Monday, November 14, 2011

These are the Days

I have been behind on my blogging, so I've had to compile a bunch of different pictures into one blog post to catch everyone up to speed.  Nolan has become quite the little adventurous man.  He is into everything: the toilet, the trash can, the toy box, the entertainment center, pushing buttons on the side of the TV, and smiling after we tell him, "Nolan, NO!"  He is too darn cute for me not to smile back at him.

Poot has some pretty funny quirks that are starting to make quite a regular appearance in his life.  For one, he loves to have his tongue hanging out of his mouth.  Nolan also knows how to click his tongue, so if he is another room, Bill will click his tongue and Nolan will answer back with a click.  It is too funny!!  They have their own little communication going on.  I've tried to have Nolan click back at me, but I guess I'm not cool enough.

 Nolan enjoys walking all over the house, but only with a little assistance.

Quirk number two, Nolan's obsession with the breast pump phalanges.  Whenever I pump in his room, Nolan likes to visit me.  He will grab one of my extra phalanges and carry it around the house.  Eventually, he sits up and acts like he is drinking out of it, like a martini glass.  He will suck on it a little and give up when nothing comes out, but he continues to crawl around the house with it in his hand.  Hopefully Nolan will outgrow this "toy" and he won't want to be taking it to show and tell in kindergarten.


Another of Nolan's favorite toys is his toy train.  It is an Alphabet Train by V-Tech and it is full of all kinds of goodies to play with.  The train teaches colors, letters, and lights up.  Nolan mostly plays with the book on the side, because he enjoys turning the pages in books, and he likes to push it around the house.  He thinks he is big stuff walking all by himself.

 Again with the tongue....
Turning the pages of the book on the train

Nolan still enjoys being read too.  Almost every night, we read a couple of his books.  He is now tall enough to reach the shelf his books are on, so when we play in his room he will stand up and reach for his books.  He will pull one down and we will read, but he does have a few he favors more than the others.  A few of his favorites are, "I Love You Through and Through", "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", and "I Spy with My Little Eye."

Peek-A-Boo is among one of the top entertainers of the evening as well.  Tonight I placed his blanket on the side of his crib and he thought it was the funniest thing ever.  He would pop up and bust out laughing as he found me in his room.  I would start to hide and even look under the blanket and grab his belly.  We had a lot of fun waiting for daddy to get home.


Poot has a fascination with closing doors.  Almost anytime he crawls into a room, the door will be shut right away by him.  He will play for a long time opening and closing doors to the rooms.  He thinks its really funny when someone is on the other side, knocks, and says, "Housekeeping, you want me fluff your pillow?"

Thinks mirrors are pretty darn cool too...

My oh my, now you see why I'm a few weeks behind on blogging.  I have one very busy, adorable, happy little boy!!  I cannot believe he is going to be eleven months old this Sunday.  I've started making plans for his birthday, but first we have his First Thanksgiving!!



Monday, October 31, 2011

Nolan's First Halloween

Happy Halloween!!  Today was an ideal day for Halloween, with the beautiful sunshine and a little hint of chill in the air.  Since it was a little chilly, we didn't dress Nolan up for the parade.  Instead, we put on a cute little Halloween shirt, courtesy of Nana, to celebrate the festivities in.  Of course, I had to take some pictures of Nolan before we left for the Halloween Parade uptown.  Thanks to Carol for the light up Jack-O-Lantern!! Nolan pushed it around the house all afternoon.
Sticking out his tongue.....

I bundled Nolan up in three layers, poor guy won't know what to do once winter hits.  Bill and I loaded all of our stuff into the car, and we took off uptown to find a place to sit and watch the parade.  We met up with the Kellers and settled in for some free entertainment.  Nolan and Grant were mesmerized the entire parade.  I don't think either one of them made a sound and Madison picked up a load of candy!! YUMMY!!  Since, Nolan is still too young to have candy I made sure to properly dispose of all the goodies. :)
 Moms and their kiddos
 My Family!!
Poot received some beads, so he was ready to P-A-R-T-Y!!

I think half of the fun was seeing all of the different costumes.  Bill, Mark, Tiffany, and I decided with a unanimous decision whom won Grand Champion of the Parade this Year.

Drum Roll, Please...........

And the Grand Champion of the Parade goes to..................
 Lizard Woman!!

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Trick or Treat

What a busy weekend!!  We started out with Miss Madison's birthday party on Saturday.  The weather was absolutely perfect.  Madison had a princess themed party and dressed as Snow White.  Nolan had a fun time playing with the other kids and hanging out with his daddy.  Nolan is a little shy around others, so he mostly sat back and took everything/everyone in. Nolan has this new thing he does with is tongue, so in a lot of the pictures you will notice his tongue sticking out.  He sticks it out and sucks on it to make a loud popping/clicking noise.

 Brooks, Nolan, and Grant

After the big party, Nolan went home and crashed.  Today, Bill, Nolan, and I ventured back over the The Keller's home to carve pumpkins and take the kiddos Trick or Treating.  Edwardsville has Trick or Treating on Halloween Eve because the town has a HUGE parade on the evening of Halloween.  Bill and Mark took to cleaning out the pumpkins, while the boys were put into their pack n play.  Madison, Tiffany, and I worked on her pumpkin since it only required stickers, no mess!! 

 This containment lasted maybe 15 minutes before the boys wanted out!!
 Busting out the hardware...
 Bill's Jack-O-Lantern
 Mine
 Princess Maddie's
Tiffany and Mark's
I might add Tiffany carved her pumpkin in about 10 minutes. She took the award for the master carver of the group.

After we finished carving the pumpkins, we sat down for a quick bite of delicious Taco Soup, compliments of Mark, fed the kids, and had them dressed in their costumes.  Once again, the boys took some persuasion to get theirs on, but in the end they all looked great!! Nolan was a sack of potatoes, Madison was Snow White, and Grant was Dopey. 

Nolan with Snow White
 Its hard to tell, but Nolan's sack says, "Purcell Tater Farm"
Grant, Madison, and Nolan dressed and ready to go...

Bill, Nolan, and I said our good-byes to the Kellers and went to visit the Martinez family. Poot fell asleep in the car on the way to their house, but he was happy to play with Miss Ali and Sam once he arrived at their house.  Nolan is used to being in bed by 7:00pm and the last couple of nights have been late ones.  He doesn't know how to cope with all of these late night adventures.

 Trick or Treat
 Ali, Nolan, and Sam
Passed out and ready for his nice warm bed.  Tomorrow night is the parade, which I think Nolan will really enjoy!!

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Nolan's First Pumpkin

At the beginning of October, my family and our good friend's, the Kellers, went to Eckert's Pumpkin Patch to pick out the perfect pumpkin for Halloween. 


We were all packed up and ready to go.  I asked Bill if he grabbed the camera, so we could photograph Nolan's very first trip to a pumpkin patch.  Bill said he grabbed it.  To make a long story short, Dearest William grabbed the camera bag, but not the camera.  I do take part in the blame too because he thought I put the camera in the bag, but I did not.  Thanks to our techno savvy iPhone's and our great friend, Tiffany, we were able to capture a couple of pictures of Nolan's first trip to a pumpkin patch.  Thanks Tiff!!

Despite the missing camera we all had a great time.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous and almost felt like summer.  The kids enjoyed the wagon ride out to the pumpkin patch and through the apple orchard.  Bill bought a gallon of Apple Cider and some honey butter.  What a fun trip we had.

 Nolan and Grant trying to roll the pumpkin
Nolan and Madison

We have been too busy to even carve the pumpkin we bought.  I decided to take a couple of pictures in the backyard with Nolan and the pumpkin we picked out.

Nolan with his warty pumpkin

Stay tuned for Halloween pictures! We are so excited to go Trick or Treating and to watch the Halloween Parade.