Oh my adorable!

We had a fairly boring week, which compared to the previous one, was a welcome occurrence. Noah went to Nana Lou's all 3 days this week, and was a very good boy. All of us had been having some trouble feeding him lately, he seemed to act like mealtime was some form of torture and we would hardly get anything in him. After most of the week of fighting, thinking he just hadn't gotten his appetite back from the roseola, we finally figured out this weekend that perhaps the child really just wanted to feed himself. What do you know, when you switch out the food and give him only finger foods and don't bring a spoon any where near him, he is happy as a clam and eats a whole meal with no tears and no hissy fits. So now the wee man eats lots and lots of new things. I am planning a little post this week listing all of the stuff we are trying and succeeding (or failing) with, but so far (knock on wood), things are seeming to go much better this way...even if they are a lot messier. One cute thing we did discover is that the man is a huge fan of ketchup. Not the most nutritious of foods, but if you can get the ketchup on nutritious foods and get him to eat them, perhaps its all worth it in the end.

We spent the weekend up in Maine for my cousin Brian's wife's (Tabetha) baby shower. She is due April 18th. Because so many of my cousin's have little ones, they told us to bring them all over so they could play together. It was cute to see Noah hanging out with the other little ones, but it was a bit of a pain to have to spend the afternoon wrangling him out of the unopened gifts and to keep him from eating tissue paper (what is that about anyway???). Other than that, we didn't get to do much while up there. Pepere L. was supposed to hang out with Noah and Tim on Saturday and start work on Noah's toy box. Unfortunately he was down and out with what sounded like a terrible flu, so the boys stayed home. I went out with Memere to the Portland Museum of Art for a few hours to get some "me time." It was nice, but just not quite long enough! :) I think I need to start doing it more often so that even a couple of hours here or there will seem like enough time.

So I haven't had a ton of time to post a lot lately with all of the teaching and work and household responsibilities, but I wanted to take a minute and write a few things down before the chaotic pace of life causes me to forget some of the finer moments. Noah is in mass flux right now, some things good, some not so good, but when everything comes out at the end of the day, I can't help but smile at some of the things he does that thankfully more than cancel out some of the not so great moments. Here, for example, are some of the new things that we have been seeing lately...good, and not so good.

• When things do not go his way, meaning we won't let him run around the house with a sharp object, won't let him play in the cat food, take him away from the toilet, or decide that squirting diaper cream in his mouth is not such a great idea, he has begun throwing what can only be described as a full knock down drag out temper tantrum. He flings his head back, arches his back (even if it means hitting himself on furniture or the floor), lays himself out on the floor (face up, face down...it doesn't matter), and then kicks his feet frantically and screams. My response to these is to gently lay the head on the floor if it isn't there already and then step over him and go about my business. Tantrums are not an effective mode of communication in our house, and while I realize its just a phase, its one that I would like to end sooner rather than later.
• While in Maine this weekend, Pepere B. taught the wee man a couple of new tricks. It amazes me how quickly he is picking up on things lately. When you ask him what sound a dog makes (or surprisingly show him a picture of a dog), he says "ruff!" The best part is that the "ruff" is always accompanied by a cute little bounce for emphasis! :)
• Pepere also taught him all gone. He won't say it yet, but when you say "All gone" to him, he puts his hands palm up as if to say, its all gone, there's no more people. Too cute for words.
• Over the last week or so, I have been able to teach him to give people five. If you hold out your hand and ask for five, he slaps your hand 5 or 6 times and is very proud of himself. This is a fun game for him since people get so excited when it does it for them!