Holiday #1, 2007

3 new teeth coming in!


Mama and Daddy on the hayride with Noah

Here's a recap of our busy but wonderful Thanksgiving weekend at the Hawkins.
Tuesday: 3:00 p.m.--expected departure time...5:20 p.m--actual departure from home...stop for food at 7:30 p.m. Stop for baby puking, 8:10...back on the road at 8:30....many verses of Old MacDonald later...arrive in N. Augusta, 2 something a.m.
Wednesday: a little sleepin in, lunch with Sherrie/mom and Leah, play time with Grandma Salter/golf, and relaxed evening at home. A. Jess and U. Jon arrive after midnight.
Thursday: family breakfast, coaxing Noah to walk (no such luck), GBay football, 4:30 turkey dinner, boys movie night/girls t.v. movie night.
Friday: 3:30 a.m. wakeup call, 4:30 arrival at Staples, Kohl's, Panera's, Target...4 women, 1 single purchase. How does that happen?!? Return back home at 8:30ish a.m...boys golf, more Noah time, Christmas Tree Farm (see above photots!), and Hawkins Family Fun Night. woooh.
Saturday: First ever Hawkins family Paintball Competition, Turkey Bowl Football (hawkins vs. teen boys) and good ol' Zaxby's chicken fingers. Departure time: 4:30 p.m...stop for Noah's dinner, 7:30...stop for more baby puking, 8:00...break time for mom and dad, back on the road at 9:00p.m....arrive home, 12:35 a.m. Sunday.

So after this weekend of fun we have decided that our adorable little man is 1) soooo close to taking some serious steppage, 2)soooo cute in his new little moose hat, 3)possible car sick? from watching videos in the car after eating?!? NOT the best hours we've spent together. Poor little thing. But we made it.

We really did have a great time seeing everyone, just makes us miss them so much more when we have to leave. It seems as if we looked forward to this holiday to get away and be with family sooo much, and then it went by sooo fast. So now we're on the other end of it, feeling a tad bit disappointed that it's already over.

Noah's Conversation with the Links Family

Forget babbling, Noah's now having full "conversations" with his toys.

Noah is a Babbler

The first 30 sec. are Noah talking, then he quietly explores a box for the next 30 sec.

Tike on a trike

A few photos to tide you over till the holidays...

And a few funny "things" from this week...

1.) When Noah finds an interesting toy/item that he likes, he will crawl all over the house, carrying it with him in his little hand. I don't know if you've ever tried crawling while holding something in your hand, but it's not that easy. Very funny is when he holds on to TWO things, one in each hand, and tries to crawl.

Somewhat related to this, if Noah has a pacifier in his mouth, and then he sees another one or you offer him one, he'll reach for the new one and then sit for a while to figure out what to do. Often times he'll eventually spit out the first pacifier and put the new one in his mouth. This last week, he did just that, then, seeing the first pacifier now on the floor, he spit out the "new" one and put the old one back in his mouth. I seriously thought this might continue back and forth for some time, but finally, he just kept the "first" paci in his mouth, carried the "second" one in his hand, and crawled in to the other room to play.

2.) Noah is cutting his top teeth now. Like possibly 4 at once. Yesterday I realized that while waiting for us to pick him up out of his crib, he has gnawed into the side of the crib rail with his little shark (bottom) teeth. NOW I know what those plastic crib guards are for I saw at Target!

3.) When he wants something, Noah YELLs a real short, but loud "Aaah". Actually i think it's more of an "ehh". If he doesn't get it right away, you get two "eeeh, eeeh"s. That boy's getting loud. (Then, if he still doesn't get it, the crying begins.)

Someone from our church gave us a Little Tykes toy chest and a tricycle for Noah. Matt took Noah on his very first tricycle ride around the house. Too funny. Hope it will post. He looks like SUCH a BIG boy sitting on that thing.

Make sure to hit the PLAY button below to watch him lap the kitchen.


Just two more full days till a holiday break! YEAH!!!

Alphabet Soup is almost caught up.

LLL l l l l LLLl l l....things I like, love or laugh at that start with L...

1) Lists: I am a list maker. I make to do lists, to buy lists, grocery lists, Christmas lists, honey do lists, new year's resolutions/goals lists, Bible verses I know lists, music I like lists, hopes and dreams lists, you name it. For some reason, my brain thinks in lists and finds comfort in list making. Now that you know this, it's not surprising that this alphabet soup thing is right up my alley.

2.) Lion--my little Noah was a lion for Halloween, and he was soooo cute.

3) Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe...I loved this book when i was younger and I loved reading it again a year or so ago to my class. And I loved the movie version.

4.) Lewis, C.S. Lewis...what an amazing author. See my train of thought?

5.) Licorice--red, strawberry Twizzlers. I will put away a whole bag if I'm not careful. They are addictive, and you always want just one more...

6.) Laughing--nothing quite like a good belly laugh with friends.

Alphabet Soup Catch up, Take Two...

K

K is for Ketchup. I use a lot.

K is for Kearney, Matt Kearney. I love his sound.

K is for Kit-Kat, one of my favorite candy bars.

K is for kisses. I am a kisser. My husband is a good one, too. Noah gives open mouth kisses still. They are so cute. I also love Hershey's kisses, because I love a good chunk of chocolate.

K is for kettle. Tea kettle. I love to boil up my water on the stove. It feels so much cozier than using the microwave. Tea and hot chocolate taste better that way.

Alphabet Soup ....JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ

Apparently, Alphabet Soup has returned, and where have I been?

I guess I have THREE letters to catch up on. I think I'll do just one letter a day so as to not overwhelm anyone.

J....J....J....
This letter is hard for me. Here are a few things with J that I love...
1.) July--the month we were married. The beginning of our wonderful life together.

2.) Jewelry --from my husband. I don't wear or buy a lot of jewelry, but Matt has always done a really good job at picking out jewelry that I'll like. I have 5 or 6 neclaces that he's given me that are my favorites, and then of course there's the gorgeous diamond ring he picked out all by himself.

3.) Jean jacket--I know jean jackets may be a bit from the 80s, but I never had one back in the 80s, or 90s for that matter...and I always sort of wanted one. I found one last year that I liked and decided it was time to treat myself to my first jean jacket. I love wearing it, but I hate that you can only wear it when you're NOT wearing jeans. Because I wear jeans alot. I tried to explain to my mom that you shouldn't wear jeans on the top and bottom at the same time, but I don't think she gets it.

4.) Jackson--our precious "little" puppy. If you look back to last year before Noah, my blog was full of pictures of our new puppy Jax. We got Jackson when he was just a wee little lad, and I LOVED him sooooo much. He was sooo much fun to play with and he and I were great PALS. Peyton has always been more of Matt's dog, so Jackson was more of mine...Well, as you can probably guess, we no longer have Jax. We were able to keep him for a full year before we decided that 1)He grew to be soooo big! and 2)With the new baby coming, he had not grown up enough to settle down. It was a very hard decision, but we finally agreed that for our safety, we would have to give him away back in April. I hope he's doing okay out there and that some family is taking very good care of him. He was MY first dog, and thinking of him makes me very sad that he's not with us any longer.

That's all I got for Js!

New on Noah in November

I almost decided to NOT post anything on my blog for a while because I love the pix of Noah in his costume so much and I love seeing those at the top of the blog page...who wants to see a bunch of words on the blog!?!
But, alas, one day we'll have to move on, so it might as well be today. Just wanted to write a few things as updates for my family(ies).

1. Noah is over 8 months old, now, ya'll. This is totally getting ridiculous how fast he is growing. It was feeling pretty crazy to say I am the proud mama of , oh, a 5 or 6 month old, but now it's just insane. He is SOOOO big now. In so many ways! He hasn't been back to the dr. since his 6 month apptmnt, so no I don't know exactly but he is nearly 22 lbs., wearing mostly 9-12 mo. clothing and ready for his next size carseat (which is huge and can NOT be lifted out.) Not that I carry him in the car seat anymore. Oh no, we've been carrying him-only to and from the car for quite some time now.

2. He is also loving food, the real kind, not the baby jars anymore. I'm not even sure if I can coax him into eating what's left in the cabinet. I may have to add the puree stuff to thicker, chunkier foods. Whenever he sees any sort of food or drink, (or notices that one of us walked into the kitchen) he starts ooo-ooo-ing and squawking for a bite. His arms start flapping up and down like he's a bird when he gets excited. Today he gobbled up a pasta/cheese soup I made for lunch, mooched canteloupe off a lady at the church office, and stuffed stuffing in his face at dinner. He'd never had any of them, and loved all three. He's also enjoyed eating shavings of apple, spaghetti-0 type pasta, pizza, rice, bagels, etc.

3. Noah LOVES playing outside on the porch and the grass. Today he bear-crawled (on his hands and balls of his feet/toes) all the way from the edge of our yard, across the asphault to the church lot where his daddy was playing football. (I was right there with him, of course.) This is a good 30 or 40 feet though. On rough concrete. And he didn't seem to mind one bit. He was thrilled with himself.

4. Noah is STILL not sleeping well. In his crib. Tonight he has been "crying/screaming" out but not quite waking up. We go in to check on him and he's technically still asleep. Sometimes as soon as he starts to wake up, he will immediately try to sit up, or even stand, before he's even awake...and he usually falls over in a clumsy, drunkard like state once or twice before he really wakes up. It's pretty funny. Until about 2 or 3 in the morning.

5. Noah's favorite toys: Mama's keys of course, mom or dad's cell phone--he LOVES these--Moseley the cat and Peyton the dog--loves them also--tupperware containers, pots and pans....I'm beginning to wonder why our house if cluttered up with all these primary colored, Fisher Price links and rings when all our kid wants is REAL household objects!!! Save your Christmas gift money, people! Just buy me a new 5 quart saucepan and Matt a new cell phone--after a few hundred gallons of drool, touch any key and it thinks you're pushing 7. Anybody claim the number 777-7777?

We are soooooo looking forward to spending the holidays with family. Hope the next 2 weeks go by quickly and the week of Thanksgiving very sloooooowly!