books

Noah's favorite toys are his books.  We have a box of board books next to the rocking chair in his room, and he just loves looking through them and listening to us read them.  If I leave him in his room for a moment, I will almost always come back to see him flipping through one.



He especially likes his Sandra Boynton books (thanks to the Sappington Family for introducing them to us).  If you've never had the pleasure of reading one of these classics, I'd highly recommend them to anyone with a child under 2.  Noah's favorites are "Moo, Baa, La La La" and "Hippos Go Berserk".  Lately, he's been wanting us to read them to him repeatedly.  If we put the book back in the box, he'll climb off our lap, go to the box, pull the book back out, put the book in our lap, and then try to climb back onto our lap.  It's really cute, but it's hard when he doesn't want to end storytime to go to bed!  It's amazing to watch him enjoy books so much at such an early age.  I can't wait until we can start learning the alphabet!

twenty-one more weeks of cute

This is a catch-up post since we haven't updated our weeks of cute since he was 20 weeks! He's almost a year old now. Here's weeks 21-41. Enjoy!

happy birthday, grandpa!

Noah's Grandpa Broach is *cough* fifty- *cough* something years old today.  Noah wanted to share something special with him.

cffq$ZRUJ GJYqa f  vf tdewtrdsartactwetcrccftwezxedwe5s

Translation: I love you, Grandpa!

Here's a picture he drew for you.  We'll bring it down for you later this month!



He had a great time making it.  See!

the first step

He's on his way to walking!  Prior to this weekend, Noah would occasionally find himself free-standing.  However, these times were few and far between and would only last a few seconds.  Once he realized he wasn't holding on to anything, he'd immediately fall the floor even though he still had his balance. Here's a picture of one of those accidental standings:



But then, Sunday rolled around.  We went to church early so that Phil could practice with the worship band, and I enjoyed talking with some of the other moms at church.  While chatting, I put Noah on the ground, propped him up to standing, and slowly let go.  He would stay standing as he was enthralled with watching the other kids in church and didn't notice that he was standing alone.  This happened enough times that morning that something clicked inside his head that he could actually stand!  Amazing!  A little while later, a little boy propped Noah up (because that's what he does with his younger brother) and I encouraged Noah to walk to me.  He then took his first step.  I was so excited!  And Phil was able to witness it too even though he was on stage practicing.  It wasn't a fluke either since he has taken one step a few times now.  Yay for Noah!

Other fun developments:

Noah now waves good-bye to daddy when he leaves for work.  He loves his daddy so much that he often fusses for a few minutes after he leaves.  Noah always welcomes Phil home with a huge smile.

Noah also now knows how to clap his hands. He loves to express himself by applauding over the things that he likes or accomplishes. He'll also clap on demand if we ask him to perform! He's always got the biggest grin on his face when he claps.  It's tons of fun.

He's been dancing to music for a while now.  He just bounces up and down.  It's so cute, especially when he sings and dances at church.

thanksgiving weekend

Oh, the bliss of long weekends.  Husband + Son + Yummy Food + 4 Days at Home = AMAZING!  We had a great time this weekend just hanging out, avoiding the Black Friday rush, and taking a fair bit of walks in our neighborhood.

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun.  I cooked my first turkey ever!  It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, but of course, I only had the turkey breast since there weren't that many of us eating.  I also made a lot of other fun dishes that are traditional in our families including mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry salad, and.... the essential corn pudding.  Thankfully, I had been able to prep all the dishes beforehand and only had to bake everything that morning.  Here's the spread:



Once all the food was cooked, we had our neighbors over for dinner.  It was nice to get to know them a little bit better as we've only been living here since September.  They have a little boy that is about 7 months older than Noah so I'm sure they'll be playmates once they figure out how to actually play together.  We taught them how to play MarioKart and Zelda on DS which kept them quite busy after we had eaten. It was really quite cute.



Most of the rest of the weekend was just spent at home with some occasional outings to the bookstore and library.  It was really a lovely, restful time.

In closing, here are a few more pictures of Noah enjoying his first Thanksgiving: