Noah's 11 Month Update
Noah Parker,
How is it that you’ll be a one-year-old next month?! You’ve grown a lot in your crawling and standing abilities; your 5th tooth appeared on 5/27; you love blowing raspberries on me; and you went through the 7th leap. This was the month that you discovered poop, surprisingly not your own. Sophia pooped and although she tried her best to wipe (as evidenced by the mountain of toilet paper in her little potty), it somehow got elsewhere on the floor…where you found it…and then I found it squished between your fingers. We are really hoping that that experience is the end of your poop exploration.
We’ve started picking up Sophia from school earlier so we have plenty of time to play and do all the dinner and bedtime tasks. It’s been so fun walking with you and her in the bike trailer (stroller) after school. Whenever we get on our street, she loves to push you in the trailer and she is actually getting pretty good at it. On Thursdays and Fridays, the four of us walk Sophia to school in the morning and sometimes rewards ourselves by stopping at a local coffee cart. It’s such a nice way to start the day before sitting down to work.
You have become the cutest little parrot, most often mimicking Sophia. If she screams, you scream, which makes her scream more. She will then say you’re being too loud, even though she started the noise. It’s loud and chaotic, but fun to see you find your voice and respond to your sister. You’re learning new sounds to make and can say: nana, baba, mama, and dada. Occasionally, I’ll make animal sounds, like moo and quack, and you’ll try your best to repeat them after me. You try really hard to say “cat,” but it comes out as “kaw.” We’re pretty sure you know the association between the word dada and who your daddy is, but we don’t think you’ve gotten the mama association yet. There was one day you were saying “dada” and I turned to you and said, “actually, it’s mama.” You then looked me right in the eyes and said “mama.” Whether or not you realized that mama meant me, it made my heart melt. I wasn't there to witness this (so bummer), but daddy saw you wave bye-bye for the first time on 6/10.
You made a lot of progress with crawling this month. On 6/4, you officially did the traditional crawl, and now you're moving around everywhere. We had another visit with the physical therapist and she was very impressed with your progress. You do tend to favor your left side so we are doing some exercises to help you work om the right side and before balanced. You often would rather stand then play on your hands and knees, but there are so many benefits to knowing how to crawl, so we don't want you to skip that milestone.
Aside from crawling, the biggest physical development this month was you being able to hold on to your activity cube and walk all the way around it. I like to count how many “laps” around you can do. You’ll spend over 10 minutes on this activity and it is by far your favorite ting to do right now. You can put one knee in a 90 degree angle and then pull yourself up to standing. You’re also practicing this on the kitchen drawers and chairs. I foresee you walking in the near future. ;)
At the end of the month you became very focused on learning how to sit up on your own. I’m going to give you a lot of daytime practice in hopes that it prevents you from wanting to practice when you’re supposed to be sleeping. ;)
Your favorite toys are balls (from Jericho’s toy balls to my giant exercise ball); hot wheel cars (especially the fire truck one that makes noise); and the activity cube. You’re so fascinated with Jericho and think he is funny. If I ask where the kitty is, you’ll look around for him. You still hate when we have to take something out of your hands; I get it, I would hate that too.
This month as special because our friends who moved to The Netherlands were in town and our other friends who moved to Hawaii were also in tow. We had a bbq and stayed up way too late catching up.
Grandpa Danny visited for a long weekend so daddy and I could attend our friends’ wedding kid-free. We had a great time exploring the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum and playing “teacher” with Sophia.
For Memorial Day, we worked in the yard and took you and Sophia to Multnomah Falls for the very first time. We tried to do the one mile hike up, but it got too challenging with the stroller. We all had the best time!
Sophia had her end-of-year preschool program and my heart melted into a puddle. They sang a few songs, including two songs in Spanish (they have Spanish class once a week) and recited a Bible verse. Of course Sophia would lift her dress up on stage the one time I don’t have her wear shorts underneath. Auntie Beth came to support and we all had the best time.
We’ve had lots of play dates with our friends: Blue Lake splash pad with our small group (you loved the water); play date with Nyla and Luca; and celebrating your very first Father’s day with Dove and her parents. We are so blessed to have best friends with littles who we can experience life with.
Next month we will be celebrating your first birthday and it is so bittersweet. We love seeing you reach all the different milestones and witnessing your relationship with Sophia grow, but man, we wish time would slow down. We love you Noah Bear.
- Mama and Dada.
