Noah is a crazy little boy! I really have just categorized him as spirited. He fits perfectly into that type of personality. He is fun, comical, wild, free, intense, energetic, sensitive, intelligent, curious, stubborn, determined and temperamental. He can go from happily skipping down the hallway blowing raspberries to himself to completely throwing a fit on the floor just in a matter of seconds and sometimes we really have no idea what made him so upset. We're definitely in a hard phase when it comes to parenting, schedules, and teaching behavior. But it's also a fun and exciting phase because he's learning at such a quick rate and constantly surprising us with new things he picks up.
Some of my favorite things that Noah does:
- After being changed, if you ask him to put his diaper in the garbage he goes into the kitchen and throws his diaper in the trash can.
- Gives the best kisses! And says "Mmmmuuaa" while doing it. I love when he kisses toys or pictures of babies in books, or just random things he feels the need to show forth love to.
- He has his own language going on and it sounds like "diddle diddle diddle" or lately, "Cluck clock clock klee klee klue".
- He LOVES giving high fives!
- Waves to strangers, and waves to the phone when we call daddy on speaker phone (and kisses the phone too).
- Makes pools under his chin from all the drool and raspberries
- Makes funny laughs and faces
- Folds his arms for the prayer
- Helps me clean - whenever I'm sweeping I get out the swifter duster for him and he "sweeps" the floor with that. It's so funny.
- He can point to many body parts - he knows almost every part of his face.
- Makes several animals sounds
- Blows on his food when it's hot and does a shivering thing when something is cold (like the AC)
I feel like I'm forgetting a million things. Agh, I hate when that happens.
Noah's favorite things:
Still loves balloons and balls. He must have at least 20 balls of different colors and sizes throughout our house. He especially loves playing catch. And he's got a wicked throw actually. He likes looking at and touching bugs. He likes dancing to music. He LOVES sticks and rocks. And being outside. He has a tantrum at least once a day from me taking away a stick and I've taken hidden rocks out of his mouth countless times! He's still really into animals, especially dogs (and now he doesn't always freak out if they lick his face or knock him over). He likes being funny and being the center of attention. He likes to follow me around the house (the kid is literally like my shadow sometimes). And he likes to make a mess - we call him the tornado. He absolutely loves playing with water! Not necessarily in the bath but more in places where he wouldn't expect to see water (like a fountain) or just any running water like a hose or sprinkler. And he still has a thing for hair.
Communication:
He's talking more and more! He finally started calling me mama, he doesn't say it as much as dada but I just love it. Some words he says it just how the word sounds but some only we know what he's saying and sometimes they sound almost the same except for different tones. For example...
Things that sound similar:
Daddy = "Dada"
Lita = "Data" ("abuelita" means grandmother - my mom)
Doggy = "Dada"
Diaper = "Dada"
Thank You = "Da-Taaa"
Ball = "Da"
Duck = "Da"
Done = "Da"
Things only we understand:
Giraffe = "Raaaaa"
Blueberries (or any berry) = "Buppaa"
Milk (Breastfeed) = "Neh?" (in a question tone) He also does his own version of the sign for milk while saying it. It's the cutest.
Snack = "Na" (Sounds similar to the way he says milk)
He also says elephant, belly button and teddy bear but they kind of sound like "blahblehblue" and I'm sure only we could guess what he's saying, ha.
Some other words he says are: cheese, more, juice, snack, bird, bug, "Boo!", banana, hair, bubbles, hat, uh-uh, book, color, water, flower, stick, rock...
He signs a few different things but since he's learning to talk I haven't been putting the effort into learning a bunch of new signs.
Eating/Nursing:
Noah doesn't always eat a ton at every meal. But whenever someone has food he always wants some! You would think the kid is starving. He still eats pretty good in general, I would never categorize him as picky. He just doesn't eat EVERYTHING like he used to. He is particular about his food though. If his banana gets squished while he's taking bites, he will want a new piece of banana. Or things like that. And that goes along with his spirited-ness. Some of his favorites right now are: berries - blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries; bananas, different types of beans & legumes, chicken & other meats, quinoa, rice, sweet potatoes, peaches, pears, pineapple (he really loves fruit). He loves water and drinks plenty of it and he loves his morning healthy homemade juice that I give him every single day before breakfast. I've started giving him more raw veggies (I was always nervous about the hard ones) and he actually likes raw broccoli. He is still breastfeeding... :) Which makes me over the moon happy! Looking back I can't believe that I was planning on weaning him around his birthday. I guess I figured he wouldn't be so into it. But now I actually have to tell him, "You already had milk" because he wants to nurse often. He just loves it. But I do too. I just don't want to be nursing him all day. We still do 4 feedings: once when he wakes up, then again around lunch time, once in the afternoon (after his nap) and then right before bed. I don't plan on changing this any time soon.
Schedule/Sleep:
Our sleep schedule was kind of nonexistent for a while. The problem was that he still needed 2 naps but whenever he did take 2 naps he wasn't tired at bedtime and the two naps were pretty short. The past few weeks I've been really trying to only give him one nap because it makes things so much easier. He's waking around 6:30 - 7:00 am most days. He gets tired around 10:30 am but I keep him awake until 11:30-12:00. Then he naps until around 2:30 or 3:00 but I'm finding that if I let him sleep later than 2:30 then he has a harder time going to sleep at night. During these Summer months he has been going to bed anywhere between 7:00 and 10:00! Which I really don't like. He should not be going to bed so late especially since he wakes up pretty early. But now with the way things are going, if he only has 1 nap and it doesn't end too late he can usually go to bed around 8:30, occasionally he's tired earlier. I'm trying to bring more structure in our daily routine when we're just at home. It's hard with my class and with how busy life is. But I know he shouldn't just be playing from room to room all day making a mess. Same with Sophia. I'm going to work on it.
Other Facts:
I haven't taken him in for his 15 month appointment yet but according to my scale he's around 19 pounds. He just broke through 4 molars within the last couple weeks, totaling 10 teeth. His Mongolian bruise is not as visible now (born with a bruise on his bum).
Some pictures from my class assignments..
