Sunday, March 6, 2016

February Happenings

Nolan practiced his terrible twos by throwing a lovely tantrum.... He must figure his Sissy better get used to his fits before she arrives....


We've been spending our Thursdays at Dancing with Miss Jenny through the Women's Center and Nolan has really loved going and doing all the activities each week.  She posted some group shots on her Facebook page of all the littles in his class!



We've also continued with Messy Friday classes at the rec center, and Nolan absolutely loved doing this marble art... so much that he wore his paint on his face and looked like he just was in a bar fight!


We spent the beginning of the month enjoying the new warmer weather by taking a visit to the park and feeding the ducks and geese!  Nolan absolutely adored doing this last year, and I was curious to see his response as he was a whole year older.  Not only did he love every second of it, he talked about it for the rest of the week and definitely wanted to spend more time at the duck park!  We will be making many more visits here as the weather continues to warm up, I just know it!














Nolan learned all about his nipples and has had a weird fascination with them ever since.  He thinks they are pretty funny and likes to point them out after his bath most nights.  Ha!


We spent Superbowl Sunday enjoying the sun and blowing bubbles before the big game!




We had the park to ourselves one morning, and Nolan mastered climbing up the ladder after just a few attempts with my help, and then continued to slide and climb, slide and climb, and slide and climb about 50,000 times more.


Nolan helped make one of my favorite parts of his sister's nursery... his own handprints for her flamingo themed room!  This Pinterest idea came out SO cute and I am so happy to be able to hang it up in her collage wall in her nursery.  The best part is how proud he was to show it off, and he loves looking at it hanging up, knowing he was a part of making her wall art!




Since we watch Sesame Street episodes at least once a day, Nolan has become obsessed with one episode in particular that talks about "focusing" and teaches yoga through some characters visiting a yoga school.  Because of this, Nolan has learned some pretty sweet yoga moves and likes to practice them all over the house, including on the couch.  My favorite is the way he says yoga- "Yaga!"




Valentine's Day was a nice, relaxing day, starting with a yummy trip to Krispy Kreme to get some fun Valentine's donuts that we all (mostly Mommy and baby Sister) chowed down on.  Afterwards, we went back to visit the duck park and Nolan had a blast feeding the ducks and geese again.  In the evening, Grandma came over to watch Nolan while Jason and I went out for a delicious dinner at Stripsteak... where we splurged on filets, truffle mac and cheese, duck fat fries, pork belly fried rice, and the best for last... beignets for dessert!  It was de.lish.ous.






I snapped a picture of the tiniest, most adorable items I've been collecting over the past few months for baby girl... and can't get over how teeny tiny the moccs and shorties are!  Cannot wait to see her in all of these fun things!



The weather was amazing one weekend, so we packed up a lunch and headed over to Exploration Park in Mountain's Edge to check out their park that we had heard good things about.  It was a ton of fun and Nolan loved exploring a new area, and especially loved the slides!  The park was set up like a western town and had fun play structures that were different than the parks we are used to in our neighborhood.  We played for a few hours and ate a picnic lunch at the shaded tables, and then took a walk around the perimeter before heading back home.  It was gorgeous outside and a great way to spend a weekend together!














We had a playdate with our friends Jamie and Coen, and the boys played super well together and had a blast!  These two are so cute together and I love that they are so close in age!




Bass Pro Shops held a big animal adoption one weekend, so we headed down with Grandma to check it out and spend some time in Bass Pro, because it's always fun, free entertainment that Nolan enjoys.  When we got to the animal adoption, Clark County Fire had a fire engine set up for the kids to check out and explore.  Nolan was all about it until he actually got up in the truck... and then froze.  He loved seeing the cool stuff on the outside though, where he felt a little safer on the ground!  We saw lots of doggies and Nolan particularly loved this St. Bernard that he could basically ride like a horse!  There were also donkeys wearing visors, which he thought was pretty funny.  Inside Bass Pro, we spent some time hanging with the big fish, riding ATVs and playing on the pontoon boats!  This place is always a great way to spend a few hours!








Nolan was overtired and delirious before his nap one afternoon- luckily I got these cute giggles and laughs rather than the feisty and furious opposite I sometimes get when he's overtired! :)


Laundry day was spent being goofy and playing in the basket rather than helping fold and put laundry away!



I hit 28 weeks in our pregnancy... welcoming in the third trimester, yay!

We spent a morning before our Dancing with Miss Jenny class at the park next-door, eating lunch and running our energy out!





Nolan had his first movie night, staying up late, eating snacks and snuggling on the couch!  He did much better than I thought, especially since he has never sat through a whole movie and doesn't really enjoy watching them.  I talked up the Good Dinosaur all day, and he was super excited to finally rent it and knew that the "Dino Movie" was something to look forward to.  I explained that we were going to stay up late, past bedtime, and we get to have snacks and milk while watching a movie!  But that he had to stay snuggled on the couch and couldn't get down to play with his toys, and had to sit and watch the movie otherwise he would go to bed.  Surprisingly, talking the whole thing up so much worked wonders, and he didn't once ask to get down from the couch and play.  We did have to keep asking him to sit down rather than roll, jump and run all over the couch cushions... but progress, people!  He was super happy about the night and had a blast, because he still asks for movie nights and the Dino Movie weeks later.  We'll definitely be doing more of these in the future!



We had a fun BBQ and S'mores night with our friends, and Hudson and Nolan played together and caused ruckus all night just like two BFFs should.  It was nice to finally break in our fire pit that Jason built, and we love spending time with our friends that we don't get to hang out with nearly as much as we would like!  Nolan had his first S'mores and liked it, but was more obsessed with stealing marshmallows and hoarding them throughout the night.  This kid had way too many snacks and sugar... but that's what hanging with your friends is all about!









The last weekend of the month, Nolan turned in his pacifiers for a new sleep buddy- a Paci Puppy from Build-a-Bear!  I had read about the new way of weaning from the pacifier by bringing your child to Build-a-Bear where they can place their pacifiers inside of the stuffed animal that they chose, and use the new stuffed animal to sleep with rather than using the pacifiers as a sleep aid.  Nolan had pretty much weaned himself from using the pacis in his mouth and wouldn't suck on them anymore, but he still relied on them to hold through the night to soothe him to sleep, and if he dropped them, would search for them and ask for them until they were found again.  He was ready to get rid of them, and I was ready to be over picking them up from under his toddler bed every day... so we pulled the trigger and decided to take a trip to Build-a-Bear!

Nolan was excited about the whole process, and picked out the Puppy stuffed animal in the beginning.  He was really into the stuffing process and loved watching the fluff roll around in the machine.  The lady helping us had him place his pacis inside, all by himself, so he could see that they were in the puppy he helped make, and he finished up by placing in the little heart and pressing the pedal to fill up his puppy with fluff.  After stitching him shut, we bathed our new friend, named him, and printed out his birth certificate, and Nolan was completely loving on his new Paci Puppy!  When we got home, he napped right away with him, and totally understood that his pacis were inside his new friend.  He asked "Out" only twice, and ever since then, has loved on his Paci Puppy, snuggles him to sleep, and talks about him all the time.  It worked out great, and the best part is that he hasn't attempted to tear open the stuffed animal like I was afraid of!  Here's to another step of growing up!










We started Tot School with a pretty planned out schedule and fun topics at the end of the month.  I'm hoping to start separate blog posts on each week of our different themes, so stay tuned for all of our fun learning in detail!


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