9 Months!

It's hard to believe that I could've baked a whole new baby in the amount of time Noah has been in our lives. I know I'm becoming a broken record, but time is flying by so fast! Noah is becoming more of a little boy and less like a baby each day. It's bittersweet. Each month he gets more playful and independent, and his personality continues to emerge. He's so inquisitive and curious about his world, and I love watching him learn and explore. Then I watch videos of him at 3-4 months, and I think wow, where did my baby go?? I mean seriously, an itty bitty baby surely doesn't...

• Weigh about 17-18 pounds
• Wear size 3 diapers
• Wear 6-9 and 9 month clothing
• Drink 25-30oz of milk/formula a day
• Eat big boy food like puffs
• Sleep through the night for 10-11 hours every night (FINALLY!!!)
• Take just 2 (long 1.5-3 hour) naps every day
• Drool/chew like a monster in anticipation of teeth (I predict we'll see our first tooth sometime this month, mark my words!)
• Babble constantly, exploring sounds like "pthh," "tssstth," and "bbwah"
• Crawl on hands and knees, like a pro
• Pull up on every piece of furniture in sight, including TV stands, sofas, tables, and people (ok, people are not furniture, but just as fun!)
• Cruise from Mommy to the table to the couch
• Roll like an angry alligator when you try to change his diaper
• Laugh as you chase him around the house

But I really wouldn't want it any other way, because OH MY GOD I love this little boy!

Taking his monthly photos is becoming a challenge! He tries to rip off his sticker and eat it, and he won't sit still for even a second. This was him nearly taking a header off his chair. He was trying to get to Mommy of course! :)

Baby, I'm Amazed By You

(For the record, I am NOT a country music fan.)

It truly amazes me how fast Noah learns new things. And then how quickly he masters his new skills. Since my last post, he's gotten way better at crawling on hands and knees, and seems to prefer it to army crawling now.

Look at me go!

Then last weekend, around 8.5 months, he decided to start getting himself to a sitting position all on his own. Now, he does it all of the time. He's just a blur of constant motion. My favorite of his new habits is when he crawls on me. He'll be sitting across the room, look at me, get this huge mischievous grin on his face, charge towards me, and then climb me until we're face to face. Often, he'll then try to give me open mouth kisses and chew on my chin and cheek. I just laugh the whole time. It is too cute!!! Within days of figuring out the whole sitting thing, he learned how to pull himself up on furniture.

First knees...

...then feet!

He has no idea how to get back down, but man does he love to pull up! He can cruise along our coffee table (with vigilant supervision from mom and dad), and has been brave enough to reach out for one of us, let go of the table, and take steps holding on to us. He laughs his adorable little butt off when we hold on to him as he "walks" towards Gilbert. It just melts my heart. This whole being a mommy thing will never get old!

Hello Old Friend

It really sucks to see you once again. Ah yes, my monthly visitor returned this weekend. I guess I can't complain. 8.5 months postpartum was a good run after all! I feel like this might be the true beginning of the end for breastfeeding though. My supply keeps plummeting, and Noah is maaaybe getting 50/50 milk to formula right now. I don't mind keeping up the pumping, but I'm also getting a little tired of it. My motivation to continue is waning. At least I don't feel the guilt anymore. (Just resentment towards my job.) I've worked my ass off to make it this far, and I'm proud that I've been able to stick with pumping so long. Coworkers and friends always comment on how impressed they are that I'm still pumping. (Aside from the nurse I work with who breastfed her daughter until she was 3 years, 3 months. And I have NO intention of going that far.) If only we could get better at feeding solids. Noah is so picky, and I still feel lost on what he should be eating, and how much.

hating chicken

In other news, last night my brother was over and he was waving at Noah and being goofy in general. And Noah started mimicking him and waving back! It was so cute! His crawling is getting more and more impressive. He's trying to get onto his hands and knees more often, but he still prefers to army crawl. He has tried to pull himself up on things a number of times, but hasn't been able to get to a full standing position. We have about a million toys for him right now, but he still would rather play with pieces of dead leaves or cracker crumbs in the carpet. He knows how to have a good time!

We also went to his friend Wilson's 1st Birthday yesterday! Happy Birthday Wilson!

Having his cake, and eating it too!

We had a lot of fun with all of the little ones in attendance. I still can't believe what a baby explosion there has been within our circle of friends. I guess we're just at that age. Last year most everyone I knew was pregnant with boys. Now the tide has turned and everyone is having girls. I have 3 friends who have had babies since September, and all 3 had girls. I have 6 more friends all due between February and May and 5/6 are having girls. So weird how it seems to go in waves.

Happy Holidays!

With Grandma Cheri

I'm sneaking this post in by the skin of my teeth. It was a busy but fun-filled holiday season for us this year! We started out by having our own little family Christmas the night before we left for Minnesota. On Tuesday we took Noah's first flight. It went far better than I imagined it would, despite his unwillingness to nap on the plane. He charmed everyone! Luckily, we were able to get home between snowfalls, and had the pleasure of being home to see a record December snowfall (33.4 inches for the month). It was quite the white Christmas!

Grandma and Grandpa

Christmas Eve was spent with my mom, step-dad, and brother. Noah opened a number of his gifts, with some episodes of fitful tears when mean old Mommy took boxes and paper away from him.

Noah got a number of fun new toys and clothes, as well as a Taggie blanket from my friend/nanny Noelle. He loves it!

Then, Christmas morning my step-sister and her husband came to my parents' house and we celebrated all together for the first time since '08.

Auntie Aimee

Noah opened yet more gifts, then it was off to see my dad. We swung by my dad's to pick him up then headed out to see my only living Grandparent, Grandma Lee. Afterwards, we went back to my dad's and ate snacks and homemade cheesecake.

More gifts were opened and Noah got a few toys to crawl after, which seemed to mostly just scare the piss out of him.

On Sunday, we spent the day celebrating with Brian's family.

All in all, it was a great trip and my favorite Christmas EVER!! The Grandparents loved their time with Noah, and now they're all depressed that we're gone. However, while home, Brian and I did a little (premature) house-hunting. There's a community just a little north of where we both grew up that has become extremely affordable. We even found lake property for under 250,000, which is unbelievable. Our plan is to start searching for jobs back there in the Spring, put our house on the market in March or April, and move back to Minnesota over the summer. It's a little daunting, and a lot of pieces need to come together to make it work, but it's something to look forward to for 2011! Speaking of 2011, our New Years Eve was a bit pitiful. I got a flat tire, a bad cold, and was in bed before midnight. Nothing could really get my spirits down though. 2010 was the best year of my life, and I'm excited to see what 2011 will bring! Happy New Year!

8 Months!

Noah turned 8 months last week, and while I did take his picture in a timely manner, we have been quite busy so I'm still late (as usual these days) with my post. Now that I have a knock-me-on-my-butt cold from hell, I actually have some time for a couple of updates.

• Noah is still in size 3 diapers. I think he will be for quite some time.
• He wears 6/9 and 9 month clothing. Most of his 6 month stuff is too short now.
• According to our baby scale, he still weighs around 16.5 pounds. That's hard for me to believe because he feels heavier to me lately, so who knows. I guess it's possible that he's gotten longer but not caught up on the weight yet.
• Still no change in eye color. I think maybe it is what it is at this point. I don't know if it shows up in pictures, but they're an amazing hazel. Some people comment on his big blue eyes, others comment on his grey eyes. Up close, they're blue, grey, green, and brown. I thought for sure we would have brown-eyed children, so if I seem weird about documenting eye color each month, it's only because I still wonder if it will change. His eyelashes are thick and dark, like his daddy's.
• His hair continues to thicken, and maybe darken. But it's still very fine.
• He drinks 3-4 bottles a day and nurses once in the morning. All of his bottles are a mix of breastmilk and formula. One of his big milestones this month is that he FINALLY started holding his own bottle! It's been such a lifesaver for me in the mornings. It used to be that if he woke up while I was getting ready in the morning, I would have to stop everything to tend to him. Now I can plop him on the floor and hand him his bottle! And with this new skill seems to have come an increase in appetite. When I used to hold him he would get fussy and squirmy half way through the bottle. Now he chugs them down. He's drinking 6-7oz at a time, but we're thinking he'd be happier with 8-9oz.
• I feel completely lost when it comes to solids. He has about 1 jar a day, inconsistently, split between morning and evening. We're still only feeding him jarred baby food. (New foods this month include plum, banana, squash, and mango.) He's tried a hard breadstick and teething biscuits, which he LOVES, but the last time he started choking a little. Without any teeth, I just don't feel like he's ready for much else.
• Hopefully I'm not jinxing anything, but he finally is starting to sleep through the night consistently. Over Winter Break, he only had one night where he woke up before 7:00ish. Thank God for sleep!

Now the really fun stuff!

• A couple of days after turning 7 months, Noah finally decided to try sucking on his feet. There is something so cute about a little baby butt in the air and feet in the mouth. Most of the time, he only does this during diaper changes and while sitting in his high chair.
• I'm not completely sure, but I think he's been trying to kiss me. He'll open his mouth wide, and lean forward to kiss (or maybe just chew on) my face. It's a drooly, sloppy mess, and totally adorable.
• He definitely responds to his name now.
• His verbal skills have exploded. He's constantly jabbering, squealing, shrieking, fake-coughing, and laughing. It's so fun to converse with him.
• Noah is a total momma's boy these days. He has started reaching to be picked up, and if someone else is holding him and I get within reach, he tries to escape to me. And that's just fine with me, because I never get sick of holding him!
• He started moving from sitting to leaning forward and getting on to hands and knees. He has also successfully moved from hands and knees to sitting, but only once that I've witnessed.
• And the biggest milestone of all, Noah is army-crawling. Like a madman. He is quite proficient at it and can move surprisingly quickly. The biggest motivators are remote controls, iPhones, and dog toys/bones. He also crawls on hands and knees, but this is still an emerging skill. He can only make it a few scoots of the knee before his legs give out.

Another observation that doesn't seem like a bullet point is how detail oriented this kid is. My mother-in-law joked that we should have named him Hoover because as he crawls around the floor, he notices the tiniest pieces of lint and dirt and zeroes in on them. He can occupy himself for 10 minutes just pushing around a speck of dried-up leaf on the carpet. When playing with toys, he becomes entranced with little details on them. He has been known to spin the same part of a rattle for about 10 minutes. He's so gentle with things, too. He slowly manipulates toys and waves them gently like a beauty queen on a parade float. Oh, and strings! This kid loves to suck on the strings of mom's hoodies and sweat pants. Such a little goofball.

Each month gets more and more fun, but I feel like before I know it, he won't be much of a baby anymore. I'm not ready!