Postcrossing

Noah loves getting mail.  He is interested in everything to do with the postal system and how mail travels around the world.  He loves it when he gets mail from Grammy and Yaya and Baubie.  He eagerly checks the mail every day, and he claims any mail for himself that is not important to us.  He opens and examines all our junk mail, and he loves to "fill out" all the credit card applications and any other types of forms.

Noah loves mail so much that when we were in Arizona, he "wrote" and sent himself 7 letters.  That's dedication to getting mail when you're sending it to yourself!!

He especially loves getting international mail, and he was so excited when we recently got a letter form my exchange sister in Japan.

It's a little early for Noah to have a true international penpal yet (especially because I don't know how I would find a 4-year-old in another part of the world that shares his love of mail), so we did the next best thing - we signed up with Postcrossing, and it is so much fun!  With postcrossing, you send and receive postcards from other Postcrossing members all over the world.  

In just the last month, we have sent postcards to Germany and the Netherlands, and we've received postcards from the Netherlands and Poland.  We're keeping track of all this on the world map in Noah's room.  So, really it combines two of Noah's passions - mail and geography.  Score!

A good book

The boys love Richard Scarry's books, and we found them
cuddled up in our bed reading "Cars and Trucks and Things That Go" after their bath.  There's nothing better than a good book.

Goofballs

When it's time to wake up Isaac from his afternoon nap, Noah sometimes likes to climb in Isaac's crib so they can snuggle together.

And hug, which of course leads to wrestling.

Then they like to use stuffed animals to make a puppet show.

I love my goofballs!

Little Drummer Boy

So, we have a full-size drum kit in the house.  It's either a sign that we are brilliant parents who are nurturing our child's potential, or a sign of complete insanity.  You can choose.

It's two days after Christmas, and we are all entertained by Noah's drumming.  He sings while he plays, so that makes the drumming easier to listen to.  We wanted to share to little video clips with you.

Click here to see Noah singing "Jingle Bell Rock" and just having fun with the drums:

And click here to see Noah singing "Step By Step" and showing off one of his new rhythms.
(The lyrics are:  Oh God, You are my God And I will ever praise You... And Step by step You'll lead me, And I will follow You all of my days.)

For those of you concerned about Noah's hearing (which includes us), special noise canceling hearing protection should arrive at our house tomorrow.  

While Noah plays, Isaac usually plays his guitar and sings along at a microphone next to the drums.  Noah has assumed the role of band leader (probably because he has real drums and Isaac has a toy guitar), so Noah tells Isaac what song to sing, and Isaac always agrees, at least for now.

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful, relaxing Christmas, and we hope you did too!

We snapped these pictures as we went to church on Christmas Eve.  

 

This morning, the boys were so excited to see that Santa had left them candy canes!  They have been crazy about candy canes, and they liked the way that Santa hung candy canes on our stockings.  

In addition to the candy cane, Santa brought Isaac sparkly stickers and special marker/paint brushes.  He couldn't have been happier.

Noah said, "Santa got my order right!" as he opened up his gifts to see that he got the winter stickers and peppermint tea that he asked for.  They both had simple requests for Santa, and they would have sincerely been happy if that was all they received, but there was more...

In addition to a bounty of gifts from friends and family, they followed their strings to find their "big" gifts...

Isaac found a play kitchen, and this was our view of him for most of the rest of the day as he "cooked" delicious food for us.

Noah found a drum set, which completely surprised and delighted him.

This was our view of him for the rest of the day.  Isaac used a pretend microphone and guitar and the two of them instantly created a band.

We ended the day with a video call with our family in Arizona and birthday cake to celebrate Jesus's birthday.  

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Here's more Christmas pictures.

Baby

Meet Isaac's baby.  His name is Baby.  

Isaac loves Baby very much, and he took baby everywhere he went in September and October.  Baby helped Isaac get into the routine of taking Noah to preschool and then picking him up after lunch three times a week.  If Baby came along for the ride, Isaac was happy about the adventure.  Since then, Baby stays at the house while we go out.   

Isaac is fascinated by babies.  He shouts "baby!" at the top of his lungs whenever he sees a baby.  And he also loves "itty bitty" things.  So, when we were visiting Grammy, Isaac found "itty bitty" babies in Grammy's doll house.  He carried around them by the handful and wanted to sleep with them too.

But, Isaac is all boy.  He cuddles with Baby and comforts him when he cries.  But his favorite other things to do are "cooking baby" in the crockpot and "jumping baby," when he throws baby up in the air as high as he can.

Boys and their baby dolls are so funny.  When Noah was three, he loved the "school babies" at his preschool so much.  He would spend a lot of time in the housekeeping area caring for the babies.  His teachers told me he would feed the babies and rock them and wear them in a little sling.  He showed so much affection toward them.  Then the next moment, he would be cooking them in the play oven and hitting their heads on the furniture.  Boys!!!

Helpers

In the last few days, Noah has taken a keen interest in helping out around the house. It started with laundry. A few weeks ago, he learned how to fold laundry, and now he can do a load from start to finish - filling the washer, transferring to the dryer, folding and putting away. It's not perfect, of course. I've found all sorts of strange things in strange places today. But he makes a very entertaining game of matching up lonely socks and puzzling over where our missing socks are. I hope he can solve that one for me.


I came downstairs this morning and found these piles of folded washcloths. Now that's a good way to start a day.



He has also started taking out the trash and recycling. It started innocently, but now he is insisting that he trash needs to be taken out once the can is almost half full, and he has spent way too much time looking in the trash and recycling so that he can monitor our trash level. So, of course, Isaac is now monitoring our trash level. It's well-intentioned, but there's been too many heads in the trash can today.

But the best moment of the day was when I walked into the kitchen and found the boys cooperating and hard at work unloading the dishwasher, completely naked.

These boys are quite dedicated to housework. I need to find a way to continue the focus!