stuck

A couple weeks ago Noah found a new word. We were playing with play-dough (as we do now four times a day), and he was trying to dump the play-dough out of the play-dough can. He kept shaking it, but nothing would come out, and then he looked at me urgently and said: "Stuck!" He must have heard me say it enough times that he picked it up himself. And he's started applying it to things beyond play-dough. Actually he probably over-applies it, but anyway, it is funny. He says "stuck" when he can't get out of his highchair, when he can't get a toy out of his toybox, when I change his diaper and hold him down so he can't escape,... My favorite time was when he wanted me to come play with him, but was having a hard time convincing me, because I was busy doing something at our desk. He started pushing on my butt and yelled in frustration: "STUCK!"
Which brings me to Noah's other little thing. He wants me to go everywhere with him. During the day when we are home together, all day long, I follow him around like I'm his shadow. To get me to go with him, he always holds out his hand expectantly, and will keep it there as long as he needs to until I get up and take his hand and walk with him wherever it is he wants to go. He says something while his holds out his hand that sounds like it might be "come on Mom" or at least just "Ma ma mom." Half the time he doesn't have anywhere in particular that he wants to go, he will just wander aimlessly from room to room, towing me along. Almost like he is testing me, he will sit down in the middle of the hallway and wait for me to sit down, and as soon as I lower my pregnant body down to the ground, then he is up again, and pulling me on to the next stop. The fact that he wants to go everywhere holding hands with me is so sweet. During my lazy moments when I don't particularly want to wander around the house and would prefer to be stationary on the couch, I remind myself that this is just a little fleeting stage Noah is going through, and I think that when this stage passes, he will probably be Mr. Independence, and someday he will even get to be too cool for mom. That thought leaves me feeling a little pathetic, so I choose to get off the couch, and let him lead me around by the hand wherever he wants to go, happily.

Photo shoot #2

We just took Noah pictures again a few weeks ago. Grandma was in town so we let her get in on some of the fun. One look at her face tells you how much she loved being here and seeing Noah again. Have you ever seen someone so happy?

Faces

Recently we were having fun talking about faces.

"pin the face parts on the face" Studying pictures of different expressions.

He's becoming more aware of facial expressions and emotions. The sad and angry faces I showed him made him uncomfortable. He loves looking at the happy and silly faces, but he isn't a fan of the negative emotion pictures. Tonight he was over at Grammy's house, and she was reading a book with him. There was a page in the book where a little girl is crying hysterically because she dropped her ice cream cone. When Noah saw the girl, he started crying. Shanna tried it again later when I was there, and the same thing happened, he went hysterical when we got to the page with the sad little girl. It took him about 5 minutes to calm down after that little episode!

His little outbursts of expression are usually fun though. I love to see him develop and learn new feelings and expressions. He does a sleepy face, laughing face, and funny face, but he has become really fond of making what we call the "surprised face."

He will do it on command, but it is especially endearing when he does it on his own, at random or appropriate times. The other day I was gone, and Noah was home with Kyle. Noah was digging through Kyle's wallet for fun, and when he found a picture of me, he turned to Kyle and made the surprised face and said "Mama!" (I am just proud he has finally started using my name instead of calling me Dada.) I was coloring something for Noah the other day and I didn't want him to see it until I was done, so I covered it up and said: "Noah, you can't look, this is a surprise!" and immediately he busted out the surprised face. He made me laugh, and so I gave in and gave him the surprise right then. He also does the surprised face if he hears the garage door open when Kyle comes home from work. And usually the face is accompanied by a dramatic gasp. You just have to see it in person to really appreciate it. But here's another picture to give you the idea.
If you wonder why he looks pretty ghastly in this one, it's because he is sick (Both he and kyle have been out of commission with the flu the last couple of days). What a little trooper.

But still I love his happy face the best.

Farmer Noah

Noah has developed this horse obsession since we have lived in Ivins. We share our neighborhood with some horses. It makes our walks a lot more exciting, not to mention our drives. It's a piece of cake to get Noah into the car--All we have to say is: "do you want to go see the horses?" and he answers with a firm "yeah" and a nod of the head, then drops anything that he was busy with and makes a beeline for the door, making the horse noise as he goes. However, his love for horses has gotten slightly offensive. When you ask him a question like: "Do you want to go pick up Dada from work?" or "Do you want to go see Grammy?" his answer is the horse noise, like he could care less about whoever else is involved, as long as the horses are part of the plan. We look at horse pictures on the computer, give Noah horsey rides, read farm books, sing horse songs, go on wagon rides to see the horses, sculpt clay horses, and draw horse pictures. I think we're raising a farmer.




Pictures from one of our wagon rides:
(first picture included to humor those wondering about my size these days)