Nolan: 12 months old

The past 12 months have without a doubt been the fastest year of my life. I cannot believe my little (big)  boy is one! And I know that sounds cliche but I know I'll be saying the say thing every year ("I cant believe he's 2!" "I cant believe he's 16!") I am also incredibly grateful that Nolan is in our family. He has been such a blessing and a joy. Nolan is just his own little person and we love him for it.

Eats: Three meals, three bottles. He is still drinking formula because we tried a little bit of milk with his and he was acting lactose intolerant. We decided to wait until he was completely ready and we will try introducing it differently. He likes to sit up and drink his bottle now and he looks so big! We've tried a few different sippy cups with him and haven't been too successful so we are still working on that.  He really likes to feed himself now and eat with his hands. He is still a good and healthy eater and still loves applesauce and sweet potatoes. He also likes bread and strawberries and blueberries. He is also of course very messy with his eating so when we are home he almost always dines shirtless.

sleeps: I have discovered over the past little while and Nolan is my early riser. At this age Caitlin was sleeping in all the time but Nolan wants to be up and going. He will commonly wake up at 6 or 6:30 then we give him a bottle and he will settle back down for a couple hours. If not he's up no later than 8 AM. He still want two nap a day but usually just does a little power nap for the first. Then he sleep for 2-3 hours in the afternoon.

plays: He is everywhere! He is a super squirmy little guy. You'd like to think he's super snuggly like a teddy bear but he has always been chill but wanting to do his own thing... definitely not a snuggler. He wants to be standing almost all the time and will pull himself up on anything. He walks along everything. He crawls really fast and if he is outside or on a hard surface he bear crawls (straight legs). I can tell he wants to walk and have more independence. He just recently started letting go of things he is holding onto and trying to stand on his own. He is very mobile in every way except for walking. He likes dinosaurs, trucks and balls, or anything that he can chase around.

likes: Rough housing. He LOVES being wrestled and hanging upside down.
-He also loves being outside.
-He likes playing peek a boo and being tickled.
-He also loves getting into chords (like our phones or the tv/cable ones) which have been the only times I've ever gotten mad at him.
-He likes giving big open mouth kisses when you tell him to give you a kiss and pucker up.

dislikes: Having his face or nose cleaned. He is also going through a little phase of not liking his baths as much.

also: He is such a boogie man. His nose is full of boogers 24/7 and as soon as I get them out he gets more. He also HATES having them cleaned out, so it's annoying for everyone. Paul said when he learns to blow his nose his life will change.
-Nolan's song is "You are my sunshine" It's what we've always sung to him to go to sleep and whenever he is sad it's always the first song Caitlin sings to him. He loves it and it's a very appropriate song for him.
-He says "mama" sometimes for me and he also says "MAAAA" for more. Other than that he doesn't show much desire to communicate.
-He learned to drink from a straw this month! Seems like a little thing but it's amazing what a game changer that can be!

His 1 year doctor's appointment was on June 10th. He was very good at the doctor, and we love Dr. Wynn. His stats are:

weight: 26 lbs. (96%)

height: 31 inches (88%)

head circumference: 18.4 (69%)

He is healthy and doing great! Although he did get two shots at the end and they really rocked his little world. He wasn't too bad the day of, just wanted to sleep a lot but the next day he was SO sad. He just wanted to sleep and snuggle and he was so pitiful and had no appetite. A small part of me loved some of it though because it was the most he has ever snuggled since he was a newborn. He even let me rock him and fell asleep on my shoulder and I was in heaven.

We spent his birthday at Disneyland but we also wanted to do a little celebration when we got home with friends and family to give him a couple last gifts. We had dessert and sang Happy Birthday then played outside. He got some really fun gifts from everyone and also received packages in the mail from family... lots of new balls and cars and trucks to play with! A big THANK YOU to everyone!  

 This is what happens when you try to get all the kids in for a picture: no one is looking at the camera, Bailey gets woken up and little Lucy Pack is covered up by Caitlin who is flashing the camera. But it was a cute little group!

 We also got him the little fisher price car and he LOVES it. It as not quick to assemble but so worth it. When he was so sad from his shots its the only thing that made him smile. He loves to ride in it (and Caitlin too).