In case you didn’t know, ‘dood’ is the past tense of do.  Well, it actually works for several of the ‘do’ tenses.  Whenever I want Noah to do something that he usually likes doing, like turn on the TV or a light switch, I sometimes tell him that Daddy is gonna do it.  That usually makes him jump up and rush to do it himself, yelling, “Noah doodit!”.  I’ll chase after him saying, “Daddy doodit!” Dawn says I shouldn’t encourage that because its not proper English, but its just so darn cute! 

So, Noah, who turned on the TV.  “Noah doodit!”

Today was Noah’s birthday party!  We had a very small party this year with family at Apoe and Agoon’s house (those are Walter’s parents for those not in the know).  Since I was assisting with a wedding the night before we didn’t want anything too taxing or elaborate and this was perfect!  Family cooked, the decorations were simple, and Walter made the cake.  Overall we just visited and played.  The kids had a blast with so many people to entertain, the food was nearly glutinous, and at nap time everyone had just about used up every ounce of energy left.  Here are a few photos from the day.  Thank you to everyone who made it and apologies to those we couldn’t include this year.  I’m sure after the house fire and crazy My Gym parties back to back from last year you understand why we opted for something low key.

Noah’s actual birthday is Wednesday (05/21).  I can’t believe he’s going to be two!  It just doesn’t seem possible.  We’re planning to take him out for dinner and more birthday cake.  He LOVES blowing out candles and yells “FIRE, FIRE, FIRE!” whenever he thinks someone may let him blow anything out (this includes anything that lights, not just birthday candles).  I hope to have some photos to share then too.

While Discovery put on a very sweet Mother’s Day, nothing could rival the day celebrated with family and friends.  I got to sleep in (which is about 7:30am or so) and when I did get up I was greeted by a very happy Noah who tried very hard with “Happy Mummer’s Day”.  I opened gifts from Noah and Walter (a very generous spa gift certificate and an amazing new pot for my upcoming new kitchen) before meeting my parents, niece, sister and her boyfriend for brunch.  Brunch was incredible!  We love going to the Holiday Inn on Highland Beach.  It’s right on the ocean, the food is phenomenal and the coffee is surprisingly perfect.  The spread on Sunday was incredible!  There was nothing missed and our table was right against the window facing the ocean.  Just perfect.  After breakfast Walter and Julia took Noah down to LOOK at the ocean which, of course, resulted in some very wet pants.  My parents gave me a whole collection of new pots and pans and some tops for a long, hot, pregnant summer.  We went home after that for a nice, long nap and then had dinner with Walter’s parents.  It was a perfect day! 

Many thanks to Candace of www.ishotthechef.com for the pot and pan recommendations.  If you haven’t checked out Candace’s food blog, you must!  She’s amazingly talented and a very sweet person.  We’re slowly trading our Teflon for the Hard-anodized Aluminum variety and I can’t wait to try some new recipes.  That is of course after the dust settles from our never ending house addition!

Noah and I were at Publix the other day (we go almost every day) and followed our usual routine – get in the cart with the attached car (the size of three regular carts or so), “drive” to the bakery for a cookie, and get everything on the list before the cookie is gone.  This day at checkout though the bag boy was striking up a conversation with Noah.  He became so fond of him that he told us to wait and returned with a coloring book and crayons, featuring Plato the Publixaurus Dinosaur.  I had no idea they had goodies!  I’ve seen a helium tank and logo balloons from time to time (although no one has ever offered one) but I didn’t know they had such cool thanks-for-shopping-with-us gifts.  Noah couldn’t wait to color on it and didn’t waste a second.  This is him in the car on the way home, I couldn’t resist snapping his photo.  Notice where his feet are and how fun it must be to be my front seat passenger!

So in addition to the amazing – gag – breakfast and the cry fest we also received gifts at yesterday’s Mother’s Day Brunch.  As cheesy as it may be I thought it was really sweet.  The kids painted flower pots and planted seeds.  There is a photo of them planting the seeds in the pots.  I have mine proudly displayed on our window sill and smiled when I watered it today.  I sure hope I don’t kill his little plant he worked so hard on.  His teacher said most of the kids’ plants didn’t sprout but that his did great all on its own.  Like Agoon, like grandson maybe?

Noah’s school had a Mother’s Day Brunch for us today and it was really sweet.  You know the kind of event where the teachers tell you how excited the kids are to sing us a song (that none of them actually sing) before they pass out cold pancakes and stale bagels.  Nonetheless, it was a very sweet gesture and something fun for us to do on a Monday morning.

Unfortunately before they broke in to the festivities they read us a very sweet book.  But, I’m pregnant. I’m emotional, no two ways about it.  I remember being emotional when I was pregnant with Noah but not this bad! I don’t know if it’s worse because it’s a girl (and there is extra estrogen) or I just got lucky.  But this book, “Love You Forever”, turned me into a slobbering idiot.  As soon as I saw the title I started getting choked up and thought “this isn’t going to be good”.  Well, it wasn’t.  As soon as they read the first page I welled up before breaking into the “ugly cry”.  Lips quivering, water works like crazy, I was a mess. Noah kept looking at me like I was nuts and all the other moms kept asking if I was ok.  My voice was so shaky I had trouble explaining why I was so emotional.  I was/am completely embarrassed.  I feel like such an idiot.  I couldn’t keep it together and it was mortifying, not enough to stop, but just enough to lose all my dignity.

If you haven’t read the book, it’s so sweet. But oh my, prepare to tear up. Here are the words that continue to make me get misty even now – “I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always, as long as I’m living my baby you’ll be.”  

So in French papier is paper.  In our house – it’s FRUIT LOOPS!  Yes, Fruit Loops.  I’m not exactly sure how Noah came up with his own name for them or how he would be able to communicate that he wanted some to anyone but us, but I thought it was cute enough to share.

I do realize I won’t win the Mother Of The Year Award for allowing my nearly two year old to have a few Fruit Loops now and then but to my defense his other favorite cereal is Fiber One; which by the way he pronounces perfectly.  It’s also taken him a few months to get through a small box of the “papier”, we’re hoping the stale, gross ones will turn him off eventually.

While I love Walter to pieces, if you’re anything like me the renderings below of our addition did nothing for you.  Here I come to the rescue with some real photos.  Pretty soon we’ll even be able to have guests stay with us.  We’re already taking reservations if you’re brave enough to hang with us and the kids.

This is before, taken only 3 weeks ago…

This is from the same angle taken yesterday…

And here’s the inside -

Looking out from the house, into the backyard (which is still plenty big)…

And now looking into the house from the back of the addition.  Notice the pint size supervisor in the sliding glass door?  By next week that should be a set of French doors.

Today they framed out all the walls and will start with the drywall soon.  I can’t believe how fast this has come together.  We’re very excited to move in.  If only we can decide on a paint color!

So we seem to go there a lot, I know!  We have an annual pass and Noah loves the giraffes and water park.  Monday our friends Rachel and Ayla had a lot of family in for Ayla’s second birthday party so we all caravaned up to West Palm for some fun in the (hot!) sun.

This was the first time we saw goats.  Noah got stabbed by the horns of one but did much better once he found some his own size and some without horns.  Ayla on the other hand warmed up very quickly!

Noah and the baby goat having a deep conversation…

And his personal favorite – the giraffes…

This was the first time we got to feed them leaves.  He had no fear.  I on the other hand didn’t want to get licked but was still slimed at least once.  Do you see my belly?  I’m not even half way pregnant and I already have a tummy!  It’s going to be a long summer!

Monkey see, monkey do?

Yeah, the waterpark!  Noah and Ayla’s Nana had a blast!  I got a break under the shade.

Here’s what Noah thinks of people watching him eat…

And we finished the day with rides.  Here he is on the Ferris Wheel.  Ayla’s Nana (Diane) was so great, she took him on everything I couldn’t ride because of my “condition”.  He loved every minute of it!

Okay, so I mentioned an addition.  Some of you might know that we’re adding on to the house. Well, this is the plan. Below is the house as it is now.

This is what it will look like with the addition:

Cool, eh?!  We can’t wait.  We so need that extra room.  That will become our office and free up the other bedroom for our other new addition.

I’ve been taking pictures of the construction progress. I’ll add those in a later post.