Noah Rides a Bicycle

I texted this photo to my mom I think last week? Her only response was, "Soon he's going to drive." That made me sad. Today he rode a bike without training wheels. Such an exciting but also sad day!

In the photo, he's riding the balance bike that he got for his birthday from Auntie Jumi and Uncle Eugene. I had just bought him a regular bike with training wheels, as I wasn't fully sold on the balance bike since it seemed like expensive training wheels to me. So not true. Noah wasn't sold on the balance bike either. He'd just recently started using the pedals on his tricycle, so he took to the regular bike w/training wheels right away - loved the new speed. He said the balance bike was "too wobbly" so he refused to ride it. We finally convinced him to give it a try, and slowly over the past few weeks he became more and more comfortable with it and would alternate between the two bikes. In this past week, he actually started balancing on the regular bike, even with the training wheels on. Today, I finally decided that the training wheels were starting to get in his way now that he was becoming more skilled with the balance bike, so I tried convincing him to let go of the training wheels... He cried and screamed and refused. So I said okay, he went off to ride his regular bike some more, and then a few minutes later came back and said, "Okay, you can take them off now." So he gave it a try, put his pedaling and balance bike skills together, and voila! Riding his bike by himself! After a few runs, he even started telling me to let go when I was hovering. He is still working on the take-off and stopping, but after we went out for another bike riding session when Peter came home, he improved a lot just in that hour or so.

Noah had so much fun riding without training wheels, and even though he fell quite a few times, he kept getting back on, which kind of surprised me. He tends to become defeated pretty easily. I think the speed is too alluring for him. When we went back inside though, he insisted that we put the training wheels back on. :)

Meanwhile, Sarah is still working on walking. Between Noah and Sarah, I think I'm going to have some serious back problems these next few weeks.

13 Month Update

Sarah is 13 months old today, and it has been a pretty exciting month since her birthday. She is still working on walking, but she has become pretty good at going up and down the stairs. She even makes sure to turn around when she's at the top to go down feet first. Sometimes though, she starts turning too soon and finds herself turned around too far away from the stairs, or her legs get stuck behind the banister. Instead of becoming frustrated though, she just repositions herself and turns again - unlike Noah, who probably would've just either given up or started crying if in the same situation. As Sarah has become older, more and more differences in her and Noah's temperament are surfacing. Of course we didn't expect them to be the same, but it's interesting to observe. Noah was, and still is, more easily frustrated, but while Sarah is more patient and seems to be more skilled in problem solving, she seems to have a fiery temper and gets mad easily. Maybe it's just a language issue though, so it may be too early to tell. Noah tends to be pretty good at vocalizing his feelings when he's upset, and often will talk about hitting or hating things, rather than just acting out. Sarah, not so much, but then again, she can't talk yet, so we'll see what happens. In general though, I don't remember Noah getting mad that much, even when he couldn't talk yet.

Sarah on the move:

Sarah has also been moving around a lot more this month. She's cruising around, digging and discovering things around the house, and trying to turn everything she can find into a walker. She's definitely interested in moving around, and enjoys being in a standing position, so perhaps walking is not so far off for her. Sarah is such a small little munchkin though, with a big head, and doesn't seem to have very good balance when she isn't holding on to something, so who knows. As parents we tend to be eager for our babies to move quickly to the next milestone and I'm no exception, but I can't deny that it's been a bit easier to deal with two kids with one less mobile....especially when the other is a little too mobile. :) She's making progress though, so I'm sure she's fine.

Sarah is a mini-Peter.

Loves playing with Noah's toys.

Sarah may have a fiery temper, but most of the time, she's a happy, smiley, low-key, silly baby. She doesn't say much, but she says mama and dada a lot and gives kisses making a "mmmah" sound, so we're obviously completely satisfied with that. She always has smiles for mama, dada and Noah and loves hugging. She's become a little less wary of strangers, but she's having a lot more separation anxiety. Is that contradictory? Last week at church, we left her in the nursery and we found out later that she cried until she fell asleep. :( She often is tired at that time, but the paranoid part of me keeps wondering if she just retreated into sleep because she was so traumatized. :(((

Eating has been tricky, but I think Sarah may be turning a corner. For a while she seemed to be on a hunger strike, and would only eat Cheerios and warmed up milk. Everything else she'd have a few bites and then be done. Recently I've been limiting the milk a bit and she seems to be a bit receptive to more actual food. She also loves croissants - who doesn't? As a result, I've been making croissant sandwiches with cheese and ham inside, at least once or twice a week. I hope I'm not contributing to childhood obesity too much. Sarah gained three ounces between her 9 month and 12 month checkups so I've been a bit frantic trying to feed her. I keep worrying that she isn't eating enough for proper brain development...hehe. She is eating more yogurt and other foods too though, and even had some chicken the past few days. She's just so picky and still only has those four little teeth to work with! But I promise, I'm not just feeding her pastries.

Last bit of news is that I started taking Sarah to a music class this past week. It takes place during Noah's school and is actually right across the street, so it's very convenient. I took Noah to the same class when he was younger, but it seems like Sarah is enjoying it more than he did, so far. Mostly, I'm just happy to be able to do something with just Sarah, instead of just dragging her around on errands and Noah's activities, and she appears to be quite happy about it. Now that she's older and Noah's in school, we can have more mommy and second child time!

Happy (belated) 3rd Birthday Noah!

I can't believe that my little baby is 3!!! Every day I look at him and I think to myself, "When did he get so grown up??" Just today he went potty and washed his hands all by himself. Of course he ended up sitting on the toilet with the seat up to go number 2, but oh well. :) When I look back on our old videos and photos of him, it is amazing to see how much he's changed but also how much he's still the same. Every once in a while when I watch him play, I catch a glimpse of his newborn face. I think that for the rest of my life, I will be saying how shocked I am at how much he's grown...and it will always make me cry!!! I'm not crying now though, since he is actually still 3 and really not all that grown up, but he really has come a long way from the little peanut that he used to be.

Noah had a fun little birthday party, made extra special by his cousins' party entertainment: puppet show, balloon animals, and face painting; all of Noah's faves. He had been waiting allllll summer for his birthday party. Every time someone asked him how old he was, all he said was, "I'm going to have a Buzz Lightyear party." He got to wear his favorite Buzz Lightyear shirt, had a big Buzz Lightyear candle to blow out, and Peter got some Toy Story balloons. His most favorite part though was blowing out the candles. He likes to sing happy birthday to himself and then pretend to blow out candles. :) He was so, so happy. I'm not sure how he managed to go to sleep that night, let alone nap in the afternoon!

Noah has really been pushing the boundaries these past few months and has been kind of defiant, but I think we're starting to turn a corner. Just in the past week he's been a lot more cooperative. I think that after all that boundary pushing, he's starting to figure out where they are. Today I managed to take him to get a haircut, make a trip to Costco, then get home to make then finish eating lunch before noon. I felt so awesome about it, but really, I think the only reason I was able to be so efficient was because Noah was so cooperative. But after his haircut, we got in the car, and he said, "I was good at the haircut, I can watch something?" I didn't say he'd get to watch something if he behaved, and I didn't say that he had behaved well at the barber shop, but he's starting to work the system!! Haha.. He isn't usually that way though. Overall though I think he's finally starting to exhibit a little bit of self control and understand the need to be patient sometimes.

Noah and Sarah are starting to fight a little, and Sarah is fighting back. Noah really doesn't like her touching his toys (no surprise there) and he's always afraid she's going to lick them. Haha! I guess that's a reasonable fear. Sarah is starting to show her fire though and screams at Noah when he's not playing nicely. Otherwise, they like playing with each other. :) Sometimes when I'm occupied and can't attend to Sarah, I can ask Noah to keep her company and he will go and entertain her for a few minutes, which is nice. I never would've imagined it, but having two is sometimes easier than having just one! Yes it's definitely more exhausting having two and can be a little tricky logistically, especially around nap time, but overall it is more fun.

Noah is starting school this Monday, and though I've been waiting for this day ever since school let out in May, I think I'm actually going to be kind of sad to drop him off after being with him 24/7 this summer, even if it is only for three hours a day, three days a week. We've been reading Llama Llama Misses Mama to prep him for school and every time I ask him if he's going to miss mommy when he goes to school. He always says, "No, I'm a big boy," so we'll see what happens on Monday!