Ready for the weekend

Part of me feels like this week has absolutely flown by. The other (more critical part) keeps thinking "is this EVER going to end?" I feel like it's just been one thing after the other this week. And while it's kept things interesting, I'd really just love a few days of quiet.

Okay, enough of my whining. Overall, we had a good day around here. Noah and I went over to Miesje's house to have lunch with her and Coen. The boys are (for the most part) really good about playing together. And like I've mentioned before, I think Coen is a good influence on Noah. He seems to be trying to new things and being a little more adventuresome. Maybe he will walk before he's twenty... ;-) They seem to like each other, especially Noah. He lights up every time he sees Coen. And the fact that us Mom's get to hang out for a couple hours is just icing on the cake...

Sorry there was no blog yesterday, but we were going non-stop then, too. Noah and I ended up running a few errands and then meeting Beth at the mall for coffee in the afternoon. By the time I rolled in at 6, I still had some more shopping I needed to get done, so I left the kiddo with Grant and went back out shopping. I then ended up on the phone with Mom (finally!) for awhile, and was pretty much spent by the time we hung up. You know it's been a long day when you don't get dinner until well after 9pm...

I can't believe tomorrow's the first of May. Happy May Day, everyone :) Until then, I should head out and get my kiddo in the bath before I head over to the Kunkle's to watch Grey's Anatomy tonight. More tomorrow. 'Til then, enjoy the pictures :)

Dude, are you done yet?

Still waiting for Coen

Noah liked the lion

Playing in Coen's tent

Coen!

Noah really liked the tent

At the end of the tunnel

He crawled through!

And back again

And back to Mommy, one more time

The zoo!

It has been one busy day, let me tell you. It's not even 6:30, and truth be told I'm kind of exhausted. Not only did we go to the zoo and Paws On today, but Noah and I had swim lessons as well. And as tired as I am, I'm guessing it doesn't match up to my cranky kiddo, who got less than a 45 minute nap this afternoon...

As soon as I got off of work, Noah and I headed up to Viera to meet Miesje and Coen at the zoo. For the first time, we actually got to see the giraffes! Better yet, we got to feed the giraffes! (Well, one giraffe) It was so much fun. And whoever I was talking to about this before, giraffes really do have black tounges, I was right. Trust me, we got kind of up close and personal with the giraffe ;-)

After we saw all the animals, we checked out the newest addition to the zoo called Paws On. There's a lot of water areas and both Noah and Coen had a blast playing. After the hot, sweaty walk around the zoo, it was nice to cool off with the kiddos for awhile.

Swim, again, didn't go all that well. I'm going to blame it on the fact that my child is so cranky right now, he literally wouldn't be happy with anything. I'm sitting here looking at the clock willing Grant to come home so someone else can help me with him for awhile....

Alright, I've got to cut this short or Noah is going to yank my computer off the desk. More tomorrow, I promise. Enjoy the pictures!

Noah snacks, Bella waits for something to hit the floor

Rafiki the giraffe!

Hi there!

Coen and Miesje feed Rafiki

A different giraffe

We got so close!

He's handsome, but stinky

He really liked us

Noah and Coen

Parrot

Pink parrot (this one's for Shellie)

More parrots

Noah being a big kid

Noah and Coen checking out the birds

Kookaburra

Noah absolutely captivated

He had such a good time!

Noah and Coen check out the otters

Mom, will you stop with the camera already?

They'd rather play with each other than watch the otters

Noah at Paws On

He probably would have sat there and splashed all day if I'd have let him

Still splashing...

Did I mention he likes to splash?

Coen and Noah playing in the water

Coen and Noah

And so we begin again

Another week has begun. I was just looking at my calendar and realized that Noah's birthday is three weeks from today. I'm kind of sad; is that weird? When he hits one, he'll officially not be a "baby" anymore, and that bums me out a bit. On the bright side, onward and upward! Look at all the great things he's able to do now that he wasn't able to do before. Have to find the silver lining around here somewhere.

Maybe the silver lining is that right now, my house is silent. That's right, perfect quiet other than the click of the keyboard as I blog. Noah has been a bit of handful today, so Grant took him to run some errands about a half hour ago. God Bless Grant...

It looks like it's shaping up to be another crazy week. Noah and I are going to meet Miesje and Coen at the zoo tomorrow, then swim lessons later tomorrow. Hoping to catch up with Beth on Wednesday afternoon, lunch/play date at Miesje's on Thursday and then swim again, and perhaps a bachelorette party for Brie this weekend. Maybe? Those details are yet to be worked out, but I have no doubt that it'll be a full week. And only three more weeks 'til Ohio WOOO HOOO!

I know I'm cutting this short, but I'm off to enjoy the 20 minutes or so I have left of quiet. Sounds like a good time to call my Mom :-p Enjoy the pictures!

Noah snacking and watching out the window this morning

He's such a goofball

At least someone can use my old phone...

Noah outside on the patio, watching Bella inside

Cruising around outside

Patio Furntiure and a BBQ

Grant and I have been talking for a few months now about getting a table, chair and umbrella for the back patio. We just had this slab of concrete with the grill on it, which was looking kind of lonely. So finally, after lots of shopping around, we finally bought a set today!

To celebrate, we invited everyone over to help break it in over a BBQ. The majority of "the fam" came over for dinner and to hang out for awhile this evening. And (knock on wood) it was the first "normal" evening in awhile. No major incidents to report this time...

Otherwise, we spent the day getting things around here and picking up the house. I've come to the determination that it doesn't matter how often I sweep/mop the floor Noah will ALWAYS find something on it... It could just be a crumb, but Noah will find it and put it in his mouth. It's not even worth the stress of worrying about it constantly anymore. Bet you thought that was a sentence you'd never see me type ;-)

In other big news to report; Noah learned a new word. He was crawling around today, picked up Bella's toy which he then correctly identified as "duck." He comes out more like "Da-ck" which we thought was "quack" but apparently it's duck. Yeah Noah! He's also been taking one or two tentative steps between spaces, so maybe he'll be walking sometime soon? I'm at a lose for what he should and shouldn't be doing. It's probably better if I don't know what the milestones are supposed to be because then I won't be obsessing over if he can or can't do them ;-)

Alright, it's getting late and it's back to the grindstone for me tomorrow. Hope everyone had a good weekend. Until tomorrow - enjoy the pictures!

Noah eating (because he's always eating)

Chris, Ray and Grant assembling chairs

Three hours later... (just kidding)

They did eventually get it together, I swear...

The gang eating

Yay for new furniture!

The Florida fam at dinner

Chili's, Rock Bank, and the ER, oh my!

Daddy and Noah read Rainbow Rob (for at least the 3rd time today)

Check out those shoes!

This has trouble written all over it

Noah and Mommy rock out

Noah the drummer

He thought it was pretty fun to "play" with the big kids

Noah and Coen were dancing

Apparently the word normal has slipped out of my vocabulary lately. We can't seem to catch a quiet, relaxing normal night around here. And last night was no exception...

We caught up with majority of the Florida Fam at Chili's last night (when all else fails, Chili's it is!) for dinner. I think they probably dread seeing all of us coming. There was 10 of us plus the kiddo on a Friday night. I mean, we behave and all, but that's a lot of people at all one table pretty much all wanting to be on different checks. We're kind of pains like that ;-) Anyway, dinner was great and then we headed up to the Hals' for hanging out and some Rock Band.

Noah actually got in on the action last night as he and I rocked two songs on the drums for Rock Band. We actually did pretty well and didn't 'cause the whole group to fail, which is always a positive. Then he got to hang out and play with Coen because it was pretty apparent that Rock Band is not his forte at 11 months.

Next thing I know, I'm singing (gasp!) on Rock Band, Grant and Noah are playing somewhere behind me, we're trying to figure out the next song and I hear the sound of shattered glass. In the kitchen, Justin had dropped a glass on the counter, tried to catch it when it bounced back and ended up slicing his arm open. Chaos ensued.... In all reality, everyone was pretty calm about it, but the eventual decision was reached that it probably needed to be looked at which meant off to the ER.

I had already said I would be the DD for the night, so Justin, Chris and I hopped in my car and went off to Weustoff's ER. Just over 3 hours later we were back at the Hals' and Justin was the proud "owner" of 7 new stiches. Grant called him today, and he's apparently feeling OK, so we're glad that it got taken care of and wasn't any more serious. That being said; is a normal night too much to ask for?

So just after 2am, we got back home, finally got Noah asleep in his own bed (thank goodness for the pack and play) and got some sleep ourselves. I'm still dragging a bit and will be glad to catch up on my sleep tonight. What a weird night...

Alright, sorry this was up late, but our router decided to die yesterday so I had no internet until now. I probably won't post tonight as I'm hoping nothing exciting goes on between now and then ;-) Enjoy the pictures!