1 Year!

Noelle-

You are a year old and you are no longer a little baby. You have blossomed in the last month and that personality of yours is amazing. You are active and adventurous and extremely strong willed. You smile all the time. So much, that daycare calls you Smiley. You laugh the most when daddy is tickling you, but I can sometimes get a giggle as well by making funny faces.

Your favorite places in the house are on the stairs or in the fridge. (To clarify, "in the fridge" means while we have it open to grab something...not hanging out in the fridge by yourself). You would play on the stairs for hours if we would let you. You don't climb them too much anymore. Now they have just become a perch for you to sit. I love watching your little legs wiggle back and forth from pure joy as you sit and play with some random object (shoes and socks still being your favorites).

You still love the baking supplies drawer and have now started "mixing". It's so stinkin' cute to see you with a spoon in a bowl, mixing around all the cookie cutters.

You are communicating much more. No words yet, but you can sign "more" (which means you want to eat, in general) and "all done". You point ALL THE TIME now and we spend much of our day trying to figure out what you are pointing at. Sometimes, I'm not sure you know.

Physically, you are an expert walker. You pretty much run these days and only resort to crawling if you trip and fall. Then I think you do it to show us that you fell on purpose :) You seemed to have hit a plateau in your growth and have stayed at the 22 pound range and measured only a 1/2 taller than you did at nine months. Docs say that you are still plotting very nicely and that this is normal, especially since you are walking now and have very little time for eating.

Speaking of eating, you are exploring with foods a little more. Your three favorite foods are still avocados, cheese, and raspberries. You would also eat puffs and crackers all day long if we would let you. You love the fake chik'n and fake sausage that we give you and have rejected the real thing on several occasions - that's my girl! While I am ok with you eating some meat (poultry, mainly), you are just not interested and we aren't pushing it.
We had Granny Annie, Grandpa Al, and Grandpa Shue come to stay with us for Thanksgiving. It was so nice to have us all together as a family and enjoying each other's company. Dinner was wonderful and you again rejected the turkey, but tried some potatoes along with your meal of favorites.

The day after Thanksgiving we did a small birthday celebration for you since we had 3 out of the 6 grandparents present. I made you a cake to try and you were not thrilled about getting your hands dirty at first. Daddy dug in and showed you how it's done, and then you got excited for a little while. You tasted a bit of it, but didn't seem too excited about cake, so we gave you a bath and then did presents.
Your gift from us was a chair of your very own. You LOVED it! You were clapping and bouncing and just so excited about it. I was so happy to see you so happy! It has since remained a favorite item of yours.

Unfortunately, later that night we ended up in the ER. You spiked a fever and would not stop vomiting and it scared us 1/2 to death. They examined you and decided it was just a virus, and then prescribed some anti-nausea meds so we could get you to keep something down. It took about a week, but you did recover. There were a lot of nights that I slept on your floor, just so I could hear you breathing and randomly wake up to reach into your crib and rub your back. It was full circle from your days as a newborn and me reaching out to soothe you while you slept in our room.

Noelle, this year cannot be properly put into words, although I tried. My pictures & videos tell a slightly better story, but they cannot capture what has become of me. I love you more than I thought was possible and some days I feel like my heart will burst from all the joy that fills it. Thank you for picking me as your mom and thank you for loving me as only you can with your silly faces, sideways smiles, and gifts of shoes :)

Love you more than you'll ever know (until you have a child of your own)-
Mama

11 Months

Noelle-

October has been a much better month for us all! The weather was nice, we were all in good health, we had a visit from Auntie Lindsay and another one from Granny Annie and Grandpa Al, we celebrated Halloween and also celebrated a major milestone!

My love of the fall is no small secret. The colors, the smells, the crisp but not yet cold air, and the anticipation of the holidays spent with family make me giddy. Your dad and I also celebrate our wedding anniversary in October. I hope you grow up to love it like I do. With fall and home ownership come leaves, and in our case, lots of them! You had a great time out in the yard, feeling the leaves crushing under your hands, twirling them in your fingers, and, of course, tasting them.

You have been wreaking havoc inside the house this month. You have discovered your ability to open cupboards and drawers and have delighted in playing with all that you find. Your favorite items are the mixing bowls, measuring cups, and cookie cutters. You love to put a bunch of things in a bowl, then dump them out, then put them back...and on and on. The other cabinets are off limits and you liked watching and "helping" daddy put the locks on the doors. The first couple attempts to open doors which now have locks on them were extremely frustrating for you, but you eventually moved on and stick to your two drawers now.

You are babbling a lot now and it sounds like real sentences. The only word that you are saying and using appropriately is "uh-oh". You like to hang your sippy over the side of your high chair, say uh-oh, and THEN drop it. And then smile at us like you are a little angel.

Speaking of smiling at us when you are about to do something that you know is not allowed, you have started to test us much more this month. For example, the fireplace is totally a no-no. So you will go over next to it, look at us, smile, and then touch it. As soon as one of us moves to come get you away from the fireplace, you walk away giggling. It's hard for us not to laugh too, but we are trying to stay consistent. But, you are so, so cute when you do it.

At the end of October, Auntie Lindsay came in for a visit and spent your first Halloween with you. Granny Annie and Grandpa Al also came in to see you in your costume. We all got a very special treat though when, on October 29th, you started officially walking! Those couple steps here and there turned into many steps and continuous attempts to get up and go. We all were so excited and it was exciting that many of us were here to see it happen!


Halloween was fun for us. We went to the pumpkin patch to pick our little family of pumpkins and then came home to carve them. It took you a bit, but eventually you were digging around in the guts of the pumpkin.

You looked adorable in your kitty costume. We didn't head out trick or treating, but we met people in our driveway and handed out candy. You were a hit with the neighbors, who were excited to have a girl in the neighborhood. Seems everyone has boys... seems your dad and I made the right decision in having locks and alarms installed on your bedroom windows :)


Other October notes:

You are eating more and more solids. Your favorites are raspberries, avocado, and cheese. You still eat some jar food when we can't get you to eat anything else. You still get 4-5 bottles a day, along with sippys during meals & snacks.

You are about 21 pounds and 30 inches. You are in some 12 and some 18 month clothes and size 3 or 4 shoes.

You only have your two bottom teeth.

You had your first morning ever without mom or dad getting you out of your crib. Translation: mom and dad had their first night ever away from you together. Auntie Lindsay was here with you and things went wonderfully!

Love you so much-
Mama

10 Months

Noelle-

September was another busy month for us, but unfortunately, not a good busy. I got pretty sick and ended up in the hospital for a few days, then had to go back for surgery. Due to this, I didn't take nearly as many pictures as I would have liked and I didn't write down all of the memories that I typically do. I'm sorry about that. I am feeling much better now and promise to do better.

Being away from you for a longer period of time was really difficult. However, I didn't want you to come visit in the hospital due to germs, etc. On my second day in the hospital, the doctor walked in on me crying and she assumed it was sickness. I quickly explained that I was just missing you, as Daddy had just sent me a picture and I was sad that I couldn't be with you. By far the worst part of not feeling well was missing out on some quality time with you.

That being said, we did have some fun during September. We spent a lot of time outside in our yard. You are a very tactile little girl and love touching new textures, items, etc. The grass, leaves, sidewalk, pebbles are all great for holding, patting, and general checking out. You understand the word "no" now, which comes in handy when all the above items go straight to your mouth. You actually listen pretty well when I say "not in your mouth" and you take it out and then shake your little body and your head like you are saying no right back to me! Then you will fake doing putting it near your mouth and go back to shaking your head no. It's ridiculously cute.

Since the weather cooled down a little, we finally put you in a jacket and a pair of shoes. With your foot obsession, the shoes were hilarious. You wanted to play with them, but they were attached to your feet. So you can understand the problems you faced, considering you aren't a well balanced contortionist. Then you didn't want to step with them on and did a little dance. Eventually you got accustomed to them and soonafter, you figured out how to take them off.

Your biggest milestone for the month was standing for longer periods of time on your own and taking a step or two. You don't seem too interested in walking though and quickly move to crawling to get somewhere.

That's all my old brain can muster up from the month of September, but I promise you that we had a great month together and that you were just as charming and entertaining as ever.

I love you so much and can't wait until a better month in October!

-Mama
( I wasn't in a single picture this month so one with Daddy will have to do!)

Professional Photos

During August, we had a wonderful shoot with Ben Elsass and even though Noelle was a bit cranky, he managed to get some wonderful shots. Photos were taken at the Evanston lighthouse, before the sun had completely risen. I think the photos speak for themselves:

9 Months

Busiest. Month. Ever.

August will go down as one of the busiest and most trying months of my (our) lives. It was filled with some really wonderful things for our family and some very frustrating days/nights. You see during the month of August we closed on our very first home (yeah!) and moved two weeks later. Seeing as we hired movers, that doesn't sound too bad, right? Well, my dear, the week we were scheduled to pack, you got sick with a virus that daycare views as a plague of sorts and you were sent home for 4 days. I love having you around, but due to you moving and wanting to get into everything, you didn't exactly help with the process.
Then there were my grand plans of painting an entire house in a week...did I mention there was wallpaper to remove and the house is a two story, five bedroom, large home? Oh, AND you were teething and along with that came an awful, raw bottom, that sent you screaming every time you had a wet diaper. So long to sleeping through the night. Add in unpacking, work, and traveling dad and whew!... But let's focus more on you, shall we?

So we left off at 8 months with you crawling and pulling up on things. By the end of 9 months you are climbing the staircase (we clocked you at 45 seconds), pulling up on things and letting go and standing for small periods of time, and you are using anything that moves as a push toy and walking around the house with it. Your favorites are the dining room chairs. It's like that scene in poltergeist where we can leave the room and come back 30 seconds later, and all the chairs have moved.

You love the new house. It has 100% hardwood floors so you can cruise along easily. We have a sunroom that is full of light and empty right now and when we let you in there with your push toy, it's just pure joy for you and for those of us watching you. You also like to babble and blow raspberries while you drive, so cute!
As I mentioned above, you finally popped through two bottom teeth! There really was n complaining from you before they came through, but afterwards you can down with a horrible diaper rash. I felt so, so terrible for you and you made it very well known that it was as painful as it looked. Thankfully while you were going through this I had this wisdom of my Aunt Donna, my Mom, and my Grandma, who were all in town, to help me through it. You were back to waking up 3+ times per night due to painful diapers and more than being tired, I felt like a horrible mom because I couldn't take the pain away. This lasted nearly a week and you coped much better than I did. Your sleep schedule, however, did not fare as well. You became accustomed to those middle of the night bottles and cuddles...

You did get better though and you managed to charm everyone at your new daycare. They all comment on how fast you are with crawling and learning new things and how independent you are. They said you never cry and you are perfectly happy playing on your own. Of course I already know this...but it's nice to hear again!
We took a trip to our local "zoo" - it's really a farm that they call a zoo, but it is still adorable. I wish I could say you were the least bit interested in the animals, but it was the dirt, rocks, and leaves that had your attention.


Other August notes:

You loved your visits from Aunt Donna, Grandma Ortega, and Great-Grandma. You welcome everyone with smiles and in turn, they all end up smiling bigger than you.

We had professional photos taken in early August and I'm so happy we did! I'll do another post of just pics to highlight some of those.

You became a cousin! Aunt Kelly & Uncle Brent welcomed Elliot to the family in mid-August. I'm so excited to meet him and for you to have a cousin so close in age.

You are now wearing mostly 12 month clothing. You were basically in 9 month clothing for a couple weeks.

Speaking of which - at 9 months you weigh 19.5 pounds and are 29 inches long. That's 9 inches in 9 months. Told you you are growing like a weed!

Well pumpkin, I am so excited to create memories in this new house of ours. I feel very blessed that your dad and I are able to provide you a house in such a wonderful area. I can't wait to see you grow up here and for us all to make this house a home.


Love you my dear-
Mama

Oh, and regarding the house projects: The only task that was fully completed was your room. Aunt Donna worked day and night to get things done, but we really have a LOT to do!

8 Months

Noelle-

How are you already 8 months? How is it already August? Time continues to fly by and you continue to grow at a pace I didn't know was possible.

In terms of your physical development & skills, you went from sitting at 7 months to army crawling at 7 1/2 months and had mastered real crawling by 8 months. You also started to pull yourself up near the end of the month and have taken a few wobbly steps hanging on to the coffee table. Silly me thought that the stairs were something I didn't have to worry about for a while, but you've got a one track mind. A kitty on the stairs that you want to get?? Fine, then you'll crawl up there! You only made it a few stairs, but seriously? We have found that the cats and shoes/feet are your biggest motivation to move. You have an odd obsession with feet, toes, shoes, socks - both yours and others.

You are so, so happy to be moving. You are constantly on the move and you seem to always have a place in mind when you set out on an adventure. You frequent your toy bin and the magazines (which are a no-no..only b/c you eat them). It's so fun to see you crawl to your bin and pick out what you want, then pick something else 10 seconds later, then another, etc. Our place is a mess :)

With you being on the move, my monthly pictures where I can take my time setting up a shot are gone. I was lucky this month to get one shot where you can almost see the 8 on your onesie.

My favorite move of yours is the "sit and spin". You just sit on the ground and spin yourself around, sometimes multiple times. Sometimes it's to see what is going on behind you, other times it's just to do it. It's hilarious and a big hit at day care. Speaking of daycare, they informed us that when you are there and any of the other babies are crawling in your vicinity, that you shriek out of joy and quickly crawl away. You seem to think they are chasing you and you love it. So now one of our favorite games at home is to take turns chasing each other. The laughing and squeals are enough to keep me going, even though my knees are KILLING me at times!

We had a special guest and a "girls night" in July. Auntie Lindsay flew in from CA for a few days to see you and one night we drove up for to see Kimber and Kacy and even stayed overnight. You were so well behaved for the drive and two meals in public places! At breakfast the morning we were leaving, all the other guests kept fawning over you.

Other adventures for the month were more frequent outings to the park, nearly daily visits to the dog park, a visit to a small petting zoo, and a visit from Grannie Annie and Grandpa Al for a day. Since we were FINALLY under contract on a house, we had our weekends back and it was wonderful!


Other July stats:

Clothing size - you are still wearing a lot of 6 month stuff, but are wearing some small 9 month

You are toothless :)

You are still sleeping through the night (praise Jesus)

Your favorite sound/word is "da-da-da-da" (despite my best efforts for mama)

Loves:
Fruit/breakfast jar foods, watching older kids, moving everywhere, chasing/being chased, music, cats, feet, babbling, pulling yourself up on everything

Dislikes:
The dustbuster! Oh my goodness child, that thing is your arch rival. Every time you are in the kitchen, where it is stationed, you stare that thing down. If we are holding you, you will whip your head around to keep eyes on it at all times. Unfortunately this dislike was discovered one day when I was using it and you came crawling over to me, crying. I thought it was about something else, but soon realized you were terrified of the very object I was holding...but still wanted your mama to comfort you :(

Well little angel, another month, another million milestones it seems. You are an absolute delight and I feel so blessed to have you. You are the light at then beginning and end of every day.

Love you so very, very much-

Mama