Great Wagon Race of 2010: November 2010

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...

Well... four weeks... tomorrow. But he's growing up! And I've been falling behind with keeping Noah's adoring fans updated on all of his firsts, so here's a little snapshot into the past week or so.

Resting up for the trick-or-treaters

Noah's second Halloween outfit... after all, a newborn can't

get through more than a few hours without a wardrobe change.

Noah didn't actually bag any loot for the Halloween, but his Dad is looking forward to the years when he will... but lots of people commented on how cute he was. And Dave Dombrowski, GM for the Tigers, stopped by, and when he saw Noah's uniform, immediately offered him a 2-year, $12M deal. Noah's currently working with his agent to decide if that's a good deal or not.

Cute baby!

Fully relaxing on Mom's lap

What a ladies' man! Noah spent his longest day out yet hanging out with the Family Medicine girls.

Play time in the jungle

We broke down and bought a pacifier... a trip out to eat that went awry taught us the lesson of being caught out without one. They're convenient, and sometimes it soothes him enough so that he falls asleep... he's still working on figuring out where it goes.