big and little boy

i wrote his name and maryka drew the giraffe. but he did the rest of the chalkin'.

yesterday while isla was sleeping, i heard fake-crying sounds from the kids playing in the yard next door. noah must have heard them too, as he came into the kitchen and asked me, "mama, is isla freakin' out?"
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noah loves our new chalkboard door in the kitchen. he pulls up a chair, gets the bowl of chalk and tells me he's going to do some chalkin'. "mama, i'm chalkin'!" it's interesting how much he has taken to this medium. he has not been much into drawing or coloring, and his efforts on the page have pretty much been scribbles. but things are different on the chalkboard. as soon as he got up there with a piece of chalk, he began drawing boxes, circles and long person-like images. it seems like he was just waiting for a comfortable medium! it's very cool.
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we've been identifying numbers a bit lately, as we've talked about thomas the tank engine and his friends, and what numbers they have on their engines. thomas is number one, of course, and now noah is very good at identifying ones. yesterday we were in the front yard looking at our house, and noah noticed the house numbers on the porch. "mama, there are two ones!" he told me. which is true, in our 1716 address.
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noah is very precise with language. recently he corrected his little friend not to say "breaked" but "broke." he also uses the funniest adult-sounding words, like "actually," "rather," "option," "cooperating," etc. he really likes rules and will recite our family rules when prompted. though he will also change the rules on a whim. "no, we are allowed to eat in the living room!" or, "i may have two chocolate chips. that's the option!" he will tell guests, "no boots or shoes on the rug!" which isn't really the most hospitable.
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he has the funniest ways of identifying his cars and trucks. he is very specific about what they're called and what they do. our friend and mailman, mike, recently gave noah a mail truck. he already had one, but he clearly loves the new one more. he calls it his "side-door-open mail truck," and the other one is his "back-open mail truck." he also has a "fancy car," a "tow car," a "side-door-open bug," a "john deere tractor duallie," etc. he also pays attention to how other kids label things, and often adopts their lingo. when jasper was here in the fall, he referred to one of noah's trains as a "honkie choo-choo," since it made a little steam noise. since then we have called it that. jasper also loved to eat "yogurt and granolie," so now we eat that too.
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the past few days he has chosen "regular" cups instead of sippie cups to drink his juice in. today when i asked him if he's done with sippie cups he said yes, he'd use regular cups now and isla could have his sippie cups. "i'm a big boy," he told me. but later when he was feeling tired and needing a hold, he told me he's a little boy. (he is also a little boy when he needs a pacifier.)
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noah is such a good big brother. he is very on top of keeping "chokables" away from isla, and is good at helping her find toys and her pacifier. in the night when she wakes and i go to nurse her, he often says, "it's okay, isla," sleepily from his crib. he doesn't like it if he wakes up and she's gone (to my bed, where she comes if she wakes super early). he has enjoyed trying to feed isla little bits of food, and cracks up when she makes funny faces. he also loves it when she tips over on my bed after sitting on her own for a few seconds. they both laugh hysterically then. he calls it "1, 2. 3, tip!"
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i am so very thankful for my sweet and tricky, little and big boy.