Double Digits!

That's right-double digits! As in Noah has hit double digits in months of age. Ok, I know it's kind of corny, but as a mom it's pretty crazy to realize we're quickly approaching the one year mark with him!

Our big 10 month old!

This has been kind of an eventful month or so--both in terms of things we've had going on, but also in terms of Noah learning new things. It seems like everyday there is something new or different with him.
--He has a few words now: Mama (which he rarely says), Dada (which he says all the time!), Dog, and Uh-oh. He's also learned to make the "more" sign for when he wants more food.
--He's got some more teeth-8 total now. The front four on both the top and bottom.
--He seems to be more and more opinionated all the time-especially when it comes to food. Most days all he wants to eat is yogurt and cheerios. We've hit the picky eater toddler phase a bit early I think.
--For a while now he's been able to nod his head up and down for "yes" which is really cute. Well, now he's learned to shake it back and forth for "no". His favorite time to do this is when he's eating which is also accompanied by waving his arms back and forth in front of his face. If this wasn't so frustrating it would be really funny. He does definitely know what "no" means. And if I sternly tell him "No, sir!" for something, he usually stops, looks at me and then shakes his head no back at me. Pretty cute.
--He is really on the move and man is he fast! Whether it's crawling or cruising (walking holding on to something) he can get whereever he wants to go. He pulls up and cruises on just about anything and is starting to let go and stand for a few seconds at a time. I'm excited (and a little fearful) that walking will be happening sooner rather than later!

Crawling up the stairs (maracas in hand!)

Cruising around the coffee table

He really likes opening and closing doors and has figured out how to stand at the edge of his crib and get the door to his bedroom open. Even with it shut all the way he was able to get it open--finally I discovered he was yanking on things hanging on the back of the door which would eventually loosen the door to where he could get it open. Little stinker.

Standing at the end of his crib after he's pulled the door open and looking down the hallway to see if anyone is coming for him yet.

He's really has some favorite toys now. Grandma and Granddad got him these cool magnet letters for the refrigerator for Christmas. The letters also fit into a little machine that makes the sound of the letters when you put them inside it and will sing the ABC's if you push a button. He LOVES to stand at the refrigerator and play with this and has actually figured out how to put the letters inside now. He also loves animals (real and stuffed) and his favorites are doggies. He's still carrying around the two stuffed doggies a lot of the time. He's starting to enjoy looking at books more and more-especially the touch and feel kind and one's with animals in them. Oh and of course he loves anything with lights and sounds.

Unfortunately despite all the fun things, he's also been sick a lot lately. He had a cold that turned into croup with some wheezing and another ear infection a couple weeks ago. Thankfully he was a "happy wheezer" meaning that even though he was wheezing, he wasn't in any distress and was actually breathing fine. We did one nebulizer treatment in the after hours clinic (where we visited my friend and PNP Pat!) which didn't even help so instead he just got a few doses of oral steroids which seemed to do the trick. It was hilarious watching him with the neb treatment. He of course wanted nothing to do with the mask on his face, so we just took it off and let the mist blow on his face. Well, he kept trying to put his mouth on the chamber end piece of the tubing and stick his tongue in it (it looked like he was trying to make out with the thing!). Pat has been a nurse and worked with kids for over 20 years and said she's never seen a kid try to stick his tongue into the chamber before! Just leave it to Noah and he'll come up with something new!

Thankfully the wheezing resolved pretty quickly, but I wish I could say the same for his ears. This was his 4th ear infection since October and it still hasn't fully resolved. I think we're headed to the ENT soon. Poor Noah. I'll defintely be happy when we're out of cold season! He's even had a bit of a fever off and on again the last day or two. We go tomorrow for a follow up to check on his ears. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they are better, but I'm not holding my breath. Stay tuned...I'm sure we'll have updates soon!

Point of Grace Grand Opening

Point of Grace had our dedication service for our new ministry facility on Jan. 11th and then followed with a huge Grand Opening event for the community on Jan. 24th. At the Grand Opening we had real snow! (Ok, real as in it was real ice but not real in the sense that it came from a machine and not the sky.) There were also multiple bounce houses/obstacle course type things, movies and music, and lots of hot chocolate and homemade soup. Leading up to the actual weekend the weather had been pretty warm and I was worried about how our "Winter Festival" was going to do if it was 75 degrees outside. No worries...a cold front blew in that weekend and I think it barely got out of the 30's that day!

It was a huge success! The building was packed all day and despite the cold, people had fun playing outside. Here are some numbers from the day:

--700 bowls of soup were served
--60 crock pots of soup were supplied
--45 gallons of hot chocolate were made and consumed
--500-700 estimated guests in our building
--Over 100 volunteers serving the whole day and over 40 volunteers stuck around to the very
end to clean up
Wow!! If you're interested, check us out online at www.pointofgracechurch.org.

It was great to have the support of my family there with us for the weekend too! Grandma and Granddad had fun with Noah and Aunt Kristi and Uncle Thomas came up for part of the weekend too.

Front of new PoG building. This faces 130 Toll Road

Noah's not sure what to think of the snow.

Delton Weiser, our Pastor and my Dad

Noah and Grandma Noah and the girls

Noah likes being up high!It's even more fun when there is hair to pull! Thanks Aunt Kristi!!
Noah and Uncle Thomas

If you look,you can tell Noah is holding two stuffed doggies. He loves doggies these days and this weekend starting carrying these two doggies with him everywhere. It's so cute!

Christmas with the Tiltons

After celebrating Christmas here in Austin, we headed to Angletong on New Year's Eve to spend a few days celebrating with the Tilton clan. We spent a quiet New Year's just hanging with my parents and playing games at home (Noah slept through his first New Year's Eve countdown). We were able to spend some good time just hanging with the family over the next few days and of course had another round of opening presents. Noah had fun actually playing with the new toys this time. The maracas that Aunt Kristi gave him were definitely one of his favorites!

These maracas are the best!

I love this tiger!

Funny faces with Granddad

Noah's other favorite thing this trip was playing with Kristi and Casey's dogs. Kristi has a border collie, Nobs, who is super hyper so all we really got to do with him was throw the ball outside. But Casey's dog, Sam, is a pug and is really laid back so Noah got to pet him and chase him around inside. He actually says something that sounds like dog now too (his first real word other than dada and mama) and basically just loves all doggies!

We were nerds and played some Settlers of Catan as well as Forty Two (dominoes) and Spades (cards). The ladies also went shopping and got Kristi's wedding dress which was so fun. Of course you don't get to see those pictures till the wedding day though!!