Playing Catch Up

As always I am slacking in the post department...shame. With all this nice weather that we have been having we have been taking some wonderful family walks...to Starbs and to get fro yo.  Thankfully both are quite a distance from the house so we really have to put in some effort to get there. 

Noah likes sitting like a big boy at Sweet Frog...and nibbling at Mama's fro yo!

So as long as we aren't having a sudden thunder storm, our little family can be found walking stone road in the pm hours.  :)  I've been struggling finding a good work/me balance.  I say me because I feel like I have a good work/life balance.  In that my life is Noah and Matt...and cleaning up after them :P  I struggle finding me time...especially getting into a good gym routine.  Normally that is what has been getting put on the back burner. But I really need to keep going.  I've lost all baby weight and then some, but my body is weird.  Any post pregnant lady bodies out there know exactly what I'm talking about.  It's like invasion of the body snatchers, but you have the same body and mind, it's just not exactly the same body and you don't always feel 100% in it :P So our little family walks have really been helping me to do more than run up and down the stairs 50 million times a day!

Memorial Day Weekend: 

Sister came down Friday on her way to NYC for the weekend, so we had lunch with her followed by some fro yo at PinkBerry! We then made our weekly trip to Target for essentials and followed it with a visit to Toys R Us...we got some amaz deals!!! :) We are bargain shoppers :) I love finding the best deals on all our baby essentials :) 

Wearing a hat that makes him look just like my Pop Pop! :)

This kid has style 

We walked to the strip mall on Stone Road to have some AUH-MAZING Italian for supper! :)  Noah loves going out to eat.  His favorite is "peeking" over the booth at neighboring patrons and then making friends.

Saturday the brothers came over for some serious yard work while Mama and Noah focused on some serious housework.  Noah loves spending time with the uncles he gets so excited :) We finished off the day at the Zelmans for a BBQ in honor of Liz's graduation.  As he is getting older is so awesome to see his little personality come out.  We've realized that anytime we are out to eat he will smile and talk to anyone, as long as they are a good distance away. When people approach him, especially getting in his face, he will just stare or the lip will pout and then the crying comes.  I'm not gonna lie I enjoy that the kid has a sense of stranger danger and is well aware of what his personal bubble and shame on anyone for coming all up in his face that would be enough to make me cry too!  And the kid isn't a fan of baby talk...he looks at you like you've lost your mind.  This is due to the fact that Matt and I talk to him like he's an adult and probably because he has always thought he was a big boy! :p

Mama loves when the boys match! :)

Peek-A-Boo!

Sunday we had a fun day out and about picking up some more good deals for the whole family! :) We spent a lot of time just being lazy together and it was fabulous!

Loves playing with the beach ball!

Ready for Beach Week with the Bradshaws!

Monday we had a lazy day followed by a trip to the park and a thank you supper for the uncles!

Someone doesn't want to keep his hat on!

Snack break ;)

Swinging with Daddy

Add caption

Peek

Getting ready to slide with Daddy!

Peek-a-boo Mama!

Hanging out in my bear chair!

Date Night: 
Last Tuesday night my good friend Andrea came over after work to keep Noah for us so I could take Matt out for a movie date for his birthday to see The Avengers! The movie was Awesome! So glad we went even though its so hard for us to leave him :P  As we are leaving the theater about 10 mins from our house, the bottom has dropped and its a torrential down pour that we were not expecting! As we are pulling into our driveway I don't see Andrea's car and my heart sinks....she was parked in a guest spot and we didn't give her the guest pass...she'd been towed. I felt horrible.  Obviously we can all laugh about it now:p

Elite Eight Months

Noah was officially eight months old on Friday, May 25th! He weighed in at 21.5 lbs! We love our chunky baby boy :) Needless to say our monthly photo shoots are getting a little more difficult :P

 Here are some fun updates this month in the life of Noah Zelman:

• Size 3 diaps
• Size 6/9, 6-12 clothing
• Size 4/5 shoes
• Still no teeth :(
• If you can't tell from the pictures above we have a BIG BOY on our hands!  Noah can pull up on furniture to a standing position.

 

 

 

• We're certain that he's skipped crawling and has moved straight to walking.  Noah "cruises" along furniture and will "walk" if you hold his hands.  He practically runs to either Matt or myself when he is really excited (melts my heart!) 

Loves the remote! Here he is cruising to get it!

• Still working on his balance, but the kid knows how to use his assets and by assets I mean his belly to help balance himself so he can use his hands to grab other objects ;)
• Stood unassisted on his on for a few seconds :)
• Noah's favorite letter is E.  He loves to say E.  So everyday in the Zelman Household is brought to you by the letter E.
• Loves to use anything and everything as drumsticks! :)
• Has mastered finger foods! Loves snacking on puffs!

 

• Loves to eat...but meals have recently become a challenge in our household because a little monster always wants to GRAB the spoonful of food or attempt to feed himself...disaster.   So we have plenty of distractions to keep him from looking at the spoon :) Puffs work wonders!
• He has a really nice food/nap schedule down:
• 6:30-7:30am-Wakes up
• 8:00-8:30am-Breakfast: Bowl of oatmeal mixed with juice (pear or white grape) and a half container of fruit
• 9:30-10:00am - 4-8oz of formula
• 10:00-11:00am- 1 hour nap
• 11:30-12:00- Lunch: Container or pouch of veggies and container of fruit
• 1:00-2:00- 4-8oz of formula
• 2:00-4:00- 1 hour nap
• 5:00-6:00- Supper: Pouch/container of veggies and container of fruit
• 7:00-8:00- 4-8 oz of formula
• 9:00-Bedtime prep
• 9:30pm-last bottle 4-6oz of formula

 

  

 This little boy is showing us something new everyday and we're loving every minute of it!

Celebrations and Staycations

I'm a slacker...obviously.  So there is a lot that we must catch up on, first things first.  Matt and I had a delayed anniversary celebration/staycation the weekend of May 19th.  Why this weekend?!  Well first off Friday May 18th, this lady got her fabulous husband tickets to see the Black Keys!!! How was the show?? Wonderful.  However, I felt O-L-D!  Seriously, it's probably been two years or more since I've been anywhere near cigarette smoke, even though Merriweather is smoke-free, since we were on the lawn folks were lighting up like it was their job.  And I was in a serious old lady coughing fit....read MIZ!  We ended up leaving our little smoke infested spot for cleaner air :)  We camped out on the outskirts of the lawn for the rest of the concert, until our little private spot was invaded by light-up hula hoop girl.  That's right. A grown ass girl with a glow in the dark hula hoop was just going to town right on top of us.  I cannot tell you how many drunk people stopped to ask if they could use her wicked awesome bedazzled hula hoop.  To no avail "It is too expensive for me to let you use it!" Ummm okay.  I think she might have been a professional hula hoopper :P All in all we had a really nice night :)

Saturday our friends Drew and Samar were getting married at The Mayflower Hotel in DC.  My parents had come up for the weekend to keep (apparently this is a southern term for babysitting that I didn't realize could cause a misunderstanding) Noah for both nights.  We decided to make this our first night away from Noah.

All dressed up!

Not only is Drew one of our friends, but we work with him.  So needless to say there were a lot of work folks, past and present, in attendance.  Thankfully, my best good work friend Andrea and her boo Keane were both there. :)

Love this girl! :) Me and A

 The wedding was lovely! And the cocktail hour had some awkward moments. Awkward moments + alcohol = Drunk.  Awesome.  We were seated at a table with Andrea's step sister Claire (past work folk) and her husband Brandon, The Bronsons (Kelley previously worked at NG), our previous deputy project manager Paul Malone and his wife and my current boss, deputy project manager, Lewis and his wife.  Awkward....so I drank more.  Needless to say I ended up being a hot mess.  When Matt left me unattended at some point I stumbled my way across to the other side of the room where Andrea, Keane, Brent, Sampson and the Kisers were seated.  Walked around bare footed...to the bathroom (vomit).  Ate food off Arthur Bronson's plate, apparently he doesn't like veggies and I couldn't let those carrots go to waste.  Called my manager old (H I thought you would like this!).  Then probably one of my most favorite points of the night, my manager's wife asked about my being Jewish and I'm like I'm not my husband is.  And Lewis goes "But I thought you converted!" I laughed in the man's face and replied "Oh no Lewis Jesus is my boy!" WTF! Thankfully that was all I can remember it for embarrassing Becca moment's from our night out. We had a wonderful time and made out okay with out the boy.  Not gonna lie my favorite part about staying at the hotel was not getting woken up at 6am by a baby. So what do you think happens?!?! The alarm goes off!!! And of course I couldn't figure out how to turn it off. By the time I do I'm awake and can't really go back to sleep :( So much for sleeping in on the one day away from our boy :p

We couldn't wait to get back home and see our sweet boy on Sunday! :)

Brunch on Sunday before Jo Jo and Pop Pop left

The kid loves to drum!

Mother's Day Weekend Recap

We were originally gonna to truck it into DC for the day for some more museum/sight seeing, but when Saturday morning rolled around we were all a little exhausted from a busy week and just wanted some cuddle time/relaxing around the house.  Except it turned more into a furious race to mark things off my house "to-do" list :) Which always makes me feel better and sets my little mind at ease.  We worked into a trip to Lowe's to get some stuff for the yard (yes we have decided to stop looking like that white trash family, you know the one that has several cars hidden in their weeds/bushes that you are sure to find when it finally gets cut).  Sadly I do not have a shameful before picture of our disdainful yard, nor do I have an after picture...yet!  We did some serious work on our front yard. The bushes were seriously reaching out to grab you on your walk up our front steps...embarrassing.  We were productive.

We also stopped by Pot Belly's for a quick lunch.  Noah is now going through this "fun" phase where every meal requires a distraction...keys (his toy keys), musical toy, chew toy, etc.  No distraction = Noah swatting the spoon full of food or grabbing the spoon and throwing it.  Yes that is another "fun" phase we are going threw...throwing things! :P  He's still a wonderful eater, just not when he sees the spoon coming at him :P  We've found that eating is public is the best medicine for this little dilemma because Noah is my child...he is SUPER nosey.  He has to look at all the people and see everything that is going on around him.

Saturday night we went over to the Zelmans for supper.  It was nice for Noah to spend time with his Nana, Grandpa, Aunt Liz and his crazy uncles. We wrapped up the night by playing Cards Against Humanity. It's like Apples to Apples, but the completely inappropriate adult version.  I cannot tell you how many times I've almost peed my pants playing this game!

Sunday was fabulous! My boys really set the bar for the BEST MOTHER'S DAY EVER! :)  My day started off with breakfast in bed.

Yummy Breakfast!

Noah helped Daddy make the pancakes by shaking up the batter!

Shake shake shake!

Snack break!

 The boys got me my very own "I love Mom!" mug with some of my very favorite Noah pictures of them, this was a HUGE surprise since I didn't realize that Matt had his own shutterfly account...sneaky sneaky! :) They also got me some new pearl earrings which Mama needed very badly (my previous studs had fallen off the post so many times I could no longer super glue them back on..fail!)

The icing on the Mother's Day cake however, was the SWEET two hour family nap we took later that morning before we headed off to have lunch at Sakura! :)

Ready for a yummy lunch with my boys! :)

No time for pictures I gotta be ready in case they need me to fan out those flames over at this other table!

I am so blessed to be married to that Big Bear and be the Mama to that Little Bear!

Upcoming Adventures in Zelmanland

We have so much coming up in a short period of time that I feel like my head is gonna explode even though I have a MILLION lists to try and keep myself together and keep it all straight. 

Tomorrow: I plan to tackle laundry and get a few items marked off my "to-do" list for the house (like cleaning bathrooms, vacuuming and putting up a well needed baby gate to block the stairs to the basement--that may be a little over zealous to think I can get this all done but I'll try)
I'm finally getting my hair done.  Mama needs some pampering in her life like WHOA! I think I'm gonna stick with more traditional colors this time even though RED RED was pretty fun to at least say I tried it :P

Saturday: We're taking another trip into DC.  This time Uncle Dan might be tagging along for the fun. We're planning to visit the Newseum since none of us have ever been and have been meaning too especially after we saw an episode of Restaurant Impossible with Robert Irvine tearing it up there! Hoping to maybe get in a few other fun sights on our trip as well. We're heading over to visit with Matt's parents that evening.

Sunday: My very first Mother's Day! :) I'm beyond excited because the boys have a lot of surprises that I cannot wait to share with y'all on Monday when I give you a little weekend update ;)

Next Weekend: We will officially be celebrating our anniversary. Friday night we have tickets to see the Black Keys at Merriweather.  Saturday we have some friends that will be getting married at The Mayflower Renaissance Hotel in Washington, DC. We decided that there would be no way we were gonna be driving back to Centreville, much less cabbing....so this is the perfect opportunity to have our first night away from Noah (**insert deer in the heads light look**).  Needless to say I have mixed emotions: on the one hand I do not want to leave my baby, on the other I'm excited to get dressed up and have some adult time with good friends and the hubby. My parents and sister Kateland will be coming in for the weekend to spend time with Noah. Excitement mixed with slight anxiety over leaving my baby for the first time.  Add getting a dress for the wedding on my to-do list for next week, luckily I have plans with A to go so we can both get gussied up for the big event. :)

Memorial Day Weekend: Noah will be 8 months on that Friday...O M G! Where is the time going seriously!?!?  We have no real plans for the weekend, but if we stay in the area we def want to spend some time outside either in DC or at one of the parks nearby. :)

First Weekend in June: We will be taking a family trip to Pittsburgh to celebrate Matt's birthday with good food, a visit to the Andy Warhol museum and who knows what else we might find. :)

Second Weekend in June: Our ONLY weekend at home the entire month...jeepers! So we will def make the most of it with lots of family jammers cuddle time and cleaning/prepping for all our upcoming travels. 

Third Weekend in June: My cousin Jacob will be graduating High School which means both of his sisters will be flying in (Las Vegas and Turkey) for the occasion.  Noah will get to meet both Lisa and Linda, as well as his second cousins Clara and David :) Exciting times.  Marks the beginning of the annual Bradshaw Beach Week at the Outer Banks in North Carolina.  And I am BEYOND excited to see Noah in the sand and sun in his super cute swim trunks! :) That Sunday will be Father's Day and we have some HUGE surprises in store for Matt :) I'm super excited to celebrate his first Father's Day just the three of us together :)

Fourth Weekend in June: We'll be wrapping up our nice little week vacation at the beach and heading back to NOVA to tackle tons of laundry just to do it all over again on Friday...

Last weekend in June: Friday June 29th kicks off our second vacation this time with the Zelman Family. We fly out to Seattle to catch our cruise ship! That's right folks...Noah and I will be taking our very first cruise together! :) At least Mama has one up on the boys in that she's actually visited Alaska before :P We'll be making stops in Alaska and Victoria, British Columbia.  Wait until you see Noah's formal dining cruise outfits...to die for! :)  Thank you Zulilly for hooking me up with some AMAZING deals!  Now I just need to convince Matt that Noah needs this little number and we're all set ;)

We will get back to Seattle on Friday July 6th, so we are staying the weekend to take in some sights (can we say the Original Starbs!?!?)

Lots to look forward to and get prepared for! :) YAY!

Happy Anniversary

Today is our two year anniversary! :) I decided to go back and read my very first blog post on our big day. Ah! It was so much fun, I wish we could do that every year...celebrate with our close friends and family! :) At this point I would just give anything for a trip back to Hawaii ;)

Our original plan was to a have a little belated Cinco de Mayo celebration at our fav Mexican establishment, but with Noah and I being under the weather still we might just settle for carry out Outback and a movie! :)

Here's to two amazing years with my very best friend and love of my life Matthew Scott! :)