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Welcome to a piece of our sweet journey of life. This blog is about our family life-- my husband, my type 1 diabetic sixth grader, my spunky fourth grader, my first grader little girl, and myself! Enjoy!

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

A Post About Noah


I talk a lot on the blog about the growing baby, and about things related to Michael’s Type One Diabetes. 


But I don’t really write too much about Noah, so today’s post is for him. 


He’s definitely not forgotten in our home by far!  He’s been making his presence known since birth.  He had APGAR scores of 9 and 9 upon birth, and his scream/cry has not lessened since then!


He is of average height and weight—if not a bit on the small side.  Right now he wears 3T shirts and pajamas, and can fit into 18-month, 24-month, 2T, and 3T shorts. He is totally potty trained and likes to choose his own underwear each day.  If he could pick his Chase and Marshall PAW Patrol underwear every day, he would.  On disappointing days for him, we have to remind him that his favorite pairs might be in the wash and that it’s okay to wear striped or superhero or Olaf underwear.



He is a superstar at self-entertainment.  He can play by himself for well over an hour.  He’s a guy of simple likes.  Video games do not appeal to him at all.  He will pay attention to a board game for about 5 minutes.  If a movie is in, it better be one that he’s seen a million times (like Despicable Me 2), or he has no interest.  He does enjoy watching “Phineas & Ferb” or “Pocoyo” and those are usually the shows of choice in the early morning while I’m beginning my workday. 


Noah is our early early riser.  This past week, he’s been getting up at 5:45am.  (cue the mommy tears!) This doesn’t allow me the quiet solitude I like in the mornings as I get my day started, but it does remind me to count my blessings, and Noah is definitely a blessing. On the weekends, he and Michael do a pretty good job of entertaining themselves for about an hour before they come into our bedroom.  However, since Noah is potty trained, but not quite tall enough to get on the potty alone, usually I’ll have to wake up to help him go potty first thing each morning, and then I can go back to my bed and rest until that hour is up.



Noah is the typical toddler snacker/grazer.  We didn’t get that privilege with Michael since he had to eat on a pretty strict schedule to manage his blood sugar.  Noah, on the other hand, gets the benefit of being the second child who we have the privilege of handing a snackie cup filled with dry cereal and letting him go to town on it.  His favorite cereals are Froot Loops (which he calls “dinosaur cereal” since the Publix brand has a dinosaur on the back of the box), and Berry Colossal Crunch (which is an off-brand of Captain Crunch, and Noah calls it “ball cereal”).  I don’t let him go crazy on the cereal and eat it all day long, and I do monitor what he eats, but I also know he’s growing appropriately and isn’t heavy by any means at ALL, so we do find it okay to let him snack on cereal.  (For those wondering, Michael doesn’t really care about snacking.  He’s more interested in his toys or imaginative adventures, or video games.  On the off chance that he does notice Noah’s snack and wants his own, we portion it out and give him insulin for it.)


Noah is allergic to a few things that we know of so far:  dairy milk, soy milk, almond milk, and dirt spores. He gets his dairy intake through Greek yogurt and cheese (occasionally), but we avoid milk when we can. When he insists on having it, and I don’t feel like denying my child something healthy like milk, we give him some Benadryl and then a small glass of milk – regular or chocolate.  We have Fairlife brand in our house because of its fantastic protein to carb ratio (good for Michael) and it is also lactose free (good for Noah).  



We buy the Trop50 orange juice because it’s about half the amount of carbs as regular orange juice—so it’s good for us to have around.  Michael doesn’t ask for juice to drink—he usually sticks with water and Crystal Light lemonade.  Noah is quite the fan of lemonade as well, but he’ll occasionally ask for juice instead and it’s nice to give him the Trop50 orange juice—knowing that Michael could have some too with just a little bit of insulin rather than a whole lot like regular orange juice would require.


Noah is stubborn to a T and picks up little habits here and there that become extremely hard for us to break.  Currently, he will take his cup of water or lemonade into his room or the hallway (which is hardwood) and he will drink a sip and then let it run out of his mouth onto his shirt and the floor.  He had this same habit about a year ago and it took forever for him to stop doing it!  And now it’s back. *sigh*  He’ll come down the hallway and the front of his shirt will be soaked and we’ll ask “Noah, did you spit out your water?” and he’ll respond “I’m not going to tell you.”  Which, of course, means yes.  On other occasions, we’ll walk down the hallway and step right in a puddle of water, or we’ll go into the boys’ bedroom to put away a toy or to tuck in the boys for the 50th time at night and we’ll step on wet carpet or see water dripping down the walls of his bedroom or see giant wet spots on his sheets.  It’s a hassle! 


Another thing he has picked up recently is the habit of saying “no” to me when I ask him to do something, like to come see me if I’m sitting in the dining room and he’s in the living room and I need to tell him something.  I’ll say “Noah, come see me” and he’ll say “no.”  He knows now that he will get a little spank if he says no for things like that. 



After my 4-year-old nephew came for a visit a couple of weekends ago, Noah picked up the habit of calling people “stupid.”  His favorite person to call stupid is me.  And Avery.  So, we’ve had to address this issue and tell him that we do not call any person stupid at all.  So now he knows that he will get 1 warning and then a spanking if he continues to call people stupid.  Sometimes he’ll come up to me at the end of the day and whisper, “I won’t call you or Baby stupid.” 


God sure knows what He’s doing when he puts ornery feisty kids in the cutest little bodies!  Noah has a smile that totally melts me & Aaron and we have to really stick to our discipline plans—otherwise, they’d totally get thrown out the window with each smile Noah gives! 



Noah still very much loves his blankie, which he calls “Bampeen” because he couldn’t pronounce “blankie” as a young little guy.  This is a 3ftx3ft plush white blanket with brown and blue chevrons on it.  He takes this thing everywhere and I call him Linus when he does.  Occasionally, he’ll forget it when he goes to my mother-in-law’s house for the day and I can sneak it into the washing machine! 


He absolutely looks up to Michael, but he doesn’t feel the need to do everything Michael does.  I’m glad that they both have their own personalities and likes and dislikes.  They play very well together and they like the same shows, which means they act out the same things when they play.  So, one of their favorite things to do right now is pretend box—which we don’t condone. But I’ll be sitting in another room and I’ll hear Noah say “give me your best shot!  Is that all you got?!?!” and I’m like “this is a 3-year-old talking here! Where did he learn that?!?”



I do think Noah will be a good big brother.  He is a good cuddler and is quite content to sit beside me on the couch and look at books, etc.  He is fascinated with baby toys and accessories like swings and rock-and-plays, etc.  He has mastered how to operate my 4-month-old niece’s pack-and-play when she comes into town every other month or so.  I bought a rock-and-play at the consignment sale this spring and he was ecstatic!  He actually peeked out of his room after I got home around 8:45pm to say “Mom! I see a rock-and-play!  I need to come out of my room and look at it!”  He will be our designated rock-and-play master, and I’m glad I have a kid who can easily crouch down and push the buttons on it!  He’ll be a good “assistant” to me, I’m sure!  We probably won’t let him be the swing operator if Avery is actually in the swing.  The rock-and-play does not go very fast—at all! But the swing is another story.  It can pick up some speed, and we don’t want Avery flying out!  I think many of Avery’s early memories will be of her seeing Noah sitting by the swing or the rock-and-play as she’s in them.


Noah says the funniest things and does the funniest things.  Yesterday, he was playing with the bucket of reptile toys Michael picked out at the Children’s Hospital gift shop.  He lined them up on an end table in our living room and yelled out like a carnival barker “Get your toys! Get your toys!” Another day, he was looking around for his cup and it was on the edge of the dining room table.  He kept spinning in circles saying “where’d it go?  Where’d it go?” and I’d tell him, “it’s behind you!” so he’d spin around until I was behind him and he’d turn around and say “You? You’re my cup?”  and walk over to me and try to pick me up!  His little personality is just the cutest! 



He knows his birthdate in January and told me yesterday that he will need cake on his birthday and not to forget his fork!  He knows that Michael is going to school in August.  He tells me “I will go to school with Michael in August.”  He doesn’t want to be left out.  He knows he’ll be four in January, but he’s not understanding that he can’t go to kindergarten until he’s five.  He also doesn’t fully grasp that he won’t be alone once Michael goes to school because Avery will be here.  But he tells me “I will miss Michael” and lets out a pitiful little “aww.”  I remind him that Michael will come home every day after school. I think Noah will enjoy being the only kid who can talk at my mother-in-law’s house this fall.  He won’t have to compete with his big brother to get in a word—he’ll be competing with a baby’s cries, but we know newborns sleep a great amount of the day, so Noah should still get plenty of talking time!


I can’t wait to see how God uses Noah and his personality to do great things!



Until Next Time,

Much love, Reba



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