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This is going to be a little all over the place so bear with me.

Nolan learning how to use chopsticks. He  was great at it right away!

Dr Nolan trying to find Cortez' heartbeat. None of us could find it, leading us to believe that our cat is part of the living dead or he's just so fat that we can't pick up his heartbeat through all those layers.

I had to convince Nolan that the cone was edible. I have seriously dropped the ball on that valuable lesson. Oops!

Nolan in front of his Birthday Tree. He was so sad when I took the decorations off, I decided to leave the tree up and decorate it as his birthday surprise. 

Nolan and his party gear, that he picked out!

Breaking in my party shoes. It didn't work, they still were horribly uncomfortable.

My boys at the Menashe House on Xmas Eve

My favorite part of their matching pjs...coordinating footies. Nolan had Santas and Miles had reindeer.

This is  2 days worth of laundry in our house.

The boys are finally able to play together. Nolan will ask if Miles can play and then after about 5 minutes of sharing his toys he tells me he's done and asks me to take him back. 

Our new elaborate train set up.

This is just adorable. Look at those plump cheeks!

Miles has discovered his love of Sophie Giraffe. She is with him always!

This one just makes me laugh. Miles, conversing with his bouncy toys.

Rolling Around

Miles is officially a rolling around baby! He has been able to roll from stomach to back for quite some time now, I think he learned that one right away so he could avoid the dreaded tummy time. But he was stuck in partial roll from back to front for weeks. He just couldn't figure out how to get over his arms. I would set him on the ground and find him in twisted sideways formations. 

So, yesterday when I set him down for a second I knew he was getting close. 

He was 98% over, his arms were the last hurdle.

I left him to play with his toys and when I got back a minute later, this is how I found him. He had finally done it! Just to make sure it wasn't a fluke I put him back on his back and sure enough he popped right back over. So proud of my little man...and a little horrified as this is the first step in him getting mobile and I'm just not ready for a baby on the move.

Twins?

Miles

Nolan

Yep, same pjs and everything.

My 4 Year Old

Nolan turned 4 last weekend and therefore it was finally time to throw Nolan's Green Train party. He's been talking about this day since his birthday last year and as time passed his plans became more and more elaborate. At one point I think Santa and the Easter Bunny were invited to come but 1 thing stayed consistent: he wanted to have a big round cake with a green train on top. Our friend Jodi made his dream cake and boy did she deliver! She has generously made all his birthday cakes including his Reggae monkey cupcake tower and the Cat in the Hat inspired tower...she's so awesome! 

He was so excited I couldn't get him away from it to play with his friends. He kept saying "that's a 4, that's how much I am!" and playing with the little train pieces.

We had his party at the Jungle Gym down the street and it was so much fun! They take care of everything there so we were able to sit back and watch the kids go crazy.

Once we got Nolan away from the cake he really got into, above is him leading the pack as they make their way around the obstacle course.

This is the only shot I got of him holding still while the party was going on, he was a kid on the go!

Nolan not hiding all that well during hide and seek.

His turn to seek.

Clementine monkeying around.

Sam literally scaling the walls.

Quick Pirate's Booty break with his friend Arnica and then back for some zip line.

Finally it was time to eat the cake. Nolan loved it and still says it was his favorite part of his party.

Our family photo with our brand new 4 year old!

We had such a great time getting to see Nolan interact with his friends and family. He took a few days off before asking about his party for next year. 

And since he's not hitting major milestones anymore here are a few of my favorite Nolanism's from the last few weeks:

• I was making dinner one night and Nolan got upset and declared "That's what daddy's do, Mama go sit down!" I don't know if I should interpret this as a major achievement in gender role equalization or a slam to my cooking? Either way, I'll take it.
• Cortez was taking an especially hard nap one day and wouldn't budge despite Nolan's attempts, so Nolan decided "His batteries are dead, let's send him to Yaya's house so she can fix him with her screwdriver."
• "When I get bigger I'm going to go skateboarding with Daddy and Martin Luther King."

Christmas Part IV (The Final Chapter)

The weekend after Christmas we went down to my aunt's house to have family christmas. We dressed the kids in their Christmas best. ***Note how mellow they all appear.

We ate, drank and the kids got to open their presents.

Clementine and her Gizmos

Nolan and his Playdough crane.

Dutch and his Penguin hat.

Miles and his new shoes.

Yaya finally got to see the calendar the kids made for her.

Everyone had a great time and were quite riled up by the end of the night. ***Compare to above picture.

Christmas Eve & Morning (AKA Christmas Part III)

I believe this is where I left off almost a month ago...

The Boys on Christmas Eve

I searched far and wide to find the boys matching pjs. I figured there will only be a handful of years that they will tolerate this so I better get it out of my system now. I was of course super excited when the day finally came to put them in their Santa and reindeer pjs. We kept with tradition and took the kids out to look at Christmas lights. We drove around until way past bedtime to ensure that Nolan would fall asleep when we got home.

 The next morning (at 10 am to be exact because Nolan AND Miles slept in that morning...woohoo!) Nolan woke up to a pile of presents from Santa.

Miles got in on the action as well.

Miles with all the loot.

If you talked to Nolan at all around Christmas time you know that all he wanted was a "special green car" from Santa. He would give no further details on what made this car special so Santa brought him 2 special green cars. One that raced around a track and one new Buick hot wheel (second from the right). He refers to both of them as his special green car so I guess Santa got the correct order.