Seriously, can't believe it's been 1/2 a year already!

Where does the time go?! I can not believe we've made it this far already...1/2 way through the first year of Noah's life...amazing! We are just head over heels for him, and so is Drew - he has shown us that God has made us capable of so much more love than we ever thought possible.


Let's start with Drew this time...getting back into a normal routine of school 2-3 days a week has been nice for all of us. He fights it a tiny bit sometimes, but mostly enjoys being with his friends. His school has 'Tumblebus' come every other Friday, which he really enjoys...jumping, rolly-polly & jumping jacks are some of his favorites. One Friday I told him he would get to have Tumblebus; his response: "That will be so much fun!" What a cutie! Speaking of cutie...one Sunday I wore a dress to church (rare now again that I'm nursing) and Drew asked, "Mommy, you a princess?!", I was so shocked, and though it was so adorable! I asked him if he was my prince, which he quickly responded with "No, I a pirate!" - of course you are! :)


We are attempting to keep him in church with us on Sundays vs. going to the nursery...there have been a few embarrassing moments, and some challenges, and huge messes in the aisle, but he's doing ok we think. There's a learning curve for all of us for sure. He loves his Sunday School class with Mrs. Widger - we love it too! :) We are also starting to see a few more signs of toilet training in our future...we try a bit before bath time and any time he seems interested, but we are not pressing it by any means! As much as a relief it will be to have him potty trained, I am SO NOT looking forward to the process! He is pretty independent going up & down the stairs by himself now - we are always around, but not guarding any more, so that's nice. Of course, there are times it takes forever now, as he takes it as an opportunity to play or exert his power/control over the situation...ah, toddlers!

A few things we are 'working' on with Drew...waking up later in the morning! Gracious!!! He has been waking up way too early for us & for him. Yes, part of this is selfish on our part because we are not morning people, but he is so cranky by 10 if he's up too early, but will not take a morning nap and will not go back to sleep in the morning despite all efforts. So, we bought a toddler clock...we get to set the time the picture flips from night to day. He's suppose to check his clock before deciding if it's time to start screaming to us that he's awake. It's not working just yet, but there are signs of learning, so we are hopeful! He is always wanting to play with his water & milk glasses at mealtimes, pouring them back & forth, always ending in a mess...we have tried all sorts of things to get him to stop with natural consequences being enforced. When asked, he'll tell us that we play with water in the sink & the bath, but then goes right back to playing at the next meal...ugh! We are so tired of cleaning up that mess! On a positive note, he's really picking up his letters...he can correctly identify 10-15 capital letters consistently! So that's cool and a fun thing to work on that he seems to really enjoy.


He continues to be a very loving brother, while at the same time being rough & tumbly. He sometimes gets so excited about being with/around/playing with Noah that Noah often ends up in tears screaming from Drew screaming in his face, being all up in his personal space and just showing his love for him in a very physical way - that impulse control can just be so hard! But there are lots of hugs & kisses & singing of songs. He even smooches all over our friends' baby Caroline (3 weeks older than Noah), so at least his gut reaction is out of love! Though, there are times at home that he just looks for opportunities to get attention by being too rough with Noah - these are the times Mommy has to really control herself...man that's hard!


So, I'm becoming more aware of Drew's texture defensiveness...this is something I noticed pretty early on, even around age 1, but seemed to be able to take it all in stride. Well, there are just a few more scenarios that have prompted me to work a little harder at this...we made S'Mores for the first time in the fireplace and he was all excited about it, until he picked it up & immediately got marshmallow on his hands...he wouldn't have anything to do with it after that! I had to chew it down (I'm so sacrificial, I know!) to get it to a small enough piece I could just pop in his mouth, but even this, I had to bribe him with a new car! And he liked it, but still didn't want any more. So, we have a friend who's a pediatric OT and I talked to her about it...I'm going to do a little testing on him and she's going to let me know where we stand with it and give us some ideas...we'll keep you posted!


Some fun firsts for all of us this month was the first trip to the park! We've been before, but not all of us...we had a great time! Noah even got to swing for the first time & LOVED it! He just smiled & laughed the whole time. And of course, Drew loved the chance to run around! We are excited for the new park being built within walking distance of our house...Drew calls it his park already!



The boys have started to share baths together! A big step for us all, but so nice to not have separate duty for the same task, so we get to all be together instead of being spread out over the house. Mommy & Daddy appreciate the time together for sure!


Alright, so on to sweet little Noah! He is grabbing at everything these days! I forgot how I had to be really careful with what I got close to and what all I carried when Drew got to this point - this boy wants to check everything out! He tries to sit up quite a bit too, really working those abs to check out what's going on around him, especially when nursing! We are working on his sitting & rolling, which is getting better bit by bit - he'll be moving more and more before we know it. He's SO distractible while nursing now...I can hardly read a book without him wanting to see what I'm looking at! So, thankfully he's a quick eater, but I'm trying to use that time as prayer time...if I can stay focused!


He loves being tickled and getting zerberts. There's even been a few times where it seems he's trying to give us zerberts back - crazy I know, but really, both of us have thought that at different times! :) He is talking more now, and just recently starting to make "ga-ga" and "da-da" noises! Matthew said to mark it down on the calendar that he already said his name! HA! He is very responsive to us now, especially liking it when we make silly faces. He's also even more vocal about not having us in his line of sight - he has definitely entered the phase of knowing, and not liking, when he's 'by himself'.


He is eating dinner with us every night now, and has been for about a month. Some nights are pretty good, others, not so much, but we are trying. He has had banana and avocado in addition to the rice cereal now...I think he'll very much enjoy his new foods that taste so much better than the cereal! He got his 2 front bottom teeth in this month, one right after the other! Can't believe it! It seems so soon!
(Not to be left out of any type of attention situation, Drew insists on sitting in Noah's Bumbo and getting a picture himself!)

He has finally dropped his late evening nap, making parts of the night easier, and others another learning challenge for us to learn to juggle it all, but glad that it's over and we are moving on. We were hoping that would help him sleep longer at night...but not so lucky! In fact, we are still struggling with that...oh so tired! Just keep reminding myself that it WILL get better...at some point! His naps are better during the day in that he goes to sleep pretty easily, but they are almost all 45 minutes on the dot! So ready for those to be a bit longer too! Our pediatrician has given us some tips to help Noah learn to sleep better - prayers he learns quickly...I think he will, he picked up on going to sleep initially well, now we just need him to figure out to go back to sleep on his own better.


He LOVES the outside...he is so content to just sit outside with us and check out his surroundings. And when it's too cold to go outside, he's almost as content to sit and look out the window - we are looking forward to spring when we can really enjoy it (though it's been a very mild winter so far!). We've brought out the exersaucer & jumper now that his trunk muscles are so much stronger and we are happy to say, he loves playing in both! Drew is excited to play with them too, but Noah is especially happy to be upright & playing!


He is wearing 6 month clothes now and grown into size 3 diapers! His growth stats are as follows: Weight: 15 lb. 12 oz. (25%), Length: 27.75 in (90%), Head: 43 cm (25%). So he's staying right on track!

A New Year...

Well, there's no doubt every year brings about some changes, challenges, and surprises to our lives, but I imagine this year has more in store for us than we can imagine...bringing up 2 little red-headed boys is no walk in the park, but it is certainly worth the ride!


We had a wonderful December, with lots of excitement and chaos of getting ready for Christmas, but we truly enjoyed it. There's nothing like anticipating the excitement of your children for Christmas, and telling them the story of Jesus...knowing it's new & fresh to them somehow makes it go a little deeper in your own heart, seeing it through their eyes some instead of thinking I've heard and know this story...what an unexpected blessing! I went through the Jesse Tree for the first time this year with Drew. And while his attention span was about 1-2 minutes, it was still fun to know that it was the beginning of a new family tradition. And, he 'got' some of the things I talked with him about, so that was great too. Noah was just happy to sit in our presence and hear us talking! :) We also got the boys a felt Advent calendar where the daily pieces were characters in the story of Jesus' birth - Drew really enjoyed this, so I was happy about that - a bit of a simpler concept, but a cool way to talk about the story more. He played with his 'Little People' nativity set almost every day, so that was also fun, though he still is not 'filled with the Spirit' in that one day we were playing and I asked if I could play with Jesus, and he screamed "NO! That MY Baby Jesus!" Ok, so not so great at sharing the gospel with others yet! HA! He also loved all the Christmas decorations, especially the plush animals that dance & sing - we heard those alot! And he was surprisingly good about not messing with the ornaments or the tree too much - what a difference a year makes! Noah loved being near the tree & just gazing at the lights - he was mesmerized! He was pretty content to be laid under the tree & just look up into the lights - I'm kind of sad that easy entertainment is no longer available! :)


Drew continues to entertain us with some of his conversations or responses to things. A few favorites from this month are, we are hearing lots of: Buuut; Sooo; Weell...at the beginning of his sentences, with the wrong meaning of course, but these are apparently heard from us quite often! One day at school he woke up from his nap because of a bad dream and was pretty upset about it - when asked what the dream was about, he simply stated "Jesus & soccer"! Not sure how that can be so bad, but I guess we weren't there! He didn't want to go to the nursery one day while I went to Biblestudy...when I asked him why he didn't want to go, he said it was because he had an allergy! What?! I have no idea where that came from!


Drew is starting to show more imagination, coming up with his own stories and role-playing while playing with dinosaurs and animals and Legos - we are just thrilled - what a fun time this will be! He continues to hate getting his haircut - often ending up in Daddy's lap & hair all over the place! We can't wait for him to get over this! He refused his picture with Santa, despite being excited all the way up to the point we were walking up to see him. And Drew fell asleep in the middle of church in Daddy's arms - this is quite unbelievable - Drew is just not that kid that falls asleep anywhere. But there he was, snoring quite loudly, all the way through the Cantata (a yearly service that is purely music with a orchestra, etc. - it's quite good & quite loud!) How he fell asleep amongst all that, we'll never understand! Oh, and his school had a little Christmas program for the 18 months and older kids. Drew's class was last and they walked in with their teachers, helping push in the cart with Jesus' Birthday cake - Drew's smile couldn't have been any bigger! They sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and then we all got to eat the cake. It was adorable!


Mommy & Daddy are very tired from this month due to both boys causing us to lose sleep...that and we just can't seem to get to bed early enough to make up for it. Drew is waking up even earlier, sometimes at 5AM, and will not go back to sleep, despite every effort on our part, except for just leaving him in his room to scream...but it may have to come to that if it doesn't stop soon! He is also going through a phase of being scared of everything at night, making bedtime exhausting for us, and he will wake up quite a bit in the early hours from a bad dream, etc. - there are 8 night lights in his room for when he needs it! It's just crazy and we don't know how to make it stop! Noah is still good about going to sleep on his own, but the length of time between feedings at night seems to be getting shorter...the opposite of what I've been looking forward to! For the most part, he's still only waking up once in the middle of the night, but it's smack dab in the middle of my night, so my sleep is very disrupted. And there are nights of course where he is waking up more than that...oh, to not be sleep-deprived again!


Noah is getting stronger & stronger, rolling onto his side lots and bringing more and more things to his mouth, including his own feet! He's at the beginning stages of seeing something not to far off and trying to actually move to get to it himself - since he's not real mobile yet, he's often not too successful obviously, but we are excited that his motivation is there, meaning the movement isn't too far behind. And his reaching skills are much improved - going after toys in his activity gym or bouncer all the time. He did (finally, if you ask me) roll over from his stomach to his back - he's not a fan at all of tummy time really, but the PT in me forces it on him, and Christmas day at Nana's house, he rolled over for the first time! YEAH!


He is for sure aware of who Mommy & Daddy are, as well as Drew - lighting up when he sees us - which of course makes us light up in return! He's awful cute about it sometimes - seeing us & smiling real big, and then turning away as if to be shy or bashful about it, but then turning back to smile at us again - just adorable! He is so giggly & ticklish too - probably my favorite thing to do with him still is just tickle and kiss him til he laughs!


Noah is just a great baby - but even better in public than at home! He is not the easy-going 2nd child that is just content to play by himself - he likes to be around us and will let us know if he needs more attention. But in public, he is almost always so good - happy, quiet & content - very easy going! When it's close to nap time, he'll get a little antsy, etc., but it is usually pretty tame & easy to make him happy,. Even if he ends up missing the nap (which we don't like to do very often of course) he's usually pretty cool with it all!


He ended up getting his right eye tear duct probed this past month - the pediatrician noticed his eyelid wasn't opening as much as the left & wanted us to go ahead and see the eye specialist just to make sure. He thought it was due to inflammation from the plugged duct, and though he was a little on the young side, since Drew had a bad one, he went ahead and thought it was a good idea. It went just like it did with Drew - a short bit of VERY intense crying, but recovered almost immediately and then zonked out in the car! The eye cleared up within a day or two and now all is good! YEAH!


We did start feeding Noah cereal just at the end of the month. He wasn't too sure about it, and if you saw the stuff, you wouldn't be either, but for the most part, he did pretty good. So, the process of solid food begins...fun & exciting & alot more work involved than just nursing, but a very good thing. Drew was very excited to see Noah eating food - so much so that right after Noah ate, we were getting ready for dinner & Drew had snagged a waffle (that coincidentally had been dyed green for Christmas tree waffles) out of the fridge and was munching on it...when we both looked over to find Drew trying to feed it to Noah! Right...something else we'll have to watch for this time around! :) Oh, the fun we have with our boys!!!