Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Happy Birthday Noah!

Wow, it's been such a busy summer! vacations, travel, weddings, a rather painful and unexpected bout of pesticide in the eyes and recovery (but that's a whole other story)...and birthdays! In our family we have Bree's birthday, wedding anniversary, Trav's birthday, and Noah's birthday all in the span of one month! Whew! And on July 13th, Noah turned 2! My babies are growing so fast!

Just like for Bree, it was just the four of us for Noah's birthday. Which apparently, was more than enough, or we party hardy, judging by the amount of party mess that was left to clean up afterwards!

In keeping with my handmade gifts pledge, the large majority of our gifts to Noah were sewn by yours truly. One of the first things he opened was his own tool pouches.

Which turned out to be handy...he wore the tool belt the rest of the day, and used his tools to open the rest of his presents.

Yep, a man needs the right tools to get the job done. Nothing like hammering and screwing your gift wrap into submission.

Noah's a big fan of the show Dora the Explorer, and Boots the monkey is his favorite character. So, I also made him a stuffed animal Boots. Considering this was my first attempt at a stuffed animal, I was pretty happy with how it turned out.

Of course, he had to get his own bean bag chair, just like big sister.

And I also made him his own playscape. He got a farm scene, complete with barn, silo, fences, and haystack.

And just like Bree's the whole thing cinches up into a bag that holds all the parts inside.


Embracing my hand made gift movement, my mom made him a Super Noah cape, which he loves! It's so funny too, he'll put it on, run into the room and strike a pose with his hands on his hips, cape billowing behind him. Then, after a dramatic pause, he'll run back out again. :)

His other big gifts were a basketball hoop and a sand/water play table. (Yes, they're plastic, I couldn't sew those things!) Now that the fence is finally up, it's nice to have some fun things for the kids to do outside. Yep, that's the new fence in the background there. (I finally broke down and just got white vinyl. It's not quite as bad as I thought, although, as predicted, in high sunlight you can practically be blinded by the glare of it's shiny white surface.)

After the gifts, it was time to party! Which, at our house means blowing those party blower things at each other...

...and blowing up funny shaped balloons and proceeding to "sword" fight and smack each other with.


Then it was time for cake. I frosted this one while it was still too warm and it turned out a bit wonky. But hey, it still tasted good and you know, might as well shrug and go with the flow instead of fret.

The birthday boy giving the cake the finger swipe and lick test.

Naturally, being all of 2 now, Noah thinks he's quite a big boy. He's in that phase where he wants to do things himself even though he can't quite really do them without help. And his character grows daily, along with his vocabulary. Yes, it's that stage that I find so charming where every word is either mispronounced, or used in the wrong context and it's oh-so-cute. So, since it's been awhile since I've done so, here are a few of my favorite things Noah says, translated from "Noahnese" to English.

do = yes Because, most of the time I'm asking things like "Do you want ____?" So, of course the answer is, "I do!" Although, lately he's also sometimes answering "uh-huh" which I find equally adorable.

MaMom That's me. Not sure when or why he started referring to me that way, but these days, he does. "Do MaMom!" = I do want that Mom!

Nuhko = Nikko, the dog

Boots = his favorite show/monkey, or the footwear, which is one of his favorite things to wear, usually with just a diaper on to accesorize.

Go = "There you go" or "Let go" depending on the context.

He also has a few "phrases" that only his mother can understand. Mostly because they're said in more of a singsong syllable kind of way. And it's not so much the words, but the sounds and the cadence of how he says them that cue me in.

da-i-tis = There it is.
whe-a-oo = Where are you?
Hahaha = Noah's evil laugh that he actually makes quite sinister and says usually during, after, doing something naughty.

Then there are those words that need no translation:

Mine A staple of 2 yr. olds everywhere, especially ones with older siblings.
Now a charming addition to the vocabulary. :)

Along with new words, it's been fun to watch Noah and his sheer "boyness". So different from Brianna at this age. For one thing he's already stronger than she is now, which we know because he's been hitting a lot. (And which we're working on quicky nipping in the bud.) He also likes to jump into a room with an improvised "sword" (which has been anything from a stick to a plastic golf club), assume a wide leg stance, swing his arm and go, "Hi-ya!" And the kid seems to always be sticky and dirty, despite my best efforts to keep him clean. In fact, I've been thinking his nickname should be pigpen, just like the Charlie Brown character, he seems to have a cloud of dust following him around. As proof, I present exhibit #1:

Yep, this is pretty much the standard look lately. (Except for the hat.) But at least he's also patriotic huh?
This picture reminds me of a Jeff Foxworthy joke... you know, you might be a redneck if your face is always dirty, you never wear a shirt, but you love your country so much you wear a red white and blue top hat. :)

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