the jellyball family blog

Dear Noah,

You are now 21 and a half months old. The baby fat in your cheeks and the hair on your head that is still filling out still scream "BABY!" but there is very little left of you that still feels like a baby. You eat the same food as your brother. You play the same games. You enjoy the same TV shows. And you talk! Oh boy do you ever talk.

You are now piecing together three to four word sentences. "Boire du lait, Maman" (drink milk Mommy), or "Un autre craquelin, Papa" (another cracker, Daddy). You count to ten in English and French, though there is the occasional missing number, like "1, 2, 3, 5, 12, 13..." You know most of your alphabet but mostly to you, it's just a song that ends with a rousing "YAAAY!"

You can readily identify characters by name, like Mickey Mouse, Bob the Builder (whom you refer to by his tagline, "Yes we can!"), Thomas the Tank Engine, and Teletubbies ("Lalapo!" you say, referring to two characters, Lala and Po).

You've even learned some sign language through your brother, who learns it at preschool, so you can sign for words like cracker and apple.

You are amazing with a ball! You love to walk around with a toy ladle with a ball in it, and I've even seen you throw a small ball and hit it with the ladle like you are serving in ping pong. You can control a ball with a small hockey stick. We can pass a ball back and forth by kicking. You recently acquired a blue ball with fire trucks on it and for a couple of days, you insisted on having the ball in bed with you. The only thing you love more than playing soccer is saying "soccer!" I think it's inevitable that you will end up being a little sports star.

As always, you love to sing and dance! Your favourite song is still Old Macdonald (or "Moo moo here!" as you call it) but you know plenty of other songs. Your repertoire of dance moves is slowly increasing - though your signature moves continue to be the bobbing, the running-man, the swaying back and forth, and doing the airplane.

You have started showing signs of the impending terrible twos. For the past few weeks, you have been expressing your discontent with full-blown little tantrums. We’re talking wailing, doing the "sloppy noodle" with your body, crocodile tears, and smacking whatever body part on us that you can reach. You have started asserting your will – you WANT that toy that your brother has, and you will scream “Donner!” (“give”) and wail if he doesn’t say yes (he rarely does). Apparently you have started trying to order Caleb to go stand in the corner in a time-out when you are not happy with him. You will point to the corner with your finger and say “Dans coin, Caleb!” (“in corner, Caleb!”) Just for the record, your brother doesn’t take orders from you. Seriously, he doesn’t always take orders from US.

You have really enjoyed a new playgroup that you go to with your father and Caleb that runs out of a local elementary school. It runs out of a school and is meant to provide structure like school, so there is lining up, snacks time, play time, circle time, crafts, plenty of amazing toys, and – your personal favourite – gym time! This is where you get to run wild in a huge gymnasium with balls and Plasma cars. The playgroup moderator is always asking your father how old you are, because she’s always amazed at how well you follow along and all the amazing things you can do at your age. Apparently you are a great driver with the Plasma car!

You love to play along with your brother. You love to play cars with him, build train tracks with him, bang on the walls with your play tool set, colour with markers and crayons. You don’t play alone a lot, but it’s because you’re hardly ever alone. When you go with your father to drop Caleb off at preschool, you often get quite upset that you don’t get to stay and play along with him. I really love the relationship that you guys have together – you seem to really enjoy each other’s company, even if you’re not always playing the same game.

It's funny to think that you are usually the instigator of trouble - you are slighly mischievous and always roping your brother into doing some silly things.

You’re still a pretty picky eater, especially when it comes to the healthy stuff. It’s never difficult to get you to eat chips, crackers, ice cream or anything else that’s basically junk food. Thankfully, you do have a few healthy favourites – grapes, cheese, peach yogurt, cereal, and milk. You’re pretty good with most types of meat but there are days where you don’t touch the stuff. You’re still fairly anti-vegetable though you’ll eat potatoes and usually try at least one bite of whatever vegetable we put on your plate. You’re pretty notorious for spitting out what you don’t like, but I always appreciate that you at least give it a go. You’re great with pretty much any fruit.

It’s been really easy to put you down for naps and bedtime – there’s never any protesting anymore. The challenge has been for you to stay asleep and sleep in your own crib. We usually put you down somewhere between 7 and 7:30pm, but you’re almost always up again at 11pm. Most of the time we can easily coax you back to sleep by tucking your little rabbit, Lapin, under your arm and pulling the blanket over you. But usually by 2-3pm, you wake up and stand up in your crib, and you will point to the double bed in your room and say “La” (there). This is usually the part in the night where I am just wanting to get us both back to sleep, so I put you in the double bed, you roll over and fall asleep almost instantly, and then I sleep beside you for the rest of the night.

Around 6:30am, you’ll start to pull my hair, smother my face with wet kisses, and demand that I go fetch you a sippy cup with milk in it (“gobelet de lait, Maman”). I try to ignore you for as long as I can, trying to squeak out a few extra minutes of sleep. Caleb usually wakes up around the same time and as soon as you hear him get out of bed and head to the washroom, you start calling out to him – “Allo Caleb!” cause you’re ready to start the party.

This month will mark an important milestone – you and I will be separated for the first time, ever! I am writing part of this newsletter while sitting on a plane, heading to California where I’ll be on a business trip for just over a week. Nine days, to be exact. Your dad plans to take this opportunity to break you of your co-sleeping habit. I, on the other hand, will be trying to focus on not crying because I miss you, your brother, and your dad so much! I bought a webcam so we can talk and see each other every day. Having spent most of the day on airplanes and in the airport, I have to say that I am just not used to being without you guys for so long. I’m so used to always teaching you guys something – pointing out interesting things, explaining what’s happening… it feels a little strange not to be narrating the world around me to you guys.

We’ll be starting to potty train you soon. Your father already tells me that he’s started changing your diaper standing up, and that this morning, you happened to make a huge pee on the floor, which made you really really happy! You’re already really well versed in the toilet process – when you spot someone answering the call of nature, you’re always keenly stating the obvious – that someone is peeing or pooping. You like flushing the toilet. You like to sit on the potty, even If it’s just to pretend like you’re doing something.

You are an amazingly charming little fella. When you are happy (which is most of the time), you are really happy. And when you’re not, you display your mood with the same zest. You are a passionate, expressive, hilarious little monkey with a great sense of humour and a real charisma to you. We can already sense your personality at this tender age and I know that years from now, we’ll look back at the way you were at this age and say that you’ve always been this way.

Love,
Maman & Papa