Seven Months Old!

Noah cannot POSSIBLY be seven months old already!!! It's so incredibly fun to experience every milestone, but sad at the same time to see how fast he is growing up. We try to soak up every possible moment with him, but it still just never seems to be enough.

Here are a few things about Noah these days:

* He absolutely LOVES his homemade baby food that Jen makes. So far he has tried: bananas, butternut squash, pears, sweet peas, french vanilla yogurt, applesauce, and cheerios. Now that he's seven months old, we can keep introducing more and more new foods. He's such a good eater - not picky like his mama! He has even almost mastered feeding himself - which we think is WAY cute. =) We bought his high chair and you can tell he loves sitting up with the "big people" when he eats.

* No more army crawling for him! He now crawls like a big boy. He also has been pulling up to stand lately on anything and everything. He'll be standing alone and walking before we know it.

* He's graduated from sitting in his baby carrier to sitting in the child seat in the shopping cart. He LOVES it. He's such a people person and loves to watch people and see EVERYTHING that's going on around him.

* He has started saying "ma ma ma ma ma." Now, whether or not he knows what he is saying, it's still cute and it just thrills Jen to no end!! =) We also practice every morning waving "bye-bye to Daddy" before Greg leaves for work. He flaps his arm(s) up and down like maybe he knows what he is doing. Again, it's still cute to us whether or not he knows what he's doing. =)

* He does not like to be rocked to sleep anymore. We still try though! ;) He'll fight us the whole time, will play in his crib for 10 minutes or less, and then put himself to sleep. We don't like this. =(

* He was in his first car accident a week ago - in his Mimi's Mercedes. Jen was driving and got rear-ended. Thankfully it was VERY minor, we're all OK, and it didn't even phase him.

Here are a "few" pics of Noah the last month:

One of his first times pulling up to stand! He knows he's cute in his cow towel.
Looking like a stud in Aunt Becca's sunglasses. =)
In Mommy and Uncle Brian's old high chair.
Cute church clothes. =)
Playing with the boy in the trashcan.
Such a happy, beautiful boy!
LOVES that boy in the mirror!
Climbing on Daddy at Grandma's house. This is the coffee table he's chewed on. Our new favorite picture. Snuggling with his blanket during naptime. SO pleased to be sitting in the cart - especially in the toy aisle!
Mommy's boys. =) Sweet little angel. On Mimi's deck. Whatever Noah does, Greg has to do..... ;)

Chew, Chew, Chew

There is absolutely NOTHING these days that Noah doesn't wrap his lips around and chew the heck out of. In fact, we've started calling him "beaver boy." =)

We couldn't seem to get crib rail protectors fast enough. He beat us to it. Here are the chew marks before.....

View of the back....

View of the front....

Here are the protectors after..... (Thanks, Gammy!)

He chews on the couch, the coffee table, the side tables, the glider rocker, any hand that holds him and etc. Guess it's time to go to Home Depot and get a furniture crayon to cover up some of the marks. =)

Here is the latest pic of his teeth. Yes, TEETH! He now has TWO! And boy they are razor sharp sometimes. =)

Body Worlds

We FINALLY got to go to Body Worlds (click here to go to their website)!!! It's been at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science for quite awhile now, and Greg had promised to take Jen sometime while it was still on exhibit there, so we thought today would be the day! But it was MORE fun because we had some company! Brian saw that we had it planned on our calendar and him and Becca wanted to go, and apparently Mom was interested in seeing it too, so we all just planned on going together. We even tried a fun little coffee shop up in Denver for breakfast along the way. We couldn't take pictures inside the exhibit (Jen took one really quick at the beginning though - note the slight blurriness in an attempt to try to be sneaky and not get caught), but it was fascinating and definitely something we'll remember nonetheless. Well, Jen was absolutely fascinated. Greg thought it was cool, but was mostly there since it was something he knew was right up Jen's alley. =)

Noah's first trip to the Museum!

He looks thrilled, huh? ;)

Our little family at Body Worlds!

This is how much blood your body gets pumped through it in one day. WOW! - This was the "sneaky" picture. =)

Noah enjoyed seeing all the exhibits, but eventually preferred seeing the inside of his eyelids.

Lunch at Chili's on the way home. He LOVES being in a high-chair!


HAD to get a picture of him in his adorable little basketball shirt and shorts!

Well the Tooth of the Matter Is…..

Noah has cut his first tooth!

So today, while Jen went to an appointment, her Mom stayed home with Noah. The appointment didn't take too terribly long, so she stopped by Einstein Bagels, picked up bagels and coffee, and headed on home. They ate, talked, let Noah have a taste of flavored cream cheese, and let him climb all over them. Then.... Noah decided to do the usual and chomp down on the hand that was holding him - that happened to be Mom this time. Mom yelled with excitement, "Ouch! Ohhhh, I completely forgot to tell you yesterday while he was at my house, but I think somebody has cut his first tooth!" So with enormous excitement, they grabbed his chubby little face and yanked his lip down to get a good look inside. After about 3 tries (keeping him still these days is like trying to tame a wild animal!) they finally got to peer inside and see the little white gem poking through. Bottom left tooth. So of course, Jen had to get on the phone and let practically everyone in her phone book know of the good news! ;) And of course, they spent the rest of the early afternoon excitedly trying to get another look in there. =) We're considering ourselves lucky since he hadn't been overly crabby or waking up in the middle of the night in pain. Easy first tooth - a breeze, really. Hopefully the rest of them will be just as easy!

We messed with the coloring on the picture so you could see the tooth better, and even tried to sharpen up some of the blur (from all the crying and flailing around), but this was the best we could get it without totally making the picture look awful. Hopefully you can see it and be as excited as we are!! =)

First and Last

This morning was Noah's FIRST time in the nursery at church! Granted Jen went in with him the whole time, but he absolutely loved playing with all the new toys and all the other little kids. We think we'll take turns taking him in there every Sunday until we eventually feel comfortable leaving him alone in there.

(No pictures..... the camera was left in the diaper bag in the worship center, and Jen didn't want to walk back in and be a distraction for a second time.)

Tonight was Brian's LAST night working at Saltgrass Steakhouse - so of course we all had to go there for dinner and celebrate that momentous occasion! He got a job working for Boeing, so that means now we'll get to see him and hang out with him and Becca more often!

At dinner tonight, it was also Noah's FIRST time sitting in a high-chair! He absolutely LOVED it, and as you can tell by the pictures below, he felt so proud and like such a big boy. =)

Six Months Old!

Our little man is 6 months old today! How did we get to this point so quickly? It seems like just yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital and introducing him to every part of our life. Now, it’s hard to imagine life without him.

He seems to have grown up and advanced so much as the months go by. But literally, this past month, he has changed SO much and has grown up faster than any other month before. It was seriously within a 2-day period that he grew into this active little chatty boy (talks almost non-stop ALL the time now) that is happier than ever and ready to explore every inch of the world! Here are his latest advancements: He rolls ALL over the floor and spins circles to get to certain toys on the floor. He knows where he wants to go and gets there now. Guess it’s time to start putting those little plugs in the light sockets since he tends to gravitate towards those on the wall. :/ He gets up and rocks back and forth on his knees, and lately has even started this “army crawl” thing where, like we said before, he gets where he wants to go! (It’s pretty much like crawling to us since he’s unstoppable now.) He sits up by himself for longer periods of time and doesn’t always like to be held for his bottle anymore. =( He did this little thing for awhile where he’d sigh real loud when he was done eating as if to say, “oh my, that was THE best bottle I’ve ever had!” He’s starting to get the hang of his door jumperoo and just jumps like crazy and squeals with excitement. He coughs when he doesn’t think he’s getting enough attention from one of us, and lately has even started grunting loud to show his indignation until one of us stops what we’re doing to acknowledge him. On occasion, he’ll throw a little fit and then stop and look around to see if anyone is paying attention. If someone IS paying attention, he’ll just smile real big and sometimes laugh. Yeah, it’s cute NOW……. =) Guess he’s starting to know what he wants, huh? ;) He eats his rice cereal like a little pig – of course we taint it with apple juice, and to him, we can’t shovel it in fast enough! He’s even been enjoying the new dissolvable baby puff snacks and various other little tastes of our food and drink (His binky dipped in McDonald’s sweet tea, and orange slices to suck on seem to be his favorite). When we walk into the room after not being there for awhile (as in nap time), he just gets beside himself with excitement. He’ll flash us a big ‘ol toothless grin, flap his arms up and down, kick his legs, and squeal. His little nails seem to grow faster than the grass in our yard too. Probably every 5 days or so we’re having to do a mani and pedi on him. We are having to buy more and more toys for him since his old ones seem to bore him. So for that reason, we gave him his new exersaucer yesterday and it was quite a hit!

Tonight we get to celebrate his half birthday with fireworks, friends, and family, and tomorrow is his 6 month check up with the pediatrician! Unfortunately, that means more shots, but on the up side, it means getting to discuss beginning his first foods! Jen is going to attempt to make all of his baby food and is looking SO forward to it! She bought a couple of different books to get the doctor’s approval on first (don’t want Noah getting rickets!), and then it will be off to the Sunflower Farmer’s Market to get a bunch of fresh, organic veggies and fruits!

Slightly over a week ago, Jen and Noah got back from Arkansas. This was Noah’s first plane ride. Jen dreaded the trip like the plague, but Noah ended up doing fantastically and got a few compliments from some of the passengers on what a good baby he was! He made a few friends with some of the men, charmed the ladies, and even got his first pair of wings. So cute. =) The ONLY bad part about the plane trip was that the airline kinda beat up our stroller. So now it looks like we don’t know how to take care of our stuff very well – when indeed, if you know us AT ALL, we take exceptional care of our stuff. Greg was NOT happy about that. Strollers are too expensive to tear up – especially this one!

Yesterday, Jen went to her 10-year high school class reunion. (Crazy!) She had fun showing off Greg and Noah and reuniting with a lot of old friends. Of course they all thought Noah was just the cutest! After that, we headed up to Denver to run a few errands, and one of the ladies in the James Avery store told us "Noah was just the cutest baby she had ever seen - he should come back all the time so she can look at him and maybe even consider being the store mascot!" =)

Wonder what else we can cram into one blog post? How about just a TON of new pictures? =)

SO incredibly happy!

His new way to eat..... he's got to do something with his hands.... =)

Playing outside on the deck.

LOVES to play in the sink.

Loves Kobe.

Such good posture!

Big Greg and little Greg. =)

Peek-a-boo!

How he travelled to Arkansas. Whew!

Noah in his "hillbilly swimming pool"

Loves his Great-Gran.

Harold Alexander and Noah Alexander.

Gnawing on a corn cob.

His new binky. We're so mean.....

Diaper Dude.

Going back home to Colorado!

First pair of wings!

This is what a 2 hr and 45 minute nap looks like. =)

Jen's new favorite picture.