One of Noah's current favorite words is "No" (really, what toddler doesn't have this at the top of his vocabulary?). Often, regardless of what you ask him he automatically says "no" in response just out of habit I think. But in the last week, he's added "Yeah" also and now sometimes it seems like he gives at least a split second thought before he gives his automatic "no" response.
So Mike and Noah were in the car together yesterday morning and this was the conversation that transpired:
Mike: Noah, are you tired?
Noah: No!
Mike: Noah, are you cute?
Noah: (pause, no response)
Mike: Noah, are you cute?
Noah: (smiles) Yeah!
Hilarious. And yes-this is the same child that ignores me 90% of the time even when I'm tring to get him to do things I know he wants to do. At least he got it right this time...he is really cute!!
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Where has the time gone?
It's been a while since I've been able to post anything significant. It seems like I blinked and the summer is almost over! I haven't had a chance to load some of our recent pictures onto the computer yet, but wanted to capture some of what's been going on (before I forget it all) so I'll come back and post some pictures soon.
I feel like I say this all the time now, but we are having more and more fun with Noah these days. Actually, we are having some pretty challenging times too...but the fun ones far out number the challenges (thank goodness!). He's doing lots of new things lately...he really has grown so much and is now "Mommy's big boy" as I call him all the time. He wants to copy what I'm doing...will try to help clean up messes (he can identify things that are cleaners and points to them and says "mess"-so cute!), likes to throw away trash, will put his dirty clothes in the basket, and sometimes will even help pick up his toys! He is constantly learning new words and has recently started combining words (like "bye/hi Daddy"; "more juice"; "all done"; "what's that?"). I love that when we are driving down the road he constantly points out things that he sees. Sometimes he'll say something and I'll think he's making it up, then I'll look over and sure enough there is a bike/bulldozer/bus/whatever it happens to be. I've really lost count of how many words he uses and have been quite proud of his speech development, especially for a boy (I know, I'm biased!). He's still a picky eater but will always eat fruit of some sort which is good and has recently gotten really good at using a fork/spoon to eat. And man is he active! I think he's got two speeds-fast and faster. He's recently taken to climbing just about anything so we have to really be on the look out. He's such a silly boy too--he laughs at us all the time and does stuff to make us laugh. We're all constantly cracking up around here.
Like I said, we've had some challenges too. He still continues to be a strong willed little boy and that's coming out more and more. He wants it his way or he really lets you know he's unhappy about it. I wouldn't say we've had any major tantrums yet but we've had plenty of small ones. Thankfully he's still pretty easily distractible so moving him on to something else usually takes care of it. He did get his first mini time out the other night. He was REALLY angry with me because I wouldn't give him more juice and I ignored him for a while, then he started pulling on my legs and crying. So I walked him around the corner out of the kitchen by our front door and put him on the rug and told him he needed to stay there till he calmed down and then walked away. He stopped crying almost as soon as I walked away and then followed me in the kitchen and started whining again. He was still upset but at least more calm than before. I know it won't always be that easy but hey-it's a start. Honestly, we hadn't really decided to officially start the whole time out thing yet, but impulsively it seemed like the right thing to do at the time. Unfortunately I know this is just the beginning of what will likely be a long road ahead.
Our favorite thing with Noah lately is that all of a sudden he's become so much more affectionate with us. Not that he wasn't before, but recently he's just started giving us both these unprompted affections. He'll walk up and just lay his head on our shoulder or lap, will try to grab my arm and hug on it while he's on the changing table. He's also walked up behind me while I'm sitting on the floor and laid his head on my back and rubbed and patted my back and head--so sweet!! Our favorites are the unprompted kisses. The other night we were out at dinner and he just leaned over to Mike and gave him a kiss and then leaned over and gave me one too. I love it!
Here some little stories of things that have happened lately.
--Noah loves to stand at our kitchen window and look out into the parking lot. He loves watching cars and truck drive by but most of all loves watching for Daddy to come home. He gets so excited when he sees Mike pull up. I just love it!
--Our condo complex is finally all getting new roofs so their have been contractors out here working for the last week or so. Noah is fascinated with "the guys" (as he calls them). He'll stand at the kitchen window and watch them go back and forth or just ask to go outside so we can watch them. We'll just walk around the complex and sit and watch them work on the roof. The other night we were praying at bed time and I was saying thankyou for people (Mommy, Daddy, Miss Ruth, etc.) and he started saying "guys, guys". Was he trying to say thank you for the guys? Too cute.
--He says "amen" when we finish praying.
--He tries to tickle you. To do this, he puts his hand on you and then makes this fake laughing noise. He thinks it's hilarious and actually it is pretty cute.
--Last night I was giving Noah a bath and was trying to feel his teeth in his mouth. He's getting molars in on the bottom-one has broken the surface and I wanted to see if it had on the other side. Usually he's pretty good about letting me do this for at least a few seconds. All of a sudden he bit down really hard and really got my finger good with his front teeth. I instintively screamed "ouch!" really loudly. And then scolded him for biting (I know it was really my fault for putting my finger in his mouth but I still think he should learn not to bite down on anyone else). After he got out of the bath, Mike was drying him and dressing him on his changing table and while he was laying there he started putting his toes in his mouth and biting on them and then yelling "ouch" really loudly--just like I did. It was hilarious!! He's such a little copy cat-we really have to be careful now!
--Football season is starting soon so I deciced we needed to practice yelling for Texas. I was trying to remind Noah how to raise his hands for touchdown (he learned this last year but I'm sure he's forgotten). I told him we need to yell "Yeah Texas, Touchdown Texas!" He didn't do it, but instead walked over to the bookshelf where there was probably about 10 books and picked out the one book about UT and brought over to me to read. Gotta love my little Longhorn!!
-He loves dancing and has been trying to jump...but he can't get his feet off the ground!! It's so funny to watch him. He bends down and then lurches up with his body and will even yell "jump!" while he's doing it, but he just can't get his little feet off the ground yet. A couple weeks ago Point of Grace had VBS in the evenings so we went up there to eat dinner and would stay for the opening. He loved the songs and would run and dance and try to jump. The theme was "Crocodile Dock" so there were lots of inflatable crocodiles (like big pool floats) and he'd try to gather them up and jump on them and swing them around. He had such a good time!
I could probably go on and on. Like I said, we're having lots of fun.
A quick catch up on Mike and I: Our condo is STILL for sale. Going on two months now. I'm tired of keeping it clean all the time and having to work our schedule around showings which is very challenging with a toddler. I'm trying to really trust that God has it all under control. Work for me has been crazy and has left me with little extra energy these days. I'll leave it at that but that's one of the main reasons I haven't posted anything in a while. Mike had a busy July--fundraiser, Habitat for Humanity, and he preached one Sunday while Pastor was gone and did an amazing job! There's a copy of the sermon from July 19 on our website www.pointofgracechurch.org if you're interested in checking it out. Then he was gone with the youth group to Colorado July 31-Aug 8. We've done this trip twice before--hiking and primitive camping in the mountains. They hiked Mt. Elbert and successfully summitted this year. Elbert is the highest elevation in Colorado. 14, 333 ft I think. The trip was amazing this year---lots of great spiritual stuff with the kids. Noah and I survived our first long week without Daddy. Not something I want to do all the time but we did ok. We broke up the time by spending one weekend with my sister and her husband in College Station, I worked three days that week, we had dinner with friends one evening and then my parents came in town the following weekend. It made it go by pretty quickly.
We also celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary on Aug. 9. Mike had just gotten back from his trip and my parents were already in town (we all celebrated my brother's birthday together in downtown Austin that weekend) so they stayed the night with Noah. Mike and I spent a night together downtown and then drove to Shiner, TX to tour the Spoetzl Brewery. We had a great time. It was really good to have uninterrupted time together to catch up after being apart for a week and was really nice to sleep in for a change! Thanks to my Mom and Dad for hanging with Noah! They had a blast too.
Overall life is crazy, but good. We're having lots of fun with our boy and ready for the start of football season! Hopefully I'll get the pictures and videos I have posted soon.
I feel like I say this all the time now, but we are having more and more fun with Noah these days. Actually, we are having some pretty challenging times too...but the fun ones far out number the challenges (thank goodness!). He's doing lots of new things lately...he really has grown so much and is now "Mommy's big boy" as I call him all the time. He wants to copy what I'm doing...will try to help clean up messes (he can identify things that are cleaners and points to them and says "mess"-so cute!), likes to throw away trash, will put his dirty clothes in the basket, and sometimes will even help pick up his toys! He is constantly learning new words and has recently started combining words (like "bye/hi Daddy"; "more juice"; "all done"; "what's that?"). I love that when we are driving down the road he constantly points out things that he sees. Sometimes he'll say something and I'll think he's making it up, then I'll look over and sure enough there is a bike/bulldozer/bus/whatever it happens to be. I've really lost count of how many words he uses and have been quite proud of his speech development, especially for a boy (I know, I'm biased!). He's still a picky eater but will always eat fruit of some sort which is good and has recently gotten really good at using a fork/spoon to eat. And man is he active! I think he's got two speeds-fast and faster. He's recently taken to climbing just about anything so we have to really be on the look out. He's such a silly boy too--he laughs at us all the time and does stuff to make us laugh. We're all constantly cracking up around here.
Like I said, we've had some challenges too. He still continues to be a strong willed little boy and that's coming out more and more. He wants it his way or he really lets you know he's unhappy about it. I wouldn't say we've had any major tantrums yet but we've had plenty of small ones. Thankfully he's still pretty easily distractible so moving him on to something else usually takes care of it. He did get his first mini time out the other night. He was REALLY angry with me because I wouldn't give him more juice and I ignored him for a while, then he started pulling on my legs and crying. So I walked him around the corner out of the kitchen by our front door and put him on the rug and told him he needed to stay there till he calmed down and then walked away. He stopped crying almost as soon as I walked away and then followed me in the kitchen and started whining again. He was still upset but at least more calm than before. I know it won't always be that easy but hey-it's a start. Honestly, we hadn't really decided to officially start the whole time out thing yet, but impulsively it seemed like the right thing to do at the time. Unfortunately I know this is just the beginning of what will likely be a long road ahead.
Our favorite thing with Noah lately is that all of a sudden he's become so much more affectionate with us. Not that he wasn't before, but recently he's just started giving us both these unprompted affections. He'll walk up and just lay his head on our shoulder or lap, will try to grab my arm and hug on it while he's on the changing table. He's also walked up behind me while I'm sitting on the floor and laid his head on my back and rubbed and patted my back and head--so sweet!! Our favorites are the unprompted kisses. The other night we were out at dinner and he just leaned over to Mike and gave him a kiss and then leaned over and gave me one too. I love it!
Here some little stories of things that have happened lately.
--Noah loves to stand at our kitchen window and look out into the parking lot. He loves watching cars and truck drive by but most of all loves watching for Daddy to come home. He gets so excited when he sees Mike pull up. I just love it!
--Our condo complex is finally all getting new roofs so their have been contractors out here working for the last week or so. Noah is fascinated with "the guys" (as he calls them). He'll stand at the kitchen window and watch them go back and forth or just ask to go outside so we can watch them. We'll just walk around the complex and sit and watch them work on the roof. The other night we were praying at bed time and I was saying thankyou for people (Mommy, Daddy, Miss Ruth, etc.) and he started saying "guys, guys". Was he trying to say thank you for the guys? Too cute.
--He says "amen" when we finish praying.
--He tries to tickle you. To do this, he puts his hand on you and then makes this fake laughing noise. He thinks it's hilarious and actually it is pretty cute.
--Last night I was giving Noah a bath and was trying to feel his teeth in his mouth. He's getting molars in on the bottom-one has broken the surface and I wanted to see if it had on the other side. Usually he's pretty good about letting me do this for at least a few seconds. All of a sudden he bit down really hard and really got my finger good with his front teeth. I instintively screamed "ouch!" really loudly. And then scolded him for biting (I know it was really my fault for putting my finger in his mouth but I still think he should learn not to bite down on anyone else). After he got out of the bath, Mike was drying him and dressing him on his changing table and while he was laying there he started putting his toes in his mouth and biting on them and then yelling "ouch" really loudly--just like I did. It was hilarious!! He's such a little copy cat-we really have to be careful now!
--Football season is starting soon so I deciced we needed to practice yelling for Texas. I was trying to remind Noah how to raise his hands for touchdown (he learned this last year but I'm sure he's forgotten). I told him we need to yell "Yeah Texas, Touchdown Texas!" He didn't do it, but instead walked over to the bookshelf where there was probably about 10 books and picked out the one book about UT and brought over to me to read. Gotta love my little Longhorn!!
-He loves dancing and has been trying to jump...but he can't get his feet off the ground!! It's so funny to watch him. He bends down and then lurches up with his body and will even yell "jump!" while he's doing it, but he just can't get his little feet off the ground yet. A couple weeks ago Point of Grace had VBS in the evenings so we went up there to eat dinner and would stay for the opening. He loved the songs and would run and dance and try to jump. The theme was "Crocodile Dock" so there were lots of inflatable crocodiles (like big pool floats) and he'd try to gather them up and jump on them and swing them around. He had such a good time!
I could probably go on and on. Like I said, we're having lots of fun.
A quick catch up on Mike and I: Our condo is STILL for sale. Going on two months now. I'm tired of keeping it clean all the time and having to work our schedule around showings which is very challenging with a toddler. I'm trying to really trust that God has it all under control. Work for me has been crazy and has left me with little extra energy these days. I'll leave it at that but that's one of the main reasons I haven't posted anything in a while. Mike had a busy July--fundraiser, Habitat for Humanity, and he preached one Sunday while Pastor was gone and did an amazing job! There's a copy of the sermon from July 19 on our website www.pointofgracechurch.org if you're interested in checking it out. Then he was gone with the youth group to Colorado July 31-Aug 8. We've done this trip twice before--hiking and primitive camping in the mountains. They hiked Mt. Elbert and successfully summitted this year. Elbert is the highest elevation in Colorado. 14, 333 ft I think. The trip was amazing this year---lots of great spiritual stuff with the kids. Noah and I survived our first long week without Daddy. Not something I want to do all the time but we did ok. We broke up the time by spending one weekend with my sister and her husband in College Station, I worked three days that week, we had dinner with friends one evening and then my parents came in town the following weekend. It made it go by pretty quickly.
We also celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary on Aug. 9. Mike had just gotten back from his trip and my parents were already in town (we all celebrated my brother's birthday together in downtown Austin that weekend) so they stayed the night with Noah. Mike and I spent a night together downtown and then drove to Shiner, TX to tour the Spoetzl Brewery. We had a great time. It was really good to have uninterrupted time together to catch up after being apart for a week and was really nice to sleep in for a change! Thanks to my Mom and Dad for hanging with Noah! They had a blast too.
Overall life is crazy, but good. We're having lots of fun with our boy and ready for the start of football season! Hopefully I'll get the pictures and videos I have posted soon.
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