Christmas Cards

My favorite time of the year is quickly approaching. For the past two years and again this year my mom's side of the family has a Christmas Card Exchange party. It is a way for the ladies of the family to get together, enjoy a good meal, play a present exchange game, and exchange christmas cards. I always joke that it is because we are too cheap to pay postage!

Since this event is coming up, I need to pick out my Christmas cards. We love the picture christmas cards, but every year I have such a hard time picking the perfect pictures and card. This year is no different!

My good friend over at havestrollerwilltravel.com told me about this great promotion Shutterfly is having where they will give me 50 free cards for telling everybody about them on my site.

I have been a big fan of Shutterfly for years. I made a photo book of our wedding on their site and it is still my favorite album of the day.

So, now onto the tough decision which should I choose?

They are all so gorgeous! While I was checking out the cards I saw they are having a sale on their calendars. Sweet!!

I can't keep up!

Seems I just can't keep with this whole blogging thing, but I'm going to give it a shot.

Noah continues to grow like crazy. I was just looking at pictures of him and June and he looks so young and little in them compared to now. He had really progressed in the past two weeks with his speech. While I still feel he is behind he has been trying to repeat us more and puts more words together. I know I will want to eat my words, but I just can't wait to hear what he has to say!

He is also getting in the Christmas spirit. We went to my parents house today and they were putting up their Christmas tree. His eyes got wide and he had a big smile and said ho ho! When we were at the mall last week he ran right up to Santa and gave him five and sat on his lap. Of course on Saturday when I was actually prepared with my camera he wouldn't go anywhere near him. What a difference since last year when we just got close to Santa and he would kick and scream. I think this will be a fun Christmas!

The next Shaq?

In recent days we have seen some friends we haven't seen in awhile. And everybody keeps telling me how tall Noah is. I just say yea he is... but truthfully haven't really noticed. So, I decided to measure him on the back of his door, which is something I was trying to do on a regular basis, but have kind of forgotten about recently. From the beginning of June to August 20th Noah has grown 2 inches! Must be that $4.79 a gallon soymilk he wants a cup of 6 times a day! So, maybe he's not the next Shaq (thank goodness - can you imagine the money spent on specialized beds and shoes?) but he's growing fast!

Almost as tall as a Peacock's Feathers!

(and that's one of those cups of milk)

Communication

more planes please

Somewhere between 18 months and 2 years, I think most parents start to worry about their kids lack of communication skills. At the 18 month check-up our doctor only expected Noah to know 2- 5 words and sign language and animal sounds counted. So, we proudly passed with flying colors as

Noah could sign eat, more, all done, thank you and please. And he knew all the animal sounds I could think of to teach him. At the end of the appointment the pediatrician said that we should expect an explosion of words before we came back for his 2 year appointment. This term "explosion of words" has stuck with me and Chris. I am impatiently waiting to hear my son's voice ask me for things and tell me what he is thinking. Yes, I know that once he begins speaking and won't stop, I'll be nostogically remembering the days before he could speak, but its a major milestone I want my child to get to when "they" say he should. So, Chris and I kept waiting for this explosion... There were days when I'd get him out of his crib and he'd look at me and make a new noise or look like he was trying to say a word and I would think this is it - today is the day Noah will begin speaking. Because most parents say that once they start it all comes at once. But, alas nothing. At 18 months he was only saying dada and duh for duck and bah for ball. Recently he has expanded his vocabulary. He now says mama as clear as he has always been saying dada. He says ball, milk, bill, go, stop, and a few other sounds that we know what he means, but may not constitute for actual words. But, what I find truly amazing and which other haven taken note of too, is that he is a great communicator. Noah may not say many words, but he knows how to communicate. From waving his arms for plane, flapping for a fish, pulling down and saying choo-choo for train, or smacking his lips together to let me know he wants to watch Nemo (his favorite movie). He seems to be dying to learn new signs or ways to communicate, but just doesn't want to have to say the word. In recent days I've been amazed that he was recalling what we did earlier that day or week by not just answering yes to my questions, but showing some type of sign. We went to the zoo and he saw how the chimpanzees walked using their hands and feet and when asked how they walked he would show me. He knew they were playing with a ball so he started kicking his feet. I ask him what he did with his watertable and he happily laughs and points to his head, because he dumped the water ontop of himself. Before having kids, I didn't think much of how many ways there are to communicate. I knew about teaching babys sign language, but for the most part everything I read measured kids by their ability to say words. I for one am amazed and proud of how well Noah communicates without saying much at all!

Trying to post more often - really!!

As I was driving to the grocery store today the song You're Gonna Miss This came on the radio. It made me tear up. For those who aren't familar it is a country song in which a daughter keeps wishing to get to the next stage in her life and the parent keeps telling her that she is going to miss this, she's gonna want this back, these times go by so fast. It was the part where her kids were young and one was crying and one was screaming and it made me think how quickly Noah is going to grow up. I am well aware of how quickly he is growing and how fast the time is going by. And I often stop and think these truly are the best days of my life. I can not complain at all about the life I am living.

Over the years, I have had many dreams for myself. I wanted to be an actress, a teacher, a book writer, a sanitary engineer (trashman) and to create world peace... ok well maybe not world peace. But, the one dream that has never changed has been to be married to someone I love, have kids and be a stay at home mom. And that is the only dream that I have achieved (so far).

Being a stay at home mom has been wonderful! I often stop and think these are the best days of my life. As the song I mentioned above says we will look back and miss these days and therefore I try my best to savor every moment. I was carrying Noah yesterday, because he was tired of walking and for a moment I was thinking how I was tired and didn't want to carry him, but then I quickly came to realize these moments of holding my baby boy in my arms will not last long and I kissed him, held him a little tighter and tried my best to capture this moment in my memory to remember forever.

When Noah was a baby all I wanted was for him to be older. I did not enjoy nursing and felt so tied down by it that I just wanted him to be 1 and graduate to real food and regular milk. And now that we are approaching 2 all I want is to freeze him. I can not get enough of his laugh which he breaks out in a moments notice at seemingly nothing. I can not get enough of the pure joy in his eyes over the smallest things - seeing an airplane, a squirrel, a bird, or one of his friends. And even when it can sometimes be annoying (like when I am trying to eat or use the bathroom) I love that he wants to be with me all the time. I know that every stage in life will have its joys, but I'm going to miss this.

18 Months

Noah has been 18 months for a whole week now and seems to realize this is about the time people will no longer refer to him as a baby, but a toddler. (I will always call him my baby - even on his wedding day ;o)) I say he realizes this because he now loves babies! He trys to hug them and seems to want to watch over and help them. Don't let him fool you though if that baby tries to grab his toy he will let him know that is unacceptable by a little push, but in general he loves them.



He also wants to do things by himself. Although he doesn't say the words (like one of his adorable friends 'self' 'self') He pushes me away to let me know he can handle this all on his own. He is walking up and down the steps by holding on to the railing and our hands. And he is attempting to buckle himself into his car seat.

Snow and San Diego

As I'm sure everybody reading this knows we have had record snowfalls here in Baltimore this winter. It has been both nice (Chris has had more time off, we've been able to get the house in order, and fun in the snow) and annoying (lots and lots of shoveling, cancelled plans, panic at the grocery store). I would say Noah tolerates the snow. His snowboots have not been a hit with him which means if I want to get him outside he wears his tennis shoes so he can only stay on the shoveled pavement, which he enjoys. He karate chops the snow, laughs at the dog running around like crazy and loved walking in the empty streets. I think we've all had about enough snow for awhile and are impatiently waiting for spring to arrive.

About 3 weeks ago all the animal sounds we've been teaching Noah finally clicked. He can now woof for the dog and whine for Chance, moo for the cow, quack for the duck, ah ah for the monkey, hoot for the owl, smack his lips together for the fish, growl for the lion and dinosaur (and pretty much any other animal he doesn't know the sound for) and he tries to make a sound for an elephant and throw his hand up in the air. He will also sniff the flowers in his books.

He also blows on his food no matter what it is. And gives kisses freely - my favorite! Everyday it seems he is picking up on something new and he finds himself as funny as we find him, breaking out that adorable smile and infectious laugh often. He has also continued on the path of becoming quite the daredevil. I came out of the bathroom yesterday to find that he had used his chair to climb on to the rocker's arm and was straddling it like a horse rocking back and forth. He has become more adventureous on the stairs and continues to try to climb on top of anything and everything. So, we have to keep a close eye on him and hope that when he does topple over or off of something he does it gracefully :o)

Noah and I just returned from sunny, warm San Diego where we had a great time visiting my brother, sister-in-law, and their 5 kids. It was loud and crazy and fun and we both miss it so much after being in this quiet house for a few days. Noah loved his baby cousin Jameson - hugging him and giving him kisses. He loved being able to play outside especially with their cool cars and loved having playmates every day. I'll post pictures soon.