A Day at the Museum

*Tap* *Tap* *Tap* Hello out there! It's been a while. And I'd like to have a good excuse, but the truth is, I've just been lazy. Anyway, I'm going to try to be better about blogging the Noah-isms from now on. Really, I am. REALLY! :)

Anyway, a few weeks ago we spent the day at the museum. All of a sudden, Noah's really in to dinosaurs. (I think it's a boy thing). And he can point out many dinosaurs and says the names better than me! Here he is posing with a stegosaurus. (One of the few I know). He wouldn't smile...I guess making a tough face is better when posing with a giant lizard.

I was afraid that he thought that he'd see actual dinosaurs, and I kept preparing him that we were only going to see "bones"...but he didn't seem to mind. And he wasn't one bit disappointed. The museum has done a wonderful job with restoring the dinos and making the new area really cool.

Here is he with my dad posing in front of the very imposing T.Rex. Noah thinks that it is awesome that my dad's name is Rex...lately instead of referring to him as Pa, he calls him "T. Rex"! We all agreed though, that back in the day when the T. Rex was standing on his hind legs and you could see him from the 2nd story, he seemed to be much bigger. Or maybe that was because we were little kids at the time? (And you can all call that lady that just walked in to my picture a bad name, okay?)

Anyway, Noah enjoyed the "stuffed" animals part just as much as the dinosaur part. And of course, he can name even the most obscure of animals. He called my dad over to a "rhinocerous hornbill" -- it's a bird -- we saw one at the aviary and it's been a favorite of theirs ever since. (And for those of you that have been to the Carnegie Museum, remember that scene with the guy on the camel and the saber toothed tiger is attacking them? It's still cool 30 years later!)

They also have a new section where little kids can "dig" for dinosaurs. Here's Noah digging away. HE didn't want to leave because he hadn't dug up his bone yet! All in all, it was a great day. I think Noah really enjoyed himself.

One Liners

Here are a few one liners that Noah has thrown out over the past few weeks:

1) The other day he was doing something that he wasn't supposed to be doing. When I gave him a look, he came over to me, put his hands on my cheeks and said "Don't be mad, sweetheart!" Of course, I got over whatever it was that had made me mad, and gave him a big hug.

2) I was watching Grease 2 on tv over the weekend (no comments, please! HA!) and Noah looked at the tv and said "that man looks like John Bryson!" Walt and I said in unison "Who is John Bryson??" Noah replied "Oh, I'm just kidding! I made that name up!"

3) We were counting and saying "on Noah's next birthday he'll be 4"...then 5, 6, you get the idea. When we got to 10, I said "I'll be sad when you're 10, you won't be my baby anymore!" Noah says "Don't be sad, momma, I'll still be your son!" He also promised me that he will still let me kiss him (and he will kiss me) and hug him. However, he said that when he's 10, he wont' ask me to feed him anymore. :P (I just hope he keeps those promises!)

The Zoo!

I've been a bad blogger lately...I will blame it on the winter blahs. I've just been unmotivated.

Anyway, a few weeks ago we had one of those crazy warm days that tease us during the winter. Since it was close to 70 degrees that day, Noah and I decided to spend the afternoon at the zoo. It was one of the best trips we've had so far, because we practically had the joint to ourselves! There were maybe 30 other cars in the lot that day.



So we really got to see so many animals that day and linger as long as we wanted. Some highlights were:


The lions were both standing on the rock, looking at all of us like they wanted to have us for dinner, and daddy lion was roaring. 99.9% of the time, daddy lion is passed out on his heated rock, so it was really cool to see him awake AND to hear his mighty roar!

Luckily by the time we made it to the polar bear tunnel, one of them had jumped in. We were in the tunnel with 3 other people. So we all just plopped down and hung out, watching him play and swim. Usually the tunnel gets jammed, esp if the bears are in the water. People won't keep moving, and it is no fun at all.





We also had the corridors in the aquarium to ourselves for about 10 minutes. Again, it is sometimes so crowded in there (esp by the penguins), that it's just no fun.

So, the next unseasonably warm day (probably a week day is better, I think everyone will have my idea on a weekend), if you're not busy, hop in the car and go to the zoo. I think you'll see it in a whole new light! And to leave you, here's Noah, pretending to be a flamingo! (Sorry for the crazy spacing in this post...I can't fix it!)

The Social Life of a 3 year old

I knew there would come a day where Noah had a busier social calendar than I do. You know, high school football games, sports, taking girls on dates (oy!). But, what I didnt' know was that his social calendar would start to get busy way earlier than high school. He's invited to more parties than we are. (So if you're having a party soon, take pity on me and invite me!)

This is what his week looks like:
Sunday - my parents took him to a movie and lunch at Cookie Park. (You may know it as Eat N Park)

Friday (tonight) - classmate's birthday party at Chuck E Cheese

Saturday - friend at daycare's birthday party at a bowling alley

Sunday - Walt & I are taking him to a movie.

I'm glad he could at least find time this weekend to squeeze us in! :)

Barack Obama is a Tiger

Do these guys look like twins or what? The other night we were watching some TV and a commercial for something (maybe a video game) starring Tiger Woods was on. Noah watched Tiger sink a ball in to a hole and we had this conversation:

Noah: He won!

Walt: Yep, do you know who that is?

Me: His name is Tiger! Cool, huh? (You know because of Noah's animal obsession)

Noah: No, momma! That's Barack Obama!

Walt: (Laughing) No, that's Tiger Woods! He's a golfer.

Noah: Nope, it's Barack Obama!

I guess they do have a slight resemblance. Although, I think Noah just likes to say Barack Obama. It is pretty fun to say!

First goose egg

Well, Noah has made it 3.5 years without having a goosegg on his egg. Sure, he's had bumps and bruises and scrapes and cuts every where on his body...but this weekend was the first giant lump on his noggin. On Friday night/Saturday morning, Walt and I were jolted awake when we heard a giant THUD! Noah had fallen out of bed. Walt ran upstairs and Noah was crying and so upset. We finally calmed him down, figured out he was okay and went back to sleep. But, by morning, he'd grown a giant lump right above his eye, and it's a lovely shade of blue/purple.

You may be wondering why we don't have bedrails, but of course we do! He somehow managed to fall out of the bottom of the bed! I think he was dreaming because he hasn't given the same answer as to how he actually fell out of bed. I told him from now on, if he wants to get up, to please call me and I'll come and get him.

I was going to try to take a picture, but I am not sure if it would show up or not. I'll wait until it's that great shade of yellow/green, I'm sure it will show up in a picture then.

Christmas Morning!

The longest night of the year (Christmas Eve) was finally over. At 5:45 am, I heard Noah rustling in his bed, and caught him as he started to climb down the stairs. First, we checked out the kitchen, and Santa had been there! He left all kinds of cookie crumbs on the plate and drank his nice warm coffee.

See the amazement on his face? Santa came! And he left tons of wonderful presents. Noah got an mp3 player, some toy horses, play doh, a remote control truck and some board games. The most favorite toy from Santa were the horses. Santa could have saved himself a lot of time and money, and just gone for the horses. But, he's a generous guy!

Mommy and Daddy must have been good this year, too...because they got a Wii! Santa doesn't wrap the gifts that he leaves for Noah, (he's too busy for wrapping!) but he did wrap Guitar Hero that he left for all of us. Walt is now a Guitar Hero addict...me, I'm getting better, but don't know if I'll ever graduate from the "easy" setting! We also got Big Brain Academy (Walt is ahead of me by a measly 75 points...I will beat him!), Wii Fit (I love it, even though it insults me and tells me in so many words that I'm fat), and Raymon's Raving Rabbids (so far, I think I'm too old to figure out how to play this one!).

Later in the day, after we played with all of the toys, we headed to Walt's parents' house for more ham and presents. It was a whirlwind couple of weeks, but I think it may be one of my most memorable Christmases ever.

I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday season, and I'm wishing you many good things to come in 2009!