Parties Galore

We ate far too much pizza and cake this weekend.

It seems like every child we know is born in September. We have had birthday parties nonstop these past few weekends and we have another one coming up next weekend. It is so much fun going to all these kiddie birthday parties with Nolan running around! On Saturday we celebrated my niece, Hayden’s 6^th birthday. I cannot believe that she is already 6 years old. Nolan played with all his cousins at the birthday party. He did very well considering he skipped his morning nap and was woken up after an hour from his afternoon nap.

Owl themed birthday party! My sister made a pineapple owl!!

And owl smores!!

The cheese and crackers were an owl too! And Aunt Peggy made the owl bags and toothpicks!!

 

The birthday girl!

Nolie with a pile of his cousins!

Kendal teaching Nolie!

Having fun! :)

 

Nolan and Taylor were not excited to get their picture taken!

Ham.

Kendal helping Nol again :)

Opening her present from us! I love all of their reactions!

Singing to the birthday girl!

On Sunday, we celebrated my cousin’s daughter, Eliza’s 2^nd birthday. They had her party at the largest playground I have ever seen. If it wasn’t an hour away from us I would seriously take Nolan there every weekend. The playground was called Annie’s playground and it was amazing. I think Nolan did the most walking he has done yet wandering through that play ground. He loved it!

Playing together!

 

Love this!

 

Swinging together!

 

Playing music!

 

Little monkey!

 

She can be a ham too!

 

I love the look Ry is giving me!

 

Being a big boy on the big kid swings!

 

Seriously, look at the playground! Nolan was running back to it because it was huge!!

 

Boo!

 

Adorable :)

 

Happy 2nd birthday to Eliza!

And Nolan's latest obsessions:

CHALK.

CHUGGINS.

 

Can I have some advice?

I don’t know what “milestone” comes next at this point. Maybe running? Does that count?

Dating? Nolan has a little girlfriend at daycare named Emma and she is 3 weeks younger than him. We will be driving in the car and all of a sudden he will just say, Emma! I keep telling him that I am his only girl right now, and he is too young to date. He doesn’t seem to want to listen to me though. Nolie insists on playing with Emma the days he is at daycare. His teachers always tell Ryan and I about how they follow each other around, play together and how if they are on opposite sides of the room, Nolan will look up, find Emma and yell her name. Oh boy!

This little boy is Mr. Personality these days. He is such a lovable little boy. I seriously am wondering how I am ever going to discipline him. He cracks me up. He talks nonstop. I mean nonstop. Ryan and I still think it is clear, but I am sure it isn’t to others. I have no idea how many words he has because he learns at least 1 new word a day. Just this morning he walked over and grabbed Chuggins leash and then walked over to him saying, “walk”, “walk”! He is obsessed with Chuggins leash (and the car keys). I’m not going to lie, Nol Nol can have a bit of a temper when he does not get what he wants (the dogs leash and car keys), but thankfully he gets over it pretty quickly.

Lastly, let’s talk about bath time. Nolan has always loved bath time. We did have a random spat a few months back when Nolan decided to cry during every bath until randomly one day he decided he was over it and we were back to having a happy baby during bath time. But lately, Nolan will NOT sit down in the bath tub. During bath time he is content playing with his bath toys, splashing around and tolerating being washed but he is standing up the entire time. I constantly sit him down and he will fuss and then immediately stand back up. I feel like I am spending more time having him sit than I am letting him play in the bath. I really wish he would sit because I am scared he will slip and fall, but thankfully he has not at this point. Any suggestions???

Bye, bye bottle!

We tried to transition between the bottle and cup a few weeks ago, but Nolan loves his bottle so much that Ryan and I always caved. After his 15 month appointment the pediatrician scared us that if we don’t crack down on it now then as he gets older, we will have a little boy that refuses to drink milk from a cup. And so that night Nolan drank his last bottle. Cue the tears from both Nolan and I.

The next morning, Nolan said “baba” with excitement as he always does. We gave him a cup and said “milk”. He took it and drank from it with no problem. Ryan and I looked at each other with relief as if we had already conquered the hurdle.

Ryan was off work for a holiday last Thursday, and I was able to leave early. I made it home just in time for when Nolan woke from his afternoon nap.  After Nolan’s nap, we brought him downstairs and it was the same thing…Nolan said “baba” with excitement. I opened the refrigerator and handed him his milk. He immediately cried, threw his body around and shouted “baba!!!” …for a solid 10 minutes. I wanted to break down and give him his bottle, but I didn’t. We let him flail and he eventually calmed down. He had worked himself up and was thirsty at this point and grabbed his cup and drank his milk. Since the minor tantrum the cup transition has been smooth. He isn’t drinking as much milk, but at least he is drinking from a cup!

If 10 minutes was the worst of the transition, I think we are in good shape. Fingers crossed that this continues.

Yes, I snapped a picture during his tantrum.

This was right after he got over it. Having a snack and his milk with mama!

Nolan's first Orioles game this year!

And he got a baseball!!!

Family picture!

Nol looks a little more excited this time!

Notice that he is drinking out of his cup! :) And thank you Aunt Jamie for the book, Nolie is obsessed with it!

This cup thing isnt so bad!

The last few weeks...(by lens)

I have been pretty bad about updating my blog and so I decided it would be best to just upload a million pictures to show what Nolan has been up to!

 

 

We went to Ginza Japanese Steakhouse for Auntie Kim's birthday!

 

In these pictures I realized I smother my child and need to let the kid breathe!



 

To my defense, the fire was very bright!



The boys loved it...can you tell?

They were a little concerned at this point...

Seriously Tess, let your kid eat!

Look how great they use their chopsticks!

They are so focused!

Volcano!

At least Kim and I were impressed!

Hello, my handsome little lovebug!

Family photo!

and again!

The Kennedy Family!

 



Then when Ryan had Back to School Night and Brent was working late, Kim and I decided to go on a dinner date with the 2 handsomest little guys we know!

Colby loved Nolan's hair!

The boys were more amused by everything else going on!

Cheese!

Hilarious! I held up the camera and Colby looked right at me and made this face! I love this kid!

When did they get sooooo big!?!?!

In the mornings before Aunt Ginnie's house and daycare, Nolan attempts to put his shoes on for me. He knows where his toes, belly, nose, ears and head are! Every morning when we get dressed we I sing, "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" to Nol Nol! I wish I could say he likes my singing, but he normally just cuts me off midway through and says "all done".

My little helper!

Nolie is reunited with his best buddy, David!

They are so cute together!

Nolan can now say, "Aunt Gin" and "David"

In the car on the way to Aunt Ginnie's house, Nolan will say "Aunt Gin" over and over with a smile on his face!

Mama's little artist! A little bit of morning coloring!

 

The boys having a snack together last week :)

Lincoln had his first ever tee ball practice, so of course we all went to watch!

Playing baseball with his cousins!

Nolie hanging out with Aunt Lainy watching Linky's practice!

Having fun with Dada!

Linc's first hit!

Hayden is seriously so adorable with Nolan. She plays so well with him!

Then there were tears and Nol got his first 'boo boo'....he was playing with his giant ball and reached for it and hit his head on the concrete :( He had a little red mark, but you probably can barely even see it...I see it though :*(

My pops had a big victory!!! His last radiation treatment! Ringing the victory bell this past Thursday! Way to go Pop Pop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 We went to what we thought was our first family dinner out together at a restaurant since Nolie has been "big". We have eaten out a lot with friends, but never really go out just as a family. It was a great evening. Nolan said hello to pretty much every person that walked by us and even blew some people kisses. He also said "mmm mmm mmm" during the entire duration of his meal.

Oh, and he was a mess!

Seriously, a mess.

 



 Since it was Labor Day weekend, Nolie did not have My Gym class this past Saturday and so I braved taking him to the library class by myself. He did a good job! The teacher was pretty crazy and there were about 25 babies/toddlers in the group, but Nolan managed to pay attention for a little while. The class was about airplanes and so Nolan kept looking up.

I love taking Nolan to these little classes and watching him interact!

Although, now that he walks he decided to get up, walk to the door and say all done. Not yet, son.

Another stop this past weekend was the tire park play area at Patapsco State Park! We went with the Hastings Family and enjoyed an evening watching the kiddies play. Followed by a delicious dinner at Pizza Uno's! I told you we eat out with friends a lot...haha! So far, my pictures are of Ginza Japanese Steakhouse, dinner date with Kim and Colby and now Uno's. It really makes it hard for me to believe that the dinner above was out "first" one as a family since Nolan has been able to sit in the highchair.

Nolan and Dada exploring!

Tire swing fun, for Nolie, Quinny and myself!

I'm not going to lie, it was fun!

Climbing on the train with Ry!

My happy boy :)

Both of my boys!!

Aunnie and Quinny!

Aun, Harper, Nolan and myself :)

 

Dinner at Uno's aka another messy child!

I love this cutie pie! (and her sister!!)

After dinner we ran to Target...this picture was worth sharing because it makes me laugh so much. Ryan took a picture of Nols and I am in the background doing some INTENSE toy shopping.

Ryan made fun of me because I said Nolan deserved an "I can walk" gift....

But look how happy he is!

Ball player!

The weather has been gorgeous and so we enjoyed the outdoors watching Nols play with his water table!

Pouring water everywhere!

For some reason, I think this picture makes him look so old.

Sporting his first HCRP tshirt!

Dylan and Callie had a Labor Day weekend cookout! It was a good time with everyone and it's always fun to watch all of the kiddies interact!

Nolie and Quinn had fun playing catch!

More catch!

Looking at Aunt Callie and Uncle Dylan's chickens!

Kisses for baby Cader! :)

Nolie with some of his ladies, Cader and Harper!

 

And here we are, today....Nolan had his 15 month check up. He is doing great! He talked a lot at his appointment. He said "all done" pretty much the entire time because the poor thing new he was going to have to have shots. Nolan was complimented on his speech and by 18 months the doctor thinks Nolan's speech will be at the pace of a 2 year old. He weighs 22 pounds (38%) and is 31.1 inches long (47%). He is a healthy, happy, growing little boy!
 

Nolie got a sticker after his shots!

And tonight, my baby had his last bottle (maybe). Our doctor recommends we convert his milk drinking to a cup by stopping the bottle cold turkey. We will see how this goes. The child LOVES his bottle, or as Nol calls it "ba, ba".