Noah, Eli and Ty

Here are the boys in a huddle getting reading for their next play! Then at the fence watching Mrs Pinson retrieve a runaway ball.

He does have friends...

I was grateful to have had the opportunity to spend a weekend relaxing and scrapbooking with some other wonderful moms. I am proud to say that as Noah is approacing his 2nd Birthday - I just finished his "Baby Book"/the scrapbook of his life birth through his 1st Birthday party.
But of course after a weekend away from Noah and Phillip I looked forward to coming home to spend some QT with them both. Noah has enjoyed the week so far with another trip to Kangazoom on Tuesday and this morning a great (but cold) walk with some of his buddies, ending with a game of soccer-football which for Noah meant chasing around after Ty & Eli and whatever ball he could get his hands on. Each time we are getting ready to hang with friends we talk about who we are going to see and we name everyone in their family. It is amazing how excited he gets and how much he looks forwards to playing with them. Once we arrive at our destination and he see's some of his buddies he greets them with a happy feet dance and a shreek of excitement
I know only a handful of you will get the title to this post.. But if one of you gets a giggle it will all be worth it!

A Date with my Mommy!

This morning I decided that since I will be on away from my boys this weekend with some other moms that Noah and I would have a date day. We started out at Kangazoom which is turning out to be a favorite outing. It is close to the house and affordable which I like and to Noah it is a BLAST. Today it was almost as if we had the whole place to ourselves. Noah, jumped, ran, bounced, tumbled and played on the Fire Truck. He is pretty presistent about having Mommy jump with him on all the bouncy castles - so we both end up with a work-out. Noah is finally able to climb up the big slide all by himself, but once he is up there he is still unsure about the ride down. To conclude our special time we went out to lunch - I let Noah decide and to my surprise he picked Chik-Fil-A (I was hoping for MOE's myself) and for an extra special treat Noah had chocolate milk. Trust me to him that is a huge deal! I love how little things are so exciting and special to him. We ended the afternoon with Noah picking 5 books before nap (our standard is 2, Noah loves to read so if was up to him he would read every book in the house). And now....he sleeps..

Almost Two!

If you ask Noah how old he is these days the answer will be a mixture of 22 months, 23 months, almost 2 or 2. His confusion is probably a reflection of my denial. Yes in 1 month Noah will be two. Before too much time passed I wanted to share some of what his is learning, how he spends most of his time and his current favorites.

Noah still is a master sleeper, he wakes up around 8am and takes a monster afternoon nap. You can listen to him sing some of his favorite songs ABC's, Twinkle Twinkle, Jesus Loves Me or counting (he makes it correctly to 20 and then what he is counting is any ones guess) until we get him from his crib. He loves hanging out there with his "smoochies" until Phillip and I go get him. He greets you with giggles and smiles and always says "Good Morning". If only 1 of us is able to get him he always asks "Where's mommy?" or "Where's Daddy?". It is so sweet how he thinks of both of us and missed us as much as we missed him during the night.

We try going potty (Noah goes Pee pee in the potty pretty regularly, but is yet to put his poo there), talk about our dreams, practice some bible verses and make our way downstairs for breakfast.

When it comes to breakfast, like any other meal Noah really enjoys himself. He continues to be a great eater. Some favorite foods these days are bananas & strawberries (really any fruit) rice & black beans, raisins, turkey burgers and sweet potato fries. Noah's favorite treat is any kind of cookie and although he loves saying the word chocolate he really doesn't eat it much. Noah loves eating out at restaurants and has been doing very well with his manners. Some restaurant favorites are cheese quesadilla (especially at "MOE'S"). Hearing him say cheese quesadilla is a treat itself. Noah continues to agree with me when it comes to dip. He loves to dip almost anything and will eat almost any kind of dip from your basic ketchup to a creamy ranch or his new favorite VERY spicy salsa.

Noah spends alot of time at our church both during the week and on Sundays. He loves going to his class and to "Big" church. He always walks right into his classroom and over to his favorite toys and loves giving his buddies and teacher hugs. Of course when I ask him what his favorite part of being in class was he says Goldfish and Animal Crackers (snacks he doesn't get at home).

Noah got a craft table for Christmas and he has enjoyed it everyday. He colors, paints, creates with playdoh and this week "built" a model helicopter and painted it.
We are still plugging through with a letter every week or so. Making a collage and learning a verse that corresponds with each letter. He also continues to learn sciptures about how to treat his friends, obey his parents, share with others, trust God, and show love, kindness and respect. I am amazed by how quickly he learns and how much he can remember. When they say their little sponges it is TRUE!

Noah loves to run, climb, swing, roll and JUMP! We try to get outside as much as possible, we play on the playground, run races, play soccer and if it's too cold we head over to Kangazoom, where Noah can jump and run till his hearts content. But above all his absolute favorite activity is DANCE PARTY! We put on our favorite CD and dance around the living room. Noah loves it and could dance all night long if we let him.

It seems that of all Noah's toys he loves cars and the race track that Grammy gave him for Christmas. His favorite movie is Happy Feat. Which makes sense since Noah loves to dance and so does Mumble his favorite Penguin.

This past month several of Noah's friends have turned 2 and he has enjoyed going to birthday parties. Although, he talks about the cake leading up to the parties, he seems much more interested in playing with his friends and toys that are "new" to him once we get there.

Noah is talking up a storm. He basically has a full vocabulary and can ask for or say just about anything at all. We still struggle with whining when he gets frustrated and our biggest challenge these days is sharing. All things that are expected for his age.

Noah ends each day with his bedtime routine, brushing teeth, washing up, reading books, singing a sweet song and saying prayers. He thanks God for his friends, family and neighbors and names most everyone he can think of. Recently, he has added things like cake (I think it's from all the birthday parties) and Penguins (We have watched "Happy Feet" numerous times since Santa brought it for Christmas) to his pray list. Each prayer time he seems to get "it" more and more.

We are looking forward to Noah's 2nd Birthday as we have many fun things planned! We will keep you posted so stay tuned!

More Christmas Pics!

Noah's 2nd Christmas

I hadn't realized that it has been over 2 weeks since my last blog entry. It must be all the business of the Holidays and the crash that comes when it's time to take down the tree. We all, especially Noah, enjoyed Christmas and New Years. We were so blessed to have Grammy, Grandma, Papops, and Aunt Elana with us for Christmas.

We attended 2 Christmas Eve Services this year. One on Sunday at our church and another Monday evening at another local church that we had taken a parenting class at this summer. Noah sat with us through both services. He was so well behaved and attentive singing and clapping when appropriate as well as sitting on laps quietly while the pastors spoke.

What a difference between this Christmas and last. Last year Noah wouldn't have known the difference between an empty box wrapped in shiny paper or one with a gift in it. This year we knew he would have a much greater awareness and he certainly did. Noah was so excited with each gift, some favorites were the soccer ball (soccer is currently his favorite sport), "The Penguin Movie" or more commonly known as "Happy Feet" (I sometimes think that Happy Feet is all that Noah thinks plays on the TV or what he calls "Penguin Movie") and of course the Radio Flyer Tricycle. Noah had a hard time leaving a gift he had opened so he could open another, but he seemed to get the hang of it.

In addition to the presents Noah really enjoyed reading The Christmas Story and blowing out the candles on Jesus's Birthday cake. I still catch him singing Happy Birthday to Jesus now and then. What a sweet sound!