Dear Nolan ~ 21 Months

Dear Nolan,

Happy 21 months! This month, just like all the others, went by way too quickly. You continue to amaze us every day. This past month was all about the ABC's, taking off your socks, sitting on your potty and teddy bear!

You love to sing songs. We have the Wee Sing Kid's Songs cd in my car and you love it. Last night, mommy and daddy went out with some friends and I found myself singing 'ring around the rosy' to which your daddy then realized we could probably turn off the cd since you were home with Grandma and Grandpa. Apparently, the songs are catchy! Your favorites to sing are, 'Rain, Rain Go Away', 'ABC's', 'Ring Around the Rosy', 'Pop Goes the Weasel' and 'Teddy Bear'. You actually have the order of the songs memorized on the cd and will tell me what is about to come on right before it does.

We are starting to get your little tummy issues under control. You have to have benefiber in your water or milk daily and it seems to be helping. This month we also switched your vitamin from the liquid dropper to the chewable toddler vitamins. You love them and it is actually sad that you are old enough for them, well...pretty much everything now.

Every single time you are in the car you like to take off your shoes and your socks. Seriously, every single time. You actually have made a game out of it and like to throw them over the seat and into the trunk. I have to open the trunk and get your socks and shoes whenever we get somewhere. Is it summer yet? I am over socks, and shoes for that matter. Whenever you get your shoes into the trunk you cheer, "Yay, Nolan! I did it!" It's cute, but having to put your socks and shoes back on every car trip is not.

We bought a potty a little while ago and have never forced you to sit on it or anything. You seem to like it right from the start, but refused to have your diaper off. This month, you were introduced to M&M's and you are willing to take your diaper off to sit on the potty as a result. In fact, you say "Sit, potty, chocolate". You have not actually gone to the bathroom on your potty yet, but you seem to try. Just yesterday, you were done trying to go potty and walked out of the bathroom. You normally follow me into the living room for a clean diaper, but this time you didn't. My diaperless child, you went into the pantry, grabbed the Cheerios and then peed everywhere. So close to going on the potty, but needless to say, we threw away a box of Cheerios. Maybe you were trying to aim? Anyways, I learned my lesson and you now either lead the way to the diaper or get a new one in the bathroom.

We have been going to My Gym every Saturday morning and you love it. You can do all the little stretches, but refuse to do them on your own at the class. You will do them around the house with mommy and daddy though. You are still hesitant on some of the practice skills. Yesterday you were playing in the ball pit and we were quizzing you on colors and you got a nice compliment from another parent for doing so well.

At 21 months, you know your ABC's, count to 10 on your own (try to go to 20), know basic colors and shapes, love stacking blocks, basketball and baseball are you favorite, cars and trucks are equally as exciting, reading books especially Dora, Spot and I love trains, PAINT, and play-doh!

Untitled from Tessa Hurd on Vimeo.

For Valentine's Day we got you a teddy bear with Hershey kisses attached to him. I would say you love your teddy bear because of the chocolate, but you have had 1 Hershey kiss since we gave him to you. You have not let your teddy bear out of sight. It is adorable. You sleep with teddy bear, eat with him, play with him and even shoot him in the basketball hoop. You have never really had an attachment to a stuffed animal or blanket, but now you seem to be very attached to teddy bear. You give him kisses and cuddles.

I can not believe you will be 2 years old in 3 months. You are growing so fast, and you are so much fun! You are hilarious, and you know it. You always make us laugh so hard.

In these next few months we hope to have the paci fairy visit you so that he can give your pacifiers to another baby that needs them, but I have a feeling that may be harder than we think. Continue to surprise us little boy!

Untitled from Tessa Hurd on Vimeo.

We love you so much!

Love,Mommy

Xoxo

Nolan and Olivia attempted sledding together and Nolan slid right off the sled. These two are too cute together!

Yup, teddy bear is eating too...

This month baby Carter was born!! After a long wait, our friends Kim and Brent and there son, Colby are now a family of 4!! Congrats, she's precious!!! 2/18/14

Happy 1st birthday, Harper!!

 

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Happy Valentine's Day!

The day before Valentine's day we had a snow day. Nolan went sledding for the very first time and he absolutely loved it. I wish we had a saucer to use, but the sled we had worked well.

On Friday, Valentine's day, Nolan and Ryan were home , but I went back to work. Before I went to work I took this picture,

Watching them go sledding made it difficult to leave, but I finally did.

Nolan recieved some Valentine's day presents and loved them! We gave him a teddy bear that he now always carries around with him and sleeps with. It is adorable!

We spent our Valentine's evening at the mall. We went to Sears to shop around for a new refridgerator because ours broke. (We ended up scoring a great deal at Best Buy after shopping around all weekend!) Nolan rode the carousel for the first (and second) time and we even had to buy our little rugrat a new outfit because within 2 seconds of getting to the mall Nolan had decided to dump his water all over him. Literally, his entire sippy cup was in his lap. He was dripping wet. So his "I choo choo choose you valentine" shirt was taken off, but that's ok even though he didn't have a little valentines outfit on anymore he always looks cute! :)

I don't know why Ryan's picture taking skils are slacking so much.

Lastly, a major thank you to Aunt Lainy for spending the day with Nols on Saturday so that we could go to Lowe's, Home Depot, Harper's Appliances and Best Buy to shop around the best deal! It literally took us all day to decide, but we found a new refridgerator and it is being delivered on Thursday!

 

 

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Dear Nolan ~ 20 Months

Dear Nolan,

I blinked and you turned into a little boy. The sweetest, most lovable, curious little boy.

In this past month you had a love-hate relationship with bath time. Your latest happenings include a 3 week period of deciding to hate the bathtub. That is right, you went from having a love of playing in the tub to the point where you would still be sitting, playing in the bath and we would have to drain the water to get you out. So of course, I turned to ‘google’ (I seriously need to stop googling everything.) and discovered that it is normal. According to my “research” some children your age go through a period of hating baths because you become more aware of the bathtub drain and you feel as though you might get sucked down it. Since we used to drain the tub awhile you were still sitting in it I immediately diagnosed this as the cause. So, after 3 long weeks of you even hearing the word bath and running away, crying screaming bloody murder and having to quick wash and out we have hopefully reached the breaking point.

We took you to the swimming pool the other day (with your buddy, Colby!) and we really didn’t expect much since the whole bath time debacle has been going on, but you surprised us. You loved the swimming pool! That night, bath time was upon us and so I put my feet on the edge of the tub (just like at the pool) and you played! Now, we are back at the point of having to pry you and your pruned fingers and toes out of the bathtub again. Of course, we do NOT drain the bathtub until you are out though. Your daddy thinks I am ridiculous, but I am sticking to my stellar research on this one.

The next topic of discussion, your love for cheeses all things dairy, also known as constipation to the max. Dear child, I know you are a picky eater. I get it because I am too (Crap! Is this is my fault?), but you have to eat a wider variety. No, scratch that…you have to eat food. I started making you popsicles which you seem to like. I fill them with fruits and veggies and offer them to you daily. Your daddy and I have a few other ideas of how we are going to mix some veggies into your diet, but being that you are far too aware of what is going on I don’t even know if this will work.

Your favorite things to play are anything with a ball, “cooking” (playing with your kitchen), coloring, reading books, cars/trains and doing puzzles. You have started to sing songs! You attempt the ‘ABC’s’, ‘twinkle, twinkle little star’, ‘rain, rain go away’, ‘happy birthday’ and ‘zip a dee doo dah’. Hearing you sing may be the cutest thing ever. You do not like to dance. You would rather jump around and play than dance. When we are at My Gym and it’s the dancing portion during the warm up we normally have to carry you because you refuse to walk and dance. You like dancing in our arms though.

One of my favorite things, you copy us so when we say stuff like “good night, stinker” or “I love you honey bunny” you will normally call us a stinker and honey bunny too! It is adorable.

Lastly, I love how proud of yourself you get. When you do something like cleaning up or even scoring a basket in your basketball hoop you shout, “I did it!” You also like to have us "watch this, mommy!" when you get ready to do something.
You are at the point where we can have conversations with you and it is so much fun. When I leave work I call both you and daddy and I love getting to talk to you about your day. Normally you tell me that you colored with Emma. Surprisingly, on days with Aunt Ginnie you have magically colored with Emma too! You are a goofball and I love you to pieces.

Keep learning, laughing and growing my sweet, lovable, curious little boy.

Love,

Mommy

xoxo

This past month in photos:
Port Discovery fun with your buddy, Colby!

 

 A trip to the playground where we watched you master the slides!

Your obsession with My Gym!

 The trip to the swimming pool

Which resulted in a fun bath time!

 Mmm popsicles!

 Weren't we just at the playground?

 Pet store with Aunt Lainy, Hayden and Mommy!

 Aquarium trip with your girlfriends!

Just holding Mommy's leg watching the dolphin show :)

Orioles Fan Fest!

 

 Reading with Lincoln yesterday!

 And the latest, you found the Lucky Charms (yes we have Lucky Charms...) opened them up and were picking out the marshmallows.

 Still on a loving the bath steak!!!!!!!

I owe bath crayons and paint a lot of credit for why the bath is enjoyable again.