Happy New Year!

I am going to officially start this new year off on the right foot....by properly closing out 2011! You wonderful folks are due with some life updates!
I shamelessly started post after post (read: in my head) but never found the time to get it down on paper...epic fail!
So here is a month break down recap/close out of 2011:

October
We dressed our sweet little boy as Chewbacca for Halloween. I promised Matt long ago that our first child regardless of gender would don a Chewy suit for their first Halloween. When we got pregnant and realized we were due in November we figured that a nearly 12 month old would make an adorable Wookie, Noah had other plans. His Chewy suit was a bit big on him (OMG I cannot believe how tiny he was...emphasis on was!).
As you will recall from a previous post we had Noah's Newborn Session done with the ENTIRE family in October as well. I'd not shown them yet because I used them as Christmas/Hanukkah presents...since that has come and gone there is no reason not to share all the wonderful photos. But first off here are my maternity pictures! Seriously a shame, by the time I got the pictures we took at the end of August Noah had already made his appearance into the world :PAnd here are my favorites from the Newborn Session:

I spent the majority of my maternity leave in October and November working on fun projects with all our pictures! Here are our holiday cards that we sent out this year:
Other fun gifts I "crafted" with the help of Shutterfly this year were mugs, magnets, ornaments, puzzles, wall art and my personal favorite were the photo albums I put together with a glimpse into Noah's first months of life! I've decided that this will be a new little tradition that I will be doing for each of our babies each year as a fun present for the grandparents and great-grandmas!

October also saw Noah going out to a restaurant for the very first time with Mama and Daddy, our choice was non other than Sakura the local Japanese Steakhouse that we are OBSESSED with!Obviously the entertainment of fire and cooking didn't phase him in the least! Slept right through the entire thing, until it was time for him to eat. Thankfully we brought along a bottle in case he wasn't able to make it back home. He woke up with a poopy diaper so Mama also experienced her first public changing...Noah decided to start peeing right when I undid his diaper. In these early days I wasn't quite accustomed to doing a quick peek first, we have it done much better now. Needless to say an outfit change was in order and Daddy got a good laugh when we came back from the bathroom!

November
The first weekend in November brought our good Ohio family friends the Scotts for a nice visit! Noah got to meet Sara, Bill, Ali and of course his best buddy for life Liam! Liam and Noah are one month apart! :)
At there first meeting Liam is two months weighing in at 14 lbs and Noah is one month weighing in at 7 lbs!
Of course our visit included Cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcakes, unfortunately Noah and Liam were not yet able to participate other than by proxy! :P The best part of the weekend was our trip to Cox Farm for their Fall Festival it included hay rides, hot apple cider, kettle corn and lots of slides for Ali! :)

Here are some more of our favorite pictures of Noah from November:

November brought a lot of other fun firsts for us too! Noah took his first major trip which was to Carrsville to visit family and feast for Thanksgiving. Here he is strapped in for his first major trek through Virginia!

Noah attended his first movie: The Muppets! Here we are all decked out to attend. Again Noah is a fabulous little date buddy because he slept through the entire movie! :) Woke up just as we were leaving in time to nurse in the car before we headed back to Jo Jo and Pop Pop's.
We closed out the month of November with Noah turning two months weighing in at 10lbs 6 oz and measuring 22 inches long.

Other fun facts/accomplishments:

Longest sleep stretch 5.5 hours

Graduated from Newborn clothes and moved into 0-3 (very last week of the month)

Graduated from Newborn diapers to Size 1

Holds head up pretty much unassisted

Loves to stand up on Mama and Daddy's laps

Started making lots of talking noises "goo" and "gaa" are used most often

Noah rarely cries but we went through a really bad spell so we went to the Doctor and he confirmed our little munchkin has reflux just like Mama and Daddy. Once he started taking his Zantac he has been back to his normal happy self!

We left Noah for the very first time on Black Friday, Jo Jo was more than happy to keep him for an hour!

Thanksgiving
Noah had two first Thanksgivings with both sides of his family! I have to say this was extremely exhausting and really took its toll on all of us. For those families that have to split ALL holidays between multiple familes, well hats off to you! We only have to share one and its difficult. For once in my life I'm putting my foot down and I'm no longer gonna worry about making sure everyone else is happy and no one's feelings are hurt...its amazing that as soon as I have a kid all that polite bullshit goes right out the window. I don't care anymore, it's not about anyone else but him...sorry bout it! Matt and I have decided that next year we aren't sharing anymore, we aren't rotating, we just aren't doing it. Since this is the one holiday we have to share, it will no longer be shared. It will now be our one family holiday, where we make our own family traditions and don't have to travel anywhere! We are both excited of the prospect of cooking a whole meal together, one that Noah will actually be able to partake in next year with us!
Okay back to Noah's first Thanksgiving! We first celebrated with the Zelmans!
Thanksgiving Day we started our trek down to my parents house for a long weekend to visit with family! This was Noah's first trip to Carrsville (my home town) and also his first MAJOR car trip! Noah is a wonderful littler traveler. He was wide awake and happy when we left Centreville at 10:00, but soon passed out as we started down the road. We made the trip in about 5 hours, stopping once for a diaper change feeding for Noah...but several more stops for bathroom breaks for Mama and Daddy. Some highlights from Thanksgiving was getting to spend time with Jo Jo, Pop Pop, Aunt Kate and Aunt Lissa, meeting Grandma Hazel, meeting Aunt Ronda, Uncle Andy, Cousins Amanda, Rachel, Clyde and Kylie, meeting Uncle Mark, Aunt Susan and Cousin Brittany. Noah certainly enjoyed all the attention and being held often! :)Four generations-Noah was loving this photo shoot ;)Have you noticed the pattern, that I LOVE outfits that have some fun animal on his behind?! :P
December
We treated ourselves to an early Chrismakkuh present at the beginning of the month...a brand new fabulous canon camera! :) So I have some AMAZING pictures for the month! :)
We closed out the month of December with Noah turning 3 months! Holy Cow! He weighed in at 15.5 lbs!!! WOWZA!!!!Other fun facts from the month:

Moved to Size 2 diapers

Smiled for the first time and melted Mama and Daddy's hearts!

Giggles

Started using his bumbo chair for the first time and seems to enjoy it for the most part

Picks his head up almost 90 degrees during tummy time, not yet pushing up on his forearms though

During tummy time he pulls in his knees and puts weight on them (OMG my child is trying to crawl before he can even hold his head up!)

Holds head steady when upright

Tries so hard to talk to Mama, Daddy and his dinosaurs! Favorites: "a-goo" "a-gaa" and sometimes it sounds like he is saying Hi back! ;)

Noah goes NUTS when he is on his back, but mostly when he is getting his diaps changed because he LOVES looking at his dinosaur painting from his Aunt Kim. Legs are constantly in motion like a man on a mission to get some more food quickly. (Note: I need to load the awesome video we have of this!) He has also started to talk to the painting too! Though its enjoyable to watch and see, not so much fun when you are attempting to change a blowout diaper!

We had our first date alone without Noah. Jo Jo kept him for the afternoon, we had lunch at BDubs and followed it up with Mission Impossible 3.

Hanukkah

Christmas
We started off our holiday season by decorating the house, which Noah enjoyed watching but as soon as we attempted to pose him with the tree it was another story (see below). We also attempted to make another gingerbread house and a rice krespie (DELISH!) house. EPIC FAIL again (see below)! There will no longer be such attempts in the Zelman household :( We also made a visit down to Richmond to meet up with my family and see the REAL Santa! :) Every year growing up we would go visit him, we call him the real Santa because it is the same man every single year! And he comes down the chimney after he feeds his reindeer!!! Noah was decked out in his sweater vest for the occassion (*insert a squeal of delight from Mama*)We made another trip to Carrsville to celebrate the holiday with my family. Christmas eve we celebrate with the Vicks (my Mama's family), so Noah got to meet more Aunts, Uncles and Cousins. We closed out the night opening one gift, which is always our jammies from my Mama. This year Noah got his first jammies! They were so cute, had Noah emboridered on the butt! :) Noah was all smiles on Christmas day, I think he was excited that other people were up at 6am other than him and Mama :) The remainder of the week brought lots of visits from more Bradshaw Family! :)
The Monster!

NYE
Needless to say none of us made it to the ball drop this year...which was fine by us!Noah closed out 2011 in style, the same cannot be said for his parents