18 Months

"The days are long but the years are short"

Nothing can speak more truth than that little saying right there ^ ^

Honestly, I can not believe we have an18 month old. (Or if your counting, im posting a bit late so technically a 20 month old.)

This little monster is a ball of do-it-yourself E.N.E.R.G.Y

He wants to do everything himself and he doesn’t take help from others very kindly.

He can pretty much say any word that you ask him too. His vocabulary has soared these past few months. It’s as if one day he just knew how to say anything and everything.

He learned the difference of big vs. small. He can identify the colors blue and purple, and so far he can count to 2! He even knows what 2 is. If he is holding two of the same object he will run up to me and say, “mama two!”

If he doesn’t know a word for something or just wants something in general he will point or pick it up and say, “this, this!”

If he had a choice, he would live outside. His most favorite thing to do outside involves the garden hose, watering the plants and chasing me with a stream of water. I literally have to run from this little punk or I’m getting soaked. He’s gotten pretty good with it and if I tell him specifically that he can not spray mommy he looks down, smiles and comes at me with the hose. It is honestly hilarious.

He calls any type of bug that he sees outside a bee. “Mama bees!”

POPSICLE….oh the popsicle. We have faced many a tantrums due to those sweet frozen fruit treats. We believe he dreams only of crackers and popsicles and when I say believe I mean we know he dreams of them. He says them out loud in his sleep. But anyway, he loves these things. Since I am a crazy mom he is only allowed homemade strictly fruit popsicles made by the one and only, Nana, so I guess it’s not a bad addiction to have if were counting. But last week the little guy had a fever and these popsicles were the life saver that he pretty much lived off of. So now he thinks that they are the Holy Grail, the breakfast, lunch and dinner. Trying to break him of that.

TRUCKS. A boy and his trucks. In the delivery room, right when we found out Noah was a boy, I had dreams of a little boy and his trucks, playing by himself, pushing the truck back and forth to the vroom vroom, coming from sweet baby lips. This is just so awesome when it actually happens. He has been playing with trucks for a while but it is just so much more these days when you can see them using their imaginations. He carries his trucks everywhere with him and sometimes he will even fall asleep with a mini fire truck tucked under his arm. So awesome.

I love seeing this boy and his daddy together so much. One of their favorite things to do is sit together and watch videos of fire trucks. Noah associates any type of ambulance or fire truck with my husband and when he sees them in a book or on the street he points and says Dada! If he hears a siren outside he will run in its directions and make Woo woo woo noises. The cutest!

We got him a mini acoustic guitar for Christmas last year and he absolutely loves that he has the same thing as his daddy. When Brandon starts playing he will run to his toy room calling, “gtar, gtar!” He will grab his guitar and ask me to bring his little folding chair that gets set up next to daddy. Melt my heart.

He LOVES animals, the zoo, kicking the soccer ball, kitties, Whitey, building tall block towers and then crashing them, the Carousel, playing basketball,

Blueberries^^ Noah and I have been making our rounds at the local farmers markets this summer each weekend. Every time he gets a pint of blueberries. He HAS to carry it himself and he polishes off every last one of them.

He loves to juice with me but usually ends up taking bites from every piece of fruit or vegetable and then puts it in the juicer. And he usually ends up drinking more than me. His favorite is carrot juice! He helps me make his breakfast “cookies,” does the dishes and folds/un-folds laundry with me.  He asks for a “bite” or a “sip” whenever we have something that interests him.

I can't even describe the cuteness that comes along with him at this age but it is Insane. I just can't wait to see what this little boy becomes. Although, he can take his time with growing up for now, its going way too fast.

Baby talk...

Noah keeps on getting more adoarable the more his language develops. A few things he says and does now a days...

When he does something new or exciting he screams "I did it!" More specifically, he was pulling weeds outside and got a tough one out of the ground. He jumped up and ran over to the dog and yelled "woof woof, I did it!!" And gave him a big hug..

My sister (nu nu) watched him last week and when I got home she let me know that the dog ate noah's he green ball. I asked noah about the ball the next day, and he told me that "nu nu did it, popped ball." Haha.

I gave Noah a sweet potato to bring to nu nu and said that she would be able to cook it for him for lunch. He carries it inside and and gave it to nu nu, pointed to the kitchen and said "cook it."

His sentences are blooming and it is so exciting to see. My favorite is the I love you mama, of course. ;)

Baby picasso

I have had this canvas laying around my house for about a year. I've been meaning to do something with it, anything really. But I just never had time or an idea of what to put on it. So Sunday while my hubbs was sleeping, Noah and I set up shop in the backyard and got all sorts of messy. It was probably a really bad idea on my part but, hey. We ended up with paint all over the patio table and chairs, on our hands and in our hair. What a rookie mom I am in that I left him fully clothed, duh. Eh, nothing that won't wash off.

I'm not sure what I expected but I think I just assumed he would take the brush and stroke some genius onto the canvas. Which he did, however, when he climbed up on the table and kneeled on the painting It threw me off guard. But I think that gave this masterpiece it flare. I started with the big red streak in the middle and that littleman posing next to his work up there did the rest.

I truely do love it. Like, I LOVE it. He was so excited when we hung it up even though you can't tell in this past-my-bedtime photo above. Alll night as I was cleaning up and getting lunches made I would walk past this gift from my littleman and a smile would peel up my face and I couldn't even help it. Because as sad as this is, and strange for an art and photo lover such as myself, this is the first piece that we have ever hung up in our house. Can you believe that? We have lived here for four years! Four.

This small single painting has already brought so much to our little house. And so many smiles. I need to remind myslef to thank that littleman of mine. 

Life lately...

Life....lately its been all about being outside, amazing summery salads, and firetrucks.

1) My dad's surgery went very well. It was a long day for him and my family as well, but God was with us the entire time, putting a calm in the air. The Dr. Is certain that he was able to remove all the cancer and at this point it has not spread! Praise God. He is still off of work and slowly recovering. We are all just completely grateful.

2) Noah and I got to watch daddy drive the fire engine for the memorial day parade we had in town. And he could have played in their new engine all day. He had too much fun. That little boy absolutly loves fire trucks. And I cant imagine the joy Brandon feels when he sees him get so excited about his own passion. Nothing like it. I feel a second generation coming on :)

3) Our days consist of this....gardening, baseball, basketball, baby pool, sprinklers, cars, books, trucks, baking, matching games, counting to 3, and too many more little boy activities. We love it.

4) Our totally awesome babysitter and family has moved away :(  I had been dreading this for the past few months and it finally had to come. I am incredibly thankful for the time we had with them and for the first real friendship that Noah made with their sweet little girl. The hardest thing is that they don't really understand they will not be together anymore and it breaks my heart. But like I said, I am thankful for all the many months that I did not have to worry for a second that my baby was taken care of. That right there is a beautiful gift to a mother. We are in transition mode right now (day 2) and the mornings so far have been rough. I had to peel his hands off me today so that I could leave. But not 5 minutes later my sitter reassured me that he was fine. And I know everything will be ok.

Those times that make your heart melt

Yesterday was a good day. It started off on the wrong foot as I had to call off of work, but after the initial call-in I felt good and free.

My husband is a huge soccer fan. He would rather watch the Chicago Fire than the Bears....... I know, I don't get it either. Back in the day we used to get season tickets, sit in section 8 (where the crazy awesome instrunmental singing, standing only, did I say crazy? fans sit.) It was fun. My husband loved it. Life now a days doesn't always allow for that but he gets to sneak away to a game every so often.

Well wednesday we had a crazy storm over here so they rescheduled the game for Thursday and knocked the price down to Free. We Caruso's like Free. I told B to go ahead and just take Noah. I didn't really feel like being at a game and thought it would be cute for the two of them to go.

When I talked to my husband after the game he was so happy. Just happy. He said that when everyone would cheer, Noah would look up at him to see what daddy did and would then follow along and cheer. He said that his excitement was unreal and that they just had the best time.

When they got home B told me that he got teary eye'd during the game just watching his little boy. He said that it was one of the greatest days of his life.

Part of me wished that I had been there to see it all. To see both of my boys in such excitement and awe. But then I think again and I am so glad they can have those moments to themselves as father and son. I know that Noah won't remember much, but Brandon will. And that is special. Here's to many more games together!

Little Red School House

When I think about the Little Red School house, all I remember is a tiny bright red house that sat on the corner of a slightly busy road. We had gone there as children and the place has since moved and magnified a bit. We visited the new schoolhouse a few weeks ago and although it looks nothing like that cute little red house it is still pretty great.

Of course we collected every rock in the world

Noah loves everything about being outside so anwhere he can run around and be happy is a good place to us.

In the city......

Last weekend was spent in the city with my brother and his fiance. Rachael's sister lives in the West Loop and their little family goes out of town fairly often so we were able to stay at their place. We went down early saturday morning and hit up the Randolph Street Market. The place was awesome. A vintage dreamboat, if you will. The prices were laughable though. Since vintage became something trendy, the prices became something ridiculous. I know some antiques are worth a lot, but my husband said it welll, that they take advantage of these people. Selling items they paid almost nothing for at a huge price increase. I guess thats just how it goes though. It was fun to browse and dream aside from that. Later on B and the little man went down for a nap so my brother, Rach and I went to this rebuild store where they sell old wood, doors, and amazingly beatup and battered but beautiful old stuff from houses. Glorious. I dreamed up an amazing kitchen table that my brother is going to make for me from this old plank wood. Saving up for that! Not that I have a million and one other unfinished projects in my house, whats one more. :) We had a nice grilled corn with mashed taters and broccoli kind of dinner. Topped off with a margarita and it was devine. The next day was spent showing the little man the big city. We took him to the bean of course and walked the city up and down. He was in heaven with all of the buses, trucks and cars he saw. Pretty awesome weekend. Love that family of mine. :)