Straight From the Two Year Old's Mouth

These days Noah is talking all the time. I call it his word vomit and it is all day, every day! It can really be pretty exhausting. It can also lead to some interesting conversations and plenty of good laughs. Here are a few recent tidbits from Noah's mouth.

#1 - The other night he woke up crying. But it wasn't just any old cry. It took Wes and I a few minutes to figure it out but he was screaming, "Crackers! I need some crackers!" At 2:30 in the morning! I marched right on upstairs to inform him there would be no midnight snack and he was not happy with me.

#2 - When he wants something from me he has taken to calling out, "Hey Babe!" I guess you can figure out what Wes does when he wants something.

#3 - He knows all the words to the chorus of Disturbia (his favorite song) by Rihanna, and walks around the house singing "bum bum be dum, bum bum be dum dum".

#4 - He has a new obsession with Thomas trains and therefore many new toy trains to play with. He has a truck named Madge that the trains can ride on top of. He likes to say, "Oh look, Thomas is on top. He likes it on top." Wes and I always crack up at this one!

#5 - He really likes school now but I think it is because he has a crush on his teacher. Every time I ask him about school it always revolves around Ms. Holloway. Like, Noah, who is your friend at school? And he always says, Ms Holloway.

#6 - This is my favorite...the other day we were all in the car and got stuck behind some idiot driver who was refusing to make his left hand turn in a timely manner. I opened my mouth to start complaining but before I could say anything I heard a little voice from the back seat say, "Geez! Get her done!" Wes and I looked at each other in shock and I said a silent thank you that I had recently refined my road rage speech to include more child friendly words like Geez.

#7 - We went to Lowe's over the weekend and got a bunch of plants for the yard. Noah got to pick out a little one for himself and then he helped Wes plant it and was very proud! Later he was talking to my Mom on the phone and he told her he had gotten his own plant at Lowe's. She asked him what kind and he said, "pink". My Mom laughed and said, "But Noah what is the name of the plant you got?" He thought hard for a minute and finally said, "Lightning!" My mom and I died laughing at that one.

There are a million more funny stories but those are the ones that stand out to me. As hilarious as it all is to us though, Wes and I are becoming acutely aware of the things that come out of our mouths. Of course, no matter how hard I try, I just know that my son will be the one to teach all the kids in his church preschool their first curse word. Geez!

A Trip To The Zoo?

So, today I was washing dishes and Noah came into the room and announced that he wanted to go to the zoo.

"The zoo?" I asked, confused.

"Yeah, wanna see the animals!"

"Well, Noah, we don't have a zoo here. We can plan a trip and go to the zoo another day, okay?"

Silence, followed by the lower lip being stuck out and then whining, and finally,

"I wanna go to the ZOO!!!!"

Thinking fast - trying to avoid an all out tantrum - I said, "Why don't we make our own zoo?" Then I waited for the screaming to get even louder. But, wonder of wonders, he said,

"Okay Mama!"

So we went upstairs and using some blocks, stuffed animals, and paper for the signs we constructed our own zoo. Then I told him we had to pretend to get in the car and drive to the zoo and asked him what we should bring. He said, "milk, the camera, and no pants". So that is exactly what we brought to the "zoo". Well, Noah went without pants but I wanted our game to be a realistic representation of a zoo trip so I kept my pants on.

Noah loved pretending to see all the animals and he loved taking his picture with them even more! He got to see lions, tigers, giraffes, monkeys, and ducks on his zoo outing.

Here is Noah standing next to the lion cage, roaring at the lion.

And here he is with a cheesy grin - and blinded by the flash - by the Tiger cage.

And, of course, this being an adventure to the zoo with Noah, you know that there was a little bit of drama that unfolded. The lion escaped from his cage...

.....tackled Noah to the ground....

....and as you can imagine, Noah emerged victorious!

What's New With Noah?

There is so much going on with our crazy boy right now...where to begin? He is really loving school which is great! He still cries when I drop him off but it only lasts 30 seconds until I'm out the door and then he is off to play. This has led to us being able to leave him in the church nursery too. Wes and I sat together in during church last week for the first time in 6 months!

Noah is also very interested in the "potty" now. Quite frankly, I am scared s***less of starting the process of potty training and he is not even 2 and 1/2 yet so I still think he is a little young for it, but we are following his lead. Mostly because he has started taking off his diaper right before he pees. You would think this was a good thing but we have yet to make it to the potty. Usually he removes his pants and diaper while I am out of the room, pees on the carpet, and then runs around naked until I see him and he can point out where he peed. I have been encouraging him to sit on the potty but so far all we have done is find the potty after we pee and drag in front of the TV to watch Thomas and Friends (our new obsession). Sigh........

The best news is that Noah has finally graduated to a "Big Boy Bed"! After I realized that he could climb out of his crib if he really wanted, and deciding that I needed to rearrange the furniture in his room, we took off the front of the crib and "converted" it to a toddler bed. The addition of some Cars sheets and comforter made Noah's day! I also moved his train table into his room, along with a new bookcase and all his books, so he was excited. He spent all of Saturday morning playing in his room - which never happens!

And finally, always exciting for Noah, Aunt J came to visit again this past weekend. Jess can make even extremely boring activities more fun. Like unpacking boxes of books to add to our bookshelves. Why not push Noah around in the empty box while wearing a bike helmet?.....

Sorry Jess, I know I promised no blog pictures with the helmet but I couldn't resist. Besides, this was definitely the least embarrassing one...it could have been worse!

We're Back Online!

Oh my gosh, what did I do before the Internet? I was recently forced to find out because someone (who shall remain nameless) hauled his tiny self onto our desk and managed to pour half a can of diet coke onto our laptop. After a few horrifying hissing and cackling noises we were pretty convinced that our computer was fried but took it to the repair guys to see if there was any salvaging to be done. So for 4 days I was without my connection to the outside world and I realized that I might have a small addiction. Or had, I should say...that cold turkey thing works pretty well. I even debated whether or not to get online today at all but decided that I should probably fill everyone in on Noah's entry into the world of preschool. (Our computer is working by the way, but the keys stick in an annoying way that makes typing less fun than it used to be...)




Anyway, here is Noah last Tuesday on his first morning of preschool. He was very excited to wear his Cars backpack and marched right into his classroom with no problem. Until he realized that I was not staying with him and then all hell broke loose. Seriously. Apparently he cried for the better part of 3 hours and I had serious doubts that he would be allowed to come back. But we tried again on Thursday and his teacher said that he calmed down after just 10 minutes. (This was, however, contingent upon his getting to wear his backpack the whole time. Weird.) Anyway that day he informed me that "school was fun" and today I heard the same thing and he only cried for 30 seconds after being dropped off! Victory...I didn't ask about the backpack. Quite frankly, I don't want to know.

I am glad that he is liking school because I am really liking my 3 hour chunks of time to myself. I can get soooo much done! Or I can do a lot of goofing around on the computer. Maybe that cold turkey stuff wasn't as effective as I would have liked!

Noah and Maggie

Here are the pictures I promised of Noah and Maggie. They were so cute together and Noah had a blast flirting with "Baby Maggie". He is still asking about her when he wakes up in the morning and whenever we see a baby he says, "Like Baby Maggie!"

Please notice as Maggie floats calmly in her crab float and Noah freaks out at having the water come up over his waist.

The McKees visit Charleston

Wes and I were very excited to have our friends Adam and Andrea and their little girl Maggie visit us over Labor Day weekend. They came down on Friday just in time for Adam to cook his famous Lowcountry Boil, which has become a birthday tradition for all of us with end of August birthdays!

The girls stand around and watch Adam do all the cooking!

After a delicious meal on Friday we spent Saturday morning being kind of lazy, watching Noah and Maggie play. They are really cute together!

After that all the girls - Andrea, Gray, Carissa, my Mom, Wes' Mom, and I - went to lunch at California Dreaming and then had some yummy dessert at Cupcake downtown. It was my birthday outing and I had a great time. Then my Mom and I got to do one of my favorite things - shopping on King Street. It doesn't get any better than that!

That night my Mom stayed with Maggie and Noah and we got a much needed adult outing. It is always so nice to head out the door with just my small purse not loaded down with diapers, cups, and toy cars! We went to Sermets Corner downtown and had a wonderful meal and good conversation and enjoyed being out downtown.

We kept trying to take an adult group picture but Noah thinks all pictures should have him in them so he kept sneaking into the shot! And, yes, Andrea and I are aware that we were dressed exactly alike - it was not planned!

Sunday morning we went to church and then had lunch at Wes' parents house. We celebrated mine and Adam's birthdays and there was definitely cookie cake involved!

When it came time to sing happy birthday Noah of course thought that we were singing for him and got excited about "his" cake. Two year olds really are the center of their own universe!

See, Noah has a big grin while people sing because he thinks they are singing for him! And he chows down on a big ol' piece of cake...

The McKees left this morning and we were sad to see them go! We always have such a good time hanging out and now we are having even more fun watching Noah and Maggie play together. I have tons of pictures of the two of them that I will post soon. Oh, and P.S. - Jeremy and Amy, you have nothing to worry about. Even though Noah is good with the cuddles....

......he is not so good with the pick up lines. He said to Maggie, "Hi Maggie...I like your head!" With lines as smooth as that, Jude should have no trouble winning Maggie for himself!