15 Months!

Look at me! Getting this done on the actual day. Amazing.

It's getting harder to come up with exciting milestones to share. Even though Noah is constantly doing new and adorable things, everything seems to blur together. Pretty much all of the big milestones have been reached, so it's turned more into documenting his funny habits and personality. So here goes.

• New words this month: moo (pronounced without the m), hot, google (pronounced googa, and don't ask why he learned this, so weird), car
• New words he can understand and/or point to: tongue, daddy, mommy, doggie, Gilbert, fan (the ceiling variety), dance, no, be nice (he pets/pats an object if we tell him to be nice), car, outside, bath, come here
• Noah likes to shake his head no when he doesn't want something. It's nice that he can communicate his wants this way, but sometimes it's also frustrating.
• If he's really unhappy, he arches his back and whips his head backwards, screaming and crying. This happens most often when I put him down and he doesn't want to be put down, if he has to come in from outside, or when he has to go in his carseat. It can't be all fun all the time. :)
• He likes to give high fives. I think he actually learned this prior to turning 14 months, but now he is consistent with it.
• On rare occasions, he will stomp around in circles if I tell him to "dance dance dance." We'll see if he starts to understand better.
• He has a pretty serious and contemplative personality. Even when he's having the most fun of his little life, he usually has a very stern face. He's just thinking very hard, and analyzing everything he sees. That's my theory at least. No ADHD in his future for sure.
• Sippy cups are getting used more, but with milk I think he still drinks best from a bottle. He learned to drink from a straw and loves it, so that is also helping our efforts to wean.
• We're completely done with formula. Our bank account thanks us.
• Noah is moving on to size 4 diapers just as soon as we use up all of the size 3s we still have left. We have him in size 4s overnight because he had a lot of accidents in 3s.
• According to our scale at home, he is around 22 pounds. He can still wear most of his 12 month clothing. We haven't moved up to 18 months except for a few pairs of pajamas. He's my little runt...

...and I love him!

Car!

This is the word of the week.

Car on my pajamas!

Car in my racetrack!

Car in my book!

Car!

Everywhere we go now, Noah points out the cars he sees. Today we were in Target, and they have a whole aisle of toys from the Pixar movie Cars 2. I think he thought he was in heaven. He immediately pointed to the huge hanging sign and said, "Car!"

Watching him pick up new words, and then get so excited about using them, is so much fun! Please don't make me go back to work in three weeks!!

Summer Vacation, Part III: Minnesota!

June 30 - July 15

The requisite family photo in front of the lake

Every year we plan a trip to Minnesota to enjoy all it has to offer: lakes and grandparents! And every year we leave feeling very conflicted. I always pictured my own children growing up with summers "up north" at the lake. The mountains are beautiful and all, but I was born for the water. So time will only tell. That and maybe an improvement in the housing and job markets...

The first couple of days home we stayed with my mom and avoided going outside. It was 90-some degrees, and so humid it felt like you were walking through soup. After living in arid CO for 6 years, let's just say it didn't feel so good. On Friday the 1st, we went to my dad's for dinner. He bought Noah a little pool and some toys to play with. Noah appeared to enjoy himself. As my dad prepared the grill, a cold front blew through and we lost power. It was pretty weird, and we had to eat by candle light. On the plus side, the temp dropped about 20 degrees and the humidity disappeared. Crazy Minnesota weather. (For the most part, the weather was PERFECT the rest of the trip.)

On Saturday, we headed up to my parents' cabin on East Battle Lake in northwestern MN.

Sitting on the dock with Grandma Cheri

There was a lot of good food, margaritas and Stella Blues (some sort of tropical drink), marble game nail-biters, and heated rounds of Phase 10 and Catch Phrase. (Don't even try to beat Brian and I at that game. I swear we share a brain.)

Watching birds with Grandpa Ed

We also did a little fishing, but no walleyes to photograph this year. Brian and I braved getting pulled on the tube, which was more fun than I thought it would be. But I have to wonder: did it hurt that much when I was younger, or is my body just getting old? We lasted like 5 whole minutes. Pathetic. Noah got to take a boat ride and swam with Mom and Dad.

Ready for the boat

We also spent an afternoon at West Battle Lake's public beach so Noah could enjoy some sand. (Our lake has a rocky shoreline. Bummer.) He thoroughly enjoyed playing with rocks and dumping them in his watercan. Maybe he has some of my DNA after all.

Enjoying West Battle Lake

My mom also insisted on taking a picture of him next to Chief Wenonga in Battle Lake. Sorry kid, but I think you'll be humoring Grandma for years to come!

On the 4th of July, we just played around the cabin, and then that evening our neighbors lit off a pretty decent fireworks display. The finale rivaled that of our hometown. And we didn't have to go anywhere. Perfect. Noah seemed pretty entertained by them as well. Speaking of fireworks, our first night at the cabin, some other neighbors lit off an arsenal shortly after Noah went to bed. Amazingly, he only fussed a little then fell sound asleep. The other three nights he slept straight through. Thank God, or it might have been a much shorter trip. We had to share a room with him at the cabin, and to my surprise it went pretty smoothly. He woke up a little earlier than normal, but all in all he did great! He's so easy to travel with! We actually ended up staying one more day than planned because it was all going so smoothly and the weather was so amazing. I love that place!

Who needs toys?

Grandma Heaven

Always pointing

One of my new favorites

We got back to the Twin Cities on Wednesday the 6th. Grandma Wendy was pretty excited for her turn with Noah. We went to the pool at their country club a couple of times. Noah seemed to have fun in the water, but more than anything he seemed to enjoy people-watching and flirting. He loves little girls and women.

Wanting to drink the pool water

Pool time with Grandma Wendy

Grandma Wendy also bought Noah a water table, which he enjoyed for about .2 seconds. Then he just wanted to play in the street. The hose proved to be a better alternative.

Brian got to play a lot of golf, which is great because he doesn't really have anyone to play with here. We also had an evening with Uncle Kevin and new Aunt Erin, as well as a couple of ping-pong filled nights with the other Noah (a college friend of Brian's). One of our last adventures was a visit out to my sister's farm in Wisconsin. She recently became the mom of a cow named Brown Sugar (who may or may not be pregnant and due in August). Noah wasn't quite sure what to think of the cow. At first he seemed curious, but when she started eating grass out of my hands, he broke into hysterical tears. Daddy was able to calm him down and he ended up petting her rump. We'll see how he does next year!

Just before the fear set in

Walking in the barn was more his speed

John Deere Baby

Auntie Aimee

Overall, it was another perfect MN summer visit. Next year we're thinking of possibly staying longer. It never feels long enough, and like I said, I was born to be in the water!

P.S. The trip home was awful. The flight was overbooked and I had been assigned a middle seat. (Brian drove there and back so I was solo on the plane with Noah.) I was sandwiched between a larger woman (who was so super patient and kind with Noah) and an edgy, ripped-jeans wearing, "I'm going to a music festival in Telluride and it's gonna be epic, dude" tool-bag (who was also fairly patient), and neither seemed keen on switching seats. AWESOME. So we taxied away from the gate, then stopped on the tarmac after the captain told us that Denver International issued a one-hour ground stop due to storms in the area. So here we sit for about 30 minutes before we take off. AWESOMER. Noah didn't sleep a wink and insisted on being a wiggle worm the whole flight. Luckily he wasn't very vocal, just squirmy. Showing him pictures of dogs in the SkyMall catalog was about the only thing that could get him to sit still for 5 minutes. We ended up landing just before the storms hit Denver. By the time we got into the main terminal, it was hailing furiously and it sounded like a plane was about to crash into the tented ceiling. SO LOUD. Brian picked us up after having driven from MN all day, so I drove home from there. Through the apocalypse. Seriously. Lightning everywhere, and sheets of rain so intense that I had to slow down to about 20 mph on the freeway just to find my lane. AWESOMEST.

P.P.S. The day after we got home, Denver was on day 8 of severe thunderstorms. A storm blew through around 2:30pm and dumped nickle-sized hail in our neighborhood. I was watching from the kitchen when a freak gust of wind ripped through our backyard. I shrieked and ran as I saw two huge branches snap off of one of the three trees behind our house and fly towards the sliding door. I heard way more thumps on the roof than I anticipated. When I turned back around, I saw that another one of the trees (the biggest one of course) uprooted and fell onto the fence and roof. After the neighbors had the tree removed (it was on their property), we found that there wasn't too much damage. Our patio furniture is mostly shot, and our shady, private yard is suddenly a lot sunnier, but we really were lucky. It could have been so much worse!

My mom thinks the flight home and the tree are both signs that we should stay in MN. I might agree with her...

Summer Vacation, Part II

June 16 - June 30

After our trip to MN, we kicked around the house for a couple of weeks. The first weekend back we took our first trip to Uncle Brady's pool. Noah wasn't quite sure what to think, and the water was a little more brisk than say, bath water. At first we had him in a floaty, but it was pretty apparent that he wanted to be held instead. He clung to me like a monkey the whole time. At that point, the jury was out on his feelings about aquatic adventures.

Doesn't he look thrilled?

The next week, we started out with a trip to the Denver Aquarium. It was fairly busy and not always easy to get a prime spot to look at fish up close. For the most part, I don't think Noah was too interested in anything except the fake shells plastered to the walls. At least it got us out of the house. The only bummer is that Noah tripped on their sidewalk and got a nice scrape in the middle of his forehead. The hazards of walking...

Fishies.

Well, at least shells are cool.

We also found that there's a "splash park" in our neighborhood. Calling it a splash park seems generous. It's more like a few fountains here and there that you can walk through, but for a 14 month old, I think that's all you really need. Noah definitely had fun there, but you wouldn't know it from the pictures. He has a very serious side to him, even when he's totally enthused. He takes after his daddy! We knew he loved it though, because as we left, he cried and cried. So maybe he will be a little fish like his mommy after all!

He was pretty brave and walked right through the fountain!

Daddy was kind enough to redirect the spray.

The second weekend we were home found Brian and Uncle Brady tiling our lower-level bathroom. When we bought the house it was carpeted... gross. We always wanted to change it, but never made the effort until now. It was the same carpet that we just replaced with wood in the family room, so it was definitely time. The project didn't quite get finished before we left again, but there isn't much work left, and it already looks tons better!

Noah was very curious about all of the noise.

On the 29th, Noah and I took our second flight in as many weeks back to MN for a 2-week vacation. He was a total trooper on the plane considering that we flew early in the morning and woke him up at 5:30am. I swear, he's the easiest baby I know!

Stay tuned for Summer Vacation, Part III with lots of fun photos of lake, pool, and Grandma time! The summer is going too fast!!

14 Months (just a little late)

So much for my plans to get better about posting this summer. But I think it's better that I'm actually out and about than sitting with my laptop!

So about 2.5 weeks ago, this little trouble maker turned 14 months old. Here's a rundown of his latest and greatest accomplishments and habits.

• Standing up from sitting without any assistance! He accomplished this shortly after he turned 13 months. It was Memorial Day weekend, and we were at my friend Heather's house for a barbeque. He also enjoyed bobbing for beers in the ice bucket.

• For a while now, he has gotten a kick out of stamping his feet. He takes just one foot, and stomps over and over. A lot of times, he'll do this if there is something on the floor. He likes to try to step on things. It always makes me laugh.
• This kid LOVES his baths! Sometimes when I change him at night, he'll run away from me towards the bathroom, shrieking and flailing his arms and legs like a monkey. If he finds out it's not a bath night, watch out. Yikes.
• On our first trip back to MN for Kevin's wedding, my MIL bought him this cute little duck toy which Noah can pull with a string. Ever since, he has thoroughly enjoyed dragging things around. Anything with a string, tie, or long handle will do: shoes, dog leash, purse, camera case, shorts, etc. It's also way fun to try to walk the dog with his leash. Thankfully Gilbert has transformed into a super good dog with kids (at least Noah), and doesn't pull too hard when Noah has the reigns.

Walking the dog. Please note our new hardwood floors.

• One of my newest favorite things about having a mobile baby is that he likes to walk up to me, then plop down in my lap just to sit with me. Heart-melting every. single. time.
• Since 13 months, Noah grew 3 new teeth, which brings the total to seven! He's a pretty happy teether. Not much fussing, just a lot of drooling. He also went through a "bite mommy" phase, but he hasn't done that in a while now.
• Between 13 and 14 months, we saw a mini language explosion! Expressively, he can say: hi, woof woof, dis, and "ah dee" (still not sure what that means). Receptively, he can point to nose, belly, head, fire, and light. We think he's known some of these for a while, but his daycare provider taught him a lot that we don't know about.
• He is so curious about the things around him. He points to absolutely everything, then makes a little "eh" sound. It's then our duty to name said object. Since his 14-month birthday, he's picked up on many more words receptively thanks to all his pointing and our naming, but that will have to wait for next month's (this month's) 15-month update.
• Noah might just be the best sleeper in the history of babies. With all the traveling we've done, he just goes with the flow. He can sleep in any crib or pack n' play we've put him in. He will nap in foreign rooms of foreign houses. He goes down without a fight virtually every time. Sometimes he even pushes his bedtime story away and just points to his crib. And when he sleeps, we're talking 12-14 hours overnight, and one 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon.

Like I say most months, this whole being a mom thing only gets better and better. I feel so lucky.