hello from the heinz family

After a morning at the City Market, workouts, naps, and cooking meals for the week, we enjoyed the outdoors and the beautiful January weather we have been having.  Blake and Willow decided to feed the birds with our leftover bird seed from last spring.  When that wasn’t working, Willow thought of a brilliant idea:  mud!  Needless to say, our girly girl became very dirty and the birds stayed away.  Noah spent most of his time in the swing, sleeping away the rest of the stomach bug he caught.  No more projectile vomiting!  Yah!

We had a little celebration tonight!  To make a long story short, Noah is keeping Children’s Mercy in business, and we were sent there again yesterday by our pediatrician.  He is fine, thankfully, and just has a projectile vomiting issue that can be attributed to a bout of stomach flu or possibly acid reflux.  I was thinking the worse possible outcome because when your husband, a fourth year med student gets nervous, then you automatically do too!  Anyway, Willow was left in the dust yesterday and had to spend the day at the babysitter’s without Noah, which made her very sad.  So we celebrated two healthy babies tonight (and gave Will a little extra lovin’) by heading to the Crown Center and her favorite restaurant, Fritz’s.  For those of you not familiar with Kansas City, this restaurant is a landmark:  the food is delivered to your table by a miniature train that rides on tracks over your head.  Your tray is placed in a mini elevator, and down it flops onto your table.  Youngins get to wear conductor hats and sit in a little train engine on their way out of the restaurant.  Because of Willow’s Papa Choo Choo, this place is right up her alley!  She enjoyed herself, but forgot to eat anything.  Before we left, we walked across the street to check out the skaters at the ice terrace.  It was such a wonderful night.  Now…if only we could get her to go to sleep!

And just because everyone needs a little Noah in their lives, here is a picture from earlier today:

It has been such a long time since we have posted videos on our blog, but I thought I would enlighten you with footage of our growing babies! Never mind our slightly unorganized (messy) home…and the Christmas decorations I still have out!

Noah truly is a typical guy and enjoys hanging with his dad, watching football.  He was in such happy spirits tonight, cooing and smiling, showing off his cute little dimple.  He likes football almost as much as his dad and was mesmerized by the colors on the tv.  Willow, a typical girl, wanted nothing to do with the boys and ate ice cream sandwiches at the table by herself instead.

These mornings are the mornings that I think I will always remember.  Willow watched cartoons in her pjs while Blake made pancakes for breakfast.  Noah was just being Noah: cute and snuggly, and smiley.

I never thought I would say this, but I honestly miss the snow and the cold weather.  It was mid-sixties here today and Willow, Noah and I enjoyed window shopping and playing at the play center at one of Kansas City’s outdoor malls.  We even started looking for summer clothes!  As much as I am going to miss KC, I am looking forward to a winter next year!  I hope this post of smiling, happy babies makes up for the one from yesterday.  All is well in our household today and we have so much fun with each other every day.  I could really get used to staying at home with my kiddos!  Happy Monday!

Two nights in a row, Blake and I got to experience the rights of parenting. Thursday night we cleaned up the dinner table and started our evening routine of bath, books, then bed. As I was putting dishes in the dishwasher, Will asked for her Candy Cane blanket. I searched every room in the house and the van, but to no avail, I did not find that grungy blanket. (Sorry Willow!) I made a quick phone call to our babysitter, and sure enough the blanket was on their couch. Off Blake went, driving 20 minutes across town just so Willow could sleep soundly.

Our Friday night was a blur…and finally Blake and I got Noah to sleep (after two hours of trying) and we settled down to watch a movie. As soon as the previews were over, an over tired 2 year old begged us to sleep in her room. So off to a twin bed I went and each time I swore Willow was asleep, I tried to sneak out, and woke her up instead. Eventually we both fell asleep, and by that time it was much too late for movie night. One positive about last night: Noah slept from 8 pm to 3 am! 7 hours in a row is a milestone!

I swear this isn’t a fluke thing; he did it over and over again!  It was pretty exciting (I mean, in one of those my child hit a milestone and this is only exciting to parents kind of ways.)  We only made him do it like fifteen times (not) then Willow helped us put him to bed…he was pretty much exhausted.

I hate to constantly compare Willow to Noah, but its all I know when it comes to babies.  I think because Willow was so early and so tiny, so many of the milestones that Noah hits come as a shock to me.  He isn’t even three months old and he is wearing three month clothes already…..Willow still wears some 18 month garb.  Noah’s little arms and little legs are so strong already, and he is rockin’ at tummy time.  Today, he spent almost fifty minutes on his tummy, just hanging out, until he got tired and rested his little head.  He does well, until sometimes big sister comes along and just tuckers him out.  She insists he have a binky at all times.