King Noah the First

I am 4 and a half... 4 ans et demi

2012-02-12T15:55:00.000-08:00

Bonjour,

Well I have been 4 and a half for 2 full weeks now but, you know how it is around here: there never seem to be enough time in the day and even less for the blog.
But, here I am on my way to being 5 in less than 6 months and today, I wanted to share some of what makes me ME.
A typical day at home, you will find that after my big breakfast, I go upstairs with the intent of getting dressed. I usually get side tracked and my parents find me 2 hours later, usually butt naked, with my books all around me. I sometimes laugh out loud when reading. Yes, sometimes I laugh because of the pictures but also because of what I read. See, I began reading in French and in English and it's now much more fun to be with my books as I can figure out on my own what they are saying. I am certainly not fluent but I do manage to surprise my parents when I tell them what the story is about. The other day I was asking Maman why pollen can be bad for you; sure enough Maman found a documentary in my bedroom opened at a page that talked about how pollen can be bad for some people and causes allergies.
But, with or without reading myself, I LOVE books. I usually immerse myself into the storyline and become one of the main character. I become a "Schtroumpf"(or Smurf as you know them), or I am Calvin or Piccolo and so on. And then I always make Maman be one of the characters too. So it's not surprising to hear me call her "Grand Schtroumpf", or Hobbes, or Flûte. And I usually prefer if she calls me back with the name of the character I represent.

With Maman, we spend a lot of time in the car; an average of 1 hour and 15 minutes a day. We are soon going to have expired all the audio-books from the school library or from the town's library. I very much enjoy listening to all those stories. We have gone through all the Magic Tree house collection, Misses Piggle Wiggle, The mouse and the motorcycle, and many more in French.
And then, one day, Maman borrowed Piccolo, Saxo & Cie from the school's library. It's a French story and I fell totally in love with it. Actually I was quite obsessed with it. It has been a month now and I am still as emotional as the first time I heard the story when the main character is having a problem. I cry each time.
It was quite difficult for Maman to find the DVD that goes with the storyline as it was not available anymore. She finally found it on ebay and it came all the way from Thailand... For $11, it was worth the wait.
I also love the song and have been singing it non stop. But, if you want me to read for the camera or sing for the camera, you'd better be ready to bribe me. That's exactly what Maman had to do to get me to sing for you. She had to say that she would let me watch the Piccolo movie right after. Ah! I only share my talent for reward!
Well, that;s about it for today. My report card came home this week-end. Apparently, I don't mind reading but I find it extremely painful to hold a pen and write or draw... It looks like I have to make progress in those areas. Oh, and both my French and English teachers seem to think that I like to be silly and a joker a little bit too much. I say to them: life is too short to be taken seriously.
Enjoy the video!
Noah

A Christmas in the sun

2012-01-01T18:02:00.000-08:00

What? The 2 weeks of vacation are already over?
Ok, I cannot really complain since I had tons of fun here at home and also at Grandpa and Grandma in Arizona.

And, despite the fact that I was told Santa might not be nice to me, he was! Luckily Grandma open the fire place doors and he was able to make it inside and drop fun presents for me and the family.
So here is the video of me opening my presents ( it's always a challenge), and me playing with my new cool toys!

We also had plenty of time to play and be outside during our stay. It was beautiful and sunny! And, since I don't get to see or play with trains much, we all went to a train park to ride a train and we went to the Community center to see more train models. I loved it! we even had a picnic there.

And then it was time to come back to rainy Oregon. Actually, it has been pretty dry for a while but of course our first 2 days back it was rain, rain and more rain.
Soon enough it was time to celebrate the new year and we had a blast at my friend's Juliette who was turning 6 on the eve of the new year. Great party and a lot of fun!
Happy, Happy New Year to all!

December: a Pre-kindergarten recital

2011-12-19T15:54:00.000-08:00

Maman nearly forgot about this event!

It was the beginning of December and we, the kids, had invited the parents in our classroom for breakfast. It was also time to share our singing skills.

Thanks to a parent who filmed the whole event, you can see me do multiple things:

- sing

- be one of the rare singers who actually uses all the hand motions we were taught to use.

- pick a booger out of my nose

- sneeze

- sing some more.

I actually did pretty good; you will also see that half the kids seem taller than me. Well, it turns out they are... although a lot are also already 5 and I will get there in 7 more months!

November: a photo collection...

2011-12-18T16:17:00.000-08:00

Yes, you read well, it does say "November".

See, although Maman spends a lot of time on her computer ( she claims it has to do with teaching but as far as I know, my teacher teaches in the classroom and not in front of the computer), she never seems to have time for my blog anymore.

So now that we are on a break, no more "teaching"excuse. Who knows when you might see the December entries though.

Anyway...

The model trains

November was full of fun things to share with you. I am still in love with trains and even discovered that there is another story line than Thomas: it's called Chuggington. It's on my list for Santa... but I'd better get my listening ears on because it looks like my presents might go into an holding area while I try to figure out how to not push every body's buttons all the time.

They keep saying "think outside of the box"but they don't really mean it, do they?

Portraits

If you need proof that I can be silly, here is a collection of portraits taken by Papa who is working hard at mastering new photography skills... and he has quite a subject at hand.

Some were taken in Klamath Falls were we had a fun short vacation in October and some at the train station.

Fun times with Tina and Darren

I had not seen Tina in a while and we were both very happy to spend time together. I got to meet her fiancé Darren and her 3 cats. I learned a new game: the burrito wrap game! It's really fun, see for yourself on the video. And do you know that a bass guitar is over 2 times my height. Darren showed me how to play. It's hard.

We sure had a fun day!

Air and Space

We went to the aviation and space museum and, whow, they have some great planes and rockets there. I learned a lot. A few days after the visit, I asked Maman where exactly was the hole in our atmosphere because I wanted to know if the rockets had created that hole when they were leaving and reentering our atmosphere.

Well, I stumped both the parents on that. They knew it was not the rockets that did that but we had to get home ( we were at a cool show from Do Jump) so that they could find that the hole is in the South Pole, right above Antarctica.

Cousins

I told you it was a packed month. Aunt Gail, cousin Brenna and cousin Ashley spent parts of Thanksgiving with us. Ashley and I were quite the little accomplices, running around the house and doing a lot of fun things. Papa took our portrait and we are lucky to be in the digital age where even if I am goofy, we can keep taking pictures until we get one good one!

Voilà! Now I am off to see Frosty the Snowman and we'll see you in the New Year!

Enjoy the Holidays!

The Halloween Knight

2011-11-05T17:44:00.000-07:00

Hello!
It took a lot of hours to create my costume this year. I helped Maman with cutting, folding, gluing and by making sure it was exactly how I wanted it to be.
It was a fun day at school being a knight, except they did not want me to use my sword. I wonder why...

Happy Fall everybody!

2011-10-25T20:46:00.000-07:00

Finally, the first period of school is over and we are on a break. Not that I mind going to school. I like my PK class and teachers. What I mind is the fact that Maman seems to have no time whatsoever for fun projects while school is in session. So, every time I ask to do something special, she always says " we will do it during the break".

Maybe she thinks that I will forget but on day 2 of the break, at 6:15am, I yelled from my bedroom that I had found the page. See, I had been telling her that I wanted to do a volcano experiment like I had seen in one of my books. And there it was, staring at me, the page with all the experiences.

I had also asked to go ice skating. Maman said that we should try roller skating first. I said I would do it if it was line skates. Maman insisted that line skates would be too hard at first. Pff, thanks for the vote of confidence. But, she did say that " we will do it during the break."

There were other things on my list that never quite made it to the list of things to do during the break: go see a steamy and ride one, go on a roller coaster, take a boat to go all the way to France crossing the Atlantic Ocean or fly to Russia to then take a train to Paris ( that's after we looked at puzzle map of the World and I was trying to figure out the many ways to make it to France).

So, I still got a little bit of things from my list including two playdates. One with my friend L. and the other one with my friend J. who even got to spend the night!

Enjoy the videos,

Noah

Chanteur et futur ingénieur...

2011-09-25T20:06:00.000-07:00

Hello,

I have been back at school for about 3 weeks now and I am enjoying PK. My teacher is fine but he does not seem to like it when I untie his shoes. Another adult with limited sense of humor!I have been enjoying all the singing that we do and I even find it in me to stop being weird for 5 minutes to sing 3 songs while being recorded.
In the second part of the video, you will see much having fun with a little experiment. See, Papa had a broken pipe issue in the bathroom upstairs and after a few minutes it started raining in the dining room. That was quite something to see. After getting rid of all the standing water upstairs and downstairs, Papa put the fan on the dry the floors. While Maman was cooking, I decided to attempt some fan experiment. See for yourself! It sure made the day bad experience into a great experiment time for me.

I am pedaling now!

2011-08-17T14:44:00.000-07:00

For my birthday, I got money with Grandpa and Grandma. After coming up with various ideas on how to spend it, I finally decided to buy my friend L's pedal bike. We are the same age but somehow not the same size so he needed a bigger bike.

My first trial on the bike was not so much fun since i never had a tricycle or anything with pedals and therefore I knew nothing about pedaling. After 5 days of trying with training wheels at the park, I decided that it was time to give the two wheels bike a real try.

So on August 12, Maman took me to the park, took the training wheels off, pushed me to get me started and there it was, I was pedaling.
I am mighty proud of it.

I was also brave at the doctor today where I got 3 shots and where I learned that:
- I weigh 34 lbs
- I am 38 and 3/8 inches high
- there is no shot to cure the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hide in me. What can I say, I like pushing buttons, physically and figuratively too!

Enjoy the video!

Week-end with family

2011-08-17T06:10:00.000-07:00

This past week-end, I got to see my Grandpa and Grandma, my aunt and my cousins. We had not seen each other for a year!
We had fun together and did yet another celebration of birthdays since the 2 girls and I have a Summer birthday.
Here is our week-end in pictures:

Mon anniversaire

2011-07-29T22:21:00.000-07:00

In the same day, I got to celebrate my birthday 2 times. How cool is it!

I had requested a steam roller for my birthday cake and Maman and I had worked hard to prepare it.
But the best thing is that, not only was my cake a steam roller but one of my gift was also a Rolly! That was exciting.
All my gifts were exciting actually. Now, I just have to find the time to play with all my toys, games. I have found a way to read the books: I wait until Maman leave my room after the goodnight kiss and then I sneak a book or two in bed with me. If it's dark, I turn on the light. Sure, I don't get as much sleep at night, but somebody has to read all those books right?

Now that I am 4, I can tell you a little bit more about me:
-I weigh 34.5 pounds
-I am 39 inches tall.
-I love riding my bike and told the parents that I plan to be in the Tour de France one day.
-I can never get enough books, stories, documentaries read to me and books are pretty much the only thing that can keep me quiet, especially if I get lost in a pile of them.
- I love anything that has wheels.
- Water is definitely my friend and after a Summer hiatus, I will be back at the pool soon.
- I am still the silliest kid on the block and sometimes it seems that I am the only one thinking that I am funny. The parents don't always have my sense of humor. They particularly don't get the potty humor. Adults are sometimes lacking a sense of humor.
- I get in trouble at least once every hour: adults have this things with rules that have to be followed... it's exhausting some days and it's much easier to ignore. Sure, I get sent to my room but after crying a few minutes, I promise to listen and act better ( they like that) and I am back to all my shenanigans again.
- I am very much a hugger and I tell my parents I love them at least 10 times a day.

Enjoy the show!
Noah René, the 4 year old kid

Birthday party with my friends

2011-07-29T22:19:00.000-07:00

I am 4, I am 4, I am 4.
I have been waiting for so long to say it!

I had 3 friends over + me = .... 4! Maman had prepared a treasure hunt and we were all our silly selves throughout the day. It was a great party and we even got to do an eatable-cars race: we all won and we all crunched and munched on those cars!

Thank you for coming my friends!

Le Parc de la Vanoise

2011-07-29T22:07:00.000-07:00

On our second night in Chamonix, it began raining really hard and it did not stop until the end of the next day... We had decided to head to the Parc de la Vanoise and to first spend the night in Bourg St Maurice at a campground. We even went to Italy for 30 minutes since we chose the fast way through the Tunnel du Mont-Blanc. An 11 kilometer long tunnel... that's quite something. The tunnel was the only dry place of the day though...

On July 14, we went closer to the entrance of the Parc de la Vanoise with very low clouds preventing us to see any views. The village of Champagny en vanoise was the perfect place to spend the night after our first hike in the parc: we got to see marmottes, deers and beautiful flowers and I was quite a good hiker again.

On July 15, our last day in the Alps, the clouds moved away and we were able to do a last hike on the beautiful and challenging trail that leads to Col de la Vanoise.
This time I decided to be in the pack. That is, until lunch time when the parents decided to stop near a little creek. I had of course a lot of energy to spend so I kept jumping from one rock to the other and inevitably, I fell in the cold water with my socks and shoes of course. Oups...

When we made it to the top, I got a little attitude sickness so Papa walked down fast to get me to feel better. An hour later I was my usual silly self...
Well, it was time to wrap up and head back to Brittany where we had two full days of rain but it was still fun. I discovered Maman's stash of legos for when she was little and I loved playing with them...

After a night in a hotel in Rennes, we were back at the airport and back in the plane where you won't believe what movie was on: "CARS"! I had been wanting to see that movie for so long. It was great!
29 hours of travel and we were back home with one week to go before my birthday!

Chamonix et l'Aiguille du midi

2011-07-29T21:59:00.001-07:00

On July 11, we left the peaceful settings of Le Mont for the very busy and touristic town of Chamonix.
We parked the camping car next to plenty others like us as we wanted to be close to the cabin that would take us to the top of the Aiguille du Midi, so close to the Mont-Blanc.
It was crowded for sure, but it was magical also.
Papa had read that crossing form the Plan de l'aiguille to Montenvers would be a very nice 45 minute walk to the train station of the Mer de glace. So, that morning, he had asked me if I was willing to walk or if he should take the pack. I opted for walking.
The problem is that once at the top, the signs were saying that it would take 2.5 hours to hike to the station.
The good thing: I was in a good mood and willing to walk, which I did for nearly 85% of the 7 kilometers. I was proud of myself and I got a well deserved ice-cream when we finally made it. We took the cool red train down the mountain and I waled yet another mile to the camping car. I was exhausted but it was a good day on the mountain with beautiful views ( I mainly liked the rocks and the little waterfalls but the parents told me that the Mont-Blanc and surrounding mountains were also great to look at).

Le Mont...

2011-07-29T21:51:00.000-07:00

On July 9, we headed to Le Mont, a little place up in the mountain, far from everything and very far from the wide roads... Oh boy, we barely made it all the way and were constantly crossing our fingers that no cars would come the other way. Well, a mere kilometer from our final destination, a poor woman was going down the hill while our camping car was taking the entire road going up. She had the hardest time backing up to the nearest field entrance in order to let us go through. Merci madame and, sorry!
Finally, we made it and we met Catherine, Juliette and Catherine's family.
We spent two serene, quiet and very nice days at their place. We tasted plenty of specialty from the region and everything was made from scratch. Miam!
I got to feed the chicken, swim in the lac de La Thuile, play with MY Juliette and I even got to give my postcards to the nice postman who came everyday to Le Mont.

En route vers les Alpes

2011-07-29T21:39:00.000-07:00

On July 5 we borrowed Yves and Françoise's camping car and we headed towards the Alps on the 6th.
I LOVED the camping car.
We stopped in Beaune for the first night and it was the beginning of plenty of nights where I did not go to bed before 10:30pm or so because there was always so much to do or see.
On the 7th, we made it to the Alps by 2:00pm and I did my first hike at the Col de la Colombière. We then zoomed to Les Contamines Montjoie to see our friends and spend a great evening with them.
We parked the camping car next to a river and I nearly got to spend the might outside of the camping car since I was quite tired by the time we were ready for bed ( 11:00pm!) and since I am also in a phase where I love pushing the limits... After a while it seemed like the parents were less and less patient with me. I wonder why? I mean, I was just ignoring their requests and waiting way past the 1,2,3 count down before reacting to their commands. Is that really a reason to get on my case?

But I also was really nice at times and on day 2 at the Contamines, I hiked to Aiguille Croche and met some very friendly goats. One of them ended up following me and somebody had to take it away back to it's herd otherwise I think it would have followed me to the camping car... It sure was a cute goat though.

On day 3, we hiked to Le Truc where Maman had often gone with Papi and Mamie. We got a great lunch at the refuge and got to hear all the cows with their bells. I was also lucky to meet newly born calves.

La côte bretonne

2011-07-29T21:36:00.000-07:00

While we were in Brittany, the weather was nice enough at first that we got to enjoy a few days at the beach along the Channel sea.

La famille française...

2011-07-29T21:28:00.000-07:00

Bonjour de France...
On June 29, we flew to France and then headed to the train station for my first ride in the TGV: I was quite excited about the TGV ride but since I had already been up for 20 hours, I did not get to see much of the scenery as I was sound asleep.

We started our trip to France in Brittany where Papi and Mamie live. There was a big family reunion where I got to meet a lot of people from Maman's family. We had a lot of fun and I ran around all days with my new friends and, as usual, I chose to go with the older boys.

It was a great day but too short to get to talk to everybody. As you will see, there was also dancing, with "musique bretonne" played by the very talented musicians in the family and it ended with a big fire.
Really fun time!

Back in time... April in Newport

2011-07-29T21:25:00.000-07:00

I am back from my trip to France and after dealing with a pretty bad jetlag for a week, Maman has decided to go back in time and finally archive some of the pictures from the last 4 months.
SO here is the first of 9 videos, yes 9...

In this video, I visit Newport and its aquarium and I make a special trip to OMSI to see the Submarine with Papa on father's day.
Aquarium+ Submarine+ OMSI... I am in Heaven!

My first stage performance

2011-06-19T16:58:00.000-07:00

This past Thursday I made my big debut on stage.
Our performance was called "No title" and me and 16 of my friends had fun dancing in front of over 300 people.
Now, we rehearsed and rehearsed and rehearsed prior to the performance and the teachers helped us come up with a choreography. Sure it was good, but as you will see in the video, I like to spice things up a little and I added my little touches here and there.
You need to know though that the teachers were not in front telling us when to switch from one move to the other so we need to be commended for listening to the music pretty well and knowing when to switch to the new move. Ok, it got a little bit chaotic at the end but overall, we did good.

You might notice that I seem to be about a head smaller than all the other ones. Sure, I am not growing fast, but all my friends have been 4 for quite a while now and I and two other girls are the only ones turning 4 later on this Summer.
Now you know everything so, enjoy the show!

Where have I been?

2011-06-11T07:39:00.001-07:00

Bonjour!

Do you want to know where I have been? Well, you did miss the episode of me going to Newport to see the aquarium but that will come at some point if Maman figures out how to get more hours in a day.

The story of my first year in preschool though has been a lot about my ears. Out of 10 months, I managed to be on antibiotics 7 times for ear infections until we all decided that enough was enough. My left ear tube was plugged so there was nothing to be done but change it.

We went back to the guy who did my first surgery but the poor guy had to have surgery for himself the day of my appointment. That was road block number 1. We then found another doc who recommended we remove the old tubes, place new ones in and while we were at it, remove my enlarged and often inflamed adenoids. The surgery was scheduled for May 26. I woke up that morning, got the only liquid I was allowed to have and asked to go back to bed… unusual… I got up 30 minutes later and the apple juice came back out. It turned out that I also had a fever of 102.4. A quick call to the anesthesiologist and the guy wisely decides to cancel the surgery. Road block number 2.

Well, by May 28 , after 2 days of high fever and hives all over my body, I was diagnosed with strep throat and scarlet fever also known as scarlatine. And here comes yet another round of antibiotics… and the surgery is rescheduled for June 10.

I get all better, go back to school, go back to my silly, goofy, lots of time-out mode and then, the antibiotics stop. That was June 6. That’s when Papa realized that we were supposed to give the antibiotics 2 times a day. See, my numerous previous rounds of antibio were always once a day and Maman did not even check. By June 8, I looked kind of funny and my teacher had to call Maman that morning to report a fever. Back to the doc who diagnosed that the strep throat was not gone and that yes, it could be because of Maman’s mistake but also because that particular antibiotic does not always work for strep. Great. A quick call to the surgeon: if the fever is still high on the 9^th, surgery will be canceled… Nooooooooooooooooooooooo…. Road block number 3.

On the 9^th , my fever is completely gone and I have a big breakfast, a sure sign that I am back to normal and ready to go to school. It also means that we get a green light for the surgery.

So finally, June 10 is here and we nearly had a road block number 3: I certainly knew that I was supposed to be on a liquid diet until 6:30am; as Maman was taking her shower and Papa was eating his breakfast, I sneaked in the pantry, closed the door and opened the bag of raisins. Luckily, Papa heard the noise I made with the bag and arrived just in time to remove from my mouth the handful of raisins I had shoved in there before I was able to swallow any... This was a close call... So, at 8:30am, to the hospital we go. By 10:00am they gave me the “happy” medicine and I gradually feel on a cloud. They rolled me in at 10:30am for a 35 minute procedure. I had told the parents that I would keep my eyes open during the entire surgery but, after inhaling the watermelon gas, I was gone for a while… By 11:25am, Maman was a wreck since this was a lot more than 35 minutes. By 11:30am they finally heard that everything went well and I was waking up in the recovery room. By 11:45am a nurse came to get the parents since I was having a tough time with the waking up process.

It turned out that I had what they call pediatric emergence delirium. Yes, it’s the delirium part that is interesting. I was screaming, thrashing and throwing things, I was trying to remove my IV and mainly, I was out of it and my eyes could not even track. When I saw Maman, she became an easy target for a hitting contest: I was hitting her really hard and nobody could touch me. That was a fun time they tell me. Finally, after 15 more minutes of this, Maman wisely backed away and talked to me firmly and I gradually came around. It still took another 10 minutes until I accepted to be touched. At that point, I got scared and could not be pried away from Maman. Oh boy, that was quite an experience and it’s a good thing that I had no outside or inside stitches that could have suffered from all that thrashing around.

I fell asleep for over an hour and woke up feeling all better, my voice a little hoarse but ready to devour the orange Popsicle they gave me. And, time to go back home it was. I ate normally, slept another 3 hours, had a great dinner and a comfortable night and woke up happy this Saturday.

Well, that’s where I have been… In less than 3 weeks, I will be flying to France where we all hope that there will be no need for antibiotics… That was quite a ride…

A slice of March

2011-03-27T07:05:00.001-07:00

March has been really, really wet and the forecast shows even more rain for the last 5 days of the month. It's getting a little old but at least I get a lot of use of my raincoat and my rubber boots.
In between the showers, I get on my bike and to the park we go... I love being a monkey and Maman is amazed that I have not yet broken any bones as I am a risk taker who often does not quite calculate the danger. As I say to Papa, I am a big boy now and I can do things that big boys can do. And big, I sure am: I grew 1/2 an inch since July of last year; I mean that's like more than 1 centimeter and Maman had to finally put the 18 months old pants in the "too small" pile.

Here is a little video for you where you can see me swim ( floating is still challenging!), sing,which never happens when the camera is on, and draw which never happens whether the camera is on or off. It's just not my thing and you will see my face when Maman suggests that I add a "net" to my drawing as to catch the "monster" that I just drew in 3 seconds.
Not every body has to be an artist you know... There are other things I like to concentrate on: I can wake up from my nap and ask to see a video of the inside of the cranial box ( in my French wording: boîte cranienne), or I ask how a space shuttle can be in "orbit"( my word) around the Earth.
I am also into reading; when Maman wanted to select whatever options she thought as healthy on the menu of the restaurant the other day, she was reading the list while showing it to me and she was passing a few items: I pointed to the word "pizza" and said "hey, you forgot "pizza", I want pizza".

Anyway, enjoy this slice of March and have a Happy Spring!

Fish... and Luge

2011-03-07T14:51:00.000-08:00

I went to see the documentary Deep Sea at the Omnimax a few weeks ago. It was quite fascinating and I learned even more about what happens in the deep ocean.
Towards the end of the documentary, they explain how we, humans, are not having the best impact on oceans and, as a matter of fact, they said that we are responsible for the disappearance of some species. That is when, in the theater, I exclaimed out loud: "This is sad, this is very sad".

So the other day, when we were having dinner, here is a dialogue we had with Maman:
- Mmm, Tuna is delicious. I like tuna.
- Well, tuna might not like you and there is another big fish that does not like us.
- The shark? yeah, because he eats tuna. But we can leave some for him. Or I can get other fishes, some that would like to be "ate"( eaten).
- You really think that there are fish that like to be eaten.
- No.... And I am going to say to the fishermen not to fish tuna anymore. I will go in the sea and I will say: stop fishing tuna and I will not eat fish anymore. No ( crosses fingers in form of an x in front of his face).
I can get rice and bean because they make me strong too. ( he wants to say that it's a protein too).

.... Ok , sliding on to another subject now...
We went back to Bend for a very fun week-end where I got to play with my friends and where I also enjoyed more snow time. This time my friends lent us two different slides and I had a lot of fun. See for yourselves...

La planète Jute

2011-02-23T11:26:00.000-08:00

I woke up one night because I had a nightmare/dream.
In the morning, Maman asked me about my nightmare/dream and since I told her in French, here is the translation in English.
First, you need to know that I spend my days wanting to read documentaries; right now, anything that has to do with Earth, planets and natural phenomenon is on top of my list.

- So what was your nightmare?
- I was in space... I was, I was an astronaut and I was allowed to go in space to visit the Planet Jute. Like the moon ( he means, you can visit it like you can visit the moon).
- You mean Jute or Jupiter?
- Planet Jute.
- What was on that Planet?
- Water
- You discovered another planet with water?
- Yes... two planets who were... who were in gas before but now they have water!
- So we could maybe go live on these planets?
- Yeah.

Playdate with my friend L.

2011-02-22T22:28:00.000-08:00

Playdates are fun.
Playdates can be crazy and wild.
Playdates are the best.
Thank you for coming to my house L.

3 et demi

2011-01-30T16:18:00.000-08:00

Just because...
Just because I am 3 and 1/2.

Here are some of my best Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde traits:

Noah Jekyll- I love to eat and cook and I can let a piece of dark chocolate melt in my mouth without biting because it's so much better that way.
Noah Hyde - I think that forks are the worse invention and fingers and hands are much better for eating; I have no problem sharing my food with the place-mat, the table, the chair and even the floor. Table manners? who cares.

Noah Jekyll - I love hugs and kisses and I need them when I am sad or hurt, or just like that.
Noah Hyde - I have had some ( few, thank you) pretty bad night terrors: do not even think about approaching me or you might get hurt. Do not even mention a hug or I will dismiss you with my guttural voice.

Noah Jekyll- I can sit for over 30 minutes with one book or a pile of books and you will not hear from me and might wonder where I am hiding.
Noah Hyde - I can sit pretty often on the reflection chair at school as I tend to forget to listen. Since my teacher is sometimes sarcastic he said to me as I was talking to the kids seating next to me: "Noah, do you mind, I am talking". Well, I answered: "No, I don't mind".

Noah Jekyll - I love to play; who doesn't? I can play with others, mostly my Ps' for long games of Uno or Busytown or I can work with them on puzzles of over 100 pieces.
Noah Hyde - I love to play MY WAY; the Ps call me the dictator. Not my fault if they don't really know how to play trucks and trains and construction games. They always do it the wrong way

Noah Jekyll - I want to put my shoes alone, I want to dress myself, I want to carry all my bags and even carry Maman's lunch box...
Noah Hyde - I scream for 30 minutes because there is no way I can put this pair of pants on by myself. Never mind that I did it yesterday, today I can't.

Noah Jekyll - I am curious and I love sciences and technology. I spend my days asking questions about dinosaurs, hurricanes, the type of life in the deep sea; I want to know how the electrons can move in the wires to transport the electricity; I want to read documentaries even if they are for 8 years old and up. I have also learned that if Maman does not know an answer she asks her friend google and we often find some cool videos; like a few days ago when I wanted to know all about chocolate and we found cool infos about the cacao plant and beans.
Noah Hyde: There are some days, if you speak to me you will hear only gibberish... and of course I discovered that poop and fart are fun words...

There it is...

An event worth recording.

2011-01-15T18:06:00.000-08:00

A coloring you say? Big deal you say again?
Well, for me it is. I have been in contact with crayons, markers and coloring material for as long as I can remember and yet those things have always left me cold. Plus, I had too much to do with my trains and trucks and books and puzzles.
Maman has been trying to show me how cool coloring and drawing could be; I would sometimes humor her by scribbling a few lines on a piece of paper but in fact i had absolutely no interest in it.
Then, last week, I was in Maman's office, looking at a workbook she has for school. It had some math coloring exercises where, if you color the addition facts the right way, you get a nice picture in the end. Well, that's what I wanted to do. Maman kept telling me it would be too hard but I insisted. I compromised a little by agreeing to do a coloring with a coding that would be more appropriate for my age group.
Maman was doubtful that this would last more than 2 minutes. She was wrong. I colored 20 minutes in a row, barely going outside the lines. I took a little break and came back to it and finished the whole thing.
Sure there are tons of better accomplishments out there, some that are even actually useful, but still, Maman and Papa were impressed so we decided to record the event... just in case i don't ever want to do it again :)

Snow Playtime

2011-01-01T23:15:00.001-08:00

Il fait froid! Well ok, it was way colder in Bend, but still, it's cold out there!
It was a fun snow time experience at the mountains even though the wind, snow and temperatures under 17 degrees Fahrenheit prevented me from showing off potential skills on skis. I know, I could be more modest but now you will never know if I am the future Jean-Claude Killy or not.
Wait until you see the video for something really cool we made with Papa!

As an aside, to show that kids are sometimes smarter than their parents, I will tell you a little story. One evening in the little house we rented in Bend, Papa and Maman decided that we should role play the "what if something happens to the adults and you, the child, need to call 911." Papa was the adult, I was the child, and Maman was the dispatcher. When I did the pretend call, Maman was asking me all sorts of questions and I was doing really great. But then, she asked me if I could give my address so that help could come. I stared at her blankly. She asked again, giving me hints "1-6-6...". I stared blankly again. See, I do know my address, I do but... here she was insisting, giving more hints... "Beaver...". I could not stand it anymore, I had to tell her since she could not figure it out: "But Maman, we are in Bend!".
Both parents looked impressed but, me, I am kind of worried and glad that I will be there to help them!
Enjoy!

Noël 2010

2010-12-26T18:11:00.001-08:00

He came...
There were rumors in my home that he might not come.
I was told that he does not like it when kids push their parents' buttons.
I was told that he was not too impressed with my daily goofiness.

Yet, he came. Santa.
It shows you that adult do not know much...
Thank you Santa, or Santas: because when I see my globe, there is no way that there can be only of you, and I said so to Maman.
Well, t'was a merry happy christmas and merci to all the Santas who made it happen.

An afternoon with Tina

2010-12-22T22:54:00.000-08:00

And the fun goes on for me as I spend a fun afternoon with Tina. Even the sun worked hard at pushing the clouds and the sun so we could enjoy a bike ride, a visit to the park, a stroll over the canal and some cozy fun inside too.
My favorite parts: playing with the cat and wrestling with Tina!

Playdates: from princess to truck player

2010-12-22T10:19:00.000-08:00

First, I had a playdate with my friend Juliette. We had fun with costumes, flashlights and playing piano. As you can see, I look quite cute in her princess outfit....

And, after asking for months, Maman finally set up a playdate with my friend B. It was really fun and since we are both quite goofy it was a lively playdate!

An unexpected Thanksgiving

2010-11-28T15:23:00.001-08:00

It was Wednesday morning and we had already begun the packing frenzy before heading to Spokane to spend time with family. That's before I woke up...
On Sunday, my left ear was bothering me a lot and we made a last minute trip to the doctor to get some drop antibiotics. Sure enough, my right ear got jealous and made it know to Maman by sending ugly smell signals on Wednesday morning. Another trip to the doctor for oral antibiotics this time.
We sure felt bad for Aunt Gail who spent so much time planning and cooking but we decided that a trip away from home would not be too good. Despite missing out on family fun, it's a good thing we did not go since I also starting coughing pretty bad. Let's say that my sleep pattern has been less than stellar ( even less than before, which says a lot) and once again, we all did not get the rest we needed.
Papa ended up preparing quite a delicious feast for us and, although my appetite has been on the decline, I must say that those cashew and ginger green beans were my favorite.
After we filled up with food and wine, well ok, after THEY filled up with wine, we decided to do a photo session to have a family pic to send to Grandma who was hoping for one.
We certainly were silly but luckily there is one good one of us.

In between boots of silliness, cough and sleep, it was also puzzle mania at home this week-end. It turns out that during parent-teacher conference I fooled my teacher into believing that I could do only 10 piece puzzles. When Maman said that, I had to go grab one puzzle after another and made them all in record time. Of course, I was making the 48 piece one without a problem.
But, hey, I am not ready to let my teacher know about that... he would make me actually work and I have too much to do playing as it is.
Here is a little video for you...

Halloween 2010

2010-10-31T08:46:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween to all!

Roaaaar!

The storyteller

2010-10-17T19:56:00.000-07:00

First School Picture

Hello,

Here I am again, a few weeks older and sometimes, not the wiser. Let's review the best of for this past week.
Let's start with Monday: I found the only mud puddle on the whole recess ground and got myself quite dirty. My teacher did not appreciate too much and once we were back in class, he told me to go change and clean up "dans les toilettes", which can literally be translated by "in the toilet". At least, that's how I understood it. So by the time I got to cleaning my shoes in the said toilet, the teacher became suspicious and was quite mad when he saw the mess I made. Next time, he will have to be more clear on what his definition of "toilettes" is.
On Tuesday, I was looking drunk most of the day. In fact it was fever and I spent the last hour of the day sleeping in the nurse's room waiting for Papa to get me. And yes, another ear infection and another yucky bottle of antibiotics.
On Wednesday, my teacher asked a group of us if we wanted to draw a picture. I said sure, why not. You have to understand that my teacher works hard at making us autonomous so when we agree on an activity, we have to find our own material. In this case, he said to get crayons and paper and to go draw on the blue table. Yes he said "on". Sure he had mentioned paper too but since I could not find any, I did what I was asked and drew... on the table.
My teacher is beginning to get that I am quite literal and he'd better think next time he gives me an assignment.
Anyway, it was a tough week and I was so tired that Papa got me at lunch on Friday and I slept 3 hours and 30 minutes for nap. Same on Saturday.
That school schedule is getting to me. One more week and we have a break, finally.

When I am at home, it's talk, talk, talk, non stop. I make up stories faster than the speed of light. This video is long but 1/2 of it I story-tell in English and the other half in French, so pick your half and enjoy the show!

Just added this Monday,October 18: I thought it would be fun to color my nose with markers. One more time, I seem to be the only one with a sense of humor. The pic was taken by my teacher after he tried to clean up most of the marker. And the week just started!

A day in September

2010-09-26T21:37:00.001-07:00

Can you believe it? It's already the end of September! Is this school thing over yet? I mean, I like playing and recess, and having fun with my friend B. but this "following directions and doing what I am told to do", not too much fun. But my teacher seems as stubborn as I am and he mainly wins the arguments. I seem to be doing a lot of reflecting time on the chair. Although my friend B. and I , we think that going on the chair is fun. There are 5 trouble makers in my class; that's what the teacher said to the Ps. And I am one of them.
Right now I like week-ends better and I also sleep better in my bed at nap time and thus, I am in a better mood.
This week-end we had one nice day and after swimming in the morning I grabbed my bike for a ride and some fun at the playground. Maman will take her bike next time too since she had to run after me most of the way.
At the pool, I am with two older girls who are towering over me. I try to impress them but they seem to think I am mainly goofy. Oh, I finally rolled over on my own in the pool so I am getting closer to moving up to the next level.
Ok, Maman is tired of typing and apparently tired of getting too little sleep for the past month so she is making me sign off.
Enjoy the video!

C'est la rentrée!

2010-09-11T14:16:00.001-07:00

September 8, 2010 was my first day of school. Boy, was I tired by the end of the day! Let's see for the recap:
- 6:30am, Papa woke me up and helped me get dressed
- 6:40am, Papa held me down while Maman put drops in my ears. See, two days prior ( during the labor day week-end, I was at the doctor and was diagnosed with an outer ear infection and I really, really do NOT like the drops).
- 7:10am, after breakfast Maman and I drove to the school
- 7:35am, Maman dropped me in the early arrival room with teachers Nadia and Rosario
- 8:15am, I am escorted to my classroom with my teachers Gilles and Edith.
- 11:45am, I had lunch with teachers Edith and Roxanne.
- 12:30pm to 2:00pm, nap time. I got maybe an hour of sleep.
- 3:15pm, end of class; I am escorted to after school care with teachers Jennifer and Rosa.
Seven, yes, seven adults in 9 hours.
Rinse and repeat for the next 10 months of this school year.
If I am lucky, Maman comes and gets me before 5:00pm. But I think I will not get lucky too often.
Those are looooooooooooong days. But I am happy to go, I have fun and I am already making friends. Jacob and I played ghosts with our blankets during nap time and it did not go too well with our teacher Gilles. The guy has no humor or what?

More school stories later... I need a good nap now. It's Saturday and I just came back from swimming. I missed it during the Summer and was a happy fish today!
Enjoy the cool, oh so cool September weather,
Noah

Summer is ending

2010-09-04T07:35:00.000-07:00

It looks like from now on, postings on my blog are going to go way down. See, as of last Monday, Maman is back at work and she seems to be running in circles ever since.

As for me, I spent the week with friends and I am getting ready to begin preschool in 5 more days. I mainly like the idea that I have my own kid size back pack to bring all my important things over there. Raccoon will of course make the trip to school every day with me. I was told that I will have to share two adults with 17 other kids. Not sure how's that going to work because when I will need them to read me a story, the other ones will have to wait, right?

We got to enjoy the Ocean when we went to Seaside to get Papa who had just finished the Hood to Coast race. His team finished 19 over all, out of over 1000 teams. Way to go Papa!

So, here it is, snapshots from the end of Summer on the beach. Breathe...Relax...

Fun filled week

2010-08-07T14:58:00.000-07:00

It's August already and the fun keeps on coming. I wonder why adults need to work: they are wasting precious time when there are so many opportunities for play and fun out there.
I mean, just take a look at the past week;
On Monday, I went to a water park with my friend Juliette and we ran around so fast through those water fountains that Maman could not even get a decent picture.

On Tuesday we met with Juliette again and we had a blast at a park that has rides and rides and more rides. You can see the pics of the ones I rode on alone but, to the chagrin of Maman, I am a thrill seeker and LOVED the fast and crazy rides; she had to ride with me on those though.

On Wednesday we left for a 3 day camping trip at Lost Lake. Do you like camping? I love it and so does Papa. Maman? Not such a great fan but she made it despite being the only one bitten by all the flies and bugs. The weather was great so it helped...her!
As for me, I was dirty from head to toe after 5 minutes out of the tent but it showed I had fun right?
I learned all kinds of things too: we found crayfish, salamanders and a lot of chipmunks. And what about those butterfly-shaped flowers? Beautiful.
Since I am an avid reader of signs, any signs, the campground's posts were great and I had to stop at each of them and I would exclaim out loud: "It's number 3 and it can have 5 people and 1 car". Bike riding around the A Loop took us quite a while since I had to stop at each sign but hey, I got to review my numbers.
I also wanted to help, all the time; but you'll see that on the video.

Next week, it's music camp! The fun never stops!

It's a birthday party!

2010-07-29T22:13:00.000-07:00

What a day it was and I got really spoiled! You'll see some on the video but the last picture shows all my loot and all my new great books.
And what about the cake? Exactly what I asked for and every thing was eatable.. well, "is" eatable since Maman did not like my idea of eating the locomotive and the 3 train cars in one setting. I am telling you, the tracks were yummy too and so was the gravel that Maman put in my cereal this morning.

I also decided to try some singing that day and created a piano piece. You can hear all that and more on the video.
Merci to all for the cool cards, wishes and gifts!

Three years... through the eyes of Noah

2010-07-28T21:55:00.000-07:00

There are different ways to celebrate one's birthday; I chose to celebrate mine by going to the dentist for my first x-rays and cleaning. And you can ask the radiologist, the dental hygienist and the dentist, I definitely behaved like I had grown today: yep, I am 3!
The day finally came and it was a lot of fun; you will get to see part of it tomorrow but first, here is me, growing in front of your eyes during this 3 minute slide show.
Thanks a bunch for the great birthday wishes I received today. I will write later but right now, I decided to snooze since tomorrow is another exciting day at the zoo!

A week in Grand Teton National Park

2010-07-21T20:09:00.001-07:00

After a week in Montana, we headed to Wyoming for yet another road trip. Shorter certainly but whow, the thunderstorms were impressive. What? Oh, Maman said that I actually slept through all of it but I still remember the thunder.
After a first chilly day, we had great weather at our 6100 feet destination. So many fun things. Maman and Papa seemed really excited about seeing the mountains every day; sure they are impressive but what about all that water every where, and the sticks, and the rocks. Way more cool.
I did enjoy the rides in the backpack again but it seems that Papa's shoulders and back did not quite appreciate them as much.
I really, really, really wanted to ride the tram, so when the day finally came, I was very excited. It's breathtaking. Of course the parents had to do a 10 miles hike from up there at 10 000 feet when all I wanted to do was go up and down: hey, it's free for kids under 5 so they could have left me there. On the plus side, there was a lot of snow on the trail and I got to throw some pretty good snowballs! Splash!

Two videos of that trip for you; the second one has all the good pics in a slide show.

The pictures:

Animals are everywhere

2010-07-21T20:04:00.001-07:00

During the trip, we saw quite a bit of animals or at least animal traces. I am getting good at finding the poop kind of traces!
There were animals we saw but did not have the camera or were not quick enough. A lot of different birds, deer and a moose are not featured, but we saw them!
My encounter with ant hills was pretty good except for the part where I stepped on one and they came crawling all over my body. Maman had to remove all my clothing to get them out. Those things can bite you know!
Maman made this little video for me mainly because it contains bugs and I am totally into bugs right now. I just checked out 2 books about them at the library today.

A week at Grandpa and Grandma's in Montana

2010-07-21T19:53:00.000-07:00

We are back!
That was quite trip and I spent a LOT of hours in the car. Good thing Maman brought about 75 of my books to keep me entertained.
There were a lot of experiences in Montana: playing along the river that runs on edge of the property, helping Grandma in her garden, running around with my cousin, seeing dear, getting ants all over my body and tasting all the great food Grandma made.
So here is the first video of our trip!

Early rise and great show

2010-06-27T16:44:00.000-07:00

Would I choose to get up at 4:45am? No. Was I excited when Maman woke me up at the said time? Amazingly, yes; and you know why? That's because we were heading to the Festival of Balloons, a mere 20 minutes from home.
We got there at 5:30am, just in time to see the first balloon being blown with air: cold air first and warm air second; wow, you should see the flames shooting up high! Impressive.
It was quite a show I must say and my parents are letting you know that the pictures don't give credit to the ballet of balloons up in the blue, super blue sky of this morning ( yes, it was today!). But we still invite you to share the moment.
And if you wonder why Maman had the time to load the pics, sort them, arrange them, find music, make the movie, export it, upload it and all? That's because I am on a nap marathon, finishing my 3rd hour! Yes, Maman, you can thank me later.

I certainly learned a lot of new things today and this is maybe why, as we were playing in the yard later on I said to Maman:
- What does "blind" mean?
- Well it's somebody who cannot see.
( this was followed by a few more questions and...)
- Maman, what do the other words mean?
- What words?
- All the ones that are in my head.

Enjoy!

A father's day week-end

2010-06-21T21:18:00.001-07:00

This was another great week-end. We had family visiting and it was fun to play with Ashley and Brenna: we had sort of a baseball game going in the backyard, a cool story time with Papa and a funny breakfast conversation. I thought I was funny but my cousin Ashley is even sillier... hear her talk about wagging her tail!
It was Father's day too and Maman and I decided that Papa would love to have 15 yards of mulch delivered just for him. Maman and I helped him a little bit but it took him the whole week-end to make the pile disappear. Luckily on Sunday, I found some ripe strawberries in our yard and I made a delicious pie for Papa... and for me too of course!
I have a cool Papa! He is a little crazy too: after shoveling mulch and pushing wheelbarrows all week-end, he still did a race tonight to celebrate the first day of Summer which, by the way, was as warm as a first day of Spring. Brrrr.
Enjoy the video!

I am a big boy now...

2010-06-17T14:08:00.001-07:00

In a little over 40 days, I will turn 3! I must be growing right? Don't be fooled by the fact that I am 35" tall and still wearing some 18 months old pants; there are other obvious signs that growing is going on:

- Take the high chair: it's gone. Man I was sad to let it go. It was my table quarters for over 2 years and I felt like the ruler of the universe in it. Sure, the new sitting arrangements are good too but it comes with way too many rules. I mean, do you know about M.O.P.? I bet you don't. It's the first acronym I am learning (after TGV that is): it means "Mouth Over Plate"; it can also become M.O.T. ( mouth over the table). All I can say is, I am trying but the parents are hard to satisfy.

- Now, what about my crib? That thing had been my pad for even before I can remember. Apparently, that had to go too. I am telling you, this growing thing means letting go of a lot of the stuff you are attached to and, since I am pretty much attached to routines, it has made me do some crazy little dances. All is good now and after falling only once from the big bed, I dig it. You can see that on the slide show.

- The biggest growth has to be my brain though. Not saying it's for the best as it looks like my figuring out that I can have a lot more say in what's going on, has not been met by tons of approval by the parents. They will certainly credit me later for keeping them in shape and for keeping their brain active. Look, I can fire a thousand "why" questions each day and still, they answer.

Well, there it is. Growing up is fun and I cannot wait to be an adult: I am keeping a list of all the fun things that are around me right now but that my parents say or for adults only. I have the feeling, some days, that I am being tricked so I am keeping my eyes open; although I have yet to see a kid drive a car.

Week-end In Yachats

2010-06-03T22:46:00.000-07:00

Since I came back from France, the weather has been very interesting in these parts of the World. Let's say that in the past 20 days, it has rained a little bit or more likely a LOT every single day. The grass is certainly green but one has to be sneaking the mowing part in between showers...
We were not hoping too much that the weather would be dry for our 3 day trip to the Pacific Coast and, indeed, it rained but never when we were out and about! We even got to enjoy briefly what should be a daily dose of warm sunshine this close to Summer.

We had a fun filled week-end though and my friend Juliette and I were as happy as clams in a bowl. We had many adventures in the backyard of our vacation residence, on the beach, in a very cool forest and on a hike to a lighthouse.
Well, see for yourselves!

What a month!

2010-05-19T15:47:00.000-07:00

I am back!
And you thought you were finally done watching lengthy videos; well, get ready, because from April 20 to today, it has been pretty busy.
Our trip to France was really great and my head is spinning just thinking about all the things I did and all the people I met. We were barely back that we then went to Bend to cheer Papa during his Pole Pedal Paddle race- by the way, his team won the overall team race; not bad for 45 and over!-
Anyway, Maman and I have been trying to deal with the jet-lag this week and she has been working like crazy to put our fresh memories in videos... 5 of them total so it might take you a while to go through them, but, as always, they are also for us to enjoy.
But before we begin the video roll, I have to give you a little explanation as to why my head looks somehow weird on some pics. It turns out that I was having too much fun and met quite strongly with a very hard wall. It's better after a month, but it is still not quite back to normal. I guess I can brag that my first big bump was in France. For the visual, see the pic below and don't hesitate to click on it if you want to really say "ouch".

Now, let's begin the tour. Oh, by the way, a week before flying to France, I decided to be potty trained day and night and I am now wearing underwear all day and waking up Maman during the night so I can go potty - I wonder what those dark circles are under her eyes?- In this first video, I invite you to St Brieuc where I stayed with Papi and Mamie and had a lot of fun riding my bike ( that I brought with me), playing, reading, eating, trying my tennis skills and goofing around with Papi.

While I was in St Brieuc, thanks to a very sunny first week, I spent a lot of time at the beach with my cousins and had all sorts of fun trying to do exactly what Malo, 7 year old, was doing. I tend to like older kids better and Maman is a little worried that I might do about just anything they try, like climbing big rocks!
The beach is mainly for getting sand all over you, for splashing and falling in the water...I also went fishing: Oh boy, that was fun.

After a week of fun at the beach, it was time to explore the countryside and I am so lucky that Tonton Daniel and Tati Annie have a farm. Feeding the donkeys, getting fresh eggs, seeing the pigs were all great but my best experience ever was riding the tractor. A real TRACTOR! I was ready to move in the farm after that plus, I had a very good time with Tonton Daniel too!

I had many other experiences like being on Jean-Pierre's boat, riding Simon's motocross, finding a 7 year old French girlfriend named Gabrielle and having plenty of silly fun time with Louna in her very cool backyard. There were other places we went but Maman was so busy talking sometimes that she forgot her camera. Take a look...

So we came back late evening on Wednesday the 12th and we packed our bags and left for Bend on Friday after Maman spent all Thursday cooking since we were going to share house and food with 14 people. It was hot and sunny and I got to play with my 8 year old American girlfriend, Keely. Her brother is great too because he let me borrow his very cool trucks. I also got to tackle their big sister!
The best part of Bend, aside from the trucks, was my first canoe ride with Papa, right on mirror pond which was at the foot of the house we were staying in. Very nice: the house and the ride. I even stayed still for the whole ride.

Well, it is finally the end. I hope you enjoyed it... with moderation.
Until my next adventure at the beach at the end of the month,
Your friend
Noah René
PS: I have now officially entered the "why?" phase after 6 months of "what is this?". Now that I have the two going, Maman seems to get more and more thirsty. Too much talking maybe?

Counting: the visual

2010-03-31T15:09:00.000-07:00

Papa's first question to Maman after listening to the " 32 and counting" video was to ask if the sound file was edited: could it be that I had just been saying the words one by one and, with the magic of editing, made it sound like I was counting ?
It was just enough skepticism to get Maman to bring the video camera out and give Papa the visual proof.
Enjoy!

32 months and counting...

2010-03-30T09:20:00.000-07:00

32 months, that's how old I am and I am attempting to count that high. I seem to have a great start until 10 in both languages but then, as you will hear, I am a little bit creative.
I have been busy this past month and I can now add " washing car" to my list of chores and gardening, which both end up with a full bath for me too.
Enjoy the sound file and the pictures!

Reading GO DOG GO

2010-03-20T09:48:00.000-07:00

I love books. I really do and I spend quite a bit of time with them. Lately I have enjoyed a lot of audio-books; I listen to "I'm dirty" about 6 times a day ( it's not a favorite of the Parents) and that's after my "Tubby the tuba" phase, where I requested the book probably 3 to 4 times a day. Right now, I also enjoy this cool audio-book: "A frog thing" which Maman seems to like too.

Maman decided to record me while I was reading "Go Dog Go" another one of my favorites. Now, you'll see that I tend to read story fast, which means that I read only a few pages from the book.
Maman also wanted to add a little translation of things you might not understand:
- "the tile of the book"- yes, I meant to say the TITLE.
- "the umpire, the catcher and the number"- you get it, the last one was meant to be the batter!
- and sometimes I do say things in French since Maman was next to me.

En route to OMSI

2010-03-13T14:29:00.000-08:00

En route to OMSI, where 2 year-olds have the attention span of fruit flies... that's what the title should read according to Maman.
In less than 2 hours in the Oregon Museum of Sciences and Industry, I did manage to do over 40 activities, most of those recorded on camera.
I sure have fun in that place and, I might have looked like a fruit fly, but I was watching the bazillion groups of elementary kids that descended on the museum that day and their attention span did not seem much better than mine; I am just saying.
Enjoy!

Ephemeral Art

2010-03-06T15:20:00.000-08:00

A year and half ago, when I first discovered the joy of painting, I had no idea how much fun it would really be. Somehow though, my idea of a finished product and Maman's idea of a finished product changed along the way. She had this weird idea that she was going to frame whatever came out of my creative brain. Nonsense, right?
So here it is, just for you, my idea of Art. Maman calls it Ephemeral Art or how you will not see any of my paintings anytime soon in a gallery near you.
Enjoy!
PS: don't be alarmed if you think that the video is doubling in speed towards the end, it's to avoid boredom...

Le pigeon et l'écureuil

2010-03-04T21:12:00.000-08:00

Do you know that Spring colors are about a month early here? Check the collage above: it's me holding my first flowers of the season in 2008, 2009, 2010.

While we are waiting for the video software, Maman decided to play with her new toy: a digital voice recorder. She can now spy on me while I go on and on and well, it's more spontaneous and less obvious than when she tries to get the video camera out. So here is a little piece for you and since it would be boring with just the sound, there are also pictures taken in the last few weeks.
Oh, it's in French so here is a little synopsis of the story if you are not yet fluent in French, which you should all be by now, right?
The pigeon ( the stuffed version from Mo Willem's books) and the squirrel.
- The pigeon is a bird and birds walk... and come see us.
- And what else can they do? He can prick...
Really, why? Because they have beaks.
- And how is the beak? This one is not sharp
- It's not sharp? No.
- And what else can they do? They can fly
- Ah, why, what do they have? Wings, they have wings; They have eyes, they have EYES
- How many? Two
- And you? Two
( Seeing the squirrels outside)
- Look...they are gone...the squirrels
- Where are they? Well, they left... THERE...THERE... there.
- What are they doing? They are going down, down, down... he goes in our house.
- Is that a good idea? No
- Where do squirrels live? In the tree, so that he does not go in our house.

The Stuntman

2010-02-23T07:43:00.000-08:00

Maman is still dealing with the aftermath of having her last computer crash; getting the new computer: easy. Getting all the software to work on Windows 7: a pain.
So here is a video that is not quite yet up to standards.

I have really been enjoying my bike lately. I even took it on a MAX excursion and rode on the waterfront. Fun! I cruise with my feet up most of the time and yes, I take some risks too. I am good at balancing but not so good at using the handlebar for navigation purposes as you will see in the video. My majors stumble looks painful but amazingly, I do not have a single scratch from it. Thank goodness for my helmet with a visor though, or I think my nose would have been flattened.
Enjoy and be assured that I was not hurt in the process!

Chores... Corvées

2010-01-19T21:12:00.000-08:00

Unbelievable.
Here is the proof that I am being exploited in my own house.
Yes, all day long, I have to do chores after chores.
Now, just between you and me, I LOVE chores. The other day I was chanting "I love vacuuming" and I stopped when I saw the big smile on Maman's face.
My favorite chore: cooking. You get to play with big machines, you get to make a mess AND you get to eat the result of your work.
Side note: It's only because I take cooking so seriously that Maman let's me handle what could be seen as pretty dangerous tools.
Enjoy!

Jeux de Neige

2009-12-31T17:49:00.000-08:00

We took my sled and to Bend we went.
The snow came down and I thanked the sky.
Snowsuit and boots, gloves and a hat
It kept me warm on the slippery slopes.

It was a fun way to end the year
And I am happy to share the joy
With a bilingual production:
An English video followed by French commented pics

Happy New Year to all,
Noah

PS: Maman and I are practicing our Mother Goose rhymes; you will hear that she is not doing that great

Christmas Morning 2009

2009-12-26T10:18:00.000-08:00

I don't know which way Santa came in but he ate the cookie and had his milk too. I still doubt that it was through the chimney. I told Maman that he probably used the door.
This said, he left me a pile of presents! My head was spinning from tearing the paper to trying to play with all the new stuff at the same time. I think I was spoiled, again. I love all of it, although I must confess to mainly wanting to play with my new trains and making up stories all day, using a variety of voice tones. Fun!
I also went on a bike ride with Papa. It was quite cold out there and I seemed to be the only kid out. I was ready for my nearly 3 hour nap after that!
When I woke up, Papa, Maman and I watched "The Polar Express". My first ever movie and I can tell you that I LOVED it. I was enthralled and my entire body was living the movie. From the drooling to my eyes watering because I would not close them at all, to my reactions to what was happening ( clapping, saying "oh, no"), it was really worth watching me too! Really great movie and that train, boy I want to ride it next Christmas!
Today we are packing to go the mountain with my new luge. Yippie!
Enjoy the video and hear me sing too!

Christmas Wishes

2009-12-22T15:37:00.000-08:00

What? I have not regaled you with a new video for over a month? I must say that I have been busy being the King of the house. Well, I have been trying at least. My subjects have strong opinions and I have a hard time getting them to see the world through my lenses. I mean, really, are all those rules necessary? At least I have a strong ally in Calvin ( from C.alvin & H.obbes). The kid cracks me up.

Now, I have been told about a bearded guy called Santa who is supposed to come through the chimney to give me presents. I have explored our fire place a few times and I can tell you that there is no way the guy can do it. A few weeks ago, I still wrote a letter though, you never know. I am into trains this year so Maman helped me write down some of my favorites*. All of them if you ask me, but she said I had to "share". That's right, "share". Another weird concept the parents came up with.

Since we are not seeing most of my family during the Holiday season, I am using the video medium to send wishes to all of you. Oh boy was I silly when we were doing the shoot. But hey, that's who I am! This morning I woke up, announced that I was a goofball and exploded in laughter. ( thanks Papa for teaching me the word!)
So, I don't know what your wishes are for the Holidays but I am pretty sure that my parents are hoping for a book on "how to keep your patience when you have a 2 year old king in your house".
Hugs and Kisses to all and enjoy the video,
Noah

*just so that you know, the letter was not re-read since it was written two weeks ago.

Silly swimmer

2009-11-02T21:45:00.000-08:00

Three and a half months have gone by since the last swim class video so we thought that we would show you how I was doing now.
Maman chose the Monday after Halloween to do that and even though I did not get any candy to eat, I might have inhaled the sugar in the air as I was acting a little bit wild during the whole class.
But really, aside from the goofiness, I also swim in this video. Take a look.

Halloween 2009

2009-11-02T13:44:00.000-08:00

I am sad to report that Halloween is over. I had fun though.
I wanted to be a knight, then a King, then a knight/king. I mainly wanted a sword.
Maman looked around in the house and she made everything from scratch: the hat was already mine, then came the thin cardboard paper for the crown and a left over gold paint from another project. The tunique is made out of old curtains left by the previous owners of the house and the decorative part is made out of a left over fleece blanket that Maman made.
The sword is cardboard, a piece of wood, aluminum foil and transparent tape and voilà.

I was ready to conquer back the castle as you can see on the flickr slide show below ( to see it full size, go directly to flickr and select the slide show in the Halloween folder).
I did not get to trick but I got to treat a lot of people with candy. I don't know, but it only seems fair that I get to do that too no? Apparently the parents were not yet ready to let me eat my weight in candy. Hopefully, next year, they won't find another trick to get me away from that sugar wonderland.

Fall day with Tina

2009-10-31T16:07:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went to see Tina and we had a lot of fun.
We read my favorite book of the moment, a Thomas the train book of course, and then we went to the park. We sure had fun; first we played on the play structure and then we took my bike for a ride. I was trying to catch Tina and she made me laugh by sticking her tongue at me. We stopped for a game of hide and seek and I was screaming and laughing really hard. Although I want to play hide and seek I am always trying to get the person to stop because I am always scared that they might actually disappear.
The most fun we had was when we went back to the playground and Tina showed me how to make the best splashes in ankle deep water puddle. Let's say that it's good Maman had brought an extra pair of pants for me!
All this exercise got us hungry and we enjoyed a good meal and also met Steve who is Tina's very nice boyfriend.
If you want to see my day, look at the slide show below.

Sad day for trees

2009-10-28T15:36:00.000-07:00

Parents are interesting creatures. Take mine for example. They get all bent out of shape if I get too much paper out of the roll when I am on the toilet. Granted, I love unrolling that stuff and making a mess out of it but still. I always get the big lecture about how paper is made out of trees and how I am not supposed to waste paper because, get that, we don't want to kill too many trees and blah, blah, blah...
So this morning, imagine my surprise when Maman excitedly extracted me from the comfort of my bed to tell me that today is tree cutting day. Yes, that's right. We are not talking about a few sheets of toilet paper here, we are talking 3 full grown trees on the side of the house.
Sure it was exciting to see the guys climb those trees ( I think I got some great ideas) and the crashing and grinding of branches and all was fun for sure. But really, I am getting mixed messages here.
Now, I am just waiting for my next opportunity to unroll that toilet paper: I am ready with my speech if they even attempt to tell me about killing trees.

Note from the Maman: hum, yeah, ok, well, humm. See, those trees were really hugging the house a little too much and clogging the gutters and all and... we will plant some more, 'kay?

Fall Bike Ride

2009-10-17T08:49:00.000-07:00

I got my strider bike in late June and I really like it. At first I was not so sure but now I can go pretty fast. Maman has to run to keep up with me. Well that is when I don't stop to pick up a stick or read a sign or even talk to the frog that we had the chance to meet on our last nature trail trip.
Anyway, Calvin ( that's the name I give to my bike) and I are having a lot of fun and I am very close to balancing. I already put both feet up. Downhill is the most fun although I was glad to have a helmet a few weeks ago when I tumbled down.
So follow me through the wood on a very rainy, windy Fall day.

Reading with Papa

2009-10-12T13:36:00.000-07:00

My first language is French but for those of you who were beginning to doubt it, here is a little video that shows that English is a close second.
I am into trains right now. Big time. I am trying to get the parents to buy me some but it does not seem to work. As a matter of fact, here is a discussion I had with Maman after reviewing my Thomas the train booklet for the 15th time ( translated from French):
- Maman, I want to buy all the trains in the brochure.
- Oh, really.
- Yes. Ok, let's go to the store.
- We need money to buy all those though; do you have money?
Goes to his toy cash register and comes back:
- I want to buy all the trains.
- Well, I don't have the money. To get money you need to work.
Looking at me as I am cleaning dishes:
- Maman is working.
- Yes, but that's the kind of work where you don't get money. Papa gets money when he works and I do too when I go to school.
- Maman, I want a job to have money.

Well, I did not find a job so I'll have to be happy with just two engines and some tracks, and all the stories and books I can get about trains. The one that Papa is reading is from the library and this is the second time I borrow it. You will see that I have had Papa read it to me quite a bit.
It is not the entire story; Maman made some cut, otherwise it would have been an 11 minute video. Oh and, if you think I speak funny, that's because the video was taken yesterday and my nose is still quite plugged from my cold.
Enjoy!

PS: maman thinks that I have quite an accent in English. What do you think?

Creative painter

2009-10-10T13:48:00.000-07:00

This week, I had my first cold of the season and I was nice enough to share with Maman. So, even though the weather was really beautiful out there, we did some activities inside. If it was me, I would paint everyday, twice a day even. I love it. Maman would do without the set up and clean up involved, but she can see that I enjoy it. She sometimes try to be sneaky when she suggests activities we could do: "Noah, would you like to play with play-dough, glue, cut, paint,draw with crayons...". Ha, I still heard "paint" in there.

Anyway. I have been painting since I was 1 and you would think that by now I would be making masterpieces. Not quite yet. Master messes for sure, those are fun. I can easily spend 30 minutes on a project and by the end of the 30 minutes it looks like nothing at all but a big blob of colors smeared on paper. If you just look at the finish product you might wonder how I could have had fun producing it. Well, Maman recorded my latest 30 minutes session this week and tried to condense it so that you would not snooze by the end of it.

Here it is, the truth behind my Art.

Our Crater Lake Camping adventure

2009-09-14T21:49:00.000-07:00

Summer has been crazy busy with tons of activities for me. So many fun things and already too little day light to do them.
We are back from our week of camping. I LOVED IT. ALL of it. My parents on the other hand seem a little tired and Maman seems to like rustic life only for a little while.
But the outdoors are so much fun to explore and you would think that the sky is the limit right? Well no, out there too the parents had to set up a whole bunch of rules. They did give up on preventing me to dig in the dirt and I was a filthy mess by the end of each day.
Sleeping in the tent: great fun. Especially waking up at 7:00am and talking non stop until the parents finally opened their eyes. But really, I slept every night in my sleeping bag, not even trying to crawl out of it.
We also explored Crater Lake and Maman explained to me all about it. Every day I chanted "Let's go to the Lac du Crater, the volcanic volcano". Yes, chanting; it's a pretty knew thing but I like to sing and make up all kind of songs.
There are only pictures of this trip because Maman brought the video camera but, silly her, she forgot to charge the battery. I told her to use the one from one of my now favorite thing, a flashlight ( or lamplight as I call it), but it wouldn't do.

You will still get the spirit of the trip if you look at the slide show. Since Daddy was not home when we worked on the video, I narrated in French again.
Enjoy!

Camp Lolo 2009

2009-09-06T06:53:00.000-07:00

Last week was Camp Lolo at my house. My French friends Etan and Juliette came for a week and we had a lot of fun together. Ok, I was a tad possessive with my toys and with Maman, but overall, we got along. We visited 3 different parks and even had a picnic.
We spent a little bit of time in the car, long enough that we all made up a song that we ended up singing every day. It's in French of course and it has a lot of rhymes.

Don't wait anymore and watch for yourself: hear me sing the song, narrate the slide show ( I know, it's in French- next time I'll do an English narration) and tell my first knock-knock joke ( in English this time).

Maman did not take her camera all the time so it's only a small part of our busy week.
Enjoy!

Deux Ans

2009-08-02T06:29:00.000-07:00

I am two
J'ai deux ans!

My birthday was on July 28. And you know what? Birthdays should happen more than once a year. I got to have a special dessert, my first ever ice cream dessert with wheels that Maman made just for me!
And then came all the presents: I was really spoiled but let me tell you: I LOVE all my presents. Merci friends and family for making my day very special!

At two, I get to whine, a lot, when things don't go my way and, although I love to eat, eating time has become a time for experiments: pouring milk on plate, squishing food in my hands, banging my fork very loud on the plate. I am the only one that seems to think that all those things are fun. Parents can be so boring sometimes.

I talk non stop now and I go from French to English in a second, telling my Daddy "Parle en français"( Speak French) when I don't want to answer in English. Or sometimes I speak in English to Maman; she makes believe that she cannot understand me but, come on, I know she can. I read books aloud to myself or to my parents when they are done reading me the same story 10 times in a row, and I like to make up stories too.

Aside from books, my favorite things of the moment are trains, and basically any type of truck or anything with wheels. I am still a huge fan of puzzles and I got a new 35 piece Thomas the train puzzle and with Maman sitting next to me, I have no problem doing it.
I have tons more to explore in the coming months and years. Growing up sure gets more exciting every single day!
Enjoy!

Bits and Pieces

2009-07-22T14:21:00.000-07:00

Bonjour,

Summer is a really fun time. So many things to do outside.
So follow me as I get to:
- climb
- slide
- swing
- observe
- mow the lawn
- lead a game of loto in French; and yes, I did the 24 cards all by myself; granted the cards are all about things that go and, well, they are so cool, right?
- ride my strider bike; 3 weeks into it and I am getting better already, even trying some off road to impress the skateboard dudes that just passed by me.

Enjoy!
PS: the captions are in English at the top and in French at the bottom, in case you were wondering.

Swim Lesson

2009-07-17T14:38:00.000-07:00

Bonjour!
Since my old pool closed, we had to find a new one. After a few weeks at the new pool I moved to a new type of class: me, alone in the water with 3 other kids. The class is for 30-36 month old kids and my 3 other classmates are 2 1/2 and 3 years old. So yeah, at 23 months, I do look small in there but I am not too bad at listening to what Molly, my teacher, asks me to do.
As you will see though, once it's my turn, I am not too kin on going back on the wall once I am in the water.. and tiny little things tend to distract me a little: like Megan holding a fish in front of my face or Anthony removing his googles.
I also decided that removing my ear plugs and throwing them in the water was fun... Maybe not so for Molly who had to get them at the bottom
But I have definitely made some progress and, the most important part, I still LOVE being in the water.
Enjoy!

PS: Again, Maman has to remind you that extremely poor video quality is due to heavy compression on the part of youtube. Our original looks tons better.

Papi et Mamie en Oregon

2009-06-27T13:40:00.000-07:00

My Papi and Mamie came all the way from France to spend time with us. We explored all the parks in Portland, went for walks, went to the beach and just had fun being home and playing. I had two more person to read books to me so I was happy camper.

They have been gone for 4 days now but I still ask where they are : "Où es tu Papi? Où es tu Mamie?" I sure miss them.
So here is a little video recap about their 3 week stay.

Week-end in Bend

2009-05-30T08:22:00.000-07:00

In the middle of May, Daddy took part in the Pole Pedal Paddle relay race in Bend. His team won in their age group and they had fun.
I had a lot of fun too, but not a the race. Our friends' house is like a toy store and I could not stop running from one thing to the other.
Now, I can also say that I have crush on Keely. So what if she is 6 years older than me. We had fun together and she was very nice with me. I now need to say goodnight to her picture every night; I sense that Maman is using this little crush as her advantage because when I don't want to eat something or do something, she says "I bet Keely would do this", and sure enough, I fall for it and eat whatever is on my plate or do whatever she wants me to do.
So here is for Keely, a little video of our week-end!

Noah l'explorateur

2009-05-13T13:31:00.000-07:00

Zion Canyon National Park was our destination for this vacation. It is an amazing park! Here is my top 10 things about the park:

10- Sleeping in the backpack on Daddy's back and missing 80% of the views on the hikes.
9- Holding caterpillars in my hand... mostly gently... especially after Maman held me like I was holding the caterpillar and it did not feel so good.
8- Throwing rocks in water.
7- Just throwing rocks. For some reason the Parents did not seem to like that one.
6- Climbing
5- Seeing the shuttle buses on the road
4- Waving to the shuttle buses
3- Waiting at the shuttle bus stop.
1- Standing in the shuttle bus.
1- Screaming "Bus, bus" at the top of my lungs every time I saw a shuttle bus.

Enjoy the video!

I love water

2009-05-13T13:20:00.000-07:00

We left rainy Portland to arrive in hot and sunny Saint George, Utah. With daytime temperature in the high 80s or middle 90s, we all liked being close to the water.
So, from learning how to throw rocks in the water without throwing myself in it at the same time, to standing under a waterfall and walking in a cold stream, I got my self plenty of splish-splashing time. Add to that the daily plunge in the blue pool water and I was doing great.
I actually woke up every morning saying "Piscine", which is pool in French. On our way back, the hotel also had a pool and my first day back home, I went for a swimming class. So basically, for 7 days in a row, I got to do my favorite thing: jump in the water.
Imagine my surprise then the past two days: even though I quite loudly and politely say "piscine, S'il te plaît", we are not getting near any water hole. Although if this rains keep pouring down, there will be a big enough puddle in the yard soon...
Enjoy the video,

Voyage en voiture

2009-05-12T23:07:00.001-07:00

Coucou,
My parents had the crazy idea to go to southern Utah using a car as our main transportation. We were gone 10 days and drove a grand total of 2800 miles. I did amazingly well. I had my personal entertainer sitting next to me and she did a good job reading and reading and reading all the books I was asking her to read.
Here are 5 minutes out of the 45 or so hours I spent in that darned car.
Maman and I spoke a lot and I know more and more words. I also know right from left and can point in the right direction or show my right or left hand.
I also learned that screaming in a car was fun and I was excited pretty much every time I saw a truck go by... which, as you can imagine, was a lot!
Enjoy,

Noah at the pool

2009-03-22T19:21:00.000-07:00

I keep having a lot of fun at the pool.
My teacher Johnathan is trying hard to teach me how to kick with my legs but I'd rather to the breaststroke.
I also have a lot of fun jumping in the water and I do a good job at putting my feet right next to the edge like I have been told.
Johnathan was proud of me because I am finally able to stay on the bench and wait for my turn... well, sort of!
Oh, and I still love to climb so I had to do it at the pool too. Not quite gracefully yet...
Listen carefully at the very end, while Daddy is holding me, I say "Encore Papa, climb"! I climbed and jumped about 15 times. It is so much fun!

Enjoy

Le grimpeur bavard

2009-03-05T14:22:00.000-08:00

I have been trying out as many new words as I can lately. I think that some are funny and worth repeating 10 times in a row. I do it in French or in English, but mainly French as Maman seems to understand that one better.
She took me to the park yesterday: I am afraid I am not quite the acrobat yet but I am all into climbing right now, and talking while doing it.
Because it's in French, here is a little list of what I am saying for the non-French speaking crowd: bâton ( stick), petit ( small), grimpe ( climb), pieds ( feet), bateau ( boat), sur l'eau ( on the water), haut ( high), petit ( small), grand ( big), escaliers ( stairs), mouillés escaliers ( wet stairs), descend ( go down), il crie "avion" ( he screams "plane"as one is passing overhead), saute( jump), trop grand ( too big), moulin ( windmill).

You will also get to see me sing a song, dance and , of course, run back to my puzzles as soon as it's over.

Bragging time

2009-02-06T09:04:00.000-08:00

Maman cannot help it. She has to brag about me. Just a little she says. Well, it's a lot. I guess it's a nice change from all her whining about me not listening very well and opening the stove for the 1000th time. What's wrong with me wanting to see what's cooking?
So in the video, you'll see that I like colors and shapes. Maman pulled out this new shape game just for the video and I had no problem recognizing the shapes. We have seen a lot of those in books and I like to point out to all the things round in the house. In the video, I am also using signs to name colors.
I also love puzzles and especially a 12 piece puzzle that I got for Christmas: the best part is being able to break it again as soon as I am done. Maman sped up the video to avoid boredom for our faithful viewers!
Enjoy!

Happy Bonne Year Nouvelle

2008-12-31T17:02:00.000-08:00

Yes, I am saying all those words but one by one only...
Still,it's me wishing you a Happy New Year!

Oui, c'est bien moi qui dit tous les mots mais je les dis seulement un par un.
Le plus important c'est que je vous souhaite tous une bonne année 2009!

Noah René

A Christmas Oehl

2008-12-29T17:21:00.000-08:00

We had the whole family over for Christmas, and although we were stuck inside because of the thick white winter coat on the roads and trails, we found plenty of fun things to do in between naps and daily eating fests... See for yourselves!

Petit Papa Noël

2008-12-29T15:21:00.000-08:00

Merci to all of you for helping the Petit Papa Noël find my house. He brought me a lot of presents and I have had fun playing with them... that is when Maman and Daddy are right next to me because this holiday craze has turned me into a velcro kid...

Neige: Episode 2

2008-12-27T19:52:00.000-08:00

Yes, more snow and I, Noah, was not too happy about it. Over two weeks of that stuff that makes it impossible to walk outside... Luckily the big melt has begun but here is a review of the days before Christmas...

La neige, La neige!

2008-12-16T21:59:00.000-08:00

Apparently I already saw snow last winter but I don't have much recollection of it. This year though, it came early and it seems to want to stick around.
"NNnnnnnooow"or "neiiiiii", as I call it, is COLD; especially when outside temperatures are around 20 degrees farenheit or -5 degree celsius with a gust of chilly wind.

I did not like having to put the snowsuit/gloves/boots because I felt like an astronaut trying to walk on the moon: not fun. Plus, remember the grabbing leaves in the fall; well snow is even worse. It just takes you down.

And what about my usual job in the backyard, you know, watering the plants. Try lifting a watering can with mittens too big for you: hard. Just as hard as the water that was in the watering can. Maman said it was ice.
Anyway, enjoy the show. It looks like the whole week is going to be snow-ice-snow-ice.

La cuisine

2008-12-05T09:37:00.000-08:00

When I go to the Sience Playground at OMSI I love to play in the kitchen so Maman thought that it would be a good idea to have one at home too... but they are quite expensive.
She then decided to try to make one out of cardboard and anything she could gather from our home. She ended up spending a grand total of $15 on other materials she could not find and $12 on pots and pans. Now we will be on the lookout for wooden fruit and veggies!
There is no warranty attached and so far I have not ripped or broken anything.
Maman made a little video to show you how it was made.

Am I growing fast or what?

2008-11-25T21:52:00.000-08:00

Did you know that I am now swimming in the big pool where Mommy has to walk on her tiptoe to have her head above water?
Did you know that I am working on getting my driver's license?
Did you know that I can say funny sounds and words too?

Well, watch the video to witness all that!

Ready For School

2008-11-13T12:03:00.000-08:00

Maman and I have been a little stuck inside the house due to the non-stop rain on one part and the fact that Daddy's car is kaput and therefore he is driving Maman's car to work.
Now, I am not complaining. I could sit all day with my books if only Maman would let me. But noooooooo. She has to come up with all sorts of activities for me. Relax Maman, I am only 15 months old you know!

Anyway, here is a new video for you guys. Maman wants me to tell you that although she noted that the paint is non-toxic, she knows that me eating is NOT a good idea.

The Fall Trap

2008-10-28T22:21:00.000-07:00

Ah, Fall... I can certainly sign the word "leaf" now and tap on my head to show you that leaves are falling every where nowadays. Everywhere including our yard. I have been hard at work gathering those leaves but they sure played a trick on me today.
What a way to celebrate turning 15 months old today!
Enjoy.

First "real" Haircut

2008-10-20T14:10:00.001-07:00

Finally,

I got a real haircut.
Maman decided that it was time to retire her scissors and let my hair be handle by a professional.
Well we were lucky that the professional is a friend of ours that I already know. She is the cool mama of my friend Dakotah.
See for yourself the great job she did and I must say, the great job I did seating still while Shanon was cutting my hair and Maman was reading me a book of ... things with wheels..

Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-20T14:01:00.000-07:00

Bonjour!
Tina came to see Maman and me and she spent 3 days with us. We had a lot of fun and we did a lot of activities: a Pumpkin Patch where I got to wear my costume, the park, OMSI ( museum of Science and Industry), Swim class and the Zoo. Fun ,fun fun.

Well here is the visit to the farm for the Pumpkin Patch. Going to a farm was not a first but there were a lot of first things I saw and did there:
- first goat petting
- first lama
- first calf who licked my hand
- first chick
- first horse
- first turkey
- first ride on a tractor
- first pony ride
- and did I mention the tractor?
Oh, and yeah, I saw a tractor too. It has wheels you know and anything with wheels is more fun than anything else right now.
Enjoy the show

A beautiful fall day at the beach

2008-10-01T17:04:00.000-07:00

I love being outdoors, so Maman and I are grabbing every single opportunities to be outside before the start of the rainy season... meaning tomorrow apparently.
Monday we went to the beach all day, Tuesday we went to the park all afternoon and today we went to the Rose Garden to smell the roses and have a picnic; I also got to play on the big playground.
And yes, today October 1st, we had dinner OUTSIDE on the deck. I love fall...until tomorrow.

A very sad story

2008-09-25T15:52:00.000-07:00

I was 6 months old when I first listened to the story of Coco and the fish. I have always listened very carefully.
From the time I was 9 months old, I would sometimes become emotional when listening to it.
Even though the story makes me sad every time I listen to it, I choose this book quite often. I guess I am the kind of guy who needs to cry.

So, the plot: Coco is a cute monkey who always does fun things but often gets in trouble too. In this story, he thinks that the fish is bored in its bowl, so he decides to take it out of his water world. It takes him a while to realize that the fish is not having fun after all and, when the fish is gasping for oxygen, the music enhances the feeling of sadness.

So, see me make fish face, cringe before the sad part, see me cry and see me rejoice when the mom finally saves the day by putting the fish back in the water.
King Noah
PS: I also have a few other books that make me cry; especially one called happy & sad.

Jardin

2008-09-09T22:26:00.000-07:00

The King, me, is very happy to report that my Kingdom is getting to be worthy of its name. Two walls now surround the property and I have been told that my dungeon should be erected in the next few months.
My Daddy is the lonesome worker who is in the yard every single week-end and has been for the past 3 summers.
Here is a little slide show that goes through all the phases until this September.
Still to come: the sprinkler system for the upper level, the grass, the play structure, the third level with its patio and some replanting of bushes.

Work Days

2008-09-08T09:29:00.000-07:00

I like to do a lot more things on my own. I have quite a very busy schedule...
See me:
- sing songs
- walk and walk and walk
- put my trash in the garbage
- swim on my own... nearly
and see Daddy try and try to do the itsy-bitsy spider... Gypsy l'araignée.

Summer Boot Camp

2008-08-27T06:13:00.000-07:00

Can you believe that it is already the end of August?
I had a fun summer and now that I am walking around, there is so much more to explore.
As you'll see, I also got my first taste of the Pacific Ocean where I met Daddy who had just finished a team race of 197 miles. Ok, we were not alone on the beach as the race counts about 17000 people!
Next time, I might show you how I have figured out that climbing is really fun, especially going all the way up the slide at the park.
Until next time...

One year of photo sessions with a Wild Grizzly Bear

2008-08-09T17:20:00.000-07:00

You have all seen them: my pictures with Winnie. What you don't know is that our monthly photo sessions were quite some work. When my sidekick has to be a Wild Grizzly Bear named Winnie, things don't always go very smoothly.
I, the baby at the time, was behaving quite great, but the beast would not be tamed, trying to tackle me down or tickle me; he even nibbled at me a few times.
So here it is, all the pictures you have NOT seen of me and Winnie, all the pictures that led to the one and only monthly one.

Premier Anniversaire

2008-07-30T20:02:00.000-07:00

I am now one year old and I had two birthday celebrations!
They both started with Maman insisting on me wearing a silly hat.
It was the first time I ate a sweet dessert and let me tell you, they'd better keep them comin' cause I LOVED that stuff.

Ok, the video is a tad long but it's also for our viewing pleasure :)

Vacances à Leavenworth

2008-07-29T17:47:00.000-07:00

We had a fun time in Leavenworth. The weather was great and it was fun having my Grandpa and Grandma around for a few days.
Due to my amazing computer abilities and my rapid moves, I managed to delete 44 cool pictures from the trip on Maman's computer.
But here are a few action movies and some pics anyway.

I am one! J'ai 1 an!

2008-07-28T15:35:00.001-07:00

Today is my birthday and Maman has prepared a montage of the 12 months that went by.
I have changed, haven't I?
The song that goes with the montage talks about taking a child by the hand to help him grow and it also says to raise a child as if he were a king. Well, being King Noah the first, it's obvious that I have to be raised as one!

I am really happy to have met everybody in my family and I wish we could all live closer to each other

Tina, thinking about you today!

Ready, Set, Go...

2008-07-07T22:46:00.000-07:00

I am trying really hard to walk but this is quite a balancing act. So far, I like to throw myself into Maman or Daddy's arms and we are having a lot of fun doing that.
Enjoy the show!

Look at me now!

2008-06-30T16:24:00.000-07:00

I have been around for 11 months and I am discovering really fun stuff to do. Cannot wait to see what is in store for later!