Library Story Time

Over the last few months we have taken advantage of the weekly story time at the downtown library. Noah just loves it! There are 3 story tellers and there must be some kind of rotation so only 2 of them are there for each story time. And each story teller has one or two puppet characters they do as well. We are so fortunate to have such a wonderful library that offers this kind of programming!

Noah's favorite characters at storytime are not the story tellers (although they are really great), but the puppets. Specifically, he always wants to see Tommy Dog, Cedric the Dragon and the Spanish Fox. Just talking about story time will get him barking in reference to Tommy Dog. As we walk through the library to the children's area and then on to the theatre, he barks so excitedly and in such anticipation! Sometimes when we get there, the doors to the theatre aren't open so we have to wait and usually Noah will knock on the doors and bark at the them. And then while we sit in the theatre (usually on the same side as Tommy Dog's puppet house), he will bark at it until Tommy Dog appears. Thankfully, when Tommy Dog is there, he's usually one of the first characters to appear. And when Tommy Dog isn't there for storytime, Noah will bark at the other characters waiting for him. (I've actually had other parents comment at Noah's barking at the doors and while we wait so it's not just a quiet bark!)

The other equally favorite characters are Cedric the Dragon (but he must look like a crocodile to Noah because he doesn't have a sound for him, but he does the sign for crocodile to reference him) and the Spanish Fox. The same storyteller does both of these so they are usually one right after the other in the same puppet house.

At the very end of storytime, they sing a song and all the kids get to go up and sit on the edge of the stage. The first month or so I encouraged Noah to go up with the rest of the kids, but he wouldn't budge from my lap. But now, he'll walk up and find a place and then he just sits and looks around. I think he likes the different perspective.

On the days we go to storytime, its so much fun to watch him run to David when he gets home to tell him all about it. He gets all worked up and is so excited!

They have lots of great chairs outside while you wait for the doors to open. Here is Noah climbing on a few of them.

Here he is knocking on the doors and of course barking!

This is where he likes to sit on that last song when you get to go up (right in front of Tommy Dog's puppet house). If he gets a seat here, he doesn't want to leave at the end. So here we are waiting for him to be ready to go.

Walk Through Bethlehem

There is a local church that hosts a Walk Through Bethlehem each year. We had never gone and decided this was our year to check it out. It was really remarkable the way it was set up as Bethlehem might have looked - there were shepherds and sheep out in the field, a marketplace and an area with crafts for kids, and then the live nativity outside with even more animals.

Noah enjoyed all of the animals, but he just couldn't get enough of the sheep!

I'm not too sure what he thought of this donkey.

We ended our walk through Bethlehem at the camel and it was actually a pretty friendly camel. He ate some hay out of my hand and then let us pet him for a while. I think Noah really got a kick out of him.

Saturday Morning Baking

For the last several weeks, we have made pumpkin cinnamon rolls each Saturday morning and Noah loves to help! He gets to use the baking utensils from his play kitchen and gets extra dough to roll out and make his own mini-rolls that bake in his own miniature loaf pan. He even gets to help make the glaze and drizzle it on. And as you can see, he takes this work very seriously!

The only odd thing about the whole process is, he won't actually eat any of the rolls once they're done. He won't eat the ones from his pan and he won't eat the larger rolls either. I can't figure it out, but one day when he tries them, I know he'll really like them!

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving here in Nashville and had a wonderful time with family. Katie's parents came into town and we got to spend some time with them along with Bryan, Ashley and little Emma. It was a great time together!