The Chanukkah Update

The last week has been nuts so this post is going to be short with a lot of pictures. Here are the highlights:

* Noah gave up the pacifier cold turkey and he now uses it at bedtime. As a result he is babbling even more than he was before. It's like he has his own little language. A language that no one else understands.

* Prior to quitting the pacifier, Dan and I purchased for Noah a Baby Elmo doll (yes, ANOTHER one) that has a pacifier attached to his hand. Music plays when you put the pacifier in the dolls mouth. Noah thought it would be more fun to put the pacifier in his mouth instead. With Baby Elmo still attached.

* I made potato latkes today ALL BY MYSELF and I referenced the Jewish cookbook that my sister gave me a few weeks ago. Noah and Dan loved them. The frying in hot oil scared me but they turned out really well.

* Noah's had a rockin' Chanukkah so far. He got the Elmo Knows Your Name talking Elmo from Grandma Linda, a a Hot Wheels-esque tricycle from grandma and grandpa in Phoenix, a truck, the Baby Noah DVD, some puzzles, and a few other things here and there. Bottom line, the kid is cleaning up.

* Noah was LOVING the cookies he had my parents' house. There was double-fisting and drooling involved.

How is this for irony?

Noah had his 15 month check-up yesterday and as expected he is doing great. 26.5 pounds (75th percentile) and 33 inches (95th percentile) and healthy as can be. He's also cutting five teeth right now. The pediatrician asked us a series of developmental questions including how many words does Noah know. I told her that he babbles constantly but the only words we can make out are "mama," "daddy," and "taggie." In a nutshell, at this age Noah should have at least four words and while he does not use a pacifier at daycare (except for naps) he does use it all the time at home. It was then suggested that our heavy pacifier use may be the reason why he does not have more discernible words in his vocabulary.

Let's think about this for a second. . . and people who know me well will appreciate this. How is it that MY SON is a bit behind the curve in the talking area? Does anyone else find this strange? It's not like we don't talk to Noah constantly. He watched so many ER reruns in the first five months of his life that I thought his first words would be, "get a chest x-ray and a chem. 7." He listens to liberal talk radio and NPR in the car. Despite this, he only has three words when he needs four. And apparently knowing that a turkey goes "gobble-gobble" doesn't count. So we are taking drastic steps. No more pacifier EXCEPT at bedtime. Today was the first day of life without the pacifier. We went cold turkey and Noah seemed to hand in there. Barley, but he did it. I give him a week before he figures out how to open the drawer where we keep the pacifiers.

Its 8:15pm - Do You Know Where Your Toddler Is?

I know where mine is. . . he is bouncing off the walls!

At 4pm I was asked to pick Noah up from daycare because he had a fever of 101.5. His cheeks were all rosy and he was definitely warm. So we went home. Noah had a power nap, some mac n' cheese, a dose of tylenol and bath. And then he caught his second wind.

First he ran around a house chasing his pink tennis ball. A tennis ball that his grandpa is too insecure to play with which explains why we have so many at our house. Then he played with his popcorn-popper push toy. And then Noah started climbing on the coffee table. At this point it was time for bed and mommy had had enough. So I put Noah to bed. About 45 minutes later I started hearing noises from Noah's room and lo and behold guess who was sitting up in his crib playing? So I took Noah into our room and we played on the bed with Elie. When he had enough of that Noah thought it would be fun for ME to chase HIM around the house. Mind you, this is a kid who four hours earlier had a fever and needed to be picked up from school. By 8:15 pm I once again decided enough was a enough and put Noah to bed for good. This time he even went to sleep!

I am not even convinced that Noah is 'sick.' He has no other symptoms and we also know that when he is teething Noah will run a low-grade fever. And right now he is teething. But you know, the more I think about it, the more I think that Noah's mid-afternoon fever was a big ploy. It was a carefully orchestrated and deliberately executed plan with two goals: to get Dan and/or I to pick him up early from daycare and while using the sympathy of his teachers to get his pacifier back for good. Two weeks ago Noah took a header on the playground and what happened? Mommy picked him up early and they gave him his pacifier (FYI, pacifiers are contraband except during naptime). I think he willed himself to have a fever on purpose. Noah is very smart and I would not put something like this past him. I think Noah also knows that the JCC has a strict sick child policy and despite this evening antics Dan and I would have to take time off from work tomorrow to stay home with him since you have to be fever free for 24-hours before you can come back to school. And he got his beloved pacifier back. Mission accomplished.