My Tiny T Rex

I was really excited for Halloween.  I have never really been a huge fan of it in the past. However,  I was excited to dress up Nolan.  Mama and I found the cutest Tiny T Rex costume at Costco.  (I am also not a believer in spending a fortune on something he may hate wearing.) It was perfect. It came with green pants in case it was cold (which it sure was.)   

Nolan wore an orange body suit with really cute black monster leg warmers over to Barb’s for his Halloween daycare party!  I kept the legwarmers on him and changed him into a black body suit.  I packed his costume and we headed over to the Biro’s for dinner and trick or treating.  It was nice that J’s whole family was there and all of Andy’s family was there too.  They had catered P’Sghetti’s for dinner and it was delicious.

It was miserably cold, so Ellen and I decided to dress our boys and go over to Kate and Aaron’s (friends across the street) and call it a night for the babies.  Parker was a cute lobster and Nolan was a Tiny T Rex. I was impressed that neither minded their costume too much.  Ellen even put Parker in a stock pot for some cute pictures.  Nolan was all about holding his pumpkin and did not even need my help.  He even kept trying to fish out his candy and stick it in his mouth…..paper and all. 

The older boys had a fire going on in the driveway and stayed out there to hand out candy.  Nolan and Parker played in doors.  Next year should be a great age for trick or treating.  I need to start now to think about creative cute costumes for next year!

Picking Apples

We had such a fun time last year as a family picking apples, I was so excited to go back this year. I even planned it when my Mama was in town so she could experience it as well.  We lucked out and chose a beautiful Sunday October day.  We met up with the Biro’s after church and drove toward the river.  We like to go to the orchard across the river in Grafton.  To get there the fastest way is to take the Grafton Ferry which is just an experience in itself.    We had lunch out on the deck of the Loading Dock.   Nolan was so good, and slept in the stroller. We ate and made our way to Eckert’s.  At first glance, you would think by all the cars in the field that it is going to be an utter nightmare.  However, this is what they do and everything runs super smoothly. 

I thought a head and remembered to bring my carrier for Nolan.  I couldn’t remember if strollers were allowed in the orchard, but thought that would be a nightmare anyways. (Point- strollers are not allowed, for anyone’s future reference.  You wait in line to take a tractor ride to the orchard where they tell you what rows to pick from. This time of year we were able to pick Golden Delicious, Red Delicious, and Jonathon apples. I love that you can eat as you pick.  I loved that Nolan wanted to chew on the apple and suck the juice after I took a bite. He was so funny and got made when I took the apple away from him to bite it.  I loved sharing the day with my Mama too.  She had never been apple picking before. WE decided we were having a very Middle American day! 

50 pounds and $85.00 later we took the apples to the car and went back into the orchard for pumpkins.  How cool is it that you can pick your pumpkin right off the vine! J and Peyton picked out 2 really big pumpkins (luckily, this weekend, pumpkins were half off and only $0.24 a pound instead of $0.48!  I still have apples galore…and really need to freeze them down since they are starting to rot.

8 Months old

My little man is getting so big!  This was the first time I had to rely on weighing myself, then  weighing myself plus Nolan to come up with his monthly weight.  He weighed in at 19 pounds 4 ounce.  Only up 3 ounces from 7 months old. I am blaming a week long bought of diahrrea and all his moving!  Because believe you me, he eats and eats.  I added protein to his diet.  He really enjoys his chicken and apples (basically I boiled chicken and cooked apples and pureed them in my food processor together.   I made my first batch of sweet potatoes and chicken, but he hasn’t eaten that combo yet due to the stomach bug and needing to firm up his poop, not losen it even more.

He is also eating the puff cereal.  It is so funny to watch him.  He uses both hands and gets very frustrated when the puff gets stuck on his arm and he can’t find it.  We added kiwi fruit to his diet and loves it.  J also fed him mashed potatoes from Culpeppers which he gobbled down (I prayed he didn't have a milk allergy because I am sure it was loaded with butter and milk.)

He started saying “Da Da” which is super cute…however, it would have been very nice if his first word would have been “Ma Ma”  (I know, I know, it is always Da Da, but a girl can dream.) He also loves blowing raspberries.  It is the funniest thing.  He is a wet mess of spit all over when he is done and I may be covered in flying drool as well!

Bath time is still a favorite.  He now tries to sit up and reach out of the tub, which mean Mommy will 

not let him do.  He still tugs and pulls on his penis while chewing on his wash cloth.  It really does not get old for me to watch him.  I tried taking the insert out of his tub for him to sit and play, but he likes laying back and he slides down without the insert.  Bath time is about 10 to 15 minutes every night.  The most upsetting thing for me is Nolan does not like to be held for his night bottle. It just breaks my heart.  He lets me hold him for about an ounce and then he wants to take the rest of his bottle laying on his back in his crib. 

We keep about 5-7 pacifiers in his crib at one time, so that he can roll over and always find one.  We are hoping that since getting the tubes in his ears we will start sleeping completely through the night.  He also loves his giraffe and soft swankie blankie (a small soft blanket) he rubs his face with them and sleeps with them up on his face as well.  He has finally taken an interest in his wub a nubs (we have a duck and a giraffe.)

Clothing wise, he wears a lot of body suits and leg warmers.  Grand C has gone overboard with leg warmers, I think he has like 30 pairs last I counted.  I prefer Carters onesies and Baby Gap clothes. They just seem to fit better than others.  I also like the Osh Kosh Genuine kids jeans.  When he wears jeans he looks like such a little boy…..not a baby. 

He still loves books and being read to.  He especially loves the “Noisy Farm”, “The Little Duck” and other puppet books.  I found a really cute one called “You are my Pumpkin Pie” which is what I call him, so of course I had to buy it.  He also finds Charlie hilarious.  He wants to pet or pull on his fur all the time.  Charlie does not find this as amusing as Nolan does. He laughs at his puppy dog and it is just the sweetest sound to my ears.  

Tubes

On October 10, 2014, Nolan had tubes put into both ears.  I know this is a very common thing now a days and I was not worried about him going under anesthesia at all.  After everything we have gone through, all the antibiotics, the endless doctor appointments, and months of sleepless nights, I was super excited for Nolan to finally get relief in his little head. 

Dr. Clary is the same ENT that Ellen, J’s sister has gone to forever and done my nephew Alex’s tubes.  He does the surgery at Frontenac surgery center, which is a super nice center and it was so nice to not be in a hospital  We were scheduled for the first surgery of the day, 7am and we to arrive at 6am.  I was told Nolan was not allowed to have any food or formula after midnight and no water or juice after 3 am. I asked if apple/prune juice was ok and was told yes.  However, when we went to do pre op, I was told since he had the prune in the juice the anesthesiologist may not let us proceed due to something with the juice…apple alone would have been fine.  (I also only gave him 1 ounce of juice diluted with 5 ounces of water.)  Then the amount I gave him was too much.  I was never told he could only have 4 ounces at 3am.  It was a mess and I felt awful and I am sure I got the nurse who did pre op on the phone in trouble.  I was on the verge of tears and J was even more irritated than usual.

Luckily, they just wanted to wait until 8am to do the surgery. Nolan was so good. He woke up when I put him in his car seat at 5:30am and did not fall back asleep which worried me since we could not feed him anything.  He charmed all the nurses and staff as well.  Once they finally took him back, we went to the waiting room for about 15 minutes.  Dr. Clary came out and talked to us and gave us the drops to put in his ears for the next 3 days.  He was able to clean out all the gunk and puss in Noles’s ears.  He also warned us that he could have woken up in a bad mood or cranky.  I made a bottle and a nurse came out to get us. My little man was all smiles and apparently woke up smiling.  He is just too much!

I thought he would be droggy and want to sleep the rest of the day…..WRONG! I had a wild man on my hands.  He was babbling so loud. I think he could finally hear himself. I am just happy he can finally hear and hopefully we will be ear infection free!

6 Month Photo Shoot

We finally were able to get Nolan's 6 month photo shoot done when he was about 6 and a half months old.  The weather was perfect and I think we got some good shots. I really wanted to get some with Peyton in them as well, but due to the holiday schedule, we didn't have him for the weekend I thought we did.

Nolan was so funny to watch.  First off, we put him down on a mirror and he kept trying to either kiss himself or eat himself.  Then in the chair, he pretty much posed himself.  It would have been nice, if he could have sat up by himself.  Here are some of my favorites

This is the tie that Jay wore in my wedding! 

Pretty sure he is grabbing his penis in this picture! 

We have a scooter

Over the weekend, Nolan scooted/slithered his way across the floor.  I am not sure I am ready for him to be so big and grown up.  Heck, he will hardly keep himself up just sitting.  He started doing this on Friday at his sitter’s house. (thank goodness she does not tell me these milestones unless I ask her after I see him do something.)  I think it is easier for him to army crawl on her carpet because it is a modern day shag (freizae) so that he is able to dig in with his hands and toes to help pull himself along.  Ours is short carpet and harder for him to grab.  Also, he watches the other kids over at her house and, well, monkey see, monkey do! 

I guess this means we need to start baby proofing the house but putting those covers on all the electrical sockets.  I know it will not be long before he is fully crawling and getting into more and more things.  He already puts everything into his mouth.  He for some odd reason, has a fascination with my shoes.  More so, fascination with chewing on my shoes like a dog.   And with all of this moving and rolling, he is spitting up more.  We are seriously going to be in need of a carpet cleaning soon.  Those darn baby foods are impossible to get out of carpet and clothes.  I have to shout and zout all his stuff and make sure it came out before throwing something in the dryer.  Last night, I even rewashed stuff after re shouting and zouting to see if I could get the stains out.  Seriously, white anything for babies is difficult!

Half Birthday Party

Birthdays have always been a pretty big deal to me. I me, come on, I would celebrate my entire birth month.  I think this started on my own 6 month birthday.  My mom  served half of a cake with a half of a candle.  So of course, we had to do the same for Nolan.   My Mama flew into St. Louis for a visit on August 19^th,which just happened to be Nolan’s half birthday.  We made a funfetti cake, J’s favorite with blue icing to have after dinner.  We did not cut it in half, but I did press the candle very far down so it was only half as tall as a normal candle.  

We even sang Happy Birthday, but sang it as:Hap Birth to you, Hap Birth to you, Hap Birth to Nol, Hap Birth to you…..basically half of each work.  I know my husband thinks my mother and I are nuts.   Nolan totally stuck his hand in the icing and we had to make sure he didn’t put his blue iced fingers in his mouth.    So he is really going to be ready come his first birthday party with his own cake.

6 months old

I cannot believe how fast time has gone by since I gave birth to Nolan.  It seems like just yesterday I was scared out of my mind bringing home this tiny 6 pound 14 ounce baby. Now he is weighing in at a husky 18 pounds of pure love.  I am amazed by how much he has developed.  He is now able to roll over from his back to his stomach and vice versa from his stomach to his back.  This is his means of transportation around the house.  He just rolls across the floor to where he wants to go.  Pretty soon I am going to need to gate the stairs down to the basement and the staircase upstairs when we are playing in the loft.  We have been working on his sitting.  For some reason, Nolan has no desire to sit.  He wants to stand.  Even after his bath time when I try and sit him up to lotion his back and get his arms in his jammies, he fights me to stand instead.    Jumping and bouncing are some of his favorite things.  His legs are always moving, so I know he is going to be one ball of energy running around the house in no time.  I am hoping when this happens he lets mommy and daddy sleep more!

Our child never misses a meal either.  Right after he turned 5 months , I really started him eating both breakfast and dinner and now we have added lunch in the mix. Breakfast consists of oatmeal cereal mixed with formula and prunes.  We had to skip the rice cereal because they say rice is binding and boy do we not need any help in the binding of poop.  For dinner, Nolan has tried peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, green beans, and squash for vegetables and pears, peaches, apples, avocado, and bananas for fruit.  For most of the vegetables, I have made my own purees. I must say I am pretty impressed with myself for doing this.  Nolan actually likes my food better, which makes me even happier.  Plus, I know we are saving money with me prepping and freezing in ice cube trays. 

Sleeping is the biggest issue we have had.  I swear, Nolan slept better at 12 weeks than he was doing at 5-6  months.  It was like we had had a total regression and he was waking up ever 1.5 hours to cry or eat.  We tried to let him cry it out but neither J or I were sleeping either, so it was just easier to get up and put a pacifier in his mouth or make a bottle.  He had been coughing and wheezing a lot and I had taken him in to the doctor at 5 months. His lungs were clear and it was all upper respiratory, but had an ear infection. That was number 2 and did a round of amoxicillin.    We went for our 6 month check up and low and behold he had another double ear infection.  Dr. Hartman decided we should try a stronger penicillin, augmentin and we would have to come back for shots when they cleared up.  5 days later (and no sleep for Grand C and me) he was still tugging on his ears, so we went back.  They were still infected so Nolan was put on a baby Z pack.  I think the sleep regression was totally due to his ear infections.  We have now for the most part successfully made it to at least 5am before having a bottle!  J and I wake up and go check on him in the middle of the night because we haven’t heard a peep out of him.  If we have 3 more ear infections we will be getting tubes. 

Nolan still loves bath time.  He has discovered his penis so immediately upon getting in the bath tub his hand is on his penis. I am told it will pretty much stay there  for the rest of his life.  It just humors me and  my poor mother is beside herself.  She is still getting used to the extra appendage that comes with little boys.  He just pulls and tugs on it and smacks it as he splashes.   He also still loves going on out boat and swimming.  I have a little water bug on my hands and I love it. 

We have 2 bottom teeth and I know that he is working on others because the drool is non stop.  Poor little guy, I know it has to be so painful to cut teeth.  Those suckers are sharp too.  I made the mistake of sticking my finger in his mouth to feel his gums and he chomped down on me.  It actually cut my finger and drew blood.

I love watching him learn new things and smile.  Nolan has the most amazing laugh.  It melts my heart and it good for the soul.  I honestly do not think I could love him anymore, but each day I do.  He is pure joy and I cannot imagine life without him.

The 5th Month

I can hardly believe how fast time is going by. Next Tuesday, Little Man will be 6 months old.  He is so big and is developing so fast.  We are eating food for breakfast and dinner now. Breakfast consists of oatmeal cereal and a fruit of some sort mixed in.  We have really stuck to prunes to help keep him loose, but have tried pears and peaches now. For dinner, we have tried sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, and peas.  He loves peas the best so far. He was not a fan of the Gerber sweet potatoes and carrots, but gobbles down the home made ones I have done by steaming and putting them in my food processor.  Squash is not liked so much, but they say you need to introduce something to them 10 times before you rule anything out.  I was hoping that by starting pureed solids we would sleep through the night.  Boy was I wrong.  We have regressed in the sleep department.  By 10 weeks old, Nolan was only getting up once in the night between 3 and 4am.  Now we wake up multiple times.  I am at a loss.  I am considering seeing a sleep nurse to help us.We have tried the cry it out method and that does not work.  Nolan will not cry himself to sleep yet.  He has the lungs and stamina of an energizer bunny.

He is rolling from both his back to stomach and now stomach to back. He wants to be help upright and loves to "stand" on your lap.  He is not so great at sitting up and really doesn't have a desire to.  He giggles and babbles and his smile still melts my heart.  He reaches for everything. He pulls the toys down off his car seat.  If you hold something out to him, he can grab it.  Everything goes into his mouth.  J calls it exploring!  He really wants our cell phones in his mouth.  A blue solo cup is one of his favorite toys too.  He still loves books, touch and feel ones especially.

We have 2 teeth!  The bottom 2 have popped up and boy are those suckers sharp.  I stuck my finger in his mouth to see if he was cutting any more when he bit down on me and actually broke the skin on my finger.  Poor little man is a puddle of drool and I know cutting teeth is super painful.  I am not against giving him Tylenol at bedtime, just wish it lasted longer than 4 hours.  I had 12 teeth by the time I turned one, so I am thinking he is following in his mama's footsteps.

Noles still loves the water.  Bath time is the favorite time of the day. He kicks and splashes water everywhere.  He has also found his penis, which he grabs and tugs the whole bath as well.  I had no idea that little boys find their penis's so early and as J says, he will never let it go now.  I just have to laugh.  Hopefully I can break him of this in public!  He loves the swimming pool and riding on the boat.  I think I have a water baby on my hands. We take him for a walk most evenings and he loves doing that too.

We can not seem to beat a darn upper respiratory thing.  He coughs and has a runny nose but his lungs are clear.  The doctor thinks it is reflux so we started him on Pepsid and who knows if that is working or not.  He has the biggest wet burps still, so who knows.  My child likes to keep things interesting.