"And now I'm back, from outer space"

Sorry I've been such a blog slacker lately! What is a girl to do? I know, tell you all about my amazing son, so let me get to it!
Matty and I are still having a blast. Noah is a hoot (and a handful, have I told you that?) He says the funniest things. These days, he admits when he doesn't know something. Let me break it down for you...
Emily: "Where you going, Noah?"
Noah: "I   don't    know."   It's really funny how he says it.
He is getting pretty good at his ABCs and he counts, but he doesn't understand the concept of counting.  He is about to turn two :( so we've been working on making a two with our fingers, but he does not have that down yet. He tries to hold his two fingers up with this other hand.
Just this past weekend, he took a big independent step. He always says "I'll do it" or "I'll hold it." But this past weekend, he started playing by himself for long stretches of time. Matty and I weren't sure what to do with ourselves. I don't know if I should be happy for a little bit of time to myself to just sit on the couch, or if I'm sad that he is completely content to spend 20 minutes in his room (WITH THE DOOR SHUT! Don't worry, I opened it!)
Anyway over the past few weeks that I haven't been blogging, we have been very busy. We went to the Campbells to carve pumpkins.  Matty's mom and stepdad, Grandma Betsy and DadDad, came for a visit. Betsy marveled at how much Noah reminded her of Matty when he was a little boy. After a great visit from them, we trekked down to Oklahoma. Matty and I spent the night in Stillwater while Noah went on to Carnegie. I caught up with Noah on Saturday evening, and then he and I flew home to see Matty! Whew...Now do you understand why I've been MIA! Sorry readers, I'll do better in the future. Many pics of all said events to come....

Noah at the Campbells' Pumpkin Carving Party. PS He wasn't happy.

And a mere few minutes later, all is well. See the couch in the background, Noah thought he could jump off it like the big boys. Matty and I had to say, "NO!"