Pictures of Davis and Noah

We recently had our neighbor, Shaun Nelson, take pictures of Davis and Noah.  Every time we have professional photos taken of the boys it stresses me out more than almost anything.  I worry what clothes they should wear and whether or not they will behave themselves and what props to take.  This is a constant worry from the day I start thinking about making an appointment to the time the shoot is over.  Then I start worrying about which pictures to buy and print to put on which wall in which frames.  Darren thinks I am a little  . . . silly.  I just can't stop.  But now it is all over and we have such cute pictures up on our walls and it turned out just fine.  I am sure I will start the whole process again in a year or so.  But for now, here are some of my favorites from this time.

More Funny Quotes from Davis

This is just a post to catch up on the cute things Davis has said lately.  Enjoy!

I was feeling sick yesterday and so I skipped dinner and sat relaxing in our recliner.  After finishing his dinner, Davis came in and asked if he could sit on my lap.  I said ok, and then Davis said, "You aren't going to sick me are you?"

Davis was trying to convince me that he is stronger than me, and he held up his arms, muscle-man style, and asked, "Are my toughs bigger than yours?"  I had no idea what he was talking about.  I turned to Darren and he whispered, "You know, like "Show me how tough you are?""  Oh right.  Toughs = muscles. Love it.

On Sunday, Darren and I went down to see Jeanette in the hospital, and I asked Davis if he wanted to go to Nana and Bumpa's house instead of go with us.  He said, very enthusiastically, "Nana will be so excited to see me!"  And she was.

A week or so ago, my mom and sister were visiting and having dinner with us.  Darren asked Davis to say the prayer and Davis said, "No.  I don't have to say the prayer every single time."  Just for the record, he doesn't.  But when there are only two at home for breakfast and lunch and three for dinner, it may seem like it.  He has said that often since,  probably because we laughed the first time.  It sounded so funny coming from such a little boy.  Not so funny anymore.

Letters to My Men

I found a blog called "Today's Letters" written in the form of letters.  It is a cute married couple that write short little letters to each other or other people or other things.  I love it.  I want to try it.  So here goes . . .

Dear Darren:  Thanks for washing the dishes today.  I love it when you wash the dishes. I mean, I really looove it.  I also love it when you bring me double stuff Oreos.  And now I love it when you bring me cherry flavored M&M's (yeah, that's right - cherry flavored M&M's).  I love it when you come home early from work.  And do the dishes from last night before dinner tonight.

Dear Davis:  You say the funniest things and sometimes I have to try to hide my laughter so you will keep talking because you don't mean to be funny.  Today I asked you why you don't like kisses (someday you will change you mind, I hope).  You answered, "Because they have sour cream."  You continued to tell me you like sour cream in your hands, but not with your kisses.  I don't know.  I just don't know.

Dear Noah:  The gate at the top of the stairs is for you safety.  Please don't kick it down again and roll down the stairs.  You didn't like it.  I didn't like it.  But I did love all the cuddling I got when you were done crying but not quite ready to get down and conquer the world again.

The Latest in Pictures

January was the month of pictures at our house.  I kept whipping out the camera, trying to capture the sweet innocence of my boys together and Noah's big beautiful eyes and chubby angel cheeks.  So here are the top few out of hundreds.

And now, let me tell you about Davis

Davis is such a smart boy.  He started talking early and hasn't stopped since.  He loves words.  He loves to know what they mean.  He loves to tell stories and read stories.  He has started making up words when he can't think of the right word to express what he wants.  He makes up names for himself when he is pretending to be a T-Rex or lion or bear.  He has always surprised us with the sentences he says.

Davis's favorite color is blue.  He loves to roar.  He loves puzzles and books.  He likes to play with his little toy dinosaurs and bears.  He likes to watch movies.  His favorites are Ice Age (and the others that followed), Madagascar, and The Bee Movie.  He loves Curious George, Clifford, and Word World.  He used to love Elmo, but I think maybe he is outgrowing that stage.

Davis loves blueberries and meatballs and bananas and yogurt.  He eats cereal for breakfast everyday.  With the occasional exception of chocolate oatmeal (Malt-O-Meal).  His favorite thing to order at restaurants is a hamburger.  With plenty of ketchup for dipping.

Davis loves School Time.  He likes to learn new things and create things with scissors and glue and markers and paint.  Especially paint.  He LOVES paint.  Davis notices letters everywhere.  He will point out the ones he sees when we are out shopping or reading a book.  He likes me to say a word and he will tell me what letter it starts with.

Davis has always been a great sleeper.  I mean a really, really great sleeper.  He napped really well during the day and only stopped taking a nap when he was 3 1/2 years old.  I had hoped he would keep napping until kindergarten, but  . . . oh well.  When he was a baby, he would only sleep in his crib or his car seat.  Vacations were a nightmare because of that.  But when we were at home, it was wonderful.  Now he goes to bed about 8 pm and will sleep until 7:30 am.  He sleeps through Noah crying at night.  If he takes the occasional nap and we have to wake him up, he is grumpy.  And I mean the kind of grumpy that lasts for the next few hours.  He has always sucked his thumb when he is tired and going to sleep.

Davis hates kisses.  Weird, I know.

Davis is going through a stage filled with separation anxiety.  He used to love going to other people's homes while Darren and I went out on a date.  Not anymore.  He cries and throws a fit of epic proportions.  Darren has to go to Primary and stay with him.  I am hoping he will grow out of this.  Soon.

Sometimes Davis gets scared and comes and climbs in bed with us.  Then he snuggles in as close as he can.  He curls up so close to me and falls asleep.  I love it.  He tries to do the same thing on my lap in Sacrament meeting when he is so tired.  It doesn't work so well there.

Davis loves to cook with me.  I hope he will learn something.  And remember it.  So he can cook for his wife someday.  She will love me for it.

What a sweet, smart, independent, strong boy Davis is!

Let me tell you about Noah

Noah is my sweet baby.  Who is growing too fast.  And who is the most beautiful baby in the world.  Yes, the world.  Yes, I am sure.  Because I have strangers stop and tell me so.

When Noah was born, he had lots of curly hair.  As he was  . . . um, being born. . . one nurse said he had dark hair.  At the same time, the other nurse said he had light hair.  After he was  . . . out. . . and cleaned up, his hair was definitely dark.  Most of the time.  In natural sunshiny light, his hair was silvery light.  I have never seen anything quite so unique.  Now he still has curly hair, but it is the same color all the time - light brown.  He has a very pronounced cowlick in the front so that the very front section of his hair sticks straight up all the time.  Luckily it kinds of blends in with the rest of the curls on top.

Noah's eyes have always been very dark brown.  They are big, beautiful, and can melt my heart.  His cheeks are perfectly chubby and his features are the perfect size for his perfect face.

Noah loves to be sung to.  His favorite seems to be the ABC song.  When there is music or singing, he kind of bops to the beat.   I first noticed this when we were at story time at the library.  I had him sitting on the floor in front of me when the  story time lady turned on a song.  Noah immediately started bopping to the beat.  And stopped when the music stopped.  How cute is that!  Sometimes I put music on and we all dance.  Noah likes to be held up so he is standing and I help him get his groove on.

In the boys' room, there is an ABC poster that is very colorful and has animals with each letter.  Noah LOVES to stare at it.  We sit in the brown glider chair after he has been fed and he is so content to just pat the chair of the arm and stare at the poster.

Noah's favorite color seems to be red.  He loves carrots, prunes, and most other foods.  Except peas.  And green beans.  Won't touch anything with either one of those in it.  He loves his sippy cup and actually drinks water from it sometimes.  More often he prefers to just chew on it.  He cannot crawl, but is extremely adept at rolling.  He cannot walk, but loves to be held so he is standing up.  He has no teeth, but I swear he has been teething for months now.  He does not say real words, but babbles alot.  Mamamama, bababababa, and he blows his lips like a horse sound.  Sometimes he does that while he is eating and all the food comes back out and he thinks it is funny.  He also loves to gurgle when he has just nursed and has an extra liquedy mouth.

Noah liked using a binky for only the first few months.  For those few months, I would wrap him up tight, lay him on my lap, hold the binky in, and sway him back and forth.  And he would fall asleep every time.  After four months or so, he quite taking a binky.  And going to sleep anywhere besides his crib or car seat.  He falls asleep great in his crib.  He naps great during the day.  But when we happen to be out at church or other events, he will not fall asleep.  We can walk him and bounce him with no success.  Ok, Darren can occasionally get him to sleep if there is a dark, quiet room.  Noah gets extremely wriggly when he is tired and it makes church really hard!  Now Noah sucks on his first two fingers (usually on the left hand) when he is tired and ready to go to sleep.  As I am holding him before putting him in bed, he often brings his right arm over his left hand, as if to hold those fingers in.  It is so cute and snuggly!

Noah was never a great sleeper at night.  Up three or four times a night all the way up to 9 months old.  We tried everything to "fix" the problem, but we never knew what was bothering him and making him wake up so much.  Finally, I was done.  He was almost nine months old and I just couldn't get up again.  We let him cry.  He cried for about an hour.  Then slept for the next six hours.  For a few days after that he woke up once a night and I fed him and put him back down.  After that, when he woke up, he only cried for a few minutes and went back to sleep.  And slept through the night.  Now he sleeps about 12 hours a night.  Without being fed.  Bliss.

Noah loves Davis.  Most of the time.  He loves it when Davis is silly.  He loves it when Davis jumps up and down.  He loves it when Davis falls down.  He does not love it when Davis pushes him over.  He does not love it when Davis uses his face as a road for his cars (yes, true story).  He does not love it when Davis roars.

And those are just a few of the things I hope to remember about my sweet baby Noah.

Wait. I have how many kids?

With Davis, our first child, I watched him like a hawk.  We celebrated every milestone, took pictures of everything he did and everywhere he went, talked to him and taught him the ABC song and animal sounds (his first word was moo, as in "What does a cow say?"), and everything else we were supposed to teach him.  Now, I am not saying any of it worked real well, because he was late on almost every milestone. Except talking.  That one he got down quickly and hasn't stopped since.  But at least we tried.

With Noah, our second child, it is a bit different.  Ok.  A lot different.  I still watch him and try to notice when he does cool or new things.  We still celebrate when he hits milestones, like his first solid food or . . . . see here is where the difference starts.  When Noah learned to sit up, it was kind of a gradual process and after a few days he could sit up by himself.  Darren came home from work one day and saw Noah sitting there and said something like, "Wow!  Look at you sitting up!"  And I said something like, "Yeah, he has been able to do that for a few days."  I feel like maybe we owe Noah a round of applause for that.  Maybe we will clap extra long when he learns to walk.  

A few weeks ago, I realized I rarely sung a song just for Noah.  Always for Davis and Noah just gets to listen in.  So I started doing patty cake, hoping to make up for lost time.  Whenever Davis is busy with something else, I will try to sing a little song just for Noah.  Last week Darren asked when we should start reading to Noah.  Um.  Now would be good.  With Davis we were reading him books very early on.  With Noah . . . Darren's question should tell you how good we have been doing on that front.  And forget about teaching him the sounds that animals make. Although, he probably already knows that dinosaurs and bears and lions growl.  Very loud.

Noah is such a good baby during the day.  He sits on the floor, happily playing with his toys, enjoying (and sometimes barely tolerating) being entertained by Davis.  Sometimes the day goes by and I realize I forgot to really pay attention to Noah.  Not that I actually forget I have a second child.  Just that I get him dressed and lug him around wherever we go and feed him and forget to really give him my undivided attention.  It's a good thing he's got Davis around to pass down all the important knowledge and skills he will need.  If he can survive all the attention Davis gives him.