copy: Noah's one-year checkup.

(I accidentally posted this on my old blog first...)

The big man is weighing in at 25 lbs... and I don't know what his height was since I didn't take him to the appointment and Matt doesn't remember. Anyway, new vaccines this time! We actually had them delayed because Noah was already down with a cold and the MMR vaccine is a live virus. So he will be going in this Friday for his ProQuad shot (assuming that's what they use... the MMR/varicella combo). I am having his Hep A vax delayed until he is two years old. That was actually the old recommendation... and then it changed for whatever reason. Oh, and he'll also receive his flu shot if they have them in... as long as it's the mercury-free (trace amounts, really) kind.

ALSO... apparently, Noah has an iron deficiency. They "like to see it at 10.5" and his was at a 10.1. So they instructed me to buy some iron supplement drops and give him one dropperful three times a day. So I found some at Babies R Us... uhh, excuse me? That's 10mg of iron in one dose (that is, one dropperful)... 100% of his daily value of iron. Did you know that iron overdose is one of the leading causes of death in children under six? Do you really think I'm going to give him 30mg of iron (that's the recommended amount for a PREGNANT woman) per day? No. I don't think so. Lesson learned here... trust your instincts. Doctors don't always know everything. By the way, that iron supp turned his poop almost black... it was pretty gross.

Now, obviously this is the most appropriate time to talk about food. I was looking to make some cheesy potato casserole last night and the recipe called for some cream of chicken soup. In my miniscule attempts to lead a pure and healthy lifestyle, I thought, "Why don't I make my own cream of chicken soup from scratch?" So I did. And it was awesome. The recipe made about two cans' worth so I used half and froze the other half. And this recipe was WAY easy. It smelled divine and looked just like the picture when I finished. http://www.tammysrecipes.com/homemade_cream_chicken_soup

And the potato casserole turned out flawless. I also used fresh potatoes instead of frozen potatoes (the recipe called for frozen).

Now let's back up to Saturday. I decided that Saturday was the day to participate in some Halloween activities so we headed to the pumpkin patch to pick out some pumpkins and strolled around so Noah could look at all the animals. It was a little more exciting than last year when he was not even two months old and had no clue what was going on. I am sure next year will be even more fun. After that, we went to Babies R Us and bought Noah his Halloween costume that he will wear to the fall festival at Childtime this Friday (and also on Halloween). He is Winnie the Pooh! I had him wear the costume yesterday morning and it was so adorable.

Well, I will leave you with a random thought I had this morning. Are there certain things that you would get busted for as a kid but love to do as an adult just because you can? I chuckle to myself (in my head) every time I find that we have at least three boxes of cereal open at a time because I'm pretty sure my parents never liked us to have too many boxes of cereal open at one time. I love it when we have like five boxes of cereal open just because there's no one to scold us for doing so... hah! Love it.

names.

Matt and I had a chance on Friday afternoon to hold a name conference. My list has been greatly whittled down to eight names! I guess that's a good thing. Only one of those is a boy name though, lol. So right now we have:

Adalyn (American; noble),
Ariella (Hebrew; lioness of God),
Lilah (Persian; lilac tree),
Matilda (English; battle strength),
Khloe (Greek; verdant & blooming),
Isla (Scottish; island)
and Evangeline (English; messenger of good news) for the girls.

The lone boy name is Emery (English; work ruler).

I am stumped for potential middle names so if you have any suggestions, please feel free to leave a comment! It can't be one syllable. That's my only strict stipulation because our last name (Hales) is one syllable... but if you think you have the greatest one syllable middle name EVER, I will at least consider possibly thinking about it.

What are my favorites, you ask? Well, obviously I don't have much of a choice about my favorite boy name right now... so it's Emery. And my favorite girl name could change, depending on what kinds of middle name possibilities I can come up with but right now, by themselves, I'm going to have to say Evangeline and Isla for the girl names.... maybe even Lilah, too.

Wait. I lied... I do have a couple of middle name ideas. Emery Nolan being one of them (Nolan is a surname from Matt's side of the family). I also thought of Evangeline Sophia. Sophia is not a family name (that I know of) but it kind of has a nice ring to it. Also, Khloe Marcella. I found Marcella on Matt's family tree... it was his great-grandmother's middle name. Matilda Colette... my maiden name is Cole so I would love to use Colette as a middle name for a girl but it doesn't flow well with many of the names we have right now. I think that's about all I have.

I give you Baby #2

And I thought I would do a little comparison because they look so similar! lol The ultrasound was great yesterday although the little peanut didn't want to really cooperate for Amy (the tech). He/she was just sitting there all bundled up in a little ball but it was actually quite cute. It was fun to see! Amy found out the sex (we weren't looking) and then sealed it in an envelope... which is actually in my purse right now. Want me to open it? Too bad. :)

We went to Charlotte over the weekend since Matt had a job interview (for his old job, lol) on Monday morning. We went to have dinner with some friends and then went to IKEA the next day. Neither of us had been to an IKEA before but I really like their stuff! It looks way better in person than it does online. So, while Matt was interviewing, I took Noah to get lunch in downtown Charlotte at Buffalo Wild Wings. I was so scared to take him by myself but he did really good.

Also, I forgot to give some additional stats from my appointment: heart rate was in the upper 130's/140's and Baby2 weighs approximately 8oz!

Chinese food.

Despite my unpleasant experience throwing back up the first half of my dinner last night, I went back for more, determined to enjoy it. Well, I did, darn it. Because I really wanted Chinese food and I was going to have it. So take that, stomach. Can't mess with this.

I also decided that I will officially say that yesterday was the first time I felt the baby move. I was feeling faint flutters in the last week or so but yesterday, it was obvious. So there you have it. Quickening has commenced.

Oh, and Noah pooped in the hotel bathtub yesterday, heh heh. We went to Lynchburg, VA for the weekend. Nothing special happened... Matt and his friend just went to an anti-child/baby wedding. Noah and I went to Macy's and ordered room service at the hotel.