Beads!!

Noah has always been interested in those bead roller coaster toys. Last week however, he took his interest to a whole new level.

My parents were in town last week (I'll post more on that later, but I felt like the beads deserved a post of their own) and it was like everywhere we went they had beads! And everywhere we went Noah wanted to play with them and was sad to leave them when it was time to go.

We "played beads" on Sunday night when we got yogurt at BerriBlends.

We "played beads" at the Children's Museum on Tuesday.

We found out that BerriBlends got their awesome bead table at IKEA so we took our first trip to IKEA on Wednesday night. Can you believe it?! We've been here two years and that was our first time to go to IKEA. They didn't have the table, but we bought a small bead roller coaster.Since it was bedtime when we got home and the beads required "some assembly", Noah had to wait until Thursday morning to have them. When we gave them to him he got SO excited and kept saying, "BEADS!!!....BEADS!!!..." It was like he couldn't believe they were his to keep at his house. I don't know what it is about them that is so interesting to him, but that is pretty much the only toy he played with that day. My living room stayed so clean!
We went shopping on Thursday and found another cool bead table at Home Goods, too funny. I didn't even think they had toys! Noah and pappaw sat there the entire time my mom and I shopped.We ran to Target on Friday night for a few things. My dad and I got separated from Brandon, my mom, and Noah. The first place I looked for them was the "Thomas aisle" they weren't there so we kept walking. I jokingly suggested that Noah probably went to find more beads. About that time we hear, "BEADS!!" Sure enough. That's where he was.

I think it might be the best $10 investment we've ever made.

Summertime!

Summer is here in full force in Southeast TX. We are SO thankful that we have many pools available to help us stay cool.

I invested a buck on some floaties to see if Noah would wear them and he did!I also got him an inner tube. He loves it! He doesn't feel like I'm holding him the entire time, it gives him some freedom in the pool.Here he is using both!This pool is one of our (Brandon's) favorites. We just can't get over the fact that they built a White Water Bay style slide in our neighborhood. SO fun! Of course, Noey and I had to watch from the sidelines. He's not tall enough and I didn't think it would be the smartest thing for me to do being 5 months pregnant.

Brandon coming down the slide.

Happy Summer!

Noah's First Lake Adventure

Last weekend, some of our generous friends from church invited us to their parent's lake house. It was on Sam Rayburn Lake on the Angelina River. It was so beautiful and relaxing! When we arrived and got out of the car, we could hear the frogs and crickets and actually see the stars!


Saturday morning after a delicious breakfast, Noah was ready to play! They had a pool out on the deck with a slide, Noah thought it was SO fun. We all sat at the table under the shade and watched the kids play. I could get used to that. I'd enjoy my coffee on the deck every morning and my lemonade every afternoon. It was so peaceful.
A pool and a tractor, that's all this boy needs.
After lunch, we loaded up and went for a boat ride. I wasn't sure how Noah was going to handle it, he can be kind of a nervous Nelly about some things, but he LOVED it. He and daddy sat right up front, he ate it up!
After our little cruise, they anchored the boat and got out to swim. Noah wasn't sure he wanted to get in the water so he stayed in the boat and contemplated it for a bit, then decided he was all about it.


He really wanted Brandon to let go of him so he could "swim" by himself, but when he did, he'd flop over and then start flailing his arms all over the place.
Noah LOVES to splash and I'm sure Brandon unwillingly ingested some water.
This is our friend's son, Reagan enjoying the boat ride. He had a great time "swimming" in the lake too!
Sweet little Sarah was the youngest in the group. She is four months old. What a trooper! They put this enormous life jacket on her and she was so chill. I couldn't help but smile when I looked at her in her life jacket, she looked SO cute!

This is Claire, she is in Noah's Sunday School class at church. I think they both loved having someone their own age to play with!
Back at the house Claire and Noah had more fun entertaining each other. Claire was running in a circle around Noah and he laughed SO hard!
After naptime, the boys headed down to go fishing. Poor Noah wanted to see a fish SO bad and daddy wanted to catch one for him, but no such luck.
Noah was VERY patient. I didn't think he'd stay interested as long as he did. He even learned how to reel in the line by himself.
We had such a good time. It was so nice to get away from the "city" for a while and relax. I think I see a boat purchase somewhere in our future. *smile*

Final Kindermusik Class

We had our final Kindermusik class of the semester a couple weeks ago. It was such a good class and Noah had SO much fun! The teacher did a "best of" thing where she let us choose the kid's favorites.

Noah learned so much this semester. He went from hovering by the door, ready to leave to all out little boy participation! He was so fun to watch.

Getting rhythm sticks:

Playing peek-a-boo with the storytime blanket. The kids LOVED this:
Bouncing in the hoop next to Miss Carolyn:
Mommy and Noah winding down at the end of class:
What a fun semester we had!

One Big, Long Orlando Post

This post is SO belated, but ever since last Friday, I have been spending my nap-time-computer-time educating myself on all things baby girl (Oh. Wow.) and the blog has suffered.

Brandon had another conference in Orlando this year so Noah and I got to tag along again!

On Monday, we decided to just hang out at the hotel and swim. Here's my little dude ready for the pool. Don't you love the tiny flip-flops?!

Once we had our quota of sun for the day, we ate some lunch, then headed in to "play cars". I had to let go of my germ fears and just let the boy play on the nasty floor. It's not like we had many options with the few hundred square feet we had.

Day 2: We got a little sunburned the previous day so we had to find other things to do. We had McDonald's on one corner and Perkins and Burger King on another. We opted for Perkins for breakfast and McDonald's for lunch. Our choices were limited since we didn't have a car.

Noah's ready to go in his "Fourda shirt".

The McDonald's was HUGE, it was two story. They served a "bistro gourmet" menu in addition to the tried and true. Noah thought it was a great treat to eat at McDonald's because we never go there. He even got to sit by the aquarium and eat with Dori. Of course I had to let him play in the giant play area, that was pretty much our entertainment for the day. We headed back to the hotel and he wanted to swim SO bad so I found a kiddie pool that was about one-fourth shaded and made him stay in that tiny section. That evening it was raining so instead of walking to dinner, we took a taxi, Noah's first. He was SO excited. He kept saying, "in the taxi, in the taxi, in the taxi!!" The driver was like, is this his first time in a cab? We were like, how can you tell?!

Day 3:

We had a shuttle that went from our hotel to Sea World so I decided to venture out with Noah by myself. I couldn't decide if I wanted to take the stroller and fight him wanting to push it/ram in to people all day instead of ride in it or just take his backpack-leash. I opted for the latter, BIG mistake!! He got WAY too tired of walking and wanted me to carry him. SO exhausting and SO hot.

After 30 minutes at Sea World, he said, "go on the yellow bus". He was ready to get back on the bus that dropped us off at Sea World and go back to the hotel. He thought he was big time riding in the front seat of the bus with no car seat. I think that was his favorite part of the day, other than the trolley ("bus") that took us home.

I talked him out of wanting to leave and we saw the sting rays ("sting rabes"), dolphins, sea turtles, a manatee (although Noah was more excited about the dragon fly buzzing the manatee), I think he would've ridden the roller coaster if he was tall enough, he was fascinated watching it (he thought it was a train). We finally made it to Shamu's Happy Harbor, the splash pad was his favorite part of Sea World (he says it more like "Sea Weild"). I just took off his shoes and let him go. His clothes were soaked, but he loved it!

After he got soaked, we drove the remote control boats and monster trucks and played the steel drums. By that time, we were famished and settled in for our WAY overpriced lunch.

We were walking down the sidewalk and these flamingos went walking by! So funny!

Sweet boy next to the whale bushes:

We briefly visited the Clydesdales then headed for the trolley stop, my boy (and his mama) were worn out!

Day 4:

Daddy was finished with his conference! He rode to the airport with his co-workers, got our rental car, came back, and we headed off to Magic Kingdom! Noah LOVED the bright blue car that daddy came back with! After three days without transportation, this busy boy was ready to "go bye-bye in the blue car"! We parked and hopped on the monorail. Noah was SO excited to ride "the train".

Noah was not big on the rides this year. I thought he and daddy would be able to ride Dumbo, the Teacups and some others, but he wanted nothing to do with them. We walked through the Swiss Family Treehouse, rode It's a Small World and went to see the Country Bear Jamboree, but Noah was more concerned that the talking moose and buffalo heads on the wall were going to jump off and get him. He was nothing like last year. His favorite thing was Pooh's Playful Spot which was like any playground you could find in TX.

We never watch Playhouse Disney and don't have any Mickey Mouse books, but Noah's objective for the day was to meet Mickey Mouse! He was so cute and excited when we finally did and much to our surprise, Minnie was there too!

When we walked out the door after our photo op with Mickey and Minnie, it looked like this:

Noah couldn't have been happier getting to play in the rain and splash in the puddles.

After off and on downpours throughout the day, we decided to give up and head back to the hotel. Here's a rainy Main Street on our way out:

And here's my tuckered out little boy:

That evening I wanted to go back to MK for the parade and fireworks, but didn't think the boys were that in to it. I knew Noah would have just as much fun (if not more, look at that face!) at the pool, so that's what we did.

Day 5:

Sea World Part II

Sea World's tickets were buy one day get one free so since daddy could accompany us, we went back. We got there and headed straight for Shamu Stadium to get in line for the Believe Shamu Show. Noah LOVED it, I think it might have been his favorite part of our vacation. Now, anytime he jumps (whether he's in the pool or on dry land) he says, "jump like Shamu"!

As a trainer, how exactly do you attempt this move for the first time?

Amazing creatures! Could you imagine training these things?

In awe at the Shamu show:

A close up look at one of the beautiful whales.

Noah and the baby whale:

"Here dolphin, dolphin":

We got to view the dolphins underwater as well:

Handsome boy and the pretty Sea World scenery:

The penguin encounter. This looked eerily similar to a scene in Happy Feet. I think Noah was waiting for them to start dancing:

Fun family day at Sea World Orlando!

Day 5:

Epcot/Hollywood Studios

Noah had been looking for Nemo all week. He'd seen Dori at McDonald's and Sea World, but we had trouble Finding Nemo so we made a special stop at Epcot JUST to ride The Seas with Nemo and Friends.

The ride exits through a little aquarium. Here's Noah looking at Mr. Ray's neighborhood. After seeing Nemo, we went to Turtle Talk with Crush. Noah sat down on the floor with all the other kids while the mommies and daddies sat in the back. He didn't last the entire time, but I was way proud of him for trying. Crush answered the kids' questions and called them by name, it was so cool. He also taught them to say, "dude!" and "righteous!"

We didn't really have time for anything else at Epcot because we wanted to get to Hollywood Studios in time for the Block Party Bash Parade. Noah loved it again this year and wants to watch our video all the time.

After the parade we went to see Playhouse Disney Live On Stage. It's a very cute show! They incorporate the Mickey Mouse Club, Handy Manny, My Friends Tigger and Pooh, and Little Einsteins. Our final stop was a visit with Lightning and Mater. I think Noah was more nervous around them this year than last.

"Luigi's Casa Della Tires, home of the leaning tower of tires."

Day 6:

Ready to go home! We got to the Orlando airport and made it through security just in time to grab a quick breakfast (no more McDonald's for a lonnnnnnnnnnng time, please!). We had a great flight home. Noah sat in the "big boy" seat again and did great. We landed and headed to baggage claim, got our suitcases and waited and waited and waited for Noah's carseat. It never showed up. Brandon went to file a claim with Southwest. They hooked us up with a car seat and told us they would deliver ours whenever it decided to fly home from Orlando. Props to Southwest for taking responsibility for the airhead Orlando crew and showing a little customer service. Jeers to the courier for delivering our carseat at 11:00 PM smelling like smoke! Ewww!

Overall, it was a fun, unexpected vacation for us! Note to self: I don't have to take my child to Disney and Sea World for him to be happy (duh). He has just as much fun riding a bus, tram, or taxi, playing in the rain or swimming pool, pushing his stroller back and forth across the bridge at the hotel, or just playing cars. I think it will be several years before we try another Disney vacation.