Trick or Treat!

As promised...

Noah's costume

The first costume we got before I found the puppy dog! This one was a little small, too (what was I thinking buying a 6 month size for a 4 month old!)
We went to a Halloween party yesterday....

On our way!

Noah and Eli!
All the babies at the party!

Halloween Fun!

We decided to go to a pumpkin patch on Sunday to pick out a pumpkin. We looked online and found one near our house but when we got there, it ended up being just a roadside stand! :-) It was all we needed, though! We got a lot of good pictures as you'll see below. Waylon's parents came with us and my mom came, too - she was on her way back from visiting my gramma. It was nice that she was there to get all these great pictures of us with Waylon's parents!

Make sure to check back tomorrow for a picture of Noah's halloween costume!! :-) I'm holding back and not posting it until Halloween day... it's been hard cause he's so darn cute in it! :-)

Our little pumpkinhead....

Noah and Grandad

Noah and Nana

Noah and Seger

More Pictures... since I'm in the mood! :-)

In his new ErgoBaby carrier

(much more comfortable than the Bjorn)

Noah with his new friend Austin... Austin's mom is Kira, a sweet girl that my mom works with. We've become friends by living out our pregnancies and now motherhood, through my mom but we'd never actually met until this past weekend.

Relaxing with Aunt Ditter

(my sister, Leah... we call each other Ditter... don't ask me why!) :-)

Noah's first few music lessons... he's so talented!

There are just going to be more and more of these 'big boy' shots!

He's such a little man. :-)

Rolling over and Last Weekend!

Noah is officially rolling over!! The past few days, he's been getting it, but still needs some prodding to get started. Yesterday, he was basically doing it alone but this morning, I laid him down on his back and he rolled over right away! He can't go front to back still but I'm sure he'll get that soon, too. When he's on his belly, his little legs are moving so much... I think he's starting the beginnings trying to crawl. It's so fun watching him grow and learn!

Last weekend was another fun one. We went to MD again. This time, Cory, Jennie, Clara and Dustin came with us. The guys had tickets to a Redskins game on Sunday. We stayed with my parents and they entertained us all weekend! Lots of yummy food and good times.

We were planning on leaving Saturday morning, but when Waylon got home from work on Friday, he suggested we pack up and leave at Noah's bedtime. His parents were over for dinner to visit with Noah, so it worked out perfectly... they watched Noah while we packed up and got ready to go. We left around 8:30 and got to MD around 1:30. It worked well because Noah just slept the whole way and we didn't have to stop to feed him. And he didn't seem off schedule at all which was nice. For us, though, it was a different story. By the time we got in, fed Noah, and got to bed, it was 2am. 6:30 came very early on Saturday morning! It would have been okay but we had plans to go out in Baltimore on Saturday night. We didn't get to bed again until 2am. 9 hours of sleep in two nights... not so good! We caught up though and it was worth it... a great weekend!

Tomorrow will be another exciting day. I'm finally taking advantage of my birthday present (a $300 spa gift card) and going to get a massage, facial, manicure and hair style.... and I'll still have over $100 on the card to go back another time! I can't wait!! I think Waylon is also excited to spend some quality father/son time with Noah.

Some cutie pictures for the day....

3 month pictures

I'll post more from Noah's 3 month photo shoot later, but here's a sneak preview...

photo by Neil Boyd Photography

Some pictures... thanks Mom!

Another 'big boy' shot

Ready for a walk at Great Grammas... notice the drool and the

beautiful dated photo in the background! :-)

With Great Gramma

Noah laughing at Mommy

His new favorite thing to chew on

Fun Week!

Big news this week!! On Tuesday night, Waylon was playing with Noah on the changing table and he made this strange noise. I thought maybe he was starting to cry at first, but when we looked at him, he was smiling! Waylon did this funny thing over and over and Noah was cracking up!! He laughed for a long time. It was the most beautiful sound I have ever heard! I got it on video. I need to figure out how to upload videos so you all can see (Amy, maybe you can help me with that?)! He's laughed a few times since then, but nothing like that night. He's really getting to be so much fun!! It's always something new every day. I feel so lucky to be able to stay home and experience every minute of it!

So, those two nights of long sleep were short lived. Noah is back to his ~3:30 AM feeding time... which is okay but those two nights were really nice. We'll get back there eventually.

This week, I had my last day of work! My mom came down to watch Noah on Monday and Tuesday (Waylon's mom watched him last week when I worked). It was actually pretty sad to leave. I was so excited about leaving but when it came time to walk out the door, I was really sad. I made a lot of really good friends at that job and I'm really going to miss them all.

Grandma enjoying some down time with Noah:

On Wednesday, my mom, Noah and I went to visit my Gramma for a few days. Gramma enjoyed seeing her great grandson... I think it cheered her up a little. She fell a few weeks ago and we found out this week that she has three fractures. One on each side of her pelvis and one in her sacrum. She should be on the road to recovery now but it was hard to see her in so much pain. I'll have some pictures from visiting Great Gramma soon - my mom took them all so I have to get them from her first.

Today was a fun family day. Waylon ran a 5K for the Autism Society of NC this morning and Noah and I went to cheer him on. It was fun and I kinda wished I would have signed up to walk it with Noah. That would have been fun. We'll have to find another one to do soon while the weather is still nice. After the run, we stopped by Waylon's parents house for a quick visit. We made a nice dinner tonight and played with Noah.

Here are a few other cute shots....

After a walk down the street:

Won't be long before he's eating here!

Noah and his Aunt Andrea:

He did it again!!!

He slept all through the night again... except this time he went to sleep around 8 - just after I fed him and then he slept all night until 7 am!! He didn't wake up at all! Craziness.

WOW!!!

Last night was huge!! Noah went 11 1/2 hours between feedings!!!

I fed him at 7:45 and tried to put him down right away as usual. He was wide awake after he ate (not normal) so we decided he probably just wanted to stay up a little longer. Around 9:00 he was obviously ready to sleep, so we put him to bed. He woke up only once in the night around 2:00 but went back to sleep very easily and slept soundly until 7 am. Crazy!! I kept wondering if he was okay, and (sorry if TMI for some of you) I woke up very uncomfortable at 6 am... I had to come downstairs and pump.

The past few nights before that, I had decided to try to alter his routine and had been waking him to eat at 11 pm to see if he'd sleep 8 hours until 7 am. He went that long without eating but woke up several times in the night - I think out of habit. Last night I was going to go back to the way things were... feeding around 7:30, in the crib at 8, awake around 3:30 to eat and up at 7. Maybe I messed with his schedule just enough to keep him alseep! :-) We'll see what happens tonight, but I assume it was just a fluke.....

as was the rolling over. He hasn't done that again yet. He's trying still but hasn't actually done it again yet.

Sorry, no new pictures with this post... I'll try to get some more up next time! Monday and Tuesday are my last two days of work (yay!!) and then my mom and I are going to go visit my grandmother, so I'm sure I'll have some from that trip.

Missing Daddy

I'M FREE!!

Yesterday was my first day back to work after maternity leave... and I quit! :-) I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Waylon and I decided it is best for our new expanded family for me to stay home with Noah for a little while. The plan is to get through the holidays and re-evaluate at that point. If I do decide to look for a new job at that point, I will be looking for something part time. I'm really excited!

So, I worked yesterday and today for a little while and I'll go in next Monday and Tuesday for a few hours to train a few people and then I'm done!! It's crazy and kinda scary. I think the last time I was unemployed was when I was 13 years old! :-) I started working at the pool snack bar when I was 14! Of course that was just during the summers but still! And I wouldn't necessarily call this unemployed either... I'm going from a paid 8 hour day (if that!) to an unpaid 13 hour day (plus I'm on call all the time!). :-) I couldn't be happier though.

So, today is Noah's 3 month old birthday and he's already been to two weddings! Last weekend was Jill and Dan's wedding in Maryland. Jill is a good family friend - more like a cousin! It was such a fun wedding. Noah did make an appearance at the beginning of the reception and was a perfect angel! My friends Ali, Andrew, and Jessica babysat for Noah during the ceremony and the second half of the reception. Here's a family photo from the wedding:

We also got to see Jan, Charlie, Jimbo, Joe, and Danny last weekend... more famiy friends who are more like family. It was so nice to spend time with them and for Noah to meet them all.

The trip home from MD... not so fun. It took us 9 hours to drive what normally takes 5. We hit traffic from an accident around 1:00 and decided at that point to stop, feed Noah and have a sit down lunch so he could strech a little and be out of the carseat. We figured by the time we got back on the road the accident would be cleared. We were stopped for about 1 1/2 hours but including that time, we went 37 miles in 4 hours!! Crazy. We were happy to be home Sunday night!

Here are a few more good shots from the weekend....