Bub's update

Today was Nolan's 6 month check up and he is actually 6 and a half months. We found out his head circumference is still in the twentieth percentile, has since birth. He is in the 67% for height, much higher than last appointment. And he is in the 9th percentile for weight at 15 lbs and 8 oz. That is much lower than I ever expected. Our firstborn has always been like 99% since birth, so this is a first. But all is well and the doc says he is healthy as can be.
We sure do love him around here, our little Noly-bubs, as I sometimes refer to him. He has a HUGE smile and big blue eyes. He loves to laugh at Reagan.

He is obsessed with his toes and is starting to grab at them and play with them. The other day he even managed to reach them up to his mouth and chew a little bit. Yuck, but I guess baby feet aren't that gross.

Reagan adores him. She does get caught red-handed sometimes though, pushing him or hitting him. She likes to test her limits and its funny: I can tell when she has done something to him. I will hear him start crying and run in the room just in time to see her flop down face first onto the couch and not look up. She knows she has done something bad :) She usually gets a small time-out for this behavior. But even through all those episodes, I can see how much she loves and cares for her brother.

Nolan is starting to sit up unassisted, but he still tumbles if he leans over too far.

He loves being on his tummy and is actually getting up on all fours and scooting backwards!! It is really funny to watch him do that. Sometimes when I lay him down to sleep, he will be quiet for a while, so I will peek in and check on him and instead of sleeping, he is up in a crawl position, just trying so hard to move. Soon, buddy!

Weird pic, I know, but his front tooth just popped through a few days ago and it is cool to see if progress a little more down each day. The bottom tooth just popped through yesterday, too. I actually took this pic a few days ago and it has popped out so much more in just that short time.

Nolan is such a big blessing in our lives and our home. He still loves to nurse and he is really starting to like solids too. He likes rice cereal, but only the kind with apples and bananas! He loves all the fruits and veggies we have given him so far, even the green beans which took a few tries :) I am sure looking forward to when he can eat chunks of soft food, because with my kids, the pureed jars of fruits and veggies just don't fill them up enough.

Time is flying too fast!

Long Live Summer 2009

What a summer it has been so far! Mildish weather-nice-a few vacations here and there-kids not sleeping-not so nice. But blessings come in all shapes and sizes and sometimes in disguise. Having Matt home has been a blessing for me. We have been able to spend time together as a family and go do stuff. I have had a lot of help. Nolan slept horrible for a while, so I got to sleep in. Once he started sleeping better, it took about 3 days before Reagan started getting up at night (seriously). She has been having bad dreams, I think. But Matt has been here to help me. It is hard to believe that July is almost over. Where did the summer of '09 go? Oh wait, right here below...our simple summer top 10.

10. Filling up crabbie with sand. Reagan sure loves this. We usually put water in it during the summer, but it is too gross and difficult to clean out. She could spend hours out here. She has entered the "imaginative play" stage of her life (hence the wild dreams) and we will often find her outside having conversations with her dolls that sound a bit like this:

"I am sorry you can't have that."
"But I want it."
"Nope, time out for you!"
"I don't wanna go to time out!"

Or Matt's favorite conversation:

"It is!"
"It isn't!"
"It is!"
"It isn't!"

You get the idea :) It is a lot like Matt's favorite 30 ROCK episode where Jack plays psychiatrist on Tracy and role plays as him and his mother.

9. We have spent so much time at the park, it is ridiculous. But fun, too. And since the weather is rather mild and I am not pregnant this summer, we have gone a lot. This is Reagan's favorite activity: riding her bike up at the far-away Clayton park.

8. This one deserves a number all on its own because she LOVES to swing.

7. Watching Dumbo. This is Reagan's current favorite movie, although sometimes she will still pull the Mickey and as of late, "Nolan's show" (baby einstein). I laugh at this picture because we were baby-sitting the Dickman boys and all the kids wanted to watch a show, but I am sure that something sports-ish, probably a game or Sportscenter was on, so Matt put on the DVD player in the bedroom.

6. Roasting dogs and smores. And Marisa put it so well, "You get the fun of camping without all the mess and prep." So true. Smores are so dang messy, as evident below, but no hassle of camping gear and we got to sleep in our own beds.. It was a fun night and reminded me of the firepit my parents have and use all the time with family, except us because we don't live near them :(:( What a fun tradition.

5. I am finally reading Harry Potter. I have always wanted to, but just never got the chance. I saw Half Blood Prince movie with Matt since he has been reading the series (just finished). It inspired me to finally pick up book 1. I did, hardly put it down, and same with book 2. They are GREAT! I need a little break until book 3, though, because it is hard to get stuff done. I need to go to bed earlier and when I am in the middle of a book, it is too difficult. Rowling is genius, I love the wizard world she created.

4. Back in April, I bought some of those cheap popsicles for the summer and we have enjoyed them really really often. Addie and Reagan were so cute with theirs one day. It was a warm summer evening and just the ambience and all, eating a popsicle on the front steps. These two enjoyed it. It was the perfect way to cool down.

3. Our favorite daytime game/activity has been Reagan riding her bike around the complex while I push Nolan in the stroller behind her. It is a win-win situation for all: Reagan loves to ride her bike, Nolan digs being outdoors and is at the stage where the world outside is so new and exciting, and my arms and back aren't dying from holding him. Plus it wears her out. So, win-win-win (Michael Scott).

This is how we usually end up, the bike is ditched because pushing the stroller becomes too much of a temptation for Reagan. So I park my tush on the steps and just watch her push him back and forth for a really really long time. Still a win-win-win, I guess.

2. We have had many ways of cooling off. We have gone swimming at friends houses, sat in our AC'd place and also used our season passes to Waterworld. It was a good investment for our summer. I think Reagan is a little more comfortable in the water than last summer, but we still have a ways to go. She sure does love this place, though. See how both feet are off the ground?

1. My number one is kind of simple. Its my kids. You read my complaints (or if your really lucky, you hear me complain in person) about how they are driving me crazy. They don't sleep as good as I'd like them to, they talk back, they cry, I can't get anything done, my house is a total disaster all the time, I have permanent bags under my eyes. The list could really go on and on. But not a day goes by that I don't realize how fast these months are going by and then before I know it, my children will be out of the house and I will be missing them. I am blessed to have healthy happy kids. Today as I was sitting at the piano in primary, I just felt drained. My eyelids felt heavy and I found myself wondering what I would feel like if I could just get a good nights sleep. Then I saw a woman in my ward who's children have grown up and left the home. About a year ago, she mentioned to me how much she missed those young years with her kids and how she would give anything to have them back. She even offered to babysit just so she could hear the sound of children in her house again. She and her husband were lonely. The chaos of raising kids wasn't always easy, but she missed it more than ever. I haven't forgotten that and it helped keep things in perspective for me. I know that is how I will feel years down the road. I will be begging my kids to come visit me! So for now, even though I look like night of the living dead sometimes, it sure is a joyous journey.

BIG NEWS!

Nolan is now an ambiturner!

"I'm not an ambiturner.. I can't turn left." - Zoolander

I thought I was a fan

ARE YOU SERIOUS??

Read this.

Independence Day in San Diego

The day before the 4th, we woke up bright and early, too early. We had been up kind of late the night before attending the Singing Flag and then had to do some last minute packing, showering, etc. I fed Nolan about 3AM, then we transferred a blurry-eyed Reagan to her carseat and headed out. The kids and I slept for a couple of hours at least. Matt downed the Dew and was a sweetheart and drove. We stopped at a Mickey D's somewhere and ate breakfast. After that I drove us to Pasadena. The kids were great until we got there. They slept, looked out the window. We put the styrofoam block from our Bob stroller infant seat adapter behind her carseat so that it tilted back a little bit and she could rest her head back. Probably not cool with the car-seat nazis, but it made her (and us) happy. She didn't even need the DVD player.

We made it to Pasadena and stopped in to say hello to Matt's brother Jeff and his wife Passelly. It was fun to see them and see their place. Jeff is attending law school at USC and he took us on a tour of the campus before we headed out. Matt loves visiting college campuses. We saw a peek at the field that the football team practices on.

Here we are, our USC tour guide leading the way. Jeff and Selly had some college friends there for the weekend as well. And Jeff bought Reagan a popsicle from one of the street carts, thanks Uncle Jeff!

After our stop in LA, we headed on down to San Diego. Since it was the night before the 4th, many people were traveling and we got stuck in a TON of traffic. Me and traffic do not mix well, but I held onto a good attitude. The kids were a little fussy at this point, can't blame them. We finally rolled into Jenn's house in Del Mar and it was so good to see my friends!!!!!

After washing up a bit, we hopped back in the cars and headed to downtown San Diego to see the Padres play the Dodgers. This was a cool game because A) it was Manny's first game back since his steroid suspension and we all came up with some fun slogans regarding him and a pregnancy:

Matt: "Manny's pregnant!"

Jenn: "Looks like Manny is starting to show a bit."

Nick and Lori: "Manny, the test came back positive!"

Reason B) we had some pretty cool seats. They were all you can eat hot dogs, nachos, soda, popcorn and ice cream. Dude, we CHOWED down. I think I totalled two hot dogs, a nacho, two sodas, and a klondike bar. It was a calorie fest, but I am not one to turn down free food. Thanks Lori and Nick for the tickets!! You guys are the best :)

Here is Manny up on the billboard. Sadly, there were thousands more Dodger fans than Padre fans here, despite it being in San Diego.

Reagan ate two things of popcorn. Dodger fans can be really really annoying, too.

Here are the girlies. We had some annoying Dodger fans behind us, have I mentioned how many Dodger fans were there??

Petco Park was really cool. I grew up going to Padre games at Jack Murphy Stadium (now Qualcomm...I think) so this was my first time here. It is new and beautiful and in typical San Diego fashion, there were lots of palm trees adorning the outside. Loved it!

Reagan got to spend some time with Layla, Jenn's darling little gal.
Jenn made some princess cupcakes for Reagan's birthday and the girls had a good time eating the tops off the cupcakes.
Oh, this was hilarious. One of the cupcakes had a little tiara on it and so we cleaned it up and put it in Reagan's hair, AFTER we had clipped some of Jenn's hair extensions on her and told her to pose. It was funny and scary all that same time, because it just SCREAMED "pageant, stage-mom."

(Ironically enough, I saw a commercial on TLC channel the other night of a show called "Toddlers & Tiaras" Some reality thing. It looked disgusting, and reminded me in a hilarious fashion of this photo--all done in good fun)

We woke up early on the morning of the 4th and had breakfast at one of my favorite southern California places, Pipes. Then we headed to Torrey Pines beach, which is literally a minute from Jenn's place. I would love to live that close to the beach!

It was crowded, but Lori and I scoped out a decent place.

Me, Jenn, and Lori. I am still working on that postpartum pooch thing.

Matt and Reagan spend almost the entire time building their very own "sound wall." OK, not really a sound wall, but Reagan did explain to me that it was to keep the water out.

The water was too cold for me (or most of us) to swim in and we all got some good sun, Nick getting the worst of it. We ate authentic Mexican food (aka, the REAL stuff) from Roberto's for lunch and headed home a little while later.

We went to possibly the best fireworks show I have ever seen that night, in La Jolla Cove. I like this place, as this is where Matt and I had our wedding photos taken the day we got married. The place was packed in a way that you just pray there are no fires, since no one would probably escape. But the show was worth it. A live band played while the fireworks went off and they were RIGHT above us and huge and loud. The finale was amazing. I can still hear the loud pops. Traffic took us about an hour and a half to get out of.

Reagan looked like this the entire time. She didn't take her eyes off the sky once. Nolan slept through most of it.

We always love heading to San Diego, it will always feel like home to me. Even though it was a quick trip, we had so much fun. Thank you Jenn for letting us crash at your place!!

Singing Flag becomes "The Flag"

Why the name change? Just curious.

In honor of the 4th of July, we attended the Flag (used to be called Singing Flag) for the 4th time. A church in Concord puts it on every year. It is a great event. I would lie if I didn't admit that the performances are a little old to me, after the fourth time around. But I love how patriotic it is and I get goosebumps when I hear my favorites: 40 Hour Work Week and of course the salute to all those serving in the armed forces.

Highlights were seeing all the American flags!!
Another highlight was seeing how intently Justin watched the fire engine.

Highlight #3 was Reagan's glow stick not breaking and leaking pink fluid on her like it did last year.

The best highlight was passing around the orange hat.

Reagan enjoys the Singing Flag more and more each year.

The only lowlight was the lazy bums in the matching red camping chairs that didn't want to lower their chairs for the performance because "they didn't have to."

It was a great way to kick off an Independence Day weekend and I always love the fun atmosphere here. Oh yeah, and the fireworks aren't too bad, too.