The Growler

This past weekend Tricia surprised me with a nice day of golf and a stay at the St. James Hotel in Red Wing. We had dropped off Nolan Friday evening at Grandma and Grandpa Bleck's, and then we got to enjoy sleeping in Saturday morning-which is going to be a thing of the past here in a couple of weeks! Tricia was a great caddie (a.k.a. golf cart driver) while she watched me play my first round of golf this summer at Mississippi National Golf Course. After a great round we played tourist for a while in downtown Red Wing, had supper, and got to watch the sunset from bench swing on the riverfront. Then Tricia got to watch me drink a couple of beers at the pub connected to the hotel before we retired for the night in our circa 1870's hotel room-which was pretty cool. On the way back home Sunday morning we stopped off at IKEA to do a little looking at mattresses for Nolan. Of course we end up with everything but...a plush soccer ball, kid's table and chair set, and a set of hot pads. Then we found a twin mattress in Shakopee...sheesh.

Our little boy continues to grow up every day. Tomorrow we have an appointment to find out about the healing progression with his leg-hopefully we'll get some good news and Nolan can get back to being the speedy little guy he was three weeks ago! He's been trying to walk around, and when he does he sounds like a pirate walking around on a peg-leg! The latest activities that have been making us laugh started last night and this morning; Nolan has started to growl. Yes, growl, a lot! He'll growl at his yogurt and his sippy cup. He growls at his toys while he's playing. He growls at the couch while he tries to burrow into the cushions. This morning, he was growling at his plush soccer ball and Curious George in his crib. I got to peek in on him for awhile this morning, and I have to admit, I had to try really hard to keep from bursting out laughing as he played.
Eating is a treat as well. The only constant foods that we've been able to get him to eat lately are yogurt, cheerios w/ milk, and pasta. Vegetables are still a garnish in his eyes, so we're working on ways to be more creative. Of course, there's the graham crackers and animal crackers that work well as a snack. (Apparently, he was exposed to pop-sicles at Grandma's and was quite the fan!)

Nolan's "Big-Boy" baseball room is basically complete, so now we're working on transitioning Nolan into a twin-sized bed on the floor. We're going to try putting a water Noodle (floaty) under the bed sheet to see if that will keep him from rolling onto the floor...but we're not holding our breath! He seems to do jumping-jacks or something every night. Lately it's been his cast thumping the sides of his crib as he moves around!

Our upcoming plans include heading to Moose Lake to hang out with Chris, Sasha, and Jackson-hopefully a cast-free Nolan will get to flounder in the kiddie-pool! The rest of August looks busy as well, but the planning and fun surrounding our second arrival is definitely looming!

Add on from Tricia: We had our 34 week check-up on Monday. Our NP finally determined the baby is head down, facing the right direction! Now it only needs to stay in for another 7 weeks, max! Adam and I were looking at pics from my pregnancy with Nolan to see how big I was at 34 weeks. Funny enough, the only pics we could find were the ones of my terrible bloated feet! What a trip down memory that was. Sure glad not to have that problem this time! Just for at trip down memory lane I included a current pic of me, my feet, and my nasty Shrek feet. Thank goodness for low blood pressure!