26 Months Old - Adventures with Buzz

During one of our daily afternoon walks.  I don't really like it when he brings toys, because inevitably, I have to hold them.

The only bad thing about Buzz is that he's very top-heavy and topples over all the time...and this makes Noah very mad.

Noah is 26 months old now, and Buzz Lightyear, or "Buzz Ears," as he calls him has been his best bud this month.  When I go into his room to get him after a nap or in the morning, the first thing he usually says is, "Buuey, and beyond!" - his interpretation of "to infinity, and beyond!"  He also likes to say, "Be careful with that!  It's extremely dangerous," referring to Buzz's laser.  He always wants to bring Buzz with him everywhere - in the car, to school (it's always a long negotiation getting him to leave Buzz in the car when I drop him off), out on walks, onto the highchair during meals, and even to the changing table while I change his diaper.  He used to want to watch Finding Nemo in the car all the time, but now it's, "I watch little bit Toy Story, Mommy, pweeeeeeeease?"  Or he climbs up and pulls the DVD screen down before he gets into his carseat, then looks at us with a very self-satisfied smile, ready to watch.  What a TV addict.  It started out seemingly harmless, just a minor diversion during long car rides, but now he demands some sort of TV or iPad use everyday.  Being stuck inside during Hurricane Sandy meant a lot of TV since our power didn't go out.  The only plus side is that we have a nearly fail-proof babysitter when needed.  When I'm battling Sarah over sleep during nap times or in the evenings, the iPad is my best-friend.

Sadly, this month has brought more bad behavior from Noah.  I really hope this is a phase, and not a referendum on our parenting.  When he wants something and doesn't get it immediately, he resorts to crying, screaming, and whining right away.  It is so annoying.  Last night, I don't know what was going on exactly because I was dealing with Sarah and her on-going anti-sleep campaign, but he was whining and crying and screaming for like half an hour, right through bath time.  Poor Peter.  Maybe it was cabin fever?  Maybe he felt neglected because we were both so focused on getting Sarah to sleep?  I guess we're entering the stage where we really need to start thinking about discipline.  I tried time-outs a couple of times in the past and just getting him to sit down became another reason for him to scream, but perhaps it's time to try again since he's older now.  Not excited about this.

Okay, enough of the bad, on to the good!  Noah misbehaves, but most of the time he's still happy, funny, and super sweet.  If he's jealous of the attention that Sarah gets, he doesn't really show it that often.  When she cries, he always says, "Sarah crying" and goes over to her and says, "What's wrong, Sarah?  Don't cry, baby."  I've noticed this month that he's able to converse a bit more.  He's been talking for a while, saying lots of sentences, and reciting whole scenes from books and movies to himself, but not necessarily expressing himself beyond "I want.." or "No!"  When we're at a restaurant and trying to order for him, we'll ask him if he wants pizza, and he'll say, "I want pizza."  But then if we ask him right afterwards if he wants grilled cheese, he'll say, "I want grilled cheese."  So....basically repeating whatever we say.  Haha.  Now if he doesn't want to eat or do something, he says, "No, genk you."  At least he's polite!  He's also developing more of an imagination and engaging in more pretend play.  He likes to re-enact scenes from the movies he watches with his toys, and he likes to feed his pretend fruits to his stuffed animals.  He also still enjoys having tea parties sometimes. :)

My most favorite story of this month is the story I shared on Facebook a few days ago.  Need to record it here too since I'm not going to be looking back at FB updates.  Noah woke up crying/screaming a few nights ago, but we usually don't go into his room at night because usually that just results in even more crying/screaming when we try to leave again.  Plus I was really tired from taking care of Sarah.  So I told myself that if he kept crying for a lot longer, I'd go in and console him.  He went back to sleep pretty soon, so I just went to sleep.  In the morning though, I asked him if he had been sad at night.  I didn't think he'd remember, but he said, "I sad crib."  It didn't seem like he was just repeating what I was saying, so I asked him why he was sad.  I totally expected him to just say, "I sad crib" again, but instead he said, "I miss mommy."  So sad!  Then he said "I hug mommy."  What a funny little guy.

2 Months Old

Happy to be two months old today!

I've already had to move the straps up two notches.

Tummy time!

Sarah is two months old today, and what a month it has been!  Instead of sleeping better, she was sleeping worse, and instead of eating better, she has been eating worse.  Sigh.  Despite these issues, she is growing, growing, growing.  We haven't had our official two month check up yet with the doctor, but we weighed her at home the other day and it seems that she's around 13 lbs already.  I don't know how this compares to other babies of the same age, but she was only 7 lbs when she was born, so she's almost two times as big!  My arms, wrists, and back are also starting to hurt a lot more because she always needs to be held to go to sleep and she is heavy!  The "cry it out" method is a bit  difficult to do when Noah is trying to sleep...I have to figure out some solution to this problem.  I miss the days when she was just a little 7 lb peanut.

Sarah has had a lot of reflux problems, and after a few weeks of cutting out certain foods with no real improvement, we recently started giving her some medication for it.  It's only been a few days so far, but I think it's helping.  I think the main reason why she was having a hard time sleeping was because of the reflux.  I think it was waking her up all the time so she was never really getting good rest, or waking up too early from naps, and therefore was cranky most of the time that she was awake.  So I'm hoping that things will only get better from here and that the Zantac will continue to work its magic.  I've also finally been paying better attention to Sarah's nursing & sleeping times so there's a little more structure to her days now, which may also be helping with the previous crankiness.  I think I was just a bit too overwhelmed the first month and my goal every day was just to make it until 5:30 (when Peter came home...haha).  Things are settling down now and I think we're all falling into more of a daily, semi-predictable routine.  When I have to nap Sarah, I ask Noah, "Sarah needs to take a nappy now, so what does that mean?" and he says, "Be quiet."  Unfortunately, now Sarah and Noah's nap are just about exactly the opposite.  Just as Sarah's waking up from her second nap, it's time for Noah to go down for a nap, and just as Noah's waking up from his nap, Sarah needs to nap again.  I get to spend a lot of time just with Noah, which is nice, but no more napping for mommy! 

Despite spending a lot of time in the carseat and car, Sarah has been getting pretty good at tummy time.  I think she may actually enjoy being on her tummy more than her back.  Sometimes tummy time just ends in her taking a nap on the mat. 

Overall, Sarah is growing and healthy and when she isn't cranky, she's becoming more social.  She is smiling more and will often coo in response when we talk or sing to her.  I haven't really been able to fully appreciate her development day to day, but now that she's becoming more interactive and I'm getting the hang of being a mom of two, I hope that I'll be more attentive so that I can truly cherish these moments.  When Noah was this age, I sometimes would look at how little he was and think about how he'd never be that little again, and just like that I would start crying.  I always tell Peter that I'm going to cry at every graduation, even Kindergarten!  So, I need to slow down a bit, because before I know it, Sarah will be walking and running.   

25 Month Update

Noah just turned 25 months old, and with all the craziness going on, I totally forgot about it until last night!  Since Noah's two now, the monthly changes seem to be slowing a bit, but his personality continues to develop and he's starting to say all kinds of funny things.  He also is continuing to adjust to being a big brother, and is doing a great job!  So this update is just a few fun stories, mostly for our benefit so that we can look back and remember Noah's silliness.

A few weeks ago, we went to a playdate with a bunch of other kids with ages ranging from 1 week old all the way to 4 years old.  During lunch, one of the kids was trying to get his mom's attention and kept saying, "Mommy!"  Noah thought this was fun, so he also started saying, "Mommy!"...except I was sitting right next to him.  He kept on saying, "Mommy!" and would start laughing hysterically afterwards.  However, he was sitting next to an older girl who did not think this was so funny.  She kept saying, "Stop saying that!  Your mommy is right here!  Stop goofing off!"  And then Noah would just continue laughing and saying, "Mommy!  Mommy!"  This went on for at least 15 minutes. 

Noah has been a great big brother so far and is really doing well for a two year-old.  It's been a bit difficult at times putting Sarah down for naps while Noah is running around playing with toys, yelling, and banging things together.  All normal behavior for a toddler, but kind of a problem when trying to nap a little baby.  So every time it's nap time for Sarah, I have to tell Noah over and over again to be quiet, or ask him to play in his room so that he's a little further away.  It can be so frustrating when Sarah's eyes are just about to close, or have just closed, and then Noah comes barreling into the room going, "Hi, Mommy!"  So sweet, but so frustrating.  This morning though, he saw me holding Sarah and bouncing her and he looked at me and said, "Be quiet...ssshhh..." and even put his finger to his lips.  Then he said, "I go room," and went into his room to play while I was putting Sarah down for her nap.  I guess he's learning!  Moments like these remind me of how much Noah relies on routine.  When he takes our phones and pretend he's talking on the phone, he always says, "I hi Grandma," because it's always the grandmas calling!  And when he sees one of the grandmas, the first thing he always says is, "Where Grandpa go?" because he's always used to seeing the two together.  In Peter's mom's case, James often visits at the same time his parents do, so when Noah sees Peter's mom, he usually says, "Where Grandpa go?  Where Uncle James go?"  Recently, James surprised Noah with a few new trains so sometimes when he's playing with the new trains, he'll randomly stop and say, "Thank you Uncle James....Uncle James bring surprise."  

Noah has also been learning the power of "please."  I'm not sure when/where he learned that this was the "magic word" for getting what you want, but he has started using it and it really is almost too cute to resist.  One of his favorite things to ask for is to watch Finding Nemo in the car.  When we get in the car, he always says, "I watch little bit Nemo Mommy, pweeeeeeeease?  Pweeeeeeease?"  He also likes to use his power of persuasion for chocolate milk.  "I want chocate milk Mommy, pweeeeeease?"  Where does he get this stuff from???

These days, Noah has also been obsessed with watching Misty Island Rescue, a Thomas the Train movie.  I think he has watched it everyday for the past two weeks.  He goes into our room, finds the iPad, opens it up, opens the folder that the Netflix app is in, opens the Netflix app, and says, "iPad not ready" while waiting for the app to load.  I know that the ability to use Apple technology is pretty common for kids Noah's age, but I am still stunned by how driven Noah is to watch these movies that he will learn these multi-step tasks to get there.  Meanwhile, he can barely use a fork to eat.  You would think that food was more important.  Anyway, so he watches this movie everyday, re-enacts scenes from the movie with his toys, and is always quoting movie lines!  Already!  The best part is that he doesn't say all of the words.  I don't know if it's a processing thing or what, but when he quotes these movie lines, he only says like every other word.  But still, he can quote a lot of the movies that he watches.  He also does this with books.  We read the same books over and over and over again, to the point where he kind of can read them on his own.  When he's playing by himself, sometimes he'll sit there "reading" his books, reciting all the lines to the books from memory.

One of the funniest things that Noah says is, "What you talking bout?!!"  Noah often gives a running commentary on what's happening with his toys while he's playing with them.  Like, "Thomas go shaky bridge" or "Percy shunting James" or "Gordon thundering down tracks" (please excuse the train lingo).  Noah will often repeat these phrases over and over again until I, or someone, responds in some way.  When I'm having a conversation with someone, I sometimes just say okay, or sometimes kind of ignore him because really, how do you respond to "Gordon thundering down tracks" anyway?  So he'll keep saying whatever he's saying over and over while I'm talking, and when he sees that I'm not responding, he'll yell, "MOMMY!  What you talking bout?!?!!"  I feel like I should tell him that that's rude, but for now, it's just so hilarious!

Taking care of two kids is tough and exhausting, but these fun moments with Noah make the hard work worth it.  In the past year, it was so convenient to just hand Noah off at daycare that I didn't realize what I was missing.  We had a lot of funny moments after daycare and on the weekends, but I feel like it's only now that I'm really developing a relationship with Noah, beyond diaper changer, food provider, and general slave to his needs.  Now we're like mother and son.  Haha!