monthly noah: thirteen months

ignore the pink hammer... 

Happy thirteenth month, Noah Grey!

Didn't think I would cut out gabbing about Noah completely did ya? Hah. No way! I have to admit that I am missing the weekly Noah even though there is still a weekly post... It just doesn't feel the same.  I will definitely look forward to these monthly updates.

I can't believe that we just celebrated Noah's first birthday a few weeks ago and that now he's thirteen months old.  Tears are welling up my eyes right now.  He's such a BIG boy in a little baby's body.  So brave and curious.  He's finally letting me be around him while he walks.  I don't know what was up with that, but it was so upsetting to see him walking around in the other room and as soon as I would come over to him he would sit down and pretend that it never even happened.  I mean this was a daily occurrence.  I don't know if he thought that maybe once he started walking that mommy couldn't carry him any more or if he was just scared of falling, but it's nice to actually get to be a few feet within him walking.  He still won't really let us catch or touch him when he's in walking mode.  He has to be completely unassisted and feel no pressure.  It's funny because he is such a show boat in most cases...

Noah is finally starting to better fill out his 12 month clothes, even though he can still comfortably fit into most of his 9 month and even some 6 month clothes. He's still around 28 1/2 inches tall and weighs around 19.25 lbs.

I guess in my mind he would weigh more than that, but of course he feels heaviest to me since I carry him around the most.  He is eating more and more every day and not just any food, but gourmet food.  I didn't realize that my baby would be SO picky about what he eats.  If it's not flavorful enough he will spit out whatever he is eating and pile it up on the corner of his highchair tray.  He LOVES any kind of rice (especially daddy's famous fried rice with every vegetable we can think of) and beans of any kind.  He is very much a chocoholic, but doesn't mind sneaking tastes of other desserts as well (even though we really don't give him sweets very often).  He loves french lentil soup and tofu and fish eggs (yes you read that correctly) and almost every fruit we put in front of him.  While he seems to LOVE lots of things, he still has trouble being consistant with how much he eats on a regular basis.  I try to basically keep the kitchen open to Noah ALL THE TIME, even though half the time he's really not all that interested.  For drinks we mainly only give Noah water and milk.  Most of his milk consumption is breast milk, only because he still hasn't taken to whole milk and I still have milk to give.  It won't last forever, so he might as well enjoy it while I got it. We rarely and I am talking rarely let him have juice and if he does have any it is almost always a kale, carrot, spinach concoction.

Noah has started to communicate by shaking his head yes or no and by pointing at things lately.  He knows how to wave bye and hi and has started blowing more kisses at people from time to time.  He is also REALLY into giving mommy open mouthed kisses.  I dunno where that came from... I swear I don't kiss that way. He loves to shake and wiggle when he hears a song he really likes... I wouldn't really call it dancing, but I took dance for a bajillion years, so I might just be a tough critic.  Noah also babbles in a very rhythmic fashion which I am assuming is his version of singing.  It's really sweet and I could listen to it all day long.

We are happy to say that Noah is finally a wonderful sleeper.  I mean... He always slept 12 hours at night, but it was NEVER uninterrupted.  But the worst part was not that waking, it was actually getting him to go to bed. WAAAAY back when I am sure you remember me talking about how I had to wear Noah around until he passed out and then transfer him to his crib.  Well I guess he really liked the secure feeling of babywearing, but it was really making it difficult for him to be able to self sooth himself to sleep, especially since we had to stop swaddling early on because of him being a tummy sleeper and not liking to have his legs in the swaddle.  In short, we tried several different sleep training methods and non of them were working and I was miserable.  Even during trying those methods we pretty much kept the same routine going and after a while things just clicked.  Now we bath, diaper and lotion, put on night time music, lay Noah in his crib and sit in the chair while he settles himself.  Usually within 2-3 minutes he is out.  No fussing to sleep.  I don't know why, but for some reason he needs someone in the room but not touching him.  I guess he wants to feel safe, but not stimulated?  Anyways, what ever we did is working and I'm not about to rock that boat! Noah usually sleeps from 9pm-8:30/9am and then (usually)naps again from 11am-12:30 and again from 3pm-5pm.  I know it seems like he goes to bed really late, but he also wakes up really late so this schedule works well for us.

I know I say this all the time, but I really cannot believe how much Noah changes from day to day. Being his mommy just keeps getting better and better!