Sharing

Noah has started to learn the fine act of sharing. Here he is sharing his toy with his daddy:

11 Months Old Today!!!!

I can't believe my little guy is 11 months old today! Last year at this time I kept praying that he would come early! He was due the 16th of August, so he was considered full term at this time last year. But he didn't and he was well worth the wait. I also think that his tardy arrival is an indication that he will do things in his own time.
He is a little ham and it's so much fun to see his personality developing. He loves kids, especially his cousins Mary and Ellie. He had a great time playing with them when they were over last night.
He's learning so many tricks: he claps, he shows how big he is, he growls on cue, he rolls, he's starting to army crawl, the list goes on! He's starting to talk a lot more now. He says "mama", "dada", "yes", "shh", "hot", "lala" (new today) and tons of babble. He's still not sure what all those mean, but he will soon.
This week will be our last week of swim lessons. It's also our last "formal" library time, the library is taking a break from programs until the fall. I found a group of moms called "Blizzard Babies" that Noah and I will be visiting on Wednesday. If you live in Colorado you know that between Christmas 2006-New Years 2007 we had a lot of snow and so about 9 months later the hospitals were over-run with babies. This is how the play group got it's name. I'm looking forward to meeting other moms that have babies Noah's age.
The sad news is school is starting soon. Justin goes back on the 11th of August and I go back on the 14th. A summer has never gone as fast as this one, it's just not fair!

New Tricks

Noah learned a couple of new tricks today. This afternoon we put him in the swimming pool on our deck and he started to try to climb out. Well, first he tried to eat the side of the pool and then he learned there was land outside the pool. He put his hands on the deck and pushed with his feet, getting his behind in the air. This was the first time he's ever done this! Way to go Noah!! Here it is:

My mom taught him his next new trick when she stopped by this evening. She taught him to show how big he is. Too cute, watch this:

Rocky Mountain National Park

We, Justin, Grandma Kathy, Grandpa Tom and myself, took Noah on his first picnic lunch in a National Park yesterday. It wasn't quite as hot in the mountains as it has been here in Lafayette, so it was a nice break from the heat. We found a great spot next to a stream, there were even people fishing in it!
Here a picture of Justin putting Noah's feet in the water, or shall I say trying to put his feet in the water. It was quite amusing as the water was VERY cold. He'd lift his piggies out as soon as they touched the water.

Our little man is becoming quite vocal, making more and more new sounds. It seems like every day he's talking more. We had another evaluation with Child Find and they are going to service him with physical therapy once a week. It's a free service so I figured it wouldn't hurt to take advantage of it. They're going to work with him and us to get him to crawl, move from laying down to sitting up and pull himself up to standing.

How many adults does it take to change Noah's diapers? Let us count: one. . . . . . . two. . . . . . . three?!

First Popsicle

Yummy!!!!! Noah had his first popsicle today! It's been really hot (although we are fortunate enough to have a/c) and he hasn't felt like eating much so we thought see how he'd do with a popsicle. He was very hesitant at first, touching and feeling it. To be honest I wasn't quite sure it would end up in his mouth. But it did and of course it ended up other places as well!!! (For example, the pool of red liquid that was in his belly button when he was finished!) Needles to say when he was finished he went straight from the high chair to the bath tub. He seemed to enjoy it (the popsicle that is) and I can only imagine how good it felt for him on his gums (those molars are trying to come in).

Grandma Debbie, Grandpa Jerry, Granny, Mary and Ellie were over for dinner this evening. After Noah took his bath, his cousins and daddy played Mario Kart on the Nintendo. Of course, Noah had to be part of the action. His dad loaned him one of the controllers to play with. However, he didn't find his controller as interesting as Mary's controller. Mary's was red, his favorite color.

Cousin Chris got Noah a riding toy for his early birthday when we were in Chicago. He loves to sit on it and is starting to figure out how to move on it, albeit backwards, but that's progress! AND he can ride on it and clap at the same time, as you can see in the picture! : )

Here's Noah and Mary playing with his piano this afternoon, they were having a great time.

Here's the girlies, Grandma Debbie & Noah at Pagliacci's last night. We were celebrating Grandma Debbie's 60th birthday.

After dinner, we went to Granny's house for cake from Cold Stone Creamery. The girls decided they wanted to play the game Memory. Little did they know how difficult it would be to play the game with Noah around. He added a whole new element to the game, turning over lots of cards and rearranging them into a random order instead of the neat lines that Mary had placed them in. I bet they think twice about trying to play that game again with Noah rolling around on the floor (at least until he's a little older!).

On Command

Noah is now doing things "on command." For instance, if I ask him to say "mama," he'll say "mama." That's an easy one, of course. Here's a harder one that he's mastered: when I ask him to clap, he'll clap and if I ask him to growl, he'll growl. Here's a video of our little clapper/growling Cubbie bear:

This one's for cousin Chris, she loves it when Noah growls!

Happy Birthday Grandma Debbie!!!

My mom, Debbie, is 60 years old today!!! My dad is taking her to see Mama Mia! in Denver tonight, I must admit I'm quite jealous!

Have a great day Mom!!!!! We love you!!!!

We're Home!!!

We arrived home from our Chicago trip yesterday evening at about 5:00 p.m. Noah is quite the little traveler. On the way out to Illinois we drove over night and he did marvelously. On the way back we drove during the day, 8 hours on Wednesday and 8 hours yesterday. Again, he was a champ. It was only in the last hour of the trip yesterday that he started to get restless, but who could blame him?

We stayed Wednesday night in Council Bluff at the Ameristar Hotel & Casino. No, Noah didn't do any gambling and I'm sorry to report that I had no luck either, but we did go for a quick swim in their pool. Again, he did beautifully- he easily fell asleep in the hotel room. Here he is with Grandma Kathy sitting on the hotel bed.

While we're glad to be home, we sure do miss all our family out in Illinois! We had such a great time. Noah got to meet lots of new family members and I could tell he loved spending time with them all. Here are a couple pictures of most of the "gang", one at Cunis' ice cream shop and one on Jackie & Eldon's front porch before we left for Colorado. We can't wait to see all of them again!

An Early Birthday Party

What a treat! The family in Chicago gave Noah an early birthday party on Sunday because they won't be able to make it to his party in August. Noah is so lucky to have so many people that love and care about him. He has thoroughly enjoyed our time here, playing with everyone and making new buddies. Since we have been here he has perfected saying "mama", has learned to wave (although hasn't done that recently), has learned to clap with both hands open, has learned to say "dada" and tons of other new sounds and of course has learned his newly popular "Cubbie bear" growl. We leave tomorrow morning to return to Colorado and will really miss everyone here in Illinois! Here are a couple pics from his party:
His birthday cake. (Which still no one has eaten because Justin made apple and blackberry pies that evening!)


Yesterday Justin, Noah and I headed back into the city. We went to Uno's Pizzeria for lunch (which Noah slept through). Then we headed down to Navy pier, which looks out on Lake Michigan. What a beautiful view! We'll have to take Noah back when he's old enough to ride the Ferris wheel that's on the pier.


We were going to go to Sears Tower, but due to lack of time and the fact that Noah's too young to remember it, we decided to postpone that until he's older. Instead we headed down to Grant Park, which is along the lake front, to see Buckingham Fountain.

As with all vacations, there was too much to see & do and not enough time! I'm looking forward to when we can come back to visit everyone again!

Thanks to all of our family in Illinois for making our visit truly wonderful! We had a GREAT time!!! We love you all very much!!!

Holy Cow!!! It's Noah's First Cubs Game!

Justin, Noah, Grandma Kathy, Grandpa Tom and I went to the Cubs game at Wrigley field yesterday. When we were planning our trip to Chicago Justin and I toyed with the idea of getting tickets to a game but by the time we went to buy them they were sold out. Well, Thursday morning, Justin's Aunt Jackie won 4 tickets from the local radio station! As Harry Caray would say: "Holy Cow!"
Our subway ride the the game was quite a lesson in patience. Noah's teething and he was very tired. Long story short, he cried/screamed the entire time on the subway. Justin finally got him settled down and he fell asleep.
As part of Aunt Jackie's win, the four of us were treated to lunch at the Sheffield Grill for free. Here's a picture of Noah sleeping on the table in the grill (of course we were right there with him).

Here's Justin, Grandma Kathy and Noah after entering Wrigley field.

Noah woke up from his nap in a great mood. Justin's cousin Sue had loaned us an umbrella which we were able to use through the entire game to keep him in the shade. He had a great time looking at all the people, playing with our water bottles, eating the strap on the umbrella, playing with the fence behind us but didn't really realize there was a baseball going on in from of him. It will be fun to one day share with him the story of his first baseball game.

Here's a view of the field from our seats, I don't think there's a bad seat in that entire stadium! Quite a different experience from going to a game at Coors Field in Denver. One of the greatest things for me was the singing of Take Me Out To The Ballgame, the entire stadium stayed and sang, it was so cool to watch!

We're in Chicago!!!!

Actually, we're in South Holland, a suburb of Chicago. We (Grandma Kathy, Grandpa Tom, Noah, Justin & I) arrived on Monday morning. It's been a great trip so far. Packing for this trip was very interesting. Had it been only Justin and I we would have taken one suitcase and a small bag. Since we have Noah it felt as though we were moving. Here's a picture of the back of Kathy & Tom's car after we were all packed.
We stopped that this rest stop along the Mississippi River, just on the border of Iowa and Illinois at about 7:30 am Monday morning. What a pretty view!
Justin has lots of family out here, his mom's side of the family. They sure are a great bunch and are all so great with Noah. Here's Noah with his cousin, Sue, who is a 2nd grade teacher.
Here's Noah with Aunt Jackie, who is a retired music teacher. I don't have a picture of him with Jackie's husband, Eldon (YET!!!) He's also a retired school teacher.
Here's Noah and his cousin, Chris, who teaches elementary school art. (Are you starting to see a theme?)
Noah, Grandma Kathy & cousin Chris playing with his new shape puzzle in Jackie & Eldon's basement.
Yesterday, Noah, Justin and I had lunch with Grandpa Dean, Fran and Noah's Uncle Jackson and Aunt Holly. They live outside of Springfield, so it was great to have the opportunity to visit with them. Jackson will be going into first grade has grown a lot since the last time we saw him (which was at our wedding!) And it was the first time we have seen Holly, who just turned two. They sure are cute kiddos!

Here's a picture of Grandpa Tom, Noah & Aunt Connie playing piano this morning. Connie & Noah were playing "Concerto for Bebe" in no particular key. Actually, Connie plays piano very beautifully, what a great start to the day!
Today we headed into Chicago. Above is a picture of the clan, me, Connie, Sue, Tom, Kathy, Noah & Elloise (and of course Justin who was taking the picture). Our first stop was Macy's, formerly known as Marshall Fields. What a huge store-there are 9+ stories!!! Noah was crashed out when we got there but quickly woke up just in time to find the toy section. Of course Noah HAD to get a new toy! Why not, we're on vacation, right?
After lunch in the food hall at Macy's we walked down Michigan Avenue to Ghiradelli's for dessert. On the way back we stopped at the Millennium Park. Noah had a great time walking around in the fountain area and looking at himself in the "bean".

Here's Noah and his daddy on Michigan Avenue. We'll be going back downtown on Friday to meet up with Justin's brother, Daniel, and of course to have lunch at the one and only Uno's!

So far Noah's acquired 5 new articles of Cubbies' clothing, all in different sizes (24 months, 2T, 3T & 4T) so he should be set on his Cubbies' wear for a while! :)