Noah's Statistics at Two

Weight: 27.67 lbs (44 percentile)
Length: 35.43 in (74 percentile)
Head Circumference: 19.72 in (83 percentile)

Dear Noah

Dear Noah,

Or should I say "Dear Mobi?" Sometimes dad and I call you "Mobi" because on my old flip phone that I still use, whenever I type your name for text messaging, it comes up as "Mobi" first, and then I have to change it to Noah. Is Mobi even a word? I don't know why it doesn't pull Noah up first, but it sure gives us a fun nick-name for our now-two-year-old!

You haven't been much of a talker until recently. Now you are trying to say a lot more things, but they all come out sounding the same. So we are working on understanding you, and you are working on your diction. One thing you are getting better at is your ABCs. I say the letters one at a time, and you repeat them back to me. I like to see how long you will go before losing interest in what I am saying and start making up your own version.

You love playing with trains, cars, animals, and puzzles. It is fun to hear you making the appropriate sounds as you play with those toys. You have learned to leave the Angry Birds alone-- Jason doesn't want you to touch those. Although you can play by yourself, you prefer to have a friend, and so you grab my finger and pull me down to the basement quite often throughout the day. It is a good reminder for me that I should pay attention to you.

Jason is a great brother to you. He does a good job looking out for your safety. He also teaches you to be loud! I am trying to get both of you to quiet down when you are running around the house or church screeching. Jason has graciously given you his scooter and green bear because he feels he has grown out of them. You love watching Jason play games on the iPod. When playing in the basement you two do best in parallel play, especially if you leave Jason's Angry Birds alone, but you do enjoy dancing together. Your current favorite song to dance to is "Walkin' Ol' Joe" by Matthew Lewis. Another favorite song is "Old McDonald" because you can practice your animal sounds.

For the most part you are a great sleeper. Usually you go down easy (after you have had a LOT of stories) for naps and bedtime. You take one afternoon nap that usually lasts two or three hours. I am such a lucky mom! However, on the nights that you do have a hard time falling asleep, dad and I take pity on you and get you out of your crib to watch a few minutes of a show or movie with us. It is fun for us because you sit so still and cuddly on my lap and enjoy the popcorn with us.

Favorite foods of yours include the following: green beans, mashed potatoes, black beans and rice, peas, grapes, strawberries, eggs, yogurt, gold fish, pirate booty, fruit snacks, plus anything else sweet.

Changing your clothes is a daily battle, both morning and night. On Valentine's Day I discovered it was easy to get you changed if I bribed you with candy. That was a Thursday, and I continued the trick on Friday because it made my life easier. On Saturday, I tried to take your pajamas off and you fought me off while saying, "No! Dandy! Dandy!" At first I thought you were saying "Daddy," but then I realized that you were saying, 'Give me candy first before I let you take off my clothes!' I sure had a laugh over that and gave in, but then we stopped bribing you after that.

We sure love having you in our family, even if the terrible two's are showing themselves (what happened to our easy boy?). I have treasured this time when I can take you and Jason on fun outings to the library, Scheels, Cabella's, Thanksgiving Point, Seven Peaks, Tracy Aviary, the park, or just hanging out with friends. But most of all, we all love when dad comes home from work so we can be an awesome family. Thanks for helping make it awesome, Mobi.

love,

mom

Happy Birthday Noah

Noah turned two! To celebrate his birthday, I took him to the library's story time and then to Smith's to get a free cupcake while Jason was at preschool. Then we picked up Jason and went to Arctic Circle to have lunch and play in their play-place.

After lunch, Noah went down for a nap while Jason and his friend had fun decorating the house for the party with streamers that looked like this:

That evening we had some family over for dinner, presents, and cake and ice cream. I think Noah was most excited about the Froot Loops that night. I didn't want to spend very much money on toys since he already has plenty, and I knew he would get presents from his grandparents, so I choose to get him a fun cereal, candy, a little train, and a few dollar store items. Then we put some extra birthday money in his bank account since we are trying to do better at saving up for the boys.

It was nearly impossible for me to get a picture of his face that evening because he just wanted to look at his presents and his cake.

We snapped this picture of Noah a few days later. He put Kyle's hat and gloves on all by himself.

TRAX Adventure

Jason had been wanting to ride the commuter train (TRAX) ever since they extended the line closer to our house. I finally planned a grand outing with our friends the Knutsens. We took TRAX up to Salt Lake City and back. While in the city we visited the children's section of the Church History Museum and ate our sack lunches in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. The kids loved being in the city, but the train ride was a little too long, so we won't be doing that again for a while.

Merry Christmas 2013

 We were particularly jolly around our house with these Santa hats this year. I made seven of these santa hats a couple years ago. Noah currently loves putting on hats, so having seven of these to choose from to wear and spread around the house was a daily activity. Noah would put the hat on and say "Ho Ho," which is also how he says santa.

Christmas Eve we were with the Robbins family decorating gingerbread houses.

We spent Christmas Eve night at Grandma Diane's and awoke to find that Santa followed us there! Jason was very excited to get his new Angry Bird toys.

We spent the afternoon sledding with Grandma Diane, Grandpa Jesse, and the Neuenschwanders. It was so much fun.

Girls' Trip to Chicago

Brooke, Holly, Megan, my mom, and I got away for a girls' trip to Chicago! It was our first time doing a girls-only trip together, and we had a blast. It was actually my first time visiting Chicago. Next time we go somewhere we hope Heather, Natalie, and Karren can come as well. Highlights from the trip include:

• Bus tour around the city

• Field Museum of Natural History

• The Art Institute

• Millenium Park

• Walking around the city together (although it was quite cold)

• An off-broadway play of Great Expectations
• And eating lots of good food, or course, including real Chicago style pizza. This was my first time ever trying it, and I liked it. 

Noah update

I haven't done an update on my Noah for a while. He is 21 months old and already acting and looking like he is two. Noah recently revolted against his high-chair, although we compromised and he still eats soup and cereal in his high-chair. Noah loves to stack blocks, play with cars, and jump around on pillows that are constantly on the floor. He loves animals, both real and pretend. Life feels pretty good for Noah if he can pet at least one live animal each day. Most of the time Noah is carrying around something silky (blanket, bear, ribbon, etc.) in one hand while he takes his fingers in and out of his mouth with the other. Noah LOVES for us to read stories, and he will often pull out books to look at pictures on his own.

The only thing that gives him away as not being two is his speech. He is not nearly as talkative as Jason was, but he has a few words. They are mama, dada, ball, hi, duck, kitty, puppy, hee-haw, boo-boo, uh-oh, choo-choo, no, and EWWW! Most of the time Noah reminds us of Curious George because he makes sounds like George all the time. No wonder because my boys love to watch Curious George. Oh and I almost forgot that he also says "me" when he wants something. It's pretty funny because sometimes we have a real conversation when I ask something like "Who wants breakfast?" and he says, "Me!"

This flimsy construction hat is a recent favorite for Noah. He loves to walk around with it on. You can also see him holding Jason's green silky bear. Noah kept taking it from Jason's room, so I commented to Jason that we would probably buy one for Noah for Christmas. Jason promptly decided to give his green bear to Noah and would instead receive the new one for Christmas! I think it is a fair trade because both boys are happy. Now Noah sleeps with this green bear every night instead of Jason.

Lately I find myself putting Noah's clothes away in Jason's room on accident because it doesn't seem like that long ago since Jason was wearing these same 2T clothes.

Nursery time in church is getting easier-- he settles down quicker after we leave him. However, when we pick him up, he gets all pouty as if to say "I can't believe you left me!"