Week 13

Baby Pea Pod week! We are either 1st week into the 2nd trimester, or last week in the 1st depending on what source you look at. Either way, I'm feeling great! The queasiness has disappeared in the mornings, and getting out of bed had been a LOT easier the past week. That could also be from our sweet new mattress too :)

BN2!!!!

We are beyond excited to be expecting Baby Noble #2 on April 1st!!! Happy April Fool's Day! Guess the joke's on us, as things are about to get a million times more chaotic and nuts at the Noble Nest :)BUT, we couldn't be more excited and can't wait to welcome this little only into the world come April. Yes, little one, APRIL. Don't be like your big brother and show up early!

Apparently, we love to find out we are having a baby while we are on vacation. With Jack it was in Greece and this time it was hours after we got off the plane in  Colorado in July. On the drive from the airport to the condo, I told Andrew I was pretty sure I was pregnant and that I would take a test once we got to our destination. Thankfully, once we arrived, Grandma and Grandpa took Jack to the pool for a bit leaving us with a few minutes to ourselves so we could find out together. Once they got back from the pool, we told Jack he was going to be a big brother. I know he is going to be a big help taking care of his baby brother or sister :)

So far I have been feeling good! A little tired and a bit nauseous some mornings, more so than I felt with Jack, but overall I cannot complain at all! My pregnancy insomnia has already started though, prepping me for the long nights ahead come April. I've seen the little nugget twice already and heard the heartbeat again at 11 weeks. Starting at 16 weeks I will get weekly shots of progesterone in order to help BN2 stay put until April.

We are so thankful to have such an amazing boy in Jack, and feel so lucky that we are able to grow our family again with BN2. We are praying for a happy and healthy baby come spring!

For those interested (Kathleen Bolt), I did set up an ExpectNet game: http://www.expectnet.com/games/BabyNoble2

10 weeks - baby kumquat

12 weeks- baby lime! I'll try and make myself more presentable next time

Jack helping me. PJ style.



 

Moneky See, Monkey Do

Obviously since my last post, Jack has been up to all kinds of fun and learning. But some of the funniest stuff he is doing these days is pretend play and mimicking. A few examples:

- Last weekend while playing in his room, I noticed that there was a big plastic mixing bowl in the room so I asked him if he had been baking. No response, but it then prompted me to ask him if wanted to bake a cake with me. This led to 20 minutes of baking a "blankie cake" complete with adding salt & pepper, sprinkling sugar, stirring, patting, putting in the oven and of course, eating.

- He has an Elmo fork and spoon and has been sharing some of his meals with Elmo lately. Elmo takes drinks of milk and bites of fruit complete with smacking noises. There is also a baby at my parent's house that he feeds pretty regularly I hear.

- This weekend with an empty jug and paper cups he was pouring milk and taking and sharing drinks.

- this morning he walked over to the Kleenex on my nightstand, pulled one out and proceeded to dab his eyes. Haven't quite figured that one out yet, but think it is from watching Grandma P wipe her eyes after they have been outside in the wind. UPDATE: he now also puts them to his nose too.

- he loves talking on his many phones (real and play ones) and when asked, 99% of his conversations are with Grandpa T. He holds the phone to his ear and says "lo" and then hands it over to someone else to talk.

- He loves playing in my car in the garage. He sits in the passenger seat and turns the wheel, pushes all the buttons, and honks the horn. Yesterday he grabbed my keys and put them near the ignition.

- Every night when I put lotion on his legs, he gets out his own tube and "puts" lotion on his tummy and then rubs it in.

- He loves to put gas in his mower and Cozy Coupe, and also water the plants. If given the hose, he actually will water the plants which is quite helpful :)

driving

making things happen at the Children's museum

again with the technology

pretending to take a nap, complete with snoring

 

Graham Cracker

This one is for you, AJN. Lately Jack has been a really good eater (knock on wood). I can't remember the last time we had to do any mealtime antics to get him to take a single bite of food. Good job, Jack! At dinner, for dessert after a good meal, he often gets a treat, which lately has been a graham cracker. And for whatever reason, he likes to take the crumbs of said graham cracker and place them on his arm. This is the only food that he does this with. The other night, at the end of a good  meal, I asked if he wanted a graham cracker and got the Frenchie laugh (instead of saying yes, he does this little "ohr hohoho" deep little laugh) and he waited patiently for me to get it for him. After about a minute, when his treat had not arrived yet, he looked at me and motioned to his arm the same way he does it when he puts the crumbs on his arm, letting me know he was still waiting for his graham cracker. His own little sign language. So random and so funny.

17 Months!

started this post on June 2nd. I'll leave it be and update next week with the big 1-8!:

Yes, I know - I have failed in blog posts over the past 2 months, but that is just because I am too tired at night from chasing/following this kid around to do anything but be a bum on the couch :) Jack is a very busy little boy, and oh so much fun. Here are a few of his current tricks and happenings:

- Right around 16 months, he started shaking his head no to things...pretty much every question he is asked. Every once and a while he will say "no" but so far we've avoided that one pretty well. Though, tonight he rattled off about 6 consecutive "no"s, so a change is probably coming. On the flip side, to answer "yes", he gives a big smile. Andrew has taught him to say "yeah yeah yeah" when he likes something, but he doesn't really do that one on his own yet.
- He still LOVES playing outside. Most of the time he's content to walk around with a bottle of bubbles, or drag a foam bat behind him, so there's not much playing going on :) He is obsessed with water. We've had the water table out a few times and he loves it. He also loves the hose and getting absolutely drenched by it.
- He loves wearing his Illini hat, and associates it with going outside. He refuses to wear any other pair of shoes besides his black tennis shoes. Grandma Susan bought him summer sandals about a month ago and he's terrified of them. Have yet to get one of them even close to his foot.
- In terms of words, he's got Mama, Dada, milk, blankie (bee bee), Elmo (melmo), good (good, good good), gorilla (gogo), Lucy (LuLu), Grover (gro go), Mickey (meeh) to name a handful.

 

15 Months!

I may have skipped a monthly update, but that just means little man is full of 2 months worth of tricks to report on today. So, let's get to it:

- as of a week after my 13 month post, Jack started full on walking and is now practically running all around the house. He has 2 pairs of shoes that he is still getting used to, especially outside, but he's getting the hang of them.
- speaking of outside, Jack is obsessed with the outdoors. Thanks to a few days of decent weather the past week, we have started to venture outside and explore our new surroundings. As soon as we come back inside, he is grunting and reaching for the door to go back out. Our yard is in need of some serious repairs and currently is extremely uneven, and coupled with the shoes - poor Jack is like a brand new walker outside stumbling all over the place.
- he is in the nap transition phase where some days are 2 naps, others 1. Sometimes it the am nap, sometimes it's just the pm nap. BUT, no matter what he doesn't fight to go down for naps hardly ever anymore which is the best part. Even if he goes down in a nap attempt but doesn't fall asleep, for the most part he'll just play and roll around in his crib for a bit before he starts to become unhappy and want out.
- Also as of my 13 month post, we have stopped bedtime bottles and we read many stories before bedtime now.
- he loves books. He can point out items/characters in several books such as the mouse in "Goodnight moon", almost all of the animals in "Brown Bear", and the butterfly in "Thumper's Fluffy Tail." He can also be very particular about his books. He will push a book out of the way if it's not the one he wants to read, and tonight while reading a baby animals book, I realized he was saying "quack quack" because I had accidentally missed the first page of the book with the baby duck.
- animal noises are about the same since my last post, but we've maybe added a few like "quack" (cack) and my personal favorite "meow" (maaaa).
- other words he is attempting: we've been getting more ma ma and da da lately, more so if we ask him "who's that?" vs him calling us on his own, but I'll take it. He starting to say hi more (haaaaah) which is super cute. If you ask him to sing he'll do some sing song jabber, and will from time to time mimic me when I say "ay yi yi"
- he has figured out how to clap and blink. The blinking is hysterical as he does these long slow blinks, and you can sometimes see his eyes rolling back into his head too. He also knows that he's cute when he does it, as he purposefully started doing it at dinner tonight for Grandma Susan because she gets a kick out of it.
- he can point out his ears, nose, belly and sometimes his eyes. Andrew has taught him how to slap his belly and make muscles.
- Grandma Paulette has taught him to raise his hand and he's starting to do it more often. The other day after he pooped I said "raise your hand if you're stinky" and up went his arm. Tonight I was trying teach him to say Jack and he would raise his hand when I said "raise your hand if you're name is Jack."
- he is starting to have some slight toddler fits when he doesn't get what he wants. Mostly at night when he is tired. Tonight trying to change him and put his jammies on at bedtime was the closest thing to a tantrum we've experienced so far.
- He is obsessed with Sesame street. He was in love with his Elmo dolls before he ever saw the show, but now he is all about Grover "go go". The Easter bunnies brought all kinds of new Sesame street cups, bowls, dolls, books, bibs, DVDs, etc. About the only time he sits still is for the few minutes we'll put it on for him. Hmmmm, that sounds familiar :)
- He dances aka squats and bounces to music. His favorite song is Kesha's Die Young. If Andrew plays songs for him on his phone, he was repeatedly hand the phone back until Kesha comes on.
- He got his first haircut a few weeks ago courtesy of Dad. He used clippers all around and did a pretty good job for a first attempt. That was about 3 weeks ago and he's about ready for another trim.
- can still wear 12 month stuff, though pants are a bit short. 18 month stuff fits him nicely.

We go to the doctor on Friday for a check up, so I will post updated stats then.

13 Months!

Jack celebrated 1 year and 1 month on Saturday! He is learning all kinds of new things:

- he is walking...almost! He has made huge progress in the last week and is definitely getting more confident and excited to try out his new skills. He can go a good 5-7 steps no problem and is getting better at controlled falls vs face plants. Though we've already had a few face plants :( Another week or so and he'll be 100% there I'll bet.
- he has a ton of new "words." Banana is still a good one, but there is also cookie (cook cook) choo choo (cook cook), hot (haaaa), mama, dada. He also has animal sounds down for sheep, rooster, leopard, monkey and cow according to Grandma Paulette. All of his animal sounds are variations of a throat clearing growl, but he and his audience know what he's doing.
- he consistently waves bye bye when leaving or going upstairs to bed, and is very good pointing to his ears when asked. He can also point to someone else's nose, just not his own yet. Still working on clapping (he just shakes his hands or bangs them something when he tries to clap).
- he has started sharing things with others when asked and giving wide open mouth kisses and some hugs.
- he still loves to be chased, scared and tickled more than anything. He also now loves to hide himself behind the couch or ottoman and pop up over and over again to "scare" us. It's too cute and he gets so proud of himself.
- we still struggle to get meals down him on most days. He is very particular and his tastes vary from day to day. Ravioli that got rave reviews one day will get spit out and chucked on the floor in seconds. Grandpa Jim has nicknamed him Chuck because of this habit. But fruit, bread, mac n cheese and puffs remain to be sure fire go tos. We're on all whole milk and sippy cups (except for the bedtime bottle that Mommy can't seem to break yet b/c she likes the snuggles). We'll see if I can report on that being done by month 14 :)
- he is starting to be very interested in using the spoon himself at meal time and is getting really good at it. He'll dip the spoon into his applesauce or yogurt and then goes straight to his mouth pretty easily.
- he is still taking 2 naps a day, though Saturday he refused to take his afternoon nap which was interesting...and 2 naps are still necessary in our house.
- 12 teeth still, but the next 2 are just about to break through on the top next to the middle 4. I think we've had a couple mid night cuddle sessions as a result of those pesky little things.

we had a WONDERFUL birthday party for Jack on Jan 12th at the Maple Brook Clubhouse. Jack did great playing with his friends and opening his gifts and got very into his owl smash cake. Such a fun day celebrating our little man. Thank you to everyone would made the long trip out and for all of the generous gifts! Jack is very lucky boy and he promises the thank you cards are in the mail soon :)

pics to follow soon, prom prom.