More Maui

Along for the spontaneous adventure to Maui, my mom (Yaya), granny (Gigi), and Aunt Carolyn (who has yet to come up with a ridiculous nickname) tagged along to soak up some sun and scenery. They did all the fun sightseeing things Maui has to offer while Pat and I sunbathed on beaches, but we did take them up on their offer to take Nolan so that we could do some of our own sightseeing sans baby.

They sent me pictures of their day with our little man, and i think he might have had more fun with them! First there were mirror tricks, which one is the real Nolan!

I'm told in this last one that he was yelling at the other baby because he didn't want to share his hinge. I guess it's time to learn about sharing, even if it is with your reflection.

Then it was off to the beach, they took him to the conveniently named Baby Beach because it's mellow surf is perfect for small kids. He swam with Aunt Carolyn, something this little guy loves to do! I think it was those swimming lessons at 6 months finally paying off. As soon as his feet touch water he is kicking away as I'm sure Aunt Carolyn learned fairly quickly.

Then it was deep conversations with Yaya.

Rounding out their day at the beach with a some more beach scooting.

Taking a quick nap with Gigi.

Many people have asked me how we were able to vacation with Nolan and not pack his entire nursery. Well Maui has 3 baby rental services so at our condo we had a full size crib set up in the second bedroom, but I think it was all about improvising as seen here. Anything can be high chair, a lap ,the floor, or in this case a very contemporary end table. Don't ask me how my mom can sit like that, I was not blessed with her flexibility genes!

Also impressive is this improvised crib on the couch. I have gotten Nolan to sleep with me maybe 3 times so I was very surprised that he slept a full night in this position. I hope Yaya was able to get some sleep too!

Thanks ladies for watching Nolan and sending along these pics! It looks like he had a great time.

Trying New Things

So if you know me even just a little bit you know that I'm a planner and not just because of my profession. I like to plan out every decision and move I make. I research, analyze and read reviews for everything just so I can make sure I get the most from everything, with no regrets. Pat on the other hand is very spontaneous, he likes freedom and spontaneity...words that I fear!

But Pat made a great point a few weeks ago that has stuck with me. He said that we need to show Nolan what it means to be a happy and confident adult and that means not regretting decisions even if...gasp...it wasn't the very best! I'm working my hardest to apply this to our lives, go with the flow and quit questioning everything. Here is an example of how I'm growing.

When Pat threw out an idea that we should go on a vacation this month I said ok thinking it would take us a few weeks to get the time off, figure out where we would want to go and book it. That would give me plenty of time to find the cheapest tickets, plan an itinerary with just enough relaxation and activities, and pack exactly what we would need.

This is how it really happened. The vacation thought started on Monday, February 1. By the end of that day Pat was off of work for the next 10 days. By Tuesday, February 2 I got the week off, the plane tickets were booked, condo reserved and on Wednesday, February 3 we were flying out of SeaTac to beautiful Maui, Hawaii. I didn't even have time to blink let alone plan, question or research!

But when were greeted by 80 degrees, sun and beach I could care less, this was exactly what i needed!

This was the view from our condo, we stayed in West Maui in an area called Kahana. Just south of the most western point of Maui, this area was guaranteed to see the humpbacks on their migration which just so happened to be going on when we were there.

For the first few days i did very little but sit on the lanai and watch the whales swim by, with a few of them really making themselves known. My camera is far from professional but I was able to catch a little bit of this jumpy guy.

Nolan hanging out in the condo, looking like such a big boy!

Pat was a little more adventurous then I and signed up for surf school, here he is at his dry lesson with his instructor "Armadillo", why do I think this isn't his legal name?

Post lesson, very whipped out!

Nolan wanted to check out this surfing thing, he will have to wait though. They start lessons at 3 years old.

The next day we took a drive around the island on one of the scariest and beautiful highways ever. 25% of the trip was on a one way, unpaved street where one side of the street was a sheer drop off into the ocean and the other side a rock wall. It reminded me a lot of the Oregon coast, minus the sideways frozen rain and blinding wind.

We did tons of other stuff, such as running into a Barracuda while snorkeling, visiting an old hippy surfer community and eating tons of local produce. I was so relaxed though that I didn't even think about taking a family picture until the last day so on the way to the airport we pulled off at a beach facing West Maui and got our Hawaiian Family Portrait.

I have tons of pictures of Nolan at the beach since we spent so much time at all the great beaches that Maui has to offer. Here are a few of my favorites.

I decided I would let him sample the sand. I figured he would decide fairly quickly that sand is not delicious. Unfortunately, at this particular beach he couldn't get enough so we took him home to feed him real dinner.

I of course saved the best for last, this one makes me swoon...I'm going to miss his little scoot!

This was definitely one of our best vacations and I did in fact forget to pack some things and I didn't get to do everything I wanted. But I learned 2 things, one being that Hawaii isn't going anywhere and we will definitely be coming back and the other being that maybe Pat should plan our family vacations...oh god I hope he doesn't read this blog!

Weekend Fun!

Do you remember the post about Nolan's first explosive pooh? Well I think I finally had a gross parenting experience to top that. Don't worry there are no photos!
Pat and I realized that Nolan has finally hit that age where we can actually go out in public and Nolan will (most likely) behave himself or at least have fun. So we made a list of activities that we could do as a family. The typical things were on there of course, the zoo, aquarium, museums, etc but we decided that bowling would be an achievable activity that we could do anytime. So Saturday night we went bowling. This was our very first planned family activity.
Nolan wasn't so sure at first, i think the loud bowling noises and 80's music were a little too much for him. After a few minutes he calmed down so we put him in his stroller with a snack, otherwise known as Nolan's Happy Place. We bowled 2 games, Pat kicked my butt per usual and Nolan was doing even better then great, he was PERFECT!
That is until i look over and see that Nolan is throwing up. I don't mean spitting up a little milk or spitting out his snack, like full on, faucet turned to high throwing up. I had no clue what to do. I had been dreading this day since I found out I was pregnant...I hate vomit! I don't think it's too much to ask for a kid that NEVER vomits!
After he threw up what seemed to be 3 times his body weight we went into action. I striped him down, wiped up as much as i could and tried my best not to throw up myself, it was tough though! We immediately drove home and put him in the bath. I figured the worst was behind us as he seemed to be in good spirits, talking, singing and giggling. We did our bedtime routine and put him down, phew! About an hour later he woke up crying so Pat went into check on him. I heard over the monitor Pat pick him up, gasp and Nolan crying again. Nolan had thrown up all over Pat (Thank you God it wasn't me!) and when I walked in Pat was rushing out to rinse off. So we repeated the whole process over again, strip, bath and bed.
I called Nolan's doctor who advised me that it was probably a virus that would work itself out but that I should not let Nolan sleep alone as there is a very small chance that he could throw up again and choke. Well, if you've been around Nolan lately you know he's not much of cuddle-r and he has never been one to sleep well with others. But I was determined to get him to sleep with me so I could keep an eye on him. He actually did surprising well, but I woke up every 30 minutes to check on him. It was a long night!