Eating with Noah

When Noah really likes something it's quite a bit like this:




It gets a bit annoying after a while, but you must appreciate his passion for food that he likes.

DIY Fever

We had something annoying start last Sunday.  The blower on the fireplace started coming on spontaneously.  I tried turning it off with the remote, but it would turn itself back on.  I didn't really have time to deal with it, so I put it off until today.  After a lot of messy disassembly I discovered that there was a remote-controlled outlet under there.  I took Noah down to Lowe's and got a replacement for about $15 with tax.  Problem solved.

Noah had a great idea after I finished fixing the fireplace.  My copy of Burnout 3 stopped working some time ago and Noah thought today was a good day to fix it. 45 minutes and an ounce of Brasso later, we're back in business and Noah is happily crashing his car into other cards now.

I think I'm about maxed out for my DIY mojo for now.  I've got to get a few regular things done this afternoon.

New Duffers

I had yesterday off and it was a beautiful day, so I took the kids for a new experience.  We hit the driving range. Noah doesn't know that he is getting golf clubs for Christmas, so I thought we would get a little preview in.  He did fairly well, though he's still not sure if he is right- or left-handed when he golfs.

Lily had trouble for a while until I really emphasized the need to keep her eyes on the ball the whole time.  She actually hit a couple maybe 25 yards in the air.  Both of them said that they enjoyed the experience.  I'm trying to plant a seed here.

Don't Make Me Count to Three

I had today off for Veteran's Day.  I took Lily and Noah out for the afternoon, but I realized on the porch that I needed to look up directions on my iPod Touch.  Noah was not happy with the delay, so as he stood in the driveway he started saying, "One...Two..." and when I started to come he said, "Good, you listened to me!"

He's a sharp little guy.

Speaker of the House

Preschool has been good for Noah in the sense that we had hoped.  He's still very quiet when at school and he isn't particularly loquacious at home either, but he is definitely becoming more articulate when he does choose to speak.  Lily was watching something on the laptop this evening and I was trying to talk to her.  It was obvious that she was engrossed in her show by how she ignored me.  Noah was in the living room and as he was playing with the Elmo chair he said, "She's not listening."

That sentence is not going to change the course of human history, but for Noah it was quite an improvement.  Normally the only way to get more than two syllables out of him is when he wants a "basketball" instead of a "baseball."  He's making some strides with his language skills.

Sadly, he seems to be a bit under the weather this evening.  He didn't eat his dinner and was very snuggly with Amanda.  He also went right to sleep when I put him down, which he doesn't usually do.  He's even sleeping under a comforter.  We've been working on that in anticipation of winter.  Hopefully he feels better tomorrow.

Making the Grade

Lily got her first report card yesterday.  She got all 3s, which is good.  It's hard to read these crazy report cards with numbers on them because I'm not sure how to translate them into letter grades.  Last year she got 3+ in math, but not this time.  It's hard to say why that is, but we're not concerned.  Mrs. Slocum had nothing but good things to say about her too.

We have heard that Lily will sometimes "cut up" in class.  I feel like my genes are being expressed pretty clearly here.  I think we'll be fine as long as she doesn't end up with a desk by herself somewhere.  That's what happened to me in elementary school.  Then again, we didn't have these clusters of desks with "stations" either.

Circle Time

We are told that Noah is extremely quiet in preschool.  He behaves very well, but he doesn't say much.  This is very consistent with what we see at home.  He generally speaks only when he wants something, usually to play the Wii or to have a snack.

However, Amanda told me that he decided to be the teacher last night.  He was on the bed with Amanda and Lily and he decided to play "circle time."  This is when they all sit on the floor in a circle on their colored shapes. He didn't have the shapes, but he did ask who wanted to volunteer for a job.  It was good to see him doing some kind of imaginary game besides something with a ball or based on a video game.

It's also encouraging that Noah already knows his colors and his shapes.  He's not going to learn a ton at preschool, but he will hopefully get better in social situations.