The Official MLB | Mommy's Little Blog: January 2013

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

My Gym

On Saturday Nolan participated in his first structured class! We took Nolan to My Gym (courtesy of the Hastings family) for 4-weeks of free classes. The class was adorable. The teachers were all super nice. Nolan was able to experience a variety of different activities at the class. We stretched, clapped and danced. We did some core building and balancing activities. Nolan bounced a little bit on the trampoline. He went down the slides, on the swings and bounced a lot this inflatable slide looking thing (his favorite!). He did great in the class. We are looking forward to going back next Saturday.

The class worked great with his schedule and by the time we pulled out of the parking lot Nolan was sound asleep taking his morning nap. He slept the whole time we grocery shopped at Wegman’s. Saturday night we went to my dad’s to celebrate Lainy’s birthday. It was a nice, relaxing evening spent with the family. Nolan had a good time playing with his cousins, Hayden and Lincoln.

Nolan turns 8 months this Friday. My baby is getting so old! I cannot believe how fast time is flying and how old he is starting to look! Last week Nolan finally started to crawl (or army crawl) and this week he is really moving around. He crawled for the first time for Aunt Ginnie today!

"Goo" and "Ga" are Nolan's 'word' of choice right now and he is quite the little babbler. He has always loved to babble and he defintely has a lot of personality. I love listening to him and hearing the "goos" and "gagas" have got to be the most adorable baby noises ever.

Baltimore Orioles Fanfest 1/19/13

"What do you want ma? Can't you see that I'm playing!"

Precious.

David is teaching Nolan

Nolan looks sleepy at his Saturday morning class

Having fun at his first class :)

He was so curious and made sure to check everything out

This place was adorable and I am anxious to take Nolan back!

Aw, sleepy boy. My Gym wore him out!

We bought this onesie right after we found out we were having a boy!

Such a handsome little guy!

Nolan and his buddy on a walk in January....mid 60 degree days makes for very confusing weather!

The camera flash was a bit too much for these two, but it was cute having them ride side by side!

Aun, just 4 more weeks (5 max) until little Harper is sitting next to Quinny!!!!!

Splish, splash Nol was takin' a bath!

Friday, January 18, 2013

Dear Nolan

Dear Nolan,

You are already 7 1/2 months old. You still do not have any teeth. You still have no desire to crawl. Well, as of this week you army crawl a little bit. You love to hold on to our fingers and try to walk though. You are actually very brave and try to let go of us and walk on your own. You are not ready for that, but you are much more interested in walking. You try to pull yourself up on your own, but can't quite do it yet. You love to jump!

You wave hello and goodbye. You clap. You give high fives. You love peek-a-boo and patty cake. You also know your name! You are learning "sooo big!" and you are just as happy as can be! It is amazing to watch you learn new things. You get so proud of yourself!

You are still a picky eater. You tried peaches last night and had no interest in them. We are going to try to give you peas again and hopefully you will like them this time, but I doubt it. Peas are the one food that you actually will spit out.

You like to climb on daddy like he is a jungle gym. It's really cute. When I come home from work you guys are normally on the floor in the living room and both of you are giggling. :)

You are definitely a dog lover. Chuggins is learning to put up with you grabbing his hair. You love your doggy.

Your favorite toys are probably still your rings/links or your remote control. During bath time you love your bath book.

You giggle and smile and giggle and smile and giggle and smile. You are just HAPPY. We can't get enough of that giggle or smile.

Mommy & Daddy love you soo much! Watching you learn and grow is amazing!

XOXOXO

Love,
Mommy

Giving mommy a high five!

Mommy insisted I stay up and watch the Ravens game. They WON!

My cousin feeding me!

Blurry but he was waving and very proud!

So happy!

Playing with Chuggy!

Cheese!

Who me?

Play time with my buddy, David!

Look how big I am!!

My little guy!

Friday, January 11, 2013

Give me my routine back!

It’s true. They say that babies’ needs schedules and routines and I could not agree more. Little Nolan has always been a happy baby (for the most part). Somewhere between the holidays and flying to Texas our little guy became a sleep deprived, cranky baby that only seemed to want his mama. Of course, I did not mind his neediness, but he was just not acting like himself. We wondered if it was a growth spurt, teething, exhaustion or a combination of all of them. We recently went back to work and Nolan went right back to his daily routine.

Dreading going back to work on Wednesday, I feared that Nolan would cry when I dropped him off at Aunt Ginnie’s house and that I would get a phone call that he is miserable and I would be picking him up early. Well, I got the opposite…

Nolan smiled at Aunt Ginnie almost immediately when he saw her. I received texts throughout the day about how happy Nolan has been and he even took his naps right on schedule. Are you kidding me child? I don’t think Ryan and I had slept since Christmas Eve. Getting Nolan to take a nap was near impossible (unless we were on an airplane!), bedtime was taking about 2 and a half hours to get him to sleep and his overly tired, crankiness was just sad to see.

Coming home from work on that day and seeing how happy Nolan was made for a happy mommy and daddy! Nolan played, ate dinner, took his bath, we (attempted) read him some books and went to bed (although it still took about an hour to get to sleep). I will say he is a million times happier. He is back to going right to bed and is not waking up when we lay him down. We have our happy boy back and I really think it is because he is back to his routine!

He needs his schedule.
This is a brief look at a day in the life of our baby boy,

7:10 AM – Mommy wakes me up and changes me and gets me dressed for the day

7:20 AM – Mommy feeds me and then we pack up the car for the day

8 AM – Mommy drops me off at Aunt Ginnies or daycare – playtime!

10AM-11:30 AM – I take my morning nap

11:30 AM – I have my lunch

11:45 AM – Playtime!

1:30-3 PM – I take my afternoon nap

3 PM – Give me my bottle!

3:30-4 PM – Daddy picks me up

4 PM – Playtime

5 PM – Mommy is home, dinner time, play time
6:30 PM – bath time, PJ time
7 PM – Calm down time, try to read me a story or two (I will rub my eyes alot and get fussy though!)

7:30 PM – Feed me and good night

And then of course, there is an occassional,
7:31 PM – JUST KIDDING, rub my head and rock me and I will eventually fall back asleep…

Nolan gives out a lot of high fives! He is still working on waving hello/goodbye and "Soo big!". Aunt Callie came over and Nolan waved goodbye to her a few times. It was so exciting. I will say that she is the first person that he has officially waved bye too when asked to do so. Good job Nolie! He still loves patty cake and horsey bouncing on your legs. (I don't know the horse song Grandma sings to him, but I know he enjoys when she sings it to him!) I just make up my own song.

And now for some VERY EXCITING NEWS!!!
Aunt Ginnie & Great Chuck are going to be grandparents!!!!!! Sam & Justin are expecting a little one this summer!!! We couldn't be happier for them!! :) :) :)
So many babies, I LOVE IT!!!!

<<I was going to upload some pictures, but for some reason it isn't letting me...I will add some later!>>

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Nolan's 1st Christmas

I say this every year, but I can't believe how quickly Christmas has come and gone. Nolan's first Christmas was wonderful. We began our Christmas Eve at Sam and Justin's house (Aunt Ginnie's daughter) before heading to Grandma and Grandpa's house for the evening. Nolan was lucky enough to see snow for the first time on Christmas Eve! Although it was only a little bit, the excitement of a white Christmas had my mom's smile and joy filling up inside me.

On Christmas Eve Nolan had fun opening up presents from his Grandma, Grandpa, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins and Great Grandma's. He was more thrilled with the bow on top of the gifts than opening the gifts.

Christmas morning around 8am Nolan woke up and we took him downstairs to see all the presents Santa left for him. Nolie was interested in opening presents the first few times, but then quickly lost interest. As expected, he was more excited about the wrapping paper and tissue paper.

After opening up his presents and playing with his new toys for a little bit we packed up and headed over to my dad's house for brunch. Nolan was spoiled once again with more presents from everyone. Our family tradition has always been to have everyone over at my dad's for dinner. This year I was not much help with the cooking (sorry Alaina), but Ryan filled in for me! Overall, our little guy had a great first Christmas.

Sadly, on Christmas Day we received news that Ryan's grandpa (Papa) had passed away. We recently flew to Florida and having already taken Nol on a plane, we decided we would go to Texas for the funeral services and to see his family. Early on Thursday morning we were flying to Texas. Nolan met his Great Grandma (Nana) and his cousins, Brandi and Kylee for the first time. He also got to see Aunt Sue and Uncle John again! I hope that having Nolan there brought a bit of happiness to everyone during the difficult time.

While in Texas, Nolan started to become fussy, extra drooly and had trouble sleeping. We thought he may possibly be teething or going through a growth spurt. Our happy baby has been pretty miserable these past few days and his schedule went out the door. :(

On our flight home we were fortunate enough to fly first class (thanks Grandma and Grandpa!). Nolan started out the flight great. He took his bottle on take off and asleep he went. Ryan and I enjoyed our breakfast and drinks while he was asleep. He woke up about an hour and a half into the flight and pretty much screamed for 45 minutes. We tried feeding him a bottle, solid food, nursing him (yup, I tried in a public place, go me!). He was not hungry. We tried the pacifier. We changed his diaper. We gave him gas drops and oral gel. We gave him toys and teethers. Nothing worked. We even turned on our phones and tried to give them to him. Nope, he still was not stopping. We even gave him Tylenol and he was still screaming. Those 45 minutes felt like 6 hours. I can say, our American Airlines flight attendant was the nicest lady (she must be a mom). She came by and asked if we needed anything on multiple occasions. When Nolan finally fell back to sleep, she came back to check on us and complimented him. I was apologizing and she was telling us we had nothing to apologize for and that she just hoped he was feeling better. 3 great flights out of 4 is not so bad. Still proud of my boy!

Now we are finally home sweet home and working Nolan back to his routine schedule. He is still struggling with sleep. Ryan and I are not used to it being so difficult to get him to bed. I don't think he has slept through the night since Christmas Eve. Hopefully, he will be back to his normal routine soon. I hate seeing him so miserable.

Yesterday was New Year's Eve, but it was also the day that our friend's had their baby! I would like to send a big CONGRATS to Jamie and Matt as they welcomed their little girl, Lily into the world. She is so loved and has wonderful parents! Both mom and baby are doing great! Aun and I went to meet Lily today and she is as cute as a button. She is a healthy little girl and holding her makes you realize how quickly our little babies grow!

Reflecting on 2012, what a wonderful year. We were blessed with our amazing son and have created a little family. It has been a year filled with ups and downs. Wishing everyone a safe, healthy and Happy New Year! Cheers to 2013!