Private Beach

This week has been full of meetings and appointments, which makes for a crabby toddler. When I read on Wednesday morning that it was the lowest tide of the month I grabbed the babe, our boots, the camera and a towel (I learned my lesson on our pumpkin patch hunt to bring a towel and a change of clothes, just in case). It started raining just as I was loading Nolan in the car but I figured even if we only end up driving around, at least we are out of the house.

We drove about 10 minutes from our house and found ourselves on a stretch of beach just as the sun came out. There was absolutely no one around the entire time we were there, quite a different scene then what was happening at Alki just a few minutes North.

I taught Nolan how to look for sea life under rocks, how to gently touch and put the rocks back when done. He took this job very seriously getting the rocks back exactly as he found them.

He loved the crabs that would tickle and pinch his hand.

I was ready for him to throw them or possibly try to eat it but he would gently put them back in their pools and yell "bye crabbies!" as he ran off to find a new rock.

Can you see the crab in this one? I'll give you a hint, if Nolan stretched out his pointer finger he would be touching it. I also got to try out the Macro settings on my camera with these tiny starfish we found under the rocks. I've never seen them this small, they were adorable! We also saw hermit crabs, anemone, and mussels. I couldn't believe how much there was to see.

Moments before this picture Nolan slid on the kelp bed he's standing on which was like a giant slip and slide. Thank goodness for the towel and that there weren't any rocks or sharp barnacles! No tears or anything, he jumped up and I got this picture.

We had a great day, and as we were leaving we watched as an eagle swooped down to grab a snack.

The wheels on the bus

Nolan recently became interested in all modes of transportation. Buses, trucks, trains, plans and helicopters make him yell in excitement. He calls them choo choos or sometimes bee beeps depending on their size. So when my friend Jodi recommended we take a but to the West Seattle Street Festival I knew Nolan would be up for it.

He was so stoked waiting for the bus to come with his friend Dobry.

Once we got on he wanted to sit in his own spot. I had a death grip on his ankle the whole time but he seemed to really enjoy it.

We had a great time at the festival eating all kinds of fair foods and listening to music but the bus was the highlight of Nolan's day.

Photoshoot fail?

Pinterest is my all time favorite distraction! What started out as an inspiration file for work has taken over all aspects of my life including my family photography. I have a whole file of pictures I want to take of Nolan, even though I only have a simple point and shoot. Someday I hope to upgrade to something a little more fancy but for not it's working for me. Now if only my subject would cooperate!

This is one of many photos in my "dreamy photos" file. I figured with the right lighting I could make this happen since all it requires is a white sheet and a silly kid. I have both of those! So on a sunny, slow day I gave it a shot.

This was a good start but I needed to find better lighting. We switched to the backyard.

Ok the lighting is better but the subject trying to crawl out. Plus the cat in that hat tattoo is just too distracting. I decided to scrap this shoot for another day, a day when the tattoo had washed off!

I guess Cortez had other plans, he dove right into that sheet and had a great time.

Look at those eyes, he's working it!

I guess I did get some great shots after all.

Photo courtesy of Pink Sugar Photography.

Museum

We meet up with Yaya and the Revards at the Everett Children's Museum. That place is crazy but so perfect for kids. There are a million different activity centers there from reading nooks, play farms, post office, veterinary office, airport, and on and on. Nolan didn't know where to go first so we ended up running in circles checking out everything.

He thought the glow in the dark toys were pretty fun.

He didn't like the farm area quite as much. Here he is wanting off the tractor

and wanting off the fake sheep. Sorry the red eye got a little nutty, it does that sometimes in low light.

What did he like? The water station of course.

And this elaborate ping pong ball maze where you put a ball in an air shoot and it goes through pipes in the ceiling and down this wall. That's the best I can do to describe it as it was quite the set up. I thought it would be too complex for him but he caught on pretty quick and loved to put the ping pong ball in the pipes and then watch them find their way back to him.
He also loved the train set. He went back to this exhibit more then anything else event hough you couldn't touch them.
There was also a roof top deck with the biggest jungle gym I've ever seen. Nolan hiked all the way to the top of the 2 story slide with the big kids and down he came. Such a brave little dude!

Zoo

A couple weeks back we ventured out to the zoo with Auntie Em, Clementine and a gaggle of our toddler friends. They were having a dinosaur exhibit that I thought Nolan would really enjoy. But first we checked out the regular zoo exhibits starting with the giraffes.

It was their feeding time so they were pretty close. Not close enough for Nolan though as he tried to climb the fence, break the lock and pull the chain link apart. He wanted in there! Next was the monkey exhibit. One of Nolan's fun quirks is that he doesn't like saying the animal names he likes saying what noise they make. So kitties are meow meows, cows are moos, etc. When we got to the monkey exhibit there was a lot of oh ee ah ahs.

At lunchtime we got a show from the peacock, which seemed to confuse Nolan.

Finally it was time for the dinosaur exhibit.

He wasn't a fan. He was curious for about 5 seconds and as soon as they made noise he wanted out of there. I was shocked.

This is the closest we could get for a picture with the dinosaur, see the t-rex eye in the back? Luckily it didn't seem to traumatize him as he had a blast playing with all the dinosaur toys in the gift shop. And yes he calls them roars.

We still had a bit of energy left so we checked out the penguin exhibit, it turned out to be the biggest hit of the day!

He loved it when they would swoop by the window.

The last stop was by the Northwest exhibit where the Grizzly bears were out playing and being adorable. Nolan could care less though, what did he care about you ask?

The trout swimming in the bear's pond! That boy cracks me up!

Water Park

Tuesday was the first day of Summer and it just so happened to be about 80 degrees in Seattle. We kicked on the a/c and brought out our baby pool to celebrate.

Nolan was so excited, we played outside in that pool all day.

He would've played all night too but he had splashed out most of the water.

Cups

This just makes me laugh.

Boy Stuff

Nolan is definitely a boy. When I found out we were having a boy I imagined a gentle cuddly guy with an adventurous streak. The perfect combination of Pat and I. Some days he is more Pat.

Like when he drinks out of puddles,

whenever he finds them.

Or when I find live snails in his mouth.

Or when rough housing leads to fat lips.

He's slowly coming around to cuddling too but most days he is 100% Nolan. Like when he insists on wearing Annabella's hair clip and then pouts the whole time he's wearing it.

Or I find him in his crib shirtless and wearing a fedora. I'll take credit for the temporary tattoo on his chest but the rest is mind boggling. I have concluded that there is either a ghost that lives in his room and sneaks him toys and such or he is hiding things in his crib before nap time. Either is possible.

Insisting that he have his favorite night night blanket while he goes potty.

Or the way he shields his eyes from the sun but looks like he is saluting.

He's such a silly guy, we have really enjoyed watching him interpret his world and invent his own language. I'll have to do a separate post on our favorite Nolan -isms.

Juicy

That is what Nolan calls Popsicles because he helped make them out of juice. After we poured the juice in the forms he asked about them all day. Try explaining the freezing process to a 2 year old! Needless to say he was not happy that I was testing his patience. The next day as soon as he woke up he asked for his juicy and I told him after breakfast. He remembered that too so we had yogurt and Popsicles for breakfast that day.

Did I mention I made these using 100% Cranberry juice? He only slightly noticed the tartness.

He did pretty good for his first Popsicle, although I am glad we were outside for this experience. Cameras don't really pick up sticky but we definitely had a bath that night!