Panda is much loved in this house

Panda arrived on Eric's first birthday and is now being loved by both Eric and Noah. If anyone has suggestions on how to clean Panda let me know. His white fur has a nice tan at the moment.

Happy Birthday!

Four years ago today Eric began teaching me what really matters in this world. All babies are evidence of God's miracles, but preemies are touched with something even more.

When Eric was born we couldn't even imagine what he would be like today. He has an energy and enthusiasm that we can only hope to match! Watching him cruise around like a little mountain biking pro on his mini bike brings tears to my eyes because I am so proud to be his Momma and guide him on this path.

Each night I tuck him into bed and sing him Twinkle. Each night he requests one more verse which I sing (most of the time) and each night he asks me to lay down for a "little bit". I say to him, "Momma loves you." Just two weeks ago he said in a complete full sentence as he put his hand on mine, "I love you too Momma." I melted into a thousand pieces.

Happy 4th birthday to my sweet - totally Virgo - boy.

Hey Mom here I come

Noah is happy as can be exploring our long hallway. Smiles as he follows me

Noah is 6 months

Noah is 6 months old and very motivated to keep up with his brother. He is so close to crawling, getting up on all fours and then "plop" he is back down and squirming and propelling him self forward with his signature "DelloIacono-Thies" toes.

He also love to hold his own bottle when it is less than half full and eats like a champ, every 2-3 hours. We have started him on a little rice cereal which he seems to find interesting but would still just rather have a bottle.

He has also gotten quite good and playing the piano and loves exploring his toys all over the living room - or the "house" as Eric refers to the living room-

Spelling his name

Eric is named after is great grandfather on Momma's side of the family(the story of his name). Ask him how to spell it and he says E-R-I-C. When he spells it out on the frig with the magnet letters he spells
B-E-E-R. I would have thought this was a coincidence had I not seen him spell his name this way THREE times while stating E-R-I-C.

We have made some progress though.....check it out

Movin & shakin

Noah is soooo on the move. He is quite determined to reach toys just out of his reach and will shimmy and pivot to get there. He really wants to crawl and his clumsy yet somehow coordinated efforts have recently propelled inches. And just when he reaches that truck Eric snags out from his reach with a "hey".

Noah is lucky enough to have a wonderful nanny, Courtney, who cares for him while Momma & Dadda are at work. Momma is also lucky that Courtney sends her updates, pictures, and videos of her little Sweetie Pie.

Here is a video Courtney sent today with Noah doing some of his moves.

Aaron asked me if I call Courtney a 100 times a day to get updates because I come home and seem to know exactly how the day went. Lucky for me Courtney is a quick and efficient texter so I don't have to interrupt her flow with my Sweetie.

Joy, work, & then some

When I think of these past five months one word comes to mind joy. I have had the most joyful five months getting to know Noah and nurturing our new family dynamic of a foursome. You will laugh when I tell you the joyful feeling began when I went into labor. If you would have seen me then you would not have described me as joyful, and Aaron is also laughing because he would not describe me as joyful at 4am or any time he caught me with rattled nerves. If you saw me in our first month (Mom) you wouldn't have described me as joyful either, but underneath a veil of sleep deprivation, nursing woes, and postpartum recovery was a strong sense of happniess and relief that Noah was here, healthy, and happy. The 3 H's.

Clif Bar & Co provided me a generous five month maternity leave that I like to refer to is the Total Mommy Immersion Program. We started out with a crash course in swollen & bleeding boobs, pre-schooler pink eye, and new-sibling rivalry adjustments. But, you know what was joyful about all of this? It was simply the normal challenges of becoming parents to two kids.

Thankfully Grandma was around to help us through our new normal, and after the first month we settled into our routine of really, no routine. Grandma went home leaving us to fend for ourselves with dinners, Dadda went to work,  and Eric went to school. I took the popular advice I received and kept Eric in his routine of attending Little Lions each day. He got to play with his friends, learn things, and be rowdy with the other boys his age while Noah and I got acquainted.

The days flew by and I truly soaked up the moments. Unlike Eric at this early age, Noah and I were eager to get out and about together. A big difference with a full-term baby is that instead of our lives coming to a screeching halt, things kept moving and we had to incorporate Noah into the action right away with activities like going to the park, the Oakland Zoo, grocery shopping, lunch dates, and strolling boutiques on Fillmore or Chestnut streets.  Aaah, so this is what it is like to take a new baby out in public.

I was eager to introduce Noah to others and we had many visitors: Isabella, Moose (a big dog), Lisa, Nicole, Sam, Maylen, Addison, Susie, Rachel, and our friendly neighbors. How nice to let someone hold him without feeling a rush of panic come over me. Sharing our joy is really fun.

Over the course of the past five months I have watched the seasons change from winter to summer through the view of our pear tree out our front door.

This earthy measure of the time is now green with leaves and staining our cars with each splat of falling pear nuts. The tree is telling us 1) that it is time to put the car in the garage and 2)it is time for me to return to work doing I job that I love, for a company I love, with people I love being around.

I can say that I have enjoyed just about every minute of my Mommy Immersion immensely, but I am craving some self-expression and time to think differently, which I am lucky to bring to the work I get to do.

The work I do is a true expression of another side of me. Having completed the Mommy Total Immersion Program I am ready to graduate to phase 2 of Nutrition Strategy Career Mom. Working at Clif Bar recharges me and makes me a better mom. Our kids thrive on the change in energy. To sweeten this deal, soon both of my boys will join me at my office, all piling into the car and heading to Clif Bar together, them to the Clif Children's Learning Center and me to desk at our new office location! What will Dadda do with the new-found quiet house? Probably recharge and have the break-through epiphany ADS is just waiting for!

For those about to rock.....

We salute you!

Old friends

We regularly get together with our preemie buddies Ryan and Spencer. If we haven't seen them in a few weeks or so Eric will start asking when about them. The other night when I was tucking him into bed he said, "We can go to Spencer's house sometime. We can play with his big trains. Ryan will be there."

Here some pics of our last play day in Novato.:

Hard to believe that almost 4 years ago these boys each weighed less than 2 pounds

Always goofin'

Time does keep a movin'

Noah is growing and changing at a daily rate of very fast. I began this posting the day after Noah's 4 month well-check and now that I am actually getting around to posting this post he is 5 months. How did this happen? Well I will tell you that this month has been jam packed with summer fun and vacations. I like to call at least the last half for the month Momma Summer Camp since Eric has been home with Little Lions closed for their two week vacation and I have been scheduling activities galore to do with him so he is stimulated and entertained.

So here is Noah's 4 month old stats given to you, my faithful readers, one month later along with the cutest little video. Noah had his 4 month well-check and he is doing so well. We are overjoyed by his giggles, growth, and happiness. Just looking at his rosey smile will tell you how incredibly well he is. He is more fun by the day and his personality is all his own.

He weighed in at 16 pounds. He is 27 inches long and his growth of 5 inches surprised Dr. Parker so much that she measured him three times. This puts him at 75th percentile for weight and 95th percentile for height. At 4 months he has also discovered his long toes and narrow feet ( a DelloIacono Thies family trait). He is already quite the accomplished yogi doing happy baby pose and rolling all over his blanket on the floor for tummy time.

Here are some happy giggles on the purple couch

Photos galore

Here is a link to our Snapfish  photo for our fun in the sun in July! And yes, Eric took many of these outstanding photos. I am not kidding when I say he has an eye for composition. He really does. One of my favorites is the part of the handicap stamp on the ground in the parking lot. I also really like the one of his orange and blue Addidis shoe. Eat your heart our BullsEye!

Brothers

Just watching a little Sesame Street before setting off on our first foursome family vacation, which is a trip to Costanoa near Santa Cruz!

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Addison and Noah hanging out on 4th of July

here are the two cousins partying at Lake Wildwood on the 4th with Oma.

July 4th cousin mania

Water guns, smores, swimming, boat rides, and fire works all from the comfort of Oma & Opa's lakeside home front at Lake Wildwood AND the Hoevers AND ALL FIVE cousins at the Wildwood ALL at the same time.  Great fun, food, family and friends in all! (with very little sleep)

Lake Wildwood hosts an annual themed boat parade. This year the theme was Hollywood and the sky was the limit. Pirates, Julius Caesar, Marilyn, Dorthy & Toto, you name it. Not to mention that Opa was the Grand Poobah in the front boat leading the parade. Each year it is a contest as to who gets the most wet, the spectators on the shore or the characters in the boat.

No boat float was spared when passing docks on Forest Park Circle. Aunt Susie lead the taunts carried out by Sam and Eric. They exclaimed, "you want a shower" as the blasted the boats with water.



No fourth of July is complete without Smores and fireworks. This was Eric's first year to taste the "smears" and witness the colors followed by the sounds of booms and cracks. He made it halfway through the fireworks before asking us to please put him to bed.

Noah slept through it all which is also and excellent way to celebrate the fourth. Nothing like really good naps!

Thanks for a great weekend full of memories Oma & Opa!

Cinnamon joker

Eric attacks his morning cinnamon toast with gusto biting right off straight in the middle. The result? A very happy boy with ear to ear cinnamon that resembles that sly grin from Batman's Joker.

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Father's Day Rocket Ship

I never imagined I'd have two little boys. With all the work we do every day to raise them, give them what they need and keep the ship together, I often forget to savor the joy they bring to my life. My first Father's Day with both of them was a perfect time to remember how blessed I am and just have fun, laugh and love them.

All Noah needs right now is for me to talk to him, hold him, give him lots of smiles and mix in a bottle every 3 hours. Eric on the other hand, requires a rocket ship. After sleeping in and having some breakfast with the family all together, Eric and I took a huge box that we had in the garage (thanks Aunt Kathy and Uncle Rick!) and turned it into our own interstellar vehicle. Eric actually decided that the box would be a rocket ship. I had suggested we make a castle but his imagination was bigger than that. We cut the windows, made the escape portal, added power buttons and steering wheel, and spent an hour painting it. After that it was time for lift off. We flew to the moon, battled monsters and hid from momma. I think I had more fun than Eric.

Later in the day, Eric's rambunctous friend Aemon came over to play and they quickly discovered how to crash the rocket ship. Here's a sweet video of the two kids:

Summer, summer, summer time

The weather has been pretty nice these past few weeks minus the days when the San Francisco Fog rolls and cools things down about 20 degrees. You think it is summer and than *wham*, just like that you are freezing. It is certainly the time of year you see swarms of tourists on the cable cars wearing shorts brrrr and the SF fleece that bought at Fisherman's Wharf.

News in Noah's world is that he is starting to grab various things and bring them straight to his mouth, not of the toy variety yet though. He prefers fabric like birth clothes, blankets, and his very own chew-guy that was given to him by Nicole. This weekend he also began getting more and more familiar with his feet grabbing his toes and rolling his hips side to side.

Noah is very good and communicating. He only uses crying as last resort or if something is really, really uncomfortable like that dang GERD. I really need to get this on video, but when he is working up a hunger he will start squirming and "talking" more. If you dare walk by him or set him down while the hunger is building he starts shaking his fists and feet at you with this look of real concern while he states "unh, unh, unh".

Being summer time we have also had some time up at Oma and Opa's house on Lake Wild Wood, a regular Disneyland for Eric. Boats, golf carts, bikes, hoses, tennis, dirt, fishing, and local wildlife (deer and humming birds). We are gearing up for the big Lake Wildwood 4th of July extravaganza as we speak which will be the first visit with all the cousins (except Semi the black lab cousin) together.

Ready for the World Cup

Where's that chicken

This morning Eric and I were sitting on the couch, me feeding Noah and Eric talking. Out of no where (as most of his thoughts are) Eric asks me, "Where's that chicken Momma?"

"What chicken?" I say. "Oh, you mean the rooster three houses down that doesn't know morning from night?"

"No Momma. The one on Shari's old roof."

Our living room window looks out on a view of our neighbor's (Shari) gorgeous roses and the roof of her house (ever since we got our new roof in December Eric refers to all other roofs as old). A few weeks ago we were sitting in our morning spots on the couch (me feeding Noah and Eric keeping us company) and there was, on Shari's roof I kid you not, a huge wild turkey. I was so stunned my reaction was to scream out "uh,uh help". Then the turkey flew off the roof, down to the ground, and over the fence into Dean's yard.

Now, turkeys are pretty common up in the Oakland hills and the state parks up there but I have never seen them down here just wandering around so I was a little taken aback. In San Francisco I have seen foxes (red & gray), coyote, skunks, raccoons, and flocks of parrots but not a turkey. And to see a turkey eye to eye out your window and 6:30am is pretty surprising. You see, there is only about one foot between our window and Shari's roof so that turkey might as well have been in our living room.

So to answer Eric's question "where's that chicken?" Well that would be three houses down in Chucks backyard, but the turkey is now roaming around on Burbank street.

Look at Noah's cute eyes

Noah and I were sitting on the floor with Eric watching him play with his fire truck and their crew Bill, Trevor, and Mel. Mel is a female and Eric makes her lead driver in just about every rig he owns (dump truck, garbage truck, fire truck, flat bed, digger, and 4x4). Don't ask me why. Maybe it is because I am raising and equal opportunist. In the same breath he was using to script his work crew he moves in close and quickly to Noah and says, "Oh, look at Noah's cute eyes". I nearly cried. Then his next sentence is to tell me he likes me ear rings and that Annee (short for Rosanne - his teacher) also wears nice ear rings. In the last month Eric's communication skills have gone from choppy to crystal clear and he you know he is happy when he is jabbering.

Eric is really warming up (finally) to his role as big brother.Today he sat next to Noah, opened a book and began "reading" him a story that started like this "Once upon a time....".

Noah is growing by leaps and bounds and my shoulders are getting buff from carrying around this 14 pound person in his favorite spot, over my shoulder, most of the day.

Some of his latest milestones:

1) Discovering his hands - I love it when he throws them out like he is going to give you a big hug, meets his hands in the middle, watches them, and pulls them to his mouth studying them the whole time.

2) Rolling from back to front and front to back - to date only once but he meant it. He was nearly nude up at Oma and Opa's so maybe he was feeling free in the fresh air.

3) Strengthening his neck - he can almost hold it up without bobbling too much. He also likes to lift his head, legs, and bum off the floor all at the same time. In yogi speak we call this boat pose and I can barely do it.

4) Looking at shapes, patterns, little toys and trying to swat them with his hands and feet. He will also grasp a small rattle if I put it in his palm but after a few minutes will start to cry because he can't let go of it so swoop in and save the day.