More swimming

Saba and Nana came to visit yesterday, which is always lots of fun. This morning Saba took Noah to his swimming lesson. Noah did a great job splashing and kicking, and chasing after the ball.












Got it!!

-- posted from the phone

Standing

Two videos in one day, can you believe it?

Noah is getting so much better at standing on his own. It is kind of unbelievable.

Walker

Noah is awesome at walking while holding onto furinture, one of us, or his walker. He has been able to take a few steps with the walker for maybe two weeks now, but would start to complain and want you to pick him up after that. Today he seemed to realize how much fun the walker could be!



This morning he also stood by himself (without holding onto anything) for 5 seconds. We counted! He gets stronger every day!

Sunday in a box

And just in case yesterday was not exciting enough, Grammy and Grammy Sue came to visit!


Noah loves his grammies. And we love when they visit and we get to sleep in. :)

Later in the day, just for fun, we put Noah in a box.


I know, it's silly.


But boxes are fun!


Noah has figured out how to play with our fridge magnets. He pulls them down to the bottom of the fridge (very slowly, this is hard to do)...


... until they are hanging off the bottom and he can pull them off. Then he looks at them, turns them around in his hands a few times...


... and then he starts the process all over again.


I will just add this magnet play to the list of things that Noah does now that blow my mind. There is something new almost every day, and I, for one, am having a very hard time keeping up.

Big Day

A very exciting day today. In the morning, we were back in the pool.


Noah is definitely getting better at such skills as kicking, and closing his mouth before putting his chin under water.


Then we went over to Gaivn's house for his first birthday party. It was very exciting, with lots of babies and parents!


Noah enjoyed the opportunity to catch up with his friends.


Of course, in this sort of environment, it is really every baby for himself.


In Daniel's defense, that monkey was pretty cool...

... though apparently not as cool as the horse...


Anyway back to the party, Gavin was a great host and fulfilled the requisite first chocolate eating very well.


We tried to get a picture with all the babies. This was very difficult, now that all the babies are mobile.


Aaaaaand


they're gone.


So we gave up.


It was a really great party. Congratulations Gavin!

You decide

It is time to make some important decisions around here, people.


Namely, what Noah should be for Halloween. We have two possibilities, and luckily for you we have the costumes in hand so you can get a sneak preview.

Option #1: Accordion monkey

Why does mommy keep describing this costume as "accordion monkey?" I have no accordion! Come to think of it, why doesn't someone get me an accordion? Also, a peanut.

Option #2: Yoda

Mmmmm. An accordion I do not need. A mum-mum you will get me. Play with the stove I will.

Option 3: Uncostumed giraffe ranger.

Duh duh duh, duh duh duh, duh duh Duh Duh DUH...

The lines are open*, please cast your vote in the comments.



*disclaimer: the lines may be open, that doesn't mean I have to follow your advice...

OutWithBaby

So as you may have noticed, we take Noah out. A lot. And it's super annoying when we take him out somewhere that has tiny bathrooms with no changing tables. For that reason, and for the purpose of finding comfortable places to nurse, we created OutWithBaby.com.

As is probably obvious, by "we" I actually mean "my darling and brilliant web developer husband."

Seriously, though, he did a great job. Check it out. And if you know any new parents who aren't yet ready to breastfeed just anywhere or who would like the internet's help to decide where to eat lunch with baby, please pass it along! For an example of what it looks like once it's populated, type "Ambler, PA" into the search field.

Pumpkins!!

We went to visit a pumpkin farm today with some of Noah's friends.


First, Noah came face to face with an astonishing new creature.


But not too close. I believe Goats are not to be trusted.


Then we took a hayride to the pumpkin patch. Noah was skeptical about the camera, but loved the hay.


There was a corn maze for the grown-ups and an obstacle course for the kids. Gavin showed the babies how to go through the tunnel.




Noah got to check out some cornstalks...


Oooh -more hay!


And now I present Chad's favorite shot of the day, for which I cannot think of a worthy caption.


Nice face, kid. I expect this is just a glimmer of the faces I will encounter when trying to get him to take a picture with me in a few years...

Next on the schedule - picking out a pumpkin to bring home.


Unfortunately, the first pumpkin Noah appraised was on an elevated ridge. Apparently a very narrow, unbalanced ridge.


I'm cool. Just wanted to check out the pumpkins down here...


Yup, I'll just give this one a knock to check out its ripeness.


And a little squeeze...


Back at the farm store, Maytal joined the boys for a little photo shoot in the merchandise.


Do you know how hard it is to get 4 babies to look at you at the same time?


It's hard. Especially when 4 sets of parents are all trying to do so at the same time. We're not even going to talk about trying to get them to smile.

So we'll have to settle for individual smiles. With pumpkins.

9 months!!

Can you believe it?


And now we follow with the requisite pictures of us not being able to capture the smiling baby and the sign in the same shot.





At 9 months, Noah's personality is starting to show through. He's got a lot to say.


He talks to us, to himself, and occasionally to inanimate objects.


But either way, he cracks us right up.


He's moving around like crazy, crawling, pulling up, and cruising along the furniture.


And also, leaking. Nice drool on the sweatshirt there, kiddo.

We celebrated the 9 month birthday with lots of fun activities. First a nap. Noah showed us his frog imitation.


Then we had to wake him up for swimming lessons! Today we concentrated on tossing the toy across the pool and then going to get it.


There was also some noodle work:


And a few rounds of the hokey pokey.


A good time was had by all.

Later in the evening, Noah was attacked by a cow.


Luckily, it was a very soft cow.


Happy 9 months Noah! Thanks for being so much fun!