Baby Steps.....

....as in, my baby took his first steps last night!!! Yep, two separate times he took two steps all on his own and then sat down. Of course I didn't get a picture or video because by the time I ran to go get the camera, he had decided he was tired and ready to go to bed and not interested in trying again. So maybe later...but I just wanted to post this so I can remember the date that my baby boy started walking! Jeff started walking at 9 1/2 months so I guess Noah is following in his daddy's footsteps, literally. Oh my goodness...I'm not sure if I'm ready for this...but I guess I don't get any say in this matter. Let the fun begin!

Into Everything

Ok, I have a milestone to report. Noah just stood up by himself for the first time last night! As in….he was sitting down, got up on his feet and stood up without holding onto anything and kept his balance for about 5 seconds, then sat back down. And Jeff and I both just happened to be sitting right there when it happened so we saw it…we were both holding our breath, not making a sound and as soon as he sat down I started cheering. Yaay for Noah!! He’ll be taking steps before we know it.

Which leads me to my next thought…If he’s already into everything and he’s only crawling, how bad is it going to be when he’s walking??!! I mean really….following this guy around is absolutely exhausting. So we start out by seeing if there’s anything good to eat in the fridge…

After that it’s off the office for some phone calls and a little work on the computer….

Then we’re off to climb in the toybox and see what the dogs are doing outside…

Ok, I’m outta here….

Now, I guess I’ll read the paper…on second thought, I think I’ll just throw the papers all over the place and roll around in them. Yes, that sounds like fun.

Alright, day’s almost over, I’ll just hop in the bath tub and take a quick little soak.

Whew, I think I need a nap just thinking about all the things this little guy does in a day. And to top it all off, Mrs. Tracy said he climbed the stairs at her house today...he'd gotten up about four of them before she found them. Yikes! Time to put the baby gate up over there...I better get my rest for the fast-approaching day that he starts walking, because nothing will be stopping him then!

Night and Day

So let me just start with a week ago....Noah had an ear infection and had started antibiotics last Friday. He was really, really, (listen to me when I say really) cranky for the first couple of days he had it. (And I'm not complaining because I know how miserable he must have felt.) So last weekend, this is pretty much what I was looking at for 95 percent of the time he was awake...(I know, I know...I'm pretty sure it puts me in the category of "Bad Mother" to take a picture of my sick baby screaming like this, but at the end of that day, I was resorting to all kinds of drastic measures to amuse myself and keep my sanity.)

He literally cried all day until he would crawl up to me and pull up on my legs and make me hold him...at which point, this is the tear-streaked, desperate but somewhat happier face I would see...

But as soon as I would sit him back down, it was back to picture number one and the cycle would start over. Don't get me wrong, I love to cuddle with my little guy and even more, I love for him to crawl up to me and want me to pick him up, but after 4 days of this and the nonstop crying in between...I needed a break. And unfortunately, daddy was not an option. He didn't want anybody but his momma and if I'd hand him over to Jeff, he'd throw his head back pitifully and wail until he handed him back to me. Even his new favorite activity, get-out-of-the-bath-and-crawl-around-the-house-naked, was no fun once he realized he'd only succeeded in escaping from the bathroom where mom was.

And since he'd hadn't done this nearly as much with his last ear infections, and he had been on antibiotics for about 4 days at this point, I thought surely he was feeling better and maybe this was just a new clingy phase he was going through. And boy was I hoping this phase would not last too long. I'd started dreaming up ideas of how I'd be able to dress Jeff up to look like me...maybe we could fool him for an hour or two? No, I think he'd figure that out. I finally realized I'd just have to get used to doing all my cooking, cleaning, eating, showering, going to the bathroom, breathing....with Noah in tow. Well, evidently he was just not feeling good at all, because by Wednesday of this week, he was back to his old self! Can I get a Hallelujah! He's such a good and happy baby normally. So when he deviates from that angelic behavior, we know something is wrong with him. He's back to his normal, happy, giggling, exploring, smiling and most importantly, non-clingy self!

This is the face I now see every day....

The difference is like night and day. And even in the worst of his screaming fits, I loved him more than ever and would never ever dream of being mad or annoyed with him for crying, even if he was like that for the rest of his life.....but I sure do prefer the happy Noah if given a choice. ;)

9 months ago...

Wow...9 months. Noah turns 9 months today and it seems crazy to me that the same amount of time it took to grow him in my tummy, has passed since he's been born. 9 months ago we were headed to the hospital so excited and nervous to meet our precious baby boy.......actually it was 9 months and 2 days ago...he was a stubborn little boy who wasn't ready to come out yet so it took almost 2 days in the hospital before he was born. But he was so worth the wait! Isn't it amazing that in the first 9 months he grew from nothing to a 6 pound, 12 ounce bundle of joy who was too small to fit into a newborn size outfit...

and in the next 9 months he has now grown to a 20 pound, 8 ounce, red-headed bundle of energy who can wear 12-month clothes? Isn't it amazing what God (and lots of jars of mushed up Chicken Noodle dinners) can do?

(Thanks again to Janna for this cute little outfit she got him)

He's so much fun and into everything these days. He just got his 5th tooth this past week! He has 3 on the top and 2 on the bottom, so he'll be ready to eat steak soon which will make his dad happy. ; ) He loves eating Puffs and Cheerios and any other little snack that he can sucker someone into giving him. We're eating the Stage 3 foods now and he loves most of them, except for anything with big chunks in it. That makes him gag like nothing you've ever seen...it's the funniest thing. I think he probably gets that from his dad...Jeff doesn't like certain foods just because "he doesn't like the texture". Strange, I know. He's also the fastest crawler in the tri-state area. I swear, he could probably win a crawling contest if there were one he could enter. I think my brother won a crawling contest when he was a baby so maybe that runs in the family too. And we laugh every time he takes off crawling because he's just so funny to watch.

He pulls up on everything and has started to try to let go and almost balance for a second before falling. This leads to lots of bumps and bruises but he's a tough guy and doesn't cry much at all when he gets hurt. I think he'll be walking within the next month, which will change life as we know it forever.

He sleeps every night from around 7 until 7 or 8 in the morning. I love watching him on the monitor because he crawls and sits up sometimes in his sleep. It's very funny to watch. He's not much of a napper though. We're doing good to get him to take an hour nap in the morning and maybe 30-45 minutes in the afternoon. But I don't complain because he sleeps so well at night. He LOVES to listen to his daddy play the guitar. If Jeff is just sitting around playing music, Noah will stand up in front of him and dance and smile and be entertained for such a long time. He talks a lot...although I don't think he's actually said any real words that he really knew he was saying. He "hisses" all the time and it's so funny. Sometimes it sounds like "shhh" and sometimes like "yessss". He loves making us laugh and he's quite the entertainer. His personality has really started showing lately and I think he's going to be a clown....

And he's got his 4th ear infection right now, which breaks my heart because I hate for him to be sick. But hopefully he'll be over it soon and back to his old self. We just love this little guy so much and can't believe he's 9 months already. He's growing before our eyes and will be turning 1 before we know it (yikes!). I can't wait to see what he's doing then....if I had my guess though, I'd say he'll still be stealing my heart with his sweet little smiles and probably getting into more trouble than I can even imagine right now. I can't wait!!

Easter '09

We did an Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday this year while the weather was nice....Noah didn't do too much egg hunting, but he sure did a lot of egg chewing. My brother's girlfriend, Jana, got him the cutest little Noah's Ark eggs and he spent most of the afternoon trying to eat every single one of them. I think all the kids had a lot of fun.

We also went and had our first picture made with the Easter Bunny. Noah did really well, he wasn't scared of him at all. I figure next year will be a different story. We even got a smile out of him for the picture...not sure why he's leaned over so far, I think maybe the Easter Bunny was trying to tickle him... : )

On the road again

This past weekend, we made a flying trip down to Central Arkansas to do Easter lunch with my side of the family a week early, and then Jeff and I ended up going to the horse races on Saturday while Nanette and Papaw stayed with Noah. We didn't bring a Pack and Play with us because we figured he could just sleep in the bed with us and that would be fine....hmmmm, note to self, "Always bring a Pack and Play when traveling." Normally during the night when he's sleeping in his crib, he'll wake up a few times during the night and just roll over and go back to sleep on his own. Well, with him in the bed with us, when he'd wake up and see us, he thought it was playtime! So he'd crawl over to me and start crawling all over me and standing up and then he'd go over to Jeff and poke him in the face....you get the picture. And it was really difficult to get him to go back to sleep after that...needless to say, not the best 2 nights of sleep I've had in a while, but it was fun anyways.

I think Noah has already started to figure out that going to the grandparent's houses is kind of like Christmas. Pretty much every time he visits, there's new toys! Well the latest is his new Spiderman 4-wheeler, of course. What 9 month old doesn't need a Spiderman 4-wheeler? He's not quite big enough to ride it by himself, but I can totally see him getting into all kinds of trouble on this thing in the very near future....

Then it was off to the horse races for me and Jeff! We went with some of my cousins and had so much fun! The weather was awesome! We didn't win much, but we had a blast.

The Clydesdales were at the races....they're so pretty. I think I want one. Don't you think that would make a great addition to our family? 2 dogs, a baby and a Clydesdale....it could stay in the backyard with the dogs, no problem.

Then, on Sunday we went to church with Jeff's parents before heading off to our early Easter lunch and Egg Hunt.
It was a little too cold outside for Mr. Noah to hunt for eggs, but he was happy to hang out with Grandma and Grandpa while the big kids did.

It was a fun but tiring weekend. And by the looks of it, the little guy was exhausted too.

Me and my Chucks

What does every super cool, super cute, baby boy need? Why a pair of Chuck Taylors of course. Yeah, these are the ones with velcro, but we learned quickly, a wiggly 8 month old and shoelaces do not mix well. So what do you think? I think they got his approval....