noah benjamin thompson

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

9 months and racking up the skymiles

Noah is loving his 9th month. He just had his 9 month appointment and weighed in at 19lbs 10oz (13lbs in 9 months!) and measured 29 inches tall (dad is proud of the 75 percentile in height). He's especially enjoying moving around and eating big kid food. He completely gave up purees about 3 weeks ago in favor of feeding himself whatever he can grab - bananas, peaches, chicken sausage, cheese, pasta, peas, broccoli, waffles, eggs and cheerios are staples . He also has mastered the art of holding his own bottle, so really he is now a big boy (or so he thinks). He isn't quite crawling yet but he is pushing himself backwards, rolling all over the place and starting to pull up.

A personal favorite note from school

Noah's continued to be a very frequent flier. We made a trip to to Wilmington to see his grandparents, great grandparents and great aunts, uncles and cousins as well as my girlfriends and little Annabelle. It was a very relaxing weekend with a lot of good food and pool time. Noah also visited Philadelphia for Morgan and Doug's wedding and went up to Chapel Hill to see his other grandparents while I was on a work trip in RTP and Ben was in Seattle.

Great Grandpa and Grandma Godwin

Annabelle
(Yes that's a razor in the background. Another winning mom moment)

Great Grandma Thompson

Grandma Werner

Grandma and Ann (my godmother)

He unfortunately did have a little stomach bug on the Philly trip and we learned some very valuable lessons: always pack several changes of clothes in your carry on, power packets of pedialyte are necessary in your diaper bag, stay somewhere that has laundry and don't let anyone hold your baby when wearing nice clothes. To start the trip off, he went through all the outfits I brought before even boarding the plane. Thankfully we found a lovely Braves onesie that he could wear on the flight. By the time we landed he was in a diaper (mom of the year?!). We were fortunate enough to stay with Drew and Sayeh one night (and hence do laundry) and have a pediatric nurse babysitting the second night, so we survived (and had fun at a beautiful wedding!) despite also having a hotel room without A/C (you all know this is Ben's worst nightmare). We did end on a very positive note since Noah got to ride in first class. He was pretty disappointed that he wasn't offered mum mums or milk before takeoff (and yes I did refrain from an adult beverage since it was 10am) . I was thankful that no one seemed to hate us that much, or maybe I am just immune to those stares now.

Pretty excited about the new outfit

Early morning walk through the streets of Philly because
the middle of the night bath and change of clothes
meant mommy needed Starbucks

For the few days a week/occasional weekend we are in town, Noah has still been enjoying school, Play 2 Grow, music class and a few play dates. We've been spending a lot of time outside too as the weather has cooled down and got to have a lunch date with daddy (first time eating pizza!). He has also developed a real love of music and the guitar and is quite the dancer.

BFFs

Always an angel

His favorite instrument

Play date/dinner date with Carson

Noah's been really working on his vocab and can definitely say "mama" and will copy a lot of sounds I make. Unfortunately "mama" is now what he says when he is really upset (it used to be "ba"), so I am trying to teach him it is a good thing...we'll get there, right?

Highlights of the last month:

- Visiting all my relatives

- 6 plane flights (include a first class trip!)

- Eating big kid food

- Seeing Philadelphia and riding in my first cab (did you know you don't need a car seat in a cab?!)

- Turning 9 months old

Now the rest of the pictures:

Yep, they're holding hands

Great Aunt Nancy and Cousin Lauren

Great Uncle David

Cousin Evan

Grandma Thompson

Aunt Leni

Great Aunt Debbie

Still befriending the Nibby

Really excited about takeoff and seatbelts

Pizza lunch with daddy

Thursday, August 29, 2013

8 months & a week at the beach

Just getting back from a week at the beach with 3 kids under the age of 2 has decidedly made me feel both old and in need of another vacation. It was my favorite week so far since Noah was born because we got to spend so much time together, but it was definitely a different sort of vacation that we used to have. So long are the days of lounging on the beach, reading a book and having a cocktail. Now just getting to the ocean requires a 15 minute bathing suit/sunscreen application (the Patagonia sun-lite hoodie is amazing, as is the Honest Company sunscreen) and lugging an umbrella, chairs, blanket and bag full of toys, snacks, diapers and towels to only be there for an hour and a half before packing up for nap time. We did try a nap on the beach, but it was short lived, so next year when we're only on one nap a day, we will definitely have more beach time.

Noah, Mads and Henry were amazingly well behaved and did a great job adjusting to the new house and pack n plays, but alas, they didn't get the memo that you are supposed to sleep in on vacation, so the house was entirely awake by 6 am every morning and raring to go. Thankfully there were minimal tears and no trips to the ER, so I think we can all consider it a success and are already planning our return trip. Noah was at the perfect age for the trip because he can sit up and play but isn't crawling (yet), so when we stuck him on his beach blanket he didn't go anywhere. He was rather indifferent to the ocean but liked jumping up over the waves and eating sand.

Despite the 2 tropical storms, we managed to have a decent number of beach days, and the husbands got to golf and fish. Noah and I also went for a number of walks and a few outings. The entire crew spent time at Pier Park where the kiddos got to ride a carousel and train and play in bouncy castles. Noah and Mads also saw some animals at the 'marine park' in Panama City Beach (it was a far cry from any aquarium I've ever seen).

In addition to our beach trip, Noah got to celebrate his friend Carson's 2nd birthday, have lunch with Rory, meet Allie and move up in Play 2 Grow with Alex. He has also expanded his palate by trying ice cream (thanks Dad) and starting school food, which included a lunch of chicken and rice the other day that he loved according to Ms. Jojo. I wasn't necessarily ready for him to have chicken but apparently he was ready. He continues to love feeding himself, so puffs, mum mums and cheerios are other favorites. He's also sort of learning to hold his own bottle, but he'd understandable prefer for us to do it.

I've been working on getting Noah to say "mama" but alas he is still mostly on "ba, da and ya", so "dada" has come out of his mouth a few times to Ben's delight. We'll get there soon though, and I am pretty sure his first word will either be "bottle" or "bubby" (or something similar since those are his favorite things).