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I'm Ashley, a thirty-something, wellness enthusiast turned finance geek (who loves saving money), living in Portland, Oregon with my husband Colton, our kids, and our cat Jericho.

I'm just your average mama sharing about what it is like to be Mrs. Groves and I'm so glad you're following along! I hope you'll grab a cup of coffee and stay a while!

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Noah's 9 Month Update

Noah's 9 Month Update

Noah,

What a full and eventful month we’ve had. We celebrated Easter, Spring is making an appearance, and both of your Grandmas came for visits. The photo below accurately sums up how you look most of the time: so happy and smiley.

You play so well by yourself. When I’m cooking or doing dishes you love playing in the tupperware drawer. Towards the end of the month you were interested in grabbing on to the bars underneath the chairs. You use them to help pull yourself closer.

You finished leap 6 and the biggest thing we’ve noticed is your ability to find our fingers and then pull yourself up to a standing position. You’d much rather practice standing than crawling. You also love trying to walk when we hold underneath your armpits. I’m guessing by 10 months you’ll be doing some type of crawling as you’re getting more adventurous with leaning forward. I’m always curious to see when you complete milestones compared to when Sophia did. She started crawling at 9.5 months. Your top, third (3/26) and fourth teeth (4/7) came in and you’re so cute with all 4 of your front teeth. You have a gap between the top two just like Sophia did.

So far sleep is still going really well. I keep expecting the 8 month sleep regression to appear, but so far we haven’t had any crazy disturbances. Towards the end of 8 months you woke up a few nights, but either settled yourself or only needed minimal help from us. I’m praying that this is the extent of the regression and that any future regressions would be easier than Sophia’s were. Those were so dang rough.

We’ve almost transitioned you to two naps, depending on if your first nap is short or long. You’re getting really good at extending your wake time after the second nap and can last about 4 hours before bedtime. Sundays mess up your nap schedule and you’ll sometimes fall back asleep during church, but we make it work.

We are now feeding you solid food 3 times a day in addition to your 4-5 milk feedings. You love all foods and are eager to try new things. A handful of times you’ve bitten me while breastfeeding, so we’re working on not doing that. :P I think we need to add in an afternoon snack as you’re starting to get fussy around 5 PM and the main thing that settles you is eating food.

We decided to give cloth diapers another try since we have MUCH better laundry machines than we did in our old apartment. We are still using disposable diapers, but it is nice to be saving a tiny bit of money and putting less into the landfill. Why are cloth diapers so dang cute!?

Daddy took his fifth Architecture exam and PASSED! One more to go and then all he has left to do is complete some work hours and apply for licensure. Since he studies after you and Sophia go to bed, this won’t really affect you, but I’m excited to have more time with your daddy during the week.

Grandma Karen came the first week of April during her Spring break and she got to babysit and snuggle you while Daddy and I worked, which was such a huge help. We had so much fun celebrating the upcoming Easter holiday with Easter egg hunts and decorating eggs.

Her favorite thing about you at this age is how happy and smiling you are all the time (except when she sneezed, that really scared you. :P ).

It worked out perfectly that Grandma Karen was here for Grandparent’s Day at Sophia’s school. Each grade did a short performance and then the Grandma Karen got to visit Sophia’s classroom and play during recess. I remember having Grandparent’s Day when I was her age, so it was special that she got to experience that too.

Four days after Grandma Karen left, Grammy Penny came for a visit. It was so special having both of your grandma’s here; we’ve sure missed them.

Grammy Penny watched you for a few hours a day while I made lots of progress with my work. We took walks to Sophia’s school, planted some sunflowers, and visited with Grammy’s high school friend and Grammy’s cousin. Grammy’s favorite thing about you right now is when you smile at her.

Unfortunately, our fridge broke on a Friday so we were eating out of coolers for four days until the new fridge was delivered. It feels like it’s been one large expense after another the past year, but I’m often reminded that God continues to give us our daily bread. He is faithful to provide us with exactly what we need; not too much and not too little. Grammy Penny was a huge help to us when we had to quickly select a fridge and figure out our meals from the coolers.

During church, we’ve been taking both you and Sophia to worship (and then Sophia goes to Sunday School) because we want to expose both of you to that atmosphere. Sophia has been randomly singing worship songs and asking to take communion. You both love it when we read Bible stories during mealtimes or morning snuggles. I can’t count how many times we’ve read the Joseph story. :P I pray that you, and Sophia, both grow to love the Lord and remember all of his promises.

That about sums up this past month. We are looking forward to spending more time outside and are continually grateful that God gave you to us. We love you, little man!

Love, Mama and Dada

Noah's 10 Month Update

Noah's 10 Month Update

Noah’s Birth Story

Noah’s Birth Story