Two more months before Noah turns two! He still looks very much like a baby, and people are always surprised when we tell them that he’s almost two. I still can’t quite get my head around that fact either, and have been trying very hard to stop calling him ‘baby’, without much success.
We flew back to Adelaide this month, and although it was really chilly when we first arrived, the weather has been pretty good on most days. We’ve been trying to make the most out of our remaining stay here, so we head out to the parks and playgrounds as much as possible. Noah absolutely adores being able to run around in the parks, climbing up and down slopes, picking up the many fallen leaves before throwing them back onto the ground, looking at the water features, and feeding the ducks.
Autumn is in the air
Running around
Taking a break on the slope
Checking out the water feature with daddy
Like most, if not all, young children, Noah loves going out, and often brings his shoes or my sandals to me, telling me ‘out’ or ‘park’. Recently, he has taken to shuffling around in my sandals, and finds it quite amusing to do so.
Noah took splashing in puddles to the next level this month. He started out by stomping in the puddles, and got his socks and shoes all wet. (I think he needs some rain boots!) After a while, he decided to squat down to examine the water more closely, and to my great horror, he started using his hands to splash the dirty water all over his face and head. It was too late to stop him, and he was having so much fun that all I could do was erm, take photos, and yell for C to haul him out of the puddle.
Splash splash splash
We discovered a playground near our apartment, but Noah is still very cautious, and prefers stand at a distance to watch other kids play. He refused to try most of the equipment at the playground, and was too scared to go on the bridge or slides, but he did have fun running through the tunnels, and playing on the swing.
Playground fun
We checked out Bricktopia, a Lego exhibition in Adelaide, and were inspired to get Noah to play with his Mega Bloks. He usually wants to build carparks with them, for all his toy cars, but occasionally decides to see how high he can stack them. C also got him a Duplo set, which Noah has been very busy with. He insists that the fences are a ‘carpark’, and likes to put his truck and farmer in there to ‘sleep’.
With Boba Fett at Bricktopia
Building a tower
‘Truck sleep’ he says
He has also taken a bit of an interest in playing with puzzles, but isn’t very good at them, and gets frustrated after a while. He’s definitely happier with his cars and trains!
Puzzled by the puzzle
Definitely more fun playing with vehicles instead!
Eating wise, there are good and bad days as usual. I tried timing his meals, and limiting them to 30 minutes, but it’s definitely still a work in progress. He has developed a taste for lemons, and if our food or drinks come with a slice or wedge of lemon, he will definitely ask for it.
Gnawing on a slice of lemon
Lemons!
Noah loves brushing his teeth every day, and cries when we take his toothbrush away from him. At the moment, he doesn’t get any toothpaste on his toothbrush, because he likes to suck on the bristles, and hasn’t learnt to spit his saliva out yet, so he ends up drooling a lot when he’s “brushing” his teeth.
Brushing his teeth
If you look closely at the photo above, you’ll notice that he’s holding a toy car in his left hand, while he’s “brushing” his teeth. He got it as a gift from our friend, and loves it to bits! On some days, he will ask specifically for it, by telling us ‘car’ and ‘Amy’ (our friend’s name).
Noah talks quite a bit now, though because he hasn’t learnt to speak in sentences yet, it’s usually him telling us one word, and us filling in the rest of the story for him. C calls it the ‘highlight reel’, where Noah tells us about the most significant events that he remembers. His current favourite story is made up of ‘jiejie’, ‘cry’, ‘there’, ‘chair’, ‘sit’, and ‘mummy’. I’ll put the words into sentences for him, ‘Oh, Jiejie came to our house and cried? She sat there on the chair and cried? Why? Her mummy scolded her because she didn’t share with Noah? I see.’ He is really pleased that I’m able to piece his story together for him, and says, “Ya…’ with a grin every time.
He remembers playing with our friends’ daughter Aly when we were in Singapore, and when we ask him if he wants to go to the park or playground, he will ask for ‘Aly’ to go too. He also has a Fisher-Price Little People Neighborhood Playground Playset
and tells me that the girl in it is ‘Aly’ and the boy is ‘Na-Noah’.
Noah now has an opinion about what he wants to wear daily, though most of the time, he asks for his ‘truck’, ‘bike’ or ‘plane’ shirt.He also says ‘thank you’ now, though I usually have to prompt him to do so. He prefers to sign ‘sorry’ but can say the word when asked. He knows when we are upset with him, and usually tries to get out of trouble by running away, smiling his cheekiest grin at us, or asking for a ‘hug’ and ‘kiss’. He also tells us when he is ‘scared’, usually when he sees a picture of a dinosaur or lion, for some strange reason. I’ve been saying ‘oops’ and ‘oh-oh’ when I accidentally drop something, and he has taken to imitating me. However, he says them when he has deliberately thrown or dropped something on the floor, and I’ve been trying to tell him that ‘oops’ and ‘oh-oh’ are for accidents only. It’s really hard to stay mad at him when he says ‘oops’ (C says it sounds more like ‘oots’ instead) and beams proudly at me!
He looks forward to C coming home every evening, and is happiest on weekends, when he gets to play with both of us, all day long. Noah has been going up to C and asking for ‘Daddy play’, and C insists that Noah prefers playing with him because he is better at playing than I am. I’m more than happy for him to prefer playing with C, because then I get some me-time! 😉
Looking out for daddy
This little music snob has two favourite songs, and requests for them every night. He goes up to C when he’s on his laptop, and says, ‘Ho! Hey!’ or ‘Oh oh oh oh’, which is C’s cue to play either ‘Ho Hey’ by The Lumineers, or ‘Best Day of my Life’ by American Authors. Noah then dances madly on the bed to these two songs, and I think these nightly dances are one of my favourite parts of the day.
I really hope that he continues being so cheerful and fun-loving, and that the ‘terrible twos’ are a myth! We’ve seen glimpses of him having meltdowns, but we pray that those are few and far between.
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