Wednesday, September 30, 2009

12 months update


Better late than never, I guess, huh? I think you all know Noah turned ONE two weeks ago. And I still can't believe it! He does new things literally everyday, and I am just amazed at how "toddler-esque" he has suddenly become. It is bittersweet for sure:)

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Noah's personality has really blossomed in the last month. While he still most definitely has that infamously-inherited temper, he has become so incredibly sweet and loving. He loves to give out hugs and kisses almost as much as I love receiving them:) He is also very affectionate to other close family members (like my mom and dad), our dog, and pictures of loved ones. He can often be found picking up pictures of various members of our family and giving each person kisses....so sweet!

Noah also remains INCREDIBLY active. He goes and goes and goes until he literally crashes for a nap or at bedtime. Often, a car ride or a walk through the neighborhood is the only way to get him to settle down enough for sleep. And while this is usually okay, sometimes his overflowing energy gets the best of him, making for a cranky little man! I actually mentioned this at his one-year wellness visit, and the nurse practitoner very cautiously thew out that this could be a very early sign of ADHD. But of course, it is WAY to early to make even any assumptions about something like that...and the NP assured me that him being active is a good thing. And I know that, and am beyond thankful and blessed....I just get tired sometimes:)

Speaking of his wellness visit...Noah's weight was 27 lbs 13 oz, length was 33 in, and head circumference was 50 cm, putting him above 98% for length and head circumference and at 97% for weight. So yup...he is still a very big boy, but seems to be stabilizing a little in physical growth:) He is wearing 18-24m or 2T in clothing depending on the brand, and I actually think these will last through the season (a first)!

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Noah remains to be a really great eater, and eats three good meals with several snacks each day. He is trying new things all the time and very rarely finds something he doesn't like. He doesn't each much "baby" food either, meaning the packaged fingerfoods and such. I try to feed him fresh foods as much as possible, but with our hectic schedule, that unfortunately isn't always possible. But I'm doing my best:) Some of his favorite things to eat right now include:

-chicken, salmon, steak (very small pieces)
-mac-n-cheese, spaghetti
-bananas, strawberries, plums, blueberries, raisins, dried cranberries, apples, pears
-steamed veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, corn, zucchini, peas, etc), avocados, potatoes
-bread/sandwiches, oatmeal, crackers, waffles
-yogurt, cheese, homemade smoothies
-MILK (he LOVES whole milk...he drinks around 4-5 cups per day!) and water

Noah also really loves the recipes on Weelicious...I love that they are quick and easy (because I am NOT a good cook!). I've tried several of their recipes for Noah, and he has loved them all. But his favorite from them are veggie pancakes...I try to make a batch (which lasts a couple of days) about every 2 weeks. I'd do them more often, but I don't want him to get burned out on them.

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If you read my tot school post from last week, you know that Noah took his first steps this past weekend! But oddly enough, he hasn't done much walking since....he walked the entire length of the hallway unassisted at my mom's house several times on Saturday night, but now won't take more than 4-5 steps at a time. And it is like pulling teeth to get him to do that! I think he just prefers crawling because he is so speedy! He was reluctant to crawl at first too, actually, even though he was more than capable of doing it, so I'm sure that he'll be up and moving more in no time:)

In other motor skills, Noah is doing well too. He loves to climb, and can make it up the whole stairway at my mom's house without stopping. He also likes to reach for things, and given his height, this gets him into trouble sometimes...especially when he's reaching for the stove or television! He also still LOVES to dance, and continues to do so any time he hears music. He has particularly become fond of dancing in the car, and I can often look back and see him feet kicking and hands clapping along to the beat:)

He is also doing very well with fine motor skills. He loves activities like putting objects through holes (like straws in a parmasean cheese container) and has long been skilled at feeding himself fingerfoods. A funny, but related little "quirk" Noah has is finding little specks of fuzz and such on the floor. He loves to collect these and bring his findings to me or Jimmy. So not only is this a great display of his fine motor abilities, but he is also helping me clean! I'm teaching him well:) ha!

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Noah's language has exploded in the past month! He has consistently (more than once on more than one occasion) said a total of 13 words so far, which the NP at his wellness visit was very impressed with. His vocabulary so far consists of:

Hey/Hi/Hello, Bye-bye, Momma, Daddy, Papa (my dad), Pete (our dog), dog, book, yeah, no, hug

And he is otherwise very proficient at communicating his wants/needs through pointing. I am so proud of his language/communication skills! I know without a doubt he is going to be a big talker:)

Still, I must confess I have not been as diligent as I intended on teaching him sign language, but I'm hoping to pick back up on it in the immediate future! I don't want that whole year of ASL I took in college to go to waste!

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Like I mentioned before, Noah's personality has really begun to shine lately! While he remains the super silly little man that loves to make you laugh with an impromptu dance or sneaky tickle, he has also become the most loving little guy, always ready to give out a hug and a kiss:)

I am amazed daily at how fast he is growing, learning, and becoming a "real" toddler! But no matter how big he gets, he will always be mine and Jimmy's little "bubba bear" (you're welcome for the future embarrassment, Noah! ha!) and we love him more than anything:)

Sunday, September 27, 2009

tot school & an accomplishment:)

Noah is 12 months old.

Though I had planned on continuing our farm theme from last week, and initially began the week that way, I began to run out of ideas for a child Noah's age. I know there are a TON of farm ideas out there, but Noah just doesn't get them or won't stay focused long enough to complete them. So the week ended up just being a plain, themeless Tot School week overall, but things still were great:)

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To finish up some of the farm things we did do this week, Noah made a pumpkin patch with foam stickers. He did much better with foam stickers than regular ones...he could hold them better, and they didn't stick to his fingers so much:)
Be aware that Noah didn't place these pumpkins so neatly on his own! ha! I still need to guide him on placement...otherwise there would be one big stack of pumpkins all in one place. I did the leaves for him...they were too small and apparently looked rather tasty:) I also helped him draw in the vines...but he is getting much better with crayons too!

Conveniently enough, Noah got several farm-themed toys at his birthday party last weekend, so I especially made sure he played with those this week. He received the LeapFrog Fridge Farm set and loved playing with it! He already has the Fridge Wash-N-Go Vehicle set, so he knew how this worked. And he spent lots of time fitting in the various pieces and dancing along to the music:)

Noah also got a farm-themed See And Say. He has a bit more trouble with this one independently as the pull arm is harder for him to pull, but he still really likes it.
Lastly, Noah read through all of the farm books I mentioned last week and added a few new ones (he really likes the John Deere themed books!). I would have liked to have done some more activities, but I know we'll redo the farm theme again in the future when he's older and can understand things better.

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The rest of the week was spent playing with some more of his new birthday gifts, like the entire Little People Zoo collection...this will be great for animal sounds/recognition!

And this Touch and Teach Turtle seems to be a great learning tool for letters, numbers, shapes, and more...

There were also many games of peek-a-boo with Daddy..
...and Noah learned how to do Patty Cake on his own this week. He looks so sweet "patting and rolling" :)


Noah worked on sorting food this week - cereal and raisins...and he did really well until he got hungry:)

And Noah is continuing to practice using a spoon. He does well putting small solids, like the cereal and raisins, on the spoon and eating them, but I haven't tried anything runny just yet. Noah also likes to stir and transfer with his spoons..

One last thing I tried late in the week is something I'm so glad I've started! I'm going to create a "color of the day" to post on the refrigerator, and make it a point to find objects that are that color throughout the day. At the end of the day, I want to pull all of those items together (if possible) and review...our first color was blue.
At this point, I'm thinking we will keep one color for several days since Noah is so young and just starting out. But I hope this will be a good activity for color recognition!

To go along with the color of the day, I first made sure to dress Noah in the appropriate colors:) Then we did some activities incorporating blue....

sorting pompoms

finding some blue objects (like this lid)

recognizing the blue train

and finally discussing size/lining up several blue trains

Noah seemed to really enjoy all of these activities, and Jimmy and I both made a point to show Noah blue things both inside and outside of our house. And while I know that right now Noah doesn't really "get" it, I know that early exposure is important!

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And one last BIG accomplishment Noah did this week was....WALKING!!! Saturday evening while visiting my mom, she finally got him to take some real independent steps!! Previously, the most he had taken at once was only two or three at a time. But on Saturday, he walked almost all the way down her long hallway...probably fifteen or more steps at once! He was quite proud of himself:)

And don't you know, I had no camera of any kind since I was at my mom's house. Ugh! But I'm sure that I'll have plenty of opportunities to capture this milestone:) So now I'm guess I need to finish securing all valuables...he's so tall he can already reach our kitchen countertops!

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Well..we're off for a family day in the mountains today:) I hope you all are having a great weekend! And be sure to check out what others are doing for Tot School and share you own ideas too at 1+1+1=1!!

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

party boy:)

Noah's first birthday party was a blast! With just our families and closest friends, we had a comfortable, no pressure celebration and made lots of special memories...just like a first birthday party should be!!

Noah had fun showing off his special birthday duds:) Let me just say, Rachel from The Golden Shop was AMAZING to work with!! I actually won the bib you'll see in later pictures in a giveaway, and just added the t-shirt and party hat to the order. I HIGHLY recommend her...her work is exceptional, customer service is the best, and she does every little detail exactly how you want it....right down to the sprinkles on the cupcake on the bib!

The bib also has his name on the bottom...I just couldn't get a better picture of it. But I adored Noah's special birthday clothes, and I look forward to ordering from Rachel again:)

So back to the party...Noah had a great time playing with his cousins:)

But sadly, there was a shortage of presents and Noah didn't really receive much....HA!
We kept everything really simple...making the decorations, food, and cake/cupcakes from scratch. Which is just how I like it:) And thank goodness for my mom letting us have the party at her house! Our little place would have never held our HUGE families since rain forced our cookout inside.

But Noah had as much fun tearing into tissue paper...

And ripping wrapping paper...
As he did with his actual gifts! So thankfully he had LOTS of paper to tear up:)

But when it came to his cake, Noah was not so sure...

Jimmy graciously offered to get messy with him in the floor since Noah's regular highchair was at home..

But as you can see from this shot, Noah was not too fond of the mess!
He totally freaked out when he got the icing on his hands...poor little guy. So much for the messy cake picture!

Oh well...if I have to just settle for this shot of him in his birthday hat, I think I'll be okay:)

Sunday, September 20, 2009

tot school - week 7

Noah is 12 months old.

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Whew! We had one SUPER busy week! I started clinical rotations and had two nursing tests, Noah turned ONE:), he had his 12 months wellness visit/vaccines:(, and we still have his birthday party today. So we've been running around everywhere, and have crashed pretty early every night, but we managed to have a really good week of Tot School anyway!


I decided to try another theme this week, and we went with FARM. I think Noah had a great time with it, and I plan on continuing it at least for another week or two just so I can really reinforce things with him.

On Noah's actual birthday (which was Wednesday), we let him open one of the presents we already had wrapped up for him. Conveniently matching our theme, I chose to let him open the Farm Sound Blocks...

He really enjoys playing with these:) He only occasionally makes matches, but I always reinforce the name of the animal and the sound it makes if I make the matches for him.

Noah also played LOTS with his mega blocks this week. He has finally figured out how to put them together, so he has been occupied for a long time this week with these. Here he is playing with his big tractor..

And on his birthday we took him to Toys R Us and let him pick out a toy. He actually chose this mega blocks farm set over everything else we offered...so that worked out nicely with our theme too!
He has REALLY loved playing with it:) And I always reinforce the names of objects/animals, animal sounds, colors, etc.

We have lots of farm themed books already, so Noah had lots to choose from. By far, though, this John Deere Farm 123 book (which was a new purchase) is his very favorite! It is a touch-and-feel book, and those are always a big hit.
Noah can successfully identify the cows, tractors, and horses in this book:) And he did the cows without any help the first time I asked...so I guess he really is learning when I reinforce names of things!

Some of the other books we read included:
Moo, Baa, LaLaLa by Sandra Boynton
Barnyard Dance by Sandra Boynton
Farm Fun by Matt Mitter
Peedie by Olivier Dunrea
Three Minute Tales: Piglets by ?? (bought at a consignment sale..maybe part of a set?)
Daisy's Farm by Genny Haines
**sorry...no amazon links on the last two!

I'm excited to continue this theme for at least another week....there are lots of other things I'd like to do with Noah, but I honestly didn't have time to get together. I would also love to go to a farm or something, so I'm going to try and look into that. I'm not sure if we'll have a chance to go, but I'd love to try!

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One last fun things we did this week didn't go along with our farm theme..

I had a Southern Living at Home party several weeks ago, and the order was delivered this week...in BIG boxes. Which of course Noah has been playing in:)

His favorite thing to do was play peek-a-boo through the little handle holes...he played with Jimmy and me for forever!
Empty boxes are so great for kids. You can really see their imaginations working as they figure out new things to do with them! Even at 12 months, Noah had a blast coming up with things to do in them!

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Well, I'm off to bake cupcakes, and a little cake just for Noah to destroy:) And you know I'll be sharing pictures of the party soon! Enjoy your day!


Go see what others are doing for Tot School, and share your own ideas, at 1+1+1=1!

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

happy birthday noah allen!!!

In honor of Noah's FIRST birthday, here are some of my favorite pictures from his first year! Happy birthday, Noah Allen...Mommy & Daddy love you more than anything:)

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Noah Allen
September 16, 2008
12:12pm
7lb 15.3oz - 23.5in

home from the hospital..
first smile:)

halloween!

christmas morning:)

christmas..

silly picture:)

first "swim"

at the beach in March!

easter:)
fun with daddy:)

noah loves petey!

swinging:)

at the beach in June..

family picture at the beach..

bathtime!

i want to be like daddy:)

i prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what i asked of him so now i give him to the LORD. for his whole life he will be given over to the LORD. 1 samuel 1:27-28
We love you, Noah!!!