Noah Begoah

Yes, Noah is 1! I can't believe it. I know most of you don't even know much about him or have seen many pictures of him, but believe me we do love him. We love him soooooooo much. It's just been a crazy and busy year. As my mom put it, "It's been a long year!". It definitely has been that. From graduating, moving, to taking the bar, to having Noah, to looking for a house every single weekend, to losing out on a short sale, to finding a home half built and finishing it and then actually moving into it in March and then getting settled in our own new place it has been a very long year. Extra time didn't exist and therefore blogging was dropped.

Let me just say that Noah is the happiest little guy in the whole world. He doesn't stop smiling. Even when he's sick he tries so hard to be happy. It kills me. He is just so cute and so fun to be around. People are literally drawn to him. They can't not stay away from him. His insanely beautiful blue eyes suck everyone in and his smile is so warm and happy you can't help but be happy around him. This little guy makes me happy every single day. He instantly smiles when you see him. His eyes smile, no joke! He literally sparkles!

Alright some random things about Noah (Pics to come another day. Hey take what you can get!):

-He's a big guy! He weighs 24.5 pounds (75%), is 31.75 inches long (95%) and his head is 49 cm (off the charts).

-He doesn't crawl and he doesn't walk. He just started army crawling last week at my parent's house in St. George. We call it snaking. He just pulls himself with his little hands and arms. Before this he just rolled everywhere. He eyed where he wanted to go and rolled to get there. He started rolling at 9 months old exactly. The kid doesn't even try to walk. We finally put him in a walker at my parent's house and he went everywhere in that thing. He loved it, but won't try on his own because he doesn't pull himself up yet. He did once at the dishwasher last week to his knees. We think he just doesn't move because Reese will get him everything. We don't mind it though. I love it, because it makes me feel like he's still a baby. I don't want him to grow up too fast. I also like being able to know he can't get into everything yet.

-This little boy loves to laugh. He laughs all the time. He's so ticklish and loves to be tickled. He especially giggles when he's tired and ready for bed. Reese loves to play tickle bug with him.

-He eats and knows how to pack it in. This kid has never had a problem putting food away. He loves it all, too. He's completely on whole milk now as of last Tuesday. No more nursing for me! Hooray! I'm all done! Although he did nurse ten times faster than Reese and so that was much more enjoyable. Food wise, he loves oatmeal, cheerios, strawberries, cucumbers, crackers, lunchmeat, cheese, spaghetti, zucchini, watermelon, cantalope toast, peaches, beans, peas, corn, mangoes, applesauce, pickles, grilled cheese sandwiches, eggs, cake, ice cream and yogurt. He loves, loves, loves yogurt. He eats it all. He used to love bananas. We would give them to him whole and he'd devour them, but I think I bananaed him out in St. George in July and so he won't eat them anymore. He also likes to turn crackers the long way and shave them down to eat them. It's funny.

-He loves hair and is obsessed with holding/pulling hair. It's comforting to him.

-If Reese does something he doesn't like or takes away a toy from him, he'll bite her or try to. It's happened numerous times and teeth marks have been left in her skin. She deserves it sometimes, but we have to work on that one.

-He has 8 teeth! He got his first two teeth when he was 4 months old during Christmas break. He had his top 4 front teeth in before the bottom 4. He got his other two bottom teeth around 8.5 months old.

-He first laughed on Oct. 20th. It was so cute!

-Around 8-9 months he started waving really good and clapping his hands. Now it seems like he's forgotten how to wave. Although he plays peek-a-boo and did that the week before he turned 1!

-He loves books and loves to have them read to him. He gets so excited to be read to. He loves to help turn the pages with his lil pointer finger.

-He'll put up his lil pointer fingers and do number one if you ask him how old he is. He started doing that right before his birthday.

-He lights up when he sees Reese. He has his own special smile for her.

-He did not like binkies at all. We tried and tried, and then I finally bought him a nuk one with the rubber nipple (latex) and we found his match made in heaven. He loves those and took it right away. Now he LOVES his binkies, and I love that he loves them.

-He still sleeps swaddled. He breaks his hands free, but he loves it.

-Consistently sleeps through the night now. It took a long time. There were times and stretches when he would, but he was a much worse sleeper than Reese. That was super hard for me. I don't do well with little sleep. He started sleeping through when we got back from St. George in July. So from the middle of July (11 months old and on). He'll go to bed from 8-9:30pm and wake up anywhere from 7-8:30am. He then takes two naps if we're home. He'll take a morning nap around 10-11am for an hour or two and then again in the afternoon around 3-4pm for about an hour. His morning nap is the longest. He sleeps great now. He slept great during the day as a baby, but struggled more with nights. I think he was just teething all the time and a hungry kid.

-Started using the pincer grip at 8 months old.

-The first time I ever found him on his tummy or rolled over in his bed was on May 20th. So he was 9 months old. I think the swaddling prevented him from doing so sooner.

-Loved sitting in his bumbo and wasn't really good at sitting on his own until about 9-10ish months.

-LOVES more than anything KICKING and SPLASHING in water. He kicks everywhere. He just lays and kicks constantly, and then when you put him in water it's CRAZY TOWN. He goes nuts in water and absolutely loves it. He's our little swimmer. Bath time is more like a bath for me because I come out drenched.

-He uses overnight diapers and pees a ton. He struggled being constipated for a long time, but something has kicked in now because he goes number 2 at least two times a day, but usually more like 4 times! His highchair is his favorite place to drop a deuce.

-Reese and I taught him to say, "bzzzz" for a bee. He'll do it when you ask him. He started doing that at about 11 months old. He can also say dada, and the sound for an elephant. He'll saw woof for a dog (in his own cute way) and yesterday he said moo for a cow. He also says uh oh and I swear I've heard him say all done. His favorite phrase is do-ga-do-gah. He sees it all the time and we call him gus, gus (from Cinderella). He's a lot more verbal than I remember Reese being, so that's exciting. I think he'll talk sooner than she did. He doesn't say mama though. He'll say baba.

-He loves his carseat. He sits so well in it. He does awesome in that thing. I go play volleyball on Thursday mornings and he just sits in there the whole time watching. He's such a good baby. Everyone is amazed that he'll just sit in there. He really is so sweet and good. We thought Reese was so good and super happy, but he even is happier than she is if you can believe that! Only because he just smiles all of the time. Mr. Happy is his name.

-He took a bottle when he was first born and I'd pump for him and then he hated it after a few months and never really liked it again. He always hated formula and so I got him on a sippy cup finally around 11 months with juice and now he drinks from it all the time for his milk.

-He had rice cereal for the first time on Christmas eve. He didn't do very well with it, but Lorrie got him on it on my birthday, Jan. 16th and we were golden from there on out.

-He loves to play with his wood cars, stuffed Clifford animal, books, little people, Reese's little people doll house, sophie, balls, and tags. He's obsessed with tags on things.

-It's so fun that he's snaking now because he'll show up wherever I am a few minutes later. It's so cute to have him follow me around. Although yesterday we had our first get into something he shouldn't. We had to leave out tuna cans filled with vegetable oil in them to catch earwigs. They have been extremely bad this year and that lures them in and kills them. Well I forgot after getting back from vacation this week that we had one under the sink. I went to fill up Reese's bath last night and didn't notice anything because I was just busy getting them into the bath together. Well when I was putting his pjs on while sitting on the floor in the family room I noticed this super shiny streak on the kitchen floor. I followed the trail to see an empty tuna can upside down. Instantly I knew what happened and realized he had spilled it all over the kitchen floor and rolled in the oil. He snaked himself everywhere. Luckily it wasn't in the carpet, but our floor now has a very nice shine to it thanks to Mr. Noah.

-He is such a boy. When we took Reese outside and had her touch grass for the first time she screamed and cried! Noah longs to be in it. He inches off of me to just sit and roll in the grass, dirt or woodchips. At the park one day he was just doing all he could to get off of me and so finally I just put him down in the woodchips and than he was completely happy. He just sat in them and dug in them forever. He tried to eat them and just couldn't get enough of the dirt. I knew right then he was a true boy!

-He got up on all fours for the first time on July 1. He didn't crawl, but fell back down. Whenever he gets up on all fours now he can go backward, but not forward. The second he tries to go forward he lunges and falls flat onto his belly. When he goes backward he goes about two steps and then puts himself into a seated position. I caught him scooting on his butt in the seated position going backwards by pushing with his hands in the middle of July. He's only done this a few times, but no one can say he's not creative in finding a way to move or get where he wants.

-He used to love his sunshade on his carseat. It was his favorite toy. He'd pull it up and down and kick it like crazy. It made him laugh and he just had so much fun with it. We could never use it to block the sun in his face because it was like he thought it was a game. He'd instantly pull it back down and just play with it. He's funny.

-He gives cheeser grins all the time and bites his little gums together for a wide square face smile!

-He does have a mullet, but his hair is curly so we aren't cutting it. We love it!

-He has the cutest feet. He expresses himself through his toes. So adorable!

-He's super afraid of loud noises. He hates the vacuum, the hand dryers in public restrooms, his remote control car and screaming. He instantly starts crying.

-He's a mama's boy. If I come into the room he wants to go to me and leave whoever he is with. He is really good about leaving him with someone else though.

-He is a waxy boy. The kids has a ton of ear wax.

-He peed on me twice for his birthday. I guess he was just reflecting on the past when he came into this world peeing!

-He absolutely hates getting his face wiped off. This is probably the thing he dislikes the most!

-He loves to nod his head up and down and side to side. He's done this since about 7 months old. He loves to do it and always seems to do it at the appropriate times.

-He drops his jaw and opens his mouth as big as he can when he's excited about something. He kind of shakes too. It's really cute. He usually does it when we're clapping. I love it!

That's Noah-begoah! Reese calls him Goah, and I love it. He's our favorite little guy! Hopefully now you know a lot more about him!