21 Months Old

March 10, 2011

I'm playing catch up with my blog (again!!) but I will get there hopefully this week so stay tuned! Right now (4/26/11) Noah is almost 23 months and I'm 30 weeks pregnant, but I'll have to break it up into several blogs to get there because I just have way too many pictures and stories to cram it all into one so bear with me.

21 Months Old/24 Weeks Pregnant:

Noah is still growing like a weed and changing every single day. We are getting closer and closer to the two year mark and I find myself saying that is he almost 2 instead of 1 when someone asks how old he is. I really think the second year went by even faster than the first, if that's even possible. Some new things he is learning are drawing shapes (he's really good at circles and not much else yet), saying "no-no" to me when I get on to him for trying to kick me, finding all the pictures of daddy (and daddy's stuff) and telling me it's daddy or daddy's stuff. It's funny because I can tell him no a million times and he pretty much ignores me unless I use my really mean voice, but if I tell him that something is daddy's then he won't bother it at all. Who knows... So, I end up telling him that everything he's not allowed to play with is daddy's and it works without me having to yell at him. He loves to open doors now and will let Max and Zoe outside for me when asked. So far we haven't had any incidents with him trying to go outside by himself but I'm sure that's not too far away. Thank goodness for the chime on the alarm so I always know if a door is being opened. He is great at obeying commands now and will go get/do pretty much anything I ask him. My phone was ringing the other day and I couldn't find it so under my breath I said, "Where's my phone" and Noah was standing there. He turned and ran off then comes running back holding the ringing phone. I was very proud of him even though he was probably the one who hid it. Another funny thing he did out at grandma and grandpa's house was hide one of grandpa's pegs to his guitar. My dad looked everywhere for that thing and could not find it. He couldn't play the guitar without the peg for the string. I kept telling them that Noah knew where it was and if they would ask him to find it, he would. I kept asking him and sure enough, a few hours later, he came running into the room with the peg. You think he doesn't know what he's doing but he does. He remembers everything!!

He is finally starting to really improve in the talking area. A few of his favorite words right now are "no", "yes", and "baby". He has no clue we are having another baby but he loves to point out other babies to me and say "baby" as loud as he can. Hopefully, he will be that excited when his baby brother gets here!

Speaking of the new baby... I am now 24 weeks along and doing great. I feel great for now but I know from experience that it won't last too much longer. My belly is probably getting close to the same size it was when I HAD Noah so I can't imagine what I'm going to look/feel like by the end of this one. The baby is now weighing in at a little over a pound and about 8.5 inches long. He is gaining weight at about 6 ounces a week and can now hear pretty much everything that goes on around me. I'm sure Noah's constant screaming is one of the most familiar sounds to him now. It's almost like he already knows Noah. He always gets excited and starts kicking and moving around when Noah's talking or being loud.

Eating ice cream with the neighborhood girls

Finally getting some good outside time since it's been so nice lately (he's telling me to turn the water on and pointing at the outside faucet)

Cleaning up the bowl for mommy!

New baby things

March 1, 2011

I am beginning the 23rd week of pregnancy this week. I can feel the baby moving around like crazy. He is an active one!! I keep saying that I hope this one is a calm, laid-back baby so I'll have a bit of sanity since Noah is such a fireball. BUT, I have a feeling I'm just going to have 2 crazy kiddos. That's alright with me. I already know how to deal with it...I've had a lot of experience already with Matt, Noah, and now another one. In case you're wondering...they get it from Matt :)

This baby is also very very low just like Noah was, which means that I can breathe great but I have to go the bathroom every 2 seconds again. It doesn't sound like a big deal but it really is annoying and takes a ton of time out of the day. Also, long trips in the car are out for now. I feel for people that deal with this all of the time.

Here are some belly pics (I had to take them myself so I couldn't get everything in one shot - Matt took some but they were pretty terrible looking so these will work)

So, I've been thinking about what all we need to get for this baby (which thankfully isn't much since it's a boy and his birthday will be right next to Noah's). The problem is that everything we need is something expensive. We have to have another video monitor. I can't even imagine how people manage without one. I thought about just moving Noah's over and getting him a sound one but we are about to move him to a toddler bed so I need to see if he's actually staying in it. We are also going to need a new stroller for 2 babies. Noah can't walk by himself yet (he can but he doesn't pay attention) and I can't push 2 strollers. We take a lot of walks and go to the park all the time. We have to have one. The rest is just a few new decorations for the nursery and a ceiling fan. Other than that we are good. Noah stuff is in great shape and we always had so much stuff with him that a lot of it barely got used. I can't wait to unpack it all and get it out for the new baby!

We are planning on decorating the nursery with old fashioned war-type airplanes. The inspiration was from this picture that Matt has had for along time but I never liked anywhere else in our house. It's actually really perfect! I made some bedding to go along with it that turned out great! I spent $20 on fabric and made a bumper pad, bed skirt, curtains, and some other random stuff out of it. It is SO much cuter than anything we could've bought and I had fun doing it. Here are some pics (more when the room is finished):

Picture

Bumper Pad

Bedskirt

Don't Say...

February 25, 2011

...bath, pee-pee, vacuum, or outside in front of Noah or you will pay! Especially bath. If you don't intend to immediately put in him the bathtub he will let you know he is NOT happy. This includes even saying bathroom. Like "I'm going to the bathroom" - that is a big no-no at our house right now. He loves to take a bath and will stay in there until he is forced out. It's nice that he likes it so much but it's always a fight trying to get him out and back into some clothes.

Pee-pee --- like I said in a previous blog we are working on getting Noah familiar with using the toilet so I have always said "Do you need to pee-pee?" So now pee-pee is an automatic command to go...no matter where he is. If he doesn't have a diaper on, you better watch what you say. I made that mistake while he was laying on the bed naked. I ask him if he needed to go pee-pee and apparently he did. He immediately peed all over the bed. Like I said, it's a slow process.

Vacuum --- this is the worst obsession he has right now. All we do all day is go back and forth about getting the vacuum out for him to play with. The problem is that he cries most of the time it's out anyway so it's really a no win situation. He wants to take it here or there or plug it in or pour something on the floor to clean it up. Lots of stuff he's not allowed to do. So we've banned the word. Noah says a version of vacuum that sounds a lot like bath. I don't know.. but I DO know which one he means so I have to be careful. Both are dangerous words!

Outside --- this wouldn't be so much of a problem if it would just get warm and stay warm. If we have a nice day I let Noah spend most of it playing outside. However, he wants to go out all the time. At night, when it's freezing, just whatever is fine with him. He doesn't even notice the cold. However, I notice it and I don't like it. I say no Noah it's cold outside. And he says, "burrrr" and shivers. It's pretty cute but then he stills wants to go out. I have to be careful about saying outside because if I do he thinks we are going out and gets mad if we don't.

He's also all about saying uh-oh and yes right now. He answers everything with a very enthusiastic "yes". I'll say, "Noah, do you want to go to time out?" I get, "YES!" with a head nod and big smile. It's funny. The uh-oh is out of control though. If he sees anything, and I mean ANYTHING, out of place he sets there, points at it, and yells "uh-oh!" over and over and over until I either fix it or convince him that it's okay. Matt and I moved a few things around in the living room and he about lost it. He also does it when his videos are over and he sees words on the screen and he doesn't stop until you either start it over or turn it off. Also when he drops (throws) anything on the floor.

Other new things that he's doing are pointing and labeling everything he sees...this is mostly when he is watching a video. He points at the screens and says the name of whatever happens to be on it. Most of the time he gets it right, a few times he has no idea what it is but makes up a name anyway. He has also started doing a few new animal sounds on his own. The best is elephant. He puts his arm up in front of his face and makes it go up and down like a trunk and makes this high pitched squealing sound. He also does tiger, bear, and duck pretty well now.

He also loves to wave at everyone, everywhere we go. He's always been super friendly and now that he can say "hi" and "bye" and wave, he does. He waves at every car that drives by our house if we are outside. He waves at every person and car that we pass walking into Wal-Mart or where ever. He waves to everything - TV's, dogs, cats, himself in the mirror, and he waves night-night to daddy, Zoe, and Max. He also says either hi or bye to everyone along with the wave. We meet a lot of new people everywhere we go thanks to Noah.

Making a huge mess with his noodles

Trying to decide what to watch - he knows exactly what to do.

Video of Noah picking out a DVD, putting in it, and starting it: