WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW

I can't believe my last blog post was a YEAR ago!

I'm such a posting slacker.

Noah is TWO years old, and obviously has developed WAY past the walking stage of life. He has a little sassy but adorable personality now. Soon after walking, he took to parades. My dad has a song he whistles and lots of fun 'parade batons' in his kitchen cabinets that he a noah wave in the air as the walk and sing. When noah gets into it, he recruits anyone who is in the room to come parade with him. I have a priceless video of this from Thanksgiving...if only I can figure out how to post it!

For the past few months, Noah has been attending a parent/toddler class with my mom. They sang songs, played with lots of toys, and at the end of each class, got a hand stamp. The teacher was Miss Yvonne. Noah quickly became the teacher's pet, and though he was clingy and bored with the singing part of the class, he loved the activity portion. He took countless trips down the slide, rolled down the wedge-shaped mats, and begged to play basketball if the net wasn't already out. He came out of his shell after a few classes and began to participate in full, and proudly displayed his stamps if you asked to see them. He no longer attends, however, since Keith's promotion with Lincoln moved us to Newtown, Connecticut. I did take him to a gymnastics class last week, however, and after crying for the first 20 minutes, he warmed up and loved it. Poor guy, I can't tell if his cry-before-i-try attitude is because of the transition and move adjustments, or just him being two, and somewhat introverted. He went down a huge inflatable slide over and over again-eventually without me assisting him and cheering/coaxing him on, and at the end of class, I threw him into the foam pit. He was reluctant to try it and i knew he would love it but knew we didn't have time to do the back and forth of adjusting. So we conquered that one head on. He loved it, didn't want to leave, and wanted to play with every piece of gym equipment on the way out. Needless to say we're enrolling him in that one. :) When we were going out for groceries yesterday, he asked where the 'big big house' was. I realized that he meant the gym, and I told him the big big house was gymnastics class, and we would go back very soon.

Noah was the cutest pengin ever for Halloween this year. At first he didn't want anything to do with the costume. Then, some trick-or-treaters came to our door. We handed out the candy, and pointed out the costumes to Noah, and after that he ran over to his costume and said "put on! Go with kids!" He wanted to trick or treat too! :) He was so darn cute. I have to get pictures from my dad. Nick dressed up into a head-to-toe-sequin costume of a patriot (left over from dad's mummer days), and came with us. He was so funny...walking from door to do by himself, wanting to ring all the bells, and choosing his candy. We left with tons of lolly pops :) He was so excited that Uncle Nick came with us too! At one point after Nick left, he turned around after climbing someone's front steps and said "where'd uncle nickie go?? Oh no!". The day after halloween, we were making animal noises. I asked him what a cow says: "moo". I asked him what a dog says: "ruff" . I asked him what a penguin says, to which he responded, "trick or treat!!!"

He's such a little squirt, wanting to do everything that mommy and daddy do. His favorite toys are either things he can't have or toy replicas thereof. He loves his toy kitchen he got for chrismas, and loves reading books in his tent! He's very good at verbally expressing himself. We went to the gaylord hotel in DC, just before Christmas, to participate in the ICE exhibit and christmas festivities there, and after a long day of playing, swimming, listening to Christmas music, and trekking through snow, we were lying in bed together. He looked at me and said "mommy, are you happy?" i said "yes Noah, I'm happy". He said "daddy, are you happy?" (but daddy didn't answer because he was sleeping). I said "Noah, are you happy?" he said "I'm happy". and with that, he went to sleep. One day we were riding in the car, and he played with my necklace and said "I like this mommy". Another day, I was fixing my hair in the mirror and he said "mommy you look nice". He just melts me! Keith has been hanging window treatments and whatnot, over the last few days. Now, Noah wants to climb on the ladder, so I help him. When he reaches the top, he says "i need a screwdriver". I try to distract him from that by helping him "jump off' into mommy's arms.

The endless sleep battle has finally come to an end! We decided it was time for a fresh perspective on the bed, so we turned his crib into a big boy bed. He took to it right away, which has made it easy to put him to sleep in his bed. we just lay together and read a book, then stay there with him til he falls asleep. I was worried that the pattern wouldn't hold while we vacationed in canada, but things worked out just fine! He went into the beds to lay down when he was tired.

Tons of transitions going on right now so we haven't stuck to the bedtime routine, which I know I"ll kick myself for, but I worry for him. I want him to feel safe and comfortable, and I don't want him to be traumatized by all the change. That said, I'm going to save my binky and bottle battles for later. I know the bottle is more of a comfort thing than a need because he asks for them and then just holds them- doesn't drink them. We will cross that bridge when he gets a bit more comfy here.

That's all I'm going to ramble about for now- had to break the one year stint! Here are a few christmas pictures.