Nolan: one whole year

Let me tell this story about Nolan. This just happened a couple weeks ago. I took the kids to the Thanksgiving Point farm. They have farm animals, exhibits and pony rides there. The kids loved looking at the animals and Nolan especially LOVES the horses. On this day it was pretty empty so when we went to go have our pony ride there was no one around (just the worker) and no one waiting to go. Caitlin quickly went to choose her pony and I asked the worker if I held onto Nolan could he ride? She said yes. Nolan's first pony ride!! I put him on one and stood beside him and he was a little squirmy at first but I showed him how to hold onto the saddle horn. He held on with one hand and wanted to hold onto me with the other. I held onto his waist and his hand. The ponies started walking around and I walked beside him. Nolan started looking at his pony and noticing the saddle and his mane. He didn't show any big reaction, but slowly he let go of me with his hand and put it on the saddle horn with is other. He was calm and content the whole time and held onto the saddle with both hands and just enjoyed his ride.

This captures Nolan perfectly. Easy-going, independent and content. He has always had this mixed personality of easy-going independence. Which are two qualities I would say are not my strongest, so it has been interesting to observe him and how he handles the world. He rolls with the punches and goes along with whatever activity we bring him into whether it's traveling to another country or daily wrestles with Caitlin. He plays with toys and explores by himself and likes to have his own space and do his own thing. He is not much of a snuggler, but he is full of love. He is gentle and notices people and things around him. I always tell people that chubby babies are the happiest babies and he proves it. He is full of smiles and laughing and squeals.

I feel that we have only scratched the surface with Nolan. His first year has gone by in the blink of an eye. He is a pretty simple guy, and also very consistent but as he gets older his personality continues to develop and unfold and he definitely has his very own likes and dislikes and opinions. He knows what he wants in life and while it might not be much he is determined to get those things.

I have been in love with my little big boy from day one and his gentle demeanor and sweet and kind spirit. He is always quick to smile and so calm and I love him for that. Those cheeks and clear blue eyes... you really can't help but have a little crush on him. I cannot wait to see what the future holds for him and how he continues to face life with a big grin.  

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).

Disney Trip: day 5

Day 5: Jeff and Melissa left this morning and we headed to California Adventures for our last Disney day. I was afraid it would be crazy busy since it was Saturday but we got so lucky! It wasn't bad at all and we had such a fun time. I actually wish we would have come over to CA Adventures sooner because there was a lot we didn't get to explore that could have been fun! I was way underestimating it.
-Paul and I rode a ton of rides of ourselves and never had to wait more than 5 minutes and the kids loved all the rides in the bugs life area.




-They also have the new "Cars Land" that is adorable. Caitlin was tall enough to ride the Tow Mater ride and she loved it, rode it 3 times.






-Both kids also finally had a decent nap in the stroller so they were doing well. The kids also loved all the street performances and the little Disney Junior Show and of course we had to catch the parade as well. Then we went straight over to Disneyland and caught that parade for one last time.

-We had dinner in down town Disney and continued our "tradition" of having to buy a sweatshirt at the Quicksilver store (next time on the packing list: a blanket for the kids in the evening!) Then headed back into California Adventures to watch the "World of Color" water, music and lights show. It was amazing. Nolan slept through it but Caitlin loved it. It was a fun way to conclude Disney.


Overall we had pretty good weather, and very few melt downs (all things considered). We had happy kids and happy parents. Lots of fun and lots of new memories made. Got to see friends and family, eat good food and enjoyed ourselves to the fullest. It was definitely a successful trip that I will always cherish.

Disney Trip: day 4

Day 4: This was our "break from Disney" day.
-We swam in the morning, then Paul had a work meeting over lunch so I took the kids to downtown disney. Nolan took a good nap and Caitlin and I got lunch and walked the shops. We saw a family full-on dunking their heads and arms and scooping out pennies from one of the fountains and then throwing them back in. It was quite interesting to watch. One penny that they were throwing back in bounced out to the ground over by us, so I picked it up and taught Caitlin how to throw in a penny to make a wish. Later on that night she was with Paul and went by the same fountain and asked him for a money to make a wish. She told Paul that she wished for a kitty cat. (Not likely, but also not surprising)

-After that we all went to Newport Beach. Unfortunately the weather was more overcast than we were all expecting (for the whole week) so it was cloudy and a little windy at the beach but the kids still played and the boys got out and boogie boarded and surfed a little too.

-That night we met up with the Taylors again and also Jeanette & Todd Andersen. We went to dinner and it was fun to talk with everyone and catch up. It's so fun to have friends that live in awesome places!

Disney Trip: day 3

Day 3: Nolan's first birthday!! I'll go more into detail about the mere fact that my little boy is one and how cray it is in another post. But his birthday was my big push for this trip. I thought there would be no place more fun to celebrate a birthday than Disneyland and have been wanting to go on this trip over his birthday ever since. We again took things at the kids pace and tried to let the birthday boy have a fun day, which we all did.
-We did a character breakfast in the morning to celebrate Nolan turning 1. We went to "Goofy's kitchen" and got to see a bunch of characters there and spend time with them. Nolan liked looking at them as they walked around and even gave some of them high fives. Rafiki the money from Lion King was there and Caitlin told him he had boogers in his nose (I guess because it was a different color with big nostrils?) The food is buffet and they had tons of yummy things. Of course including Mickey Mouse pancakes and waffles. Caitlin discovered her love for Froot Loops on this trip. They brought Nolan a cupcake with a candle and sang happy birthday to him. Caitlin helped him blow out his candle. He dug into his cupcake and was very concentrated on eating it and feeling every little bit. It was serious business.








-After breakfast we went to the park and met up with Jeff, Melissa, Emily and Madison! It was so fun that they could come for a little bit of our trip! We rode rides with them and the little girls loved being with each other. They also got to meet Rapunzel and the grown ups got to switch and do a couple rides for ourselves. Nolan was wished Happy Birthday by everyone around, workers and strangers alike and just generally adored by all of us, as usual.


-We watched the parade again too and the little girls danced it out. People around us were laughing and smiling at them and we just tried to keep them out of their laps and said "You didn't know you were getting a show with the parade!"



-We took the kids back to the hotel for naps that afternoon, which unfortunately was a failed attempt for ours so we did some "quiet time" and then swam in the pool (which meant poolside snuggling for me and Nolan). Then we all went to Denny's for dinner.

-Then it was back to the park to see the fireworks! They were amazing! Nolan decided he was done with festivities and slept through the whole show, and Caitlin fell asleep right after they ended. We watched them from Main street in front of the castle and it was one of my favorite fireworks shows I've ever seen. We did a couple more rides and watched another show and then returned to the hotel.

-Late that night Melissa and I stayed at the hotel with the kids while the boys went to go get donuts from a place we discovered: M&M Donuts. They make THE MOST delicious cake donuts, blueberry specifically. They make a bunch then close their shop to make more. The boys waited for over an hour to finally get our donuts but they were so worth it! Warm, fresh donuts. My mouth is watering just remembering them.