Noah reads! (sort of)

One of Noah's favorite things to do lately is "wead books?!?" -- which is really one of those things that every parent is proud of and LOVES to brag about. And let's be honest, I'm no different! So, here it goes... everyday right after his nap, I go into his room get him up and he automatically asks to read books. So, we sit for close to an hour while he goes through almost every book on his shelf... it's usually after the 10th reading of "Where's My Teddy?" that I try to change the activity by either coaxing him outside or by "pwaying twucks!" with him. However, lately, he's been getting bored in the morning while I'm trying to get ready for the day, and I've been finding him in his room reading his books (even while Mickey is on!). He's even gotten to the point where he's memorized several of his favorites and recites them with all the gusto he can muster up, complete with mommy's voice inflections. He makes up his own little nonsense words sometimes when he doesn't remember the correct one, but he still tries to say it the same way I do. And I must say... it's really cute.

check out what I caught:

swim lessons

Noah started his long-awaited swim lessons at Riverbank State Park a few weeks ago. We signed him up back in February so he could start the summer session after he turned 2. For some reason this park has a really old-school way of registering for their programs, but I guess they can get away that when the classes are super cheap! So, we were really lucky to get into this class.

We have been having a great time. You never can tell how a toddler is going to react to new situations like this and I was definitely concerned that he wouldn't be into it and we'd be spending the class on the pool deck, but I'm so excited to report that he's quite the little fish! (It's probably helped that I've dragged him to about every water park there is in this city, but what else is there to do in the summer?!?) I think it's been a great way to get him acclamated to the water get over any fears he may have of it (i.e. me trying not to project my own childhood swimming fears onto my son).

Our classes consist of a little Humpty Dumpty, some Ring around the Rosie, lots of bubble blowing, way too much kicking practice (which consists of mom doing most of the work as they have to do 6 laps on their backs and fronts!), Simon Says, and Hot Potato. Hopefully we'll be able to pass our level 1 test and move onto level 2 -- we'd better get to practicing that bubble blowing!

here are some pics that gma S took when she accompanied us last week:

getting warmed up

ring around the rosie...

all fall down!

(I thought he'd freak out after he went under, but he loved it and now it's his favorite swimming game!)

kicking practice

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall

high-fives with our teacher, "Nemo"

(I'm pretty sure that's not his real name :)

happy anniversary!

Jon and I celebrated our 7th anniversary last week (amidst him getting a seriously nasty virus from a homeless dude at the ER) and I feel bad that I'm just now getting around to posting it. I've been fulfilling that whole "in sickness and in health" thing and I've been a little busy.

Anyway, for some reason this year I really thought we were going on 8 years... oops! I don't know why I had that in my head, but when I told Jon that he got really offended and has been giving me a hard time ever since. But I figure that's not a the worst thing I can do, right? I mean, so I was a little off with my math... but it just means I'm SO comfortable with our relationship that time doesn't mean anything. 7 years, 8 years... no big deal... the years between the 5th and 10th anniversary are kind of a blur anyway, right?

So, here's to 8... I mean 7 great years!

love ya!

(I seriously can't believe that 6 out of those 7 years have been spent in WaHi, but that's another post altogether.)

a celebratory dinner at our favorite restaurant

Calle Ocho

5K

Kendra, Kelli, Carol, Amy, Emily, me, Celeste

The running bug has bit... and I'm slightly addicted. I ran my first 5K this weekend with a group of girls from my ward and it was awesome! We ran the Teterboro Airport 5K in NJ along the runway. It was pretty cool, except for the lack of shade and the fact that it was like the 2nd hottest day of the summer (the first one being the day that I ran my 10K! -- guess I'm bad luck) but the bonus was that there were no hills!

I definitely wasn't as nervous this time because I sort of knew what to expect. But in a way I think the 5K is a little harder than the 10K because there's really no time to start kinda slow and get into your groove. And it's so tempting to just go as hard and fast as you can right from the beginning. But I was happy with my time. My goal was to do it under 30 minutes and I got in at 26:37. It's crazy how much adrenaline plays a part in your pace during an actual race. In my training since the 10K, I hadn't ever gotten my pace down under 9 minutes for any extended period of time. But in the race my average pace was 8:34... so that was pretty cool.

I still think it's funny that I have a passion for running now. I can think back to my junior high days and some serious trauma that took place at the stake track meets every year when I would always come in last at every race I tried. And I remember everyone always trying to encourage me by telling me that I didn't need to be an athlete and that I had "other talents" -- like nerdy music ones. So, I guess I do get some satisfaction out of actually not finishing a race last... oh, and the slimming/trimming benefits aren't bad either!

I'm seriously contemplating a half-marathon this fall... hmmm, we'll see!

Happy 4th of July... "we're free!"

We spent the 4th of July weekend up at gma & gpa's house this year. Luckily, Jon had the weekend off, so we were able to enjoy the entire weekend together (even after Jon missed his train on Thursday morning because he fell asleep after taking a post-call snooze!). I was insistent that we have some serious 4th-of-July-fun complete with a BBQ, outdoor fun, and fireworks. I really wanted Noah to have a little taste of suburb living on a holiday like this. We had a great time. We had prepped Noah the week before by having our FHE lesson about the 4th of July and he totally remembered what we learned. As soon as he saw all of the flags that day... he shouted, "we're free!"

We were able to meet up with the Brien's at their country getaway house in Garrison and do some swimming and t-shirt decorating. Noah had a great time with the boys and Jon and Curtis had some quality bonding time (heh-heh). Then on Friday, we had a lovely BBQ with my mom's neighbors and Noah took a nice 3 hour nap so he was all prepped for the fireworks. We went to a little town near where I grew up called, Cornwall, and watched a local firework show. I went to this show every year when I was growing up and this was the first time that I really realized how "small-town" this place actually was. I seriously felt like I was on Dawson's Creek or something like that. It was a nice nostalgic day for me and it was fun to spend time with our family and friends. I wasn't sure how Noah would do with the fireworks... it's always tricky to predict these things, but I really wanted to go, so we did. He really liked them at first, when they were just being tested out and they were only going off one at a time. But as soon as the show actually started and several went off at one time, he completely FREAKED out... we're talking screaming, crying, and kicking his feet to leave. Jon was finally able to get him calmed down by naming the colors of the fireworks as they went off. He still refused to look and spent the whole time with his hood on and under a blanket, but we were able to sit back in our seats until it was over without bailing out early. Surprisingly, he slept fine that night and talked about it the next day like he had the time of his life... whew! hopefully he's not scarred for life! Then on Saturday we went to a local playground and took Noah on his first mini-golf trip. We had the whole place to ourselves, so we just let Noah wander around on the course while we played. For some reason I am seriously competitive when it comes to mini-golf and Jon beat me by one lousy point... grrr! I still say it wasn't fair because we kept taking turns trying to make sure Noah didn't fall into the water features!

Anyway, we had a great weekend and it was especially nice to put a baby pool in gma's backyard and let Noah splash away without having to pack up everything and trek out in the hot city just to cool off. And I must report that Noah's love affair with gma's car continued to the point where he would go straight to the window every morning and check to see if it was okay and then go out to give it a hug. It was kind of traumatizing for Noah to wave good-bye to the car after my dad dropped us off on Tuesday morning, but he finally recovered (later that afternoon, he saw a car that is identical to gma's and that was a little sad... it took him a minute to figure out that it wasn't the same car and his eyes welled up with tears when it finally hit him, so now we try to avoid all green mini-vans that are parked on our street!)

Happy b-day, USA!

hope you enjoyed your weekend too...

cooling off with dad and the Brien boys

he LOVED jumping off the trampoline into the pool

(he kept calling it a "jack-o-lantern" for some reason, though.)

burrito baby

forever playing in mud

awaiting the dreaded fireworks

traumatized

hole in one!

making a wish

not ready to go

in love

one lucky boy

Noah received a piggy bank for his 2nd birthday from his good friend, Sonja... and has seriously become obsessed with "pennies!" When he first got it, I just gave him a few pennies to show him how it worked and he loved counting them and trying to get them in the slot by himself. Then one afternoon we were on our daily walk around the 'hood and he spotted a penny on the ground. I immediately said, "Noah, look -- it's a penny! Put it in your pocket and then when we get home we'll put it in your piggy bank." He acted slightly confused at first, but quickly started to feel around for his pocket, and stashed that thing as fast as he could!

Hence, the "penny hunting" game was born. Every evening it's the same thing, "Mommy and Noah find pennies?" So, we walk with our eyes glued to the ground, scanning the sidewalks for any trace of shiny copper... and I must say that Noah is one lucky boy (or the sidewalks of NYC are filled with prime penny-hunting opportunities!). We usually find, on average, 5-7 pennies and on laundry day when we walk through the back alley of our building -- we ALWAYS hit the jackpot! (not sure why that is, but one Friday evening, during our laundry usual laundry routine, we found 20 pennies. Noah was beside himself... he kept running around with the pennies jingling in his pockets.) We even had an FHE lesson tithing because he's been so interested in penny collecting... he wasn't too sure about giving up the 1/10th but he did it anyway -- what a good little boy! However, there have been a few times when I've had to use "penny-hunting" as a distraction to try to get him to make his way home and there were NO pennies in sight. Those walks have never ended well -- so I've started making sure I have a few pennies in my pocket before I leave the apartment just in case I have to stage them!

But, hopefully this money-attracting side of him will continue through his life so he can support us when we're old!