Guess Who's Gettin' Mobile?

oh yeah! Mr. Noah, working on that elusive crawl...
He's getting so good at looking where he wants to go, aiming for it, then rolling one or two or three times to get there. His biggest motivator? Gerber Puffs. I sprinkle them randomly all over the quilt and he rolls till he gets one, rests, then looks for another one and gets rollin' again.
Sometimes he even works on his army crawl before resorting to rolling again. It's so cool to watch!

In other news, his two top front teeth have both broken through, and he seems to be pain-free for the time being. He is doing a bit of sleep regression, but last night was a bit better, so here's hoping it was tooth-related and tonight ends up even better.

Regarding those Gerber Puffs: in just a week of having them in his life, he has become quite the dexterous little expert at getting them into his mouth. His process, though awkward, is amazingly effective. He'll clutch it in one clammy fist, lick the fist until it goes in his mouth, or, if it becomes apparent it ISN'T gonna go in the mouth, he'll bump his other hand into the fray and nudge the puff out of the other palm and try to steer it in his mouth with hand #2, all while hand #1 braces the second hand to try to prevent any more delays. Crazy!

As far as our life goes, we are really enjoying one another. Joe is back working full-time, and always on the overnight shifts, so many days it is just me and Noah while Daddy sleeps. We are getting good at rotating activities...quiet ones in the house, and lots of other ones that take us out of the house. Noah LOVES to go outside, even if it is just to help me take the garbage out or to sit on our front steps and watch cars go by. He is always good for a walk, and is a remarkably great companion on errands. I have no anxieties about taking him into the world to grocery shop, browse stores, meet friends for lunch, etc. It's really nice.

Noah has stopped "singing along" with me for the time being, which I miss... But he has begun reaching out for us, and that's really cute. He gives "kisses" when asked, basically the open-mouth/hold still/eyes open/wait for mommy to do what she does kinda thing. It's funny.
He has also stopped eating all the books we try to read to him, so storytime has gotten fun again. He seems to recognize things in the stories, too-- like in this one book we read to him every day, I SWEAR he knows when it is the last page. He'll always put his hand on the page (after spending the whole book not touching it at all), and seem to grow active again, like, "Okay-- that's done. What's next?" Funny!

Um... what else? He is REALLY good at recognizing the sign for milk. Makes him whine EVERY TIME. And the other day I SWEAR he signed "Mom." I SWEAR it, though it has yet to be repeated. He was watching the Baby Signing Time video and had been rapt the whole time, but not really doing any motions... and then the song "Mom Has a Mom" came on and his hand flew up to his chin. Thumb and open palm and all! And my jaw dropped and I kept watching and a few seconds later, he DID IT AGAIN. Only on the "Mom" song. And not during the "Dad" part of it. 'Course it could really have been a fluke... but I'm calling it.

Okay... for now, that's it.
(Enjoy the random animated photos above. My initial plan was to have it really show his motion, like a flip book... but then as I worked on it, it because clear that I hadn't taken nearly enough sequential shots to fill in the gaps... So it's more of a slide show. Still-- it's my first animated GIF, so I'm pretty proud of it!)

Good night!