Well, here we are

That's right, we're officially in the terrible twos, although I think Noah actually got a head start on this stage in his life. His birthday was lots of fun. He enjoyed opening presents this year and has had fun playing with his new toys (so has Luke). We had some friends over for cake & ice cream Thursday night; it was wild but fun. He had his two-year check-up on Friday: he weighed 26.6 pounds which is the 34%. That's a big jump from the 15% at his 18-month check-up! He's 35 inches tall (57%).

As far as the whole terrible twos thing goes, here's a snippet from our life this morning. Noah was supposed to be eating a waffle, but he was just eating syrup. I asked him to eat his waffle, and he looked at me and said, "No." I said, "Excuse me, what did you say?" To which he repeated, as clear as day, "No." Hmm . . . so that's the direction we're taking. Nice.

Here are a few pictures from his big day.

He hasn't quite mastered holding up just two fingers.

Happy birthday, Noah!

My favorite things

In honor of my friend Ellen who came up with the idea for this blog, I present some of my favorite things.This ornament has been on our Christmas tree for as long as I can remember. I don't know where it came from, but it's one of my favorites, and I'm so glad I inherited it. I always put it on the front of the tree so when I'm looking at the ornaments I can find it and think about my mom and Nana and the wonderful Christmases we had when I was young.
Another little gem I inherited. We also have Woodstock, Linus, Charlie Brown, & Schroeder. Again, I don't know where these came from, but they've been a part of Christmas since I was little.

I love my stocking because my Nana made it when I was little, and I use it every year. I also love Santa's pink mittens.

Boys, boys, boys

This has become one of my boys' favorite things to do. Luke gets a pillow for Noah to lie on, and then he covers him with a blanket. Noah will stay like this for quite a while. It's the only time during the day that he's actually still.

Welcome to Chumley's Dueling Pianos Bar!

I found Noah like this during his nap last week.

I took the blankie off his head, and he immediately went to the classic booty-in-the-air position

Elfred

Here are a few of Elfred's recent hangouts:On the light above our kitchen tableLuke took this picture
This is by far my favorite, and I have to give credit to Gary because he's the one who put him there.

One day this week I put the elf in Luke's room. Luke told me he was a little afraid when he woke up and saw the elf looking at him, but he apparently got over it. He loves to tell his friends next door where the elf is every morning, and anyone who comes over is immediately ushered to Elfred's current spot. About a week ago, Luke decided he wanted a Rubik's cube, and he walked right over to Elfred and told him. I think Elfred got the word to Santa because Luke is indeed getting a Rubik's cube for Christmas.

I was telling my sister last week about our elf, and she told me about some people at her church who also have an elf, but their elf is bad. He "tells" the parents to do destructive things like dismantle their Christmas tree, and the parents do it. When the children wake up each morning, they see whatever bad thing the elf has done overnight. This is very weird. To me the whole point of the elf is to get your kids to behave better, not become more destructive. I'm not sure what kind of crazy parents would take down their Christmas tree, but rest assured, if Elfred ever does something like that, he'll be out on his tiny, squishy behind before you can say, "Bad elf".

Starfish Christmas party

Yesterday was the Christmas "party" for Noah's Mother's Day Out class. There wasn't much to it. They had cookies, and we were supposed to sing Jingle Bells, but none of them were much interested in singing. As soon as I got there, Noah wanted to go, so I spent 20 minutes standing around holding him. Oh well . . . I expected as much!It cracks me up when they're all sitting at this table.
This is Noah's girlfriend, Charlotte. Almost every day at lunch, he holds her sippy cup for her so she can drink it. He used to do the same thing in the infant nursery when he was about a year old. He would ignore all the other babies, but he would take snacks to her and try to give her his cup to drink. They are in l-o-v-e.

Crazy weather

Here is a summary of our weather for the past 24 hours:

-yesterday's high - 74
-severe thunderstorms last night--including the tornado siren going off at 11:15
-today's high - 65 . . . the high was at about 9:00 this morning
-temperature at 5:00 p.m. - 37
-sleet at 7:00

Scary ol' St. Nicholas

The boys went to see Santa on Saturday, and this is pretty much what I expected.

The Elf on the Shelf

We started a new Christmas tradition this year. Saturday night Luke & I read a book called The Elf on the Shelf. The book tells about an elf who shows up and watches the children. He then reports back to Santa all that he saw, both good and bad. He comes back every day, and then when Santa comes Christmas Eve, he goes back to live with him until the next year. There are rules to follow if an elf comes to visit: the first time you find him you have to name him; you can't touch him or else his magic might go away; you can talk to him and tell him what you want for Christmas, but he can't talk back.

Well, lo and behold, the day after we read the book, we had our very own elf! Luke was SO excited when he found the elf. He decided to name him Elfred, and he looks for him every morning. He had a lot of questions when he first saw the elf and said that he looked hard like a doll. Gary and I explained that he looked that way because he had to sit so still when children were around. Later he told me he thought he saw the elf blink and breathe. He stood in the kitchen out of the elf's line of sight trying to catch him moving. He also noticed this morning that even though he's in a new spot every day he's sitting in the same position. I told him it was because that was the most comfortable way for him to sit.

Sunday afternoon he was outside playing with our neighbors and he said to them, "You won't believe it! We have an elf in our house!" Then he brought them in to show them. Each time they went outside I turned the elf so he was facing a different direction. When they'd come back in they would run to see if he had moved and were thrilled to find that he had.

While I love the idea of the elf, I didn't realize I'd have to spin such a yarn in order to answer all of Luke's questions! He has, however, bought the whole thing, kit and caboodle, but I'm afraid he's going to figure out sooner rather than later that the elf isn't real (ditto for Santa.) So, I'm enjoying this year of complete and utter belief.

Luke's TV debut

Jason Witten, a tight end with the Cowboys, came to Luke's school today. Luke is in the video portion they showed on the news tonight. He's only in it for about 2 seconds, so don't blink or you might miss him!
http://www.nbcdfw.com/sports/football/Dallas-Witten-Heads-to-School.html