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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!

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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!

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

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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!

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 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.

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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:

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For Noah’s 11th month-day, he got his first haircut.  He’s been needing one for a while now, but we’ve just been putting it off.  Well, no longer.  Today, we visited a cute kid’s haircut place in the Greenlake area called Beach Comber Kids Cuts.  It was a really cute place with a back room filled with toys while the kids wait for their appointment.  Their chairs are fashioned after different animals.  Noah sat on the dolphin seat.

The ladies were really great, and asked me what movie to put on for Noah while he got his hair cut.  Unfortunately, as soon as they started the video, the power went out of that socket, and was unable to get it back working during his appointment.  This made for a less-than-happy baby, but for the most part, he did pretty well.  He only really fussed when they had to get around the ears.

Here’s some pictures of his time there:

“What are you doing to me, Mommy?”

Getting hairs cut…

Before…

And After… (it was exhausting!)

Overall, it was a good experience. Definitely more money than I’d like to spend on haircuts, but I think it was worth it for the first one.

Here’s his proof of bravery!

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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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