Our Little Fish

Nolan has been taking swim lessons for a couple of weeks now and he is loving it. His favorite part is when he sits on the edge of the pool while we sing "Humpty Dumpty" and he launches himself into the water when we say, "had a big fall".

The Measles!!??

Well, technically it's Roseola, but it's from the same Measle family...just not so serious.

Nolan came down with a fever Friday night and in the morning it was gone but he was not feeling well and he was a bit out of sorts. Saturday was a repeat of Friday and on Sunday he added "vommiting on grandma" to his list. Martin and I slept on the floor of his room because as all new parents know...he would have choked on his own vomit and died if we weren't 5 inches from his crib.

When he woke up on Monday, he had a slight rash all over his neck and chest and although the fever didn't return, the rash was worse this morning. Being so close to my degree in medicine, I came to the conclusion that he must have contracted measles. We were down south a few weeks ago (the proper incubation period) and the newspaper had reported Measles outbreaks in Ventura and San Diego. So off to Dr. T's we went.

Dr. T reassured me that he does not have the nasty-we created a vaccine against this- Measles. Nolan simply has what most babies his age pick up one way or another. The poor guy is miserable and getting all the love we can give. Here's a picture showing off his morning mohawk and Roseola rash while swinging the camera lens cover around and around.

Happy Birthday To Me!

Friday Feb.15 was my 31st birthday and for the first time in a very long time I feel so satisfied with where I am in my life. I have a loving husband, a beautiful and healthy son and I just got the best job promotion ever - motherhood. I feel truly happy!

As a birthday present to myself I had my neighbors signed on to babysit Nolan while I went mountain biking with a group I recently joined. Unfortunatly, I received a phone call the night before letting me know the ride had been canceled. I'm always so nervous about mountain biking alone so I decided to just do a quick ride up Madonna since it was probably the safest ride I could go on. When I got back the whole neighborhood was out and all the kids were playing together. It was sooo cute!

Over the weekend my Aunt Dana came up to visit us. This was the first time she had met Nolan and gushed over him like a good aunt should! My parents treated us to Sunday Brunch at Lido's, I had been dying to try them and they totally lived up to their reputation.


After brunch we all thought it would be a good idea to burn some of it off so we packed up the bikes and headed out to Bob Jone's Trail. I had never in my life seen it so packed, it was literaly swarming with people. Nolan tried out riding on the back of our neighbor's bike (Thanks Steve!) and seemed to handle it just fine. We weren't sure how he'd take to it so I had the bright idea of running with the stroller while everyone rode on their bikes just in case Nolan freaked out. OMG - now I run every once in a while with our dogs but CRAP, never at biking pace for 5 miles after Sunday brunch! Let's just say I got my workout in and I didn't feel one ounce of guilt for anything I ate that day.

I ran ahead to get this shot so excuse its crappiness, I was trying to breathe.

Happy Valentine's Day

Nolan's 1st Valentine's Day....but really, every day is Valentine's Day for this sweetheart.
Here's what he's been up to lately....

*He took his first 3 steps on Super Bowl Sunday and another 3 steps on Lincoln's Birthday. Both times were with Daddy and both times Mommy missed it.

*His right front tooth just broke through his gums so my little guy is finally smilling and laughing again after weeks of teething pain.

*He is in love with books. We went downtown to The Novel Experience, which was a perfect "Nolan-size" bookstore and he was estatic! "Buhh, Buhh, Buhhhhh" was all he could say as he lunged from side to side pointing at all the books. Currently, "Mr. Brown Can Moo" and "Tu Eres Mi Mama?" are his two favorites.

*Daredevil Nolan is our new nickname for him. He pushes his toys around so he can use them as stepping stools all over the house. All he wants to do is climb, climb, climb. The kid is fearless.

*He is such a good eater and truly my inspiration to start eating more like him. His favorite foods right now are peas and carrots, oatmeal and bluberries, and for dessert I make him fruit pops (frozen fruit that he eats through a mesh bag) - bannanas and pineapple are his favorite combo. He embraces the tofu, broccoli, edamame beans, cheese and bread, too.

Makena Noelle Feb. 8, 2008

On Friday, Feb. 8 Makena Noelle made her debut into our world. Russell and Noelle are quite the proud parents. I'm a little fuzzy on the stats but I think they go something like this...born at 4:12 pm, 6lbs 12 oz(?) and 19 inches. She is a very beautiful and healthy addition to the family.

We visited them in the hospital just 24 hours after Makena was born and I had almost forgotten what a newborn cry sounded like. Those new little lungs made such a sweet sound...even if it was a cry. Noelle's face was priceless when she saw Nolan. She couldn't belive how big he was next to Makena. It's really amazing how we all keep seeing Nolan as a baby when really he is getting to be closer to a toddler now. Makena is so sweet and so new, a true newborn baby!

Martin, Nolan and I were visiting for about 20 minutes before a nurse came rushing in the room and proceeded to warn us that Nolan may very well be bringing every germ, virus, and plague known to man into the maternity ward. No children under the age of 13 were allowed. Hmm, would have been nice for them to tell us this as we stood at the nurses station with Nolan in hand waiting to find out which room they were in. We had no problem whatsoever having Nolan out of the maternity area, but we just felt horrible! What new parent needs that kind of scare!? I really wish they would have told us before we walked in.

Aside from that incident, everyone seemed to being doing fantastic. We heard that Noelle was a champ throughout the whole labor (just look at her picture!).


OK, Seriously..Who looks this good after giving birth!!? Woo-Hoo! Go, Noelle!

Welcome Makena

All Words Begin With B...

I've been a bit apprehensive to tell people that Nolan is talking, considering he just turned 10 months a few days ago, but I've gotten enough confirmation from other people that I am fairly certain that I'm not making this stuff up. His favorite words all start with B and this seems to be his regular vocabulary at this point:

1. Ball - This was his 1st word after Ma-ma & Da-da. He uses it accurately and loves all balls.
2. Boof - This is what a dog says. (Translation: Woof) He uses it when he sees or hears his dogs or any dog for that matter.
3. Boooooo - This is what a cow says. (Translation: Moo) I unknowingly passed a stuffed animal cow in a store and could not figure out why he was suddenly "mooing" frantically out of the blue until I turned around and saw the cow he was pointing to.
4. Bye-Bye - Usually accompanied by him opening and closing his hand, palm facing in instead of out - very cute.
5. Blue - We tried explaining to him the building block he was holding was the color blue but now if we ask him what color something is he says "blue" regardless of the actual color.

Not so regular vocabulary:
1. Ny-Ny - Translation: Night Night. He was in a very silly mood one night and refused to go to bed. I was trying everything, including lying down next to his crib. He responded by putting his binky in my mouth and saying, "Ny-Ny" to me.
2. Bree - Translation: Tree. Sometimes I'm positive that he's pointing to the tree and calling it "bree" and othertimes I'm not so sure. The jury's still out on this one.
3. Button - He has the "B" down and the correct syllable sounds down but it still sounds like jibberish to anyone else but a mommy's ears.

Waiting for Baby Makena

My sister-in-law is due with her first baby - a little girl named Makena - sometime mid-February. We are all so excited and can't wait! This last weekend we threw her a baby shower at our mother-in-law's house in Newbury Park. When I was pregnant I vowed that I would not subject myself or my baby to obnoxious amounts of pink if I was having a girl. Nonetheless, I just couldn't seem to resist the pink when it came to Noelle's shower. The invites were pink on pink poka dots. The color scheme was brown and pink poka dots. Even the booties, bibs and socks that we hung from a clothesline for decoration were pink. Did I mention the pink strawberrry lemonade? I did manage to resist wearing my brown dress with the pink poka dots for fear of looking like an absolute lunatic.

Everyone seemed to have a good time and Noelle scored some very cool gifts and lots of diapers. I tried to curb the labor horror stories the best I could until at the very end of the party I suddenly I hear my dear husband saying something to the extent of, "and then after 12 hours of this horrible pain Michelle was only dialated 2 centimeters." I love him dearly, but this is a man who regularly tells pregnant women, "you're HUGE, are you sure you're not due tomorrow?". Think I'm kidding, just ask our neighbors ... I think all of the women got a comment or two like this. Honestly, I don't know what I would have done without him that day. He slaved away in the kitchen the whole day skewering and cooking the meat, warming the appetizers, brewing coffee. I was ready to remarry the man after that party!