Late To Bed, Early To Rise?

That's not how it works, but apparently Noah thinks so. He had a late night last night as my fifth graders had a concert. He got to bed about 45 minutes later than normal but that didn't prevent him from waking up at what is becoming his normal wake-up time: 5:00!! He's such a happy little guy first thing in the morning which makes waking up that early not so bad. In fact, I can't think of a better way to start the day that seeing my smiling baby boy.
All the kids thought he was so cute last night. They've been asking since I got back from maternity leave when they'd get to see him so they were quite excited to finally meet him. The kids did a nice job, I got another compliment from my principal in front of the entire staff again, or so I heard as I was a music meeting this morning. Makes me feel like I might be doing something right. There have been a number of times this year that I have felt that my teaching has been regressing rather than getting better.

All I know if I sure look forward to coming home every night to my 2 guys.

Snowy Sunday

When I looked outside the window this morning, I just knew I'd have to post something. Only in Colorado can you have a beautiful, almost 80 degree day and the next day wake up to snow.

Noah slept in until 6:30 this morning. When I went get him out of his crib we looked out the window and saw snow! From the looks of it, I thought we'd get a lot more than we actually did. It was also very windy today, so all the blowing snow made it look like we got more than we did.
Justin is still sick, so Noah and I spent a great part of the day playing and working on sitting up. I got him positioned on the floor, against the couch with pillows on each side and we practiced sitting for a pretty long time. He's getting better at it. His Aunt Julie and Uncle Seth got him this cool flower toy that plays different songs, I put that between his legs and it helped him balance. By the end of the day he was doing it pretty well, for long intervals of time.
As always on Sundays, we went to dinner at my mom's house. Janis, Aaron and the girls weren't there. Janis and Ellie are sick, so if you guys are reading this we missed you today and hope that you feel better soon!

Sunny Saturday

It was a BEAUTIFUL day in Colorado today! Noah and I went for a walk from our house to Grandma Debbie and Grandpa Jerry's house. Noah of course slept the entire time- both going and coming from Grandma's house, but it was so great to get outside! The thermometer on his stroller (yes, the stroller has a thermometer!) said it was 78 degress outside.
Unfortuntaely, Noah's daddy didn't join us. Justin is under the weather, I don't think he ever fully got over his cold and it's come back again. He was able to get a nap in this afternoon before we went to church. I hope that he can get some more rest tomorrow and start feeling better before Monday. It is NO fun trying to teach while you feel crummy.

Noah was finally able to wear his "Eaton Ranch" shirt that his cousin Casey gave him when he was first born. With the nice weather today it was fun to dress him in a short sleeve shirt. I don't know how much longer he'll fit into the shirt, though, he's growing too fast! But, we love the shirt, thanks again Casey!!!

6 Months Old!!!

My baby boy is 6 months old today!!! He's growing up too fast!

He was very excited about his 6 month milestone, so excited that he decided to wake up at 4:00 am to celebrate. Needless to say that Justin and I didn't really want to attend the party that was going on in the crib at that time, but Noah insisted we wake up and join him. He never wakes up that early without nursing and falling back asleep. But, this morning after a few failed attempts to get him to sleep some more, Daddy finally took him down stairs. I have been getting up with him when he's been waking up at 5:15ish this week so it was nice for Justin to let me sleep in a little this morning.

I know I say this all the time, but we are so lucky to have such a happy, healthy baby. He's such a delight and his little personality shines through more and more everyday.
I've been a little sad all day thinking about the fact that he's 6 months old already. This time is going too fast. I wish I could hit the "pause" button and hold him for a while before he grows any more. I cherish all the time that I have with him.
We bought him a few Easter and spring books today in addition to a shape sorter. He like the shape sorter box more than the shapes that go in it. We read a couple of the new books tonight. He wasn't really in the mood to read many books, kind of tuckered out from the long day. We'll just have to read them tomorrow.
This is one of his new things: he'll be sitting in front of you and twist to try to climb over your leg. He's not quite sitting by himslef yet and he can't crawl so this is his way of trying to get around and see everything.

Happy 6 months baby Noah, we love you very much!!

Mmm, Mmm Good?

Justin and I decided early on that we would wait to give Noah solids until he was 6 months old. Seeing as how that will be Wednesday, we thought we'd start a couple days early. It's hard to tell if he enjoyed the rice cereal that we fed him. He didn't eat too much or seem too interested but then again he had kind of a rough afternoon, so we'll see if it goes better tomorrow.
We thought for sure he'd be gobbling it down as he's been very interested in watching us when we eat. Maybe he was expecting pizza? I think his facial expression in the picture below sums it all up.

He's outgrown his infant tub so we invested in a $10 Walmart blow-up yellow duck tub. He had his first bath in it Saturday night. What a riot! He had the best time, especially when he started kicking his legs and water went splashing everywhere. I must have taken him out too soon as he cried when the bath was over. We're looking forward to tomorrow night, another bath and another attempt at cereal, yea!
It's amazing and I've said this before, how quickly he's changing. He's jumping a lot in his Jumperoo, something that he's just started doing. But tonight while he was jumping he had to hold on to the Little Einstien toy that Aaron and Janis got him for Christmas. He had a blast!

6 Month Pictures

We took Noah today to Kiddie Kandids in the Flatirons Mall to get his 6 month pictures. That was quite the adventure. The picture taking process itself was quite easy: help pose baby, photographer engages baby by making funny sounds, photographer snaps picture of baby. Then comes the challenging part, nothing like I remember from getting photos taken as a kid. One of the sales persons sits with you at a computer. With you sitting there, they crop and edit your photos. They can change them from color to black & white or sepia (a lighter-brownish tint to the phot). They can make the corners lighter or darker, they can add borders, make the photos into magnets, mugs, mousepads. Then you also have to choose the package and sizes you want (which if you want a 5 x 7 you end up with two of them because you have to buy a whole sheet- 8 x 10) It's really quite an overwhelming process!
But it's great to have these great pictures of Noah, I need to get his photo album put together (and some of the 1,000s of photos that I've taken of him actually developed and put into them). That's the beauty of digital cameras: you can take as many pictures as you want without having to spend money developing them, especially if they didn't turn out too great.
When we got home, I was tired! What an exhausting process. I got Noah out of his carseat and we started playing on the ground and he FINALLY rolled from his tummy to his back. He's mastered rolling from the back to the tummy, so this has been a long time coming. Way to go baby boy!
His Grandma Kathy made him a quilt, which you've probably seen in the previous pictures on this blog: it's got Noah's Ark on it. Lately, he's been trying to grab the animals off the quilt, he gets frustrated when they won't get into his hand!

Almost There. . .

So, I think Noah is almost over his cold. He really seems like himself again, not coughing or sneezing as much. He was still smiley while he was sick, but you can tell he's feeling better. I'm glad!


I think that it looks like he's starting to get his daddy's dimples. You can kind of see them in this picture. What do you think?
He's changing so much everyday, I wish that I could stay home with him to see it all. He's still not rolling from his tummy to his back, but he's starting to try to crawl over us. He's getting better at sitting, trying to reach for anything and everything while doing so. It amazes me the things that he's holding. We have been playing with the train that he got from Santa these past few nights. He's not interested in the animals so much as the cars!!!
He's been reaching for the animals on the mobile on his swing. He's grabbed "Guy the Gecko" quite a few times and has almost gotten "Morris the Monkey" as well.

I'm enjoying this time before he gets moving. I know once he is mobile Justin and I will be getting a lot more exercise than the pilates that we do after he goes to bed! :)
Tuesday was a BEAUTIFUL day here in Colorado! Grandpa Tom and Grandma Kathy took Noah outside into their backyard for part of the day. It's actually the first time he has spent some time outside. I was so protective of him when he was first born. He was born in late August (we didn't get home from the hospital until August 31) and once September comes around the weather in Colorado gets "iffy". I hear he had a great time. Grandma Kathy showed him the pond, they touched some rocks and got to explore. There's lots to look forward to this summer!
Yesterday wasn't as nice, so there were no trips to the back yard, however Noah made the most of it. How grand it must be to lounge in your favorite chair with your legs crossed just so while someone feeds you! Ah, the life of a baby.