Find the Bird

We have a drawer in the guest room downstairs where we keep diapers. Noah knows where they are, so when he needs a new one, we have him go get it. We sent him to get one yesterday and he came out saying he had to go upstairs to get one. I knew there were still some in the drawer and wondered what he was doing. We looked later and noticed that the drawer looked all askew.

 

Turns out, he's been digging through them searching for ones that have Big Bird on them. When he couldn't find one, he went upstairs to find one. Apparently our little one is quite picky about which diapers he puts on his little baby bum. 

Merry Christmas 2013

Christmas this year was a much happier occasion for us than last year. Last year, Noah had a fever of 104 on Christmas Eve, we ended up in the emergency room Christmas night, and ended up spending three days at Children's Healthcare. This year we were thankful and blessed to have a healthy, silly boy on our hands.

We spent Christmas Eve with my parents. Noah actually enjoyed opening his presents this year. He really likes dinosaurs right now, so one of his favorite gifts of the day was a walking, roaring T-rex (which happens to be his favorite) with eyes that light up.

He also got a dinosaur book that makes noise that he was pretty excited about.

Another favorite gift of the day was his very own motorcycle. It had to be put together immediately so he could ride it around the house, testing out the blinkers and all the other buttons that make noise.

Taylor got several tools that he wanted, including a blower that Noah was quite fond of. Apparently it's really funny to blow it in Mommy's face and 'make her look like a model'. My big surprise gift was a new Nikon camera. I have been talking for a while about upgrading ours, but they are expensive and it just wasn't at the top of the priority list. So I was thrilled with this surprise. Now all I have to do is figure out all the bells and whistles that come with it.

Christmas morning started with checking out what Santa had delivered, which was a wooden tool bench. Noah checked out all the tools that came with it and pounded in a few nails before moving on to other presents.

Noah got more cars and puzzles, another dinosaur book, and all the bedding for his new big boy room. And let's be honest; Mommy was really more excited about that than he was. We opened all our gifts and then Noah got to play with all his new loot while Mommy got everything ready for the rest of the Larkin clan to show up. We had some yummy food and then it was time for more gifts for the kiddos. This included Taylor and his brothers, who all got remote control helicopters from their Dad. They had to be taken out of the boxes and flown immediately. They really are just big kids at heart.

Once everything had wrapped up and the little ones were about ready for bed, we got one of the cutest moments of the day. Noah and his cousin Emsley climbed up on Uncle Spencer's lap for a story.

We had a happy, healthy holiday, and I hope we have many more like it in the future.

His Happy Place

One of Noah's favorite places to go is Target. He loves to go there to look at toys. One Saturday recently when I had to be at work, Taylor took him there to let him play for a while.

He does really well. He plays until he's satisfied that he's seen and touched every toy. Then when you tell him it's time to leave, he doesn't complain or ask to get any of the toys. He just walks away. I'm not sure how long that will last, but for now it's much appreciated. And it makes me more willing to take him when we get in the car and starts saying, "Target. Toys."

Family Photos 2013

We took the opportunity in September to have some family photos taken. A friend of mine from high school took them for us and we couldn't have asked for better weather. We could have asked for a more cooperative 2 year old, but that would probably have been pointless.

 

He was not terribly happy to be participating when we first arrived at the park. He wanted Taylor to hold him the entire time and burst into tears when Taylor put him down.

We decided to let him play on the playground and have a snack. He perked up a bit after that and was slightly more cooperative. He is still 2 and won't always do what you ask him to do. But it was a fun experience and we did get some great photos out of it. Thanks Shannon, for helping us make some memories!

If you like what you see, please reach out to Shannon Smith at http://www.214-photography.com/. She does great work and I highly recommend you give her a call!

Larkin, Party of 4

It's official. Our family of 3 will become a family of 4 in May 2014.

We found out in early September that we would soon be welcoming another little one. This pregnancy has been much the same as the first one so far. Nothing out of the ordinary.

We have been trying to explain to Noah that a new baby is coming. He will now point to my belly or rub it gently when we ask him where the baby is. However, when we ask him if the baby will be a boy or girl, he says no. When we ask him if he's going to have a baby brother or baby sister, he says no. I'm not sure his two-year-old mind fully understands what's about to happen. But we have no doubts that he will be a great big brother when the new little one actually arrives.

Leave of Absence

I took sort of an unintentional leave of absence from the blog. Work was crazy for the entire month of November, and then we had Thanksgiving. I feel like things have finally slowed down a little bit and I'm going to try to get caught up over the next week or so. Hope you enjoy!

Build Tower

Noah likes blocks. A lot. We have Mega Blocks, wooden blocks, and bigger cardboard blocks, and he likes them all. His favorite thing to do is "build tower". Roughly translated, this means build me a big tower so I can knock it down. Honestly, I really enjoy doing it. Here are some examples of our best towers.

Pinterest Project: Christmas Wreath

You may recall me posting a picture of my Pinterest-inspired burlap wreath that looked like this.

I tied on the letter and flowers instead of using hot glue so that I could take them off and add new ones for a new season. I recently got the wreath all dressed up for Christmas. Now it looks like this.

I'm quite fond of my new door decoration. That's a good thing, because it may be the only holiday decoration on the outside of our house this year.