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

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

Dear Noah,

A few weeks ago, you turned 19 months old. We have still been recovering from your brother's third birthday, so my apologies for the lateness of this letter. Plus, I've been busy spending all my spare time soliciting kisses and hugs and munching on any and all exposed skin, so all this really cuts into my free time.

You are an awesome, funny little bugger. Sometimes you blow us away with how smart you are, to the point where we really cannot believe that we have a toddler on our hands. And other times, we are reminded that you are still very young and sometimes still very much a baby. It's a strange transition period where you are too big to do certain things and too small to do others.

Let's start with the sleep department. This continues to be a bit of a struggle, but we've made tremendous progress in getting you to fall asleep on your own. Naps are a breeze now - we put you in your crib, there may or may not be some complaining, but usually you stay lying down and will ask for your blanket. You'll whine if we forget to take off your socks. You may call out for us or cry a little, but usually by 1pm you are so tired that there is little resistance to napping. You usually sleep for about an hour to an hour and a half. Bedtime can be a little trickier - you, like your brother - seem to be able to stay up late and probably would if we didn't shut down the fun.

We have a little bedtime routine now where Caleb goes to get the toothbrushes, you both sit down on the rug in our bedroom (modeled after "storytime" routine at Caleb's preschool where everyone grabs a little square carpet and sits down on it) and while you two "brush" your teeth (mostly just chewing on the brush), I read a story. Lately you boys have only wanted me to read one particular book about a pig named "Petit Curieux" (Little Curious). It's about an overly curious and nosy little pig whose curiosity often gets him into trouble, but he happens to use his curious nature to save his cow friend when she gets her head stuck in a fence. When we get to the part where the pig hugs his crying cow friend, you promptly get up from the seated position, remove the toothbrush from your mouth, point to the cow ("vache!"), plant a big wet kiss on the page, and then sit back down. Sometimes the pig ("ochon!", cochon - meaning pig) even gets a kiss. Your brother usually follows your lead and also kisses the cow and/or the pig. That poor library book has never seen such juicy lovin' and probably doesn't want to go back to the library it will sadly remain on the shelves, unkissed.

Once the storytime routine is complete, we put your brother down to bed first and then you. Some nights it goes very smoothly and you'll occasionally call out "Maman!" or "Papa!" just to hear us shush you and reassure you that we're still in the neighbourhood. Other nights it is more challenging - you'll refuse to lie down, or you'll stand, clutching the rails as you wail in protest, or - my personal favourite - you'll sit down with your legs hanging between the bars of the crib, kicking away while crying. Eventually, you'll go to sleep. Some days we take you out to wipe your tear and snot covered face, and other days we just let you wail until you give up. I'm looking forward to the day where we put you down and you go down and stay down!

You are known to wake up two to three times during the night, sometimes as early as an hour after falling asleep. Once we cross the 4:30am barrier, you will wake up and call for me, greet me with an "Allo Maman!" and refuse to go back to sleep unless you are lying in a big bed with a minimum of one parent to kick, poke, and provide hair you can pull. Caleb is usually the first to wake up somewhere around 7am, and I can't remember the last time it was just your father and I in bed. Inevitably, you are sandwiched in there, hogging the pillows or sleeping sideways across the bed, kicking someone in the throat, or banging your head on the headboard. While this can be incredibly annoying, there are nights when we have trouble getting to sleep and I swear, we joke about going to get you from your crib so that we can snuggle with you. Your father particularly enjoyed the stretch of several weeks where you preferred sleeping cheek-to-cheek with your arm wrapped under his chin and around his face, while showering me with the occasional loving kick in the face.

Some day, hopefully in the next ten years, you will learn to fall asleep on your own and sleep a full night in your own bed. Some day we'll even miss it a little. Caleb was never much of a co-sleeper, as much as we wanted to snuggle with him. Boy did we ever get our wish with you!

And then there's the eating. You are a picky, picky eater. You're not a fan of meat, though fish sticks can be a reliable source of protein and provided there's ketchup, chicken fingers or nuggets are occasionally accepted. You've gone through phases of eating homemade macaroni and quesadillas, but lately you'll have nothing to do with either. Last week, you agreed to be served some macaroni, except all you wanted was to eat the parmesan cheese. Your father gave you a small bowl of cheese to sprinkle on your macaroni, thinking it would be fun enough to incite you to eat it, but in the end you just ate the cheese by the spoonful. Please. Pasta is for chumps, and you totally knew I'd pureed a cup of vegetables into that tomato sauce.

You haven't eaten many vegetables lately. In fact, other than fruit - there aren't many healthy things that you will eat reliably, which really drives us nuts. You'll eat cookies, crackers, and recently you discovered yogurt-covered raisins (hello, it's like CANDY). You love your blueberries, grapes, watermelon, pears, and dried apples. You love getting yogurt with the little pieces of fruit in it - you love hunting around for the fruit. You love to eat Shreddies with milk, sometimes eating it with your hands. Your father thinks perhaps you are a future vegetarian. Some day we're probably realize that you are a total food snob and we should have been trying to feed you blue cheese and caviar.

Now that we have your areas of improvement out of the way, I get to go on and on about what a perfect, lovely, delightful baby you are! You are really our little ray of sunshine with all your funny little tricks and the endless hugs and kisses. You are always the first to greet me when I come home from work. I open the back door and instantly hear the pitter-patter of you running from the living room to the kitchen, screaming "MAMA! MAMA!" and when you see me, you flash your million-dollar smile, exclaim "Allo Maman!" and jump into my outstretched arms for a long and sweet hug. You shower everyone with hugs and kisses. It's almost as if you know that this gets you all kinds of special treatment with your grandparents - your brother's so busy doing his own thing that he barely stops to say hello, and there you are, dishing out the hugs and kisses at the door like our official greeter. You are always particularly happy to see your Papie - you two have a very special bond. When we arrive at his house and you see him waiting at the door for you, you will run as fast as you can while screaming "Papie! Papie!" with your arms outstretched. It would probably take the Jaws of Life to separate the two of you during the first five minutes in his presence.

You are not only affectionate with people, but also with your little animal friends. You love animals! In addition to kissing your animal friends in your favourite book, you also kiss your little animal figurines that we bought you recently. You will often hold out the cow or the horse to me and say "Bec!" (kiss), demanding that I also kiss the animals. And then there's the little white rabbit doll. Your grandmother (Mamie) brought this to the house over a year ago when we first moved in and Caleb didn't want to get in the bath at the new house. Lapin (rabbit) was thrown into the bathtub with Caleb and Caleb washed him while we washed him. Lapin spent much of the past year hanging out, untouched, in the bathroom but a few months ago I threw him in the washing machine and put him back into circulation. You call him "Pin!" (short for "lapin") and in the past week, you've started taking very good care of him - you give him sips from your sippy cup, you try to feed him cereal, and of course, there are lots of kisses.

You love to point out any animals you recognize and know most of their names. You can say "vache" (cow), "val" (short for "cheval" meaning horse), "singe" (monkey), "phant" (elephant), "seau" (short for "oiseau" meaning bird), "coq-coq" (rooster - but you use this for chickens too), and "quack-quack" (you refuse to acknowledge the real word for duck, ducks are quack quacks). You love to make all the animal noises, and surprise! The quack-quack goes "quack! quack!"

You know so many words and you express yourself really well for a little guy your age. You have started stringing together words and this past week you started saying "Allo Maman" and "Allo Papa", and thanking us with your version of "merci", only you say "Aah-see Maman!" You really have great manners. You are decisive with your opinion - providing "yes" and "no" answers when asked if you want something. Your father is convinced that you even speak English, and there are certain things we can ask you in English and you'll respond with a resounding "Yeah!"

You know almost all the parts of the body - hands, legs, feet, toes, nose, cheeks, head, hair, etc. You are a big fan of your own bellybutton - you often have your finger poking around in there and you are never shy to pull up your shirt and point to your "daine!" (short for "bedaine", meaning belly). The other day I was sitting in a restaurant with you and your brother when you pulled up your shirt, proudly showed me your belly, which led to your brother doing the same, and you two were totally egging me to show mine. Which I did not! I am such a party pooper, I know.

Your vocabulary is truly stunning at this age, and even when you can't say the words, we can sit down together with a book and ask you to point out various things and you point to them with your chubby little finger while saying "la" (there). Your favourite book for this is the point-and-tell Sesame Street book that your Aunt Sarah bought us. You love pointing out Elmo and his friends, as well as all the various animals and objects in that book.

This week, you learned to say your own name! When asked what your name is, you no longer say it's Bob, but you say your name! (This is also something you respond to when asked in English.) You call your brother by his name, except you call him "A-leb" instead of Caleb. It is quite funny to hear you running through the house calling "A-leb? A-leb!" as you look for him.

You love to talk on the phone. You hate to hang up. You call me up at work and most of the conversation consists of saying hello, and you will sometimes say "bye!" about twenty times before hanging up.

You love to sing! You know the words to various parts of various songs. We sang happy birthday to Caleb for the entire week of his birthday and even recently we will hear you singing happy birthday to your brother. The other day you did a pee in the potty and you stood up, clapped your hands wildly, and started singing happy birthday to your brother. I guess you'd gotten used to that being the theme song of celebration lately.

You have always been a great fan of music in general, and you have excellent musical timing and rhythm! Your best dance move is when you bob up and down in an aerobic/hip-hop style squat. You stomp around to the music, lifting your legs one at a time, swinging your arms and clapping your hands. If only we could all look this cute while dancing like this.

Speaking of toilet training, you have always had a real interest in what goes on in the bathroom. You'll often waltz right up to one of us while we're sitting on the toilet and push our legs apart in an effort to see what the heck's going on in there. You happily exclaim "pee-pee!" or "ca-ca!" when you figure out which of the two we're doing. Sometimes you sit down on the potty (fully clothed) so that you aren't left out of the action, and start to dramatically grunt away - an imitation of what we do to try to convey that sometimes you need to push! When we put you on the potty right after you wake up, you'll often pee in the potty, and your eyes will light up with happiness as you hear the sound of your own pee. You are always SO HAPPY to stand up and look at the result of your work.

You love to follow along with whatever your brother is doing. The other day when your father dropped off your brother at preschool, you made a mad dash into the classroom and tried to jump into the action. You weren't too happy when you realized that he was staying back while you were leaving with your father. I know you'll be more than ready to go to preschool next September!

You love to draw with crayons and markers. You've always been great at this and your brother didn't start really doing any colouring until he saw you doing it. You have even shown some flair for painting! One of your favourite things to do is to paint fences and walls with water when we're outside.

You've learned how to swish milk in your mouth like you are rinsing before you spit (thankfully no spitting, sometimes it just dribbles out the side) and to make a delightful gurgling noise by talking into your glass of milk. Your brother has no idea what you're doing and wonders how you're making those noises. It's been some time now, but you've been drinking in plastic cups, using grown-up cutlery and dishes like a big boy.

Your absolute favourite toy continues to be a ball. Any ball. You LOVE balls. We are always looking under the furniture for missing balls. You love to run around the house with a big plastic kitchen spoon, and I've even seen you hit a small ball with your spoon like you're serving in table tennis. You are incredibly coordinated with a ball, you kick a ball better than your older brother and you love to throw. You love to hit the big balls with your small baseball bat and run after it. Some day you are going to be a great ball player of some kind and we'll look back to this and say yup, we surely knew this would be the case.

It's amazing to see you show such aptitude for certain things like painting or ball sports, because these are often things that your father and I enjoy. That's when we look at each other and say "That's MY son!" At first when you were born, we thought you'd be much more like your mother, but lately we're thinking that you are much more like your father. Only time will tell who you most resemble, but you definitely have traits from us both.

You are growing up fast and becoming more and more a little man with each passing day. We couldn't be more proud of you.

Love you lots.

With love,
Maman

Dear Noah,

You are now a year and a half old. There have been some truly magical changes with you these past few weeks. You are really, truly no longer a baby. You walk, you talk, you dance, you run, you jump, you assert your will. I really think our baby is gone. I mean, it's hard to imagine that just a few months ago, you didn't eat and you were a breastfed baby.

You are nothing like that plump little baby from a few months ago. Now you're just this slightly chunky, watermelon eating machine who today ate his lunch, then ate his brother's leftovers. You eat that one square meal a day and the rest of the day, you graze and snack. You're pretty unpredictable as to when that meal might be, and we never know what you'll be in the mood to eat. But whenever the mood strikes, we attempt to feed you as much as you'll eat!

You eat with utensils - you have from a very young age, probably due to the fact that you want to do everything big brother Caleb does. You drink out of a cup, though you tend to get distracted and there are still lots of spills. You wake up in the morning and demand "LAIT!" (milk), though you often call it "jus" (juice), even when you are pointing to a glass of milk or water. Perhaps you're not confused at all - you're simply pointing out that this is not what you want, and what you want in that glass is juice. You really are a little talking genius, so I won't put it past you.

You love your crackers and your pastries. You have a definite sweet tooth - you can eat a mini ice cream cone faster than your brother, and you shovel spoonfuls of gelato down like someone's about to take it away from you (which is true). You love grapes, blueberries, watermelon, raisins, and occasionally you'll go for some pear and strawberries. You're still pretty limited in the vegetable department, but you'll entertain the odd potato or asparagus, and lately you've started enjoying eating salad. You eat sushi! Avocado rolls, that is. You have your moments when you'll try new things without hesitation - even if it's just a bite, but other days you'll give a definitive "NO!" with a shake of the head to tell us you are just not interested.

You love eating cereal with milk for breakfast. You rarely eat toast, unless it's raisin bread, and you will meticulously pull out all the raisins until your toast resembles swiss cheese. You are a fan of ketchup, there's never really enough of that.

You sing! You dance! You have always been a huge lover of music. Your dancing repertoire is quite impressive. There's the chicken dance, with wild flapping of wings and all. There's the running man, where you dance on the spot like you're jogging. There's the random lifting of the legs, doing the wave, and your specialty, spinning around in circles while saying "tourne! tourne! tourne!" (turn, turn, turn). You just started running this week, and you are getting to be quite fast and nimble. This will come in handy when you hit the dance floor!

You ask for music ("sic!") and you sing along to some of your favourite songs. You sing parts of the alphabet - the best is when you say "Q R S, T U V, wuh-wuh-wuh X..." You count to five. When you call me at work to talk to me on the phone, I say to you "Allo mon Noah" (Hello my Noah) and you repeat it back to me, only your version goes "Lo lo (random babbling here) Nwaaahhh..."

You scream "marche!" (walk) when you are in our arms and you want to be put down on the ground to walk. You say "main!" when you want to walk holding someone's hand. You greet your brother with an enthusiastic "ALLO!" when you see him first thing in the morning. You tell your brother "bouge!" (move) when you want him to get out of your way. You say "bas" (down) when you want to go downstairs, and "en haut" (upstairs) when you want to go upstairs. When asked where are your nose, cheeks, eyes, teeth, hair, head, tongue, and mouth are, you can not only say the French words for them, you can also point to them and say "là" (there).

And oh. Diaper changes are always entertaining. The minute your diaper goes off, you point to your manhood and exclaim "meh-mis!". Repeatedly. As if we didn't know what it was and hey, have you seen my meh-mis? I try to correct your pronounciation, and you repeat it back to me the same way all the time. Meh-mis. Yeah, Mom. Meh-mis. MEH-MIS. Uh huh. I got it. Meh-mis.

Your dad told me that the other day, you spotted your brother's meh-mis when he was going for a pee, and when he got up from the potty, pantless and without his underwear, you exclaimed "MEH-MIS!" while pointing to the meh-mis in question, and Caleb started backing away from you. You started following him with your finger outstretched, and proceeded to chase your half naked brother around the house while crying "Meh-mis!" It was quite the sight, I wish I had seen it.

You love animals! You make all kinds of sweet animal sounds, and you recognize many of them when you see pictures or photos of them, or even when you see them in the flesh. You do not, however, like dogs. If you are put at eye-level with one, you will scream and cry with fear. You love to see them from far, and say "woof woof" when you see one, but that's about as close as you want to get.

You have the benefit of playing with all kinds of toys that are not exactly age appropriate but way, way more fun than baby toys. You love to play with all your brother's big boy toys that we have in the house, from the make-believe tool set to the many trucks and trains. You make vroom-vroom car noises, you respond with a "choo choo!" when I say "All aboard!" and pump your arm like you're pulling the whistle. Your favourite toy is a ball. You LOVE LOVE LOVE balls. I think someday you are going to be great at ball sports - because at the tender age of 18 months, you throw a ball better than your big brother. You invented a game this week that I like to call Spoonball. You have a big plastic spoon which you stole from my utensil drawer in the kitchen, and you either run around with a ball in the spoon, or you hit the ball with the spoon like you're playing hockey. Actually, I'd have to say that Spoonball resembles lacrosse quite a bit, so perhaps someday you'll be an excellent lacrosse player. Your dad thinks that you've inherited his knack for sports (yeah, definitely NOT from my camp).

The biggest development from this past month has got to be the sleeping. A month ago, you were spending most of the night in our bed. It would take sometimes 45 minutes of rocking and walking and patting to get you to fall asleep in my arms, and then potentially even longer to put you into your crib without waking you up. when your father started being the stay at home parent, he couldn't duplicate the routine and had a lot of trouble putting you down for naps. Your father is always the one to take the bull by the horns and make the big changes around here - thank goodness for him because otherwise, we'd get stuck in our crazy do-what-it-takes routine and never make any progress.

It has taken about a week and a half to change things up, and while not all days are successful, we've made amazing progress. We can now put you down in your crib and you'll go to sleep on your own. Sometimes there's some crying, sometimes there's some convincing to do, but lately there hasn't been as much. Since you've started falling asleep on your own, you've been sleeping better through the night - probably because you're able to fall back asleep without us. Last night, you fell asleep on your own and you slept the entire night without crying out for us, NOT ONCE. It was truly amazing. By the time we write your newsletter next month, I imagine bedtime will be as simple as putting you down, blowing you a kiss goodnight, and walking out the door. Already the routine has gone down to just a few minutes, so it can only get better from here.

You've always had an interest for drawing. You love to scribble with crayons. You can't be trusted with them unsupervised, as you'll inevitably start throwing them or drawing on something other than paper, but I have a feeling that while you have your sporty side, you also have a little of your Mom's artistic side as well. I can't wait to see you turn into a total artsy jock.

You have a big, big heart. You have a ton of love to give in the form of big, sloppy, wet kisses, and your kisses are truly the best. You're always up for giving a hug. You especially seem to love your Papie - when you see him, your eyes light up and you reach out for him to take you in his arms. You wrap your arms around him, nestle your head into the crook of his neck, and you sigh with happiness. While you sometimes need to warm up around certain people, with your Papie, there is never a need.

You love to babble on the phone. You especially love to call your Grandmother (my mom, whom you refer to as "Ba Ngoai", meaning maternal grandmother in Vietnamese). You'll often go pick up the cordless phone, give it to us, and say "Ba Ngoai", as if to say "Dial it for me. Now." I love hearing your little voice on the line when I'm at work, even if you're just randomly babbling away in your sweet little mix of French, English, Vietnamese, and baby talk.

You seem to have really flourished since your father started staying home with you. You have developed an even stronger bond with him, and these days it seems like you're all about your Dad. Some days I come home from work and while you greet me with an enthusiastic "MAMA!", there are moments where you only want to be with your father. I'd be lying if I said it didn't hurt a little, especially since I haven't seen you all day, but I couldn't be happier that you are enjoying your special time with your father and that you love him so much that you don't want to give him up. (I know what you mean, I feel the same way.) Your dad always has and always will be the hero in this household, and he definitely is WAY more fun that I am.

You love to climb things. You've taken quite a few tumbles this past month. You're a monkey, what can we say.

When you turned one year old, we were in the craziest part of our renovations, and we kept meaning to have a birthday party for you, and things just kept getting crazy.

We finally got around to celebrating your 18 months. Maybe we're not the best at planning parties or keeping our house in a state where we can have guests, but what we lack in organization, we make up for in love. Whoa boy, did you ever love that cake. It was love at first bite. You dug your fork into the cake (because, puh-lease, get my hands dirty? I think not.) and looked at me like, "This is my piece, right?", meaning, THE WHOLE CAKE. (That's my boy.)

Promise you'll get a party when you turn 2.

Noah, I miss you SO much when I am at work. But I know you're having fun and learning new things and doing really boyish, awesome things with your Dad, and I'm so happy he gets to share some of the amazing experiences of your childhood. You are amazing. You have a sweetness that cannot be described.

We love you so much, my sweet little Noah.

Love
Mama

Dear Noah,

Hey, little Jellybean. You are losing your baby fat, growing longer and leaner with every passing day. Everyone keeps commenting that you have lost your infamous chipmunk cheeks, and as your Aunt Sarah described it - the rest of your face finally caught up with your cheeks.

You are 17 months old now - the same age your brother was when you were born. You continue to wow us with your sparkling personality and cheeky sense of humour. You love to laugh (and still get the hiccups when you laugh too much) and you are always in a good mood. Except when you're not, and when you're not, WHOOOOAA baby watch out. It's headbutting, thrashing around, big crocodile tears, and crying so loud that my ears will be ringing.

I find it pretty amazing that you're able to talk at this age and that you know so many words. Sometimes you only say the second or last syllable of a word, but we know what you're talking about. Amongst the words you know: Mommy, Daddy, chien (dog), 'seau (short for "oiseau", meaning bird), avion (plane), 'lon d'eau (short for melon d'eau, meaning watermelon), biscuit (cookie), craquelin (cracker), lait (milk), eau (water), pipi (pee), caca (poop), lélé (your version of "télé", short for television), dodo (sleep), bain (bath), nez (nose), tête (head), yeux (eyes), pied (foot), 'teil (short for "orteil", meaning toe), chup chup, (ketchup), livre (book), raisin (grapes), toast, van, taxi, and ca (that). Add to that the half-dozen words that you know in Vietnamese! I swear you can count too - you know several numbers between 1 and 10 in three languages.

You say yes to just about any question, and sometimes just to mess with you, I will ask you something completely made up, like "Did you have a bad dream about hippopotamuses again?" and you'll moan "Ouiiiiiii..." (yes) This is a far cry from a few months ago, when the answer to every question was no. You're able to understand a great deal though, even though you may lack the words to respond.

You also know a ton of names for various people and toys - you can say many of the names of the characters from the movie Cars, including 'Queen (Lightning McQueen), 'Mone (for Ramone), and Sally. You always ask for James, the red engine, and 'Rold (Harold) the Helicopter, from Thomas the Tank Engine. You recognize our neighbours and even some of their pets - "Lelen" (Helen), "Ma" (Emma), and Max (their dog). You love to call out for your grandparents - I swear, if I had a dime for every time you said Mamie, Papie and Ba Ngoai, we wouldn't have to work for a living.

When asked what your name is, you tell me that it's Bob. You've been doing this for a few months now. We hope someday you'll go by your real name, but hey, nothing wrong with Bob for now.

You are a bit of a picky eater and I feel like you should be eating better, but I know this will come with age. There are a few things that you will reliably eat - chicken strips or nuggets, Greek gyro meat, French Canadian meat pie, Lebanese meat pie, and anything from the pastry/cookie/cracker food group (what, not a food group? are you sure?) You're pretty good with your fruits but you're not a huge fan of vegetables. You'll entertain a piece of asparagus or cucumber from time to time, and possibly a french fry or roasted potato, but that's about it. You've started eating cereal with milk in the morning, which is always a bit of a mess but you eat a lot of it. You love yogurt, though it tends to be part play thing by the time you're through with it. You, like your brother, love ice cream. In fact, I'm pretty sure you down it faster than he can. You love to dip everything in ketchup! Even somethings things that aren't meant to be dipped in ketchup, which is why I never eat any leftovers off your plate. Not after I had a leftover piece of watermelon with ketchup. Blech.

You've recently learned to twirl around in circles (then dizzily fall over), you throw your arms in the air and do little mini-leaps into the air, and you can kick a ball better than your older brother. You have always been great at throwing - balls, toys, food. You playfully call out the name of a victim and stumble towards them with a mischievous smile, your fingers wagging, doing what we call the tickling fingers. I love it when you do this from the backseat of the car.

You've been sleeping a good part of the night in bed with us, and for the time being, it doesn't bother us and allows everyone to get some sleep. We'd love it if you would go to sleep easily and sleep the entire night, without interruption, in your own bed - but there are really no two babies alike and you'll do your own thing at your own pace and whenever you're ready. You still nap in the afternoon for an hour or two, and you go to bed around 9pm, usually after your brother's already been put to sleep. You usually wake up in the morning around the same time we do, and sometimes you wake up demanding that we serve you some milk.

You love doing all the things that your brother does. You want to sit on the potty. You want to wash your hands. You ask to have your teeth brushed. You love being able to roam free when we're out and about, and it's starting to get a little bit easier going out with you and Caleb. I find that I'm taking a stroller less and less these days.

You make all kinds of wonderful animal sounds. You love fish ("wiff!"), ducks ("quack quack"), cows ("moooo"), birds ("cheep cheep"), dogs ("woo woo"), cats ("meow") and sheep ("beeeeh"). You love to see city buses ("bus! bus! bus!") and planes. You even get a little excited when you see trains, though I think because you see so many of them at home, it's kind of old news to you. When you walk backwards, you say "beep beep beep" like a truck does when it backs up. You are able to recognize many of the characters when we are out and about - you'll recognize Thomas the Tank Engine, Caillou ("you!"), and even Cars-themed stuff.

You're a rough and tumble kid. You love climbing the two-step in the kitchen. You can go upstairs on your hands and knees, but you love trying to walk up them by having us hold your hands. You're pretty stable on your feet but you still have the occasional tumble. A few weeks ago you fell while in the bathroom and landed face first on the ceramic floor. You have a teeny tiny chip on one of your two front teeth - so tiny that only I would notice it, and I'm pretty sure it hurt me more than it hurt you.

You are a super affectionate little guy. You love to hug and plant juicy open mouthed kisses on our lips and cheeks. Often, when I am trying to rock you to sleep, you will lift your head up off my shoulder, say "Mama", plant a kiss on my lips, and go back to snuggling on my shoulder. You will grab our faces with both your hands, and plant kiss after kiss on our cheeks until we are soaking wet. (And loving it.)

You have a really expressive face. You have this great expression where you raise both your eyebrows and open your mouth in mock surprise - something you surely picked up from your mother. A bit like this:

You are starting to sing along with your brother and I! It's amazing. You are chiming in with the odd word and you happily clap your hands together during and after a song. There is always a huge round of applause and a chorus of "YAAAAY!" after the alphabet song or Itsy Bitsy Spider. Lately, we have been singing this one Thomas the Tank Engine song about a duck, and there is one part in the song where there is a big long high note that we all howl at the top of our lungs - and this is your favourite thing to do now. You will howl the words "sooooooo happy!" along with us when it's that moment in the song, and chime in with "quack quack choo choo choo" when we get to the refrain. You have always been a huge music fan, and we love to see you dancing in your own personal style.

You love to play with your big brother Caleb and I often hear you howling with laughter as you two are inventing some game. He likes to build train tracks; you're all about destroying them. You hold your own with him - if he tells you to do something and you don't want to, you shake your head and say "NO!" I really love seeing you two being play buddies. Your dad isn't sure that you two will continue to stay close because of your distinct personalities, but regardless of that, I know there will be lots of time and opportunities for adventures together.

In a few days, I will be starting a new job and spending my days away from you. I can't tell you how much I've thought about this in the past month and a half since I accepted the job. I will definitely find it more difficult to be away from you than your brother; it's not because I love you more than I love him - it's just that you are, in my mind, still my precious little baby. However, I take a great deal of comfort knowing that your father gets to share in experiencing some of these precious, fleeting baby moments.

You are a sweet monkey and we absolutely adore you.

Love,
Maman

Dear Noah,

You are our dearest, sweetest, cheeky monkey. You are 16 months old now! We are reluctantly watching our little baby turn into a toddler, but we are also welcoming each new skill and development with amazement and joy.

You are truly an amazing and charming little fella. You smile and wave and blow kisses to everyone, including complete strangers at the grocery store. You walk with a cowboy style stance, as though you are riding an imaginary horse. You are stable on your feet and rarely fall anymore.

You have developed a real love for jumping on beds (which we are discouraging as much as possible, while stifling our laughter) and climbing up onto everything. You love getting up on your brother's toddler bed, falling onto your butt, and busting out into fits of laughter. You love turning around and around in a little pirouette, making yourself dizzy until you fall down. Your version of dancing is hilarious - you pick up your feet one at a time, or you'll crank your arms like you're doing the chicken dance. It's not unusual to see you with a cheeky smile and a mischievous twinkle in your eye.

You haven't spent much of the past month in your own bed. A few weeks ago, you became sick with a very high fever and spent the better part of a week and a half being very sick. During this time, we kept you in bed with us so we could monitor your fever and tend to your health. You were weak and barely walking for the first few days, but eventually you were back to your normal, laughing self.

Since then, we haven't been able to get you to sleep more than half the night in your own bed, and some nights it's impossible to put you down in your own bed at all. As soon as we put you in bed between the two of us, you are snoring away. You've been in the habit of rolling over to your father's side of the bed, where you like to have one hand on him at all times, and you especially love sleeping on his pillow. I often wake up to find your father sleeping diagonally across the bottom half of the bed, and you, comfortably resting at the top on his side. You still sleep in your crib for naps and for the beginning part of the night, but when you wake up, I always find you with this look of betrayal on your face, as if you are saying "What the HECK am I doing in THIS bed?"

This week, you and your brother were particularly restless in your sleep and in the wee hours of the morning, your father decided he would try to get a few consecutive hours of sleep in another room before going to work in the morning. I didn't even think to try to block off your dad's side of the bed with anything - I was so tired that it didn't even cross my mind. I woke up to a big thump and some crying, and woke up in a horrific panic knowing that you'd just rolled off the bed. Judging from the way I found you, I think you probably landed on your butt and not your head, and you seemed to be more shocked than hurt.

I think I will probably bear the wounds of your little tumble off the bed far longer than you will. I had no idea how important of a physical barrier your father was, so we'll have to be super-extra-careful now that we know you're moving around so much while we're asleep and unaware.

Putting you to sleep has become a really difficult task this past month. We tried letting you cry a little to see if you'd just settle down in your own crib and go to sleep on your own (like your brother did) but quickly realized that you are the kind of baby that gets so upset crying that it takes us five times as long to calm you down afterwards. You fall asleep in our arms, with your head on our shoulders, with a little rocking. We're usually able to then transfer you into your crib, but sometimes it's next to impossible.

While I'm rocking you to sleep, you love fiddling with the earring in my right earlobe. The other day you pulled it right off, and it drives me nuts that you are constantly tugging at it. I'm debating taking off my earrings altogether, but I have rarely taken them off in the 8 years since your father gave them to me.

You have started talking a great deal! Your vocabulary is small but adorable, and you are starting to be able to repeat words back to us. You say "nonner", your version of the word "donner", meaning "give" in French, while pointing furiously at what you want. Sometimes you say "nonner ca" (give me that) or "nonner wiff", "wiff" being your word for "fish". Fish meaning, the cheddar Goldfish crackers, which are probably your favourite food in the whole wide world. Oh, the number of times I hear you ask for "wiff" in a day! Most of the words you know are food-related, actually, so you can ask for yogurt ("go-gurt"), crackers ("ca-quelin", your version of "craquelin"), watermelon ("lon d'eau", short for "melon d'eau"), and more ("d'autre").

You are also able to say "maman" (mom) and "papa" (dad), as well as "mamie" (our word for Luc's mom) and "papie" (Luc's dad), and we've even heard you say "ba ngoai" which is Vietnamese for grandmother.

Your favourite toy in the world is a ball, any ball, and we are often strolling through a store when I hear you exclaim "balle!" (French for ball) at the sight of a balloon or a toy ball. You've taken to trains and cars much like your older brother. You're able to put together wooden pieces of train tracks, but mostly you love taking them apart. In fact, this love for destruction also extends to sand castles - if there's a sand castle in your presence, it never lasts more than a few seconds.

Even though you love to play with all the wheeled toys we have, your favourite toys are Harold the Helicopter (a friend of Thomas the Tank Engine) and any kind of propeller plane. You've also shown a real interest in animals and especially fish. (Probably has something to do with your love of Goldfish crackers.) You can make a variety of animal sounds - "mooo" for cows, "behhhh" for sheep, "woo woo" for dogs, and you do a very convincing "meow". You ooh and aah when you see birds ("zoh!", the second syllable of the French word for bird, "oiseau").

You have a mouthful of teeth - in fact, you seem to be just a few short of a complete set. Somewhere in the last two weeks, you have started really, really drooling. Your brother was a big drooler, but he was that way from birth. You seem to have just started your droolfest, complete with wet shirts and random puddles everywhere.

It's amazing to think that it's really only been a few months since we've weaned you. You don't seem like the same baby who was breastfeeding not long ago. You eat all kinds of things, though hardly anything that falls into the vegetable category - except for the occasional nibble on a potato or a cucumber. You love yogurt, fish sticks, chicken nuggets, watermelon, blueberries, grapes, ice cream, and anything that's a pastry. You never took to drinking formula - you went straight to cold milk, and sometimes you wake up early in the morning and ask for milk. You have started drinking a little more juice lately (you chant "jus! jus! jus!" at the sight of anything that looks like juice) though you, like your mom, love drinking milk. You have the annoying habit of tossing everything overboard off your high chair tray once you're "done" eating. It doesn't help that your brother thinks that's hilarious.

You have this habit of always needing to have two of whatever you're eating. Two goldfish, two crackers, two cookies, two grapes, etc. You'll ask for "deux" (two), regardless of what it is.

There have been a lot of doctor's appointments for you this past month, mostly because you were sick but also because there was an allergic reaction a few days after you started a round of antibiotics for your suspected ear infection. The doctor was afraid that you might have been allergic to the penicillin-based antibiotic, so she took you off it immediately and sent you for allergy testing the following week. Thankfully the visit to the allergist confirmed that you aren't allergic to penicillin, nor to the most highly allergenic foods like nuts, soy, fish, and the environmental ones like dust. This was quite a relief, though it's also a little disconcerting because we still don't know what caused this latest allergic reaction, nor the one from back in March.

You're probably going to be toilet trained very early. You show a great deal of interest in everyone's toilet habits. When you spot someone on the can, you point to the person, giggle and exclaim "pee pee!" or "caca!" (French slang for poop). You love playing with your big brother's potty, and sometimes you even sit on it. You've even pooped in it a few times! Your poop has been a real ordeal these last two months since we've weaned you. Because your diet has changed since then and also probably because there are still so many things you don't eat (like vegetables), you seem to experience a great deal of pain when you're pooping. I always know when you're pooping because you get into your pooping stance where you lean your hip to one side, and then there's usually some grunting, crying, and you will moan "cacaaaaaaaaa". Unfortunately, you make these teeny poops 5-6 a day and there usually isn't any real relief until you really crank out a big turd, which is a whole ordeal of crying and pushing that reminds me of childbirth. You poor bugger. Eat some vegetables! I swear it'll get better.

You play really well with your big brother and you really hold your own. sharing can sometimes be a bit hard because you're not really at the age where we can reason with you, so you can get very upset if you want a toy and you have to wait your turn. You really love your brother though - you guys laugh together all the time and you seem to really love playing with him. You love to do whatever he's doing.

Caleb really loves to tickle you, and he approaches you from far away with his little wagging fingers, which sends you scrambling away in a fit of giggles. You've learned to wag your little fingers just like he does, and it's the cutest thing to see you mischievously smile and wag your two index fingers in the air like you're about to come charging our way for a tickle-fest. You are ticklish on your back, between your shoulder blades, and you are still subject to much nibbling as the baby of the family. Unfortunately, you still get the hiccups when we make you laugh. Heck, sometimes I catch you making yourself laugh and you give yourself the hiccups.

You are really a momma's boy. We have been attached, quite literally and figuratively, since you were born. There was a conscious decision on our part as parents to divide and conquer between you and your brother, and to make sure that we were meeting both your needs. As a result, your father hasn't had as much time with you as he would have wanted, and there are certain times when all you want is your mother - like when you wake up in the middle of the night. You scream bloody murder if you can't have your momma when you want her! You are a happy baby, but when you're not happy, you are really, truly unhappy and LOUD when it comes to expressing your displeasure. Sometimes I think it's the contrast between your normally pleasant disposition and how very upset you get when you do upset that makes it seem worse than it really is.

You are such a sweet, lovely baby and there is a big part of me that is really sad about having to go back to work in a month's time. You and I spend so much time together, and I am away from you so seldomly, that I can't imagine what it would be like to not see you for a good part of the day. I admit that I have already cried about it and that I will undoubtedly be crying at work especially at the start, but I am also so very lucky that I know you will be well taken care of, and that you will be having the time of your life with your father, who will be teaching you all kinds of crazy and new things that only a father can do. I know this will be the defining moment in your relationship with him - it was the same way for Caleb at this age when your father took two months off work to be at home with us when you were born.

You are a baby that is loved and adored more than you will ever know.

Mama & Papa

Dear Noah,

This past month has been, without a doubt, the most eventful month of your life. You are, in a world, AWESOME. And you are also fifteen months old now.

You are now officially EATING. What a huge relief! There were moments when I thought you would never eat. But yes, you have decided that solid food and table food are the way to go now. You eat lots of toddler finger foods, like little freeze-dried apples and cereal. You eat bread and anything that is a pastry (definitely from your mother's gene pool). You love blueberries and crackers. You eat yogurt with a spoon, and sometimes with your hands. You'll even eat some meat - you love eating chicken fingers and greek Gyro meat. You love breaded fish sticks. Lately you've been not eating any strawberries and you will occasionally eat a few bites of pear, but mostly you like to play with your fruit. You eat roasted asparagus! I love it.

In the past few weeks, we have made some incredible progress with the weaning. A few weeks ago, we were working on getting through an entire day (8am - 8pm) without nursing, but you would still nurse like a maniac throughout the night. Last week, we were down to one feed a day. And as of today, it's been six days since you nursed. I think it's safe to say that you are now weaned.

To be honest, I miss nursing you and I know you miss it too because you've been especially tender and clingy lately. There is a side of me that would have had no problem continuing to nurse you at night or once a day for a long time, but there was another side of me that was ready to end the dependency. I definitely have mixed feelings about it, but I am happy that we are done and I'm proud of myself for having nursed two babies for two years in total (15 months for you and 9 for your brother).

Most of the past month has been spent changing your sleep habits, too. You used to nurse to sleep, which left us in a bit of a bind when I'd attempt you nurse you to sleep at night and it didn't work. We didn't have any other day to get you to fall asleep, other than attempting to nurse again, which wasn't working too well with our plan to wean and cut down on feeds. We are now able to put you down to sleep without nursing. It's a combination of letting you cry a few minutes, to the point where you are receptive to letting us lie you down in your crib, pat your back or stroke your forehead, and sing to you until your fall asleep. Some days it takes just minutes, and other days it will take up to an hour. Some days you need to be rocked, and other days you fall asleep in my arms while I'm pacing around the room. The hardest part is putting you in the crib - you will often wake up and want to be held.

This week while we've been weaning, you have spent the first stretch of your sleep in your crib, and the other two-thirds of the night sleeping in bed with us. I remember the first night we managed to get through the night without having to nurse you - it was hard, but we managed to comfort you and put you back to sleep, and you slept remarkably well. It was like a realization that you really were waking up and nursing for comfort, rather than hunger. Even though you spend a bit more time in our bed now than you did before, we want to make sure that you aren't lacking in comfort and security while we're weaning. We'll deal with one problem at a time! We have noticed, though, that you wake up a lot less and seem to sleep better when you're with us.

You usually wake up around the same time as we do in the morning, and you will do a nap just after lunch for about an hour, if we're lucky - two. The challenge later on in the day, around early evening, is to avoid going anywhere for a lengthy amount of time in the car or stroller because you may drift off into a second nap, which really messes up bedtime. You are great about going down for bed sometime between 8 and 9pm. What's great now is that there is usually a period of the evening after you go to bed where I can clean up, get organized, have a bedtime snack, vegetate, and get ready for bed myself. Sometimes it's a good couple of hours of productivity before I need to hit the sack.

You are a great walker now. You still walk cowboy style and there is the occasional stumble where you fall on your cute little behind, but you are able to more or less keep up with your big brother. You wander around the house, enjoying your freedom and ability to go anywhere you please. You are getting really good at negotiating the single step between the living room and the den. You love being chased by your brother - you giggle as you scurry away from him, often tripping and falling into a heap of laughter.

You play well. You love books. Your favourite toy is Harold the Helicopter - one of the characters in Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends. Unfortunately, the Harold that we have doesn't have his helicopter blades, so we are going to have to buy you one that is fully functional. Whenever we play at a Thomas train table, it's always the first thing you go for. (Which is great, because Harold isn't the most popular item on the train table. While most kids are fighting over the trains, you are happily swatting away making Harold's blades spin and making "chugga-chugga" noises as you make him fly in the air.

You TALK! You love to say "Mama" and "Papa". Whenever your father comes home from work, you greet him with a cheery "PA-PAAAAA!!!" at outstretch your arms for a hug. Sometimes when I am cuddling you in an attempt to put you to sleep, you lift up your head, look at me and say "Mama...", babble a little bit, kiss me, and then put your head back on my shoulder. It's enough to make one's heart melt. You can say "Bye-bye", "dude" (sounds more like "doot!"), "pas bon" (not good), "ba-boom", "bas" (socks) "and you say "oui" (yes) and "non" (no). You say "nonner", which is your version of "donner", meaning "give" - so you repeat "nonner, nonner, nonner" while pointing furiously at something. When you see pictures of babies, you say "bebe".

About two weeks ago, you would consistently answer every question with a "no". Now, it's more often a "yes", but it doesn't seem to be very consistent with what you actually want. It's still funny to ask you questions and hear you say yes or no.

You're getting to be great at repeating sounds. You can sound out quite a few letters of the alphabet. I've noticed that you have started to start singing along with your brother and I in the car. I know you will be talking in no time. You can point out your head, your hair, your head and your toes. You even have your own words for them.

Your favourite thing in the whole world right now has got to be balls. We have a few brightly coloured balls in the house and you love chasing them, picking them up (they seem almost as big as you), throwing them, and then chasing them all over again. You squeal "baaaaaaall" when you find a ball and you act as though you've just come across a pot of gold. Happiness for you, right now, is all about balls.

You enjoy playing in the sand. You love having a little scoop and getting to dig in the sand. You're starting to really enjoy going to the park, where there are lots of birds to admire and older children to observe.

It is impossible for you to sit in the car without trying to play with your shoes. There have been many a driving hazard as I looked back at you, only to realize that you have not only removed your shoe but that you are sucking on it. You seem to be unable to remove your sandals, but this doesn't stop you from playing with the velcro strap and howl in frustration.

You have a wonderful sense of humour - you are almost always laughing, smiling, easy-going, and willing to return a smile. I love seeing you crunch your nose up as you make your little smiling hamster face. You STILL get the hiccups when we make you laugh! It's easy to make you laugh and you are always a charming little fella when we are out and about. You love to wave hello and bye-bye to strangers, and blow a kiss to certain lucky individuals. I tell ya, you are a hit with ladies when you blow kisses.

You love music, you love to dance (well, at least your version of it which includes stomping your feet on the spot and doing squats).

Your hair is starting to get a little more plentiful. It curls in the back, where it's longer, and it is fine and soft. You are starting to lose a bit of your baby fat, especially in the legs as you are moving around a lot more. You still have a cute little pot belly and lots of warm rolls of fat to nibble on. As we watch you growing up every day and getting longer and leaner, we're starting to realize more and more that our little baby is growing up into a toddler. Thank goodness you still have a bit of those signature cheeks, num num!

That said, you are always, always going to be our little baby. Sorry to say, but it's true.

Oh, you are so very cute. We love you lots and lots.

Mama & Papa

Dear Noah,

You are now 14 months old and starting to act and look more like a little toddler than a baby with every passing day. We have had an incredible last month. You started walking! You are talking! Hell, you even EAT... though we use the word "eat" quite lightly, it's more like you are a serial snacker at an all-day buffet.

You are finally mobile - walking on your own two feet and going wherever you please. It quite literally felt like one day you just decided you were going to walk and within days you had learned to take many steps, pick yourself up when you fell down on your bum and get right back up again. You love practising your new craft. I love the way you get up when you fall down - you manage to push yourself up into a lineman* pose then straighten yourself up all the way. (* When I mentioned this to Luc, I had called it a "quarterback" pose and Mr. Football had to remind me that the quarterback catches the ball from the guy in front of him - this so called "lineman" dude - and it's the lineman who stands with his butt in the air and his hands on the ground. So sorry.)

Now that you're mobile, you're starting to explore and get into small bits of mischief. You love climbing the stairs. Even when the gate at the bottom of the stairs is closed, you're often hanging off of it, or perched on the bottom steps.

You've made some excellent progress in the eating department too, though your diet leaves something to be desired. You will eat endless amounts of ice cream, gelato, french fries and pastries, but you turn your nose up when it comes to vegetables and anything of substantial nutrition. Usually we're just happy when you eat something, anything, but eventually you are going to have to expand your horizons to include something other than the junk food group and the odd healthy item, like pears, yogurt and oranges.

You've taken a liking to some toddler sized finger food, like Goldfish, soda crackers, freeze-dried apples, and some cereals. You eat strawberries! And it's so great because not only is it an actual nutritious fruit, you smell like sweet strawberries for the rest of the day. (Which is great for your mom, who is allergic to strawberries, and can't help rubbing her face all over yours like you're one big scratch-and-sniff sticker.) Yesterday you amazed us all by eating some Lebanese grilled meat! You are pretty much anti-chicken, unless it's in the form of a chicken nugget. Which reminds me, the other day when no one was paying attention, you grabbed your brother's plate at the McDonalds and helped yourself to a Chicken McNugget. You ate almost 3/4 of it, and we were just happy you ate something! Plus it was all white meat, so there.

You love to feed yourself with a spoon and a fork. sometimes it's a real battle because you insist on having your own utensils, even though most of the time you just want to play with them. You are not a big fan of being spoon fed, unless it happens to be ice cream or something that tastes a lot like it.

You've finally taken to drinking out of a plastic drinking box with a straw, so we've bought about a gazillion of them to have handy for when you enlighten us with a few sips. You love clinking your drinking box and doing a "cheers" with anyone who has a drink in their hand. Your version of cheers sounds a lot like "joooo" but you do it with gusto!

On a good day, you will nurse once when you wake up and then sometimes go without boob until after dinner. On the odd day, I will need to nurse you once during the afternoon (or on a really bad day, twice). But otherwise, we've made tremendous progress in weaning you. You still nurse like a crazy man every 3-4 hours during the night - on a good night you'll wake up just twice between my bedtime and your waking time, but on a typical night, it seems like you are up every few hours. I'm guessing that it's more for comfort than it is for hunger, but we're attacking our problems one at a time.

We've started the delicate and difficult process of sleep training you - getting you to fall asleep without nursing and at a decent hour. A few weeks ago, your dad gave me a much needed kick in the butt to give you a more structured schedule, and since then we've seen some amazing progress. You wake up around the same time we do, you nap once in the afternoon, and then you go to bed sometime between 8:30pm and 9:30pm. Putting you to sleep is still a bit of a work in progress, but it usually involves some singing, a little crying, stroking your forehead and patting you to sleep. We have good nights and bad ones - on the good nights, we're so happy that we're almost afraid to celebrate our success (lest you wake up and prove us wrong). There were some pretty blissful moments last week where we had two kids in bed by 9:30pm and decided to tempt fate by watching a movie. And we watched a movie! From start to finish, with NO interruptions! We were both so tired the next day from having stayed up late, but man, were we ever happy to have watched a movie.

You usually end up sleeping the last part of the morning in our bed, which usually means that I fell asleep while nursing you in bed and you just stayed there.

You have started saying a few words - you're great at saying Mama and Papa/Dada. You can say what sounds like "dude" (sounds more like "toot"), "pee pee", "ca ca" (slang for poop), "miam miam" (in the context of food), "choo choo" (for trains), "bye-bye" and my personal favourite, "NON!" (no). You swat with your hand and say "non non non" if offered something that you don't want, and it makes me laugh almost every time. You can point out your head, if asked where it is, and when asked who made a "fart-fart", you point to yourself by poking a finger at your belly.

You have benefitted from the activities we do with your older brother, like reading for example. You love books! I'm pretty sure at this age, your brother only wanted to chew on books, but you have developed a real love for books. Your favourite book is called Blue Hat, Green Hat, a really simple and funny board book featuring four animals and their hats, shirts, pants, etc. where each one wears a different colour, but the turkey always puts his item of clothing on wrong. So the book will read "blue hat, green hat, red hat, oops!" and you love the "oops!" part. You will throw your hands in the air as though you're totally exasperated by that silly turkey, and say "pppssss!" while giggling. It's truly priceless. The best part is when you come stomping towards me carrying your precious book and give me the book while giving me puppy dog eyes, begging me to read it to you. It's impossible to say no.

You love the easel that your brother got for Christmas last year. You're always wanting to get into the crayons and you start waving your arms and legs when you see the sidewalk chalk outside.

You absolutely love music - again, a product of all the constant singing and music that is part of your day to day. There are a couple of your brother's Thomas the Tank Engine songs that you know quite well, to the point where you start swaying back and forth to the music or bouncing up and down, as though you are dancing. At the end of a song, you inevitably start clapping, especially when you hear us singing happy birthday - your hands are clasped together as you wait for the end of the song, at which point you start furiously clapping.

You adore the bath. You and your brother pile into our big tub with your gazillion toys and you have a grand ol' time. Usually it's your dad that goes in with you, but occasionally Mom gets to go in there too and partake in the fun. You love splashing the water and watching the wind-up swimmer dog-paddle in the water - that is, until you manage to catch him and attempt to eat him.

You're growing all kinds of teeth right now - you have four up top and four on the bottom, plus at least two more breaking through at the moment and your gums look like they're about to explode with several more. And yet, you continue to be in a great mood. Amazing.

You are incredibly affectionate - you give amazing hugs and big wet kisses. We love, love, love the kisses. And you're a big fan of receiving affection too - you will close your eyes in anticipation of a kiss, with your lips pursed, and you have no shame in putting your cheek out to receive a kiss either. There is definitely no shortage of love surrounding you, that's for sure. When you're tired, you really really need your Mommy and there isn't anyone else that will do.

You play really well - you love playing with your brother (even though sometimes he steals your toys and vice versa) and you guys get along famously. I love hearing you guys laughing together. While your favourite toys include the remote control and the cordless phone, you also love playing with your brother's wide array of trains and trucks.

You continue to be the happiest baby we know. You are growing up fast and becoming less and less of a baby with every passing day. It's starting to become pretty clear, though, that you are always, always going to be our sweet little baby.

With love,
Mama & Papa

Dear Noah,

A few weeks ago, you turned 13 months old. You are a big boy now! I sometimes need to remind myself that you are slowly but surely becoming more of a toddler than a baby, though admittedly I am savouring every last bit of baby in you - the fat warm cheeks, the rolls of baby fat on your arms and legs, the way you fall asleep in my arms after a good feed. Sigh... You are still so darned yummy and still not fully able to escape us when we torment you with endless kisses.

You have been a busy guy this past month! You are learning to walk with a vengeance. You love to walk around the house with us holding one or both of your hands. You are able to walk with the help of a little push toy vacuum cleaner - you steer and turn like a real champion. You can stand on your own and take a few little steps. You are itching to become more independent. I know next month when I am writing your newsletter, I will be talking about how you're into everything.

You're still not a huge fan of eating, though you are eating more and drinking better these days. You've become quite good and drinking out of a plastic drinking box with a straw, or straight out of a mug or glass. You're fond of cold milk and water. We've been able to stretch you for a good five hours between nursings, which is a sure sign that you are eating and drinking more these days. This past month, I have been able to enjoy a new sense of freedom and it's been the best feeling.

You're great at taking bites and putting food in your mouth, but still not terribly interested in swallowing much of it. You're big on carbs - you'll eat soda crackers, teething biscuits, Arrowroot cookies, and O-shaped cereal like there's no tomorrow, but give you a big piece of fruit or some chunks of chicken - and it ends up mostly on the floor. You love gnawing away at a piece of apple or pear, but there still isn't much of it going down. You do tend to like yogurt, but that's about the only thing you eat that has the texture of a puree. We're still trying! You wILL eat one of these days.

Your sleeping schedule is still all over the place, though largely that's our fault for not maintaining much of a consistent schedule for you. You usually nap once or twice a day, and your bedtime is usually close to ours.

Lately it seems like you've been spending most of the night in our bed. Partly, this is because sometimes you just don't want to be in your crib - you will be asleep in my arms, and I will put you down only to have you wake up instantly and start to cry. The minute I lie down with you on my chest in our bed, you are snoring like a champion - and frankly, so am I. Some nights, it feels like it's the only way either of us will get any sleep. And it kind of just snowballs from there - you are sleeping with me in bed, you wake up hungry, I throw you on the breast and fall back asleep, and before I know it, we've spent the whole night with you in bed.

I have to admit that I actually don't really mind it, but your father and I are a little worried that it's going to become a bad habit to break. I suppose there are worse things than sleeping with a warm, fat baby hugging you - and that would be a warm, fat baby who doesn't sleep at all.

You love to play with a toy screwdriver. I wonder if this is a result of the number of construction trades we've had in our house for the past six months, but you seem to have picked up the knack for playing with it like you're actually using it.

You also love playing with all the train stuff we have in our house. Sometimes this really drives your big brother nuts, because he's in the middle of reinacting some elaborate Thomas episode with all his trains when you descend on his track and attempt to disassemble it.

You're happy most of the time, but when you're unhappy - watch out! There are big