Our New Baby

As many of you know, I have been complaining about needing to get a bigger car since we installed Nolan's car seat in my Honda Civic (A.K.A. Pretty). Well after our last road trip Pat finally agreed with me and we started our car search. Our criteria was a car that we could grow into knowing/hoping that there will be another baby Clingman in a few years. High safety ratings, low miles, capable of towing a small boat (for future plans), and under $15,000...big shoes to fill. The problem is I'm on Team Honda and Pat is on Team Toyota. So we narrowed it down to a Honda Pilot, Toyota Highlander or a Toyota Forerunner and decided whichever car we could get the best deal on would be ours. Well we went to all the dealerships in the Seattle/Northwest region and just couldn't find our perfect match. This is when Pat turned to EBay. I'm not a huge fan of buying things from the Internet as I like to touch, inspect and analyze every detail before I purchase but there were some great deals on there! After a few weeks of bidding and losing we finally won! Unfortunately it was in Cleveland, Ohio. So Pat flew out early Friday morning and returned early Tuesday morning with this...It's a 2006 Honda Pilot EX, it has 40,000 (or at least it did when we first bought it, after the drive from Cleveland it's closer to 43,000), has seating for 8, keyless entry and my favorite new thing, radio controls on the steering wheel! We are really happy with it, I started driving it around town today and it is a TANK, it will definitely take some time for me to get used to this beefy vehicle. Here is our full Honda lineup, Pretty in the background and new car (name TBD) in the forefront. Our family is complete...for now!

Sustainable Baby

When I was pregnant I had this illusion of being an organic, cloth diapering, breastfeeding, sustainable mama. Well, reality hit and although the breastfeeding thing worked out the cloth diapering never kicked in and the few diapers I bought are now used for burp cloths. I try not to beat myself up about this one, I mean I work and take care of Nolan full time, try to keep a clean house, keep my social life somewhat in tact and every so often sleep...I have a lot on my plate! I have pretty much given up on this cloth diapering fantasy...maybe when we get closer to potty training?
But when it came time for Nolan to eat solid foods I knew I really wanted to make his food organically, locally and in season. We have one of the only farmers markets in the entire city of Seattle that goes year round practically in our backyard so there are no excuses. Plus I'm surrounded by fruit trees which means not only local, organic and in season plums, pears and apples but its also FREE!
As you can see below, Nolan's first food was from a can, i did buy a few jars of organic baby food just in case my homemade experiment didn't work out and for emergencies. So today to escape the heat we wandered down to the Sunday market to check out this week's selection.
You've got to love summer, there were piles of beautiful produce everywhere. I knew I wanted peas so I immediately picked up a huge bag of shelled peas. I thought I was so smart buying them already shelled until i saw at a stand as I was leaving that shelled peas were a 1/3 of the price...oh well good to know for next time! Then I saw piles of carrots and grabbed a big bunch of those. Then there was this beautiful summer squash that were so bright I couldn't pass them up. Here is Nolan admiring our bounty. I decided to make the peas first since that seemed to be the simplest. They came out beautifully, they were this great neon green color and the perfect consistency. I even tried a little bit and it was delicious, like some kind of pea sauce you would find smeared artfully on the side of some fancy entree. I'm far from a chef so this achievement was pretty big for me. By this time, Nolan was done waiting and decided dinner time was now. I was a little nervous he wouldn't like it or the consistency since he liked the sweet potatoes so much.Nope, loved them! I couldn't shovel it in fast enough! I don't think eating will be a problem for this guy. Luckily for me, homemade baby food is soooooo easy! I think I'll be able to stick to this one...let's just hope he likes root vegetables or this will be a long winter.

Sweet Potaters

We finally were able to give Nolan his very first taste of real food. He has been waiting for weeks, observing us eat our dinner and learning exactly what to do. I was prepared for him to be a pro at this but I was still in shock!

He knew just how to hold his spoon...

Look at him eyeballing that food. He's saying "MMMMM!"

Things got a little messy but he did a great job. he probably would have eaten the entire jar if I was patient enough to feed it to him. Instead he got just a few bites and some more at dinner time. But we can check Sweet Potatoes on list of Nolan's favorite things.

Afterward we cleaned him off and I snapped this adorable picture of him...doesn't he just look content?

Cabin in the Woods

Ever since Nolan was born Pat has been telling him this story about getting in the car and driving up to the mountains and staying in a cabin by a river...well he found it. I'm not much for seclusion or mountains...too Friday the 13th for me, but I stepped out of my comfort zone since I know this was important to Pat. So we packed up, drove to a little cabin in the woods by Stevens Pass and sure enough it was right on a river and no neighbors in sight!

Of course like the making of any good horror film, there was no cell phone reception up there, which turned out to be great because we were finally pulled away from our iPhone and into relaxation mode. The first night we took a family nap together, Pat grilled up some dinner and we soaked in the hot tub overlooking the river.

Daddy Time

Mommy TimeThe next day I took some 6 month portraits of Nolan, here were just a few stand outs.

Later that day we decided to go for a hike through Deception Falls...so beautiful!

Since we were almost there anyway, we drove over the pass and into Leavenworth for dinner. I hadn't ever been there so I was excited to see someplace new. I thought it was super charming, Nolan liked all the polka music!

We left on the third day and I was very grateful to make it out alive. Just kidding, I really enjoyed myself up there and might even say I am Mountain tolerant...the beach will always be my #1. Pat had a great time in his dream vacation spot and Nolan was silently in awe the entire time. All in all it was a great vacation!
Oh and did I mention it was Big Foot Country?
Good times!

Mudhoney for Babies

2 weekends ago we took Nolan to his very first concert, Mudhoney. They were playing practically in our backyard at the West Seattle Street Fair and Pat desperately wanted to take Nolan to see them. After much research about baby's eardrums at rock concerts we set off. There were a ton of people there and it definitely got rowdy up front so we kept our distance almost an entire block away from the stage. That didn't stop one rather drunk older gentleman from lecturing our friend Jake who brought down Nolan's bff Annabella about how we were irresponsible parents for bringing our children to a rock concert (not the long haired gentleman with the blue carrier in the background of the picture below, he was holding a baby no older then 2 months old and yet no lecture for him!) Oh well, regardless Nolan seemed to really enjoy it as he started his own little mosh pit with Annabella.

He must have wore himself out as he fell asleep right in the middle of the show. Here he is briefly waking up for a family photo.

Hats On Nolan

I love finding themes in the thousands of pictures i have built up for Nolan. He has quite the wardrobe complete with accessories, unfortunately his large noggin doesn't fit many of them but that doesn't stop us from trying.

His very first hat

Unhappy hat

Sharing Hat

Formal Hat

Touring Hat

All American Hat

Cheesy Hat

Catching Up

My goodness it's been too long since my last post. We have just been so busy I haven't even had time to blog about all the happenings! Let's start we we left off. Nolan, Clementine, Auntie Em and myself went to the Woodland Park Zoo for the very first time. Both babies loved it and even took simultaneous naps so the grown ups could enjoy the zoo too. Here is my favorite animal shot from the day. Then we drove down to Bend, Oregon to be with family as we said goodbye to Aaron. The entire Clingman clan was down there so we were able to do a little family bonding poolside.

We've spent many an hour in the car this last month so we have lots of "Nolan in the car seat" shots. Here are just a few.

And it's not just this last month that has flown by, on July 12 Nolan will be 6 MONTHS OLD...crazy!! 6 months marks a major milestone for this little guy, he starts eating solid foods which he is definitely ready to do. He gets pretty agitated watching others eat food which has forced us into hiding when we eat dinner. We decided to start get him used to his high chair since he will be using it for real very soon. Fortunately he loved it!

When he gets really excited about something he sticks his legs out straight and stretches out his toes. You can see here that he really enjoyed being up high with the grown ups.

He even did some pretend eating.
It's been a busy month for this little family and the summer stacking up to be quite busy. Nolan starts swim lessons the end of July, we have 3 family vacations scheduled, a trip to the ball park and numerous other spontaneous adventures. I'll try to keep the blog more up to date as we explore.

Family Time

The last few weeks have been full of family time. 2 weekends ago, my cousin Mason came home for a visit. He is a Marine stationed in North Carolina and finally got a chance to meet our little Nolan...unfortunately Nolan wasn't having a great day and the male bonding time was cut short. I didn't get many great pictures but look at Nolan's cute golfer outfit!!
Then last weekend we drove down to Vancouver to celebrate Nephew Colin's High School Graduation. We had a rough drive down since Nolan was NOT enjoying his car seat and let us know about it. But when we got down there he was hamming it up for the family and happily got passed around.

Hanging out with Aunt Cheryl.Then over to Grandpa to check if his beard is real...don't worry though, grandpa is used to this, he's a part time Santa!Then over to Uncle Lee. Note the soggy eyes...NAP TIME!He woke up feeling refreshed enough to hang out with his cousin Sam.

Despite the long hours in the car we have had a great time introducing Nolan to all his family members, I think he likes it too!

It's a Fence!

Pat and his friend Josh worked tirelessly this weekend to install our baby/possible dog proof fence. We still have to paint it so it's all white, but this is a HUGE improvement over the old rickety country fence and the 11 foot hedge that was the previous barrier. Other things in our yard that I love: My peony tree with the 9 inch blooms, that is unfortunately done for the season. The alien plants that I still have not been able to identify.
The fragrant clematis arbor that almost never was. I saved it from my overzealous gardener who thought it was a honeysuckle and almost ripped it out.

We've made some huge improvements to this yard in the last month and all of this hard work has made me fall in love with our little cottage all over again.