Noah is One Year Old!!

I know it's very cliche, but I really can't believe an entire year has passed and my tiny man is now one year old!! One year meant another trip to the pediatrician for a check-up and shots. First up, his stats. He weighed in this month at exactly 20 lbs even (still in the 10th to 25th percentile), up 10 ounces from last month. He measured up at 30.5 inches (up to the 75th percentile now!), up another inch from last month. This puts him in the 3rd to 10th percentile for height-to-weight ratio, following in his big brother's footsteps as tall and super skinny! His head was measured at 47 cm (somehow smaller than I had measured him last month), but still large for his age (50th to 75th percentile). Long live the large Frank head. With the one year check comes three vaccination shots, which includes the chickenpox vaccine. How awesome that kids today don't have to endure the chickenpox like we did as children! Poor guy also had a finger stick to check for lead levels and to repeat his hematocrit, as it had been on the low end of the normal range (which could indicate that he isn't getting enough iron, or he could have just been going through a growth spurt, causing the levels to be lower) when the doctor checked it in May. He took them like a champ and Daddy had him laughing again before we left the office. Everything else checked out fine and the doctor was happy with his weight, as he believes he has found his place on the curve now, just lower than he had started out from birth through six months.

Below is the pic of Noah at twelve months, wearing the 12-month onesie. Sweet baby boy is looking so serious again. If you can see those wispy pieces of hair, you'll see we haven't cut them yet. We really should think about doing that soon. At least his hairs don't stick straight up all over his head like Ethan's did at this age. Haha! They can get a bit crazy when they blow in the wind though. ;)

It's amazing how much they change that first year. Here is a look back at Noah each month.

Noah is still doing great sleeping through the night and the past couple of weeks, he has actually been sleeping more than usual. I think maybe he was going through a growth spurt?? He was sleeping for 12 hours at night and taking two naps (sometimes for a total of 4+ hours!). For a few days he had been really sleeping in, until 9 am or later, so I think he may be ready to switch to one nap a day? We have done it a few times now, but we'll see if it sticks. I fear Ethan's preschool schedule (starting in 3 weeks! Yikes!) may mess him up and he'll need to continue two naps since he'll have to get up earlier. We'll see how it goes!

New foods tried this month:

• Strawberries
• Whole milk

He has been eating mostly the same things this month, but we have let him try strawberries now. He's a big fan. :) Over the past week we have been letting him try whole milk to see what he thinks. He went from just a few sips at first to drinking a pretty good portion of a cup by the end of the week. A much easier transition than Ethan made! He continues to nurse 4 to 5 times a day too, and isn't showing any signs of wanting to quit. Ethan self-weaned shortly after his first birthday, but we'll see what Noah decides to do. I hate to force him to wean, but the thought of a little independence after a year of being attached (literally) to him is enticing...

New accomplishments this month:

• Blowing kisses
• Signing "cup" when he wants a drink
• Climbing!

He's so sweet as he blows kisses to you if you blow them to him. Adorable. We also taught him how to sign "cup" for when he wants a drink. We're working on "more" too, but they are pretty close, so it's kind of hard to distinguish them right now. Just a couple days ago he started trying to say "banana" too at breakfast when I get it out. It sounds more like "nananana" but he has only said it when he sees a banana, so I think he's trying to say it! :)

The boy is trying to climb on everything! He climbs up on the couch now and has even tried scaling the back of it! Crazy little man. Now that we are in our house we have stairs again and he loves climbing up those when I let him. Baby gates are a definite must with this one! We went ahead and lowered his crib to the lowest position in hopes that he won't be able to escape from it, but I'm not holding my breath. This little guy is much more of a risktaker than his big brother was at this age.

Here is the pic of both Ethan and Noah at 12 months. I can't believe how much more hair Ethan had, even though I thought Ethan had very little! Haha! I think you can definitely tell they are siblings, but still unique in their own ways. :)

We had pictures taken for Noah's 1st birthday and here is a montage I put together of those. :) Thanks to the talented Kristy Vest of Kristy Vest Photography for capturing these beautiful pics of our tiny man!! I want to turn this into an 11x14 canvas, but I'm still working on figuring out how I want to do that thanks to some pins I found on Pinterest. :) Has anyone tried something like that? I was afraid of printing on tissue paper (as one pinner had suggested), so I used tracing paper, which worked (as far as feeding through the printer ok), but it laid down way too much ink and bled too much for people pics. Printing on draft quality worked better, but left lines which I didn't like. Would love to hear about someone's success with this!

Up next, Noah's Very Hungry Caterpillar birthday party! :)