We’ve been waiting for Noah to walk for what feels like FOREVER.  The baby books all say to start watching for it as early as 10 months (although a few babies will walk even sooner than that), but that most children will walk somewhere around their first birthday.  Apparently Noah didn’t read the baby books.  He was 14 months on December 11, and still no sign of mobile independence.  He’s been walking while holding on to someone’s finger for a while now, but he just never would gather up the courage to let go.  I had really hoped he’d be walking by Christmas, because some of the gifts he’ll be receiving will be much more fun for a walking child.  I remember telling Jennie when I picked him up yesterday that I’d given up on him walking by Christmas.

Well, last night he was in an ill mood, and Jake set him down on the floor crying, but instead of falling to the floor and crawling, he just stood there in the middle of the floor crying.  After a few seconds, he took two steps toward me on the couch.  Elaborate celebration ensued, and he got really excited and proud of himself, so Jake picked him up and set him a little further back from the couch.  He walked to me again!  At this point Jake grabbed his phone, and I got up to see if he would keep doing it, and sure enough, he did!  He was walking all over the house!  We got a little bit of it on video to share with you guys, of course.  :-)

P.S. – Please excuse the large prominence of my rear-end in a couple of the shots.  I was too busy being excited about Noah walking to pay attention to exactly where Jake was with the camera.  :-)

We stopped by and visited with Jake’s brother Josh for a little bit on Saturday.  The last time we were out there Noah was around 6 or 7 months old and the horse kinda spooked him a little.  He was okay with the horse this time, as long as he was firmly on the ground or in Josh’s arms.  He wasn’t too excited about being placed up on the horse’s back though.

The horse had quite the personality and wound up following Noah & Josh all around the yard.  I don’t know if she liked him or if he made her nervous, but she didn’t let Noah get too far out of her sight.  She was, however, a little suspicious of Jake and felt the need to sniff him out.  She hangs out with dogs all day…I think she may be confused about what species she is.

Noah wandered all over the yard and finally insisted, through a series of grunts, whines, and pointing, that Josh put him up in the trailer.

So he could play with the rocks.

I think Rio wanted to play too.

Or maybe she was just trying to keep this new little creature in her yard under close surveillance.

Needless to say, Noah had a blast (despite being sleepy and hungry at this point), and pitched quite a little fit when it was time to go.  :-)

We got our Christmas tree this past weekend, and while Sam is usually a little suspicious of anything new we bring in the house, he has cozied up to the tree quite nicely.  As in, it is his new preferred place to hang out.  Maybe it’s because our tree skirt is just a re-purposed old bed sheet.  Or maybe the crotchety old dog has a soft-spot for the holiday season.  Who knows.  We’ll see how he feels once it becomes overrun with festively wrapped & decorated presents…

Noah’s been finger feeding himself since he was almost 7 months old, but we’ve still had to feed him when it was a food that required a spoon.  Until recently.  All of a sudden, he’s decided that he MUST be the one holding the spoon.  You can help guide him a little, but don’t dare try to pry the spoon out of his ridiculously strong python grip.  He’d pretty much just rather you stay out of it entirely.

And that’s great and all.  I’m all for him growing and learning and gaining independence.  The only problem is that he has quite gained mastery of the “eating with a utensil” concept…

We embarked on our annual journey to the tree farm this morning to retrieve the tree that we had tagged a few months earlier.  Actually we wound up picking out a new tree, because we had tagged a tree appropriate for a cramped garage apartment, and since we now live in what still feels like a huge house to me (all 1000-square feet of it) I wanted a bigger tree.

We found a little Noah-sized tree…which is cute and all, and he thought it was fun, but I still wanted a bigger tree.  When we finally found “the one,” we had my mom take a picture of our little family in front of it.  Awwww.  Then my dad insisted on a picture with the 14-month-old holding the saw.  What?!

While we waited for them to shake and bag the tree (I guess they call it bagging it?), Jake introduced Noah to the pony.  Who proceeded to eat his hay as though there weren’t an adorable little boy right in front of him trying to get his attention.

And finally, two more pictures to show what a difference a year can make…

Jake and Noah, December 2011:

Jake and Noah, December 2010:

(Here’s the blog post from last year’s Christmas tree expedition:  Christmas Traditions)

Super fun cake made by the incredibly talented Brook Hawsey:


Reese was diggin’ the can of Sprite:










Two of Noah’s 3 great-grandmothers:

Noah with his Uncle Josh and the birthday present his Uncle Josh bought him…that he’ll be able to use in about, oh, 9 more years or so:
:)

Sam’s been eyeing Noah’s bath water every night for months now. Tonight, he finally got up the courage to jump in…

I started searching the internet for a bib with a “trough” when we started giving Noah finger foods to feed himself.  Turns out, he prefers to deposit about 54% of that food into the folds of his clothes, the seat of the high chair, and the floor.  I wanted to consolidate the “droppings.”  After reading rave reviews, we purchased one of the Baby Bjorn bibs.

Works like a charm.  :-)

Noah’s hair has been hanging over his ears, down the back of his neck, and in his eyes when it’s not combed over for a while now.  I’ve just been too scared to go at him with scissors.  Although I did trim it over his ears a few months ago…and I also trimmed his little newborn mullet when he was a couple weeks old.  But this is different.  This was a need for an all over trim, and I just didn’t have the confidence to try it.  So we went to see Mrs. Brook.  :-)

And, the finished product:

P.S. – Can you spot the new little tooth in that last picture?  After MONTHS of drooling, chewing, and fussing, it finally popped up a couple of weeks ago!

P.P.S. – I was trying to keep Noah still and happy while Brook was cutting his hair, so Jake actually gets the credit for these pictures.  What can I say…he had a great teacher.  ;-)