Baby's First Christmas

Noah's first Christmas... I didn't know what to expect. I think a baby's first Christmas depends a lot on how old the baby is at Christmas time. Noah had a good Christmas, but I don't know if he realized it. In other words, for him, it was probably just like any other day - well, any other day with a lot of driving, and he's had a few of those already.

I think that his older cousin was slightly more aware of the holiday... but only slightly. She at least was able to grab onto the wrapping paper, and as Laura pulled Ellia away from the gift, the paper would tear away, as well. So, maybe Baby's First Christmas is super exciting for the January babies, but for the August and October babies... well, it was more about just watching their cuteness.

I mean, Santa didn't really have to come this year for Noah to be happy. And next Christmas, he's not going to compare it to how this Christmas was. But he did come out of the day with more outfits than when he started.

Noah with his first Christmas present, courtesy of Nina!

Christmas Eve, we went to a candle-light service at our church. Afterwards, we went home and had a late night wrapping presents. Noah apparently liked the late-night concept, because he didn't sleep a whole lot. So, Christmas morning, we didn't exactly wake up early.

The rest of the day ended up being a whirlwind. Woke up at 10am, had to be at my parents' by 11am... that didn't leave a lot of time for unwrapping gifts and getting ready for the day. So, Libby and I flew through our presents to each other, and the ones we had accumulated for Noah.

We had debated a few times whether or not to get Noah something for Christmas. "What?!?!" you're thinking. But really, other people were going to get him things, and he wouldn't remember, anyways. In the end, though, we did. We got him some very nice teething supplies (hopefully for quite a ways into the future).

At my parents, things were slightly more relaxed, which was nice. Noah and Ellia played for a little while and then began their day-long process of taking turns napping. I didn't really get any good pictures there, but I think my parents and Kevin did, so maybe they'll appear here some day, but not yet...

And then, off to Norwalk. Great Grandma Egle was right at home with little Noah again. Except, he wasn't as little this time as the last time she held him. Fortunately, her broken arm is healing nicely and she has more strength in it!

Noah certainly enjoyed his favorite spot in the cradle of Great Grandma Egle's arms!

It was fun hanging out with family, and for more people to get to meet Noah. But the next thing we knew, it was time to drive back to Michigan for the end of a really long day! And then, we got to have Christmas Day #2 on the 26th with the Withers clan.

Noah and Ellia played again!

Again, an early period of simultaneous alertness before alternating naps...

One of Noah's future babysitters getting some practice

I think I did learn one about the experience, though. Before it had always been a struggle throughout Christmas remembering why we're celebrating. Wait, is it because Aunt Elaine makes really delicious cookies or because the Savior of the World was born? With a kid, there are even more distractions. Don't get me wrong - he's super cute, and it makes us happy when other people think he's super cute, and want to buy him presents because he's so cute. It was just another observation of how things have changed.

How Many Days?

When we first had our beautiful baby boy, I often wondered... "How many days will it be before we go an entire day without taking his picture?" There were flash bulbs going off all the time. The paparazzi were just going nuts over him. And really, who wouldn't?

Day one: our little peanut

Well, the question's been answered. It wasn't with any dramatic bells and whistles, but one day, I looked at the camera, and I realized, "Hey! There were no pictures from yesterday!"

Day two: welcome home!

"In fact, I don't even know if ANYone took any pictures of him yesterday!" And then I reflected on who had come to visit the previous day... I looked at our cell phones to see if there were pictures there... I checked our video camera... no pictures to be found from the previous day.

Day three: cuddle time with Mom

So, how many do you think it was? (If you guess less than four, you obviously haven't looked at the captions for the previous three pictures.)

Day four: cuddle time with Dad

It almost made me feel like a bad father. Why WOULDN'T I have a picture from the previous day for my handsome son? I mean, what if his future wife some day asks me, "Hey, what did Noah look like when he was ___ days old?" and I don't have anything to show her?!?

Day five: hanging with Grandma Egle

Then I looked back at the expansive library of photos we had already accumulated of our son. In the digital age, I realized that his young life was already much better documented than either of his parents, and that made me feel a bit better.

Day six: cute little hand

Have you come up with a guess yet? If you haven't, you really should. I mean, we've already eliminated anything less than seven as a possibility, and any more would be just plain cheating.

Day seven: growing into his clothes

It was fun reflecting on all of the pictures we had taken, even if we now had a gap day. He's grown a ton... he's a chunky monkey, now.

Day eight: still recovering from the strenuous process of birth

He definitely is getting cuter and cuter... which was hard to imagine possible when he was first born. He's been so cute that Libby and I have struggled to figure out who he looks like - neither of us are as cute as he is.

Day nine: striking a pose

So, this is my last plea... pick a number, if you haven't already! (Is that a hint? Hmmm...)

Day ten: cool, calm, and collected

So, what do you think? I'm posting this shortly after Noah hit the two month mark. What are the odds that I would be prompt in posting this right after we had our "gap day"? That's definitely a hint...

Day eleven: tummy time with Grandma Asai

It was a little bit like a burden was liften when I noticed our gap day. Maybe it's a little bit of my OCD shining through, but I kept thinking about my previous wonderings... "If I don't take a picture today, then today might be the first day of Noah's life that isn't documented! Horror of horrors!"

Day twelve: what a cute little guy!

In the end, my thoughts/concerns about documenting his life were silly, I know. I don't think that I artificially lengthened the streak of picture days but taking photos on a day when we otherwise wouldn't... and I didn't even notice the day that we didn't take pictures. Hopefully that OCD tendency isn't genetic, for Noah's sake.

Day thirteen: happy to see Aunt Kay!

Hmmm... we're all the way to thirteen. Have we passed your guess yet? Are you still reading my little blurbs, or are you just looking at the cute baby pictures? I don't blame you if you've stopped paying attention to me. Noah is by far more entertaining.

Day fourteen: Tada!

So, as the astute blog follower that you are, you know that Libby's family was visiting for the first two weeks of Noah's life. Obviously, anything less than fourteen would not have been permissible with new grandparents and a new uncle around. So, if you guessed less than that before, here's a free pass: guess again.

Day fifteen: dancing with Mommy

Once Libby's family left, though, that left the two parents alone, to fend for themselves. Would they be overwhelmed immediately and forget to document?

Day sixteen: playing in the jungle!

Or maybe since Jonathan had a week of vacation after the Asais left, it wouldn't be until he was three weeks old...

Day seventeen: who looks sleepier?

I'm running out of clever little interludes... I hope we didn't last too many more days...

Day eighteen: a true ladies' man

Do you think anyone will notice if I skip a day? Or maybe I did already? What if I'm playing a trick on you? Maybe the number was really seven, and you just didn't notice!

Day nineteen: Cousin Michaela likes him!

Did you go back and check to make sure I wasn't tricking you? If you did check, and you found out I was tricking you, let me know because I wasn't trying to, so that means I made a mistake. The real answer is greater than nineteen!

Day twenty: meeting a new generation

Maybe you guessed 64. Maybe you think that today is the first day that he has gone without a picture. But if you think that, then you don't know that I'm currently 1,954 miles away from my son, and I wouldn't know if today's the day.

Day twenty-one: dressed up for Halloween

Maybe I'll just give up and let you look at the cute pictures and figure it out for yourself...

Day twenty-two: he does wake up sometimes... honest!

Day twenty-three: no more umbilical cord!

Day twenty-four: chillin' in da crib

Day twenty-five: peaceful dreaming

Day twenty-seven: first bottle!

Day twenty-eight: recovering from first bottle

Day twenty-nine: playing with Daddy

Day thirty: burp time!

Playing in the jungle!

Big smile!

Woohoo!

Ahhh... bath time!

Wait! What days were those pictures from?!?! Did you forget? Don't you know?!? I'm on the edge of my seat!!! AARRRRRHHHHH!!!!!! What's going on???

Relax. Day thirty-one, there were no pictures. None. Whatsoever. November 10 has not been documented. If Noah's future wife asks what he looked like when he was 30 days old, we'll have to draw a picture. If you want to offer your own rendition to fill the gap, we're accepting submissions now.

So, what are all these other pictures? Just proof that he's still cuter than ever, even though we're on the other side of "gap day."

Happy baby!

A little smirk

He'll be asleep in 30 seconds (thirty seconds of crying, that is)

That sort of looks comfortable...

Hat might still be a little big...

Can't see, but can still strike a pose

Noah hopes you guessed right and won the game!

Overdue Update

Here's a newsflash for everyone: We have a super cute kid! Oh wait, that's common knowledge by now. I don't know where Noah gets his cuteness. Libby and I have decided that he surpasses both of our cutenesses (which are quite notable, themselves) combined.

I have had two weeks of vacation since Libby's family left. Both have been very enjoyable. The week of work between the two weeks of vacation was less enjoyable. The more recent week of vacation ended up being a good source of adventures.

Super cute kid playing in the "jungle"

I had lots of good bonding time with Noah while I was off... He's getting more interactive. He's incredibly intelligent, and he's been teaching me a lot. He even speaks a language I don't. So far, I haven't deciphered too much of it, yet, but he's trying to teach me. There seem too be lots of "Wah"s and shrieks in it. I have figured out the phrase for "I'm hungry," though ("WaaaaAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! Waa waa WAA WAAAHHHHH").

Of course, the week contained a fair share of diapers and sleepless nights. It included a few baths, which were very well tolerated. He does seem to enjoy the sensation of floating, and he likes being in a tub of warm water.

Sometimes he's even happy after he gets out of the warm water

Most notable, though, was a new record for our baby. Previously, the furthest south he'd ever been was Norwalk, OH, when he saw Great Grandma Egle. He felt that wasn't quite far enough away, so his crazy parents decided to take him to Louisville.

So, they hopped in the car, where Noah took up his usual role of being the cute one!

Why Louisville? Well, there's a Global Health Conference there that Noah's parents had been to before, but Noah wanted to see what it was all about himself. It was a fabulous conference. We had a really good time. Noah did remarkably well in the car. He also stayed remarkably awake at night. So, there aren't actually any good pictures to share from the conference, as we were too busy/tired/distracted to focus on photography.

On our way home, we decided a three-day trip to Kentucky wasn't impressive enough. We needed more. We needed bigger. We needed another first... How about Noah's first wedding?

Well, we were able to convince one of Jonathan and Libby's friends from East Lansing to get hitched so that we didn't have to go home right away. I mean, maybe he was already planning it or something, but we went nonetheless. And again, Noah proved to be a trooper. He wasn't even phased when the baby of our host family was crying for hours on end because she wasn't used to sleeping in her own room. (And hopefully he didn't learn any of those habits.)

Noah is once again a ladies man, attracting not one... not two...

but three older ladies in his generation at church in East Lansing

And then we finally went home. A good trip, but long and hard. Noah had his entire wardrobe along with us, but he surprisingly had quite a few clean clothes to spare at the end. And now, Jonathan is back to work. Not as much fun, but good and necessary in its own way. And every evening, when Noah hears his Daddy come home, he gets this wide-eyed, excited expression on his face, and throws his arms open, waiting to get picked up...