below you’ll find a video collection of clips from late summer adventures of Noah.

This video goes along with the previous post about his travels and fun around his birthday.

You’ll also see him up at Brainard Lake, a high mountain lake that we go to often in the summer, and you’ll see that Noah often runs everywhere he goes. Run, run, run!

Towards the end of the video, you’ll see that he’s starting to teach himself some gymnastics too…the boy has no fear.

Hope you enjoy the video!

We had a great trip out to Chicago and Michigan for 2 birthday parties out there, and then came back to have a 3rd party with all of his friends here in Boulder. Lots of cake and candles…times 3

Below is a gallery of photos from the vacation in Chicago and Michigan, as well as his birthday party here in Boulder. If you’re reading this in your email inbox, you may want to go to Noah’s blog site to see the gallery, since I’m not sure that the gallery photos will appear properly in the email version of this post. (To get there, click on the blog post title in this email, and then click on the small preview images in the gallery that’s in this post to see the photos full size. Use the arrows at the bottom of the photos to get to the next photo.)

[View with PicLens]

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We don’t have many photos from our time with Bubby Sue and Gampa Jeff in Chicago because we used the video camera more than the camera while we were there. I’ll be putting up a video of our trip as soon as I can.

Noah had a great time everywhere he went during our vacation, and also on the day after we got back at his party.

While in Chicago, we got to ride a BIG bus and go to the Lincoln Park Zoo, which is only a mile or so from Bubby Sue and Gampa Jeff’s new lovely condo on Lake Shore Drive.

There was lots of playing and walking in the park across the street from their condo, and a lovely birthday party way up high on the 27th floor, where they live.

From there we drove around the lake to the cottage in Michigan, where much fun was had every day, as much as possible, in the waves and warm water. It was nearly impossible to keep him out of the water, and I think he drank 2 or 3 gallons of lake water trying to figure out that you’re supposed to keep your mouth shut when you go under.

Noah had a great time playing with Mimi, Popo, Gigi, and Uncle John on the beach and in the cottage. He’s also at the stage where he’s figured out that he can tell other people “No!”, and he’s been doing that for many weeks now. Ohhhh, the joys of being 2!

From the beach we came home and had a lovely party with 30 or so people, kids and adults, who came to give Noah some love and happy birthday wishes. Bubbles and helmets and inflatable baseball bats and balls…tons of fun and laughter all around.

We also had a face painter come to the party to paint any kids or adults who wanted to get painted. Noah picked out a lion and a Nemo fish for each arm and was pretty psyched with them.

Everyone lasted a really long time before melting down, and we said good bye to everyone and enjoyed the new toys and leftover, delicious cupcakes and brownies that Mama baked for the party.

So we’re off into year two with our little monkey boy! Yipee!!

His language is really starting to take off. Every day he seems to figure something new out about our odd English language. A few days ago he figured out how to use past tense and present tense correctly in all kinds of sentences that he’s putting together.

The ABC song and Twinkle Twinkle are his favorite songs currently, and whenever we go shopping at the grocery store, he sings either or both throughout the isles while we’re getting food. He only stops to say hi to people passing by, or to ask for “one chocolate,” which is how he asks for treats that Mama gives him (little chocolate balls wrapped in tinfoil that looks like a little globe of the Earth.)

“One chocate peeez?”

We hope everyone is doing well!

A few days ago, Noah and I were hanging out together in the morning and we both wanted to go to the Boulder Reservoir to go swimming while Mama got some more sleep.

I remembered that we had a little inflatable raft that he could sit in while being in the water and I opened the closet under our stairs to find it.

It’s a tight fit to get my body in this tiny closet, which I think was made for short Irish people back in 1899, when the house was built.

I reached to turn on the light, which is at the back of the closet and my shirt got hooked on one of the coat hooks on the back of the closet door, which rather efficiently closed the door behind me and turned off the light at the same time.

I fumbled around in the dark, hunched over in this tiny space in between the winter coats and the vacuum cleaner and tried to find the door handle to open the door.

It didn’t take long to realize that there wasn’t one. The latch was on the outside of the door only. Sigh…

Noah was in the living room watching Seasame Street, so I called out to him.

“Noah! Come over here,” I said.

I heard a giggle.

“Noah, come here. Papa’s in the closet. Come over here.”

“Papa!” he said. And I heard his little feet thumping their way over to the closet door.

“Hi Papa. Hi…,” more laughter. He thought I was playing a game.

“Papa! Papa!” he kept shouting.

“Hi Noah. Listen, Papa is stuck. Papa…stuck…in…the…closet.”

“Hi Papa!”

“Hi Noah. Papa is stuck. Can you open the door please? Noah open door please?”

Silence. Then, I hear his little hands reaching up and trying to turn the old knob on the latch holding the door shut. It was a good sign that he could reach it, but he could barely reach it, and he was probably standing on his tip toes.

“Help, Papa. Help,” he said, as he tried to turn the knob.

“Turn the handle, Noah. You can do it. Turn…handle.”

“Help…help, please,” he said, as he reached and did his best to turn the knob.

“Okay, Noah, that’s not going to work….Can you go up and get Mama? Tell Mama that Papa is stuck, okay? Go tell Mama that Papa is stuck.”

“Okay,” and off he went, little feet thumping their way up the stairs above my head.

“Mama! Mama!” he said as he made his way up the stairs.

And into our bedroom he went, waking up the sweet sleeping Mama.

I couldn’t hear him at this point, but later found out that he gently woke her up and said,

“Mama, Mama….Papa tsuck. Papa tsuck.”

Bari couldn’t understand what he was saying, because he was reversing the “s” and the “t” in “stuck.”

“Papa’s truck?” Mama asked.

“Papa tsuck!!” Noah replied.

While this was going on I realized that I had my cell phone in my pocket, so I called the home phone, told Mama bear what was going on and apologized for waking her up.

“Ooooooohhhhh. You’re saying ‘Papa stuck!’ Well, let’s go get him out!”

I was soon released from my dark prison under the stairs, rescued by Mama bear and Noah Nooey.

I grabbed the raft on the way out, and we had a grand time that morning at the reservoir.

Thanks for saving me guys!

His vocabulary is exploding right now. He’s starting to do 4 word sentences and it seems like every day he comes out with new words and phrases.

He continues to be a very physical little fellow…always on the move and wanting to do things with his body. We have to get him enrolled in some kind of sports very soon, as he has way too much energy that wants to be outside playing with some kind of ball.

Hope you enjoy the video!

~Noah’s Papa

Here’s an update of Noah at school today:

“Today’s activity was planting bulbs in pots. This week we will continue focusing on Mother Earth, everything she offers us and how to take care of her responsibly.

All children have had a fantastic day. We even had it “rain rice” today by accident! One small child thought it was a great idea to make it “rain rice” at the rice table this morning. They all had a fantastic time making it “rain” and cleaning up the “rain” too;-). You may find rice in nooks and crannies you never dreamed of. I put on my shoe that was parked at the entrance and even found a scoop in there!:)

Enjoy your day folks-we are thoroughly!

Cheers,
Robin & Mandy”

He’s going to a lovely, big home here in Boulder with a giant backyard and large rooms inside to run around with the other kids.

He’s made friends with the kids there already, and a friend from his Mommy/kids group, Maddie, is also going to this same nanny care school.

There are a ton of new toys and the people there are great, so he’s having a big time.

We’ll send some photos of him at his new school when we get them.

Here are some updates that they sent out about his experiences on his first day there:

Hi there!

I just wanted to update you both and let you know little Noah is doing great, and he has transitioned very well. Not a tear shed so far! He has enjoyed playing with his already new and old friends here. They have been outside most of the morning with hoods up and warm jackets on. He did, within 5 seconds I might add , run to the trampoline and was managing quite well to sneak in under the mesh guarding before being captured (licensing does not allow for children during business hours to use tramp, sorry). We red-directed him to the swing set and he transitioned with ease. Noah has asked for “momma” several times, and we have responded with confidence “momma’s at work and will be back soon.” He has accepted this without a tear shed, and at one point he said “see” and went to the door. We took him outside and showed him the empty driveway, and without a tear shed, he accepted that as well. He has drank some milk with his blanket as well as cheese for snack. He is currently about to transition to yoga here in just a few minutes.

He has done remarkable well, and I hope you are doing well too Bari as I know this is tough on you. In my eyes, you are doing really well as I was telling Forest, I followed my eldest to preschool every day and never left for two weeks. The teachers were very kind, but silly me!;-) It is very hard, and I completely understand the heart strings that are being pulled today!;-)

Have a great day, and I hope to have photos for you with the next update.

Cheers,
Robin

Hi Bari and Forest,

He is still doing really well. He has not cried yet, but when Mandy left all children at the table to go get the snack from inside ( number 2, I might add which is rare) he “whimpered” for a half a second and was quite fine when Mandy returned with an apple and his “yogurt fruit”. He has said “more apple” and “eat” directing to the fridge several times today. We do accommodate the children’s eating habits as we know they can be sporadic at times. Some days are light and other days they eat often! Today seems like a grazing day!
Yoga was done on the grass outside today, per Ella’s request. They did stretching, touching their toes, balance on one leg attempts, reach to the sky and arch their back etc. Noah is a very agile child!
He has had a very active, stimulating day, so my guess is nap time will be a breeze as he will be exhausted. I will however let you know if it doesn’t work or if he struggles with transition.

More updates to follow. I know it’s like getting “ice-cream” with every update, so I’ll send you several “licks” today! This is our normal process for new kiddos, but they do taper off to one at most 2 a day once transitional phase is over.
Thanks so much for choosing us! It is always our pleasure, and privilege!

Cheers,
Robin & Mandy

Hello to all,

I hope everyone is enjoying this lovely sunny day!

We have a full house here and have been having non-stop fun. We are happy to announce adding a new member to our group, named Noah, who is here for the first time today. We are having a wonderful time with Noah and he is settling in great.

This morning we started our day greeting each other followed by puzzle-play and story time. Then, Mandy led a super duper Yoga lesson. We all got great stretches as we tried new body movements and copied each other’s Wigglies. Lunch was a pleasant time full of practicing our independence skills while talking about all the colors around us, especially our food. We are still focusing on the color Green, so the children were delighted to discover that Madelyn had green edamame, Ella had green spinach, Sawyer had a green lunch bag, and Jane and Noah were able to point out the green fabric on our table cloth.

Everyone is now down for a warm and cozy nap. With all the cribs full today, Ella has tried napping on a cot and went to sleep with ease near Sawyer. Upon waking, we will all enjoy a full table of friends at snack time, followed by dress up, music and dance time. We will also go outside to feed the chickens and gather the eggs.

At pick up, we will have more nice stories to share.

See you then,
Laura and Robin

Enjoy!

Today we dove back in to a market in town that has many booths of local people selling goods, mostly hand-made goods from the Mayans.

The people in the booths are the used car salesman of this place. The sell you things more aggressively than I’ve seen anywhere else. They also play games with you…haggling games. You can almost always work them down to half of the price they start out with, and if you don’t feel like haggling, you can simply ask them how much for something, pause, then say you’re going to go look around and think about it…and they drop the price right in front of you….

The closer you get to leaving their booth, the lower they go. Not my favorite kind of shopping.

The weather was lovely, lovely today. Right around 80 degrees with a slight breeze.

The three of us strolled around town, found an open air market of local Mayans (no salesman at this market…just the Mayans who make things with their hands.)

We also found our way to the biggest church in town, San Francisco. It looked quite old, though I’m not sure of the exact age. It was likely built in the 1600′s though.

We had a chance to listen to some Bolivian music in the central park, and then made our way home to eat and pack.

Noah’s just gone to sleep now, and we’re going to follow right behind him, as we have to get up at 4:30 am to catch our airport shuttle at 5 am. Going to be a long day tomorrow, and will probably be a bit jolting to travel right back in to winter, with a fresh blanket of snow on the ground back home.

Noah got to say goodbye to all of his friends here today, the staff who work here. He’s become quite close with Cupertino, the maintenance worker here, as well as Maya, one of the masseuses. As he was saying goodbye to Cupertino (who he called “dorgee” for some reason), he gave him two very big, sweet hugs. It just melts your heart.

Here’s a link to the photo set to see the latest batch of pics from today:

Click here to see the Antigua photo set

Hope you’ve all enjoyed the travel updates. I’ll be posting a video soon, hopefully, of some footage from the trip.

Cheers,
Papa Forest

Then the bring us into the photos at the end. They are giggling and saying “Hola Noah,” “Noah, look over here,” trying to get him to look at the camera.

I don’t think they see many young blond, cute kids from the states very often. It’s like he’s some kind of child actor star or something. Crazy. He thinks it’s pretty cool, thought the group of girls today were a bit too animated and moving too fast. After a few minutes he started to cry…he was ready for a nap at that point. It’s hard to be a child celebrity with naps to take.

We went out to dinner tonight at a hotel that has a restaurant in it…Hotel Posado de Don Rodrigo. It was the best meal we’ve had yet…amazing food.

There were 7 or so local guatemalan men playing Guatemalan marimbas right in the restaurant. Noah was way in to the music…dancing and running around, making everyone smile (except some grumpy, old americans.)

More on this and some photos after the break, or, after you click on Read More…

We spent most of the day going in and out of town, shopping for some things we’ve been wanting to pick up while we’re here.

We have one more day here before we head home on Sunday, and I must say I’ve gotten quite used to wearing flip flops, shorts, and tshirts. This town has been wonderful to stay in for our vacation, and we are super grateful to Eddie and Amanda for bringing us down here and making us feel so welcomed and comfortable. (For those of you who don’t know, Eddie is the new owner of Joomlashack, and thus the jefe (boss).

I’m very much looking forward to continuing to work with him to grow the business.

Well, Noah’s asleep right now, and Bari and I are pretty tired. Time for another restful night of sleep (hopefully.)

Here’s some pics, mostly from today (I’m including some pictures from a tour of a coffee plantation that Eddie and Amanda took us all on a couple days ago. Quite fascinating.)

Click here to see the latest photos added to the Antigua set

Buenas Noches, mi amigos.

Forest, Bari, and Noah

The hardest part of it all was not being able to help Bari with Noah, and to not be able to be with them while they went out and about in town. But I did what I could after the meetings ended each day, and got to spend a little time with them during lunch each day.

Yesterday, for lunch, the whole Joomlashack team went up to a coffee plantation to have lunch at the restaurant there and to take a tour of the coffee fields and the processing plant. It was pretty interesting, actually. I had no idea that coffee was so work intensive to create.

Unfortunately, Bari and Noah couldn’t come with us because it happened right at his afternoon nap time. Noah would have been bored out of his mind anyway.

Now that the meetings are over, the three of us have two more days here in Antigua before we head home, and I’m looking forward to having a little more time to relax before getting back home, where I’ll jump back in to another month or two of 65 hour work weeks while I finish up some remaining websites in addition to working full time for Joomlashack.

Bari wanted to add some things from her adventures with Noah during the past few days while I’ve been in meetings:

Yesterday, Noah and I ventured out into town (him on my back for part of the time) and did some shopping in the market, sipping mochas/drinking mango and eating pasta at a cafe and then went swimming in the pool of a big hotel.

Noah had a great time! Today we visited an old friend’s relatives who retired in antigua and we got to see inside the courtyards and home (which is very cool because everything is behind walls here). And both days noah has been playing with the guatemalan people that work at the bed and breakfast and helping them sweep and rake. He is very serious about his work and in helping everyone. They love him and love to play with him all of the time – soccer and hide n seek.

Noah keeps trying to say ‘hola’ (spanish for “hello”) as we are walking in town because everyone is so friendly and he is saying ‘ohee’, but he is trying to say it over and over in all different ways…it is very cute, can’t get it yet, but trying so hard…and in general, lots of new words this trip and now 2 words at a time

Here’s a link to some pics from the past few days:

Click here to see the Flickr photo set with the latest pics and photo comments on top.

Best to you all,
Forest, Bari, and Noah