noah benjamin thompson

Not surprisingly, it turns out Noah loves food. After discovering he was so 'food aggressive' with his milk, I hoped he would take to food, and he certainly did. We only did rice cereal once or twice and then moved to oatmeal, which is his favorite. He has tried a myriad of veggies, including sweet potatoes, peas, carrots, green beans and squash, and will eat all of them but especially loves sweet potatoes. Yesterday we introduced fruit (peaches), and he obviously loved those, so we will try a few more fruits this week. It has been so fun to feed him, and he has quickly learned when mealtime is because he starts getting angry if we aren't feeding him. As soon as we introduced food, we moved to the 4 -6 month Moms on Call schedule, which means he dropped a nap and bottle, so we are down to 4 bottles, 2 naps and a catnap every day. This has made our life even more fun because we aren't as tied down to the house, and also I am washing one fewer bottle a day (yay!). A few weeks ago I stopped pumping (after a horrible airport experience...a story to be told over wine), and that has made my life a thousand times better. We have enough frozen milk for a few more weeks, and I figure I did the best I could.

Full (and messy) after his first time trying sweet potatoes

Like his daddy

Learning to feed himself

OATMEAL!

In addition to eating big boy food, Noah officially dropped his swaddle. I know, we are about 2 months late on this, but he LOVED it and napped and slept so well. Unfortunately, he is getting too big for his swaddle (the miracle blanket, amazing) and starts his new school on Monday, so we figured it was time (they can't swaddle at school). I was fully prepared for hours of crying (aka I had a nice bottle of wine) on the first night, but it went better than expected. We had about 30 minutes of crying and then he slept until about 6:30am. Let's hope this continues.

First morning after no swaddling

Noah is excited about starting school. He got to meet his teachers on Friday and a couple of other kids in his class. I really loved the teaches and feel great about the school, but I am sad that he won't be at home with me and know we will all miss Delaney because she was great.

Napping in his new crib (hopefully he'll be less lonely on Monday)

Over the past few weeks Noah has also starting rolling from tummy to back and is starting to sit up but definitely needs a lot of support. Here are some videos, and yes he is pissed about being on his tummy. Normally this doesn't bother him, but he was ready to eat and didn't want to be playing (this is the curse of the schedule).

To celebrate the good weather and long weekend, we took Noah to the pool for the first time last weekend. He loves the bath, so I expected him to love the pool too. Unfortunately due to the cooler weather and rain we've had recently, the water is fairly chilly, and Noah was not totally sold on the whole experience. We went all three days though and were back today, and I think he is learning to ~~love~~ tolerate it. We also got him a baby pool for our backyard, and he was more into that because the water was warm. The one thing I have quickly learned is that I no longer need a kindle or ipad at the pool because I will never again be lounging and reading. I barely get sunscreen on (there goes the margaritas too) because I spend the whole time playing (by playing, I mean holding Noah and dipping his feet in the water). Also our pool time is limited to about an hour because he's only awake for two and it takes a good 30 minutes to feed him and get sunscreen on. Speaking of sunscreen, I have done a ton of research on all the different brands, so if you want to know anything about baby sunscreen, then please ask me. I also think there is a potential there for a new career for me because baby sunscreen is quite expensive. Oh and don't get me started on packing for the pool, reason number 74832 I love our stroller is that it has a ton of storage space.

Noah was made for a private pool

Noah has had some fun visits recently too. Grandma Bea and Grandpa Art came this week for a few days and got to babysit while I worked. I think Noah decided to test their skills because he woke up several times during his afternoon nap, which is highly abnormal. If my clients and coworkers didn't know I had a baby, then they do now because he was a little chatterbox that day. He also got to meet our friends Cody and Stephen, who came to town for Memorial Day, had a dinner date with his friend Rory and played at the pool with Mads and Henry.

Noah will definitely grown up to be jealous of Mads' love for George

Dinner with his friend Rory

Noah turned 5 months old on May 20th, and we can't get over how quickly the time has gone by. I never thought we'd have him and now can't remember life without him. I feel sad sometimes about how quickly he is growing up but do get excited about all the new things he is doing. He is getting so much more interactive and fun to play with, so our days at home together are much less boring (sorry Noah) than they were for the first few months. I do still appreciate his lack of mobility though because I see how exhausted my friends are with mobile kiddos.

Highlights of the last few weeks:

- Eating oatmeal and veggies

- The pool (the private pool, that is)

- Meeting my teachers

- Rolling over from my tummy to my back

- Dropping the swaddle (ok, more of a lowlight)

- Playing with my buddies Mads, Henry and Rory

- Seeing Grandma Bea and Grandpa Art

- Meeting Cody and Stephen

Some more pictures and videos:

Noah's Atlanta girlfriends had better watch out because he was quite the ladies man this past weekend in Charlotte. He got to meet Sally (Kent and Annie's 8 month old), Avery (Casey and Tim's 4 month old) and see Annabelle again.

Avery (left) and Annabelle (right)

Annabelle was really into Noah's paci

Sally

He also got to meet Ford (Heather's 2 year old) and spend time with a lot of mommy's friends. It was a very fun weekend for the whole family. Definitely different than previous, pre-baby visits since we couldn't leave the house as much and were all up by 7am but we still managed to have a great time (i.e. drank plenty of wine, ate yummy food and did a lot of talking). The trip was Noah's longest car ride yet and he handled it like a champ, as if I expected anything different. He is getting to the point where he doesn't nap as well in his car seat, but he napped some and was pretty content the rest of the drive (even through his diaper "malfunction", which resulted in an outfit change and serious washing of the car seat padding).

Ford, Noah and Annabelle

The weekend before we went to Charlotte, Noah and I went to Chapel Hill to see Grandma and Grandpa and 30 of their friends (literally). He also got to meet his cousins, Sarah and Thomas, who will make great babysitters soon, and a few of mommy's friends. This was our first time flying without Ben, and it was just as easy as I thought it would be. He was great on the plane and at this point we're pretty good at getting through security on our own.

I also celebrated my first mother's day on Sunday. Noah wrote me a very special card and tried to be on best behavior. His grandparents also sent me flowers and cards, so I felt very special.

Over the past few weeks, Noah seems to have gone through a growth spurt. He looks a lot bigger and is flying through clothes. He continues to be smiley and happy all the time. Unfortunately for him though, he has definitely outgrown the basinet attachment on his pack n play, which is his absolute favorite place to sleep. We are working hard on napping in the crib, but for some reason he hates it even though he sleeps well at night. He is also getting close to being ready to be unswaddled, and I dread the first few nights without it because he absolutely loves the swaddle. It instantly calms him down, so I have a feeling we'll spend a few nights battling sleep.

We decided last night to try rice cereal for the first time, and I am not sure Noah knew what to think. He didn't hate it but didn't seem to love it either. I may try again tonight and then wait a few weeks if he isn't into it yet.

Highlights of the last few weeks:

- Meeting Avery, Sally, Ford, Thomas, Sarah and Rory (a friend in Atlanta who is 2 months old) and seeing Annabelle again

- Laughing

- Using the tub like a big boy

- Seeing Grandma Bea and Grandpa Art and all their friends (and mommy's friends)

- Trying rice cereal

- Celebrating Mother's Day (ok, a highlight for me)

Here's the good stuff: