rainbow fish

noah took his last dose of flagyl yesterday. The stool culture results was c.diff. Clostridium difficle that he picked up on vacation. he has had to take flagyl 4 times a day for 10 days. he made a huge turn around and is feeling much better. his bottom finally cleared up too! he keeps asking for dr beal, the pedi on call who saw him that first sunday. I told dr lamoureux his pedi and he said he was going to cry! haha
he was so good during this whole horrible sickness. One of the night nursing supervisors was out of work for 6 weeks, that is how bad this illness can reak havoc on people.

noah is so excited, he has his very first freckle! it is on his inner right lower forearm. so I ask him where is his freckle, and he excitedly points "right there!" and then grabs my arm to look at mine.

he loves to drink joe's seltzer. calls it daddy's soda. his appetite is still not the greatest, but he is getting there.

noah loves when I make him smoothies. "smoomies" as he calls them. he'll ask for one, and then I say, "noah, want a smoothie"? "OK smoomie" like it was my idea. he is funny, he does that all the time. "robot games?" Ok noah, we can play robot games on the computer. "ok robot games" like it was my idea and he is agreeing with me. and he loves playing sesame street games, building a beach monster is his favorite. sounds like he is saying "moses" but it is monsters.

we recently have been having very frequent torential thunderstorms. noah thinks that thunder creates rainbows, b/c he associates thunder with rain, and rain makes rainbows of course. (we saw a few early this summer out the back patio door). while reading "rainbow fish" book to him and cousin emma, emma told noah that the octopus in the book was scary (hence noah's obsession with all things scary). so now noah thinks rainbows are scary.. and now says "it's not scary" b/c that is all I say now when he is scared. so now when noah hears thunderstorms, he tells me that rainbow fish are up in the sky... he is too funny and I had to write it down to remember this one day.

noah loves to use the adjective "beautiful".. everything is beautiful.. beautiful mommy's shirt, beautiful monsters (on sesame steet game on line), beautiful robots..he is so funny! the other one is delicious. so the other day at dinner joe said delicous robot. and noah burst out laughing saying "silly daddy, you don't eat robots! oh boy!" it was the funniest thing we have heard him say!!! this is such a great age that he can totally communicate with you and get what you are saying. he cracks me up!

joe is teaching noah to swim now. he can hold his breath and go under water wearing his goggles and he and joe can look at each other! we joined the ymca and noah goes to the amazing kids baby sitting program and does a great job! I think in the fall I might take him for real swimming lessons.

noah is in an art class at gymboree which he loves going to. he makes great projects which we hang up in the hallway on a special curtain rod thing I rigged up to display them. he loves seeing his work up there! also in the beginning of the summer he took a terrific twos class at the farmington town rect dept. it was ok, not the best, but it lasted 3 hours so it was fun to see how he did in that type of environment.

noah still loves robots and carwashes. and snakes and bugs. he has been such a big help too. he helped me weed the garden, the yard and flower beds and clean out the garage! we had a lot do since we were home mostly this week due to his illness.

he got his first 2nd molar now. he always point to it and says "right there, right there." and tells me, daddy, and his art teacher. then he looks in my mouth and seriously is interested and tells me about my teeth. hmmm, maybe he'll have a career as a dentist in the future!

Rhode Island cottage

(30m 2w)
We went on vacation for a week to Rhode Island. We rented a nice cottage on the beach. we had an incredible time; it is amazing that it is less than two hrs away and we have never been! so many things to do.. and the view was gorgeous. the waves were so big! we got to watch so many surfers each morning. noah fell in love with carosels! he got to ride on 3 different ones!! he still askes "go on the carosel". he also loves going to the car wash, and says the robot arms wash the car.

he got to go to roger williams zoo, a petting zoo and ride a pony. we went to the beach and built sand castles and ate ice cream. he also slept in a full size bed all week and did great! 12 hrs each night.. most days no naps though.

noah had diarrhea all week.. it was awful. I think the most he ate all week was tooth paste and bath water. he even refused ice cream at one point!

noah is still continue to amaze me with how much he knows and talks. he is so funny, too. he got out of the tub last night and passed gas. he told joe it was "noisy poops"... I almost fell up the stairs laughing when joe told me. he is so funny with the things he comes up with!

noah has had diarrhea for 11 days now. It started on vacation but got worse. His bottom got a really bad diaper rash that got infected from the sand/salt water and humidity, plus sitting longer in a diaper from all the car travel. today his bottom is still open sores, but instead of a bunch of them, they have all now connected into two long lines down each cheek of open rawness. He cries each time we have to change him and it really breaks my heart. noah says "momma cries".. I try so hard to remain positive when opening his diaper. I tell him it looks better! I don't think it is rotavirus. it is wicked slimy/mucousy and now smells like bad fish. it was getting better, more mushy, but now it is liquid slime. he was hiding this morning by the side of the couch, lying on his belly. I asked if he was ok and he said no, "poops comes. it hurts. I want to see dr beal. the lady helps". talk about wanting to cry hearing your kid say that. dr beal was the pedi who saw him on call sunday morning. I almost want to call and tell her he said that, in a good way. we sent stool samples to the hospital today after I called the pedi to let him know he is still sick. he has no appetite and has refused to eat breakfast or lunch. I finally got him to eat applesauce, 3 bowls! with added cinnamon. he is drinking well, so that should keep him out of the hospital, but I wonder how his labs are. the dr said he will wait for the stool results and then might do blood work based on that. I feel so bad for him. I hate seeing him crying in pain.

on the good side, he is doing very well potty training. he did two poops during the week in the potty for joe all on his own. we are leaving the potty in the living room for him on a towel. I had his diaperless to let some air get to his bottom. he is really good at peeing for us, too. He did great on vacation going on the actual toilet with the sesame insert on it.

summer fun

(29m 3w)
noah is so funny, he calls a bathing suit "baby soup". He loves the pool and swimming in the "Cab" which is the crab. He did not like it too much last year but loves it this year. but don't take him out of the crab!!!!

He also calls a rainbow, "ray-bone". I love this age. We have been having a lot of afternoon thunderstorms and every once in a while we'll get a rainbow. Noah was so excited when he saw it. I told him it was Jesus. I had to make some kind of spiritual connection for him. so now when ever he hears thunder, he says that he might "see a ray-bone up in the skyyyyyy..." I love hearing him talk. sometimes it just drives me to drop what ever I am doing and walk right over and kiss him and tell him I love him.

we fingerpainted yesterday and he liked it. He did not like it last summer but had a chance at gymboree art class and then at nana's and enjoyed himself. but he had more fun playing in the warm soapy water afterwards. he asked to see my friends, (my fingers) and he gently washed them off! he is so sweet and endearing.

he got so excited the other morning b/c the light was casting in from the window but cut out part way from the nextdoor house. the top part of the window made a square and the bottom made a triangle. He was flipping out so excited and told me he had a square and triangle on his floor! lol, things to excite 2 year olds.

tonight he totally recited john 3:16 all on his own. I usually do it with him but this time I stayed quiet and he could do it!

Today we were leaving Big Y which noah love going to. He loves going grocery shopping and even pretends at home. One thing he loves about Big Y is they have a huge big red apple hanging above the produce section. Noah always loves to wave to it and when leaving he keeps yelling over and over, "bye bye big red apple!!"

noah has imaginary friends named jay, jonah and jack. they are his hands. they will chase each other and play, laugh and giggle. so I think that is why he asked for my friends, aka my hands, to wash. he has such an active imagination and I love it. I am trying to encourage it. when he pretends to grocery shop, I'll pretend to be the cashire and take his money. when we are outside and he is saying, "good bye, see you.. going to work" and he'll drive off in his car. I got the garden hose nozzle and had him pretend to fill up the gas tank. when he is cooking in his play kitchen, he said he was making nana soup and he pretended to turn on the water and made the shhh sound of the faucet. he is so much fun!

Noah's Dedication

Today is Father's day and Noah was dedicated at Valley Community Baptist Church.
Afterwards we had a father's day picnic and a fun celebration with nana, poppa, uncle Dan, Aunt Becky and Leo and Emma. It was a wonderful day, filled love and fun!

First poopy in the potty!

(29m 1 week)
Noah did poops in his potty!!! at breakfast he told me he had to poop, so we ran upstairs and took off his diaper but he said "it won't work". so he just sat for a while and we read books and he stood up and asked for a diaper change. I said no, try to poop on the potty. so as he was walking back to the potty, the poops started to come out and he sat just in time! we were so excited!! mommy was jumping around like a nut, yelling "yay noah!! you did poopy!!" so we took pictures of him on the potty and then we flushed the poops and then he got a new train! we called nana and daddy, too. noah was so excited!! mommy is, too! he'll go pee once a day or so in the potty, but this is a big step!!

It is so fun listening to noah talking. He tells me stories about his day, what his favorite things are and what he likes to do. He speaks in full sentences and asks complete questions. "where did stinky go?" "the airplane is up in the sky." There are so many examples I can give. I know I have been writing so much lately but I am just so utterly impressed with how much he is growing up and changing each day. He has almost completely memorized john 3:16. It is so sweet hearing him say it. some times he'll just say parts of it randomly or other times he'll pray it. We saw a beautiful full rainbow the other day and I told Noah that was Jesus.. well, because you can see Jesus in lots of things. Now noah says he closes his eyes and sees the rainbow and says jesus comes.. this scares me because how does he know to say this? Is it his age of innocense?

naked watermellon

(28 months 3 weeks)
noah and I were outside yesterday and he was running around naked eating watermellon. that was very cute. then I put a sun shirt on him and a hat and let him play in the water table and then the sprinkler, still naked on the bottom, with shoes on of course. I had the potty outside.. see my idea? he always pees when in the tub, so I figured the kiddie pool, the sprinkler, and the water table and watermellon would encourage him to go. a couple times he straddled the potty or sat on it, but never went. not sure if he peed any other times. Then, noah did peepee on the potty twice last night without tons of encouragement, just asking once if he had to go! we tried this morning but he said "it's broke"... meaning no pee can come out. then he watched elmo's potty dvd twice and peed on the living room floor. so the diapers went back on, lol. he did not want his diaper on this morning so I put on those super absorbant undies and he peed thru it. I have not bought any pull ups yet. we are slowly moving to potty training!!

Today is my 33rd birthday.
I remember 3 years ago today I found out that I was pregnant with Noah!! Being Noah's mom is the best gift I could ever ask for (besides salvation). I love being his mom and try to remember to tell him each night when I tuck him in. I want him to know that. tonight when I had birthday cake, noah saw it and immediately opened his mouth like a little bird! no words or whining, just wide eyes and a big open mouth! so he shared my piece (it was a small piece of specialty dessert that joe got just for me). when we were done and he was licking the fork clean, he exclaimed, "more party!" I love that he thinks we had a party, just the three of us, because joe sang happy birthday and we shared a small piece of special cake. so sweet, dear noah, always stay so sweet. he knows it is my birthday too, because when debbie called and sang to me, noah listened on the phone with me and when she sang "Dear delanie" noah said "yep, momma".

we stayed in our pj's until noon playing and snuggling and then had a picnic lunch in the back yard on his little pinic table. then we went for a walk looking for kitties and bunnies.."cat, are you home? bunny, where are you?"

I had a wonderful day home with noah all day. it was so special just the two of us. I really am so blessed!

kids mimic what they hear

28 months, 2 weeks
you know how kids mimic what they hear? I am always trying to encourage noah when he does well with lots of praise. so last night, we were playing ball with paris and noah kept yelling to paris, "good job paris!" when he retrieved the ball, lol. and this morning, I was washing the toilet and noah lifted the lid when I was done to exclaim, "whoa! good job momma!"

then this afternoon I was bringing the dogs outside. Noah yells from the livingroom, "momma, where are you?" so I yell from downstairs that I am bringing the dogs out potty, can you clean up your toys please? and he yells back, "ok ok, I'll clean up!" and he did!!!!

lol, I just love this age!!

A friend of mine at mops told me she is teaching her 2 1/2 year old to recite john 3:16. she teaches her two words a day. I figured we can do that, if noah can memorize and sing sesame street and rock a bye baby, he can memorize scripture. so far we have, "for God", (fo god?) "so loved" (so yoved?) "the world" (da wold?)... lol, this is a lot of fun.

And then today, fun news to report, noah did pee pee and poopy on the potty!!! We are so proud of him!!! Lately he has been standing up in the bath tub and holding onto the washcloth towel rack and peeing. so today when joe was changing his diaper, Noah stood up and looked like he was going to pee. so we brought him into the bathroom where he stood and straddled the potty and peed! then we put the potty seat insert on the toilet and he sat on that and pushed to poop and he made a little one! we were so proud of him!! I made a little thomas card that we punch holes in like a train ticket and when he completes all the way around, he'll get a new thomas train.

this past week, Noah has really shown an interest in reading. He has always liked to look at books and often we'll find him sitting and looking at the pictures, turning the pages. But he never really had the patience or interest to sit and listen to us read. So we improvised and just talked about the pictures or asked him what he saw. But now that he is in a big boy bed, I lay down with him at night and we read. He likes to hear each page read and listens and is even starting to recite some of the more familiar books that he knows. His favorite is "bunny book" which is really called something else, not sure what actually. it was bought for him at easter time, (accidentally, b/c he was cranky at walmart and I grabbed any book to keep him entertained while I shopped. when we got to the check out, he would not give it up!) so this is his favorite book. It is a story of a momma bunny who puts her babies to bed and one baby bunny wakes up and says that he can't sleep or something along those lines. I improvised a few months ago before noah took a real interest in listening to stories and now my version has stuck. so now noah will say when I read, "momma, I can't sleep", and he'll recite other lines from the book that I made up. the bunny has a blanket that I call his stinky, just like noah's. momma bunny sleeps alone in her bed and I said that daddy is a work, so when ever we get to that page, he'll say, "daddy works." I am glad he is starting to take more of an interest in reading, I always hoped he would like to listen to stories when he was in a big boy bed.

noah is continues to say his abc's and count. he can count to 20 with minimal assistance once in the teens and he can say his letters very fast! the lastest is now he is starting to know his shapes. he knows diamond, heart, star and "round like a circle", and the latest is a triangle. I learned he knew this because he picked up my makeup sponge when I was getting ready one day and told me it was a triangle! also at gymboree, he'll take large foam shapes and insert them way across the room into a wooden bridge that has large cut out shapes built in. I love how he encorporates learning into play.