Tummy Time

Tummy time is something Noah and I have been fighting each other on for some time now. For the longest time I could only put him on his tummy for like one minute. Pretty much as soon as I put him down, he'd cry and get really mad. It's taken some persistence (and me actually remembering to put him on his tummy more often) but he's finally starting to get the hang of it. We can only do it for little bits of time (maybe 5-10 minutes here and there) before he gets upset, but that's some major progress from where we were before. So, this morning was the first time I really saw him put himself up on his arms well and really turn his head and start looking around...it was great! Here's the evidence:

3 months

Noah is 3 months old now! Time sure has gone by fast. The last couple of days Mike swears that Noah all of a sudden looks bigger and "more grown up". Bigger for sure! We haven't weighed him in a couple weeks but the last time we did he was around 16.5 lbs. Crazy.

He's keeping us highly entertained these days...lots of smiles, lots of yelling and squealing and just trying to talk back to Mommy and Daddy. He can sort of reach for things (although still lacks enough coordination to always get what he wants), grasps well (as evidenced by the frequent pulling of my hair!), can sit propped up and with help (also in the Bumbo seat) and is really getting into looking at the world around him. He gets quite upset somtimes if we have him facing the wall or back of the couch for too long.

I went back to work last week (sigh). It actually went ok...I'm only working part time now, just two days a week so knowing that makes it a lot easier. We're using a great lady that we know through another church in town (her husband is a DCE there, like Mike is at our church) and she takes care of kids in her home. It's really been a blessing to find her and so far Noah seems to be fine with it. She's gone this week so he'll get to hang out with Grandma Tilton instead, which I know she is thrilled about!

Anyway, here are some recent pictures of our not-so-little guy

Sitting and playing in the Bumbo seat

He happend to grab onto this ring when I was laying him down. I don't think

he meant to do it and actually seemed pretty confused as to what this thing

in his hand was...it was pretty funny.

Swimming for the first time!

UT Visit

Saturday was a very proud day for us as parents and Texas Exes. We took Noah to visit UT for the very first time! One of the seniors from the youth group is headed to UT in the fall, so Mike and I offered to take him to campus and show him around a bit. Of course we had to bring Noah along too. We took a few pictures in front of the tower to comemorate this special occasion. Hopefully this will be the first of many trips to campus with Noah.

Noah's Baptism

Noah was baptized this weekend at our church, Point of Grace, in Pflugerville. It was wonderful to be able to share the weekend with family and celebrate our little boy! Here are some pictures from the baptism and worship on Sunday and other pictures with family from the rest of the weekend.

2 months

Noah is 2 months old! We had his Well Check today and he's doing great. He now weighs 14 lb. 9 oz and is 25 inches long...still 95th percentile for both. Mike and I are still wondering where he's getting this crazy size from. The pediatrician thinks his growth will slow down some as he gets closer to age one...we'll see. Perhaps we do have a future UT football player on our hands...

It's not so hard to get a smile out of him these days...in fact you hardly have to try at all. He's "talking" a lot and making all kinds of other funny faces. He's discovered his hands and frequently tries to shove his entire fist in his mouth. Recently Mike claims to have taught him his first thing- sticking out his tongue! After making lots of faces at Noah, including sticking his tongue out, Noah finally started sticking his tongue back out at Mike. And now we can't seem to get him to stop! It's really cute and funny.

Look at me, I'm a big boy!!

Here are some of my cute smiles

I don't understand why this thing won't fit in here!!
Hey Dad, I can do that too!

Trying to convince him to have some tummy time...he doesn't really like it very much so far.

(Note: tongue is out again!)

Chicago and Milwaukee

Mike has finished his accounting job with Active Power!! With some time off between the end of this job and the start of his internship at Point of Grace, we took the opportunity to head north and introduce Noah to some of Mike's family in Chicago. Noah got to meet his Great Grandparents, Great Aunt Donna and Great Uncle Frank and cousins Paul and Jennifer and their families. It was great to see everyone. While most of our time in Chicago was spent hanging out with family we also enjoyed a short afternoon trip downtown to Millenium Park and went out for some great Chicago style deep dish pizza...yum!

We also took a side trip for a couple days and drove over to Milwaukee. Mike's cousin Jennifer lives there so we visited her family and then spent the rest of our time with the Stephensons-good friends from college who moved up to Milwaukee for for the next several years for JB's residency. This was a real treat!

Noah did great with all the traveling. We weren't sure what to expect with the flight and drives back and forth from Chicago to Milwaukee. He slept most of the way for all of the major traveling and only had a few episodes of unhappiness on our flight back to Austin. While all the traveling was a bit exhausting, it was well worth it to get to spend this time with friends and family we don't get to see very often.

Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Swiderski

Family photo in Millenium Park Showing off his cool new hat

Funny faces in the stroller
Aunt Donna and Uncle Frank
Taking our picture in the "Bean" - a big reflective metal shaped bean
Cousin Jennifer with husband Johan and daughter Theresa

The Stephensons

Out at a brewery in MilwaukeeHad to take a picture of Noah with his first trip to a brewery...he slept the whole time

Family Weekend

This was a big weekend of family events! First, we celebrated Mike's birthday here in Austin with his family. His Dad was finally able to come into town to meet Noah so we went out to dinner with Grandpa White and Brian, Dayna, and their three kids. And then we at lots of cake. It was a good time.



Then Friday, we headed down to Angleton for a family reunion on my side of the family. This was Noah's first trip to Angleton. He got a chance to be introduced to some family friends and LOTS of extended family. The reunion was the Holt side of the family which is my Grandmother's family. She was one of 8 children. Three of the sisters are still living. This was the first get together of this side of the extended family in over 20 years. There were family members there from 5 of the 8 siblings. It was pretty neat. Unfortunately my Grandmother wasn't feeling well that day so she didn't make it to the actual reunion, but we did get to spend some time with her at home. She is the oldest living member of the family and Noah is the youngest member of the family...the both got trophies from the reunion!

Enjoying his chair at Grandma's house

Dad multi-tasking-eating breakfast, reading the paper, and watching NoahAunt Kristi
Great Grandmother and Noah showing off their trophies
The Tilton Family sans Thomas (he was in San Marcos)

After the trip to Angleton, we had our nephew Isaac's first Communion down in Kyle with Mike's brother's family. Noah got to hang out some more with his Aunt and Uncle and Grandpa White and cousins.

Meeting Grandpa White

Hanging out with Grandpa and Uncle Brian

Aunt Dayna and cousins Lydia and Jared