Eleven

The procrastination of creating this post is not coincidental. I assure you that.

This time last year I was counting the days, hours, minutes until Noah would grace us with his sweet, sweet presence. I could never have imagined the way my life would take on a whole new form, one almost entirely unfamiliar to the one I'd always known. More about that next month (gulp).

In Ford fashion, it's been a crazy busy month for us, capped off with a trip to Florida over Labor Day weekend. And in Noah fashion, he continues to amaze me, knock the Chacos right off my feet. It's phenomenal the things he picks up on and learns within minutes of seeing it for the first time. Blows my mind.

And in no particular order:
1. If he wasn't a flirt before, Noah has now added the wink to his repertoire. Cute as heck and will charm the pants off of anyone - if he isn't too bashful to show you. It's the double wink followed by a flutter of the eyelashes... guys, you better hold tight to your ladies.

2. His vocabulary is growing leaps and bounds - he will repeat, or at least try, anything you say to him. Among his easiest to decipher: hello - ayeee, fish - ish, daddy - da-dih, mama - behh (which we think is him calling me "babe" or "Elizabeth" because that's what Chris usually refers to me as), here - hee-ah, this - diss, duck - dah, Grits - giss... and many, many more that I am sure we just can't figure out yet.

3. The tooth count is up to eight - and they are pretty adorable. They sure do make him look big though, which is the part I am not so sure about.

4. Uncle Caleb came to visit and meet Noah for the very first time. Noah was none too impressed that it took Uncle K-Luv ten months to finally make it to Tennessee, but I think they made up for lost time rather speedily. We are hoping and crossing our fingers that we will get to see a lot more of him in the near-ish future.

"Whoa, I've never been this high before."

Noah, Uncle K-Luv, and Mama before C headed home, I mean to Ridgecrest.Ay-eeeeee!

5. I for sure thought that by this point he would be running circles around the house, mostly because he crawled so soon, but I think he figures he can get there just fine on all-fours, why mess up a good thing? He has started to let go of my leg, the couch, a bench, or whatever he is holding onto at that moment and balances for a few seconds before he realizes he's not touching anything and plops onto his fanny.

Nothing better than morning cartoons with these guys.

6. At the ripe old age of 11 months, Noah has started his first LDR (Long Distance Relationship) with one of his very first and favorites, Ms. Allison. We took her out to lunch at the Tellico Grains Bakery (if you haven't been, you must - I don't care if you live in another state, region, or country, this place is goooood.) for a last shebang before she headed west. We miss her already, but I think this is one LDR that will survive. I mean, this is the stuff love is made of, right?

7. Tantrums - have I talked about those yet? He has them. They are entertaining. He snatches his arm away when I try to make him sit back down in the tub - he waves his arms furiously in the air like the "all done" sign language if he doesn't like what you are doing or giving him - he has a fake cry which sounds similar to that sound they make on Dumb and Dumber, you know, the most annoying sound in the world. These are few and far between but his not-so-little personality is starting to show more and more. And show that he got a lot of it from his daddy...

8. The mullet is official. Yes, my precious son rocks the Euro-Mullet. His Aunt Dita would be so proud...

Look closely, it's there...

Now I can only hope as he gets older he can claim
the sexiness of the mullet like David Beckham...
with the money and humor of Terry Bradshaw?

9. Hello, my name is Noah and I like to greet you like this:

I have no idea how this started or where it came from, but apparently his pops and his Uncle Matt (of the Matt/Heather married combo) did this very same thing when they were little. I have always known Chris saw the world a little differently. This explains a lot.

10. My independent, do-it-myself, won't cry when I fall on my hiney-child has found a new love for snuggling. I will stop whatever I am doing whenever I am doing it to take full advantage of scooping him up, breathing him in, and lingering while time stands still and all is right in the world. He even let me rock him to sleep a couple of nights - he hasn't done this since he was probably 6 months old. We pray and hope and love that our babies sleep on their own and through the night, but let me say, rocking him in my arms those nights will stay in my heart for a long time.

...and last but certainly not least...

11. We are weaners! Yes, that's right, Noah has successfully weaned himself as of the beginning of September. Breastfeeding mamas, don't ask me how we did it, what we did, or if I have any tips because all I can tell you is this: let the baby take the lead. I know that many, many people much smarter than me preach wholeheartedly against "demand-feeding" during the beginning, but let me throw out there that once you have a rhythm going and it's good for mama and baby, I really believe that it will all happen naturally - at least that's the case for us. All along Noah has "dropped" feedings around the suggested ages without any coercion, and the whole experience has been fabulous. Do I miss it? No, not yet... I am just glad to have the girls back.

Let's take a look back real quick, to what I was doing a year ago today:

Holy guacomole, I looked like a rolly polly...

...and he still had a month to cook. I am woman, hear me roar.

So let the labor, I mean growing, pains begin... countdown to twelve months. I don't even want to talk about it.
Think I was late this month?
I may just have to resign from this blogging gig, it's giving me wrinkles.

Be still my heart, be still.

Snuggles McGee

Baby loves his mama.
The other night he had a weird schedule going on, I think because he is trying to drop a daytime nap, but
#1 He can't decide which one, and
#2 He just can't keep his eyes open after supper if he skips, bless his little bones.
 He fell asleep right after cereal+bananas and  during milk. I put him down, figuring he would cat-nap for thirty minutes or so, but to my surprise, he slept for almost three hours! He stirred around nine and we were trying to keep things low-key and quiet so he would eat and hopefully go right back down. Well, he was awake and not ready to sleep yet, but he was very ready to snuggle. I handed him over to Chris for some male-bonding, but Noah was not having it.
Bubba boy wanted his mama. To snuggle with his mama.
This is a new thing. To want his mama but not the boob.
Mama likey.

He eventually fell asleep there. So stinking precious. And he had just had a bath that day, so clean baby aroma was wafting in my face. Yum. 

In other developments, we've been able to lay him in his crib, awake, and he just "talks" himself to sleep. Up until now we've rocked him nearly every night, and the first night I laid him in there, kissed him and told him I loved him, he was asleep within minutes. It's amazing. He's an incredible baby. I love rocking him and having that sweet time with him, but it's nice to know that he loves his crib, feels safe there, and will sleep when he's tired. I know it's important to start building that sense of "independence" now, for him to learn that his room isn't scary and that mama and daddy aren't going to leave him there forever. 

We will be very, very thankful later. Rocking a twelve year old probably isn't quite as sweet and innocent.

But for now, I will take all the snuggles I can steal.

Four

I've decided to try something new. Each month on the 2nd (being Noah's "birthday") I am going to share "x" new things I love about our son, "x" being the number of months he is. Whether it's new cute things he's doing or just new discoveries we've stumbled upon as new parents, I will share them here. I do believe it will be hard to limit myself to only 4 this month. There may be cheating involved to sneak them all in. Don't worry. I will subtly slip it in that I love that he mimics our singing.

Here we go...I love:
1. When he pats me on my arm or back when I am holding him. Moreover, when I watch him pat his daddy, like he's saying, "Good job, pops. I knew you could do it."

2. Finding him flipped over from his tummy to his back in the morning or waking up from naps...and how he's somehow squirmed to the monitor, with his mouth real close, saying in his best squeals and babbles, "Attention, is this thing on?"

3. His laugh. His big, fat, glorious laugh.

4. He has discovered Grits, like REALLY discovered her. It's hard not to discover a 60lb brown dog that likes to lick your ear when you are rolling around on the floor. And he thinks she is the coolest and weirdest creature ever. He has no idea the adventures and trouble they will find together. Before we know it, Noah will like her better than us.


Here's Noah on his 4 month "birthday" sitting like a big guy in the rocking chair his Aunt Erika gave him.
Cute kid, I think. All 16.6lbs and 25.75in of him.

Feel free to share your favorite new things about my little ham. Or your little ham.

Speaking of ham... my domestic duties are calling.

What's for supper? Can't wait til Noah pesters me with that question like I did my mama. That may or may not appear on one of my "favorite things" lists.