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

7 Months

Noelle-

The month of June has been absolutely crazy! I was working like mad, we had an out of town wedding, and we were house hunting every weekend in between, with you along for the ride most times. You were happy 90% of the time in the car but when you weren't, oh boy!


You had two big accomplishments for the month - sitting up on your own and actually enjoying your "solid" foods (let's face it, they aren't even close to solid...but they aren't in a bottle so we'll go with it).

You are so happy to be able to get up to a sitting position on your own and then be able to lean and grab toys and play with them, all while being able to see what else is going on around you. You love new things and tire of things quickly so I am trying to rotate toys in/out so you don't get bored. Since daycare has an entire room of fun toys and other babies to watch, I think you are a little bored at home! Thankfully, June weather was a little better and we were finally able to make it out to a park and put you in a swing for your first time! You didn't quite know what to think and kept looking at Dad for some reassurance.



We are also in a food routine and you are getting some fruit in the morning and veggies in the afternoon. You love your fruit and get impatient between spoonfuls, but you aren't so keen on your veggies. Hmmm, do you have mom's sweet tooth??

We took our first trip to Iowa for our dear friend Brett's wedding. It happened to be located just minutes from where your Granny Annie and Grandpa Al keep their boat. Since I was in the wedding, I was pretty busy with events during the weekend, but your grandparents were thrilled to spend so much time with you while we were away. We also went to their boat to hang out for a while and you were intrigued by the water. We didn't go for a ride, but we will next time!



Well my love, I continue to be amazed and amused by you every day. I know there is so much more that happens in a month because you are constantly changing. We hit the big stuff in this monthly letter, but it's really the day to day little stuff that warms my heart - your smiles in the morning, your babbling and laughing during the day, reaching out to me when I come to pick you up, and the sweet sounds you make while sleeping. I love you so much!

Love,
Mama

6 months!

Noelle-

Half of a year has gone by and in some ways it feels like longer than that and in others, it seems like the blink of an eye. We are so blessed to have a baby like you. All the time we are told how happy you are, how active you are, and how lucky we must feel. And we do.

Compared to April, May was a much calmer month. You are totally settled in at daycare, I am totally settled in at work, and your dad and I have our routines down pat at home. Teamwork is key and we are all pretty good at it! Lucky even takes his turn watching you - and he is by far your favorite "person" in the house. Here is, carefully watching in the background.
Our time together now is spent playing together and it is actual playing. I feel like we are interacting more than ever before with the way you observe, react, and communicate. I look forward to waking up in the morning and getting out your toys and watching what you will do next. It's so entertaining to watch you think through things (how to get an out of reach object, how to play with two toys at once, which toy you want). You love anything that makes noise and your stack of ring, which you don't like in a stack...you knock them off asap.
This month you have been moving around a lot more! You aren't crawling, but you can get up on your hands and move sideways. I didn't think you could get all that far until I watched you move all the way across a room. Crawling isn't too far off and that means I need to get to childproofing! And let's discuss your posing. It is beyond hysterical. You get up on your side, flip you arm over your let, and just stay there. Everybody comments on it and say that have never seen a baby do this, especially since you do it all the time! Here you are, hamming it up:

We took our first big road trip this month but made the very wise decision to leave at your bedtime and deal with arriving at 2 AM as opposed to having you stuck in a carseat for 5 hours when wide awake. We headed up to Traverse City and you got to spend time with your Great Grandma, Grandma & Tata Ortega, Aunt Donna, Aunt Mykayla, and many, many others. Everyone commented on how perfect you are and we have to agree. You were at a graduation party and played, laughed, smiled the entire time. Stealing hearts already, my dear.


Our last bit of exciting news is that you are sleeping through the night! You are also moving to taking 2 naps a day and are sleeping longer amounts of time. With all your playing and moving around, you have also been known to fall asleep mid-play. Yes, I often give you a calculator as a toy, is that wrong? You have CPA genes coming from both sides of the family so we may as well encourage it.

Well my sweet girl, another month has gone by, and it is my favorite month so far. I love you so much and continue to count my blessings for having you in my (our) lives. You are such a sweet angel and I love you so much.

-Mama

6 Month Stats:
15 1/2 pounds, 27 inches long.

Loves:
Playing peek-a-boo, magazines (you seem to love the sound of pages...and the taste), sitting up (with some help), new people, being able to move a bit, grabbing everything in sight, banging things together, the cats.

Dislikes:
"solid" foods, seeing mom or dad leave the room, having to wait more than 10 seconds for your bottle (notice, napping is NOT in this list!)

5 Months

Noelle-

I hope you don't take after me in regards to procrastinating. Again, I have lots of good excuses for my tardiness..but let's just jump right in to a recap of your 5th month.
April is going down as the month of "firsts". Here are all the firsts we got through this month: first day back to work, first day of daycare, your first time being sick (which coincided with my first night of staying up wondering if we should take you to the ER - we didn't), first taste of "solids", first time sleeping through the night (and then no longer STTN), and your first Easter. It was also my birthday and we had a visit from Granny Annie! Whew!
The biggest event was me heading back to work and you heading to daycare. I was actually excited to be working again, but leaving you with someone else that first week was really difficult for me. The "drop off" took at least 20 minutes each day because I kept coming back for one more kiss, one more "I Love You". Your teachers told us that you did really well and after that first week, I felt much better about the whole thing. I know it is a hot topic - but I believe that daycare is a better option for you as opposed to a nanny as it helps you to acclimate to new places & people, plus you get to play with other babies all day and learn new things from watching them. By the end of April, you were smiling at your teachers when you arrived and didn't seem to care whether I was in the room or not because you were so occupied with all the toys and the other babies.
The one downside of daycare is getting sick. It took only 2 weeks of you being there before you came down with a cold. The congestion freaked this first time mommy out and I literally had you in bed with me all night the first night (and many nights thereafter) so I could listen to you breathe. We rushed you to the doctor in the morning and they told us that it's a cold...and then I think secretly checked the box on your chart that said "first time parents freaking out about sniffles". However, this did eventually turn into an ear infection which was awful for you and heart-wrenching for me when all we could do was hold you and pray for your meds to start working. But, we made it through and you did get better and back to normal.

Our first foray into solids was somewhat successful. Although, I think you were really into chewing on the spoon rather than the food that was on it. Subsequent attempts resulted in a very large mess and you making a face that is better suited to someone sucking on a lemon. We are still trying on occasion, but we're letting you decide when you are ready.
Your sleeping schedule was pretty great for a while - waking up once during the night during a 7pm - 5am sleep. You even had THREE GLORIOUS NIGHTS of sleeping through then night. Then you got sick and sleep for all of us became a thing of the past. We aren't ready for sleep training yet so we still cater to your every whimper and you were a fixture in our bed for about two weeks while you were sick.

My birthday was wonderful! It was a simple night with you, Dad, my mom, and some cupcakes. Perfect night to celebrate the best year of my life! Dad bought me a beautiful necklace with your birthstone and I wear it every day.

Easter was fairly good. You were sick so you weren't the happiest girl, but you still enjoyed looking through your Easter "bucket" and checking out your goods! When I was growing up, it was a tradition that I got a Disney movie every Easter in my basket. This year, the Easter Bunny gave you Bambi!
You are such a happy baby (except when you were sick, obviously) and you make me smile all day long. I love waking up to your huge smile in the morning along with your excited kicks and crazy arms! I am so proud of how quickly you have adjusted to our new routine and how well you have done at daycare. Time is really flying now that I am back to work and while I am so happy to see the new thing that you do every day, I want to sometimes just hit pause and hold you in those happiest of moments.
This entry is so long, so I'll try to wrap it up, but I'm a mom - we gush - even if nobody else is reading :) Your new skills this month were rolling back to front (and then you didn't stop), discovering your toes, you have fine tuned grabbing objects and can now easily grasp something with one hand in one attempt, babbling and blowing raspberries more frequently, and a large amount of smiles and giggles!

5 Month Stats:
I'm guessing around 15 or so pounds.

Loves:
Your toes! Rolling, grabbing everything in sight, banging things together, the cats, Daddy tickling you, playing independently, watching the other babies at daycare

Dislikes:
Napping (still), having a toy you want out of reach (you have developed a sense of which specific items you want)

I'll write again two weeks days for your 6 month update!

Love you, love you, love you,
Mama

4 Months

Noelle-

I am so sorry this is so late! You are closer to 5 months than 4 at this point, but I'm going to try my best to only gush about your March activities. I have good excuses for my tardiness - my birthday, grandma in town, and going back to work all took place the weekend I would normally write. But anyway, that's next month's blog so let's begin...

The month of March was fantastic for us. During February you had turned a corner from being a shall we say "fussy" baby to being more happy. During March, you were an absolute doll. I kept telling others that you were so much fun and it was a nice way to end out my leave from work, but also made it harder to leave you.

You smile so much and giggle when you hear new noises. You LOVE playing on your tummy and grabbing at your toys in front of you. You are now coordinated enough to pick up toys and get them to your mouth, which is where everything ultimately ends up. It might take you a few tries, but you get there eventually. You also we through a phase with your tongue where it was constantly out of your mouth. It only lasted a week, but it was hysterical. Everytime we looked at you, there was your tongue, just hanging out. I'm sad I didn't get a picture, I didn't realize it was a passing fad (but thank goodness it was).

During March we celebrated Dad's birthday with a simple night at home and I know that having you around made it his best birthday yet. Our St. Patrick's Day celebration was limited to dressing you up in green and having dinner with friends and their kids. Mom and Dad's days of going out and acting like fools passed a few years ago, but this year I felt really old when I was in bed early cursing the loud "kids" walking by our house on the way to their next bar. You'll never be one of those kids, right? I'm sure you won't...

In early March we transitioned you from your pack & play in our room to your crib in your room. Suprisingly, you didn't bat an eye. You slept the same you had been in our room, which still consists of 2-3 wakeups during the night...which leads me to our next new activity together - napping! Kid, you don't like to nap. However, if I cuddle up with you in my bed and nap with you, you can sleep for two hours. March was the month that I gave in and started napping regularly with you. It's the best feeling in the world to have you next to me, feeling you breathing and hearing your little sounds while we sleep. I don't want you to get too attached to sleeping with us so I limit it to one nap a day and some time in the morning if you wake at 4 or 5 and we bring you in with us to get a little more sleep. However, if I wasn't afraid of eventually trying to convince a 4 year old that it's time to leave our bed, I would have you with me during the night as well.

Your Grandpa Schumacher came for a weekend visit and you loved your time with him. You were smiling and loved when he tossed you and caught you. You have him wrapped around your little finger and it's so special for me to see him so in love with you.

Little one, things just keep getting better with you and this month has made me happier than I have ever been. You continue to grow stronger, smarter, and sweeter every day. You are the best thing that has ever happened to me and I love you so very much!

4 Month Stats:
13 pounds, 15 ounces and 25 inches

Loves:
Anything and everything that you can grab and put in your mouth, things that make noises, people's faces, watching the cats, going for walks and watching the dogs at the dog park

Dislikes:
Napping alone...that's about it! See, I told you that you've changed!

Love,
Mama