day 180: all about nolan

Now it's time to talk about our little nugget. I can't believe he's almost 15 months. 15 months is old! It's almost toddler time and no more baby time. Thankfully, Nolan is so snuggly and cuddly that he still feels like a baby - well, a very large baby!

I haven't done a "this is what Nolan" is doing for the past few months so here's a quick run down on Nolan at fourteen months and 20 days:

•  I've mentioned it a few times but he is a cuddle-monkey! He loves to hug and rest his head on our shoulder. Dave and I LOVE it! 
• He's still not walking. He took his first step to Aunt Nay Nay (my friend Stephanie) at the very beginning of June but hasn't gotten the whole balance thing down yet. The past couple days, he's been taking 4-7 steps but it's more of a run/lean forward keep moving his feet until he face plants. It's quite the sight! 
• Instead of walking, he still has a scoot that he does. He can crawl on all fours but will usually only do that on carpet. I blame it on all the tile we have in our house. 
• His separation anxiety is getting better. He will actually smile at people now instead of just stare them down like he's going to hurt them.
• We have a climber on our hands! He can't walk, but he sure knows how to climb. 
• If it has a button, knob, hole or looks dangerous, Nolan is all about it. And lately, when we try to stop him, he gets very excited and thinks it's hilarious!
• He loves to be held...not just hug us but in general, he likes for us to hold him. His new favorite word is "Uhhh" (up)
• We teach him a sign one day and he uses it the next. He's doing so well with his baby signs and is not initiating them and using them to communicate with us instead of just mimic what we are doing. Off the top of my head he knows, "milk, lights, bath, fish, more (even though he doesn't do this sign often yet), please, thank you, all done, eat...)
• Depending on how tired he is, he tolerates Vaughn being rough pretty well. When he's tired, he cries immediately and wants to be held and coddled. I find it cute.
• He hasn't been weighed in a while, but he has to be HUGE. He's following in his brother's footsteps by starting out as a skinny baby and turning into a big boy.
• He's becoming familiar with his body, too. He can point to his: head, belly and nose. We're working on ears and eyes. 
• In addition to signs, he says quite a few words or at least sounds that represent words: "up, mama, dada, hey dad (my favorite), hi, bye, car, belly, go, uh-oh, cheese and for Vaughn, he yells "ahhhh" really loud when he's trying to get Vaughn's attention - maybe that's how we sound!..Oh! and not sure if animal sounds count as first words but he can moo, quack, ruff, and roar. The lion roar is my favorite. 

Here, he's saying "up" as he was trying to get me to hold him.

 I'm sure I could continue my little book about Nolan but I'll stop there for now. In all, he's a pretty chill little dude. He likes to be with us all the time and just hang out. He enjoys playing with toys (especially cars), but more than anything he likes to hug and sit on us. Ha!

On another note, we're trying really hard to have calm nights in our house. Since Vaughn was very little, he's had so much energy at night. That energy turned into out of control defiance and pure chaos. In efforts to remain calm and help him get calm, we have been focusing on giving him full attention. Let's just say our evenings are getting a little calmer! 

Tonight, we built four puzzles before reading four books. Nolan got to hang out with us for the puzzles but had to build his own puzzle behind us. It worked well and puzzles are always good for the growing brain!

day 179: karate and gym

A few weeks ago, Vaughn started Karate and Nolan started Little Gym! I don't have any videos or pictures of Nolan's Little Gym because I'm focusing on him and the class (will try soon), but here's a video of Vaughn's Karate. He loves it and puts so much effort into every kick and punch...maybe a little too much!

day 178: swimming swimming swimming

We love our pool days with Camden and Crew! We were able to go to the pool last week before they left for vacation. It's been lonely without them this week!

Nolan and Vaughn both love the water. Thankfully, Nolan is pretty chill and either plays with a few toys or just sits on my lap while Vaughn runs, saves Camden, plays fun games, or jumps nonstop into the pool. 

This is pretty much what our summer looks like!

The boys are getting a pretty nice tan despite the crazy amounts of sunblock we put on all of them!

day 177: 117 degrees oh my!

So the weather has been hot, but now it's H-O-T! 

Once it's about 115, I don't really care what the number says, it's hard to breathe and be outside!

So today, we stayed inside and had to get a little creative...or maybe a little stir crazy. You decide!

(we took a LOT of pictures!)

and later today...it was tupperware time! 

Vaughn put his normal clothes on. SUCCESS!

day 176: the truth

Yesterday I posted about how crazy Vaughn was. He also has an extremely sweet side by telling us he loves us probably around 15-20 times a day accompanied by hugs and other sweet gestures. But then there's also his out-of-control angry emotional side. He goes from one to the other so quickly. This blog is to document our boys, and not only thing things we do or all the happy stuff but who they truly are and our journey together.

Looking at this photo makes me feel TERRIBLE that I even took it. It's filled with sadness and just makes me want to cry. My Uncle Fred posted something on Facebook about how I only post smiley pictures of Vaughn and that he's sure he cries, too. Well, here you go! Vaughn not only cries but he screams.

 I feel so bad when Vaughn gets like this but lately, it's been more often. He has so many emotions in that small body of his that he has a hard time handling it sometimes. Once he starts, it takes quite a while for him to calm down.

These pictures were taken when he was just super sad. Some days he's very indecisive and on this particular day he changed his mind three times and I didn't have that much time so his fourth time he changed his mind, it was just a little too late. He cried the entire time I was in the grocery store. I finally got "the look" from many people as my son screamed, kicked and yelled at me while my other son happily rode on my back in the baby carrier.

I am learning more than ever, that I need to remain CALM, firm and LOVING!

I kept looking at him with smiles, would try to distract him which would work for a total of 2.2 minutes and most importantly, never yelled or raised my voice. 

We always get through these episodes and I know that he knows we love him despite these behaviors. I will continue to read and educate myself on how to be the best parent I can be and ultimately rely on God and my faith.

I never thought being a parent was going to be easy street but I also didn't realize how much I'd learn about myself and how much I can handle. On this particular day, I took a ton of deep breaths, prayed a lot and in the end was able to watch a calm sleeping boy resting as he got ready to exert his crazy amounts of energy the next day.

And no matter how hard some days can be, I still love this little boy with all my heart. All my heart!

day 175: crazy

Vaughn, oh, Vaughn. He is FULL of energy. I often feel bad that I call him crazy because it can be taken in a negative way. I don't mean to be negative, he is just silly, goofy, spontaneous, fearless, rambunctious, super loud, spunky, rough and just plain....crazy. 

I love him! 

It's amazing how he went from being able to sign a ton of words to say a ton words to speak in sentences to now fully carrying conversations and saying little phrases and sayings as if he's an adult. Half of the stuff he says isn't out of the ordinary, it just sounds funny coming out of a three year old's mouth. 

Vaughn is such a sponge, I guess all kids are, but he just soaks up all the things he hears us say, all the words in the 4+ books we read a night, the phrases and sayings from some of the movies he's allowed to watch, and just things he comes up on his own. 

He always has us laughing! Here are a few things he has recently said (that I remember). And most often, we're not talking about anything as he randomly shares his thoughts with us.

"Hey, mommy! Did you know that if you stick both of your fingers in both of your holes in your nose, you can't smell anything?"

"Did you just hear me say, poop? No, Vaughn I didn't. That's because I said it in my brain. Look, watch me...as he stared at me with his huge blue eyes and I'm guessing said the word, poop, in brain again.

"Mommy, you are just beautiful. You are amazing and beautiful." 

He ran into our room in the morning while we were still asleep..."Mommy and daddy!!! Did you know that elephants like to eat peanuts?"

"Holy Gosh!" I have no idea where he came up with this saying because neither of us say it but it sounds funny coming from him. 

 ***

I wish I could remember everything he says. There seriously is never a dull moment with him! He's always saying or doing something crazy.   

 

These were taken in May (hence the long sleeves...even though I don't remember any cool days in November; it looks like it was cloudy). I was experimenting with aperture and wanted him to just sit on the bridge as I made adjustments. 

Of course, he couldn't just sit there. 

Have I mentioned how much I love him?