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!

Swim Lessons

Nolan finished up swimming lessons last week and Pat came to take pictures. In his class they learned how to kick, paddle their arms, blow bubbles under water (Nolan never got this one) and they even got dunked under water for a little while. He really enjoyed his time in the pool and definitely learned a little about swimming. Here he is showing off his doggy paddle.Note the tongue sticking out. Every class Nolan would try to drink the pool instead of swim. He would start to choke and then would laugh hysterically...crazy boy!
Here are a few of Nolan's friends and fellow swimmers.

Go Seahawks!

Seahawks pre-season has begun! This is what my weekends will look like for the next 6 months.Although he does make one cute Seahawks fan.The proud papa

Play Day

Nolan got a shot yesterday and since then has been very sleepy! This morning he slept in until 11:00 and still went down for his 1:00 nap! In between those wonderful quiet moments we played on the floor with a few of our toys. I usually have a 3 toy rule where he gets to play with 3 toys at a time but this morning I was feeling a bit adventurous so we just dumped out all our toys from the toy box so that he could grab whatever he wanted. He loved this idea...

as did Cortez, who usually tries to hide in these baskets but today he was content just watching Nolan play.In the end he still went for the same three toys that he always plays with...Jungle Tails book with elephant sounds, the galloping horse and his drum. Oh well!

I also got this lovely glamour shot. I have many of these "looking into the distance" pictures that make him look so grown up and wise. I think he has an old soul...or maybe he's just pooping.

Long Weekends

We were out and about again this weekend. Our destination was Port Townsend for 4 days with family. I grew up spending what felt like our entire summer at Port Townsend. I was excited to share this second home with Nolan and hopefully begin this tradition with him. We normally camp out at Fort Worden but neither Emily or I felt adventurous enough to camp with a 6 month old and an almost 2 year old. So we rented a house at Fort Worden instead. The house was huge and very comfy. Here is a summary of our weekend activities.
Nolan and Clementine shared lots of kisses, hugs and giggles.
Clementine taught Nolan the Itsy Bitsy Spider song, which he really enjoyed.I tried to do Clementine's hair, much to her protesting.
I continued my obsession of buying hats for Nolan's gigantic head. Good thing I did as it got pretty chilly on the last day.We had a great time. I stole this picture from Emily's blog but i think it's the best family picture so far, so it deserves a second mention.
On the last day I decided I needed some shots of Nolan outside of the house as we spent a lot of time indoors or downtown. It just so happened that it was the coldest, windiest day of our trip but here are a few of the standouts.
The next and last planned summer vacation is the Clingman Family Camp out at the end of this month. There will be 30+ Clingman's and 1 bathroom...good times!

The tooth fairy has a new client

That's right, Nolan's first tooth made an appearance yesterday. He woke up from his afternoon nap screeching in pain and inconsolable. This is when i discovered the new tooth. Poor little man...he hasn't been fussy since that outburst but he has been quite drooly and mouthy. The first one down!