Monkeys and Monsters, Oh My!

I love Halloween! Before I had Nolan I really loved the idea of dressing kids up in Halloween type clothes and accessories. Why can't kids wear fairy wings on a Tuesday or be a lion a few days a week? Now that I have a baby of my own, my feelings are even stronger and I'm stockpiling costume-y things for him to wear. First up, sock monkey body suit. He needed a warm outer layer to get him through the winter...Then when I realized that I needed booties to keep his feet warm (since he pulls off all his socks) I started my search for something a little more interesting then the typical blue mukluks or baby ugg boots. I mean, what little boy doesn't need booties in the shape of monster feet?
Hopefully this won't scar him for life!

Backed into a Corner

On days that I work from home, I let Nolan play with his toys on the floor just around the corner from my office area. He usually makes all kind of noises as he talks to his toys and Cortez but this day the talking was much louder. I turned the corner to see what he had gotten into and found him halfway under the TV console. Before I pulled him out, I of course had to take a picture. A very proud mommy moment for me!

He's So Grown Up!

He is standing with support, although he is not pulling himself up to standing if you stand him up, he will stand forever!
He is scooting across the floor. This scooting isn't quite a crawl as much as it is a pulling and pushing himself across the floor to get to where he wants. It's slow going, but he gets there eventually.
He is started to talk and I'm pretty sure he knows what he is saying. He says Dada whenever Pat is around, yells up whenever i walk by and don't pick him up, mimics yeah! when others say it (complete with clapping) and says diddy which I'm pretty sure it Nolan for Kitty since he yells it whenever Cortez is around.
He is also eating finger foods, so far we have had veggies of all kinds, chicken and tofu. Besides the vomit inducing tofu stuck in the back of his throat all has gone well with this new introduction. He definitely prefers purees still but at least he is willing to try new things!
I can't believe how much he has learned in the last month alone. I am cherishing these last few weeks of him not zooming around everywhere as I'm sure the crawling and cruising is right around the corner.
Yes that is Cortez in the basket, these two are practically inseparable and have started to make up their own little games. Here's another shot to show the love!

Pumpkin Patch!

Pat and I have always done Halloween pumpkins, even when we were poor college kids we managed to save up enough to buy one and this year is no exception. We loaded up Nolan and headed down to the Carlito (or something like that) brothers farm in Kent. Evidently everyone else thought the same thing as that place was CROWDED!! Luckily it was a giant farm with tons of perfect pumpkins.I wasn't sure how Nolan would like his first pumpkin patch experience. Usually he likes anything that has a lot of people, so maybe the crowds were a good thing. He loved it of course and was squealing with delight, here is an action shot of that...He was very patient with me as was Pat since my main focus was not on finding the perfect carving pumpkin but the best photo ops! Another cute one...
We did eventually find our pumpkin soul mates and checked out, here is Nolan with our finds, and his little baby stripped pumpkin that he had a death grip on.It was a good day, I can't wait for next year when he is old enough to go on the hay ride or get lost in the corn maze. So much to look forward to, but I'm pretty sure Nolan is going to love Halloween!

Game Day

As usual we watched the Seahawks game on Sunday. Nolan put on his jersey and cheered for the home team! I love this picture because he simply cannot look away from the game!Later in the game, when the hawks weren't doing so well Nolan wasn't quite as engaged.Saying he's not a cuddly baby is an understatement. When he is tired he just wants to be in his crib so this was a complete surprise and now my favorite picture!

Did the Puyallup!

Nolan made his first trip to the fair last week. We went on a beautiful Tuesday afternoon when there was no one there...seriously! We even got free street parking and if you have ever had the joy of going to this fair you know that most days you are lucky to find parking in the city of Puyallup it's so crowded! There weren't any lines at all which was such a tease as we couldn't really go on any rides with Nolan, but we still had a great time.
We saw all the animals.We checked out the giant produce, this pumpkin was the biggest in Puyallup Fair history at 1136 pounds, i think they should test these things for steroids...that is just cheating!
Pat did go on one ride, of course he had to choose the most ridiculously scary one!He was a little dazed and confused after this one! I on the other hand ate great fair food.
I love the fair and will definitely make this a yearly outing!

Photo Shoot

I finally gave in and took Nolan to a professional photographer to document this momentous time in his life. I felt the time was right, he is smiley, patient, non mobile and adorable. Luckily cousin Clementine joined us to show us the ropes since she has done this before. She ended up all over the place and a little uncooperative but who can blame her when there were all those super fun props to play with. I think we got some keepers though.
Which is your favorite?

Happy Birthday Yaya!

Last Sunday was YaYa's birthday and when i asked her what she wanted to do, she said go to the aquarium. So we went to the aquarium on the busiest, rainiest day in Seattle! By the time we got to the front door we were soaked through and freezing but that didn't stop us from having fun.
Nolan really enjoys animals, his favorites are anything that he can grab and pull...mostly Cortez but I thought he might enjoy checking out some fish too. He mostly watched the other kids and tried to grab the animals through the glass.
He was a trooper though and patiently watched the fish go by, I think he knew it was YaYa's b-day so he was on his best behavior.

Pool Party

When our real estate agent showed us our house she pointed out the room that would make the perfect nursery and the two huge parks on either side of our block, "perfect for kids" she said. At that time we thought we would live in the house 3-4 years, let it appreciate at the then 12%/year and then use that as a down payment on a bigger house in a better school district, THEN have kids. So we laughed it off and admired the walk in closet possibilities.
Then along came Nolan, and now I can understand the appeal of living close to parks with lots of activities. One of the parks has one of the 28 wading pools in Seattle so on those hot days we were there instead of sweating it out in our oven...i mean house. Luckily we brought friends to keep us company. Miss Annabella and her mom Heather were game to explore the joys of the wading pool.Unfortunately, this pool is now closed so we will have to wait until next summer to splash around some more. Too bad, Nolan loved his time there!
By the way, Nolan is in the room that made a perfect nursery, sneaky real estate agent!

Mariners Fun

We have been super busy lately trying to get all of our summer projects out of the way before fall comes. Since our last post we went to a Mariners game with some of the Clingmans. Nolan did a great job and witnessed his very first Griffey home run. He mostly watched all the people and danced to the music but i think he had fun!His cousin Keller was a great distraction and playmate, they will get along just fine!
We won that game and had no baby drama...it was a fun night!