For those of you into World Cup Soccer

Durban has been building a stadium for 2010 World Cup Soccer, and 2 guys from our church have been working on site to get it done in time. The stadium is very beautiful, and it makes me feel quite patriotic when I see it (I don't know why, really). Now that I've finally got my permanent residency here in SA, maybe the patriotic bug has bitten a bit. But honestly, the stadium is stunning, and you can see it from the beach and the city as well, its huge! Here are some photos I stole from Kerry, cause apparently you can't go inside with kids (its still a construction zone!)

Anyone wanna come see soccer in 2010? :)

7 Months Old

At 7 months Autumn loves to say "dadda" but to anything that moves..... our cat, our dog, me, Noah, and daddy. She is almost crawling, she gets up on all fours and rocks, but prefers to scooch backwards and then pivot for what she wants. She cries if she is held by anyone but Mommy or Daddy. She LOVES her brother, and will laugh almost immediately if he comes into the room.

Photos from her 7 month photo shoot in her crib

Room Swap

So since Noah is no longer wearing diapers, I realized how impractical it was that the changing table and rocking chair were in his room, when I actually now needed them in Autumn's room. So I took down the double bed in Autumn's room to make space, and did a big room swap of furniture, and a spring clean of outgrown baby clothes, and lent them to people in our church having babies (a temporary great space saver!)

The bookshelf in that was in Autumn's room now holds all of Noah's toys, its great cause he can help me pack things away, and now before nap & bed he'll say "Clean up mommy!" and start cleaning away. He's a very tidy kid. If something isn't packed away he'll say "uh oh, oh no!"

And since there is less furniture there is more space to ride his bike and horsie, of course!

Noah and Autumn playing on Noah's bed while I spring cleaned

Autumn is starting to "grab" Noah's toys, a new lesson in sharing for sure!

Noah pulling faces in the porthole of his boat bed

And now there is lots more floor space to play on, Noah loves this

Autumn and Noah are starting to play well together now that she sits up and watch, she really loves her brother alot and laughs more at him than anything else.

Autumn's room has more space now too that the double bed is packed away till she needs it

And now I can use the rocking chair to feed her instead of it being stuck in Noah's room

When she gets a bit older I want to paint a tree on this wall above her bed, but for now its baby photos and foot imprints

Yay! A changing table for her.

I think she likes the new look of her room with more space! She's able to play on the floor now while I tidy her room.

Noahisms

Since my photos aren't loading, I give you my favorite Noahisms this week:

When Clint is doing pushups, in Noah's best "personal trainer" voice:

"Come on daddy, MORE pushups, FIVE more, SIX more, COME ON!"

"Kiss Mommy, Daddy!" (we oblige) "all done cozy mommy, all done"

When its windy: "Rains coming momma!"

When its raining: "God makes world all clean momma!"

When I'm reading about Jonah:

Me: What did God say to Jonah?

Noah: "Go Preach"

Me: And what did Jonah do?

Noah: "Noooooooooo preach"

Me: Uh uh Jonah disobeyed God. And Jonah got on a boat

Noah: Fish, Noah fish, Noah swallow mommy" (he opens his mouth WIDE to swallow my arm pretending to be the fish)

"Noah's all done wearing diapers. Nuh Nuh (Autumn) is a baby, babies wear diapers"

And for the first time as I was closing his door at night "luv you!" (yay, I'd been waiting for this one!)

The Heavens Declare the Glory of God

The Hubble just captured some new photographs deeper in space then they've ever captured before, and I just had to post this one cause its so amazing. God is truly great and awesome in his creative power! It looks just like a butterfly. Here is the description of it, even more amazing...

This celestial object called a planetary nebula, captured by a new camera aboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, Wide Field Camera 3, reflects cauldrons of hot gas traveling across the Milky Way galaxy at more than 600,000 miles an hour -- a speed that could move the nebula from Earth to the moon in 24 minutes. At the center of the object is a dying star that was once about five times the mass of the Sun. About 400,000 degrees Fahrenheit on the surface, the nebula's one of the hottest known stars in our galaxy.

Cozy cozy

Right after Noah's bath and right before bed he'll ask for "cozy, cozy" where he'll want to hide with us under the pillows or a blanket and get "cozy" where its "dark." We'll usually say "ok, 5 minutes" and then he'll laugh and negotiate with us. "6 daddy, please 6 more minutes!"

When its down to one minute he'll say "daddy please 2 minutes" and hold up two fingers while laughing and pleading for more cozy time

After Clint left to teach Bible study tonight he wanted to get "cozy cozy" with Spurgeon. "5 minutes" he'd say.

Spurgeon always wants more cozy time, so he was happy to oblige (see he's smiling?) :)

Then he'll want a "nose kiss" before bed (an Eskimo kiss) Ahh I love having a 2 year old!

Toofy scoochy girl

First teeth!

Can you see 'em? They are barely popping out on the bottom, she's now "toofy girl"

And right after I took photos of her teeth....

With great grins of glee she started scooching forward! Man, its all happening too quickly! Noah only did this at 9 months, I can't believe I have a mobile child already!

Potty training part 2

Ok since there have been requests for details of how I potty trained, I will blog about it. So viewer discretion is advised if you get grossed out about this kinda thing, or if you don't have kids, you probably won't care to read the rest! :)

A few weeks before the big "Day" of starting potty training I read a book about Potty training every day to Noah which had pictures of babies in diapers and big boys using pottys. I'd also show him the process whenever I used the loo (flush, wash hands etc.)

Then I picked a day when Clint would be around to help, and I gave Noah a few wrapped presents (new underwear with Cars on them, and some blow noise toys to celebrate with) and told him that today was a big day cause we were going to use the potty. I decorated a little potty with Winnie the Pooh stickers and then set a timer for 15 minutes. When the bell rang I'd tell him to run to the loo. He got the hang of this quite quickly, and every 15 minutes the bell rang and we'd run. Yup, every 15 minutes the whole day. When he did finally go on the potty I'd give him a gummy bear, he got to put a sticker on the reward chart, and we'd blow the party horns together, and we'd celebrate and make a super big deal of of it all. Oh, and I'd ask all the time, "are you clean and dry? Do you need to use the potty?" The first day he only made 3 accidents. I kept diapers on at night and during his nap.

Day #2 of training I made it every 20 minutes with the bell, and he only made 1 accident. If he needed to go he'd tell me by telling me to make the bell ring sooner "Briiinng, brinnng!" he'd say.

After a week he was telling me when he needed to go, and slept through his nap dry, and after 2 weeks he didn't need a diaper at all! He'll wake up every morning saying "Noah's clean and dry mommy!"

So, it was quite a busy 2 weeks, but went quite successful, yay! Hope this was helpful!

The Celebration of Note

Why are we celebrating?

Why are we throwing a little party?!?

Cause there is NO NEED FOR DIAPERS ANYMORE! YAY!

Not even during the night YAY!

So I used to totally be bored and kinda grossed out when moms start talking about potty training. Why exactly are we talking about our kids bowel movements? I know, I know, I'm doing the same thing on this blog. But its actually a HUGE deal, and now I've come to realize the work and labor in this exciting part of a childs life, and how big it is for the parents that their kiddo can tell them when they need to use the loo. It's REALLY a big deal. No more expensive huge packs of diapers, no more changing diapers yay! So I know I've probably grossed someone out here, but I thought I'd celebrate along with the other moms that have gone through this momentous occasion. :)