Mr. July

Coming soon: Swimsuit Calendar - Baby Edition, featuring Noah as Mr. July.

John and I spent 4th of July with family. My parents bought a small inflatable pool for Noah to play with in their backyard.

 He loved it.

He especially loved splashing around.

And he loved playing with his beach ball. Some things just never change.

The pool even came with a  slip 'n slide with mini sprinklers.

  

 He already has quite the farmer's tan. Sigh - like father, like son.

Yogurt

In addition to Toy Story 3, Noah also LOVES yogurt.

Chobani to be exact.

He'll often hover around the refrigerator until I open it for him. He either reaches for some fruit or yogurt. But I have to be prepared. If I don't take off the lid fast enough or have a spoon ready for him, he will absolutely lose it and throw a fit (is this the beginning of the "terrible twos"?).

He likes to sit in the living room and eat his yogurt, creating a huge mess as he's still learning how to use a spoon. And don't even think about trying to help him - he's super independent when it comes to using a spoon and fork. He hates it when you try to help him. Even if you try to hold the yogurt cup for him, he'll pry your fingers off. I like his independence and his willingness to eat "like a big boy," but I definitely don't like the mess it creates!

Hence, the no shirt :)

Slide

When Noah was first learning how to walk, he'd crawl over to the slide at the playground and try to climb up the opposite way. Since then he's learned how to walk up the stairs and slide down.

Sorta.

But sometimes he does get it right.

He absolutely loves the slide and usually spends the entire time we're at the playground just walking up the stairs and sliding down, over and over again.

"Bunny"

One of my good friends Richelle had her baby shower this weekend. I'm beyond happy for her and so excited that Noah will have another best friend :)

As you can tell, the baby shower was Mickey Mouse themed. Noah associates anything with big ears as a "bunny" so of course he kept pointing to Mickey and saying "bunny!" even though he knows the word "mouse." Go figure.

The kids received little goodie bags and Noah quite enjoyed the slinky :)

Toy Story 3

There's nothing, and I mean nothing, that Noah loves more than Toy Story 3.

Did I mention that he loves Toy Story 3?

He watches that movie at least once a day. Scratch that - at least twice a day (and sometimes three times a day).

I don't know why he loves this movie in particular, but's he obsessed. Look how entranced he is.

And if I try to play anything else for him, he knows. Oh boy, he knows...

I'm not even sure why I started playing this movie for him to begin with. He's usually not one for watching TV. He never showed much interest in cartoons and pretty much ignores the television whenever we're watching something. I think I might've just played this movie for him when we were on a road trip somewhere just to keep him entertained, and the rest was history...

Now every time he sees my iPad, he reaches for it, desperate to watch Toy Story 3. Even if he's already seen it that day. We've now started to hide my iPad. 

Today, we went to Movie Stop to trade in some DVDs and purchase some new ones. Noah went straight for the Disney section and picked out, what else? Toy Story (albeit parts 1 and 2, but still!).

About A Boy

I don't know what it is, but so many people think Noah is...a girl! He is seriously mistaken for a girl all the time - at restaurants, the grocery store, at the playground. There's always some combination of "Does she need a highchair?" or "Aw, so cute! What's her name?" or my personal favorite "Oh, that's a boy???"

A lot of people say it's the eyelashes. Or even the eyebrows. They are so "well-groomed" and his eyelashes are "so long," which apparently is all you need to look like a girl. 

If anything, I personally think it's the hair.

I often joke with people that this is God's cruel joke - knowing that I wanted a girl so bad, He instead gave me a boy...that looks like a girl. 

Not wanting my little boy to be mistaken for a girl yet again, John and I decided to cut his hair. It's been about 4 months since his last haircut, which is a pretty good stretch of time in my opinion. Wanting to save money, we decided to cut his hair at home, a task that seemed simple enough after watching a couple YouTube videos (something about YouTube makes you feel like you can be an expert at anything).

Noah sat down to read his favorite book while John cut away.

After - our handsome little man! (And John did a pretty good job, no?)

Merry-Go-Round

My parents have this awesome playground just a short drive from their house. The warmer-but-not-too-warm weather makes it the ideal time to take Noah to the playground. 

First up was the swing. I really thought Noah would like it, but he seemed unsure. Half the time I couldn't tell if he was laughing or crying. 

Even when I sat with him, he seemed uninterested.

Then it was the merry-go-round.

Now THIS he liked.

I only pushed the merry-go-round a few slow turns, but when the other kids started clambering on wanting to go faster, I decided to take him off (the worried mother that I am).

He did NOT like the see-saw.

He DID like the slide. It was one of his favorites. I think he enjoyed the rush of sliding down really fast. I have a feeling he'll really like rides and roller coasters when he gets older, which is great because John loves them. But at the same time, not so great because I hate them. I'll be the mother who stands off to the side and takes pictures and waves to them as they ride by.

Half the time he was more interested in picking up the mulch and inspecting each piece.

The other half, he was trying to get to this ball. "Ball" is his favorite word, and pretty much the only word he says, even when it's not in context. But he will often point to spherical objects and triumphantly say "ball." He's even gotten quite good at bouncing a ball and playing catch (could this mean I have a future basketball player in the family?!)

Happy Saturday!

80s Babies

Noah and I attended an 80s-themed birthday party this weekend. Not one to shy away from dressing for the occasion, I donned Noah and me in the the best 80s ensembles I could pull together with a few pieces I had in my closet and some last-minute purchases I had to make at Forever 21. 

Noah's face says it all - he's absolutely terrified of me and what I'm wearing. When he's older, I'll have to explain to him the baffling fashion phenomenon that was the 80s.

Every picture I'd ever seen of my Dad in the 80s, he's wearing short shorts and knee-lenth tube socks. Those memories are the inspiration behind Noah's outfit. I found the most neon-colored clothing I could find, rolled up his shorts, and pulled up his socks. I was inspired to try a Flock of Seagulls hairstyle with Noah, but time and his refusal to sit still prevented me from doing so. Instead, he's sporting a matching headband (cuz, you know, the 80s were all about aerobics). 

Happy Monday and I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend!

Playground Etiquette

What exactly is proper etiquette at the playground, for both children and parents? I took Noah to the indoor playground at the Avenues Mall today so he could run around and hopefully make some new friends. We were literally there not even 30 seconds before a kid, much bigger than Noah, came running up behind and pushed him face first into the floor. Of course Noah, who spends most days indoors, was shocked and cried immediately. All the other kids, again much older than Noah, ignored him and ran around him screaming, which made him even more upset. The father of the boy who pushed Noah didn't get up from where he was sitting and just yelled across the playground at his son.

And that was it. 

Maybe it's none of my business, but I felt that this parent missed an opportunity to teach his son proper playground etiquette, especially around children who are much younger and smaller than him. Noah spent the next few minutes clinging to me, not wanting me to let him go. I took him down the slide a couple times and sat with him while he watched the other children play, just so he could feel comfortable enough to start walking around again. A few minutes later, he seemed ready to play again so I set him down. And the same kid came running around and pushed Noah down...AGAIN! At this point, I was highly upset and annoyed and actually encouraged Noah to cry louder, instead of trying to shush him, just so the other parent could hear and oh, I dunno, maybe actually get up and discipline his kid?! Which brings me to my original question: what exactly is proper etiquette at the playground? Especially when it comes to discipling someone else's kid? I wanted to scold this kid myself, for pushing down my son, but I wasn't sure if I'd be overstepping any boundaries. John absolutely thinks I had the right to yell at this kid, but I'm still not so sure. What do you guys think? In the end, I didn't have to worry because the other parent eventually scolded his kid (albeit from his seat without getting up) and made his son apologize to my son. He came over looking quite sheepish and said he was sorry to Noah (which leads me to believe that this kid was at least old enough to know not to push over a much younger kid to begin with, but I digress). Noah just looked at him blankly, but I'm sure he forgave him. At that point, however, he was so over the playground so we left and got some ice cream instead.

Allergies

Noah has quickly grown from cuddly baby to happy hyper toddler. Over the months, John and I have faced challenges with Noah's newfound ability to feed himself with a fork, walk, and generally get into everything. But probably the biggest challenge we've faced is dealing with his still-unidentified skin rash. He's had issues in the past with eczema and really bad diaper rash, both of which he was able to get prescription medication for and have since cleared up. But a new rash on his face appeared that was quite aggressive and would never seem to go away no matter what we tried. We've taken him to the doctor several times, given him over-the-counter allergy medications and creams, and tried to isolate the problem ourselves by eliminating certain foods to try to identify any allergies, but nothing seemed to work.  The rash had remained quite persistent since he turned one, so about three months, although he hasn't had any bad breakouts for about three weeks now, which is his longest streak yet. 

This was his skin on a really good day. You can start to see some redness under his eyes.

This was his skin on a good day. Tiny bumps start to form under his eyes and around his mouth.

This was his skin on a typical day.  Even more tiny red bumps under his eyes, around his mouth, and around his nose. Some days it would spread onto his cute puffy cheeks.

Last week, we took him to an allergist, but all the tests turned out negative. Although still a mystery, at least we were able to rule that out. Doctor said it could very well just be eczema that spread to his face.

They're able to perform the allegory tests now without any shots, which is wonderful. All they do is place a tiny bit of liquid on their skin and wait for a reaction. The waiting part was actually the hardest part - we had to keep Noah still for 15 minutes. We distracted him with cookies.

The spot at the top left was the "control" - if Noah had an allergic reaction, it would look like the control area. As you can see, they all remained relatively small.

Although we didn't learn anything conclusive at Noah's allergy appointment, at least he had a blast at the doctor's office.

This is his skin now. He looks pretty awesome if I do say so myself. I LOVE those cheeks - I could kiss them for days.

Noah: Naughty and Nice

This year, Noah has been nice...and naughty. But mostly nice. He's definitely nearing the stage of the "terrible twos" (throwing tantrums, crying when he doesn't get his way), but he's mostly playful and sweet.

We had a busy holiday season, which is why I haven't blogged here in a while. Here's a quick update of what we've been up to. 

First we went to our friends Richelle and Chris' place for our annual Secret Santa/White Elephant party. 

Noah had the cutest place setting with, what else? His own penguin sippy cup and matching plate.

He opened presents that night and got a lot of goodies such as clothes, shoes, and books.

Next up was another holiday party at my auntie's place. 

We didn't put up a tree this year so Noah had fun playing with this one.

On Christmas eve we went to church. Here's where Noah was a bit...naughty. But what can you expect? It's hard for any kid to sit still and quiet during a church service. But for the most part he did well. 

On Christmas morning, we opened gifts.

Noah has an obsession with shoes. He's always going into our closet to pick up our shoes. He'll carry them around the house (and unfortunately leave them in random places, making it difficult for us to find). He'll even stick his feet into our shoes and try to wear them. So I decided to get him a new pair. 

Then it was off to Nana and Pop Pop's place. Noah was very good at giving his gifts.

But even better at receiving them.

Lastly, it was off to Grandma and Grandpa's place where, you guessed it - he opened even more gifts!

And to top off our holiday season, we spent New Year's Eve with family. Here were my two kisses at midnight (and yes, that's Noah's hand in my champagne :) 

Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!