Sweet sleeping...toddler

Noel has really taken off in the past couple of days! Today I watched her take 22 consecutive steps across our bedroom. She alternates walking with crawling - she will lose her balance and fall down, then stand right back up. I cannot BELIEVE that we have a toddler. I still see her as my baby, and I probably always will.

She is still having bouts of fussiness, mainly due to her newly formed opinions. ;o) If we take something away from her or even just walk away from her she will SCREAM and throw a little tantrum. Since she's not at the age where you can really do any effective discipline, it's tough!

But I swear that she has the biggest heart of any child I've ever known. Maybe all moms think that, but I've never seen a baby (erm...toddler) give so much affection and love. She will give kiss after hug after kiss, and even tries giving them to strangers (hah!). She will "kiss" Padme, she will kiss the kitty. She will kiss other babies. I'm sure the kisses are just a phase, but I hope she keeps her sweet and friendly nature.

Tomorrow Noel and I are heading to Richmond for Ronan's first birthday party. I plan on throwing a small birthday party for Noel either here at the house, or at the playground/picnic area here at the lake. I'm thinking maybe a butterfly theme?

I don't know...I found the CUTEST pillowcase dress on Ebay that I'm trying to convince myself NOT to buy, but the pattern is absolutely adorable and it has satin ribbon spagetti straps. Since I have a sewing machine, I'm trying to convince myself to make my OWN dress for her, even though I don't quite know how to use it yet.

Today I went in to wake Noel up from her 2nd nap (I didn't want her to sleep past 6 pm) and I opened the shades thinking she was going to sit right up...but she must have been in a REM cycle. Haha!

Anyway, I took the liberty of snapping a few shots :o)

Fussy day...er...week

Noel has been fussy these past few days. I'm not quite sure what the problem is...

She is refusing her second nap of the day, which makes me think that she's about ready to go to one nap a day. However, her one nap is never any longer than 2 hours. Today her first nap was from 11-12:30.

I tried unsuccessfully to get her to take a second nap, and at 6 pm she NEEDED to go to bed. I think it's the most I've ever heard her CRY CRY since she was a newborn. She was BAWLING screaming....it was NOT pleasant.

So after her bedtime routine nearly 2 hours early, she put up a little bit of a fight, but almost as quickly as I left the room, she was down for the count.

I guess I'm going to try to push her nap from 11 to 12, and maybe she'll sleep a little bit longer.

Here's a short video of Noel taking a few steps:

This evening after dinner Noel wanted in her crib, and for some reason she kept reaching through the bars like a little prisoner. I FINALLY got her little chuckle on video!

A Sunny Saturday

We went over to Eric and Sandra's house yesterday for a Barbeque/get together. Noel doesn't get to see babies her age very often, so she had a blast! I think she's a little too aggressive in her approach, but at least no one can say she is unfriendly. Hah!

I think part of it might be that she does similar things to our cat, who is approximately her size. She tackles the cat to the floor just like she did to Leah!

Unfortunately, Tim wasn't able to join us yesterday. Just a price he pays for the type of job he has! Hopefully he'll be able to come next time.

I realized this week that I'm going to have to go shopping for her soon. She's okay for summertime clothes, but she's going to need some shoes soon, new PJ's and new clothes in general. I can't believe she turned 10 months yesterday!!!

Leah & Noel

"C'mere Leah!"

Wait...hold still!! I want to give you kisses!!

Here are a few from Friday night - Tim had her dressed up in her Camouflage bib overalls. She makes the silliest faces EVER.

I was trying to get a picture of us together but I had
to use my leg to try to hold her still, and she was distracted...

It's official - Noel is walking!!

Last week, Noel took 2 steps. I was proud of her, but wasn't sure if I considered it "walking".

Well last night she took 6 steps straight towards me! She did it again last night and more this morning!

I'm going to try to capture it on video!

Patty cake video

Mom and Dad took this video back in May, when Noel was doing her "patty caking". For some reason or another she won't do it anymore!

Thought I would share!

Thanks for the diapers, Meemaw!

They were useful in more ways than one!

Tonight we all went out for dinner in town. I've been putting Noel's hair up in a "pigtail" on top of her head because it seems to 1)stay in place and 2)keep the hair out of her face. Everyone kept calling her "Pebbles". Hah!

When we got home she wanted to crawl into the box, so I helped her in. She didn't go to bed until 9!

Keepin mommy on her toes

Noel took her first steps a few days ago. I was putting on my shoes, and she just stood up and took two steps! Since then she's taken a few more steps, but she hasn't really gotten the knack for it yet!

Here are a couple of videos.

In this one, I cut it off right when she stood up again. Oh well!

Silly baby!

The past 3 weeks - recap

I keep forgetting about little things that I feel I should share with everyone.

Noel had her first visit to the Emergency Room on June 21st. Basically, I was cleaning up after dinner, and she was in her room. She came crawling back into the kitchen and I could tell something was in her mouth. I swiped her mouth and at first sight I thought it was a piece of rusty metal. It resembled one of those fishing weight-things. The weights that are made of LEAD? Yea.

But it was only a piece of it, and it was very jagged. I reached my finger into the back of her throat and thought I felt something back there, but it ended up going down. I called Tim in a panic, but he didn't answer. I had to make a split second decision, and I wanted to be safe rather than sorry, so I threw some formula + bottles in her diaper bag and we headed out to the UVa Hospital. She was very happy and talkative the entire time, playing with the doctors badges and thing-a-ma-bobs on their white coats. I'm sure the entire time they were thinking I had severely overreacted because she was clearly happy, etc. They asked me a bunch of questions, felt her tummy, and then discharged her. The "metal" piece I found was actually a piece of an ACORN. BAH! Oh well. At least she's safe.

And for anyone who doesn't know, UVa has a separate Pediatric Emergency Room, which I think is awesome. It's good to know that we have excellent healthcare nearby. :o)

Noel had her 9 month appointment on June 26th. She weighed in at 16 lbs 5 oz, and her length was 27.5 inches. I think her length might actually be longer than that though, because her feet are starting to dangle off the end of her carseat, and it's supposed to accomodate babies up to 29". We'll need to start shopping for a convertible carseat soon...which I do not look forward to. I have a tiny tiny vehicle that was not intended for transporting children.

She has started biting me a lot lately, and she rarely does it to anyone else. She thinks it's a game, which quite honestly annoys the fire out of me! She has 6 teeth now, so it's not a harmless love bite. Not even close!

I'll say "No Biting!" and push her away, and she'll smile and do it again, and again, and again. I've tried putting her in her playpen for awhile but it doesn't seem to phase her. I originally thought that she'd only do it to me when I wasn't paying attention to her. But it's not just in those times, either. Hopefully I can break her of it soon!

It feels like it's been FOREVER since I was laid off, and in another sense it feels like it was yesterday. I have a second interview lined up for a job on Monday. I'm assuming there are two other candidates that were chosen for a second interview, so I feel lucky to have gotten this far, but I really hope I get the job.

I really dread leaving Noel again, though. I don't think it'll be AS hard as when I left her after maternity leave, but it'll still be difficult. I still haven't found anyone to replace Miss Holly, though. Who, by the way, has not contact me ONCE to see how Noel is doing. I most certainly will be more particular about her daycare arrangement from now on!!

Oh, I also wanted to add - I appreciate any and all comments for this blog. Sometimes it feels like I am updating a blog that only I am reading. :o)

My my, how time flies!

I was organizing all of our pictures/videos so that I could back them up on DVD, and came across this video.

It's unbelievable that this was only 9 months ago!

4 days old, back from her first doctors appointment!

2 weeks old, watching her mobile

6 weeks old, rolling over for the first time

It's crazy how you forget how tiny and vulnerable they were in the beginning. It honestly makes me a little sad that my baby is more like a little girl now and less like a baby!

EDIT: Sarah, here is that video that you took!

Swimmin' with April

Noel and I took a journey to Lynchburg a few weeks ago to celebrate April's birthday. I hadn't seen her since January!

Noel loves the water and still continues to "breathe" it in, despite my best efforts to keep her from doing just that. I guess she's just going to have to learn herself!

We also went out to lunch at the Depot and dinner at Charley's with all of her family. Noel did pretty well especially considering that she didn't get much of an afternoon nap, and we didn't leave town until 8 or 8:30.

Here are a few pictures

Dancin'!

Ever since Noel was 3/4 months old, she's been doing a little dancing move in her high chair, but it was always here and there. For some reason this week she's been dancing up a storm!!



She also takes pleasure in disassembling any and everything she can get her hands on. This includes pulling all of the DVDs out and throwing them on the floor, pulling all of her diapers out and unfolding them...and even disassembling the organizer that held her diapers! It's hard to keep up with her!



She's also stood up on her own yesterday, without pulling up. She'll stand for 15 seconds or so and then sit down. I'm guessing her first step won't be too long from now!

Hopefully I'll get her standing up on video soon so that I can upload that! I apologize for not updating this in awhile - I'm slacking! :o)