I'm A Big Boy Now

Noah climbs, drinks out of cups, says 'done' when he's finished eating, uses a spoon to get food from the bowl to his mouth, puts himself to sleeps at night and asks to put his shoes and hat on before we go anywhere
.........................................
He's such a big boy now.

Last weekend I practised making his first birthday cake. It took me a whole day but I know exactly what I'm doing now and I think it'll be a good one to look back on when he's older.
It's hard to believe that this time last year I was 7 days overdue and praying that he would grace us with his presence so I didn't have to be induced. BUT on Wednesday one year ago (if that makes sense) I was beginning my induction and on Saturday one year ago Noah was born. We have big plans for Saturday morning and I am sure there will be many photos!

Daddy eating the practise cake 

How he put himself to sleep the other night

Climbing from chair...

to couch...

And back again...

"I'm so clever!"

A Family Outing

When it rains for 6 days straight you go a little stir crazy. When you hear that the rain has caused you to be stranded in your 5-street town, it seems to amplify the stir-craziness. So we went for a drive to check out the floods. It is your average family outing when you live in our neck of the woods.

Oh and, Noah helps make his lunch these days...

Sharing The Love

Well, Noah didn't waste any time sharing his flu germs and I have been down and out most of the week. So, there isn't that many photos to share but here is a quick run through of the (few) highlights from the past week.

1. Noah played fetch with Raph. Andy threw the ball and Raph and Noah chased after it. If Noah got to it first he turned and called to Raph (pronouned 'aaff ' by Noah) and Raph would walk over. Then Noah smiled and shoved the ball into his mouth. Then Raph would walk it back to Andy to throw. If Raph got to the ball first Noah would stop running towards it, slowly turn around (he's still mastering turning) and run back to Andy and wait for him to throw it again.

 2. Each night before bed I feed Noah and we cuddle his teddy 'Winslow'. The other night I put Noah down and walked out and saw his bear on the same chair as my childhood bear so I had to take a snapshot of the momentous occasion.

 3. Going outside to play slingshots with Daddy.

 4. Friday mornings with Mummy. This is the highlight of Mummy's week and she always dresses me in something trendy because, well... she can.

 Today I didn't put Noah's shoes on after dressing him (which would be the normal routine) because it was raining so heavily I knew I would carry him inside to childcare anyway. I was cleaning his high chair and I turned around to see him with my shoe, sitting on the floor trying to figure out a way to put it on his foot. My heart melted.

5. Noah is running. I picked him up from childcare yesterday and he was all the way over the other side of the room when he saw me and there was a clear path between he and I so he just started running towards me with the biggest smile on his face and his arms out ready for a cuddle. There is no better feeling than that moment when you scoop your happy, loving child into your arms after a long day at work.

6. Noah has weaned down to 4 breast feeds a day which means I can express one bottle for him for childcare early in the morning and I don't have to express at work any more. As well as this, we decided that I should stop feeing him to sleep at night time so we can start to teach him to self-settle so we had a big discussion and made a big game plan up about how many minutes we'd wait until we went in to soothe him each night. We tried our new routine for the first time last night and he cried for 4 minutes and went to sleep. We didn't have to do any of our plan Bs... needless to say we spent 30minutes in shock about how smoothly it went. He's a little trooper!!!

And a last little update,
I miss Noah deeply and I feel like I have blinked and missed everything. Despite this, we must be doing something right because he is such a sweet natured little guy who always seems to be smiling (unless you take a mobile phone or iPod away from him of course... then there is some feet stomping).
Whatever my feelings about our situation, he knows he is loved beyond belief.

Three Little Stories

The other night I was playing with Noah in the shower and he swivelled around and his bum covered up the drain hole perfectly. The water started rising so there was a nice little puddle in the bottom of the shower and he thought it was great but he didn't know he was causing it. He started splashing around in it. Then he reached over to get a toy, his bum lifted and the water drained away. He looked around to see where it had gone but because he moved back over the hole again it started to refill. So he splashed away. How sweet it that!

Noah has an obsession with hats at the moment. We have two that we keep around for quick trips outside and his favourite thing to do is get them and put them on his head and walk around. When he sees one of us he stops, tips his head right back so he can see out from under the brim and gives us the cheekiest smile like 'look what I've got on my head'.

We went into Noah's room to wake him the other morning and it shocked us both to see how big he looks in his cot compared with when he first started to sleep in there. Below is the best picture I can find for comparison.

4-5 month-ish

11 months

A Wet Season

It is the first night of the last month of Noah's first year of life. In other words, he is 11 months old.

As he sleeps, I take time to think about what he has accomplished in such a small amount of time. I think about his excitement towards everything - absolutely everything he experiences is exciting and new to him. He has an enchantment that only comes from being young and naive.  For example, he tried his first bite of vegemite today and the look on his face was priceless. 

While I often daydream about how tiny he was, there are moments that I stop and think 'gee, he's just another member of our family now. He's got he's own little personality, he knows what he wants and he's actually great company'. He's my little mate. 

So with this in mind, I picked up my mate from childcare yesterday afternoon and we went to the pool for a swim. It was great to have something to do with him AND to have the time spare to prioritise for him. Our swim lasted for precisely 15mins before a sudden 'wet season' storm hit without any warning. So we spent the rest of the afternoon playing in the rain, then we walked home holding hands (very slowly). When a clap of thunder hit, he stopped and turned to find it. When it stopped he grunted, took my hand again and started walking again - cute... he may as well have shrugged and said 'she'll be right mate'.

As well as this, before bed we often have time to play. He's taken to 'controlling' the games in his own way. We'll start playing something and then he'll change it or twist it somehow. This week, he's been obsessed with sitting in his cart instead of stacking his blocks.

Finally, as another little update... seeing that we're in month 11. It's time to start weaning completely. So Noah is having a little more cow's milk to replace another breastfeed. Hopefully by the end of next week, he'll only need one breast milk bottle at childcare. Wish me luck!

'Playing' with blocks 

Sitting in the cart is a way better way to play with the blocks

Ah, help, I'm doing the splits

Our walk home in the rain

I'm in the cart again

Yes I do have milk on my face... what's it to ya?