francesca's little men

Noah

1. This morning I was zonked because I stayed up late with some lady friends chatting away into the wee hours of the morning. So this morning I heard a series of events in the hallway outside of my door and it went something like this:

Noah: Mommy! Liam has the batteries!
(Liam screams something)
Me: OK, take them away from him and put them away. (great parenting, I know)
Noah: Liam, you're not supposed to be playing with this.
(lots of screaming and yelling from Liam ... then crying)
Noah: Mommy! Liam still has one battery!
Me: Then get it (again, the lack of my parenting astounds even me)
Noah: No Liam.
(yelling and thumping from Liam)

Then the cutest thing happened. I heard that Liam was a mess in the hallway basically throwing a tantrum because of what happened and Noah in his sweet little voice said, "It's OK Liam, you're just not supposed to play with batteries. Do you want me to sing 'Buttercup'? OK ..." then Noah launches into "My Little Buttercup" and Liam calms down. The crying stops, it turns to sniffles and then silence as Noah finishes the song. It was beautiful to listen to before I passed out for another 10 minutes. What a good big brother. He knows just what to do. Evidently he's paying attention and I love that.

2. This morning, after Liam went down for his nap, I sat down with Noah. Noah has a LOT of artwork. One favorite subject has been aliens. So, I took all of his aliens pictures that I had saved and piled them on the kitchen table. Then, with Noah next to me, I asked him about each picture and transcribed his responses onto each page. I took each finished page, complete with descriptions and put them in page protectors, then went to Target and got some folders. Noah and I made a cover and viola! We had "Noah's Alien Book". It is awesome. I loved doing every minute of it. Noah is hilarious. There was no hesitation at all, as soon as I put a new picture in front of him, he sailed into another story or explanation about that alien or monster. His little creative brain is like New York City - it never sleeps.

3. I read "The Quiltmaker's Gift" to Noah tonight before bed. It is a pretty long bedtime story book, but it is good. I loved sitting next to him and reading to him tonight.

Liam

1. He calls strawberries "gapes".

2. He loves babies. Today we went to the Butlers' house for dinner and they have a little girl named Katie who is 8 months old. Liam just stares at her and hands her balls and pushes her over (oops!), but he just seems fascinated with little babies. He'll point at her and say "baby!". He also found a baby doll at their house and brought it to me and pointed at the baby's eyes, ears, cheeks, nose ... it was so cute.

3. He doesn't fight bedtime. He usually loves it. He likes brushing his teeth (he can pull the stool up to the sink and everything) and he'll kneel for family prayer (most of the time) and then go to bed. I lay him down, give him his blanket, close the blinds and shut the door and he goes to sleep. It's so pleasant.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Noah

1. He is my little performer. He made Ean (my visiting teacher's little boy) laugh by doing a silly, jolting break-dance-like move on the floor. So he continued to do it until he hurt himself. But it was so funny to see Noah get so much joy out of making someone else laugh.

2. Noah gets cash for doing extra chores. I usually ask him to clean up the front room each morning and he does a great job! He is detail oriented and knows where everything goes. He is becoming so capable and I love that.

3. I heard him playing in the front room while I was in the shower. He talks for his "guys" now. It was awesome.

Liam

1. What a little helper. I was cleaning up a little before my visiting teacher came over and Liam wanted to help clean up too. He got the vacuum out for me and helped me wind the cord when we were done. He said, "elp? elp?" as he handed me the plug at the end. He carried around the dustpan as I swept the floor, then handed it to me when I asked for it with a huge grin across his face. He asked for "up ipes" (disinfecting wipes that he calls "wet wipes") so he could wipe down the table and front of the cupboards and other random objects that Liam deemed dirty and thought they needed a good swipe - like the leather chair in the front room, the doorframe and a little of the carpet. He was so cute. The whole time he looked so proud of himself.

2. He loves playing outside. He says, "ah-side?" (outside), then "cocs!" (crocs) or "feep fops" (flip flops) and finally he always asks, "ga-ahge? opin? ga-ahge!" (garage? open? garage!). He also plays with the lawn mower almost everytime, no matter how many times I tell him he can't play with the lawn mower, I always see him pushing it out of the garage and standing on it in the driveway. I tell him to play with HIS lawn mower ... the cute little plastic one that is his size, but no. Not good enough. He needs to roll out our huge lawn mower and play with it. It's so not exciting .. but to him it must be. Everytime.

3. He goes where Noah goes. It's super cute to watch. He follows him, not necessarily to play with him. Just to be in the same place as Noah and then play near him. It's funny.