Whispers

THE DOOOOOOOD

One of my new favorite things about Noah is that he whispers. He now knows there are tones in voices. Little dood recognizes talking loudly, talking normally, talking softly and whispering. He will whisper sweet "Noah nothings"all day long. It is so cute. He does it is as I am rocking him to sleep- probably the highlight of my day. He will just babble and babble in this whisper voice- occasionally I will recognize a couple of the words, but for the most part, it sounds like nonsense. This child really is the apple of my eye. I'm so excited to celebrate Jesus's birthday with him in a few days- I am hoping it will be as magical for him as it was for me growing up. 

Spontaneous leg hug = the best thing ever

WHO LOVES FOOD? THIS KID DOES!

Final 3 Facts and 4 Pictures

Now that Matt has finished up the last part of his fall semester as a Masters student (graduates in May….whoo hooo), he is home with Noah a good portion of the day. This is such a unique time in our life because the boys are getting A LOT of that daddy/son time that is so precious. I come home from work and Noah has the huge grin "of look what me and daddy did all day." Noah LOVES his daddy. 

Noah loves to have us smell his feet thanks to his daddy. Matt smells them and says "oooo stinky." Noah cracks up every time. It has now turned into this every time you change me I'm going to raise my foot up to your nose, so you'll sniff. Honestly, it is pretty stinky. Who knew baby's feet would stink? I'd like to say he got the smelly feet from his daddy, but I'm pretty sure it's me. I have a notorious sweaty foot when I wear work shoes (TMI?). 

Noah is attached to both Matt and me equally. It's such a blessing- he doesn't really prefer one over the other. He just wants us for different reasons- Matt to rough house with and me to snuggle. It's pretty cool because although we have a nanny, Noah still prefers us over anybody. When one of us comes home, he will wave bye to the nanny and never look back. If we leave Noah with the nanny, he cries and gets upset. We know he does love her, but he still would rather Matt or me be with him. 

 

I think this is it for picture posts. I have been slacking on taking day to day pictures, so I will get back to that and update the blog with what's been happening lately. Happy Monday. 

4 More Pictures and 4 Fun Facts

1) For Christmas this year, my good friend Alissa gave us the idea to give Noah three gifts just like the wisemen brought Jesus. This will teach Noah the importance of Christmas at a young age and allow for him to receive fun gifts. It won't be gold, frankincense, or myrrh, but who knows- we may get creative.

2) Noah loves to stack things. He will do it with blocks, books, oranges, and shoes. I love this age. I really do. 

3) Matt and I are hoping to take a fun trip to Tennessee this summer with the Baker's. We also have a 4^th of July trip lined up to Myrtle Beach with all of Matt's siblings and Dad/Tari. I love having little trips to look forward to.

4) I love to talk baby names. We've had Noah and aren't planning on the second for a while, but I think I bring up baby names at least once a day with Matt. We have our next girl's name pick out, but we can't agree on the boy. Also, we won't find out the gender for the rest of our kids. At this point, we still want four, so we will have 3 surprise babies! 

4 Pictures with 4 Fun Facts

Abby Springmann took these pictures during Thanksgiving for us, and I'm obsessed. I am going to choose a couple of my favorites and post fun facts along with them. I will do a couple posts like this. I always like reading fun random facts- that might be my twenty questions is my favorite game. Enjoy!

1) The dood loves cauliflower. I put it on his plate, and Noah goes to town. I have to disguise the broccoli and green beans,  but the most bland white vegetable is his favorite. I guess Noah takes after his daddy. Matt told me that for his birthday meal growing up, he'd request cauliflower. Weird right......I know. 

2) Noah has an obsession with all shoes. He will drag them all over the house. We find them in our laundry hampers, his crib, the bathtub, the trashcan. pretty much you name it- we find them there. The cutest thing is that homeboy will take one, go get the matching one and line them up side by side. It's amazing to watch his little mind work. 

3) We tried to let the Christmas tree be on the ground this year since Noah loves all the lights. Within an hour, he had two ornaments in his hands and the other in his mouth. #fail 

4) Matt and I both agreed yesterday that we love each other more now than ever. I'm so thankful for our marriage and the laughter and joy it brings. He's the best. God picked a good man for me- to say the least.

Fun with the Friedecks

Last Sunday, the Friedecks came over for enchiladas and fun.  It was a blast watching Booger (Hudson) and Little Dood (Noah) hang out. I love watching these two monkeys play together; they are always watching to see what the other one does. With both of them being so active, they wore each other out. It was nice!

I had to post pictures because I can’t wait to look back a couple years now and see how much these two have grown. We feel very blessed to call this sweet family our friends and always enjoy getting to see them! 

Boys with the Boys

Boys with the Girls

Next post to come- my favorites of our family portraits taken in VA. 

Flying with Toddlers

So we did it, we survived flying with a 13 month old. I thought I should dedicate a small (I think it will be small) blog post on how we survived, things I’m glad we did, things we regretted, and so on.

First of all, our flight was at noon on a Tuesday. We did not let him nap all morning, and we had him running up and down the aisles of the Austin airport. 

We made friends with about every couple that was sitting around us. Noah was very interested in their luggage, and he bee lined for every bright sparkly luggage tag he would see. They all assured me that a fussing baby on the plane wouldn’t bother them. I appreciated their words but in my head prayed that they would not regret saying that.

Anyways, we kept him running and gave him a hefty dose of Benadryl right before we boarded. I thought for sure we had a long nap coming, and I was for sure WRONG. Homeboy slept a good 20 minutes and was ready to party the rest of the flight. He was a little subdued, so I’m going to thank the Benadryl for that. Things that worked for us: feeding him a bottle on the way up and a pacifier on the way down. This kept his ears from getting clogged.  I brought lots of finger foods. Our favorite little snicky snack was the Gerber fruit and vegetable freeze-dried snacks. They are about the size of the penny, and we just kept offering them to him. They kept him very entertained and happy. They aren’t really filling, so it was nice that he could eat a whole bag and it was only like 100 calories.

I also brought lots of books. The problem with the books I brought was that he had already read them, so he wasn’t very interested. Next time we fly, I will be sure to buy a couple new ones.

As for IPad apps, I downloaded six and he wasn’t interested in all but one of them. The one blessing of an app that I downloaded was an interactive book. It’s called Nils. The book is a story and you push the animals and characters and they do certain actions as you read. Noah LOVED this. The book kept him entertained a good 30 minutes.

I did bring a few toys, jars, and bags of goodies that he could go through. The little dood liked this. He would unscrew lids and pull out toys. He did this for about 15 minutes, but eventually turned to his favorite hobby, throwing all items on the ground, so we had to put an immediate stop to that activity.

Another nice plus was our flight had mini TVs in front of every seat. Best of all, they had remotes on the chair arms. Noah loves remotes, so he enjoyed pushing every button over and over again throughout the flight.

The last 30 minutes, Noah wasn’t having it anymore. This is when I brought the dum-dum. Boy, was this little thing a lifesaver. He was obsessed with it and this small sucker kept him entertained as we landed and taxied. One problem- it was blue, so you can guess that his whole mouth and shirt were blue as well. Note to self- bring a different color next time like butterscotch.

I hope this offers some insight to traveling with toddlers.

Our flight home looked very similar. There was a small nap in the beginning of the flight and a wide awake baby for the rest of it.

Would I do it again? Yes. Would I do it alone? Heck no. Matt was a lifesaver. I remembered again why I love him so much. He was a constant source of help and kept this girl sane. 

13 Months Old

My boy is 13 months old and growing like a weed. It has been such a fun month with him; I feel like he is learning something new every day. If someone were to ask me two words to describe Noah RIGHT now, I would say affectionate and playful. If I hold out my hands and ask for a hug, Noah will come over and just squeeze me as tight as possible.  He loves to snuggle when he is trying to fall asleep and will stroke my face or pat my clothes as we are snuggling. Noah loves to be chased around the house. If you say “I’m going get you,” he starts running.  He loves climbing stairs, going down slides, throwing balls, dancing, and doing summersaults. He is constantly smiling and laughing. Noah thinks he is hilarious.

Hard to take photos of. He won't sit still!!!

Love this playful face he gave his Nana!

The little dood’s favorite food this month is blueberries. He can eat a carton in two or three days.  He knows the sounds a dog and a monkey makes. If you point to a picture, Noah will mimic those two animals. He recently started drinking out of a cup with a straw, and we are still working on a sippy cup. Some of the new words we have heard this month is “choo” (train noise) “moo” (for a cow) “gock” (for sock) “gog” (for dog) “guck” (for truck). Noah will try to put his own shoes on and loves to be outside more than anything. I’ve realized lately that I do not need to work out. I’m too busy chasing my toddler around the house. There seriously is never a dull moment.

Whose Number 1? Why Noah's Number 1! 

Favorite Hobby.

He continues to be a momma’s boy when he is tired or sick. He still throws temper tantrums when he doesn’t get what he wants. He does understand the word “no”, which I’m thankful for. Homeboy just doesn’t like to hear us tell him “no”.

I think he did this for two hours straight. Up and Down.

Mickey Mouse!

I think that pretty much sums up our last month with the nugget. I’m so thankful for him and all the joy he brings to our family.