Noah's first food/ Brotherly love

Last week (March 13th) we decided to let Noah try his first food. We decided to start with peas and later try more appetizing food.  You can tell from his face what he thought about them. I am happy to report that the carrots and sweet potatoes we tried later were a hit.

Then on March 18th as I was leaving Noah at play school he waved goodbye to me!! To make sure it wasn't a fluke, I walked out of the room and the his teacher brought him to the door and he waved again, ever so sweetly. It made my whole day. I'll take a moment to brag on my good mannered Joshua.  Everyday when I leave, after I get my kiss he tells me "You have a good day, Mommy." I'm so glad both boys (and their parents) are happy and comfortable at the day care center.

Brother story:
Recently I was driving somewhere in the car with the boys. Joshua was playing with his Buzz Lightyear doll when I heard him say "Look Noah, this is Buzz." I looked in the rear-view mirror and saw him holding Buzz by the feet so Buzz stretched all the way across the car for Noah to touch.  I got all excited and thought I was witnessing some genuine brotherly sharing.  And then Joshua said "That's *my* Buzz." And then he took Buzz away and continued playing with him.  Noah didn't really seem to care, but I imagine such antics won't be appreciated in a year or so.

My Sweet Boys

Here are some pics of the boys that I took recently.  I must confess I had to bribe Joshua with Skittles to get him to pose next to his brother, but it was totally worth it.  My boys are beautiful!

Here are a few short stories about Joshua:
Recently I went out to lunch with Joshua and Noah. I changed Joshua's diaper, then washed his hands and warned him not to touch anything while I changed Noah. I looked over my shoulder and saw him plant both his hand on the bathroom stall door. I fussed at him saying "Joshua! What did I say?" To which he replied "I sorry. I wipe them off" and proceeded to wipe them on the bathroom floor. Ewww!

I love how Joshua phrases things. Our neighborhood faces a golf course. J likes to comment on whether people are out on the course. He either says "Everybody's playing golf" or "Everybody's not playing golf." Such absolutes!

Finally, Joshua has a new favorite thing to say. It's "Why?" He's used this word for awhile but only recently has he decided to use it 30,000 times a day. Most of the time he's asking "why" about his own questions and statements. "Mommy, I want juice. Why?" I know it's harmless, but the onslaught of "Why?" passed cute at least 10,001 why's ago. I'm hoping that along the way he's at least learning something. Oh and for the record, his second favorite expression is "I do it all by myself."

Fun at the Park

Noah Talking

6 months old/ First Tooth

Noah Kinnaird is 6 months old.  He is a delightful baby boy!  The comment I get the most regarding him at play school, church, or family is 'He's such a happy boy!'  And it's true, he is happy.  He smiles all the time. He hardly ever cries aside from the normal issues such as hunger or dirty diaper.  I took him for his well-baby check up so let me start with his stats:

Height - 28in, ~90th percentile
Weight - 18lbs 8oz, ~60th percentile

Look at my tooth!

It was an interesting trip to the dr's office only because I drove there straight from Birmingham so all of us had some cabin fever. Noah smiled and talked to the nurse and doctor. He showed off some skills including sitting up by himself (the doctor was impressed that Noah sat solidly. He has the strength, but is still developing balance and should be sitting up by himself within the month). He has another new, new trick which he did not show off for the doctor which is the ability to push up on all fours with his head up and rock. Apparently he's trying to become an early crawler. I'm sooo not ready for him to be mobile. He really needs to slow down! Noah got one oral vaccine and three shots which he handled well. Best news of all, his ears, as well as Joshua's looked good. Yea!

While waiting in the exam room Joshua enjoyed reading the children's books. His favorite part was counting the seven dwarfs. He would count slow and there would be 7 of them, then he would count fast and there would be 10 of them. He's very interested in singing/ reading/ counting normal, then fast, then slow. Most of the time during the exam he spent walking around me and sometimes through my legs singing "Round and Round the Garden..." Then he started singing louder and playing the chair like a drum. As silly as he was being I know he was paying attention because towards the end of the checkup Noah was fussing so the dr handed him back to me and he stopped crying and the dr said "There are you happy now. Are you a happy boy?" And J stood beside me and declared "No, I'm a happy boy!"

So here are six fun facts about Noah:
*You got your first tooth on Sunday, Feb 27th. It was the lower right tooth and the one next to it looks like it'll be coming in soon as well. I knew you were teething, but overall it wasn't too bad.

*As I mentioned above you are trying to be an early crawler.  What's up with that? You will pull yourself up on all fours and rock.  You also have the ability to ooch and roll wherever you want to go.
*Ever since you learned to roll over, you have preferred/ insisted on sleeping on your tummy.
*You are a talker. You talk all the time. You'll talk about half the car ride to play school before falling asleep. Joshua likes to say "Noah's talking." You will also say "mama" from time to time.
*You are a right handed thumb sucker. It gets you to sleep.
*Your favorite toy is a purple Eddie the Elephant that we keep in your carseat. You crinkle the ears, chew on the feet.  It is so sweet. Joshua even refers to it as Noah's toy.

My impersonation of the Gerber Baby

One last piece of information, as you'll notice from pictures, you don't have much hair. You wear size 3 diapers and 9 month clothes. You are a big boy! Oh and Joshua plays very sweetly with you. He hands Noah toys, food (which we are teaching him not to do), gives him sweet, wet kisses, and tells him "Noah, don't cry!"  I think they'll be good friends.

It could be worse...

There is a side story associated with Joshua getting sick before the rotten ears, before I left for Bham that I wanted to share. After an incredibly long wait at the doctor’s office (we were there 1 ½ hrs), I was starving. Joshua said he wanted pizza for lunch so I decided to be adventurous and try a place *across the bridge* (Yes, it’s not that far away, but anything across the bridge just feels like a huge ordeal because you have to cross a body of water). After feeding Noah in the car we went in to this small place and I ordered the lunch special, pizza and salad, and some breadsticks. Of course by this point Joshua changed his mind and wanted chocolate ice-cream so I promised him some as soon as we left because the restaurant didn’t have ice-cream. Shortly after the salad and breadsticks arrived, J had what can best be described as volcanic diarrhea. He was sitting down and it literally shot up his back to his shoulder blades. It looked and smelled horrible and got on J, me, the seat… and J started crying. I gathered the boys and headed to the restroom only stopping to ask the waitress to box the pizza and bring a check. She said “I’m sorry. It’s a dine-in special.” Not wanting to explain how diarrhea went everywhere I said “My son just threw up. We have to go now. Can’t you please box it up?” She went to ask the manager and I went to the restroom. Unfortunately it was a tiny old fashioned bathroom with a pedestal sink and no change table. I stripped J down, changed his diaper, cleaned him as best I could, and wrapped him in Noah’s blanket, which of course upset Noah. I paid for lunch, grabbed the Styrofoam box holding the pizza, and staggered out the door balancing Noah in his carseat, Joshua, the diaper bag, the pizza, and a drink. I made it to the car, when my load shifted, I dropped the box, and the pizza fell on the ground. Oh well. I got in the car and headed toward Target to fill the prescriptions. I hated taking Joshua out in public, but I really wanted to start him on his medicine and I was afraid if we went home another disaster would strike so I loaded him in the double stroller wearing a diaper and a jacket. I bought him his prescriptions and chocolate ice cream. Then we headed home. I unloaded the boys, gave Joshua a bath, and then fixed him a bowl of ice-cream. To which he said “That not ice-cream. I want ice-cream.” There was no way to reason with him and I still don’t know what he thinks ice-cream is. It was an exhausting day.
 
So getting back to my title you are probably wondering ‘How could this be worse?’ After I got home, I called my dear friend Audrey to get some sympathy as she too was home with sick babies (Titus – 3 and Alice – 1). She patiently listened to my story and then said “You want to hear about my morning? Titus ate some breakfast then had to take some medicine which he threw up on the floor. I used a wash cloth to wipe his face and placed it over the vomit on the floor to I could clean it up after T was clean. After re-dressing T, I went looking for Alice. Guess where she was? In the kitchen, sucking on the wash cloth (she’s teething).” And that is called perspective. Yes, it could be worse.