This is going to be a quick and tired post made up from random thoughts and observations that don’t quite justify their own entire post:

• One of the ways that we get the hint Noah isn’t hungry any more is when he begins to sweep everything off of his high chair tray. But that isn’t the only large flat surface he prefers completely clean. No shelf in his reach is safe; he prefers the books and toys in a sea on the floor, so he can bang on the empty shelf. Baby OCD?
• I wonder when I will next get to go to work and not discover that my shirt is streaked with snot. Or my pants.
• Our copy of Pat The Bunny is missing the page with daddy’s scratchy beard.
• On the web preview for the season finale of South of Nowhere, the B@rbie dolls get more action than the romantic leads. Why can’t Ashley and Spencer actually kiss?
• Noah is learning to talk!
• We knew that he could say “good” and “ooooh” and “book.”
• Yesterday when we went for a walk, we heard a dog, and Noah started calling out “whoo whoo.” Back at home, he pointed to a picture of a dog in a book and made the same noise. We think it’s “woof woof.”
• He also makes that sound in contexts appropriate for cheering, as in “Whooo! Whooo!” and making cheering motions (wild arm flapping).
• The Big One: Gentle. Yesterday there was an excess of face slapping, which I really don’t enjoy so much. So I began to stop it FIRMLY and then take his hand and touch my face gently, using the same intonation of “gen-tle” that you have heard every English speaking parent use since the dawn of time. Today, a teacher told me she thought he said “gentle” while touching her face. While I told Jill the story at dinner, Noah started stroking his own face.
• Unfortunately, he still thinks the sign for “nurse” is to whack me on the chest, or as he did while I was on the phone near bedtime tonight, grab my shirt in an effort to provide “self serve.”