Nolan 2 Months

 Time is flying right by and we now have a 2 month old baby boy.  Sigh.  This little huge guy has been such a joy and blessing to our family.  I never imagined that I could have 2 perfect babies, but I do!  I don't know how else to say it, so here goes...he is easier than Mackenzie was, and she was a piece of cake.  Nolan has slept through the night since the day he was born.  I woke him up the first night in the hospital and the 2 nights after we got home with him, but it was more of a challenge to get him awake enough to eat, so we just decided to let him sleep away.  He had his 2 month check up yesterday, and he checked out perfect.
His stats are:
weight-13 lbs. 10 oz.-90th percentile
height-24 1/2 inches-90th percentile
head circumference-40 cm.
Nolan likes:
-to be swaddled although he always manages to get at least one arm out and that causes him to wake up.
-to be on his stomach to sleep which scares the death out of me, but he's just more comfortable that way.
-his big sister.  We've yet to catch it on camera, but he started smiling at Mack while we were at the beach.
-his swing.  He will sleep in it, play in it, or just hang out while we get things done.
-lights.  His floor gym has lights on it and stares at them the whole time they're on.
-to eat!  He currently eats every 2 hours and it's anywhere from 4-6 ounces at a time.  Even though he eats so much during the day, his last meal is at 11 p.m. and he doesn't wake up until 7:30/8 a.m.
-bath time.  This goes to show how different siblings are.  Mack was almost a year old before she started liking water, however, Nolan loves it.  It calms him down.

Nolan does not like:
-to be on his back unless he has something like Mack or lights to distract him.
-loud noises.
-being hot.  Poor guy is just like his daddy and sweats bad.

Nolan,  your such a cool little guy.  You go with the flow and is are calm and happy.  I was diagnosed with Mastitis and staph infections last week and thankfully, you didn't get anything from either one.  Because of this and how much you eat, we've been supplementing you twice a day with formula and you do great with going back and forth.  We are so happy to be a family of four and love what each day holds with you.

August 4, 2010

22-23 Months

As you can imagine, we've been very busy.  I never missed a month documenting your life until now.  Oops!  But have no fear, I will catch up now.  We're one month shy of celebrating your SECOND birthday (so crazy!) and I'm gearing up to finish my final semester of college.  You're truly my little sidekick.  Now that you can communicate most often in full sentences, we carry on many, many conversations throughout the day.  We often talk about shapes, colors, numbers, and letters.  But we sometimes talk about more interesting things like poopies, toots, and burping.  I have a feeling you're going to have a Georgia twang.  The way you say help is hysterical.  You really draw out the entire word and is just so southern the way you say it.  When you really likes something you will say, "I yike it!" followed by a super cute giggle.  You've been interested in the potty for well over 2 months now and we recently bought you a Dora potty seat and undies.  We've yet to do the undies, but you do sit on the potty every night before bath time and twice now you've  pooped in it.  I don't think you're anywhere near being potty trained, but I refuse to push it with you and I know with time it will happen.  You LOVE to count!  You will not for the life of you  say, "one" you always starts off counting with, "ready, two, three, four, fibe, sixth, sebem, eight, neyen, ten, elebem, twelf" and you abruptly stops there.  You have a book that counts animals to fifteen and you know all of numbers and even when I write numbers down and they're out of order, you know which ones are which.  Your most favorite number is "fibe" and when you count, you start off really soft and gradually gets louder and louder until you're yelling them.  One funny is, when yI write an eight like it's 2 zero's on top of each other, you recognize that as, "two o's" but if I write it like a figure eight you know it's an eight.  You're really big into everything being "mine!" right now and it's driving us crazy.  We're trying to explain to you that not everything is yours, but Mommy knows it comes with the age.   We were recently at a friend's neighborhood pool where another little boy was there too.  You had your toy shovel out and the little guy asked to play with it.  You very rudely told him, "NO!  MY SHOBEL!!"  I was so embarrassed, but had to turn away and laugh at the thought of you being  so mad and said, "shobel".  Luckily, Daddy disciplined you quickly and you were ready to share your "shobel" after that.  We've also learned in the past few weeks that your are a very logical person.  You get upset when people don't understand you and you stand your ground i.e. very stubborn until someone backs down.  (usually you, Mack.)  Some kids can be distracted or simply removed from a situation, but you have to be explained to about those kinds of things otherwise you just get more upset.  Your memory is out of control.  You know Publix as the cookie store and every time we go, we have to get a cookie and look at the pinata's that are hanging down.  If we fail to go straight to them, you will gently remind us over and over and over again exactly what pinata's are hanging and we have to go to them.  You are absolutely without a doubt terrified of the vacuum which is funny and sad at the same time.  When I get it out, you often run to your room and sit on your bed until I'm done.  You have your own little vacuum that I encourage you to use, and you will, just not when I'm using mine.You really reading books and pretend to read using your fingers to guide you along.  You also enjoy it when we read to you and declare it storytime when we get books out.  You still enjoy Lady A's "I Need You Now" but you are loving Carrie Underwood's "Undo It" and we can usually catch you singing, "Uh uh uh uh uh-undo it".   It must be a girl thing, but you love to talk on the real phone to people and will actually carry on a conversation with whoever it might be.  We can often find you talking on your play phone with your shoulder holding the phone up while you multitask....I wonder where you get that from?  :)  You're really big into make believe and pretend play right now.  You will often goof off with us pretending you're either Daddy and Mommy and we are you.  Oh, and for the love of hide and go seek!  You don't actually hide anywhere, however, you cover your eyes with your little fists, hat, or blankie and will say, "Where Kenzie go?"  It's the absolute cutest thing ever.  When we call for you over and over you start bellly giggling and it makes us laugh.  I also love how you refer to yourself as "Kenzie".  You're such a HUGE help with Nolan.  You want to be right there with me whenever I'm tending to him and must kiss him and hug him all day long.  We've caught you kissing him without being prompted to and it melts my heart every time.  You crack up whenever he has a poopie (which is often) and announces every time he toots, or burps.  I can only pray and rest assure that the two of you will be the best of friends just like my little brother and I are.  I know there are years of fights, not getting along, and battles to be conquered, but as long as you two know who are and continue to love on each other, I have no doubt that you guys will be there for one another.  You're the absolute love of our lives and it's hard to not want to bottle you up and keep you like this forever, but I know it's all part of the process. 

August 4, 2010

Va-cation!

We had the opportunity for Scott to work on his parent's condo in Panama City a few weekends ago and we jumped on the opportunity to make a vacation out of it.  We desperately NEEDED this little getaway.  Since the day we found out about Nolan, we haven't had one single weekend to do what we want to do.  We've been here, there, over there, to and from, and Scott has been a working fool these days.  We left our house on a Thursday night around Mackenzie's bedtime and headed south.  We only stopped ONCE and that was because Scott and I were starving and even though Nolan was sound asleep, I knew it would be a smart idea to feed him then as opposed to somewhere in the middle of lower Alabama and Florida on the side of the dark, dark road in the middle of the night.  Whoever invented the portable DVD player, I'm forever grateful!  Scott won it years ago at a Lowe's contractor luncheon and he wanted to give it to Goodwill said years ago, but we inevitably held onto it and it has been the best.  Mackenzie quietly watched Dora and Diego until she told me that she was ready for night, night and that was the last we heard of her.  We got to the condo shortly after 1 a.m. and promptly crashed. The next morning was spent working on the condo for Scott while I wrangled Mack.  She was so excited about the "ocean".  She wouldn't call it the beach, it had to be the ocean.  My girl is one smart cookie.  We enjoyed 4 blissful days of romping around in the sand and somehow finding a way for Mack not to get sand on her hands...she hated it!  Every morning, Scott would go down to the beach and set up our umbrella and chairs.  Even without those two things, we still looked like the Clampett's walking down every day.  I was in charge on Nolan in his carrier, the diaper bag, 1 cooler, and sand toys, while Scott had Mack often carrying her, a blanket, cooler #2, and towels.  As funny as we looked, 2 songs kept popping in my head: Don't Blink by Kenny Chesney, It Won't be Like This for Long by Darrius Rucker.  We managed to have BOTH of our children nap at the same time everyday on the beach where the temperatures were pleasant the whole time and a nice breeze to keep us cool.  Mackenzie was very apprehensive of the ocean at first, but I think that had a lot to do with me.  I was terrified that we were going to somehow lose our grip on her and she would disappear.  Luckily, the water was extremely calm after the first day and the waves were minimal so we were all able to enjoy the water...even Nolan! 

 My baby girl checking out the sand.

 Never in a million years did I think Mack would nap on the beach! 

 How Nolan spent most of his time in PCB.

 Mack happy as a fish in her element.

 Jumpy, jumpy and kick kicking with Daddy.

 That's Mack UNDER the water.  She will jump in all day long.

 Little Man getting his toes wet!

 July 15-19, 2010

The 4th of July

We had such a busy day planned.  My aunt and uncle have a 2nd home in Highlands, NC and my cousin and his family recently moved to the area as well. They invited us up for the day to celebrate the 4th, to meet Nolan, and for all the kids to run a play together.  All I have to say, is we have the best kids for traveling.  We left our house in Dallas at 9 a.m. and made it to NC by noon.  Not a peep was said between you two the entire way, although you were so excited when you finally got to get out of the truck.  We had a nice time visiting with everyone and eating!

 You and Uncle Matt...the best of friends.

 Playing with Sophia and David in the "pool".

 My mom, brother and our family were also invited to Uncle Matt's girlfriends' house for a party as well and this party was in Cumming.  So here we go again...in the car for a few more hours.  Luckily, you didn't nap at my aunt's so you got a nice nap in and was roaring to go when we got to Hannah's.  You absolutely love Hannah and when she's not around, you're constantly asking for her.  Hannah's dad went a little overboard with fireworks and had his whole backyard taken over with spiny things and lots and lots of explosives.  As the sun went down and the dancing stopped, the lights dimmed and the music started.  He had the whole show synced to the "Transformers" soundtrack and it was amazing.  You were literally in awe of it all and when it ended you loudly announced, "Uh oh!"  Nolan was with Daddy on the side of the house because of the noise and the fact that we were being showered on by cardboard from the fireworks.  And we got a special treat that night.  A friend of Hannah's mom opens her home up every summer to a group of boys from Kenya.  They were about 8-10 years old and they were absolutely precious.  They were so cute running around with all the kids, laughing, and enjoying the "American Life".  I found out that they all go back to Kenya after being here for so long.  It broke my heart.  I felt selfish, spoiled, thankful, scared, humbled, and happy all at the same time.  At the end of the night, the four boys walked over to The Ryan's (Hannah's parents) and sang the most beautiful song about thank you for your hospitality, thank you for your kindness and so on.  I had a lump the size of Texas in my throat.  Makes you think, how lucky are we?

The set up at The Ryan's.  There were fireworks attached to those spiny wooden pieces...crazy.

You, my dear, got a hold of a rice krispy treat that had color chips in them.

And you asked to hold your baby brudder, Rolan right there.

Claiming the perfect fireworks watching spot. 

THERE!

Sweet, sweet boys.

July 4, 2010

The 3rd of July

I guess because the 4th was on a Sunday this year, many towns were doing their fireworks on the 3rd which of course was a Saturday night.  All week we were anticipating going to Marietta Square to watch the fireworks, but as the weekend got closer, I started to get nervous.  I myself, don't do well with big crowds, and with a newborn and a toddler that thinks she's 16, I was beginning to doubt how much fun we would have by going to the square.   Well, thankfully, The Pendley's invited us to the funeral home and we had such a fun time.  We arrived early enough to enjoy watching all the kids run around, eat, and catch up with great friends, as well as meeting some new ones.  The weather was the coolest it's ever been in GA for the 4th which made the night even better.  You had so much fun running around with Sailer and Maddie, and sadly I got no pictures to prove it.  Every time Maddie walked away, you would shout for her and even the week after was still asking for her.  We ate the typically picnic food-fried chicken and macaroni salad and ended the night with a great firework show.  Nolan was a charm and hung out the whole night rarely making a peep except to eat and slept through the entire firework show.  We can't wait for next year!

Daddy and his boy.

And his little girl...how lucky are we?!

Oh the faces!  I love your personality.

Hee, hee! 

Sailer and you socializing.

And not to fooled, you're not covering your ears, you're actually saying, "OH WOW!"

July 3, 2010

Father's Day 2010

If you were to tell Scott that he would have 2 children to celebrate Father's Day with him this year, he would have laughed at you.  It's amazing how your life can change forever in a matter of seconds.  With all the excitement of Nolan's arrival, Scott has never, ever acted any other way than happy and excited.  No, he doesn't show emotions very much, however, the thought of becoming a dad in less than a month to another child could send someone over the edge...not him.  He has been my rock for the past 10 years, and even more if you count all the years we were friends.  He has stood beside me when I thought I had nobody to run to, he's been the one to carry me when I was down, yet encourage me to get up and keep going.  He was my biggest fan when I delivered you (Mack) and you (Nolan) and he has never told me that I couldn't do something...he's always told me that as long as I put my mind to it, I can do it.  He has been an amazing Daddy to you (Mackenzie) and now to you (Nolan) as well.  I know he will continue to teach, guide, and be there for both of you for the rest of his life.  You (Mackenzie) are so in love with him.  When you hear his truck coming down the road, you immediately stop whatever you are doing, do this crazy dance and then run to the window and waits for him.  And then when he walks through the door, you shout as loud as you can, "Daa-dddyyy's home!"  How can you not smile at that?  You love for Daddy to "hold you" which means hold me, and you crack up at all of his silliness.  Daddy sings to you (Nolan) when you're sad and bounces you around when your tummy hurts.  He talks to you when your crying for more food and knows how to do the tightest, strongest, best burrito wrap even your can't escape from.  *Sidenote* Even the nurses in the hospital were impressed by his mad baby swaddling skills!  The key-it takes two receiving blankets.  So, this Father's Day was a quiet one.  We spent the Saturday before at Nanny and Papa's grilling out and then on Sunday, we went to lunch at our favorite Irish restaurant, Patty's and then headed to Home Depot to buy plants.  Scott asked multiple times for a Topsy Turvy, and he got one from M and N.  When we got home, Scott made a neat arbor to hang his plants and we played outside while you (Nolan) took a nap.

Watching Daddy build his arbor.  Your shirt says, "Daddy's Little Girl."  So true!

Sweaty, hot and still happy...that's Mack for ya!

Monkey Mack climbing...as usual.

That hair is one hot mess!

I see you!  We love our blue/brown/green eyed girl!

And this was later on that night.  You had no idea that I was watching you.  You were singing to "Baby Rolan".

And giving him kisses.  You would slobber and kiss him all day long if you needed to.

June 21, 2010

Mackenzie the Mermaid

You absolutely love to swim!  You were a bit too little last year to really enjoy it, however this year...it's a different story.  When we were at Gwama's for a little over a week, every single afternoon Daddy would take you down to the pool where you two would splish, splash, and jump all around.  You even walked all the way over to the diving board, got up on it, and walked to the edge...by yourself.  I was standing behind you and Daddy was in the water and you jumped to him!  Crazy girl, I tell ya.  You have no fear whatsoever of the water (which makes me a nervous wreck) and you know to hold your breath and sometimes close your eyes when you go under.  You love to stand on the steps and launch yourself off.  A few times, you slipped off of the steps, but you would quickly come to the surface and attempt to find your way back.  Of course, someone was always right there with you to make sure you was safe.  And as previously mentioned, we bought you a life jacket, but you hate it.  We've tried rings, swimmies, bathing suits with foam in them...nope you want to swim freestyle.  And as of last Sunday, you will now jump to you without holding onto our hands into the water.  You kick off with your feet and every once in awhile will use your arms, but you poor girl has such short arms, that it wears her out.

First one in Gwama and Pawpa's pool!  This was before you decided that the float was no fun.

And when you liked wearing your life jacket...

Splashing and swimming with Daddy in the rain...

but then the thunder came, so we sat under the cabana until the storm passed.  You didn't like the thunder.

And this is what Nolan and Mommy did while everyone swam.