Noah in January and February 2015

Noah is growing up so fast and we are apparently too busy to write about it!  Noah is seven months old now and is full of personality.

He is cute and fat.  His head is still kind of flat, but it doesn't look too bad.  His hair was kind of falling off in the back, but it is starting to look better now.  He has had a haircut or two, but is probably in need of another one.  His hair is getting a little long in front.  His hair is getting browner now and even just today someone said he doesn't look as much like the other boys.  I think he looks more like me.  He is pretty fat and chubby - he weighed 20 lbs at his 6 month well check.  He was around 90% or something like that for weight, but only 50% for height and around 75% for head circumference.

He is still nursing, but he is kind of a distracted nurser.  He nips around during the day, and only really eats well if he is tired around nap time or at night time.  He has had a cold the last two weeks, so he has been waking up a lot at night and wanting to eat.

For the last few days, he has been coughing himself awake and then his eyes are glued shut in the morning.  Poor thing.  He was sleeping next to me, but I am trying to get him out of that habit since he is getting better and I really want him to be a crib sleeper, since none of the other boys ever lasted very long that way.  He was sick most of February with colds and croup so it is hard to say how well he sleeps.  He takes two naps a day usually.  One shorter in the morning and the afternoon as long as he can manage before his super loud brothers eventually wake him up.

We started solids around 6 months.  Spoon feeding went well until the last week or two, but now Noah wants to control the process.  Even if he has a spoon, he still tries to take the one we are using and he flings everything everywhere.  He loves to eat.  He really likes table food though.  He was in love with a cheese stick today, but he loves bagels, bread, pizza crust, crackers, bananas, apple slices, etc.  He likes to drink water out of a cup if Katsu helps feed him.  He is just starting to get the hang of the pincer grasp.  He can pick things up between his fingers, but is still working out how to put it in his mouth.  And of course, because he is the 4th, he has had ice cream, pudding, cookies, and all sorts of things.

He just learned to clap his hands this week and it is so cute.  He will clap along to "If You're Happy And You Know It".  He seems to really enjoy music and almost seems to kind of sing along sometimes.  He likes to babble, though he is not super talkative.  He has consistently said Mama or Mom to refer to me for at least a month so I think that is definitely his first word, but otherwise, he just babbles sometimes and loves to spit and blow raspberries.

He likes to sit.  He is an awesome sitter.  No interest in crawling or being on his stomach ever.  Sometimes, you can entice him with something for tops a minute, but otherwise, he instantly rolls over.  Lately, he will reach over to grab something and fall over onto his stomach, so maybe he will do it enough to want to crawl.  He does love to stand.  He does pretty well holding on to us.  I have tried to teach him to hang onto a table and stand, but he isn't into it.

Noah had a hard time going back to Mother's Day Out at the preschool after Christmas.  It was right when he started getting separation anxiety.  But after a couple rough days, he is back to being okay with it.  He doesn't love it, but he survives.  He seems to do fine with teenage babysitters we have had over and actually seems to like having them hold him.  So, I am hoping this holds up and we can go out every now and then (we just had babysitters when I had to work and Katsu was out of town at his mother's funeral).

Noah has his 3 comfort objects - his favorite gray blanket (a hand me down that funnily enough has someone else's name monogrammed on it), his thumb, and a teddy bear we call "Mr. Teddy" that Noah loves to cuddle with and hugs and kisses fiercely when he sees him again.  So sweet.

Noah loves his brothers.  He loves to watch them and play with them.  He especially loves to play with their toys.  He likes to play in the kitchen and sit on the counter and watch me cook.  He likes to dance with us.  Once he starts moving, life is really going to get interesting. ...

A few fun things
- Trip to Williamsburg and Norfolk.
- Watching lots of Andrew and Seth basketball games
- "playing" in snow - really mostly just looking at from inside.  Not much fun to take a non-mover out in it.
- watching lots of work on our home, fixing the flooring and other random warranty stuff
- Dad out of town for 10 days ...
- Valentine's Day
- Lots of brother time when everyone was out of school or delayed from school for 2 weeks ...