what a week...

We've had a rough go of it this week! Last Monday Noah was diagnosed with Croup, or "the Croup" (anything with "the" before it sounds so foreboding!). He's just starting to get over that, and today he came down with pink eye! I didn't understand how a less-than-two-year-old that doesn't go to daycare could possibly get pink eye, but according to the nurse, "it's everywhere!". She made it sound like it's a miracle that we all haven't been afflicted with this before! The best part is trying to explain and then put drops in the less-than-two-year-old's eye! No fun!

global warming...

Don't get me wrong, I'm sympathetic to the plight of the arctic animals that are losing their habitats daily, but we sure are enjoying this record-breaking heat wave we're having! We've spent lots of time outside every day enjoying the beautiful 60 and 70 degree weather! Is it really January? (UPDATE: Mike Nelson just brought me back to reality with a forecast of snow flurries for tomorrow! Really?)

just ducky...

Below is a video of Noah and his ducks! Notice the distressed look on his face when one of his ducks has been lost from the flock (do ducks come in a flock? gaggle? pack? If you know, please comment!).

rubber ducky, you're the one!

I always think it's so funny how kids seem to gravitate towards certain things without any influence from anyone else. For Noah this week, it's been his three rubber duckies that came on a bigger rubber ducky in his Christmas stocking. It all started at bath time a few days ago. Instead of leaving the ducks in/near the tub or bathroom at the conclusion of said bath, he wanted to take them with. So, he did, and he's barely let them out of his sight since. In fact, missing or fallen rubber duckies have led to more than one wild outburst this week. Ask Rob about King Soopers or me about our l o n g drive to Boulder. Here's a sampling of Noah loving his ducks!

Pouring the ducks from his art supply bin into my shoe (I know, weird).

Well, I guess they do fit pretty well in there.

Getting all his ducks in a row!

The next day, sitting in his tonka dump truck, the ducks have good seats too!

"in you go!"

"you lookin' at me (and my ducks)?"

As I type this, Noah is upstairs sleeping with his rubber ducks... seriously! He's never wanted anything other than his blankie before! The cutest part was that he's learning to pretend! Two days ago he was having raisins, and he pretended to feed them to his ducks. He also gives them cute kisses on their little beaks! I guess this is all fine until he's begging to take the ducks to school!

yes we can

Noah's been an Obama supporter since day one, so we decided to commemorate the momentous occasion of his inauguration on Tuesday with some obamicon's. If you want to make your own, go to www.obamicon.me.

kitchen "before" and "after"

I finally feel like we have one room in the new house "finished" (well, at least really close). I wanted to share some "before" and "after" photos of the kitchen.

BEFORE

Before, the walls were a olivey-brown color, counter tops were a gray limestone that was badly stained, and there was not backsplash or trim between the countertop and the wall.

Yuck... the stained countertops

Here you can see the olive green back hallway too

drum roll please....
AFTER

New "Australian Black" granite counters (Rob would like everyone to know that he picked the counters), fresh, lighter paint colors, and a tile backsplash.

View from the other way. My last project to complete is to find something cool to go in the brick nook above the double ovens.

Close-up of the tile... it's a blue/gray, brick-set, 1x2 glass tile from Japan made of recycled glass!

good company

As I mentioned in the previous post, my cousin Julie spent the night after I got her at the airport yesterday. She starts classes again at CSU on Tuesday and was home in Florida for Christmas Break. Noah decided to keep me company while I drove her up to Ft. Collins. We had lots of fun singing and being silly in the car!

He thought that drinking his lemonade was hilarious (this is before we even left the garage!)

He wouldn't let go of that sippy cup for anything! This is the little pathway in our backyard. For those of you not in Colorado, it got to 66 degrees today!

Thought I'd try to get a nice mommy-son picture, but Noah wasn't having it, as you can see!
"But Mom, the sun is so bright!"

"Just let me drink my juice Mom!"

I swear that right as the camera clicked he looked down! Shoot! Maybe next time!

so much fun!

Noah found a fun new game this morning! He moved all of his stuffed animals from a bin into this laundry basket, and back and forth a few times. Then, he figured he could have even more fun if he got into the laundry basket too! He played in the laundry basket for almost an hour! We got a big kick out of it!

One of Noah's favorite toys lately is a cool wooden "Noah's Ark" that we got him for Christmas. He asks to play with it all the time! Unfortunately, it doesn't look at though all the animals will be mating, as we've already lost a few. Good thing gathering two of each animal wasn't up to this Noah!

Julie was visiting en route to CSU, and Noah really wanted to share his ark animals with her, in fact, he wanted her to hold all of them!

Video of the Day!

Here's the video footage of Noah enjoying his laundry basket full of stuffed animals!

Mom's Hat

I blame Rob for this one... anyone that knows him knows that he's not often caught without his hat on. So now, if there's a hat laying around, Noah has to try to put it on. Snapped a few pix while he was trying on one of mine!

staycation...

Like I mentioned... I've been off since last Thursday, and we're enjoying lots of family time! Today we had an action-packed day visiting the Denver Children's Museum and the Denver Fire Museum (we're members, so that one was a quick, free, trip).
Noah loved the Children's Museum, and did a great job (for the most part) of playing with all the other kids!

Playing with some neat puzzles in the little kiddos area.

They have an old fire truck and fire safety display in the Children's Museum. Funny enough, it's an old engine 14, from the station Rob's at right now! Noah thought it was pretty cool to climb all over it, although he wasn't sure about the fake guy with the hose!

You can see 14's numbers on the top!

Climbing on the truck!

The wall of alphabet soup.

At the puppet theater!

Needless to say, he pretty much stayed on the move! He didn't spend too long at any one activity!

Our little artist did love the painting though!

Working on his masterpiece! I like the hand prints!

"It needs just a little something else..."

Noah and Mommy climbing on this crazy tree structure thing! There were neat tunnels and lots and lots of loud kids!

Daddy and Noah hoopin' it up!

Going in for a dunk!

Learning that cup-stacking thing!

Noah was a big fan of the train room!

Note the green paint on his chin!

Too bad I couldn't get him to keep the conductor hat on!

At the DFD fire museum! Climbing on another fire truck!

Wow... what a busy day! I think we all need to go home and take a nap!