Toto

"Toto" - that's how Noah tells us he wants to go watch Our Neighbor Totoro, again.  If we simply put it on a loop somewhere in the house for him, he'd be very happy.  At least there are three movies to rotate between - Our Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, and Howl's Moving Castle.

I think Totoro is actually his favorite, which is good, it's the most simple.  Not only does he talk along with the dialogue he can say, he does the sound effects and motions, too.  It's so cute. 

Most of the time I sit on the sofa and watch with him.  I remember the first time watching these movies I had a sort of "huh, that was interesting" reaction.  They aren't as black and white and linear as Disney and Pixar.  But the more I've watched them, the more happy I am Noah really likes them.  It's interesting that all three deal with moving into a new house.  They're about going on a journey and family and love.  And they are just so beautifully made.  We've also watched Ponyo a couple of times. I like it because the main character is a little boy, but it's my least favorite of the four, and I'm still not sure if Noah likes it enough to buy it.  (Right now I have it through Netflix.) 

I almost feel bad for him watching them so much, but it's winter and cold and the flu is out there.  This week is  a little warmer, so we've played out in the backyard more.  Today we might go run around the mall for a while.  Fortunately, he still loves getting out of the house.  Yesterday, after his nap, he said, "Toto?"  I said, "No, we've already watched it."  Then he said, "Store?"  Heh.  I had to say, "No, we're not going to the store today." 

I'm also using it to teach him that other things have to happen first before he can watch "Toto" - like getting dressed or eating breakfast or changing his diaper. 

Programming?

We've done a lot of traveling with Noah in his short 2 1/2 years.  He won't remember any of it.  So, we wonder if it's all making an impression and he'll either really love or hate traveling when he's older.  So far he seems to enjoy it, although, like us, we can tell he's happy to be home today - playing with his toys, in his room, and sleeping in his bed!

On this trip, he mastered escalators and moving sidewalks.  In fact, there were many times him and Nerdstar would go back and forth or up and down for quite a while.  This was a good thing at the airport to wear him out some before the flights.  He was also very happy to get to ride on the shuttle buses and the big city bus several times. 

We really made the right decision having a crib in the hotel room again.  I don't want to think about how hard it would have been to get him to sleep without it. 

Trips with my family can end up seeming like a lot of herding cats for me, and this time that was true sometimes.  But overall things went about as expected and a good time was had by all. 

Nerdstar and I have become complete hotel snobs in the past few years, so staying at Circus Circus wasn't all that we desired.  The room was nice and the bed was soft enough, but the crowds did not make us feel all warm and fuzzy towards humanity. 

We had hoped Noah would let us hand him off to Granny and Pa and his cousin Zach quite a bit so Nerdstar and I could gamble a little and go eat some good food without him.  That didn't happen as much as we would have liked, but we made do. 

I'd say one of the biggest things was the three hour time difference.  Between the long travel times and the time difference, we were all tired early. 

Our biggest splurge was going to the buffet at the Wynn hotel.  Oh my.  We're afraid it has ruined all over buffets for us.  The food was really, really good.  This was one of those times we wish we'd had more time, and without Noah.  But the whole family came along, so we couldn't hand him off. 

It was a good trip, it wasn't a great trip.  We're learning as we go - literally.

This and That

It's been a while since we've updated, there are lots of little things happening, but not many big ones so it's harder to find things to write about.  It's easier to do short little updates on FB.  

These are a couple of FB updates:

We went to Chick-fil-A for some dinner, after we'd eaten, Nerdstar got a strawberry shake - when Noah saw it he said, rather loudly, Wow... Wow... Wow... and then proceeded to drink at least half of it, looking rather concerned whenever Nerdstar would take a drink!

I've heard tales of toddlers who stop eating or get more picky. OMG our boy is a pig. He's even branching out a little. Funny thing, it's in a white trash direction. He insisted on a slice of bread with butter for a snack. Then the other day he had a slice of bologna - but no bread with it. At least he doesn't know about fried bologna yet. (and yes, I sing the oscar mayer song to know how to spell bologna.) Still no rice or tofu!

Now for more of an update.

We didn't do Christmas this year.  No tree or lights or presents or anything.  Partly because Noah still doesn't know what it's all about or get excited when he sees Christmas trees and such.  Last year we thought this would be the year, now we figure it'll be next year.  

We also decided to just meet up with my family in Vegas this week instead of flying down to Dallas.  None of us have been there in years and it sounded fun.  I think Noah is going to have a blast with his Granny and Pa and cousin Zach and uncle Jason!  Nerdstar and I are looking forward to some good food, some good naps and maybe a little gambling.  

Our boy is starting to have his routines.  He's learned how to say "tunes" so when he wakes up he tells me to turn on his tunes so he can dance either in his bed or out of it first thing in the morning.  Then he's getting to where he wants to go watch "T" - tv.  He's still just watching his three Japanese movies. He didn't even sit through all of Toy Story.  He also still watches Foster's Home while we eat dinner.  I know he should be watching less, but it's winter and a cold one at that.  He'll be more than ready to spend lot of time outside when it's warm enough.  He's ready to spend more time outside in the cold than we are.  

Hehehehe

While there's still so much we don't know about our boy due to him still not speaking a lot of English (he often sounds German or just plain ole alien ) but we do know he has a sense of humor.  Having a sense of humor was one of the things I wondered about early on.  So far, Nerdstar is a lot more funny than I am.  And, naturally, most of his humor is slap-stick in nature.  If he can do something that makes Nerdstar say "oowww" or get her to make a funny face - that's hysterical.  Last night, he would look at her and whisper something, then when she's whisper something back, he'd totally crack up.  And even though we don't understand him, there are still many times he'll be jabbering away then stop jabbering and just laugh, like he just said the funniest thing ever.  Of course, that cracks us up, then he laughs some more.  He still laughs anytime he hears other people laughing.  So cute!

Viewing Habits

Noah has developed some pretty specific viewing habits.  I've mentioned on FB that he LOVES Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends.  (Don't worry, you're not the only one who's never heard of it.)  Seriously, check it out on you.tube.  There were six or seven seasons, but only the first season is available on dvd.  I read they're all on i.tunes, but we don't have that on the computer he uses to watch stuff.  Anyway...

He also likes to watch the videos we've taken of him.  He gets to watch those on my lap in the mid-mornings while I surf.  He gets to watch FHFIF in the evenings when we eat dinner.

Over thanksgiving, he started saying "T" to refer to the tv.  We took his FHFIF dvds and Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro.  He will sit through both of those, usually 1/2 at a time.  They are absolutely beautiful and mostly calm.  We have no idea why he likes them, but he does and that's ok with us.  He's getting Howl's Moving Castle for Christmas.

Our tv is downstairs, he and I still spend all of our "home" time upstairs.  He's getting to where he'll ask for "T" time about once a day, or when we come in or out of the house.  So, we'll come down and snuggle on the sofa - he has already picked out "his" spot on the sofa - and watch one of his two movies.

I've put in Kung Fu Panda, Wall-E, Lion King, and Monster's Inc.  Can't say he liked any of them.  Ok.

He also doesn't like the cartoons on Sprout or Nick, Jr.  And for that, I thank God.

First Piano

This is Noah playing the piano for the second time.  Naturally, we think prodigy! 

Long Week

It really has been a long week.

Last weekend, Noah was congested, but not really sick,  no fever or anything.  Then, Sunday night, he started breathing harder and faster.  We weren't sure what to do because there weren't any other symptoms.  He fell asleep and we decided that if he slept through the night but was still breathing weird in the morning, I'd take him to the doc.  But he woke up about 11:30 p.m. so we took him to the ER.  Poor boy, this is his third ER trip in a year.

There's a fairly new medical center close by, so we went there and it was basically empty, so we had fast, good care.  They did a RSV and flu test, both negative, and a chest x-ray, also negative.  That was good.  They did three nebulizer treatments and his breathing was better and his oxygenation was good, so we got to come home.  They sent us home with an inhailer and a prescription for a nebulizer, both for use as-needed.

He doesn't have any signs of asthma, which is good.  The combination of his prior eczema and his peanut allergy put him at risk.  My best guess is those sorts of things are part of a slightly weaker immune system, and for whatever reason, his trouble seems to come in the form of breathing.

So, that meant we got about five hours of sleep Sunday night.  Ugh.

Nerdstar's aunt and uncle and cousin live up in New Jersey and invited us up for Thanksgiving.  (Her uncle is actually out of town though.)  Her other uncle and aunt live in China these days, and those three cousins are scattered.  After the loss of her grandparents and father, she still wants to connect with family and they all love to know what's going on with Noah.  They're polite enough to me, but...  well, it is what it is.

Anyway.

We got up Wednesday and hit the road.  It's just about a four hour drive without traffic, so we had no idea how traffic would be on that busiest of traveling days.  It was mostly clear going, we hit one patch of traffic that added about an hour to the drive, but can't complain about that.

Her aunt has a really nice house.  I learned that heated floors and a big bathtub with jets are very, very good.  Hardwood floors, not so great in reality.  I have a hard time with noise, so hearing Ramen's nails on the floors all the time drove me nuts.

Noah was great!  He did fine in the car both coming and going.  He seemed to like hanging out with Ching's aunt and her cousin Jesse.  Jesse is a student at Rutgers.  We went to see his fancy-smancy dorm.  Oh my.  There was a big back yard at the house that Noah liked to run around.

We were smart and took his favorite dvds - Foster's Home, Spirited Away and My neighbor Totoro.  That helped.  But now he knows to ask for "T" - tv.  Heh.

The only problem was he didn't nap, so then he'd be this hyper zombie baby in the late evening and hard to get to sleep.  He just slept in the bed with us.  And at least this time he didn't end up all sideways.  Now we know we'll still need a crib when we go to Vegas next month, even if only for naps.

But he's just a sweet kid.  He's good with people.  He's mostly well-behaved.  And thankfully he travels well, since this was his 7th trip in just over two years!