The End of one Chapter, the Beginning of another...

One last post to chronicle Noah's day on that very special occasion when his little sister arrived in the outside world.

When Dad finally got home from the hospital, where 'the doctors were helping baby sister to come out', Noah (who'd been playing with friends) had a quick bit of lunch with Dad before heading-off to meet Lily. But even before lunch, Noah had time to wow his Dad with his creative-engineering prowess. Just look at that tunnel, that's entirely a product of Noah's own lateral thinking (and love for tunnels)!


But the time soon came to meet Lily. Noah was prepared. He had chosen a gift to give Lily: a 'My First Soccerball' - rather appropriate, given his love for the game.

And here he is, standing just outside the birth centre, ready to meet someone wonderful beyond his dreams: a baby sister of his very own. We practiced saying her name one last time, and then he was ready.


The story continues, no longer as 'Introducing Noah', but now as the shared story of Noah and Lily. But before we proceed, let us thank God for what He's done in bringing our little Noah thus far. We're immensly proud of Noah, not just his amazing talents, but especially his wonderful character. May Noah love his Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, all the days of his life; and may he help his sister to do just the same :)

Cooking, Cooking, and Giving.

Noah always likes to be involved in what's happening in the kitchen. And who can blame him when there is gingerbread involved?



But Noah's enthusiasm for cooking has spilled over into his make-believe in the playground. He loves baking cakes - of all different flavours (chocolate, banana, etc.) - in the sandpit. I think this one was chocolate.



Noah recently went to a little party for his mate Lachie. He was celebrating his second birthday - Happy Birthday Lachie! Noah's pretty good at *actually* giving gifts now (rather than clinging to them).

Granny & Grandpa

Granny and Grandpa spent most of the last week staying with us, which was lots of fun. Noah had a great time playing and tumbling and running around with them.

Since they're such green thumbs, it meant Noah spent quite a bit of time in the garden. He helped Grandpa and Dad sow some beans out the back, and helped Granny and Mum plant some pansies out the front.


Naturally, there were many babycinos to be enjoyed, and lots of interesting little outings.


The gelati at Leichhardt are always a bit of a winner, especially when the weather is as warm as it has been lately. Noah chose his gelato for its colour ('green', in this case) - he's very good with colours now. Thankfully he enjoyed the flavour, too.

Today it was time for Granny and Grandpa to head home to Tas. Just a few months and he'll get to see them again :)

Out and about!

Week by week we head to church on Sunday, and Noah's usually great with crèche and has a ball with his little friends there. Just recently he's started a new trend: he likes to carry the Bible to church.


After church last Sunday we grabbed lunch from a local cafe with the voucher that Katie won from the cake comp. at the Winter Carnival. Noah's egg and bacon roll was gradually demolished.


Then we went to a local clothes shop to find me a jumper. Noah had other ideas. Hats, scarves, beanies - on, they went. Still, it meant he was content long enough for us to buy stuff.


And he still loves babycinos, of course.

Happy Birthday Noah - 2!

Well, the big day finally came around again for our little man. Here he is looking very handsome at the start of the day.

But of course we began the day in pyjamas, unwrapping lots of pressies that came from far and wide.


Noah spent more time on the phone today that he probably ever has before. He was very good at saying quite specific thankyous. 'Thankyou [for the] train tracks'.


'Thankyou ark'


'Thankyou towel'. Noah is a powerful present-unwrapper these days. Not only can he tear the paper, not only does he realise that the present (not the paper) is the thing to be excited about, but he also get's all of the responses/emotions right: 'Wow!', 'Cool!', 'Ahhh!'.


Noah has been long anticipating his party. Every now and again, for weeks, he's been saying 'Party... birthday... Noah'. Today his friends and rellies turned out in force to wish him many happy returns.


We held the party at a local park. There were just two games for the littlies: Pass the Parcel (to the tune of Wiggly Woo, by George of Play School); and a Treasure Hunt.


But when I asked Noah, later in the day, what his favourite thing about his party was, he was quite clear: it was having Happy Birthday sung to him! That was his special little moment.

Mummy made the cake (with very little help). In recent months, Noahs's got the song figured: he knows when to say his name, he knows about the three cheers, and he even got the timing of the candle-blow right.

We've tried to explain that today is a one-off thing, that tomorrow is a regular day... we'll have to wait and see whether an expectant little boy wanders in to us early tomorrow morning ;)

Time with Dad

Kate's been a bit crook this week, which means more time with Dad :)

But first, let's re-cap our Tassie-Exiles' time away at Avoca Beach. Noah had plenty of time on the beach... digging holes and shell-hunting mostly.

As you can see, from Noah being in his dressing gown and jimmy-jams, we made an early morning trip to the beach (it was about 2 mins walk from the place we were staying). Just gorgeous.


Back to this week...


Noah was climbing a ladder while carrying this bucket. He realised that he needed both hands, so, voila!

Noah's stringing little sentences together pretty well now. Just a few words at a time. I love it when he does it in unexpected way, like tonight, for example. He was making a strange 'Woooohooohooo' sort of a sound. So I said, "What sort of animal are you being, Noah?". He stopped, and replied, "[A] Noah animal". There you have it - he's just invented another animal.

One of the funniest games we play is the copying game - where I say a series of (largely nonsense) words and he has to copy. Noah thinks it's hilarious! I figure it's probably good tongue-twister practice for him, too. Occasionally we'll swing it around so he leads and I copy... but that tends to get a bit bogged down in blowing raspberries ;)

Toot Toot!

Blackheath was lots of fun for Noah. New places to explore. Ducks, and sticks, and a fire station. Old episodes of the Naked Chef to watch with his dad. What more could a kid ask for?


Trains. That's what.


We took a family ride on the Zig Zag railway. It was cool. I'll let the pictures do the talking.


Noah and I had our heads poked out the window for so long that my neck was getting stiff. He got in some good vocabulary practice too. He was saying lots of words like 'steam' and 'driver'.

Happy times on trains :)

Carrots!

Last weekend we decided it was high time to pull some baby carrots out of the ground. So off we went to the veggie patch...


Noah was very enthusiastic about discovering each little treasure that we dug up. He'd push the trowel into the ground beside the carrots, and then together we'd pull out some lovely little bubba carrots.


My little gardener :)

A few action shots...

Noah in our playground sandpit, enjoying some socialising with friends.
Our home can be seen in the background - we're in the unit next to the one with the awning.

Having coffee (co-co) and cake ('cake') with mummy. This is one of our favourite cafes with a cute court-yard. It has nice banana bread and free babycinos with marshmellows on the side (which Noah doesn't really like).

Visiting a playground. What toddler could refuse a go on a springy chicken.

'Big Boy Bed'

Noah is certainly not small for his age - most people remark on this fact. He was looking a bit squished in his cot, and as we need the cot later in the year for his brother or sister, we were keen on the move to a 'big boy bed'. Our friends lent us the base, IKEA 'supplied' the mattress, and last week I bought up on the fun stuff. Noah is pretty happy with my choice of quilt cover - especially as I bought the matching car cushion...




His first night was quite successful... it took a while for him to get to sleep as he was rather excited about being in a new big bed, but he only fell out once and slept well otherwise. The photo below is of his first day-time sleep in the new bed. He looks pretty happy there, I reckon.


He seems to be enjoying being able to hop out of bed once we've said goodnight... I think it's very cute that if I hear his little movements I can say 'back into bed, Noah', and by the time I get to his room he's making a dive for a sleeping spot. Such a grown up little fella.

Towers!

Noah's skills are expanding and being refined every day. Take, for example, his tower-building.


He likes stacking just about anything: tins of tuna, phones, whatever. I think in the above-picture he looks rather proud of his little creation; kinda like those photos you see of workmen who've been slogging away all morning at tree-felling or something. Achievement!


There's nothing like delighting in something beautiful :)

PS. Yes, Noah has a word for tower. It's something like "taa-waa".

Chocolate Goodness

Helping mum with birthday cake baking :)

Funtimes being Noah

Noah isn't a very good shopper, so if we do hit the shops we stop at most of the kiddie-ride-on things so he enjoys the trip a bit more. I don't pay the $2, but he's happy enough just sitting in them.

This picture is at his favourite friend's house. Ebony and Amber are lovely little girls who like to dance around with Noah. The girls were dressing up in various dresses (hence Ebby is half undressed in the photo!), and Noah came out wanting to wear the bear costume - a great choice!

Here Noah is enjoying our 'Tuesday night BBQ' with our fellow college friends. His little friend is Lochie, who is a similar age to Noah.

Noah loves the trampolines, although he likes it best when someone else is jumping with him.
(By the way, our home isn't in the flats in the background, but is left of those).

I like this photo - hair's a mess, food all down his t-shirt, cloth nappy out of shape. He's gazing up at an airplane, which he loves to point out and then wave goodbye to.

Noah putting in his bit to keep Lochie's car on the go...

The easiest way for me to get things done is if I include Noah. We do lots of cooking 'together'; mostly he likes mixing and tasting.

This was Noah first go at finger-painting. He wasn't so keen on putting paint on the paper, he preferred putting water and leaves into the paint.

Noah riding his bike in our 'front yard'...

Noah has a word for 'higher' and 'push', which he uses often when at the swings. Oh, how much time we spend at our playground - good thing it's just over the fence!