Noah's Second Birthday

Time has been moving so quickly. Noah is now two! Of course, if you ask him how old he is he will tell you he is three...and I'm not sure why that is. I suspect it's just his favorite number. This is the same child who loves to point at clocks and demand, "Mommy, see ABC's." I have explained many times that those are numbers, but that's a whole other story.

Between Halloween and his birthday, Noah has had an exciting two weeks and enjoys wandering around the house yelling "trick or treat" and "happy birthday" with equally happy abandon. For Halloween he was a dinosaur. On Halloween, it took a while to get out the door (Travis was gone for a couple of weeks for work, so everything look longer during this time) and at the first house he studied the candy for what felt like ages before picking one out of the bowl. After the second house he stopped halfway to the sidewalk and looked in his pumpkin bucket and then up at me. "More," he smiled, "more Halloween!"

His birthday was equally exciting this year. Now he knows: birthday=cake. For Noah, this sums up everything. Oh, and the presents! We kept things small again this year

This year I have begun to realize that between Halloween and his birthday on November 15th, Noah has a two week stretch of sweets and being spoiled. Our house is officially in detox from candy, cakes and presents. I staged an intervention on Sunday after Noah's birthday party when he demanded cake for breakfast and, when that tantrum failed, began pleading for a sucker. As the voice of reason, I tried to convince him these were terrible breakfasts and (evil person that I am) ignored his demands, giving him a banana. Well, he told me it was trash and promptly threw his banana and bowl in the trash. We had the same fight at lunch, same results, but this time he just dumped the food in the trash and set the plate on the floor. See, progress. (Ha!)

Caleb, for his part, is taking off. The other day I set him on his playmat on the floor while I went to get Noah a bowl of cereal and by the time I returned a minute later he had scooted forward a whole body length. I have a feeling that he will be a full-fledged crawler by the end of January. Noah is already telling him, "watch Caleb" and demonstrating the finer points of moving on his hands an knees. The two of them make quite a pair. I'm sure they'll be ganging up on me in no time.

Smiles, Coos and Monsters

Caleb is growing...in more ways than one. Not only is he our little chubby monkey, but his personality has really begun to emerge. In the past week he has begun to smile at us with big toothless grins. They are all too fleeting and we have yet to catch them on camera, but once a day or so we catch him sitting around with a very pleased look on his face that breaks into a smile, letting us know that he certainly can recognize his mom and dad. Most of these open-mouthed grins are directed at daddy, who knows just how to trigger smiles and the coos that will soon become giggles and words. His little personality is certainly growing!

We had our first monster in the middle of the night. Noah was crying out and when I went to get him, he would not stand or stop crying. My first thought was that he was ill and I kept asking him where he hurt. Nothing but crying in reply. Finally, cradling him in my arms while sitting on the floor, I said to him, "Noah, you are scaring mommy. Do you feel sick?" Suddenly the words came tumbling out. "Scared. Monster. Scary Monster. There." He pointed toward his closet where the night-light makes a shadow off the dresser. In relief, I nearly laughed, but caught myself as I hugged my small boy with tears on his cheeks. The monster was very real to him...and his shaky voice and trembling hands nearly broke my heart as I hugged him. "A scary monster? Oh, Noah. That must be so scary for you. I'm here." I turned to face the monster head on. "Go away, you monster. Get out of here. You stay away." I turned back to Noah and told him that monsters are scared of mommies and daddies. I also explained that he had a special light that scared monsters away. I held his hand as we walked over and turned on the lava lamp on his book case. This light, I promised, would keep monsters out. I tucked Noah back into bed after rocking him and whispering how much I love him. Even though a few other fears have recently emerged (sudden encounters with bugs, being outside in the dark, charging rhinos on Curious George), we are now 2 weeks monster-free.

Noah's First Fat Lip

Unfortunately, Noah is at an age where he simply must try everything. It doesn't matter how bad of an idea it is, he wants to make sure that either it won't work or that it is really as dangerous as we tell him it is. This has led to more than a few tantrums over things including my inability lift him into the branches of a three-story-tall oak tree to pick acorns, not being allowed to play in the knife drawer and, notably, one that occurred when I wouldn't let him lick the sidewalk. (Okay, to be honest, we've actually dealt with that particular compulsion more than once.) Today he wanted to put his slide in front of the tree in our back yard before sliding down it. Travis and I told him it wouldn't work, that he would slide into the tree, that he would get hurt. He patiently listened and then waited for us to stop monitoring his every move. Suddenly he had moved his slide to the tree and before Travis could get to him he was sliding down. At the bottom of the slide his face met the tree. So, with the wisdom that comes with a fat lip, Noah now knows that mom and dad sometimes tell the truth...you can get hurt if you put your slide in front of the tree and insist on sliding down. Not that knowing this will matter much when we disallow his next daring stunt.