8 Months Old

Our little baby boy is growing like a weed. This month it seems as though Noe’s gone and become a little person. He’s becoming much more opinionated about things, and also learning new ways to express his opinions. He’s also becoming very mobile, so much in fact that we had to put added pressure on our landlord to come up with a baby gate solution (that we had negotiated when we moved in four months ago). As you may notice from the photos, he’s losing baby fat too from all the crazy crawling he’s doing.

Some of the more memorable experiences during the last four weeks include sharing the house with a total of five visitors and hitting a bit of a rough patch with his first ear infection.

Oh…not to mention cutting his first two teeth!

Noe started his eighth month with Grammy, Grampy, and close friends John and Shirley (along with mommy and daddy) in Luang Prabang. As usual, he enjoyed multiple days in a row of big outings, which are common whenever we’re away from Vientiane. Still, he got quite a bit of play time in at our guesthouse while our visitors rested in the afternoon.

Dressing up as a [different] ethnic minority at the Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre in Luang Prabang.

Cafe time with Grammy.

Night Market time with mommy.

Getting ready for bed…or not.

Fun time at the airport with Grampy.

Pensive time beneath the baby gym.

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Hiding from daddy under the table with Fuzzy Bunny.

No, Noe didn’t get into daddy’s iced coffee. The Mister had quite the tongue reflex for several weeks surrounding the arrival of his first two teeth — one right after the other.

And, of course, the attempts at feeding solid food.

Noe is quite fond of his milky, but not so fond of anything else yet. He’s been spoon fed, he’s done the baby-directed weening thang. He’s been fed yam and banana and mango and papaya and steamed carrot and yogurt. And the rice cereal — the only thing he actually seems to half-enjoy swallowing. But generally, he’s had other plans for everything else…

He’s had his food as globs, and as small, soft cubes, and in a crazy mesh feeder thing. And each time (with the sort-of exception of the rice cereal) he puts it willfully in his mouth, grimaces like a total drama queen, does a long drawn out gag (in case he hadn’t already gotten our attention), then promptly spits his food onto the tray in front of him.

However, today (February 21st) we had a major break through — still the grimacing, still the gagging, but he actually swallowed the steam carrot (only after mommy and daddy clapping and cheering for what seemed like ten minutes). Progress. As Lori keeps telling me (and people keep telling her), all of this is icing on the cake for a few more months. Be that as it may, Lori’s looking forward to Noe not being so reliant on breastmilk…though we have to admit, for our lifestyle, it is incredibly convenient.

Noe’s also spent the vast majority of his waking hours this month in one of three positions that were virtually impossible up to a few months ago — sitting in a high chair, sitting up on his own, and crawling. Not scooting or army crawling, but full on crawling. We’re in the process of figuring out which restaurants, cafes and bars in town have high chairs and/or tables that will accommodate our portable clip-on high chair. So far, it’s been about 50/50. I have to say, we’re definitely starting to favor those that will accommodate a high chair over those that don’t, as it makes life for the three of us so much more enjoyable.

Just chillin’.

Noe, playing happily in his portable high chair.

We couldn’t let this month go by without a pic of one of the locals holding Noe. This was on an outing to a temple with one of Lori’s Laotian coworkers and her mom and son (and Amber, one of our good friends from the U.S. visiting).

Enjoying another perfect Mekong Sunset.

We decided to break out Noe’s cousin Orion’s hat to see how he would take to it. For the most part, he seemed to tolerate the hat just fine, but wasn’t as fond of the brim in the “down” position. But Noe, dude! It looks so much cooler down. Noe’s never been one for making a fashion statement, I guess.

Daddy and Noe having a serious talk — likely involving a dirty diaper or his sun hat.

Amber was kind enough to transport this portable play pen to Laos for Noe. Ideally, we would have liked to get a kiddie corral, but it would have been too big and heavy to transport from the States for the number of months he’d be using it, and they are virtually impossible to get here in Vientiane. So, we got the next best thing. The thought was that it would keep him (and his toys) in his own little play area in the house and we could take it to a park as well. It worked for a day or two, but we’ll get to that.

Amber also brought Noe a plush teddy bear, which he has grown quite attached to.

On a long walk one day we stumbled upon a cafe we had been wanting to try out that is popular with families with small children. They have a little playground and all sorts of interesting toys that Noe doesn’t have at home (thankfully). He was really excited to try this crazy contraption out (after mommy had wiped it down, and under close supervision — Lori tells me these have had issues with tipping. I can’t see how that’s possible with a little guy like Noe, but I pretty much take mommy at her word with things like this).

But boy, did he get around. We had to keep him from plowing the thing into people and furniture. Fortunately, we live in Laos where everyone loves kids and nobody’s bothered by the vicious 7-month-old on a killing spree.

Fun in the front yard with mommy.

We noticed Noe hadn’t quite been acting himself the past few days — not the happy-go-lucky little guy we know and love. He had also been struggling with sniffles and a cough, but it seemed to be getting better. Then, a couple hours later at an Indian restaurant, he completely lost it.

When we got home, we took his temperature and sure enough, he had a temp. Just under 100F — nothing too concerning, but definitely a confirmation that something was up.

That was a Saturday night…and pretty much the beginning of a week of borderline hell. Double ear infection. Unresponsive to the first antibiotic. Two trips to the clinic across town. And, of course, if Noe’s sick during the week, guess who has baby duty. Daddy! And, unfortunately, Noe takes after both of his parents who are…let’s just say not the most pleasant people to be around when they are sick. Mind you, this is a baby that never throws tantrums and is generally playful, happy and loves people. But last week. Oh man. The word “possessed” comes to mind. The screaming. The tears. The snot — So much snot — everywhere. The poopy diapers — So many poopy diapers. The throwing of things (the kid has quite an arm, it turns out). The clawing of the face, almost as if he was trying to make the one holding him suffer too. Vicious, vicious child.

Thankfully, there were tiny windows of normalcy throughout the week.

Though, in his misery, the Mister appeared to have little patience for things like doors.

That is a photo of a baby who is in no mood to be photographed. I’ve been warned, it seems. And now, I’m going to go hide until mommy gets home.

But the antibiotics eventually worked. The kid’s condition quickly improved and he was back to his old antics by week’s end.

By Saturday morning, it had been a week since we had been able to eat out together (with the exception of inhaling a couple of burgers while Noe slept after the first doctor’s appointment). We were eager to get out and try something new. Noe insisted on wearing his new, snazzy overalls to mark the occasion.

Sunday morning, Noe enjoyed Skyping with Grammy & Grampy, before Grammy jets off on another trip with a close friend.

Afterwards, we grabbed brunch at a fairly expat-y cafe (at least on Sunday mornings) that we hadn’t been to in months.

What could it be that is so darn captivating to this [almost] 8-month-old?

A group of Aussie women sitting around gabbing, of course. He was so enthralled, he just sat there and listened for what must have amounted to a couple minutes.

But, at the end of the day, there’s really only one lady Noe’s truly interested in…