4th Birthday

We went to Boston for Noah's 4th birthday. It fell on a saturday and Friday was new years day. Since joe and I both had the holiday off, we went to boston for the weekend.
I worked thur night into fri and came home to sleep a bit. We left around noon and arrived at our hotel at 3pm. It was a really nice big fancy one that we all enjoyed.
We walked to dinner.. in the freezing cold.. not knowing that we could have acutally taken the car out of the hotel parking garage without receiving another bill.
and then we went to Boston children's museum. It is only a $1 per person on friday nights. we all had a really good time!
when we got home, the hotel staff brought up noah a icecream sundae with a candle and a bday card! It was very thoughtful of them.
the next morning we went swimming and then checked out. we drove to the boston aquarium which was not too far away. Noah had fun, especially watching the penguins and sharks.
then we went to Legal seafoods next door, where noah slept on our jackets in the booth. I guess he was tired!

He was getting kind of cranky.. too cranky for his own good. we had invited joe's parents over that night to have cake with us, but by the time we got to big Y to get the cake, noah had a complete fit and melt down. so we left..
it got even worse. so joe punished him, I cancelled the cake and party. joe's parents did not come over or bring paris back, which REALLY upset noah.
Noah saw that I was crying and really freaked out. I think it dawned on him just how upset and dissapointed I was.
After that he settled down and began to act right. I allowed him to open some presents. His nana and grandpa came over the next day for cake and brought paris back.. they were watching him for us while we were away.

It was a good bday, but a sad one too. The fact that he received his first spanking-- on his 4th bday-- says a lot. Let's pray his behavior changes.

christmas 2009

christmas was great this year. Noah was starting to understand the reason we celebrate.. about baby Jesus. He also started talking about santa, and was able to fall in love with the fairytale story end of it, without getting too caught up in it. Joe even called the house and pretended to be santa. Noah was very excited, but poor child was so afraid to get out of his bed at night for fear that santa might see him, he wet the bed. and then was afraid to come down in the morning b/c santa might still be there.
he sang happy bday to jesus and played with the nativity scenes we have and in the morning, we all reinacted the birth of jesus withe nativity scene while reading Luke in the Bible.




AFter opening gifts, we went to becky's house which is always fun to watch the cousins play together. then we went home so I could work that night.






That sunday we had my side over. It was nice, relaxing and fun. Very casual and fun to watch chris and noah playing together.

Christmas eve

Last year I dragged noah all over running around like an idiot getting last minute cmas stuff done. I made a promise to myself that it won't be that way this year.
so today we are going to make spiced apple cake, wrap gifts, celebrate, sing songs, make holiday cards and go to church at 6pm with friends.
We are going to becky's tomorrow and I am working tomorrow night. then we will have my side over on sunday.
Next year, we will have 2 boys to celebrate christmas with!!!

The Flu

well.. a week before christmas and the flu has found noah. Not nice!
started last monday, a week ago with a regular cold.. tue vomiting all evening and fever. wed h/a, diarrhea and fever. complaining that it hurts to walk up the stairs. thur back to vomiting and still a fever. friday we go to the dr.. diagnosed with flu. crap.. too late for tamiflu. (has to be within first 48 hrs). gets worse sat night with higher fever and c/o left ear pain. never had ear infection before.
went to dr beal (on call) sun morning. was miserable and wicked crabby.. whiney and all. ear red, no puss. gave amox and now on motrin and tylenol around the clock. after 3 doses of amox, seems to be feeling better. last night he was so whiney and miserable but after a full night of sleep, still doing better. and staying dry at night.
praise god for drs, 24 hr pharmacies, motrin and tylenol and tv. can't imagine poor people, single mothers without help or countries in poverty not having the things we do to get through. even back 100 years ago.. we are so blessed and fortunate to have the luxaries that we have now. and I am so glad noah does not have any underlying medical conditions like asthma that would have landed him in the hospital.
praying he gets better soon. but I think he is on his way!

potty

noah has led the way in his potty training.. we never pushed him. we let him decide when he was ready to advance to each next step. summer of 08 he went around naked all the time and we kept a potty on each level of the house. he peed when ever he felt the urge. slowly we moved the potty upstairs only, and then he advanced to a potty on the toilet, then just a step stool to get to the toilet and finally he just grew tall enough to sit. now he stands to pee. soooo much easier. he was attempting to wipe himself after poos.. until he clogged the toilet with tons of tp and then another time with a whole box of wet wipes. he tried to wipe again the other day with my prompting, but made an "ewwww" face when he saw the poos on the tp. ok.. preschool starts in sept.. we have 10 months to practice wiping.

he has been daytime diaper free since nov 08. he is awesome at peeing in public places.. if he cant reach to pee in the toilet, we build a nest of tp to sit on.

now our only obstacle is night time dryness. i ask him if he is ready to give up night time diapers (no pull ups..i hate them). he says not yet..when I am 4. (which is in a few weeks). so each night we talk about it. i don't push him-- he'll do it when he is ready, and his timeline is at age 4.
so lastnight as i got ready for bed, i see that he removed his dry diaper and left it on the bathroom floor. he got up to pee and decided he was done with the diaper.
i went to put it back on him but he was fast asleep.
so this morning i woke expecting to find a wet bed.. i even dreamed about it.
i go into his room where he is sitting up.. i ask if his bed is wet? NOPE!!!!
He said he went pee 5 times and held up his fingers to show me 5. he said he did not want to wear a diaper anymore and he reminded me that he is still 3.
what a smart boy! i praised him and hugged him and we celebrated! we called daddy and noah was so excited. i asked if he'll stay dry again tonight and he said yes. i expect accidents.. normal. but the fact he led this part of his potty training has paid off. and with our patience. i hope our 2nd baby is this easy-going.

some more cute things

seems like the older noah gets, the funnier the things he says...

so when he gets mad at me now..he walks away pouting and says, "I am not staying home ANYMORE!".
All I can do not to laugh.

Yesterday we were playing outside in the snow and noah kept asking me to pick him up to reach the tree. I told him that I am not strong enough anymore (= too tired in the pregnancy or he is too big now) and he replies, "sure you are. God made you strong!"

He likes to act like a grown up and take care of me. When I go to bed after work on saturdays, noah likes to tuck me in, turn on (his) my night light and tell me to turn off the room light. I asked him to sing rock a bye for me though, and he said no, not yet. he is not a grown up yet.

I don't know what his obsession with being an adult is, a big man. I brought him to a work baby shower last week and he had a long conversation with another coworker about him growing up and how long it takes to be big.

He told me yesterday that he no longer wants to be a police officer like auntie becky (no longer uncle becky) and tell all the bad guys to stop being naughty, but he wants to be a fireman like uncle dan. but not on a yellow fire truck, a red one.

He bought a 2nd toy with his money.. Diesel the grumpy train. hey, makes his day!

Back on memorial day, there was a fire at a local business down the road from us. Even now, in December it sits vacant with a large burned hole in the roof with a make-shift tarp falling inside, filled with snow, ice and rain. Noah remarks every day that the roof was burned and the firemen came to put out the fire, but lately he keeps asking me why it is not fixed. I told him that the owners probably do not have money to fix it. He said that he will put his money in a pail and give it to the fixers.
God, how did I get such a wonderful and sweet child? Lord, I pray that he may always be this sweet, generous and humble.

Dec 09

Some funny things noah has said recently:
I asked him how he was feeling since he had a cold. He responded, "It's not good so well. I am feeling sad."
At night on the monitor, I can hear Noah counting in spanish in bed.
We went out to dinner and the lady was washing the table. He said to her that that it sounds like the baby.. (he meant heartbeat)!

Noah does a new prayer that he made up:
open shut them prayer. I will have to video it and link it here.

He is sleeping over Auntie Becky's house this weekend as Joe and I go away to Boston for our christmas present to eachother. Noah is very excited!