The big talker!

Noah has been talking in broken sentences for weeks now, it feels like it happened overnight! His version of words cracks us up. He has his own vocabulary: WA-WA= Noah, Thocklick= choclate, pockle= Popsicle, Cacky= candy, or cathy his preshcool teacher, GO-GO= yogurt, Pooging= Pudding, DAR= Guitar, etc... so cute.... a few things he's OBSESSED with: MUM-MUM's= vitamins, AL-LURCH= Ashlyn, LO-LURCH= Lotion, LOCA= Yoga! He's so cute cause he always wants my yoga mat out and will get in the downward facing dog position and say "mommy LOCA!!!" until i do it with him.

Our neighbor Jeff is selling his house, so he doesn't live there anymore, we use his yard to play and he always has pine cones in the front yard from the giant tree there. Noah loves to throw them into the street and help Jeff clean the yard up. so we've been doing that ALOT lately. He can also reach the pedals on his little trike now! so he is a riding machine. He just doesn't have the whole steering thing down, so he runs into the fence every few feet and I have to redirect him, the problem is that he is so fiercely independent that he doesn't want my help... so he just sits there frustrated that the bike wont go anywhere!

We got new carpet installed in the back room and the stairs and upstairs... so necessary. Upstairs is going to be Noah's room soon, and the old carpet was probably the original... FROM THE 1940's!!! so gross... He is so excited, he points up there and says WA-WA's room... BIG BED MOMMY! he cant wait to get a big kid bed and have the whole upstairs to himself. we're moving him up there as soon as my brother Evan and I finish building the banister around the cut out in the floor that you enter through (it used to be an attic) we're making it out of Red oak, it's really pretty, probably another week before we have time to finish it. We've completely repainted it too it's very peaceful and sweet up there. Once we finish up there and he is moved, we can finally start redoing the baby girls room. lots of prep work before I can even paint. Then I just need to finish making her quilt/roman shades for the windows/ and get registered for her baby shower. after that i think i will be able to relax and just enjoy the last few weeks of this pregnancy.

Noah is still having success at the potty training thing. it's basically when he initiates it at this point. I tried to do it full blown a month ago, but he sort of shut down. So i think it's still in the phase where it needs to be his decision, after all he is only 26 months. Pretty young for a boy. He gets stickers and calls to his grandparents when there is success, as a reward. Noah is still in Preschool on Monday's and Thursdays, which are the days that i'm working now. He loves going to Cacky's house! He is learning shapes, a new number every week, and differences between things like big and small, tall and short, more and less... that sort of thing. He is so cute, now that he knows those differences, he uses them in his vocab regularly. "mommy look, BIG orn-orange ball!" etc...

Last Weekend Noah spent the night at my parents house, and they live in the woods where there are tons of frogs right now. So he and my dad had to go outside and yell at the froggy's to be quiet over 20 times throughout the evening. He has become OBSESSED with froggy's now. We call Papa (my dad) ever day to ask about the froggy's and listen to them on the phone, and he asks my dad to go out and tell them to be quiet. It's so cute because my dad obliges him and yells at the frogs after putting it on speaker phone so Noah can hear/talk to the froggy's... It's so funny!!

Ryan is almost done with his internship and administration certificate, this spring will be his last quarter. He got a student teacher, which couldn't have come at a better time, it makes getting his internship hours so much easier during school days.

I had an appointment with my midwife yesterday (down to every two weeks now) and everything looks great. I'm measuring 32 weeks, the baby is active and I have gained almost 12 pounds total FINALLY... I've been eating ice cream every night and candy bars and basically anything i want... (with my midwifes blessing to do so). My blood pressure is always low, and freaks the nurse out every time I go in for an appointment. It was 89/42 yesterday which was up from 86/40 last time... she always has to take it twice to make sure i'm alive~ I guess that's why i'm so mellow most of the time, it takes alot to stress me out, which is good especially when you're pregnant! Can't wait to meet our active little girl!

Tantrums, It's a girl, sooo sick, Preschool!

Noah is officially a two year old now! I dont mean the day of his birthday (december 30th) but about a week and a half later, we entered the age of tantrums! WOWZERS... the kid knows what he wants and will stop at nothing to get it! When Noah does something he's not supposed to, as soon as "no" begins to escape my lips he's on the floor screaming. He's such a good little actor too, he can ALWAYS eek out a few tears to punctuate with. Yes we've seen it all these past few weeks... The screaming, the head banging, the throwing, the flailing... and through it all we're actually keeping a really cool head. Ryan and i have to take turns monitoring the "freak-outs" while the other gets to leave the room and laugh. He's already starting to ease up on them, because of our lack of attention to him during these oh-so-stressful times. Now instead of continuining with the screeching wildly, he'll come stand right in front of your face and say "owy mommy!! BANDAID?" and he'll point at some obscure location on his body. He's trying to play the sympathy card now... not working either, we'll see what he comes up with next.
Yesterday he was throwing a fit over not getting "cacky" (CANDY) I decided to ignore it and see what he did... he walked over to the corner, put his nose in it and relaxed. I asked him what he was doing, and he replied "Wa-Wa (Noah) time-out"... I almost lost it, i just said "okay hunny, whatever you think is best." Then he put Pooh bear in timeout as well.
Something we started doing at the beginning of December was wean him off his bottle. He was all but off it when he got the flu, and the only way to keep him hydrated was to give him a bottle. Luckily as soon as he was better, we just took it away again and told him bottles are for babies and Noah isn't a baby anymore. We let him pick out a "bottle" (water jug from walmart) and now that's all he drinks out of practically. He calls it his "Nu-Nu Bottle" ( nu-nu is my friend Trina's son Soren, thats how Noah says his name) Soren also has the same bottle, so Noah feels pretty cool that they match.
We found out in late december that our second child is indeed a girl. Noah is finally coming around on this point, at first he would say "no mommy, BOY." But he is getting excited to have a sister. Yesterday i showed him a dress that my mom wore as a baby, and told him his sissy was going to wear it and he got all excited and, I dare say, squealed a bit with me. We haven't offically picked a name yet and I dont think we will until she's born unless something completely jumps out at us. But Grace and Evalyn are our top two for now.
Since the day after Christmas I have had a cold, then the flu, now another cold that is piggybacking bronchitis. Noah Got the flu the day after Christmas, then got better for a week, then got just a touch of a cold that hasn't fully manifested yet, but has lingered for almost two weeks, and for the last week he's had dirrhea and a yeast infection in his nether region! Ryan has been our hero, and thank GOD this happened for the most part over winter break, because it would've eaten up all his paternity leave time if not. I haven't been sick in a couple years and usually I am the one playing nurse to both of the boys at the same time at least 3-5 times a year. I've learned that not getting sick is like pitching a perfect game, You should never speak the words out loud "I haven't been sick in ___ amount of time" because inevitably it will ruin your record!!! I'll never be cocky about my immune system again!
So after talking about it for a while, we've decided to put Noah into preschool two days a week to get him some social interaction. He thrives when he is challenged and around other kids, and he is so bored with coloring and stacking blocks and reading WITH MOM. He needs a change of pace. At his two year check-up, his pediatrician told us he's off the charts, beyond even the advanced chart for what a child his age should be able to do. She even suggested potty training him now, (and she never suggests that this young especially in boys.) She emphatically agreed that he is in fact ready for part time preschool. There's a a great lady that we know who runs a preschool where she never has more than 5 kids, she's highly educated in early childhood and beyond. So he'll have alot of one on one time with her, and other kids to play with. My friend Trina's two boys go there and are EXCELLING in all areas. They do feild trips and art projects and all sorts of cool stuff! We're excited to see how he does. We believe that when he acts out, he's doing it mainly out of boredom. It's usually in the middle to end of the work week that he acts this way because of the ROUTINE of daily life at home. The two days when he is on his best behavior, and isn't whiny at all, is when he is with trina at her house playing with Soren, or thursday's when Soren comes here to play all day... so I'll keep ya posted