Noah is 11 Months Old!

This month has been an exciting one! Noah has grown leaps and bounds and is looking/acting more and more like a toddler than a baby! Exciting and so up and down. It has also been a bit trying with yet another tooth, his first illness and continued sleep issues! But lets start with the fun stuff!

I suppose the most exciting of all the excitement is that Noah has started signing! He signs "all finished" after his meals...and usually the entire time we are changing a diaper! He holds both hands up in the air and waves his hands around. Our clapping and woo-hooing usually promotes a big ol' grin and clapping! He is starting to sign "more" but looks more like a clap most of the time. It is coupled with pointing at whatever it is he wants more of so we usually distinguish between "more" and a clap! He also has started waving, and does it with such enthusiasm it puts a smile on everyone's face. Often times, he starts waving as soon as his eyes pop open from a nap, sooo funny to see him all delirious and waving like a mad man!

Along with the signs, Noah responds to, "How big is Noah?" by reaching both hands straight up in the air above his head as high as he can reach...and of course finishes with incessant clapping...monkey see, monkey do!! Our other favorite trick is his response to, "If..." as in the first word to the song, "If your happy and you know it, clap your hands!" All we have to say is, "If" in a sing song voice and the kid starts clapping like crazy. I love it, and probably do it way too often, but hey...I'm the Mom and that's what I do!!

Noah has also been giving out kisses! More so to himself than anyone else, but when you do get a kiss, bet your a*# it is open mouth and wet as ever! Baby kisses are the best. We have a book, Mirror Me! A Mirror Board Book by Baby Einstein that was handed down from Lily and Sarah. When Lil was little, Sarah would read her the book and with each mirror, Sarah would tell Lily, "Kiss the Baby" and Lily would proceed to stick out her tongue and kiss her reflection. Well, I have been reading the book to Noah since he was born and initiated the same suggestions to Noah. Sure enough, Noah will kiss that baby each and every time...and any other mirror or any other baby on command! Love It!!

Though, smoochin other babies and swiping sippy cups got us our first illness. I must say though, at 11 months, with no illness, I think we did pretty good. The Friday after Noah turned 11 months, he was super fussy all morning. When I gave up on feeding him breakfast and got him out of his high chair the kid was burning up. I fought with him to get an under arm temp and came up with 101. something. I managed to get him down for a nap and called the doctor who didn't seem too concerned. After 20 minutes he woke up screaming and registered underarm around 102, so we packed it up and went to the doc. Noah had no other symptoms and the doctor suggested the possibility of Roseola, but there was no way to diagnose it until the virus had run its course...aka the fever breaks in 3-4 days and a rash shows up. So I was sent home with a Tylenol schedule and told to watch for any more symptoms.

Well, ove the next 4 days Jason and I saw no other symptoms and battled with INSANE fevers, crying, lethargy, clingyness and general stress. Even with Tylenol and Motrin alternated every 3 hours, Noah's fever reached 105.5. To say it was INSANE is an understatement. The poor guy didn't want to eat, play, sleep, or do anything other than lay on me. There were brief moments of humaness when his fever got down to 101-102, but they were short lived and followed by clingy crying madness. By Monday afternoon his temp dropped below 100 and never came back, but we were greeted the next morning by an INSANE rash all over his face and head. It spread to his trunk and thighs over the next day or 2 and disappeared. Luckily it didn't seem to bother him, but man was it ugly. Looked like the measles and if I wasn't expecting it, I would have freaked out! So, we got Roseola and I must say I am grateful that the fever wasn't paired with vomiting or ear infections...the fever was all I could handle!

Just before he got sick, Noah started cutting his first bottom tooth...yeah, on top of the fever, he had a swollen gum and was gnawing away like crazy on his hands. And the drool was ever flowing! It took about 2.5 weeks to cut through and is still pretty low, but it is out, and MAN IS IT SHARP!

Noah has developed quite an obsession with balloons this month as well. We went to a few birthday parties and the ENTIRE time, Noah pointed at the balloons and said, "ahhh bbbbb." (think pressing your lips together and making the b sound). We brought a mylar balloon home from Lisa's party (Happy Birthday Lisa...again!) and Noah drug it around the house for 2 weeks. No matter what he was doing or playing with, he had that balloon tightly in his grasp. 2 weeks later, we went to Soren's birthday party and it started all over again...only this time we ended up with 3 or 4 balloons in the end, and you could barely see the t.v. through our living room! They are all since gone, but our weekly trip to the grocery store Noah goes bonkers again, and the super cool folks at Ben Lomond Market always tie a new balloon to his wrist at the check out stand! Lucky Baby!

As far as sleep goes, we aren't so lucky. We have had a few good nights...a 4 or 5 hours stretch and only 2 wakings, but they are few and far between. On average, Noah will sleep 2-3 hours before waking up and needing to be rocked back to sleep. On average, it takes 20 minutes to get him back to sleep....so that is 1-2 hour and 40 minutes of sleep for mom. LAME! And of course there are the times where he only sleeps 20 minutes and takes and hour and half to get back to sleep. By 4 am I am usually beat and just bring him into bed with us and we toss and turn together till he decides to wake up for the day. Needless to say, I'm f'n tired and desperate for a change. I have a few books I'm filtering through and hope to do some, NO CRY sleep training soon. Wish me luck!

Lastly, Noah is eating like a little piggy! He wants what we eat...and for the most part we give it to him! Makes for some entertaining meals and some funny pictures! Though, we cant seem to figure out where he puts it all. The little guy is not gaining much weight these days, despite his ability to sit and eat for nearly an hour at each meal! Yes, and hour, feeding our little monkey is a time consuming event....and a messy one at that!




















We had lots of fun adventures this month...Children's Discovery Museum, Beach Days, Mothers Day, and a few from last month to share too, but Im gonna save them for their own blogs....