19 Month Update/Pregnancy Update - 21 weeks

Our little guy is 19 months old today, and what a character he is growing up to be. He continues to pick up more words, but his all-time favorites are "car", "truck", "che-choo" (train), and "boo bus" (school bus). We live on a pretty busy road where plenty of cars, trucks, and buses pass by everyday so Noah spends a lot of time looking out the window and pointing out the vehicles he sees. A couple of days ago, he was (I think) talking in his sleep and said "boo-bus". I thought he'd woken up because it was around 8 am, but he continued sleeping until about 8:30. He is obsessed with the vehicles. His love for che-choos is more about Thomas the train than actual trains.

Noah seems to be a little less all about daddy all the time these days. He wants daddy, but he also wants mommy (whew!) - at the same time. He's quite the demanding little guy. He also demands being read to all the time. After we finish reading the book, he hands the book back and wants it to be read again. If he isn't demanding reading, he wants to be pushed around in his little car. He puts his Elmo and monkey (who he also calls "elmo") in the car, then gets in and wants to be pushed around. Okay, that's kind of an exaggeration. He's usually the one pushing the car around with his Elmos and some assortment of other toys inside. But in general, if he wants something, he can be very insistent. Noah doesn't really throw full on tantrums (yet?), but he does start screaming and crying when he doesn't get his way. We can usually distract him/calm him down within a few minutes, but hopefully this is the extent of his tantrum throwing! Even when Noah's's in a good mood though, he is wreaking all sorts of havoc. He's really into throwing things - remote controls, cars, books, cups, food he doesn't want to eat, etc. He also likes hitting and thinks it's funny when we say ow!

What's been particularly exciting to see this past month has been the development of Noah's personality. He is quite the ham it seems. He loves being goofy and laughing. When he sees that we are laughing with him, he continues his antics or starts laughing even more. Sometimes he'll do something silly and then look at us and wait for our response. He is quite entertaining.

Noah also seems to be developing some sort of empathy. I was reading a book to him a couple of weeks ago in which the main character starts crying at some point because he misses his mama and Noah kept pointing to the tear in the illustration and wouldn't let me move on in the book. He seemed so sad for the little llama in the book! Peter also said that when he was reading the bible to Noah and Noah saw an illustration of one of the Israelite slaves getting beaten he kept pointing at it and saying "oh no..oh no.." (it's a little kid bible, so the illustration isn't scary or gory; I think the slave is just crouched down and really sad) The teachers at daycare also said that Noah usually goes to hug his classmates if they get hurt or are crying. Maybe this is a good sign for his future as an older brother!

That's it for Noah. As for the pregnancy, we finally were able to find out today that we are having a girl! I'd been kind of leaning towards a preference for a boy, but mostly because I have all this boy clothing already and it would just be such a shame to not be able to use it all again! I am actually a little sad to be putting away Noah's clothing for good (most likely). A few days ago though, I actually started thinking that it would be really nice to have a girl for a change...I guess that's just God at work! Now I just hope that this girl will be more calm and well-behaved so that I can manage two kids at the same time!

18 Month Update

Taking a ride on the "choo-choo" at the mall.

Noah is now 18 months old and growing very fast! He is now 34.5 inches tall (95%-ile) and 26 lbs (54%-ile). I was looking at his 15 month stats and he's grown almost 2 inches since then and gained almost 3 lbs. So basically he just got taller. He still has a big belly and kind of skinny arms and legs. Even though his head looks really big, his head circumference is on the low side.

Noah's canines and first molars are all either out or making their way out. They kind of all started erupting at the same time and I think he'll have 16 teeth very soon! Other than that week when he didn't really want to eat anything though, he's been acting pretty normally for the most part, so hopefully that means the teething hasn't been bothering him too much. And as far as eating goes, he's somewhat back to "normal" now, eating just about everything. He still prefers fruit and yogurt over everything else, but is pretty amenable to anything involving noodles, rice, or tofu. I usually try to chop vegetables up and mix them in with what he's eating, which usually works.

Noah is talking more and more now. He can say: mama, dada, ball, car, cold, truck, bye, apple, draw, frog, bear, bird, dog, sheep, duck, owl, horse, whale, teacher, itchy, water (wah), feet, hand, mouth, ear, nose, cheese, teeth, head, hair, shoe, bath...not sure what else, but a lot! He can also often repeat what I say, even if he doesn't remember it later on. He isn't saying any words together, but he's been doing a lot more babbling this past month, which I think is a good sign. He still can't really say his name, but just recently when I try to get him to say Noah, he'll say "wawa". Better than nothing I guess!

Another sign that our little baby is growing up is his growing independence. Sometimes when I'm feeding Noah food, he doesn't want to eat it, but if I let him take the utensil or just leave the food in front of him, he'll eat it. He also is starting to not like being in the high chair. He likes to climb up onto the real chairs and sit at the table. Sometimes he'll just sit there reading a book or flipping through a magazine, sometimes he'll eat food there. I kind of cringe at the eating because there's nothing to catch the mess, and no where for his greasy little hands to go except all over the table and chairs. But I guess I just have to deal with it, to an extent. So yeah, my little baby is becoming more independent, more rascally, and more old!!! :( So sad but so fun at the same time. He is quite the character!