Things I Don't Want to Forget

-Like all toddlers, Noah is constantly coming up with phrases and sentences and I have no idea where he heard them from.  A couple of days ago we were grocery shopping and I asked him to hand me something from the cart.  After he handed it to me I said "Thank you, Noah," absentmindedly.  He proceeded to say, "You're very welcome!  You're very welcome, Mommy!" over and over.  I had to laugh.  I know why he says, "You're welcome," but I have no idea where he got the "very" from.

-On that same grocery trip he was saying "Oh my.  Oh my.  Oh goodness.  Oh shoot."  while we were walking down one of the aisles.

-Today we were at a birthday party for a friend of ours who turned 30.  When we told Noah we were going to a birthday party he immediately said, "I wanna blow out candles!" Then the whole time we were at the party he kept telling me he wanted to blow out candles.  When it came time for Laura to blow out her candles, she asked if Noah wanted to help.  He was so happy.  After they blew them out he had this big proud smile on his face, and said "We did it!"  Then he told everyone who would listen, "I blow out candles!"

-My formerly shy son has turned into Mr. Sociable.  Every time someone comes to our house, he wants them to play with him.  We had an electrician over for about 5 hours on Tuesday, and he was just dying for the guy to play with him.  On Friday Justin had a new client in the gym, a woman, and when we got back from our walk Noah got out of the stroller and walked right up to the lady, bent down (she was on her hands and knees) and kept asking her, "Where are the bubbles???  Where are the bubbles??  Let's blow bubbles!!"  He did not want to go outside and leave the nice lady.  He doesn't seem to want to accept that not everybody who comes to our door is here for a playdate with him!

-For awhile now, every time I put Noah to bed, for nap or night time, I nurse him and then carry him to his room.  While I'm carrying him the conversation goes like this: "Noah: "Pup?"  Me: "Yes."  Noah: "Scout?"  Me: "Yes."  Noah: "Blanket?"  Me: "Yes."  Noah: "Water?"  Me: "Yes."  I lay him down, tell him I love him and to have a good sleep, then I walk toward the door.  Every single time, without fail, he says "Wait, wait, WAIT!  Wait, Mommy!"  I never go back to him anymore though.  I used to, but he would just look at me and then ask me to leave.  He never actually wants anything.  He just feels like he HAS to ask me to wait.  I think it's very cute, but it also makes me feel kind of crappy every time, because he's asking me to wait and I just have to ignore it!

-We almost never get pictures of the two of us.  Besides some extremely crappy pictures we got on his birthday, it's been since August since Noah and I have appeared in a picture together.  Justin sucks at using our camera (sorry, I love him, but it's true.  I have taught him a billion times how to focus on the subject, but still 95% of the pictures he takes are blurry), so these are the only halfway decent pictures he took today (I wanted a picture of Noah's cute hair):

I swear, we didn't tell him to do this.  He's just that sweet:

(I chopped about 8 inches off my hair earlier this week while my Mom babysat... Man it felt good!)

19 Months Old

It has been extremely difficult getting around to writing Noah's 19 month stats.  I just sent him off with Daddy for an hour, so instead of taking some time to relax or make dinner, I'm doing this. 

At 19 months, here is where Noah is at:

-I haven't weighed or measured Noah this month, but I assume he is just slightly heavier and taller than last month, when he was 27lbs and 35 inches.

-He is in size 4 diapers during the day and night.

-He wears size 2T and 3T clothing.  Most 2T clothing is too short, though.

-He wears size 6 shoes.

-He nurses on demand, 4-6 times a day.

-He exclusively feeds himself his solids, either with his hands or with a spoon and fork. If he is given a utensil, he will always use it.  He also drinks out of a regular cup quite well, although we try to use a sippy cup as often as he will let us since we run less risk of him purposefully pouring out his water.

-He has 16 full teeth. The only ones left are his 2 year molars.

-He broke his leg on Saturday, September 24, 2011.  The diagnosis wasn't confirmed until the following Thursday.  He is doing a lot better now, but he is still limping.

-As of his 19 month birthday, he had been on a nap strike for 15 days, where he absolutely refused to nap unless he was actively nursing or in the car.  I think we might have beaten that now, though.  Update on that separately.  Soon, hopefully.

-Half of this month he was been sleeping 11 to 11.5 hours at night, getting up to nurse twice.  I went along with this because it started happening right after he broke his leg.  But when naps went to crap and Noah woke up wanting to nurse already at 11:30pm, I buckled down.  Since then he has been sleeping straight through the night 2/3 of the time and getting up to nurse sometime after 5am 1/3 of the time (one nurse a night is normal for him and I don't mind it).

-Bedtime is after 8:30pm most nights, and we've been sleeping in until about 8am or later every morning.

-He no longer signs to nurse, eat, or for water.  He's strictly verbal.

-At 15 months Noah was saying 18 words. At 16 months he was saying 42 words. At 17 months he was saying 79 words. At 18 months he was saying 137 words.  

-At 19 months Noah is saying way over 300 words.  However, I am not very good at writing them all down, and I need to find a way to automatically alphabetize them on the computer because it's really hard to go through the list to see if a new word is really a new word or not.  As a result, I have only recorded 281 words.

His old words that he's still saying are: Mama, Dada, uh oh, more, this, that, cat, night night, hot, up, yes, woof woof ("what does a dog say?"), baa ("what does a sheep/goat say?"), moo ("what does a cow say?"), car, ball, shoes, cracker, Noah, water, orange, clock, blech, hi, done, dirt, Bert, puff, swish, fluff, book, buzz, Papa, Nana, boo, fish, phone, again, home, sunglasses, Gramper, sit, stretch, glasses, food, laptop, love, hair, quack, bye, tshirt, shirt, aunt, poop, slide, cheese, Colton, danger, banana, feet, please, clock, cold, toes, ooo-ooo-ahh-ahh (monkey sound), bad, burger, boo-boo (as in, an owie), nurse, block, fly, stuck, chalk, out, fit, hat, bye-bye, and shit (yeah, I'm not proud of that), pool, eyes, nose, rice, pour, no, apple, bath, heck, help, eat, T.V., pup, corn, cook, moon, sun, on, off, mouse, brush, ice, neigh, push, yay, peach, buddy, you, hi, mess, flip, hose, toast, home, see you, pieces, pear, foot, me, tape, open, meat, ok, out, street, outside, keys, bits, pee, flies, away, whoa, cheerios, cut, gas, wet, hey, bless.

-Some of his new words are: plate, baby, kick, acorn, grass, light, dark, medicine, horse, cake, after, bar, house, two, three, go, doctor, windy, lid, hide, Elmo, get, it, fix, button, thank, beep, one, cookie, high, chair, highchair, whack, walk, tower, cute, breakfast, bawk (chicken), back, moose, lion, tiger, dinner, pocket, Ernie, draw, wall, welcome, Granny, Matt, Lynsey, aunt, Giliane, Nick, Hilary, cuddle, boat, pen, puck, ready, picture, coming, dude, cool, clothes, soother, green, purple, blue, both, you, I, love, fries, toys, red, playdoh, stick, hockey, hit, ribbit, frog (which comes out as f#ck), colour, found, plug, pizza, coffee, cricket, broke, ring, hug, rice, watch, arm, leg, ear, closet, open, dukie (dutch slang for washcloth), chicken, Abby, sweep, music, Emmie, Lexie, other, room, welcome, rain, clap, table, yellow, crayon, crib, music, lotion, cube, self, ice cube, new, giraffe, bite, blanky, dance, meow, cow, dog, rabbit, tomato, tree, bathroom, cup, window, honk, pretty, grape, fork, spoon, knife, goose, bang, Scout, peek-a-boo.

-In case you didn't read through that long list (I don't blame you), Noah says frog, but it comes out as "f#ck." Quite perfectly pronounced, too.  It has embarrassed me several times.

-He is putting many two word phrases together.  For example: thank you, bless you, get it, get you, got you, hang on, etc.

-He knows that poop and pee go in the toilet, and he shows interest when we go to the bathroom, but I haven't gotten him a potty or even started to bother training him.  I am in no hurry.

-His verbal comprehension continues to be amazing. He understands everything we say to him. We can even reason with him.

-He still wants gets into everything, but he is continuing to obey the word "no" more consistently.

-Currently, his favourite "toys" are our Dyson vacuum cleaner, my hair dryer, any cleaning implement, or anything electronic that isn't meant to be played with.

-He just jumped for the first time, actually getting air.  We weren't trying to teach him, he just suddenly decided to stand there on two feet and figure out how to jump up and land again.  And he did it.

-He loves to colour with us.  We colour with paper and crayons, or on his big AquaDoodle mat.  I love AquaDoodle.

-He knows most of the main colours: green, orange, blue, red, yellow, purple, and black.  He spends most of his time concentrating on green and orange, though.  Especially orange.

-He'll count "one, two, three..." but most of the time when he's counting he says "Two, two, two, two..." as he points to different objects.  This slays me.  It's hilarious.

-He loves to play with playdoh.  I bought it when he broke his leg and wasn't supposed to walk.  I bought a Sesame Street set of shapes and cutters and things, so when he wants to play with playdoh he'll usually say "Elmo!  Cut!"  

-He L.O.V.E.S. Sesame Street.  He either asks to watch "Street" or "Elmo".  He absolutely adores Elmo, and his second favourite character would probably be Abby Cadabby.  He even knows that if I spell "E-L-M-O" that spells Elmo.  I tried spelling it so he wouldn't hear the word, but he figured it out pretty quickly.

-This is the very first month he has shown an interest in loving stuffed animals.  Before now he was only attached to "Pup," his lovey.  And that was only after having him in his crib for months and months.  This month he fell in love with a puppy at Build-A-Bear, so we made one for him.  He adores that puppy.  He hugs him and kisses him and cuddles with him.  We call him "Scout," which Noah pronounces something like "Suck."

-Time outs are still extremely successful around here. They've been so successful, we don't need to use them that often anymore.

-No illnesses for Noah this month. The count is at 13.

-He is getting much less shy, but he still has separation anxiety from me.

-He is such a smart, sweet, gentle little boy who just loves other kids and babies.  He shares, he's nice, he's empathetic... I'm so proud of him!

Brave Noah

I have to post something unrelated to my misery:

Noah has gotten so much braver and outgoing than he was in the spring.  We go out a lot now, sometimes to new places he's not familiar with.  In the past, he used to cling to me, just watching, for about 30 minutes before venturing off to play with other kids.  Now he just flies into the thick of things.

For example, today we went to Drop-In at the Best Start hub where we live.  It's just a free place that's kind of like a daycare, but you stay with your kids and can socialize with other parents.  We haven't been there since Noah was about 12 months because it's only on Mondays and Thursdays from 9-11:30am, and all summer Justin was home and not training during that time.  Today was the first day in months that Justin was at work on one of those days, so we went.

Noah had a ball.  He took off from me as soon as we got there, playing with all the toys. He would come back to me every 15 minutes or so, plop in my lap for a cuddle, and then take off again. He sure has gotten more comfortable in places like that.

I also saw someone who Justin works with who's off on maternity leave right now.  So we chatted a lot, which was nice, since those places are often cliquey.

We left during circle time because Noah just does NOT enjoy that stuff anymore. He kept getting up, even though I told him he had to sit in the circle or we would leave. So I asked him if he wanted to go home and he immediately nodded, said "home", waved bye to the "teacher", and headed for the door. He couldn't wait to get out of that circle and go home.

On Tuesday we were at Tales for Tots at the library.  When I signed up for it I was a little worried, since I had a feeling Noah would just want to pull books off the shelves.

Well, I was right.  He had no interest in anything the teacher was doing.  Totally not her fault - she was doing a good job.  But he just wanted to play with books.  When he was 12 or 13 months it would have gone well, since he would have been too shy to get off my lap.  But from about 15 or 16 months until now?  Totally different story.  I know this is normal, but he was the ONLY kid doing this at that session.  Every other kid was participating, or at least paying attention.

We got a sheet about what you should do with your kid, the kind of behaviour is expected, etc.  And it said that if after 3 sessions the child is not cooperating, perhaps you should try again in the future.  I'm not sure if this applies to Noah, since he wasn't being disruptive in the least.  He was perfectly quiet.  But still, he wasn't doing what he was supposed to be doing.

Either way, I don't know if we're going to go back.  We might try one more time, but if Noah's not into it right now, there's no sense in trying to force it.

Anyway, I'm proud of him for being so much more outgoing.  I never forced it when he was clingy and more timid, and he just grew out of it naturally.  Although he still would not be okay if I left him alone in these places.  In fact, last night Justin took him to basketball practice because I wasn't feeling well, and the whole time he kept walking out into the hallway saying "Mama?  Mama?  Mama?  Mama?"  And he kept pouting and his eyes would fill with tears.  Justin had to keep giving him Mum Mums to distract him.

That makes me laugh and feel sad for him at the same time.  He's still a Mama's boy, that's for darn sure.

16 Months Old

At 16 months, here is where Noah is at:

-He is a little over 23lbs.

-He is about 34 inches tall.

-His head circumference is 20 inches.

-He is in size 4 diapers during the day and night.

-He wears size 4 shoes.

-He wears 24 month clothing, for the most part.  His shorts are still 9 month, although he seems to have had a growth spurt in the past month and would probably finally fit into the waistband of 12 month shorts.

-He nurses on demand, probably 8+ times a day.

-He still enjoys a balance of feeding himself and being fed when he eats solids. He eats mostly grown up food, but sometimes still has purees.

-He is getting better at using a spoon and fork, but it is an extremely messy process.

-He has 12 teeth that are fully in (front 8 teeth and 4 molars), and his four canines are in the process of breaking through.  A few tips are already poking through, and the other one is just about to break his gums.

-He has one nap a day, usually about an hour long.

-He sleeps 11-11.5 hours at night, getting up to nurse once. Bedtime is between 8 and 8:30pm most nights.

-He signs to nurse (the sign for milk), for water (waves his hand up and down), and to eat (sticks his finger in his mouth). Those are the only signs I'm consistent with, otherwise I'm sure he'd sign more.

-At 15 months Noah was saying 18 words, now at 16 months he is saying 42 words.

His old words that he's still saying are: Mama, Dada, uh oh, more, this, that, cat, night night, hot, up, yes, woof woof ("what does a dog say?"), baa ("what does a sheep say?"), moo ("what does a cow say?"), car, ball, shoes, cracker. 

His new words are: Noah, water, orange, clock, blech, hi, done, dirt, Bert, puff, swish, fluff, book, buzz, Papa, Nana, boo, fish, phone, again, home, sunglasses, Nana, Gramper, sit.

-When something is hot, Noah waves his arms around and says "Hot!  Hot!"  The oven, a candle flame, water, food, the weather... he knows exactly what "hot" is in different contexts and circumstances.  This past Sunday at church Noah saw the candle flame at the front of the church during prayer and wouldn't stop saying "HOT!"  My Dad and I were shaking with silent laughter.

-His verbal comprehension continues to amaze me.

-Noah can get into anything.  Doors, closets, cupboards, drawers, fridge, stove, freezer, dishwasher... He is just one of those kids.   He's well behaved, but at the same time he tests the limits constantly.  Seriously, constantly.  It can be sooo frustrating. 

-He climbs on everything now.  He can even climb up on our high pub chairs, and therefore can get on top of our tall pub table.  This is an unwelcome development.

-Noah loves power cords.  Anything that has a cord and plug attached to it is fascinating to him.  When we went to the cottage I didn't even need to bring toys.  Just hand him a hair dryer, alarm clock, or even just an extension cord, and he's good to go.

-He's still very cuddly and affectionate.  He is getting quite good at giving hugs and kisses to people when we say goodbye.  Especially my parents, his Granny and Gramper.  He doesn't do this very readily for my inlaws, though.

-Noah has become much friendlier in the past few months.  He will flirt with, smile at, and wave to strangers now.  He likes strangers better if he can seek them out, though, and usually from the safety of Mommy's arms or shopping cart.  If you seek him out and he doesn't know you very well, he will still look at you like "Who the heck are you and why are you looking at me?"

-No illnesses this month!  Still sitting at 12 illnesses in his 16 months of life.


I am making more of an effort the past couple of months to take Noah places and do activities with him.  As he gets older he seems to need this more.  He loves to visit people and do things out of his ordinary routine.  If we go somewhere outside of the house, he will be so happy and distracted, he won't whine or cry or anything the whole time we are out.  I really wish we didn't live in the boonies.  It makes getting out of the house much more difficult.

Noah did wonderfully this month when we went on vacation to the cottage.  He had a total blast in his new surroundings, and all my fears about his sleep were unnecessary; he slept great! 

Since we have gotten home, though, his sleep has not been great.  Normally he only gets up once a night to nurse.  In the past 9 nights we have been home, he has gotten up twice (or more) probably 5 or 6 of the nights.  I've been understanding and not made him CIO, because he is teething hardcore.  But if this continues on too much longer I think I'll have to take a bit of a firmer line.  I don't mind nursing him once overnight, and I know he sleeps longer than he would if he didn't nurse.  But he doesn't need to nurse twice.  Not for hunger purposes, anyway. 

Speaking of teething, I think it is very interesting how Noah teeths in such huge spurts.  His first spurt was from 5 to 8 months, when he got 8 teeth in 3 months.  Then he had a 5 month break, and at 13 months he started teething again.  He got his 4 molars, and 3 of his canines are showing (one is about to).  So basically he will have gotten another 8 teeth in about 3 months.  It's rough, but if I could chose it, I would chose this.  If he's going to be in pain from cutting teeth, he might as well cut a whole bunch of teeth at once, rather than one tooth at a time.

Noah hasn't been a big fan of vegetables for the past several months. But this month we figured out how to get him to eat them again - give him a utensil to eat them with! He will eat all sorts of less-than-yummy stuff if he's feeding himself with a fork or spoon.

This past weekend Justin and I were able to go out for dinner for the first time since Noah was born.  We drove into town, and dropped Noah off at my parents house at 4:30 - it was a very early dinner.  We went out for almost an hour and a half.  Noah did really well.  He asked for Mama a few times, but my parents just reminded him that I was out for dinner and would be home soon, and he accepted it.  This is huge, because he has had such horrible separation anxiety for most of his life.  So have I, for that matter!  Justin and I already missed him when we were still in my parents' driveway.  Despite this, we really enjoyed our early evening date, and I'm glad Noah did well.  He loves my parents, though.  He wouldn't have done as well with anyone else.

This month Noah has really gotten into imitating his Daddy.  He tries to copy Justin by doing pushups, situps, squats, and deadlifts, making grunting noises while he does each movement.  He also copies Daddy's big overhead stretch, groaning while he does it.  It just melts me to watch him try to be like his Dad.

This past month Noah has used the word "Mama" more than ever before.  For instance, when Justin goes into his room in the morning to get him, Noah will immediately say "Mama??  Mama??"  Like "What are you doing here, Dad?  I want my Mom!!!"  If I walk in there, he just smiles.  I love hearing him say Mama.  Maybe it's because a "Mom" is such a special thing in my mind, so having him call me by my appropriate name almost makes me feel like he recognizes what a special person I am in his life.  I have always been his favourite person by FAR, but still, it just feels so special to hear him call me Mama. 

14 Months Old

Better late than never, right? 


At 14 months old, here is where Noah is at:

-He weighs about 21.5lbs.  He was 22lbs even with his clothes and shoes on, carrying my big pile of keys (I wasn't about to pry them out of his fingers and have a tantrum on my hands in the middle of the doctor's office).  This is just under 50th percentile, according to WHO chart for breastfed babies.

-He is about 32.5 inches tall, 98th percentile, according to WHO chart for breastfed babies.

-He's between the 10th and 25th percentile for weight-for-length, according to the WHO chart for breastfed babies.

-His head measures 19.9 inches around.  Over 100th percentile, according to the WHO chart for breastfed babies.  Massive.  But it's not wide, it's deep, so it doesn't actually look like he has a giant noggin.

-He is just about to move into size 4 diapers 100% of the time.  He still fits size 3 Pampers Cruisers really well, but he is too tall for other size 3 diapers (even though they fit his waist well).

-He still breastfeeds on demand, which is usually around 10 times a day.

-75% of his nutrition still comes from breastfeeding.  He is beginning to want to eat more solids more often.  I let him lead the way.

-He will still eat purees if there are no "solid" solids in sight.  I have a whole bunch of jarred baby food to use up, so I'm still going for it.

-He loves meat and fruit.  They are his favourite.  He also really likes peanut butter sandwiches.  He does not like vegetables anymore.  Sad:(

-He still enjoys a balance of being fed and feeding himself.

-He wears 18 and 24 month clothing, depending on what it is.  Except shorts.  He wears 9 month shorts.  The little skinny-minny.

-He wears size 4 shoes.

-He has 10 teeth.  The front 8 (4 top and 4 bottom), which have been in since he was 8 months old, and now his one year molars on top are poking through his gums a fair bit.  On the bottom his gums are swollen, like he has two marbles under his gums. 

-He's been down to one nap for a month.  This nap is about an hour long, give or take a few minutes.

-He sleeps 11-11.5 hours at night, getting up to nurse once.  I have no idea when he will drop that overnight nursing.

-Did you do the math?  He only sleeps 12-12.5 hours a day.

-Bedtime is still about 8-8:30pm, despite the one nap.  I prefer to start my morning sometime past 7, and if I put him to bed earlier he does wake up earlier.

-He signs to nurse (the sign for milk), for water (waves his hand up and down), and to eat (sticks his finger in his mouth).  Those are the only signs I'm consistent with, otherwise I'm sure he'd sign more.

-He still doesn't say much verbally.  Just Dad, a little bit of Mama, uh oh, that, this...  He just started doing two animal sounds, though.  He says, "Woof woof" when he hears a dog or we ask what a dog says, and he says "Ca Ca" for what a bird says.   He totally started doing both of those on his own, though, imitating the dogs and birds that live around us.  He really is not into copying us verbally, except for those two noises now.

-I am always surprised by how much he understands.  He can follow so many instructions, even multi-step instructions like "Get your shoes so we can go outside!"  He'll run and get his shoes and then go to the door and try to go outside. 

Here are some other examples (by no means a comprehensive list):

*"Do you want to listen to music?"  He'll nod, smile, point to the iPod dock, and start dancing.

*"Do you want to go downstairs?" He'll run to the top of the stairs gate.
*"Are you hungry?" He signs to eat. "Go get in your high chair!"  He'll run over to his high chair and reach up to try and get into it.

*"Can you get Mommy's brush for her?" He will literally go to the bathroom, open the drawer, get out my brush, and bring it to me.

*"No hitting!  Gentle, Noah, gentle..."  He will start gently patting whatever he was being too rough with, be it the cats or my face or his own head. 

*He also can answer "Where's Mommy's nose?" and "Where's Mommy's belly button?" by pointing the the appropriate body part.  He'll even lift up my shirt to find my belly button.  He doesn't point to those things on himself, though.

*On his own body he points out his ears, feet, and hands when asked.

*If we tell him not to do something when we're somewhere other than home, he looks at us very seriously, nods his head, and stops what he's doing.  He also shakes his head no, when appropriate.

-He's a very sweet boy, and very cuddly and kissy.  He loves to hug other babies, our cats, and pictures of animals.

-He loves to get out our swiffers and swiffer all over our floors.  He'll swiffer the carpets, couches, and coffee tables too.  He also imitates me cleaning by rubbing cloths on the floor and tables.

-He loves to play outside.  A little over a month ago he was still not a big fan of it, but now he loves it.  He would spend most of his day outside if he could.  The weather hasn't been very conducive to this, though.

-He got comfortable walking on the grass just before 14 months.  I've mentioned that he is a very careful little guy, so before this it felt too unsteady for him and he would just stand still if we put him on the grass.

-He can open closet doors now, as well as regular doors.  Unwelcome development.

-I can leave the stair gates open without worrying that he will fall down the stairs.  I only use them to confine him to one floor or another, but sometimes I leave them open and he just goes up and down the stairs (without me there) to his heart's content.  He's very careful, and very quick.

-He is a lot more comfortable around strangers, now.  He sticks close to me for a little while, but then gets more adventurous.  He still doesn't smile much at strangers, but he is a lot less scared of them than he used to be.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A typical day in our house is very relaxed.  Noah wakes up between 7 and 8 (usually more like between 7:15 and 7:45).  I get up with him, immediately nurse him (he's usually hungry and disgruntled, so this is the reset button), then change his bum.  Then we go out into the rest of the house and play.  I make myself breakfast at some point.  Sometimes Noah wants some, sometimes he waits until later.  After we have breakfast that's usually when I unload and reload the dishwasher.  Then I get in the shower and get ready for the day. 

Sometimes after my shower we'll have time to go outside before Justin gets home for lunch.  Sometimes not, and sometimes it's just not nice enough weather.  Actually, often it's not nice enough weather.  Sometimes this is when I throw laundry in or do some other chores. 

Justin comes home for lunch from 11:00-11:30, and we hang around with him.  Noah often gets little bites to eat during this time.  Justine leaves, and we play more.  Noah goes down for his nap sometime after 12:30.  He generally stays awake for about 5 hours in the morning.  He always nurses before his nap - always.  (He also nurses whenever he asks for it all day long, but these nursing sessions are not at the same times everyday, which is why I only mention the nursings before or after he wakes up).  He sleeps for an hour, and during this time I try to take time to myself to relax.  I make myself lunch and watch something from the PVR.  The hour goes by quickly.  Noah is always awake before I know it.  He almost always nurses immediately when he wakes up, because he's usually pretty ticked off.  It's just his personality - he's rarely happy right when he wakes up.  After nursing he's good to go.

If we are going to go do anything out of the house, like running errands, this is typically when we do it.  Occasionally I can fit errands in before nap, but I rarely have the motivation to rush around to shower and eat and get ready in time to do errands and then be home for when Justin gets home at 11.  I don't have to be there, but I think it's nice that we can all spend a little bit of time together in the middle of the day, especially since we don't see him in the morning before he goes to work.

For the rest of the afternoon it's always different.  Sometimes chores, sometimes hanging out with Justin if he gets home from work early, sometimes visiting with my Mom or Dad or a friend.  Sometimes just hanging out and doing nothing in particular.  Of course, I make dinner in the evening and clean up the kitchen and dishes immeidately afterward.

I tend to have the most motivation to do chores in the hour before I am supposed to start bedtime routine (I aim to start that at 7:30).  That's when I'll suddenly decide to catch up on laundry, vacuum the entire house, and give Noah a haircut.  And those overly ambitious nights are the nights that Noah doesn't get into bed until 8:30.  I generally aim for 8:00, but I'm often a bit later.

I almost always have my house cleaned up and tidied before I start bathing Noah.  I also wash my own face and brush my teeth before I bathe Noah.  It's just this thing I have.  I need to be ready for bed and need everything to be in its place before Noah goes to bed.  I nurse Noah to sleep every night.  I usually cuddle and nurse him for about 20 minutes... I love holding my sleeping little baby.  I really cherish these times with him, especially since he's already 14 months.  Before I know it he won't be sleeping in my arms again - ever.

(I want to clarify that although I do nurse Noah to sleep, he can put himself to sleep, and he does that on a regular basis. If he doesn't show signs of falling asleep in the first 10-15 minutes of nursing, he goes in his crib awake, and is usually asleep within about 5 minutes).

After I put him in his crib, I do whatever little things need to be done, like finishing cleaning up the bathroom after his bath, or put away the things he threw around the house as I was wrangling him into the bathtub.  Then I collapse on my bed and watch TV.  Justin is usually around by then, with no more clients to train, so we hang out and watch TV until I feel tired enough to sleep.


So that's my day!  Sounds nice, doesn't it?  I love spending all my time with Noah, cooking, cleaning, and playing.  It's not amazing every single day, but it's pretty darn close:)

11 Months Old

I don't think I've ever been so late with a monthly update.  Noah turned 11 months over a week ago, so I'm going to keep these updates restricted to those things he was doing at that time.  Some things have changed quite a bit in this past week.

At 11 months old, here is where Noah is at:

-He weighs 20lbs 9oz totally naked, but after a lot of nursings.  That's about 25th percentile.

-He is 31.5 inches long, about 100th percentile.

-He is less than 5th percentile for weight for height (he has tall, slim parents - he can't help it).

-He wears size 3 diapers during the day, and size 4 diapers at night.

-He wears 18 month clothing. His sleepers, onesies, and shirts fit perfectly, maybe a little on the small side.  His 18 month pants are a perfect length.

-He has 8 teeth, the four top and four bottom.

-He started signing 'nurse' at 10.5 months, and ever since then we've been nursing much more than every 2 hours.  He often wants to nurse again 5 minutes after we just finished.

-He still has just one formal "meal" of solids - mostly purees - at dinnertime.  The rest of the day he snacks on various things, usually what I'm eating.  He's still about 90% breastfed, with solids making up the other 10%.

-He goes to bed at about 7pm, sleeps until past 4am, nurses, and goes back to sleep again until about 7am, give or take.  (This has changed since a couple of days after he turned 11 months... that post is still to come.)

-He has two naps a day, ranging from 30 minutes to an hour.  The first nap is about 3 - 3.5 hours after he wakes up (he can make it to 4 pretty easily), and the second nap is 3.5 - 4 hours after he wakes up from his first nap.

-He is totally done with the soother, now.  I take very little credit for this, although I recognize that my actions inadvertently got him to this point.  He always needed it when he was being rocked to sleep.  Then we had a few weeks where he was either nursed to sleep or put in his crib awake.  I would give him his soother when I put him in his crib awake, but he never fell asleep using it.  So after seeing if he still wanted it on several different occasions, I have come to the conclusion that he is definitely over it.  It holds no appeal for him anymore.

-He's getting better at the sippy cup.  Sometimes he'll drink a couple of ounces of water out of it in one sitting.  He likes water now.

-He stands alone, takes a few independent steps (this was just an occasional thing still when he turned 11 months), cruises really well, speed crawls, and climbs.

-He loves to throw balls, play with his baseball bats, score points on his basketball hoop, and practice stick handling with his mini-sticks and hockey puck.  His athlete father is so proud :) 

-He's become extremely cuddly lately, often hugging us and laying his head down on our shoulders, draping himself over us, ect.  He'll even fall asleep sometimes with his head laying on my shoulder, which he hadn't done since he was about 2 months old.

-He loves to give Mommy kisses (sometimes Dad gets one).  He gives me probably a hundred open mouth slobber kisses each day.  Sometimes he just seems overwhelmed with the need to kiss me.  It's adorable.

-He's still a big mommy suck.  He's getting a bit friendlier with other people (smiling, making faces, giggling), but will freak out if I start to walk away. 

-He still has horrifyingly awful separation anxiety.  He still can't handle if I'm not in his sight when we're at home, so I have to plan chores and things carefully.  I can't even go to the bathroom without him.

-He just started doing this hilarious scrunchy face, sometimes doing it with a closed, pursed mouth, other times "showing off" his front teeth.  He breathes really fast in and out of his nose when he does it.  It's hilarious.

-He just started to lounge on the floor like a lazy toddler.  Not for long periods of time, but before this he would never ever sit still or lay down during the day, but now he'll sometimes lay his cheek on the floor, or recline on some pillows in front of the TV (terrible... I blame Dad).

-It's always hard to know exactly how much an 11 month old understands, but we know for sure he knows the meanings of: Mom, Dad, nurse, up, night-night, hug, kiss, no, this, book, "say hi," and "say bye".  He demonstrates understanding of those words through his actions.  I'm guessing he knows a lot more, but I can't tell.

-He just started saying "Uh oh," but its often more of an "Uh uhhh" or an "Oooh oooh." Sometimes he does "Uh uh uh ohh." He mostly does this after he drops something and we say "Uh oh."

-He says "Dis," "Dat," "Mamamama," and "Dad" or "Dada".  It seems like he says all these things in the right settings, but he also uses them at other times, so I don't know if he's really using them as words or just sounds.

-He loves to "read." He pulls out his books and sits and flips through the pages. His two teacher parents are thrilled:)

-We have this book called Who Do You See, and after "I see a bee" I say "buzzz" and he ALWAYS says "zzzzzzzz" as he strokes the bee.  After "I see a lion" I say "Rooaaar!" and he sometimes gently goes "Raaaaa."


I'm sure there is much, much more I could say, but I am already 9 days late with this post.  I am just going to finish it before I waste another day ruminating about it. 

But, as a last thing, I have to say, Noah is becoming hilarious.  His toddler personality that is beginning to emerge (although I still think 1 year olds are babies) cracks me up.  I seriously could not love him any more.  He is the most amazing thing that has ever happened to me, and I am incredibly, deeply grateful for him every second of every day!

A Mom Like Me...

When I first entered Motherhood, I found it to be a very bonding experience.  I suddenly felt connected with almost every other mother out there, past and present.  Having a newborn is some crazy business that I just couldn't imagine before I actually had a baby, and once I had one I felt like I was in the loop.  And so was every other mother.

Now Noah is just 8 days away from turning 10 months old, and the more time passes the more I start to feel... isolated.  Sometimes I feel disconnected from other mothers, rather than connected to them.  And no, it's not because I'm a stay-at-home-mom.  It's because I really think that no two mothers are exactly the same, no two babies are exactly the same, and I just want another mother who's exactly like me, with a baby who's exactly like mine, to be friends with.  Someone I can relate to, and who can relate to me 100%, instead of in bits and pieces.

Going through infertility was an isolating experience, because unless you've gone through infertility, you can't imagine the emotional pain that's involved.  But, I found this big community of IFers on the internet, and whether we had suffered for 1, 2, 3, or 4 years of infertility, whether we ended up conceiving naturally, through IUI, IVF, a donor, or having a child through adoption, we all knew what the suffering felt like.  We could all empathize and connect with one another over the shared pain.

I don't necessarily always find the same to be true with motherhood.  And this is quite possibly because I'm really IN it right now.  I might feel differently once I no longer have babies and toddlers.  But for the past while I've noticed that while it may have seemed at the beginning that there were other mothers like me, as time passes, they're just not anymore. 

Somewhere out there there must be someone like me...

A mother who's gone through infertility, and will deal with that pain everytime she wants another child.

A mother who breastfeeds totally exclusively.  Whose kid has never had a bottle or cup, and didn't start solids until past 6 months.  And who wants it that way.

A mother who takes the advice that "breastmilk should be the main source of nutrition for the first year - or more - of life" seriously, and who doesn't feel the need to give her little baby 3 "solid" meals a day just because certain baby books say she should.  A mother who thinks that perhaps babies' little digestive systems haven't necessarily evolved so that they should be handling a whole lot else besides breastmilk at such a young age, considering thousands of years ago they didn't have "pureed baby food" to feed young babies.

A mother who thought cosleeping was a nice idea, but who couldn't pull it off because she just couldn't sleep with the baby in the room.

A mother who was firmly against cry-it-out, and then ended up with an 8 month old who was a terrible sleeper.  She tried everything, and was forced to use CIO.  She realized that while it may not be her first option, it works, and it doesn't make you a terrible parent.

A mother who has a child who ONLY CAT NAPS, because that's just who he is.

A mother who has a child who was impossible to schedule before 9 months old, who gave up trying, and who really doesn't care anymore, but is still diligent in watching the clock and her child for cues of hunger and fatigue.

A mother who has a child who nursed literally every hour or hour and a half until he was about 5 months old, when he moved to a 2 hour "schedule" (I use that term loosely) and is still there at almost 10 months old.  And who doesn't care.

A mother who doesn't feel the need to wean at 1 year of age just because extended breastfeeding isn't exactly the norm in North America, and who has researched and understands the incredible value of breastmilk and nursing past the age of 1.

A mother whose kid has phases of major separation and stranger anxiety that stop her from functioning like a normal stay at home mom and actually doing chores while her husband is at work.

A mother who is willing to tote her kid around on "long" drives because she thinks babies need to be used to the car, but she doesn't do it in excess and will decline an invitation if she knows that on that particular day, her baby will be cranky during the long car ride.

A mother whose kid detests the playpen, and hysterically screams the moment he's put in it.

A mother who has never left her baby for more than an hour and a half, and only on maybe 4 occasions in his 10 months of life.

A mother who hasn't been outside of her home past 7pm for her child's entire life, because bedtime is important.

A mother who chose (and was able) to put her career on hold (or possibly end it forever) and take a step down in her standard of living in order to stay home with her child(ren) because she knew that nothing could fulfill her more than being the one to take care of her babies full time, every single day.  Even though she held an extremely coveted full-time teaching position, which, where she lives, requires 5 years of university, 2 degrees, and an average of SEVEN YEARS of occasional teaching to achieve after graduation, she gave it up, because she knows that at the end of her life, she won't wish that she had worked more.  But she would wish that she spent more time with her kids.


I'm not saying my way is the only way.  But sometimes it sure would be nice if there was someone out there just like me. 

9 Months Old

At 9 months old, here is where Noah is at:

-On December 23 (9 months and 5 days) he weighed 19lbs 6oz (totally naked).  This is about the 25th percentile.

-He's 30.5 inches tall, which is about 100th percentile

-His head circumference is 19 inches (48.3cm), which is 100th percentile.

-He wears size 3 diapers.

-He wears 12 and 18 month clothing by Carter's (my yardstick).  The 12 month clothing is on the verge of being too small.  Most of the 18 month clothing is a little too big.  We're in the awkward in between stage, since he's 30.5 inches and that's the max height for 12 months and min height for 18 months.

-He has 7 teeth, but his 7th tooth has not grown very much since it popped through.

-He's a very good eater, according to everyone who watches him (they all make comments). He's accepting of so many foods, he opens his mouth well, hardly any food gets on his face... just a good eater.

-He points to everyone and everything with his tiny pointer finger.  And he "shows" you things by holding them up in your direction.  "See??  Look at my toy!!"

-His pincer grasp is getting better.  He picks things up between his thumb and forefinger, it's just not necessarily the tip of his forefinger.  He could still make improvement in this area.  But he doesn't get a ton of chance to practice, and was only presented with the opportunity about a month ago, so I can't really blame him.

-He's still exclusively breastfed (no bottles or cups) except for a dinner of solids, and the occasional snack or taste of food during the day.  Most days he doesn't need anything until dinner, though.

-He nurses usually every 2 hours during the day.  More right now, since I've trying to build my milk supply back up after having the flu for 4 days.

-He is 100% swaddle free, and has been since a few days after he turned 8 months.

-He sleeps very well at night, usually about 11 hours total.  He usually starts nursing to sleep at 7:15, although if he doesn't fall asleep I can put him in bed awake and he'll only cry for about 30 seconds before going to sleep.  He sleeps 9 to 11 hours straight (usually around 10 hours), then nurses and goes back to sleep for a bit.  If he wakes up before 4, I don't get him up to nurse, because I have found that he will STILL wake up sometime in the 4-5:30 range even if I nurse him at 3:45.  He falls back asleep very well if he wakes up in the middle of the night.  In the morning he has no consistent wake up time, but he usually does have a period of wakefulness in the 6-7am range, we don't turn on the lights or get him out of his crib until 7am, so if he wakes closer to 6 he often falls back asleep for a bit.

-Naps are still crap.  A usual day has three 30 minute naps.  We started a half-hearted attempt at nap training, but I'm not very consistent.  It's bad, I know.

-I think he may need to go down to 2 naps a day, because I'm finding it harder and harder to get him to fall asleep before the 3 hour mark.  The problem is that two half hour naps a day is not enough for any child.

-He still uses a soother every time I rock him to sleep, but if he goes to sleep on his own he spits it out (because of crying) and doesn't put it back in.  So he only needs it if I'm rocking him.

-He had his fourth haircut today.

-He had his 4th illness this past week, a stomach bug, but was over it very quickly thanks to breastfeeding.  No such luck for me.

-He's very capable, physically.  He started full-time hands-and-knees crawling and pulling up 2 months ago, so you can imagine how good he is at it now.  He's a great climber, too.

-He's getting better at cruising, but isn't amazing at it.

-He waves!

-He's back to social coughing again - A LOT.  He was doing it way back at around 5 months, but my Dad got him back into it a few weeks ago when he copied him every time he coughed.  He thinks it's hilarious.

-He's very talkative and babbles incessantly, but hasn't connected any words with any actual objects yet.  As far as we can tell, the only word he truly understands is "Up."

-This month he started making an adorable scrunchy face.  He does it often, when he's smiling, whining, whenever.  It's so cute.

-When we click our tongues he copies us, and thinks it's the greatest.

-He never goes in his jumperoo or exersaucer.  He prefers to play with the toys while standing next to it.  Whatever!

-He loves to play peekabo in the mirror, and to watch you make faces at him in the mirror.  This isn't new (he's loved the mirror for a long time), but he's just really really enjoying it this month.

-He still enjoys his jolly jumper, but we don't put him in it very often.  He jumps way too high and hard, and the spring slams shut really hard and he continues to fly past the point where he should have stopped.  It's not dangerous or anything, but sometimes he doesn't like the jolting he gets when that happens.

-He has separation and stranger anxiety, but it's not too bad at the moment.  It seems like it's really bad when he's teething.

-Bathtime hasn't been tons of fun this month.  Some days he hates the actual bath (for whatever reason), some days he's fine.  But everyday is a huge struggle getting him undressed, giving him his vitamin D, getting him dried off, lotioning him (his skin has very dry spots, so he needs to lotion) desitin-ing his bum, diapering him, and getting him dressed again.  He will flip over and bear crawl away so fast (he doesn't like the cold ceramic tile, so he bear crawls... lol).  And he's so strong now, there's really nothing we can do about it.  Justin pretty much has to pin down his upper body while I deal with the diaper.  After that I can dress him as he's sitting and standing.  But getting the diaper on is HARD.

~~~~~~~~~~

This past month has had ups and downs.  Noah reached his peak of separation anxiety this month, and I had many days (some entire weeks) where he was literally glued to me.  I couldn't even stand up without him freaking out.  As a SAHM, this gets very tiring.  I couldn't get anything done, my house was a mess, and I couldn't even go to the bathroom without bringing him with me.  Since he hardly naps, the only time I wasn't concentrating on him was at night when he was sleeping.  It got tough after several long days.

I may have connected increased separation anxiety with active teething, though.  It seems to get worse when he's actually cutting a tooth, and he cut 4 teeth in the past month, including his two front teeth (which are rather large, and I assume painful to cut).  Unfortunately none of his teeth cut at the same time, so it meant a lot of painful days for him.

Noah has also reached the lowest of valleys in napping habits.  3 naps a day, all less than 30 minutes.  This is frustrating, and I haven't been very good about nap training.  There are several reasons for this.  One, I don't enjoy listening to him cry, and oh-boy does he cry when I nap train.  Two, for the past couple of weeks (since I decided to nap train) I've had a very hard time figuring out his optimal awake time, which is key if I'm not "putting" him to sleep.  He's seemed to need awake times of at least 3 hours, but I can't fit 3 hour awake times plus 3 half hour naps PLUS the time it takes for him to fall asleep on his own into our day (3 naps means he has 4 awake times).  It seems to be a time of transition, so maybe my efforts will go better if I cut him down to 2 naps a day.

Furthermore, we both got sick again this month with the stomach flu.  I was laid up for 4 days, and today, day 6, I'm still not feeling great.  Being a nursing mom with the stomach flu really sucks.

There have also been good times this month.  Like when I connected the separation anxiety/crankiness with teething and was able to give him Motrin to avoid him being miserable all day long.  Like the seriously improved night time sleep that has given me my evenings and nights back - uninterrupted!  I've also been sleeping pretty good for the most part.  Very few nights do I lie awake for hours on end, although I do still wake up upwards of 6 times a night - and this is medicated sleep, people.  That's how bad a sleeper I am.  But not being rudely awakened by a crying baby 10 times a night is a joy that every mother should experience.  And that being your NORMAL?  It's fantastic.

There have also been GREAT times this past month.  The hugs and kisses and cuddles from my wonderful son.  The fun games of copy cat that make him smile sooo big.  Chasing after his skinny little naked body as he bear crawls out of the bathroom before bathtime so he can go out and happily play with his toys and stand naked at his baby gate.  Seeing him relax on Daddy's lap in the rocking chair by the front window, watching the snow.  Him really being so happy and well behaved after the teething was over.  Being complimented over and over on what a cute, cheerful kid he is.  Listening to Christmas music, and singing Silent Night to Noah before he goes to sleep.  Just enjoying this wonderful time of the year and being sooooooo thankful that our miracle baby is here to share it with us. 

I just can't even put into words how incredibly in love I am with Noah.  He is the perfect baby for us, the only baby for us.  I honestly can't imagine how empty our lives would be if he wasn't here.  And all the challenges and tiring days don't for a second make me wish anything was different.  He completes my life.  I had this big hole, and now it's overflowing because of this most perfect child. 

I am so full of thankfulness and love, I feel like my heart could burst.  I freakin' LOVE my kid, and I love my life, and I can't imagine things being any different.  THANK YOU God, for blessing us with Noah.


(PS - did you know a post can only have at most 20 labels, and those labels can only have a maximum of 200 characters?  I only know since I surpassed that and needed to delete some of my labels on this post.  What is the purpose of that limit?  Let people label as much as they want!!)

8 Months Old!

I can't even believe my baby is 8 months old. He's been outside of me for as long as I knew he was inside of me (I found out I was pregnant on July 19th and he was born on March 18th - his EDD was March 29). Where oh where has the time gone??

Here's what Noah is up to at 8 months old:

-He weighs 18lbs 12oz (less than 50th percentile)

-He is 29.5 inches (about 95th percentile)

-He is 10th percentile for weight for height... just a little stringbean.

-He wears 12 month and 18 month clothing.

-He wears size 3 diapers (most Pampers BabyDry).

-He has 4 teeth, three from when he was 5 months old and one he just got in the past week. I think he may be working on his top-right-middle tooth, too. We'll see!

-He is still exclusively breastfed (except for solids at dinner; he still has never had a bottle), and he is getting to be a very cuddly nurser again.

-He eats about 4oz of solids before bedtime, but during the rest of the day it's just breastfeeding. He has finally ingested a small amount of liquid (1/3 pear juice, 2/3 water) from a "sippy cup" (a silicone spout sort of thing, not a true sippy cup). He's usually not that into it, though.

-Most solids still constipate him. So far the only safe foods are pears, prunes, peaches, and butternut squash. Peas, carrots, rice cereal, bananas, apples, apples and apricots, sweet potato, and sweet potato and turkey all constipate him. It's very frustrating, because it takes forever to unplug him again, and it makes it very difficult to introduce new foods. I think the fact that we keep having to switch back to strictly pears and prunes is starting to make him a bit pickier. He was at a point where he loved everything we offered him, but I don't know anymore.

-We just started Oat cereal in hopes that it won't constipate him.

-He's going to sleep at night usually between 7 and 7:30.

-He sleeps amazingly well at night after a very short bout with CIO. He pretty much sleeps 10 to 11 hours straight (with an outside range of 9.5 to 11.5), nurses, and then usually goes back to bed, depending on how long that stretch was (if it was 11.5 hours, he usually won't fall asleep again). He is usually awake when I put him back in his crib, but that seems to be the only time during the day and night that I can lay him down in his crib, walk away, and he'll often drift off to sleep, even if it's 45 minutes later.

-Bedtime routine is boob, solids, bath, boob, bed. He falls asleep nursing nearly every night.

-He has 2 or 3 naps a day.

-His normal awake time is about 2.5 hours.  Sometimes as short as an hour and 15 minutes, and often he has a stretch of 3 hours or more in the evening.

-His naps are still crappy most of the time. In an entire week he maybe has 2 or 3 naps that are about an hour long. The rest are all 30-40 minutes.

-He's still rocked to sleep with a soother for all his naps. I've tried letting him CIO for naps, but the crying is usually much worse than it was at nighttime when we used CIO, so I don't feel he's ready to go to sleep independently for all his naps.
-He is still swaddled at nighttime, but we recently have stopped swaddling for naps. I think it's going okay.

-He sleeps on his tummy even when he's swaddled.  I thought this was just the worst thing until I remembered that when I used to sleep on my tummy (before being pregnant and nursing... I haven't slept on my tummy in a very very long time) I would always sleep with my arms straight down at my sides.  So it's not like it's uncomfortable.

-Everytime we go to get him out of his crib he's standing up waiting for us. It's one of those things I always dreamed of about being a mom:)

-He crawls on his hands and knees exclusively. He started doing this right at 7 months, and had ditched army crawling completely by 7.5 months. The only time he'll army crawl is if he's trying to get under something that's too low to crawl under.

-He pulls up to standing using everything (even just a flat wall) and can sit down again on his own. His crib is on the 2nd lowest setting. He no longer needs someone to sit behind him when he's standing in case he falls, because he pretty much never falls. He doesn't even lean on the things that are supporting him. He just needs a hand on something to steady himself.

-He can just sit there in a squatting position, not holding on to anything.

-He can stand on his own - without holding on to anything - for a few seconds at a time. His record is about 5 seconds. This is by no means something he has mastered, though.

-He is understanding object permanence and looks for dropped objects.

-He has seperation anxiety and stranger anxiety. Fun fun!:)

-If he wants to be picked up and you are across the room, he will whine and crawl over to you and use your legs to stand up until you pick him up.

-He gives me lots of kisses everyday. He's started to "talk" while he does it, I think because when I kiss him I often am going "Muah, muah muah, muah." He's started to open his mouth, plant it on me, and go "Ahhhhhh." He doesn't kiss anybody else, usually, but yesterday he gave his friend Aubrey (3 weeks older) a kiss on the cheek, "Ahhh" and everything..

-He likes to sit in the bumbo on the kitchen counter while I cook.

-He babbles lots and sometimes purposefully imitates the sounds we make ("bat"). His most common sound is "Dada."

-He laughs his head off when Justin turns the ring stacker upside down, spins it like a top, and says "BING!"

-He doesn't get his soother much during the day, so he's falling out of love with it. When he does get it during the day, he plays with it more than he sucks on it.

-He still does the head-tilt thing, but it's becoming less frequent than it was a month ago.

-He loves our cats, but they do not love him. It makes me not love them.

There it is!  Happy 8 months, my sweet little Noah!  The past 8 months have been the best and happiest 8 months of my life.

Another Great Night and a Great Day

Noah had another great night last night.  He slept 10 hours straight, nursed, and went back to bed for another couple of hours.

He great day today, too.  He woke up at 8 (7, new time), and had good naps. 40 minutes, an hour, and an hour. We had a very busy day.
 
We were planning on going to church and everything was all ready, we had our bags and carseat by the door and were just waiting for Noah to get up (never would I EVER wake up Noah if he was going to have a long nap). Well, Noah woke up about 8 minutes too late for us to make it to church on time. And at my church you can't just sneak in the back, because my church fills up from the back to the front. So unless we get there early, there are no seats at the back. My family has always sat at the very front of the church my entire life.  Every Sunday.  Even though we were often 5 minutes late. But I'm not doing that a) with a baby who I don't want to stick in the nursery for the entire service, and b) being 10 minutes late.

So we skipped church for the billionth time in the past 10 months (since I got injured and was bedridden at 30 weeks pregnant). But since we were all showered and dressed and packed up already at 9:30, I decided we were going to DO STUFF. I ran to the pharmacy to pick up prescriptions, and then we headed into town.
 
We went to the Wal, where we got about 50 jars of baby food.  They were on sale. Seriously, with all those and everything we already had we could stock a whole baby food section. We also picked up some more mesh feeder bag things, since Noah loves them (he will sit in his high chair for an hour munching on something in there. It's especially helpful when he's grumpy), and we bought a new kind of bottle/sippy cup that maybe he will like more than the bottles and sippy cups we already have. Probably not. But we bought some pear juice for when I'm ready to have him try, since I'm pretty sure we're going to have to bribe him to like sippy cups through using juice.

Then we went to visit Justin's Nona Anna at her old people's rez. It is like a 6 star hotel there. Very nice.

Then we went to my parents' for Noah to have a nap (which was a little over an hour long - also very nice). They weren't there, which was for the best because we had a lot more to do in town and it would have been harder for us to do if they were home. I have a hard time taking Noah away from them because they adore him so much.
 
After his nap we went to Tonnie Bogs (yeah that's not the real name of the store... I think it's only in Canada though) to buy some more sleepers (we don't have enough that fit him right now) and a snow suit. We got a 12 month snow suit, but there's no way it will fit him all winter. It fits him perfect right now. There was no 18 month suit though, unless we wanted to pay $70. Which I was definitely not doing.  We'll just keep the tags on this one until we actually have to use it, and if we end up having to get an 18 month one it will be at a time when they're probably on sale.

Then we went to Justin's Nona Maria's, where Noah made $20. Nice.

I should mention that Noah cried for both of Justin's Nonas. We tried to just get him used to them from afar, and he was more than happy to do that. But once they tried to hold him he was crying within 30 seconds. We tried more than once. Too bad, so sad.
 
After Nona Maria's we went to Justin's parents' house. You may ask, "Why don't Justin's parents have their mothers over so that you can see everyone at once instead of going all over tarnation with a 7 month old?"

"Because," I will answer, "Italians are stupid."

Seriously. So stupid.

So we went to Justin's parents and Noah had a nap in the pack 'n play that they finally bought when he was 7 months old (another example of stupid Italians being stubborn, thinking that I should pack up my own pack 'n play that I use everyday everytime I want to "swing by" their house). It took over 20 minutes for me to get him to sleep because the people don't own a fan - WHO DOESN'T OWN A FAN? - and Noah has a difficult time falling asleep without white noise. My fault. I ended up having to nurse him to sleep. But he slept for an hour.
 
He woke up at like 5:45. So late!! Then he played for awhile with his Nana until we made the trek home at about 6:45. It was actually a pretty good visit. I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I enjoyed myself.

So because he woke up so late, he didn't get to bed until 8:15pm, which is 9:15 on the old clock! And he was HAPPY as a clam all day long and all evening long. He showed everyone the tricks he mastered right after the last time he saw them (hands and knees crawling and pulling up to stand).  Then tonight he was splashing up a storm in his bath (I was soaked) and didn't whine once the whole time. He usually has a period of whining during his bath these days, but not tonight. He was pretty hyper.

Now I'm home and I'm going to relax with my husband and eat ice cream. Ahhhhh.