Mischief

This was one of Luke's favorite activities, too.

My punkins

Last Saturday we made our annual visit to the pumpkin patch. It's an actual pumpkin patch where the pumpkins really grow, not a place where they've brought pumpkins in from somewhere else. They have cows, longhorns, sheep, and goats that you can feed, a hayride, and, of course, pumpkins for sale.

Noah was not at all afraid of the animals.

Noah enjoyed his first hayride.

Field trip

On Tuesday several of the 4's classes went on a field trip to Pumpkins on the Prairie at Grace UMC in Frisco. It was a great day! There were several stations including crafts, science, and math. Luke really enjoyed all the activities, especially the science station, and I had fun being with him.

They made pumpkin plates at the craft station.
At the science station the kids got to touch the inside of a pumpkin and guessed whether several different size pumpkins would sink or float (they all floated!)
After hearing a story about a girl who picked a perfect pumpkin, each of the kids got to pick their perfect pumpkin.
The Frog class

Argh, mateys!

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me!

Toofs

Maybe we should try brushing every now and then.

My boys

Ch-ch-changes

Yesterday's weather: sunny, windy, 90
Today's weather: rainy, windy, 50
Like the saying goes, if you don't like the weather in Texas, just wait because it's sure to change.

Hot, hot, hot!

Saturday at dinner Luke mistakenly ate a jalapeno pepper slice. He thought it was a green olive (or "green olim" as he calls them). As soon as the heat hit his mouth, he got a stricken, pained look on his face; I know you shouldn't laugh at your children when they're uncomfortable, but it was kind of funny. We got him some milk which cooled him off, and he seems to have survived. Today when we were on the ethnic foods aisle at Kroger, he saw jalapenos and said, "Mommy, I promise never to eat those again!" Lesson learned.

10 months

Noah is 10 months old today. I can hardly believe it! He's such a little stinker and is completely unlike his brother was at 10 months. I realize now that Noah is more the norm and that Luke was just an unusual baby (and is in many respects still an unusual child . . . but that's another blog.) A few new fun facts about Noah:




-He still loves to splash in Molly's water dish and will eat dog food any chance he gets.


-He wants to cruise and has taken a few tentative steps while holding on to a leg, table, sofa, etc., but he doesn't seem to get that he can go from point A to point B on his feet and not just his knees.


-Speaking of his knees, when he crawls on the sidewalk out front, he crawls on his hands and feet with his little booty up in the air.

-Noah loves, loves, loves to clap. Any time he hears someone say, "Yea!", he starts clapping.

-He will stick out his tongue when you ask, "Where's your tongue?" He has no idea where his nose is, but he sure knows where his tongue is.

-He's such a ham! When he hears me turn my camera on, he immediately starts smiling.

What a sweet boy he is! He has brought such true joy to our lives.

Soccer, soccer, soccer

Only two more soccer games! Actually, the last two have been better than the first several were. We still lost, but we scored two goals this week, and for the first time, we didn't score any for the other team. Luke played most of the game and had several shining moments. A few weeks ago he started giving the "thumbs up" sign during the game. Any time there's a stop in play, he flashes us the sign. All the parents on our team think it's pretty funny and give him the thumbs up, too.

Winning or not, Luke's got a good attitude!

Happy hour

"Hey, Mommy, is it margarita time yet?"

Another first

After months of anticipation (and drooling), Noah finally has a tooth! His bottom front right tooth made its appearance this past Sunday. I've only gotten a few glimpses at it because he doesn't like for me to mess around in his mouth, but if I ever get a shot of it, I'll be sure to post it.

A visit with Mimi

My mom has been here since last Friday, and we had a really good visit. She got to see Luke play soccer last Saturday (although we still lost, the game was not quite as lopsided and Luke played much better than he has in the other games.) We went shopping on Saturday morning and I finally spent some of my birthday money. I know she was sad to go home today, and we already miss her, but she'll hopefully be back in a few weeks for another visit.The soccer star!

This shirt was one of my birthday purchases.

When Mimi's around, bath time = photo time!

Are you ready for this jelly?

This 'do is courtesy of the jelly that was all over Noah's hands at lunch.

Antics

I've been meaning to post some of Noah's latest feats but hadn't gotten around to it. After today's occurrence, I decided it was time to post. Since I have photographic evidence of the mess Noah made today, I'll start with that.

While I was making lunch, I left the pantry door open and Noah was poking around in there like he often does. I should have known better than to leave him to his own devices because when I went to check on him, I discovered that he had knocked a full container of margarita salt onto the floor and was sitting right in the middle of it. As Murphy's Law would have it, I swept and mopped the floor earlier this morning. He seemed pretty pleased with his efforts.

Notice the marks where he was raking the salt, no doubt to get a big ol' handful to eat.

I've mentioned before that he loves to get into Molly's water bowl and has gotten into her food bowl as well. A couple of days ago he barrelled past her when she was eating and grabbed a handful of food. After I scooped him up I realized that he had something in his mouth . . . yep, you guessed it, a piece of dog food.

On a couple of occasions Noah has crawled into my bedroom and shut the door. He sits right behind the closed door so I have to open it just far enough to squeeze my arm in, push him out of the way, and open the door.

I've been trying to teach him where his nose is. Not one time has he pointed to it when you ask him where his nose is, but if you stick out your tongue and ask him to show you his tongue, he'll stick out his tongue as far as he can (this is especially enjoyable when he's eating.)

Clapping is his latest trick. He claps all the time, even when he's crying. I don't think he's quite grasped the concept of why one should clap.

I'm sure there are other things I'm forgetting, but when I remember I'll be sure to update everyone.

Stringbean

What does 9 months look like in Noah-land?

weight: 17 lbs., 11 oz. (10%)
length: 29 inches (75%)
head: 17 3/4 inches (50%)

Tall and skinny is not a bad way to go through life!

Superboy

In keeping with Luke's current obsession with all things super, he fashioned himself a cape.

Yum!

Right before I took these pictures there was lots of clapping going on. I can only assume that means, "Hooray for Mommy's Mexican casserole!"

0-3

Luke's team lost their third soccer game today. The score was a lot to 1, but that one and only goal was scored by none other than Luke Chumley! We were so proud of him, and I even got a little teary. Gary worked with him a good bit this week, and there was some marked improvement in his play during the first half. He ran out of steam in the second half and was done at the end of the third quarter. But he scored a goal!

9 months

Noah is 9 months old today! Here are a few of his latest antics:

-He is into EVERYTHING! He pulls up on everything and is the fastest crawler I've ever seen (or at least it seems that he is.) I put him down and before I know it he's down the hall or in another room.

-He is busy from the moment he wakes up till he goes back to sleep. He loves to scream and babbles quite a bit. His favorite thing to say is, of course, "ma ma ma ma".

-Several times a day Noah makes a beeline for Molly's water dish and has dumped it out on more than one occasion. We've been blocking it off by putting one of our kitchen chairs in front of it, but today he figured out how to crawl through the opening in the back of the chair. That little rascal!

-He's eating all regular food! Some of his favorite things are oatmeal, grilled cheese sandwiches, chicken (he especially likes Chick-fil-A chicken nuggets), graham crackers (see the picture below), peaches, grapes (cut into tiny pieces), and Goldfish. The one thing I still can't get him to eat is a banana - he spits it out every time I try to feed it to him.

-He's down to 2 naps a day.

-He smiles all the time, and it fills my heart with joy to see that smile.

Nana

My Nana was here for the past week, and we had a really nice visit. She couldn't get over how much Noah has changed since she saw him in July. He wasn't even sitting up then, and now he's all over the place. She is such a good sport and went with us on all our errands. The highlight of her week was getting to see Luke play soccer on Saturday. We miss her already and hope she can come back soon!

Sleepy-head

This is how Luke fell asleep last night.

Rascal

"I love my bath!"

Mischief

Gary's new nickname for Noah is "Tasmanian devil". Spend 15 minutes with him and you'll see why. He is non-stop all day long. Here are a few of his latest antics.

-Our TV is down low on a built-in shelf. Noah loves to crawl over to it, bang on it, and pull the surround sound speakers off the shelf. No matter how many times you tell him no, he just smiles and goes right back to the TV.

-He has dumped out Molly's water bowl on several occasions. When he's not dumping it out, he's splashing in it or putting toys in it. Yesterday he got in front of her while she was eating and picked up some pieces of her food. It's a good thing she's very gentle-natured and let him push her out of the way without taking a bite out of him.

-He is FAST! He can get down the hallway in no time. If you turn around for a second, he's gone.

Luke, ever vigilant and a born rule-follower, alerts me to all Noah's shenanigans. I hear several times a day, "Oh no! Noah's at the TV!"; "Mommy, Noah's standing up!"; "Mommy, Noah's in Molly's water bowl!"; "Noah, no sir! Don't you touch that TV!" He really does help me keep an eye an Noah.

I can only imagine what Christmas will be like. I may have to decorate just the top half of the tree! He sure does keep it interesting around here.

First day of school

It took four long months, but today is finally the first day of school! I love Luke very much, but I was very ready for him to go back to school. May 17-Sept. 11 is a LONG summer! He was ready to go back, too. He knows about half the children in his class, and since this is his third year at Sunshine Kids, he's got the routine down. The fours have Spanish and computer once a week which he's excited about. He's even more excited that they don't have rest time this year. Luke's at school . . . Noah is sleeping . . . ahhhhh, the sound of silence.

Soccer game #1

Luke played in his first soccer game last Saturday. Let me just give a run-down of what happened.

-Every child in McKinney was at the same soccer fields as Luke. We parked about 8 miles away, and as I was getting all our stuff in the stroller, I felt something on my foot. I looked down and my feet were covered in fire ants. Not good.


-We got to the fields and were looking for Luke's team, but all we saw were football teams. I knew we were at the right place, but what I didn't know (because I didn't read the directions - typical) was that there were two different areas. We obviously were at the wrong area, and Luke's game was supposed to start in about 2 minutes. Gary picked him up, slung him over his shoulder, and ran the quarter mile or so to Luke's field. He made it with about one minute to spare. Meanwhile, I'm hauling myself, 3 bags, the stroller, and Noah back to the van (which is 8 miles away). I threw everything (except Noah) back into the van and went to the other fields. I couldn't find them, so I called Gary in a panic. I finally found them and got to Luke's game right after they started. Luckily Luke didn't play first so I didn't miss his debut.


-Now on to the game. I'll go ahead and end the suspense right now and tell you that Luke's team didn't win . . . not by a long shot. The final score was a lot to a little.


-The boys on Luke's team basically had no idea what to do. A couple of boys had more of an aggressive instinct than Luke did, and they carried the team (although one boy did score a goal for the other team.) Luke ran after the other boys and kicked the ball a couple of times. Only 5 of the 6 boys were there, so they all played a good deal, especially after one of the 5 boys decided he no longer wanted to play and went and sat with his mom. After 3 quarters, Luke kept asking how much longer he had to play. I think his favorite part was the snack at halftime and the juice and crackers after the game.


-Overall I think he had fun, and now that they've played a game it'll be easier for Coach Dan to explain at practice what they need to do. Here are a few pictures of the Power Rangers in action.

Up, up, and away!

I can not believe that at 8 months Noah is pulling up. After perfecting this trick, he finally figured out how to sit back down. I wonder how long it'll be till he starts walking?

Soccer

Luke had practice again last night, and his first game is this Saturday. It should be interesting since they've only practiced twice and know virtually nothing about playing soccer. I guess they'll learn by playing!

Catching up with Luke

Up until last December, my blog was mostly about Luke. Since Noah's been around, I've focused more on him, simply because he changes every day and I like to keep the few people who read my blog up-to-date. Because I haven't written much about Luke lately, I thought I'd share some of what's going on with him.

-He is all about Spiderman and superheroes in general. He keeps telling me that he's going to be a superhero when he grows up. He's always making plans about how he'll fight any bad guys that happen to attack him.

-His other new love is Webkinz. For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of becoming acquainted with this new fad, let me briefly explain. First you have to buy a stuffed animal, and then using the registration code that comes with it, you adopt it on-line. You can then play games, answer questions, and get a "job" (all on-line) to earn Kinzcash to buy stuff for your pet. Luke would be on Webkinz World from the moment he gets up till he goes to bed if I let him. When we bought his Webkinz (a gorilla he named Gary after his Daddy), we also bought yet another stuffed dog. He named this dog "Webkin" which makes things a little confusing around here. Webkin has become his favorite stuffed animal, following in the footsteps of many now discarded favorites. He has made numerous things for Webkin, including a house, a scooter, a suitcase, and an igloo. He takes her everywhere we go, and he wants me to take and print some pictures of her so he can make frames for them. He's such a boy when it comes to playing; he wants to play-fight and turns everything into some kind of "shooter", but he still has such a soft, tender side that warms my heart.
-Speaking of Luke's soft side, two nights ago he wanted to read the Bible as his bedtime book because he wanted to talk to God. Later that evening, he got out of bed to tell me that he said a prayer for Noah. He'll think of the craziest things to use as an excuse to get out of bed at night, but I truly believe he did say a prayer for Noah.

-This morning we had communion in church. Normally Luke isn't in big church with us (our church has "children's church" for kids 5 and under), but because there was a new lady working in children's church, he decided to come with me instead. We take communion by intinction - everyone is given a piece of bread and dips it into a cup of grape juice. Luke has only had communion one other time, so I wasn't sure what to expect. After eating his bread, he exclaimed quite loudly, "That was GOOD!" About four rows of people got a good chuckle out of his comment. I decided that it was time to leave at that point, so we quickly made our way out.

You never know what a day with a four-year-old might bring!

Go Gamecocks!

Today is the start of the football season, and the boys are all suited up and ready to go!