Meet baby Cader!

Alaina, Nolan and I went on a little road trip on Sunday. We left the house around 9:30am and headed to Pennsylvania. We were going for our cousin's surprise bridal shower. Nolan took his morning nap pretty much right when we got in the car. I think he was sound asleep before we got to the tunnel (that's not even 15 minutes away!) and he slept the entire car ride. We stopped and had lunch. Little man is starting to enjoy food, and I am loving it! It is so nice to order a meal and know that I can give Nolan a little bit of it. Of course, pouches are always on hand just in case. Nolan tried a little bit of both Alaina's and my plate. He also shared some of his puffs and cheerios with us.

During the bridal shower Nolan did not take his afternoon nap like I had hoped, but he was still a happy boy. I think Nolan's favorite part of the day was rocking on the porch rocking chair with me (aside from seeing his Aunt's of course!). After the shower, we headed back to Maryland. We left around 5pm and of course, within 15 minutes he was sound asleep. Nolan slept all the way until we got back to the tunnel. The entire time he slept I feared what my night would entail.

When we got home Ryan was grilling and so Nolan and I decided to enjoy the weather a little bit longer too. Nolan sat on the new grass in the backyard and would not move. In other words, my child does not like grass. It was pretty hilarious. That will change really quick child. Little do you know, but your mama and dada LOVE to be outside! Nolan was full of energy after his 5 o'clock nap and so we let him play a good bit before attempting putting him to bed. We started to try around 8:30 and it was not until 9:50 that he stopped fighting us and went to sleep. Once he finally fell asleep he didnt wake up until almost 7am the next morning and it was back to routine.

"What is all this green stuff?"

It was weird because last week Ryan had spring break and was home with Nolan every day. I was going in to work much earlier and wasn't seeing my sleepy baby in the mornings. Although I was sad to not see him until I got home from work, I was happy to leave work earlier and have more time in the evenings with them.

Meanwhile, I had no idea that throughout my road trip on Sunday I was actually getting closer to meeting my newest niece! Callie went into labor finally (12 days late!) and ended up having a beautiful baby girl on Sunday night. She was born at 11:11pm! Being the grandma that I am, I was sound asleep and didn't read my text until the next morning. Callie and Dylan, you both are going to be the most amazing parents. I am looking forward to having out children grow up together. I love you both so much and could not be happier for you!

On Monday evening we went to meet Cader and congratulate Dylan and Callie! She is so tiny and so cute! I love her to pieces!!

Cader Ellison Springmann

7 lbs 13 ounces 20.25 in. 

4-7-13 at 11:11pm

Absolutely perfect.

Proud new parents!

Tuesday evening we FINALLY had dinner with the Hastings and Ainsworth families! We had been planning this for about a month and life kept getting in the way of our plan. Our family night was so much fun and I loved seeing all our babies together!

I love this! :)

Oh, and this weather..absolutely amazing! 

Nolan warming up to the grass at Aunt Ginnie's today!

but not too happy about the sandbox...haha! Poor baby!

Nol Nol, you are getting so big!!!

Dear Nolan

Dear Nolan,

4-1-13

Today you turned 10 months old. Time is just flying by, and you my little sponge are just learning so much! Everyday you amaze me more and more. You love to talk. Your vocabulary at 10 months consist of, "mama", "dada", "hi", "uh oh", "thank you", "dog", "chug" and you most recently added, "up". Granted these words aren't clear, but you definitely attempt saying them as best you can. 

You love to try to figure things out. You will try to stack your blocks and put them back inside each other. You drop things on purpose to say "uh oh". You are all over the place crawling now. You chase Chuggins around and he is doing so well at tolerating your hair grabs, or should I say "attempted petting". I think your favorite toy right now, may be your lantern. You are starting to dance when your toys sing. You learned "so big!!" and its adorable! You raise your little arms up in the air so proudly!

You absolutely love peek-a-boo. You play peek-a-boo even when no one is looking. You hid your face behind a box of cheerios in the shopping cart at Target the other day because you wanted to play peek-a-boo with me. We played and giggled throughout the store. You tried Cheerios today and you actually liked them! You are starting to like food a little bit more each day. We have to trick you into eating sometimes, but for the most part you are doing well. 

Aunt Lainy made me aware that Easter was your "last, first holiday". I just may cry. I told her we still have Mother's Day and Memorial Day (apparently they don't count because you don't buy adorable little outfits specifically for them).

Two bottom front teeth are finally making an appearance. The end of this month has not been the best sleeping month for you, but we know it is because your teeth have been bothering you. Thank goodness for baby Motrin and oral gel! 

You know what you want. I say this because you will shake your head "no" at us if you don't want something. This normally only happens when we are trying to feed you. 

You give kisses!!!!!!!!!!!! Not always, but every now and then when I ask for a kiss, you will give me one!! 

If daddy or I asks you for a puff, you will feed it to us. It's cute! 

Your laugh is contagious.

Baby boy, you amaze us more each day. You are seriously the most amazing little blessing and we love you so much!!!

Love,

Mommy

xoxo

focused.

Hayden and Nolan sitting in (and fitting in) a mixing bowl and are helping us make Easter cakes! ;)

 Easter morning: 3/31/13

The Easter bunny visited Nolie!

Tired, no makeup and crazy hair.

My sweet little bunny!

Is this a new O's bat?!!

Loving his new toys!

Ry got artsy with the camera

He was talking nonstop! 

\

Happy 1st Easter handsome boy!

Can you see those little teeth coming in??

Bargain shopper!

If you know me, you know I love a SALE. You can blame all things shopping and sale related on my mom. Anyways, more specifically, I love yard sales. Now I have to admit, 9 times out of 10 I will go to one and I don’t buy a single thing because let’s face it, everything is usually junk. Then there is always that 1 ticket item that you find, haggle for and come home giddy with. This one item is what keeps you going back to more. No? Just me? Even though I normally come home disappointed, I really do enjoy it!

Now that I have a baby, I feel as though I am going to find a million more “ticket items”. Everyone sells baby/kid stuff because as sad as it is, they grow up. I stumbled across the mother load of children’s yard sales last weekend. I dragged my sister along with me; this was easy to do…I told her Nolan would be coming. And we walked away with this….

Jackpot!

What you see pictured:

I spent $1 on the mini bead maze.

For the wooden pull toy I spent $3 (haggled from $5 and retails for $17). This toy is adorable! The animals each have 3 pieces and are also a puzzle.

My most exciting find on the day was a brand new Baby Jogger console! We recently purchased the City Mini (after begging Ryan since we returned from Disney in the beginning of December) and we were going to buy the console. The console retails for $30. They had a $10 sticker on it and I haggled and got it for $8!

(We finally got the City Mini!) 

Activity Cube retails for $59.99, they marked it $30, I worked my magic again and purchased this for $20. The lady selling this was pretty funny. She informed my sister and I that these things “really do make your baby smart”. While I don’t disagree, it was funny to watch how serious she was about it when selling it to us! Nolan you better become a baby genius now!

Lastly, my other very exciting find on the day was the Snail RockABye rocker! 

These bad boys retail for $140! I really wanted to get Nolan “Homer” for his birthday, but I couldn’t walk by this deal. Our snail is now named Homer! They had a sticker on the snail for $10! I tried to keep my calm as I stood there very puzzled as to why no one had bought it yet! Homer did have a few stains which started to discourage me. Alaina told me to haggle again, and we would use stain remover and disinfect the crap out of it. I bought this for $8! The stains have all been removed and Homer is a new addition to the toy collection.

Aw, Homer! I love you, but you are not $8. 

My findings on the day cost me $40! Can you believe that? Yes, they were pre-owned. Yes, I am a germaphob and yes, I was skeptical, but heck yes, I will be doing this more often! The console alone would have been $30 that I was going to spend that weekend. I managed to buy that plus all those goodies for only $10 more! Everything has been scrubbed down and disinfected and it is all as good as new!
  

Nolan and Aunt Lainy after we found all these wonderful items! We stopped by and saw Ryan at the golf course and he made us all lunch! 

Pop Pop and his grandchildren!

And let's not forget about the snow day we had this past Monday. Yes, it is 1 week away from April and we had a snow day. Brr! Ryan had to work, but I got to spend my day with these two!

The inner child in me decided that Nolan should go sledding too....but I hate being cold. Therefore, we had an indoor sledding session! Nolan loved it!

Oh, and not 1 but both of his bottom front teeth are coming in! 

  

A tooth is coming!

So the past 5 months (or longer) I have swore that Nolan was teething; I was obviously wrong. This Saturday I learned that a teething baby is in fact miserable. My poor baby boy had a low grade fever and only wanted to cuddle on Saturday evening. Mommy did not mind cuddling all evening, but it was so sad to see him moaning and upset. He thankfully has been able to sleep well, but just hears every little thing. He has woken up to Chuggins barking twice this past week, and he never used to budge before. Both of these times he woke up crying. On a normal basis Nolan wakes up happy, talking and playing with his paci in his crib. Sometimes he will take his paci and stick it back in his mouth and go right back to sleep. Other mornings he will normally throw his paci on the floor and say "uh oh". Once the pacificer hits the floor he is not going back to sleep. Besides Saturday evening, he has been happy. If that night was the worst of it...we are very lucky. His gums are red and we can finally feel a little white ridge. Our almost, 10 month old baby may have a tooth soon!

I feel like I barely saw my baby this week. We had a family emergency to attend too. After work each day I was spending my evenings at the hospital to keep my dad company. Pop Pop was in the hospital from Friday evening through Thursday afternoon, but he is finally home now and doing well! We all had dinner with him last night and Nolan cheered him up. At the hospital, I tried to order my dad a cheeseburger on multiple occasions, but because of the hospital diet they put him on he could not have one. I would just like to report that last night my dad finally got his cheeseburger! :) 

Crazy cloud outside the hospital!

Pop Pop is home!!!

Nolan still hates food. He has thrown up on two separate occasions when feeding him dinner because he gags over the taste. We have tried stage 3 and table foods. He will only eat stage 2 food. Nolan does love his sippy cup though and will chug his water. As Ryan says, "I think we named the wrong one "Chuggins". He is definitely a little chugalug with his sippy! 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

How cute are they?!

Happy 1st Day of Spring! 

Spring-like weather!

Nolan’s 9 month checkup:

Weighing in at 19.2 pounds (40%) and standing tall at 28.5 inches (55%). Our little boy is starting to average out, but the drastic drop in height percentile required measuring Nolan 3 times which he was not too happy about. Developmentally Nolan is doing great! The pediatrician mentioned that within the next 3 months he should be able to say 1-3 words and then was surprised to hear that he already has done that! Way to go Nolie! She asked about crawling and we told her that he just figured it out. She predicted that he will be walking by next month. She also asked how he was taking to table food…Nolan seriously hates food! He LOVES to eat the pureed stage 2 baby foods, puffs and yogurt melts. We have tried stage 3 and table foods but they just get spit out of his mouth. Maybe once he gets a tooth or two he will like food more? This boy seriously is just as picky as his mama!

Then during his appointment we found out that Nolan had a double ear infection, meaning an ear infection in BOTH ears! I seriously have never felt so awful in my life. At that moment, I felt like the world’s worst mommy. Our pediatrician did a good job to make me feel better by stating that this happens a lot with babies that have a high pain tolerance. Nolan did not have a fever and has been in such a good mood. We called the pediatrician last week because he had an awful cold, but he didn’t have a fever. They told us to monitor his temperature and make sure he didn’t get a fever and that the cold just had to run its course. He did tug on his ear a few times, but was not fussy. He is always in such a great mood. Even when we pick him up from daycare and Aunt Ginnie’s house we hear about the great day he has had. How were we to know? Needless to say, our little boy is on antibiotics for his ear infectionS. :(

The weather this weekend was absolutely gorgeous! It really made me excited for spring and taking trips to the parks and playgrounds. We had such a busy weekend and were able to spend a great deal of time outside soaking up the weather! On Friday night we went to my dad’s house for dinner to see Aunt Nora. She was my mom’s childhood friend growing up and I love that she still makes it a point to see us every time she is on the east coast. Before we left for my dad’s a UPS delivery showed up at our house and it was an LA Kings pillow pet that Aunt Nora had sent to Nolan so he would have a Stanley Cup Champs souvenir!

Saturday morning we woke up to gorgeous weather, bundled up Nolan and headed to Rockburn Branch Park to take Nolan to the playground. He went down the slides and was put in a swing for the first time since the whole My Gym debacle. I am so happy to say that Nolan was all smiles when swinging! This boy also loves, loves, loves the slides! We spent a good bit of the morning at the playground and then went home to squeeze in a nap before Colby’s 1^st birthday party.

I still cannot believe that Colby is already 1! We had a great afternoon celebrating the little guy and watching him enjoy his smash cake. Kim did a wonderful job with all the decorations and food. I absolutely loved the Colby banners she made. Watching all the babies play together (or ignore each other and play on their own, but close to each other) was so fun! Colby’s birthday party has me very excited for Nolan’s first birthday, but at the same time I do not want to rush away those months at all!  

After Colby’s birthday party we went downtown to Sabbatino’s in Little Italy with my family! Nolan was a little rock star at dinner considering he was on the go all day with maybe a 45-minute nap during Colby’s party. Not-so-fun Fact: I did learn that Sabbatino’s does not have changing tables in the restrooms of their bathrooms. Luckily, we were tucked in the back corner of one of the rooms in the restaurant so yes, I changed Nolan on his changing pad on the floor behind our table. You got to do what you got to do, right?

Sunday was daylight savings time. Nolan followed his schedule according to daylight savings. This meaning, he sprung forward and took his morning nap at 11am instead of 10am and same with his afternoon nap, dinner and bedtime! Saturday was Ryan’s dad’s birthday and since our day was jam packed we met up with them on Sunday to celebrate. The weather was just as nice as it was on Saturday and so we met at Patapsco State Park for a nice afternoon walk. After our walk we grabbed some lunch and went to Rockburn Branch Park had a picnic and played for a little bit. Nolan went on the slides and swings again on Sunday! We topped off our weekend by taking an evening walk to the grocery store. Leaving the grocery store we ran into Brent, Kim and Colby and talked with them for a bit before heading home. We really made the most of the nice weather this weekend and I cannot wait for spring to be here.

I apologize now for the massive amount of pictures...nice weather + busy weekend = LOTS of pictures!

Nolan playing peek-a-boo at dinner on Saturday night!

Being a good boy during his 9 month checkup!

Nol & Aunt Nora!

Nolan likes the swings!!!

The child in me came out and yes I went on the swings too!

Colby and his mama at his 1st birthday party!

Nolan and his newest gf, Dani! These two had a great time saying "uh oh" to each other! 

Playing with Blair! 

Colby with his mommy & daddy! :)

I love these 2 pictures!! Nolan & Colby intrigued by the fan on separate occasions! 

<3 how adorable is he!!!

Opening presents in his birthday suit!

Kim did such a great job on the decorations! I loved the banners!!!

Time for the cake!

"mmm...this stuff is good!"

The end result :)

Nolan was cheesing at Aunt Callie. It was too cute! 

Nolan asking Aunt Callie to get that baby out so that he can have play dates!

Enjoying the weather!

Nolie and Will!

Somebody was not happy..at all.

Loving those swings!!

Playing on the slide with Grandma!

Having fun with daddy!

Nol and Grandma!

Yay slides!

I think he is enjoying it!

Peek-a-boo!

He found mommy!

I love that face!

Grandma, Nolan and I!

Nolie and Grandpa!

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

:)