Noah, in many ways, is still a mystery to me. But a fun mystery. I love peeking into his world, as often as he lets me. Those glimpses into the windows of his mind become ever more frequent as he gets older, and his communication skills improve.

1. Babies: Noah keeps asking for us to have a baby. (So does Jabin, as a side.) He is completely fascinated by them right now. This morning, while we were at the swimming pool waiting for Jude (his first swimming lesson!), there was another mom there with a small baby, maybe six months. He spent fifteen or more minutes sitting next to the baby's infant carrier, gently patting her or looking at her. Later, when I ran into an acquaintance at Walmart who had her infant son with her, he kept patting his head and commenting. I dunno why he does it, but it's darned cute.

2. Mario Kart: This is still Noah's favourite video game or pastime of any kind, really. (It's for the Wii.) Lately, it has received some competition from Jude's new Ninja Turtles game (the boys all love the kung fu in there), but as his AWANA car selection hinted, it is still the reigning champion. One day, I listened to Noah and Jabin "playing Wii" for a good half-hour in the living room while Jude and I were doing school in the dining room. They were deciding which characters were driving their cars, which races they were doing, and which cars they were driving. They were crashing into things and doing jumps, and I could hear the cars whizzing around the racetrack, motors gunning. When Noah got up to go to the bathroom, he even exclaimed, "Jabin, don't. touch. anything!" so Jabin wouldn't mess up the settings of the game in his absence (as the stinker is prone to do). The best part? It was all pretend! They are only allowed to play Wii on the weekend! ("Wii-kend!" Hee.)

3. Math: Tonight, Noah and I attended a "Family Math Night" put on by his school to help introduce parents to a new curriculum, and show them basic math games they can play with their kids. Of course in kindergarten, it's all about patterns. Noah has always been strong in math-related activities, but I was still a little surprised at some of the creative patterns he came up with tonight. I am really looking forward to teaching him next year and watching that develop.

4. Communication: Noah got re-assessed by a speech language pathologist last fall, and was found to still have a mild speech delay, so he has been working with her once or twice a week since then. It is kind of weird for me, since she does it in the afternoons while he is at school, so I have not been able to sit in on any of the sessions--meaning I really don't know what she does with him. He doesn't tell me anything about it. They just started in January, so I can't say as I have noticed any significant changes yet. However, anything that makes Noah more confident in himself and easier to understand is a good thing, in my opinion. He has a habit of "jumping into the middle" of a story he has already been telling in his head, so you have no reference point to what he is saying to you (unless you witnessed the incident yourself firsthand.) When he does this, we have been trying to get him to backtrack a little bit and tell us all of the information, but it's a process. He gets a little better everyday, though.

5. Food: Remember the broccoli hoarding incident? Well, some things never really change. This boy still literally gags at certain food textures. Okay, maybe its the fact that he tries to swallow foods he doesn't like without making them any smaller. Last winter, he actually spewed on his plate after trying to swallow a piece of cooked cauliflower whole. He figures if he can swallow without chewing, it will be over faster. While I am not going to classify this as a "step up", exactly—at least he isn't hoarding it in his cheeks for two hours anymore! (No wonder I usually blend up his cauliflower and hide it in his pasta sauce!)