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About a month ago, I bought Noah his own potty chair.  I had read a book about early-start potty training and thought that it might be nice to start him early.  I figured it couldn’t hurt, and if it didn’t go well, it really wouldn’t matter since he’s under a year.  We’ve got plenty of time.

It started with me putting together the potty chair.  For the most part it was already assembled, but for some reason, I struggled getting the little pieces to fit properly.  During this time, Noah became fascinated with his new “toy.”  He’d open the lid and throw his pacifier in it.  He’d push it around, and try to take it apart.  When I finally got a chance to finish it, I put him on the potty.  My parents were around at the time, and after a minute or so, he used it!  We were delighted.  (Maybe too much so.  I think it might have scared Noah that we made such a fuss!)

I was very encouraged by our first encounter that every once in a while, I’d stick him on the potty when I thought he might need to go.  Surprisingly, we had success almost every time.  He just loved to sit on his chair.  He can sit there for up to ten minutes being perfectly content (as long as mommy’s there watching him).   We now have a routine that I put him on the potty every time he wakes up in the morning or from naps.  He definitely knows what it is for, and we really have only had a handful of times where he hasn’t used it.

We are still using diapers in the meantime, but diaper changes are easier now since he has some time everyday where he doesn’t have to wear them.  I thought about taking a picture to go along with this post, but I figured that Noah’s already going to be über-embarassed by the fact that I even shared with the world about his potty endeavours.  So, no picture this time!

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The longer we use the name “Noah” for our son, the more I like it.  I’ve discovered that it is one of the most cross-cultural names that I’ve ever come across, and if you know us at all, this is something that is really important to us.  Recently, I was talking with our neighbor’s mother who is here visiting from Canada.  When she heard my son’s name, she said, “What a good Canadian name.”  Really?!  Never knew that.  Another time, I was talking with a Muslim lady who thought that “Noah” was great because he’s a prophet in the Quran.  And I thought that he was only in the Bible!  How cool is that?

Another interesting thing about that name “Noah”, is that it means “Wanderer.”  After we had decided on the first name and we were still looking for our elusive “O” middle name, I decided to do a google search for a name meaning “Wanderer” since my pregnancy was full of wandering from country-to-country, state-to-state.   Instead of finding an “O” name, I discovered that our first name already meant that.

I guess, though, a lot of people think that “Noah” is a great name since it was #6 on the top boy names for 2007.  Not original, but cool nonetheless.   We just named him after his daddy: Philip Noah Hagelberg.  =)

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Since Wednesday, Phil’s been gone to one of the conferences that he goes to twice a year.  This time, he went to RubyConf which was hosted in Orlando, FL.  He had a great time hanging out with fellow programmers while listening to awesome speakers (and speaking himself!) at a beautiful resort that stretched as far as the eye could see.  Noah and I missed him here though!  So, yesterday afternoon we went to go pick him up from the airport.  Noah was so excited to see his daddy.  He was talking and laughing at daddy all the way home.  He can be such a chatterbox when he gets going!

Here’s a picture of Phil and Noah after he got home!

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Isn’t it amazing how prayer works?  Sometimes it feels like God is so far away, and that he doesn’t care about our humble plights here on earth.  And yet, He does care!  We don’t always get what we want, but He knows what we need.

Yesterday, I went to the Women in Prayer time at my church.  We’ve been really struggling with Noah’s sleep, but after 10 months, I’m pretty used to it.  So, I casually mentioned that we are still having problems, and one of the women prayed for us.  Last night, Noah only woke up once and even then only cried for about 30 seconds!  Praise God!

Now, I know that this might not be the end of all our sleep issues, but it reminded me this morning that God is affected by our prayers.  He wants what is best for us.   Sometimes, that is going through a trial that He wants us to learn from.  Sometimes, it is a good night’s sleep.

Sola Deo Gloria.

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Today was a day of casts.  While the rest of the country cast their ballots to elect the next President of the United States, we had the pleasure of taking Noah to the doctor to get his cast off.  He is now officially cast-less!  Yay!  Here are some before and after pictures:

Before:

After:

What a happy boy!

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So, Phil and I have to make a trek out of the country once a year or ummm… something bad is going to happen I’m sure.  Not exactly sure what that bad thing would be but it would be bad, promise.  So, anyway, when we realized we weren’t doing anything this weekend, we decided to take our chance and get away.  After all, 2008 is almost over! This was also our chance to take Noah out of the country for the first time and start him on his love of other places. Uncle Loren came too so it was a great family affair.

Another great thing about living in Seattle (as there are many reasons that we love living here) is that Canada is only two hours away!  That’s twice as close as Portland, OR.  The trip up there was beautiful.  The autumn is so gorgeous with all the leaves changing in bright yellows, reds, oranges, and purples.

We spent most of our time at Stanley Park.  It was so big that we really only saw one tiny fraction of it, but it was so beautiful. We walked around the end of the peninsula and saw some totem poles and a lighthouse.

We also went to downtown Vancouver, and spent some time at Historic Gastown. It reminded us a lot of Pioneer Square in Seattle where Phil works. We went to a fun coffee shop called Smart Mouth that Phil wished we lived closer to. From there we walked to the Seawall Promenade where the big convention center is and all the ritzy hotels are.

Noah really enjoyed his first international trip. He loved looking around at everything and even found some time to get out and play.

In closing, here is the big happy family!

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Things are going really well with Noah’s broken ankle.  He got his cast on last Monday, and the appointment only went about 20 minutes.  This included getting the x-rays and the cast put on.  The doctor was very kind and gentle, and he answered all of our questions.  We found out that he can indeed crawl and put weight on his cast.  He said that some kids even start walking with a cast on.  Not sure if that will happen with Noah, but at least we know that it won’t hinder his development.  We also discovered that his cast only has to be on for THREE weeks instead of 6-8 like the ER was telling us.  This is wonderful news, and we already have an appointment set up for November 4th to have the cast removed.

Noah’s doing pretty well at home too.  The cast really doesn’t seem to be in his way, although at times he seems to be wondering why that foot won’t do the same thing his other foot does.  Sleep has returned to be a problem since he couldn’t get down from a standing position without help during the splint stage.  He can get down now, but he’s been liking all of the attention mommy’s been giving him in the middle of the night.  =(

We did decide to buy him a potty, and we tried it out with him yesterday for the first time.  He loved the fact that there was a seat just his size, and he pee’d in it after sitting on it for about a minute.  We were so excited.  We’re going to start potty training him early but slowly.

Grandma and Grandpa Broach are also visiting from Southern California right now.  They are helping us finish getting out of our apartment since our lease is up at the end of this month.  Noah’s really enjoying all the extra company and attention.

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So, Noah broke his ankle. Yes, our nine-month old is now in a temporary cast that will be put in a plaster cast on Monday. The poor kid is no longer allowed to pull up on the furniture, and really, he doesn’t want to because of the pain. =(. So much for him learning to walk this month. He’ll be 6-8 weeks in the cast.

The Story:
On Monday morning, Noah was riding on Daddy’s shoulders when he decided to lunge for Phil’s coffee mug. Phil caught him, but up against the wall. He had hit his head, and was crying a lot. I finally calmed him down, and he took a nap. Phil went to work thinking that he’d be fine when he woke up. When he did wake up, he was really fussy. I fed him and let him play for a while, but finally put him down for another nap. We then had some friends over in the afternoon. I hoped that the company would distract him from his fussiness, but to no avail. Finally, I called Phil asking for him to come home early. I couldn’t figure out why he was acting the way he was. Usually, he’s so happy. While I waited for Phil to come home, I noticed that he was hardly crawling anymore and he wasn’t pulling up on the furniture without crying A LOT. I’d have to rescue him everytime he pulled up. I finally realized that there was something wrong with his leg. Phil and I kept an eye on it all evening and then put him down for sleep at the normal time. When he woke up a couple of hours later crying and wouldn’t be consoled, we called my mom asking her if she thought that it could be broken. She thought there was a chance that it was, so we went to the ER around 10PM. It was really busy but the doctors and nurses were really kind. They were pretty surprised that a kid his age could hurt his ankle like that since kids are “made of rubber.” Finally, they got the leg splint on, and we could go home. We got home around 1AM.

Here’s some pictures we took at the hospital:

A common theme throughout our experience with the hospital staff was just how young Noah was. The nurse making the splint kept saying: “This is the smallest leg splint I’ve ever made.” And there there was this conversation that I had over the phone while I tried to get copies of his x-rays.
X-Ray Guy: Let me look up the patient by birthdate.
Me: Ok, it’s December 25, 2007.
X: 2007?
Me: Yah.
X: 2007?
Me: Yah.
X: Oh, wow.  Here he is.  This is the youngest person I’ve ever looked up before.  Usually, I’m looking up people from the 1940s and 50s.

Noah’s taking it pretty well. We’ve been doing lots of stroller rides and car-errands trying to keep him off his legs as much as possible. Here he is at Central Market trying one of the big pumpkins on for size:

Nothing keeps this kid from climbing! =)

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