51 weeks

Here is what is going on with Noah this week according to ivillage.com;

Baby not walking yet? No big deal! Sure, it's great fun to watch a baby toddle around at his birthday party, but many babies don't walk until sometime in the second year—some not until 17 or 18 months! There's not much you can do to hurry up the process; babies' physical development occurs on their timetables, not yours. Holding his arms and walking with him won’t help, unless he's the one initiating the activity. Just give your baby plenty of space and time to explore. He'll figure it out Some babies pick up some, uh, undesirable habits around now. Biting, hitting and toy throwing all are common on the toddler social scene. That's because babies lack verbal skills and self-control. Your baby doesn't know how to say to another toddler, "Excuse me, can I please play with that toy when you're done?" All your baby knows is that someone else has a neat toy—and he wants it! Now! Twelve-month old babies tend to bite, hit or throw things when they're frustrated. If the other child refuses to hand over the boy, your baby may haul off and hit (or bite) him. As horrified as you may be, try to remember that your baby's actions aren't motivated by malice. He simply doesn't have another way of expressing himself. That doesn't mean you should excuse his behavior. Help him see the results of his actions ("See? That baby is crying. He's sad because you hit him.") Apologize to the other baby and parent and encourage your child to apologize as well. (He might not be able to say "sorry," but he may hang his head or give the offended child a hug.) Expect to repeat these steps over and over and over again in the coming months. Teaching proper behavior is definitely a work in progress! Temper tantrums may also appear around this time. If your baby throws himself on the floor, screaming and kicking 'til his face turns red, when you deny his request for a cookie 10 minutes before supper, ignore him. Make sure he's safe—pull back the chair he's about to bump his head on, for instance—and keep a discrete eye on him, but refuse to interact until he calms down. When he does, give him plenty of hugs and reassurance. Tantrums are scary for little ones too! As your baby's language skills develop, the number of hitting and biting episodes (and temper tantrums!) will decrease.

Noah's 1 year birthday party is this coming weekend.  My how time flies!  I think next week will be my last weekly update on Noah, and I may change to once a month, on his actual birthday day (27th).  Now that he's about to be a toddler he won't be changing at quite as aggressive of a rate as he did as a baby, so I'm not thinking that weekly updates will be quite necessary.

Noah has been practicing giving hugs and kisses and it melts my heart!!!!

The last week he has definitely been testing his boundaries.  He has been going to the things that are "no nos" more often and testing us.  I think that behavior is mainly my fault, because I slacked off (again) in consistency of consequences, and after he figured that out he took advantage of it.  So now Jeremy and I are working hard to be consistent, and Noah seems to be responding well. (This parenting thing is hard work!).  Noah is developing a little bit of an attitude also.  Within the last week he hit me after I stopped him from grabbing some items that he wanted off of our table.  I was so shocked I didn't even respond, because I couldn't believe it just happened, and that my sweet boy's sin nature was starting to show through.  (Stinkin' Adam & Eve!).  Noah is also starting to get territorial.  In the past Luke could grab toys from him and Noah would just move on and play with something else.  But now when Luke tries to touch something Noah is playing with Noah growls at him, defending his territory.

Noah has also figured out how to take his velcro diapers off.  Twice this week I went in to get him up from a nap to find him naked from the waist down. (No, I didn't learn the first time, but now I know to put some type of good shorts over his diapers for naps).  So with future children, I think I will refrain from using the velcro cloth diapers and will stick to snaps.

I don't want all of the updates from this week to sound negative or like Noah is a bad kid.  He is still the sweetest, most fun kid that I know, of course I am biased.