More pictures

We had a great long weekend! We didn't do a whole lot, just had some quality family time at home. Nolan kept us busy though - he is definitely exploring everything right now. His new thing is checking out the sliding glass door and the blinds, and he's been venturing out of the living room more often now. He loved playing with the box that we got in the mail. He doesn't like crawling on the tile without pants on - it must be cold on his knees - and does this funny little crawl/walk thing. It cracks us up!

Nolan and I are headed to Indiana for a long weekend to visit with my family and friends. Brad will be at home enjoying a few nights of good sleep!

Pictures

Scrunchy face!!

He loves playing with his bouncy chair now that he can pull himself up to it!





















He looks so grown up!

Goodbye (sort of) to Sharon....

Tuesday was Sharon's last day at Marsico :( She won't have to put up with working with Brad anymore because she's going back to school full-time. We were able to pick that night as Grandma Cindy night with Nolan, so we got to celebrate at happy hour with her and some of their other co-workers. Congrats and good luck, Sharon! Here are some funny pictures from the night:

Sharon, me and Danielle - I always make fun of people who wear sunglasses indoors, so they made me do this!

















Faye (works with Brad ) and her husband Cody

















Yep, he's alllllll mine.....

















Doug and Jason

















Seth - he does this in every picture!

















Shaun - what's going on?

















Awww....

















Sharon, Daniell, and Seth being goofy






















And this is what happens to my photography skills after 3 margaritas at The Rio!

7 months old!!

Last Sunday, Nolan turned 7 months old! Can you believe it? We can't.....it's gone by so fast. He's getting so big and acting so independent already. We love seeing him discovering new things, and since he's crawling, that means everything!

Last Saturday, the Deloitte tax department had a crawfish boil on Saturday afternoon in Littleton, which is southwest of Denver. A couple of guys that I work with are from Louisiana, so they've brought a little of their Cajun culture to us for the past two summers. It's a lot of fun, and it's neat to see everyone with their families. Brad loves the crawfish, but I just had a hot dog instead....crawfish are not really my thing! Nolan loved being passed around to all of my co-workers and was definitely a little flirt. He crawled around on a big blanket and in the grass and of course was such a good boy the whole time.

Sunday morning, Nolan had his first Biter Biscuit....translation: teething cookie. He loved it! He wasn't quite sure what to do with it at first, but once I put it in his mouth he figured it out. Cary told me to strip him down to his diaper and put him in his highchair because it would be super messy. She was right!! He also got juice for the first time after his cookie was shredded to bits. Here are the before and after/clean and dirty pictures:

The Floppy Seat

Last Friday on the way home from work we stopped to grab a bite to eat before heading to the grocery store. We've figured out, especially with Nolan crawling now, that when we go out to eat it has to be somewhat fast.

This was his first time sitting in a highchair instead of staying in his carseat while we are out to eat. I bought The Floppy Seat last week for Nolan and we love it! He thought it was great. He kept turning every which way to smile at people when they walked by. He's such a social little guy!

The seat fits in grocery carts too, so we tried it out at Wal-Mart after we ate. Nolan had a blast - he loves looking at everything. He also figured out pretty quickly that he could reach a lot of stuff on the shelves sitting in the cart. But at least he can't chew on the dirty cart!!! Apparently the seat is easy enough to put on the cart with one hand while you hold your child with the other arm. Maybe this will come with practice, because it sure didn't happen this time! Since we were both there it was no big deal. It folds up into its own little bag with handles so it's pretty convenient. We're just keeping it in the car for now so we don't forget the next time.

Happy Mother's Day!

My first Mother's Day was wonderful, to say the least! Brad out-did himself this time....

Friday night when I got home from Night Owls, Nolan had made me a Mother's Day card at daycare. It was the sweetest thing - a little poem with his footprints next to it. Of course I cried! I made sure to thank Miss Erica and Miss Hannah the next week. I still have it on my nightstand next to his ultrasound pictures. I can't seem to put them in his baby book just yet. :)

Saturday night we took Nolan to Grandma Cindy's for the night. We went out for dinner and Brad explained that if I didn't like the color of my gift, I could always return it....trying to throw me off course! So we got home from dinner and I unwrapped my present. He had wrapped it while I was gone the night before and didn't want to wake Nolan up trying to find the wrapping paper upstairs.....so it was wrapped in newspaper. And electrical tape. In a Coors Light box. Does it get any classier than that?? haha I opened it up and after pulling out a bunch of newspaper, there was a tiny little box sitting on top of a stack of magazines (so I wouldn't be able to guess what it was if I tried to shake the box - sneaky!). I knew it was jewelry, but I thought it was a new pair of earrings! It was a duplicate of my wedding band and it goes on the other side of my engagement ring. I had told Brad when we got married that someday I wanted the same band to make my rings symmetrical. I was so surprised! It's like when I got engaged and kept looking at my ring all the time, and then when I got married I did the same thing. Now I'm just getting used to my extra ring, and I absolutely LOVE it! It was such a great surprise!! Here are the before and after pictures (they're not great, but you get the idea):

As if the ring wasn't enough, Brad had another surprise for me.....a massage at home on Sunday! His friend Jason is a massage therapist that specializes in deep tissues massages. I ended up guessing on Saturday night that was the 'delivery' he told me to expect the next morning. It was so nice and relaxing. But now Brad has really upped the ante for me for Father's Day! :)

My other surprise on Mother's Day was Nolan pulling himself up for the first time. That's right, this kid isn't wasting any time! It happened 8 days after he started crawling. I guess I thought there would be more time in between these big milestones! The first time he did it I wasn't paying attention, but he immediately did it again and I was able to catch it on video (sorry, it's sideways!). They are moving him to a new crib at daycare, and we had to drop his crib and playpen down at home. He's growing up so fast!!

My first Mother's Day was absolutely wonderful. A big THANKS to Brad and Nolan for making me feel so special! And a big THANKS to my mom, my Granny, my Grandma, my sister, my sisters-in-law, my aunts & cousins, my mother-in-law and all of my friends who are moms that have had a hand in making me the mom I am today. I couldn't do it without all the advice, love, and support that I get from all of you!

Night Owls - May 9

A week later, and I finally get around to posting about my Night Owls experience!

I had such a great time volunteering! All the volunteers get there about a half an hour before the families start arriving, and then the organizers call your name when your 'friend' for the night gets there. During that time, we had a chance to read a little questionnaire the parents filled out about their child. What they like to do, if they have siblings that are attending, etc. It was a little difficult for me at first because I have never been around kids with special needs. I got choked up a couple of times, but I made myself pull it together. It just makes me so sad to see these innocent little children with all kinds of things attached to them, or having to be in a wheelchair all the time. It made me wonder how their parents aren't bitter, but they totally aren't. They were just happy to have a night out by themselves, and I was happy I could have a hand in doing so!

The little girl I was paired with was a year and a half, and we played with baby dolls all night! It was so much fun. I won't be getting to do that anytime soon with Nolan, so I soaked it up. :) Her brother and sister were there, so she was a little clingy to them towards the end when it was bedtime. All the kids looked like they were having such a great time, and the parents were so appreciative when they came back at the end of the night.

I've signed up for two more nights this summer, and have a couple of friends that are thinking about volunteering too. It was such a rewarding experience, and hopefully the program will be able to keep going.

It made me that much more thankful for our healthy baby boy.....I gave Nolan extra kisses that night when I got home. I gave extra thanks when I said my prayers that night too. :)

PICTURES

Happy boy :)

What?












































I took pictures right after I put this white shirt on him, just in case...

....and it turned out to be a good idea....

....because about 5 minutes later, he pooped up the back of it!






























Playing at Daddy's baseball game























Lounging with Mommy






















In the tunnel....





















....and out, to watch TV!





















I can barely get him in the picture now if I don't move fast enough!

He loved playing with the Sunday paper

Nolan's crawling!

Nolan finally figured out how to get his arms and legs going at the same time! He started on May 3, and he's really gotten fast in the past week. And I know he's only going to get faster! Luckily, he hasn't ventured out of the living room too many times yet. Our days of being able to watch a movie while he played in the living room right in front of us are long gone!

He reached for the lamp cord the other day and I said 'No!' about 4 times. Didn't even seem to phase him. Even when I moved him away from it and looked right at him and said it in my best 'mom' voice. Grrrrreeeeeaattttt....guess we'll have to work on that!

Here are a couple of videos of our little mover:

I knew it....

THIS is like when your mom tells you she has eyes in the back of her head, or when she knows something that you never thought she would ever possibly find out. It's crazy!

We love Dr. Zavadil!

I forgot to tell you the cutest thing.....

When we saw Dr. Zavadil for the second time in two days this week, she said the sweetest thing about our Nolan. She always says he's so cute, but this time she went nuts about him. She said she wanted to take his face and put it on a billboard so everyone could see it because it just makes you want to be alive! Especially when he smiles!

(Sigh.) It made us beam, to say the least!

Crazy week

Last Saturday we had a little get together with my friends Melissa and Christy. Christy's husband Devin and (almost) 2-year old son Caden joined us too (Melissa's husband Shaun was in Vegas....what a bummer, huh?). We had a great time hanging out for a few hours. It seems like we always talk about getting together and are never able to work it out between our schedules, so it was nice to see them! Nolan was a little fussy and loved being held by Melissa (who was happy to oblige!), and we just thought it was his teeth.....little did we know we were in for a loooooong week!



Playing w/ Melissa





















Caden lounging :)





















Nolan started running a fever Saturday, and by Sunday we figured it wasn't just his teeth anymore. It came down with Tylenol and Motrin, but just went right back up after a few hours. And for all you new mom's out there - apparently you can 'overlap' Tylenol and Motrin, not just give it after 4 or 6 hours. I wish I would have known that about a week ago!


Anyway, I ended up staying home with the little rosy-cheeked guy on Monday and Tuesday, and was able to work from home a little. We went to the doctor Monday afternoon and everything seemed to be fine - no ear infection, no strep throat, probably just a virus, a high fever that had to be broken every so often, and a rash that had popped up on his stomach. He wasn't too interested in drinking his bottles, and we were just concentrating on that instead of getting him to eat his solids. So we bought our first round of generic Pedialyte, which he wasn't too thrilled about either. We finally realized we had to mix it with some water because it was too thick/sweet for him.


I bet we must have checked Nolan's temperature at least a hundred times over 5 days! This is usually the sort of thing that would freak me out completely, but Brad was the one that took over that role this time. I'm not sure why, but I guess I always just think that medicine will somehow help and don't let myself get too worked up about it. And it did! Brad ended up staying home with Nolan on Wednesday and, after one more trip to the doctor (because we're new parents), his fever finally stayed down all afternoon and night. It turned out to be just a viral thing, and hopefully it's gone. I'm sure he was happy to get out of the house and go back to daycare yesterday!


Now, I'm making all of this sound not so bad. But we've been used to Nolan sleeping completely through the night for a good couple of months now. We know we're lucky! Once you're used to that and then he's up at least 2-3 times a night again, it seems a lot harder than it was when it was the norm. This is like torture for both of us since we really like our sleep :) We had Nolan sleeping in our bedroom (and sometimes ended up on the couch with him) because it was easier than going all the way upstairs that many times a night. Tuesday night at around 3am, we tried giving him some Motrin to bring his fever back down.....we found out he has a super strong gag reflex. Yep, threw up all over our bed what he had just eaten. Gross!! So I changed the sheets and started the washer and we all went back to sleep. I thought it couldn't get any worse than that. And I was wrong.


The next night, I'm putting Nolan to sleep and we remember to give him some Tylenol a little late. In hindsight, we should have just left well enough alone. But we gave it to him anyway, and everything seemed fine. I walk in the bedroom with him and was about to put him down when he gagged again and threw up EVERYWHERE. I yelled for Brad to come in and I'm sure he wanted to laugh because I had warm, smelly milk running down the front of me and there was a puddle sitting between me and Nolan! It probably looked like someone had just poured warm, creamy potato soup on top of us. So Nolan and I jumped in the shower while Brad (and Brinkley, yuck) cleaned up the mess on the carpet. I always thought I would probably get sick if my kids ever got sick on me or in front of me, but I think I held it together pretty well! I'm sure it's different when it's actual food though....


So after a long week of a fussy baby, less sleep, two doctor visits, and a million phone calls to Nanny/Nurse Polly (and one to Dr. Schuld that she works for!), we finally made it! I know this won't be the last time he gets sick and we have to tag-team staying home from work, but maybe next time will be a little bit easier. And maybe next time Brad won't get so freaked out! haha And at least he's feeling better now - you could definitely tell when he was sick because he wasn't as smiley as normal :(


After being home from work for two days it made me realize how much I don't want to work anymore.....but that's a few years off right now. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we win the lottery in the meantime!


Here are some pictures - even when he's sick Nolan is still a really good baby. We're very lucky to have this little guy!!


ROSY CHEEKS!
































































Catching up on some much needed sleep





















In my family, we call snot like this 'sheep legs' (click on the picture to get a close up!)





















Big yawn







































Nolan left me a present :)

























Talking to Daddy




Playing!