Busy Bees...

I am endlessly amazed at how busy this time of year gets. I thought staying home would provide a little more time, but not really. I love the baking and decorated that comes with Christmas. I am looking forward to showing Noah about Santa. In order to get prepared I built a series of cubbies for Noah's toys and then broke out the label maker - one of the world's greatest invention. It really doesn't do much for Noah, but it does wonders for me and now Daddy has a fighting shot at getting the toys in the right spots.

Noah has become quite the accessorizer. Check out Daddy's headphones and one of the medicine spoons that come in first aid kits.



By naptime, he had moved on to new headwear. It is important to keep your head warm when you sleep incase your room has a freak blizzard.


The one shot I have trouble getting is of Noah in Stephen's cowboy hat. This is the closest I get. When I try to get it from the front, he takes off the hat. I'll get it one of these days.

Long Time

It feels like a long time, since I have had a chance to write. I love this time of year, but no matter what is going on there is always a lot to do. I have been working on various Christmas presents and hoping the receivers like them. I have planned the menus and am getting ready to work on baking the cookies. I found the greatest cookie pan that I think will help make sugar cookies and gingerbread a little faster. I love decorating these cookies, but I hate rolling them out.

We recently had Henry come to spend the day with us while his daycare was closed. The boys were very fun together and Noah enjoyed playing with Henry as long as he didn't sit on Mommy's lap. He is a little possessive over his mommy. Henry and I still snuggled anyway. The boys especially enjoyed playing with Noah's water table.


Henry thought this was fun until he discovered the frog under the table and went to investigate.



Noah has been really cooperative while taking pictures. I've been experimenting with pictures and light. These are some I really like.

Halloween

Although this wasn't Noah's first Halloween, he was definitely more into it this year. Since this is the only year, I will get to dress him up in the costume of my choosing (next year he will have an opinion) I went with the Bee costume.

It is hard to get him still these days and most of my pictures are of him running in one direction or another. We did manage to get him in the stoller and down to the parade grounds. He can be bribed with apples, so that is our handy trick.

The parade this year was a little disappointing, since it is usually a lot longer with more of the high school bands (Being a former band geek, I like that part). It turns out the because Halloween was on a Friday most of the bands had football commitments. Noah overall enjoyed the parade and by the time we got home he was ready to crash. He has just figured out what the candy deal is.

We met up with Noah's friend, Henry. (I love this picture. It looks like Henry is getting a tiger hug.) Both boys seemed to enjoy getting out of the strollers and checking out their surroundings to paying attention to the parade. So we had a tiger and bumblebee.

Now to see if Noah remembers what Halloween is all about next year. He has definitely learned that good stuff comes from the plastic pumpkin.

18 month checkup

Well we had our 18 month checkup. I am ever amazed at what he is supposed to have accomplished by now - walking fast/running, at least a 10 word vocabulary, eating with a spoon, and the list goes on and on. I must say I am pleased that Noah has reached these milestones, but Wow what a lot to learn.

Noah is working hard on expressing himself and getting you to understand his wants. Friday, Noah handed me the car keys (which he got out of my purse), and said "Mommy, go, Mommy," then preceded to walk to the door. I decided to see if he really knew what he wanted, so I picked him up and put him in the car and said, "Okay, Noah where do you want to go?" His response, "cookie." In Noah language, that means the grocery store because Mommy gets you a cookie when we do our weekly shopping. So I headed to the grocery store and we picked up milk and a cookie. It was exactly what he wanted and he was as good as gold. These are the moments I wouldn't trade for the world.

Noah is now a whopping 24 lbs 14 oz. and comes in at 32 inches. His head is still in the 50th percentile, but basically the rest of him is lingering around the 25th. I was surprised that we have now reached the point that we don't go back for a well visit until he is 2. It is so far in the future that I can't even schedule it yet. He isn't a baby anymore. ;)

Happy Anniversary

(sung to William Tell) Happy Anniversary, happy anniversary, happy anniversary,haaaappppy aniversary! Stephen and I celebrated our sixth anniversary today. We had a great day. Noah spent the day with Ammy and we went to Tysons and to Morton's in Reston. It was an amazing meal and Stephen and I enjoyed the alone mommy and daddy time. I don't think we have ever eaten a dinner so slowly. :) You can tell we have been married awhile. Presents have become more practical. Stephen got a Franklin Planner and I got a Japanese skillet. Not flashy, but exactly what we wanted.

Noah has taken to using his fudgescicle as a crayon. At Ammy's house he "painted" her shower and here he got to the stove.

Rally

On Wednesday, Stephen and I bundled up Noah and took him to the Obama Rally at Ida Lee Park. There is something about a presidential candidate being 3 blocks from your house that makes you want to go and see them. So we were there with the other 30,000-50,000 (depending on which news publication you subscribed to) people listening to Barrack Obama. Honestly, it was a good speech and he is a brilliant speaker, but what shocked me was all the people. Noah reached out and grabbed a guy who I am pretty sure was a Redskin and the guy laughed and patted Noah on the head. Noah also grabbed a women's sweater and made her his new friend. Then there was Tina, who we later discovered had met Stephen at one of his open houses and her best friend was the speech therapist in my classroom. I also ran into one of my former students. I felt terrible for getting his name wrong. He is in high school now and it was amazing to see how much he looks like a young man, not a kiddo. For so many people, it felt rather cozy. Luckily there was only minor rudeness from the McCain protesters, but you have to expect some of that from both sides at these things. It was definitely a cool moment. We snapped a ton of photos, but we couldn't get a good one of Obama he was just too far away.

On Sunday, it is our sixth wedding anniversary, so Noah and I slipped out to Tyson's Corner mall to check out some different gift options. We found several presents for Daddy for Christmas and I picked up one for Sunday. Noah and I had a blast. The mall is very fun. I discovered they have a Hannah Andersson store. We got some PJs on sale and enjoyed looking at all the clothes. If I were I rich man....all our clothes would come from there. They are fantastic. We also found that they put a CakeLove in the mall, so Noah and I had a cupcake. They are amazing. I want to get his new cookbook. I am going to add it to my Christmas list. Noah and I had fun and managed to make it to the car before the "I need a nap" fussies hit.

A Star is born...

We're a small star, but still a very cool moment. Noah is in all the local papers as part of the ad campaign for INOVA Hospital. I must admit it is very cool and we have saved a ton of papers for scrapbooking. Next we are filming a commercial for the local movie theaters. Luckily they don't want Mommy to talk which works for me. I like the background job. :)

After a week of Noah having a cold and on the neb again, I decided that Mommy needed a day out. So Daddy went to work and Noah went to spend the day with Grammy. I enjoyed shopping and the movie City of Ember that I have been excited to see. I have read the book to my students for the past three years and we really enjoyed it. Turns out that they just released the 4th book, so I picked it up after the movie and am enjoying it immensely. Noah enjoyed a Popsicle at Grammy's house.
It was a very cool day and I enjoyed the time alone while Noah enjoyed the love and attention.
Noah has also become quite the computer efficienado. The next Bill Gates...