Nine months and no teeth :)

These are a few of my favorite things

I have a whole set of fabric blocks but mostly I just like to drag this one around. It has a flap I can use to hold it so I can easily take it with me wherever I go.



Have you guys seen these door stopper things? Endless fun!



This stepstool is the best. It also functions as a drum.



Then there is my high chair tray. I love to push it around on the floor. I can't believe my mama lets me do this. Neither can she.



This lever on the chair is so cool. I'm always trying to figure out how to eat it. (Also: notice the block in my hand!)



Oh, and my parents have this cool maze set up in the dining room. They call it a "table and chairs".

Fall...it goes by quickly.

Pumpkin patch with Grandma Sue:





FIVE year anniversary: We had dinner at Rue Cler and then went to see Built to Spill the next night.



Fun visit from Kasey:


Noah: "I finally got to meet this nice girl who sent me my favorite shoes!"

Halloween:


Don't laugh - it was free!

Another visit from Grandma Sue:




Cows:



that about wraps it up.

7 months and lots of changes for Noah:

-He started sleeping in his own bedroom at night. I didn't want him to ever leave the pack n play by my bedside but one early morning at 4 am, Sameer picked him up and moved him to his own room where he promptly fell asleep. So did we. He had been babbling (LOUDLY!) in our room since 2 am that night. I thought his first night in his own room would have been a little more ceremonious.

-He graduated from the infant carrier to a convertible car seat. This means he gets to sit up in the front of the shopping cart too - very fun for both of us and I humbly suspect it's a treat for everyone in the grocery store too.


-His vocabulary has expanded and he can be quite a chatterbox. (ba-ba-ba, da-da-da, ma-ma-ma, a-woah-woah, nah-nah-nah, ga-ga, typical baby talk)

-He's eating solids with lots of enthusiasm! His favorite is butternut squash :)

-And as of today, he crawls! Up until then he used the frog hop to get from one toy to another.

He's REALLY on the go during the day and is always trying to jump, scoot, crawl, eat, babble, laugh and grab...and then bedtime rolls around and here we are for his evening feeding. Sometimes he'll stop in the middle of that feeding and just stare at me like he's seeing straight into my soul. The expression on his face during those moments is unlike any other. I won't ever be able to capture it on camera but that's okay - it's almost sacred. I'll just have to burn it into my memory. In the morning I literally take a second to close my eyes to make sure I still remember it. He studies my face and I talk to him softly, telling him all the things I love about him..."Your hair that is sticking up all over the place, your chubby hands, your perfect ears, your round cheeks, your button nose, your Yadav mouth, your chunky thighs..." and I trace my fingers along his face and he smiles a quiet smile - not the huge gummy smile we get during the day but a closed-mouth peaceful smile. He listens intently to everything I say and we just stare at each other some more until we're both satisfied. When we've had our special mama & baby time, he goes back to nursing and eventually falls asleep. I lift him up to carry him to bed and his little feet still reach up to his bottom. He's still my tiny baby.

Fun fact:

In early March of 2009, I watched all 9 SEASONS of Coach in 2 weeks. Impressive, right?!?

I don't have much of an attention span for TV or movies unless I'm really sick and tired but unable to sleep. That is exactly how the first several weeks of Noah's life were. He was so colicky and had to be held upright constantly; I was so afraid of falling asleep while holding him.

So, I resorted to netflix "watch instantly" to get me through the long nights. Noah and I spent most of our time in bed with the laptop. (Sameer slept in the guestroom so one of us could be rested!) Noah probably thinks the theme song of Coach is a sweet lullaby. At first, I watched all the episodes of 30 Rock and then Chuck. I couldn't watch anything scary or sad; I knew I couldn't handle too much drama in my sleep deprived state. After I finished Chuck, I had no clue what to watch and then I stumbled upon Coach. This was definitely not a show I would ever watch but it met the qualifications of "not scary" and "not sad". So I watched 9 seasons of Coach in about two weeks. Nights blurred into days and back into nights again. I usually had no idea what day it even was. My only measure of time was what season/episode of Coach I was on.

(Sometimes I wonder: if I had only given zantac to Noah when it was first prescribed, I may not have given over 60 hours of my life to a bad nineties sitcom)

Anyway, all that to say, I'm glad those days are over. When I finished Coach I was quite sad. Those characters were like family - they were with me through some hard days and I was with them through the changing styles and hairdos of the nineties. That's when I started Charles in Charge. Fortunately I gave up the netflix addiction a few episodes later. This trip down memory lane all started from a comment about Charles in Charge on facebook...and the fact that Noah's having a bad day due to a dollop of whipped cream I daringly ate last night. Sorry, baby boy. I guess you're still not into the cow's milk.

Grandmas to the Rescue - one at a time

Sameer had this paper to finish and it was becoming quite a monster. He was way past his deadline and needed to get started on preparing for exams so we called in help! First his mom came for 10 days and then my mom came for another week. Sameer got to come to Duke with me everyday to work on his paper...I enjoyed seeing him there while knowing that Noah was being VERY well cared for and delighted in each day.


...and Sameer finished the paper the day before my mom left!

6 month portraits

Do all babies just really dislike having their portraits taken? Today we went to Target for Noah's 6 month portraits and while he didn't cry the whole time like last time, he wasn't too happy about being there either. It took dozens of "peek-a-boos" to get 1 real smile and a couple half smiles. Our normally cheerful boy was so skeptical of the whole process! There are still some pretty cute ones though. Oh, and wait until you see the hair - it is out of control!

To take a peek, click here and enter "Whitney Yadar". Yes, "Yadar" - not "Yadav." Target's mistake.

Happy Half Birthday, Sweet Boy

Jen and John

Noah playing with his new friends who visited us last week: