Noah. Noah, Noah, Noah.

I am starting to feel a bit guilty about the disproportionate number of photos of each of my kids here. I'm sure someday they'll look back at all of the blog books I've printed and wonder where they were for several months out of the year. (At school, maybe?) Nonetheless, I'm going to do another entire post devoted to our "Noah-Baby," as he's recently been called.

Noah is now eight months old. He continues to have us all wrapped right around his little fingers. Noah still loves Nate and Abbie. When I say, "Where's Nate-Nate? Where's Abbie?," he cranes his neck around to look for them. He sometimes gets a little frustrated with Abbie, as she especially likes to drag carry him around. He loves his exersaucer and Johnny Jump-Up, although for whatever reason, he poops as soon as I put him in either one, so he doesn't always last a long time in them.

Noah has completely mastered sitting and I finally feel confident leaving him in that position. He does still tip over occasionally, like when he gets really excited or upset and arches his back, but he can finally play sitting up for long periods of time. I honestly don't think that Noah will ever crawl. Ever. He just hates being on his stomach, so as soon as I put him there, he rolls over. He can kind of push himself places with his toes and he is a good roller, so he can reach things that way, but for the most part, he still looks like a huge 4 month old when I put him on the floor. Part of me is glad that he isn't mobile yet because I haven't really had to baby-proof, but at the same time, it would be very nice not to have to carry him all over the place. Despite not crawling, Noah does pull himself to a standing position and can cruise a little bit. I found him standing in his crib one day, then watched him cruise to the corner, around the corner, and a ways down the other side.

Noah sticks his tongue out when he's concentrating just like Nate does.

Pretty typical tummy-time.

All of my kids have had this raccoon hair pattern. Stripe down the middle, not much on the sides.

Mad face. He really wanted the camera strap.

Noah's fine motor skills seem to be coming along a little bit faster than his gross motor skills. Noah now waves hello to people (not really goodbye yet) pretty regularly. It's a bit random, but when he decides to do it, you can't miss that wave. He also has started to sign "more" a little bit at mealtime. Still pretty random, but he's done it a few times. He has also just about mastered the pincer grip for food, and has even learned how to release the food once its in his mouth. That was a big one--It has made dinnertime much more pleasant. In terms of eating, the kid is crazy picky. I've never had a picky eater before, but Noah is still refusing to eat any vegetables or meats or really anything that isn't a fruit. He still loves pears, peaches and prunes the most, but has branched out to tolerate a few other fruits. He is less picky when it comes to non-pureed foods, though he still doesn't like many things. Because of his pickiness with purees, we've started to just give him pieces of whatever we're eating. He seems to enjoy that the most. (I probably shouldn't admit that he absolutely loves chocolate cupcakes, but I guess that's what happens with a third child...)

Sleep is still an issue. The kid had about a week of sleeping well at night after we (Alan) sleep-trained him, but then he got sick and it all went out the window. Things are definitely better than they were before because he's okay to stay with Alan at night now, but the situation is still less than ideal. We are definitely planning another sleep-intervention shortly. Naptimes have been pretty wonky with my surgery and Alan home, but he takes a pretty good nap in the morning and one in the afternoon, sometimes with a catnap right before dinner while he's nursing. Noah still loves to nurse, though the length of nursing sessions has definitely decreased because he doesn't want to miss anything that's going on. He's still a cuddler and sometimes will just lay snuggled up to me for a quick minute after naps or when he's a little tired. He likes to sit and play with me, especially since I've been on crutches and that's all I can do. Noah loves Patty Cake and Where is Thumbkin--He always looks for the other hand before it comes out in that song. He's pretty happy as long as someone is playing with him or holding him. We are so happy that he's ours.