Our Little Nastia Liukin

Well, she is FAR from that but Noelle did have her first gymnastics class on Tuesday, September 2nd. She was excited and very nervous. When we arrived she clung to me before the class started. She kept mumbling, "I so tired" and "I want to go home".



The class started and for a warm up they did a obstacle course around the gym. Noelle would not do it unless I held her hand. I set Max in the middle of the room. I just love all the padding everywhere, he crawled around like he owned the place and I had no worries!

After the first few times around the obstacle course, Noelle began to gain more confidence and do things on her own. The instructor did many different things with the children and Noelle seemed to grow more confident with each passing moment. I was even able to step back, but not out of sight, a few times. Her favorite part was the balance beam. She was even able to do the big balance beam a few feet on her own.

I wish I had pictures but there was no way I could get to my camera! Maybe next week.

I forgot to mention in my last post that Maximilian turned 8 months! He still has no teeth but his appetite for non baby food items keeps growing. Over the weekend we got out his little push toy and he gets behind it and cruises! I am amazed at how well he does. Sure, he does fall over occasionally but for 8 months I am in awe. The other day he was standing on the TV stand and let go and turned toward the toy bin and tried to walk, instead he fell face first. His courage and lack of fear impresses me daily.

Trip To St. Clair

Saturday morning we traveled to St. Clair to visit with my Grandparents and family. My parents and Alex had also traveled down and it was the perfect place to meet up. Noelle was a bit cranky on the road and wanted to go home, but that soon changed once we arrived.

An abundance of family members excited to see the kiddos made a wonderful reception and took all the crabbiness away. Granpa Goodhue and Noelle decided it was time to go do some important rock hunting. They headed down to the river. Granpa was dubbed the rock finder and Noelle the rock tosser. Being still not the greatest at aiming Granpa had a large rock chucked into his back! Soon it was the end of that adventure and Noelle ran into the house exclaiming with delight, "I a rock tosser!". It was a memorable experience with Granpa that she has been referring since we left.

Soon after the rock excursion we headed over to my Aunt's house to take advantage of her pool. Noelle loved playing in the water with Uncle and Aunt Ceecee. Max was not a fan of the water and spent only a brief leg dip in. Noelle spent a long time in jumping, lounging, playing motor boat and having a grand ol' time.

Sadly I have no picture of my grandparents with the children. How did I miss that? After the pool we headed back to my grandparents. Noelle and Granpa Goodhue engaged in a game of hind-n-seek. Granpa hid in the elevator, something Noelle is very scared of. After spotting Granpa through the glass she glared intently at him. Then came a clap of the hands and a very stern, "Get outta there!". She was not happy with the situation and did not want him in there. Aunt Ceecee had to finally pick her up and help her open the door as she clung on for dear life. Many have tried to get her to go into the elevator, but she will have NOTHING to do with it!

The rest of the evening was spent watching Michigan lose and having a nice family dinner. We had originally planned on spending the night but made a last minute decision to head home so the children would sleep in their own beds and get a good night sleep. It was a great day with everyone.

Big Change

During the last week we have been going through a transition period. I would have to say I'm having the hardest time adjusting. Max has decided he is above breast milk and didn't want it any more. Now he is completely on formula :( I was heartbroken but no matter how hard I tried to force him to take my milk, he refused. He loves formula now and sucks it down. He is sleeping better and seems to be more content. His previous hatred/fear of bottles disappeared and he has no problem with them now. I guess this allows me more freedom, for what I don't know. If I find something I'll let you know.

I have been wanting to go out for breakfast, so we decided that Saturday morning we would do that. While tucking Noelle in on Friday night we told her about our upcoming adventure out to the restaurant and she was excited. Bright and early Saturday morning she bursts into our room and exclaims, "I'm ready for the restaurant." Needless to say we were not ready having just been awaken from a deeply pleasant sleep by a ridiculously high pitched voice. Cute, yes, but not exactly the best wake up call. After dressing and getting ready we headed out. Max, for the first time, was able to munch on little pieces of various foods. Tom came to the table with a plate of biscuits and gravy. Setting it down a bit too close to The Beast was not a good idea. Better we could react, Max had put a very deliberate hand print into said gravy/biscuit. It was a perfect print and had us all laughing. Noelle was nothing like that and didn't grab at things like he does, so we tend to forget that his arms seem to reach four feet beyond their actual length.

After breakfast we went to the car wash, a favorite or Noelle's, then headed home. Tom did some work outside, I mowed, and Noelle decided to be a car wash and wash off her slide. A few times the nuzzle would stick and she would turn it toward her face while trying to get it to work. The result was not a good one, except for me who tried hard to hide my laughter. The look of shock upon her face when she squirted herself was very funny. She would see me laughing and try to chase me with the hose.

The rest of the weekend was spent working on the basement (Hallelujah!). For the upcoming Holiday weekend we are visiting family in St. Clair. My parents and brother will be there and we will get to see them and my Grandparents. The drive is a short two hours, something that is very easy with the children.

To add a little bit about Noelle...she has started to perfect the art of manipulating Tom and I. She will say, "Mommy said I could" or "Daddy said it is okay". She was caught playing with the toilet paper in the toilet and told me that "Daddy said I could."

DRAMA Queen and Her Aunt

Tom is an overprotective Dad, to say the least. He usually tries to discourage Noelle from running on our cement driveway for fear of her falling. Well, she was running the other evening and fell. That resulted in her first set (yes, she is 2 years 8 months old and just received her first strawberry) of strawberries on her knees. After we "doctored" up her knees Noelle went into Diva mode and refused to walk the rest of the night! We tried to get her to but as soon as she was standing she would collapse on the ground and say, "it's too much pain to walk!". You can just imagine us carrying her from the couch to the bathroom when she needed to go. The next morning I was constantly reminded of her pain but she started to walk on her own. Wednesday we drove to visit Aunt Ceecee at her apartment. While getting ready in the morning Noelle said to me, "We going to see my best friend, Aunt Ceecee." The drive was an uneventful two hours. Both children are pros at traveling and don't seem to mind any length of time in the car. Noelle loved playing with the kitten, Cloud and the other cat, Stuart. She walked around like she was queen of the castle. She found a wand used for the blinds and decided it was her "magic stick". As she twirled around she pointed at things and said, "Abracadabra Kalamazoo!" Max liked the new territory that he could explore/menace. He also was given his first taste of Jell-O and loved it! We decided to take a walk down to the pool. I did not put on Noelle's bathing suit thinking we would just dip out feet in the pool. After splashing on the steps I informed Noelle that she could get completely wet and we would put new clothes on her. She immediately sat down in the water and was thoroughly soaked. It made me realize that we really need a pool in the future!

By the time we left, after much fun both children were dog tired. Max was asleep within moments and Noelle shortly thereafter. It was a great visit. We love you Aunt Ceecee!!!

Pictures and Stories

Nothing much to report in The Roehrig Household. I just wanted to share some pictures I thought were cute

Oh, here's a quick little story:

Noelle and I were talking about emotions and making the appropriate faces. We did the angry face and Noelle says, "That is the pooping face."

Now some Pictures:

If you look closely you can see blue all over Max's face, shirt, and hands in the below picture. Noelle was coloring and I was doing laundry. Max was quiet and near Noelle. I had a suspicious feeling that he was up to something, but just wanted to finished what I had started. I look at him and he was eating a blue crayon. He had colored the wall and floor too. Good thing it was the Crayola washable non-toxic crayons!

Eskimo kisses!

I finally purchased the children a picnic table. When it arrived Noelle exclaimed, "This is the most exciting day in the whole wide World!". After I put it together I went to go make lunch and take Max in with me. Noelle said to me, "Let him sit next to me. I will protect him so he doesn't fall." It was very sweet and she kept her arm around him the whole time.

He is such a little trouble maker these days. Nothing is safe. I can't imagine him getting worse, but I know it's coming. Noelle was content to move around in a certain area and we didn't have to worry about cords or anything like that. Max seeks and destroys all!

Noelle insisted on wearing a yellow pool ring as her necklace.

Both children thoroughly enjoy taking baths together. Note: the water is not brown due to dirt. Noelle decided to add a yellow, red, and blue color dot yielding a brown bath.

Noelle has started to draw "guys" on her Magnadoodle. I love how he lacks a body and is just a head with arms, legs, and some hair. She is not a Michelangelo, but I thought it was cute and wanted to share.

The Olympics Are Here!!

I'm an Olympic junkie. I love pretty much every event in the Summer and Winter Olympics! When Noelle was just five weeks old the 2006 Winter Olympics started and we even enjoyed watching all the events, even curling in the wee hours of the morning while nursing! The best part is that I'm not ashamed to admit I looked up the rules for curling and really got into the game. Who wouldn't like watching the most unfit athletes (seriously, not one of them seemed to have any muscle tone and looked like your typical mathlete clad in awesome jumpsuits!) brooming shiny granite stones down a sheet of ice? The intense concentration on The Lead's (oh yeah, I know the player's positions) face as he ever so gently released the stone was captivating! I gotta get on a curling team!

When I was little my sister, Charlotte, and I were die heart gymnastics fans, as I'm sure most little girls are. We would take pillows and run them along the hallway for our balance beam and score our routines. We also competed in the double floor exercise. I, being the bossy older and controlling sister, created the intense routines! We had many lifts with high difficulty and very intricate skills in our routines. It was so much fun and those times were some of my fondest memories. Mom and Dad, I know you remember our incredibly fantastic routines we made you watch over and over! Add a comment about it, please!!!

I have been so excited about these Olympics and started talking to Noelle about them. She decided that today she was going to be an "Olympic Jumper". Max was christened our "Olympic puller upper" and "sister chaser".
I think I'm going to have to make some medals for us to wear. These next 17 days I'm going to be truly in love with the DVR. I'm sure Tom will appreciate it too, because he won't have to watch the events that really don't interest him. I know that synchronized swimming, men's diving, and men's gymnastics are among his favorites, so we will be enjoying those events together!

Swollen Feet and 7 Months

It was an early morning for us all. Noelle came into my room complaining that her foot was hurting and it was hard to walk. I slowly got out of bed, figuring it was another fabricated boo-boo. Once I had my glasses on and picked her up I saw that she did have something going on. Her foot was hot to the touch, red, and massively swollen. I could see where something had bit her. This isn't the first time she has had such a strong reaction to a lowly bug bite. I decided to call the doctor once they opened and get her an appointment today. (The pictures below does not do the reality justice)

Her shoe did not fit onto her foot. That meant I had her in one arm and Max in the other. Trekking through the parking lot trying not to let either child slip down my hips and holding three night-nights, a diaper bag and one stuffed animal was such a joy! Noelle is a bit of a drama queen (I have NO idea where she gets that from) so there was a lot of complaining about the pain she was in. After a longer wait than I would have liked we were finally seen by the doctor. She asked Noelle if it hurt and Noelle responded with, "yes, two thousand hurts." That is a lot of hurt!

It's never good when the doctor says she never seen such swelling in a foot from a bug bite! Her foot is so tight there isn't much room left for any more swelling. The doctor prescribed some steroids and told me to keep her off of it and it should get better in a few days. The good news, and what I had feared, is that there the reaction is just a large skin reaction and not a severe life threading one. You may recall this happened back in October with her eye swelling. Poor girl cannot tolerate those pesky bugs!

In other Roehrig news, our Maximilian turned seven months last Thursday! In the last month he has learned to crawl, wave, go from laying on his back to sitting, and he continues to pull himself up on every thing in site. He has NO fear of edges or anything else for that matter. His body seems to collect bruises, scratches, and other "boy markings" as I call them. He still has no teeth, but I continue to see around four little white bumps in his mouth. They are working their way to the surface but have not graced us with their presence. The drool, painful screams, and constant gnawing is a good indication that they will appear soon. On the other had I thought they would pop through two months ago!

Yes, the above picture is of Max gnawing on Zeus's bone. He loves the thing and hunts it out. I promptly took it away after the picture was taken but had to capture the fact for future blackmail purposes!