Noah and his Trixy Self

Noah is pretty trixy these days. I left you all thinking that he was still 9 months old, but I assure you, he is the smartest little 14 month old that I know, hands down:)

Upon demand he is able to show me where his hands, feet, shoes, ears, belly and tongue are (ears down; head shoulders knees toes eyes mouth and nose to go).

He is very talented at waving hello and goodbye. He comes up with a different variation of waving almost every day. It's a handy trick, now he can let me know when he wants to leave somewhere, he just waves bubye.

He is an excellent dancer (inheriting his moves from his father I assure you), his favorite song being the intro to Gilmore Girls. I probably conditioned him into that one. I was on a pretty fanatical Gilmore Girls kick just as he was discovering his rhythm.

Out of all his toys, he treasures his books the most. We have quite a supply because we were lucky enough to get some passed down to us. All day, if he is ever feeling like he's not getting enough attention, he waddles over to me with a book in his hand. I really can't resist him, so if Daddy's not around and I can't say "Daddy will read to you! Go find daddy!" Then I automatically sit down, he crawls into my lap, and we peruse the pictures. Most of the time he doesn't have patience for me actually reading the words. But he's getting really good at recognizing animals and he likes to flip through and see if he can point any out to me (I swear about half of his books are about farm animals)

He is able to recognize and say Mom, Dad, Momma (Grandma), Poppa (Grandpa), Kitty Kat (tit-tat), Jesus (cutest one by far), this, that, uh-oh, bubbles, and he tries to bark like a dog whenever he sees one. He is at the point where he recognizes much more than he can say, so it's really fun to try to teach him to say new things. I LOVE this stage!

By far my favorite new trick is him learning how to kiss and hug. It started out as blowing kisses which was great (people at the grocery store loved it especially, he gives his kisses away like candy when it comes to blowing them). But now he gives kisses on the cheek, mouth, leg, whatever he can reach when he's in the mood really. He especially loves kissing his stuffed animals and makes sure that I do so too everytime he wakes up in the morning. He loves kissing his puppy dog slippers and I love watching him bend in half to do it:)
Now that he is secure in his independence and mobility, he is becoming much more cuddly. He likes to sit in our lap and watch movies, for a few minutes at a time, and he likes to lie in bed with us on Saturday mornings.

I've been saying this for the past year but this time I'm really serious, I DON'T WANT THIS STAGE TO END!!!