The Kiss

Earlier this week a neighbor stopped by for a few minutes with her 2 year old. He and Noah were so busy playing in the playroom and I was in the living room chatting with his mom. Moments later out of the clear blue, Noah abruptly stopped what he was doing and walked over to me and without making a sound, simply gave me the sweetest kiss and then simply walked back over and continued to play with Logan. Could there be anything…and I do mean anything… sweeter than sharing that kind of moment with your child who is too young to even verbally tell you he loves you? I’m fortunate to have done and seen some very exciting and fun things in my life. I’ve stood on top of the Eiffel tower, I’ve taken helicopter tours over the most beautiful scenery in Hawaii, snow-mobiled through Yellowstone Park, toured stunning European cathedrals and castles, I’ve witnessed in person 3 national championships for my beloved UF Gators and I’ve seen probably over a thousand babies brought into the world and even delivered several myself….but nothing, absolutely nothing could possibly fill my heart with more excitement, love and happiness than that simple but amazing moment I got to share with my son. A good portion of my day is redundant and not so much on the fulfilling side (the diapers, the laundry, the applesauce flinging towards my hair, the boring PBS kid shows) but there are just those certain things—the random kisses, the goofy grins and the heartfelt laughter of your child—that just never, ever get old. “Children are a gift from God” (Psalms 127:3) What a gift God has given to me.

***disclaimer***David, darling, if you’re reading this, please don’t take this post to mean that I’m completely fulfilled now and don’t ever need an elaborate vacation again….Noah does make me very happy, but Hawaii can too! 

Weekend fun...and bumps and bruises

The weekends are always enjoyable these days..whether or not we are busy moving from one activity to the next or whether we have a lazy weekend at home. This past weekend was one of our first weekends in quite some time at home together as a family and it was very relaxing. With David traveling much of the week, that magical moment when he comes home on Friday afternoons and can play continually with Noah is a very sweet thing to watch. Noah often climbs up on his stool to look out the window and wait for his hero to come home. All I hear is "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy" over and over again as he bangs on the window and then I know when David arrives in the driveway because Noah starts squealing at the top of his lungs. There was LOTS of playtime, tickles and giggles Friday night and then Saturday afternoon we were off to the park for a birthday party for one of Noah's friends. (that sounds so strange). Anyway, Noah is finally really getting into playgrounds and was thrilled to see the slides and swings. The birthday party was a ton of fun...until the inevitable "little boy accident--aka head injury" occured and put an end to the festivities for the Nelsons. Noah was trying to climb up on the picnic table bench and took a very nasty face plant onto the concrete. His poor head had 3 impacts as he hit the table, metal bar and the pavement on his way down face first. There was an immediate horrific goose egg (looked like he had a horn sticking out of his forehead), blood oozing from his mouth and LOTS of tears and screaming. We contemplated going to the ER but we managed to calm him down and eventually assessed that he was ok...despite how bad his face looked. By the end of the weekend, lucky for us, he had pretty much forgotten about the incident and was back to playing and being his sweet self. We even managed to make it back to another park this morning for a couple of hours of fun...with no bruises or blood to report from this endeavor.

I came across this poem while surfing the internet:


Little Boys:

Little boys come in all shapes and sizes,
Shy and adventurous, full of surprises,
With misshapen halos and mischievous grins,
Small dirty faces, and sweet, sticky chins.

They'll keep you so busy, and yet all the while
Nothing can brighten the world like their smile.
And no greater treasure has brought homes more joy
Than a curious, active, and lovable boy!


Waiting "patiently" for Daddy to get home and beating on the window yelling his name.



Couldn't resist taking this picture when I walked in and found him wearing my purse around his neck.



Walking from the car to the playground. I love seeing Noah walk and hold David's hand. He wanted to run ahead of us with everything in him but he was good and held on to Daddy's hand like we asked.




Slides, swings and tunnels...what more could a boy want?

The food of the day club

There truly is no rhyme or reason when it comes to feeding a toddler. No truer statement about child rearing has probably ever been made. Every day I find myself shaking my head in disbelief over one of Noah’s odd nuances of the day when it comes to eating and his rather bizarre “menu selection”. You may remember how before you had kids and you had that friend who had a 2 year old who would not eat anything (anything!) other than..say….frozen waffles, goldfish crackers and chicken nuggets and you think to yourself…”well, I would never have such a picky eater…I wouldn’t let it come to that….clearly they haven’t exposed that child to enough nutritious foods.” Ha! Yeah right. That turns into one of the MANY preconceived notions that come back to haunt you. (OK, childless people of the world…right now…just remove the statement “I would never let my kid….blah, blah blah” from your thought process right now…it will save you many humbling experiences in the long run. (Yes, we are currently purchasing goldfish crackers and chicken nuggets in bulk quantities...)

Despite all of our efforts, Noah is a typical, picky toddler when it comes to eating. I know it could be far worse as there are way more than 2 things he likes and consents to eating every day and he certainly eats plenty of food. He just doesn’t eat ANY of the things that I thought all toddlers loved: scrambled eggs, cheese, lunchmeat, mac-n-cheese, pasta, etc. The mere fact that he despises cheese (in all forms) really makes me ponder, at least weekly, if he can possibly truly be related to me. I know David can’t ever question his paternal relationship with him since this kid is a “mini me” when it comes to his Daddy, but…he really looks nothing like me and come on…who hates cheese? But…I digress. Noah does love to eat fruit, yogurt, cereal bars, crackers, bread, chicken nuggets and basically any meat we put in front of him (the lil' carnivore once inhaled 6 ounces of ribeye steak in one meal….no kidding) and while he won’t touch any vegetable we give him (other than plain lettuce…I really don’t understand that one) he will eat any pureed baby food vegetable. I keep trying to reason with him and tell him that real veggies are WAY tastier than those nasty jars of pureed peas he seems to love so much, but so far he has not taken the bait. So with this list of favorite foods which includes a fairly decent variety, you’re probably wondering why I complain that he is a picky eater…it’s because I never know, from one day to the next, which of these foods he is agreeable to eating on any particular day. For example, while he LOVES nutrigrain cereal bars—if I buy a different brand and the color of the foil package they come in happens to be a different shade of red…he shakes his head No and clamps his mouth shut and won’t eat it until I force it in there and convince him the bar tastes the same. Or how he loves a PB&J sandwich but on certain days (say Tuesdays and Fridays…no I really haven’t figured out his pattern) he won’t eat the sandwich folded in half (like a real sandwich) he will only eat it in bite sized pieces served to him on a fork. Or how on some days he sees the bananas in the kitchen and goes crazy trying to ask me for one and then inhales it and then the next day I try to get him to eat a banana and he flat out refuses and gives me this evil and dumbfounded look as if to say “How could you even think about expecting me to eat such a thing…what are you thinking?” This weird thing with fruit is definitely one of his most ridiculous nuances when it comes to food. He loves fruit…however…once he finds a fruit that he loves it is as if he develops some immediate short term amnesia and the next day when I offer it to him he has completely forgotten he likes it. One day he LOVES grapes and wants them at every meal so of course the next day I will put a few grapes on his plate with lunch and he looks at them with extreme disgust. After several trials of strawberries, oranges and apple wedges, I of course the discover that today’s “fruit of choice” is blueberries. Well, duh, how could I not know that (especially since he HATED blueberries with a passion on Monday…). The next day he will turn up his nose at blueberries (again, “Mommy, what are you thinking..i hate blueberries”) and after the same song and dance I discover that today’s “fruit of choice” is watermelon and nothing but watermelon…which of course he won’t eat again for at least 6 days. Over the course of a week he eventually eats every type of fruit that we have in the house…I just wish I knew what fruit eating schedule he was on..it would save a lot of time. And if only I could figure out why in “noah land” it is considered a delicious delicacy to eat a red grape dipped in gerber pureed peas…but a completely preposterous notion to eat something actually tasty…like a piece of cheese. Go figure.

The summer is flying by

Where has the time gone? I can't believe I haven't blogged in 3 weeks! Luckily it is not due to some horrific illness or injury...it's simply because I have not been home. Once upon a time, a few months ago, I found myself looking at our summer calendar and thinking "wow, we have nothing going on this summer....how bored I'm going to be with not working or any plans to look forward to" and then I had the bright idea of adding about a million things to the summer and before i knew it, I found myself living out of a suitcase and poor Noah living out of a pack-n-play! Just since our Memorial Day weekend trip to the lake and our trip to Baltimore in early June, I've made a quick trip down to Gainesville, a 1500 mile (roundtrip) road trip with my mom and Noah to Ohio and a long weekend back at the lake for the 4th of July holiday. (Not to mention, David continues to fly to Mexico every week for work so we really have been like 2 ships passing...). The trip to Gainesville was a blast--while David and Noah bonded with my parents at their house, I had a girls' weekend with my 2 college roommates celebrating our 10-year college graduation...we did it up right and even stayed at the University hotel right in the middle of the University of Florida campus and revisited all of our old hangouts and did tons of reminiscing. GO GATORS!! Then it was back to Atlanta for 2 days of recovery/laundry/unpacking and repacking and then my mom and I were off to Ohio to visit our family and attend the wedding of one of my cousins. (Note to self..it is never, ever, never, ever, never, ever a good idea to take a toddler to a wedding but that story will have to wait for another time). With the exception of the wedding (which I drove 700 miles for but missed because I was chasing Noah around, but...again..another time for that story) Noah was as good as gold for all of the trips and seemed to really enjoy himself. He has cousins galore to play with him and aunts and uncles to dote all over him. We arrived back home from Ohio and Noah sure was glad to see his daddy! I've never seen such a happy reunion. Noah wouldn't let David out of his sight for the next few days and squeals with glee every time he sees David. We then unpacked and repacked (again!) and went up to the lake for a fun weekend with our friends. We did nothing but play, go on boat rides, go on jet ski rides and eat good food. Good times were had by all. Noah was exhausted when we got home and thrilled to see his bed. He slept in til the glorious hour of 8:30 this a.m.! So...that is our last 3 weeks...in a very small nutshell. Have I mentioned we leave in 2 weeks to go to Denver for a week?



A boy with his wheels...




Happy 4th of July!




Not really sure what this look is for...
Is this when "road rage" begins?





Fun on the boat





Aren't I a cutie?




We actually walked in on Noah and Reagan kissing....Oh my!