Well, he has the help of the bubble belt. Last week Chad informed me that Noah decided he could swim by himself while wearing the belt. So this week Eva and I came to swimming lessons to see it for ourselves. Holy cow, there he goes!
(Noah is the blond blur swimming with daddy on the far side of the pool)
While visiting Grammy's house last week, Noah informed us he is Kim (the music teacher at his school) and treated us to lots of music.
Some songs were in English, some in Noaheese. I'm not sure which I prefer.
Also in this video you can see a little of one of Noah's latest things - asking the same question over and over and over and over and over after he clearly understands the answer. It's not annoying at all. Man.
Eva is having so many firsts I can barely keep up. I put together her new high chair yesterday so she can sit with us at the table at mealtimes but be kept safely away from our food (see: baby swipes-a-lot). I think she likes it.
Noah and Eva held a very serious family conference at the table yesterday. The subject: WHERE IS DINNER ALREADY WE ARE DYING HERE.
We even gave Eva a spoon to play with.
Today my new running shoes arrived to I strapped Eva into the BOB for the first time and we went for a run. It was awesome. So awesome, in fact, that I totally forgot to take a picture so you'll have to wait on that one.
Finally, Eva is also working on buzzing her lips:
It is a little funny that I feel like she needs to droop a bit more in order to get a good rasberry, since she is basically the drooliest baby I know at times other than this.
Last week Chad went to a conference, so I packed up both kids and took them to visit the grandparents in New York. That's right - we survived two 6 hour drives with two kids, one parent, and no DVD player. I am available to receive my parenting award at any time.
We had a great visit. Noah became an expert at using binoculars
(and by expert, I mean he can almost say "binoculars" and he knows how to hold them up to his eyes and put the strap around his neck. I remain unconvinced he can actually see anything through them).
We tried to have a walk to the falls one last time before Mom and Sue move away, but we were thwarted by the rain.
And by the fact that toddlers are slow walkers and easily distracted.
Luckily, also cute.
One of the perks of visiting the grandparents is that I can get up early with Eva and then hand her off and go back to sleep, knowing she will be enjoying some enriching interaction with her grandparents.
She would like to take this opportunity to show you how she is an expert at sucking on her hands and to thank Grammy for the cowlick she inherited.
At four months she is doing all of the wonderful things she is supposed to do. She makes eye contact and smiles and flirts like a pro. She coos and gurgles and talks to you, her toys, herself, and the wall. She drools like CRAZY and must have a teething bib on at all times, otherwise her clothes are saturated in minutes. She can look at something and then reach out to grab it. She then immediately tries to put it in her mouth. I have a feeling that babyproofing is going to be a challenge this time around. She loves to play in her jumperoo, bouncing a little and then concentrating on the toys. She does not love tummy time.
I don't think it has occurred to her that she might possibly roll out of tummy time - she usually looks around for a bit, then sucks on her hands for a bit, then puts her face down on the ground and cries. So we've got some work to do there.
She is, however, really working on rolling from back to front.
She has successfully made it over only once, but it seems to me that with the amount of practice she's doing (notably when I am trying to change her diaper) more rolling can't be far away.
She is very interested in our mealtimes. We usually start her out in the swing, where she is happy to remain for about five minutes. After that she insists on being on a lap, where she is content to sit and look around and try to swipe food off of our plates.
We ordered her high chair yesterday and expect to get the go-ahead for solids at her pedi appt at the end of this week.
These past four months have been such a blur that I am almost surprised to look up and find we have such a happy, healthy, delightful and OLD baby! Good work Eva Joyce!
It's just toddler talk, but the stuff he says just slays me.
In order to best archive & share (mostly with each other, I will admit), Chad and I have decided to put Noah on twitter. You may follow him (@SaysNoah) or Eva (@SaysEva, we are assuming she will say something interesting eventually and wanted to get the username), in order to catch super important updates like the following:
I realize we're not exactly live tweeting images from Tahrir square here, but come on, it's got to be more interesting than learning someone has become the mayor of Framingham station on foursquare.
I am just fascinated by watching Eva learn how to play. She will see something in which she is interested and really concentrate on exploring it. She gets better at doing things purposefully every day and I think it's great.
Of course, I am biologically pre-disposed to be fascinated by her. Other people may just find this process exceedingly boring.
I present the video below as a self-test to see how much boring baby you can tolerate :)
So remember that giant fenced-in garden we had at our house?
Yeah, that one. It's gone. Or rather, the fence has been moved to the boundary of the yard, and is now serving the useful purpose of keeping toddlers inside.
The garden, I guess it is still there, just growing dandelions.
For blowing.
Noah is becoming an expert dandelion-blower
While Eva continues her training as an expert Noah-watcher
Personally, I am psyched to sit down with a beer and let the children run amok in the back yard. Come on over and bring your toddlers!
Noah and his friend Jesse really get along great. They travel together...
Work on construction projects
And share a love for music.
(for the record, the pictures & video are totally unscripted. The adults were chatting in the other room when we realized the boys had left us to practice piano together)