the jellyball family blog

Dear Noah,

You are almost two years old. In the last couple of months, I've so often said you were "almost two" that I forget that right now, you're technically still 1. You seem to be every bit the little boy and the only thing remaining from babyhood is that delightful baby fat in your cheeks and legs.

You are an energetic, delightful little boy. You wake up in the morning bright, happy, and full of energy. You greet us with an enthusiastic "ALLO MAMAN!" or "ALLO PAPA!" even if we are groggy and cranky. You are always thrilled to start your day. Granted, you do get about 12 hours of sleep every night (minus all the social calls you make at night) but you are definitely always ready to go.

You have become a great play friend for Caleb. The two of you are always up to something, whether it's racing your cars around the same path (around the poof and along the back of the two-seater couch) to the soundtrack of the movie "Cars" or chugga-chugging your trains along the tracks with Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends. Lately, you too have been collecting Bob the Builder figurines along with your brother, as we've gotten into that phase where we need to buy two of everything.

You're still a pretty picky eater, but if there's one thing you love to do while eating, it's to dip. You love to dip in ketchup, in steak sauce, in tzatziki, in maple syrup (to you, simply referred to as "sauce" with your waffles), in hummus. The speed at which you go through a dollop of ketchup is astounding. Upon closer observation, we can see that a single tiny bite-sized piece of chicken sometimes get dipped a couple of times.

One of my favourite games to play in the car to keep you awake is the game where I ask you which is better, and then give you two choices. Ketchup or ice cream? Ice cream. Ice cream or chocolate? Chocolate. Ice cream or chocolate? Chocolate. Mommy or chocolate? Chocolate. I'd have to say that the way this usually stack ranks is that chocolate is number 1, followed by ice cream, ketchup, your Papie, and maybe some chips. Every once and while, one of us happens to trump ketchup or chocolate, and that's where we really feel good about ourselves. ("Yeah. I beat CHOCOLATE.")

This past month, it's become increasingly more difficult to put you down for your nap. Most days, you don't nap, but if there's a car ride close to noon or in the afternoon, it's guaranteed snoozeville. Your temperament when napless shows that you're ready to drop the nap - usually you aren't cranky or irritable. We still think it's pretty outrageous for a kid who's not even two to drop his nap - in fact, when we tell other parents that you are on a nap strike, they gasp and shake their heads like they've never heard anything so unreasonable. Some weekends, I manage to convince you to nap, but most of the time we let it go because anything more than a half hour nap results in a difficult bedtime routine.

We've realized recently that our habit of letting you sleep with one of us (usually Mom) for half the night has got to stop. We are now a few weeks shy of your birthday and for the past week and a half, your mother has experienced the wild delight of waking up in her own bed for the first time in months. It's been a rough week to say the least - I'd gotten used to going to get you when you start to scream in the middle of the night, and then just zonking out with you in the guest bed until the morning. Since we resolved to no longer do this, there are nights where you wake up seeking comfort so many times that we start to lose count. One night, you were up from 3:30am-5:30am doing various combinations of being happy, angry, and sleepy. Another night, your father gave up counting the number of times you'd woken up when he got to 15. In the last few nights, you've only gotten up about two to three times, and it takes a special effort to rock with you a few minutes in the rocking chair and then put you back in your crib. You're usually just looking for comfort, and thankfully it seems like you actually only need a few minutes of it, not five hours of it from 2-7am. Things are looking up in the sleep department - for the first time in a long time.

In your bed, you always have your blue ball with the fire engines on it, tucked away in the corner within arm's reach. You still sleep with your Lapin, though in the last week or two, you don't talk about him as much and I can't remember the last time I saw you walking around with him tucked under your arm during waking hours. There was a stretch of a couple of days where you insisted on adding a small soccer ball into the crib interior decorating scheme, as well as a couple of farm animal figurines - the cow, the goat, and the horse. I managed to phase out the farm animals, especially because they kept falling out from between the crib rails during the night and I would hear you start to wail "CHE-VAAAAAAAL!" (horse) or "CHEEEEEEEVRE!" (goat) like you'd just lost the most precious things in the world.

You have become really good at playing independently and playing with your brother. Your favorite toys at the moment are your balls, your farm and all the animals that go with it, and this plastic toy pumpkin that's been around since Caleb's first Hallowe'en. You like to load up your pumpkin with all kinds of toys and then complain that it's too heavy ("trop lourd, Maman!"). Whenever we get ready go to upstairs to start the bathtime/bedtime routine, I always ask you and your brother to bring a couple of toys upstairs in a backpack, box, or in your case - the pumpkin. You then go and pick up every single toy in sight as though you're preparing for the apocalypse, and make me carry it upstairs for you.

Your ability to speak is pretty mind blowing. You speak in short sentences and have become something of a little social butterfly in recent months. We love to do imitations of you when you eat something you enjoy - you say "C'est bon" (it's good) except the way you say it, it sounds like "Heeeeey bon!" You know all your animals in English and in French. You know your colours, some of your shapes, how to count to ten in both languages, and have a full vocabulary when it comes to the day-to-day routine. You know when you're in Mom's car as opposed to Dad's. You enthusiastically point out the moon when you see it. You are curious about your environment and are often asking "Quoi ca, Maman?" (What's what Mommy?)

It's been many, many months now that we've been stroller-free. You now walk everywhere with us when we go out. The best is when you and your brother hold hands as you walk around some public place. There's always a flurry of little old ladies that swoon at the sight of you two. (I especially love walking with the two of you right by some parent that has a five year old in a stroller with their knees tucked up as high as their head.) You love to say hello to everyone! Sometimes as we're walking around a public place, you will make eye contact with someone and say "Hello monsieur" or "Hello madame!" I think you have quite the future as a ladies man, judging from your present luck with the ladies.

I remember just six months ago, you were so shy around strangers that you would cry at the sight of someone new. Last month, you met your idol, Caillou, on an outing to the Biodome in Montreal. Your brother wouldn't go within five feet of Caillou, but you were game to sit on his lap and have your picture taken. It was hard to get you to keep moving after that, you kept going back and calling out "Bye bye Caillou! Je t'aime Caillou!" (I love you Caillou)

Your hair is starting to finally get a little thicker! This week your hair started showing signs of those delightful curls again, and I can't wait to see a full head of curls on you. You never had a mohawk, but perhaps a fro is in your future.

You've picked up a few bad habits from your brother - like the "mean face". Occasionally, you say a bad word (stupid) and are sent to the corner to repent. You're still not old enough to understand why you can't say bad words and hold yourself back from saying them. Occasionally, we see you act your age - like when something doesn't go your way and you break down into a full out fit of crying. There are many times when you are wise beyond your years - you learned to blow candles before your brother did (he just spat on them) and you can already spit and swish water (or milk!) in your mouth.

Noah, you are just an awesome little fella. Your laughter is infectious and you go about your day with such zest and happiness.

We can hardly wait to celebrate your 2nd birthday.

Love,
Maman & Papa