Easter 2013

Cousins!

Nolan with Clem and his favorite Jungle Gym/Uncle Cam.

Clementine accessorizing Miles.

Miles took an extra long nap , which gave me time to take pictures of my nephew Dutch. He was very curious about the camera and the strange lady making all that noise behind it.

After his nap, he snacked on some toes.

Snooping for Easter Eggs

Found one!

It just wouldn't be Easter without some crazy outfit.

At the end of the day, we were pooped out! But it was a great Easter for all around.

Snow and Stuff

This winter has been very disappointing in the snow department. So when it started to snow on Friday morning I was super excited to get the boys out there. Unfortunately, none of it stuck so we were disappointed yet again. Thank goodness we live less then an hour away from the mountains so Saturday morning we were off to search for some real snow. We didn't have to go too far as the pass had a gorgeous layer of new snow to run around in. 

Pat and Nolan got right to work throwing snow balls and Miles got to roll around a bit.

This was his position while I took pictures of brother and dad.

It was so entertaining watching Nolan chase after Pat. The snow was really deep (up to our knees) so Nolan had the advantage of not being too heavy to sink all the way down while Pat would have to dig his leg out at each step. It really leveled the playing field.

I had to get at least 1 brothers in the snow pic!

I love that it looks like Nolan is floating. He loved jumping off the snow banks into the powder. My little dare devil!

I asked Pat to take over camera duties and get some family photos, minus dad :(.

This one is great of Nolan but Miles' bunting is covering his face.

This one was very sweet after a day of him throwing snowballs at me.

 

But this one really sums up our family snow trip. 

I love taking pictures of Nolan in the car on the way back from our adventures. He looks so peacefully content after a very active day.

**When it started snowing on Friday morning, Nolan started jumping up and down yelling "Yay, it's Christmas time! Santa's coming!" I had to break the news to him that no we just live in Washington where it snows in March and is 60 degrees on Christmas. I think it's best to break the news to him now.

Joker

Yesterday the entire family drove out to maple valley to look at houses. I had to wake Nolan up from a late nap to get there on time so he was somewhat out of sorts.
The first 20 minutes of the drive were spent with Nolan whining and begging to go to a park to play....over and over and over. As much as I wanted to, we had appointments that we had to keep so I told him no park today.
The whining kept going though and i had reached the end of my rope. I told Nolan that we already discussed why we can't go to the park so I didn't want to hear anymore about it.
He was quiet for a few minutes and then said cheerily "Mama I have a joke to tell you!" Perfect, I thought, he's finally moved on! His joke went a little like this.

Knock knock
Who's there?
Nolan
Nolan who
Nolan wants to go to the park (said with a huge grin)

UGH! I couldn't help but laugh though.

Rub a Dub Dub

There is a somewhat humorous story to go along with all this adorableness. Nolan has had what's known as cradle cap since he was a baby. It's a think overgrowth of skin that starts to get yellow and flaky if left untreated. I would get it cleared up, it would come back, etc. We hadn't had to deal with it for a while now when I noticed him scratching his head a lot more recently. I was thankful to discover that it was cradle cap again and not lice as I was fearing. I read that coconut oil worked really well for cradle cap and since I had some on hand I slathered his head up with it over lunch. 

After sitting with it on his head for 30 minutes he jumped in the tub and asked Miles to join. I can't pass up a photo op and happily obliged. There is also adorable video footage that I would love to share but it's not Internet appropriate...with all the toddler and baby nudity and all. That will just have to wait until his first date or an equally embarrassing opportunity. Back to the bath though. So i get both the boys clean, dressed (Nolan wanted to wear their matching pjs at nap time) and off to bed for their naps. 

When Nolan woke up I noticed his hair still looked super oily (see picture below, taken 4 hours after the bath). I got on google and researched how to get oil out of hair. Who knew that something so good for your hair would be such a PITA to get out?! Luckily what was needed to strip it out of his hair, I also had on hand (baking soda and castile soap put on dry hair and then rinsed with hot water) and it worked great. 

By the way, his cradle cap did clear up again thanks to the coconut oil and now that I know how to remove it I will definitely try it again. Good times!

Vegas Baby!

I went to Vegas to celebrate my 30th birthday along with a couple girlfriends who were also celebrating. It was a blast and a total whirlwind! I was there for a mere 48 hours but the build up to it felt like I was going to be gone for a month. I won't bore you with all the Vegas details on this post, (let's just say there was plenty of the usual Vegas shenanigans) after all this blog is about the kids.

This was my view every day for over 2 months. It took an hour a day of pumping to build up a milk supply large enough to feed Miles for that weekend without going on formula. It was rough, but I was determined. 

I was so proud of myself when I reached my goal. It felt like a major achievement (if you have ever had to make milk, I'm sure you understand) so I commemorated it with this little plaque to myself.  

 That's right, nearly a gallon of milk earned me 48 hours away.

Here is Miles helping me pack the day before I left.

And this is him the day I got home. He would not leave my side. The feeling was mutual and I gave both kiddos lots of extra cuddles.

 Unfortunately, Vegas shenanigans don't allow much time for sleep so I had to catch up whenever I could. Here I am napping with Miles while Nolan and Pat played at the park (thanks Pat for the pic and for entertaining Nolan!)

 And a quick afternoon nap a few days later. I think I've finally caught up now.

Warning, it's going to get cheesy for a minute! Big thanks to my friends Rachelle and Jodi who planned this trip. Thank you for putting up with me and my pump! I love you for not pushing me out even though I had a baby 6 months ago. It meant a lot to me just to be included. Thank you to Pat for forcing me to go when I didn't think I should and to my mom for taking Miles (and all that milk) for those few days. It took an army and quite a bit of planning to get it all together but I am so thankful for the support.

The Not Its

Miles went to his first rock concert this month. You may recall that Nolan also had his first musical experience at 6 months when we took him to a Mudhoney show. This concert was a bit tamer and geared toward kids so there was no guilt treatment from random strangers. 

The Not Its are an awesome band made up of former rockers who now write songs about outer space, playing games and jumping around. Miles was pretty intrigued.

 Nolan on the other hand was surprisingly withdrawn. He stuck by my side pretty much the whole time. (Sorry about the up the nose angle, I was trying to be sneaky and set the camera on timer).

 When we got home (after a little cat nap for everyone) Nolan was back to his usual self busting a move to My Sharona. It makes much more sense that he was just tired during the concert as he is usually way into anything music.

6 Months

Miles is 6 months old now and is such a fun guy. His personality is starting to come out and it luckily he is fitting right in with our family. He is an excited, curious and active baby but is also pretty easy going too. 

Despite his constant scowls in photos he is a very joyful baby who giggles, squeals and wiggles with delight. This happens most consistently whenever Nolan talks, plays or stands near him and especially when Mom comes in his room first thing in the morning. He has this intense way of greeting me in the morning that I love. He puts his hands on either side of my face and pulls me toward him like he's trying to crawl inside me he's so happy to see me. He's my little cuddly monster and I am so enjoying his squishy company.

6 months is the start of many new things, foods, teeth, mobility. He has been rolling over for a while now but has started rolling all around the floor to get where he wants to go. It's funny and terrifying to put him down and come back to find him in a completely different location and position. He got into crawling position this week which means he will be working on that next. It will be weird to have a traditional crawling baby after I got used to Nolan's booty scoot. I kind of expected Miles to do it too.

He has also started sitting up on his own. He's a little top heavy but can hold himself up for a couple minutes and flops forward into perfect rolling position. 

 I did this little photo shoot in our front yard this week in the amazing sun we had (yes, he's back in the bucket, see his 6 week bucket shots here). Unfortunately Miles was feeling a bit less sunny.

I got a lot of these, looking off in the distance shots because Nolan (aka my photography assistant) was playing behind me.

I also got a lot of Miles eating his shirt/hand/bucket shots too.

He just wasn't feeling it so when I got 20+ shots of him looking at me like this...

I knew that we were done. That was until Nolan jumped in the bucket. Now its a party!

It's been so fun watching the boys interact more and more. I sincerely hope that this mutual curiosity/love/playfulness never goes away. 

iPhone Offload

Miles had his first cold this month. Luckily it wasn't the nasty one that is going around that lasts for 3 months. This one was pretty mild, lasting about a week and the only main symptoms were sleepiness and snotty.

Attempt number 1 at solid foods did not go so well. He choked on his first bite and traumatized himself and his mama.

2 weeks later, solid food attempt #2- a small improvement. This time he didn't choke as bad, although he did manage to make sweet potato come out his nose.

 

 

2 weeks after 2nd attempt we tried for a 3rd time and finally had success. No choking!
Now he's eating about 1/2 oz a day with no problem!