Noah's First Christmas

Well, we're back in Knoxville, and Noah's first Christmas is in the books. What a great time we had. We spent Dec. 21-27 in Hendersonville, and Noah had a fun time seeing so many family and friends on our trip. He also loved getting lots and lots and LOTS of new toys and goodies to play with...and watching us try to fit everything back in the car for the drive home!

There are way too many pictures to post, but you can see many of them right here:
2008 Christmas Pictures

It was great to see so many loved ones while we were in town...Tyra and I even got to go on a date night too, which was lots of fun!

Noah's New Friend Ernie

On December 1st, we were introduced to a new addition to the family, Ernie The Elf. Ernie is the official Haag Family "Elf on the Shelf," one of Santa's little helpers that lives with us throughout each Christmas season. During the day, Ernie sits still and silent in the same spot in the house...but at night, Ernie magically flies back to the North Pole to tell Santa if Noah has been a good boy. Ernie then returns to our house by morning, and plops himself in a different location in the house.

It's a fun family tradition and is a funny and good story to read to your kids, and we highly recommend it.

Noah has become fascinated with Ernie and his mysterious relocation around the house. Each morning when we go downstairs we say "Where's Ernie?" and Noah looks around puzzled. Then we walk around until we find him and Noah just grins from ear to ear when we discover the new place he's ended up. One day this week, we found him on the kitchen counter with hot chocolate mix in his hands, so we figured he was cold and/or thirsty when he returned from the North Pole.

Anyway, much to Noah's chagrin, he's not allowed to touch Ernie (per the book's rules) or he'll lose his magic. This frustrates Noah to no end, but he really enjoys trying to find him each day and has even started trying to say "Ernie"...although it comes out more like "Innie."

It's been a lot of fun to start new Christmas traditions this year with Noah, and seeing his curiosity at the tree, lights, and presents is funny. Speaking of curious babies and Christmas decorations, I saw a hilarious picture the other day that some friends of ours posted. They set up their Christmas tree INSIDE their Pack 'N Play so their little daughter couldn't get into any mishcief. PURE GENIUS!!

It's Laundry Day!

10 Months Old!!

November Pics

Here are just a few pics from a fun November:

Happy Thanksgiving and Mommy's Play

Noah is so excited about his first Thanksgiving that he woke up today at 3:30 am (on the day before Thanksgiving)! Yay!
Also, Tyra's is playing the part of Mary in "It's A Wonderful Life" at a local church here in Knoxville. This is a funny picture of Noah and Tyra with her hair curlers in, which she has to do for her part in the play. He thought they were funny!

Like Father/Like Son

Noah has started his early Playstation training! So far, so good! Ha!

9 Months Old!

Happy 9 month birthday Noah! I told Tyra that I think this 9 months has gone by so much faster than the 9 months of pregnancy. Noah is growing, learning, and always finding new ways to melt our hearts with his frequent kisses and funny grunts and laughs.

This month, he got his first 2 bottom teeth, started clapping on his own, and has become very fond playing with a full-size basketball and little baseballs in his room (seen in the video). He goes in for his doctor visit next week, but based on our scale at home, he's 25 lbs. even. A hoss! He's slimmed down some in the past month or two, especially in his legs, since he started standing and crawling, and sometimes even works up a good sweat during one of his "workouts." Much to Tyra's chagrin, Noah hasn't said "Ma-ma" yet, but is very fond of rubbing it in her face by saying "Da-Da" all the time. :)

His favorite foods are oatmeal w/ bananas, yogurt, puffs & Cheerios, sliced pears, and he likes most of the Gerber baby foods.

He's loving his new "creepers" class at school and his daily schedule is wonderfully structured. This has carried over great at home too, especially his napping. He's always been quite the "cat-napper" since he was born, but is now taking two 90-minute or longer naps per day.

Here's a look at "A Day in the Life of a 'Creeper'"
Regular naps at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.
Water play
Puppet shows
Circle time with songs and stories
Snack time with practice drinking from a cup
Hands-on art projects like coloring with crayons and finger-painting
Free play...Noah loves to use this time to practice walking with a push toy
Outside time (weather permitting)

Noah experienced his first Halloween party at school last week and was assigned to bring yoBaby yogurtfor his friends. He is spoiled by his teachers who give him lots of love and always tell us how happy and sweet Noah is. They even had superlatives for all the kids, and Noah got "Best Smile."

Happy Halloween!

Hayride and Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday we took Noah to Oakes Farm, outside of Knoxville, to go on a hayride and pick out some pumpkins. They have a couple of fun Corn Mazes there too, but we'll wait and do that another year. We had the best day! The weather was perfect and Noah loved seeing the corn fields and all the pumpkins. He just loves being outside and loves just observing things. When he's outside, the normally talkative, energetic and feisty Noah turns docile and serene when he's outside. He enjoyed the hayride for about the first 2 minutes, then he fell sound asleep, I guess from the tractor noise and all the bumping around.

On another note, we saw the biggest dog we've ever seen in our entire lives...a 270+ pound English mastiff! (I just found this pic of an English Mastiff on the web, it's not the exact same dog we saw yesterday). Huge would be an understatement! His name was "Sheriff" and his owners had 2 young girls who were walking him on a leash. He was just following them wherever they went...funny stuff.

Noah also has 2 teeth coming in, so his gums have been bothering him quite a bit the past week. He loves drinking out of our glasses at dinner (or anytime) and it's funny to hear his little teeth clanking against the glass when he drinks. What's his favorite thing to "chew" on to relieve the gum pain?? The tv stand of course!



Here are some pictures from our day at Oakes Farm:

8 Months Old Today!

Noah is 8 Months Old today! As I write this, I can't even believe it. It truly seems like he grows, learns, and expands his curiosity every single day. The joy that he gives Tyra and I can only be felt, and not explained...as with any parent/child relationship.

This past month, he has gone from trying so, so hard to crawl...to now motoring around the house, from room to room, with ease. His "Curious George" side has emerged, as he has enjoyed discovering Gabi's water bowl, waving and giving high-fives, and yesterday he pulled up and stood up on his own for the very first time by himself. He was standing up in his crib yesterday morning when we went in to get him up and last night (as seen in the video), he did it over and over again in his Pack 'N Play, which has come in handy again!

He's discovered a love for playing with wrapping paper and gift bags in the morning while Tyra gets ready for work, enjoys feeding himself Gerber "puffs," and has really loved all foods so far (except for some of the meat meals and green peas). He likes making a wet mess when he uses his sippy cup and his favorite words now are "Da-Da-Da-Da," "Be-be-be," and "gah-gah-gah." He's enjoying playing games with Mommy, like "chase" and he's started offering us his paci and trying to put it in our mouths, I guess mimicing how we give it to him. He loves to sit in his rocking chair and read, but often times, he finds eating the books to be more enjoyable than reading them.

Noah helped us celebrate two birthdays this month (Happy Birthday Gigi and Uncle Drew) and we discovered the BEST restaurant to take him to is Wasabi, a Japanese hibachi steakhouse. He loved all the cooking, loud sounds, and fires from the grill.

We're trying to get ready for some chilly weather and Noah's getting all stocked up on some stylish, warm clothes, size 18 months!! He's discovered a love for playing with his full-size basketball. He mimics me dribbling it and can even pass (i.e. "roll") the ball to me when I say "pass it to me." I have yet to break the news to him that his Haag height genes will likely hinder his future NBA Draft stock.

I'm sure there's a lot I'm leaving out from this month, but you get the idea...each day is a blessing and every second we spend with Noah is a gift from God.

Movin' On Up

Today is Noah's last 'official' day in the nursery room at PJCA. Starting Monday, he will move up to the "creepers" room, where the babies range from about 8 months to 1year or older. We have loved his teachers in the nursery class, and Tyra has especially bonded with them from going to see Noah every day on her lunch break.

Noah looking shocked that he has to move classes! (With teachers Kim and Alyssa)


Noah has been staying the creepers room almost exclusively for the past few weeks, since he's become much too mobile for the nursery room, but Monday, he'll be in there exclusively. One thing we've noticed so far, Noah's naps (quality and length) have improved since he started going in there, I think b/c they have a set "nap time" and he can see that the others are napping too, and b/c he's so worn out from playing with friends/toys and crawling around, that he seems to be ready to nap.

Video Snippets

Here are a few video snippets of the past few weeks. Noah is getting into lots of mischief, and it's so much fun to watch his curiosity grow each day. As you'll see in the videos, Gabi is enjoying playing with him more, and Noah has found a desire to want to play in Gabi's water bowl...or at least make a bee-line for it when he's crawling in the kitchen.



Noah likes for us (and Gabi) to "chase" him around the house.

Noah's News

Here’s what I’ve been up to lately:

*I learned how to wave on the Saturday of the UAB game on Sept. 13.

* We don't like when TN loses ball games!

* Mommy calls me “Grumplestiltskin” when I’m tired.

* I like to boogy down to the song “Low” by Flo Rida when Daddy holds me. Daddy sings silly songs!

* I'm crawling around everywhere and am getting pretty fast. I get good "workouts" in duirng my crawling and am known to work up a good sweat.

* I can pull up/stand up with a little help from Mommy and Daddy, and I like to scream at the top of my lungs when I finally make it on my feet...Daddy says I eat "loudmouth soup" sometimes!

*I like to play a game when leaving for school in the mornings – It’s called “arch my back when mommy tries to put me in my car seat so she can give me lots kisses and coax me into sitting down.” I give her a mischievous grin every time

*I got to meet Papa Dave when he and Gigi came to visit us over the UT/FL weekend to celebrate Gigi’s birthday. Aunt Alyssa made a triple chocolate cake that looked very yummy! I also got to meet their doggie Maggie and surprisingly enough Gabi was protective of me every time Maggie tried to sniff me.


*I’ve added another word to my vocabulary – “dah” - and love to babble

*I like to laugh at some of the highlights when I watch ESPN with Daddy.

*All of the clothes I’ve outgrown were put away in storage bins which made Mommy sad, but at least she and daddy get to go shopping for new clothes for me! I'm wearing 12 month size in most things and even 18 months size in a few outfits, when I want to go with my baggy look.

Here are a few more recent pictures:

Getting sleepy after bathtime:


Hanging out before UT/Florida game:


Visiting Uncle Drew and Cousin Tom's New Apartment:

Crawling

Noah is crawling all over the place now! It's so funny to watch, and his curiosity grows even more as she shuffles around on the floor. We really have to keep an eye on him! His favorite things to crawl toward so far are----(all "No-Nos" in our book!): the basket of pine cones in our den floor, the computer chair legs, and the baby monitor plug to the wall. He just laughs when you tell him no, so that's a good sign! ha!

We had a fun time this past weekend for the 1st UT home game. Noah stayed with his first non-family babysitter Taylor and had a great time while we went to the game. It was a lot of fun, but BRUTALLY HOT!! After the game, JenMommy, Andrew, Tom, and the Griffith gang came over to watch games and eat pizza.




This week is "Gator Hater" week in Knoxville! Go Vols!

7 Month Highlight Video and Fun Facts

7 Months Old Already!

Here are some current "fun facts" about Noah...

Diaper Size - Size 4 Pampers Cruisers
Favorite Food - Squash and Applesauce
Any words? - "Gah, gah, gah"
Current Favorite (silly) song - Noah's song (to the tune of "Elmo's Song")
Bed Time - 8:00 p.m.
Eye Color - Blue
Hair Color - Sandy Blonde

Funnest fact of all---right when I was writing this post, Noah started crawling from the den toward the kitchen. It took him a while, but he made it all the way to the kitchen! We think we'll be chasing him around VERY soon!

Now onto our feature film...

Catching Up

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. Speaking on Noah's behalf, we're bummed out today about the Vols' loss last night against UCLA. Let's see, what else has been going on??....Well Noah has been battling a cold that he can't seem to kick all the way. He's coughing a little bit still, but the fever that he had late last week is gone, thank goodness. It's no fun when your child gets sick. His sleeping patterns have also been out of sorts lately, which has provided for some tiring nights of waking up in the middle of the night again. I think it started when he was stuffed up and congested and a new habit developed. His eating (solid foods) also got a little messed up b/c of his cold, so we're trying to get back on track. Speaking of "stuffed up"...he's also had 2 bouts with constipation in the past few weeks...which is no fun, although his red-faced grunting is a little funny. What's not so funny is when Noah decided to become "un-stopped up" in the car while we were out doing errands on Saturday. Picture it...it's not pretty (forgive the graphic description):

Lowe's parking lot
+ hot/humid weather
+ poop all over legs, car seat, clothes
+ poop (somehow) getting on Daddy's nose
= LOTS OF FUN!

We were cracking up the whole time, so at least we got a laugh out of it, as I'm sure the other people in the parking lot did. Good times!! :)

Noah is really on the verge of crawling and has started saying the "Guh, guh" sounds a lot, so maybe his first word is right around the corner. We're predicting "Gabi" b/c we say it all the time. I joke that his first words will be "hurry up Gabi" since I say that all the time when Noah and I take Gabi out for walks.

We can't believe Noah will turn 7 months old this coming Sunday...we'll get the video up soon after that. Until then, please pray for sleep-filled, restful nights for Noah (and us)and for Noah's cold to go bye-bye.

Here are a few pictures and comments from the past few weeks:
Guitar lessons with Cousin Thomas


With JenMommy, Momette, and meeting great-Aunt Susan for the first time:


Noah and his football strolling around Opryland Hotel


Noah with Aunt Holly, and cousins Aidan and Dylan


Cuddling with Uncle Lakon


Kisses from Aunt Alyssa


Meeting my new friend Emery


Hangin' with my new friend Ella Blaire at AOPi's Bid Day


Doing laundry with Mommy


Let's Play Gabi!


Look at all this orange!


Ready for a win against UCLA! (The team didn't get the memo!)