Noah is 2 1/2!

Our lil man is 2 1/2 years old and so much fun!  We have been having a blast playing with him and getting out to enjoy the Alaska spring weather!  We have spent many weekends playing at the elementary school playground near our house with his lil friends. 

Below are a few of our favorite "Noah moments" from this month:

When we turn the car blinker on to make a turn, Noah pipes in from the backseat with “dinko, dinko, dinko” and his little head bops back and forth in rhythm with the signal sound.  Hilarious and catching.  Sometimes I catch myself doing it too even when he isn't in the car with me!

Each time we pull the car into the garage, he sings “Ho—ooome”!

BODI BODI BODI!!!”  Noah gets very excited if we tell him he is going to see or play with his best pal Bodi (Bodi is 7 months younger than him so they are close in age).  Once, he didn’t want to leave PaPa’s house and was telling us "NO", but then we said we were going to see Bodi and he RAN to get his coat and shoes and said “Bodi? Go see Bodi?” all the way home.  That same night Bodi stayed late with us and we put both boys to bed.  In the morning, Noah ran into “Bodi’s room” to see Bodi.

When he does something funny and we laugh, he asks “Noah be funny?”  Or if Wes says something to make us laugh, he says "Dad be funny?"

“Peeeeease”  -  Noah has always been good at saying Thank you even at a really young age.  He is not so good at remembering to say "Please".  So now when he asks for something like “more grapes!” we always remind him it is nice to say, “Please” so then he will repeat his request, “More grapes peeeeeease” in the sweetest voice ever.

"Wiper nose! Wiper Eyes!”  -- Our boy is a tad bit OCD in that he does not like to have his face or hands dirty.  We tease my mom a bit for cultivating this habit as she constantly cleans him as he eats and has done so ever since he was a baby.  But mostly, I think he likes the attention of having someone run a soft tissue/cloth across his face and hands at his demand.

Noah has an OBSESSION with all things from the Disney CARS movie.  Books, bath toys, Coloring books, toy cars, movie, paints… Grandma and Grandpa practically bought out the Disney CARS section while at the Disney Store Vegas.  My mom said they had to bring their clothes back in the cooler because their suitcase was packed full of cars clothes, jammies, cars, toys, swim gear etc. 

He is also starting to get into Thomas and Friends, but mostly just likes us to play the opening theme song over and over. 

Unfortunately, with Springtime, also comes the spring crud. Noah was super sick this month. Poor lil guy had nasty cough, fever and flu bug this month.  We lots watched of Cars and Thomas with him on the couch and he got LOTS of TLC and snuggles.

Walking with dad to the playground! Love our Alaska mountains!

Ball! Nevermind that it is a pink Barbie ball that we found in our yard when we moved into our house. Noah loves it just as much!

Slides are so much fun!

Kendra came out to play with us! She has the BEST smile ever!

Bodi came to play too!  Sunday Funday indeed!

Watching the birds outside with daddy

Playing at the park with my best pal Bodi!

My hair is as wild as I am in this pic!

Hi mom

Pics from Pa Pa (Grandma) Reimer's Camera

My mom watches Noah for us three days a week, so he gets lots of special time with his "Pa Pa" (Chinese for Grandma).  Below are a few pics from her camera!

 My parents got Noah this little satin outfit from Hong Kong.  My mom had to put him in his chair to keep him still long enough to take a photo.  The other photos were blurry from him running around in his cool new Chinese outfit!



Reading books with Pa Pa and Gong Gong in my new duds.  This is when mom realized Noah really needed a hair cut ASAP.  Look at that wild mane! ha ha.

Noah's 3rd Chinese New Year complete with Lucky Red Pocket Money from his family and relatives.

 My parents raided the Disney Outlet while they were in Vegas for all the "Cars" stuff.  Noah fell asleep in his Cars nap sack, with Ramone in his arms and McQueen and Mater looking over him.  Apparently our boy cannot have too much Cars stuff.  He loves it all!

Happy Times in March

March is turning out to be a great month!  Our little Noah has really shown us his artistic side with his love of coloring, painting and making cars out of play-doh.  The sun has been shining and the temps came up so we have been having fun playing outside with friends. 



I love painting in my Cars coloring book!



Mommy's budding artist



Look how the paint colors hit the paper mommy!


Sledding over to Lawsons' to play with Aiden and Nathen!

Lawson Park is fun!





Bubbles are so amazing! 

Happy Aiden

Bathtime with Bodi is so much fun!

Splash Splash Splash!!

Jumping for joy because I am gonna be a BIG Brother!

YAY!  It is going to be so much fun having a little brother or sister!

Couch jumping is fun, can we do it again?!

and baby makes four!

14 weeks today! So happy to be in the 2nd Trimester!

tiny fingers, tiny toes

We can't wait to meet our little one in September!





February - Playtime Fun

Another busy month with our sweet, happy pre-schooler!   Every day, Noah surprises us with how much he knows and can communicate.  His vocabulary has grown tremendously and he can clearly tell us what he wants which is a mixed blessing.  We love being able to have conversations with him and talk to him, but Noah doesn't like it when he does a good job of clearly asking us for something and we tell him no (i.e. cookies for breakfast or juice at bedtime). 

Noah also knows quite a few songs: "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", "Thomas and Friends Theme Song", "Itsy Bitsy Spider", "Ring around the Rosie" and "This Old Man".  One Saturday morning, Noah got out of bed and came into our room and started to serenade us with the Thomas theme song.  He probably only sung about 1/25 of the words and hummed the rest, but the words he does sing, he sings with enthusiasm!

Noah's Favs this month:

• Favorite book: "Roadwork" from the Cars movie where he proudly points out all the characters by name
• Favorite song to sing: "Spider" - Itsy Bitsy Spider, complete with hand motions
• Favorite food: Ham and cheese
• Favorite way to stall bedtime:  after reading books, he wants to "Rock-Rock-Rocky" and cuddle in his rocker with Dank. Tonight, when he asked to rock for the third time, I told him it was time for bed, he looked up at me and said, "hug?"  and he gave me a huge bear hug. I'm such a sucker, but it was so cute.
• Favorite shows: Sid the Science Kid and Thomas and Friends
• Favorite toy: His "white car" which is a mini Anchorage Police Car that Papa Keith gave him.
• Favorite online video clips - Thomas and Friends theme song and Crazy Frog-Axel F
• Favorite bath toys: At bathtime, Noah will go into his room and grab as many toy cars as he can carry (often dropping some and stopping to pick them back up) to play with during his bath.  He also gets us a washcloth too, which can be quite the handful when you have arms full of cars.  It is fun to watch him try to manage it all.  We are in trouble once he realizes that he can bring more toys to the bath if he makes two trips.

Here are a few random moments of playtime fun that we shared with Noah this month.  Most of these are indoors because we hit a cold snap in late January with negative temps.  Thankfully over the past week, it is has warmed up to 25-30 degrees which feels like a heat wave in comparison!




My pal Bodi put lots of cars and trucks on my tray so I could play with them during dinner. 
Thanks Bodi!




I love bathtime!  It is so much fun to play in the water with my cars!




Trying out my new potty! (I'm just sitting on it, but it's a start!)




Rock-Rocky with Dad and Dank




Making play-doh cars and trucks




I like to put the head lights and tail lights on the cars




Ta-da! Another car for me to play with. vroom vroom!




I also love coloring in my Cars coloring book





Coloring is fun!

 


I love to read my "dog" story on my V-Reader (baby kindle)





I love to play and hide under Dank

 


After the other playgroup kids kept trying to play with my fire engine, 
I begged Pa Pa to let me sleep with it during nap. 

 


Snacktime at H2Oasis Water Park




These cups don't stand a chance.  TIMBER!





January Happenings

You know it has been a long time since you have posted when Grandpa starts complaining about no new posts.  January 2011 has been a very busy month for our little family.  We kicked off the New Year downtown in Town Square with my parents and the Rupp Family.  Noah loved all the "lights" in the sky from the fireworks! Then Wes and I headed to Whittier New Year's day for a wedding and stayed overnight at this romantic little Inn which was a treat for us to get away together. 

The next week was a blur as Wes' best friend Ben got married the following Saturday.  The eve of the wedding, the guys came over to our place for hot tubbing, poker to celebrate "Ben's last night as a single man."  I tried warning them at midnight, 1am, 2am, 3am and 4am that they REALLY should go to bed, but they were having too much fun.  I considered it a personal success that after a long night of partying, I got the groom and four groomsmen fed, showered and to the church by 11am for the wedding photos. Phew! Ben and Lennon looked so amazing and happy on their big day.  We had a blast celebrating with our good friends and dancing the night away. 

Wes has also been working hard on our master and guest bathroom remodel projects which has kept us pretty busy. Keeping a curious 2-year old out of the contruction zone has been an interesting challenge.  Lucky for us we live close to grandparents so Noah and I can escape the banging during his nap time! New cabinets, faucets and granite counters are installed and look so pretty (much better than the oak cabinets, brass faucets and pink laminate tops we had previously)!  We still have quite a bit left to do before we are finished, but we are making good progress.

Now to my favorite part of the blog...sharing about our little Noah!  Noah has seemingly grown from a toddler to a pre-schooler over the past month.  We can't believe how much he is talking and how big he is!  A few of our favorite "Noah" sayings from this past month are:

• "Mrrry Chstmsss!" Noah's attempt at Merry Christmas.
• "Dad? Dad? Dad? ......Wesssssss?"  If Wes doesn't come fast enough, Noah shifts to trying Wes' name!
• Repeating everything we say.  "Okey Dokey" is the funniest to have him repeat.  "Sweeeeet" also tops the list.
• "Snack?"  This applies to snack, breakfast, lunch and dinner. 
• Saying "YUM" at foods he likes. Most requested foods this month are "cake" (any kind of candy, cookie or sweet), toast, mac n cheese, "barn" (Nutri-grain Bars), cereal, oranges, peaches and JUICE! 
• Singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star with us.  Cutest thing ever.
• "Cars?"  he loves to watch his Cars movie, while playing with his cars and reading about cars all at the same time.
• "Happened?"  He says this when something falls or breaks, to which I usually reply with "it broke because you threw it honey".
• "Stairs?" Noah will look up at us and grab us by the hand to take us downstairs when he wants to go play.  Irresistable and works every time.
• "Nigh Nigh _______".  At bedtime, Noah says Night Night to everything in his room (ala Goodnight Moon style).  He also says "Nigh Nigh Mom", "Nigh Nigh Dad" and "Love You." Melts our hearts.

At bedtime, Noah has always loved to sleep with Dank (his blue blanket) and his stuffed puppy.  Now he has added his matchbox cars and Mack Cars Trailer to his nighttime pals.  One of the easiest ways to get Noah to go to bed now is to say, "Noah, Mack is tired; he needs to rest."  Noah will then bring his Mack Trailer to his bed and park all the cars next to him and say "Nigh Nigh Mack",  "Nigh Nigh cars" and then curl up with Dank over his head and go to bed with them.

I could go on and on, but we are having so much fun with our little man and love every moment (or maybe I should say most moments) we spend with him.  We are so blessed.  Below are some of our favorite pics from this month.

Proud Parents,
Wes and Cynthia




I love to climb into boxes...this one was tight, but I fit!




Playing Peek-A-Boo in the closet + Battering Ram = Lots of Fun!




Trying on Annie's shoes...these are tricky to walk in!




Painting with mommy... yep, that is mommy dipping her elbow in red paint. :)
thank goodness we were using washable finger paints!




I think it is funny to sit on daddy's head.  We agree.




Gong Gong's (Grandpa Gary) Birthday Dinner




I don't know what is more fun, eating grapes or coloring.




Reading my "Heads" pull tab book




Snuggling with mommy watching my Cars movie



Practicing my swimming.  "Swim Swim Swim"!





So sleepy, yet trying to stay awake to play more cars.