The End is Near

Pigs have flown. Hell has frozen over. It's only appropriate that I insert a "who dat" here, but the New Orleans Saints winning the NFC championship in one of most nerve-wracking, heart stopping games ever which is really just par for the course for Louisiana football, is not what I'm talking about here. As I take second to catch my breath after that lengthy opening sentence, I have to wonder if my faithful readers have noticed my tendency for extremely lengthy run-on sentences.

How Bout Dem Saints?

But, where was I? Oh, yes. Hell freezing over... Right.  Noah has dropped his nap. Dum. Dum.

I think I've been complaining about naptime for quite a while now. It's been so hard to find a consistent time for one between school and therapy and actual playing.  And, what ends up happening most of the time, is I put him down at an appropriate hour between 12:30-1:00, and he doesn't nap.  I know what you are going to say... put him in bed, and let him rest.  Have you met Noah?  There is either stop or go.  There is no in between.  So, if he doesn't sleep, he talks and sings and jumps and kicks.  So, still I usually give him about 45 minutes to an hour to try to work it out.  And, sometimes he does fall asleep, but those sometimes are few and far between these days, so I take him out of bed.  So, then what happens is around 3:00-3:30, he is done.  Exhausted.  So tired he can hardly hold it together, so I put him down for a late nap.  And he sleeps until 6:00-6:30, so who knows what time he is actually ready to go down for the night... it was 10:00 one night.  Not much Momma time in the evenings with that bedtime.  I know what you are going to say... wake him up from his late nap.  I've tried that, and then the hours before actual bedtime are COMPLETE TORTURE.  So, between our recent trip to San Antonio and the Saints game this weekend (umm... I wasn't getting up in the 4th quarter to bathe him), Noah's sleep schedule has been all out of whack.  Late afternoon naps have become the norm, and I am so not cool with that.  So, this week I decided to try out just letting the nap go.  Just let it go. 

Are you people seriously still with me, because I am really starting to feel like I am rambling like a crazy person?  So, Tuesday and Wednesday, he did okay without a nap.  He went down earlier than usual, but 7:00-7:30 was okay for me.  Dean made it home in time to see him two out of the three nights, so I am thinking that this no nap thing is doable.  Plus, as a bonus, he slept in until 8:15 AM all three days.  And, except for the day that I forgot therapy was coming at 8:00, and I answered the door in my pajamas... I am all on board with the sleeping in.  However, this is day four, and those couple hours missing during the day have caught up with Mister No.  Today, at about 3:45, HE WAS EXHAUSTED.  So, I stretched it as long as I could, but finally, I just put him in bed... at 5:30!

So, like I said earlier... Noah has dropped his nap.  Or, has he!  (Insert evil laugther here.)

¿Habla Español?

Parenting Mistakes

Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me.  I'd like to think that most of the time I learn from my parenting mistakes, and most of the time, I do. 

Like the time Noah was about 12 months old, and I left him alone in his "child-proof" room while I unloaded the groceries. I checked in on him after about five minutes of playing alone only to find him tearing off pits of foam from a NERF football with his front teeth and eating them.  He had swallowed about four big hunks of hot pink foam from what I could tell before I was able to stop him.  Thank the Lord there was no choking involved, and he passed the foreign objects the next day.  Ick!

Or the time when we were still living in Miami.  After a particular harrowing trip to Publix, I wrangled Noah into his carseat with the promise of a movie for the two-block drive home.  It wasn't until I arrived in the parking garage of our building to unload groceries and Noah that I realized I had not strapped him into his carseat.  How scary!  I will not make that mistake again! 

But recently two mistakes have managed to repeat themselves much to my chagrin.

First, one week after we moved into our shiny and new house, I had of course made a huge Costco run.  Included in my purchase was a 1.5 liter bottle of wintergreen Listerine.  I was busy in our master bathroom unloading purchases when I hear the gushing sound of liquid.  I rush to the sound coming from our closet thinking that a call to poison control might be in order, only to find Noah pouring the entire 1.5 liter bottle of Listerine onto the carpet in our closet.  It took me two rolls of paper towels and lots of elbow grease to mop up all that minty freshness.  It must not have been too painful for me because I had to repeat the exercise last week on the bedroom carpet with a fresh 1.5 liter bottle of wintergreen Listerine.  Looks like we will no longer be buying mouthwash in bulk, although our bedroom does smell pretty fresh these days. 

Apparently, I put too much faith in my child, thinking that if he is corrected for something once then he won't do it again.  I was wrong.  He first colored on the wall in our apartment in Miami.  It was his first time using colors.  With his penchant for red, I walked out of the kitchen to find the door to his room covered in it.  That was over eight months ago, and he has never done it again.  In fact, some days red or pink colors are his stick of choice to carry around.  And, he has never written on the wall since... well, you know what that say about saying never.  This weekend, during "naptime," I walk into his room to find red color covering the wall behind his crib.  Sigh.  Looks like I'll be heading to the store for some magic erasers, and it looks like colors are no longer allowed without a desk and some paper. 

Beautiful. Gorgeous. Wish You Were Here.

We have had some absolutely beautiful weather here in Texas this past week. Noah and I have tried to spend as much time as we can outdoors.  One day this week, we went to the park, where we met up with our new friend Mikaela.

This is Mikaela. Isn't she a cutie?  She is one of our new neighbors. She and her mommy, Mrs. Kathy have become our good friends. We go on daily walks together around the lake by our house.

Even though, Noah is a little bit bigger than his new friend, M. He loves hanging out with her. During strolls, they chat back and forth, and at the park, Noah ran right up to her and said her name.  So cute!

He also likes to steal share her snack cup, which is a sure sign of Noah's affection.

We also spent some time in our backyard this week. For all the moaning I did in Miami about our lack of green space, we sure haven't used our backyard as much as I thought.

We made up for it this week. I guess it's time to invest in a play structure. Right now, Noah just runs around.

His favorite path is by the back fence. Due to a sprinkler issue when we first moved in, the ground stays a little damp and the lawnmower has left some deep grooves. It's the perfect path for running.

And, after we play outside, we always come in for a sip and a good hand washing.

Today, Daddy came outside to play with us.

He needed to work off some gameday energy.  Geaux Saints!

Walk Along the River, Part Three

One of the best parts of the trip was spending time with Grammy and PaPa.  I especially loved that Noah is starting to actually call them Grammy and PaPa.  He especially did a lot of bonding with his PaPa over the weekend.

Here are Noah and PaPa cheering for the Saints or more importantly, the over.

And, here are Noah and PaPa enjoying some fine dining together at Las Canarias.

And, here are Noah and PaPa snuggling in bed after a long day.

We love you PaPa!

Walk Along the River, Part Two

So, the weekend in San Antonio was a pretty low key.  We did a little shopping, watched some football, did some eating and then a bit of walking to counteract the eating.  Noah was introduced to a couple new foods.  Apples and corn dogs.  I know, totally random, but it's always exciting to add more food into the rotation.  I mean, eating a corn dog has to up the nutritional value of eating just a plain hot dog, right?  Add in the ketchup... BAM!  Carbs, protein, and a veggie.  As for the apple, well, he has had apple before, but never has he eaten all by himself off the core.  He loved them.

We did have to limit our trips to the front lobby since that was were Noah found the apples.  I am sure they  were there for the guests to enjoy, but the hotel staff probably never thought to put a per day limit on them.

The first night we ate Boudrou's - a riverside restaurant known for their prickly pear margaritas.  I had eaten there before and I remembered it being really yummy.  I had some delicious guacamole risotto, may have to try this at home.  It was a rainy day, so we had the hotel drop and pick us up from dinner.  While we were waiting in the lobby for our ride, Noah walked right up to some guy standing in the lobby.  The guy was also standing inside waiting for his ride.  Noah looked up at him, and then pushed the guy in the stomach, so the guy would look down at him. 

I think with the dark hair and facial hair, Noah thought it might be Dean.  He just needed a better look to confirm.  It was really funny, and I think it kind of freaked out the young, kid-less man. 

On one of our shopping excursions, Noah got a glimpse of the Alamo.  As you can see, he was totally impressed.  I think I heard him say, "I thought it would be so much bigger?"  Check off our list of things to see in Texas.  Does my child not look totally exhausted in this picture?  It was taken at around 11:45 AM on our walk to the Rivercenter.  We shopped and had lunch and then finally went back to the room for a snooze.  And, believe it or not, he wouldn't go to sleep.  I think he was really beyond tired.  So, after trying for about a half hour, I decided we should punt the nap and try out the San Antonio Children's Museum.  This is what our 30 minute visit looked like.

It was a nice museum, although not very big.  All the exhibits were really spread out, and Noah must have lapped the first floor about twenty times.  Finally, I convinced him to take a peek at the upper and lower levels.  Nothing slows a toddler down like having to navigate stairs.  But, that only lasted so long because really how much more fun is this...

He crashed on the stroll back to the hotel and proceeded to sleep until 6:45 PM.  He woke up just in time to meet up with everyone for dinner out, and it also gave me the opportunity to shower and dress for dinner.

There is something to be said for a rested kid.  Noah did so great at dinner on this night.  It was a pretty nice restaurant, and it was a pretty big group of people.  We were seated right in front of a wall of mirrors, and Noah spent most of the evening talking to himself in the mirror.  He also entertained the table with his ABC's.  I do have to commend Pesca for an excellent kids menu.  The chicken nuggets were excellent.  Oh, and so was the wine and crab stuffed lobster.  Mmmm.

Walk Along the River, Part One

My dad had a business trip in San Antonio over the weekend, so I decided Noah and I needed a change of scenery.  I loaded up the car on Friday afternoon, and we headed west.  The drive was painless.  Noah is and always has been such a great traveler.  Our accommodations were awesome.  A small hotel, right on the Riverwalk.  The Watermark.  I pulled up to the curb on the alleyway/one-way street, rolled down the passenger window and told the nice valet that I was checking in and I was loaded down with luggage and a two-year-old.  Do little ones require a ton of stuff or what?  We had one medium sized suitcase, a pack and play, computer bag, diaper bag, a backpack of toys and books, a stroller, two cloth grocery bags filled with milk, juice, peanut butter and jelly, bread, sippy cups, etc.  See what I mean... a ton of stuff. 

Noah and I checked in at the front desk and headed up to our rooms.  Oh, the magic of a fresh hotel room, and all the treasures you can find inside. 

Beautiful accommodations.  We shared an adjoining suite with my parents... all the more space to run and jump.

Since Noah has counting by tens down, he has decided to move on to telling time.  Just kidding... I hope.  For your information - If your hotel ever has these cute little vintage clocks, don't be fooled.  They may or may not still be fully functioning alarm clocks that may or may not be set for 4:30 AM, and that may or may not inadvertently wake up your two-year-old at said hour... I'm just saying.

It has been a while since I've stayed in a hotel, and it totally slipped my mind that hotel rooms are teeming with pens.  Pens just happen to be Noah's stick of choice of late, and pens just happen to be where Momma puts her foot down these days.  Let's just say that taking away all the pens does not make the vacation highlight reel. 

Hello.  Housekeeping, please.  Umm... yes, can you send up some more writing materials, stat?

Look Who's Talking 01.13.10

For a child that doesn't actually communicate verbally, Noah never... NEVER... stops talking.  If there is not a sip or a snack in his mouth, there is constant stream of words coming out.  And, sometimes, if I am lucky, I can actually understand what he is saying.

Tonight while I was tossing grapes in the air and catching them in my mouth, Noah said, "Uh oh. Spaghetti-O's"  when I missed and a grape fell on the floor.  Not sure he knows what a spaghetti-o is, but I do know he got that saying from me.

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He is into labeling everything as Momma's.  He reaches for my watch off the bathroom sink, "Momma's clock"  He grabs my huge Sonic diet coke off the counter, brings it to me and says, "Momma's drink." 

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He counts to 10 in Spanish.  I have no idea where he picked this up from, but I mentioned it to one of the administrators at his preschool.  She said that Noah does have a bilingual little girl in his class, so one of the teacher's sometimes speaks to her in Spanish.  During art this week, his teacher started talking to Noah in Spanish, labeling colors.  We'll have to wait and see if his red becomes rojo. 

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Noah and I sing all the time.  Lately, he is singing all the words to Boom Boom Pow by the Black Eyed Peas, Somebody to Love from the Glee Soundtrack, Skinnamarink which he sings while I do the hand motions, and the "oh, oh, oohhhs," from Beyonce's Single Ladies complete with dancing and hand shaking.

Canaille

Pronounced KAH NAHY.  It's from the Cajun French dictionary meaning mischievous. It's a word my grandmother sometimes uses to refer to my nephew Zachary.  My sister threw it out there on her blog post about Z today.  It was so cute, funny and apropos that I thought it only fitting that in honor of his birthday, I give you a perfect example. 

Zachary is my godchild.  Dean, coincidentally, has a godchild almost exactly the same age, so for our wedding we asked both of them to be ringbearers. 

Here are Zack and Don at the age of four.  How cute are they?

 During our vows, the priest invited the entire wedding party to stand on the altar. He made sure to include everyone, even the little guys.  They look a little bored in this picture, but don't you worry.  Little Zack's mind is in motion.  Notice his right foot.

 All you need to do is take a step down.  Then take a step up.  Step down.  Step up.  Come on Don! This is so much fun!

 OK... if you say so.  This does look like fun. Up. Down. Up. Down. 

 Oops.  Were we not supposed to be doing that?  Zack's daddy quickly put a stop to those shenanigans.  The funny part is that Dean and I said "I do" totally clueless to the little guys next to us.  It wasn't until we finally saw the pictures that we got the whole story. 

Happy Birthday Zachary

Dear Zachary,

Here is a special blog post just for you to wish you the happiest of happy birthdays, and to let you know that you are awesome (but you know that), and that you totally rock (which you also know).  I hope you have an awesome golden birthday... 11 on the 11th! 

It seems like just yesterday, I was standing in the Vandy gym for your christening.

And, now you are all grown up, but still as sweet as ever.

Thanks for always being such a sweet big cousin to Noah.

Happy Birthday Z!  We love you very much and hope to see you soon!

Five Things Friday 01.08.10 - Totally Random

1. Brrr... It's cold out there. Houston is seeing some pretty uncharacteristically low temperatures this week. Noah is still wearing his pajamas, and I am feeling comfy and cozy in yoga pants and a t-shirt with no type of physical activity planned for the remainder of the day. The temperature outside is 29 degrees but according to the weatherman FEELS LIKE 18. I am just going to go ahead and take his word for it. In fact, I am seriously considering staying indoors until this front passes. You didn't hear it here, but I may be missing Miami today.

2. Happy Birthday Elvis. Or more importantly... Happy Anniversary to my big sister and my favorite brother-in-law. Today, they are celebrating 17 years. Wow! Let's just put this in perspective. On your wedding day, I was in 9th grade. My bridesmaid dress was drop waist. My hair was coiffured with the aid of a topsy tail. Good times. Happy day you guys! Thanks for all those years of letting me be the third wheel. I like to think I helped contribute to your years of wedded bliss.

3. Cognitive Jump. Noah and I spent a good part of the morning meeting with a couple therapists from the local early intervention program. Today was his annual evaluation, and although we have not been with this program an entire year, only four months, it has been one year since his initial evaluation in Miami. The evaulation was a series of standardized test. Questions are grouped by age and scores for each question are either 1 or 0. Once three zeroes are scored in a section, that particular test is complete. The areas of development being evaluated are cognitive, expressive communication, receptive communication, motor, social/emotional and adaptive. So, how is he doing? Since the first evaluation with the program in September, Noah has either stayed the same or improved slightly in all areas. The one area that he has had the largest jump is his cognitive development... thinking and learning. Four months ago, he tested at a 21 month level, and today he tested at a 31 month level. What a big jump in such a short time, and the one category he scored age appropriately! Way to go sweet boy!

4. Family Moment. Earlier this week, Dean made it home into for some family play time with Noah. Dean and I were trying to get Noah to play with us, and we made a big production about tickling each other. Momma is going to tickle Daddy. Tickle tickle tickle. Noah started really laughing, and joined in on our tickle game, taking turns helping us tickle each other. It was really great. His interaction with us has really improved since the holidays, and we couldn't be happier.

5. Join the Crowd. One of the first things I did when moving here was join a gym, and before this week, I had been... umm... never. So, this week a bunch of girls from my mom's group started talking about how they'd joined the same gym and had started going regularly. I had been using the excuse that I was not sure how Noah would handle the child watch or more accurately, how the child watch would handle Noah. Well, on Tuesday as we pulled away from the parking lot of Noah's not in session school (a whole other story), I made the last minute decision to continue on to the gym with Noah in tow. I dropped him off at child watch, made the nice lady aware of the color in his hand, and made sure they knew that he was indeed only two and not three despite his size. He did fine. And, I did ok. Maybe next time, I can get a complete workout in without having to go and check on him twice.

Hang On To Your Hat

You may have noticed in the previous post that Noah is wearing a hat.  Are you as shocked as me?  Well, maybe you cannot fully appreciate how momentous this is, but seriously, Noah has not allowed ANY type of headwear since about 9 months.  And, now suddenly, he tolerates it and not only tolerates it, but likes it.  It all started earlier this week.   I had him in a gray hoodie sweatshirt, and I flipped up the hoodie.  I fully expected him to pull it right off, but unexpectedly, he kept it on for at least 5 minutes.  Then the next day, we went to a New Year's Eve playdate, and they had party hats.  He immediately picked up one and put it on his head.  I was so excited.  So, yesterday, he comes out of our closet with two LSU purple hats.  Noah hands one to Daddy to wear, and then lets Daddy put one on his head.  I think he wanted to be like his Daddy.

Momma is so proud of you for trying new things and I think you look so cute in a hat.  I will be getting you your very own LSU cap in your size.  So, you can still be just like Daddy, but...

Possibly see where you are going as well.

Let's Go to the Movies

Today Dean and I took Noah to his very first movie.  We saw the new Disney movie The Princess and the Frog.  Dean has been wanting to take Noah to the show for quite some time, and I thought that a Disney movie would be a good choice. 

It was a really cute show.  Set in New Orleans, with tons of insider Lousiana jokes.

Daddy and Noah hand in hand heading into the theatre. 

Getting our snacks.  Popcorn and M&Ms.

Ready for the show.

Noah was so good and only started to get restless about an hour into the show.  He loved all the music in the film, and he ate at least half of a medium size order of popcorn.  What a fun family outing.