Friday, January 30, 2009

Oh So Good!


Noah and I made molasses crinkle cookies today, and they are so yummy! It was to perfect recipe to make with a toddler - Noah could help mix the batter with a spoon, and he rolled the cookies in sugar after I rolled them into balls. It was a fun way to spend some time this morning, it made the house smell so good, and now we have sweet treats! Somehow, molasses cookies taste like winter to me. Here's some cookie pictures.
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Wednesday, January 28, 2009

What's Your Name?

About a week ago, I asked Noah what his name was and he said, "baby." That was when I realized we needed to work on that skill! Now, he says his name is "Oh-AH." He says it all the time, and he's very proud of himself!

Sunday, January 25, 2009

T!


Noah officially knows two letters now - O and T. He occasionally knows a hand full of other letters, but these are the two that he has officially mastered. He is in search of O's and T's everywhere - on clothes, cereal boxes, batteries, street signs, books, toys... He was eating breakfast and found a plus sign on the inside flap of his cereal box, and he screamed "T" in excitement! Pretty good for a 20-month old, huh?

The above picture is of his foam bathtub letter. Noah and Matt play with the letters every night in the tub, and they have all sorts of things they do with the letters - stick them on the wall, sing the alphabet song (as Matt sings, Noah purposefully rearranges the letters in the wrong order and giggles), and splash with the letters. Noah goes into the bathroom a couple of times everyday to look in the bathtub and find his T and O. I wanted to get a picture of him holding the T and smiling, but this is what I got instead. A lot of the time, Noah wants to see the digital display on the camera, and he won't pose. To get a good picture of him lately, I need to hide the camera and sneak up on him when he's least expecting it.
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Saturday, January 24, 2009

There Are Letters Everywhere!


This is a picture of the bottom of Noah's sock. He always takes off his shoes and socks as he rides in the car, and now he sits and "reads" the bottom of his socks as we drive along. He has discovered that there are letters everywhere! It is so amazing to watch! He knows the letter "O," so when he "reads" his socks, he makes a number of letter sounds as he points to the letters, then he says "O" really loud when he gets to the O. He is so very proud of himself, and we are having a blast helping him learn.
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Friday, January 23, 2009

Lunchtime Fun


Noah has been working on his balancing skills when he's finished eating his lunch. Usually that means he balances his cup on a bowl, or vice versa. This always makes him burst out in laughter! Last week, I heard him laughing and laughing and looked over to see that he had balanced his bowl on his head. He thought it was so funny, so of course he did it again and again as I went to get the camera. Here's a few more pictures as he hams it up for the lens.
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Thursday, January 22, 2009

Multi-Car Pile Up


The police car was the last to arrive on the scene, but there wasn't much he could do to help :-)

Noah is completely immersed in the world of Hot Wheels. He accumulated quite a collection over Christmas, and he has a large assortment of emergency vehicles and race cars. We have a standard set-up that he really likes - we use a few pieces of orange Hot Wheels track that I played with as a kid, and the tunnel from Noah's Polar Express train set.

Most of Noah's cars go down the track just fine, but he has a few odd cars that don't perform well (too big/too small, too heavy/too light). Noah always separates these cars out into a discard pile. Sometime he'll try one of the cars that doesn't work well, then he says, "hmm.." as he shrugs his shoulders and makes a disappointed scowling look with his face. It cracks me up every time.

He's getting more creative, and now he's looking for other things he can put down the track. He's discovered that his trains go down really well, and it makes him laugh to see his trains racing down the hill. He's also tried putting beads down and other assorted objects. We've used blocks to make some much larger tunnels, which was fun too. Here's a few more pictures.
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Saturday, January 3, 2009

Decorating Cookies


While we were in Phoenix, Aunt Stephanie had a great idea for the kids to decorate cookies. It was great fun! Jacob made a rainbow of different icings, and Stephanie had lots of sprinkle choices available. Noah and his cousins all decorated cookies together for a while, but Jacob and Noah were the ones that really got into it. Jacob experimented with all sorts of icing and sprinkle combinations. Noah was able to put a little frosting on by himself, but his clear choice of activities was putting sprinkles on the cookies - lots and lots of sprinkles. He took his job very seriously! He would shake and shake the sprinkles, and he wasn't finished until there were mounds of color on top of every cookie. He took great pride in his work and he was quite happy with himself!  Here's the pics.

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A Day at the Zoo


We had a fun day at the zoo while we were in Arizona, and we wanted to share a few pictures with you. Noah's cousins Connor and Jacob came too, and they both did a great job sharing their animal expertise with us. Noah's favorite animals were the penguins, zebras, monkeys and giraffes. But, as Grandad always says, we're still the funniest animals in the zoo :-) Here's our zoo pics.
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