Months Twenty-Three and Twenty-Four

August 30, 2017

Noah,

Birthday! You’re a big, bold, happy, independent two-years-old now!

Lots of traveling this month, from family in Indiana to family in California (happy birthday, great-Oma!), and back to Colorado to celebrate your birthday, this month brought lots of wonderful times with family and friends to cherish.

The last couple of months have brought your independent and assertive streak out. Back in Colorado, you decided you wanted to go outside when we were staying with Nana. You got Nana’s shoes and your shoes, and delivered them. Nana didn’t immediately put them on, so you went and got Mommy’s shoes. As soon as you had your shoes, you got Molly’s leash and tried to put that on her. Finally, after getting everyone rounded up and out on the driveway, you clearly pointed to the garage and demanded that the stroller come out.

We also turn around to find you off on your own, from crawling out the doggy door so you can play in the water or try and climb trees, to coming downstairs to find that you’ve obtained your own snacks from the closet, we’re having to already find the balance between freedom and rules to let you learn while not causing permanent harm to the house or yourself.

You have absolutely fallen in love with trains now. We moved the wood train table up to your playroom, and you spend hours walking around the table playing with the trains and saying “choo choo!” We also brought Oma’s train set from the 1960s back home from California and began setting up a much bigger train table in the basement. You could just spend hours watching those electric locomotives go round and round nothing but a single loop of track.

Mama! and Daddee! get resounding greetings when we arrive back home, and get called out any time you see us after we’ve been out of sight for a while. That makes being greeted at church, or the gym, or coming home from work just a pleasure. You could see Mommy across the street talking with the neighbor one day for the better part of an hour. The whole time, you were looking out of different windows in the house, attempting to climb on furniture, and sticking your head under the blinds to see, yelling “Mama! Mama!”.

Between the traveling and the beautiful weather, you’ve spent quite a bit of time this month with your brother. You can’t handle not trying to do pretty much everything he tries, or at least watching. One of his favorite outdoor activities is tag or hide and seek in the backyard. Your favorite version of those games is to sit atop Daddy’s shoulders as we chase Seth together. Of course, you’re also tattling on Seth, even though you can’t quite speak yet. You simply point to the affected area and declare “Brudda!” On the other hand, Seth has also sent you to timeout, with which you happily cooperated.

You love smores, and are quite familiar with the word marshmallow, though you’d prefer to each the “mallow!” right off the skewer after it’s been warmed for no more than 10 seconds or so. Patience is hard when it comes to sweet things.

We can’t wait to continue with you on this journey as each day the you we know leaves, and a slightly larger you takes your place. We’ll miss your grin and the little double-shoulder shrug you do when you’re doing something naughty but cute that you know you aren’t supposed to do.

Keep on hugging your way through life, little bear. We love you very much!

Daddy and Mommy