The Bird

It's 6:30 in the morning. It's dark outside. I'm (mostly) sound asleep. Suddenly, I hear, "Mommy, the bird!!" as Noah turns to look at me and gets up on all fours.

I say to the excited little body next to me, "Noah, you're sleeping. You're having a dream. Go back to sleep. We'll see the birds later." I've mentioned he is an active sleeper. Well, this bird must have been flying around our bed or something, because he kept insisting, "the bird!!"

Eventually, I convinced him to try to go back to sleep (thank goodness!) and, since sleep times got a little off this weekend, we all slept until 8 am.

Boy, these active dreams really help keep things in perspective. I'm sure he'll be a night waker for many years to come, thanks to a dad that has trouble falling a sleep and a mom who's also a sleep talker (and has sleep-walked at least once).


And, on the topic of morning birds, about 2 weeks ago, Noah and I went to the bathroom one morning to brush our teeth, and just as I hoisted him up to the level of the mirror, a sparrow came flying through the bathroom door, with Monty right behind him. I may have screamed out in surprise, but I managed to quickly open the window from the top. The little bird flew right out, thankfully. What a surprise!

Here's a phone picture from an outing to the mall last weekend. What a little boy!

"What's That?"

Noah is now 22 months. His newest phrase is, "what's that?!!" He points at things which I have no idea what they are, like that large, metal cylinder on top of a utility pole, or the thing-a-ma-jig that does something-or-other that I never really knew had a name. Isn't he too young for this? I thought the endless questions came around age 3!!! Anyway, I'm sure it's helping him learn fast.

Speaking of learning....yesterday, suddenly, Noah can sing the entire alphabet. I have sung it to him for months, and yesterday, he just decided it was time to start singing it! Tonight he accompanied the song with some banging on the tambourine. Just amazing this little guy. I'm going to do my best to record it...



Coming soon: a video of one of the best things about fall...

First phone conversation

Noah entertains the idea of the phone and responds when Mimi or Papa talk to him on the other end of the line. Today, I called Nano while he was at the store with Noah, and he put me on the phone with my sweet toddler for the first time (I always declined in the past). We had our first conversation! It went something like this:

Me: Hi Noah!
Noah: Hi!
Me: Are you at the store with papa?
Noah: Yeah.
Me: Is it fun?
Noah: Yeah.
Me: Did you have fun with Eenie and Faith today?
Noah: Mm-hmm (perfect intonation for yes)
Me: Mommy's coming on the train today. Are you going to come see Mommy on the train?
Noah (excited): It's so fun!
Me: I love you! Te amo. Te amo!
Noah: (chuckle)
Me: See you later! Chau!
Noah: Chau!

If only I had recorded it! So cute!

Smile!

These are the best times in our lives. Noah is at an incredibly amazing age; everyday something new and cute surprises us! The other day, with the camera pointing towards him, he yelled out, "cheese!" and made the cheesiest smile you can imagine. It turns out he was practicing posing for the camera that day with his new friend, Faith!

Last Thursday we had a fabulous time running around, watching the trains and ducks, and climbing the treehouse at Morris Arboretum. Here is a cute video, where Trey runs non-stop and Noah adorably tells him to smile for the camera when he blazes by.

"Smiyull, Smiyull!"


Noah can count to 10, but 8 is always notoriously missing! He can recognize some numbers when he sees them, and definitely gets the concept of counting. The first time he counted on his own, I was holding him while he "helped" me cook pancakes (or was it banana bread?). I was describing what I was doing, as usual, and was measuring out cups of flour. I said, "one," and when I went back for the second, Noah said, "two..." What a surprise that was (it's been many months now)! He often starts to count when there are several items around he is interested in.

Some of Noah's favorite words these days are, "a light!!" "a tunnel!!" and "a train!!" He often uses "reach," and "stuck" Some of his favorite things are screwdriver (shoe-wada, then stew-wada), car (tah), bicycle (bicekul), wagon, swing, slide (side), stroller (stoler) and soap. Some of his favorite places are "playground" (paydown), "store with papa" and "coffee shop" (coffshop). One of my favorite expressions of his is using the word fun. He totally gets the concept of "fun" and says things all the time like, "It's so fun!!" "Bronwen Trey, fun!"

The other night as I was falling asleep, he called out in his sleep, "a tunnel!!" and then fell silent. He is definitely a sleep-talker, and his very active sleeping sometimes wakes him up (unfortunately for us).

I find it amazing that Noah is very good at sharing right now. If I ask him to give something to another child, he almost always does it. He also uses "thank you," though most often when giving something to someone else :)