WELCOME FRIENDS
Mima and PoPo get ready to go back to VA and the weather reflects our sad goodbye.
There are parting gifts
After they leave Evan starts to unravel a bit. This always happens after Mima and PoPo leave. Or when we leave VA. Evan starts to lose it because he hates saying goodbye to his grandparents and his cousins.
And Noah loses his boot on the swing.
Mima and PoPo were there to see it! Unfortunately, Evan wasn't allowed to play because of his finger.
Evan with his buddies Donnie and Drew (brothers).
Noah drinks away his sorrows because his best friend Jonnie is in Florida.
He hangs out with Aunt Brittany and Jeannine's husband Chris.
Little Amelia holds court with Jeannine, Aunt Ella and Becky. That's Jackie in the background. I don't have any good photos of her!
Awwww! Sydney!!
Evan does this to Amelia every single time she comes over. Noah just gives her the stink eye.
Cake. Cake. CAAAAAKE. The Cronin boys and Sydney go wild. Yes, I'm wearing my old stand-by muumuu once again. I wear it so much that Brittany bought some new dresses for me for Mothers Day. And some deodorant. Just kidding about the deodorant.
I LOVE this picture of Sydney. She's so beautiful and with her hair blowing in the breeze.
My boys love cake. And they have the metabolism of a wild gazelle. Even Noah has lost his chunk.
Crazy. Such an example of my mom's artistic photographer eye. hehehe
Um. Watcha doing, Mom?
The Cronin brothers try to convince Jeannine and Chris that they're 21.
Janice and Bob bought Noah a dinosaur balloon you can walk. Janice explained that the store would refill the balloon when it started to deflate.
Unfortunately that poor little balloon didn't survive the next day. Evan and Noah destroyed it. Mima even fixed it twice and taped its legs back on. It doesn't work without its legs :(
Amelia, Amelia! We love you! We love you!
You gotta love a girl who wears black chuck taylors.
Amelia and Sydney, I know you girls love Evan, but Noah is quite a catch too! Maybe you both just need to be a little older to realize that? He's awesome - the strong, silent type. And very artistic too. And soon there will be 3 handsome Cronin boys. Maybe Jeannine and Chris will produce a bride for Baby Alejandro? We shall see...
"Can I open my present already???"
"C'mon!"
"Please, PoPo?"
Evan says, "Don't worry. I have scissors!" He'll pull those out for anything.
Ahhhhh! Finally!
Noah enjoys Evan's gifts too. Evan demonstrates his "bum" finger. Of course that accident had to happen right before Mima and PoPo's visit!
How could I wait an entire month to post that my beautiful little second son has turned 2 years old? I'm a bad, bad mommy and I'm so sorry my little Noah. I love you lots and lots.
Here's my little 2-year old with his face covered in snot and oatmeal. And guess who's completely off the bottle now... NoNo! No more bottles - yayyyy! Daddy's crushed. Snuggling with a bottle was Daddy/Noah special time. Also, Noah and Evan are sharing a room now. Brothers - awwwww!
Now for my Noah Update. He's the sweetest, but toughest little boy I know. He doesn't put up with any crap from anyone - me and Mike, his brother, other kids... He's quick to defend himself. He'll hit Evan when he's annoying him, then when I reprimand him, he'll kiss Evan quickly on the spot he hit him. He falls and gets hurts and cries for 20 seconds and he's over it. He doesn't want too much coddling when he hurts. He's just so fiercely independent. He's not a big fan of babies or stuffed animals. He loves to draw and paint. He plays on the playground like kids twice his age and doesn't need his mommy following him around. He goes up to the super high slides, goes down and then turns and climbs up the slide and does it again. The other day Evan was at t-ball practice so Noah and I went to the playground at the rec center. Noah was running back and forth on a long, "rickety" bridge at the playground with a bunch of preteen girls. I was on the bench watching the whole thing. He wasn't afraid at all and then a kid about 3 years old approached it with his mom and was too scared to cross it. Unfortunately there aren't any rec sports for 2 year olds around here, but he participates on Evan's t-ball team (Coach Ty lets him hit and throw with the other kids). Noah insists on being in the center of practice and insists on doing everything the older kids are doing. He also runs with Evan at Track & Field. He'll line up with everyone and starts running on the "GO!" with his little Elmo sneakers pounding the track. He has to be in the middle of everything. And he's so so SO cute. Amazingly cute. This little blonde midget running down the stairs with his arms full of toys. You just want to scoop him up and cover him with kisses.
One thing though is we still have concerns over his speech. He's still very, very behind... One of the things he does is leave the consonants off words. Like when I say "I love you!" He responds, "I love you, too!" But he says it like, "I uv oo oooo." The word "yes" is "Essss!" and "no" is "uh-uh". Most of the time only I know what he's saying except for a few exceptions like purple, blue, yellow, hi, hello, up, please, kitty, ball, bubble, Mama, Dada, Lollipop, PopPop (Noah insists on calling PopPop once a day). But most of the time you can't understand what he's saying like "ehhh" is "Evan". He's even still using sign for "more" and "hungry". We're just at the point where we're doing everything we can and we just have to relax. He's had hearing tests and his hearing is fine, he's been to a couple ENTs and we have a speech therapist come in once a week and I follow her techniques, but progress is still very slow.
But he's awesome and beautiful and perfect and we love him to pieces. Next up - the big party!