Fabulous Four Months

**Disclaimer** I apologize in advance that this post is SUPER late, but I did start it last week there was just a little incident with obtaining pictures ;)

Can you believe it? My sweet boy is now four whole months old!!!! Wow!!! I swear this month has just FLOWN by!

Noah is now weighing 16lbs and he is measuring 25 inches long! :) Who's the preemie now?! :P This month was filled with a TON of changes for our little munchkin! :)His biggest accomplishment this month was sleeping through the night :) Our longest sleep stretch has been 9.5 hours :) Yippee! We occasionally have "off" nights where he will get up once (2-3) but it has only happened a small handful of times this month. What can we say our little boy loves him some sleep! :)Notice the HORRIBLE scratch next to his mouth!!!

Noah also officially moved into his 3-6 clothes! :) Lots of fun new outfits to come! Hopefully I will be more productive in downloading pictures to include with weekly posts instead of waiting for a monthly Noah update :P

Noah found his hands this month. He has not quite figured out the whole thumb deal, but instead attempts to fit his whole fist (and sometimes both fists) into his mouth at once. This has started to make for a very interesting tummy time :P

Not only does Noah enjoy sucking on his own fingers and hands, but he'll attempt to suck just about anything in his mouth's range. Discovery by mouth :P
Ever since birth our little guy has really made an effort to not be a baby. He hates to be held like a baby, he always wants to be sitting up so he can see what is going on (nosy much?!?) This month our "big boy" made some giant steps that he so should not be taking...thank goodness I'm not talking about walking!!! However this little goober loves to stand up and he recently started grabbing onto objects for support, his favorite one being the couch!
The munchkin also started to grab and hold objects this month, not only what we give to him (though this is normally very interesting he has a small attention span and its almost like once he realizes that the object is not food and does not taste good he drops it) but he will actually look at toys on his play mat and exersaucer and grab at them.

He starts getting mad at his exersaucer once he realizes that the objects cannot be taken off for him to put into his mouth...

This month we also celebrated Mommy's birthday! Normally when we go out Noah is what we like to call a "party pooper" and sleeps the entire time. This works because Matt and I can both eat without having to worry about entertaining or holding him. That's right if Noah is awake he HATES being in his car seat unless the car is moving. Noah was awake the entire time we were out for my birthday! It was a lot of fun because he was all smiles and giggles.

The many faces of Noah Zelman :) (and outfits!)

And the most important event in Noah's four months....The Patriots are going to the Superbowl!!!! :) I kid you not, whenever the Patriots are on TV the kid goes nuts trying to watch. He loves them!

Actually even in Noah's world I believe the Superbowl is a close second to....getting to start moving to solids!!! The kid loves rice cereal! :) However, not so much a fan of the spoon yet! :P

Badass Honey Badger

I'm a little obsessed with Randall, especially his narration of the Badass Honey Badger. Oh you don't know what I'm referring to?? Well feast your eyes on this!

And for your additional viewing pleasure here is my very own little badass honey badger! That sweet look on his face is deceiving, he will f your s up if you aren't careful ;)

Weekend Recap

Well Team Z officially joined Life Time Fitness this weekend...holler! Of course there is drama that I must share so here goes nothing. We had an appointment set up to get a tour and do membership. Our appointment was set for Saturday morning, well low and behold it had snowed. So we rescheduled for Sunday morning. We packed up our little family and headed over. Noah fell asleep on the way over in true sleepy baby in the car fashion. And we were a tiny bit early for our appointment so we grabbed a seat and waited. Fast forward to 30 minutes after our appointment was suppose to start, the dude we were suppose to meet with is MIA. Thankfully another kind employee stepped in. Needless to say the process was much more drawn out than expected and by the end we (all 3 of us) were starving. Noah woke up and enjoyed the tour of the facility more than Mommy and Daddy. He was EXTREMELY chatty as well.

This evening we went for our first go round and dropped Noah off at the child care. I went to a Latin Fusion class that seriously kicked my ass...blush who needs blush when you get so damn over heated that your cheeks are a nice rosy red for an entire hour after the class has ended. I really enjoyed it and I'm excited to give it another try next week. Noah was asleep when we dropped him off so I was itching to get back to him after an hour. Me going for an hour on my first day was beyond crazy in itself. When I went in to get him a lady was feeding him (surprise surprise), but as soon as he saw me he started smiling with the bottle in his mouth. And then proceeded to tell me how happy he was to see me and me get his little tail home. That is by far my favorite. Seeing him just light up at the sight of me and Matt and then just jabber away trying to tell us everything we missed while we were apart from each other.

If you haven't noticed I'm extremely excited about all the cardio classes that are offered. Tomorrow Noah has his 4 month check up (Holy Hell!!!!) and will be getting more shots. Last time his doctor said that he might be cranky so we were prepared with the Tylenol, but he was just more sleepy but no fever or extra crankiness. So tomorrow for the gym Matt and I are gonna split up since we don't want to leave Noah at childcare just in case he is a little cranky tomorrow :(

Stay tuned for a HUGE Noah update later this weekend with pictures included...I promise! :)

Distance

Distance is hard and sucks! For those of you that don't know I eat, breathe and sleep family! I've always been extremely close with my immediate family (Mama, Daddy and Sisters), but also with both the Bradshaw and Vick members that are my parents' immediate family. I talk to my Sisters daily via Facebook, text messages, emails or phone calls. I talk to both my parents several times a week. Family has always and will always be a big deal for me. So now that I have my own little family, I struggle with being four hours away from my parents. Let me just set the scene for you to give you a little background on my life. I grew up in Carrsville, VA, aka the bubble. I really feel like time stands still when you are there. It is a different world. And it was a great place to be raised because everyone knew everyone, both sets of grandparents were within a stone's throw of our house, I went to school with cousins and I got to see the mind set of closed minded individuals and I realized at a very young age that it was NOTHING I wanted my children to be raised in. My parents raised me to ask questions and to challenge authority (not to the point you get in trouble, but don't be afraid to ask someone a question because they rank above you whether it be a teacher, an older student or individual or a preacher). They also never restricted our living to the bubble, we were exposed to so much culture growing up. I took my first trip out of the country at 10 years old to visit family in Europe, we saw movies, went to concerts, saw musicals and went to tons of historical sites and museums. One of my Daddy's favorite things to say is "You never stop learning." And that is the truth. I crave to read and learn new things all the times, I think that is one of the reasons I love being a Mommy so much. Noah teaches us something new about himself daily. But this background that my parents instilled in me is reason numero uno that I cannot ever move back to Carrsville. Once you get out of the box, you can't be forced back in. I would give anything to have my Mama down the road to keep Noah for me whenever I needed. Or to be able to have Sunday Dinner (read: Lunch) with my family like we used to do with my Grandma and Pop Pop. The distance does allow us to have time to make our own routines and rituals just the three of us as our own family unit, but it still sucks. I had a wonderful relationship with my Grandma and Pop Pop growing up. And saw them on pretty much a daily basis. We would occasionally stay the night when my parents would go out of town or when my cousins were visiting, but it was never a big hurray! I wanted Noah to have this same relationship with my parents that I had with my Grandma and Pop Pop, but the distance prevents that from happening. But then I realize that distance doesn't prevent that bond from forming. I look at the different, but completely equally special relationships each of my out of state cousins had with my Grandma and Pop Pop and realize that is what Noah will get with my parents. Going to his Jo Jo and Pop Pop's to visit will be a special trip/occasion and it will be exciting for him. An experience that I never got to have since both sets of my grandparents were just around the corner. I got to live and see this excitement when my cousins would come for a visit and I think seeing that always allowed me to appreciate the extra time I got to spend with my Pop even more. I adored my Pop, probably because I saw so much of my Daddy in him. I think that is why I struggle so much with the distance is for my Daddy. He never got his little boy until now and I want him to soak in every ounce of time with him that he possibly can because you never know when someone important will just be taken from you. If you haven't notice it is a struggle to find the balance: between what I want, what is best for Noah, what is best for Matt and what is best for our little family of three. Obviously, I just got off on a tangent here, but the original intent of this post was to tell you a little about my cousin Gavin. We were born 20 days apart and have been as thick as thieves growing up ever since. I was feeling a little nostalgic and decided to put together a little montage of some of the amazing times we have shared together over our 29 years(vomit! I'm not liking this new age BTW):

Over the summer Gavin made a huge life decision that became a reality in November when he packed up his house and moved to Denmark to take a position at his company's HQ. Needless to say I took it pretty hard, but I tried not to show it to him because family is just as important to him. It was how we were raised. And if y'all recall I wasn't exactly in the best emotional state during that time, all my hormones were still trying to get themselves balanced back out :P When Gavin has a hard time with a situation he avoids it, saying goodbye is one of those situations. In true Gav fashion he avoided my texts and phone calls until it was really too late for me to attempt a trip down to Charlotte with my little hee haw gang to say goodbye. I think that is what hurt the most, not getting to talk to him in person or hug him goodbye. I did get to talk with him several times before he left, but I missed our traditional Christmas day phone call and getting to see him on his birthday or to even wish him a happy birthday. Well my birthday wish came true! He called me yesterday and we got to talk for a nice long while :) Now I just need to plan out our trip to Denmark so I can get in a face to face visit! :)