Happy Birthday Little Man!

To my sweet little man on his 2nd birthday -

It seems impossible to me that you have been here for 2 years now. And yet at the same time, I can hardly remember a time when you weren't here. Your little personality has really blossomed this year and you are turning into such an amazing little person. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't marvel in the new words and activities you are picking up. There is the marveling, and there is the small piece of terror at the speed of your discovery. I often find myself afraid that you will grow out of needing a Mommy around too quickly, but just as quickly I am reminded of how very much you need having me around. Your outward expression of affection seems to have finally resurfaced after months of being too busy to dole out hugs and smooches. I love them dearly and look forward to them everyday. I hope it is many years before you become too old and grown up to give your momma some love.

Watching you transition from a baby to a little boy has been a combination of excitement, joy, and bitter sweetness. I know the more I encourage you and allow you to grow up, the more challenges you will be able to overcome and the stronger you will be, however, at the same time, it is not without sadness that I learn firsthand the truth in the lines of the poem saying that Babies Don't Keep. The funny thing is toddlers don't keep either. Just when I think it can't go any faster, you switch into warp speed and before I know it I will wonder where these moments have gone.

This year has been so much fun for us, we have loved watching you learn to walk, and then immediately learn to run. Shortly after you learned how to talk, and short of your one long nap each day and bedtime, you hardly ever stop talking. I get comments frequently about how much to talk and how young you are to have such impressive language skills. While I am sure strangers might find the running commentary less pleasurable, I absolutely adore hearing your voice. I absolutely love having conversations with you about everything that is going on, even if most of the time the topics revolve around transportation and the various vehicles we see on our travels. Its only fair that I spent the first year or so talking to you about the things I was thinking about, that now you get your turn to tell me the things on your mind! You are a huge fan of things that go, you don't discriminate, if it has wheels, you are on board...choo choo trains, cars, trucks, big trucks, tow trucks, buses, trash trucks, dump trucks, backhoes, bulldozers, you name it! It amazes me your continued interest, and encourages me that the persistence I saw in you last year will continue to serve you well in your quest to learn. You already know all of the letters of the alphabet and all of the numbers. While you are too shy to sing the ABC song, I am confident you know the majority of it well. Counting is fun and you love to show off your skills when people least expect it. I have heard you make it all the way to ten by yourself on occasion, and you are in the process now of learning to count actual items instead of just repeating the numbers back.

You continue to adore your days spent with Nana Lou and Dante. Dante has become a real friend in the last couple of months and you two have great times playing together. You don't realize how lucky you are to have so many people who love you so much. While you still have your favorite people, your list is ever expanding and that is such a wonderful gift. The more joy you put out in the world, the more that is sure to come back your way. You are such a bright spot in my life and I only hope that this coming year is just as much fun as the last.

Happy Birthday Noah!

I love you to the moon and back,
Mommy

And when you're worried and you can't sleep

Count your blessings instead of sheep. And you'll fall asleep counting your blessings!

Wow, does that ever hit home this year. I have lost count of exactly how many hours of lost sleep I have accumulated while worrying about life lately. Its amazing to me how easily the real meaning and spirit of the holiday season can slip away when things get hectic. This year I have been having trouble getting really into the holiday spirit. Normally I am a Christmas fiend, decorating to the hilt and playing Christmas music as early and as often as possible. Christmas has always held wonderful memories for me, getting together with family, the anticipation of stocking stuffers (which are the main surprise left in my adult life), and all of the tasty Christmas goodies. With the stress of the job search this year and all of the phone calls and emails and scheduling I have been fielding, I seem to have forgotten the real fun of the Christmas season and have instead been spending a lot of mental energy wondering "What if?" and "I wonder?" and worrying about all of the unknown variables out there. And trust me there are plenty of those to worry about (Will a job offer come from a school I am less excited about before I interview at places I might rather end up??? Do I schedule an interview at a school I don't want to end up at just in case my other previously scheduled interviews all end in no offer in hand??? Is it possible that I will come out of the other side of this search process with no job offer at all???) While all of this is going on in my head, I am going through the motions of Christmas shopping, card sending, present wrapping, and party planning, without experiencing much of the joy that is supposed to be associated with it all. This morning when I gave sweet Nana Lou her gift and saw the look on her face when she realized what it was, I remembered what the season is really supposed to be about. Sharing joy, not worries. So as I finish out my last work day before the holidays begin, I am deciding to count my blessings for the next week or so, there is plenty of time for worrying next year, after I have taken the time to be here, right now, and enjoy Christmas. So the phone calls and emails can wait, there are joys to be experienced and the excitement and wonder of a 2 year old little boy to take in, and that can't wait until later.

A 2nd Birthday Party!

Despite some seriously ridiculous weather again this year (seriously Mother Nature, really???, a huge snow storm for 2 wee man birthday parties in a row????), we had a great time celebrating Noah's 2nd birthday a couple of days early. As we set the precedence that his party would always be the weekend before Christmas (assuming Christmas didn't fall on a Monday or Tuesday or something), we set up for Sunday and hoped for the best. The weather forecasts were all clear until Thursday morning, and then things took a turn for the worst. Thankfully, the vast majority of the really bad weather was to our south, we still ended up with 8 or so inches and lots of chaos surrounding the party guests' travel. We ended up with only a few missing people, who were sadly missed, but the rationale obviously understandable!

Memere B. came in early to help with the preparations, which, just like last year resulted in a 1:15am late night to finish decorating the cake. We are having second thoughts about doing the decorating ourselves next year. It did turn out great though!


And here would be the view from our window early Sunday morning. Looks remarkably similar to the pictures we took out the window almost exactly 1 year ago when we held Noah's 1st birthday party!


After some breakfast and a bit of phone call fielding regarding the projected travel conditions, we went outside to clean up the worst of it. Noah was a bit help this year with his very own shovel. He had a great time and we finally had to pull him before he was ready since icicles were forming on his eyelashes!


We ate a bit of lunch and then put the little man down for a nap. We ended up having to wake him up to get the party started. As you can see, he wasn't quite fully awake by the time he got out to see his big train table gift...pacifier and blankie still firmly attached. After a few minutes he got into it and had a great time.


Memere B. sewed him a couple of aprons of his own (which truck and monkey fabrics of course), so he can be an official chef now when he helps out in the kitchen. And Memere & Pepere L. got him a trash truck, which has been VERY popular thus far.


Cake time! (Note to selves, do NOT use fire engine red icing next year...not only it is very hard to tint, but it ends up looking a little too vampire-ish for my tastes!) Noah looked a bit on the verge of a meltdown while people were singing, but he dug right into that cupcake once given things quieted down.


See, red icing...kind of scary. Thankfully, it isn't too bad to clean up.


A yellow hard hat completed the birthday dump truck shirt and now he is looking very official.


The party was fun for Noah, but I really think he had just as good a time in the kitchen with his balloon while I was cleaning up! Crazy boy!

Mrs. Table Head

To preface the great 2nd birthday party post I will be sure to get up in the next couple of days, I have another Noah-ism that is just too good to keep to ourselves. Noah got a great Mr. Potato Head set from Aunt Beth for a birthday present yesterday. Its the biggest set I have ever seen, with multiple sets of each of your necessary body parts, plus some fabulous accessories to make wacky Potato Heads as well. Noah wasn't quite sure what to make of it yesterday in the midst of all of the party excitement, but while we were hanging out today just the two of us, I showed him the fun that can be had at the expense of the plastic spud! I loved Mr. Potato Head as a kid and I think my excitement was wearing off on him. The later in the day it got, the more he talked about and played with it. Unfortunately for Mr. Potato Head, his name has gotten a bit lost in translation. He shall now be known as "Mrs. Table Head!" How's that one for toddler speak?!?! I think it might be one of my favorites so far! Just for good measure, we have included a picture of our most recent Table Head masterpiece:


and some adorable video evidence of the miscommunication straight from the source. (Clearly we were playing trains at the time, and you can hear him excuse various other vehicles that happen to be in the way of where he was driving..."Cuse us yellow truck!" Not only cute, but polite as well! Also enjoyable is the camera chasing portion...we had a hard time containing the laughter, sorry about that!) Enjoy! :)

Christmas cookie time

We have been having a great time with our Christmas preparations. Noah is really getting into the festivities this year and seems to really be enjoying the excitement. Of course it also helps that the little dude's birthday is so close making double the hype!

As is the tradition in our house, each Christmas I bust out my Memere's Christmas cookie recipe and make a double batch. Its the only time of year they are made and the only excuse I have found so far for needing almond extract. They are my favorite cookie of all time and I seem to have already passed on my love of them to the little man. Not that its a hard sell, I mean a cookie...really, who is going to pass that up?

Given that Noah's party takes precedence the weekend before Christmas now, this past weekend was designated as cookie baking time! I strapped an apron on the little man and put him to work!

The cookies are thankfully press style, so the wee man's job was to decorate and boy was he in 7th heaven!

We have to work on the gentle shaking motion with him to prevent unnecessary sugar loss, but he was putting in a lot of effort and enthusiasm, so that's got to count for something right!?

And really the key was that he was having an absolute blast. Check out that smirk!

And he was very proud of his effort, giving me the fist bump of approval and satisfaction.

And of course there is the obligatory half-eaten sprinkles all over the face picture. Again with the cheesy face

And here is what we spent the last half hour of the afternoon doing. I must say while I have honestly never seen so many sprinkles on the kitchen floor before, I have also never had so much fun making the Christmas cookies before. Hopefully next year, the little man will be able to help make the dough and press the cookies too!

Advent calendar

Yet another holiday tradition has been instituted in the house this year. We've seen this idea a number of places and thought it was a sweet way get the little dude (an future little ones) excited about the upcoming holiday. The advent calendar when I was growing up was a cute felt calendar that had a velcro ornament for each day up until Christmas that were moved from the calendar date on the bottom to the Christmas tree on top. So over the course of the month you would gradually decorated the tree. There are also the traditional chocolates with doors to open type of advent calendar, but we wanted something that not only provided more of a household decoration function and also allowed us to include treats for any future little people that join the family without having multiple calendars or fights over whose day it is each morning.

I sewed a little felt pouch for each of the 24 days up until Christmas and threaded some Christmas ribbon through the top of each so that I could attach each pouch to the large hanging ribbon. Little rhinestones were glued on to represent each of the numbered days. I think the end result came out fabulously and I am actually quite impressed with my skills.

Noah has had a great time checking out what is in the pouch for him each morning. To get the excitement and interest peaked, we started off with a fun matchbox car that was sure to be a big hit. We have kept the contents on average about $1 each or so, nothing extravagant, but with open pouches, we'll be able to personalize it to match his major interests each year.

Whoa, check out that truck mommy!

In addition to the pouch tradition every morning, we also let Noah turn on the big tree every morning. We have a touch switch ornament and have put it up high to specifically avoid obsessive on/off tendencies, which would most certainly happen with an unsupervised available 2 minutes.

Day 2 of the pouch project was these reindeer antlers that I constructed for him from a little kit. The thought was there, but I forgot how stupid the cats are and Mia essentially bit the fun out of the antlers by the end of day 1 in the house. It made for a cute picture or two for as long as it lasted though.

Elfie & tree decorating

I have been way behind in posting lately with all of the job searching chaos and some deadlines at work recently. But, since I am sitting in an amazingly quiet hotel room some where in southeastern PA right now waiting for tomorrow morning's flight back home, I figured I would try to get a bit caught up before Noah's birthday party this weekend and then Noah's official 2nd birthday next Wednesday! How scary is that, a whole two years old one week from today!

Anyway, back to the catch up. Noah has been having a great time with the Christmas preparation this year, which is a far cry from the confused occasional glances last year. What a difference a year makes. He knows who Santa is and recognizes him in pictures, he points out snowmen and Christmas trees. His favorite activity each day is to help plug in the Christmas lights in his bedroom and on the big tree and we are well on our way toward starting up the Elf on the Shelf tradition. We have been good about moving around the elf and making sure we tell Noah about the elf and trying to get him excited about it, but he isn't 100% convinced I don't think and he certainly won't randomly go looking for the elf in the morning, perhaps next year, he'll be a bit more on board with this tradition, but at least we are starting out on the right foot.

Here is our official house elf. He is kind of creepy looking after a while, but the story is cute and I am told once the kids are a bit older, they really get into the idea.

Noah helped to put up the tree this year, as usual the day after Thanksgiving. He was really interested in "helping" out and was actually doing a great job until he decided to start rearranging the piles of sorted branches I was creating, then he wasn't so much help at all! Doesn't he look like such a little man squatting there consulting with Daddy on how to tighten up the trunk in the base?

Noah wearing the original Santa hat (not the mind blowing $25 one). As you can see, the white brim is more than a bit overwhelming for the poor little guy, but at least the tree is up and the lights are on. I think here is where he started to remove the beaded silver garland that Tim and I had just finished carefully draping on the tree.

Here, mommy, I was checking the lights for you to make sure they worked!

Noah putting on the ceremonial first ornament. Thankfully, only one ornament got broken in the decorating process (of course we ceased the ornament until after a small someone's bedtime). Noah was all excited about the Christmas balls and given the fact that they are balls and balls in Noah's recent experience are for throwing and bouncing, it was a pretty unfortunate realization when the Christmas ball hit the floor and shattered into a million pieces. It was a non-sentimental ornament thankfully, but Noah was certainly sad to see the destruction and the mess that resulted from that little mistake.

Operation ditch the bottle

was a major success! We quietly decided that after last week's hot chocolate in the bottle incident that it was a good time to try again to get rid of the bottle. We had an epic failure in removing the bottle back in August, with great deals of wailing and pathetic pleas for MORE MILK when I tried to gradually reduce the amount of milk in the bottles. I didn't even succeed in a 2 oz reduction without it going notices and loudly protested!!! After a few screamfests and a great deal of mommy guilt, I decided that a few more months of bottles at nap and bed only weren't that earth shattering and that he would certainly grow up fast enough, why make it painful for everyone. Now that he is pushing 2 (a week from tomorrow, oh my goodness!!), he is certainly old enough to understand being a "big boy," and the concept that babies drink from bottles because they aren't big enough to drink out of sippy cups. We have unearthed the non-straw type of sippy cups from the basement and filled them with "big boy water" for bedtime and there hasn't been a mention of a bottle in days. Tomorrow will be a full week with no bottles. The bottles were quietly retired to the basement until such time as they will be needed again for a new baby, but for now, we are a bottle-free home and loving it! We are so proud of how easily the transition was for Noah and it just goes to show, sometimes patience and a bit of timeline revising can do wonders in making the road a little less bumpy for everyone. Yeah for Noah!

Where are your feet?

Now that we have transitioned Noah out of the highchair to a booster seat at the, we have been experiencing a few new challenges. It is absolutely wonderful not to have to clean up the highchair with all of it food-trapping nooks and crannies and the booster seat is a dream to clean up and I couldn't have better things to say about it. However, we have had more than one experience with feet on the table, mainly because he can. He is just at the right height when you push the chair back a bit where he can prop up his little feet on the dining room table. This has been a no-no behavior since it first started, and I think now he thinks its a bit of a game...like, let's see how quickly I can get mommy riled up when I stick my feet up there. Not only is it just bad table manners, but it is also a bit dangerous. We had a fall at Memere & Pepere's house because he put his feet on the edge of the table and pushed off hard enough to knock the chair over. So each time the feet go up, we remind him that feet don't belong on the table. This weekend as we were cleaning up from breakfast, Tim caught his feet up on the table again. Here is the conversation that ensued:

Tim: Noah, your feet are on the table again, will you please put them down. They don't belong on the table
(feet go down off the table for a record 2.5 seconds; feet promptly find there way back onto the table)

Tim: Noah, where are your feet?
Noah: In my jammies!

Classic! You can't make this stuff up! At least there is free entertainment while we are doing all of this work to raise a well-mannered little person!

In a pinch, try hot chocolate

Christmas time is always a busy month or so of life, but this year it has taken on a life of its own. I have interviews, phone interviews at least once a week, and now 3 on-campus interviews to work on scheduling. That along with daily life and the usual Christmas decorating, shopping, holiday cards to design, order, and address, the yearly Noah photo calendar project to work on...you see where I am going with this and why I haven't been writing here much lately. BUT, there is a story that HAS to be told. Its too perfect of an example of why it is important that Mommys and Daddys are different and that is a good thing.

Back story: For reasons unknown to us at the moment (perhaps teething those eye teeth finally?? perhaps getting a bit of a cold?? perhaps the stars aligning in an offensive manner??), the small person in this house was a disgruntled, disobedient, temper-tantrum throwing mess of a toddler this morning. Its Wednesday, the Daddy/Noah day. Tim's original plan was to bring Noah in for his 9:20am appointment for dose 1 of the H1N1 vaccine (finally) and on the way home the boys were going to stop and do some much needed grocery shopping. Normally, Noah has been having a bottle of milk still for nap and bedtime only. We have attempted once in August to oust the bottles, but we were met with extreme unrest and decided to wait a bit longer until he was perhaps a little more amenable to the idea. Enter this morning. The last of the milk had been given out for bedtime last night, hence the need for grocery shopping.

The little man was apparently a mess, quite disagreeable and very unimpressed with the idea of leaving the house for any reason. Tim fought the valiant fight and got him out of the house in time for his vaccine appointment, which naturally ran over as always. On the way back, they dropped off yet another faculty application at the post office, and with a very early wake up this morning, there was no way grocery shopping was happening before naptime. (Note the problem here: No milk for the naptime festivities people). Not wanting to stir the toddler pot anymore than it already was, Tim decided that he didn't need milk and instead decided to go for some warm water....with hot chocolate in it! A bottle of hot chocolate?!?!? Yep, this is the difference between Dads and Moms, or at least this Dad and Mom. Not that I blame the improvisation in anyway, and Noah and Tim do wonderfully together, they have a great time. But this Type A Mommy just couldn't bring herself to put that hot chocolate in the bottle! Sorry sweetie! :) Love ya!

Multiple goods may have come from the situation though. Noah had a good nap for the day with the hot chocolate in that bottle and woke up a bit less of a crankpot. More importantly though, at bedtime I decided to continue the momentum and try a sippy cup of water for bed instead of the bottle. He seemed a bit confused by the switch, but not that distressed at all. Bedtime went over without a hitch and he is sound asleep with out the bottle of milk for the first time ever! We just might make it with the plan to get rid of the bottles before the 2nd birthday...we'll be just squeaking in though people.