November is a special month: It's the month of Thanksgiving, and, perhaps not coincidentally, it's also National Adoption Month! We are so grateful for adoption, and we are so grateful for you, Noah. To celebrate National Adoption month, I did a lot of posts about adoption on my blog, and Katie also wrote up her full story. I know you will love reading her perspective someday.
To celebrate Thanksgiving, we went to Idaho to spend the holiday with Grandma and Grandpa Nielson. Your Uncle Cole also got married the week before Thanksgiving, so we ended up spending 10 days with the family, and you loved every minute of it. You were happier and smilier than I've ever seen you. And why wouldn't you be, when you got to spend so much time with so many of your favorite people??
Your Uncles and Aunts:
Your Grandpa and Grandma:
Your Birthparents (we saw Katie several times, and we saw Drew for an afternoon when he was home for his college break):
I think you were sad that you couldn't join us in eating the ginormous FH'zookie.
P.S. I love this little frowny face you make. It is precious.
Your Mom:
Your Dad:
Matching cowlicks!
You had a very eventful November...and your December will be just as fun with your Westover relatives. You are one lucky baby!!
We got our family photos taken this past weekend. I am thrilled by how they turned out. You were super grumpy before the photo shoot began, so I was afraid that you wouldn't smile for the camera. It took you a while to warm up...
You're not paying attention, but you're still cute as can be.
"Do I really have to do this, Mom?"
...but then Mom and Dad talked to you about it...
"Please smile, Noah!"
You look like you're thinking about it.
...and you decided to cooperate! Once you got smiling, you couldn't stop! You are so cute!
You are three months old!! You are actually 14 weeks tomorrow, but I've gotten a bit behind on the blogging. I would apologize, but I'm pretty sure that you would rather that I take good care of you than write blog posts all day. So no apologies from me! :)
On your three-month birthday, I took you to the doctor because you'd been spitting up so much, fussing most of the day, and crying out in pain during nap times. You were waking up about 15 minutes into a nap screaming your head off, and I read in some books that babies with reflux have a hard time napping because the minute their bodies relax, the acid starts creeping up from their stomachs. I thought I would have you checked out.
You were an angel at the doctor, so I think at first she thought I was exaggerating your symptoms. (You stinker.) But when I told her more, she did prescribe you with a mild antacid, and I think it's been helping these past two weeks (though it's hard to tell--I wish you could just tell me how you're feeling).
At your three month appointment, you weighed 12 pounds 11 ounces, which is only 40th percentile, but I think you're starting to pack on the pounds. I am noticing new rolls of cuteness every day, and you seem to be eating more (could be because your tummy is feeling better, who knows.) You are so funny: when you decide that you want to eat, you want to eat NOW. You will go from smiling peacefully to hysterically screaming in ten seconds flat, and nothing can console you but a bottle. Bapa says you have a disorder called S.O.R.H. (Sudden Onset of Ravenous Hunger). Ha! When you are eating and I take the bottle away partway through the feeding in order to burp you, you go ballistic. I always say, "I'll give it back!" but you don't seem to believe me. :)
I took this cute photo of you right after your doctor appointment. We were in Cafe Rio together (go figure.) Your doctor's office is right by the only Cafe Rio in the area, so I don't have any choice but to stop for lunch on the way home.
Are you cute, or what??? I love those blue eyes!
So far, I think you are liking being three months old. You are still pretty fussy during the day, but you sleep really well at night, so I can't complain. You aren't consistently sleeping all the way through the night, but you go to bed without much of a fight, and if you wake up once or twice to eat, you go right back to sleep after you finish the bottle. (Thank you, Angel!!!) As you are falling asleep, you often roll your head back and forth, almost as if you're rocking yourself to sleep, and you've managed to rub off most of the hair on the back of your head. You have a huge bald spot...it's funny. I call it your reverse mullet because your hair is still so long in the front. I need to get a photo of it.
The highlight of the past week is that you've started laughing. We've only heard it a few times, but it is so darling. Early in the week, your Great Grammy Elaine was holding you, and you were smiling and cooing at her. She thought it was so cute that she started laughing in glee, and then you caught the bug, and you laughed out loud for the first time ever. It was just one brief guffaw, but it was definitely a real laugh! (Needless to say, Grammy was thrilled to be the first person to make you giggle.)
Then the other night, Daddy and I were putting you to bed and you just started laughing out of the blue. It was so random because only minutes before you had been sobbing in exhaustion, then you quieted down while we were putting on your pajamas, and all of the sudden you burst out laughing. We were shocked and looked at each other in disbelief, and then we spent the next twenty minutes making you chuckle. It was heaven, and I am so glad that Daddy was right there to hear your first real giggle fit (he had missed the laugh with Grammy).
We wanted to share this newest milestone with Katie and Drew, so yesterday, we got a video of you laughing a little bit. Sorry I am so annoying in the video, but I will do anything to get you to smile. :)
That's the quick update. I sure love you, Baby Boy--fussiness and all!
