This is My Forties

Noah hasn't napped in almost a year... ok once or twice in front of the tv or on his floor. The point is he is "done" napping. NOT TODAY! Lately he's been getting really snippy with me and I thought maybe it was because he was tired so I reinstated nap time. He went right to sleep. We'll see if that brightens his mood. I'm crossing my fingers. He will be up any second. He was going crazy punching things and sporadically yelling about nothing. He is a violent child if he's tired. I think he got that from me. I have a fuse about 1/16th of a millimeter long when I'm tired. He also wouldn't listen to me and I get pretty tired of yelling. SO... both of my sweet princes are napping at the same time. It's so quiet in here!! I actually did all my laundry and the dishes, vacuumed the whole house... oh wait, not the stairs yet. I sure missed nap time! I'm so thrilled about this hour of peace I think the boys and I will make some muf...

I just uploaded a long video of Noah talking about getting a surfboard and a boat. It's very long (almost 6 minutes), but I wanted to remember the way he talks. It's also really dark because we were driving back to Ft. Gordon after visiting everyone over the 4th of July weekend, but it's still cute! The post title is a link to it.

Here are a few of the great shots Aunt Vita took in Florida. There is one more bathtime one I still haven't decided on yet for posting. I am wary of the internet when it comes to naked babies due to past experiences. You can see all 4 of Tristan's top teeth in this one. It cracks me up. He really does just laugh like this and smile all day... unless I am holding the camera (instead of him). He loves rough play. He loves when I hold him upside down and toss him around everywhere. Must be the testosterone! FINALLY! A standing picture. He has been getting better and better. He will stand for minutes at a time now, but we still can't seem to motivate him to take a step rather than crawl. Can't say I blame him since he crawls at about mach 2!

I don't know why I hadn't done any water play with Noah this summer, but this was the 1st time we broke out the sprinkler. Noah had been bugging us to get him some goggles while we were in Florida... never got around to buying him any. Well he saw some on a display at the grocery store the other day so that was his "good boy" reward when we left. He kept sticking his face in the sprinkler to make sure they worked. The yard flooded quickly! This is good :) I am going to lay down our turf builder and let him play in the sprinkler all he wants. Our grass is patchy and as an added bonus we have 10 holes from Bosley so we need some grassistance (ba dum chh). Once Noah's birthday gets here and he can have his big present (Grandma N. got him a sandbox) it will cover up the holes quite nicely. At least I finally mowed! Tristan and I remained a safe distance away. Tris was surprisingly OK with being a spectator. I think he was in a cuddly mood. He is not even a...

How about some cuteness :) Tristan is still a pig. He is no longer nursing. We were down to only once a day and then my body just basically weaned him itself. It's a little sad, but it's also a little liberating. Mostly sad. He's just getting so big! He was officially 10mos old yesterday. A whole 10 months already?! OMG!! Noah is still exercising his largest muscle, his crazy brain. He has a wild imagination and a pretty odd sense of humor. He gets the pots and bowls out for Tristan to play with every day while I cook dinner, but usually it just ends up being Noah's drum set. He also builds giant towers of bowls and pots. Tristan watches and cries on my leg. It's a fun time haha. Josh is still at work right now. He had to be in at 3:30am and it's 6:30pm now. He hasn't called yet either so I don't expect him to be home too soon. I am worried about his health (physical and mental). There's only so much a person can take. Especially si...

So Josh's 6am-6pm shift stretched into a 6am-2am shift and then he also had to go back in from 10-3pm today. Apparently some idiots thought it would be a good idea to OD on sudafed and vicodin and were making poor-man's meth in their barracks room. 2 were hospitalized, 10 are on lock-down. Josh asked for Monday off, they said no because they need him to run. Pshaww! Good thing we're leaving again. Josh's Dad got us plane tickets to go out and visit them for a week. YAY!

I haven't been blogging much because I've been pretty frustrated when I actually have the time. I didn't want to get on here and vent, but maybe I need to so that I can get back to my normal blogging. On a normal day Josh works about 14 hours. He gets up at 4:30am for PT, comes home at 7 for a shower and then leaves for work at 7:30. He doesn't get home until 5:30 or 6pm. By then he is so exhausted he passes out by like 10pm or earlier. In addition he usually has to work on one of the weekend days as well. Today he worked from 4am-4pm followed by an additional 15hr extra duty from 6pm-9am. He gets to sleep Friday and then he has to pull another 6am-6pm shift on Saturday. I don't know what makes these people think they can work him so hard. It sucks. He is always tired, always dreading tomorrow. He has no downtime and is generally blah when I actually do see him. To add insult to injury he gets paid the same no matter how long and hard he works. He's ...

As if it wasn't enough that Noah was a cookie-cutter clone of Joshua, now it seems his innards match as well. He has Josh's engineer brain and mechanical genius. Yesterday Noah lugged this creation downstairs to show me. At first glance it's quite impressive, but upon further scrutiny it's downright insane!! Let me point out the finer details for you that shouldn't be overlooked. Bear in mind this child is 3 years old, nearly 4... he's not a teen and he did not receive a lick of help from anyone. First the obvious, he only used 2 colors. Now note the symmetry of his creation. He used the longer blocks for the bottom layer, then just the square ones, and then long again. Do you realize the amount of forethought required to have symmetrical "guns" along the ship? According to Noah they're guns... and there's a seat up top for the captain to sit on and drive. The yellow brick road (haha) is a sidewalk for the people. Anyway... I thought...

We've been pretty busy the last couple weeks. Grandma and Grandpa N. came out for a visit for a week. We had a picnic at the swamp and cheered Josh on at his soccer game. Most of our days were spent relaxing and enjoying each others company. I think I've got Gma and Gpa convinced they need to buy a Wii ;) We had a blast! It was great seeing them. I didn't get many pictures because Gma hates having her picture taken. I think next time I will just ignore her wishes hahaha ;) Love you Mom! :D After that we drove out to see Janine, Maggie, Alec, and baby Vita. My mom and Vita were there as well. We stayed up until the wee hours of the morning talking and laughing. We all got a little crispy at the beach. I can't believe the twins are 2 already!! The drive wasn't bad so well be visiting more often I think. We paid my Grandpa a visit at the VA cemetery on the 4th. It was the first time Vita and I had visited his grave. It was a very well kept cemetery. I...