Easy audience

October 29, 2004, 3:33 pm

When Noah was Lily's age he was a tough audience. He wouldn't smile for just anyone. You had to be REALLY funny and preferably someone he recognized. I took Noah to get professional pictures taken for the first time when he was 3 months old, and I told the lady to give up trying to make him laugh. It wasn't gonna happen. It didn't happen at his 6 month pictures either. By 9 months he smiled for a photographer.

Lily is such an easy audience. I didn't realize how easy until yesterday. She laughs and smiles at all of us, and in the morning I lay her in the middle of our bed and she coos and laughs and makes us all feel very special. Yesterday I needed to take Noah to preschool, so I laid Lily in the middle of the bed and started to get dressed. Then I heard her cooing and laughing. I turned around, and there was Lily laughing and happy as can be as she looked at the ceiling fan. Maybe she was never even laughing at us at all...

I think she'll smile for her first pictures.

[ 1 comment ] ( 23 views )

Cool kid

October 28, 2004, 11:00 pm

Noah is one of the nerdist people I know. He speaks in such a loud voice when he gets excited. He reminds Janelle of a 19th century British man who should be wearing knickers and speaking in an accent. He's anything but cool.

But in the world of preschoolers Noah is cool. Nathan volunteered at Noah's preschool today for his Halloween party. Nathan watched the kids and observed their behavior. Noah walked in with his fireman costume and was joined up by his two cool friends--Carter and Kale. Nathan realized that these are the "cool guys" in the 3 year old preschool class. Other kids were very shy and stood off by themselves. Noah and his clan were confident and played all the games and were liked by all.

There was a little boy who was very shy and had ears that stuck out. He was too shy to play the game that Nathan was in charge of. So Nathan kept encouraging him, and he finally played it.

It kills me that my nerdy son is considered cool. But mainly I feel bad for the shy little boy. I want to make Noah hang out with him, but of course I can't do that. If Noah continues to be one of the cool kids I just hope he's nice to the kids who don't fit in...you know the awkward ones...like his mom.

[ 2 comments ] ( 26 views )

Whole lot of breastfeeding going on

October 18, 2004, 3:39 pm

My mother often tells the story of when I was a baby and my 3 1/2 year old sister, Janelle, breastfed her doll Heather. Janelle would bathe her doll when mom bathed me, and she would even lift up her shirt and nurse the doll (and even changed sides). I love this story because lots of little girls are only exposed to bottles.

Since I have a 3 1/2 year old boy I figured this wouldn't occur in my house. Noah has one doll named Bill (he named the doll) that we used during potty training, but he has me keep Bill at the top of his closet. He doesn't ever play with Bill.

But lately a new game has emerged for Noah. First he puts a ball or football or sometimes his Scooby Doo stuffed toy under his shirt. He informs me that he has a baby in his belly. He also tells me that the baby is "about to come out." Then he has the "baby" slide out of his shirt. He's very excited about his new baby, and he then names the baby. So far the names are always fish, uncle fish, or teee-taaaa (he uses this made up word all the time).

Soon the newborn baby starts to cry, so he tells me it's time to feed his baby. He lifts up his shirt, and the baby nurses. It warms my heart. Sure, he is nursing a ball or Scooby Doo...but STILL. It's sweet.

I told my Dad about this game last night on the phone and his remark after a sound of disgust was, "That boy needs some time with his Grandpa."

[ 4 comments ] ( 52 views )

4 shots

October 15, 2004, 4:29 pm

Lily had her 2 month appointment today. She's now 12 pounds 9 ounces--that's up 5 pounds since birth. She's 22 inches long, and her head is a normal size (unlike her brother's huge head--sorry Noah).

And of course the poor girl got 4 shots. Noah has been very interested in this appointment to get shots for Lily and has been insisting on holding her hand. Noah held my hand when I got blood drawn while pregnant (traumatic for me even at the age of 30). He's such an empathetic 3-year-old. I even wanted him in the labor and delivery room, but I didn't want to traumatize the poor kid.

So Noah held Lily's little hand with a look of concern on his face. I tried to nurse her afterwards, but she was too upset. Noah yelled, "How can we get her to be happy?!" in a panicky voice. What a great big brother.

Oh, and Noah got a flu shot today. He didn't cry at all and then announced, "I am a big brother. I don't cry!" (But soon after he cried because I told him he couldn't have anymore orange juice today...)

[ 2 comments ] ( 35 views )

Rock Star

October 7, 2004, 9:10 pm

I am convinced that Noah will some day be a rock star. Sure, he doesn't sing very well, can't play guitar, and his songwriting skills are awful...but he has the moves down. For the past few days he has started entertaining me and Nathan (to the point of tears) by singing, dancing, and playing guitar (actually a small mandolin).

He makes up the lyrics as he goes along, but some of his songs are starting to repeat so he seems to remember the lyrics. His voice is horribly off tune and very dramatic at times. I often have to leave the room to hide my tears and uncontrollable laughter. Oh, it's good stuff!

Here are some of his lyrics:

"And the world is a race car! I drive a race car! And the world is a tunnel! I go through the tunnel!"

"And the baby Lily! Lily Starr! The baby Lily!"

"And the world goes round and round! The world turns around!" (He turns around during these lyrics)

"And the world jumps down! And I jump down! And the world is a race car! The race car jumps down!" (He jumps during these lyrics)

He strums his mandolin and has some very cool moves involving kicking his leg. He is truly a rock star in the making.

[ 5 comments ] ( 48 views )

A baby's cries

October 5, 2004, 3:58 pm

People say that you are supposed to know your baby's cries. Well Lily doesn't cry very much. She has a grumpy time around 7:30-8 when she has been fed and changed and should be just fine. So Nathan holds her and she cries a bit and then falls asleep.

She doesn't cry when she's hungry. She smacks her lips. At night when she's in her crib I hear her smacking away and it actually wakes me up! So I go and get her and feed her. Last night I must have been in a sound sleep because at 5:00 a.m. I heard a cry that I hadn't heard before. It was a pissed-off-I-am-hungry cry from Lily. Nathan and I laughed at her hungry cry. I had to go to the bathroom, so he talked to her while she protested a little more. It's fun to see Lily get a little feisty.

[ 1 comment ] ( 32 views )

Travel

October 4, 2004, 5:18 pm

Traveling with kids isn't always easy. We have had some moments with Noah that have made me never want to travel again (although I soon forgot). When Noah was an infant he didn't like his car seat. I had heard that babies love the movement of the car, and I was disappointed to discover that my baby did not. This made travel very difficult the first year, so we traveled at night. Good old Nathan!

Then at the age of a year we went to Kansas during the day. I nearly jumped out of the car. Noah screamed most of the way. We returned home from Kansas at night.

Noah was pretty good on plane trips as a baby. We could hold him and entertain him better than in the car. But one trip he decided to be ornery. He kicked the seat in front of him and cried. We got dirty looks from passengers for the first time. After that trip we invested in a DVD player for Noah.

Since the purchase of the DVD player, Noah has been wonderful. He is good during both plane and car trips. He can even be entertained for 9 whole hours as long as Shreck is playing over and over and over again. Children love repetition when watching movies. Thank goodness.

So we're starting all over with Lily. But guess what? I got a baby who loves the movement of a car! Woo-hoo! We went to Nebraska City last weekend, and Lily cried for just 5 minutes during the 5 1/2 hour trip there. I timed her. I was amazed.

[ 2 comments ] ( 32 views )

I can't believe this is happening to me!

October 1, 2004, 7:17 am

This is another one of my favorite Noah stories. I have to write these down before I forget...

I took Noah to a store when I was 8 months pregnant with Lily. Normally Noah loves going to the store with me to "look at toys" and he behaves quite well. Not this day.

The trip started out just fine. I was looking for fish decorations for Noah's newly decorated room. We found a number of cute things at the store, and I filled the cart with them. Then we went to look at toys. Noah picked out a little toy to buy. But then Noah started to break down. He became very ornery and began knocking things down from racks and running from me. I bent down and told him to behave, and he hit me.

That was it! I left our cart full of fish things and Noah's toy and picked him up (remember I'm 8 months pregnant) and carried him out of the store. I carried him out like a baby and all the while he yelled at the top of his lungs, "I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS IS HAPPENING TO ME!"

[ 3 comments ] ( 36 views )