Yummy to my Tummy!!!!

Baby Walter had his first taste of brown rice cereal tonight.  I could not get it in his mouth fast enough.  For the past week, he has been waking up at night again...every two to three hours...Um, yeah...WHAT!!  It was killing me.  When he was waking up, he was eating.  Eating a full meal.  Anyway, we gave the very watery breastmilk/cereal combo a shot tonight.  We will see if it helps things.  

Baby Addison Kate Norris

Baby Addison was born on Friday, December 14th, 2007.  She arrived at 5:40 PM.  She weighed 7 pounds, 13 ounces and was 20 inches long.  All reports are that Mom and Baby are doing great.  No one talks about Dad:).  Welcome to the world Baby Addison.  And to Craig and Nancy...strap in for the ride of you lives:)

New Baby Countdown

Craig and Nancy went in at 6:00 PM last night to begin the lovely induction process. They should have Baby Addison sometime today. What a wonderful Christmas present. Keep us posted when you can! Good luck and Speedy Induction!!!

Round and Round and Round

Grace also rode the carousel on Sunday.  It almost put her to sleep with her no nap self:)

The Ruby Red Slipper

Finally got a picture of the infamous slippers.  She actually looks like a house was dropped on her in this picture.

The Build A Bear Workshop

If you have never been, you have to go.  The Build a Bear is a stuffed animal store where you go and pick out your flat animal, stuff it, dress it, name it and take it home.  Kids LOVE it.  One opened in Myrtle Beach when I was in college, and the line wrapped around the building in the summer time.  Nana Su and Lindsay took Grace yesterday for Christmas.  She had a ball.  She picked out the pink bear, dressed her in a Cinderella dress, and wait for it.....

RUBY RED SLIPPERS!!!  The bear's name is Lisa.  Not sure where that came from?  Anyway she loved the trip.  Then we went home to Nana Su's for Hanukkah.  Please notice my lack of multiculturalism awareness when looking at Grace's attire for the evening.  I am totally losing it!!

Christmas Card Attempts

Well, I have pretty much accepted the fact that I will not be getting the two of my children to smile and be happy for a picture at the same time this year for a Christmas picture to add to our Christmas cards. We sure did have alot of fun trying. Maybe another day.

True Peace on Earth. May God bless us all.

My very own Frosty the Snowman

He is going to KILL me one day!!!!

Children's Christmas Party

Saturday, December 8th was the Children's Christmas Party. It is thrown by all of the officer's wives and held in the hangar. We get bouncers, have cotton candy, bubble wrap, games, gifts, prizes, etc. The highlight is Santa's arrival. He does not come by reindeer. He arrives in a 60 sierra, or more commonly known as a helicopter. The kids love it. They all get to sit on Santa's lap and ask him for their Christmas gifts. Then they jack up on sugar and come home and crash. Grace claimed that she planned to take the helicopter to the zoo, but we could not accompany her. Here are several shots to sum up the day. The only thing missing was Daddy...

Baby News??

NO NOT ME...Are you KIDDING!!!!!!

We are anxiously awaiting news of Grace's new...I guess it would be God-sibling??

Grace's Godfather, Craig, and his wife, Nancy are imminently expecting the birth of their first child, Addison Kate, any day! She is actually due tomorrow, December 9th. We are crossing our fingers for you, Miss Nancy, that you have a speedy, safe delivery (not quite as fast as Brothers:) and LOTS of GREAT drugs!

Keep us posted!!

O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum

The tree is up. We put it up before Lamar left for Panama City. He and I have philosophical differences on the color of the lights for the tree. I grew up with white, he insists on color. See who won:) Grace also has Santa lights in her room. She is ready for Christmas.

Sleeping

We have a "sleeper through the night!" For the last two nights, I have put Walter down at 8:30 PM, and he has slept until 6:00 AM straight. I am so excited, I can hardly contain myself. Since he was born, I have been going to bed when he does to get some rest. Needless to say, my house has turned into a disaster. I have not had a real night's sleep since about five months pregnant. For the past two nights, I have slept seven hours straight. I even get some ME time in the morning before they all wake up. It is amazing what excites a mother of two small children.

Dorothy

Grace is now into The Wizard of Oz. We went out and got her a pair of ruby red slippers. She wears them with EVERYTHING. She told her Nana Su that she needs the blue dress to go with them. She also told me that I could not wear them or take them from her because I was the Wicked Witch...but my face is not green....

Just wait. Before I leave work one day, I am going to the paint closet and paint my face green. Then I am going to go pick her up from school...

Gotta Love The Navy

Well...Lamar is gone...again.

He is cruising Panama City for cute Spring Breakers:)

HA..HA.. No, actually he is down in Panama City towing. Is it fun, you may ask? Well, not according to him. He will be down there until Christmas, will come home for Santa, and then go back to tow until February. Life here with two alone is FUN!! Grace has become slightly whiny lately. She gets EXASPERATED with Brother, telling him that he needs to learn to wait his turn. My question...when is MY turn??

Anyway, drop us a line or an email. I probably won't answer it, because I am here with two, but at least you will have tried:)

Turkey Day Excitement

Well, it was another wonderful turkey day down on the farm. We had approximately 45 people join us this year. The weather was perfect, the food was wonderful, and the company was alright too:) If you left hungry, it was your own fault. If you did not attend, we hope that you will join us next year for the festivities.

Citadel Cheerleader

Lamar took Grace to the Citadel/VMI game in November. The Citadel BLEW VMI away. Grace was the HIT of the game. She was apparently a very good companion in the car going up and back. She is going to be a football girl like her mom and dad.

Two Month Stats

Brother had his two month appointment yesterday. He is doing really well, except he was diagnosed with reflux. You should have been at our house for the crying FITS. Not fun!! He also got three shots :( and the oral rotavirus vaccine. Loved that one! He is doing everything that he should and even a few that he should not. He even slept last night!!!! He went down at 9 and slept until 2! Yes I was the mom that dashed out of the bed and went in and checked on him. He ate at 2 and went back down until 6! I was SO excited. Probably from the shots! Here's hoping to another night of sleep tonight!

Weight 12 lbs 6.8 oz (and not from formula!! YEA!!!) 75th percentile
Head 41.5 centimeters 75th percentile (He is going to be smart!!)
Length 23 inches 50th percentile (And short!!!)

Back to the Grind

Well, it is official. I return to work on Monday. I have run out of excuses, and the doctor has said, go already! She actually said that all looks good, and she is done with me. I know that my assistant is ready! Thank you, Karen, for holding down the fort all alone. I know that you did a WONDERFUL job. Baby Walter will be returning with me until there is a space available at Grace's center in December or so. He will be completely rotten with all of the ladies that work for me! Ready or not...here we come!!

Halloween

Happy Halloween!!!

Walter's First Official Photo Shoot

Well, I got nothing done that I set out to do today. I took Walter to get his pictures done instead. Completely on a whim. He was dressed for Halloween so I figured, why not, right?







Grace has her school pictures tomorrow. I figured since she takes those alone that Brother should get a set too. Now, tomorrow, I will go to the cleaners, return the shirt that does not fit, and return the expired tea that the commisary sold to me...

Happy Birthday PawPaw

Happy Birthday PawPaw. We hope that you had a wonderful day!!! And we will keep your age to ourselves...

58

Ooops!

Gross Anatomy

Lamar has been studying to further his education in certain areas recently. He is brushing up on his biology and anatomy to keep his options open. Right now he is concentrating on the human body. He was upstairs with Grace reviewing the parts of the body with her last night. He asked her to show him her radius, ulna, and humerous bones. She complied. He asked her if she had a pancreas. She said yes. He asked her if he had one. She replied emphatically no. He said that he did and they battled back and forth. He finally asked her why he did not have one. She told him that his was a blucreas because he is a boy. Blue=Blucreas. Pink=Pancreas. Girls vs. Boys. I guess that it starts REALLY early...

oh...

And Brother can now roll from his stomach to back on the other side. That boy will do ANYTHING to get out of tummy time:)

Child Prodigy??

Do we have a genius in the making? Baby Walter rolled over today. A fluke you might say at seven weeks. Well, what do you say to three separate times at three different times today. The first time was the morning while he was upstairs with Grace and Daddy. The second time was a little later for my benefit, while we were all upstairs. The third time was tonight during tummy time on his playmat. Lamar told him when he rolled over he could get off the floor. So, he went flip. We are tummy to backing it right now. Great job Brother!!

The Messy House

Lamar and Jeff took on a rather large project this spring/summer. They decided to buy and flip a house. Naturally, there are no before pictures, but they did take some great afters. It is listed here in Norfolk with a realty, but also on militarybyowner.com. Take a look...they are available for hire for projects. Just call me.

www.militarybyowner.com/listings/tourplus.asp?F_BASE_ID=247&F_STATE=VA&LISTING_ID=53029

Address Change

Lamar's website address has changed. Thank you, Bec, for pointing out that I have not fixed it. Lamar told me to and I naturally forgot.

http://web.mac.com/curtis.hardy/Walter_Robert/Homepage.html

Caught Up!

Yea!!! I am caught up! I can't believe it! It is unbelievable! Let's see how long it lasts. Be sure to scroll down past the FINALLY post. Pictures have been added before Walter was born!!

CONGRATULATIONS

Congratulations to Jeff and Andrea!!

Welcome to the world Aubrey Nicole!

Welcome to Parenthood!!

Pumpkin Shopping

We took Grace and Walter to the pumpkin patch at the church this week. We went for several reasons. We needed a pumpkin for the house, I wanted pictures and Grace had to bring in a pumpkin for homework. Kill all those birds....

Camping

We went camping the weekend of October 19th. When I say camping, I mean in 27 foot trailers. Hey, I have a newborn and a toddler! I am not that crazy! Anyway, we went with Nana Su and her family and Miss Beth from Grace's school and family. The campground is on the other side of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel on the Eastern Shore. It is called Cherrystone. Each year, they put on this Halloween Extravaganza as an end to their camping season. Nana Su has been going for 10 years, since Lindsay was four years old. You can rent anything from a tent site, to a cabin, to a trailer. They have paddle boats, volleyball, haunted houses, hayrides, crafts, and bike riding galore! We had a wonderful time despite a statewide burning ban, which really put a damper on smores, hotdogs, and marshmellow roasting. Oh well, we got creative the last night and roasted over the Weber. Gotta improvise sometimes!

Grace wore her costume to go Trick or Treating. She even shared the bling with brother (more information on the bling in a lower post.) All of these were taken camping.

South Carolina State Fair 2007

Lamar and I took the children home for an extended weekend during the state fair. The closest fair to us here in Virginia is in Richmond, about an hour away, so we decided to drive 400 miles to go to the one that we like. Make since?? We all had our fill of fair food, rides, exhibits and all around entertainment. Grace rode the first few rides with her daddy and then she was off on her own. The swings were her absolute favorite. She was screaming as they spun around by the end of the day. Baby Walter just enjoyed being outdoors, as did Pop.

Story Time

Baby Walter loves his bumbo seat. He is able to sit up and look around at everything that is going on in the room. He is getting really good at holding his head up, so this allows the use of the seat much more! Grace enjoys reading to her baby brother. Here she is reading "Barbie's Fairitopia." I feel as if I am losing brain cells each time I read it! I prefer the classic children's stories much more, but to each his own I guess!

Cinderella

Grace decided that she would like to be Cinderella for Halloween. Nana Su and Lindsay took her shopping for her Halloween costume. She came home with it all. The gloves, shoes, tiara, necklace (affectionately known now as "the bling") the purse, and the dress. She is set to go! Thanks Nana Su and Lindsay! What would we do without you!?!

Baby Walter at Rest

Baby Walter sleeps really well, during the day!