the mischiefs of noah.

Having a boy after three girls has been completely different. The past four years of watching my son grow up has been extremely interesting. I look forward to every new word he's learning (thanks to PBS kids), every bad habit he has learned such as constantly picking his nose, and wiping it on the couch. I have taught him to grab a Kleenex since then and it seems as if he's getting the concept of why we have tissues in every corner of our house! 

Boys are definitely different than girls. There are so many similarities yet so many differences. One of the sweet things I remember him doing at 15 months old was having him help me sweep a portion of the hardwood floor with his tiny broom. I had to capture that moment on video, and looking back he seemed so small having done that. 

All toddlers at one point climb out of their cribs, but my kid's style of climbing went from climbing onto the computer desk to jumping back into the crib as if he was a gymnast. Having his crib next to our computer desk didn't help, and the fact that the changing table was on the other side gave him opportunities to pretend he was climbing more than just out of his crib. The first time I saw him do that nearly gave me a heart attack, but then I asked him to do it again just so I could capture his gracefulness!  
Spilling milk, and making messes in the kitchen is so common with toddlers and because I had three girls before him who did similar spills was not as bad as I thought it would be. My temper was calm, and what made me smile was that on his own motive he grabbed some paper towels, and began wiping his own mess. I didn't yell at him at all which was a shock because us mexican moms usually let our temper out on any petty thing. It seems as if my patience with this kid has been much more tolerable than it was with my firstborn. 

^^^ circa, 2011 (15 months) ^^^

He was potty trained at the late age of three and a half (that's late to me), and boy was it a struggle to get him out of diapers. There are days even today when he won't use his stool to help him off the toilet. He'll just slide off the toilet seat causing some poop to stay on the seat. I was wondering why he was yelling out, "mommy I got caca on the toilet seat." Of course being the trusting mom that I think I am led me to believe that he meant "being done going caca" in the toilet. He was then calling out my name louder, "mommy, mommy I need help wiping my butt." I then get up to walk down the hallway only to see a trail of dark chocolate looking poop with stained underwear on the tile floor. I couldn't help but to chuckle while he was bending down patiently waiting for me to wipe his bum. Even though he's quite capable of cleaning his own bum he wanted my approval to make sure it was wiped thoroughly clean.

There has never been a dull moment with this kid, and witnessing everything he has learned in the four years of his life thus far has made me proud in the way I am teaching him. 

^^^ Noah, age 4-present day ^^^

Funny thing is that he's also teaching himself how to do things...in his own way! 

**This post (plus my sharing on social media)  was inspired by my participation in a campaign initiated by Dropcam.