23 Months

In just a few weeks this little man of mine is going to turn two. Crazy. Sometimes I really wish life came with a pause button, because Noah is at the funnest age. Every day he does something so incredibly funny or adorable and I think, "Oh please stop growing up!" It's happening too fast. Sigh.

This month Noah's been very playful. He likes to tickle Mommy and Daddy... "tick-o tick-o!" Pretend play is emerging here and there. One day we were eating hot dogs and he took the two end pieces, declared them as "Mommy" and "Daddy," and then squished them together as if to make them kiss. It killed me. He loves getting "squished" between Brian and I when we hug. He can ask for and offer kisses. He's developing a keen sense of what is "mine!" even when it's something that clearly is NOT his (like Mommy's phone). At times he has tried to hide things under his shirt when we try to take it away from him. The other day he did this with a tube of my lipstick. Noah requests help both verbally and physically. If I can't quite figure out what he needs, or I'm not assisting him fast enough, he grabs my hand and drags me to whatever it is he needs help with. This ranges from opening a door to retrieving a "Noodles" gift card from the disc reader of the Playstation. (Successfully retrieved with a tweezer, thank you very much.) Much to his grandmas' delights, he now actually calls them "gramma." He talks up a storm, though I only understand about 1/4 of it. When he actually uses words I usually know what he's talking about, and he routinely strings 2-3 words, but a lot of the time he still just jibber-jabbers. At times it sounds like he's speaking in tongues. Noah loves to color ("ky-yah!"), play with cars, and spend time outside. He's still very good about being in his stroller when we take walks at night, though he loves to walk on his own when we have the patience for it. Physically, he's definitely growing, at least upwards. Most of his clothes are now 24 months or 2T, though the waist of 18m clothing seems to fit better. He's still in size 4 diapers, and has not shown any indicators of being ready for potty training. I'm in no rush here though, so that's fine with me. Recently he's become very compliant with getting his nails cut and watches with intense interest. Of course afterwards he insists that the clippers are "mine!" and gets mad when Mommy won't hand them over. I'm no fun.

I'm so glad I'm going to do this all again. 19 days til consult!

Appointment

Today I scheduled our FET consult appointment! This is really going to happen! We'll have a new doctor this go around because our previous doctor left and started his own practice. I'm a little bummed about that because I really loved and trusted him, but I have faith that our new doctor will be equally amazing. If anyone has experience with Dr. Bush at Conceptions, let me know! From what the nurse explained, it sounds like this whole FET process will be a walk in the park compared to a fresh cycle. We won't be doing a transfer until later this summer, but it feels very exciting to get back on their radar. Cue my baby fever!

Agreement

There has been a lot of talk in the house just recently about baby number two. For a long time Brian didn't seem to be coming any closer to wanting another. I stopped bringing it up for a while because I couldn't handle feeling the disappointment each time he made a face or asked how on earth I thought we could afford it. I started to feel resentful and bitter. It wasn't a good situation.

Then last week Noah crawled into daddy's lap, looked up with his big brown eyes, and said, "Love you Daddy." Unprompted. Spontaneous. Then he crawled into my lap and said, "Love you Mommy. Kiss? Thank you." And off he ran. Well, that seemed to make Brian's heart grow two sizes that day, and suddenly it is not just me talking about another baby anymore.

I think for some men, the beginning is tough. They don't experience the pregnancy the same way, they don't have the attachment and bonding of breastfeeding, and babies tend to favor mommy for a long time. Now that Noah is starting to interact so much more and display affection both verbally and physically, I think Brian is starting to get that stronger attachment I've felt since the day I saw the second line. I wish it hadn't taken so long, but I'm so glad he got there.

We have big plans for this summer! Is it here yet??

Leftovers

There were a couple of things I forgot to mention in my last post. Noah has a couple of goofy habits right now, one which is kind of cute and the other which is kind of annoying. The first is that this kid is obsessed with washing his hands. Anytime something gets on his hands he looks at them with disdain and then asks, "wash? wash?" Once he actually gets to wash them he never wants to stop. He definitely loves water play.

The second less charming habit has to do with drinking. Somehow Noah has decided that spitting out his milk or water is really fun. He will walk around the living room taking big swigs, then lean over and spit it out with glee. He then says, "mess" which means he wants something so he can wipe it up. It's definitely become a game to him, so I just take his drink away and don't let him help clean it up. I really hope he stops this soon!