20 Month update!!!

Dear Noel,
You've just reached 20 months!! You're getting tall! Although, Idk how tall lol and you're around 2 lbs. You are getting so big and your personality is blossoming incredibly. You are talking so much and saying far too many words to count. You are so smart and you know how to figure nearly everything out. You LOVE to jump as you sing, "hop hop hop!". You play pretend with your dinosaurs, blocks, pretending to eat fake food, and you can draw circles (sort of ish lol)!! You love your sister and you plays and learn with her every day. You still love mother goose club songs, you watch dinosaur music videos, your favorite shows include Sesame Street and Daniel Tiger, and you love singing along to the radio.

You are not a huge fan of other children, you rather play alone or with your sister though. You tend to hit or push other children if you feel they're invading your personal space or overstepping boundaries such as coming up to your dad or I, or trying to take a toy you're playing with. You get worked up very quickly but I'm pretty sure that's just your age - it's part of being a toddler. :)
You demand respect from everyone you are around. If people respect you you are more likely to obey to rules set or boundaries that have been set. You show understanding and patience - but ONLY if you feel respected. The moment you feel disrespected you sort of explode. You shout words like, "NO!, STOP, DON'T, LISTEN, and WON'T!" And you physically react very quickly: hitting, throwing something, knocking something down, etc. But again - that's because your prefrontal cortex hasn't began developing yet and that's necessary for emotional regulation and impulse control. You're just being a toddler and expressing your emotions in the only ways that you know how.

You are still BREASTFEEDING!!! <3 We share an incredible bond and I am so proud to know that you are getting the most amazing start in life directly from my body. All the vitamins, nutrients, calcium, antibodies, etc.... it's truly a miracle what the human body can do to support it's young. Although, we have started limiting the amount you nurse at night - mommy was losing a lot of sleep as you would wake up 6/7 times a night for milkies. I just couldn't deal. So lately before bed I've been gently explaining, "Okay so you're going to have milkies right now before bed, when you're done you are going to roll over and go to sleep okay? Then no more milkies until morning time." I should start saying "until it's light out." because I'm pretty sure you haven't been understanding what "morning" is. It's all new to me and we're working on it together. You've been doing pretty well at handling it - only waking up once or twice now to nurse, which is more tolerable for me. I can't imagine us fully weaning any time soon though.



You love swimming - as long as someone is in the pool with you. It took a while for you to warm up to the whole pool idea at all but once you did you loved it!! You started jumping into the pool for others to catch you (papa and I) and you even went down a slide into the pool all on your own a few times! LOL You weren't too fond of it yet you still went down it for some reason a few times until deciding it wasn't a good idea anymore hahaa. And you love the park. The slide is your favorite!! You also really love climbing! You are a dare devil!

18 months has flown by!

Dear Noel,
Goodness gracious child!!! You have turned 18 months and you have surely blossomed !! You speak over 35 words! You know mama, mommy, dada, daddy, Moe, Mamee, Lailah, Sissy, Qetsi (dog), up, go, home, stuck, apple, eat, eye, play, shoes, no, car, truck, zoo, ball, hat, bite, mine, baby, eww, bath, weeee, bye bye, birdy, hi, you ask "what's that?" and "where's -- (insert name or object)", and say "let's go".
(Added on 7/3/15 - doggy, cat, why, juice, outside, please, more, Brian, RAWR, yuck, yay, sock, why, rain, water, wet, hot, nanner (banana), out, and keys) These are all the ones I remember at least :p. Within the past 3 weeks your speech has expanded insanely. :D It's so amazing listening to you talk. Although, HAHA - you say a word that sound just like "cock" and we have NO idea what it is you're trying to say. You say every other word when you see it or when you need to tell us something you want or or want to do - but this word you just say it all the time. We have NO idea what it is besides hilarious lmao. <3




You can jump REALLY well now, you can climb and go down slides all on your own as well, and you make this gargling sound when you're attempting to tickle someone lol it's adorable "igle igle igle igle igle". LOL too cute.

We are still breastfeeding! We've made it to 18 months. :) You are getting an incredible amount of nutrients and antibodies from my breastmilk which is helping to develop your brain more and faster than other non breastfed babies and keep you healthy and strong! I am so proud of our journey and I'm going to be sad when it one day ends. But for now I will savor you being my little baby and our bonding and closeness that nursing brings to us.

You are quite the explorer!! You LOVE to be independent and walk around by yourself - at the zoo I let you lead us around and we follow closely behind. You run over to the next animal exhibit and you even climb up onto the fence and look into the animal exhibit and exclaim your "ohhhs" and "ahhhs" lol. You are not a child of fear at all. And at the mall you loveeeee the escalators and you proudly step on them as you hold either daddy or my hand. You are so courageous and curious. Not quite to a fault and hopefully it'll never come to that, but to a deeper level than I believe other children your age are.


Oh and a couple weekends ago we went to this event in Providence called "Discover the Dinosaurs", they had lifelike robotic dinosaurs and plastic dinosaurs, and a sand pit where you could uncover dinosaur bones.

 You had a BLAST! !! You absolutely loved it. You ran back and forth from dinosaur to dinosaur rawring! And you played in the sand pit for at least an hour!! You were running around in circles pointing, giggling, and giving your best rawrs!!!! You had so much fun. It was definitely an amazing weekend for our whole family.

You recently had your first dentist appointment too! So many new things. You have 16 teeth!!!! You did so well. You were very curious and didn't want to wear the bib they put on you but you did well with the dentist and you didn't cry or seem afraid at all. :)

You have definitely started experiencing very large emotions and you definitely express them. You've started tantruming and getting all those very big emotions out. Sometimes you hit but daddy and I set firm limits on hitting - we don't let you hit us. Otherwise you accept hugs and mommy milkies if you're having a really hard time. Already, I've noticed that you have a very strong personality and you really like for daddy or I to reach out to you - rather than for you to come to us. We will do our best to always reach out and be here for you - to be your rock through every single tough or difficult time that you have. Please always let us in and be there for you. <3 You are so important to us and you always will be.

I love you Noel <3 Love, mommy :)

15 months!

Dear Noel,
You have turned 15 months and I feel that an update is due! Why? Well, you have just grown so much and I need to document it. :D
Goodness gracious child LOL the faces you make! You have SO many faces; you're certainly animated. You make us laugh so much with just the faces you make.
You currently know 9 signs!! You know milk, please, more, food, eat, all done, bath, shows, and potty! You don't go potty yet but when I go potty you sign it and when I sit you on it just to get you used to the idea you sign it lol.
Your hair has gotten massively curly! I actually trimmed it for the very first time the other day because the back of your hair kept getting knotted because it was so dry and brittle from you laying on it, but since I've trimmed it it's been healthy and curly again! It's beautiful. :D

You also do the try to sing  songs and use signs for the songs the itsy bitsy spider, the wheels on the bus, and you know where your head, shoulders, toes, eyes, and nose are from the song head shoulders knees and toes. :p

You are SO smart and so helpful too! You help us clean up, you know where trash goes and you put it there, you know where toys go and you put them in the toybox, and you also know where the recycling bin is and when we hand you bottles you run into the other room to recycle them! At Mammy's house she has this little toy kitchen and when you were playing with it you were pretending to turn it on then you pretended to wash your hands, your face, and then your hair! haha, freaking adorable.
You and your sister as SO close and you love each other soo so much. <3 I hope the relationship and bond between you two never breaks.

One of the funniest things you do is "shush!" people hahahaha, it's so funny. When someone tries to talk or sing when you're focusing on something or upset then you shush them LOL Another funny thing is that you don't yet acknowledge that it's you on the camera when I'm taking a video or you in the mirror. So you tend to get very angry at the baby because you seem to feel mocked hhaha. You start yelling and getting hostile towards the image of yourself LOL
You also seem to not have much stranger danger. You love walking up to people and hugging people lol you are so social and the most loveable baby ever. You literally wake daddy and I up with kisses in the morning!! It's the sweetest thing.
Oh and you love your blankey. You sometimes drag it around the house. :P It's so cute. You remind me a lot of me when I was a little baby. :)




Today you accidentally got locked in the car :(. Thankfully a man came and jimmied the lock open so I could get you out. You were trapped in there for about 10-15 mins! But you were so brave. You didn't cry. At one point you did get unsettled and put your arms up and reached for me like, "why aren't you getting me out!?" But you did so well and you calmed down and I was able to get you out. We were at Don's lunch and afterwards we went inside and had some breakfast. You ate some french toast, eggs, toast, and homefries. :)











OH!! ANDDDDDD We are still nursing strong!!!!! :D 15 months!