Five Things Friday 01.26.12 - 55 Months

Since I've become a mother of two, my blogging has fallen a bit to the wayside. When Noah was little, I posted cute little stories punctuated with even cuter pictures. Emma's posts are mostly lumped into monthly updates, but at least I'm committed to it. Noah on the other hand, the busiest of them all has been sorely lacking in updates. So, I present to you, Noah - 55 months.

1. Bring on the Underwear. Pull-ups are out. It has all gone fairly smoothly. #2 issues are still being worked out, but underwear is here to stay. What a relief!

2. Alphabet Craze. From an early age, we limited Noah's ABC exposure. We knew it was something he picked up easily and he had the potential to perseverate on. As he gets older, it's more difficult to control how much exposure he has to things like letters and numbers. He is getting to the age where kids start to read and pre-academics is part of his curriculum. And, I also think at some point we just decided to let it go because he seriously loves the alphabet. He has tons of words memorized and does a really good job at guessing what most common nouns and verbs are. He knows a multitude of versions of the alphabet from books, songs, games, and shows. Each one being its own separate alphabet. This child's memory amazes me. His latest craze is the abc's from the show signing time. Nice work for fine motor.

3. Hey Jealousy. We've had a bit of a rough couple weeks. It's a bit of little boy, a bit of expressive language, and probably a bit of jealousy. These feelings have translated into some tantrums and out of character behavior. Just the other day he wrote all over my car seat with green marker. This coming from a child who carried around markers for three years and never wrote on anything.

* Speaking of which, it's been a couple months now, that the pencils have gone by the wayside. Yay!

He's quicker to disconnect when things get boring or uncomfortable or pretty much anytime he doesn't want to do what he's asked. It seems to be often lately, and I hope it's just a phase. I would really like my sweet boy back.

4. Occupations: I'm a reporter. For Christmas, Santa brought Noah an occupation puzzle. (Another alphabet he can memorize.) The R is for reporter. A blond guy with a pencil and a notepad. When he sees it, he says, "It's Noah. I'm a reporter."

5. Catch Phrase. Noah learns language by memorization. It's not that dissimilar from you and I picking up words and phrases from things we hear. But Noah does it for everything, and he copies inflection. His most recent functional phrasing is that instead asking for something by saying "I want _____ ." He says, "I want that ____, and I want it now." He's done this enough times that I know he'll use it consistently a bit and file it away for a future usage. Another one he's been using lately, is "I never" and "I'll prove to you" both said in gruff angry voice with some finger pointing. This is straight from Dr. Seuss's The Zax and most often come out when he's angry.