Nolan: An Update

I have definitely let TOO much time go by for this update, so that means so much has happened that I will fail to remember to write about!

I will say that Nolan has been doing really good the past couple of months, and aside from one ear infection has been sleeping well and just being an all-around awesome little boy.

It seems like the most profound changes are happening in his speech and interaction, versus physical changes.  Most of what I remember are funny things that he says and what he learns to pronounce.

Eating:  Still eating pretty much anything, and I am so thankful for that!  He doesn't really like meat a whole lot, and I have discovered that he likes it a lot better when it's in meatball form (i.e., is a lot softer and isn't one chunk of chicken).  He will most likely take fruit and cheese over anything else, but claims that his favorite food is still "cucumber."  He likes a lot of tart foods too like plain greek yogurt and oranges.  Sadly, oranges seem to bother his bottom with the acid, so we don't really give him those that much anymore. 

 

His meal one night when we ate with "Memo"

 

Mobility:  I have one monkey on my hands, that is for SURE!  He will climb anything, jump off of anything, and loves to be upside down or swung around.  He has no fear, and that's terrifying for me, but he is all boy so I will have to learn to deal with it :)  Most days, his teachers at school tell me what version of a heart attack he gave them that day by doing something daring.  We have signed him up for a Jump and Play class on Tuesdays at daycare, and he seems to really like it so far.  I cannot wait to be able to get him into karate or gymnastics - he will be a natural!

Speech:  He can easily form sentences now, and you can tell that he would really love to have a fluid full on "conversation" right now, but sometimes it takes him a second to figure out what to say next!  It's adorable because he will look at something and start off a sentence and then just babble so that he can keep talking without stopping to think - ha.  His teachers are very happy with his progress, and one told Anthony the other day that she tells people if they want a good conversation to go see Nolan :)  He says lots of funny things, so I try to write them down on occasion:

1) "My tummy no feel good" when he may or may not want to eat something particular :)
2) "Thank you Mommy" when I sing him his morning prayer
3) "The fire truck scares my bottom" ...NO idea on this one!
4) "I do it, I do it" no explanation needed :)
5) "We are in our neighborhood" when getting home each night
6) "Come on Vegas" or "Sweet girl, Vegas" whenever he sees her


Daddy's boy:

Oh my goodness - enough said!  He has to know where Daddy is (or be by his side) 24/7 :)

Potty Training:

Goes in and out.  He was super excited for his "pull-ups," but isn't going regularly.  They will move to his age level once there are a couple more in his class closer to 3 that are fully potty-trained, so I am not pushing anything right now!

Overall, he is the funniest little monkey, and is doing great just being a kid!

Easter 2016

Easter was a little different for us this year, in that we didn't go out of town and only Nani came to visit us.  But, that was just fine and we soaked up lots of special Nani time!  I still wanted to make sure things felt "festive" for Nolan so we had lots of fun "Easter-y" things planned.

I had Good Friday off, so I sent Nolan to daycare so he could be at school for their Easter Egg hunt.  I took that time to go grocery shopping and finish some things around the house before Nani arrived and we both went to Nolan's school for the hunt!  Nolan was a bit groggy, since they woke them up from their naptime early, but perked up right when Leslee walked in the door.

 

He looks SO big here :(

 

 

We had just enough time for Nolan to eat a bit of his snack (something he never passes on) before the hunt for his class started.  You could tell he knew exactly what to do this time, since as soon as they opened the door he ran right past all of his friends and the eggs on the ground to a wide open spot where he could grab a whole bunch of eggs at once (kid learns fast!)

 

 

First ever actual picture with the Easter Bunny...win!

After getting some eggs from the hunt at school, Nani and I grabbed a quick picnic lunch from KFC and we headed to the Clayton town square for a little impromptu picnic.  The weather was great, and we were afraid we would get rained on but everything passed us over thank goodness.

We spent the rest of the weekend just hanging out and enjoying our time with Nani.  We went to breakfast and Home Depot Saturday morning, then spent lots of time playing and eating really good food.  I cooked two big meals on Friday and Saturday night, which was so nice to do!  I don't cook very "involved" meals that much anymore, and it was great to have extra sets of hands to help so that I could get in the kitchen.

The Easter Bunny came to "visit" us VERY early Sunday morning (as in 6:15 a.m.), but it was all good!  The bunny was sweet enough to leave Nolan a "trail" of Easter eggs all the way from his bedroom, down the stairs, and to the living room so he could find his basket.  After Nolan got to see all of his goodies and Nani got her coffee, Anthony and I got to go back to sleep.  Dream day for us!  Nolan was excited to see his Paw Patrol walkie talkies, and got lots of clothes that he really needed (the warmer weather surprised us early this year and he had no clothes that fit!)

 

"Bunz"...his bunny from Nani and Papa...eating a Play Doh strawberry!

 

It was the crack of dawn, therefore no natural light for pictures :)

We were really sad to see Nani go, but ended up scrambling to get ready for the week since Anthony had to leave to work out of town the whole week starting Monday.  Overall, it was a nice lowkey Easter and everyone was healthy...blessings all around!

Fun (and rewarding) Easter Egg Hunt!

This past weekend we attended an Easter Egg hunt with my friend Stacie and her family.  I suppose we are getting into "tradition" territory as we attended another egg hunt with them last year.  However, this year's hunt was a lot more fun (and rewarding) in that the kids actually got Easter Eggs this year - ha!

We managed to color-coordinate and I didn't even plan it...#winning

The hunt we went to last year was over in about 10 seconds, and we missed the whole thing.  Well, this year we decided to learn from our mistakes and showed up an hourly early just to be safe :) Turns out, this year's hunt was held in a town next to ours called Knightdale, and it was great!  It was held in a new park that was really clean, had free parking, a DJ, and free food. 

 

Even the Easter Bunny got in on the action...

We let the kids ride on the train while we waited, and even danced some (ok, I danced, Nolan hung with Daddy).

 

About time for another haircut already!

 

I don't think Juliette was happy that Anthony stole her bunny ears...

It was still freezing cold (another similarity from last year), but we were prepared and had a great time.  The kids are also older and mobile now, so they liked it a lot more too.  We still couldn't get either one of them close to the Easter Bunny, but we tried.

They also had the egg hunts roped off for different age groups, and although some people let their 7 year-olds into the kids ring (really, folks?!), it was a lot more organized and allowed the smaller kids a chance to get some eggs.  Nolan was near the front of the line and ran to a clear spot so he could scrape together some eggs.  Anthony and I stood guard and then whisked him out of there as soon as the hoards of people flooded in!  Overall, Nolan was really happy with his loot, and didn't even notice I took all the candy out of them :)

We have already made plans to go back to this park for some play dates and free concerts later this summer.  I am so happy we went, and that Nolan got to experience a real egg hunt and now knows what to do!

Now he will be prepared next week for his Easter Egg hunt at daycare!

My Twins

Not only do I often times say that I have two "kids" at home, but now they are also twinkies!  Thank goodness one of them can actually use the bathroom by himself :)

St. Patrick's Day 2016

St. Patrick's Day was pretty low key this year.  We didn't eat anything crazy green, although Nolan's class had a little party at daycare and he was treated to lots of green treats there!

I made sure he had his green "Hulk" shirt on and he was good to go!  I think I forgot to take pictures of that, but we did have a perfect leprechaun rainbow earlier that week!

 

 I LOVE that we have lots of wide open skies...perfect for seeing the whole rainbow!

 

 

I told Anthony to hold Nolan up so he was "grabbing" the rainbow...this is as close as we got :)

Nolan was very interested in the rainbow this time, and has since asked for more.  I sing him his "rainbow song" almost everyday on the ride home.  I made it up to teach him all of the colors, and he now asks for it and can mostly sing it himself!  It was so neat to actually be able to sing and point out the colors at the same time.  I think he gets it now!

Nolan: An Update

Oh boy have we had a burst of "personality" this month!  Little man certainly has a voice and an opinion, which he has NO problem in showing :)  I suppose it should be called the "Terrible Two's," but I hate to label him anything with the word "terrible" in it.  Let's just say he is being a "typical" two-year-old at this point in time :)

Overall, though, he is such a sweet and smart little guy. He is still SO cuddly, which I just soak up.  He is happy to give me lots of kisses before I leave him at daycare, and will snuggle extra long when he wakes up in the morning or from his nap.

Eating:  He had a great appetite this past month, and ate a lot!  Fruit still seems to be his very favorite thing, and meats and chicken in general are not a fave right now.  I know he gets tons of protein from cheese, yogurt and milk, but something in me just wants the boy to eat some meat! :)  "Noodles" are also a favorite; I cook up some vegetable pasta and throw in some veggies and top it with Italian dressing and he loves it.  He also really likes bell peppers and cucumbers.  I was meal prepping this past weekend he stood on the chair next to me and was eating handfuls of both while I chopped.

 

Growth:  Amazingly, he still has not gained any weight, but I think he has grown about an inch!  We measured his height on his little growth chart over New Year's Eve, and then measured again last weekend and he was pretty much an inch taller!  I can really tell in his clothes too; he was transitioning into 18 month clothes over the past month or so, but the pants were pretty long.  Now, they fit perfect!  He is in size 4 shoe, but I think that might be changing soon too!

Development/Speaking:  We have a little chatterbox on our hands and I love it!  We really try to speak clearly to him and use proper form and not abbreviate a whole lot or use slang, and it's really paying off.  He knows all of his colors, counts to ten in English and Spanish (with a little help), and knows all of his shapes.  He will sing the whole alphabet with you, and notices when there are "ABC's" on things (i.e., a shirt has words on it or Anthony's work shirt says, SPC).  According to his teachers his vocabulary and development are great, so we will take it! 

Fun Stuff:  He is starting to like Play Doh a lot, which is great but makes such a MESS!  He is getting more into coloring, but still doesn't like to do it for long.

 

He still has NO fear, and I am not sure his teachers appreciate it very much :) I usually get a "you won't believe what Nolan did today" type of story when I pick him up from daycare.  He even stood THREE steps up the other day on the stairs and was about to jump before I stopped him.  I am not sure my heart can handle it!

 

Another obsession right now is puzzles, and he is getting pretty good at doing them all on his own.  He still needs a good bit of help, but can usually get them together if you sort of "piece" the images into groups.  This puzzle above was done while I was unpacking groceries one day, and he did most of it by himself.  Paw Patrol and Thomas are still his favorites :)

A [New] Big Deal!

It's funny, because as I type this and have to date it in arrears, Nolan is not currently wearing his "pull ups" anymore - ha!  He was very excited about them at first, but will still continue to go in and out of being interested in potty training, so this was a [big], but one time ordeal thus far :)

I still had to take a picture because they were so cute and he was SO excited!

I will go buy another pack soon to see if it encourages him further :)  I am sure I will do much better at convincing him if I find Paw Patrol diapers rather than Cars!