Noel is potty-trained!

I was unsure how to go about this whole potty-training thing.

In the past, Noel has been quite clear that she was NOT interested in doing ANYTHING on the potty.

Thankfully, Dana and Jeff got us a potty-training kit for Christmas. It included charts, and stickers, and activities for her to do while sitting on the potty.

We started out giving stickers for ANY effort at all. Did she try to go? Sticker! Did she try to pull her pants down? Sticker!

After several days, she was doing SO well. On her first dry day, we got her a big My Little Pony mylar balloon. We promised her that when she finally had it down, we would get her a special toy.

One week later, after NO accidents and also some progress on using public toilets, we took her to the store to pick out her "special toy". She ended up choosing an Ice Cream Shoppe Play-doh station.

She hasn't faltered since, and is doing WONDERFULLY. No more diapers! Hooray!

We're so proud her :)

"Play with me, Kitty!"

Noel has finally mastered picking up the cat.

Unfortunately for the kitty, that means she gets to spend a lot of one-on-one time in Noel's room.

Nannie/Poppy/Dana time

I realize I am a couple of months behind on this thing, but I will try to catch up as swiftly as possible ;-)

My picture-taking has slowed down enormously, and our video-taking has completely stopped due to our SD card on that camera being completely full. We will have a solution for that soon, so I promise to take some videos when I can. Noel has been singing a LOT and I don't want to miss that!

The first week of March, Noel and I headed to Roanoke to spend time with family. Tim had coast guard training in South Carolina, and we didn't want to be home alone for two weeks!

My sister came up, and we mostly relaxed and spent time together. I took Noel's bike down also, so that she could really let 'er loose on their dead-end road. She LOVED having so much space to ride.

We also were able to catch up with Katie (baby Zoee) and Kafi (baby Zoe). It's so strange having two friends with children that share a name! Both of them are adorable beyond words, and such good babies! Noel LOVES babies, and lavished both of them with many hugs and kisses.

A quick nap on the couch.

At Walrond Park. She was invited to go on a ride! Guess
what she is getting for her birthday...:)

Baby Zoee

Baby Zoe

Bike ridin'!

Playdate @ Hannah and Leah's

It has been about 6 months since we've seen Hannah and Leah, PLUS I hadn't even met their new addition, Ezra. We kept making plans to get together, and our plans were continually foiled.

Anyway, we were finally able to find a date and time that we could meet. Noel and I headed to their house, just to play and for Megan and I to catch up. Noel loved it...and somehow got awfully attached to one of their bouncy balls. She's been asking about it ever since.

The grass is always greener when you play with someone else's toys I suppose!

Baby Ezra. Noel was fascinated with him,
lavishing him with hugs and kisses <3

Hannah, Leah & Noel.

M&Ms vs Pills

On Saturday, Noel made her second visit to UVA's Pediatric Emergency Room. If you don't remember the first, Noel was 9 months old, and I thought that she might have swallowed a lead weight from a fishing pole. It turned out to have been an acorn, and everything was fine.

Anyway, Noel and I got ready for a birthday party. Maia's birthday party. We haven't seen Hunter or Maia in a long time, and Noel was SOOO UBER excited about going. So I showered, got dressed, and dressed her. I was checking my email and such, and Noel came to me, and said there was something in her mouth. She opened wide so I could see, and I didn't see anything. I said "Ohh I see some teeth!" And she went on her merry way.

A minute later she brought me an OPEN Unisom bottle full of tiny blue gel-filled pills. She said "Mommy, I had some M&Ms!" I said "Noel, did you EAT these??" and she said "Yes."

I immediately called Poison Control and she said since we didn't know how many she had taken, we needed to go to the ER. We jumped in the car and headed into town (which is an awfully long 45 minute drive).

It was an agonizing 45 minutes. When we finally got there I parked in a no-parking zone and ran her in. Her O2 levels were good, as well as her heart rate. She was a staggering 26 lbs (up one pound since September. LOL) And we were immediately taken back to the Pediatric ER so that they could evaluate her. She was in good spirits and not acting drowsy at all. They did an ECG on her, which was a challenge. It was normal, so they said they were going to have us wait around for a couple more hours, just to make sure there weren't going to be any reactions to it.

I was relieved to hear that the medication that she took is the same as benadryl. She's taken that before without any problems. The question was just "How MANY did she take?"

She never did have any reaction, but they wanted to do another ECG just to make sure there were no ill effects. It WASN'T going to happen without restraining her, so the doctor decided that it wasn't worth it, since she was acting normally.

When we got home, we had a big talk about candy vs. pills. HOPEFULLY if there were ever a time that she found another pill bottle, she would bring it to us and NEVER eat any of them. We are definitely going to be more diligent about where we keep medications, regardless. I wish we had had a talk about this prior to Saturday!

I took a picture of all of her ECG leads. I know they're just stickers, but it looks scary to me.