Birthday cake! Twice!

He didn't eat any, just played with it :)

So much change in just one year

My baby is about to turn one. That little thing that I had in my tummy one year ago is amazing me. He now: Stands for 15 seconds at a time. Plays with the dogs. Feeds himself. Makes me laugh on purpose. Giggles like crazy. Says mama and means me. Crawls everywhere. Walks along anything including walls. Plays by himself. Loves baths. Crawls up the stairs. Expresses himself in 100 ways. Can melt my heart in two seconds.

Balance

Every day I try to cherish something. I don’t know if it is just that “first time mom” thing but I want to cherish this little boy. I want to remember moments 10 years from now. Some would say that I spoil Noah. I rock him to sleep most nights still. I get up with him in the middle of the night. I make him butternut squash pasta with real parmesan cheese and grated chocolate (of course I make enough for myself too). I spend moments with him when I should be doing work or cleaning. I feel guilty, but at the same time I feel that what I am doing is good. In 20 years will it matter that I sucked at getting the laundry done? It will matter what kind of mom I was. I read an article today in Men’s Health that said that men are happier as adults if have had attentive loving mothers.

Mantra to myself: Find a balance, find a balance, find a balance. . .

how could i resist this?

Halloween

First Time Playing in the Fall Leaves

He's crawling

It's been official for a couple weeks now. He started crawling on September 25th and although it has been a slow start he is now very very mobile! Mommy has to watch him every single second. It is scary how fast he can get to the edge of the stairs. I think we need to go get about 1,000 baby proofing things. I hate those things.

In the yard

Noah is doing great standing. Mommy is getting worried. One day he is going to just let go and start walking. He is already cruising around furniture and in particular his bed. His crib is right next to our bed. A couple weeks ago I woke up to see a little boy looking at me laughing and saying “ma ma ma ma.” I was very surprised!

From that point on he has decided that standing and walking are the way to move. And even though he hasn’t really crawled yet, he finds a way to get over to whatever he wants to pull himself up on. He has been getting brave this past week, he will only hold on with one hand and then lean over to something else so that he can walk.

He was fascinated by the tree that he is standing by. He is really good at ripping leaves off. He loves to eat leaves, and grass, and sticks, and anything else that he can stuff in his mouth! Mommy has to keep a close eye on Noah every minute she is outside with him.

I love the little outfit he is wearing in these pictures. It has an old car on the back of his shirt. Everything is 12 month size! Just to remind everyone in these pictures he is only 8 ½ months. I've been calling him "my big little boy" lately.
He was so good the day I took these. In fact he has been a really good boy lately. He always seems happy now and you can get him to giggle at almost anything.

Sunny San Diego

Here's the late post about Noah and my trip to San Diego. Thanks to everyone for being so patient for it!



I was very very nervous about our trip out to visit Aunt Laura, so much so that I almost tossed my cookies on the way out the door. But the plane ride was fairly uneventful - it obviously didn’t crash! Noah even slept on the way and was a little angel for mommy except on the decent where it was quite apparent that his ears were bothering him as he was pulling on them. The only other annoyance was getting patted down by security and then they patted Noah down too! I was a little flustered about that but eh, what can you do?

Aunt Laura was waiting for us at the baggage claim looking her fabulous self! We picked up our bag (which was a little embarrassing for us since it was a slight struggle and some nice man had to end up helping us with the cumbersome suitcase). Outside it was beautiful, perfect temperature, cool breeze and palm trees everywhere.

That night due to our jet lag and a tired baby we decided to order in. We got Thai, something John isn’t very fond of and so I was tickled pink that I got to try it again. It was very nummy. We had mint chicken, fresh spring rolls and something else that I can’t remember. We retired early with little fuss from Noah since he was so tired from the plane trip and all the adventure.

The next morning we woke up bight and early, but it took us a while to get going like it did for all the mornings. It’s difficult getting ready to go with almost 8 month old on the loose. Laura decided it was a great day to visit the San Diego Zoo! It was very neat going through Balboa Park to get there. The Zoo ended up being a lot more fun than I thought it would and Noah was actually interested in some of the larger animals. We saw elephants, a polar bear, camels, tons of birds, monkeys, rhinoceros, reindeer, bears, gazelles, hippos and lost of other animals too. After the zoo we ate at this neat Italian restaurant down in the Gaslight District, a hip new area of downtown San Diego. Noah charmed everyone in sight, as he would do almost the whole trip, with his smile and very sweet engaging personality.


Sunday morning we went to Laura’s neat church up in the mountains and got to see a great view of the city through the clouds. We went to the mall that day but Noah was exceptionally tired so we had to go home almost as soon as we got there. Later we got Starbucks then drove to the beach and experienced a magnificent sunset. We dipped Noah in, his very first time in the Pacific Ocean! He hated it! There were many tears and anytime we threatened to put him back in there were more tears. So we walked along the beach enjoying the scenery.

Monday dawned with the promise from Aunt Laura that we were going to go visit another beach. Board shorts and sunscreen for Noah, snacks, books towels, cameras, swimsuits and a myriad of other things in tow we trekked off to Target for a beach umbrella. After all shade on the beach is very important for a little white boy from up North! Unfortunately, they had already cleared them out since it was the middle of August, so we got a big ol’ golf umbrella. It was quite amusing. A quick stop to meet everyone at Laura’s work and then we finally got to the beach! Noah loved the sand and rolled around in it about two minutes after I put the sunscreen on him. Note to self: always lube up a little boy at least fifteen minutes before allowing him to roll in sand, sunscreen acts like glue! Needless to say the cold shower to remove said sand and waterproof sunscreen made Noah scream with all his might. Besides that we had a fantastic time. That night we went to an outdoor fancy restaurant that served what I hesitate to call “gourmet” Mexican-American food. I ordered a fish corn thingy and ate it all, every last kernel. Mmmm I’m hungry just thinking about it.

Tuesday came much too quickly. Laura had to go to work and I packed, cleaned, and headed off to the mall to waste a couple hours till it was time to pick Laura up so she could drive us to the airport. Driving in Cali wasn’t nearly as hard as I thought it would be.

The only truly bad thing to happen to us the whole time was when I came to pick Laura up from her work and I tripped and bumped Noah’s head on the sidewalk. Stupid curb! I did everything in my power to keep him safe and protect him as I went down, but tears still abounded and mommy shed a couple herself.

We got to the airport a little early because I was nervous that I would get stopped by security, but no-such-bad-luck this time. We got a widow seat again but this time in the front row, it was nice to have a little room to stretch out. The airplane ride home was okay for the first hour and a half. Then Noah woke up. He ate part of my turkey sandwich, which was so much better than the hamburger on the way there. He played in the empty seat next to me and then all heck broke loose! The screaming commenced. I tried everything I could think of to calm the little boy down but nothing worked. To be fair it was 10pm our time and he was exhausted beyond belief, but I came back with ringing in my ears and a large headache. I got some sympathetic comments and some evil glares as I left the plane. I apologized to everyone in the front rows and Noah bless him, turned into a smiling happy tired boy.

Daddy was waiting for us all dressed in a suit and tie with roses in hand. He surprised us with a limo ride home! I can only guess how much he missed us, but I can presume more than I could imagine.

It was so hard to leave we had so much fun with Laura and Noah was getting very attached to her. I will always be grateful I went. I love you Laura!

We went to the doctor yesterday

Noah kept tugging on his ear this weekend. I thought that maybe he had an ear infection. And there is no way that I wanted to fly to San Diego with a baby with an ear infection. But everything checked out! Noah is really healthy, he just found his ear.He weighs 19 lbs 13 oz with all his clothes on. Not 20 lbs yet. . .I think a new tooth is popping though, his little gums are all swollen in the front and he seems to be in pain again. I feel so bad for him.

Puppy Bear

This is Noah's lovey. He holds puppy bear's ears to go to sleep.

Cookie Monster!!

Noah loves cookies! This whole week mommy has been naughty and shared her 1 chocolate chip cookie a day with Noah-bear. He doesn't get any chocolate chips though.So yesterday I am on the computer for a short bit. Normally he will scoot and roll until he gets to the keyboard and I have to say "I guess mommy has to be done on-line for now." Not yesterday! He saw the package of cookies and I have never seen him move so fast in my whole life! Not that he crawled over, and I'm still not sure how he got over there, but he did. And when he did he was manhandling the package trying to eat a cookie through the container. He has a sweet tooth like his mommy.By the way Nestle Toll House cookies from Target are very very good. Just ask Noah :)

An hour of screaming seems much longer . . .

Today Noah gave his mommy a bloody lip. He gets so upset sometimes. He was screaming and suddenly whipped his head back, ouch! Then after mommy got some ice for her lip, we went out side in the wet yard and swung back and forth and dodged bees that were attracted to my bright orange shirt until daddy got home. Watching the cars go by is one of Noah's favorite things to do in the evening. He finally calmed down.he's sleeping now . . .shhhh!

Sleeping in

Sleeping in used to mean 11 in the morning, now it means that Noah let me sleep until 7:30. He is starting to sleep much better now, only getting up twice a night for the past week instead of 4 or 5 times. I am so glad, I am tired. One day soon he will sleep through the night and it will be like a gift from God :)

A New Tooth!!

The top left one! YAY! Poor baby, he must have been in a lot of pain.

Mother's day

Noah's first moments