12 Months

Well, we made it to the final "month" post.  All twelve monthly ties have successfully been worn (and torn off) by Nolan.  We have officially crossed over to toddlerhood over night.  Nolan has turned into a boy, not a baby boy, right before our eyes.  We looked at him the other night at the park wearing his tennis shoes, gym shorts, and Superman t-shirt and said to each other, "when did he turn into a boy?!"  Here are some highlights from his finally month of his first year...

Nolan is still such a fun, laid back kid.  He always has a smile for you and it doesn't matter how bad your day could have been, his smile will make you instantly feel better!  He is very determined.  If he is working with a new toy or trying to maneuver himself in a new way, he will continue to try until he gets it or is happy with how far he was able to get.  He loves being around people and can entertain a crowd with his smiles, jibber jabbers, dancing, and clapping.  He has a great personality and such a happy demeanour about him.

His favorite activities are playing with his toys in the family room.  He especially loves his stacking cups, throwing and rolling balls, reading books (his favorite is "Are You My Mother?), and climbing on the furniture.  He is a big helper in the laundry room and emptying the dishwasher.  (By helper I mean he likes to pull everything out of each of these appliances).  Nolan also still likes to go on stroller rides, play at the playground, and swing on his swing.  His favorite TV show at the moment is "Bubble Guppies."  It is a really cute show about little fish/mermaid looking kids who go to school and are taught really great lessons by Mr. Grouper.

Nolan is still a great eater.  He continues to eat four bottles a day plus lunch and dinner.  We haven't had baby food in the house since he gave up on a few weeks back.  His favorite finger foods are cheese, blueberries, pineapple, sweet potatoes, peas, corn, and spaghetti.  I am still trying to get him to eat some protein, whether it be chicken or turkey or veggie burgers and he isn't interested but we'll keep trying.  Either way, Nolan can sit in his high chair for 45 minutes to an hour just nibbling away slowly and taking in the scenery.  This works well to our advantage when we take him out to eat at restaurants because we actually have enough time to eat dinner ourselves :)

Sleeping is also one of Nolan's strong suits.  He takes two naps a day ranging from 1.5-2 hours.  Bedtime is roughly around 7:30-8:00 and he will sleep until about 7:00-7:30 the next morning. 

Nolan currently has six teeth.  Three on the bottom and three on the top.  Looking at his gums, it looks like he may be springing a bunch at once soon.  He has been chomping on anything he can get his hands on these days!

Time to close out the monthly posts....

I honestly don't know how we lucked out with him.  He is such a good baby and we are so lucky to have him in our lives.  Between his happy smile, his good eating and sleeping habits, and his funny personality that always keeps us laughing we couldn't have asked for a better baby.  Although exhausting and stressful at times, the last twelve months have been so much fun and we wouldn't trade them for the world!!