Isaiah at 18 Months

Isaiah was 18 months on March 22, so I wanted to record a few things about him at this moment in time.

-He's 25lbs and just shy of 32 inches tall.

-He still only has 8 teeth.  His molars have been huge bruised "marbles" under his gums for MONTHS, but just now one is actually cutting through so that part of it is through the gums.  The other ones are still just bruises.

-He gets up between 2 and 4 times a night to nurse.  It's just recently he started sometimes getting up only 2 times.  I love those nights.  But I usually end up laying awake for 2 or 3 hours anyway.

-We cosleep, and we love it and have no plans to stop.

-He doesn't talk much, but he does say Mama, Dada, Noah, more, no, yah, ball, block, Papa, Nana, baby, bird, moo, cheep, and maybe a few other things.

-He likes to build now, not just destroy.

-His "lovey" is a panda that Noah built him at Build-A-Bear, named "Pandy".  He ADORES Pandy, which is especially cute because Noah made him for him. I don't think I have a picture of it, unfortunately.

-He hasn't been sick that many times.  4 or 5 times total, one of them being right now (we all have a cold except Justin).

-He's a super smiley, friendly baby, but he is not easy.  He is pretty high maintenance and requires a lot of attention.  But he's a toddler, so yeah.  I expect that.

-I've always said that 12-18 months is my least favourite age (for so many reasons), and literally just in the 1.5 weeks before Isaiah turned 18 months he suddenly got a little easier.  Up until that point he still wanted to be held or worn every second, even while I was cooking, washing dishes, cleaning, etc.  Right before turning 18 months he suddenly preferred to play than to be worn.  Nothing else got easier, really, but that made a HUGE difference.

-He is a MAJOR STINKER.

-He loves to strut around like a peacock on the dining room table.

-He's not a "good eater" even though he always wants to eat.  He just doesn't actually ingest a whole lot, and he's rather picky.  He still gets about 95% of his nutrition from breastmilk, which is fine.  It's healthier than most things he could eat anyway.

-In the tub he is constantly doing this (don't mind the old lady tiles):

-He continues to be a hitter, scratcher, pincher, and biter. He's always done these things, ever since he was an infant. It's usually not even malicious, but it HURTS! We are just finally starting to make some headway with the whole "Be gentle, be gentle" and petting things instead of hitting. And finally when we say "No biting! Just kissing." He will kiss whatever he was about to bite. Up until now those things didn't work. And interestingly, if he's hitting or biting and we just say "No hitting!" or "No biting!" it will make him do it even more. Every single time.

Trying to bite for no reason:

Still trying to bite...

A split second before I yelled "ISAIAH NOOO!!" and he smashed Noah on the head with the old diaper sprayer:

-He's a HUGE gym rat, and pretty much his favourite place to be is in our garage gym.

In short, he's "challenging", but he's a pretty awesome kid!  We like him :)

Sick Again!

Last Thursday I wrote about a really crappy night of sleep courtesy of dear Isaiah.  I said I wasn't worried about it because (and I quote) "this likely won't be repeated tonight."

Well, turns out it was repeated the next 4 or 5 nights!  Haha.  No seriously. The next night at Isaiah's first wake up I heard how congested he was, and he continued to wake up about every 2 hours all night, with some long awake periods.  He's been sick for the past week.  Poor little guy.  He's still really congested.  I have to use a saline spray and the Nosefrida on him before almost every time we nurse because he can't get any air through his nostrils.

I have no idea where this virus came from, because none of the rest of us are sick and we didn't spend any time around anyone who was sick.  It's a mystery.  I also have no idea how I got through Noah being sick so often when he was 0-18 months old without a Nosefrida.  Seriously, NO IDEA.  That thing is amazing.

Isaiah has been pretty cranky for the past week.  Between teething and his cold (and sometimes being hungry because he's too congested to be able to nurse), he's been a big ball of crank.  Thankfully it is March Break, so Justin has been home for some moral support.

Back to the sleep thing though... The past few nights have been better because Isaiah has gotten used to being congested and has stopped protesting having to breathe through his mouth.  Last night he slept 7:45 to 5:15am, then after about half an hour of being awake he went back to sleep until 8:30am.  I went to sleep around 10pm and then stayed in bed until 8am (Justin was up with Noah)... it was amazing!

Picture time!

As Isaiah gets older he gets blonder:

He's got the hands and knees thing down... and he can end up halfway across the room independently, but he just can't seem to get the cross crawling thing down ;)

I did not tell Noah to get in the picture... he just kept going next to Isaiah and making ridiculous faces.  This picture cracked me up:

Life in Bullets

I've been a bad blogger the past month or so.  I blame it on the holidays, my laptop breaking and having to buy a new one, having verrry sick kids, and trying to adjust to Isaiah's sleep regression.  Which I think is semi-permanent... is it still considered a sleep regression then?  So here's life in bullets lately:

-Isaiah is still sick, but I expected this.  Noah took over 2 weeks before he seemed to not be sick anymore (although he still has a bit of a cough).  Tomorrow it'll be 2 weeks for Isaiah.

-Like I said, sleep regression central over here.  I was kind of expecting this.  Like Noah, Isaiah became a pro sleeper all on his own around 2 or 2.5 months.  Then at 3-3.5 months they both got sick, and sleep went to crap.  This blended with the 4 month sleep regression and with Noah it didn't go away until we let him CIO at 7 months.  I'm hoping to avoid that this time, and Isaiah is a different kid, so hopefully I can.  I might have to figure out how to sleep in the same room with him if this getting up every 3 hours all night long thing continues (oh how I wish I could cosleep!!).  I feel like a zombie in the middle of the night.

-(Okay, I've been writing this stupid post for 3 days and since then the sleeping has improved.  He;s even had an 8 hour stretch!  It's still all over the map, though, because he's also had stretches as short as 45 minutes)

-Last week I went to my husband's high school to visit the parenting class with Isaiah (my father in law babysat Noah).  I was the "parenting expert".  I think I gave them a completely different picture of parenting than they're used to.  Home water-birthing, babywearing, cloth diapering, breastfeeding (it did come up that Noah still nurses), wishful cosleeping, no bottles, etc. etc.  My husband is the teacher that all the girls are in love with, though, so they took me pretty seriously (haha).  I didn't really want to do it, but it ended up being fun!  They loved my rainbow wrap, by the way :)

-Again, I've been writing this post for several days, so now I know that my "parenting practices" have sparked much discussion in that parenting class.  Apparently the girls thought that even though they'd never considered a lot of the things I do, the way I talked about it made it all make sense and seem so totally normal (which really, it should be since I try to keep things as close to the "natural" state as possible).  I'm happy to have exposed them to some of the things I was exposed to as a teenager that totally helped shape the kind of parent I wanted to be.

-In the past week I have made about $250 selling stuff we don't use.  14 cloth diapers, a big desk, 2 end tables, a pack of disposable diapers still from when Noah was a baby, a bottle warmer/cooler that has never been used because my kids don't have bottles, paper towel holder, candy dishes, and a bunch of other stuff.  I also sent a huge bin of university books to our local library to be donated... they would only take one bin per week, so another one is going this week.  I am SO HAPPY to be getting rid of more stuff.  I had to take the last 4 months off of purging because I have been busy with a new baby, so it feels good to get back into it.

-I decided my goal in 2013 is to get rid of 2013 things, either through selling, donating, or throwing away (regular garbage does not count!).  I'm at about 300 right now with more things up for sale that are being picked up this week not included in that total.  2013 sounded very easy to me, but I have gotten rid of sooooo many things in the past year, it'll be interesting to see if I can actually make it to 2013.

-I haven't seen my parents since Christmas day because we've all been sick.  It's been 3 weeks!  I miss them!


I have to post this now... it shouldn't take 3 days to write a post!

A Sick 3 Month Old is a Sad Thing

We did  everything we could to prevent this, but Isaiah got sick.  Amazingly, it took a week of Noah being sick and hacking all over our household before Isaiah got came down with a fever.  That was on Wednesday.  He spent the entire day whining/moaning, even while sleeping.  In the early afternoon I noticed he was getting hot, and by the time I took his temp it was 101.8.  

Things quickly deteriorated.  He was coughing and congested, and I couldn't get him to go to sleep.  He vomited explosively 3 times (and was really freaked out by it).  That night I didn't sleep a wink, as I had him laying on top of me all night and he was sleeping extremely restlessly.  He was basically crying or fussing every half hour.

Last night he slept with me again, but beside me instead of on top of me.  He slept better than the night before (I don't think he liked being stuck in one position when he was sleeping on top of me), but I only got 2 broken hours of sleep, and I'm not expecting to get much more tonight.

So, symptom tally: his fever comes and goes (not as bad as Noah's), he's congested, sneezing, coughing, and his eyes are running and gunky.  His voice is all hoarse, and I'm quite sure he has a sore throat.

My poor baby :(

Christmas 2012

It's 8:10pm on December 31, 2012.  I really want to get a Christmas post in before 2013 comes, so here it is!

Christmas 2012 was supposed to be pretty busy.  We purposefully skipped a few Christmas parties for various reasons, like the fact that Isaiah is hysterical on car rides, and that certain ones (read: work parties) were just going to be awkward instead of enjoyable.

The plans boiled down to this:

-My immediate family Christmas on December 23

-My MIL's side on December 24

-My brother Matt, his wife Lynsey, sister Giliane, and my Mom on December 25, followed by a couple of hours with my FIL's side on December 25

-Brunch at my inlaw's with their friends on December 26.


The first two days went as planned.  Christmas at my parents house with my siblings was great.  It was a little hairy with naps for Isaiah, since he just recently became less able to nap in a room full of people, even while babywearing, but I didn't stress about it and just went with the flow.  Noah had fun, although he doesn't always enjoy playing with his cousins because they just aren't as nice and gentle as he is.

Noah's present from my parents was a floor mat for cars, the first Cars movie, and 3 cars from the Cars movie.  He really really liked it!  After his cousins realized what he got, they went over and were crawling all over his mat playing with his cars.  Noah said to Josiah in a frustrated voice, "Go somewhere else!!"  So I said to Noah, "Noah, please be nice," and Noah said, in an equally frustrated voice, "Please go somewhere else!!!"  Hahaha.

Christmas Eve was at my inlaws and included the Nonna on that side, and my MIL's sister Mary, her husband Skip, and their son Josh.  This was huge, as they had a huge falling out before Noah was born and the two families never get together for anything anymore.  Justin and I get together with Skip and Mary a few times a year, but never with my inlaws.  It went well.  Again, I wore Isaiah all day so he was happy... except when I let Mary hold him and she started walking around with him facing out into the noisy room.  As soon as she turned him that way he started SCREAMING, and even though both my MIL and me told her to turn him back around because it's not comfortable, it's way too stimulating, and he had nowhere to hide from the stimulation in that position, she ignored us.  He stopped screaming for a couple of minutes and then started wailing again so I just took him back.  Poor little guy.

I should mention, the drives to and from my parents' house and my inlaws house were awful.  I sit in the back with Isaiah and Noah, but Isaiah still gets hysterical.  It frays my nerves.  I usually end up taking him out of the carseat and nursing him.  I know it's unsafe but I just can't let him scream for 25 minutes!

By Christmas Day I was NOT wanting to do any more driving because of all the crying.  I had kind of decided that Isaiah and I would be skipping the rest of the Christmas festivities, but told Justin he could take Noah for a couple of hours.  Keep this fact in mind.

Christmas morning we woke up and stayed home from church (because of the crying).

We opened presents as a family.  Well, Isaiah just watched:

Isaiah got a book and a whole bunch of BabyLegs, the boys got matching handmade hats (not handmade by me, I don't have those skills):

And Noah got a Duplo gas station set and 5 different wooden Thomas trains.

We purposefully kept it lower key this year and just stuck with things we knew he would love (and he did).  I didn't want to bring a bunch of useless plastic crap into the house like we did last Christmas.

Blurry picture of me and my boys, but I have to add it... look how happy Isaiah is!:

Noah fell asleep in the downstairs spare bedroom around 10:15, which was weird.

Then my family started arriving around noon, and he acted very unhappy to see them.  This was weird too.  I gave Isaiah to Justin to hold and brought Noah to him room to ask him what was going on, and when I picked him up he was burning hot.  He had a pretty high fever.  I gave him Advil to bring it down, which it did.  At this point I told Justin that none of us would be going to his family's Christmas that night, as there were two other kids who would be there and I wasn't about to be the family bringing the sick kids into other people's houses.  Justin seemed like he thought I was overreacting, but he agreed.

By the end of the day it was pretty clear Noah was quite sick.  He was burning up again and was very lethargic.  Justin slept in his room with him that night.  At around 5am he brought him into my room because he had been asking for me.  At first I was annoyed, because I'd been lying awake since 12:30am, but as soon as Noah got in my lap I realized he was even sicker.  He was limp like a rag doll and sooooo hot.  We gave him more Advil, I nursed him, and the two of them went back to sleep in Noah's room.

The next morning we skipped Boxing Day brunch because of Noah being sick.  During the course of the day he developed a bad cough and still had a really high fever.  That night Justin brought him to me again at 2am. I think the next night the same thing happened, but since then it hasn't.

Basically, Noah has never been so sick in his life (and he's been sick at least 20 times).  High fever, sore throat, headache, body ache, horrible congestion, horrible cough, major lethargy, spending all day on the couch, choosing to nap for hours even though he stopped napping in August... He even stopped eating for a few days, during which I was so thankful he was still nursing and that I have so much milk.  It's been rough, and right now I'm not seeing any light at the end of the tunnel.  I can't wait until he's healthy again... I know it's only been a week, but it's been so brutal that I'm starting to forget what normal, happy, healthy Noah is like.

Magically, Isaiah hasn't gotten sick, which is amazing since it's been 7 full days of Noah being like this.  I'm a little sick, but nothing like Noah.  Justin is the one who brought this into the house, but he was never sick like Noah is.  It has really been awful to watch, but I'm so thankful it's happened during Justin's Christmas vacation.  I don't know how I would have taken care of both kids by myself.  Plus, Justin has slept in Noah's room every night for the past week, which has really saved me from many sleepless nights.  He's such a good dad!

Incidentally, this illness (and Justin sleeping with Noah) has been the catalyst for Noah sleeping in a big boy bed.  We realized about a month ago that Noah would finally do really well in a big boy bed (as in, not leaving his room when he's not supposed to), but he was perfectly happy to stay in his crib, so we left things that way.  However, with Justin in there over the past week, the sleeping arrangement slowly evolved so that Noah is no longer sleeping in a crib, and he is doing great.  I'm thinking we'll leave it this way after he's well.  Actually, Justin is wanting to continue cosleeping with him after vacation is over, because they both enjoy it so much.  Noah keeps telling me to sleep in there with them too.  He can't seem to accept my explanation that I am a terrible sleeper who doesn't sleep well with people in the same room as me, much less two other people in the same BED as me.  As much as I would love to have my entire family sleeping in one giant bed (and since our master bedroom has two queen beds pushed up against each other, this would be totally feasible), I suck at sleeping too much for this to happen.

Okay, it's 9:00, which means it's past my bedtime.  Goodnight all, have a Happy New Year!

Wool Works!

Last night's diapering adventures were successful!  The fitted he was wearing was wet through all the layers in the front (countless layers of bamboo and hemp - his bum area was dry, though... he's a boy AND a tummy sleeper), but the inside of the wool cover was barely damp.

His diaper wasn't totally saturated, so I think I might take out the hemp doubler I had folded in front for tonight.  His diaper was very thick in the front, and I don't think it was necessary.

I only slept 4 or 5 hours last night, probably because I kept wondering what was going on with his diaper.  Hopefully I rest more peacefully tonight, knowing he will wake up dry:)

Unfortunately, Noah is still sick.  I think it might actually be the 18th time.  He got sick on Christmas Day, but it is January 6 now and I don't think this is the same illness.  I think two separate illnesses - both from his loving father - ran into each other and overlapped.  Right now he seems to have bronchitis.  He is up coughing a lot. Hopefully he gets better soon.

Christmas Day and Boxing Day 2011

To read about our Christmas Eve, go here.


Christmas Day

Christmas Day was not magical.  I am not complaining, I am just being realistic.  Not everyday is a good day, for you or for your child, and Christmas Day wasn't a great day for Noah or for me.

My day started with me waking up an hour earlier than Noah so we can go to church (which we've skipped for the past month to avoid Noah either spreading his germs while he's sick, or getting sick from the nursery when he's healthy). I rushed around all morning, but somehow we were still late for church.

We never put Noah in the church nursery without either me or my mom staying in there with him.  He is doing a lot better with his separation anxiety, but he still needs someone around that he can trust.  I had separation anxiety when I was younger, and it's very very real, and very very scary, so I would never force Noah to just "deal" with it.  He wouldn't be able to.  He would just scream and scream until I appeared again, and then he would likely end up becoming very clingy again because the trust would be broken.  The nursery workers have a hard time believing it, because when I'm in the nursery Noah will sometimes seem to pay no attention to me at all.  But if I leave, it's game over.  He gets really scared and doesn't want anyone to touch him and won't calm down for anyone but me.

So on Christmas Day we brought Noah into church with us, because I wanted to be able to enjoy the Christmas service (we missed all of Advent).  Noah did really well in church, sitting on my lap for almost an hour.  Unfortunately our services always last at least an hour and 15 minutes, sometimes an hour and a half.  So Noah started to get antsy.  I was sitting the furthest in the pew, and Justin was on the outside, so he said "I'll go out with him."  I said thanks, and then settled back to enjoy the rest of the service.

A few minutes later Justin appears.  Alone.  He said Noah just walked right into the nursery and didn't pay any attention to him, and it's not like he was going to hang out in there (oh heaven forbid), so he came back in.  I was shocked, because Justin is usually very sensitive to things like this, but he seemed completely unconcerned.  I told him that of course Noah walked in and paid no attention to him - he thought his Dad was going to stay in there with him.  How could he leave him in a room full of complete strangers??  As soon as he realizes there's no one there he knows, he's going to lose it!  And Justin didn't even sign him in, so they didn't have a number to put up on the screen to page us.  And we were sitting at the very front of the church.

Of course, I hoped I was wrong.  I hoped he'd be okay.  I was going to go out to check on him, but my mom had to go to the bathroom so she said she'd do it.

Five minutes later she came back holding Noah, who had a red, blotchy, tear-stained face, and was shuddering and crying softly.  He saw me and softly sobbed "Mamaaaaa" and lunged for me.  Apparently he was bawling and even Granny staying in the nursery with him wasn't good enough anymore by that point.  He needed his Mom.  He asked to nurse, and obviously I didn't give a crap that I was sitting in the front row of the church and we were all about to stand up to sing.  I nursed him.

So we left church, and Justin was feeling bad, and I was feeling sad for Noah, who seemed exhausted from his cry even though he was still hours from his normal naptime.  He fell asleep in the car at 11:50, which was way too early for him to nap.  We drove around for awhile, and he only napped for half an hour.

Then we went to my aunt and uncle's, where we find out after being there for awhile that that 75% of the people there were exposed to the stomach flu the night before.  So then we had possibly been exposed to the stomach flu.  Wonderful.  We leave pretty much as soon as we found this out, because I am terrified of the stomach flu after getting it three times last winter (and it turned out that 3 of the 6 people in my aunt and uncle's family started throwing up the next day).

Then we went to my inlaws'. Noah acted so strange all day. He wasn't really acting interested in present opening, which was the opposite of the day before.  And as the day goes on he got more congested and his nose got runnier and he started getting a fever. He hardly ate anything, and he generally acted very out of sorts, the way he acts when he's about to get very sick.  He was actually asking to go home, so we left early.

At home he seemed totally fine, and played with his kitchen for an hour. This made me happier, because it seemed like he just wanted to go home, and maybe he actually felt okay. But I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off putting Christmas presents away and having to reorganize and pack away some dishes and toys to fit other things.

Then after bathtime Noah's whole body was hot, but he was shivering like crazy.  Then it seemed like maybe he was about to throw up. I took his temp and it was 98.6, but he felt a lot hotter and I find sometimes the forehead thermometer doesn't work properly, so I took his temp again on the other side and it was 102.  That felt a lot closer to what he actually felt like to the touch. So that made me feel even worse.

Then when I was nursing him to sleep (he was tired enough that he was falling asleep quickly, but 9 nights out of 10 he goes in his crib awake) he conked out right away, but his body kept jerking, which was probably from sleep, but I was terrified the whole time that he was about to throw up.

I couldn't fall asleep that night because I was so scared that we were all going to start barfing in the middle of the night.  For some reason I always wake up with the stomach flu around 2am.

Luckily Noah slept 11.5 hours straight, and the next morning we were all still healthy.

All's well that ends well.


Boxing Day

On Boxing Day we were at my parents' house all day long. All my siblings and their spouses were there.  It was great to see everyone, especially since I hadn't seen Nick and Hilary and their kids since Thanksgiving.  Noah had a great time playing with Elijah (exactly a year older than Noah) and Josiah (14 months).  Elijah was really into Noah.  He even wanted him to stay overnight with him at Granny and Gramper's and sleep in the other single bed in the room (ha, yeah right).  They first started really playing together this past summer.  Before that, Elijah wanted nothing to do with Noah because he seemed too much younger than him.  I was cute to see how much Elijah liked Noah this Christmas.

It was also so interesting to watch them, because Noah definitely appears to be ahead of Elijah, intellectually.  He talks much more, knows all his shapes, all his colours, all his animals and their sounds, and all of his letters.  Elijah knows a few animals and animal sounds, and a few colours, but those are all recent acquirements.  It's just so interesting to me to see how different kids develop.  

I was a little concerned about the napping situation as Christmas approached.  I hate letting Noah cry it out in a strange place (he doesn't cry much, if at all, before he sleeps at our house), but I never nurse him to sleep for a nap anymore, so I had no idea how he was going to have a nap at my parents' house (because yes, he would certainly cry if I plopped him in the crib and left the room).  Turns out, he didn't.

I tried.  I kept telling him that he was going to nap in the crib, that Mommy would just be downstairs and would come get him after he slept.  But he looked really freaked out, and kept softly crying and saying "Nooooo, noooo."  I nursed him in the rocker to try and calm him down, but then just decided not to put him in the crib.  I just felt too bad doing it when he seemed so scared.  I tried to coax him to fall asleep in my arms, nursing, and he seemed like he did.  But only for 5 minutes.

So he didn't nap, but he was a complete angel, as usual.  I have said it before and I'll say it again - I love being around Elijah and Josiah (my nephews) because they make Noah look so good.  It helps remind me what a good kid I have, and reinforces the parenting decisions I've we've made.  My nephews are constantly crying and freaking out; they are so loud; they need such crazy, high energy stimulation in order to stay happy; it is a battle to get them to eat anything at dinnertime; and Elijah is sometimes full-out defiantly bratty (for example, my Dad had a night shift that night, and the next morning my mom told Elijah not to yell because Gramper was sleeping.  Elijah walked right over to the stairs leading upstairs and screamed at the top of his lungs.  Then he stared at my mom with a "screw you" look on his face!!!!  Noah would never do something like that!)

At the end of the night as we were leaving, my mom was saying thanks to me for my patience (not sure why) and I said "Yeah, my kid only slept 5 minutes the whole day."  My brother Nick (Elijah and Josiah's dad), who is the type of person who always thinks he's right and I can rarely do anything right according to him, said, "Yeah, but he was an ANGEL! Seriously, your kid is PERFECT!"  I said, "Well, he has his moments, but he IS pretty darn good."  I'm so proud of Noah in situations like this.

It was interesting, because on Boxing Day I was asking him at 7:30 if he wanted to go home, and he kept saying No. On Christmas Day, HE was asking to go home. His behaviour was so different on the two days. Apparently he did not enjoy the get together at my inlaws'.

The three cousins on Boxing Day:

Noah (21 months), Josiah (14 months), and Elijah (33 months)

Josiah is screaming, as usual.

Noah doesn't know what to do, because my brother Nick was holding him there, and he is not so sure about Uncle Nick. 

And Elijah bails:

Freakishly similar to last year (when Elijah was Noah's exact age):

Elijah: "I will cut you."

Interestingly, last year Noah was 9 months and barely slept the whole day (maybe half an hour total), and was extremely pleasant that day as well.

And Elijah bails again:

"Get these babies away from me!!"

Those pictures crack me up.

Next year there will be a 7 or 8 month old little boy added to the picture (from Nick and Hilary), and maybe a couple of newborns.  I would love to have a baby by the end of 2012, and my other brother and his wife went off the pill and are going to see what happens, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see!!


(Noah is sick right now (his 17th illness), but nothing major.  He got it from Justin, who has had a chest cold for weeks.  I have somehow managed to avoid it.  I'm telling you, these supplements work magic!)

Noah's 16th Illness

This is not earth shattering, nor is it all that interesting, but I need to mention that Noah got sick again last week.  For the 16th time.  Third time in less than 2 months.  Another cold.  Kind of ridiculous, if you ask me.  But luckily he was in good spirits and didn't needed any pain medication to stop him from being a terror.

This post was sitting in drafts for a few days, and I was going to say that the last two times Noah has been sick, I didn't get it, which is amazing because the previous 14 times he was sick, I was down and out with him every single time! But I did end up getting this cold.  Boo.  It's very mild, though, so I'm not really complaining.

To make a long story short, the fact that I didn't get his 15th illness is pretty amazing.  I have an autoimmune disease (ulcerative colitis) that has made me catch everything Noah has had.  I mentioned back in September how I had a really horrible flare up, during which I ended up in the ER and had to see a new specialist.  I had a follow up with her last week and things are awesome!  She did really thorough blood work to compare to the blood work I had done at the end of September, and the results were perfect.  Better than perfect!  She was amazed at how well my body has responded to all the health supplements I've been taking (not prescription, unfortunately, so it's cost us almost $4000 out of pocket).  I already knew that my colitis was a lot better, and that my immune function must be improving, since I avoided Noah's 15th illness, but it was nice to have it confirmed in my blood levels.

As happy as I am about my own health improving, I really do wish that Noah could be healthy for more than a week or two at a time.  It's so lame.

20 Months Old

At 20 months, here is where Noah is at:

-I haven't weighed or measured Noah this month, but I assume he is just slightly heavier and taller than he was at 18 months, when he was 27lbs and 35 inches.

-He is in size 4 diapers during the day and night.

-He wears size 2T and 3T clothing. Most 2T clothing is too short, though.

-He wears size 6 shoes.

-He nurses on demand, 4-8 times a day.

-He exclusively feeds himself his solids, either with his hands or with a spoon and fork. If he is given a utensil, he will always use it. He also drinks out of a regular cup quite well, although we try to use a sippy cup as often as he will let us since we run less risk of him purposefully pouring out his water.

-He has 16 full teeth. The only ones left are his 2 year molars.

-His broken leg is pretty much completely healed.

-He sleeps straight through the night now, between 9.5 and 11 hours total.  11 hours is rare.  He gets less total sleep now that he's not nursing overnight, which isn't great, but I am loving not getting up in the middle of the night with him.  Bedtime is still about 8:30pm.

-He naps for one hour, and we are finally at the point that I just plop him in his crib wide awake.

-At 15 months Noah was saying 18 words. At 16 months he was saying 42 words. At 17 months he was saying 79 words. At 18 months he was saying 137 words.  At 19 months Noah was saying over 300 words, although I had only recorded 281.

-At 20 months Noah is saying over 424 words (I have 424 recorded, but I know I'm missing some - I finally alphabetized them in an Excel document!  I know, so overboard.)

Sorry, here's where I record these words in case my computer crashes...

His old words that he's still saying are: Mama, Dada, uh oh, more, this, that, cat, night night, hot, up, yes, woof woof ("what does a dog say?"), baa ("what does a sheep/goat say?"), moo ("what does a cow say?"), car, ball, shoes, cracker, Noah, water, orange, clock, blech, hi, done, dirt, Bert, puff, swish, fluff, book, buzz, Papa, Nana, boo, fish, phone, again, home, sunglasses, Gramper, sit, stretch, glasses, food, laptop, love, hair, quack, bye, tshirt, shirt, aunt, poop, slide, cheese, Colton, danger, banana, feet, please, clock, cold, toes, ooo-ooo-ahh-ahh (monkey sound), bad, burger, boo-boo (as in, an owie), nurse, block, fly, stuck, chalk, out, fit, hat, bye-bye, and shit (yeah, I'm not proud of that), pool, eyes, nose, rice, pour, no, apple, bath, heck, help, eat, T.V., pup, corn, cook, moon, sun, on, off, mouse, brush, ice, neigh, push, yay, peach, buddy, you, hi, mess, flip, hose, toast, home, see you, pieces, pear, foot, me, tape, open, meat, ok, out, street, outside, keys, bits, pee, flies, away, whoa, cheerios, cut, gas, wet, hey, bless, plate, baby, kick, acorn, grass, light, dark, medicine, horse, cake, after, bar, house, two, three, go, doctor, windy, lid, hide, Elmo, get, it, fix, button, thank, beep, one, cookie, high, chair, highchair, whack, walk, tower, cute, breakfast, bawk (chicken), back, moose, lion, tiger, dinner, pocket, Ernie, draw, wall, welcome, Granny, Matt, Lynsey, aunt, Giliane, Nick, Hilary, cuddle, boat, pen, puck, ready, picture, coming, dude, cool, clothes, soother, green, purple, blue, both, you, I, love, fries, toys, red, playdoh, stick, hockey, hit, ribbit, frog (which comes out as f#ck), colour, found, plug, pizza, coffee, cricket, broke, ring, hug, rice, watch, arm, leg, ear, closet, open, dukie (dutch slang for washcloth), chicken, Abby, sweep, music, Emmie, Lexie, other, room, welcome, rain, clap, table, yellow, crayon, crib, music, lotion, cube, self, ice cube, new, giraffe, bite, blanky, dance, meow, cow, dog, rabbit, tomato, tree, bathroom, cup, window, honk, pretty, grape, fork, spoon, knife, goose, bang, Scout, peek-a-boo.

His new words are (and I don't actually expect anyone to read through this list):  

Sun, Whistle, Groceries, Bat, Head, Sweetpea, Soap, Squeeze, Knock, Bib, Beef, Fishies, Hand, Yum, Yummy, Mustard, Tag, Bubbles, Jeans, Kids, Sock, Nipple, Hammer, Dinner, Supper, Piano, Bear, Bed, Room, Bedroom, James, Pasta, Diaper, Zoe, Pushing, Computer, Sick, Basket, Egg, Working, Sleeping, Sleepy, Walking, Bumbo, Noise, What, Wipe, Empty, Big, Fast, Heavy, Football, Tape, Scissors, Getting, Buckle, Seatbelt, Potty, Swirl, Smock, Tray, Header, Baseball, Pass, Penguin, Pumpkin, Shower, Mommy, Daddy, Mom, Right, Flower, Bathtime, Wall, Spin, Heat, Wow, Neat, Clean, Here, Good, Fishies, Sitting, Tub, Bum, Berries, Wash, Washing, Nursing, Helping, Brushing, Puppy, Super, Grover, Drink, Drinking, Eating, Hitting, Warm, Bucky, Gross, Careful, Sleep, Yuck, Yucky, Take, Tickle, Bike, Ride, Riding, Funny, Cord, Cereal, Smell, peel, nothing, teacher, elastic, cushion, nope, yup, Dad, Blow, Goldfish, Throw, There, Is, Sheep, Pink, White, Where, Hiding, Nap, Camera, Pancake, Boots, Sandals, Stinky, Stroller, Squish, Squishy, excuse, fun, happy, me, under, over

-This month, in about 3 days time, Noah went from calling us Mama, Dada, and Wawa (how he pronounced Noah), to Mommy, Daddy, and Noah.  It made me a little bit sad.

-He is putting many two word and some three word phrases together. For example: thank you, bless you, get it, get you, got you, hang on, excuse me, there it is, etc.

-He still loves to play with the vacuum cleaner, hair dryer, any cleaning implement, or anything electronic that isn't meant to be played with.

-As for actual toys, his favourites are our Clifford Stacking Blocks, his Cozy Coupe car, his tricycle, any type of ball, his mini sticks, and mega blocks.

-He knows all 10 of the main colours: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, black, brown, white.

-He knows the shapes circle, star, and square.  We don't really work any discussion of shapes into our play, so far.  He just picked those up because his magnetic doodle pad has circle, star, and square magnets.

-He'll count "one, two, three..." but most of the time when he's counting he still says "Two, two, two, two..." as he points to different objects. It is so cute.

-He loves to colour, play with play-doh, blow bubbles, build towers, play in the corn table, play in the bubble table, play outside, kick balls... I could go on.

-He still loves Sesame Street, and the show Super Why.  I'm impressed with how much he will pay attention to Super Why, considering it's a full half hour show about reading, letters, and writing.

-Noah has been sick twice in the last month. The count is at 15.

-He is getting much less shy, but he still has separation anxiety from me.  The only people who can babysit him are my Mom and Dad (together - my Mom HAS to be there).  They've done this twice in the past couple of weeks so Justin and I could go out on an early dinner date - home in time for bath and bed!

19-20 months was a really nice month for us.  Noah was really fun, agreeable, and obedient.  There were no sleep struggles, which was awesome.  I guess it did suck that he was sick twice, but if he's happy and pleasant (which he's not with this latest cold), I don't mind him being sick as much.

Bubble Table!

Noah is pretty sick with a bad cold.  He is quite miserable, and is really hard to please right now.  I have been doing all his favourite things, like blowing bubbles in the basement (this kid is obsessed with blowing bubbles), playing with toys we don't play with very often, and even going to the park.  But he is not himself, and while he will be happy and distracted while we're in the midst of a fun activity, he very quickly goes downhill once he's lost interest.  I'm using all my best tricks, including some new ones, to keep him entertained.

What do you do with an incredibly sick and cranky 20 month old who wants everything and nothing at the same time, after you've already exhausted every other activity he enjoys?

Bubble table!!!
(Here's where we found another great use for our water table)

Like I said, he wants everything, but he wants nothing.  So he'll point to something and ask for it, whining, but when you offer it to him he starts crying and saying no.

He was crying and saying "Noo!  Noooo!  No!!!!" while I was making the bubbles in the tub, but I ignored him and kept going and suddenly he just stopped crying and started playing.

I wonder if he thought I was going to try and bath him in the bowl.

It was almost an hour of entertainment.  Sure, he spilled water while transferring it from the tub to the water table, but we were in the bathroom, so who cares.

So, to create the wonder that was the Bubble Table, I just poured baby soap into a big bowl and filled the bowl with water.

That made some bubbles, but there wasn't enough room in the bowl or extreme enough water pressure to make a ton of bubbles.  So in order to make lots of bubbles, I agitated the water by swishing my hand back and forth.  A lot.  This made mountains of bubbles over and over again.  I just transferred them by hand into the water table.

Noah dragged his potty over so he could sit on it and play with the bubbles at the same time.

Relaxing on the potty, playing with bubbles.

Noah saw the "soap!" and had to play with it.

My bathroom floor is now clean enough to eat off of.  And it smells wonderful.

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