Jamaica Mon!!

Tom and I decided to treat ourselves to a childless vacation. We settled on an all inclusive resort in Ochos Rios, Jamaica. We leave on February 1st and return February 6th.

Hooray for us!!!

Sick Again

Our house is laden with sickness. Noelle started out Friday evening with a fever and it carried throughout the weekend. We had a bunch of projects planned but Noelle wanted nothing but Mommy and Daddy by her side to tend to her every whim. How could we tear ourselves away from her? Max came down with a fever as well on Monday or Tuesday (Since Friday all the days are strung together. Days and nights are the same because both children are up all the time). Noelle's fever subsided but she is now coughing and sneezing and barely has a voice. Maximilian got thrush again so he is fussy and it makes it hard for him to nurse. I think we are on the tail end of this, thank God.

Saturday we had a very large storm come through the area. Tom and I have never seen so much hail continuously fall at one time. It was crazy. Noelle was very scared of the "under" and Max slept through the whole thing.

While playing in Noelle's room with both children Noelle decided to dress up as a princess. She put on her ensemble and declared, "I'm going to a party. I'm going to kiss boys!!". I have NO idea where this came from but it had me laughing hysterically and running to get my phone to tell Tom. He was not amused and promptly told me to tell her that no, she could not kiss any boys!

Max has almost reached the six month mark. He has taken a love toward bitter biscuits. I hate the immense clean up, but enjoy watching him devour the thing. Part of me likes to give them to him just to see how big of a mess he can indeed create. In a few days I will put a more detailed post dedicated to his six months, but for now all is good and he is a wonderful little man!

TGIF For Real

On Tuesday it felt like a Friday, on Wednesday I was positive it was Friday. Thursday I woke up wishing it was Friday, now it's finally Friday and I'm counting down the minutes until the Hubby gets home. We have no special plans for the weekend, that in itself is just perfect for us.

Tuesday we did get a chance to go to the Zoo with Karen and her kiddos, Norah, Kitty, and Michael. It was very rough getting out of the house, but the trip was a lot of fun. We suffered no major crisis and Max even last from 9am to 1:30pm without eating! We left when I realized the time and that his happiness would soon come to an end. I wanted to prevent an all out hunger fit. If you want to see some pictures from our adventure there are some over at Mitzel Musings. I did not have my camera handy for I spent nearly 40 minutes searching desperately for Noelle's sandal that she had to have, and forgot to pack the camera

Tonight I'm going to mow the lawn. It sounds like a mundane task, one that doesn't warrant mentioning, expect I am so looking forward to it. Last Saturday I did it for the first time. The lines were crooked, I missed spots, but it was joyous. Tom watched the children and I didn't hear any crying or whining for over an hour. The sound of the mower was relaxing and I got lost in the bliss of being by myself! Sadly, I have been loving watching the grass grow this week anticipating the time where I can have a little alone time. Can you tell the children and I need a bit of a break from each other ?

It's been one of those weeks were children sleeping hasn't been happening, the refrigerator broke, and a bunch of other minor things have made it very exasperating week. It's finally almost over.

Noelle stories

After telling Noelle not to do something she comes back with, "Don't you talk at me like that Mommy!"

"This bed for babies!" Apparently her twin size bed is too small for her 23 pound body.

Another ploy to not go to sleep: "These pj's are not comfy any more, I need different ones."

While dressed as a princess she sings, "I a beautiful princess. My shoes are so tall and pretty. I have a very pretty wand. I in charge of Mommy and Max."

Whenever I ask her to do something that she doesn't want to do the automatic response is, "I can't, I too yittle to do that!"

Here are some pictures of the kiddos. Some are from our trip up to Traverse City.

Noelle Rose vs. Maximilian Charles

Happy Father's Day!

A big heartfelt Happy Father's Day goes out to all the Fathers out there, especially my own Dad whose love I never doubt and who is always there for me. Also, to my husband that loves our children will so much passion all I can do is sit back and admire him! And to my Father-in-law who has raised my eternal soul mate!

Here are some pictures from yesterday and today. Noelle got a new pool and loved playing in it! She begged Tom to jump in with her and he did. After pouring water over his head she told him to "open up, I want to clean your throat!"

Hypoglycemia

Friday, I took Noelle into the doctor because of some suspicious behavior that she has been exhibiting. She has been having sudden behavior changes that I viewed as more and different than just a normal temper tantrum. This behavior would be instantly turned off once a snack was given. The doctor diagnosed her as hypoglycemic (low blood sugar) from what I told her and Noelle has to go in for a more in depth glucose tolerance test. Poor Noelle will have to sit for about three hours in the hospital waiting room and have multiple blood samples taken. We are going to attempt his very fun test next Saturday.

It's not that big of a deal. It just requires me to adjust her diet a bit so that her intake has more fiber, fruits, vegetables, and complete lean proteins. Frequent snacks and smaller more frequent meals will also help.

Wish us luck with managing this!

Trip From HELL-O Granma and Granpa

It's been a long week of travel. Not the cross country or airplane kind, but the many hours in a car traveling around Michigan kind. I love to drive and take the children places but I fear I over did it and we are all exhausted.

Last Thursday (June 5th) we went to St. Clair to visit my Grandparents. They just returned to Michigan for the summer. The four hour round trip was a breeze and the children did wonderful, including Noelle and her completely toilet trained self. This was my Grandparents first meeting of Max and a wonderfully successful one at that. Maximilian was charming as always, engaging everyone around him in multitudes of smiles. Noelle explored the condo checking everything out. The joy from watching the freighters and boats go by was too cute for words and a big topic of conversations for days to come. This was a good trip and we are all glad that we got to spend time with them.

Sunday rolled around and we headed out to Sturgis to celebrate Granpa Roehrig's birthday and Father's Day with the whole Roehrig Clan. Busy schedules prevent everyone from getting together on a regular basis so it was a very wonderful get together with many smiles and laughs going around. Noelle fell in love with her cousins, Chloe and Tessa and followed them around most of the day.

The dreaded "owie poops" creeped up towards the end of the day and took their toll on Noelle again. The pain she was in was very obvious as she was stiff as a bored and whinnied. We made it home and finally got her settled down after much screaming and crying.

Monday, was our planned trip up to Traverse City. Aunt Ceecee came to our house and took the place of Tom, who had to work. That morning I packed and we tried desperately to get those darn "owie poops" out before the long car ride. No such luck and we headed out knowing it was going to be a long drive. Half way through we stopped for lunch. Noelle was in a lot of pain and would only go to the bathroom in the car on her little potty. New toilets really freak her out when she is going to through a spell of constipation.

Because they car ride wasn't all ready hard enough, I locked the keys in the car! The diaper bag, travel potty, two cell phones, and coveted night-nights (Noelle's blankets) were also locked in the car. We were at McDonald's and they were kind enough to let me use their phone to call Tom and get the number for our road side assistance. The whole time we waited Noelle was screaming out in pain, stiff, and aching immensely. She wanted her blankets and to just sit on her little toilet. It was a long wait! Luckily we were in air conditioning and had an abundance of options for food and drink (the picture is of a somber Noelle and I awaiting the arrival of the car unlocker guy). After an hour and a half total time in McDonald's we were unlocked from our car and headed out.

We had to make two more emergency stops as Noelle finally got her constipation out. She would scream she had to go and bite her blankets and held it in. I sped to a spot where we quickly jumped out and I grabbed Noelle from her car seat and Charlotte set up her potty on the passenger seat of the car. It was a mad dash that would have left observes laughing out loud! Noelle held it very well and honestly if she just would have went in her pull up (I put one on her during travel so she can go if we are unable to stop for her) it would have been easier but she refused to. Maybe I shouldn't have had her get toilet trained!

We made it safe and sound on Monday and all seemed to be well. Tuesday we had plans to visit the beach but the chilly, rainy weather prevented that. We were able to play outside a lot, between spotty showers, go to a play-place in Burger King, and have some quality time with my Mom, sister, and brother.

Tuesday night we had many meltdowns by Noelle and it made for a very stressful time. The trip back on Wednesday was long as well. Long is a really nice way of saying that there was much screaming and frustration by all in the car. We made it home safe and exhausted. Despite all the challenges we did face, mainly that of a cranky two year old, I'm sure I will be making the trip soon again. We did have a very enjoyable time overall and I can't wait to see my parents and Uncle Alex again.

It's Saturday and we are home recovering enjoying the nice weather.

More pictures of the Roehrig Family get together and our TC trip to come once I get them. A lot of times it's hard to remember the camera while caring for the kiddos.

Our Little Man

Camera Fun

When you give a two-year old the camera to have fun with you get over 100 pictures in about 15 minuets. Half of them were of her finger and the other half looked something like this:

I'm thinking that when her birthday (or Christmas since, unfortunately, they are so close) rolls around this year the Fisher-Price camera for preschoolers is going to be a great gift!

We had a very good weekend spent playing together and not too much else. There isn't too much to report, other than on Saturday Max turned five months! He seems to have TWO teeth just beginning to poke through, the lower central incisors. Teething makes him attack everything in sight, including my face when I go in for a kiss! This also is making him a bit cranky lately and interrupting his sleep as well. His sitting has been basically perfected, with a few falls every now and then. I can't wait until he starts crawling around, causing general mayhem!