September

About a week after his 1st birthday we had his one year check up with his pediatrician.  Developmentally he's doing great - walking, saying a few words ("mama," "up," "bath," - or his version of the word, and occasionally "dada," but for the most part he just speaks his own language all day long), and the doctor was pleased that he had weaned himself from the bottle by one year! No worries there - I'm a pretty firm believer that formula & breastmilk are the only liquids that belong in a bottle!  He's still pretty tall - 30 3/4 inches (85th percentile), but he's finally slimming down.  He weighed in at 23 lbs 8 oz (60th percentile).  This was probably a little skewed based on the fact that he had a stomach bug for about 6 days prior to his appointment and couldn't hold down the little that he ate.  Let me just tell you that dealing with a stomach virus in a child that can't communicate well with you is NO FUN AT ALL!  The only abnormal finding at his appointment is that he is pretty severely anemic.  Most pediatricians check all infants' hemoglobin level at either 9 months or 1 year, so during this routine check we discovered that his hemoglobin was only 8.5.  The normal level is about 11-14.  The doctor had it rechecked because she couldn't believe that such a big and healthy boy would be quite so anemic!  Sure enough, it was still 8.5 and thus began twice daily doses of an iron supplement called ferrous sulfate.  Delicious tasting stuff that Noah takes like a champ :)  We will have his level rechecked after 6 weeks and see if there has been an improvement.  Obviously, if the iron hasn't helped we will look into further testing, but for now we aren't worried!

Here are some more pictures from September!

Practicing squats.  The boy is in constant motion - I swear if he is awake he is not sitting still! He will walk laps around the family room and kitchen (while pulling everything out of the drawers that he can) until he collapses and is ready for a nap!

Such a happy boy! We are so blessed :)

Classic Noah face.  Making his famous "Ohhhh" sound that we have all come to know and love :)

My little goof.  Up to no good :)

Oh, hey belly!

We had his one year pictures taken by Lauren Weghorst!  We love working with her - she is so good :)  Let me know if you want her contact info - we love to refer her to our friends because we have been so pleased with her work!

We have so few family shots that we appreciate our photo sessions with Lauren so that Noah will know that we really were young once :) :)