Sitting and smiling

Our guy is sitting here to let everyone know that he has not one, but two teeth! All of the Gibbs family members are pleased that they have finally poked through, although there are likely more on the way soon!



(Apologies for picture quality, the phone was closer than the camera.)

After All That

After months of misery, Noah finally got his first tooth today! Wahoo! Except - boo. Because he feels totally miserable still as only the tip has broken through... We have been enduring 3-4 wakeups a night since we got to Michigan from our little sore guy. And mom has been enduring her share of bites as well.

As most of you know, we are safely in Michigan at my (ever patient) sister's home. We are doing grown-up things like figuring out how to buy a house and another car. Sorry we haven't posted in so long - we will try to be more prompt, though pictures may be tough to come by until we actually get a house (since we don't have anything to which we can download our camera's pictures). But we will do our best with Tyler's iPhone.

The Fairies Stole My Child (and left a new one in his place)

So, Noah has NEVER been a paci baby. He wanted nothing to do with it - Mom was good enough, thank you very much. For the last week, though, ALL he wants in the entire world, at all times, is the paci. And nothing to do with Mom.

Noah has been sleeping through the night (roughly) since he was about six weeks old. For the last week? WAKEUPS. Many of them.

He used to light up when I walked in the room. Now, when Tyler comes home from work, he wants nothing whatsoever to do with me. Once he knows Tyler's home, he cries and cries until Tyler pays individual attention to him.

I just want to know where the fairies took the Noah who loved ME best, who didn't need a pacifier at all hours of the day and night, who was perfectly content to lie around and hang out with me. I really liked that Noah.

This Noah can roll over both ways, though, so I suppose there's that...

Six Months!

Our beloved guy is six months (and got 4 shots and one oral vaccine today to prove it)!

Noah's Stats:

Weight: 17 lb, 10 oz (58%)

Height: 27.75 inches (91%)

Head Circumference: 17.52" (75%)

At six months his sister was:

Weight: 16 lbs, 6 oz (60%)

Height: 27 inches (90%)

Head Circumference: 17.32" (78%)

I think it's funny that Noah is so much heavier than Natalie was but is still in the same approximate percentile for weight.

His diet consists of mostly milk from mom, with a spot of formula here and there. He's also eating three meals of solid food a day. He absolutely adores mom's homemade sweet potatoes and likes avocado too. This is in contrast to his sister who couldn't stand either! Also, she really liked bananas and pears, and he seems to dislike banana and to only tolerate pear. We feed him mostly oatmeal otherwise, because rice cereal seemed to clog up the pipes a little bit if you get my drift. We tried winter squash the other day but he's just not that into jarred food. Perhaps when I make him some homemade butternut squash he will like it better. We will see.

He sleeps quite well at night - generally 7:30 p.m. - 5 a.m. or so, a quick wakeup (a snack puts him back to sleep) and then back to bed until either 7:30 a.m. rolls around, or Natalie wakes him up ;) I want to sleep-train him soon because he doesn't *need* that 5 a.m. wakeup, but I am hesitant to do so with Natalie sleeping not that far away. We shall see how things progress.

In terms of temperament, he is still very easygoing though he certainly gets his desires known more and more as the days progress. He loves to squeal and shriek - especially in his crib when he wakes up - see sleep training above - and loves it when Natalie shakes jingly toys at him or Tyler plays guitar for him. Maybe he will be musical like his dad? He rolls from his back onto his tummy but has made no overtures whatsoever to turn the other way. It's not that he tries and can't do it - he has absolutely no desire to go back that way. Even if I turn him over when he's tired and protesting, he will roll right back over onto his tummy again. Oy vey, kid! So funny that before he had no desire to be on his tummy and now he has no desire to be on his back. He lays there on his tummy and spins his arms and legs wildly. This move seems intended to propel him forward, but as he is not Superman (to our knowledge), it just results in fatigue and frustration. He also isn't very into sitting up on his own. If we hold him that way for a few minutes, he kicks out with his legs until he gets onto his back and then flips over - you guessed it - onto his tummy. He quite likes the swings at the park, which is challenging because Natalie will only tolerate the swings for about 30 seconds before she is begging to go back on the "phwides". She's not quite old enough, in my opinion, to go running off on her own at our San Francisco parks so I try to keep her close. It's much easier if someone else is with us to help out - otherwise Noah just keeps getting the short end of the stick!

No teeth yet. Just the normal miserable hours while the teeth move around, but fail to appear on the surface. Thankfully, Natalie only has to deliver two more teeth and then she's done for a few years... Phew...

Both kids seem to like each other still. Natalie tries very hard to be helpful with Noah, which has its upsides and downsides. I can always count on her to give him a toy if he's fussy, but I can't always count on it being the *right* toy for his age. She really tries though. I try to walk the line between Noah's personal space and ensuring that the two of them enjoy each other and can become friends when the time comes.

And now he's been protesting in his crib for the whole time I've been writing this, so I should probably rescue him! A 45 minute nap won't cut it for much longer, buster! :-)

Happy Halloween!

We had very nice Halloween and hope everyone else did too!

Our little mermaid...















our little astronaut...















and Natty's specially decorated pumpkin!

Socks

First you see them...














...and now you don't!

Grocery shopping

Our little shopper at Trader Joe's! Pretzels, check.
Feta, check. Off to find the the ABC pasta...

Hmm, I wonder if I left my wallet in the car?

Guest Appearance

Our friends are more caught up on their blog posts than we are. Check out a few scenes from our trip to the pumpkin patch over the weekend!

Brain Change

This week has been a big huge week of emotional and mental changes for our guys. Things were the same-same-same and then all of a sudden both kids made huge leaps.

Noah learned this week how to link two mental concepts together... He all of a sudden has put together that when he wants something, he can reach out and grab it (and then taste it). Ergo, if he wants something that's further away, he has to roll over to get to it. It's been great but challenging, as he has been enormously frustrated when the toy won't fit in his mouth, or when he's been on his tummy too long, or when he gets tired. His squeals of rage are quite something. He's been learning this for a while but this week it was very obvious that he is moving along in his mental development. Very cool. Very challenging for Mom and Natalie, though, as now we need to make sure her teeny tiny toys are a safe distance away from our guy... and for Mom and Dad, as he is absolutely EXHAUSTED by bedtime every night and thus is quite a fuss budget. He has also been waking more overnight as he's working through these new concepts.

Natalie's changes are absolutely beyond huge this week (to me, the person who's always loved psychology). She has all of a sudden become afraid of things - the peach-faced lovebirds at the zoo, the vacuum cleaner again (even though 2 weeks ago the vacuum was a super-fun game), and... ?Reese? She still loves Reese but has begun to kind of whine and whimper when Reese gets too close to her. I have no idea what brought that little fear on, but she'd better work through it, 'cause Reese isn't goin' anywhere!! :-) She also has learned the concept of shame which is hard for me to watch. Whenever we think something she's said or done is especially genius, we have always laughed with delight and pride. But now she's started to be ashamed when we laugh, thinking we are laughing *at* her, even though nothing could be further from the truth. So we'll have to learn a new way of showing our pride, I guess. Lastly, she's good at pleasing Mom and Dad by picking up toys, being nice, playing well with others - when we can supervise her - but now she's also starting to learn how to meaningfully do the opposite - upset us. This is different from testing or tantrums which are so common starting around 18 months (or earlier)... now she absolutely knows what will hurt my feelings and can say it if she's feeling cranky. Like, she loves Daddy more... or doesn't love me at all... etc. etc. It's been interesting and poorly timed given my ongoing mourning for my own father, but a reminder that life goes on.

We absolutely love our kids so much. But I have to say that I am really eager for the weekend to arrive so I can take some much-needed moments to decompress from all the crying around here! :-)

Whoops

Somehow a lot of time went by and we haven't posted. It's been hard to motivate since we lost one of our most faithful readers on August 5th, but we will try to get back into the swing of things. We've had a busy month and a half!

Here is Natalie at Jack's birthday party. She absolutely LOVED Jack's slide and talks about it often. She was also excited that she got to choose her very own cupcake (and, naturally, selected pink).
Our little ones conversing.
Natalie and Tyler at the zoo in late September. The kids and I have been going to the zoo once or twice a week lately - it's really close to our house and we all love it.
In late September we did the Pancan '09 walk in Detroit with our extended family. We missed my dad so much but it was nice to be around each other again. We are really lucky to have such great family members. We celebrated Nathan's birthday while we were in Michigan too - super-fun.
Natalie and I at the cider mill in Franklin MI. We fed the ducks, got WAY too many donuts, and - oh yah - bought apples too.

Noah is officially five months now. He has only rolled over once so far (on Friday 10/2, in fact) though he's moving around the floor on his back a little bit in his attempts to get over onto his tummy. Lately he's been quite a fuss budget - which I think means he's getting frustrated over his immobile status. We shall see what the coming months hold.

He tried rice cereal on Saturday 10/3 - yesterday - and thought it was just fine. He ate a little bowl of it but wasn't hungry for much more than that. Same thing today. I think he prefers plain milk still, but we will continue giving him a little bit every day. It's fun to see him strapped into his sister's high chair! A month from now he will move on to more sophisticated cuisine, such as sweet potato. Pictures to follow. We will try to be better about posting since I am officially now a stay-at-home-mom for the time being!

Boo Hoo

They could be twins if they weren't 20.5 months apart in age.
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I just had my first (and possibly my only) "kids grow up too fast and I can't believe we only want to have two of them" moment.

I will NEVER buy another box of Pampers Swaddlers for a Gibbs baby. Unless something crazy happens, but two is the plan (and my doctor vehemently agrees that I should stick with two).

Oh, Pampers Swaddlers, how I am addicted to your odd cloying scent! I was so excited to need Swaddlers again, but alas, Noah has packed on the pounds in a way his sister did not, and he's outgrown them. *sigh*

Another Walk

The Gibbs family is also preparing to walk in the PurpleStride walk in Detroit on September 27th! We are all walking in my Dad's memory.

In this recession I know EVERYONE has extra pennies to spare (lame attempt at a joke) but if you are looking for a good cause, please donate to our little team. Tyler's page is here if you want to help him make his fundraising goal. Thank you SO SO SO SO SO much to everyone who helped me meet my fundraising goal too.

Trip to Michigan

Finally getting up pictures from our trip to Michigan. The trip was wonderful and horrific (yes, wonderful and horrific). There is never, ever, ever a good time to lose a wonderful father and grandfather. It goes without saying that I am trying my best to move forward in the grieving process for the sake of my kids and husband, but I hate that I can't see or do anything without being reminded of my Dad. I can't even walk down the street here in San Francisco without seeing restaurants we ate in together, places we visited during my ten years here, hotels at which he stayed (though he only ever liked the Laurel Inn, and in fact judged my various domiciles in San Francisco by their relative proximity to that hotel). So the trip was really awful because losing him is a total nightmare.

But. But. But we had such a wonderful time in Michigan, aside from that fact. How could that be? I know! I am posting some pictures which should hopefully explain why we had a wonderful time and what we loved so much.

Natalie had a birthday party on August 2nd. How lucky that we decided to have the party that day. My dad was able to join us, along with all of our aunts and uncles and many of our cousins (and, naturally, my sisters and their families).

Aunt Pam got Natalie this ridiculously awesome cake from Costco. What is it about Costco cakes that make them so utterly delicious? All I can say is that this cake is about all I ate between August 2nd and August 10th. Yum. Natalie had a great time at her party - her cousins showed her how to open presents (a skill she put to good use during the other parties we had for her this year).

Playing with Matthew and "Mister Head". Natalie loves Mister Head and she also loves her cousin Matthew, one of the smiliest and most wonderful children I know.
Our two peanuts. Could they be any sweeter?

At a Nature Preserve in West Bloomfield. The beloved double Bob stroller - oh, how I miss you, double Bob. Oh, and Luckens too (haha!).

Feeding deer at the Nature Preserve with Aunt Pam. Everybody got really into feeding these deer! It's fascinating how one deer loved to eat green peapods and the other, not so much. One loved clover and the other hated it. They are like toddlers! Lots of preferences! Natalie and I sing "Old McDonald had a farm" a lot in the car, and now often Old McDonald has a "doe", and the doe eats "green beans".

Noah supporting Aunt Pam at her 3 day walk!!! It was so hot on Friday, the first day of the walk. Actually, who am I kidding - it was steamy every day. But the kids loved driving around to see their Aunt. Natalie especially got into clapping and cheering for the walkers.
After we went to Livonia to see the walk on Friday, Natalie and Noah and I went to the Splash Pad at Grandma Nancy's park in Grosse Pointe Farms. Natalie absolutely LOVED the splash pad. I have to say that Gramma Nance loved it too. She wasn't wearing her swimsuit but ended up allowing herself to get soaked anyway. Gramma Nance and I agreed that toddlers and infants are good distractions when you hurt too much to think about anything else.

Saturday, the kids and I went to Plymouth to see the walk. Noah in his bunny ears.

The BELOVED Luckens

And Sunday, August 16th, we went to Ann Arbor to see the walkers! Mom LOVES Ann Arbor - naturally - so this was great fun. We even went to Zingerman's with Aunt Pam's 3 day team so they could cool down a little bit in all that heat. Natalie and Aunt Pam shared (not kidding) a few TABLESPOONS of vanilla gelato - and I don't want to say how much those few tablespoons of gelato cost :-) They were worth it though. Delish. I also picked up a giant coffee cake to enjoy back in California and boy was it worthwhile to lug 3 lbs of butter, sugar, flour, and nuts back home! It was beyond tasty.

We were so proud of Aunt Pam and her team. Several of her teammates walked on feet covered in blisters. Other teammates almost passed out from the heat and dehydration. But they kept going - after getting proper medical attention, of course. I was so inspired that I decided to sign up for the 2010 walk. Hence the new link on the sidebar to my 3 day training blog. I can't promise earth-shattering prose there, but Tyler and I try to keep this blog focused on the kids and the fun things we do - whereas that blog will probably get more introspective as I tend to sort out thoughts and feelings (and come up with new ideas) during walks. One thing I really would love to hear (in comments or personal emails) is suggestions on fundraising. I have to raise $2300 for the walk within the year, and would like to get creative. My sister is the captain of the team and has raised quadrillions of dollars herself for the walk over the last three years... so I know Pam is creative and will help with ideas too, but I'd also love to hear if anyone else has out of the box ideas for me.

By Popular Demand

Natalie at party #4 :-) This girl LOVES birthdays.

24 months = 2 years!

On Tuesday, our little girl turned the magical age of two! It is amazing to think how much she has changed in two years - from little peanut to confident toddler. It is wonderful to watch her grow up and we look forward to all of the fun times ahead in year 3!

This idea was borrowed from several different friends and despite not having Photoshop or a Mac, it turned out okay...and we look forward to adding more pictures to the collection!
Many thanks to our family and friends for celebrating with us over the last couple weeks. We have made up for her two canceled 1st birthday parties! More pics from these fun events to come soon!

Pancreatic Cancer Sucks

The Gibbs family is walking in PurpleStride '09 - a walk to raise funds for pancan.org - on September 27th in Detroit. Help "Team Carroll" demolish its fundraising goal!

Believe me when I say that pancreatic cancer REALLY DOES SUCK. I couldn't do enough to help my dad in his fight against it. My kids still lost their only remaining Carroll biological grandparent.
But at least we can help fund an organization that provided tons of information and support for my stepmother and my father while he was alive.

Thanks for considering raising funds with us! If you are in Detroit - JOIN OUR TEAM!!!

Peace

A note to our friends - my beloved father, John Carroll, is now at peace after an unbelievable battle with pancreatic cancer.

My dad in 2007 - after Natalie was born.

We are truly thanking God for helping him rest.

Noah Laughing

Our guy has been giggling lately. It's pretty darned awesome. Just about as awesome as the fact that he's been sleeping through the night for an entire month.



My (Julie's) apologies for the finger over the lens in this video.

Sunny Days, Keeping the Clouds Away

This week we had a rare beautiful, sunny day at our house in San Francisco (what's that quote - falsely attributed to Mark Twain - about the coldest winter being a summer in San Francisco?). We spent a few sunny hours of it with some of the Gibbs family's favorite people - Cheryl and baby Madison.
Baby Madison snoozing... Noah was upstairs sleeping while this pic was taken.
Natalie talks about Cheryl ALL THE TIME, and always wants to see her, so you can imagine her glee when she saw her?
We filled a big tupperware bin with water and let Natalie splash around. A big mess, particularly when she sat in the sandbox afterwards, but super-fun regardless. Sadly, the weather is now back to ugh... 55 degrees and cloudy/foggy. Ah well. It was nice while it lasted!

A temperament update: Natalie is almost two, and thus we spend all of our time together 1) chattering, 2) laughing, and 3) negotiating. She is excellent company for me during the days since she talks even more than I do - she is very silly and cute. Alas, she also has a quick temper when being forced to do something she judges less than desirable. She has been known to scream, flail, throw herself out of her stroller, cry, etc. - all that normal age two stuff. But as I often say, the benefits of the age (talking, laughing, playing, general silliness) are greater than the trials... She is now in daycare only two days a week since I am home during the days with Noah, at least until my leave is up in mid-September. She loves her friends at school so much but seems to be pretty happy to stay home with Noah and me too. I can see how much she learns from Tyler and I though - when Noah coughs or rustles, she rushes over and says "Are you ok, Noah-No?" - just like I do. Really funny. She very much dislikes his crying though. Speaking of Noah, he is now 2 1/2 months, which is the famed age when infants become even more social and smiley. We are certainly noticing that he wants to interact with us and watch us constantly. He protests vociferously and LOUDLY when he has to nap. This is brand new behavior as of this week, and I am not enjoying the protestations one bit! He roars and screams and cries and just works himself into a lather. I am hoping this is just a short phase because man alive, I miss my calm and patient and sleepy baby boy. The worst part is that Natalie also works herself into a lather at the same time - she gets nervous/upset when he cries, because it is so unusual for him, and then she says "STOP CRYING, BABY NOAH!!!" - if that doesn't work, which *obviously* it doesn't, she ends up crying and wailing herself until he stops. So that's fun for Mom.

All in all, things are going very well. Noah has turned into a dynamite sleeper - 9 p.m. - 4 a.m. most days. That makes us cope with everything during the days much better. I know that his sleep will shift a lot - I remember that from Natalie... so I am just trying to enjoy this while it lasts!

Good big sister!

Natalie is a great big sister to Noah. Here she is entertaining him this afternoon with some impromptu activities.



Another month and Noah will be grabbing that monkey from her!

Birthday Wishes

For someone special!!!

Two months!

Our boy is two whole months old today - where does the time go? Here is our big guy (13+ lbs) giving us one of his many smiles!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day from all of us! One of our activities for the day was to go to Natalie and Noah's first outdoor concert in Golden Gate Park.

Natalie and her balloon all ready to go...

Noah is up from his nap...

Natalie up from her nap with baby, milk and food ready to go...

At the park! Lemonade is tasty!

We hope everyone had as great a Father's Day as we did!

*Julie's notes regarding Tyler's post above:
-The Natalie/balloon picture was actually taken yesterday... we sort of celebrated Father's Day all weekend around here :-)

-Here is Natalie debuting one of several new hairstyles she sported this weekend. She has finally gotten comfortable with our styling her hair, and it's been a lot of fun!

-Her shirt says "I love my Daddy"... Noah's outfit says "Handsome Like Daddy". Unfortunately, both shirts are likely totally ruined after today. Natalie's shirt had an unfortunate luncheon encounter involving some Elmo Tomato Soup... and Noah is 7 weeks + 2 Days... longtime blog readers will remember that when Natalie was 7 weeks + 2 Days, she ruined a couple of her outfits as well as my own with some very forceful pooping incidents. Noah is following in her footsteps TO THE DAY. Does anyone else think that is pretty cool?

Clever

Natalie has been saying the funniest things lately. My illustrious husband posted on Saturday that she was saying the "occasional sentence", but I am not so modest about her achievements (and he claims I understand her words better) so I feel like she is speaking in almost all sentences.

Some gems:

-"MOMMY! I found the 'mingos!" - on our walk home from school, she likes to point out some pink plastic flamingos that someone has planted in a pot by their house

-"Eat the water!" - she wanted me to drink water out of *my* water bottle whilst she was drinking out of *hers*... when I didn't comply quickly enough, she followed up with "OPEN MOUTH!!!"

-"my pony tail cute like mommy's" - our friend Cheryl put a ponytail in Natalie's hair on Saturday, and thus it immediately became the de rigeur hairstyle for the rest of the weekend.

-Yesterday I was sort of half-singing a song - "her" song - a particularly crazy hip hop song which we all love), and she started singing right along. Some people sing ABCs... my sweet, angelic, blonde curly-haired toddler likes to sing hip hop... luckily the words she sang were "notice you, noticing me" and not something more questionable.

-I remarked that Noah was cute, and she corrected me - apparently "Noah HANDSOME"... not cute. Who knew?

More pictures

Since we just can't get enough of our wonderful duo, we had to post a few shots from this weekend. Noah continues to grow at a healthy clip, leaving the 12 lb mark in the dust this week. He continues to be a pretty laid-back guy and seems to enjoy watching his big sister run around the house.


Natalie continues to add words to her vocabulary and occasional complete sentences are starting to come out! We are so proud of her and amazed how big she is - is she almost 22 months in this picture or 4 years old? We'll let you decide!

Then and Now

Over the weekend we met up with one of Natalie's oldest friends, Kai. Kai used to share Natalie's nanny before she went to daycare in Sept 2008.

Natalie and Kai, February 2008 - 6 months

Natalie and Kai, June 2009- 22 months

They are a little bit bigger and more mature now, as you can see!

Fairly Typical Interaction

This is a video of fairly typical interaction between Natalie & Noah. She loves to bounce him in the bouncy chair (sometimes almost too much, as this video shows, so we can't leave them alone even for a second). She also loves to get right up in his face to say hi. It's cute! She likes him a lot, even though she wishes that she had more time alone with Mom & Dad...

Smile!

Also, Noah is now 11 lbs 14 oz. Some of his 0-3 month Gap onesies are too small for him already! Natalie didn't weigh this much until she was between 3-4 months old (when we started supplementing her diet with formula because she wasn't eating enough via the traditional method).

the more things change, the more they stay the same

Natalie at 1 month old (plus a couple days - 9/24/2007)

Noah at one month old (6/1/2009)
Different baby, different house, different year, different life.


I swear I did not stage this picture... I just happened to be lying with Noah on the bed, and Reese (as usual) had to get into the mix, so the photo opportunity presented itself.

Family

Out of order, a few pictures from recent visitors.
In Mill Valley with Bubba & Gramma Nance

Is it just me or does Natalie look *a lot* like her Aunt Pam?

Prodigious Growth

Noah had his two week appointment today (he is 17 days old). He has already gained a full pound as well as grown 1/2 inch since birth. We would be thrilled about this development but for the sheer amount of eating it has required to achieve these statistics (97% for weight and 95% for height). We might consider giving up an ounce in exchange for a few less nighttime wakeups around here!

For posterity he now weighs 10 lbs 8 oz, and is 22 1/2 inches long. I was too tired to remember his head circumference but I will update that later when I find it in the masses of papers the doctor gave us about how to deal with colic. All this for a baby who so far has only cried during diaper changes which take "too long" in his opinion, or during baths. We know his temperament will change about a hundred times in the upcoming few months but, for the record, 17 days after his birth he remained a very placid baby.

Natalie is doing quite well. She definitely has been much more moody and sensitive in the last week or so but we have survived with lots of extra TLC from Aunt Pam, who came for a visit to help us. Today marks the beginning of "life as usual", where I will need to learn to balance the needs of two little ones on my own (as Tyler is fully back to work and our next visitors don't arrive til Memorial Day weekend). Wish us luck!

Noah's First Playdate

Today Noah had his first playdate, with Madison Isabella Keenan (born May 5th at 1:29 p.m.)... the 7 day old and the 12 day old baby got along well.

Noah "woke up" a little today (vs. the last few days where he has been asleep most of the day), so it was a very good day to meet his friend!


Madison was hungry... and she wanted to let her mom know.

We are so excited for our friends Cheryl and Adam, and feel lucky to have seen Madison only seven short days after her birth. She is a delight.