Noah ~ 7 months

Month 7 has been a month of changes for Mr. Noah.  He has come alive!  Noah has gone from a sleepy, low-key, contended newborn to a baby with a mind of his own!  It is so fun to see a little one's personality emerge.  He has found his little will and definitely informs us if he disproves of his current conditions.

At 7 months, Noah is...

• army crawling like a mad man--he is super fast!  He has crawled up on his hands and knees a few times, but prefers his perfected army crawl.
• sitting up by himself.  He was propping himself up with his hands, but now he is holding himself up without his hands. 
• babbling.  He say "Da, da, da, da" and Caleb loves to encourage him by saying it back to him. 
• no longer nursing.  :( 
• a VERY hungry boy.  He loves to eat his baby food, in fact he would much rather eat than drink--hence the reason we quit nursing.  He goes through 2 fruits, 2 vegetables, 1 meat, and 2 servings of cereal EVERY day. 
• so smiley.  He has a great big two-toothed smile that is adorable.  Of course getting that smile on camera is proving to be quite the challenge. 
• very attached to Mommy. 
• so VERY LOVED BY US!

Noah ~ 6 months

I just realized that in the craziness of Kevin's graduation and accident, I never did Noah's 6 month post (took pictures, just no post).  Seeing that he is now 7 months...I'll get on that!

Noah is a very happy baby, especially now that those 2 bottom teeth came in!  He weighs around 17 lbs and is 26.5 inches long.

He loves to blow raspberries and even has started saying "da, da".  Caleb loves to encourage him by talking to him in baby talk.  :)

He is FINALLY getting to be on a regular daytime nap schedule...which means I have about 1 1/2 hours each afternoon where both boys are sleeping!  YAY! 

Noah does a cute little tripod move since he can't actually sit up yet.  He just props himself up on his two little arms until they get tired and he tips over. 

I can't believe he is half-a-year old already!!! 

the year of fears

Based on my experience with Caleb, sometime between the ages of 2 and 3 a kid starts having fears. 

Perhaps you may recall this photo from our trip to the fire station?  And Caleb LOVES firetrucks and ambulances!

We had a similar but even more traumatizing experience at the Butterfly Palace in Branson.  My mom and I took the boys to the lake for 4 days while Kevin was out of town on business.  My mom suggested that we take him to "Celebration City" to ride some of the kiddy rides.  I knew from our experience at a small-town carnival last fall that he would be scared.  I suggested we take him to the Butterfly Palace...an indoor rainforest with thousands of butterflies.  He LOVES butterflies in our yard...so I thought it would be so much fun. 

Think again.

He was TERRIFIED.  And when I say terrified, I mean screaming, crying, shaking, burying his head in my chest.  All because a few butterflies got close to him... 

I don't get it.  This kid has been extremely sheltered.  Our television is NEVER on when he is awake (unless he is watching Veggie Tales, the Wiggles, Boz the Bear, or Sesame Street), so he hasn't seen anything violent to make him afraid of things.  We won't even watch The Lion King for crying out loud!  I guess it is just natural for fears to start at this age...even from things that a child normally likes.

Oh, and this picture was when we first arrived...before any butterflies flew close to him!

And our dinner at Pizza Hut the following night was interrupted by a pesky fly that Caleb just knew wanted to bite him.  So we boxed up our pizza, left, and ate it back at the lakehouse...without the fly.  :)

Unfortunately these are the only pictures I got from our adventure to the lake with Lola.  My camera battery died and I, of course, didn't pack the charger.

photo shoot (take two)

These are just a few of the many pictures we took a few weeks ago (the night of Kevin's accident).  We were just playing around with the camera (hence the reason the lighting needs to be adjusted in many of them).  I tried to upload them a few days ago, but blogger was having issues.  :) 

Counting our Blessings

To say it has been an eventful week would be an understatement.   Last Friday night we were enjoying the evening together as a family and taking some pictures of Caleb and Noah outside.  I was looking forward to the first weekend in a LONG time when Kevin would be home all weekend!!!  The boys had had enough picture-taking, so I took them inside to get ready to take baths.  Kevin said he was just going to quickly burn a pile of branches in our yard  that we had accumulated over the last month.  I didn't think twice about it.

The next thing I know, I look outside the kitchen window and see Kevin walking up to the house, soaking wet.  My first thought was that he had fallen in the pond behind our house (I couldn't see him very well).  He told me to call his Mom and Dad (a nurse and retired paramedic) for help because he had been burned.  Thankfully, he had the sense to jump in the pond.  When he told me that, I was thinking he burned his hand.  It wasn't until he got closer to the house and smelled the stench of burned hair and flesh that I knew it was way worse than that.  He had been completely on fire once he lit the pile (he poured gasoline on it first--something he now knows NEVER to do again). 

Kevin's right side of his face, arms, hands, leg, and a foot had all been burned--thankfully all first and second degree.

I should have called an ambulance, but Kevin didn't want me to.  We quickly "googled" first aid for burns and had him jump in a cold shower.  Kevin's mom and dad came over to help.  My parents and little brother and sister were in Zimbabwe for 2 weeks, so normally my dad would be over in an instant (he is a doctor).  We called his partner, though, and he met us at the clinic and took 2 hours of his Friday night to treat Kevin so that he wouldn't have to go to the hospital.  He said he was just about to send him to the burn unit, but knew he would have to wait a while in the ER first since it was a Friday night.

Now, 10 days later Kevin's face looks amazing.  He just looks like he has a really bad sunburn!  Just a few days ago, it was blistering and oozing.  His foot and insides of his upper arms are the worst.  He is still having to go in everyday to get those scrubbed and re-wrapped.  He has been in A LOT of pain these last 10 days.  It will be a while before he is completely healed, but we are SO THANKFUL that it wasn't worse. 

I don't even want to think how drastically our lives could have changed had there not been a pond just two steps away from where he was burning the branches.  It could have been 100 times worse.  He could perhaps not even be here...I am SO THANKFUL for that pond.

Unfortunately the rest of the week didn't get much better.  I had mastitis.  Caleb got sick with a high-fever and sore throat.  Two days later both Noah and Kevin got the same virus Caleb had.  Noah decided he didn't like to sleep at night anymore and started waking up six to eight times at night (when he was sleeping 11 consecutive hours prior).  I don't think I got more than 4 hours of sleep each night for 10 straight days.  It just didn't seem to end. 

But things are looking better today.  Kevin went back to work (hurt foot and all) and everyone is healthy again (so far).  I am hopeful that tonight will be a more restful night. 

We have been so touched by the love and support from family and friends.  We have received prayers, visits, meals, cards, Sonic drinks (for me), offers to babysit, and so much more.  Three sweet friends even cleaned our house for us!  We are so humbled by the love that has been shown to us and the major acts of kindness.  God has truly blessed us with an amazing network of love and support.  THANK YOU!

it is finished.

Kevin graduated with his Master's Degree in Business Administration on Saturday (insert loud "hooray" here)! I am so proud of him! He has worked so hard!

And I am so glad he is finished. Let me repeat...SO GLAD!

He has been working towards this for almost 5 years (he has taken some semesters off here and there). This semester he finished up by taking the capstone class. This was, by far, the most time-consuming class.

I just had to put this picture of Caleb in putting his hand over his heart during the national anthem at graduation.

It has been a LOOOONG semester for all of us...especially him.

Now we can have our Monday nights, Tuesday nights, Thursday nights, and Sunday afternoons and evenings back (yes, he was gone most of those days for the last 16 weeks). I think it should be illegal for professors to assign a workload of 15+ hours each week for a 3-hour class!

I honestly don't know how he has handled all of the stress these last 4 months...in addition to sleep deprivation with a new baby and moving! He is my hero. :)

Kevin got to walk with his two friends James and Stephen. They have been working so hard together on their final project (they ran a simulation car company). It was a competition in their class amongst the other groups and they won!

Our sweet friends Rachel and Richard hosted a super fun party at their home for the 3 graduates and Kristen and I helped. I was apparently too busy visiting with people during the party to take any pictures (without Caleb there to distract me), so I'm hoping Kristen got some! The decorations were amazing (thanks to Kristen and Rachel) and the food was great. We are so blessed with such amazing friends!

We are so proud of you, Kevin, and we love you so much!

carrot-faced cutie

Today was the first day for veggies...he ate the carrots, but definitely prefers his cereal. :)