Nolan's new tricks

Nolan had a bit of a rough go of it over the weekend. He has another new tooth coming in on the top left, and it is causing him all sorts of issues. He was up at night quite a bit, not really crying but fussing enough where Adam heard him and went to check on him (I, on the other hand, slept through it). When he got in the room Nolan was sitting up in his crib. Good thing we lowered his crib last week after he started to try and pull himself up! He's also saying "da da", "daddy" or "papa" when he looks at Adam, waving bye bye, and giving high 5's - although I should clarify this one. Everyday when I pick him up from daycare we come home and I ask him to show me where the light is. The light I'm referring to is a touch lamp in our living room. He finds the lamp and I tell him to turn it on. He reaches out his chubby hand and touches the lamp 2 or 3 times - 3 times turns it on all the way. After he does this I tell him to give me high 5 - and he does! That's pretty much the only time he'll do it, but I still count it as his first high 5!

Sasha, Chris and Jackson stayed at our house Thursday and Friday night. We had such a great time hanging out with them! Nolan watched Jackson pretty closely, and is now that much closer to crawling and is talking a whole lot louder! Jackson moves around at the speed of light (for a baby) and is a loud talker - which is hilarious! Too bad Nolan couldn't have picked up Jackson's dance moves, too! We had a fun time with Adam's family on Saturday. We enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving meal, and were pleasantly surprised to have only a small cake pan left of turkey - out of 42 lbs! The garage may not be the fanciest place to host a meal, but it's heated and big enough to hold everyone! The best part about the food was that Nolan enjoyed his first true Thanksgiving meal. He had turkey, potatoes, green bean casserole and corn pureed together, along with a side of cranberries. He loved it!

Yesterday was a very productive day. We went to church, decorated the house for Christmas, finished hanging the outside lights, did laundry, pureed some food for Nolan and finished the Christmas baking - whew! There was only one minor hiccup. We decided it would be fun to put the tree in a different spot in the living room this year. We did this not realizing that the outlet we plugged the Christmas tree lights in to is on the same circuit as all of our outside lights! After we blew the fuse and Adam fixed it we had to shimmy our decorated 7 1/2 foot tall tree across the living room, back in to its usual spot. Oh well - at least we tried! This week is a very busy week for us. Today is Adam's mom's birthday, so he's helping celebrate her day with Greg, Erica and Dave. Tomorrow night I have a meeting at church, Wednesday we're going to finish our Christmas shopping, and Thursday I'm going to happy hour after work. Christianne is coming to our house Thursday evening. I'm having toe surgery on Friday, and she is my "responsible adult" since Adam doesn't have any time off work at his new job yet. Adam is also going hunting near Pipestone this weekend, so my mom and dad are coming to stay with me and Nolan for the weekend, in case I have a hard time getting around. I'm not sure what Adam and I would do if our families didn't live close enough to help us out!

Black Friday

It's the day after Thanksgiving - and there was no Black Friday shopping for me. I had to work today, but was lucky enough to be able to leave early to start the final preparations for the "Day after the day after" Thanksgiving celebration with Adam's extended family. I rushed home, after stopping to pick up a few last minute items. I opened the garage door and started bringing in all my packages. I was unloading some extra chairs from the car to the garage when I walked by what I thought was a goose decoy. Then I stopped in my tracks, remembering a conversation I had earlier today about Adam's successful goose/duck hunt with Chris. Yes, you guessed correctly. I was ready to start setting up the garage for our guests tomorrow and I found a DEAD GOOSE in it! Adam is on his way home from the Turkey Bowl football game, so you can imagine what his first to do will be after he brings in Nolan from the car!

We thought we'd try to show in pictures how curly Nolan's hair is after a bath. We're 99% sure he will have a full head of naturally curly hair sometime soon!

Happy 8 month birthday!

Nolan turned 8 months old last week! It is crazy how kids change your life in a way that makes it hard to remember life without them. Don't get me wrong, I still have fond memories of making last minute plans without having to find a babysitter, and sleeping in on the weekends - but both Adam and I agree that Nolan has definitely added to our lives!

Speaking of Nolan, he seems to get funnier every day. He is a talker, and it's fun to get him home from daycare because it almost seems as if he's trying to tell us about his day! Last Saturday morning he woke up and was saying "waa waa waa", which is new. My sister Christianne spent a little time with Nolan on Saturday morning and she swears that when he was holding his red ball he was saying "raa baa" - which is close to red ball. Adam and I have heard him say things, but for the most part I think we make it up to make us feel good! Nolan is not quite crawling yet, but when we get him from his crib in the morning he's usually on his hands and knees, practicing for his next big step. On our most list of things to do is lower his crib bed. Who knows what kinds of things he does when we're sleeping, and we'd rather be safe than sorry!

Last weekend I spent Saturday and Sunday with my mom and sisters in St. Cloud to celebrate my mom's birthday - which was in September! We had a fantastic time shopping, eating, drinking and generally just being merry. After spending the previous 2 weekends alone with Nolan I needed a one night breather! My mom got most of her Christmas shopping done, which was the goal. I still have quite a list to tackle, but it will have to wait until at least next week! Thursday we're spending the day with Adam's family in Shakopee at Anna and Josh's house. Thursday night Chris, Sasha and Jackson are coming to our house to stay for a few nights. I have to work on Friday, so Sasha is going to watch the little boys while the big boys (aka Chris and Adam) go goose hunting. Adam is also playing in his annual turkey bowl football game Friday afternoon. Somewhere in between all that we need to cook 2-21 lb. turkeys for Saturday. We're hosting Adam's extended family on his mom's side, and we're expecting 29 people! We're looking forward to it, but we have a lot to do before then. The list is hanging on the fridge as a daily reminder to stay motivated:)

Temper tantrums already?

I know, I know. You must be thinking "how could that be?" Trust me, it's true!

Nolan and I spent the weekend in Mankato with the Jones' family while Adam was away for the 2nd weekend of deer hunting. He slept the whole way down on Friday night and had a great day Saturday - he slept for an hour and a half in the stroller at the mall! Yesterday was a different story, though. Somehow our not-so-little baby has decided that he is going to tell me loud and clear when something isn't to his liking - maybe he doesn't like the toy he's playing with, or what's for dinner, or the shirt he's wearing - I don't know. But I do know he's mastered the art of screaming for what he wants or doesn't want. And it's very loud. I guess I was naive in thinking this type of thing wouldn't happen until he was older! Last week I thought he was acting up because of his new bottom tooth, but I'm pretty sure he's discovered that if he yells loud enough that someone (i.e. me or Adam) will respond to his request rather quickly - just to make the yelling and screaming stop:) Last night I didn't know what else to do with him so he went to bed at 6:10 pm - and promptly fell asleep and slept until 6:20 this morning.

Lalayna was pretty funny this weekend. I sometimes forget what it's like to be around little girls. She's 3 and is way in to pink, princesses and baby dolls. I think the funniest thing she said to me all weekend was when Christianne told her she could stay up late. She came running over to me and announced, "My mom said I could stay up early tonight!". So funny. She also loves to play kitchen/restaurant, and let me tell you - I had some fabulous tea!

Adam was skunked again deer hunting this weekend, but his dad shot a buck on Sunday morning. The funny thing about the fact he's hunting at the farm and not seeing anything is that a few minutes ago he went in to our backyard to get the tarp out of the shed and there was a doe sleeping in our backyard. Adam left her alone, went in the shed, came back out and she was just standing there, looking at him. Too bad we don't live where he could shoot from our yard!

Last Wednesday I had a job fair at UMD. On the way home I heard an ad on the radio in my rental car about a great deal on turkey's at Walmart - only 40 cents/lb.! I knew there was a Super Walmart on the way home, so I stopped. I called Adam but he didn't pick up. When he called me back a few minutes later he asked what I was doing. He was very surprised to hear that I was walking out of Walmart with 42 lbs. of turkey - and an Adrian Peterson jersey for Nolan! Random. We will certainly have a Thanksgiving feast with that much turkey!

The picture of Nolan is him showing off his "model pose". He likes to lay around on his side and balance. He's getting better at pulling himself in to a sitting position, and he's figuring out how to move from a sitting position to a crawling/laying position. I swear on Friday night after I was done feeding him he looked at me and said "up". I'm sure he doesn't know what that means, but it was pretty amazing to hear him say it. He's definitely learning more and more sounds every day!

A hunting we will go . . .

I should clarify - not we, just Adam. While he had fun at deer camp, there were no deer to be had - at least for the first weekend of deer hunting. Nolan and I, on the other hand, saw deer in our yard on Saturday and Sunday. I guess that means Adam should just hunt here, right?

Nolan and I survived the first weekend of deer hunting together with just a few minor meltdowns. I was really proud of myself - I let him get up and do his thing at 4:30 AM both Saturday and Sunday and didn’t go check on him. He’s developing a nasty little habit of waking up to party every day around 4:30, and the only way to fix it is to ignore the party and let it wind down on its own! He managed to sleep until 6:40 both days, which is quite exciting. On Saturday I got him ready for the day and then we headed out shopping – Kohl’s and Target. He did really well and slept through the Target trip. His sleeping schedule was a little off the rest of the day, but that’s ok. We took a really long walk later in the afternoon and he slept through most of it. I showered at 3 when he went down for a nap and managed to get myself ready for my girls night right on time! Paulette and Ryan were nice enough to babysit, and they survived the dinner feeding and struggle to keep Nolan up past 6:30. I think I remember Paulette saying that she thinks it would be a good idea for them to wait a little after they’re married to have kids. Even good kids are a lot of work!

Nolan and I made it to 8:30 church yesterday. He was really good – slept through the last part of it. He is getting more and more active, though – throwing toys in the middle of the aisle, making friends with the people sitting near us, trying to rip the bulletin. I guess it makes for an entertaining hour! He had a tougher day yesterday. He’s definitely developing a bit of an attitude, and he makes it very clear if he doesn’t want something – or if he does want something! Last night I was feeding him dinner and he was getting so mad at me – to the point that he balled up his little hands in to fists, pushed them down in to the highchair and started to shake a little bit – all while his head was turning red! Apparently he’s not a fan of cauliflower! Or, it could be his second tooth coming in on the bottom. Adam and I discovered it tonight. That probably explains why he hasn't been eating very well.

Tomorrow Nolan gets 2 shots - the booster for the seasonal flu, and the H1N1. Both Adam and I will be relieved when those are out of the way. There's no guarantee the shots will completely prevent him from getting sick, but as a parent we try to do the best we can so he doesn't get sick!

The next steps

Nolan is "this close" to crawling - check it out!

What's your sign?

Mine was at 8:26 a.m. on Sunday morning. I was running around trying to get out the door with Nolan to attend church. It had already been a hectic morning - having gotten up with Nolan at 3:15 and then again at 4:15. He decided he was up at 4:15, so I played with him, fed him and then put him back to bed at 5:45 – and he slept until 8 (and so did I). At this point I was feeling pretty good so I thought it would be a good idea to get me and Nolan ready to go to church. It was 8:27 (church is at 8:30) and I picked up Nolan to put his coat on, and quickly realized that I wasn’t going anywhere with a kid with a poopy diaper. Hopefully God heard my extra prayers for patience! I decided to forgo church and stay home, which was good because Nolan went down again for a nap at 9:20 - and slept for 3 hours!

Nolan’s first Halloween was low key but fun. He didn’t nap real well in the afternoon, so he wasn’t very smiley when we took his pictures and took him around the neighborhood. After visiting the neighbors we quickly fed him and then headed off to Chaska for our first party of the evening. Because Nolan didn’t nap well we drove around for an hour before the party to let him get a little shut eye! We stayed at that party for about 2 hours and then headed over to Anna and Josh’s to get ready for our party. Nolan did not attend the adult party - Anna was kind enough to watch him for us so we could have fun! Adam and I dressed up as Robin and Catwoman, and Josh came along dressed as a monk. The party was fun, but we didn't get home until 2:15 (which I guess was really 1:15). I was a hurtin' unit the first 2 times Nolan got up that morning! I used to look forward to "falling back" every fall for daylight savings, but as a mom it isn't nearly as much fun. Nolan's schedule has been off since Saturday night and he's been waking up at odd times. Apparently a 7 1/2 month old just doesn't get the concept! My hope is that "springing forward" will work more in my favor! Later in the day we headed over to Justin and Lori's house to watch the Vikings beat the Packers with some friends.

Yesterday Nolan had a follow-up visit with the chiropractor. She made a few adjustments in his neck and lower back. He wasn't real happy about it, but he didn't scream his head off like he used to do! She'd like to see him again in 3 months. I also made an appointment for Nolan to get the booster shot for the seasonal flu vaccine for next Tuesday. I just read some information that Nolan won't even be eligible to get the H1N1 vaccine until 4 weeks after his booster. Hopefully there will be a bigger supply of vaccine available when that time roles around mid-December.

The next 2 weekends Adam is going to be deer hunting at the farm, so Nolan and I will be spending a lot of time together. I have tentative plans with some girlfriends for Saturday afternoon and evening, so Paulette and Ryan are going to watch Nolan for me. I might also have plans for Friday night, and if that's the case I need to work on securing a babysitter for that night, too!