Seattle Snowpocalypse 2012

Noah enjoying the snow and his bulldozer (with tracks). At the beginning he is saying, "Going under the plant."

The "Noah Good Boy" Song

Thanks to Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Tyler, and Aunty Kristy for the new keyboard! The microphone is clearly a big hit.

Happy New Years Dance

I haven't posted in forever. Noah is 2 years old, so his dancing techniques have vastly improved.

Happy New Year!

Noah v. Mom

Noah wrestles Mom while Mom attempts to rest. Noah wins.

Noah's stories

Noah has a couple of stories that he likes to tell. We have been trying to record them for a while, but Noah is also obsessed with holding the video camera when we try to record him, so we haven't had any luck. This is the best we have been able to do.

His first story is about the Lock in Seattle. Grant translates his story, but the way Noah tells it is:
"Boat...Down (with a hand motion). Water...Down. Choo Choo. Bye."

What happened was Noah watched when they let the water out, i.e. water down. Then the boats go down. Then he happened to see a train on a tracks in the distance. Then the boat left so he waved goodbye.

His second story is:
"Worm. Stick (his word for stick is Bow, as in Ka-Bow like hitting someone). Dirt."

Translation, during a walk in the rain, Noah and Grant found a worm on the cement. Grant picked up the worm with a stick and put it in the dirt.

This third story is:
"Elephant (which he makes an elephant blowing sound for). Stick." And then he reaches up in the air.

This story he has been telling for months. During one of his zoo visits, one of the elephants was distressed for some reason. The zoo had left giant pieces of wood in the elephant pen for them to play with. But this elephant was picking up the wood with his trunk and throwing it over the fence and out of its pen in Noah and Grant's direction. They left shortly thereafter because Grant was concerned about the whole situation. Anyway, I guess it all really bothered Noah too because he keeps repeating this story about the elephant throwing the sticks high in the air.

I am posting this blog it entice some people, ahem Kika and Mom, to come and visit to see how smart Noah is getting. Plus, check out his big boy haircut.

Some of Noah's words

Fake smiles

Here is another example of Noah's fake smile which totally cracks me up. I think it mostly involves wrinkling his nose and the rest of his face falls into place after that. Ahh, the start of many years of hilarious school pictures caused by "say cheese" smiles.

Celebration

This is a new and adorable thing that Noah does with Grant. They call it celebrating. It's so funny.

Balls trump all

This is one of Noah's favorite things to do. He collects all of his balls and then throws them into his crib and asks to be put into his crib to play with them. Needless to say that both Grant and I are strong supporters of this game, as it is really easy to watch him when he is doing this.

Grant has been doing experiments to determine the order of Noah's favorite obsessions. The current standings are:
1. Balls*
2. Buses*
a. School buses
b. City buses
3. Trucks/cars**
4. Dogs**
5. Sticks
6. Birds*
7. Airplanes

*Can say this word
**Can say a modified version of this (He calls cars "vroom" and dogs "bark bark")

Videos should be fixed now. Try pushing play.

Noah being Noah

Noah dancing

Grant discovered that Noah loves to dance to the song "Blister in the Sun."

Noah's rain boots

Aunty Kristy gave Noah these rain boots for Christmas. They are still a little big and Noah is still practicing walking in them because they are really heavy. He's getting better!

Noah at the zoo

Noah 14 months

Christmas in Hawaii this year. We got a video camera from my parents for Christmas and have taken many many videos. Here's one of Noah (14 months)!

12 month checkup

Noah got his 12 month shots today. He did great and the doctor said that he doesn't need shots until kindergarten! Wahoo! (Note to future self: Noah didn't get the HepA vaccine).

Well-baby stats:
23 lbs (50%)
30 3/4 in (70%)

Some additional updates since I haven't posted in a while...

We threw Noah a birthday party. He got lots of new books and toys from our great friends and had a lot of fun.

Grant finished has 365 days of Noah photo book. For those of you who haven't heard of it, Grant took 1 picture of Noah everyday for his first year of life. He didn't miss a single day the entire year. I can't believe he did it, and I admit I was skeptical at the start of the project, but I am so glad Grant did it and the book turned out amazingly well.

Noah is now a full-time walker and is getting pretty close to being able to run. He has learned to do the sign language word for "more," and he recognizes the sign for water. He can identify a large number of objects in books and in real life by pointing. His hand-eye coordination has gotten a lot better and he has learned to play with toys where you put objects into holes. He has mastered finger feeding and is getting pretty good at feeding himself with a spoon. His hair is getting crazy long and curly. I am contemplating getting him his first haircut since it is becoming borderline mullet-ish, but it's so cute I can't bring myself to do it quite yet.

Noah is 1!

We celebrated Noah's first birthday today. I can't believe he is already 1. It went by so fast.

Aunty Kristy came into town to celebrate. We had a nice day of opening presents, enjoying balloons, eating banana cupcakes, and going to the Santa Ana zoo. Next weekend we'll be having a larger birthday party for him.

I have to admit that last night I was feeling a little sad. I mean, Baby Noah (which is what all of the toddlers in Noah's daycare call him) has certainly been getting more fun every day and many things are much easier now that he is older, but now he's not a baby anymore. I'm going to really miss this baby stage. He is so darned cute and cuddly.

Anyway, besides my mom pity party, this year has been better than I could have ever anticipated! Love that kid!

Hilarity

Noah has officially become a walker. He took 10 steps today at daycare. He walks with his hands above his head, like a little monkey.

Additionally, Noah is completely hilarious. I never want to work anymore because he is so fun to hang out with.

Examples:

1. He can tell jokes. The other day he looked at Grant and I and yelled "BA" then started cracking up. He also will laugh at burps and farts. Typical guy.

2. He is obsessed with produce, in particular apples and oranges. It has gotten so that I can't take him into the produce aisle in grocery stores because he has to be given something to hold. But then he bites off chunks of apple or orange rind and I have to pry his mouth open in the middle of the store with him screaming his head off. I generally find this embarrassing, which is why I try to avoid the aisle. He is also able to recognize, and will crawl to a spaghetti squash if prompted.

3. He loves watching airplanes, helicopters and buses. He also loves watching people mowing lawns and using leaf blowers. If Grant or I aren't watching any of these things with him, he will point and grunt to bring them to our attention.

4. One of Noah's toys is a spinning wheel that has letters and animals on it. It also sings the ABC song. Whenever I sing Noah the ABCs, he will crawl and find this toy and spin it to make it sing. This is amazing to me because the tune of the ABCs is different on the toy (a jazzier kind of version) compared to the traditional way that I sing it, but he is able to associate the two anyway. I can barely believe it, but I have tested this several times. So much fun!

Noah's first steps

We have been in Seattle scoping out where we might be living come January. While there, Noah practiced taking his first steps (around Sept. 17). His balance is been getting better and he had been standing solo increasingly well just before we left. Noah definitely wants to walk and is exceedingly proud of himself when he does it. The end of this video is pretty representative of how Noah 'walks' in that it is more of a step and a lunging fall. To date the most he's done is 3 consecutive steps. It is difficult to define whether he is actually walking. One of our friends claimed that in order for him to consider his own kid a walker, he needed to take 5 consecutive directional steps. I feel that that bar is too high. But we'll just say that Noah took his first steps but is not quite a toddler.

Ferberizing

We caved and Ferberized Noah. It was an awesome decision. We clearly fall into the category of parents that desire to be a 'No Cry' family, but clearly are a Ferber family. Noah cries for 10-30 minutes going to bed and he usually wakes up 1-2 times per night and cries for an additional 10-15 minutes. I actually don't feel this is too bad, maybe because this way I get more than 5 hours of continuous sleep at a time. Any guilt I had about doing this has quickly gone away with each additional hour of sleep I obtain. Selfish perhaps, but necessary, and I will definitely do this with my next kid!