Birthday Madness!

Well, we all survived the big birthday bash this weekend. At one point our guest list had ballooned to near 50 people, which was a bit concerning considering the size of our house and the potential forecast (rain/snow and 40 degrees = no patio use). But in the end about 30 folks stopped by and it was a wonderful time. Noah did fabulously with all the people and excitement. It was so cute when we all sang to him he just sat in his chair looking up and smiling, like "yeah, I'm the man, you all love me!" He was lucky to have all his grandparents there, all his Aunts and Uncles, and several of his "adopted" Aunts and Uncles. We are truly blessed to have such a wonderful group of friends and family. He enjoyed his chocolate smashing cake, though I think he had a better time digging through it than eating it. And he got some wonderful gifts including lots of cute cute clothes for our growing boy, several noisy toys (think 2 different drum toys, a singing train, a talking cell phone, etc...), a great stool with his name in a puzzle on it, and the cadillac of wagons with 2 seats for him and his buddy Fred. All in all it was a great day! Thanks to everyone :)

One is Fun!

Holy Crud, the kid is one! Today is Noah's first birthday, hooray! So far we've celebrated by waking up at 5:30am for no apparent reason and with a birthday pancake from mommy. Taking pictures is now getting trickier and trickier as this kid moves around like a maniac. But we managed to get a few of him in his birthday shirt. He's gearing up for the big party on Saturday!

Haircut

Above are some pictures of Noah pre-haircut. We had trimmed a little around his ears at Christmas time, but that was it. So it was getting pretty shaggy, particularly in the back. So, since he's got a big birthday party coming up, we took him over to Auntie Kim's house for a haircut. Kim has some haircutting experience, so we knew she would do a great job and we were right. She moved quickly while everyone in the house distracted him, see below:

And, voila, below is the final product. I think he looks older now, I'm sure my mother will cry upon seeing this because she didn't want her little grandbaby to lose his locks. But he looks like a gentleman now and is all set for the big day. I think he looks even more like his cousins now too!

Cooperative play...

Fred and Noah actually started "playing" together this week. It was fun to watch. Noah was very excited when Fred showed up and they both made lots of eye contact and talked to each other. In the kitchen they teamed up to rustle the big bag of bags together. Then they actually played with the animals together, collectively moving them from the ark to the farm. It was funny to see them working together.

In other news, Noah has taken over Fred's eating machine role. We used to be amazed at the sheer quantities Fred could put down. Now Noah is starting to ramp up his eating habits. Yesterday for lunch Noah sat for about 45 minutes eating meatloaf, honeydew, pasta, sweet potato fries, and yogurt. This morning for breakfast he ate a whole grain waffle, some canned apricots and a yogurt. You can see by the look on his face he was not ready to wait while mommy snapped the picture. He was whining and yelling at me the whole 2 seconds the plate was on the table and the food was NOT in his mouth. I expect his stats update at his year check up might show some gains!

It is TOO early for this...

So as I write this it's a little before 8am and Noah has been up to his usual antics. This morning when he got up he was soaked from a major diaper leakage overnight. So he hopped in the shower with daddy to clean up. Then, about 10 minutes ago, I ran down to put some laundry in. Look what I came back up to discover. Oh boy this kid is on a roll!

A Man and his Remote...

Noah, like every man, has discovered the power and joy of the remote control. He can actually tell the difference between the sound system remote and the TV remote. He much prefers the TV one because he can change the channels. Today (no joke) he nearly ordered an "adult" movie. It's funny to see him actually push buttons and realize that they do something. He seems to prefer pushing the '4' button, which on our TV is the Spanish channel. Muy Bien!