stephanie on the move: Noah News: Christmas Edition

aka...week 7.

This week was a very exciting one as it held Noah's first Christmas. It also marked my first Christmas away from "home" and my Mom's first away from her mom. A LOT of firsts for one day. It was different, and kind of a blur, to tell the truth. The good/important news is that we were able to spend it together as a family and create a few new traditions.

There was a lot of holiday flare this week in baby apparel world.

This weeks headlines: 

Santa Claus is coming to town - Noah decided not to take any risks on ending up on the naughty list and slept 8 hours Christmas Eve. We have had a couple of repeat performances and I feel good about our nighttime routine we are establishing. 

Scott made sure Santa could see our house. I will take a better picture but I snapped this pulling into the driveway last week.

One big sack of potatoes - Noah tipped the scales at over 10 lbs. this week! Every time I see a nice weight gain on the scales it makes me smile. He is even starting to get some chub on his cute little thighs! 

10 lbs. 2.8 oz!

Movin' on up - From newborn diapers to size 1 that is. More proof that our little boy isn't so little any more (ok, he is!). 

Head Smart - We are now making a conscious effort to get Noah to look to his right more regularly. He always defaults left and I don't want him to get a flat head or end up in a helmet so we are officially taking preemptive efforts to prevent this. 

Reach out and touch someone - Or "something" in Noah's case. He is sort of starting to figure out his activity mat/gym. He accidentally hit one of his toys last week and immediately his hands started batting trying for a repeat performance.

Happy baby on, where else, his boppy!

Rubber Ducky, you're the one - Bath time is officially lots of fun now. Noah loves his bath time and doesn't even mind water on his face. He must be mine after all ;-).

After bath in his holiday towel...thanks Kelly!

Ok, no headlines for the rundown of my parents visit...

Wednesday, my parents arrived in time for a full day of Noah holding. I am pretty sure that Scott and I barely touched our little man for their entire visit. While it is nice to have him back it was wonderful to see him with his Grandparents!

Grandma got to give Noah his nightly bottle feeding. I think she enjoyed it just a bit!

Thursday, we had a lot of last minute errands to run so we headed out on a mission: Ikea, Costco, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Michael's. VERY ambitious to try and pull off between feedings and ultimately we failed. We had a full baby meltdown after BB&B and had to high tail it home for some food. That night we decided to give the adult dinner thing another try at The Village Pub. While we definitely got a few sideways glances for bringing an infant to a Michelin starred restaurant, he was the perfect dinner guest and slept the whole time while we enjoyed some amazing food!

Dinner at Village Pub. It might be nice weather in CA in December but not good enough for a tan!

Friday the preparation for Christmas Eve began. We were getting set to host 34 members of the Retchless family at our house which took a great deal of planning and set up. We were cooking, decorating, rearranging furniture, cleaning, and watching the little man all day. Of course, seeing that Christmas was being celebrated in a state where 60 is a high in December, my dad and Scott took in 18 holes as well! Somehow we managed to create a yummy risotto dinner amongst the madness.

Tables being transformed for the big feast.

Close up look.

Saturday we awoke and continued the previous days routine of prepping for Christmas Eve. It turned out to be a resounding success (if I do say so myself). If we had bad weather I think it would have been a rough day with that many people crammed in our tiny house but it was gorgeous outside so it all worked out swimmingly. It was wonderful to be able to celebrate with the Retchless Family in person instead of via Skype this year!

Family room...ready for football watching.

White elephant gift exchange.

Barbara and her white elephant "win". Luckily someone stole it from her!

After our glorious 8 hour sleep on Saturday night we awoke for Christmas morning. It took us at least twice as long to open as presents as usual since we wanted Noah to take part and he was more interested in eating and sleeping! BUT, we had nothing else to do all day so we stretched our morning out nice and long and enjoyed every minute of changing our family room into mounds of presents, boxes and wrapping paper. 

We took a little time as a family of three (five) in the early hours of Christmas. Lola was loving all the extra snuggle time in bed.

Our pre-Noah family.

Look who woke up!

A man amongst the presents. He wasn't cooperating for the camera very well.

Noah's first Christmas present...and it was...

WOO HOO!

I think he likes it ;-).

The day continued with this theme and we took our time relishing in the family togetherness. We did take advantage of Christmas in California with a nice walk around the neighborhood (our gift to the Pomeranians) but otherwise we simply enjoyed the R&R. As an extra special treat, my dad cooked Christmas dinner. It is the only meal he prepares and it is from a 1973 issue of Playboy. It pretty much feels like a step back in time enjoying this vintage meal that was DELICIOUS.

Monday was not-so-fun as we had to send Grandma and Grandpa back to Missouri. One of these days I will blog about how hard it is to have them so far away but for today, suffice it to say that saying goodbye was really hard.