Finally entering independent play stage

Noah is finally getting to the point he can occupy himself (for a short time at least) while I am cooking dinner. Last night he got a parade going across our kitchen floor.


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Poopy Party

Noah came home today with a big announcement. He went poopy in the potty at school for the second day in a row. After 2 weeks without diapers and no successes pooping in the potty, this was cause for celebration. First we did the potty dance. You can ask Noah to demonstrate it next time you see him. Then after dinner we watched a movie and had a picnic with chocolate cupcakes. It was a lot of fun and hopefully is a big incentive for keeping up the potty successes.

We are well on our way to potty training. And we are looking forward to having Noah say goodbye to diapers forever!

P.S. Photos of the poopy party will be forthcoming.


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Location:Home

More things we saw that made us think of Noah

These two pieces of heavy equipment were on Old Fall River Road. They are keeping them there because they expect to closer the road early this year for maintenance.







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Location:RMNP

Mountain adventures #5

We have enjoyed the wildlife we've seen in the park this year. It seems like we have been able to get closer to the animals than in previous years. E
The telephoto lens helps as well...

























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Location:RMNP

Mountain adventures #4

Today we drove up Old Fall River Road. It is a 1-lane, 1-way gravel road that goes 9 miles up the side of the mountain above the tree line to the Alpine Visitor Center. It was just cleared off on Friday so it was lucky that we even had the opportunity to drive it. It was beautiful. I like it much more than the busier Trail Ridge Road.




















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Location:RMNP

Mountain adventures #3

On our second day of hiking we went to Nymph Lake, Dream Lake and Emerald Lake. This time we made it all the way to the end of the trail before the skies turned threatening and we had to make our way back down.













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Location:RMNP

Mountain adventures #2

Our campsite at RMNP.




And the view from our campsite at sunset.





I rained and rained both nights we camped. But fortunately we were able to squeeze in cooking dinner and a campfire. And our tent stayed dry... But the same cannot be said for the things we had stored in the screen tent. Oh well.

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Location:RMNP

Mountain adventures #1

On our first hike in RMNP, we went to Alberta Falls, Mills Lake and Jewel Lake. We thought about taking the last leg to Black Lake, but the weather was turning for the worse so we passed and headed back down the mountain.










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Location:RMNP

Things we saw while that we wanted to show Noah

Check out this windmill blade. When it's all put together it will look like this one.




We also saw a very long train...




And a ton of cows at a cow-tropolous.




Then our car fell apart.




But we kept going and we made it.


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Location:On the road

Our Little Visitor

We were visited by a friendly pigeon a couple of weeks ago. Noah enjoyed following him around the yard, talking to him and pretending that he had some food to feed him. The pigeon was not at all afraid of Noah. He even pecked his finger.

I went tinkle, I get a sticker!

Noah was very happy to announce to us that he went tinkle on the potty tonight at home. (This was the first time he's been successful on the potty at home so it was a very big deal.)

Noah was in the bath and he did his usual whining about needing to go poopy. Since this is his usual trick to get us to take him out of the bath, we didn't think much about it. In fact, Eric even complained about us giving in to his complaints. But nevertheless I pulled him out of the tub, wrapped him in a towel and set him on the potty. To our surprise, after a minute or two, success! He was so proud of himself. It was very cute. He immediately announced to us that he went tinkle and he gets a sticker.

Hopefully, this is a step toward more interest in potty training. Time will tell.

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Location:Home

I Can Ride a Bike!

After a year of bending over to push Noah on his Tricycle, he has finally figured out how to pedal. It's fantastic! We have so much fun watching him grow and learn to do new things. He's growing up so fast.

More about Noah's House Owies

Here's a cute video we took of Noah talking about his house.

"Momma I went pee on the potty!"

Noah had a big achievement today at school. He successfully used the toilet for the first time. He has sat on it often, but till today he hasn't been successful at mastering the art bladder control. Somehow today he figured it out. He was so proud of himself! When I arrived to pick him up, he came running up to me and said "Momma I went pee on the potty!"

I don't expect he'll replicate it again anytime soon. (If he does, I'll be happily surprised!) But regardless, he's getting to be such a big boy.


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Location:Daycare

Single Parenthood

So far both Noah and I have survived my temporary single parenthood. We've spent the last three evenings with friends and family so Noah hasn't had just boring old Mom. It's been nice to have such a great support network.

Noah was pretty sad this morning when Daddy wasn't here to cuddle him and has had periodic episodes of feeling blue this evening. He'll be super happy to see him tomorrow. So will I!!!

With Eric traveling more for work in the next year, Noah and I will get more practice.

We miss you Eric. See you soon.

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Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Noah is becoming quite the vocalist lately. He is beginning to enjoy singing to himself and to others. Over the last couple of weeks, Noah has been serenading us as we drive to and from work/school. He first began with Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. He sang the first verse over and over happily for about five minutes at a time. Now he can sing the whole song (he knows all the words!). He has also expanded his repertoire to about four songs (Twinkle Twinkle, Old McDonald Had a Farm, Itsy Bitsy Spider, and part of the ABCs. It's a blast listening to him sing. I just get such a kick out of it and try to hold in my laughter and tears at times when he's especially exuberant.

Noah's House Owie

I'm finally getting around to photos of the water damage, destruction, and construction. Sorry for the delay. It was difficult being displaced from our home for over a month. In addition, when we returned home, it was a difficult adjustment for Noah. It took about 2 months for him to return to sleeping through the night after we returned home. Needless to say we were all pretty tired due to the lack of sleep and I couldn't force myself to sit down in front of the computer to blog. Now we're once again feeling somewhat rested and ready to face the world again.

Master Bedroom




Kitchen


Bathroom

Living Room

When it rains it pours

Well, we've had an interesting last couple of weeks. Christmas week it started raining in our house. It progressed from a small trickle down our bedroom wall to raining from our bedroom and closet ceilings, filling a light fixture in the kitchen, streaming in from the trim around our front door and soaking the kitchen and bathroom ceilings... All due to the dreaded ice dams. Despite Eric's best efforts and roof raking we still had ice dams develop as a result of the inches and inches of December snow. We had ice dams all the way across both sides of the house. With all the freezing and thawing the week of Christmas it was just too much for the roof to handle.

Upon our return from Byron after Christmas we decided we had better put a call into the insurance agency. An adjustor came out and during the course of evaluating the extent of the problem, he told me that our house was one of the worst that he had seen recently. After the adjustor determined the claim was valid the insurance company called Servicemaster to come remove the wet walls and ceilings. First they placed three large dehumidifiers in our house to dry it out. A couple of days later they began tearing out our wet walls and ceilings.

Now all of the 'wet' has been removed. Next step is for the adjustor to come back out and reevaluate with the contractor to agree on what is required to repair all of the damages. Hopefully we'll get over that hurdle next week.

We've moved into Eric's parents place for January. They were very nice to offer us their place while they are in Spain. I guess if this was going to happen to our house, this was good timing because we have a free place to stay for a while. It's been a little bit hard on Noah. He hasn't been sleeping very well, but we'll get through it.

I've taken some photos of the house, but will have to upload them later when I have my laptop available.

More to come...

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Location:Home