Sentences, haircut, kitties

Well, the day finally came where I got tired of trying to train Simon's hair to go to the side instead of into his eyes and I chopped off the first precious locks of that fine baby hair! His new look is quite different! Still adorable of course, but with bangs. We have been struggling with sleep issues (again?) lately, and for a while he was awake for 2-3 hours over night for several nights. On one of these occasions I think it was that he made the sentence, "open the door?" His first sentence came in Cancun a few weeks ago, where he said, "open water" when he wanted me to open the sippy cup straw so he could drink. The words are coming lightening fast -- now he repeats almost everything. Two new words from yesterday were bus and white. I have moved from the simple naming of objects in his books to using the colors, or verbs, etc. He is catching on fast! Of course, most listeners can not distinguish his word "car" from "star," but some of the words are crystal clear, like "eight," for example. He can name almost all of the numbers (exceptions are seven and sometimes six, one sounds like a nasal "uh", three sounds like "tea", but two, four, five, nine and ten sound clear), and is fascinated by them. He spent a long time in Cancun just looking at the numbers above the doors and having me name them. He is equally fascinated by letters and their sounds, and he knows the sounds of A, B, D, F, H, M, O, P, S, T, and Y -- he will make the sounds whenever he sees them, whether on a sign at a store, on my shirt, or when he's playing with the magnet letters.

He also knows what he wants more than ever! One of his latest obsessions is the screen -- computer or iPhone, he wants to see videos. He points at my phone and says, "again?" (uh-den), or at the computer screen with, "nuh, nuh, nuh?" which is short for railroad crossing (after all, that's what it sounds like). Sometimes when he doesn't get it, he gets very, very upset!

The switch from two to one nap has been very slow going and painful! His awake time is only about 3 hours in the morning, but between his last nap and falling asleep, he needs closer to 4.5 or more before he'll settle. I will be very happy when we are over this hump!

Noah is also transitioning slowly from one to no naps. He is napping about 3 times a week, and we are trying to get it down to 2. When we went cold turkey from 3 to 0, we had some evenings with a ferocious bear, so we are trying to go more gradually this time, hoping that age is on our side!

The other day we stopped at a pet shop and there were baby kittens there! When I asked him which one was his favorite, he said the baby kittens and their mommy. He wanted to take all of them home, and their mommy, because if we just took one, "they would miss their mommy." So true!

Noah is also starting to enjoy writing a bit more, though it is still not his favorite. He is learning to tell the time on the clock, and is getting more and more control over his fine motor skills. Today he told me that he had had a dream about his cousin Cata, but he didn't want to tell me the best part. I asked him what it was, and told him I wouldn't get mad (apparently what he was fearing!). He said she was jumping off of the stones and he was laughing. Sounds adorably sweet!