First Day of School

Yesterday was my first day back at work! Sunday night when I was putting Noah to bed, I almost cried because I didn't think I'd see him the next morning before I went to work. Later on Peter made me cry, saying, "Poor Noah...he's going to be happily playing around, and then all of a sudden he'll look around for you and you won't be there. He's going to be so sad..." Real nice, huh? I ended up going to work a little later though, and was able to see him before leaving. Later that day I met Peter and Noah at the pediatrician's office for Noah's 1-year check-up. He is currently around 21 lbs (40%-ile), 31 inches tall (80%-ile), and I forget his head circumference. Peter's still hoping that Noah will be 6'5" when he grows up.

Today was Noah's first day at daycare. Peter dropped him off this morning at around 8:45, and apparently he cried for about 10 min after Peter left. :( I'm just glad I wasn't the one dropping him off. I think I definitely would've cried. So sad! I know he'll be okay physically so I'm not really worried about him, but it is sad to leave him there crying. He also only slept for about 40 min during naptime. Also sad. He ate a lot though! According to the sheet they gave me when I picked him up, he basically devoured everything they gave him. When I picked him up, he seemed really confused when he first saw me. He just looked at me for a few seconds, then started crying. He calmed down pretty quickly though. I know that it will take at least a week or two for all of us to adjust, so for day one, I think things went pretty well.

Happy Birthday, Noah!

Newborn baby Noah at the hospital.

Our baby all grown up (kind of)!

We made it! Noah has finally reached one year. It has been amazing watching him grow from a tiny, fragile baby into an active, squirmy wormy. In addition to being a squirmy wormy, Noah is a very curious, friendly, happy baby. He loves crawling around to explore different places and touch different things. Although he seems pretty social, he also seems to enjoy playing on his own, which is pretty nice for me since it means he's relatively low maintenance. Every once in a while he'll crawl over to me and get me involved (or sometimes even give me a kiss!), but for the most part he's pretty content pulling his books off the shelves, banging blocks together, and taking things in and out of his dump truck. It's so fun watching him turning into a little person! This year seems to have flown by, but it also feels like it's been forever. I can't believe he's so big and so mobile already, but I also can barely remember life before him. So much happens in just one year!

Noah has not yet started walking, but he is getting better and better at using the walker everyday. In this past week he's also managed to stand by himself quite a few times; even for 10 or 15 seconds on a couple of occasions. I think he will probably be at least taking his first steps in the next month. Although sometimes I wonder if I really should be that excited about him walking...

Noah's vocabulary is still pretty limited, and he hasn't said his first word yet. He's said "mama" many times, but I'm not sure he really knew what he was saying. Words that I think he can recognize are "mommy/mama", "hug", "ball", "walk", and "clap". When we say mommy, hug, or ball, he usually points or looks in the right direction. When I mentioned walking, he usually looks or points at his walker. Clapping actually just started today. A lot of babies start clapping I think at around 6 months? but Noah's first time was this morning. While we were playing with his stuffed baseball, he started throwing it (intentionally, with one arm, and in a forward direction; Peter was very excited) and as usual, I was very excited and I clapped for him, then all of a sudden he started clapping for himself! At first I didn't really know what he was doing because at that point I had given up on his clapping, but then he kept doing it! Later today while in the car he started clapping excitedly, so I started clapping with him, while saying "yay, you're clapping!" Every time I would say "clap" or "clapping" during the car ride he would start clapping more excitedly.

In the eating department, Noah is still fairly low maintenance. He eats most things that we feed him, and seems more into "real" food (not from jar) these days. For a while he really wasn't into the food I made, but I think now he's tired of the soupiness of baby food. While this is a good thing, it also means I now have more work to do. Oops. This weekend we went a little crazy and gave him some pizza and kimbap. I am also very excited to report that Noah is now a competent straw-user. I had been working on the straw since I think he was 6 months old, but will little success. He would always choke on the liquid. Now he can use a straw cup and hold it himself. Yesss! I've also just about weaned him to formula from straw-cup, except for 1 feeding before bedtime. I used to hate nursing and said that I'd wean him after 4 months, but now I'm kind of having a hard time letting go. Weird.

I think that's it for Noah's 1 year update! I will be starting work tomorrow, and Noah will be starting daycare Tuesday. We're excited for the new year!

11 Months Old

Noah turned 11 months a couple of weeks ago, but we were busy packing and getting ready to head to NY again, and we just got back today so I'm a bit late with the "11 month" update.

The most exciting news is that Noah seems to have (fingers crossed) gotten over the gagging phase. He still does it every once in a while, but for the most part he doesn't do it anymore. We actually had a great ride back home today from NY - Noah fell asleep in the first 20 min or so, then slept until we got to Maryland! After we stopped for lunch, Noah basically stared out the window silently the rest of the way. Amazing.

Noah has 4 teeth now, and is working on 2 more. He's been drooling a lot the past few weeks, and I can see the 2 teeth next to his top front teeth trying to make their way out. The teething seems to be more uncomfortable to him, and I don't know if this is related or not, but he's been waking up at around 3:45am this whole past week. So tiring! I can't believe I used to wake up twice a night to feed him. How did I survive??

Noah is showing more progress with standing/cruising. He will even take a few steps now if I hold him up with his arms; before he used to just go limp and try to get back to crawling position. I recently had him try out one of those walkers that they push along. Last week before we went to NY he was just pushing it around while on his knees, but today when we came back home I had him try again and he actually "walked" across the room with it. Very exciting! He was very proud of himself. :)


Noah continues to be a very happy and expressive boy. He's usually pretty friendly with strangers and loves flashing smiles at people. Peter and I love all of the different facial expressions he has. They are hilarious. What's kind of sad (for me) is that Noah seems to be showing a very strong preference for Peter. At first I was happy that Noah was so excited to see Peter because I worried that he might not be as close to Peter because he didn't see him as much, but now it just makes me sad! He not only gets very excited to see Peter, but when Peter tries to give him back to me, he always turns away and usually starts crying when I take him. :(

Last bit of news for this month is that I've started weaning Noah off of breastmilk. I suppose I already started when I started dropping some of the feedings, but this past week I started substituting formula in a cup for nursing. I was advised to skip the bottle altogether since I'd later have to wean him off of the bottle too. I was also advised to skip the sippy cup with valve since I'd later have to get him used to "free-flow" drinking, so basically I went straight to the straw cup. I started him on the straw kind of early (about 5 months?), which didn't really work out until the past week, during which he made a lot of progress. He also seems to be happy drinking the formula. Yay! I guess the lesson to be learned here is to just use the sippy cup; they'll do the free-flow drinking when they're ready.

We had an exciting traveling agenda this past month too: San Francisco for a wedding and visiting Peter's sister, and New York for two weddings, BBQ with Cornell friends+babies, and visiting my mom and sister. Some pics from our adventures:

Playing with Jeesup - the Wiggles car!

Hanging out with Auntie Terri at Amy's wedding.