He's ready!!!

Nolan has started pulling his knees up underneath him when he's playing on his tummy. Sometimes it looks like he's trying to do a push-up too! Can crawling be far behind???? Guess we better get the house baby-proofed soon!

Pictures

Playing before bedtime

















Brad and mini-Brad





















He must be happy that I took the hat off :)





















Not sure why we even put the blanket down anymore!

Happy Easter!

We had a really nice day for Nolan's first Easter! The weather was a little yucky in the morning, but by the afternoon it had really warmed up. The Easter Bunny brought Nolan some new books - Pat the Puppy, a finger puppet book, his First Bible Stories, an Elmo book that makes noise (woo hoo!), and a book of nursery rhymes. (The nursery rhymes are really for me because I don't know as many as I thought I did!) I'm sure he's going to kill me when he gets older for making him wear this hat, but I swear I only put it on him for pictures. I just thought it was so cute!

After church, we went to Aunt Melissa & Uncle Jason's house for brunch with Brad's family. The Easter Bunny also stopped here and left Nolan a couple of new outfits and some candy.....which was really for me and Brad! We didn't really get a great shot of all three kids, but here is Nolan with his cousins Cambell and Mylee (and Nuke's head) during the picture-taking chaos:

1st St. Patrick's Day

Nolan wore green on his 1st St. Patrick's Day, but it didn't last long! He wasn't in a great mood when we left yesterday morning, and then Daddy was teasing him with his binky. He lets you know when he's mad!
















That's better.....

What a mess!

Nolan has been eating cereal at dinner for the past few weeks, but we started him on actual baby food on Saturday. Of course, he loves it! I don't think we're ever going to have a problem getting this kid to eat. So far, he's had sweet potatoes, carrots, and squash....after the first bite, he seems to be okay with it!

For the record, we did both try it. Not what I expected, but not horrible either! I'm sure the fruit is better, but we'll try that later this week. His first day eating food at daycare, he went through all 3 of the extra shirts we have there for him. I guess he's just getting adjusted to the food. But hopefully him spitting some of the orange-y and yellow-y food up after he eats won't last too long....I'm not too good at getting the stains out!

Pictures

Look how big he is! What happened to my little bitty baby??

















He rolls himself under the coffee table and get stuck


















He's such a happy boy!
















His shirt is a shout out to the sawmill!




















Check out his cute little birthmark

Baby Laughs

Nolan has finally started laughing! I was waiting and waiting for it to happen....one night last week we were playing patty cake on the couch and he just lost it! It was the cutest thing ever. Of course I started laughing, so then he laughed more, and I laughed more, and so on. By the time Brad got the video camera, he wouldn't do it anymore. We'll have to keep trying!



A couple nights later we got this video of him laughing while Brad was tickling him....it's too funny! (It's kind of hard to see at the beginning.)

Night Owls - 3/8/08

I got an e-mail from my Tri Delta alumnae chapter here in Denver about a volunteer opportunity a couple of weeks ago. I have wanted to find some kind of charitable organization to get involved in, but haven't found the right one until now! The program is called Night Owls and is a once-a-month program for children with special needs and their siblings. Parents can leave their kids in a safe environment at the Fisher Early Learning Center on the DU (Univ. of Denver) campus to have a night out (or in!) to themselves - for free! Each child will have a volunteer all to themselves, and can do pretty much whatever activity they want all night.

The person who organized this program had volunteered in Texas doing the same thing, and it was very successful. It's going to be held the first Friday of every month, and they just ask that volunteers try to help out once every two months, more often if they can. For the first 3 nights, they already have 46 kids signed up!

There will be nurses volunteering their time as well, which a lot of programs don't offer. Most programs don't have nurses and these families aren't able to participate because medications can't be given to their kids.

Each of the volunteers has to attend a training session before they can volunteer. I went two Saturday's ago, and was really surprised at how many other volunteers were there! I love kids, so I think this is a perfect way to get involved with something that will be fun, but also very worthwhile.

I know how important it is for Brad and I to find time to spend together, and it's not as easy for parents who have children with special needs to find time to themselves. I volunteered to be paired with an infant since I sort of have some experience with that age :) I know some people aren't comfortable caring for a baby, and I have never worked with special needs children before, so I feel more comfortable, for now, sticking with where I can help out the most. I'm hoping that the more I volunteer, the more I'll be able to learn about kids with different kinds of needs. I'm so thankful that Nolan is happy and healthy, and I want to help those families that don't necessarily have that luxury.

I don't volunteer until May 9, but I'm really excited about it! I don't think I'll be able to take pictures, but I'll definitely keep you updated. Hopefully I'll be able to make it a monthly event!

Speed Demon - 3/7/08

Nope, Nolan's not crawling or walking yet.....Brad got a speeding ticket!

Right after we had dropped Nolan off at daycare a couple of Friday's ago, Brad got pulled over. I immediately started laughing because I've been pulled over a million times, and Brad loves to give me crap for it. What can I say, I have a lead foot and I admit it! He was more upset about not being able to say he'd never had a ticket than he was about actually getting a ticket. (And, never having a ticket isn't even completely true - he got one in Texas a long time ago. But apparently in Brad's mind, that doesn't count....haha) I had to turn my head when the cop came up because it was just hysterical to me!

Brad said if I wrote about this on the blog that he was going to post a rebuttal. Don't hold your breath! He said he was going to write in the blog before Nolan was born and that never happened! His excuse was that Nolan was 2 weeks early....but now he's had 5 whole months (can you believe he's that old?!) and still nothing. If all it takes is for me to make fun of him in the blog to get him to write in it, I could have done that a loooooong time ago.....hahaha

While I'm at it, I may as well post a funny picture of Brad. We got new blinds for our living room and he hung them this weekend - he's so handy!

So if you see a post that's talking smack about me, it's my wonderful husband trying to get back at me for making fun of him.....but like I said, don't hold your breath! :)

On the move!

Nolan has mastered rolling from his back to his tummy, but he's still not real sure about getting from his tummy to his back. He's done it a few times, but most of the time he'd rather start crying until one of us goes to help him! We let him cry for a little bit so he'll eventually learn he has to do it himself. I actually got a video of him doing it last night. One of these days he'll figure out he can go where ever he wants to. After he rolled onto his back again, he caught the TV (we were watching American Idol) and then he didn't care that he had pinned himself against his playpen.

Nolan found his feet! He's been playing with them a lot now.

Last night, Brad and I realized (if we hadn't known it before now) that parenthood was definitely upon us. We got seated in the 'family section' at Olive Garden. Not that that's a bad thing, it was just funny!

I talked to my sister last night. We spent a good part of the conversation talking about our Silly Songs CD's that we play in the car. How funny! She told me that Collin taught her a new part to Ring Around the Rosy too. When you 'all fall down', you stay on the ground and pat your legs and say "The cow's in the middle, peanut butter cups, lightning, thunder, we all stand up!" Of course it took her a few times to figure out what he was saying! I think Nolan will like it, it'll just be awhile before he's ready for that game. Right now we're into Patty Cake and This Little Piggy. Ah, how life has changed! :)

Happy (early) Easter!

We got a huge package on the front porch the other day when we got home. I couldn't remember if I had ordered something online or not (isn't that horrible?), so we were both anxious to open it. It was my early Easter present from my mom! Needless to say, I was a little more excited than Brad!

I had mentioned that I wanted a big Longaberger basket for Nolan's toys....but they're super expensive. Even I couldn't find a way to justify buying the basket, liner, and protector brand new. So my mom found one on Ebay and had it shipped out here. If you don't know what Longaberger's are, they are really nice baskets, just expensive. But they appreciate in value! And they make every kind of basket imaginable.....you could see a couple in that last picture of me and Nolan that hold the napkins and salt and pepper shakers on the table. It was just kind of something my mom started collecting way back when, and then when I finally moved out, I didn't know what to do without them! So I've sort of started my own little collection...it's just WAY smaller than my mom's. She has a whole closet full of the ones she doesn't use every day. My dad hates it....haha


I ordered a little Easter basket for Nolan the other day too. Hopefully it gets here in time! And I went a little crazy at the bookstore buying him stuff to fill the basket. I figure since he's still too little to really know what's going on, these first holidays are really for me and Brad. I got him a Pat the Puppy book (just like Pat the Bunny that we already have), a finger puppet book with a little bunny, his first Bible stories book, and an Elmo book that makes noises. I'm sure he'll be excited - he loves to read books at night time!

Our first toy casualty.....sort of

I knew it was bound to happen, I just didn't know when. The dogs finally got ahold of one of Nolan's toys and took it outside! I know they haven't been getting the attention they were used to, but it's winter time and walks just aren't happening much right now. When we got home the other night, Brad had noticed a toy in the yard....I didn't see it because you could only see it out of our bathroom window. And I'm not standing up when I'm in there! Brinkley had been hanging his head like he had done something wrong, but we didn't think anything of it until then. I had to make Brad take the dogs outside with him and 'scold' them. He was just going to go get the toy and bring it back inside....now we really see who the disciplinarian will be! Brad left it on the end table in the living room that night.

The next day, I saw Brad picking it up off the floor behind the couch. I took it over and held in Brinkley's face and Nuke's face and 'yelled' at them. I told them if they got it again, they wouldn't get any treats for a week. At this point, Brad is just laughing at me. So I told him if they did get 'grounded' and he gave them treats anyway, he was in big trouble!

Here's a picture of the glow worm who got picked to be left out in the cold. It really wasn't that bad, just a little dirty, but you have to set the ground rules early, right?

Pictures

It was just about bedtime and Nolan was not happy with me!


















He's a morning person, not like his Mommy.

















Tummy time
















Looks like his Daddy!





















Surprise! Daddy hasn't shaved!
















Last Saturday we had nice enough weather (74 degrees!) to go to the park. We hung out while the dogs played. We weren't out there very long at all, but Nolan sure did get super red cheeks....looks like I'll be using LOTS of sunscreen on my little redhead, blue-eyed, fair-skinned boy!
















Again....he looks like his Daddy!


















I think a flat screen TV will be purchased with our refund this year....I just have to talk Brad into it first!