Hill Ridge Farms 2015

We made another trip to the pumpkin patch at Hill Ridge Farms this past weekend, and it is quickly becoming one of my favorite fall activities!  We invited our next door neighbors and their little boy, plus my co-worker and her family out this past Saturday.  The weather could not have been more perfect, and Nolan did a great job all day (even though he missed his naptime).

We arrived around 11:00, and it was good timing because the crowds hadn't completely arrived yet.  We walked around and checked out the ducks and the barnyard animals. 

 

This is our next door neighbor, "KK."  He is only 4 months younger than Nolan, and already they are good friends!  Nolan always looks towards their house and asks "What's KK doing?"

 

I have this exact picture from last year, and it almost makes me tear up looking at them side by side!

After seeing all of the cute animals, it was time for the tunnel slide!  I patiently waited to get to the top of the hill to slide with Nolan, and then he promptly rejected me for "Daddy" once we got to the top - rejected!  Womp womp :(

 

Good thing he's cute and has killer hair :)

 

The view from the top was great...this place is huge!

 



 After the slide we made our way back to the pavilion to eat some lunch.  Not too long after eating our other friends arrived, so we decided to try out the train ride!   Nolan is infatuated with trains, so this was a big deal for him.  However, the train's horn was a bit loud for his taste when it came through the station :)  We had to keep telling him that the train was gone and he could take his fingers out of his ears now!

 

The wait for the train was a bit long, so we hustled over to the hayride/pumpkin patch line after we were done.  Everyone gets a "free" pumpkin with admission, so we had to pick out a good one!  Nolan, decided to do some heavy lifting while we waiting - my little man is strong! I bet that pumpkin weighed at least half as much as him!

 

We picked out our pumpkins and headed back to the park.  Everyone was getting pretty tired at this point, so we decided to head home with our pumpkins!  Nolan promptly fell asleep the second we got in the car, and I enjoyed the beautiful drive home while Anthony played on his phone :)  Just another wonderful fall day!  Maybe next year I will finally get that funnel cake...

Two in a Million

Anthony and I were two in the bazillion people that visited the North Carolina State Fair last week, and it was great!  I hadn't been to the fair in at least 15 years, so it was so nice to take Anthony and roam around again.

G kept Nolan so that we could take a quick little "day date" this past Sunday, and that was perfect because I am not taking Nolan to the fair until he is like 10!  there are SO many people and I would be nervous wreck with him there.

 

So, we got up and headed out to beat the crowds, and made it there around 11:00.  We got our bearings, and then began the real reason we came - rides and food!  Anthony started out with a fried Snicker's bar, but I only had a bite.  I was hoping for a funnel cake for breakfast :)

Our first ride was some insane whirly thing, and I have to report that I was scared to death and only opened my eyes like twice.  It must be a mom-thing, but I was sweating and was NOT my usual adrenaline-junkie self!  It's kind of sad, but maybe I was just having an "off" day.  After my head stopped spinning, we walked around and I had my first glorious treat - mini fried donuts!  Oh my goodness - I am regretting the fact that I only got one bag as I type :)

I feel ya Momma, I feel ya ;)

 

I dragged Anthony through the livestock arenas, and imagined I was the Pioneer Woman for a day.  The cows were beautiful (and huge), and the baby pigs were so cute.  I could totally be a farmer for a living, I think.

They had the "largest ____" display, and the pumpkins were unreal.  The blue ribbon winner weighed more than 1,000 pounds!  I don't know how you grow a 1,000 pound pumpkin, but I am sure these people take it pretty seriously :)

After breathing in livestock fumes for a while, we snacked on some fried pickles and then set out for Anthony's main goal - the Krispy Kreme bacon cheeseburger.  This has been fair folklore this year, so he had to try one.  It took us forever to find it, but we finally did!

BARF.  He said it was good, but I tried a bite and wasn't so impressed :)  It's a shame, because it's like every one of my favorite food groups rolled into one, but I could have passed on it!  Anthony, however, liked it and was happy to cross it off of his bucket list :)

We were about spent out and full, but I wanted to bring Nolan a fair souvenir, so we set out to find an airbrush stand.  What says fair more than some tacky airbrushed t-shirt, am I right?!  We had them make him an adorable Thomas the Train shirt, and while we waited, we decided to torture ourselves with one last rollercoaster.  This wasn't really a rollercoaster, but I still screamed my head off and was dizzy when I got off.  I am such an embarrassment.

After Nolan's shirt was done, we headed home.  But not before Anthony got one last treat: a bacon-wrapped corn dog.  That was actually pretty good!  Overall, the Fair was a success, and I am so glad we got to go.  Now, if the calories we ate didn't count, I would be really thankful :)

A Carnival-Themed Birthday Party!

In all honestly, I had to reel myself in from not doing this kind of party last year for his first birthday :)  I guess it made sense, because he could hardly walk back then, let alone jump, but I was SO excited to get him a bouncy house for his party this year because I knew he could put it to good use!

I think it's official - ALL parties need bouncy houses :)  So to recap, we held Nolan's birthday party a week after his actual birthday, and it worked out miraculously because we had fantastic weather (and no hives!)

 

I ordered a printable party set from online, and it was awesome.  I was able to assemble the invitations plus all of the other cute touches over the last month or so, and I am thrilled with how it all came out!

The invitation was an actual spinner wheel, and each little section revealed separate party details (date, rsvp, time, etc.).  I am glad the assembly part of these is over, however :)


We put the bouncy house in the back yard, and had the Ringmaster at the gate to greet everyone.  I loved the direction signs we did, and the rest of the decorations came from another online website. 

I am most happy with the circus tent ceiling I did in the dining room.  It only took me 2 hours and an 8-foot ladder, but it was worth it!  I should note that it is still hanging - I don't want to even think about taking it down!

The main food was in the dining room, and the drinks were on the kitchen table.  Party favors (caramel apples), were on the island in the kitchen.

 

When you walked in the front door, I had a welcome sign and some fun clown noses.  I got the idea from my friend, and it was such a cute touch!  The sign said "Clowning Around is Welcome!"  Nolan got a kick out of the clown noses, and I think some of the other kids did too.  However, I am STILL finding clown noses hidden around the house!

 

 

These circus characters were so much fun, so I used some on all of the doors, and to mark the restroom :)  I added the signs and toule to make them more personalized.

 

 

Outside in the backyard was, of course, the bouncy house.  The direction signs I mentioned above were stuck in a little hay bale at the foot of the back steps.  Mostly everyone hung out outside since the weather was so beautiful!

 

 

I ended up embellishing them with some extra paper to make them a bit bigger and more sturdy.  And last but certainly not least, was the cake!  I had NO idea how Nolan would react to his cake this year, given that he wanted nothing to do with it last year, but he loved it this time!  We gathered everyone around the table and sang Happy Birthday to him, and he was so excited.  He still sings "Happy Birthday to Nolan" every so often now - ha!

A local baker here in Clayton did the cake, and they did a great job!  We have used them two years in a row, so we may just have a tradition going!

He dug right in a swiped a good deal of icing off of the top layer before I stopped him.  We got some really cute pictures, but I have to say he did NOT like it when I smeared some icing on his nose.  Still not a fan of getting dirty I guess :)  Other than that, it was a success and we had cake for 200 people!  Note that I am missing from the last picture because I was in the bathroom wiping off blue icing from my face :)

 

 

 

It was such a fun day filled with laughter and lots of love for our little man.  It's true what my mom says (that I go overboard most of the time), but I just can't help myself.  Even though parties, gifts, bouncy houses, etc. don't mean anything in the grand scheme of life, they are just SO much fun and I will never stop going "overboard" for this little guy that has filled our hearts to the brim over the last two years :)  We love you, Nolan, and hope you know just how much!

Nolan's Two-Year Checkup

Nolan had his two-year well baby checkup the Monday after his birthday, which was a good thing because I wanted another follow up visit after his hive issue on Saturday.

He did great, and the doctor was very pleased with his development.  He clearly still has a love for the tissue paper on the table...either that, or he was just very, very bored!

They took his stats, which while they were on the small side, were consistent with his normal growth chart.  Little man's stats were:

Height/Length:  Second Percentile (I think 32 inches?)

Weight:  Second Percentile (just over 22 pounds)

Head Circumference:  45th Percentile (little boy, big brain!)

We also discussed switching him to a new asthma control medicine (Qvar).  This medicine is dispensed via a puffer and a small chamber, as opposed to the nebulizer.  This is more expense (of course), but allows him to get a better supply of medicine much easier.  It only takes 2 puffs and about 30 seconds to administer his breathing treatments now, as opposed to the usual 15-minute or so routine with the nebulizer.  This is also much more portable, so that's a plus too!

Everything else look great, and the doctor was impressed with his eating habits and his speech.  She said he speaks very clearly for his age, and I was proud of that!

The last thing they had to do was shots and a fluoride treatment for his teeth.  The fluoride treatment was easy, but this time, he didn't handle his shots very well!

He needed his last Hep A shot plus his flu shot.  He cried so hard after the shots, and it took much longer to calm him down this time.  Poor babe!  It was a lot easier when I could just sit down and nurse him!  Luckily, he won't need anymore shots until he is 5, so they are over for a long time!

Overall, our boy is a perfect little package, and I am so thankful :)

Two Years Old (and some hives...Womp Womp!)

I was SO thankful that we reserved Nolan's birthday for him this year just for him, and decided to schedule his party for the weekend afterwards.  It would have surely been a hot mess if it was on his actual birthday this year!

We had originally planned to head to the pumpkin patch with some friends on Saturday, but Mother Nature had other plans.  Of course, it had been great weather all week, but then rained ALL Saturday long.  Boo.  I was super upset to cancel his plans, but it was for the best anyway because he ended up waking up that morning with a big red rash all over his body.  I wasn't super concerned at first, because he didn't have a fever and was acting fine, so we continued about our day.

We went to our usual breakfast, and then out to run some errands - in the rain.  Around 10:00 or so, the rash began to spread and look pretty bad, so I called his pediatrician's office.  What would you know - he ended up having to go to the doctor on his birthday!  Happy Birthday, Nolan - here's some hives! My poor babe.  Apparently, the "rash" turned out to be hives, and the doctor said there wasn't anything we could do and they aren't anything to worry about.  Ho hum.

After his [short] nap, we decided he needed a frosty, so we headed to Wendy's.  At least it was something!  We didn't do a whole lot for the rest of the day - just hung around the house and played inside.

We did head over to G and Ollie's for dinner, and it was yummy!  We at least got to celebrate a little bit with some cute football iced cookies - Nolan had a blast blowing out his candles, and ate WAY more icing that I expected!

Happy Birthday my precious little man - you make my world so much brighter, and your Daddy and I love you more than words will ever say! xoxox



24 Months!

I am not sure if I will continue to do monthly updates from here on out, although they are so much fun to look back on.  Life moves at the speed of light nowadays, and it's hard to remember all of the things I want to.  But, this little blog has enabled me to capture so many memories of our little man, that I will cherish what I have been able to remember and write down :)

Speech:  He is learning new words like crazy, and it's so much fun to listen to him talk.  He asks a MILLION questions, and I remember I did that as a kid too.  He always asks "Where'd Daddy go? or Where'd ___ go?"  He is always interested in where everyone is :)  When one of us coughs/sneezes, etc. he will check "OK Mommy, ok Daddy?"  He must get this from us asking him every time he coughs or something if he's okay, and it's so cute.  He is starting to catch on to a lot of songs, and will usually mumble through most of the words and then hit "key" words in the songs :)  Like twinkle, twinkle little STAR, or abcdef G!  He always asks me "more" when I sing songs to him, and even though I know I sound terrible singing, at least he likes it!  He also will count to 11 if you count with him, and will string together random sequences of numbers in the correct order too. 

He got extra stickers at school for correctly learning "Stop, Drop and ROLL!" during their fire training that day...

Eating:  He is back to eating pretty much anything, and especially loved egg salad and pork roast this month.  He also loves his special Flinstone's vitamins he gets to take each night at bath time.  I swear, those things are like candy (and I may or may not have snuck a whole bottle into my room when I was a kid and ate a handful at a time...it's amazing I didn't die from iron poisoning!)

Favorite Things:  He is still a rough and tumble little boy, and sometimes I think his favorite things are demolishing anything he can get his hands on!  He is obsessed with "choo choo trains" and as much as I hate to admit it, we have let him watch Chuggington on TV and that may have started the obsession :)  His favorite number is still "2," and he has to have TWO of everything!  Two crackers, two toys, two anything...

Being "tall" is something that he loves to do right now too.  He will stand on something or have Daddy lift him up, and will say "tall, Mommy, tall!"

He is also still obsessed with tags in clothes, and I can't figure out why.  Thankfully, I saved this toy that my cousin Ashley gave him when he was born, and I am glad I did!  It's a soft blanket-style toy that has tags (like in your clothes) all over it.  He wasn't that interested as a little baby, but now it is named "Tag Baby" and goes everywhere with us for the most part.  He gets SO excited when he sees a school bus, and knows that the "ool bus" carries lots of "kids" to school in it.  It's also the perfect time of year to like "umpkins" and I can't wait to finally take him to the pumpkin patch to pick out his own!

Perhaps my favorite new favorite of his is holding hands and "sitting" next to him.  He loves to grab my hand and/or Anthony's when we are walking (mostly because we lift him up to "fly" this way).  He is quite bossy and will tell you to "Sit, Mommy, sit" when he wants you near him (usually when he wants to read or is eating).

Attitude:  Oh boy, we are reaching some Terrible 2's for sure!  The tantrums still don't normally last a long time, but I am beginning to sense some increase in their intensity, if you know what I am saying :)  He is also very independent, and of course, you can't tell him otherwise.  Perfect example...I said Nolan, "go around to the other side where the door is!"  To which he just did this...crawled perfectly fine in the other way :)