Pudding

Noah and my mom were sharing a cup of pudding tonight. Is it just me, or does he look like a certain rogue political leader of German descent in this picture?

And yes. His shirt does say "Future Jedi Master."

Do-Wah is coming to town!

Say what you will about online message boards, but had it not been for my friend Anne I would never have known that The Wiggles are going on a US tour.

And they are coming to Phoenix at the end of April.

I HAVE to get tickets for Noah. GOOD tickets. We will not be sitting behind the stage or in nosebleed seats. I want Noah to shake his ass with Wags the Dog. I want him Murray (the guy in red) to see how cute Noah is when he dances to "Hot Potato." Noah will have no recollection of going to this show but I will know that we took him. Tickets go one sale March 11 through Ticketmaster and I am obsessed with getting them. I don't even know how much they are. But I did research some tickets brokers and discovered that you can get fifth row floor seats for the show in Portland for $220. Each. At that price it would cost $660 for our family to attend the show. Factor another $40-60 for parking, souvenirs (we can't let Noah leave without a 2006 Wiggles concert tee), snacks, and drinks. $700 is now the minimum price for Noah's happiness.

My life has become a joke. I am obsessing over getting concert tickets for a 17 month old. Last night we were walking around with two other couples who have kids Noah's age. We were all pushing our strollers and this 8-9 months pregnant woman and her husband walked past us. And the stupid woman gave us this strange look. Pity perhaps? Anyway I kept thinking to myself, "Enjoy date night with your husband now honey. Because in a few months you'll be spending your Saturday night pushing a stroller with a screaming toddler too. And while you're pushing that stroller you will be quietly obsessing about where and how to purchase the best seats possible for a Wiggles concert."

Noah Vocabulary

A few months ago we were concerned that Noah did not have enough words in his vocabulary. Not the case anymore. Must be the genes he gets from his mommy.

Dan and I had a conversation this evening about all of the words that Noah knows and we thought it would be fun to list them all out. For our purposes here, we are only listing words that he says which we understand. Because let's face, Noah is fluent in Noahese and Dan and I are sadly not. Noah will have entire conversations with us and we have no idea what he is saying. What makes this behavior sweet is that if you look at Noah's facial expressions and listen to his tone it becomes abundantly clear that Noah is very well aware of what he is saying. Making us the fools.

Here's the list: baby, basketball, bee (his pacifier), bottle, daddy, diaper, Drew, Do-Wah (the Wiggles) doggie, eat, go, feet, Ginger, Gaggy (Gladys, his teacher), Jack-Jack, Josh, mine, mommy, more, nana (banana or grandma depending on who is in the room), please, Rachel (his other teacher), school, shoe, sky, thank you, tree, and taggie.

Some will say that I am a typical Jewish mother, but I do this Noah's vocabulary is impressive for 17 months. Especially since he only had about three words 6-8 weeks ago. At Kids Club this weekend the staff was particularly amused that Noah walked around the room saying, "Daddy basketball." Which was very cute since daddy was in the gym playing basketball.

In other Noah news, his obsession with the Wiggles contiues and he has started having meltdowns in stores if he sees something with the Wigggles on it and we don't let him have it. Noah is also practicing how to eat with a fork, spoon, and plate. And I'm teaching him how to dip his food in ketchup. Only problem is that Noah hasn't quite figured out that when you are done eating it is not necessary to throw your empty plate across the room. But the dogs think it's funny.

See, Noah likes ketchup just like mommy!

Meet the newest member of the family!

Dan has been wanting to get a new dog for a while and about a week ago I gave in and said that I would consider the idea. We looked into adopting from the local beagle rescue but this afternoon Dan and I decided to also look at the Humane Society. We were just about to give up for the day when we found her. A beautiful Redbone Hound dog. She is four and was turned in to the Humane Society when her owners had to move. She has a wonderfully calm disposition and is just a sweet dog. She also gets along well with Noah and Elie is adapting to the fact that he is no longer the only dog in the house. The dogs name was Reba (ick) but Dan has renamed her Ginger. Right now Ginger is sitting next to me in her new dog bed knawing on a bone. As you can see from the pictures she is basically a bigger version of Elie. Same color too. It is interesting that Elie, Ginger, and my dog growing up all had the same color of red hair as me.

One big, red, welt.

Before we go any further, Noah LOVES DVR as much as his mommy and daddy. Wrestling the remot control away from him is getting harder and harder.

On Saturday morning we noticed a few little welts on Noah's stomach and took him to the pediatrician thinking he was having and allergic reaction to something. Turns out he has something called Erythema Multiforme(http://www.emedicine.com/EMERG/topic173.htm) which is really a fancy word for a rash. We were told that it would get worse before it gets better and by Sunday morning Noah was covered in welts. It is caused by either a virus or a microplasma that can lead to pneumonia. In the meantime, Noah has had no fever and the same runny nose and mild, dry cough that every other kid in daycare has. We did not see our regular doctor on Saturday but we did talk to her on the phone Sunday morning (one of the perks of having parents who socialize with the pediatrician) and she told me to call the office if the cough worsened.

Well, the cough didn't worsen but the rash did I wanted Noah seen by a medical professional to make sure that the rash was what they were telling me it was. So we went to the doctor who confirmed what we were told on Saturday. The rash is not contagious but the virus/infections that causes it is. To be safe, Noah is on an antibiotic which we are hoping will clear up the rash and whatever caused it. The virus/infection is contagious but not the rash and the crappy part is that other the the rash he really has no other symptoms. Tranlastion = he'd be in daycare this week. And it could take a week for it to clear up. He doesn't itch nor is he in pain.

Bear in mind, the picture looks a lot worse than he feels.

An Update!

I feel bad that I have not updated in a while but life has been busy. So here is what we have been up to.

Noah has been biting the other kids at school and in all honesty I do think it is a phase that they all go through. Since Monday we've received three notes about Noah biting and Dan and I were getting annoyed with Noah and his behavior. It didn't help that my mom kept telling me to bite him back. I'm really not comfortable with this approach although I can't tell you why. Anyway, for the last week I have been holding out hope that someone (preferably another kid in the class) would do my dirty work for me. Perhaps one of Noah's friends could teach him a better lesson than I could, know what I mean?

And today it happened.

When I picked Noah up I was told that he didn't bite anyone but some bit him. HARD. And it broke the skin. And made him cry a lot. Another little boy (who is a few months older and a bit rough) bit Noah on the chest and left a mark. It almost looks a third nipple if you squint. Before everyone gets bent out of shaping thinking that I am some horrible mom wishing harm to her child I need to clarify that I was concerned about the incident. However Noah was fine and had forgotten all about it by the time I arrived. But there was also a small part of me that wanted to send the parents a thank you note for a job well done.

Let's keep our fingers crossed that this is the end of Noah and the biting.

What else. . .Noah's vocabulary has grown by leaps and bounds: Mommy, daddy, doggie, nana (for grandma or banana), please, thank you, shoes, tree, basketball, sky, school, Josh and Drew (friends), eat, etc. The kid is like a sponge and will repeat just about anything. This week we also decided to introduce to him the concept of eat with a fork, spoon, and bowl. Thank goodness the bowl suctions to the his high chair. Although today he pulled it off and threw it on the floor. Elie was very grateful for the honey mustard vegetarian chicken strips and steamed veggies.

We have also discovered that Noah LOVES The Wiggles. Since he can't say their names he calls them "doo-wah" which we think is a variation of their theme song. This is the only kid show that captures his attention for more than three seconds and his favorite toy is a Wiggles microphone that Dan bought him. Now that we have DVR Dan and I are taping episodes of the show during the day so Noah can watch them whenever his little heart (or mommy's) desires. For those of you who don't know who or what the Wiggles are, it is an Australian kids show with a lot of music, singing, and other characters such as Wags the Dog, Henry the Dog, and Captain Featherstone. These guys may be dorks but who care because Noah loves them. Dan can't wait until they go on tour so he can take Noah.

Thank's about all for tonight. . . . Time to go watch Project Runway.