He Stands and Stands and Stands and Stands...

The day after he crawled he began to easily pull himself up to the ottoman. He has spent more time standing around the ottoman than actually crawling anywhere. And now since he's gotten a taste of the standing life he seems very determined to get walking. Sometimes he'll stand so long that he'll forget that he can't walk and turn very quickly and just fall to the ground. As his confidence has grown he's let go of the ottoman more and more. Today I looked over and he was just standing there not leaning on anything, holding my juice bottle and laughing. I fear the walking is just around the corner.

The Daddy Ride

More Cheerio's

Today at breakfast I put some Cheerio's in one of Noah's bowls. I thought perhaps that he didn't think they were edible yesterday because they weren't in a bowl. While he enjoyed playing with them, he still wouldn't eat them with his hands. Like yesterday I had to place each one on a spoon and feed them to him individually. I was beginning to think that finger foods was something he wasn't going to be into.

This afternoon I was munching on some pretzels and he was just looking at me and literally salivating. So, I picked him up and placed him in his activity center with a handful of Cheerio's on the tray. I showed him how to eat one and within minutes he was happily munching away on them.

Dinner Entertainment

For whatever reason Noah decided there was no better time to get shirtless than right after dinner.

Cheerio's

I read in one of our baby books that Noah was the perfect age for some Cheerio's. I thought he was too young for them because they're hard and he only has two teeth. Babies chew with their gums so it's not a problem and while Cheerio's are "hard" they do dissolve quickly.

I put him in his highchair and dropped a few on his placemat and he literally spent 15 minutes carefully picking them up and examining them. I thought they would go straight into his mouth, but not once did he do that. I showed him the sign for "eat" and he just stared at me. I modeled how to eat it by carefully putting one in my mouth. I opened my mouth so he could see and chewed it up. He just laughed. I tried to feed him one by putting it in his mouth. He pursed his lips and refused. Finally I decided to put one on his spoon and feed it to him. It worked. He happily took a bite. (Apparently he thinks eating with your hands is unacceptable and he needs the spoon?!)

Once the taste of Cheerio hit him he made a face and looked at me like I was crazy. Huge amounts of saliva began to pour out of his mouth. When he finally swallowed he actually shuddered. Mmm...I guess this whole Cheerio's eating thing takes some time.

Noah's First Baseball Game

We decided to take Noah to his first A's baseball game today. A group of us got there nice and early to enjoy some tailgating. Noah had fun hanging out in the parking lot and eventually passed out.

For the most part Noah seemed to really like it. He loved the people watching and the constant parade of kids that walked by. He flirted and smiled to everyone, especially the people behind us. All was well until the crowd erupted into screams...and then Noah would just lose it. It was like this every single time:

1. The crowd would scream.
2. His eyes would get huge.
3. His lower lip would stick out in the biggest pout ever.
4. His mouth would open and nothing would come out until...1001, 1002, 1003
   ...WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

And then we'd calm him down and it'd be back to fun and giggling until the next loud eruption. As we got into the 8th inning the screams became more and more frequent. Finally I had to take him to the car. As soon as we left the stadium he was back to his happy little ways. Mmm...maybe he doesn't like baseball?

He Crawls!

Noah had been showing signs of crawling for months now, but just didn't seem motivated. Besides that he discovered that he could get around just fine by rolling everywhere. He loves standing so much and moving around in his walker that I was beginning to wonder if he was just going to skip out on this whole crawling thing.

Today we were at Teresa's house (a Mom from our Wednesday Mommies Group) and Noah just started crawling as if he'd been doing it forever. He wasn't even excited about his new found capability. He just got up and did it. I was chatterboxing away when Teresa looked over and said, "whoa, does he do that?" and I looked over and just started laughing. "Umm, no, that's a first". We went home and I set up little towers everywhere with toy blocks for him to crawl to and destroy and he had a blast.

I guess he just had to wait until he was good and ready. Or perhaps it was Gymboree today that inspired him. It was full on baby crawling mayhem. I think he knew he had to start crawling soon to get what he wants.

Spitting is Messy Business

Noah discovers the fine art of spitting while doing his best Sean Penn impression.

What the...?

Noah gives his noisy horse a once-over.

Noah's First Time in the Pool

After camping we went to a barbecue at Lisa's house in Moraga. It was pretty hot over there so we got in the pool. Unfortunately we don't yet have a swimsuit for Noah so he couldn't get in all the way. Instead, we just stripped him down to a onesie and let him splash around. He seemed to enjoy that.

Bounce and Scream