylan is always doing stuff "for my brudder" or "make my brudder laugh"

Noah is going for his first swim in grandma karen and grandpa warren's back deck - they got the kiddos a little pool! he loved it! such sweet pasty skin.

one of our summer projects was THIS! jason put together this swingset and put mulch in our shared backyard behind our condo building. here dylan and michaela (dylan's 10 year old cousin) are swinging together. Michaela came from iowa to spend 4 days with us in chitown this past weekend.

Yesterday we all (Michaela too) went to the beach that is 2 blocks from our house. It was great fun and Dylan had a BLAST! Noah slept for most of it which was a great break for us from watching 3 kids on the sand... Dylan is eating her peanut butter and jelly sandwich in the water...she crunched more than a few kernels of sand that day...

sing a song

Dylan loves music and has for quite some time. She started to sing on her own a few months ago, but would only sing aloud for us while driving in the car - I guess she was embarassed, and somehow the car, sitting in the backseat not seeing my face, gave her the freedom to let loose. Now, she pretty much sings anywhere and everywhere. She is not embarassed by it, but rather is in her own little world when she sings. She likes to be acknowledged, but would be just as happy singing along for her own benefit.

Sometimes you'll hear full songs you know (most common are the ABCs or the Elmo Song). But usually it's a conglomeration of made up songs with snippits of stuff she already knows. You'll hear lots of repetition and lots of rhyming. Frequent song portions include Pop Goes the Weasel, Twinkle twinkle, Happy Birthday, Twiddle-dee-dee (from Musikgarten class), Lalala, and various other songs from her fave CD "The Best of Elmo." FYI, 5 months ago we got this CD from a friend. I was so mad I ever popped it into the car stereo...it was an instant favorite. I didn't get why - it was SO annoying. But, lo and behold, fast foward to the present and I don't actually cringe anymore when Dylan asks for "Elmo Songs!" each and every time we get into the car. And I find myself singing along more often than not...there's something oddly catchy. In fact, a week ago I was going to the store in the car by myself (hallelujah!), and I didn't even realize until I had returned home that I had listened to Elmo Songs on full blast the whole way to the store and back, singing right along...yikes.

Anyways, back to Dylan's singing. It's really quite adorable. And she usually moves her head and arms to the rhythym she's singing and get's really into it. Sometimes she does a grand finale and raises her arms and goes real high with her pitch. We clap, but usually that just starts her up again and she goes back into her music trance. When do we stop being so fancy free, not caring about our correct tune, or if someone is judging us? I don't want that to ever come. I just want to stay here, now, where music is our medicine, where songs can stop a tantrum (most of the time).

what's up with this mess?

When is the next time I'll have a clean house? I've heard from others that that will be when my youngest child is 4. Somehow that gets me mentally off the hook for a few moments, but I just can't seem to cope with this messy house. There is stuff everywhere, all the time. And I hate it.

I don't care if it's justified or expected with 2 kids. I know I have excuses...I guess. So, anyone want to come over and clean my house?

splish splash

We conqured our first pool event of the summer with only a few hurdles and meltdowns. We went over to our friend Megan's house. Iain, her son, is 7 weeks younger than Dylan. And Ruby, her daughter (not pictured in any of these pictures because she is also a second child, getting the shaft on photographic documentation), is only 6 weeks younger than Noah. We had a blast, truly. That's the thing about hanging out with someone who totally understands where you are in life...you don't have to worry or stress out when your son wails through your conversation and you have to pace the yard back and forth in the almost 90degree heat. You don't have to explain why your 2 year old is yelling "No!" in a very hurtful voice to you as we try to go inside for lunch. And you don't have to justify why you are exhausted, frustrated, overwhelmed, or even full of joy for these two little demanding angels in your life. She just gets it. And you can talk in fragments, lose your train of thought, and ignore your disobeying toddlers together.

It really was awesome. Dylan and Iain definitely had fun, but honestly, I think the get together was more for the moms' benefit.

this is how dylan "swam" most of the time. to her credit, it WAS pretty cold water.

really, mom...is this swimming suit from last year or WHAT?!

YAY! We finally (after about 1.5 hours) got up the courage!

this is why i like camera's that have more than 1 megapixel...

and this is how you end a swimming party when you're 2. You eat a naked lunch together!

moms day

I want to share a couple of pics from mothers day...jason dropped me off at best buy and said, "go pick out a new camera!" (ours had recently bit the dust...and we needed a new one anyway, so it was sort of a blessing in disguise)

Here are a couple of my first attempts at capturing some good moments...

dylan sleeping on the way home from the 'burbs...long day...

jason and noah chillin together after we get home from the store...


cutie pie lifting his head up so good!! so big!

Plane trip from hell

So, every once in awhile there is a moment when all you can do is survive. And you almost don't think you can, but somehow you do, and even in that horrid moment when you feel like nothing will ever be right again, it eventually does end. And here we are 3 days in the aftermath of our trip home from Colorado and I'm almost smiling...almost.

I took Dylan and Noah out to visit their new cousin, baby Evan, my sister's new baby, only 9 days old. I was dying to see my new nephew and I decided whatever the trip might bring, I had to do it. The trip there was a breeze and both kids behaved remarkably well for the craziness that was a flight with 2 children under the age of 2...well, actually Dylan turned 2 on the day we flew out there. And the pilot even invited her up to the cockpit and let her sit in his chair. We took a pic which I will pass along soon. But this is not why I'm writing...

I got a violent case of the stomach flu while we were out there and ended up in the ER with dehydration on Saturday morning before our return home. Semi-recovered, I decided to still go ahead and travel, as both kids seemed to be OK. WRONG. As we were ready to shut the doors and pull away from the gate, Dylan threw up. EVERYWHERE. She was terrified, bawling and I was helpless. I had Noah on my lap and was trying to catch the vomit in my hands so it wouldn't spill over onto the poor woman in the seat next to her. Her clothes were soaked and I didn't have an extra set. The flight attendants did the best they could to help, but asked me if I would be getting off the flight...Off? I don't have anywhere to go! Denver is not my home, and my sister and brother in law live an hour away with 2 little kids, I'm sure as heck not calling them. I have to go home! So they closed the cabin doors and we took off into the sky with one very sick (naked) child and one almost psychotic mother. I won't go into the rest of the details on how many more times she threw up, or how she cried most of the trip as I tried to impersonate Zoe and Elmo characters to keep her mind off of her bellyache. Needless to say, it sucked.

We're all recovered by now and everyone is happy and healthy. I just needed to write this down so when I'm having a bad day, I can go back and read this...which I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.

New Pictures!

Noah is trying to eat his big sister...Dylan was a trooper (we promised her a big bowl of ice cream and a lollipop...)

Look at that goofy guy. We think he's pretty cute.

One month old!

Noah Quinn Rhodes is one month old today!

No cast buddy, laying on Grandma Cindy's knitted blankie.


Grandma Cindy came to help out for the day. We're buds now!

baby brother

He's here! He's here. After all of our complications and the crazy journey we've been through the last 3 weeks, we're home and attempting to settle in and be normal. Noah got his cast off on Tuesday afternoon, and we hope for him to get his catheter out this tuesday. Life will be so much EASIER!

Here's a few pics from the end of the hospital and the first days at home.

Noah in the hospital making silly faces before we took him home.

Dylan with her fave new toys...sesame characters.

Dylan and Noah...first sister/brother pic at home.

Noah sleepy after the trip home from the hospital.

kiss the belly

We're now at 40 weeks + 3 days. My due date was Feb. 8.

We asked Dylan if she wanted to kiss her baby brother. She did!

Finger Painting

This morning Dylan and I did some fingerpainting. We always do this sans-shirt as it inevitably ends up very messy. It was all very fun times, that is until she suddenly started acting super tired. She started melting down and rubbing her eyes...with paint all over her hands. So, I took the opportunity to show her how hilarious she looked by taking her picture. She's half crying, half laughing here.

Snow Play!

Two weeks ago on MLK day we had a great beautiful snowfall and Jason didn't have school. We went out as a family to play in the snow at the nearby park. It was a magical evening with the flakes coming down and the sun setting over the city. It was so WINTER.

Here's some fave pics from the night.

Jason is trying to get Dylan to touch the snow.

Jason tackles Dylan in the snow...she wasn't super amused.

More snowfall moments...