Noah's First Year

Noah is now one year old. We celebrated his birthday last week with a big party with friends and family. The party had a jungle theme, since his room is decorated that way, and he always holds his stuffed lion when he goes to bed. You should see the excitement on his face when he is in his crib and you give him his lion. Angie made a cupcake cake of a lion. The cake looked amazing and was delicious. We had more food than we knew what to do with, and it was a great time.

It is amazing to think that my son is now a year old. Every day is a new discovery. He certainly has a lot of personality. He really is becoming less of a baby and more of a boy.

Noah had his one-year checkup this week, and he remains off the charts in height and pretty close to the top in weight. As we expected, he’s going to be a big guy.

In child development news, Noah has been crawling for about three months now. It began as an “army crawl,” but has progressed to a full crawl. He enjoys crawling, and he can’t stay in one place for a long period of time. He is always on the move. At first, he liked to go into his bedroom and pull every book off of the bookshelf. He later got over that, and now he is all about taking every toy out of the closet. He will stand on his own from time to time, and likes to climb up people when they are seated.

Noah loves cabinets, as well as anything with a knob or button. We have had to latch the cabinets shut, except for a couple of cabinets with pots and pans. When he gets tired, he really wants to get in the cabinets, and gets upset if you take him away from there. We have to keep the bathroom closed, because Noah will immediately crawl there and take everything out of the drawers.

Noah learned a couple of signs recently. A while back, he learned the sign for “more,” and he took off with it. Around the same time, we taught him to clap, so now he claps for “more” when he’s eating. Well, he didn’t stop there. Now, he claps when he wants a drink, and he claps when he wants you to read a book to him. The sign for “more” turned into a general request for anything.

Another new sign recently learned is “eat.” Normally, you put your fingers to a point and point to your mouth. His version is to tilt his head and then put the palm of his hand on his mouth. When it’s time to eat, we say “Do you want to eat?” and he does that sign. Then, I can pick him up without him getting upset, because we all know that he is always excited to eat.

We read to Noah as often as we can, and it must catch on. Now, he has a few favorite books. When he finds a favorite book, he will show it to one of us and yell some one-syllable sound. This means we need to read to him. Often, when we are in the middle of a book, he will find another book and immediately want the next one to be read. (Once again, he can’t sit still.)

Babbling is still constant. He often yells out “da-da-da-da” or “dee-dee-dee-dee,” as well as “nah-nah-nah.” He learned something this week that is pretty funny; whenever either of us is on the phone, he will wait until we hang up and then yell three or four syllables very loudly. One of my favorite things that he does now is yell “Ayyyyyy” whenever I come home from work. It reminds me of the Fonz.

It gets harder to list every single thing that Noah does, because he is always changing. The first year was a blast, and I look forward to more great times ahead.

Noah's First Halloween and More

Noah just had his first Halloween, where he was dressed as a frog. We began the evening with Angie's family, followed by some trick-or-treating in the lovely Village of Warrensburg. Sherry made some amazing chili, and Noah got to spend time with his cousins, one of whom was dressed as a blind referee for Halloween.

We then made it over to my parents' house, where there was more Halloween fun. He got some nice goodies from both families. One of the underrated perks of having an eight-month-old is that he can't have candy yet, so his Halloween candy becomes your Halloween candy. We only get one year to do that, so I'm taking full advantage!

Thanks to both families for making this a fun holiday for all of us.

In other Noah news, he is now eight months old. Along with the Halloween fun, we made a trip to Arthur to check out the Central Illinois Bragging Rights BBQ Competition. That was followed by a stop at Beachy's Bulk Foods, where we purchased copious amounts of good foods (cookies, dip mix, cheese, syrup, cinnamon rolls, and other good foods that I may have forgotten). It was a bit chilly outside, but we all enjoyed a nice fall country day in Amish country.

Later on in the month, Angie and Noah went to Okaw Valley Orchard in Sullivan, along with a few other women and kids from the church. It was a beautiful fall day, and Noah especially enjoyed playing in the leaves and hay.

Near the end of the month, we had a family reunion, where Noah got to see several people for the first time, including Bea, David, Barry, Jim, and Chris.

On the child development front, Noah is developing much more of a personality. He is moving around more. He is not crawling yet, but we're not sure if he will crawl; he is much more interested in standing and walking. In fact, there are times when he is sitting down when he reaches out his arms and wants to pick himself off the ground and start going. When he is on his back, he wants to roll in every direction, as often as possible. When you pick up Noah, he starts to kick his feet in the air.

There are many more foods that he is trying. Most of Noah's meals now consist of "real" foods, and he enjoyed eating generous amounts of food. Honestly, there are times when he just can't stop. He also is becoming more independent at meals, even to the point of sometimes getting upset when he is being spoon-fed.

Noah's noises are funny. His favorites right now are "da-da-da-da-da-da..." and "muh-muh-muh-muh..." and often his noises go up an octave after a few sounds.

Yes, there is much going on, and we look forward to his nine-month birthday and his first Thanksgiving.

Noah's Seventh Month

Lucky Number 7 just passed us by a week ago. Noah's seventh month was full of growth and adventure. He is now sitting up much more than before. He wants to crawl, but doesn't quite know how to do it. He will scoot backwards and pull his knees up. We know that our days of having an immobile child will soon end, and we are about to get the house ready for it.

Noah's eating has really picked up. There are too many new foods this month to even list. We are now doing more jarred foods, and this was the month when he started eating meats. There are some interesting combinations of foods out there. He also is doing finger foods, including puffs, biter biscuits, and pieces of bananas.

Noah's selection of noises has picked up. He likes to say things like "Aye-nigh-nigh-nigh-nigh," and sometimes he will go into an awesome falsetto while he's talking. It's very Brian Jodice-like. When you put him on the changing table, he'll begin to talk and kick his feet. While in the tub, he now can sit up, and likes to splash. Bathtime has become more fun for him. Basically, he is a lot more active than before, always exploring and looking for things to grab and play with.

Most of our activities this month included parks. We went to Whitmore Park, South Shores Park (to see his cousins' soccer games), and we went to Arts in Central Park, a nice art exhibition downtown.

Noah and I have had fun watching Bears games together. The first game of the year was a night game, so Noah was asleep. I'm very thankful that the Bears' Week 1 stinkfest against Green Bay was not the first game Noah saw. Since then, we've watched a few afternoon games, and I'm sure to celebrate with him every time they score. I have to start him early!

Angie started some occasional substitute teaching in September, so Noah has had some days with me (on Wednesdays) and also with his grandmothers. He has handled it well, and we're glad that we don't both have to work every day.

Stay tuned later this month for the eight-month report. Even since turning seven months old, Noah has discovered some new things, and it's going to be a good month.