Dear Nolan

Dear Nolan,

Just look at you,

Adorable. This picture was taken on Saturday afternoon. We were sitting out front enjoying the weather and waiting for daddy to come home from work. He pulled up to the house and immediately had a big smile on his face. He was happy to be greeted by his handsome boy wearing his "cool dude" sunglasses.

I could probably ramble on for hours about how awesome you are, but I will try to keep it short and sweet. You are continuing to amaze us each day. You like to copy and attempt to repeat us. When Chuggins barks you scream back at him with an "Ehh, ehh". We think it is your attempt at barking back at him. You are learning to say "thank you" and "I love you". Your daddy and I swear that you say it to us, but others will probably think we are crazy.

You are exactly one week away from being 11 months old. How is that possible? I am starting to plan your first birthday party! (Ok, I really am just pinning a pile of stuff on Pinterest) I really can not believe that we are just a month away from you turning 1. It seems like just yesterday that I was waddling around complaining that you were not here yet and it was past your due date.

You will probably be a 1 year old that is still eating stage 2 pureed food (and we will ~~probably~~ get looks from other parents) because well, you still don't really like food! We try and try but then you cry and refuse to eat what we give you and we resort to feeding you something pureed. You are very stubborn when it comes to eating. I feel like you always have a day or 2 of really good eating at dinner time that tricks us and we think that we are on the road to finally eating solid foods, but then the next night you decide that you no longer like solid food and we are back in a battle. You do however like your snacks! You love puffs, yogurt melts, waffle wheels, Cheerios, rice cakes and little toddler cookies. Hey, you're eating them like a big boy, so I will take it! :)

Baby sign language...well, we tried and I have pretty much given up because you only do 1 sign. It is milk. I am very proud that you learned it! However, you do it whenever you are hungry. I will be getting ready to feed you dinner and you are signing milk at me, but that is ok because I know what you mean.

This past month you have really started to walk well with your walker. You do laps from the living room to the kitchen and that is on hardwood. You can also climb stairs very fast. It scares me, but you giggle a while you do it with daddy. If daddy says "back flip" you get excited and hold on to him and brace yourself for a back flip. It is so cute!

You love to open and close things. You sit at the pantry door and open and close it for about 20 minutes at a time and are completely amused. We have a little barn door and you crawl through it opening and closing the door. This may be your favorite thing to do right now.

You love your lantern and dance when it sings. You always crawl around with your bat in hand saying "ba" (ball) and then hitting the "ba". You can also throw the ball.

You give us kisses. Not always, but every now and then. If daddy gives me a kiss, you then lean in to give both daddy and I one.

We love you baby boy. You continue to amaze us each day.

Love,

Mommy

xoxo