He's a regular Isaac Mendez.

Noah is on an art rampage after a visit to the Art Museum on Sunday. He’d been asking to go for some time but since I only take him on Sundays so as not to pay full admission for an hour long visit, and since it seems every Sunday has been booked I’d been stalling him for what seemed like forever. We marched through modern art, the armor, asian art, the temples and the tea house. He wasn’t all too focused on any one thing but he was obviously impacted. He’s asked to paint every day this week. As Mark says, Noah’s likely to drown us in his art work. And he’s also started asking about writing letters. He wants me to help him write his name as well as other names and words. He can do a fairly decent job of writing his name – with me telling him how to draw each part of each letter. “Draw a straight line. Now draw a diagonal line from the top of that line to here. And now a straight line from the bottom of that line to here. Great N!”

His other new artistic outlet is photography. Per my suggestion, my in-laws bought Noah the Fisher Price Kid Touch Digital Camera for his birthday. He LOVED it instantly. To my chagrin however after a couple of days it stopped working. I changed the alkaline batteries and no go. I changed the button cell battery and still nothing. It was so frustrating because Noah took a bunch of photos that disappeared. I called Fisher Price and complained. They are sending me a label and would ship me a new one once they received my return. But get this – it would take 8-12 weeks! WHAT! And they call that customer service? Unfortunately I don’t have the receipt so I went to Toys R’ Us, bought another one and will swap them and return the broken one and get my money back. Take THAT system! Anywho I created a Flickr account for Noah and will post the link once he starts taking more photos with the new camera. That is if it continues to work.

Today Noah told me he was going to sing a song about “Gagama passing away.” He then sang really slowly and quietly “Friend. Don’t go away, friend. Friend, don’t go away.” And as he sang he laid down on the floor and shimmied underneath the coffee table. I was really touched and stunned. I merely said “That was a really beautiful song. It was sad.” And he said “Yup.” And then he leapt up. started vehemently shaking his maraca and bellowing “One, Two, Three – another rock and roll band!” The song stuff has been cracking me up lately. Now he’s pausing in between sections of his singing and instrument playing to say “This is the jazzy part,” “This is the breakdown part, and “This is the rockin’ part.” He also sings guitar parts which is SO fun.

Noah’s preschool is a city program run out of a very old school, blue collar, traditional and patriotic part of town. Hence my child singing “God Bless America” every night before bed and already practicing for a Christmas pageant. A couple of times of year one of the teachers who also had a Masters degree in photography takes pictures of the kids. They then sell those photos in packages with the money to benefit the preschool program. I take a bajillion photos and don’t really favor posed studio shots but plan on buying a few shots every time just to do my part. That said, I was not really looking forward to Noah having his “Angel” photo taken last week – angels aren’t really my thing and the idea seemed a bit babyish and silly to me. HOWEVER – I got the proofs of his photos today and MY GOD they are so cute they might induce vomiting. I guess it’s the lighting that made my boy look damn near luminescent. His eyes alone are stunning. Hey I’m not into angels but HELLS if I won’t show those pictures to everyone I know. I’ll scan and post when I get the prints.

My mammoth baby – big both in size and loveable-ness – continues to grow, flourish and teeth. At a mere four months old he needs to be moved to 6-9 month clothing. Of course all Noah’s hand-me-downs for that size are summery short sets. Dagnabit. I’ve had to go out and buy wintery fleece sleepers and such. And while purchasing said stuff I just keep thinking “I guess I have to have one more so at least I can use ONE of these sets of clothes again.” It’s merely a recycling THANG. (Inshallah, of course.)

It’s WEDDING WEEKEND! Mom ties the knot on Saturday night. Noah and I have the honor of walking her down the aisle. Bring on the tissues! I may look pouchy and harried in my dress – but that boy would make anyone look good. IN A TUXEDO, no less!

So here is my poll for this post. Mom invited me to go with her and her fiance’s daughters and granddaughters to get their nails painted tomorrow. I desperately wanted to BOND with everyone and wanted to be part of the wedding festivities however after much debate decided I could not in good conscience have a four month old in a nail shop for over an hour. Those acrylic fumes are just awful and they worry me too much. Mom said I was going “crunchy” on her. So be honest – think I’m being paranoid? Would you take your baby to the nail shop?

I had more. I know I did. But who can keep this stuff straight.