Before I forget...

My little Noodle,

At 11 weeks, you are a completely different creature than the one we brought home.  Never in my life could I have fathomed how fast you would grow and change.  I can hardly look at your pictures from the beginning without tearing up.  I will never forget a moment of it, not one single second, but writing down my favorites will help jar my memory.  I'm sure for the rest of my life I will hear a sound, or see a baby, and it will take me right back to those first few weeks with you.  Here are a few things I just loved to love about you so far.  

I have called you noodle since the second day you were with us.  You looked and moved just like that, a noodle, linguine to be exact.  Your skinny little arms and legs were so wiggly all of the time.  Daddy and I just laughed and laughed when we had you on your changing table downstairs.  We would try and get you to stay still but you would go "surfing."  You'd hold your long arms out and it was like you were trying to get your balance while riding a big wave, if you can imagine that movement.  You still do it a little if you are naked, but mostly you just smile when we change you.  I know noodle is not the most masculine of all nick names, but it's yours for now. I could literally just cry that I didn't get a picture or video of your noodle ways when you were a newborn.

Your daddy is absolutely wonderful with you.  He was a little more mobile than me after my c-section, and changed you a lot at first.  In fact, I didn't change my first diaper for 3 days.  You could write a 30 minute sitcom from his commentary and play-by-play of each diaper change!  He always sings to you, with his own ever-changing lyrics to lullaby tunes, and talks to you like you are a kid, not a baby.  One thing he just can't get right is the baby lingo.  I thought he was just doing it to make me laugh for a while, but now I know he really can't remember.  He used to call a swaddle a snugly (pronounced slowly snug-a-ly).  Then, a few weeks ago, he told me he "swallowed you and put you up."  I looked at him, and just stared crying I was laughing so hard.  He meant to say he swaddled you and put you down.  I'm sure you will appreciate it one day, and then be too cool to admit it, and then appreciate it again...  your daddy is a very funny man. 

Your GiGi nailed this one on the head.  I was holding you one day at her house and she just gasped.  She said how much she loves it when you hold your hands like this picture.  That it means you are content.  I started watching you and she was so right.  Though you have gotten a little jollier, most of the time you are very serious, almost suspicious, of what's going on around you, but every once in a while you are not happy or serious, just content.  When you are, you always have your hands like this, or a little closer together.

You LOVE your hands.  When you were tiny, you would start sucking on them when you were hungry.  It was a frantic little sucking, and daddy called it your Hunger Dance.  At around 8 weeks, your Hunger Dance turned into an anytime-I-can-reach-my-hands dance.  When I get you up in the mornings, your swaddle blanked is soaked because you find your hands under the blanket and go to town.  Your left hand is always first and on top, so we are wondering if you are going to be a lefty like mommy (and half of daddy- he writes right handed but plays sports, including his beloved golf, left handed). 

You HATE pacifiers.  We (and by we I mean GiGi) spent way too much money on different types of pacifiers, and you met them all with a gag.  You would entertain the one in the hospital for a few minutes at best, but you didn't like it.  Soon you started gagging anytime we tried.  I'm talking, acted like we were trying to choke you to death gag.  Now, you will play with it for a minute by biting it, as long as someone is holding it, but I think you are just happy someone is playing with you, not that you have a paci in your mouth.  While I wish there was something I could soothe you with quickly, you make me work a little harder, but I am glad that will be one less habit we have to break.  I have a feeling we are going to have a hard enough time breaking the swaddle.  I tried yesterday, and that flew like a lead balloon with you.

You are hysterical to feed right now.  You get firey mad when it's time to burp.  It is the only time you make this strange high pitched squeal, and it is just too funny.  You tense up your body and wont let us bend you to burp.  So, you now bounce up and down, stick straight and squealing, to be burped.  

I've already mentioned how much you love to sing, but it is getting even better!  When I swaddle you before putting you down, you know it's song time.  You start singing before I do sometimes.  It is my favorite time of the day, one of my favorite times of my life to be honest.  What's a little funny is if you are crying for some reason, and I pick you up to sing to you, you start singing before you are done crying.  It's like you want to keep crying to tell me you are mad... but you just can't help singing, it's in your soul!  It comes out this sweet, loud, cry-sing.  And, as usual, mommy and daddy smile and laugh.  
The first video is of you singing when I first swaddle you, before I start singing.  The second is our nightly sing along.  I have to take the video with my phone from the side, because if you see it, you start examining the phone/camera, and won't sing!

I'm sure there will be more of these type notes to follow, and I realize they just don't mean as much to anyone but me, but you are just too sweet and cute and I can't help it :)