Dear Noah,

Right now, it’s 5:15 am on February 10. A year ago, we were at the hospital, trying to encourage you to join us out here in this crazy beautiful world.

You were still pretty skeptical. My water broke around 4:30 am on February 9, and we got to the hospital around 7 am. Then we had to wait for your friend Cole to finish being born before the midwife could come see us.

I didn’t know it at 5:15 am on February 10, but you were nowhere near ready to arrive yet. You stayed snuggled up with your foot under my rib cage until Dr V and Midwife J decided it was time to go in and get you, whether you wanted out or not. They brought you out at 3:37 pm.

It is amazing to think that in the last one year, you’ve gone from being a 9 lb, 7 oz “tiny” flailing mass, very good at sucking and howling, but not much else, to being a 27 lb boy who knows words, can crawl and dance walk, and who recently started singing!

*later*

Your favorite song to sing is “Barbara Ann” by the Beach Boys. Minutes after your mommies have stopped singing, we’ll hear you loudly begin, “Ba Ba Ba” in an entirely different tone than your normal conversational “bababababa.”
Your vocabulary exploded in the last month! Most animals still seem to be “woof woof,” but you also recognizably say:

  • bye-bye
  • book
  • mama
  • good
  • baby
  • baboo (nurse)
  • play
  • mm-mmm
  • turtle (there are turtles painted next to where we change your diapers), and the ever popular
  • ohhhhh and uh-oh

You probably say a lot more that we still have trouble translating into grown-up English.

You also combine some of these sounds, like “baby turtle.” This morning, after you were done nursing, you looked at me and said, “Play with baby” (well, “paaaywif bay-bee”) before climbing down from the sofa to the floor where all the toys are.

You kept making my head explode all morning, taking 5 or 6 steps at a time, no hands, and being very good and happy at your very first big boy haircut.

Haircut: Before & After

I’m sure I’ll have more to say later, after we feed you cake and take pictures of you with frosting in your nice short hair. But for now, I’ll leave it at Happy Birthday, sweetie. I love you more than I ever imagined.