I finally put new batteries in our point and shoot to take some pics of a project and noticed some videos started offloading (we have an eyefi card:) ). I sifted thru and found this one and couldn’t help but share it. It’s good for a smile:)
Apr 242012
Apr 202012
We had a stretch of beautiful weather last weekend so I thought it was the perfect time to let Noah loose with some washable paints that I’d bought a while back. He’s still at an age where it’s all mess so doing it inside was out of the question. I set him up, in a diaper, with an open pot or two, a brush, and lots of paper. After a while we decided that one pot of paint at a time was best since he was just mixing them and dumping them anyways, no use it wasting them all at once.
At one point DH walked back and encouraged him to paint on his belly. That opened up a whole new world of painting. I found him painting his belly and then trying to lay on the paper to do a belly print (i guess they do hand prints alot at school?!). Seeing that belly prints were challenging I took his socks off and pointed to his feet. Perfect!
After he grew bored I needed to wipe him down to bring him inside. That required the use of the hose and I totally should have known better (noah’s obsessed with the sprinkler) anyways, there was no way I was getting out of this without at least a little hose time for him so I let him have at it. It actually worked quite well he was mostly clean by the time we had to come in (and I was only a little wet…he looooooved chasing me and trying to spray me). What I was most impressed about was the fact that he was running in the grass bare feet. He’s been hesitant to do that until now. Maybe his sand phobia is cured?!
Anywho, we both had a blast, enjoyed the amazing weather and managed to stay out of daddy’s hair long enough for him to get some trim work done on the front of the house (which is a story in its own). I look forward to more days like that one before the real heat sets in and we can’t bare to be outside.
Apr 192012
It’s always nice when you can have friends in and spend some time with them. This past weekend we had friends in from out of town with their 6 month old little girl. We tried to keep things really relaxed and not plan too much but thanks to an early spring our idea of Cherry Blossom festival was out the window. We thought about the National Zoo but an hour train ride or 40 min drive sounded unappealing. Luckily we have a small zoo just down the road. I’ve spoken about it before and we love it. It’s a great short activity for days you don’t want to go far.
I love watching Noah’s reactions change as he gets older and recognizes the animals more. He was enthralled by the monkeys and the tortoise this time around and not so much by the prairie dogs or the goats (although he did reach down to pet a sheep for like 2 seconds). We stopped by the aviary that was full of parakeets and other small birds before we left and really wish we’d bought a few of the feed sticks they had avail. Those that had them had little birdies perched and noshing away. It was so cool!
Anyways, time wore on and it was verging on nap time so we headed out. A quick stop on the way home at the playground to burn the last of our energy and we were home:) Low key but still alot of fun!
Apr 172012
The weather last week was a bit schitzo (heck, this last month has been a bit crazy) and on one particular day the wind had kicked up enough to make trying our hand at some kite flying worth it. My parents got Noah this kite for his birthday and DH was more than happy to put it together and show him the ways of the kite.
He lost interest after 10 min but DH and I sat back and relaxed for more than half an hour while Noah just ran circles around us. It was a bit chilly but in the end it was a really nice evening after work.
Apr 152012
I’m just now sitting down to process all the pics from last weekend (and this weekend in turn). Figured rather than doing a huge photo dump I’ll spread the love out:)
This set is Easter last weekend with my fam. We drove up to PA to visit my parents and spent Saturday at my cousins house with the entire family (which was wonderful). It was organized chaos and was totally awesome. We had 5 kids under 4 (and two more on the way, due pretty much the same week), 4 dogs, countless cows, baby chickens, cats (and kittens), pigs, and a stuffed coyote. Yes, a stuffed coyote…don’t ask me, it was in the office with the kittens. My cousin is a vet and her husband runs the farm so they had a menagerie which was so cool for Noah because he got to play with all of it (well, not the cows or pigs but the chicks, dogs, cats, and kittens were entertainment).
We had an easter egg hunt in the back yard (noah’s second and he finally got the hang of it) and pulled out the power toys after lunch. Noah tried every mode of transportation they had – the tractor, a little bike, a bigger bike, the power jeep and the power quad (which was not working). To say he had fun is an understatement I think.
The story of the day was my brothers boxer and the mud pit. Buckley love (LOVES) standing water. He has a pool at home and there’s one at the dog park he regularly lays down in so it was no surprise when he found a small puddle at the end of a discharge pipe and submerged himself. Okay, small puddle was an understatement – it was a mud pit and he was happy as a pig rolling around and snorting. At one point he jumped out and came charging at the group of us. As we scattered he focused in on my dad who was forced to use a chair to keep the Buckley love off of his jeans:) My brother eventually corralled him and doused him with fresh water but not before we all had a great laugh (my stomach hurt so bad from how hard we laughed).
At the end of the day Noah was exhausted and had managed to pretty much skip his nap so bedtime was a challenge but we managed. On to the pics!
Apr 032012
As the weather improves and spring comes into full bloom we’re finding ourselves outside more often than not. This past weekend we headed up north to visit DH’s family and celebrate a few birthdays and while up there the kids did an easter egg hunt on Saturday and then went for a tractor ride on sunday (very slowly:) ). Noah was in heaven (any time he gets to be outside he’s happy, he’s very much his daddy)
We thought Noah’d be all into the tractor ride and he initially seemed like he was. However, once J turned it on he wasn’t so sure. They made one loop around the yard and he was crying so hard that Daddy switched places with Uncle J to see if it would make a different. He calmed a little but was still not really enjoying himself so J shut it down, locked it up for safety and let them hang out. Muuuuuch better…Noah wanted to pretend to drive while the boys hung out in the trailer. It was the best of both worlds.
Anywho…it was a wonderful weekend with family and I even made it back in time for my photoshoot (we cut it cloooose!).
Mar 272012
This kid loves his beans! Doesn’t matter the kind, he eats them all. Many times after school he’ll come home, walk to the pantry and pull a can out asking us to open them. I don’t tend to argue since they’ve got protein and fiber in them and he really loves them.
See…
He’s crazy for beans
Mar 232012
I’ve been neglecting my other child lately on this blog and I feel bad – it is his blog after all. I’ve also not been taking as many pictures of him (or of anything until recently). I’ll blame it on his unborn sister…she makes me tired already:)
The weather has been amazing so I thought we’d go for a quick photo walk after school…problem is, he doesn’t like to look at the camera anymore. I tell him to cheese and he immediately looks any direction but mine. I have to catch him off guard or bribe him with fruit snacks.
These pics are on two different days and of the 30 or so I took, they were the only ones that came out.
Mar 072012
okay, not really but this is really cute and I’m super hopeful that we’re raising a musical child (he has a 50% shot of inheriting that gene:) ).
My parents bought him a guitar because we found that he loves the guitar at daycare. I was really really excited to see what he did with it because he loves making noise (the drum has been a favorite lately). Color me impressed when he sat down and actually held the guitar right (one hand on the fret board with his fingers on the strings and the other working over the strings to make sound).
He sat down in his new Thomas chair (another big hit from his great grands) and gave us a little concert:) In this video his form is a little suspect but it’s what he needed to be able to play for us. Ignore all of our singing:)
Mar 042012
I finally managed to get thru the pics of the morning of balloons. I have no idea where the idea came from but the night before his birthday I thought it would be awesome to fill his room with balloons so that he wakes up to them all. We spent most of the evening blowing up balloons and I could have sworn we did like 100….in the end it was only like 40 or so:) Anywho, in the AM I dumped them in his room before he woke up.
First is the video we took of him as he woke up….the the pics:)
Mar 032012
This year we decided to keep things low key and invite family only down for Noah’s birthday and have a nice family dinner. This is in stark contract to last years 30+ person shindig – although, even with just family we were around 12 including 4 loud boys (really hope this baby is a girl, we need some bossiness up in the place to keep the boys in line). Anywho…I wasn’t even going to do a theme but then my mom mentioned dinosaurs and of course that’s all it took to get the wheels turning. It was definitely subdued next to last year but we did manage to decorate some.
It was a crazy and loud day (my house is not meant for 4 boys from the ages of 1 – 6) but Noah had a blast with his cousins and I really enjoyed seeing all of our family here in one spot. Since we’re so dispersed that doesn’t happen often (although we missed my bro and his girlfriend:( ).
Mar 012012
It’s taken awhile to get thru all the pics but here we are, a post about our recent vacation. It was kind of impromptu in that we only booked/planned it 3 weeks in advance. I had vaca I was going to lose and we both had deadline/launches that we had to dodge so we settled on a date that was just a few weeks shy of Noah’s second. There are some great benefits and drawbacks to this.
First, the details of the trip. We flew to Miami (noah in our lap – huge benefit #1..not having to pay for a seat for him) and hopped on a Carnival cruise ship destined for the Bahamas (and a few other ports). Super excited to have a balcony room (a must have with a toddler) and only one full day on the ship before we hit the first port we set off. Here’s where the drawbacks of being just two weeks shy of your 2nd birthday come in. He was pretty much ineligible for any of the kids programs on the ship…well, not pretty much…he was point blank. We were able to use the kiddie club between 8am and 10am before the programs started and that was it. Plus, he’s not potty trained so the pools (even the splash pool) was off limits. I won’t lie, we cheated a little the last day on the ship. Noah had already done his dirty bidness so we figured it was safe to let him splash in the wading pool…no one even noticed.
In the end the no pools thing wasn’t a huge deal. We had oceans in all three ports that were fair game (and honestly, he hated the sand which made the oceans a little challenging but we’ll get to that) but I think next time we’ll wait until he’s potty trained (and therefore older than 2) to cruise so that he can take advantage too. We did a lot of running around the decks of the ship to burn off steam. He seemed perfectly okay with that, DH and I however, were very tired.
We got to our first port – Grand Turk and hopped off the ship as early as they would let us. We needed land and an open area for Noah to run. Too bad it was all pretty much sand and he’s still terrified of sand. I eventually coaxed him into playing but only if he was on the lounge chair or on a towel. Oh well, small victories.
DH lugged along an inflatable raft that I chastised him endlessly about it. I couldn’t believe he’d bring this ridiculous thing the whole way along for the ride expecting to have Noah in it while we hung out in the water with him. And this is where I eat my words because in the end, it was the only freakin way we got him in the water. It worked out perfectly. Noah was in his little PFD, sitting atop his raft while DH and I took turns snorkeling. I admit now that it was a genius idea that worked just as well the second day in Half Moon Cay (Noah even zonked out and took a little snooze while we hung in the water…sooo perfect!).
Port 2 was a private island – Half Moon Cay and was a tender port therefore making it harder to get back and forth to the boat (you had to take a little boat from the big boat). Once you were on the island you were there for good (or at least until you wanted to go back to the boat for the day…it wasn’t worth making more than one trip back and forth). Fortunately they catered to us on the island and there was really no reason to go back until it was actually time to leave. We still hadn’t won any battles between Noah and the sand phobia but with a few fruit snacks I did manage to get him back on the raft and into the water. I even tried to lure this kid into the sand with the prospect of a trip down a waterslide….no go. He was not having it.
Port 3 was Nassau and by then we’d had enough of the beach and trying to get Noah to like it. We decided instead to head over to Atlantis and pay for the aquarium tours (since Noah loves fish). SOOOOOOOO worth it! Probably the best $80 we spent the whole trip. We spent all day on the grounds of Atlantis visiting the 9 or so aquariums they have set up there – loving each more than the last! By the time we were finished we were all exhausted and perfectly happy to head back to the boat a bit early. Noah napped great and so did I!
Dinner most nights was trying. He’s your typical toddler who can’t sit still for more than 4 seconds. We did dinner in the formal dining room just three times out of the 5 and only with the help of the wait staff, a huge bottle of milk, and fruit snacks. The staff would take him for a quick walk (always in our eye sight) while we scarfed our meals or perform magic tricks to keep him happy. They did a wonderful job. There was one night where Noah crashed early and we were able to put him in the stroller and actually go see things. Otherwise we were asleep in the room with him by 9…not a bad thing, just not what you’d expect to do on a cruise with great night life.
All in all it was a great trip and we really enjoyed ourselves. We were well rested and had just the right amount of sun by the time we made it back to NoVa. There are things we’ll do differently next time (taking the grands, waiting until they’re potty trained, etc..) but nothing that ruined the trip for us.
Feb 282012
Noah has a Santa obsession. To the point where I had to hide his special Santa pj’s because he wanted to wear them to school everyday. At one point at dinner we started saying something that sounded like Merry Christmas (I have no idea what now) but he started in. DH added “Ho Ho Ho” and things really got rolling.
Feb 262012
Noah’s been hilarious lately….
Feb 232012
I have your typical 2 year post started and will finish it this week but for now I wanted to show you this:
We blew up what felt like 100 balloons and we dumped them in his room in the AM before he woke up. This is the video of waking him up and showing him the balloons. It’s long but so funny. (ignore the crying dog in the background…she wanted in on the action too)
I tried to catch his dancing in this one but he stopped before I could get the camera up…it’s still cute none the less…
Feb 022012
(i promised him I’d get this out before he turned 2….we’re getting close though!)
Well, you finally did it. You climbed over your crib rail and let yourself out of bed. We’ve spent the last few weeks trying various things to keep you in. A sleep sack worked for one night and then you figured that out too. Now it’s hit or miss on if you’ll get out or not. The gate is up so you can’t wander but we need to find a better solution soon, i’m nervous about you getting in and out by yourself.
You always tell us it’s “cold outside” in reference to anything cold or outside but not always necessarily together. Like, you’ll grab daddy’s face after he comes in from outside and say “cold outside” or you’ll grab your milk and say “cold outside”…doesn’t matter. Any reference to cold is appended with “outside”. I love it!
You’re asserting your independence more and more. Most days you have to pick out your own clothes. You strip off everything I pick out and insist on doing yourself so I’ve kind of given up. You even wore PJ’s to school today because it wasn’t worth the fight. Dinner time is much of the same. You have to do it yourself or ask for help. If I offer or try to do it for you all hell breaks loose. It’s so cute when you ask for help though…you look up and say “hep mommy” and then I melt.
I plopped you on the scale the other day (after you brought it out to me) and you were 28 lbs. Then I managed to get you to stand still long enough to get a height. 34 inches…almost a full yard!!! We’ll find out at your dr’s appt next month where that puts you. I’ve moved you over to 24/2T clothes for the most part although you still wear some of your 18mo PJ’s.
Lastly, your temper has arrived. I’m attributing it to the early arrivals of the terrible 2′s or possibly the sleep issues we’ve been fighting but man – you can be sweet as pie one second and the next a raging ball of anger hitting and throwing and just yelling like some’s stole your favorite toy. There’s no rhyme or reason most times. Sometimes it’s because I did something that you wanted to do yourself (like open your yougurt) or we had to take a non-permitted object out of your hands (like the screwdriver or the sharpie marker that I really need to remember to take out of the drawer you can reach). Sometimes it’s becuase Macie looks at you cross eyed…or uses her jedi mind tricks to make you think she’s going to steal a toy. I don’t know why most times and often times a modified time out is the only fix (or a bottle of milk, which seems to cure alot). Your MeeMa would say that it’s payback for all the tantrums I threw as a kid (apparently I could throw a fit with the best of them) and perhaps she’s right. Wow, I can totally feel her pain now.
In any case, you always make it better you saying “sorry mommy” (or whatever object you threw) and petting my face (or the object you tossed:) ). Being your mommy is challenging alot of the time but so incredibly worth it.
(and since I’ve been seriously slacking on the photos, here’s a video of Noah’s new trick. I have no idea who taught him this).
Jan 212012
Last night we got our first snow in a while so even though it was covered with a layer of ice in the AM we bundled Noah up for a quick jaunt outside. He made it about 20 min before he started saying “it’s cold outside”…which is his queue to come back in.
He’s not a huge fan of the snow (much like sand – which will make our trip to the beach in Feb a challenge). He’s fine if it’s not on him. Which means he won’t pick it up and kinda freaks out if it gets on his boots (where he can see it). But, at least he was outside. We’ll keep working on the snow thing.
Jan 132012
so many weeks late!
He’s just a huge bag of tricks these days (and feels like a huge sack of bricks when you pick him up…).
– He’s talking more, stringing two words together (sometimes three). I love hearing “I love you mommy” or “mommy daddy I you”…
– He’s climbing all over everything and is much more confident on the stairs. Most days he goes up with out holding on to anything and can go down a few steps without help as well.
– He can jump off the ground and both feet clear. He’s getting more and more height as the month wears on. He loves to jump jump jump…
– I stuck him on the scale this AM and it said he was 28lbs so he seems to be holding stead (although it doesnt feel like it).
– I still can’t/haven’t nailed him down to get a height. I guess we’ll just have to wait until his two year appt next month.
– Gosh, this is what I get for not doing these on time…i’m merging this month and last month:) oh well..
I’ve already started thinking about his 2 year party. I swore to myself we’d keep it family and close friends but as I assemble the guest list it just keeps growing. I can’t help myself. I just need a theme now…Thomas is so over done but he loves it so much…
Jan 122012
Long time no post, I know. I have a good reason but will have to fill you in later:) I had so many posts planned but never got around to actually writing them. I even had pictures! Perhaps soon….
Anywho, we went to the National Zoo the other weekend and thought I’d drop some pics on here for your enjoyment (and my mothers request:) Hi mom!).
My inlaws for down for the weekend and we just happened to have an amazing 60 degree January day so off to the National Zoo we went. What a great time was had. Not all the animals were out but the most important ones were – the lions! We all know how much Noah looooooves lions! All the other animals were cool but it was the lion den we couldn’t tear him away from. He stood in awe as they walked back and forth. All at once the male started to vocalize and Noah roared right back at him!!
We were waaaay past nap time and I’d half expected him to crash on the way back to the car but no, he wanted to watch and check out everything as we walked back. We strapped him in and listen to him roar for a little while and then he fell suddenly silent. I looked over and he was out for the count. He slept the whole way home and even let us carry him upstairs and put him in his crib to finish the nap. I think he had a good time.
(check out the new gallery! Now you can page thru the pics instead of clicking one by one!!!)
Dec 182011
We declared today “Noah day” and started bright and early for his first real train ride (well, Metro train but train none the less). Our destination was the Natural History Museum in downtown. They had a great fossil exhibit with life sized T-rex skeletons and other dinosaurs that we thought he’d love and we were right!
He was mellow and kind of timid on the metro in. It could have been that he was a bit sleepy and it could have been the new experience but for the most part he just hung out in DH’s lap looking out the window. Once we got to the city it was a cold walk across the mall to the museum. Noah was all bundled up so I think he could have gone for miles, the rest of us not so much. I was happy to get inside (and subsequently strip off all the layers).
It was early in the morning so things were still really quiet. We made a bee line for the butterfly exhibit because DH missed that last time and didn’t want to this time. What a cool exhibit! It did cost $6 to get in for DH and I but it was so worth it. They led you thru an airlock and on into the enclosure. It was hot and humid and just crawling with butterflies! They were flying everywhere! Noah called them “planes” at first until we could get him to understand “butterfly”. It was great watching him oo and ah and track the flying critters.
After that we moved on to some boring stuff like rocks and gems and the Hope Diamond! Haha…boring for Noah anyways. The saving grace was that they had a bunch of things at each station to touch so we let him down and let him manhandle the rocks. A quick diaper change and some lunch and we moved on to the main event…the dinosaurs! He ooed and ahed and roared to his hearts content. I let him down to walk and he ran back and forth between the various pieces of the exhibit pointing and saying “tell me” which is his way of asking that things are. We found him incredibly brave when the big teeth were a good distance away, as soon as you held him closer his tune changed and all he wanted to do was hug your neck. It was so adorable.
From there we headed to the mammals and the ocean rooms. He was all about the monkeys once he realized what they were. He pointed out the horses too as he saw them. Soon it was nap time and DH and I knew he’d never nap in there. So, we headed to the museum of Art in hopes of boring him to sleep. It worked!
However, once he was asleep we both realized that a trip down into the metro would wake him immediately so we walked till our feet hurt and then found a spot to sit and wait out the rest of the nap. It was then that we heard this loud ruckus coming from down the hall. The banging was followed by singing. Intrigued, DH and I (along with Noah) strolled down to hall to find a high school choir set up and singing an African drum song (with drum and clapping included). Seems we timed things exactly right and enjoyed a free concert from the Central Bucks Highschool – West’s choir in the Rotunda of the National Art Museum. Mixed in with their normal set (which included songs in Latin and Hebrew – acapella!) they wandered into the audience and encouraged us to sing along as they sung familiar Christmas carols. They were exceptional (had me in tears a few times) and it was the perfect way to cap off a great day. Noah napped clear until the very end.
After all that we headed back to the metro for our trip home. This time Noah was refreshed from his cat nap and was bouncing on the seats and just having a great time in general. He was chanting “choo choo” pretty much the whole way home (thankfully it was a pretty empty train and no one seemed bothered by his gleeful screeches).
We had one more adventure in painting this evening but I’ll save that for another blog spot and series of pictures, this one is long enough:) On to the pictures!
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- Riding the metro!
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- He hid when the mist started
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- In the butterfly enclosure
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- Touching a huge Amethyst
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- The Hope Diamond!
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- Wow, dinosaurs!
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- Roaring at the dinosaurs
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- Big hippo!!
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- One of the only pictures of him standing still
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- Checking out the mammals
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- Checking out the Jaguar from the prey view…
Dec 122011
For some reason Noah woke up very very early (5:30am) and just didn’t want to go back to sleep. Mamma didn’t want to wake up for the day yet so I figured I’d find the best of both worlds. I parked myself with a blanket and a pillow on the floor of his nursery and shut the door. I figured he could just play around me.
I woke up and hour or so later to this:
Notice the toys clustered around the pillow, where my head was. I ended up with a few in my face but nothing enough to wake me up I guess. Aside from the hour that this took to clean up, he had a great time and momma got her much needed beauty sleep!
Dec 072011
So, our cloth diapering has taken another turn and presented a new challenge. Nothing like keeping you on your toes! Noah’s been consuming milk and water like it’s going out of style (to the tune of 8oz of milk and 12 oz of water before bed – not to mention the 6,8,12 oz of h2o or milk in a sitting during the day!). He’s been peeing thru his diapers left and right. We’ve adjusted our daytime changes to happen more frequently or closer to the times he consumes those vast quantities of liquid but at night we have a whole different challenge – I’m not waking a sleeping baby!
I’ve tried cutting him back to just the milk bottle but he just stands in his crib and cries. I even let him cry it out for like 10 min before my heart broke and I gave in. I filled his cuppy and he was out in 5 min! So…it seems we’re left with a camel of a child whose diapers cannot contain the river of pee he generates. I gave up for a while and used disposables at night out of shear desperation (mamma needs her beauty rest!) but then was mad at myself because we’ve made it 21 months without having to resort to disposables for more than just an occasional thing. So I was on the hunt for ideas. We tried all hemp, we tried more pads, less pads, tested the diapers for repelling, bought new diapers…nothing was working.
It wasn’t until I was organizing his diaper stash that I remembered he had a few wool shorties that I bought back in the day. At the time they were a little large and I just didn’t quite have the hang of them so we tossed them back to the back of the rack. If you’re read on here before, wool is amazing at absorbing moisture. Plus it’s antimicrobial and some how doesn’t retain the toddler pee smell even if it gets a little damp. So, it was worth a shot and I’m sooo happy I tried it. He had a dry night in what seemed like forever. Trying to prove it wasn’t a fluke we tried it again the next night…dry again! Woohoo…
Slowly I stopped worrying about how much he drank in the evenings and came to love that the woolie has stood up to the test! So, for those interested, here’s the system:
1 BG 3.0 whose PUL is questionable
1 microfiber insert
2 joeybunz hemp inserts
1 woolie over all of it
Plus we put him in fleece PJ’s because it’s cold in his room which acts as yet another barrier since fleece has great moisture properties too. In the AM the woolie is a wee bit damp and the inner diaper is soaked. I just turn the woolie inside out and lay it flat to dry. We’ve used it for a week and it still doesn’t smell – color me impressed! I ordered two more off etsy last night so we have some to rotate thru as they need washed and I can’t wait for them to arrive!
The bonus? Noah loves is “undies” to the point where he cries if I don’t put them on fast enough! Win win!
Nov 302011
Noah’s been on a bit of a sleep strike lately. I blame it on his two year molars – 3 months early:) Or the stuffy nose that seems to just show up once we hit November…either way he’s been waking at 4 or so and just wanting to snuggle. Problem is, he’s so big that it’s hard to snuggle in the rocker like we’ve always done in the past and he’s still in the crib so climbing in with him is out of the question. So…in an act of desperation and need for sleep (for the both of us), I brought him back to bed with me. DH warned me that this could become a habit but honestly, the sleep is not the most restful so I don’t think we’ll find ourselves in that spot. I’m aware of him in our bed and have an arm out to keep DH from rolling back on him plus the little bum in the face or feet in the stomach as he finds a comfy position is bothersome.
That said, I can’t tell you how much I love waking up nose to nose with him and watching him break out into a huge smile and giggle as he pats me on the cheek saying “mamma nose” or “mamma eyes”. Or when if I wake up before him and he’s laying there all stretched out, arms up over his head and his legs straight out below him.
Anyways…I’m not going anywhere with this other than waxing over my snuggly little man:)
Nov 272011
and just like that we’re another month closer to being a 2 year old (and weeks late on his update). The terrible twos have started to rear their ugly head as Noah tries to assert his independence with “no” or “noah” when he wants to do it himself. Most of the time it’s cute…others? Not so much. Timeout is slowly gaining popularity in our house.
It’s been a busy month with hikes, trips to park, driving to see friends. You name it and we’ve probably done it or thought about doing it this month. In all the craziness and driving we’ve found that stickers can keep a babe occupied for hours as will my phone with either movies of him on it or toddler lock…
Stats for this month:
- 26ish lbs (he won’t stand still)
- 32ish inches (again, this standing still thing is an issue)
- lots of words and babbling. He’s starting to string two or three together…like bye bye doggie, what’s that? etc… He’s constantly babbling and more and more I’m hearing real words in his babbling.
This kid is non stop! From the time he wakes up until he naps he’s just one big ball of motion. It’s exhausting but so amazing. I just love his sweet little smile or the way he says “mama” when he wants something (followed usually by “peese” or “now!”)…
There’s no movement on the potty front, he still likes to sit on it but nothing has happened yet (well, there was one fluke that we made a big deal of but he was so confused…it hasnt happened since:)). It’s still early and I’m letting him lead for now we go with it as he shows interest.
Anywho…I’d promise more posts but life has been crazy lately. Perhaps I’ll find some time to queue a few up:)
Nov 112011
We’ve been busy around here but I did manage to get some cute video of Noah dancing and playing with his car.
Enjoy, I’ll try to write a real update soon:)
Oct 292011
Noah really loves making vehicle and animal sounds and one of his particular favorites are trains. “Choo choo” is the first thing out of his mouth at the site of a train (and sometimes car or truck too..we’re still working on that..). Anywho, we took a trip to the mall the other day and they have a train that drives thru the corridors and I knew as soon as we saw it drive by that I’d be riding it later that afternoon.
He really had a great time. Smiling ear to ear when he saw daddy waiting along the path for him! I had to pry his little hands off the door when the ride was over, he didn’t want to get out!
I so love this age! He gets so much joy in the simplest thing and that’s amazing to me. His laugh or quick “i wuff ew” can turn any day around and I just melt when he diggs his little head into my legs as he hugs tight. Gahh…I love that little boy!
Oct 242011
Woah…just stop right this second, we’re into the last quarter of his second year of life! In just 4 short months my little man is going to be 2 – oh my. When the heck did that happen? We’ve been having so much fun the last few days that I wasn’t until my Babycenter monthly email arrived that I remembered his birth anni!
This month we’re free of dr’s appts so I’m guessing he’s 26 or 27lbs. He’s gotten a bit taller and if I can nail him down for more than 2 seconds I’ll see how tall he is. He’s at least counter height if that’s any indicator and those little arms are about 1/2 a counter deep. I know this because he can reach way more than he used to. He’s even figure out that his little drum make a great step in a pinch.
He’s very verbal but still not really stringing stuff together. He knows what he wants and can communicate it, just not in any type of sentence form. We get alot of “dis” (what’s this?) and “down” (sit down! or get me down!). He’s getting really good at Thank you, Mommy and Daddy. Tree and boordie (birdie) are favorites as well. He knows that he has to wear a “hat” if he’s going for a bike ride and certainly knows “no” when he doesn’t want something.
This Halloween he’s going to be a lion because his favorite thing to do is find the lion in his 100 words book and *roaaarrrh* (hand motions included). He roars/growls for bears, gators, dinosaurs, and other menacing creatures. Speaking of the 100 words book, he knows what most of the objects are if you ask him to point them out. We’re now working on getting him to say what they are or find them for us.
He loves to dance and sing to his silly songs CD’s and asks for his Calliou DVD by name (infact, he chants Calliou if you don’t respond quickly enough). I’m trying to placate with silly songs vs. allowing him to watch TV but there are just some times you need to get stuff done and Calliou keeps him engaged for 20 min at least! He sings along to the ABCs and will do the motions for Head, shoulders, knees and toes.
He amazes me at every turn. The things he know and understands just blows me away. I still can’t believe he’s mine and that I get to keep him (although on some days sending him to live at his grandparents is an appealing choice). His kisses are sweet and my heart just melts when he yells “mommy” and then wraps his little arms around my legs or neck for a hug. He makes us laugh all the time (and some days makes me cry but I guess you need the hard days to enjoy all the others). We’re truly blessed to have an amazing little man like him.
Oct 082011
I’d planned on a series of posts about our adventures to the OBX (Outer Banks, NC for those not down with the lingo) but seeing as it’s taken me two weeks to even get thru the pictures we’re going to cover it in one big one with lots of pictures!
NOTICE: SKIP TO THE BOTTOM IF YOU JUST WANT THE PICTURES….I won’t be offended (well, at least not a lot offended)
Overall our week in the OBX was thoroughly enjoyable. In the days leading up to it the weather outlook was bleak. They were still recovering from the hurricane and then tropical storm and the weatherman was not hopeful we’d have any sun. We arrived to lots of rain and stormy seas and had to unpack in very wet conditions. Fortunately for us the rain stopped around dinner and we were able to get our first glimpse of our beach. It was rough and stormy and there wasn’t much to it but it was our beach!
Where I’m more prone to grab a book and read on the beach, DH (and his parents) are doers. They like to get out to do and see things. It works well with a toddler that gets bored quickly so everyday there was an adventure or two. We hauled our bikes the whole way down there so on three of the mornings we decided to take them out for a spin. First day we started at our house and rode south into Duck and around. We rode thru neighborhoods and down to the beach and back. As we were making our way back to the house we decided to huff it up one more set of little hills and *snap* DH’s chain breaks. This was the first of three bike related calamities!
Day two of biking we rode north. About 5 miles in I noticed my ride was getting a little tough, kind of like I’m plowing thru sand. I looked back and my rear tire was low. We stopped for a second to check it out (in a bad spot where the mosquitoes were munching hard on us!) and you could hear it hissing. DH always carries a pump and a spare so we just had to roll to a more convenient spot to fix it, no problemo. Haha..right! The pump didn’t want to work so we were sunk. MIL and I worked our way back to a nearby diner (me carrying my bike because it wouldn’t roll anymore) and DH and FIL headed back to the house with Noah to fetch the car. DH spends the rest of the afternoon trying to get my wheel fixed so we can go out again later in the week (which yields ride #3 and flat #2 – this time on DH’s bike, not mine!)
On the days we didn’t ride we went out and explored Duck and the surrounding areas on foot. There was still quite a bit of debris and standing water so places we’d normally be able to go were close or so mosquito infested that it wasn’t worth it. There were tons of shops and stuff to keep us busy. DH even played the part of my hero when I dropped the camera lens cover off the side of the boardwalk into the water and he climbed down to retrieve it!
Later in the week the weather they’d been talking about all week finally arrived we spent the day at the aquarium on the main land. It was a nice change and Noah really enjoyed himself. He actually sat down with DH and watched the divers shows in the big shark tank! I couldn’t believe (nor could I believe that I ran the whole way back out to the car to grab the dSLR because it’s better in low light only to find when I got back to the building that I forgot to swap the battery and it was dead – oops).
Anywho, I’ve talked enough. On to the good stuff…
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- At the Wright bro memorial
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- Eating sand…
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- prood that his toes touched sand!
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- Most of the walkways to the beach were washed out
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- This kid loves slides
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- And this was on the sound side!
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- The chill didn’t bother Noah tho
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- It was kinda chilly on our first day there
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- There was alot of distruction still apparent
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- Checkin out River Otters…
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- And the touch pool!
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- Touching starfish!
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- Checking out the sharks
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- Hey there frog!
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- A night out!
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- Top of the lighthouse!
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- We did a little shopping…
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- And a little swimming
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- and a little biking
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- He wasnt thrilled with the sand at first
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- Fixing a broken chain – adventure#1
Oct 012011
So I’m a few weeks late on this. If it means anything I created the post on the 23rd…it just took till now to fill it out:)
He’s growing by leaps and bounds, with each passing day I see more comprehension and more communication from him. He’s 26lbs and 34 inches tall and he looks like a tall skinny little boy it’s so crazy! I’ve noticed that while he’s really verbal, he doesn’t really say much. Just lots of babbling with occasional comprehensible word thrown in. He can usually get his point across. I’m not worried mostly because his spatial and reason comprehension is very good. You just watch as the little wheels turn in his head as he figures out how to undo the buckles or latches on the toys he has or works thru the puzzle to put the pieces in the right spots.
Coloring is a favorite past time as is pushing things over to whatever he can’t reach and then climbing up. He knows his animal sounds and most of his body parts and can point out most of the objects in his 100 words book when you ask what things are. I can even get him to participate in the “head, shoulders, knees, and toes” song which is soo much fun.
He’s a hugger and a kisser (but only when he feels like it) and he’s spontaneously affectionate (melts my heart when he runs over and hugs my leg and says i wuv oooo!). His mood is almost always happy except on the days where he gets up on the wrong side of the bed, then it’s just miserable all day. I never look forward to nap and bed time more than those days.
This past month we spent a week a the beach (as you’ll see in upcoming posts if I ever get to write them) and after a quick introduction to sand he was all about walking around and digging. I think he favorite part was the bike rides. He loves that little trailer.
Anywho…I can’t believe we’re in the last few months before he turns 2! Where does the time fly!
Looking thru some old pics I had to laugh at all the funny faces Noah gives us…
