Noah's First Trip to Boston

It was such a beautiful day on Sunday so Gabe and I decided to take Noah to Boston for the day. Little did we realize (we haven't really been since moving to NH) that it was only a hour and 45 min. drive... so close! We had a wonderful day playing at the Boston Gardens (top), "swimming" at the Frog Pond on the Common, browsing Newbury Street, seeing the John Hancock and Prudential buildings, eating/shopping at Fanueil Hall/Quincy market (Noah thoroughly enjoyed the street performers), and most importantly visiting the North End (ok really just Mike's Pastries... I forgot how good the cannoli are!).  He was exhausted at the end of the day and slept well on the way home. I love to watch him sleep... he is so sweet and peaceful:)

Dancing Medley:)

So Noah did eventually start to feel better and turned into a dancing fiend.  His little friend Suvi gave him this CD of Australian folk songs... and I think you should be able to tell how much he enjoys this music.  I just love his constant smile in the first clip... the second short clip is this new arm move that we have no idea where it came from, and the last clip was him dancing after his bath, before bed... it amazes me how much he really listens to the music and really dances with the speed of it... ENJOY!! ***Don't forget to pause the music at the bottom of the page:)***

Sick Day

Noah was quite sick on Tuesday (a cold that I, of course, brought home and had myself first:)).  I could do nothing to get him to stop screaming, so after the first painful 2 hours of the morning I gave in and we had a "breaking all the rules" day:)  He finally stopped crying when I turned on Sesame Street... 45 minutes of quiet playing was great.  Then we baked cookies... Noah LOVES to  cook... he loves to add ingredients, turn on the mixer, mix with the spatula, and TASTE. For the first time ever I let him do all of these things... I was really relying on the oven to kill all of the contaminants he added from the drool to the sneezing to the finger sampling.  I also decided to take the risk that the E. coli in the raw eggs wouldn't bother him:) As you can see we both had a great time... me teaching him all of the tricks of raw dough eating and he reaping the benefits... The cookies actually turned out pretty well for his first try!

Noah's First Crack at Finger-Painting:)

It was such a beautiful day, and Gabe was home early Monday so we decided to try out the new paints.  Noah was a bit confused at what purpose the paint served, but he got the hang of it quickly... not until after he tasted it though... The bottom picture is one of my favorites of Noah and Gabe.  This was after he played in the sprinkler to wash off the paint.

Maine Blueberries

Noah and I took a trip home to Maine recently and besides being able to spend some great time with family... we got to pick real blueberries.  Noah and I pick blueberries weekly here, but they are the cultivated, huge, high-bush kind= easy picking.  I had almost forgotten what it is like to pick "Maine" blueberries.  Small, low to the ground, but they are much sweeter and free (totally worth the extra work:)).  They top picture is another one that I really liked from our trip to Santa's Village.

Santa's Village Trip- 2008

Noah and I were able to go on a summer vacation trip to Santa's Village with Nana and the Pelkeys.  We all had a blast, especially Noah:)  The top picture is of him in the igloo... it took some coaxing by Hillary and Jacob, but he eventually followed them in, then didn't want to leave.  Noah sat on Santa's lap without reservation, this pic is of him showing off his ring to Santa.  He also fed the reindeer happily, unlike Jacob (except for the fact that he couldn't understand why he had to give ALL of the crackers to the reindeer and not get any himself:)).  The 4th pic is of him dancing to the Christmas music that could be heard everywhere in the park.  The fire truck ride was by far his favorite thing to do... thanks Hill for squeezing in there with him!  The last picture is of him painting his Santa's Village T-shirt:)

Little Dancing Man

You may need to pause the Music at the bottom of the page to really enjoy this one:)

Billings Farm

Gabe, Noah and I went to visit the Billings Farm in Woodstock, VT recently with Noah's friend and her family.  It is not often that the 6 of us get to spend time together b/c the guys are so busy with school, but we were lucky enough to take this fun trip with the dads too.  Everyone loved the sheep.  Noah was surprisingly bold, as he had no reservations about petting them.  He actually found it funny, as he would stop petting them, stand up and just start laughing.  We did get him to say "ba ba" like the sheep at the end of the trip, but we think the only reason he did this was b/c this is the same sound he makes when he says "ball"... he is still strongly preferring to sign instead of actually speaking words at this point, but he can communicate none the less as he seems to have mastered about 30 different signs... oh well:)  These cows were a bigger than the calf he was playing with in a previous post, so he was a bit more timid/scared to death, especially when we went into the nursery (where they keep the baby calves) and one calf "moo-ed" very loudly, which caused Noah to cling to Gabe refusing to let go until we had left. He did like seeing the chickens, probably largely b/c they were not loud and safely tucked behind the wire fencing:)

Dancing Bear

I got this very nice Baby Gap bear costume at a yard sale last summer for $3.  It was too big for Noah last Halloween, and will be too small this Halloween, but it has been well worth the 3 dollars:)  Noah has always liked music, but in the past few weeks it has become an obsession.  When we are at home the music ALWAYS has to be on, as you can also see he has learned how to use the volume and turn on the stereo, even though he knows he isn't allowed to.  When he hears the music or anything that resembles music (eg. the washing machine agitating, the scrubbing of a sponge, or Gabe playing the train whistle) he dances with a huge smile on his face.  He comes up with the funniest moves that leave us to laugh and wonder where in the world he came up with them.  Thanks goodness the local library is close and had CDs for loan... we can at least have a variety of the music we hear over and over again:)  I have some video that I will try to post if I can figure it out:)

Great Grandparents Visit

Noah's grandmother and great grandparents came to visit for the weekend.  I unfortunately didn't get pictures b/c we were so busy, but here are a few of their visit.  Noah had a wonderful time and enjoyed all the attention, especially since he was well spoiled for the weekend:)  The middle two pictures are of the outfit they brought which he kept insisting on carrying around and making the sign for "frog" since there is a frog on the front of the jumper.

Noah's New Friend

My mom came to visit last weekend as we kept Noah busy taking him to yard sales and Raspberry picking (I, of course, didn't get pictures of either of those things!).  Noah is turning in to a pretty good berry picker.  By the end of our hour there he was picking the bright red berries off the bush and popping them into his mouth without hesitation!  On the last day of the visit we went to the Sugarbush Farm in Woodstock, VT.  Among other things there was this cow.... Noah was not scared one bit, but fascinated as I hope the pictures show.  On several occasions the cow licked Noah's face (I only got one on camera) to which he smiled and laughed.  At one point we thought the cow was licking Noah's arm, but he actually started chewing on his shirt sleeve:)  At the end, we actually had to coax him to leave and let other kids have a chance to pet poor animal...

Storyland!

We took Noah for his first visit to Storyland.  Gabe can't recall going their as a child, so his first trip too... I can't tell who had more fun:)  The top picture is of Noah when we started the day with his snacks.  Noah and Gabe with Miss Muffet's spider, Noah in the ball house, and Noah in his life jacket for the Swan boat ride... he definitely didn't enjoy this one as much as Gabe:)  The last picture is of Noah and Gabe visiting the "water park" portion of the park... I just think this is a really cute picture of the two of them.

July 4th

Gabe, Noah & I took an impromptu visit to North Conway, NH for the 4th of July.  We were sad about missing the parade, but I had to work so we were not going to be able to make any... we didn't think.  We were driving through Woodstock, NH and noticed lots of people gathered on the main street waiting for a parade.  We stopped, got out and 10 minutes later the parade started.  It was an impressive parade that lasted much longer than we had expected.  We also came to the realization that a rural area is a rural area no matter what part of the country you are in.  They had everything from bagpipes, to babies riding 4-wheelers, to the race cars of local racers.  The top picture is Noah clapping before the parade even began.  The bottom picture is of him stealing Gabe's strawberry shortcake on the green in North Conway.

Strawberry Picking

Noah is a great strawberry picker!  We went yesterday morning at a local U-pick and were there for about a hour without any complaints.  It is late in the season and there has been a ton of rain so the picking was slow, but Noah was a trooper.  He enjoyed watching the people and playing with the straw and rotting strawberries:)  By far his favorite part was picking all of the good strawberries out of the container and throwing them on the ground.

Noah & Bonnie

Noah and Bonnie have become good friends, they love patting and rubbing on one another.  I love the top 2 pics of Bonnie rubbing her head on Noah, then Noah rubbing his head on Bonnie....