happy fall!

Noah has mastered the art of crawling backwards and is making small steps (figuratively) towards crawling forwards.  When he isn't up for trying to crawl, he just rolls towards whatever he wants.  Generally the rolling combined with the backwards crawling means he ends up stuck in a corner or backed up against furniture.  It's pretty fun to watch, but he will let you know just how frustrated he is by not going where he wants to go.  By far his favorite position is standing, and he is itching to be able to stand/walk on his own.  When I pick him up from school he can almost always be found holding the fence in the playground waiting for me (ok, not waiting for me, but I happen to walk by on my way in so it feels that way).   His other favorite activity is hitting 2 things together (blocks, crackers, whatever works).

Other than starting to move, Noah has expanded his vocabulary to including "more", "bubu" (bubby) and "bye bye".  I claim temporary insanity for teaching him to say and sign "more" because he learned to abuse it day 1.  He pretty much only knows how to apply it towards food and forever wants more.  Next on my list is "all done", so we'll see how fast he picks that up (hopefully very soon).  Another adorable trick he learned is to clap his hands when he hears "good job!".  He is clearly constantly proud of his accomplishments.

Bubby and Nibby are his preferred company these days, so he loves to say "bubu" whenever bubby walks in the room (Nibby is just too hard to say I think).  Bubby is becoming more and more attached to Noah, and it is completely related to the fact that at every meal Noah "shares" about half his food with bubby.  This is unfortunate because the vet just told us bubby needs to drop some lbs...maybe next year? After the holidays?

Noah has continued his travels.  I calculated that over 12 weeks we'll be in Atlanta for 2 weekends and he'll have taken about 24 flights by the time he is a year.  At the end of September, we went back to Chapel Hill for Anna and Kim's wedding.  My parents had the pleasure of more babysitting and Ben and I had a great time at all the wedding festivities.  We then spent a weekend in Highlands, NC with Kelly and Stark that involved a day and a half of fly fishing school for the boys.  Kelly, Noah and I took it easy and spent Saturday in the cute downtown having lunch (with wine of course) and then went to a happy hour.  Noah was very well behaved at both and easily entertained by eating, people watching and the music during happy hour.

happy hour!

bubby mid-breakfast

We were fortunately in town last weekend, which gave us time to see friends here and get pumpkins!  Noah loved the pumpkin patch and his ride in the radio flyer (Christmas list updated accordingly).  He also got to have a sleepover at Mads' house and play with Mads and Henry, go to Fitz and Rhodes' first birthday party and have a dinner date with Swift.  He was a huge fan of the ball pit at the party so we'll be getting one of those soon too.  

Highlights of the last few weeks:
- Saying/signing "more" (meaning food)
- Saying "bubu" and "bye bye"
- Clapping hands
- Drinking water out of mommy's water bottle
- Standing up
- Playing with Audra and Ben, Mads and Henry, Swift and all the kids at Fitz and Rhodes' birthday party
- the ball pit
- pumpkin patch

And now pictures and videos!

Lunch date with Audra and Ben

Jello at P2G

bubby trying to get comfy on the drive to the Highlands

Indian buffet for lunch. We love curry

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