Hmmmm . . .

Here's what I found when I went in to check on Luke last night. He is absolutely sound asleep.

Scary Claus

I took the boys to see Santa yesterday. Noah DID NOT like him. I put him on Santa's lap and backed away so they could take a picture. Noah turned around, took one look at Santa, and got a panic-stricken look on his face. Then came the silent scream; I think he was too horrified to make any noise. Oh well, this was basically the reaction I expected from him.

Lesson learned

Up until yesterday, I let Noah play with our cordless phone. I know I probably shouldn't have, but it entertains him for quite a while, and I guess I was being lazy yesterday. I will not be letting him play with the phone anymore. After playing with it yesterday afternoon for a few minutes, he put it down and crawled away. I checked to see that it wasn't on, and a minute later it rang. The caller ID said "City of McKinney" (can you see where this is going?) and a woman said, "Someone at this residence just called 9-1-1. Is everything OK?" I was completely confused, and when I professed my innocence, she repeated that someone - "it sounded like a child" she said - had dialed 9-1-1. I confessed that my baby had been playing with the phone, and after answering a string of questions, I quickly hung up, extremely embarrassed. If I hadn't answered the phone, the police would have come, and then I would have been mortified. I'm SO glad I answered it! The phone is no longer one of Noah's toys.

Crazy baby

Noah has been kicked out of the infant nursery at church and into the next older nursery. Apparently he was trying to climb into some car seats with other babies in them and was in general . . . well . . . he was Noah. In all fairness to him, the nursery he's in is supposed to be for babies who aren't crawling yet, but the girls who work in this one said he could stay until he started bothering the other babies (I guess climbing into a car seat with another baby--who was probably sleeping--could be seen as a bother.) So next Sunday it's off to the nursery for crawlers and new walkers. I'm sure he'll have no problem holding his own in there.

Funny

"Look at my crazy hair!"

Gobble, gobble

We had a quiet Thanksgiving yesterday with just the four of us. I cooked our traditional meal (although I outsourced the turkey this year) and it was all very tasty, if I do say so myself. Neither Luke nor Noah ate much of the meal, but they both loved the pumpkin pie (go figure!)
Luke made place cards for everyone.
The only thing Noah ate was a couple of crescent rolls.

I got elfed!

For a holiday giggle, go to http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9567399416.

(Un)Happy 11 months

Noah DOES NOT like to lie on his back and be still, so the picture this month is less than ideal, but oh well. A few fun facts about Noah:

-He still only has one tooth. The other bottom front tooth may be coming in, but it hasn't made an appearance yet. I think he'll be singing "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth" this year.

-He continues to get into EVERYTHING. If he can reach it on a table, he'll pull it off. The other morning he figured out he could reach the placemats on our kitchen table and pulled one off - there was a cup of orange juice on that placemat, so it came crashing down on him.

-Riding in the car is not one of his favorite activities. He's OK while we're moving, but as soon as we stop (during carpool, at a red light, in traffic), he starts to fuss. I don't see any long car trips in our immediate future.

He is cute, cute, cute!

Thanksgiving feast

Several of the 4's classes had their Thanksgiving feast on Thursday. What a treat! Two classes (including Luke's) were Indians, and two classes were pilgrims. The costumes Luke's class made were really cute, and Luke actually wore the whole thing. What a difference a year makes. The necklace is made from pasta they dyed and strung on yarn. There are two paper feathers that tell what they're thankful for - Luke apparently is thankful for Gary and me and for Noah's tooth. Luke ate all of his lunch but was most excited about the turkey-shaped cookie.

Trashy

Noah's latest stop on his path of destruction. I just wish I had gotten a picture of him pulling a plate out of it today after lunch.

Biker dude

Last weekend Gary taught Luke to ride his bike without training wheels. It's the coolest thing to see him zipping down the street on just two wheels! Several neighbors came out to watch him and were pretty amazed that he has basically mastered two wheels at only four. I'm pretty impressed, too. Gary was determined that he could get it and convinced Luke to keep trying. Gary was right and Luke got it! I only have video of it, but as soon as I snap some pictures I'll post them.

Sign of the times

I've been teaching baby signs to Noah, and although I wasn't sure if he'd ever pick them up, he has started to use a few. Just like with Luke, he has taken the sign I do and made it his own. He claps his hands to sign "more" (he's done this at snack/meal time and when I was blowing bubbles yesterday); he flaps his arms to sign "all done"; he points to his mouth to sign either "eat" or "drink". Luke didn't do his first sign till about 11 months, and Noah's been signing for a week or two now. And people thought he wouldn't be smart!

The joker

Luke heard a joke on TV last week and has told it to us about 75 times in the past two days. Here it is:


Why do birds fly south for the winter?

Because it's too far to walk!


I see a career in comedy in his future!

Full of hot air

We see hot air balloons around here all the time, and sometimes, like one day last week, they're right above our house. I couldn't resist taking a few pictures.
I stood in the backyard to take the pictures. That's our swingset in the foreground.
That's our fence and the house behind us.

Amen!

Trick or Treat!

It's Spiderman and his sidekick, Spiderboy!

Soccer finale

Luke's last soccer game was Saturday. Needless to say, the Power Rangers lost yet another game. Their record for this season is 0-8. I really think Luke learned a good deal about soccer and improved quite a bit over the course of the season. He wants to play again in the spring, as does his whole team, and their coach is coming back, too. Hopefully they'll all keep improving next year and we'll win a game or two.

Thanks to the politically correct world we live in where we have to bolster every child's self-esteem, everyone gets a trophy at the end of the season. It's a big trophy with a soccer dude on top. It would be more fitting for our team if there was a boy lying down in the grass or holding hands and jumping around with another boy. These were the things that occurred most often during our games.

The cupcakes were a big hit!

Mischief

This was one of Luke's favorite activities, too.

My punkins

Last Saturday we made our annual visit to the pumpkin patch. It's an actual pumpkin patch where the pumpkins really grow, not a place where they've brought pumpkins in from somewhere else. They have cows, longhorns, sheep, and goats that you can feed, a hayride, and, of course, pumpkins for sale.

Noah was not at all afraid of the animals.

Noah enjoyed his first hayride.

Field trip

On Tuesday several of the 4's classes went on a field trip to Pumpkins on the Prairie at Grace UMC in Frisco. It was a great day! There were several stations including crafts, science, and math. Luke really enjoyed all the activities, especially the science station, and I had fun being with him.

They made pumpkin plates at the craft station.
At the science station the kids got to touch the inside of a pumpkin and guessed whether several different size pumpkins would sink or float (they all floated!)
After hearing a story about a girl who picked a perfect pumpkin, each of the kids got to pick their perfect pumpkin.
The Frog class

Argh, mateys!

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me!

Toofs

Maybe we should try brushing every now and then.

My boys

Ch-ch-changes

Yesterday's weather: sunny, windy, 90
Today's weather: rainy, windy, 50
Like the saying goes, if you don't like the weather in Texas, just wait because it's sure to change.

Hot, hot, hot!

Saturday at dinner Luke mistakenly ate a jalapeno pepper slice. He thought it was a green olive (or "green olim" as he calls them). As soon as the heat hit his mouth, he got a stricken, pained look on his face; I know you shouldn't laugh at your children when they're uncomfortable, but it was kind of funny. We got him some milk which cooled him off, and he seems to have survived. Today when we were on the ethnic foods aisle at Kroger, he saw jalapenos and said, "Mommy, I promise never to eat those again!" Lesson learned.

10 months

Noah is 10 months old today. I can hardly believe it! He's such a little stinker and is completely unlike his brother was at 10 months. I realize now that Noah is more the norm and that Luke was just an unusual baby (and is in many respects still an unusual child . . . but that's another blog.) A few new fun facts about Noah:




-He still loves to splash in Molly's water dish and will eat dog food any chance he gets.


-He wants to cruise and has taken a few tentative steps while holding on to a leg, table, sofa, etc., but he doesn't seem to get that he can go from point A to point B on his feet and not just his knees.


-Speaking of his knees, when he crawls on the sidewalk out front, he crawls on his hands and feet with his little booty up in the air.

-Noah loves, loves, loves to clap. Any time he hears someone say, "Yea!", he starts clapping.

-He will stick out his tongue when you ask, "Where's your tongue?" He has no idea where his nose is, but he sure knows where his tongue is.

-He's such a ham! When he hears me turn my camera on, he immediately starts smiling.

What a sweet boy he is! He has brought such true joy to our lives.

Soccer, soccer, soccer

Only two more soccer games! Actually, the last two have been better than the first several were. We still lost, but we scored two goals this week, and for the first time, we didn't score any for the other team. Luke played most of the game and had several shining moments. A few weeks ago he started giving the "thumbs up" sign during the game. Any time there's a stop in play, he flashes us the sign. All the parents on our team think it's pretty funny and give him the thumbs up, too.

Winning or not, Luke's got a good attitude!

Happy hour

"Hey, Mommy, is it margarita time yet?"

Another first

After months of anticipation (and drooling), Noah finally has a tooth! His bottom front right tooth made its appearance this past Sunday. I've only gotten a few glimpses at it because he doesn't like for me to mess around in his mouth, but if I ever get a shot of it, I'll be sure to post it.

A visit with Mimi

My mom has been here since last Friday, and we had a really good visit. She got to see Luke play soccer last Saturday (although we still lost, the game was not quite as lopsided and Luke played much better than he has in the other games.) We went shopping on Saturday morning and I finally spent some of my birthday money. I know she was sad to go home today, and we already miss her, but she'll hopefully be back in a few weeks for another visit.The soccer star!

This shirt was one of my birthday purchases.

When Mimi's around, bath time = photo time!

Are you ready for this jelly?

This 'do is courtesy of the jelly that was all over Noah's hands at lunch.

Antics

I've been meaning to post some of Noah's latest feats but hadn't gotten around to it. After today's occurrence, I decided it was time to post. Since I have photographic evidence of the mess Noah made today, I'll start with that.

While I was making lunch, I left the pantry door open and Noah was poking around in there like he often does. I should have known better than to leave him to his own devices because when I went to check on him, I discovered that he had knocked a full container of margarita salt onto the floor and was sitting right in the middle of it. As Murphy's Law would have it, I swept and mopped the floor earlier this morning. He seemed pretty pleased with his efforts.

Notice the marks where he was raking the salt, no doubt to get a big ol' handful to eat.

I've mentioned before that he loves to get into Molly's water bowl and has gotten into her food bowl as well. A couple of days ago he barrelled past her when she was eating and grabbed a handful of food. After I scooped him up I realized that he had something in his mouth . . . yep, you guessed it, a piece of dog food.

On a couple of occasions Noah has crawled into my bedroom and shut the door. He sits right behind the closed door so I have to open it just far enough to squeeze my arm in, push him out of the way, and open the door.

I've been trying to teach him where his nose is. Not one time has he pointed to it when you ask him where his nose is, but if you stick out your tongue and ask him to show you his tongue, he'll stick out his tongue as far as he can (this is especially enjoyable when he's eating.)

Clapping is his latest trick. He claps all the time, even when he's crying. I don't think he's quite grasped the concept of why one should clap.

I'm sure there are other things I'm forgetting, but when I remember I'll be sure to update everyone.