More Nolan

You can tell Nolan had a birthday this month! Most of the posts are about him!

He went to the doctor last Friday for his 12-month check-up. I know he's almost 13 months old, but the insurance company won't let me get back on track. Each appointment gets later and later. His 15-month appointment is July 31...one day before he hits 16 months.

Anyway, he weighs a whopping 16 pounds, 5 oz, and is 27.5 inches long. He is still not on the chart for weight, and is in the 1st percentile for height. Dr. Conner showed me his weight curve...he is gaining and is following his own little curve. She said when he starts crawling (and he's getting awfully close!) he might actually lose some ground weight-wise since he'll be burning off more calories. She still thinks that by age 2, you wouldn't guess he was a preemie.

Here are his one-year photos. He did pretty well, except for his tongue. The happier he gets, the more his tongue comes out (maybe he's part dog??). So I had to be careful to order some where the tongue was in his mouth!







This one won't cooperate. It's either really tiny or I'm cutting his feet off:






And my favorite (because he is as sweet as this picture):

Bill's countdown

For those of you who glance at Bill's blog occasionally, you might be wondering about the countdown on his blog. We are counting down to our cruise, which leaves in mid-January. I love how it has the seconds calculated out. Only about a gazillion seconds to go!

As for any other confusion you may have with his blog, I can't help you. I read his posts, and am not sure what he's talking about half the time.

But I still love you, Sweetie! :-)

How to waste $25

Friday was a big day for The Cat. The Cat is how we refer to the stray that's been living in our garage for the past six months. At one point, TJ was calling her Milo, but then informed me that Milo wasn't her name after all. So, she went back to being The Cat.

Bill and I had seen a male cat after her (she seemed highly insulted by that experience), and decided we didn't want to risk a garage full of kittens, so we made an appointment with C-snip (a local non-profit) to get her fixed. They would do the procedure for $45, which is cheaper than any vet we could find.

About a week ago, our neighbor across the street told us he thought he knew who owned the cat. We asked him to call them, since we had the appointment set up, and didn't want to fix the cat if someone was willing to step forward and be responsible for her. Well, we never heard back from the neighbor, and the cat was around just as much as usual ('usual' means she sleeps in our garage six out of seven nights a week, spends the majority of the day in our garage, or within eyesight of our yard, and asks for food at least twice a day). I had thought that if someone knew she was mooching off of us, they would have made an effort to give her more food and water, and possibly try to keep her in her own yard. That didn't happen, so we went forward with the plans to get her fixed.

Bill brought her in on Friday morning and picked her up after work on Friday. And when he picked her up, he was informed that when they opened her up, they discovered 'she' was ALREADY an 'it'! Yep, she had been fixed some time ago! They reassured Bill that this happens fairly often and they refunded us $20 of the $45. She bounced back fairly quickly, since she didn't actually have surgery, just an incision. The people at C-snip said she was fixed 'years ago', which makes no sense to me. When I started seeing her last summer, she was not full grown. I'm wondering if she was fixed last summer and it just healed really well. They could not tell she had a scar. Bill had also checked and not seen evidence of a surgery.

Anyway, I keep mulling this over. Did we waste $25? Is there someone nearby snickering over the fact that we tried to fix their already 'fixed' cat? Or is $25 worth the peace of mind knowing that there will never be kittens in my garage? I'm going with that attitude.

Sleeping through the night

I think it's safe to say that Nolan is sleeping through the night. Over the past 12 nights, he's slept through 10 of them. Yes, it took a year to get to this point, but it took Sam almost two years, so I am rejoicing! Nolan is up to 50% whole milk in his bottles, with no signs of tummy trouble. I can't even describe how relieved I am. And yes, I know we need to give up the bottles. Once he's off formula, we'll start working on the sippy cup.

Last night, both of his big brothers had me up (I tell you, it's an evil conspiracy). TJ had to go to the bathroom around 3 a.m., and he wanted company. He has started having nightmares and is afraid to be in the bathroom by himself. When he describes his bad dreams to me, they are almost humorous, but in the middle of the night he finds them frightening. He was actually trying to get Daddy up, but it can be pretty hard to rouse Bill. So, I trailed after him, watched him go potty, and then watched him climb back up into his bunk.

A half hour later, I had just gotten back into a deep sleep when Sam started shrieking (and he has a pretty loud and demanding shriek). I went in his room and he told me his favorite yellow blanket had fallen off the far side of the bed. I walked around the bed. No blanket. I started rifling through his sheets, trying to come up with the blanket. No blanket. I finally looked at Sam (he was huddled up by his pillow). He was HOLDING the blanket! Argh! I covered him up and he went back to sleep. Or maybe he wasn't fully awake to begin with?

A couple funnies:

Diet pop makes me hiccup. I don't know why; it just does. I don't drink much pop anymore, but I did have a can with the pizza I made on Friday night. Diet Big Red. It's gross. Anyway, I took a sip, and hiccuped. TJ asked me what was wrong. I had just finished explaining to him that I had the hiccups when Nolan let out a huge belch. TJ looked at him very calmly and said, "We've got us a burper here!"

The older two boys have suddenly latched onto Nolan's two "Signing Time" DVDs. I alternate between thinking they are really cute, to wanting to tear my hair out over hearing the same songs endlessly repeated. Both TJ and Sam have learned a couple dozen signs (Nolan has only minimal interest thus far). Before church this morning, TJ did something and Bill scolded him. TJ came to me and was highly insulted. He said, "I signed 'sorry' to Daddy and he was still mad." I had to remind him that Daddy hadn't watched the videos, which means TJ still needs to SAY the word!

This afternoon, I was playing with Sam and Nolan on the living room floor. Sam alternates between talking with me, and carrying on conversations with himself. He was busy working on his alphabet puzzle, when he murmured, "I think....I stink." He didn't, but I thought it was quite funny.

Easter 2009

Easter weekend was chilly, but sunny. The Coopersville Easter Egg Hunt was at 10 a.m. on Saturday, and the wind was really cold. TJ's age group was further back in the park this year, so Bill took our camera and went with him. He said TJ did well. I had Sam and Nolan and my mom's camera. Nolan was content to sit on the ground, studying one egg (I put a couple in his bag for him). Sam proudly picked up one egg, and then walked around watching everyone else fill their bags. I had to keep encouraging him and helping him get more eggs. Either there were more kids, or fewer eggs, because none of the boys had a full bag. TJ got the closest.
We met up with Suzy and Maggie at the egg hunt.
For Easter dinner, we went to my parent's house for dinner. All of my siblings, their spouses & kids, and my grandparents were there. The only exception was Nate (Brianna's fiancee), had to work. I think there were 19 of us around the table. It was loud, but fun. My sister Amanda made a very tasty dessert...some called it a truffle, others called it a trivet, and she claimed it was a trifle. Whatever you call it, it was heavenly!

Bill thought we should be facing the sun for our annual family Easter photo. I had him take a picture of Nolan & I when we got home--one where we weren't squinting!

Please take note of TJ's shirt. It was his last 'new' shirt from ones I had purchased at the really awesome consignment shop in Macon, Georgia. Normally, TJ pays no attention to what he's wearing, but he was really excited about this shirt. When I was taking their pictures, I told the boys they all looked very nice. TJ responded with, "Yes, but I look the nicest". Ah, my modest boy.

Catching up with some pictures

I've been meaning to post these for awhile.

In March we celebrated Audrey's first birthday. She can speed-crawl and is taking some hesitant steps, but she's also very good about being still and playing with Nolan. I'm hoping she'll motivate him to get crawling soon (he's getting closer!).

A week later, we celebrated Suzy's second birthday. She's quite the little mommy these days, so she received new baby dolls and a doll high chair for her birthday.
And on March 31, the day before his birthday, Nolan got his first hair cut. He did very well and held still for Grandma as long as I kept feeding him Cheerios. His hair turned out very nicely, and he's still a very handsome boy, but he lost some of his baby look. I'm always a little sad about that first hair cut.
Afterward, I gave him a bath, which makes his hair curly, so I took another post-hair cut picture later that night.

Week in Review

This week has been TJ's Spring Break. Unfortunately for him, Bill and I worked our normal work week. It wasn't all bad--I took the boys and my mom to Woodland Mall on Monday. The boys played on the giant breakfast food while I took Nolan to get his pictures taken at JC Penney's. Then Grandma treated us to pretzels (it's a tradition she started and the boys won't let her forget!). She made the mistake of ordering cinnamon sugar pretzels for herself and the boys (I only want plain with mustard, thank you!) and she discovered why she's never ordered those before. All 3 of them were absolutely covered with cinnamon and sugar! We had to go to the bathroom to clean up the mess before we headed for home. I am thinking she'll stick with plain pretzels from now on. Nolan shared my pretzel and absolutely loved it. I did not, however, share my mustard with him.

TJ also had the opportunity to go to the public museum with Grandma Cindy. They saw the special dinosaurs exhibit, which TJ seemed to enjoy. They also rode the carousel. Cindy rode with TJ, and they shared a bench (TJ called it a 'sled'). TJ told us later that Grandma Cindy said it went too fast and made her dizzy. Poor Grandma Cindy!

On Wednesday, TJ shared some words of wisdom with my mom. He informed her that when you have too much ear wax, it backs up into your nose and comes out as boogers. I had not heard that one before!

TJ was talking about ear wax, because Nolan has an ear infection. He's been on his antibiotic for two days, and has returned to sleeping through the night, but he cut a tooth today and was pretty unhappy about it. I hope he sleeps all right tonight!

Sam has his own adventure this week, back on Monday night. I don't always check on the older boys when I've been up with Nolan, but Sam has had a nasty cold this week. So, around 3 a.m., after giving Nolan a drink, I decided to make sure Sam was under the blankets and breathing okay. I walked into his room, peeked in his bunk, and...no Sam. I didn't panic. His two special blankets and his Buddy were still in the bed, so I figured he couldn't be too far away. I walked around the bunk, and sure enough, there was Sam, lying in a ball on the floor. It looked to me like he fell out of bed head-first (there's a soft giraffe pillow on the floor, just for a circumstance like this), but never woke up. He had curled up to try and stay warm. Having only one good arm, I couldn't really lift him, so I stood him on his feet, and shoved him back on the bed. I covered him up, and left the room. He never woke up (although he now claims to remember the entire incident).

Sam has only fallen out of bed a couple times. I could only fit a rail on one side of his bunk...there isn't enough room for two. So, I roll his comforter around some pillows and create a barricade on the far side of the bed. He managed to get around the top of my barricade that night. I'm just glad he wasn't hurt or upset.

And an update on my arm...I had it x-rayed again on Wednesday, and then went to the doctor today to see what the x-rays said. It's not good news. The x-rays did not show really any healing to speak of. In fact, the bone was not displaced originally, but now it is marginally displaced (meaning the bones have shifted slightly along the fracture). She said it isn't serious enough for surgery, but it means at least another month in the sling. Ugh. I am so tired of the sling, and I'm also frustrated that I'm not healing more quickly/efficiently. I need a bone regenerative pill or something!

Nolan's Party!

Nolan's party went well. I find it stressful having people over (I am always afraid they are going to think my house is messy), but it does motivate me to get things done. I finally finished painting the door to the deck. Well, the inside is painted. It's too cold to paint the outside yet.

Anyway, the party was fun. Nolan quickly grew bored opening gifts (he wanted to play with the bows, but not actually help me unwrap), so I let TJ and my nephew Owen unwrap things in order to speed up the process. TJ and Sam both really liked Nolan's new frog humidifier (it is pretty cute) and his new alarm clock/CD player. Sam likes anything that plugs in. He's constantly rearranging small appliances for me.

I took Nolan to Penney's today to get his 1-year photos done. He did well, but of course, saved his best smiles for after the photo shoot. Figures.

Here are some party pics!

I ordered a monkey cake, and told the bakery any sort of monkey would be fine. TJ and Sam were excited to see Curious George on the cake.

Nolan was very excited to eat the cake!

Bill finished the deck right before the party started. I'm so happy to have it done. It looks great!

Nolan's Slide Show

ER

I just watched the last episode of ER. With the exception of one or two episodes last season, I saw every single one. When ER began, I was barely 18, and I was a freshman in college. At that point, I had every intention of becoming a physician assistant.

A lot has changed in 15 years, but I still faithfully watched the show. Thursday nights are going to be so strange to not have ER come on at 10 p.m.

I told Bill he might have to start buying me the ER seasons on DVD, just so I can get my ER fix when I need it!

Happy Birthday, Precious Boy!

This year flew by! I can't believe Nolan is already a year old! We didn't have a party yesterday--just some mini cupcakes in between me working all day, and needing to get Sam and Nolan to Cuddle-Up Time at church. The big party is Saturday--I'll get more pictures up then. I'm also working on a slide show of Nolan's first year, since the one Mandy did for Audrey turned out so cute.

Here he is, the night before his birthday (yes, he got a haircut. I'll blog about that eventually!):
We had ordered flowers for him for the front of church on Sunday morning. They are beautiful, but they stink (I do NOT like lilies. Sorry).

Here's the birthday cupcake. It looks like he was a little afraid of it, but he kept trying to grab the candle. I'd pull it away, and he'd pull away. Then once I gave it to him, he was confused by the frosting on his hands. I broke the cupcake into pieces and he eventually ate every bite, and licked off his hands. Happy Birthday, Sweetie!