Noah News: Week 14 (part 2)

Part 2: Our Visit

My peanut and me.

Where did we leave off? Oh yeah, 75 visitors...We had such an amazing time in St. Louis. While I love and am thankful for my life in California, it is hard to be away from my family and spending 7 days of quality time together was amazing. As usual, our time was jam packed, but it was very heart warming to see how many people wanted to meet Mr. Noah. 75 people might seem like an exaggeration but I assure you it isn't. From the time we landed until our return Noah met 77 new faces.

After our successful trek across the country Noah and I settled into life in St. Louis. Of course, my mom mad that transition extremely easy having everything set up in advance of our arrival. I made the decision before we left to keep Noah on his West Coast schedule which meant that bedtime was at 10pm each night. It wore the adults out but I truly believe it was the best decision for my little guy. 

This is the dry sink that my mom changed me on when I was little. Noah LOVED it.

A close up of the fabric on the top.

I failed to get pictures of all of our visitors (plus, I might crash the blogger server if I posted all of those!) but here are a few samples:

Great Aunt Toni (GAT) trying to pop Noah's head off :-).

Not technically a visitor but a pretty special person Noah got to see.

Noah is lucky to have 2 Great Grandmas. Grandma Smith and Grandma Koon.

Koon Family 4 generation photo.

Smith Family 4 generation photo.

I would have cropped this but decided Belle needed to be represented in our family photo. We'll take another one with Scott in April!

Noah was pretty much the center of attention for the week.

Great Aunt Lynne and Great Uncle Hot Rod.

Lauren and Noah. For a little persepective, I used to babysit Lauren when she was little (see below). They lived catty corner to our house and I pretty much spent every waking moment bugging Bobbi and Doug until they had Lauren and I had something else to focus my attention on! I have decided I need to find myself a 12 year old to come over each day at 3 o'clock and play with Noah.

Crazy how fast time flies. I need to remember to soak up every moment with Noah because before we know it he will be driving and looking at colleges!

Lauren, Jordan and Noah. Bobbi and Doug moved away shortly after having Jordan so I didn't get to teach her as many great habits (Oreo eating and screaming) as Lauren but hopefully some knowledge seeped in over the years.

A little love for Belle. She was a trooper through the entire 7 days but she had definitely had enough and was ready for us to go home!

Derry and Noah dancing

 

Scared the living daylights out of me - This is an anecdote that I am going to use to illustrate the truth behind the idea that babies pick up on your emotions. The other night I was rocking Noah back to sleep in the middle of the night and he was a fussing a touch. Scott woke up and wandered down the hall in 007 stealth fashion. All of a sudden I turned to see him standing in the doorway and I about jumped out of my skin. Noah immediately went into hysterics. My whole body must have tensed and reacted and my little boy knew that things were no longer ok. I tried to keep this in mind while we were flying this week. I don't like to fly and tend to get really jumpy and anxious when there is any turbulence. Luckily Noah didn't seem to mind my hyperventilating on our bumpy descent into SF as he just slept right through it!

This has nothing to do with anything but I like it so I am posting it here!

Overstimulation is a very real danger - We have dealt with a touch of overstimulation with Noah (a few too many people, a little too much playing, etc...). BUT, this weekend I found out just how bad it can be. Saturday we held an open house thinking it would be easier to have people come to us instead of toting Noah all over the greater St. Louis area. The verdict...good and bad idea. Good because we got to see a lot of people, bad because it left Noah reeling. He could not come down from all the madness and was pretty much a zombie for a good few hours and then couldn't fall asleep. It was pretty heart breaking to watch him struggle to recoup after the day's events.

He and Grandma walked around like this for at least an hour.

Grinning from ear to ear - I swear Noah smiles. I am pretty sure my parents didn't believe me until this week when they got to see it first hand. This week, we are even inching towards laughing! He gets so excited and is almost there. I can't wait to hear my little man giggle!

Not a smile but at least he doesn't look angry at the camera!

A matter of coordination - Noah's hand-eye-coordination took leaps forward this week. He is now becoming a pro at gripping and pulling anything/everything to his mouth. Watch out pomeranians! 

He sucked on that silly little toy for a good 30 minutes at the airport.

Be my Valentine - This year Scott and I weren't able to be together for Valentine's Day but I had two pretty special men in my life back in St. Louis. Every year growing up my dad would get my mom a dozen red roses and a single yellow rose for me. This tradition ended when I left the house but on Tuesday he surprised us both with our "usuals". Pretty special day indeed.

Just for me :-)

Climate change - Noah got to see his first snow while in St. Louis. I had grand visions of bundling him up and plopping him in the white stuff for a photo but I failed. We did get him all bundled for a trip to visit my mom's work though!

My little bear. He actually ended up too hot in this little get up!

This post is all over the map. A half way crafted recap, a few headlines, and a lot of pictures. If it is any indication of our trip, my one goal was to get a mani/pedi while I was there. It took me until Tuesday to actually make that happen. We were busy and as a result I am exhausted and apparently incapable of organizing my thoughts. 

Thank you to everyone who came to see Noah while we were in town. We enjoyed every moment and can't wait to come back soon! Next time, we're bringing Dad along though...we sure did miss him.