the jellyball family blog

Dear Noah,

You are now 20 1/2 months old. Going on 2! Sometimes I forget that you are JUST 20 months old, because you communicate so well, but there are moments where we are reminded that you really are under two years of age.

We are happy to report that you are finally easy to put to sleep! For the past month, your bedtime routine has been so easy - story time, teeth brushing (more like me wrestling you to brush your teeth), you grab your bunny (whom you call "Lapin" meaning rabbit, or sometimes just "Pin"), tuck him under your arm, we put you in bed, you snuggle up to Lapin, we tuck you under a blanket, you remind me to take off your socks, we saw goodnight, and that's IT! You are usually snoring before your brother is, but it's usually about a five to ten minute race at most.

Now, staying asleep and sleeping in your crib all night continues to be a real challenge. It has always been a challenge with you, but I figure if we can change the way you fall asleep so dramatically, there's still hope for us! You usually wake up two to three times a night. Sometimes you're just looking for a few cuddles, sometimes a sip of milk, and usually you're good to go back to sleep. But if it's past 2am and you wake up, usually you stand right up in your crib, with Lapin tucked under your arm, ready to be taken out of your crib.

We've stopped letting you sleep between us in bed. This was just a bad scenario, which usually involved one or both of us parents getting kicked in the head or the face. You tend to drift over to your father's side, inevitably stealing his pillow and forcing him to sleep in the bottom quadrant of the bed. Your dad would wake up stiff and sore and tired and no one would have really slept well.

Now when you wake up for that last stretch, one of us will sleep with you in the double bed that is in your room. We've installed a wooden rail on the side where you tend to roll (still looking for your dad, I imagine). There's lots of room to let you sleep in any which direction you please, and the person who serves as the physical barrier on the other side of the bed tends to sleep quite well. That is, until we hit the 7am mark where you roll over and say "ALLO MAMAN!" in the sweetest little voice. You will attempt to rouse whoever it is that is sleeping with you on that day - with kisses all over our face, with demands of drinking milk ("boire lait!" meaning "drink milk!") or going downstairs ("en bas!" meaning "downstairs") or you will simply start calling out to wake up your big brother ("ALLO CALEB!"), who usually gets up around the exact same time as you do anyway.

So unfortunately, while you aren't sleeping a full, uninterrupted night's sleep in your own bed, we're making really good progress month to month. Something tells me that what you really want is to sleep in a toddler bed. A few weeks ago, you climbed into your brother's bed and wanted to nap there. (Your brother was gracious enough to let you sleep there for the afternoon, but he was pretty clear that the bed was just on loan.) We're looking at getting your brother a big-boy twin bed, so realistically I suppose we could get you to sleep in a toddler bed soon, but I'm not sure I'm quite ready to think about how you'd crawl out of your own bed and wander into our room and stick your fingers up our nose. Which I know that you would, because you're just a bugger like that.

We recently phased on the high chairs in the kitchen. Your brother was long overdue to be transitioned into a table and chair, though you're probably not quite ready yet. We are getting a wooden table for the kitchen in a few weeks but in the interim, we have a plastic table with small chairs, though you're not quite ready to sit on the chairs just yet so you're sitting on a small step stool. It was a pretty crazy first couple of days when you realized that you could stand up in the middle of your meal and start running around with a fork in your hand. It can still be a little tricky at meal times, and I know I am looking forward to getting a real table so I can strap you into a small booster and keep you relatively contained, and not have to worry that you will poke your eye out with a fork.

You are still a very finnicky eater. Picky, picky, picky you are! You truly follow the advice that your doctor gave me months ago - toddlers eat one big meal a day and if you see they're eating, get them to eat as much as they can! There are meals where you graze, and others where you are making up for lost time and eating your big brother under the table. But we never really know what you'll eat or when you'll eat or even IF you'll eat.

Your favourite foods? There are a few sure-fire favourites - like Greek gyro meat or chicken nuggets. You'll eat just about any fruit, though your favourites include grapes, pears, and apples. You love your crackers and cookies, and you still love your Goldfish. You love to eat cereal with milk, and lately you've been loving waffles, which we cut up into little pieces and let you dip in maple syrup or honey.

Actually, I should just state for the record that you love to DIP. It's all about the dipping. I tried to leverage your love of dipping to get you to eat some vegetables but you saw through that whole charade. Your dad got you to eat some veggies swimming in vinegar last week, but your cheeks broke out in a big rash and we think we may have identified vinegar as that mystery substance that makes you break out in a rash.

You love to watch TV with your brother, and it's great that we have good quality TV shows we can show you guys that you both equally love. You watch Caillou, an animated series about a 4-year old boy, and you love Poko, a stop-motion animation series. You especially love the simplicity of Poko episodes - there are some that you watch where you break out in laughter - "HA! HA! HA!" since you find it so funny.

Your vocabulary is amazing. You eagerly narrate the world around by pointing to things and exclaiming their names. You have started saying so many two-syllable words, like "bouillon" (broth) or "poisson" (fish) instead of just saying the second syllable. You can repeat almost anything. I love making you say pineapple in French ("ananas") because we inevitably make a big joke out of it and you will say "nanananananananana" in a sing-songy way. You can easily state what food you want by name. You've even started putting two or three words together in little sentences. This past month, you learned to say your brother's name properly, and instead of calling him "A-leb", you say "Ca-leb".

You've started putting together mini-sentences too - two to three words strung together, like "voir Caleb" (see Caleb) or "viens, Maman" (come, Mommy). You have also developed an ear for English. Whenever we ask you anything in English, it usually seems like you understand, and you respond back with "Yah" instead of "Oui". You know quite a few words in English, especially animal names.

You love music and dancing. You are happy to sway to the music, do the "running man", and crank your arms like you're doing the chicken. Your favourite song is "Old MacDonald", which you request by asking for "Moo moo here". You love your animals!

You love to sing and even though you may not know all the words to the song, you hum along until you know a word, then promptly throw it in at the right time. You have always had an affinity for drawing (much to my delight). You developed a love of colouring long before your brother did - he only recently got into it a few months ago, but you've always loved to doodle. You love to sit with Caleb and colour.

You recently went out on your first trick-or-treating experience with Caleb. You were dressed up in a cow (or more accurately, a bull) - a costume I threw together with an old fleece jacket and pants, with felt patches sewn all over it. You couldn't say "trick or treat", but you knew the routine and you held out your pumpkin to get candy, and left with a charming little "Merci! Bye bye!" which brought a smile to every house.

Sometimes I am reminded that we are headed right back into those terrible two's with the little tantrums you pull. You are a happy go lucky guy most of the time, unless I tell you that you can't have any more Elmo crackers, and then you just lose it!

You have a very special connection with your Papie. You two share the same sense of humour, it seems. When the two of you are together, it is like watching a two-person slapstick comedy routine. You have picked up all his little quirks and sounds, and you make it pretty clear that he totally rocks your world. Poor Mamie is often left in the dust as you make a run for Papie as soon as you arrive at their house.

I'm pretty sure you are going to be a little athlete. You are steady on your feet - a friend recently described your walk as one with "tremendous purpose". Given your love of balls, it's no surprise that you've become quite good with them. I've seen you toss a tiny ball and hit it with a plastic toy ladle like you're serving in table tennis. It's absolutely mind-boggling to see you do it.

You and Caleb get along famously. You guys have a lot of fun together. Even though you watch what he does and you often imitate and learn from him, you definitely don't just follow him around like a puppy. He's often the one trying to rope you into playing some game with him, to which you will sometimes respond with an enthusiastic "OK!" or a definitive "Non, Caleb." Either way, you two are always laughing about something and I love seeing you spend time together.

Did I mention that you can smile on command for the camera? We're still working on getting you to keep your eyes open, but I just love that little hamster face.

You love to talk on the phone, but mostly it's all about the hellos and the goodbyes. You will clutch the phone and repeat "Allo Maman" about twenty times, and intermittently answer my questions between telling me hello. Then there is a whole routine of saying goodbye that involves me saying goodbye about another 20 times before someone has to hang up for you. My coworkers even sometimes start yelling "BYE!" from their cubicles. I especially love it when I ask you "Comment ca va?" (how are you) and you reply with "Bien" (good).

You are my special little monkey, and while Caleb and I have a special bond that only a mother and her firstborn can share, you and I have a special bond that only a mother and her littlest baby can share.

Love,
Maman