is it even possible that noah is already 8 months old?! with each month our littlest king becomes less and less an infant and more and more his own little self. it's amazing to watch this transformation and see him taking in the world around him and learning new things every day. it should probably make me more sad to see him flying through this first year, but i can't help but be excited when i see him accomplish something for the first time or perfect something he's been working on. his little smile and the look that says, "whoa, i just did that!" is so awesome!
during the past month noah has perfected his crawling skills. he now has no problems cruising through the living room, around in the kitchen or up and down the hall. albeit in his very own "noah way" which looks something like a modified bear crawl. the majority of the time he insists on using his right leg to propel himself forward with it straight in a bear-crawl manner while practically dragging his left leg behind him. at first i was seriously concerned that there was something wrong with one of his legs and did a -- or several-- full nursing assessments on him. finding nothing acutely wrong, i finally gave into the fact that just like everything else our little boy has done, he is going to do this his way and not be influenced by external factors. either way, he's crawling and loving it and we are loving watching him as he grasps his ability to further explore the world around him.
he has also recently developed a love of the "i'm gonna get you" game. he will start crawling away from you if you tell him you're "gonna get him" and then turn to make sure you are actually chasing him. so cute! he also has no problems transitioning from sitting to lying or crawling to sitting. in related news, noah also learned to pull up onto the furniture and stand on his own this month, this was *very* exciting for him, since he had an entirely new vantage point and had always loved to stand anyway. because of this, we also had to lower his crib mattress to the lowest setting. since then there have been several mornings and after-nap times i have walked into his room to see a cute little face looking at me over the top rail when i walk in. the first few times it actually was pretty alarming, since i definitely wasn't used to that!
because of his new-found ability to stand noah has also decided that, if possible, the majority of his day should be spent walking around the house holding onto someone's fingers. hopefully this stage won't last too long, because it tends to wear out your back, or your knees if you go that route instead. he's also been practicing cruising along the furniture, but doesn't care for that nearly as much. in fact, oftentimes i have to place some toy or other incentive on the other end of the couch to convince him to practice walking that way instead of using a personal assistant.
noah has also graduated into the first stage of finger foods, namely cheerios. we started trying them during the week of october 10th and eventually noah warmed up to the idea of non-pureed foods. he's a fan now, although we still have to feed them to him one-by-one, because he hasn't quite figured out the coordination of grasping, transporting, and transferring those little O's to his mouth. it's a work in progress.
in social news, noah had a *very* busy month. on september 25th we made our annual trip to the dallas arboretum with my parents and the proctor kiddos. we had a great time, despite it being unreasonably warm for a trip to the pumpkin patch, and enjoyed the opportunity to capture some pics against the gorgeous fall backgrounds. noah was a good little trooper and eventually took a nap on his daddy's shoulder when he just couldn't take any more fun. hopefully next year we will be able to get some pictures of him there in his halloween costume since that didn't work out this year.
other social events for out little one included a long-anticipated trip to ohio to visit and meet his paternal relatives during the 3rd week of october. despite some serious concern over the flight and how he would cope with such drastic changes to his schedule (a time change and the fact that we had plans pretty much every day!), the trip was a huge success and noah did splendidly. that doesn't mean there weren't tears, bedtime struggles and missed naps, but for the most part noah was a great little trooper and absolutely *loved* all the round-the-clock attention from grandparents, cousins and aunts and uncles. noah did better than expected on the flight, and hopefully that is a pattern that will continue, since i'm sure this was only the first of many flights to ohio (i don't see us choosing the car route for several years...). it also provided a much needed break for us weary parents, away from work and home cares and with some extra hands to help out during the day. it was also the first time in a while that we got to see each other for more than a few hours at a time since we weren't constantly switching "shifts" of work and child care. very nice!
noah also was able to celebrate his cousin jonah's 4th birthday at the fire station in parker. despite the late hours and lack of a nap, noah did a great job at the fire station while watching the older kids play with gear, practice using the fire hoses and crawl around in the fire engines. it was only after dinner and present opening that he really got fussy. understandable!
and, of course, you'll have to check back for pics from noah's first halloween in a few days!
more pics when you click on the image below:
