I have written 2 blog letters to your little brother so far, and he's only 9 months old. It has never occurred to me to write letters to my young children until a few months ago. I have blogged about my pregnancies and and births, but never an actual letter to reflect on your life in your early years. I'm going to try to hit the highlights of your 4 years, and keep it under 10 pages, lol. Here we go!
Here you are! Noah Daniel born May 5, 2010. 7lbs, 1oz. 19" with dark brown hair and dark blue eyes. You were such a petite baby and looked so much smaller than 7 pounds. Your going home weight was 6 pounds, 6 ounces and you were jaundiced but not enough to be under bili lights. You would not breastfeed, neither and would your older brother. But you drank your bottle great and reached your birth weight at 2 weeks old. And right at 2 weeks old, your colic began. You would scream bloody murder from (on average) 8pm until 11pm. Sometimes longer, sometimes shorter, some nights were worse than others. Your colic seemed to be at its worst around 6 weeks old. The only thing that seemed to lesson the effects was to read Dr Seuss's book, "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish". NO other book would suit you! As you approached 3 months old, the colic was becoming less frequent and didn't last the full 3 hours until the colic ended altogether.
Awww, here you are on your first Halloween! The most adorable lion I have ever seen! You are 5 months old and you are sitting up so well all by yourself. You are also eating from a spoon like a champ. You also have been sleeping through the night and in your crib in your own room.
When you were 6 months old, you celebrated your first Thanksgiving at Meme and PopPop's house with your family, aunts, uncles, and cousins too. On December 3rd, daddy took the day off work and you said your first word, "Dada". It was wonderful timing, and you kept saying "Dada" the whole day!
Here you are, 7 months old and getting in the Christmas spirit! You have become quite the daddy's boy too. On December 10th you gave your first wave "hi" to daddy when he got home from work. Christmas day was celebrated at Mema & Grandpa's house. Sorry I don't have more details than this. I didn't write much details in your baby book this month. I have it noted though that you love your turkey and chicken baby foods. And that you started going from sitting to laying on belly. Seems you are eager to learn to crawl!
Holy moly, you sure were a busy boy at 8 months old. Your 8th month baby book page is full!! Your eating habits have changed a bit. You don't care for meats, except you tend to favor turkey and sweet potatoes. Why was I offering you meats before 9 months?? Oh well...you turned out ok. haha You made some really cool advances in your motor skills this month. On January 9th you pointed for the very first time, right in my face! On January 11th you did a 1/2 push-up and pushed yourself to scoot backwards. By the 19th, you were getting around on the floor very well this way! On January 20th I stood you next to the coffee table. You held on and stood, solid as a rock! The next day, you discovered your shadow, and that it was lots of fun to play with. So cute, and funny. To close out your 8th month of accomplishments, you had your first pretend play on January 26th. You got a spoon from a toy cook set and blew on it (because it was hot). Then, you did the same thing to the fork just before putting it up to my mouth for me to eat. I took my pretend bite, and then you put the fork to your mouth. This 1st time pretend playing and interacting was really amazing, and the blowing part was a new skill too!
Here we are in Disney World when you were 9 months old. You slept A LOT through this vacation. Maybe it was the unseasonably warm weather (Feb 28-Mar 2), or being in the stroller so much, or just a big growth spurt. Even though you slept through most of it, we had a fantastic time and got to meet my best friend and her family. It stinks she lives 2000 miles away, but it just makes our visits together that much more special. We will go again someday, that is a promise.
Crawling!!! Yes, at 9 months old you made the switch from belly scooting, to crawling! We baited you with cell phones, remotes, toys ...but none of that caught your interest. What got you crawling was a plastic chocolate chip cookie! And when you reached that cookie, you chewed on it like it was the real deal. LOL You also began clapping your hands, responding to your name when called, and grew your first tooth!
This blog I think is going to get longer than I hoped. There is SO much to write about you. So many wonderful memories to share! I won't even come close to mentioning all the best parts of you. Lets see ... On March 15th you used Tow Mater to pull yourself up and stand for the first time. And on March 31st you took your first steps, cruising along your "learn and grove" table. Your 10th month wasn't all fun and games though. You had your first 2 febrile seizures during this month. But lets not focus on that to end out your 10th month. You said "mamamamama" for the first time, not to me, but looking out the window. I wasn't an official, "mama" said to me, but I took it and loved the sound!
During your 11th month, less than a week from your 1st birthday, you cut your 4th tooth! You also started climbing stairs (yikes!), and tried to walk without holding furniture. You didn't make it. You fell, belly flopped to the floor, but you just crawled away not the slightest bit disappointed from the attempt. :)
HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY NOAH!! You shared your 1st birthday party with big bro on May 7th. Family and friends came to celebrate and we all had a really fun time! The weather was gorgeous and you had some really fun gifts too! My first CD player, "Alien" toy (which totally creeped me out but you loved it), rolling push toy, bouncy ball, and many more gifts that you could share with your bro (cars, blocks, etc).
Right after celebrating your birthday, your good night sleeping ended. For the next 11 months and 1 week, you would be awake 1-3 hours most nights. You started speech therapy, and occupational therapy around 18 months old. You had a wonderful occupational therapist, and for the life of me, I cannot remember her name. You had a sensory disorder which caused you to sleep very poorly and I did physical therapy exercises with you in the middle of the night to try to calm your body back to sleep. I tell ya, those were some rough nights! I would massage your little body with my eyes closed, leaning on your toddler bed, so exhausted and barely able to handle your restlessness. I slept many nights on your floor, with you on top of me, anything just so we could get some sleep. During this time, you also had what I called 'severe eating challenges'. For many months you survived by drinking high calorie nutritional drinks, smashed bananas, apple sauce, and cream of wheat. Thankfully, you outgrew this disorder 3 weeks before your 2nd birthday, and you began sleeping through the night again, and beginning to try a few other soft foods.
Happy 2nd Birthday!
After having speech therapy several months, you made zero progress. I called and had another therapist assigned to you. It appeared you had a speech disorder called, Apraxia. This broke my heart, and I worried so much. I feared that you would never be able to verbally communicate. Therapist assured me that you would gain full speech some day, but this was very hard for me to envision since you could not say a single word to me on your own. And then, either just before you turned 2 or just after, you started speech therapy with your new therapist, Phaedra. She was exactly who you needed! Immediately, you began saying words! Oh it was the miracle I had been waiting for ...to hear your voice! While you still have Apraxia and a severe delay in speech, you had a wonderful head start thanks to Phaedra! And I do see the hope others have said, that you will gain full speech some day. By the time you aged out of early intervention, you were teetering on the edge of starting 2 word phrases. And to think, you started with nothing!
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HAPPY 3RD BIRTHDAY NOAH! It was a chilly May 4th, but still a fun party! Big bro picked a rocket theme party for yall to celebrate. And look at me there, woo wee! Big mama! haha That's your baby brother in there beginning our 3rd trimester this week.
On May 6th, you started speech therapy at public school twice a week with Miss Karen. I was a little nervous having you go on your own for private 30 minute sessions. I was also nervous starting over with someone new. And I had serious doubts this new therapist could be as good as Phaedra. But these worries didn't last past your 2nd session. You LOVE your speech time, and I was quickly impressed with her teaching style! There were only 7 weeks of speech until the end of the school year, so you didn't make any progress. But I had very high hopes the following school year would bring tremendous progress!
And yes! You did make tremendous progress from Sept 2013 til now, May 5, 2014. You have well over 100 single words you can say. I'm guessing. Really I have no idea, and I'm not gonna try to count them all. lol In November/December, you started going to speech 3x every week, and I think this helped give you the boost you needed to start with 2 word phrases. You say 2 words all the time now, and occasionally 3 words! And I tell you, EVERY - SINGLE - TIME you are able to voice what is on your mind, and we can verbally complete a short conversation, it makes me smile. Me and your daddy both praise you anytime you say something correctly. And this is kinda funny, but we also praise ourselves when we are able to understand what you try to tell us. haha Many of your words aren't said exactly right, but we try our best to figure out what you mean. And when we do, we celebrate ourselves in secret. lol
I know I spent a lot of this blog talking about your speech struggles and triumphs, but really that is a small part of you. Your personality is hilarious! You love to 'rock out', boogie, jump, yell (really, you are so loud!), pretend cook, play with big bro, act out various scenes for whatever it is your are thinking. Words around here may be more limited, but your personality isn't. You are also like the glue that will forever bind you and your brothers together. You idolize your big bro and do everything he does, but at the same time, you are so gentle, giving, loving, and patient with playing with or tending to your baby bro. You have a strong, and special bond with both. And it really amazes me just how big your heart is.
Happy 4th Birthday Noah! And thank you for skipping the 'terrible 2s AND terrible 3s'! You have been our happy go lucky toddler until recently. You are now in the full swing of terrible 4s. Yeah, some parts of the day can be rough, but you still have the same loving, adventurous personality. I will try to write you more letters. I've enjoyed this time to reflect on you. :)
Love always,
Nah-Ay
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