BBQ on the Beach

Today was the annual beach BBQ at Dawn and Dave's house on the Chesapeake Bay up in Annapolis. This year, Noah and Oliver got along really really well (unlike last year when Oliver was super friendly and Noah was really standoffish). As you can see from these pictures, Noah and Oliver spent much of the day playing in these boats. Oliver is learning both English and Portuguese (his mother is Aussie and his father is Brazilian), so he was calling the boats "barco," and Noah of course had to copy him.

This Is the Time in Life...

Here's my little book worm reading The Lorax and listening to Love.

They Call Him Mellow Yellow

This outfit just might glow in the dark. Here he is giving Audrey some love.

Noah at Two

Today is Noah's second birthday. Noah at two:

• Is just such a wonderful little boy. I am constantly amazed at everything he does and how quickly he learns thing.


• Likes to repeat the names of everyone in our family over and over again. "Mama, Daddy, Noah, Ole, Audrey."


• Loves to count and say the alphabet. He knows all his numbers, letters, shapes and colors.


• Adores both of the cats. Sometimes he pulls their tails, but he is usually really good about petting them gently. And, they love him too, believe it or not.


• Likes to play with blocks, duplos, toy cars and trucks, and puzzles. He is not at all interested in stuffed animals or dolls (I swear, I always thought I would socialize any sons I had to like dolls just as much as a daughter would, but Noah has no interest at all in them).

• Enjoys books more than any toy. His favorites are Mo Willems books (Knuffle Bunny and the Pigeon series), Good Night Moon, Tikki Tikki Tembo, Rex, Fox in Socks, Beep Beep Toot Toot, Tip Tip Dig Dig and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.


• Is still a picky eater-- though you wouldn't know it considering how much he has grown! His favorite meal is hot dogs and fries. I try to give him turkey hot dogs, but he really likes the beef ones much more. He's not a fan of vegetables, but he loves fruit, especially apples, oranges and strawberries.

• Goes to sleep around 8:15 pm. Every night I read him at least one story and then we brush his teeth, and then he goes right down without any problems at all. Sadly, he's still an early riser, usually up by 5:30 am.


• Has wonderful friends-- Mia, Sienna, Greydon, Sean, Gabriel, Isaiah, Sophia and Micah.

• Loves to jump and run. Darren and I gave him a tricycle for his birthday, and he is really enjoying riding it.

• Is finally starting to tell me when he has a dirty diaper ("poopey mama"), so maybe we're a small step closer to toilet training???

• Loves the color yellow. I don't know why, but it is definitely his favorite.


• Is usually well behaved, though he has his meltdowns at times. Right now, he's trying to assert his independence over what he wears every day. The problem is that he just says no to everything and then throws a fit when I try to put something on him. He always screams if it's not yellow, but sometimes he doesn't even want the yellow clothing item, so I just give up and put him in whatever I want to dress him in. But overall, he is such a good kid.

• Has made me so happy. I just can't imagine life without him.

Here's a link to Noah at one.

Two Year Old Stats

Noah had his 2 year well child checkup this morning.  He weighs 30 lbs (75th percentile) and is 36 inches tall (90th percentile).  No shots this time.  All is well, and he's right on track.

Father's Day and An Early Birthday Present

Today was Father's Day. Our plan was to go somewhere nice for a picnic, but the weather looked iffy all day, so we just hung around at home together. Noah's birthday is on Tuesday, so we decided to give him his present a couple days early so he could enjoy it on the weekend. We got him this little red tricycle. He's already starting to understand the concept of putting his feet on the peddles, though I don't think he's actually pushing with any force. It was probably a good thing we ended up getting him a bike with a push bar. Here it the link to my post from Father's Day last year.

A Visit with Voss

Noah had a playdate today with my friend Rachel's son, Voss. Rachel and I used to work together at my old job, but haven't seen each other in ages. It was nice to reconnect, especially since our boys are so close in age.

The 123s and ABCs

Noah is doing a really great job with counting. He is constantly counting from 1-10 and if you help prompt him, he can usually make it to 20. This morning he came into my bed while Darren was getting showered and proceeded to say his alphabet all the way from A-Z without any assistance from me. The only mistake he made was that he didn't say the letter N (I think he thinks of M and N as interchangeable and if he said M, who needs the N). It's so amazing to see him learn.

Our Herb Garden

One of the items our CSA sends us in our weekly veggie deliveries is herb plants. We will get 10 weeks of herbs out of our 20 weeks of deliveries. We got our first one this week-- dill, which is one of my favorites. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I do NOT have a green thumb in any way, shape or form, but Noah and I are going to have a go at an herb garden this year. He enjoys watering things, so it will be Noah's job to water the herbs every night.

I'm a little afraid that the family of bunnies we have living under our patio may make a meal of the dill. They are so cute though. The other night Darren called us downstairs because the three little babies-- small enough to fit in my hand-- were out just staring in through the sliding glass doors. Poor Ole was really going insane with cat instinct. Noah got a real kick out seeing them.

In this picture Noah is doing a better job watering his shoe than he is of watering the dill.

Yeah, he's nowhere near it here either.

Noah and Isaiah's Birthday Bash

On Saturday, we had a joint birthday party for Noah and Isaiah with all of Noah's friends from school. Sangeeta and Danette joined us as well. Isaiah's parents were so nice to host. Noah had a wonderful time. He is so lucky to have such nice kids for friends.

Isaiah, who turned two last week, got this big Thomas train that kids can play in as a birthday present. Everyone enjoyed playing conductor.

And here are the buds, from left to right: Micah, Noah (my child is like a giant next to all the other kids, and they're all the same age more or less), Sophia, Isaiah, and Gabriel coming to join the crowd.

Here's the other birthday boy.

The kids thought it would be fun to all play together in Isaiah's crib.

Noah's Car

We gave Noah an early birthday present from his Grandmoo and Papa. Ms. Sangeeta and Ms. Danette have one of these cars at school and Noah loves it. The car has been in our garage in its box for the last couple weeks and every time Noah would pass by it he would say "Noah's car," as in-- I see it, I want it, I know it's mine. Now the only problem is that this is really an outside toy, but Noah wants to ride it in the house.

Driving the Tractor

Last weekend we made a second visit to the farm. This time Auntie Lisa came with us. We picked more strawberries and got to see some of the animals we missed the first time we went. Noah really loved the baby chicks, and he got to see his favorite-- cows! Unfortunately, due to all the rain we got the week before, the farm was extremely buggy. Not mosquitoes, but those gnats that seem to try to fly strait into any orifice you have... so up your nose, in your eyes, etc. Not fun. On our first visit we didn't notice any bugs at all, so it never crossed my mind to bring bug spray. One of the things Noah enjoyed about this visit was climbing on the tractors. Here he is with Auntie Lisa.

A few More Great Pics from the Farm

Mia's mommy Mara sent us some of their pictures from last weekend's farm visit and they were so cute I couldn't not put them on the blog.

Here are Noah and Greydon having a good ole time together.

The Three Musketeers.

My child the strawberry vampire.