Things have been pretty busy here lately.  Noah turned 1,  he got his 4th ear infection in 3 1/2 months and he started walking, while Neil was in India for 2 weeks.  His birthday party was a lot of fun.  We had just family, which still meant that we had around 30 people to celebrate with us Noah’s first year.  The weather was perfect for us to do it outside.  Neil cooked some mean hotdogs and hamburgers and everyone just had a great time catching up with each other.  We even had some sweet family members in from New Jersey to help celebrate!

I made the cake this year and had a lot of fun doing it.  My mom always made our cakes and it is a tradition that I hope to carry on.

It is so hard to believe that his first year is over.  I can’t believe that we brought home our 6 pounds 8 ounces baby boy and now, he is nearly 24 pounds.  Our very first outing was to the store to get him some preemie clothes because nothing fit him…12 months later he is wearing size 18 month clothes!  He is eating us out of house and home…we can’t buy enough bananas!  He has 6 teeth now, working on number 7 and 8 as we speak.  He can say Oh boy, mama dada, and uh oh!  He knows when to say uh oh-after he drops something on purpose! 🙂  He is walking on his own now, although he can’t stand up on his own unless he has something to crawl up to first.  He has been in a helmet for over 1/2 his life-has about another 2 months left in his current helmet until he will be helmet-free for life!  He is getting tubes put in on May 6th as he loves getting ear infections.  He is still bald and I think it’s starting to bother him…he took some of my hair the other day and tried putting it on his head! 🙂  He can wave bye-bye and can clap his hands.  He is such a joy and is pretty much always happy.

God has truly blessed us this past year and I am so grateful that He has given us Noah. It is our prayer that Noah will grow up to be a man after God’s own heart.  That he will come to know the Lord at an early age and never depart from His Word or will.  I pray that Noah will grow up to be just like his Daddy!  We are very excited to see what the next year has in store for us.  We know it will be exciting and an adventure!  Saddle up, cause we are headed to year two!!!

We got Noah a little Cozy Coupe off of Craigslist last night for $5!  I know he’s still a little young for it, but for $5, how could I pass it up?  He seemed to really like it and enjoyed being outside.  His feet didn’t touch the ground, but I’d give him another week! 🙂  He stayed in there for about 20 minutes and they decided that it was time to leave.  He’s going to have to work on the dismount.

Did I mention that I actually got 3 cars???  Well, not all for Noah… 1 for Noah, 1 for my sister-in-law, and 1 for my mom.  We fit all of them plus a picnic table in the back of my car.  My car looked like a Little Tikes convention.  My backyard now looks like a used car lot!

I took Noah to the doctor on Tuesday as he had a double ear infection.  They gave him some antibiotics and sent us on our way.  Today, Noah had a rash all over his tummy, back and head.  Apparently, he is allergic to Omnicef.

I called the doctor and they said to give him benadryl to help with the rash and they gave him a different antibiotic.  So, off to Walmart we went to get the benadryl and new antibiotic and we got home just in time for lunch.  I gave Noah his benadryl and potato soup and he was OUT!  I think that he ate a grand total of 5 bites before he fell asleep in his high chair.

I’m pretty sure it’s time for me to take some benadryl too! 🙂

It is amazing how much our lives have changed in a matter of a single week.  As I am typing this, I am fighting my son to keep his curious little fingers off my computer.  He is now climbing up my leg.

Just last week, I could place Noah in the middle of the room, walk away with the security of knowing that when I returned, he would be where I left him.  Gone are those days and gone is any sense of security.  We have gone from crawling, pulling up and standing, and climbing up stairs and there is no turning back.  The baby gates are up, the plugs covers are in and our running shoes are on.  Just when we thought that we had everything under control (how silly of us to ever think we had ANYTHING under control) Noah decided to show us his latest trick.

I cringe at the thought of the day when I walk in and see him climbing on the outside of these stairs.  It’s only a matter of time…  Gotta run…Noah is on the loose and there is no stopping him!

It’s still really cold here, but at least we woke up to power AND water this morning!  The kitchen is finally clean, all the dishes are washed and put away, the laundry needs to be folded, but that’s nothing new, and the floors are fairly clean.  It’s amazing how much you can get done when you are forced to stay home!  This ice is really crampin’ my style!!!

Noah and I are loving having Neil home this week.  He is still working, but it is such a blessing to just have him here.  I’m trying to show him what he is missing by doing lots of baking!  I hope it’s working and that we aren’t gaining all this weight for nothin’!  Off to put the biscuits in the oven and make the sausage gravy.

It snowed/iced again last night.  So, what does that mean???  Another opportunity for a Hallmark Moment…

I think that I may have to give up on ever achieving that magical moment.  The realization that this may be a “made for tv” moment that I will never see is slowly sinking in!  Noah was in a better mood this time, a little…well at least he didn’t cry this time!  I think that it helped that I had him dressed in 6 layers, a nice warm hat, mittens/socks, and a snowsuit that was made for the michelin man helped keep his bottom from getting wet or cold.  He HATES to have a wet cold bottom…who wouldn’t??? 🙂  We did get some better pictures this time and he even crawled around in the snow.  I couldn’t find his mittens, so we had to make do with socks.  (Hallmark would never use socks for mittens!)  Of course, as soon as we got back inside, I found them!   I think that the only one that truly LOVED being out there was the dog!  Oh well, I have some pictures and  I can live with that.  Hallmark, I guess it just wasn’t meant to be!

Once back inside, I made some cinnamon rolls and Noah had his first scrambled egg.  He loved it, but he has yet to try anything that he hasn’t loved.  The boy is crazy for food.  Maybe I should have taken his breakfast out in the snow for him to eat. 🙂

I contacted Noah’s helmet doctor today as Noah is very close to outgrowing his current helmet.  I got some great news.  Under our new insurance provider, it looks like his helmet is going to be covered 100%.  Well, minus his deductible, but still, it will apply towards his dedcutible.  We are thrilled!  The other great thing is that this opens up new options for who we get his new helmet through.  We have an appointment with one of the leading treatment centers for plagiocephaly on Monday.  Hopefully we will get some good news after meeting with them.

I woke up this morning to find Noah staring at me through his crib. This has never happened before and it was quite surprising to see eyeballs peering at me through the slats of his crib as I walked in his room. I looked over the rail and discovered how he did this amazing trick…I’m afraid our world is about to drastically change…  🙂