What Noah's doing at 1 Year

Wow, over a year, still hard to believe my little baby boy is that old.  From now on we probably won't do an update every month, but just on the milestones.  At one year Noah is,

-busy, busy, busy!
-head butting- you have to be careful for this, it doesn't feel very good.  He does it when he's mad and sometimes he thinks it's funny
-is getting better and better at walking
-eating a lot more foods, thankfully!  Still doesn't want to pick them up himself but at least he's eating
-still taking 2 naps, there for awhile I thought he was trying to get out of 1 but lately has been doing good
-down to a morning, afternoon, and bedtime bottle (we just got a little pay raise, haha)
-still will not drink milk, only his formula, I am going to have to start trying harder.  He just doesn't like it for some reason and I'm going to have to start tricking him because now he sees it's white in the cup and won't even try it.
-has more white spots in his gums, but no new teeth popping through yet
-losing all his baby chub, everytime he takes a bath I can't believe how much thinner he has gotten
-points and grunts all the time!  He's always wanting something
-loves juice way to much, we should have never started it!
-is always shaking his head no.  He knows when he shouldn't be in something and looks at you and shakes his head, but he also does it at random times so I'm not sure what that's about
-Loves his Veggie Tales movie, it's the only time of the day I can get him to settle down and cuddle with me for a minute so selfishly I put it on a lot so he will sit on my lap and I can love on him.
-follows me everywhere, I can never leave the room or go to the bathroom alone (unless he's sleeping)
-has been waking up so much earlier than he used to, not sure why
-plays peekaboo a lot.  For so long we just played with him, now he plays with us.  He will crawl in the other room and peek around the corner or around the couch, so so cute!
-there are so many things I feel like he should know/learn but he has the attention span of 1 second so it's impossible to try and teach him anything
and is so fun to play with!

Noah's Tongue and Smiles

Lately Noah's faces and the things he does are just too funny.  He either has his tongue out or he's coming at you with a huge open mouth smile (which half the time is so big it makes his eyes close).  I can never get a normal picture anymore, he is just too animated.  He also has been dancing like crazy and doing this weird thing with his head and moves it side to side like it's his job.  We need to get it on video so we can show him when he's older what a goofball he was. 

Here is the huge open mouth face.....

 Tongue had to be out so he could concentrate on these pictures, haha

 and still out....

These next few are from today after his haircut.  Daddy took him to Grandma Jones and he got his 2nd haircut.  This time much shorter, the back of his hair is gone.  It used to be so fluffy and getting pretty close to a mullet. He just looks so big to me now but still cuter than ever!

 He also has this face where he scrunches up his nose and almost does like a snort, too funny!  You can't see the humor in the picture, but it cracks us up

 Not sure what he would do without his tongue.  I told Matthew I thought when he was awake his tongue was probably out 75% of the time but Matthew thought 50% so doesn't really matter, but we just know he has it out just as much as it's not.

This just makes me want to squeeze him!  We can't get enough of our energetic little man, he is just so much fun and getting smarter every day.  He knows so much more than we think!

My Ornery Son

We sure do love our son, but he does have an attitude and is quite smart with it.  He knows how to give kisses, I have gotten them before but lately he has something new for you when you ask for a kiss and it's not pleasant.  When you ask Noah for a kiss now he headbutts you, imagine my surprise the first time he did that.  He is funny though because we have an Eeyore stuffed animal he likes and you ask him to kiss that and he is very gentle and gives him a nice kiss on the mouth.  He does the same thing with a stuffed dog we have as well.  Why he chooses to head butt people is beyond me, just another area of his interesting personality. 

1 Year Check Up

Wednesday, we took Noah for his 1 year well baby visit.  At his 9 month visit he weighed 22lbs 7 oz, and Wednesday he weighed 22lbs 6oz.  I expected that, I actually thought he had lost more than 1 oz.  Every since he has started moving around so much I knew he was getting skinnier.  He did grow 1/4 inch too, so that probably makes him seem skinnier too.  Dr. said he is doing good developmentally and is doing all the things he should be as his age!  That's always good to hear!  We did talk to her about Noah's eating issues, but didn't really get any new suggestions, so I guess we will just keep working on it every day.  The next time we go will be at 15months so hopefully we will have progressed forward in the mealtime area.  We had been trying whole milk a little before the appointment and Noah was doing fine if we put half milk/half formula in his bottles.  Well doctor said we should keep the milk out of the bottles and just do it in the cups but so far that isn't working.  Sometimes he just sees the stuff in his cup is white and won't even try it.  This area of his age is definitely challenging me.  He is just getting too smart and figures out every trick we try!

Noah, We love you more than we could ever explain

Hey buddy,

I still can't believe you are a year old!  Boy how this year has flown by.  I remember back to a little over a year ago when we had to be at the hospital on January 11th at 7:00 a.m.  Boy did I have so many emotions going on, so excited but also very very nervous!  You weren't in a hurry so the doctors had to help you along but at 4:37 you were born.  And to top if off you were 9lbs 3 oz, more than I expected.  You also had the darkest hair, you really surprised us there, I totally expected a blonde haired baby. You sure were so cute and chubby though!  Holding you for the first time was unlike anything we have ever felt.  It was love at first site!  Mommy wanted you for a long time but it took us a long time to get pregnant with you.  After you were born we realized you weren't supposed to come any earlier.  God had it all figured out and knew when the best time was for you to come into the world and boy was it perfect!  This last year we have been through so much together, you haven't always been the easiest baby but I would still do it all over again!  Not that long ago I just remember holding you almost all day and just putting you down to sleep and now you crawl, walk a little, talk, and are constantly playing with anything you can get your hands on.  You sure are a busy little boy!  You have such a cute/ funny personality.  You are a character for sure!  You make us laugh on  daily basis and we are constantly recognizing  how blessed we are to have such a wonderful/heatlhy little boy!  Noah you have changed our lives, we love you more than we could ever explain and thank God every day for the perfect little boy you are for us! I think if I could freeze you here for a little bit, I would minus the frustrating meal times but I know that isn't possible.  I look forward to each new step, and look forward to the awesome man of God you are going to be!   Noah you are so loved not only by us, but by all your grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, and all the other wonderful family and friends we are blessed with.  I love you sweetie and one more time, Happy 1st Birthday!

Love,
Mommy and daddy

Noah's First Birthday

I can't believe we are already celebrating our sweet little boy's first birthday.  Saturday we had his birthday party at our church.  We had to rent the cafe because there were just too many people to fit in our house and I wanted his first one to be all the families together.  What a wonderful group we had, Noah is such a blessed and loved little boy!

Anyways I had ordered a PDF file from Etsy for his party items and then I had to print everything out and put it together. I was so amazed with all the things it came with.  I probably didn't use half of the print outs that I could have.   I had lots of fun doing it but definitely lost steam and decided not to do it all to save money.  Boy do party costs add up quick.

Here are some pics of the decorations and cupcakes that I made myself! 

This was the confetti for the tables.  Thankfully Jared's grandma let me borrow her 2 inch scallop punch.  I can't imagine having to cut out all these and the ones for the cupcake toppers as well.

For Noah's cake I had bouuht a large cupcake mold and had planned for that to be his cake.  Well the night before I put it together and iced it and than we had some issues.  The icing all started to fall off and took the top cake with it.  I decided not to stress and just to use the bottom part.  However it was impossible to ice and to get it to look decent because it had ridges like the bottom of a cupcake is supposed to and is also inverted at the bottom like cupcakes are.  It looked awful but I didn't let it stress me out.  I just decided to use it anyway.

I was also quite nervous about the cake part of the party, Noah has such texture/food issues so I had a feeling it would be quite uneventful.  I was very right.  He barely touched it once and immediately looked disgusted.  Then I  tried to get him to touch it again and same thing we started to gag.  So that was about the end of that.  I did get him to try the icing and he ate a few bites from my finger but wouldn't eat any himself.  Maybe next year if he is over it we will try again so I can get my fun cake destroying fix in. 

He was quite tired all afternoon, because not thinking I planned the party for 2:00, right during a typical day's nap.  I will remember that next year and for future children.

He sure was tuckered out, he hardly ever lays on people like this

After the cake we opened up presents and he got so many neat toys.  After Christmas and his birthday he sure is stocked.  He also got some money, so with that we plan on setting him up a savings account to start building that up for him! 

Thank you to our family for making Noah's first birthday party great!  I have been looking forward to celebrating a my first child's birthday for a long time, so it was just an awesome day!

What Noah's doing at 11 Months

At 11 months Noah is getting closer to walking.  He has taken mulitple steps on his own, but will usually only do it if we are trying to get him to and he walks from one person to another.  It's exciting and he's so cute when he does it but I'm sure I will want to take it back once he really starts. 
-He has just got such a personality!
-he now says shoes and knows what they are, he has said love you multiple times ( I have had witnesses to it 3 times because I know it's not usually a first saying, haha)
-he is still so super picky with textures of food and doesn't feed himself anything but yogurt melts, that's all we can get him to do so far
-when you say so big he lifts his hands in the air
-he has gotten closer at blowing kisses, he puts his hand on his mouth, but more importantly he gives KISSES sometimes, haha not always the kind you would want.  He usually just dives towards my mouth with his wide open.  I still love it though! 
-is a dancing machine, he cracks us up every day by dancing to music or dancing without it.  He has this new thing he does with his feet he taps them on the ground, so funny!
-we are still working on our face parts, I know he knows nose but he just won't say it, sometimes he will point to our nose but hasn't touched his yet
-still loves books (I'm so glad for) and his Elmo So Big book he really knows what comes next and does some of the things elmo does in the book before I even read them.  Such a smartie!
-is all over the place and can destroy the house in no time! 
-finally has been sleeping through the night for a few weeks now except for the last couple which I think he is just still confused and messed up from traveling. 
-absolutely hates his coat, throws a fit just about every time we put it on.  I'm ready for spring because of that!
-is still in 12-18 month clothes, and is starting to look so much skinnier, he isn't a chunky baby at all anymore.  I can't believe how much he has thinned out, even his cheeks have gone down a little
-is just so darn cute, I can barely stand it sometimes! 
I can't believe he will be a year in 10 more days, there will be lots of changes coming up.  We get to switch him to whole milk, turn his car seat around, once they hit a year they just start to seem so old.  His 1st birthday party is a week from today, so exciting!  Can't wait, but first I have lots to get done this week!