One Year!!

Oh my, so much to catch up on...get ready for a long post! (This took me three days to put together! We still have videos to add later...)

We took a quick trip to Lebanon two weeks ago to celebrate my sweet mother's 70th birthday. She had no idea we were all planning a party, and the surprise went off without a hitch (except for the part when she told us it was stupid...that was her way of saying thank you. :) ) Noah was a great little travel companion, though he didn't nap as much as we thought he would. We loved dinner and dessert with the Shoemaker clan.

Quick nap on the way to Lebanon.

Playing at Grandma's house

Playing "with" Matthew. We're hoping Matthew can teach our little guy  to pull up and crawl sometime soon!

The whole Shoemaker clan.

The next week was spent getting ready for Grammy and Grandpa Sampson to come visit!

Noah butt-scooted his way from his room all the way to our bathroom!

Noah loved his first tastes of chocolate ice cream!

Noah LOVES to practice walking!

Come on, Grammy! Get here! :)

After Grammy and Grandpa arrived, we spent each night opening a few presents, ramping up for Noah's big day. Grammy brought plenty of presents with her for him to practice! Noah spent the week with Grammy and Grandpa instead of at daycare, which he (and they!) loved. Grandpa spent most of that time working on projects around the house...refinishing the dining room table, fixing the garage door...he was a hard worker--he earned his keep! :) Daniel was technically off work 4 days that week, but work kept calling him, so he was still busy. (WARNING: There are a LOT of photos to follow...) 

Daddy and I got Noah a picnic table for his birthday. He loves it!  The plan is to get it moved outside when it cools down a bit. 

Random, non-birthday-related picture. Daniel wanted me to show his mom how well Noah does when I clip his nails. Noah sits on my lap and holds out one finger at a time and just watches me clip. If I skip a nail, he cries and keeps trying to hold it out, so sometimes I just have to pretend to snip and he's happy! Strange child. :)

We had a massive rain storm one night last week (we even lost power for 5-6 hours). Noah loved splashing in the water with Daddy!

And then our sweet boy turned one year old! It's a little crazy to think how our lives have changed...new town, new jobs, new friends...but we are loving it and we are so thankful for this amazing gift of parenthood. We love you, Noah! 

Noah's one year check-up was great. He's only gained 10 ounces in the past 3 months, but he's started moving a LOT, and he's still close to his growth curve. He is doing a lot of new things...stacking up to 4 blocks, turning book pages, signing "more", pointing to answer some simple questions, following directions, cleaning up his toys, saying "mama", "dada", "uh-oh", "bye", and maybe "bath". His gross motor skills are still slow to develop, so we are going to call Early Intervention for a physical therapy evaluation. He loves scooting on his bottom, but he isn't doing any transitions (moving into sitting, pulling to stand, etc.) so we're going to see if we can get him a little extra help! Noah handled his shots like a trooper (he was more upset that I wouldn't give him a goldfish than he was about the needle stick!) Daniel had to take Noah to get bloodwork done the next day...I was proud of Daniel--he hates to hear Noah cry but he was there to comfort his baby! Noah doesn't love to eat solid food fruits and vegetables, but he will eat them pureed (though orange purees aren't his favorite either...) so we're working on a LOT of positive reinforcement and "take your bite" strategies (my CHOP friends will understand!). Maybe it's starting to pay off because my little guy ate 4 bites of steamed cauliflower on his own last night. This is a big deal for our household!

 I don't know why these next pictures look foggy...

Saturday was a perfect day to have a party. Most of the Shoemaker clan drove up/over from Lebanon, both sets of grandparents were here, and some of our close St. Louis friends came to celebrate. Our theme was "First Down" so we did some tailgating with our burgers and hot dogs. You'll see other football details below. We took a lot of pictures of Noah opening presents (with a lot of help from Mommy) but I wish we would have taken more pictures of him with other people. Noah was great through his party. He waved and smiled to everyone and didn't get upset with the singing or attention (which I honestly thought he might...he's been quite the clingy momma's boy lately). I think we all had a great time celebrating one certain special little boy!

The MVP Wall of Fame--picture highlights from the year.

We had a lot to do to get ready for the party. My parents came up the night before and my mom did a LOT of cooking and prep work while Daniel's mom did some house cleaning. Even my dad chipped in and piped laces on the football cupcakes.

Noah's football field cake

Football ice cream bars

Penalty flag favors (filled with M&Ms...apparently I forgot to tell people that part, so we had a LOT of these leftover!)

I made photo blocks with Noah's monthly pictures on them. It is crazy to see the change there all in one place!

Noah woke up just as people started arriving (I wanted it to happen that way--I figured we would have our optimal "good mood" window between naps!). It usually takes him several minutes to wake up so he spent some time cuddling with Cousin Ny-No before he was ready to party.

Noah just calmly watched us all as we sang to him. He looked at us like we were crazy! :) 

Family picture after his cupcake.

Trying the ice cream bar. He would close his eyes and shake his head after every taste, but kept coming back for more! 

Clapping for himself after taking bites.

Trying out his new Nalgene water bottle. 

Opening presents.

One of my favorite pictures, of course!

Last minute kisses from Grandpa!

A final kiss from Grandma!

As you can tell, we had a wonderful couple of weeks. A huge thank you goes out to everyone who helped make our little boy's special day so perfect!