May Days

It's starting to get nice and warm here! It's about 85 and sunny . . . a nice change from the rainy morning we had yesterday!

We had Noah's surgical consult Friday morning. Dr. Giangiacomo was less abrupt than we had been told, and it was actually a pretty pleasant appointment! Noah's surgery will be to correct his eyes crossing. He didn't want to do anything with the way his eyes shake back and forth yet, as he thinks Noah may grow out of that. He isn't convinced Noah has albinism, but, as Dr. Gorski also said, he's too little to tell still. Their office is going to call sometime this week to schedule the surgery, but we know it will be a Thursday morning, and it's an outpatient surgery. The doctor said he'll be groggy that day, but he'll be able to be up and running that day.

In other news, Noah has learned to clap! Naturally, he won't do so on command, but he will do it randomly. Sometimes he'll do it to get our attention, and other times he'll do it to try to get himself out of trouble! He's a quick learner.

He's slowly starting to shuffle around when he's holding onto something, like the couch. Only a matter of time!

Noah has learned how to climb into the clothes basket! Sort of a welcome relief from him pulling all the clean clothes out of the basket.


We also had to take Noah's bath seat out of the tub. He has been splashing the water, and it seemed easier to just let him sit in the tub. Dave has to hold him as best he can, and I wash as quickly as I can! I don't know that it's as thorough as baths used to be, but it's efficient!


Dave is spending the weekend with Brandi and Jason, jackhammering their basement. They're working on keeping the water out of their basement. Hope it all works quickly and well for them! I know they all have to be exhausted. Today they're hauling all the broken up concrete upstairs and out.

First Night

We have been rocking and rolling the past few weeks!

Noah is just getting more fun every day! He is such a busy bee, getting all over the place. He really enjoys playing by himself and pretending his dad is an obstacle course! When he gets toward something in our house, such as a door or window, he likes to slap or try to eat it!



Noah enjoys pulling the arm rest covers off one of our living room chairs (and eating them, of course)!


You can't quite see it in this picture, but Noah enjoys standing by an open window and feeling the wind blow in his face and hair.


Dave graduated from Columbia College Saturday afternoon! So proud of him! Grandma Norita, Grandma Pat, Noah and I attened the ceremony, and we had a bbq after with Mickey, Regina, Brandi and Jason. Noah was such a trooper through the ceremony. For a while, he stretched out across the grandmas' laps to read.


Dave started back to school in August 2006. Because he was getting bored at work.


Two weeks later, he assumed more responsibilities at work when a co-worker left for a new job. We found out Noah was on the way a couple months later, then Dave coordinated the big move for his company.

Although he graduated Saturday, he still has class this week! He hopes to be done by Thursday, though.


The grandmas spent Saturday night with us, and we all had a lazy Sunday morning. It was nice to spend my first Mother's Day with our moms! Noah and Dave gave me a pretty purple compact mirror, complete with butterflies and an engraving to commemorate my first Mother's Day!

He is on his way home from a work trip to Chicago. So it was just me and Noah last night. We had quite the night!

Noah discovered the kitchen cabinets last night. He hasn't figured out yet that he can get into them or get things out of them, but he knows he can open them!

We enjoy playing "Where's Noah? There's Noah!" in the bathroom mirror. We'll stand in the hall, and I'll ask, "Where's Noah?" Then we find him in the bathroom - endless fun really! Last night, he started pushing off and pulling on the door frame to get us in and out of the bathroom to play!

He also had his first serious accident. He fell against the entertainment center and knocked his mouth on the cabinet. BRANDI - may want to skip this part! Had to use a few washcloths to stop the bleeding. After the tears stopped, I only got a finger in his mouth one time, but it seems all six teeth (and the one or two trying to come in) are still intact!

So we survived our time without Dad, but we can't wait for him to get home! Although I try, I'm not as rambunctious as Dave!

Big man

Noah had his 9-month check-up last week. He weighs 17 pounds 6 ounces and is now almost 29 inches long! He's about 10 inches longer than when he was born! He's doing great, and he didn't have to have shots, which made the day much less stressful.

Noah's getting all over the place now. He crawls on all fours pretty much all the time, and he's pulling himself up to stand near just about everything, from the couch to the entertainment center to the fridge to our legs!


He has a few new toys, including a lawnmower from Grandma Norita, a piano from one of Dave's co-workers and some squishy blocks. Think it was time for some fresh things!


See the small marks on Noah's lenses? Those are bite marks. We think it must be like looking through a prism when Noah looks through his glasses!

Lazy weekend (for some of us)

It's been a great weekend so far! We haven't had much to do, which is a nice change of pace. Noah and I went to the library and Hobby Lobby yesterday morning while Dave worked on homework. Then we went to a friend's birthday party last night and haven't done a whole lot yet today.

When I say, "We haven't done a whole lot," I don't mean Noah! He's getting all over the place and teaching us how to baby-proof the house! He can now pull himself up to standing, crawl on all fours (if he wants to), stand up in his crib (yikes!) and start to scoot along a few steps while holding on to things.

Yesterday morning I caught him licking the glass on the entertainment center. Ick!


We have a couple more appointments this week - one with the ophthalmologist and his 9-month check-up! Can't believe he's 9 months old already! Time flies when you're trying to keep Noah from doing things he's not supposed to do (like eating books or pulling his glasses off)!

Is he, or isn't he?

We met with the genetic pediatrician yesterday afternoon. Dave and I both liked Jennifer, the genetic counselor, and Dr. Gorski, the pediatrician. They came to the conclusion they really can't say whether or not Noah has any degree of albinism!

Noah's family doctor and ophthalmologist made the appointment with Dr. Gorski because they thought he may have some form of albinism based on his coloring and eyes. Dr. Walters said Noah has a lack of pigmentation in the backs of his eyes and wanted to see what we should expect as far as Noah's visual development. Dr. McQuie said Noah has white hair and is very light. Neither Dave nor I ever thought Noah was any lighter than Dave as an infant or most of my entire family! We didn't know about the eyes, though. I read (on NOAH - the National Organization on Albinism and Hypopigmentation, coincidentally) that eyes shaking back and forth can be a sign of albinism, so we went along, if only for that reason.

Dr. Gorski said it's obvious to him Noah has yellow blond hair, not white hair, though it is quite light. He also said Noah's eyes are clearly blue, not gray or lavendar as most people with albinism have. That said, he does have a pretty obvious sensitivity to bright lights, as do I. He said it's way too early to say anything definitive, as Noah is too young to tell us what makes it easier for him to see. His vision seems to be fine - he tracks things, doesn't run into anything (unless he's not paying attention) and recognizes us from a distance with his glasses on.

So nothing too new learned! We did learn Noah should avoid aspirin for his entire life, as it can cause bleeding in some people of Asian ancestry, and you never know exactly what your ancestry may be! They also told us he will never get "worse" with this and that any subsequent children we have will have a one in four chance of having the same degree of albinism Noah may or may not have!

Other than that, we'll keep on with the things we already knew . . . sunscreen, avoiding being in the sun from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and continuing to have his eyes examined.

That said, Noah has been incredibly active lately! He just started actually crawling (not just Army crawling) a couple nights ago. He will only go a few steps before he realizes it's easier for him on his tummy, but even then he's using his legs more. He's started pulling himself up and is teaching us how to baby-proof the house! Dave has a great shot of one of Noah's new tricks, but it's saved to his phone; I'll have to get it from him later to post.

For now, this is where all that exercise brings Noah at the end of the day!

Long time, no see

Yea! Our computer works again! It died on us a couple weeks ago, but Dave was able to save all the digital pictures, documents and music we had on it. So glad he knows what he's doing! He should win Employee of the Year . . . oh, wait!


We've been on the go again the last couple weeks. We went home Easter weekend. We had dinner with the McGinnis clan Saturday night. Noah and Braxton had a great time rolling plastic Easter eggs around the kitchen table! We spent the night with Grandma Pat and Granpa Rusty. When we got out of church that morning, it was snowing! It's not supposed to snow on Easter! Back at Grandma Pat's, Noah got his first Easter basket! We thought about getting him a wooden one, but he found one at the house and started eating it. So we found a soft Tonka truck basket and filled it with a stuffed duck and some more plastic eggs to play with.


Then we went to have lunch with Grandma Pat and Grandma Norita and open more Easter baskets! Noah made out pretty well . . . lots of new books, camo (courtesy of Grandpa Rusty) and toys.

Carol (Noah's daycare provider) gave us a gift card to Chili's as a thank you for referring some friends whose baby she also keeps. Since we had no food in the house and the grocery store closed early, we used it for dinner that night. We had some happy boys!


We had a pretty short week! Thursday, Tracy and Noah went back to Lexington early to visit the grandmas again. Dave came back after work, so we could take his car to KC for some work. Noah spent Friday with Aunt Kelly, while Tracy and Dave painted and painted and painted and painted! The house is really starting to come along - we moved all the furniture out of the living room and Noah's room. Dave started sanding the floors after we got those rooms painted, and Tracy started in on painting the kitchen. Then it was time to go home . . . shoot!

One night we were watching TV when one of the Geico commercials came on. This one had Peter Frampton as the celebrity telling this woman's story. Noah whipped his head around when Peter Frampton started singing with his Heil talk box!


We're having a pretty nice week so far. We've been walking the past two evenings. Noah is doing much better riding in the stroller (he hated it when he was a newborn!), so that's a relief.


He's enjoying playing with us in the evening. He's starting to pull himself up over our legs. He tries to climb higher if we're sitting on a chair or have our knees bent while sitting on the floor, but he just can't do it yet!


One evening a couple weeks ago, Tracy was in the living room putting one of Noah's toys together. Noah had wandered into the guest room, where Tracy didn't think he could get into anything. In fact, Noah found Dave's school books. Tracy walked in to this.





Dave said Noah has an appetite for history. The poor book didn't stand a chance!

Smartie

We spoke too soon.

Noah learned last week he could take his glasses off. They now have teeth marks on the lenses. Guess that's what we get for bragging about how well he was doing with leaving them on!

He's getting smarter every day! He's trying a little harder to stand and hang onto things, and he can sit, he just doesn't want to! He's doing really well eating fruits and vegetables. He has about two containers each day.

He also learned over the weekend that he can get out of the living room! So far, he's just realized he can go into the guest bedroom.






Any day now he'll figure out he can turn right toward the kitchen or left toward the other bedrooms. We're going to be in big trouble then!

We all had a pretty quiet weekend. Dave went out to the mailbox Saturday, and that was the extent of our leaving the house that day! Went to church and Baby Bible school yesterday, and Desi and Ben stopped by the house on their way home from Jeff City. Noah hasn't been his usual happy self the past few days. We think he's getting another tooth. He has been pretty grumpy, has woken up in the middle of the night and hasn't been eating too well.

Hopefully, it will come through any minute now! He's not horrible, just tiring!

Whew!

What a wild weekend we all had! We took off work early Friday afternoon and headed back to Lexington for the weekend. We had dinner at Reilly's with Norita, then Noah spent the night with Grandma. Dave and Tracy watched "Back to the Future II" and were sleeping by 10!

Noah spent Saturday with Grandma Norita while Dave and Tracy worked on the house. We took down shelves, spackled, sanded walls and put up our curtains made by Grandma Pat. So nice to have one room completely done. The rest of the house is a little bit of a disaster, as there are shelves and pictures all over the floors!

Bob had one shelf up in the hallway over the bathroom door. Dave went to take it down Saturday and couldn't get it off the wall! He could slide it down over the bathroom door or along the hall ceiling to the hall closets, but it fit snugly!


He removed about 40 screws, and still it stuck! Eventually, he "punched" it and found out Bob had also glued it.


We have no idea how he got it there in the first place, but it was definitely a reminder of his craftsmanship!

We fixed taco soup for dinner Saturday night and watched "Back to the Future III" with Norita. Noah Bob was all over the place all weekend! He's learned how to Army-crawl and can get himself anywhere he wants to be. He enjoyed playing with whatever he could get his hands on, from cups to toys to books to tables leaves. He's also getting chattier the past few days. All of a sudden yesterday, he started either chirping or making sounds that remind me of a small dog barking!



We went to visit Grandma Pat Sunday afternoon and ended up staying for dinner! Had a nice time catching up. We thought Noah, who didn't get much in the way of a nap all weekend, would fall asleep and stay that way on the way home. So we gave him a bath in Grandma Pat's kitchen sink and put pajamas on before we left. He slept all the way to the grocery store in Columbia, then he was up for another hour! Way too much excitement happening to sleep!

At any rate, he is having a ball! Tonight Dave left him in the living room alone three times. Each time, Noah had gotten somewhere he really didn't need to be - spilling water over Tracy's library book, kicking leaves on Ruttiger (the plant in our living room) or heading toward the screen door at the front of the house. So Dave put the outlet covers on tonight, and we are planning to get our Super Gates pretty soon!

He also is cutting his sixth tooth! We can tell when a tooth is coming - he is much less happy than usual.

Got a few shots of Noah within less than an hour. Just seemed funny to watch him go from 100 to nothing in about 45 minutes!

He started out playing on his little Ocean Wonders gym. He loves playing with the ball - usually he kicks it or hits it like a Tether Ball.


Then he realized Tracy had the camera out, and he decided he needed to see it.


He looks very intent as he makes his way to the camera.


Then we had a diaper change and decided it was almost pj-time!


We found Dave in the other room, and it was time to play with Dad!


Love the look on Dave's face, as Noah takes off for the edge of the bed. Also a great shot of how long Noah really is!


About 10 minutes later, Noah was calming down. He was completely asleep about a minute after this!

Inchworm

Noah had a follow-up doctor's appointment this morning. No more ear infection for him! His length wasn't measured, but he weighed in at 16 pounds 8 ounces. Such a big boy!


We went to Blacksmith Shop Cafe Saturday morning with Grandma Pat. Noah did such a good job in the car and in our side trip through Shaffer House. He and his glasses were quite the hit!

Noah's getting around quite a bit. He's pretty close to crawling. Right now he kind of inches his way to whatever he wants to get his hands on. He's especially a fan of electronics, like his dad. Dave's laptop is always a good time!

Noah also enjoys a good tag to chew on. He has a Taggies book (it has a different colored/textured tag on each page); naturally, he likes the real tag with the care instructions on it the best.


He now has the two bottom front teeth. One of the top front teeth is through, and the second is visible. We didn't expect these tiny teeth to be so sharp!

Not really a whole lot going on. We don't think there are any doctor's appointments until early April, when we start the first of three scheduled appointments. Keep your fingers crossed that no one turns up sick before then!

Glasses and teeth

No new pictures . . . Noah keeps falling asleep before I can get around to it!

We went back to the ophthalmologist yesterday morning. The glasses are doing some good already, so no surgery for now! He may need it when he's around 2 or 3, but, then again, he may not. It's hard to guess how his eyes will develop right now. For now, we're sticking with the glasses, and we go back for a follow-up in April.

Noah now has his two bottom front teeth and one of his top front teeth. We think the other is starting to come in, but it's not here yet! He seemed to be feeling better lately, but he's been very unhappy tonight and was running a fever earlier in the evening. It was a little high to be just teeth, so we'll see how he's doing when he wakes up. Hopefully, that will be in the morning instead of later tonight!

Nap time

Noah is allegedly taking a nap right now. It was really quiet in his room, and he'd only been down a few minutes, so I was a little suspicious. This is what I saw when I peeked in his room.


He's taken to "chewing" his crib aquarium on and off. Between this and the rolling all over the floor, we think we're about to be in for it!

Funny Valentines

We all really enjoyed the great weather yesterday. It got to about 55 here. After work, we all pulled on sweats and went for a walk, then Dave grilled burgers. Just had a low-key night after that.


Noah has been rolling all over the place all week! He's been laughing up a storm, too. We don't know what's so funny, but he seems to have a good time!


Other than that, Noah still has a bit of a cough. His nose is not runny, and he's not pulling on his ears. He hasn't been too hungry lately, but he did finally give in to the power of green beans! Mmmm! I think squash is up next!

Sickly sweet

So Noah is still sick! He actually lost his voice today from coughing so much the past few days! Poor little guy! He still has an ear infection. The doctor gave us the next step up from the antibiotics last time. He'll take them for 10 days, and we go back in about three weeks to be sure he doesn't still have any infection. And we hope he's not a kid who always has ear infections!

We did find out, though, Noah currently weighs 15 pounds 12 ounces! He's just growing right along!

Noah also got his new glasses last week. He's done really well with them. As far as we know, he's only pulled them off his face twice! Naturally, they go straight to the mouth! We visit the ophthalmologist at the end of the month to find out whether he'll continue with glasses or if we go ahead with eye surgery.


Despite being so sick lately, Noah's as sweet as ever! He rolls around the floor, trying to "talk" to us! He's big into blowing bubbles lately . . . who knew this could be so much fun?! He's trying to sing along with the music on the TV. We just hear a high-pitched note every once in a while!

We've also learned lately that Noah enjoys "standing." Every once in a while, he'll lean into the ottoman. He even stood by himself Saturday morning . . . for about 2 seconds! He can't sit up on his own very well yet, but he enjoys standing! And bouncing. Tracy's getting a great upper arm workout this way!



Here's hoping tomorrow is a warmer day (and that we don't have any more doctor's appointments for a while!)!