Noah the explorer

Now that Noah is a lot more mobile he is doing lots of exciting things. Dan and I decided we didn't want to be feeding Noah forever so we have been letting him explore at dinner time. Last night we put some avacado pieces and cheerios down on his tray and let him try it out. I was surprised he got a lot of it in his mouth. He can pick stuff up between his finger and thumb but then can't figure out how to get it in his mouth. He does sort of a fist thing, it's funny. He also is pulling up on everything, which means that his crib has now become a play area instead of a sleeping area. Bad for night time when he pulls up and doesn't want to lay down to sleep but good for morning when he can entertain himself till someone comes and gets him. The last picture is our little man all cleaned up! Dan thinks he looks creepy in this picture but I think he looks handsome!

Crawling!

Yep that's right Noah is officially crawling!! He has been really close and trying hard now for a few weeks so we knew it was coming soon. It's pretty scary because we haven't baby proofed ANYTHING! I guess that means we are going to need to get started here this weekend. His bottom tooth is also coming in nicely except it's pretty sharp and doesn't feel so good when he is trying to gnaw off your knuckles!! He also grabbed his own bottle yesterday and successfully got it to his mouth but he couldn't figure out holding it up there and trying to suck at the same time. This morning when I was feeding him he insisted on grabbing the spoon and doing it all by himself. Pretty soon he won't need me for anything :( I can't believe how fast he is growing up. I am excited for the new developments but wish that he would just slow down all at the same time.

7-months

I realize I haven't been doing a very good job with the blog, being that my last post was about his 6-month birthday. I was late with that post and early with this one though. This semester has already been incredibly crazy and busy so the posts may become few and far between. This month has been very eventful as far as Mr. Noah's latest developments. It has been a fun month and his personality is shining in full force! He is so funny and loves to laugh but the spoiling we've done to him is becoming more and more apparent. This month he has learned to sing which is joyful. His talking has also become more pronounced with lots of syllables! I swear he can say mama. He can get up on his hands and knees and rock back and forth but no crawling yet. He scoots the left side of his body forward but then can't get the right side going. He also leaps forward like a little frog while on his knees. He does an army crawl in order to get to what he wants. Noah can sit and play by himself for a significant amount of time and has recently added quite a repitore of fruits and vegetables to his diet. He has a teeny tiny tooth poking through that you can hear when he bites down on his spoons. And finally with 7 months has come his first real cold. There is nothing quite so pathetic as a sick baby. His nose is like a faucet and he has been coughing so much he throws up. It is utterly sad and heart-breaking but we're hoping it passes soon! Here are some recent pics from the last month! Helping me with laundry

After his bath-he loves to look at himself in the mirror

Taking a big boy bath!!

Almost crawling!

In his Astros gear that Uncle Josh gave him!

6-months

Noah recently had his half-birthday on December 29th. I am in awe that we have been blessed by this little guy for 6 whole months now. I feel like time has flown. It literally seems like I was just going to the hospital to have him. He has grown so much and I can't believe all of the things that he can do. We went to the doctor today. Noah now weighs 16.5 pounds which is pretty skinny because he is very tall (in the 85 percentile). He braved the 6 shots and slept the entire afternoon. Here are some of the fun things he is able to do now: sit up on his own, turn a complete circle while on his stomach, rest on his hands and knees like he is ready to crawl, drink from a sippy cup, eat fruits and vegetables, he gets pretty angry when you take away a toy, he tries to get toys in front of him, and he learned how to scream in Texas-happy or mad. He doesn't like when strangers hold him (just ask his uncles), he chats up a storm while we read to him, and laughs when we tickle him. He loves to play peek-a-boo, and he wants to hold and put in his mouth anything that we have. Here is a little video of his sippy cup drinking!

Noah's First Christmas Part Two

After Christmas at Dan's mom's house we headed over to Spring to have Christmas with my side of the family. It was really relaxing and Noah had a great time being spoiled by Grammy, Uncle Josh and Aunt Ana and he got to meet his Great Grandpa Dean. We also got to spend New Year's Day at Buffalo Wild Wings where he finally met his Aunt Erin!! We had a wonderful time and Noah's first Christmas was successful. As you can see, I didn't do as well taking pictures the second half of Christmas break. Noah is fascinated by Erin
Noah with Josh and Ana. Once again Noah absolutely loved Ana, I was starting to think he loved her more than his own parents. He is mesmerized when she speaks to him in Spanish!

4 generations!

Noah with his Grandpa Jim

Finally a smile with Uncle Josh!

Noah's First Christmas Part One

Noah and his new Aggie buddy!Go Aggies!
He liked the wrapping paper better than the presents

His Discovery Education toy from Nana

Noah and Nana at Bravos after church

Uncle Thomas with Noah, they are so good looking :)

Family picture

Noah's very first Christmas has been busy so far! We flew into Houston on Wednesday evening (after the worst and craziest day in school history, I mean who makes kids go to school the day before Christmas Eve!!!). Noah was such a good boy on the plane ride in, entertaining all of those around as usual. Thomas picked us up and we spent the first half of our vacation at Dan's mom's house. We had a great time and Noah was spoiled by his Nana and Uncle Thomas. He loved all of the presents and extra special attention he got from everybody. We were sad to go, and Noah will miss his Nana and Uncle so very much. We are all really hoping they can come visit us this Spring. These are some pictures from Christmas Eve, opening presents, and watching the Aggie football game!

This weekend we visited Joy and Michael in St. Louis. Dan's college roommate John, and other friend Matty were coming into town to go to the Texans game so we all met up and hung out in St. Louis. We had an incredibly busy trip but it was so much fun! On Friday we spent the day visiting two breweries. The first was a small brewery but with great beer and the second was the Budweiser brewery. I had no idea so much went into creating beer but it was a blast to go on the tour and we got to drink a lot of free beer. On Saturday Dan, Noah, John, Ashley, and I all went out to do some local things which included an amazing burger place and yet another local brewery. That night, Joy and Michael visited while we all went out on the town! We went out to a fun little bar to watch the Cowboys game and then headed to the crazy city museum. It was like someone on acid designed a playground for adults, crazy! Sunday we had great seats at the Texans vs. Rams game. It was so much fun to spend time with Joy and Michael and hang out with such good friends. My dad also came in on Saturday and spent some time with us all. Noah was the baby of the world the whole weekend. He hardly cried and was a little angel with all the new experiences. It was so nice to have a little mini-vacation before heading back to school for the craziest week of the year! Our free seats were amazing at the game!
Both of us with Noah at his first football game

Noah REALLY wanted the beer (don't worry he didn't actually get to drink any)

Everyone hanging out in the hospitality room at Budweiser drinking the free beer.

Joy cut Noah out of the family Christmas picture!

At the Schlafly Brewery

It was so great seeing Joy and Michael

Dan, Ashley, John, and me at the brewery tour