Noah's Zoo trip...from March

Patrick has been very, very busy--he's downloaded a snippet from our Zoo trip in March of '08--it's hard to believe how much he's grown in such a short time...

What I love is he becomes so focused on a particular thing--Pooh Bear, Kung Fu Panda, Elmo (to name a few things of late)--and when they're mentioned, he goes CRAZY. Here, in this video, we ask if he wants to see the Pandas (granted, they're red pandas, not the familiar large, black & white, Kung Fu fighting pandas that he's accustomed to seeing), and he just sort of blankly stares... I think were we to go NOW and ask if he wants to see the pandas, he'd be all over himself with excitement.

Enjoy the video, and keep in mind that he's meowing/screeching at some rhinoceruses (rhinoceri?), which I'm sure they love.

'Maters...yum!

Keep forgetting to tell y'all about the Tomato Incident!

To briefly fill everyone in, I'm growing tomatoes--a variety of regular 'maters, some Cherry tomatoes, and some Roma (or something resembling a Roma--I have the varieties' tags, I just can't remember them, and they aren't really necessary for this story, so I'll continue.). We were out in the yard with Noah, and he is pointing to all of my flowers & saying, "Flowers. Pretty! Pretty flowers" and as he's doing this, we try to prevent him from yanking everything hither & yon. The we get to the tomatoes, and he's really, really trying to get after them, so I pick a couple, and hold out my hand, showing him & saying "tomatoes!" He grabs one, and immediately bites into it, with the tomato juice & seeds running down his chin (it was one of the Cherry or Roma types) and says, "Mmmmmm...tomatoes!" and then eats the 2nd tomato, too!

Then recently, he goes right to the tomato plants, says, "Mmmmm...tomatoes!" and tries to eat a green one (notice I didn't say, "tried to pick a green one" because there was no trying about it--he saw what he wanted & went after it!)--luckily Patrick got the green tomato before Noah could eat it; otherwise, Noah may not have ever tried a tomato again! Now, if we cut it up & fried it, I'm sure he'd be all over it!

Also, the church down the street from us was holding a yard sale, so we wandered down. I saw a couple Big Wheels when I had gone by earlier that morning, and even though I knew that they were probably too big, we decided to walk down, just to see (plus, it was good to get out of the house & get some exercise!). And, sure 'nuff, the Big Wheels were too big, but there was a stuffed Elmo that Noah spotted pretty immediately, and since it only cost us $1, we figured we could swing it. Now, Elmo used to have a talking box that used to work, but since it doesn't work (and yes, I did try it with new batteries in it!), Mommy didn't see any reason to keep the talking box, so Elmo has a pouch that's convenient to carry OTHER things in, like small balls or his small stuffed Piglet. So, yes, I have gone to the Dark Side, have joined forces with the Devil--our son loves his stuffed Elmo and I just can't stand in the way of that.

Now, having said this, I promise to do great bodily harm to anyone who dares give Noah "Chicken Dance Elmo" or any other such noise-making Elmo.

Seriously--BODILY HARM.

Ice cream, where are you???

This is Noah's opening line to this video, and I think that you'll agree that Patrick's suggestion of a bowl would have been a good thing.

Enjoy!

Videos!!!!

Patrick has been hard at work today getting some videos downloaded; here's the first one--Noah is singing with "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse," "Hot Dog Hot Dog Hot Diggety Dog" & "C is for Cookie."

And, yes, that is my headband he's wearing. What can I say? The boy likes to accessorize.

Love you all!

New pictures!

I know that everyone tunes in for the pictures, and tonight I'm dog tired, so I'm not quite up to creating a cute, catchy title for this blog.

Let's see... Noah has become the recipient of many clothes this past week--Aunt Patti found a great sale & sent Noah the rewards of her hunt (one t-shirt is featured in the pictures below), and we appreciate it very much! I let her know that it was like Christmas combined with the Clown Cars at the circus--I opened up this box and just kept pulling shirt after shirt after shorts after shirt after shorts... Thank you, Aunt Patti & Uncle Steve! (I must confess, I love all the clothes, but the green checked seersucker shirt & the yellow Bug ABC t-shirt are probably my favorites!)

We ALSO received the outfits that Janet (aka Mimi to Noah) ordered for us from Children's Wear Outlet or somesuch--I can't remember the exact name; Rachel found the site and it's fantastic! The prices are outrageously inexpensive, and they've got really cute clothes! We picked out Noah's outfit that he'll wear to Kala's wedding in August as well as some Dickies brand socks (a bit big right now, but Noah seems to really like them, especially as sock puppets. I have no idea where that boy learned to put socks on his hands!), AND two outfits, both soccer-inspired. One has Tyrone (from the Backyardigans, as if you had to ask...) playing soccer (the top even has soccer ball buttons on it!) and the other features Diego, both of which Noah grabbed the shirts, put them in his yellow dumptruck & started off for parts unknown (well, it was his room, but "parts known" doesn't sound as adventurer-ish).

AND, if that weren't enough, we tried out the big boy underwear that Bill, Lorraine & Skyler gave to Noah for his birthday. They know that we've started the potty training thing, and we think it was so cool of them to get us started off right! They even gave us the vinyl pants that go OVER the underwear, to help catch any wayward liquids (or solids...). The vinyl pants are fabulous (we've already gone through two pair of underwear & two of the vinyl pants tonight)--and to be honest, I'm not sure that I would have known to pick some up had I been shopping for Noah's underwear, so thank you, guys, for sharing your hard-earned knowlege and preventing us from some major accidents!

And how is the potty training, you ask? We're still training. At this point, I'm not sure who is training who... Noah is very willing to sit on the potty chair, he knows it's a potty chair, knows what goes in the potty chair, and we try to be pretty good about making time to sit on the potty chair at regular intervals, but so far, we've had lots of peeing in the bathtub, a couple accidents in the big boy underwear, and lots of just sitting & listening to stories. He does love "No More Diapers for Ducky," "The Potty Train" (I think because Mommy says, "Chugga Chugga POOOO POOOOOOO!" really loudly when she gets to that point in the book.... I can't help it--it makes us both laugh!) and "The Potty Book for Boys" (it features a little boy named Joshua, and Noah will ask for "Josh?" when he wants to hear the story). I find it really amazing, because these three stories are all so different in the way the story is told (the plot line is the same in all of them, though, not to ruin it for you) and in the artwork, but Noah is crazy about these. We've got some other books, too, that he's just not as interested in; he'll sit through a page or two, then ask "Ducky? Diapers Ducky? Train? Josh?" and it's hard not to honor the request!

Every day it's something new--I love peeking in the window of the daycare & seeing Noah interacting with the other kids; today when we were leaving, a car was driving by & it slowed down. The back window rolled down a bit, and a little girl yelled "Bye-bye, Noah!" and she waved. Of course, our little flirt waved back, but it was hard to hear his "Bye-bye" over the pacifier in his mouth (he was one tired little boy when I picked him up today!). I love that he has made such an impression on some of his friends! I hope that he keeps that quality; moreover, I hope that we do what we can to continue to foster it!

He's really singing up a storm now; we took some great video tonight, and hopefully when Patrick gets an hour or so (because apparently even for a very rough video, it takes quite a bit of time to transfer it to the proper format...) he can download it & some of the birthday footage....

Speaking of, we had a wonderful visit in Knoxville, and I made a 2nd Pablo cake--actually the making of the cake was courtesy of Mimi, and yours truly decorated it, with some icing assistance from Rachel. Noah seemed very excited to see Pablo in cake form again, and much to everyone's delight, he dove FACE FIRST into the cake... Rachel got some great pictures, so as soon as I can get access to them, I'll post a few. Noah really had a great time running after Jordan & Skyler; even though they're both big kids, Noah did his best to keep up! Saw LOTS of smiles on his face that day!

He's been growing, I think...he's really sleeping a lot, and I swear I can watch him get taller. Today he took a 3 hour nap, and last night he went to bed at 7 & woke up at 8:45 this morning! It seems like forever ago that we were looking forward to when he'd sleep longer than 3-4 hours, and it was a Godsend when he slept 6 hours--in a row!!!!--at night. Now, when he sleeps longer than he normally does, I just look around, lost, waiting for him to wake up! I try to keep myself busy, but it never fails--I'll get started on a "Flip This House" or somesuch and he'll wake up... Murphy's Law, I guess. So, I usually just putter, trying to pick up the big chunks around the house, getting the 400 bags ready & in a staging position for when we DO leave the house for school & office! I swear, toddlers need a lot of bags... I'm not sure why, since it seems like most of what he needs can be found out in the world (food, drink...), but the stuff we carry for him has grown.

His little brain is just soaking up EVERYTHING, too, even the stuff we don't want him to say. While we were in Knoxville, he took to saying "Oh my God" (which in his weird accent came out as "Oh my Gawd" with extra emphasis on the last "d" so it was UNMISTAKABLE as to what he was saying). I guess we say it more than we realize, because he picked it up from somewhere! And, when we try to correct him or steer him away from saying it, I think he knows that he's not supposed to say it & says it even more. So, I've been extra-vigilant about not saying anything remotely bad (though it is hard whilst driving...there are idiots on the road and sometimes it's hard to refrain from expressing what I REALLY think of them!), saying such things as "Oh my pickle" and things along those lines. I think we will have better luck with fun words like pickle (I don't know why it's a fun word, it just is!) and maybe he'll just forget about the blaspheming in time for our next family visit!

We started watching "School House Rocks" and he's seen the shows before, and he's heard the songs, but never really expressed an interest, until the last time we saw it, and he started singing "Lolly Lolly Lolly Get Your Adverbs Here" and "Conjunction Junction." So far, those are his two favority songs/episodes, but we're trying to get him branch out--as much as I love those songs, you can only hear them over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over so many times before you go nuts.

And, I'd like to put my squirrel story down for posterity. On Friday, before we left, I'd talked to Mom & Dad, who related some of their weird animal happenings (which involved squirrels...or at least one squirrel, RIP). After we spoke, I went out to the yard to do some final touch-ups before we left--bring in Noah's toys, wind up the hose, cover the pool. I got to the pool and found this: (To those of you who are sensitive, I'd turn away now.)


Yup. Those are two squirrels, one still floating, the other sunk to the bottom, of our beloved pool. I walked up on the pool, saw that, and I must admit, my first thought was, "You better not have poked a hole in my pool!" Then, the 2nd thought was, I must send this picture to Patrick! He immediately called to verify what the tiny picture on his phone was depicting--yup. Two squirrels. Dead. In our pool. Now, granted, the pool is somewhat under a large tree, but come ON--TWO??? So, I got the shovel, and the one that was still floating was easy to get. I didn't really have time to dig a hole & do a proper burial, so I sort of plopped him on top of what used to be the compost pile, but is now the weed-growing pile. The one that sunk to the bottom...he was a doozy. I didn't want to poke a hole in the pool with the shovel (no, I was not grabbing him with my hands, no matter how many pairs of gloves I had on. Dead humans are one thing, but deal squirrels are just nasty.), so I was sort of gently chasing him around the bottom of the pool, trying to flip him up just enough to get my shovel under him. Finally was able to scoop him up and out, and put him next to his brother. Or sister. I didn't really turn them over to look. Or maybe it was his lover, and they decided to go out like Romeo & Squirreliet, and took poison. I dunno. All I know is it was in my pool! Bastards. Oops. Can't curse--how about "Pickle eaters?" Our neighbor saw me walking to the back with something on my shovel, and I guess she put two & two together, and asked if it was a dead squirrel. I said, "Yup. There were TWO of them. In my pool!" We both agreed that it was nasty, and that squirrels aren't very smart.

So, that's the adventure I had. Fun, huh?

Oh, and to end on a happy note, I've started keeping a list of things that I've said to Noah that I never thought would be said to ANYONE, much less a two-year-old. I'll be updating the list as new things come along, but here's what I've got right now:

1. We don't sit on the cat.

2. Yes, that is your nipple.

3. We don't put our fries in our bellybuttons.

4. We don't hit our head with our hot dog.

and my favorite:

5. No, penis doesn't need to have his teeth brushed.

Enjoy the photos!

MMMM...peanut butter! Here he's sitting with Daddy, eating a peanut butter cracker (which, by the way and if you can't tell, he really, really likes)--note the bits of cracker stuck to his tummy. He's also holding his new Spiderman sandals!


Modeling his new big boy underwear...I love these. I can't help myself--I think he looks so cute!!! If the architect/engineer/doctor career doesn't work out, maybe Sears will come calling & he can model in their catalog...


The back of his big boy underwear--and he is an All Star! This is where he's taking Tyrone & Diego soccer jerseys and putting them in his Tonka truck. Notice his pinkie...


Another of his many modeling poses; here he's gazing wistfully at the future, whilst holding his Diego jersey, thinking of the many adventures he and Diego will have...


Here is the Bug ABC shirt--my favorite is the "H for Handsome Fungus Beetle!" AND, if that weren't enough, the bugs are slightly raised & puffy! So cool!



In the bug shirt, but you can sort of make out the vinyl pants, and you can see the Dickies socks--a bit big, but I think the fact that he wanted to put them on immediately is a good sign. Also, you can tell that our hope that he would not take after me as far as insect bites go has been dashed on the rocks. He seems like he is taking after me, with the swelling and the fact that the bites do not go away anytime soon. *Sigh* We've tried his Zyrtec, and that doesn't seem to help much, so I think I'm calling the Dr. again to see if there's something else we can try. I know I tried many, many things before I found that Allegra was what worked for me. I know that they do children's Allegra, but not sure about toddler Allegra, but we'll see. At this point, I'm hoping that he'll grow out of it, but with my history, not sure that we'll be holding our breath.



Helping put the dishes away...he's really, really great!!!!!

Happy Birthday, Dear Noah...

Okay, so I'm a bit late--but yes, our boy turned TWO, with a Pablo-shaped cake and everything. (And Mom, thanks for all your help--the cake wouldn't have been the success it was if it hadn't been for your help, guidance & encouragement!) We had a very nice celebration --Mom & Dad (aka Momaw and Popaw--that's about as close to approximating his pronunciation as I can get!) were here Tuesday through Friday, and then Dan, Janet & Rachel (aka Papa, Mimi & Rachel...and sometimes "Ray-Ray") were here Friday night through Sunday. I was going to do two cakes, but Janet said that we'd just eat on the one that we already had (sorry, Rachel...). I will do one when we go to Knoxville next weekend. I was pretty happy with how the cake turned out, once I gained some perspective and saw the pictures. It's Pablo-shaped, and then Mom mixed up the colors, and I smeared them on in a close approximation of where they should be. I think what made it all worth it was the look of absolute excitement on Noah's face when he saw the cake. I'd make 400 of those things, just to get that same expression!

He has really grown--we had our 2-year check-up at the doctor, and he is 25.8 lbs, and 36 1/4" tall. No, that's not a misprint. His head is about at my waist and he's just two!!! Luckily, we're in shorts-weather, because I can already tell it'll be fun finding pants to fit him. He's got a skinny little waist, but long legs. He'll probably be in a size 5 pants, and I'll have to cinch the waist with belts!

His vocabulary is growing by leaps & bounds, too; and it's stuff that you had NO IDEA that he heard, much less retained! There's a show called "Max & Ruby." Drives me crazy. As far as I could tell, he was so-so about it. Then one day last week, he wakes up from his nap talking about "Max & Ruby." I can't remember the last time we'd watched the show, but he wanted to tell me about it. He's recently started saying "Okay, sorry" which is something I think he picked up from school--not that we don't say sorry, but it's really been full-force these past few days...which makes me wonder if I shouldn't ask the teacher if Noah is doing stuff he needs to be sorry about! I did peek in his classroom window the other day, and he was leading another little boy across the room; it looked like Noah had a death grip on this other boy's hand, and I just about made me cry, the way my little baby looked like a big boy. Of course, we're running into some issues with his headstrong-itude, too--when he gets something in his mind that he wants to do, he does not like hearing "no." I mean, really--who among us doesn't like to get our own way? So far we've just ignored his little outbursts, making sure that he can't hurt himself (though when he starts pulling hair, I cringe, but I also know that he'll stop if it hurts too bad)--and he seems to settle down. I think my age is an advantage to some extent, because I really don't care what other people think of me on the best day, much less when I have a tantrum-throwing toddler in my store buggy. I know that if this were 20 years ago, I'd have been mortified that my son just threw 4 fruit snacks at me, and was shrieking, "NONONONONONONONONONO!" But today (and it was today, at WalMart...which I think made it easier, somehow. I think because everyone is equal at WalMart.), didn't faze me a bit. I just kept looking for where the tarps would be. (Surprise, surprise--they were in a logical place--the camping section! Which is why I couldn't find them....)

Why do we need a tarp? Why, to cover our pool! That's right, boys-n-girls--we have a fancy blow-up pool that's big enough for all of us! At once! We had a smaller pool (the one Mom & Dad got him last summer seems SO itty bitty now!) that he wasn't really interested in unless I got in with him. Okay, it has been awhile since I've taken yoga classes, so me getting into his little pool was a bit...uh, fun. But this one, holy cow--it's 10' X 6' X nearly 2'. I can completely stretch out longways, and Noah seemed to have fun, too. We bought all sorts of pool toys, and are introducing them one at a time. He's gone under a couple of times, but nothing major, and he did very well (of course I was right there with him--he just got going too fast & his feet slipped out from under him, but he was fine)--got scared the first time, but we got through it & he continued playing in the pool, which I thought was good. I've joked with Patrick (since he thinks it's a bit red-necky to have a big inflatable pool in the backyard...and yes, it kinda is, but who cares when it's a billion degrees outside & your son is wanting desperately to go OUTSIDE!!!!!) that we just need to dig a big ol' hole & put the pool in it. Then we'd have an in-ground pool! Oh, an here's something to add to the vision--I bought a fish net (the kind that you scoop fish out of an aquarium with) to skim the leaves & such that get in the pool. I tell ya, we've got a CLASSY set up!

Okay, news: we're going to be replacing our thermostat. We noticed that it kept running when it shouldn't be, because the thermostat is registering about 7 degrees warmer than the actual temperature. I've ordered one that Consumer Reports seems to think is a good one, and it's an Energy Star, programmable for several days, etc. etc., so we'll see how that works. I've done a 2nd coat of primer on the bathroom walls, and done one coat of primer on the dark wood trim, so the whole bathroom looks TOTALLY different now--I'll have to go over the wood again before I paint, I think, but it's just opened that room so much. Plus, the light-wood vanity doesn't seem like such an odd thing anymore! I've started to prime the laundry room, and with just the little I've done it makes a HUGE difference!!! I put some paint over the blue & yellow splotches that used to be the closet in the dining room, and I'll have to go over them AGAIN because in certain light you can still see that blue/yellow peeking through, but it looks SO MUCH better!!!!! Patrick has his 2nd speech on Monday (outline due tonight), so I've had lots of time to paint after Noah goes to sleep... I enjoy painting, and it gives immediate gratification, but let's be honest--after a hot day of running around after Noah, it's a lot more fun to sit on my butt after he goes to bed!

And the biggest news of all...

We're going to start POTTY TRAINING!!!!

I've put a bunch of books on hold at the library, and tonight we're picking out a potty chair. I've tried to read reviews, but it seems for every person that LOVES this chair or that one, there's another comment that says how awful it is... The main thing that I've taken away from the reviews is this: there will be pee on the bathroom floor. Potty chairs come with a "guard" at the front of the ring specifically to prevent little boys from just peeing everywhere. Depending on the chair you get, though, these guards either serve as toys for the boys to pull off & play with while sitting on the chair (and then when they do pee, there's no guard there to stop the pee from going where it darn well wants to), or the guards are designed poorly, so that it just serves as a pee run-off guide (and not into the toilet). *Sigh* There is a urinal, which I think is pretty cool (and I'm sure Patrick would love to get one)--and yes, I can see where it would be good, because then you don't have to retrain your boy to stand up to pee--but then you still need a potty for the poop to go in (I looked at the pictures of the urinal, and as clever as Noah is, I don't think he'd be able to poop in the urinal). And then, if I set Noah on the potty to poop, am I going to make him get up to go to his urinal to pee? And you would not BELIEVE how many potty chairs there are out there!!! There are the rings to go over the adult toilet seats (which I like--they're padded, and have Diego & other characters on them), then weird Dr. Seuss-looking seats, then miniature replicas of toilets that are toddler-sized that have sound effects and their own toilet-paper holders! Our Dr. suggested getting something that allows Noah to push with his feet--so I think, tall as he is, that rules out the padded seats over the adult toilet seats... We have seen a Winnie-the-Pooh seat, which, to me, a Pooh Potty Seat is incredibly appropriate. Plus, he seemed to like it... Then again, is he going to be turning around to look at the characters???

He's so funny...Patrick and I were talking, and we just really enjoy Noah's sense of humor. There are times when I know that he's just doing stuff to be silly, and he just cracks me up. Patrick and I were playing a mild version of "Keep Away" with him & his ball, and he just started laughing so hard he could barely stand up...I hope he keeps that sense of humor! He's also gotten a lot more daring--he can get up & down from the sofa by himself, but sometimes he likes to take his little Pooh foam chair & put it on the sofa and then try to sit in the Pooh chair on the sofa. Mommy isn't too fond of that game... And, sometimes, he figures that he got up on the sofa, why stop there? Why not go all the way to the top of the bookcases right behind the sofa??? (Granted, they're short bookcases...well, they're as tall as he is, so when he stands on them, he's taller than the back of the sofa, and, well, Mommy just doesn't like it when he does that.) He's really singing now--if a song comes on that he knows & likes (or if you start singing a song), he'll sing WITH you, which is amazing. He also has some mad dance skills that he's been showing off! When he looks at a book, you can hear him talking to himself, like he's reading the book. Much to our surprise, about a week ago, when we were reading his night-time stories, he started reciting along. It's about Little Nut Brown Hair & we change it to Noah Nut Brown Hair and Mommy Nut Brown Hair, and how much Mommy Nut Brown Hair loves little Noah Nut Brown Hair. When Noah was reciting it, however, it came out as "Mommy Butt Hair."

I find myself saying things to him that I never thought I'd have to say to ANYBODY...like today, I had to say, "Noah, we don't sit on the cat."

Enjoy the pictures!

Cool baby in his sunglasses!

Yay! The 'Wonder Pets' saved the day...again! I just love how Noah & Grandpa are having such fun...

I think Grandma & Noah are watching "Happy Feet"--and notice they've got their arms in the exact same position...

Pablo cake!

Is that look priceless??? Thanks, Mom, for capturing this moment!

He just seems so excited that it's a CAKE in the shape of PABLO!!!

Yum! CAKE!!! Rachel took this one, I believe...I just love that the fork is in one hand with some cake on it, but he's obviously shoving it in his mouth with his other hand!

Holding one of his beloved balls... This time, a basketball, to go with his new hoop!

Nothin' but net! Thanks, Mimi & Papa!

Mom took this one...I just love the look of concentration, the popsicle in his mouth, and it seems that he's thinking, "Hmmm...wonder if the belly button is still there. Lemme check."

Noah took a tumble...a somersault, actually, and scraped up his head. ON THE CEMENT. I felt so awful... It looked & sounded worse than it was. Plus, another popsicle made it all better. That, and a Diego band-aid (which stayed on his head about 5.6 seconds).

Present from Mommy & Daddy--a ROLLER COASTER!!!


Another picture of our boy on a sugar high...


Such a happy boy!!!!