Week with Mommy

Since Alex was out of town this past week, Noelle and I had another hectic/crazy/destructive/wonderful week together. As usual, household destruction was near the top of Noelle's to-do list.

The bathroom officially became Noelle's favorite room...

...though, this Lazy Susan isn't bad either!

Since Noelle's day care provider had a personal day on Thursday, we even had an extra day of mommy/daughter fun. Noelle accompanied me to the weekly Thursday lunch out with my co-workers... because a baby is just what everyone needs with their beer to unwind from the stressful work week =) My colleagues were good sports though, and Noelle dolled out the requisite amount of cuteness to make a mommy proud.

This evening we were graciously invited to an early Thanksgiving celebration at the home of one of Alex's colleagues. We took this opportunity to show off Noelle's new dress. How adorable is she in the dress/hat/shoes combo?!?

I couldn't be much cuter!

Coat Weather and Sign Language

Finally enjoying her cool weather clothing!

It has finally gotten a little cooler in the Bay Area. I am not a fan of hot weather and am relishing the relief. Noelle is finally able to enjoy all of the cute little coats she has received! 

She was an especially big hit in her rain coat (left picture above). That picture is from Friday, when it rained all day on my day off with Noelle. We made the best of it, though. I took her to Target and let her walk up and down the aisles to her heart's content. I think she did her own little mini-marathon! We celebrated after with a yogurt (for her) and latte (for me).

Unfortunately, our long weekend was dragged down a bit by Noelle dealing with a double header; cold and teething. To add insult to injury, it was her lower molars giving her trouble (supposedly the worst?). She spent most of the weekend living it up in her jammies... and wrecking the bathroom, as usual.

 

I may be sick, but I can still have fun!

One wonderful turn of events this weekend, though, was Noelle's increasing use of signaling what she wants. The past few weeks she has gotten very good about asking to be picked up (raising her arms over her head) instead of just yelling at us. I know it's not much, but it's soooo nice to get the baby equivalent of 'please' in place of all that noise.

One of the babies at her daycare uses baby sign language. Clearly, his parents get a gold start... since Alex and I never bothered instilling this practice. Noelle, for her part, though, picked up the sign for "give me more, please". (Okay, I added the 'please'. I like to think I have a polite baby). Anyway, the gesture is bumping her little closed fists together, to signal that she would like something that she sees.

Even this one simple gesture has already made our lives much smoother. Gone, already, is the loud demanding when she wants another bite of what we're giving her, or the bottle she sees on the table. She just bumps her little fists together and, like magic, more of whatever she wants appears. She loves it. Of course, there are some limits to how well this little trick works. Ice cream got a lot of fist bumps; carrots, not so much =)