“Over the river and through the woods . . .”

Or, should I say “Over the snowy roads and through the snow/ice/drizzle”? Our holiday travel plans changed at the last minute due to the impending snow storm. Instead of leaving Thursday afternoon we ended up taking off last Wednesday after work to beat the storm. I’m sure glad we did – there were bad roads up there on Thursday! We had a lot of fun over Christmas. Everyone but Gina and Eric’s family was there on Wednesday night – they drove down on Thursday afternoon (very slowly!). My parent’s house was packed with people – 15 of us! Overall, though, it went really well. The older kids were able to spend some time outside playing in the snow with the boys all 3 days. Lola and Nolan kicked it old school and stayed inside the whole weekend. Nolan had a much harder time adjusting to being away from his regular routine than Lola did, but he survived. Gift opening started on Wednesday night and lasted until Saturday. Emma, Lalayna and Allie thought that was fantastic, and had a blast playing with all their new toys. It’s so funny watching them and listening to their conversations. Princess anything was all the rage, including Barbie’s, calendars, books and tattoos. Nolan made off with a bunch of new fun toys, clothes and books. I’m really excited about the Laugh and Learn Farm he got from Grandma Paula and Grandpa Tom! We were supposed to stay in Browerville through Sunday, but because we were there a day early we decided to trek home on Saturday afternoon. We checked the road conditions before we left and pretty much the entire state was under “difficult driving conditions”. They weren’t kidding! It took us 3 hours and 45 minutes to get home – normally a 2 ½ hour drive! Luckily Nolan hadn’t taken a morning nap on Saturday, so he slept the whole way home.

On Sunday we spent the day celebrating Christmas with the Bleck family at Greg and Ellen’s. We had another fun day, and Nolan came home with lots of cool new toys! It’s too bad he refused to take a nap and was crabby all day:) It’s really hard to completely relax and enjoy yourself when your kid is having a tough day.

This week marks week #1 of Nolan going through the babysitter rotation while Julie is on vacation. Jackie had Monday, Paulette had yesterday and today, and Lindsey has him tomorrow. The report so far is that he's a little crabby, not sleeping that great, and cries through most of his meals. Paulette thinks he's teething, which he may be again - that upper front tooth went back up again and it needs to come down sometime. When he is in a good mood his favorite new game is peek-a-boo. He likes to hide himself around corners and then peek his head around to find us.

Tomorrow is our 3-year anniversary, and to celebrate we went to lunch at Don Pablos yseterday. I know, kinda random, but it's become a yearly tradition for us. We also picked out the convertible car seat that we're going to order for Nolan at Babies R' Us. They certainly don't give those away! We're going to try and make do with one new car seat and see how difficult it is to switch it back and forth between the truck and CRV. I have a feeling we'll be getting a second one before we know it!

Nolan's new game

Nolan has discovered this really great game, and it goes something like this: he dumps all the toys out of the fabric cubby, laying the cubby on its side. He takes a toy (usually his red ball, teething ring, baseball or lion) and places it on a side of the cubby. Then he looks at it for a few seconds and then uses his hand to bounce it off the cubby. For whatever reason this is super entertaining for him! He also discovered he can do this in the bathtub, too, by placing one of his toys on the ledge. He'll stare at it for a few minutes, and then take it off the ledge and put it back in the water. As the saying goes, "whatever floats your boat!"

On Saturday we took Nolan to the Eden Prairie Sears for his 9 month pictures. Both Adam and I were super impressed with the photographer who worked with us. Her name is Arianna, in case anyone is looking for a great experience! We had the first appointment of the morning, and she spent 45 minutes with us. She worked really hard to get Nolan to smile, and it worked in a few of the pictures! After his pics Adam left to go help our friends Kirk and Kate move in to their new house, and then spent the rest of the evening hanging out with some friends. Nolan and I spent a lot of quality time together! I guess that's okay, since I was gone Friday night at my work party. I really wish Nolan could re-set his internal alarm on the weekends. He was up at 5:30 on Saturday morning and 4:30 yesterday morning! Ugh, those early a.m. hours are tough - especially since Adam doesn't do well that early and I usually end up with him.

Yesterday we spent the entire day celebrating our first family Christmas with Nolan. It started out with waffles in bed for the 3 of us (no syrup for Nolan). We ran a few errands and bought Nolan his first sled, which he didn't really like a whole lot when we got him outside! After his nap we delivered the Christmas goodies to the neighbors, and then came home and opened our gifts. Nolan did really well, considering he was mostly interested in eating the wrapping paper! He loves his new Fisher Price singing toy we bought him, and his book. Nolan got Adam some necessities, like new undershirts and socks, and I got something I've been wanting for quite some time - a plush electric blanket! It is the most awesome thing ever. Hmmmmmmm, I wonder if that means I'm getting old?

Nolan is learning to play the "I'm going to be a perfect kid at daycare and then see what I can get away with at home" game. Don't get me wrong - he's a really great kid. However, yesterday he had a tough day that started very early, and he did not want to go down for naps. He didn't really feel like eating a whole lot, and has decided that he wants nothing to do with his sippy cup. One minute he would be smiling, and the next crying and fussy. The report from daycare goes something like this: "How was Nolan today?" "Great. He napped good, ate good and was in a great mood." I talked to Gina tonight and she said her girls do the same thing. When I asked Julie if Nolan uses a sippy cup at daycare she said he does with no issues. At home we literally have to hold a regular cup for him to try and drink out of - which is a slow process and really messy! Julie was nice enough to borrow us one of her sippy cups to try on him, and of course he liked it. I guess he's just figuring out his likes and dislikes, right?

We're really keeping an eye on the weather, as we've been hearing that "the big one" is going to be rolling through the state on Thursday and Friday and may hamper our travel plans. If worse comes to worse we'll head up to Browerville on Wednesday night to beat the storm.

Oh crap

Seriously. I never in a million years imagined I would spend this past weekend changing nasty diapers due to teething! Nolan's upper left front tooth finally broke the skin this weekend, and with it wrecked havoc on our little boy! It started Friday night on our way out the door to a party. Greg came over to watch Nolan, and as soon as Nolan got one look at him freaked out! We weren't sure what the deal was (we were also feeding him dinner at the time), but Adam soon learned that Nolan's pants were completely full and starting to leak. So disgusting. From that time forward every time we changed his diaper (which turned out to be about every 1-2 hours) we had a nasty little surprise waiting for us. He hasn't really had any major issues since Sunday late morning, other than a severe case of diaper rash, or something like that. I told Adam as we looked at all the different ointments we have in the house that I never imagined that I would try out so many different things on a baby's bum!

Nolan has discovered all the presents under the tree and makes no secret that it's where he wants to hang out. As soon as we put him down he makes a beeline for them! The other thing that Nolan has discovered is the door stop behind our bedroom door. He crawled from the hallway in to the bedroom tonight, shut the bedroom door and proceeded to play with the door stop. I now understand what it feels like to give your kid all sorts of fun toys to play with, only to be disappointed when all they want to play with is a box (or door stop!). Nolan also figured out that if he combines the 2 words "hi" and "dad" he can make his first sentence. It is so funny to hear someone that small talk.

Last Sunday we celebrated Adam's Grandma's 96th birthday. She is an amazing woman who not only is still very with it, but drives, walks on the treadmill, rides an exercise bike and goes to coffee at the local cafe. I want to be like that! I'll have to ask her what her secret is . . .

This morning as Adam walked Nolan to daycare he noticed that our fake light up deer had taken on a new pose overnight. That's right - someone decided it would be funny to put the 2 deer in a compromising position! Adam said it was pretty funny. The deer are back to their original place, but we'll see how long that lasts!

Adam thought it would have been hilarious to dress up Nolan in his santa suit to visit Santa this weekend. Even I couldn't go through with that - and you've seen what I dress that poor kid in sometimes!

Ho Ho Ho

Nolan visited Santa for the very first time today. It was hilarious! Adam and I really didn't want to have to go to a mall and wait in line, so we found a local real estate agency that was hosting Santa in Spring Park, only about 7 or 8 minutes from our house. Nolan didn't really know what to think. He was tired and ready for a nap, but in his usual fashion he toughed it out with a very surprised look on his face!

Last night Adam and I were lucky to have Ellen and Greg come over to watch Nolan so we could go to a holiday party in St. Paul. It was so fun to be able to go out with our friends, sans kids, to have a few drinks and hang out. Even though Nolan is easy to take places, it's always going to be a lot less work to go without him:)

This week the crawling thing really kicked in, so here's a little snippit of what Nolan is up to these days.

The Great Weight

I took Nolan to the dr. last week because it seemed like his ears were bothering him. It turned out not to be an ear infection, although his throat was pink, which means it was irritated. While we there the nurse weighed him – and I just about fell over with the results. 20 lbs! He’s gained almost 3 lbs since his 6 month check up at the beginning of October! He’s up to size 4 diapers already, too. He’s growing up so fast.

Over the last week Nolan has really become quite mobile. He’s pretty much crawling and rolling everywhere, so we now have to keep a close eye on him. He says mama and dada (and most of the time to us!), ut (which we think means what), and all sorts of other funny sounds and words. He also recognizes the word light, and love to turn it on (it’s a touch light in our living room). He loves sitting in different rooms in the house with us and looking at all the new things in it. Last week he developed a nasty little habit of waking up between 4:15 and 4:45 again – which we think happened because he wasn’t feeling good. Today was the first day since then that he’s slept in until 5:45! Adam has been getting up with him and taking care of him. Since he’s up so early Adam has decided to start running in the morning, while Nolan hangs out in his jumper thing. Seems to be working well for everyone!

Last Friday I had surgery on one of my toes that was broken 2 1/2 years ago at a wedding. The bone hadn’t healed correctly, so they had to open up my toe, shave the bone down, cut a piece out of it, cut some extra skin off it, and then stitch it back together. Luckily I was sedated! Christianne was kind enough to take to me surgery since Adam doesn’t have any time off work yet at his new job. She took care of me and Nolan on Friday, and then my mom came down for the weekend. It was so nice to have her there to help me with Nolan. Adam spent the weekend in South Dakota hunting pheasants with Eric. His trip was planned before my surgery, so it wasn’t a big deal that he went. I have to wear this really attractive Velcro walking shoe for the next 3 weeks. My toe is also wrapped up in surgical gauze and tape to prevent it from being moved around a lot, and I have very loose tube socks to wear. The new snowfall is providing me with a few challenges as far as getting around quickly. I can’t get my toe wet for 3 weeks either, so I have to wear a plastic thing in the shower around my whole foot, and a plastic bag over the shoe to walk around outside. Hopefully after my last follow-up dr. visit on the 21st my toe will look and feel brand new!

It is so hard to believe Christmas is only a few weeks away. I really wish I had gotten all our shopping done prior to my surgery. The prospect of going to the mall with hoards of other Christmas shoppers isn’t all that appealing! Adam and I are taking Nolan to see Santa on Saturday, so I’m hopeful we can stop at a mall to finish up our list after that. Last weekend I had my annual cookie bake with my girlfriends, so I have lots of cookies to plate up to give to the neighbors! We also got our annual Christmas cards/picture mailed out yesterday. I love getting the mail this time of year because every day we get pictures and cards from family and friends!