Happy Birthday, Dear Noah!

There's too much I could say, so for now, I won't. We had a wonderful party at home with family and friends, and couldn't ask for anything more. What a wonderful year it has been!

Walking, officially

Noah took 2+4 steps this morning. I say 2+4 because he took two, squatted down like he was going to start crawling like he usually does, and then had a look on his face like, "hey wait, I was doing pretty good at that, let's keep going!" and stood back up to take 4 more steps.

My friend the pediatric physical therapist says that "walking" is SIX steps. 2+4=6, right?

Never mind the semantics, he took 7 steps in a row later in the evening!

Wonderful Whirlwind Weekend

We had a great trip for the holiday weekend. I got to see old college roomies and their families, plus some of Dave's cousins. Noah was ultra-cooperative, and handled the two 4-hr car trips really well. He tolerated us monkeying with his naptimes, bedtimes, and mealtimes, and we even saw a couple more no-cry bedtimes. He got to play with a couple of babies his age, watch in awe of some older kids, climb uncountable flights of stairs, and swim in a pool. Oh, and Dave and I celebrated five years of wedded bliss on Saturday. :)

Changing Mat

Another sewing project, back from my pre-Noah-nesting days: a changing mat. There's not much to this one, except realizing that I could buy fabric-covered rubber sheeting (100% waterproof) and pre-folded quilt binding at a fabric store, and then experimenting with the fancy stitches on my basic sewing machine. Okay, I won't lie -- it's not easy to figure out how to tuck (mitre?) the binding around the corners of the mat, nor how to join up the beginning of the binding to the end. Mine involved a lot of trial-and-error, and I still have lots of room for improvement. But here's a peek at the finished product. We got TONS of use out of these. The photo is from September 2007, when Noah was just 3 months old.

Taggie Blanket

Before Noah was born, I found a really easy pattern to make a "Taggie" Blanket. In fact, I think this pattern and the nesting urge of those last few weeks were the reason I went out and bought a sewing machine! This was so quick and easy and fun that it is still one of my favorite projects, and I've made several more since. Here are the first few:





If you google "taggie blanket tutorial" I'm sure you'll turn up dozens of links far better than anything I could write up here, especially since I didn't take photos of the process. But trust me, it's easy. It was my first sewing project, and I'm no seamstress. But in case you're too lazy to google, here's the gist:

• cut two squares of complementary fabric (cotton, flannel, satin, minky, whatever you like, I made mine anywhere from 15-18" square) and about twenty lengths of ribbon (satin, grosgrain, wide, skinny... again, whatever suits you, mine were 4-6" each).
• pin your squares of fabric, right sides together, and tack the ribbons around the edges, about 5 per side. The ribbons should be folded in half, with the looped end sandwiched between the fabric layers and the cut ends sticking out beyond the fabric just a little.
• sew around the perimeter, leaving a gap on one side between two ribbons so that you can turn the blanket right-side out.
• snip your corners, turn right-side-out, poke the corners out, press the seams flat (especially the gap that is not sewn closed yet), and then sew around the perimeter again, close to the edge but just inside it. (This will close the gap; no hand-stitching required.) If you have decorative stitches on your machine, this may be a fun time to use them.
  

(I'm backdating this because it's old. I actually made the first taggies on 5/19/2007, but I didn't want this to appear as my very first blog entry)

Sprinkler Fun

One of Noah's favorite games is for Daddy to fly him like Superman through the backyard sprinklers. But yesterday it was hot enough to do one better than that.

* this video is also linked in the sidebar to PhotoBucket, if the embedded one doesn't work for ya. Let me know in the comments if there are problems.

InfantSee

Noah had his first eye appointment today. It was pretty uneventful in that, no news is good news, kind of way. There were lots of "follow the light" tricks, and some drops to dilate his eyes. Apparently he has tight pupils and he's a slow dilator. And I got to hear another doctor compliment Noah for being the most cooperative baby he's ever seen. He gets that a lot. Must be a line that doctors tell all the moms, but I'll take it!

I never would have thought to have an eye appointment this early if I hadn't heard of the InfantSEE program. InfantSEE® is a public health program designed to provide a comprehensive infant eye assessment within the first year of life as a no cost service. For me it was convenient since I'm out of school before Noah's first birthday. And it's free. I just thought I'd mention the program here in case somebody can pass the info along to other parents. Did I mention it's free?

YAY!

Just wanted to share this video of Noah nodding Yes, No, and clapping Yay! And throwing a few of those heart-melting grins at the camera. He's starting to learn how to work it.

Oh, and yesterday he learned to blow with his lower lip out, to ruffle his hair in the front. I'd love to get video of that. It's so cute - I'm calling him my little elephant.

* this video is also linked in the sidebar to PhotoBucket, if the embedded one doesn't work for ya. Let me know in the comments if there are problems.

Carol Needs...

Because all the cool kids are doing it, I googled "Carol needs" and came up with:

• Carol needs to make a living
• Carol needs to be grounded in some very basic things
• Carol needs assessment information
• Carol Needs Our Prayers Once Again
• Carol needs to learn the techniques of error analysis
• Carol needs to be more reflective about her own practice
• Carol needs to grow up!
• Carol needs to discuss the situation with the dentist.
• Carol needs to get a budget
• Carol needs longer cord for telephone
• Carol needs the new logo for the letterhead
• Carol needs a nickname

Eleven Months

I've been noticing lots of little new things that Noah's been doing lately. Some aren't quite the stuff that you write down in the baby book, and many tend to go by unnoticed at first, but it really is a fascinating time to watch him learning new things. Let's see if I can list some of the cool new things he's doing these days:

• He claps. A LOT. He claps anytime we say "yay!" or he does something he's proud of, or when he finishes anything, or when mommy or daddy play Guitar Hero, or when he sees us grab the cheese out of the fridge.
• He eats 100% of his meals by himself, with his fingers. He can pick up anything from squishy tofu to slimy peaches, and he can extract every last shred or curd of cheese from among the rest of the food on his tray.
• He tries to "eat" water with his fingers.
• He can drink from an open cup, and can hold his own sippy cup.
• He can drink through a straw.
• He can pull the straw from the cup, AND put it back in the tiny hole!
• He is good at putting things in and taking things out, and loves to play basketball in the bathtub.
• He turns the pages as I read a book, and knows which direction to go.
• He counts with mommy, matching my rhythm syllable for syllable (though not in English).
• He sings and dances (not at the same time).
• He shakes his head yes, no, and go faster!
• He signs "milk" and "bye," is starting to use "more" and "drink", and recognizes "eat," "all done," and "bath."
• He kisses without using his teeth.
• He lets me spray saline in his nose without too much of a fight, and he even asks for it sometimes when I forget.
• He can stand unassisted, and turn/pivot before dropping to crawl.
• He climbs up onto stuff -- stools, boxes, laundry baskets, anything -- and can usually get himself back down safely.
• He climbs up stairs (three flights in one go) and would probably climb back down if mommy would just let him go headfirst.
• He can get on and off his Radio Flyer Retro Rocket all by himself.
• He pushes his walker toy around the room, either maneuvering around or plowing over anything in his path.
• He "walks" on his knees.
• He walks holding onto someone's fingers, and insists on using only one hand so that he can carry a toy along.

• ....and just today he TOOK THREE STEPS!!!! (while mommy and daddy were both looking, no less)

New photo album link over to the right -------------->