Christmas Day

Nolan's First Christmas! I can't believe it came and went so quickly. He was very excited about the tree and getting to be up in the kitchen. Once Martin helped him open some presents he got so excited about his new toys he couldn't be bothered to open up new ones. Some of the big hits were the Mega Blocks (think Leggos on steroids) that his daddy gave to him and his Drum & Maraca set from his baby friends.

Grandma and Granddad Fletcher gave Nolan a BEAUTIFUL toy chest to store all his new toys. It is a one-of-a-kind, handpainted, Winnie the Pooh inspired toy chest. The lid of it reads, "The moment we saw you, we knew an adventure was going to happen." It was filled with more goodies for all us to open. I have to say, it was the show stopping present for the day!
Afterwards, we went to Grandma and Grandpa Joyce's house for dinner. Running on Joyce time...we had Thanksgiving Dinner (turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce...the works) on Christmas and will celebrate Christmas just before New Year's when my sister's family makes their way here from Idaho. Nolan was thrilled to sit in Grandma's lap and eat right off of her plate. He even got his very first taste of Organic, Non-Dairy Soy "Ice Cream". (Why, yes...we are first time parents. How could you tell?)

Cousins Chris, Colette and Cambria came by for a visit.

Christmas Eve

Well, we can put this on the list of Nolan's Firsts. Nolan's first tie. Nolan put on his spiffy tie for the first time to attend a Candlelit Christmas Eve Church Service. We went well equipped with toys, Joe's O's (Cheerios) and a bottle of milk expecting utter meltdown since he entirely skipped his 4:00 nap. I was so glad that we did since he was one of two babies in the whole place and we used every tool we had while we were there.

He was thrilled with all the music and people around us singing Christmas songs. He even made a few attempts at joining in. He charmed the family behind us and caused a long line as we were exiting the service because everyone just had to make baby talk with him. He was very polite and waved and babbled back to most everyone.

When we got home he was thoroughly exhausted and went right to sleep. Martin and I celebrated our Christmas Eve in front of the fireplace sipping Champagne and eating chocolate. I know it sounds romantic but I do have to remind you that Martin is an engineer and a significant portion of the time was spent analyzing how the fireplace was operating and how we could better maximize heat output. Then we went on to analyze Nolan's 529 college saving plan as well as future children's savings plans. (You think I'm kidding?) Good thing he's so dang cute when he's analytical.

Family Visit

A couple day's before Christmas my cousin, Emette and her husband Nizam came by for a visit with their two kids, Nyela (6 yrs) and Lloyd 2 yrs. It was so great to spend some good time with them and hang out. The kids were amazing with Nolan. They gave him so much attention and just loved on him. He was starstruck by them and never took his eyes off of them. He followed his cousins everywhere and wanted to do what they did. When we pulled out the air mattress and the kids got a little energy out before bedtime by jumping on it, Nolan crawled right on in and tried jumping along with them on his hands and knees.
Nolan and Nyela at the park. You've got to love the purple stripped tights!
Lloyd pushing Nolan in the swing. (Yes, he's only 2, not even 2 1/2 yet. I had to keep checking with Emette to make sure I wasn't hearing wrong. Like she said, "Lloyd is on his own track".)
Of course we couldn't have guests in town without showing off all our cool places. We went to the Monarch Butterfly Groves and we weren't disappointed. It was an unusually warm day so in addition to the large clusters in the trees there were also hundreds of butterflies just flying around everywhere. Afterwards, we went down to the beach and watched the surfers, Nolan played in the sand while Nyela tried to save ladybugs from the stomping barefeet of Lloyd. We finished up the day by chowing down at Mo's. How could anyone pass up Mo's when company is in town? Actually, how can anyone pass up Mo's period!?

Welcome Home Sparky

This weekend we all headed down south for a Christmas party. While we were there Nolan opened up his first Christmas gift from Martin's best friend Bob, who we have dubbed "Jedi Master Bob" which was so much more appropriate than just boring ol' "Uncle Bob". Jedi Master Bob was on a quest (yes...seriously...a quest - you just have to know him) to find the perfect dragon for Nolan for Christmas. Our dog stole the first dragon Bob had bought Nolan, so he was in need of a new one. After the dragon had been found and purchased, Bob and Kristina spent hours searching for the perfect name. The result....Sparky! He even has a dragon collar with his name engraved on it...compliments of PetCo. Nolan loves it! Yeah Bob!!

Mush Head Mama

11 Days Til' Christmas!
Here's a little holiday something to make you smile.....
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1235069356

It's been two weeks since my las post and with good reason. Nolan is still struggling with his teeth. His first tooth has finally broke through but he is still really hurting. He has been up every night from 1am to 4am and dumb me hasn't been going to bed until midnight. This has resulted in mesleeping from 4:30 to 7:30 every day for two week. My brain has turned to mush. I am spacing out constantly, can't remember what I'm doing...did..or was suppose to do. Martin just passes me in the house saying, "Koo-Koo" constantly.

Prime Example:
My cousin Emette and her family are passing through on her way down south so I invited her to stay at our place. 7 pm rolls around and I'm starting to really wonder why they haven't called yet and why they're not here. Sure enough, I have the wrong weekend. Well, at least I got some much needed projects finished, a clean house, and some good food out of it and it was a nice trial run for next weekend.

The Toughest Week On Record

I love this picture of Nolan. This is one of the five times he smiled this week. It all started with a 24 hour tummy bug that he caught, he was throwing up so much. It worked it's way through the whole family and I have got to say there should be a law against parents getting sick when they have to take care of a baby. That was tough! For the first time I almost threwup on HIM!

Once we were all over the flu (or whatever it was we caught) Nolan went on a solid food strike and decided that nursing was the way to go .... every hour and a half! He had also discovered that one does not need to get the flu to throwup... this can be accomplish by shoving one's fingers down one's throat. He spent days practicing this new talent which only meant he was now really hungry and only the boob would do.

All day long he needed to be held and playing on his own was not an option. I felt like my back was going to break, my arms were ready to fall off and my eardrums were shot. In an effort to enjoy some much needed coffee, we went to the neighborhood park and Nolan sat in the big kid swing for the first time. It was the first time he had smiled for days.

As all this was going on, the nights got worse and worse. He was waking up every hour and was so unhappy. Nothing seemed to comfort him. This went on for 3 nights straight. Finally we figured it out...Nolan is cutting his first tooth, and it looks like a total of three are in a race to see which comes out first. Last night we discovered the joy of baby Tylenol and he slept great (and so did we)!

Gobble Gobble

Nolan celebrated his very first Thanksgiving at his Grandparent's (Martin's parents) house. He started out a little sulky as you can see from the pictures but hey...even his pout is cute. He even fit into the train sweater his Grandma Anna knitted for him. The sweater is a duplicate of one that Martin wore as a baby so it was especially sweet for the family to see Nolan in it.

Nolan got a very big surprise when he arrived...his very own play area, "Nolan's Nook". Grandma and Grandpa created a special play area under the stairs for him and his soon to arrive cousin. He had a blast exploring and playing, along with some futile attempts at reconstructing. His Uncle Russell had him laughing big time while they played, he can always get Nolan really going good!

Welcome Marcus!

We have a new addition to our neighborhood! Marcus is the latest little boy to join the football team we seem to be forming on our block. There must be something in the water.

Elevation 1,559

Today Nolan and I tackled Bishop's Peak together. We were suppose to hook up with a group of hiking mom's but nobody was there so we went solo. Nolan is such a tropper! He babbled and sang most of the way up and slept the whole way down. He is truly very fun to hike with.

When we got to the top of the peak it was so beautiful & peaceful at the peak. There must have been about 15 turkey vultures soaring around at the top. I could hear the air under their feathers as they road the wind, it was a really cool sound. I have to say Fall is THE best time of year around here. The weather is perfect - a true Indian Summer, the tourist have all gone home and the colors are beautiful from the mountains to the vineyards. I live for this season!

Nov. 13 2007 - Sand Dollars

Monday was such a great day, we really took advantage of the 3 day weekend.

In the morning I hosted Mom's Group where we pigged out on crepes, crepes and more crepes! Nolan got to play with a few of his baby friends and show off his latest army crawling skills.

After all the mommies and babies had gone home, Martin and I went for a walk on the beach in an effort to find SandDollars for a project I'm working on. I was sure that it would take months of beach walking to get all that I needed but Martin's sharp eye got me all that I will need in just one trip.

The unusally warm November beach weather gave Nolan a chance to strip down to his diaper and practice crawling on the sand. The sun was setting, our dogs were behaving wonderfully, and Nolan was precious as usual - it was a truly perfect day. But once the sun went down we all turned into pumpkins and we were the crazy couple pushing a stroller with an over-stimulated (read "hysterically screaming") baby and two dogs running back to the car in the dark. Oh well!