Noah at 3 years, 2 months

Halloween parade at school. Looking forward to Trick-or-treating tomorrow!

Noah is 3 years and 2 months old now, and is currently obsessed with sharks (and other sea animals) and riding his bike. He was going to be Buzz Lightyear for Halloween this year, but for whatever reason he wasn't really into the costume, even though he's still really into Buzz Lightyear. So, we decided on a shark and he's been pretty excited about that.

Here's Noah on the trail by our house in the spring right after we moved, and then yesterday, but riding his bike. It is so amazing to see how much he's grown from the spring to the fall. Even though he's been riding his bike for a little while now, the past month has been spent slowly working up the courage and confidence to ride more independently (starting and stopping on his own) and going down any type of hill. He's still pretty scared of most hills, which has been kind of nice since we have a sort of topological fence keeping Noah from taking off on his bike. It is so nice that Noah can, for the most part, entertain himself outside now since Sarah is starting to take more interest in moving around and doing things outside as well. 

Just so that no one reading this is lead to believe that it's all just fun and games around here (this includes myself, when I look back in the future), there have also been not so good things going on this month. Noah has not been very good at using his words at school and has instead been using his hands and feet  to communicate with pushing and kicking. We had a bunch of serious conversations with him last week about this and after he finally seemed to recognize the seriousness of the matter, he seemed to feel a bit sad about it. This past week has been good, so I'm hoping there are no more incidents in the future. It really must be hard for him though. The classroom is small, the playground is small, he has a lot of energy, he can be very strong-willed, he feels shy at school, and he goes to school Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. He usually has a great day on Monday, but by Wednesday I think he's really had enough. A MWF or maybe MTTh schedule might have been better for him, but I suppose eventually he'll be going to school every day, the whole week, so he'll have to adjust at some point. 

Aside from the school issues though, Noah has been more difficult at home as well. I recently started reading this 1-2-3 Magic book on discipline that a friend lent me, which has helped I think. The method is a bit gimmicky and I think recommends counting to three a little too often, but I've tried loosely applying some of the principles - particularly the one about remaining calm - and I really feel like I've seen a difference. And it isn't as though Noah has magically become super compliant, but when he starts misbehaving, he's quicker to stop misbehaving mainly because he knows that a) he's going to get a time-out and b) he's not going to - usually - get a rise out of me so he has nothing gain by continuing. But boy does he know how to test my patience. 

14 Month Update

Sarah is 14 months old now and she is starting to show some rascally tendencies! She isn't walking yet, but she definitely wants to. She is always pulling herself up and cruising, or using anything nearby has a walker. She often insists on me holding her hands so that she can walk around...and gets really mad if I don't do it. Sarah has quite the temper. If things don't go her way, she screams and cries bloody murder. Noah wasn't really like that...but he was also walking by now, so I guess there wasn't much for  him to get mad about. I'm pretty sure he was more communicative as well. Sarah's form of communication right now is screaming when she's unhappy about something. Yesterday though, she signed "more" for the first time! So exciting. There's now a little less screaming during meal times. Other than that, she says dada and mama, hi and bye, and that's about it. She seems to making forward progress in talking and mobility, even if it is slow, so I'm not too concerned (yet!). For now, I'll just enjoy not having to chase another small child around. Noah is only now able to walk around and do things on his own without me having to worry that he'll do something dangerous at any moment... I'm not looking forward to going through that again with Sarah.

"more"

Noah hit most of the milestones earlier than Sarah, but Sarah is a waaaaay better eater. She doesn't necessarily eat more than Noah did, but she is more open to different foods. I definitely do not have to stress as much about what she will/can eat. She's game for just about anything, as long as it tastes good and she can mash it up a bit and swallow it. There are lots of meals where she'll eat things that Noah declares "too hard to chew", even though he has like 20 teeth and she still has only four. I tried to stay away from jarred baby food with Sarah and expose her to more "real" food earlier on, whereas with Noah I always made sure everything was soft, in small pieces, and easy to eat so I wonder if maybe I made Noah into a lazy eater. There's really no way to tell, but whatever the cause, I'm glad Sarah is (for now at least) more adventurous in her eating. Hopefully she doesn't get too picky as she gets older.

Sarah is still taking two naps a day, but the first nap is a quick one, and usually taken in the car on Ergo. She can't quite make it to after lunch without napping so I just let her steal a quick nap to get her through to the afternoon. It's kind of annoying though because then I can't go anywhere in the afternoon since she and Noah aren't napping at the same time. Oh naps. I can't wait until I am done being a slave to the naps! It's nice to have the free time if they nap at the same time, but it only happens a few times a week, if I'm lucky. 

Well, that's all I can think of for this month. The Halloween circuit is up next and I decided to try my hand at home made costumes this year (ok, semi-home made) so we'll see how that goes! Hopefully they don't fall apart...hahaha.