Noah @ 6 Months (!!)

*You can skip this post if you have no interest in the development of a 5-6 month baby. Because really, I'm the only person who is overly excited about these.  But hey, pictures!   :)

SIX months! How did that even happen?!

(Our appointment isn't until tomorrow, so I'll post stats when I get them...)

Oh baby. You are so loved! It makes me a little heartbroken to see how big you are getting. But also so happy because you have the CUTEST personality and are so active and love life.

NOAH:

- For a couple weeks, he would shriek/scream loudly to get our attention when he decided he was done doing something. Like sitting in his high chair when I try to make dinner. Or laying on his back. Now he makes the cutest ba/muh-muh sounds that lead up to the shrieks or whining. However, happy shrieks happen too.

-  When he is excited he will point his toes and hold his legs and arms out super straight with a huge smile on his face. Like planking face-up style, accompanied by happy shrieking. This always happens at bath time. He just loves it so much.

- Stares at people/things he doesn't know. Like stroller rides. They are pure silence for the longest time because he just loves to look. 

- Cut his first tooth! (5/23/2014) We had no idea it was coming in. And he is working on #2. But he doesn't seem to really notice.

- He really discovered his toes this month. And finally can put them in his mouth. (yay?) Last night he spent a lot of time putting them in his mouth before he finally went to sleep.

- Speaking of cribs, he rolls ALL over his. And not just when he is awake. Rolling happens multiple times every night. He really seems to like sleeping with his face smushed in the mattress. Which of course makes me nervous. But he is sleeping through the night (hallllllelujah). Wakes up early some days but I get a straight 6ish hours now. 

- His grabbing/chewing abilities have improved VASTLY. I'm doing mostly BLW (more on this later? maybe.) and he really seems to be loving it. Even just a couple weeks of it and he is way, way better. He loves broccoli and really liked his squash last night. 

- Figured out peekaboo (object permanence) with mommy/daddy. We aren't 100% sure he knows the game part but he definitely knows we are still there. 

- He is ALL boy. Loves to be roughhoused with --  tossed in the air/ tickled / being scared and the anticipation of all the above -- and hates to be cuddled or held close. 

- He notices details now. Like my hair (so fun. Hello, death grip) and likes to watch cars drive by out the window. It is so fun to watch his head swivel back and forth.

Mom (and Dad?):

- I love my sleep so sleeping through the night has been glorious. And napping when he does is nice too. 

- Went running on my own for the first time in..... A year? 15 months?.... And it showed. I felt like a dinosaur lumbering down the street while trying to get my body to remember what jogging (running sounds prettier, right? But let's be real here. It's like a mini step above a fast walk right now) feels like. 

- [TMI right here. You might want to skip this one.] I quit breastfeeding a month ago - but someone needs to tell my body that. Still get a little leaky occasionally. Someone tell me this goes away, please. He wasn't even eating from me very much before that.

- I have formula stains on lots (MOST) of my clothes from an unusually spitty phase Noah went through a couple weeks ago. (Not having a washer stinks big time).  I think I need a new wardrobe.....

- Feeling completely panicky that my little thanksgiving baby is already 6 months old. Lots of conflicted feelings over how much I love watching grow and learn and just wanting to put him in a protective little cocoon and never let anything happen to him. But life is about falling down and learning new tricks and growing and experiencing things. Mostly I just want to give him all sorts of experiences that teach him to be a kind, compassionate boy and to make the world a better place. He definitely makes MY life better. 

SIX MONTHS. Oh man.

Being a mom because of you

It's Mother's Day. I know I already posted but Noah had a rough bedtime and I had to rock him to sleep. 

Which NEVER (never,ever,EVER) happens. 

This boy does not like to be held close for more than half a second. And as I'm savouring this moment, there are SO MANY thoughts tumbling around my head.

I'm suddenly so aware of what type of mother I am. Yes, there are moments where I'm frustrated and bedtime is sometimes a very, very welcome time. However - this baby is MINE.

 I get to love him and teach him and show him the best things in the world. And want so much for him and want to shield him from the world as long as possible. And teach him how wonderful life is and how Heavenly Father has given us this earth and a chance at JOY. I get to raise this baby who I'm sure will be too old too quickly. And as he is snuggling into my shoulder, it's all I can do to hope that time slows down for just one second. One magical moment where he is my baby and I am his mommy together on our first Mother's Day. Because he is and always will be the greatest decision/accomplishment of my life. 

And I am a mother because of the influence of so many other women. Mothers, teachers, leaders, even friends my age who have been examples of the person I want to be, of who I want my children to emulate, of who I would LOVE for Noah to learn from and the type of person I want him to marry. You are incredible wonderful women. All of you. Even the ones who have no idea this blog exists. I would not have this sweet little tiny world of mine without you being placed in my path. 

And maybe someday in the heavens above, I will get a chance to squeeze you and maybe, just maybe I'll be able to finally find adequate words to explain how thankful I am to you. 

I am eternally blessed. Not just because of this little boy I can't bear to lay down in his crib. Because of you. 

Happy Mother's Day!

For all you moms, future moms, and grand-moms.
Especially the ones in my life.
You are the best!
Have a happy day!

The day I became a mother.

Extraordinarily ordinary.

I'm not fantastically amazing at anything specific. Like cooking. Or cleaning. Or public speaking. Or athletics. Or creativity. Or studying. Or mothering. Even though I would like to be sometimes. 

I'm above average at many, many things and normally mediocre at some things. And terrible at plenty. 

I do like to try new things. Even though steep learning curves often freak me out about 2 days in and I talk myself into how it isn't worth the time or money to be trying that new particular thing. Sometimes it is hard to justify even trying new things if I know I'll never be incredible at any of them because my life now belongs (mostly) to another person. 

But nevertheless, my bank account can tell you that I have found too many fads and new obsessions that catch my eye. 

All of that to tell you that I'm thinking of expanding on an earlier explored hobby. I got a nice(r) camera, took a class (which coincided not-so-perfectly with the beginning of my pregnancy. Boo.), and am now moving on to making my extraordinarily ordinary photos just extraordinary. 

Stay tuned, folks because it's bound to last a week or two! 

:)

See below: 

⬆️Still one of my favorites. 

Four!

Happy Anniversary to the best husband and father!
You make me SO happy that I will stop writing sappy love notes about you on the blog today.
Let's celebrate by kissing our baby too much.

I didn't understand.

(iphone) 1 week before Noah decided to make me miss Thanksgiving dinner :)

I know there are many, many people who yearn so desperately to be parents. There are those who don't want that lifestyle. I, personally, always wanted to be a mother. Before Noah was born, all I knew of parenting was from the one-sided view of a child and being friends with other children who had parents. And I've only been a mother for 157 days so I definitely have a long way to go before I will even begin to think I have experience at all.

Before Noah, I didn't quite fully understand what people meant. 

I didn't understand when they said having a child is like letting a piece of your heart walk around outside your body. 

I didn't understand when they said baby things would take over your home and you won't really even care. 

I didn't understand when they said watching their child grow each day and learn a new skill was so much fun. 

I didn't understand when they said they stayed up late at night many times pouring over old photos of their child.

I didn't understand when they said this was the hardest thing they would ever do. And the best. 

I didn't understand when they said it is the biggest sacrifice they have ever made. 

I didn't understand when they said a part of them would never stop worrying. 

I didn't understand when they said they would do ANYTHING for their child. 

I didn't understand when they said it physically pained them to see their child hurt or crying. 

I didn't understand when they said pregnancy was one of the greatest experiences in the world (even with a bad pregnancy). 

I didn't understand when they said the best day of their life was when their child was born. 

I didn't understand when they said meeting their baby was like meeting someone they've always known. 

I didn't understand when they talked about the incredible amount of joy you feel.  

I didn't understand when they talked about putting their child to bed and then missing them afterwards. 

I didn't understand when they said they loved their spouse so much more after having a child. 

I didn't understand what it meant to have a child. 

I didn't understand what it meant to be a parent. 

I didn't understand what it meant to be a mother.

But now I do.

NOAH @ 5 Months

Can you tell what Noah thinks about me taking pictures? 

15.5 lbs and 25 inches. And those are purely guesses because his weight on the scale keeps going up and down depending on what time of day we weigh him. And I swear he has grown way taller but every time I measure him it says 24.75 inches. Maybe my tape measure is shrinking.)

NOAH:

• decided to kick off his 5 month birthday by rolling back to front. And kept doing it for probably another 10 minutes - back to front front to back back to front - while I gleefully filmed and texted the video to David. And then wouldn't do it when David was watching in real time. Stinker. He also is at the sitting like a tripod phase but can't stay up on his own very long or when he gets excited. 

• his face totally lights up when you go get him out of his crib. After naps too. It is one of theeee best moments of the day. Those sleepy huge smiles. 

• loves loves loves loves (LOVES!!!) bath time. No matter how tired he is, take him in the bathroom and turn the water on and he gets positively giddy and will squeal. And when we take him in the shower, will stare at the stream of water and put his hand in it and even will lean forward and put his face in sometimes. (I'm still not sure if this is intentional or not. But it happens and I'm not stopping it.) We also "dunk" him under the shower (very!) briefly because we are *those* parents. 

•is really good about putting himself to sleep for naps/bed IF we do his routine properly and IF we catch his tiredness before it's too late. And every time he does it we oooh and aaah over how proud we are of him. 

•is fantastic in his stroller. It is a sad day for us when we can't go outside because he is so content in his stroller. He will just stare at the world around him. It is hard to get a reaction out of him until we go inside. 

•absolutely fascinated by our Rubik's cubes. Those are the toys he gets most excited about. We think he just loves the bold colors. He is getting really good at picking them up with both hands too

•will give me [the best slobbery drooly open mouth face sucking] kisses sometimes. He has to be in the right mood but I adore it. He's not cuddly at all so this gesture makes me so happy. He doesn't do this with David, but he does do things for him he won't do with me. 

He will squeal and talk when David kisses him and will laugh when he blows raspberries on his feet. 

MOM and DAD:

• we are la-la-loving this phase of life. It is so fun to see his minuscule developments every day. He is generally really good when we go anywhere but we have yet to attempt eating out or anything extremely long. 

• still working on having him drop that last feeding but we sleep great and would sleep even greater if we went to bed earlier. 

• I am loving the warm weather and getting so excited for summmmmmmer!! [pool, vacations, MAINE, maybe the beach?, sunlight!!] we've been going on walks to meet David's bus almost every day and it has been fantastic. April has been good to is, here's to hoping May is even better.

We just love this little guy so much!

My heart is so full.

David gets Noah out of his crib in the mornings while I get 2 extra minutes of sleep. 

I decided to skip my 2 minutes and watch Noah on the video monitor for his reaction when he hears and sees his daddy. And I'm SO glad I did because I never would have seen this adorable face:

Watching the two people I love the most love each other. Theeeeee BEST. 

Life is so, so good in our little corner of the world. 

Lunch!

It seems like I have all these ideas for things to write about but I either 1) forget to finish the draft and never remember what I was going for or 2) forget altogether because baby brain is happening something fierce over here. [no joke. I was thinking about putting dishes away while making dinner last night and the tortillas got put in the cupboard and not the fridge....]

In light of all that nonsense, I thought I might as well write this one and post it while Noah is sleeping in the backseat of our car. 

David works in downtown Hartford. A 10 minute car, 20 minute bus ride from our house. So today we (I) got my act together and we met him for lunch! 

I did not do the following

 - take a picture of our sandwiches

 - bring our nice camera

 - get a picture of all of us. 

 - take a picture of the cherry blossoms

But I did get a picture of my two favorite people. 

And now the plan is to meet up for lunch every Friday! 

Definitely the best way to kick start the weekend. 

Solids!

We got the okay from the doctor to give Noah solids a few weeks ago. Noah has been watching us eat and definitely can follow along with the fork/spoon going from the dish to our mouths. 

Last night we randomly decided to start. 

Following the advice of a friend who said "Make sure you give them vegetables first or they will never eat them after trying fruits."

Green beans it is, my friend. 

HE LOVED THEM. 

He could not get the spoon into his mouth fast enough - even though he doesn't know to not push the food out yet. We were laughing quite a bit. 

And of course, we took pictures. 

(When you're not the parent, I know you don't care so much. So I tried to tone it down. We took 80, and I only posted 3! Are you proud of me?!)

4/14/2014