Guess who opens door now!!!

Well my little Noah has finally discovered how to open doors. It happened yesterday. He opened the door to the pantry and treated himself to some candy right before my eyes. It's really not that big a deal since most of our friends kids Noah's age have all been opening doors since they were one, but since Noah's 2 now, and wasn't opening doors until just yesterday, maybe I just thought he'd never learn. Could you imagine him being 10 years old and not knowing how to open a door?!!! I know, what was I thinking?!!! This morning was kinda funny- Noah didn't wake up till 10:30a.m. (he's lethargic and loves his sleep, 'nough said)- anyhow, before I could open the door for him, he opens it himself and walks out of his room. At least he waited to come out till he heard I was up and coming to get him.
Oh yeah- another thing Noah has learned is the word "NO". It had to happen sooner or later, but why can't kids learn the word "YES" before "NO"?!?!
The kid has a good sense of humor. Last weekend I took him out shopping with me. When we got up to the check out counter to pay for our things, the clerk asked him "what's up?". Noah looks at him and replies "Up, down". It had everyone in line behind us in hysterics.
He's counting really well on his own these days. He'll count beginning with "1, 2", then he usually forgets to say "3", then he'll say "4, 5,", I'll throw in a "6" for him since he forgets, and then he'll add "7,8,9" and I'll finish it off for him with a "10". Pretty impressive for a 2 year old huh?!
He has also started calling Spencer "Spencer" instead of "Dad"- it's so funny to hear him shout Spencer's name.
It snowed here last weekend quite a bit, enough so that we still have a lot of snow outside on the back lawn. He's had a blast playing in the snow. He still likes to eat it- which doesn't bother me if the snow is fresh, but after sitting around for a couple of days it kinda gross's me out.
Noah's acquired quite the appreciation for the toilet recently. He loves to flush it and watch what ever matter is in it go "bye, bye". At least 9 or 10 times during the day I'll hear him from off in the distance say "bye, bye" and then the toilet will flush. Usually he flushes toilet paper down the toilet, but on occasion I've caught him trying to flush garbage down the toilet. Each time he flushes the toilet I pray that it won't get clogged- I hate plunging toilets! I feel a little "environmentally guilty" too. Now that Noah's discovered flushing toilet paper down the toilet, I'm a bit worried about wasting water with each unnecessary flush and let's not even start to try and count to see how many trees have been cut down to make our toilet paper that wastefully gets flushed away! Oh well, I can only hope this is just a phase and maybe it will help make "potty training" Noah all that much easier for me... ;)
Oh here's a random comment- those of you who have eagerly been following our "Ant Adventure", well it's coming to an end my friends. It's been a good journey parenting the ants- Noah's liked to look at them- but I'm letting what's rest of them go today. Apparently ants don't like to eat pieces of pumpkin muffins. I thought they would since my "Ant Owners Manual" said they like sweet treats, but our ants barely nibbled on it, so the pumpkin muffin crumbs have been sitting in their habitat for well over two weeks now and they've begun to grow mold. Our ants started dropping dead almost immediately, so I think it's best to say I should free those ants that are still alive to spare them death.
Ian will already be 7 months old on the 9TH. It's amazing how fast your 2ND child seems to grow compared to your first. He's so much fun. He wants so badly to be "on the move", but the little chunk is still stationary. He enjoys playing with Noah nowadays- that is if Noah kindly decides to share his toys with him. Ian still has a little bald spot on the back of his head and I swear it's not because I neglect him- he just wiggles a lot and likes to lay on his back rather than his tummy.
I waited until nearly two weeks ago to start feeding him solids. My doctor told me it's better to wait a little longer cuz there's less chance of children developing food allergies. Anyhow, I began with feeding him baby cereal, but Ian wasn't having it. So I tried applesauce- he still didn't like it. What baby doesn't like applesauce??? I was almost beginning to worry he was gonna be a picky eater like Spencer. I picked up a few different mashed baby veggies from the store the other day, almost certain I was wasting my money, but what do you know?!!! Ian loves his veggies!!! He can throw down on carrots, peas, and green beans!
Not much has changed for Spencer. He's still busy, busy, busy with work- they've had tons of orders with Christmas approaching, so much so that I haven't seen him much in the last week. Well correction, I've seen him, but I'm not supposed to distract him while he's doing work stuff here at home and he's been busy with work stuff a lot lately. Not only is he focused on work, he's also been busy trying to study for the G.R.E. He's going to take the test on the 20Th, or maybe it's the 21ST. Something like that. I'm hoping he'll do well- a good test score will help him get into the school of his choice.
I'm still trying to find the time and the energy to finish decorating the tree. I'm a perfectionist at things like this and my nature really slows my progress. This is the first year I've had to decorate a big tree. In all the years past, we always just used a 4 foot tree to decorate. This year I wanted to go all out and get the real thing, but I understand real Christmas trees are fire hazards here in Utah where it's dry. I didn't want to buy a big artificial tree since I knew Spencer would be upset packing it with us to where ever we move this next summer, so Spencer's mom so kindly lent me her artificial 8 foot tree she wasn't using. What a mess it is trying to get the bubble lights on the tree so that they're standing upright. Seriously- they're beautiful to look at and Noah loves the bubble lights, but they aren't made practically to stand up straight on tree branches.
I managed to get most of my Christmas shopping done for our relatives. I've nearly finished wrapping all the gifts and now I need to take care of getting the boys gifts (Spencer, Noah and Ian). I think I'm going to get Noah and Ian a joint Christmas gift this year- something they can both enjoy playing with. They really don't anything more they don't already have, cuz Noah pretty much has everything. That's how it rolls when he's got 7 aunts and uncles, 21 cousins, 4 grandparents, and 2 great grandparents.
I've almost finished putting together our Christmas cards- I still have to address them and stamp them. I love making my own personalized Christmas cards, but I'm beginning to think it's cheaper and simpler to just order them from Costco made for me.
I absolutely LOVE Christmas, but sometimes I get sooo carried away with all the little details I tire myself out. It's all worth it though, and it's such a relief when Christmas does arrive. ;)
A few scary happenings took place over the last week- I plan to expand upon it later in another post. All is well now here at home though. I didn't get to visit Rexburg last weekend as I had planned. I was going to go up yesterday, but I decided to wait another couple of weeks until I can get tickets to go through the Rexburg Temple Open House while I'm there.