Noah is 2

The greenest of green frosting on his birthday cupcake

"I want to sit by Noah!"

Pinning the tail on the donkey... or the wall.

Mmmm, candy necklace

Or, shall we say "No ah" is two, as we are hearing a lot of "no" out of this child lately?  "Is "no" your favorite word, Noah?"  "NO!"  Oh, sweet sweet 2.  Noah has been acting very "two" for a while.  He has a funny personality.  Seriously, I don't know what he's going to be when he grows up.  A comedian?  Salesman?  Heck, he could be President.  Yesterday, he and I were doing a puzzle (one of his favorite activities) and he was drooling and spit a big pool onto the table, so I said "don't spit on the table!" and he immediately rubbed the spit into the table to clean it up.  That is Noah.  He listens, but kind of does things in his own way.  And generally, he likes things the crazier the better.  He loves for me to drop him down into his crib after I sing him a lullaby and laughs and laughs, then blessedly goes right to sleep.  One of his favorite things is to do is jump on the bed and say "Look me!  Look me!  Monkey on bed!  Monkey on bed!  Monkey fall on bed!" his version of "5 little monkeys."  I won't lie that he's kind of been a challenge for me, lately.  He loves to throw things.  He loves to spit.  He loves to hit and put his hands on John Michael to irritate him in any way possible.  Yes, lots of time-outs for this one, lately.  Hopefully some of our discipline is sinking in?

Noah has been going through a serious "Daddy" phase the past few months.  He wants only Michael, which totally hurts my feelings as ehem, I did nurse him for over a year!  I will say that Noah and I have kind of bonded this week while JM is at day camp with Ava across the street.  With more one-on-one attention, his behavior has been much better and I am amazed at some of the things he can do, like put all the puzzle pieces into a 10 piece puzzle, or name colors, or make a tower of blocks "REALLY, REALLY high!!" or just entertain himself.  He really is a middle child; very resourceful, this one.  He's had an explosion of language development these past couple of weeks and is talking SO much.  The other day I counted a six-word sentence.  You can actually have a real conversation with him, now.  On the way to Whole Foods yesterday, I said, "we're going to the store and then we're going to eat lunch outside." To which he responded, "Cow place?" which I assume means Phil's Ice House.  Wow.  What goes on in that little mind?  It's funny he'd remember the cows. One of my favorite things to hear him say is "Et tu," which is how he says thank you.  He is really polite and I love it. 

Noah continues to love his bed and sleeping.  He is the easiest one in this family to get to bed (other than Mike and I, of course!)   All it takes is a story, a song, his beloved paci!, and as aforementioned a dropping into the crib and he's quiet.  He sleeps in late, usually until around 8.  His bed is a haven for stuffed animals and blankets of all kinds.  Last I checked, he has 3 blankets, a lovey, a stuffed frog pillow, a full-size Pillow Pet, a large giraffe, a rubber baby and a stuffed "Simba" in there.   There is barely room for him!   He naps a good long nap, God bless him, usually going for 3 hours or more.

In regard to eating, Noah is just like Daddy.  He would much rather snack all day than eat a full meal.  He has always been this way, even as a baby.  He rarely eats anything, but he loves bagels, pizza, sausage, cheese, pickles, beets and any kind of fruit.  His typical lunch is a plate with a slice of turkey (of which he takes one bite), a slice of cheese, a mound of beets and a cracker.  The first thing he eats is always the beets, which I, a beet-hater, think is weird!   He loves smoothies, so I like to get him ones with kale and spinach to try to make up for his lack o' vegetables.

Last week on our "staycation" we celebrated his birthday.  Before we left, we gave him his present, which is a blue Mini Kick Scooter just like John Michael's green one.  He picked it up right away and is scootering all over the place.  At Lost Pines, all the cousins were fighting over who got to sit next to Noah whereever we went, to which Michael responded, "We don't have any openings tonight, but we can get you in tomorrow at lunch."  Ha.  He is just at that age where older kids are amused by him, little enough to pick up, but big enough that he's a lot of fun. Oh, and he's cute, too.

We love you, silly boy Noah and can't wait to see where you go and what you do next!  Happy birthday!