ONE YEAR OLD!!!

Oh how crazy it is that our Noah is ONE YEAR OLD! Whoa. Whoa whoa whoa. That's all. But so stinking awesome!

Noah turned a year old last Wednesday, and we celebrated in a big ol' way as we previously mentioned..hanging with doctors and at the hospital. I think Noah is going to be a doctor..I think that's why he wanted to hang there. That sweet little man LOVES to have his heart/lungs listened to. Which I just find so funny because his daddy also does, and his Mama and his two grandmama's are nurses. He sits and stares and watches while they listen to him like he just loves it. If he sees my stethoscope laying around the house then he picks it up and takes it with him everywhere. Funny kid.

So after a LONG week...we are finally over the RSV I think...at least mainly. He still has a cough, and the stinking ear infection that he landed because of the RSV is still bothering him so we had to change up his antibiotic, but we're getting there. If I could kick the stinking bug we'd really be rockin' over here!

His stats from his big one year doctor's visit:
Height: 29 1/4" - 90th Percentile
Weight: 23lb 10oz -60-65th Percentile
Head Circ: 47.5 cm - 75th Percentile

Growing big and strong.

Here's what he's doing now that he's a whole year old. Now that we've officially entered TODDLER stage.

Waves bye-bye
Blows kisses
Says Go-go, Mama (only occasionally), and Dada. That's it so far
(making a cake for Daddy's birthday)

Mimics sounds as I try to teach him. I feel like I have so much to learn as a mama as to how to teach him new things. But we work on things every day, and hopefully something is sticking. :)

Cruises around our furniture like he owns the place

Jumps up and down in his bed when he's excited

Has recently started giving hugs when we see him for the first time- such as after a babysitter, or working, or a nap. It's SO sweet. He doesn't do it if you ask him for a hug, but it's like he genuinely missed you when he sees you and squeezes EXTRA hard when you pick him up. MELTS MY HEART.

Has recently gotten very cuddly. I love this.

13 steps today! I think we can officially call him a walker. ALMOST. He's a walker who isn't really interested in walking. He can do it, he just very much prefers to crawl. But we've been walking outside this week and he's been loving it. I'm super excited for him, he has a huge grin on his face when he's doing it. So precious.

(Finger painting for the first time)

Only nursing once a day now. We recently dropped that night time feeding because it had become painful for one of us. (Guess which one) So we're doing bottles with milk at night. And while I know that giving him a bottle probably isn't the best choice, it's currently the only choice. Boy will NOT drink from a cup. Every time I think I've landed one that works he changes his mind. Last night at dinner we cut a straw short and put it in his cup and he loved that. Tried it today - pushed it away the ENTIRE day. I mean seriously. We have to come up with something though because one of us is running out of milk, and one of us is stubborn and won't drink anything else. Thus the bottle of milk. Picking our battles here. :)
Still loves to dance. I mean it may be my favorite thing he does. (I realize there are many of those- totally in love over here) The music turns on and he starts to wiggle. Today he stole my phone and managed to turn on Pandora, Beyonce's "Single Ladies" came on and and he started to boogie. Until he realized we were watching, and that was over.
His favorite game to play is to drop things on the floor. Just about drives me crazy. I'm learning to let it go. Today as we were walking through Target he had a little bucket in his hand, looked at me, locked eyes with me, held his hand over the side and bam. Dropped it on the floor. Then smiled. Until he realized I wasn't giving it back - then threw a bit of a fit.

Speaking of those- when my sweet precious baby begins to throw a tantrum I am at a loss for how to discipline that. We're trying to be consistent. We're trying to teach him the gospel even now, but it's hard to word discipline for a 1 year old that brings the gospel to his level. But it's definitely not too early to be trying I know and believe that, because he clearly understands what I say much of the day so I think it's important to be trying. It's also very difficult at times not to laugh. Like tonight at dinner- I'm trying to feed him and he keeps either spitting it out or pushing the spoon away. Not while throwing a fit, just because he wanted to, and all I can think is "this is hilarious" but it's not- I can't teach him that. So we're working on it. Balance, balance.

LOVES big boy food. New favorite thing is blueberries. He loves those. And cheese-totally gets that from me.
(Shaving cream paint- he did not love this. He DID love turning the shower on on his mama. Thought that was great)

He got this toy for Christmas, it's an octopus, that hides these little balls under his shoes. Noah loves it. Today I was feeding a bottle to our friends' little man, and I look over and Noah has his octopus flipped upside down trying to fish out the ball. So funny.

Plays "catch." He loves when we toss the little balls to him and he actually tries to throw them back. Very cool.

Has recently become very mischievous with Vaseline. Three different times he has found the container and broken into it. Don't think it's because we leave it laying around, we don't, he just finds it. Every time. However, it's stored in a more protected way now.

I'm sure there's more..but it would probably just be rambling for my own good. :)

Have a great week! Both of our parents are coming and we're having a little party and we're dedicating Noah this weekend at church, so we're pretty pumped!

Brad ROCKS!

This little post is just to say...I am THANKFUL for my sweet husband today. Don't get me wrong, I'm always thankful for this man..but today and this weekend especially.

See...we are in the S.I.C.K. house this week. Brad has referred to Noah and I as a leper colony. That should paint you a picture.

I apparently picked up Noah's sickness and it hit HARD this weekend. I literally have laid on the couch all weekend. I pretty much only got up only to play with Noah for a few minutes at a time..and that's about it. Brad cooked, cleaned, took care of Noah, took care of me, gave both of us medicine, cuddled us, and all around selflessly served his family all weekend.

And I am thankful!

Because Monday is coming super fast, and I am definitely not feeling any better..but I'm feeling ready to attack the week because Brad let me spend the whole weekend resting without feeling guilty.

He's one heck of a dude.

That's it. Just wanted to brag a little.

Noah's one year post is coming.

We have his party next weekend, and our parents are coming down this week. I am so excited! We have to kick this illness OUT OF HERE before they get here! I'll be disinfecting all week. :)

Hope you had a great weekend!

Boo You RSV.

So guess where Noah spent his first birthday.

I'll give you a hint.

That's right.
In the hospital, because of that ugly RSV bug.

Here's how that went down. (Don't worry, we're all home and happy now.)

Noah developed a cough this weekend-which thankfully Brad noticed during his nap on Saturday and kept him home from a birthday party that morning so we didn't pass to to everyone! It went on all weekend, but I wasn't super worried because he wasn't in distress. Well I had to work Monday morning and I felt like Noah looked relatively ok when I left that morning and went on ahead. Well later in the morning Brad called me and informed me that our sweet friends' little man had just been diagnosed with RSV. So at least we knew to check for it, and had thankfully rescheduled his well check for Monday afternoon. By the time we got to the doctor Noah looked worse, but not terrible, but turns out he also had RSV.

We left and our doctor informed us that most likely it would get worse before it got better, and I mean, I've never dealt with RSV before so I wasn't really sure how bad "worse" would be.

So on Tuesday and Wednesday as Noah looked sicky, and was breathing 60-80 breaths/minute I kept telling myself "Well they said he would get worse." (He didn't look distressed..just breathing very quickly, and horrible cough) Well thankfully, our doctor is A-MAZING. We love him. Seriously. His nurse called both days, and then he himself called yesterday afternoon and told me to bring Noah back in now.

We got there at 3ish. By 7:30ish we were on an ambulance being transferred to the children's hospital here in Austin. Sweet little man got a chest xray, a breathing treatment, and lots of time with the doctor and nurse while we were at the office. He really looked ok, the doctor was just concerned with him breathing so fast. You can't breathe that fast for that long without some complications usually. Thus the night in the hospital.

But we are SO thankful! It made me feel so much better just knowing he wouldn't tucker out on us at home and have to go to the hospital in a critical situation, and because by the time we were leaving the doctor's office yesterday Noah just looked so exhausted and worn out, I was thankful that we wouldn't have to worry last night.

But, the Lord heard our prayers. We are so thankful for the friends/family who were praying for the little man. Almost as soon as we had told a few people that Noah was headed to the hospital, we started getting texts of people saying they were praying, and seriously by the time the doctor's were checking on him once he was admitted they literally said he looked "awesome." :) Felt a little silly being in the hospital and being told he looked "awesome" but they also said it was good we were there after how Dr. Caldwell had been concerned. God is so good.

So Noah spent his first birthday in the hospital - we joked that he was missing the attention from his last birthday! We were discharged home today after he woke up this morning like a whole new sweet boy! Still with a cough but breathing much slower and so happy. Running around like a crazy man in his crib and playing peek-a-boo, dancing for the doctors, and waving at people. Decided it was safe to take him home.

So our little guy didn't get cake for his birthday (yet) or his present (yet) but he did get his very first ambulance ride (hopefully his last) and lots and lots of attention from medical personnel. (Who did a FANTASTIC job)

Boo you RSV. But you did not ruin our party. Noah is just too cool to let that happen! Here are the only pictures we have of our little man on his birthday. Sad but true. Oops.

He finally cashed at midnight in my lap after moving around like a crazy man in his crib

A couple videos from today as he was feeling MUCH better.




Have a great week! We will now that sweet man is on the mend!

I'm feeling sentimental.

Oh this week.

I keep crying.

Good tears.

But I mean, I thought I cried a lot before, and then this week happened and I realized I was wrong. I cry a lot now.

Driving to church this morning crying.
Thinking back to last year at this time and crying.
Looking at my sweet little almost one year old cuddling me, and tearing up.

Oh how we love him.

And oh my goodness it's already been a year.

I remember this time last year like it was yesterday. All the fears and insecurities of "how on earth will we ever be parents?" "how will our marriage ever be the same?" "what have we gotten ourselves into?" "what the heck will labor be like?"

SO many questions.

And then he came. And he was perfect. And we loved him more than we could even imagine the second we laid eyes on him.

That's what's on my mind this week.

That and the crazy dream I had today. I woke up from the dream (after what was apparently an intense nap)- looked at Brad in all seriousness and said "OH no I think I'm supposed to be in a wedding today. It starts at 5:45!" Brad laughed at me. But then I said ..."No seriously, didn't I go to a rehearsal yesterday?"

Nope.

One year later and I haven't gotten my pre-baby brain back. It could come on back any day. That would be ok with me.

Have a great week! We will! We're celebrating a precious little man turning one on Wednesday.

OH! And most importantly...a Very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my sweet Nana today! We love you so much.

Random.

So I need to actually blog something...but I also need to clean the house...so that will win. But some random thoughts for you on this fine Thursday morning:

I went to the grocery store three days in a row this week. Day 1: Groceries. Day 2: To pick up the two packs of stamps that I bought but left there. (Which they kindly gave to me even though I didn't have my receipt.) Day 3: I forgot when I bought the groceries that we were in charge of dinner for small group, and were taking friends who recently had a baby a meal tonight- so I had to go back to get groceries for that. Oh my good stinking gracious.

Guess what I forgot. Still. In all those trips. Dish detergent. So my amazing husband went this morning for me to get that. He rocks.

I did CPR this week for the first time at work. For the first time in 4 1/2 years as a nurse. I gotta tell you, I have never been so shaky as when I was standing in the room alone (for all of thirty seconds that felt like FOREVER). But more importantly..for the rest of the day while I paged the doctor every single hour- no joke- or hunted him down in the hospital -for real- I was a nurse, and I loved it. I love having to use my mind, and being so perplexed I have to stand and look at the monitor and try to figure out what to do next. I am so very thankful that when I have to leave my little man for 12 hours at a time (15 on that particular day) that I get to go to a job that I love, and do the work that the Lord has called me to. I am thankful.

Noah, I believe, is finally back to his normal self and sleeping all the way through the night. No more 3 or 4 am play dates. Oh I am thankful for that. Poor little man...I think that maybe he was hungry. How mean are we?! I noticed because while Noah and I were in Lafayette last week he slept every single morning until at least 7am if not later, and I thought YAY!! Then we came back home and he was back to waking up at 3 or 4 am; one night Brad got up 5 times with him. What on earth?! So I was trying to figure out what was different and BAM! While we were in Indiana he ate zero baby food. He also ate bigger meals, and snacks in between. Back at home we hadn't fed him as much, and we don't do a lot of snacks. Well...Tuesday I told Brad I thought that was the problem so we did snacks through the day and a more filling meal and YAY we're back through the night. Every day this week until at least 6:30. AMAZING. I'm so happy. I feel terrible that our poor little guy was hungry..but we're still buds so I guess he's forgiven us. I guess I'm still learning to be a mama.

Noah cracks me up. He is trying more and more to mimic what we say. Precious.

Our kitchen is quite a bit smaller than the kitchen in the house. So one of the things we've done to clear up cabinet space is to put kitchen appliances along the top of the kitchen cabinets for storage. (It drives me nuts but it works) Well I wanted to shred some chicken with our Kitchen Aid mixer (thank you PINTEREST for that idea) so I had to climb up and haul that heavy thing down...well then after I was finished and went to put it back up trouble started. I turned the stool backwards to how I normal use it, so when I stepped down off the counter onto the stool, I then missed the step down and fell down onto the tile floor and into the kitchen island. I have a nasty bruise, and my arm feel like I got punched. Hard. Whoops.

I also walked into the desk at Nana and Papa's last week twice, and now I have a big ol' bruise on my hip from that. Good job.

We are going on our very first OVERNIGHT date in a year on Friday. Our very first time away from Noah for a whole night...I'm a little tearful just thinking about it. The only time I am ever away from Noah is while I'm working and that just about kills me. So goodness. However...I am SO excited to hang out with my sweet husband for a night on the town. We are going to see Wicked (YAY!!), and then just stay downtown. Our sweet friends Cal and Kassi are going to stay here with out little man. WE are so very thankful for our friends who LOVE on our sweet man.

Both of our parents are coming celebrate Noah's birthday with us at his party. I am so excited! We're going to have a red wagon party, and the sweet Mullins fam is hosting for us. Thankful!

On the news this morning they reported about a study that said if you eat dessert for breakfast you are more likely to lose weight and keep it off because your cravings are kept in check throughout the day. I hope that's true because I've eaten cookie cake every day this week for breakfast. Realistically- I get that it's probably a total lie...but as I was eating my cookie cake I was thinking "HECK YES!"

I think that's about it for now! Have a great day!