He's baaaack!

Sweet reasonable concentrated Noah is baaaaack :) Yesterday, no major fusses and a relatively easy going Noah. This afternoon on his playdate with me ("playdate avec maman" as he called it), we read some books. Then he wanted to listen to some books on cd (two Martine books read by Marie-Christine Barrault and two Marlene Jobert story cds all four of which are pretty long and complicated). 

He turned down an offer to play outside so he could work on a collage. Again, he cut the pieces and put them in place himself. As he was gluing a piece, he noticed that it was folded and then realized that if he folded the pieces, he could get a 3D effect. Once he made that realization, he folded all his collage pieces before gluing them on...

Then, he insisted on signing his name without me modeling the letters or even writing his name for him to copy. His first time writing his name without any model...

After making another collage, he asked to learn how to write his last name. We started on the G but that is a hard one. He almost got it by the time he got bored with it though. Then he helped Daddy make dinner and voila - our Noah as we know him is back.

Not-so-Pefect Days

Since about four days after Daddy left for Canada, Noah has been intermittently clingy and cranky and whiny and overly energetic and hard to reason with - the last of these being the hardest for me as I am just not used to a completely unreasonable Noah. If past experience is of any use, this usually lasts about a week or so till he feels secure again with his Daddy back home.

Yesterday was probably the worst day - he refused to hold my hand in the street and made a huge fuss, then refused to sit on my lap in the subway.... and made a huge fuss, then was completely rambunctious during his playdate with his friend Daniel climbing on top of moving cars (the little car rides but still) and running around like a chicken with his head cut off, then refused to hold my hand in the street again and made a huge fuss and then I think there was one more huge fuss but I can't even remember what about - what fun! I miss my (mostly) easygoing reasonable Noah.

Happy Valentine's Day

To celebrate Valentine's day, Noah made a few cards for his friends and his Daddy. 

The hearts below and in some of the cards above are made with baking paper, crayon shavings and an iron - Noah enjoyed choosing the colors and shaving off the crayon bits with a pencil sharpener but most of all watching the hearts transform from disparate pieces to a unified whole. 

Noah's February crafts window. Happy Valentine's Day everyone. 

A Perfect Afternoon & Evening

Early Sunday afternoon, I asked Noah what he wanted to do for the rest of the day. Unsurprisingly, he answered that he wanted to take the little trains (aka the sentosa monorail trains). So after his snack we headed out to Sentosa island. We took a little train down to the waterfront station (sadly it was not the blue but the purple train but that was ok) and walked down to the beach. Here is Noah at the foot of the Merlion with the big dragonflies. 

 It is a beautiful walk - with a Rodin thinker sculpture and beautiful flowers and fountains (including a long Gaudi-like colorful fountain). We walked hand-in-hand happily chatting together. 

When we got to the beach level, it started drizzling so I suggested we go see the flying people (there is a wind tunnel flying ride and you can watch the people "fly"). During the tropical downpour we were happily inside watching people "fly" around and discussing wind power. Noah sat there with me for at least 30mn first waiting for the flying people and then watching and commenting clearly interested in this whole process.

By the time we were ready to head out, it had stopped raining and after much train viewing, we took the red train back to the waterfront station and walked back along the Sentosa boardwalk toward the city. Here is Noah on the boardwalk with what used to be his poodle balloon but became a snake.

Along the boardwalk, we stopped at the Wine Company for dinner: a cheese platter, some grilled vegetables and some dumplings (and wine for me). The food was very pleasant and the company was amazing. Noah was such a pleasure to be with. He happily looked at the scenery and chatted away with me. He tried all the cheeses (and even liked the blue cheese) and all the veggies (including the celery sticks) and was just a great little boy.

The view was gorgeous. We watched the sun slowly set over Sentosa.

And counted the stars as they started appearing.

After a long, beautiful and relaxing dinner, we went to the monorail viewing area to watch a few more trains and then to the Vivo City playground for a few passes down the slide. And after one last train viewing, we headed home. What a perfect afternoon and evening with Noah. 

Noah Writing N-O-A-H

Noah's love of letters continues - I can't exactly remember how this new development began (it was all of two days ago!) but I think Noah asked to write his name on one of his drawings/collages. Below was, I think, his second signature (he did the collage essentially on his own - cutting the pieces of paper with his new kid-friendly scissors and gluing them onto his paper; after a while he got sick of physically putting glue on each piece so he would select the piece of paper and delegate the glue smearing to me and then whisk the piece away from me to find the perfect spot for it on his paper).

A close-up of his "signature" - all the lines are his. I just modeled line by line on a separate paper. I drew a line on my piece of paper, then he drew a line on his, then I drew a second line and he drew a second line ... and so on till he had written:

A few tries later, his lines are getting more confident (and colorful).

Noah is writing N-O-A-H!

On an unrelated letter story, we were at the zoo the other day and Noah spotted a sign that said "zoo" and he said "Z-O-O" "zoo" - and since then if you ask him how to spell zoo. He will say "Z-O-O". He can also spell "lola" and "dada" and "mama" and a few other words without having the words in front of him.

Rabbit's Birthday Party

A few days ago, I was busy preparing something or other and was not really focusing on Noah. When I looked up - he had brought over his "picnic blanket", his animals, and some food and arranged them all. I asked him what he was doing. And he explained that it was Rabbit's birthday and this was his birthday party!

He then proceeded to sing Happy birthday to YOU... to rabbit!

When that was not festive enough, he got up, turned off all the lights and sang the song one more time in the dark and brought him his cake(s). (On a side note - Noah LOVES these wooden cookies - you can change the flavors and put them on a special tray... and they come with an oven mitt and some kitchen utensils).

Unfortunately (or fortunately for us), there were no candles for rabbit to blow out. Happy birthday rabbit!

Daddy est au Canada

Last Saturday, Seth left for Canada and Noah helped him pack those strange bulky things called gloves, scarves, hats, sweaters and socks! Here is Noah trying to figure out what to do with this seemingly useless paraphernalia (why would you need any of it since it is about 80 all year!). 

Noah seems to understand where Daddy is. "Daddy est au Canada" - we looked it up on the world map but he seemed to have trouble understanding when Daddy was getting back -  he will be back in one week  - was just not very useful information. So we made a Dada calendar for his room and every morning we cross off the previous day and count the number of crosses we have already made and the number of remaining crosses. This seems to have eased his worries a bit. He no longer asks when Daddy is coming home but is a bit sadder, clingier and crankier than usual. His usual reaction to loved ones disappearing for more than two days.

We miss you Daddy!

Third Back Molar Out!

Noah's bottom right back molar is out! One more tooth to go!