Come see the boy!: October 2005

Hallelujah Halloween!

Enough excitement- off with the hat already!

Winnie the Pooh likes Tupperware too....

Supersmile!

Going out trick-or-treating!

Looking for trick-or-treaters...

checking out the "Hunny" bucket

Halloween

Well, I'll do a photoessay from bloggerbot, but the story of Nolan's second Halloween is that he knows SOMETHING is up but is not sure what. Also, masks (and ghoul makeup) freak him out. And witch hats are an irresistible temptation.
He looks awesome with bear ears, so I am pleased with that little (patternless) attempt. We visited three close neighbors who are all quite into Halloween and had pretty extravagant decor, sound effects, dry ice, etc....

favorite things

Nolan currently loves-
advanced peekaboo, the tupperware cupboard and dishwasher (the enthusiasm carries on!), eating fish (I bread it with garlicky spices and crumbs and pan-fry, and he scarfs it back with both hands), getting squirted with his duck in the bath, waking up at night to play and talk for oh, 1-2hours at oh, 2 or 3 am (this is not hugely popular with Mike and I)...he also like dancing and singing with me a lot (his dancing involves a very peculiar vigorous head shake -like "No!" only rhythmic). He is obsessed by the DVD remote control - LOVES the buttons- and tends to turn off his shows a lot by accident, but FREAKS when you try to take the remote to turn it back on. He is walking along walls and stuff quite ably, but when excited drops to all fours and GALLOPS across the floor with his R leg extended crabcrawl. (Reaches 60 in about 9.5 sec, not bad for a baby. Excellent torque at pretty low rpm.)

I am also enjoying peekaboo and dancing, and don't mind the fish, but especially love the just home from work couch snuggle (we pop in a Baby Einstein DVD, grab a journal, maybe some toys, and hang on the couch for 1/2h). See pic above during said snug- I also really like his fat little (well relative to mine anyway) feet. Babies are the absolute pinnacle of attractiveness of the human form. Even their FEET are cute.

My wee mannie is overtired from his late night oratory and other antics last night and is wigging out a bit- I'll go help and see if we can get him to bed early....

picture equity

Look at me! 26 lbs 6 oz!!!!

Right: Nolan and Mike at Public Health, the one year weigh in!

Left: Nolan and Mike at the bar, Waskesiu (I'll have a draft Keiths, in a sippy cup...)

I have a large preponderance of "me and Nolan" shots in this blog, maybe 'cause my usual dissatisfaction with any picture of me is wiped out by how cute Nolan is....and maybe as revenge for all of the holidays were we got home only to find there is no record I visited the place (here's one of Mike in Thailand! Here's Mike in Cuba!....)

However, gotta say that Nolan and Mike are a great pair too!

curlywig....please comment

curlywig

baby bugg-ah

bunkie

sweetiebug

monkers (*derived from Monkey)

badger

He is tragic right now so a short post, then I'll go take my turn....he is more bitey than ever and I am evolving to think that it is an expressions of strong feeling in general- tired and frustrated? Overwhelmed with love and affection? REALLY mad about something? Howabout expressing yourself with a bite when you can't command the words?

Anyway, I am trying to firmly say NO BITING and give him a time out, but so far he doesn't seem to connect the actions, just wails in abandonment from the babyjail. Until I melt and pick him up, bruises still tingling, bite indentations not even fading yet. Can get away with a lot when you are that cute.

BTW, would like more blog comments (thanks kev, cara, she, and geoff)- you leave them as "anonymous" but can put your name in the text, and note: the little envelope next to comments is to email someone, not to leave comments. Just click comments. And leave some advice!! Bite back? Wear protective gear? A muzzle, like Silence of the Lambs?

Personality of a baby

It's been a while since you were this baby, Nolan!

Looking back, I am amazed at how Nolan has been - well, Nolan-y since the beginning. It's easier to see now, but his character -including preferences and opinions- really started shining through early. This surprises me, as I has always imagined babies to be kind of undifferentiated.

Nolan is usually:

happy, smiley, and pretty laid back
Likes to explore, but occasionally hangs back to make sure he has backup if he feels uncertain (he'll be happy for 20 minutes playing and exploring but then will just check back with you, make eye contact and a comment, then go back to playing)
Occasionally VERY focused on figuring things out- currently loves hinges, so seems to have a reasonable ability to concentrate so far
TALKATIVE- (see last post) and likes music, as he sings with me sometimes and bounces to music
Loves: his rubber ducky (I squirt him with it in the tub and he just cracks up laughing), the tupperware cupboard- especially the salad spinner lid, books (especially the Hungry Caterpillar with the holes in the pages), the pegboard thingy he inherited from Will, and then a host of unpredictable things: last night he got an Air Canada tag off my suitcase and he LOVED it and played with it and chewed it into paper-mache, so we confiscated it before he swallowed
affectionate- lately he has started feeding me his fingerfoods (holds it out in a "you want some?" way) and if I eat the potato chunk or whatever he giggles in TOTAL GLEE. This may be more entertainment for him than affection. He also started washing Mike's face and head with his washcloth in the tub the other day.
a strong jawed little biting BADGER. He sometimes gets CRAZYBABY at night and crawls around, wants to nurse but is impatient, tosses and rolls and tries to stand while nursing (this doesn't work), and gets very bitey- hands, wrists, especially upper arms and shoulders on me. Scary baby teeth! I think he is telling me how he feels about our continued weaning process, but also is a gesture I think of wigged out affection. Not sure.

I may try to sleep again now...

chatty

Awake after Nolan woke me up to talk. In Urdu, I think. He's very expressive though- he gestures widely and proclaims emphatically, and occasionally breaks into song. Kind of. They call this "immature jargoning" developmentally and he's been chatty like this for probably a month- usually it starts a little later so he's a precocious talker so far.

We went out for dinner last night (to Olive Garden, as now we target family restaurants so we don't feel guilty about the litter of food bits around the base of the highchair). The garlic breath lingers even now.

While waiting, because this place is so bizarrely popular that there is ALWAYS a wait, we watched a wee little girl walking and hopping and pointing- she looked smaller than Nolan but was quite advanced coordination wise. Same age, as it turns out. So, Nolan was industriously playing with a favorite toy and ignoring this other baby, and the other parents look at him (still 90%ile height and weight and head)- and say (poor parent etiquette here)- "he's NOT walking yet??"
"Well, no, and the majority of kids AREN'T walking at one, average is a little later. Your little girl is doing well".
(This was nice of me, I thought).
But secretly - more poor parent etiquette coming up- I thought Nolan was SOOO much better looking I felt a bit bad for the other baby, who looked a lot like her dad. (Brow ridges.) When I said that to Mike after we were seated, he strongly agreed, and then said "they are probably saying the same thing about Nolan right now!"

But, they weren't...because he IS the cutest baby!

Busy times, one year old

So, Nolan is officially a toddler now at 1 year+, (albeit one that falls a fair amount, I call him a falldler). We have been superbusy so the blog has languished, but I just posted a LOT of pictures to make up for it, many of them personal favorites.
Just so you know, you can click on the pics for a closeup, and R click to download them if you want to make copies or send them (to whom I don't know, but whatever).
I have been mulling over a birthday post, and will mull more I guess as I hear him waking up from a nap!
GTG, will post more this week.

Long armed reach for the duck (yep, retouched again, I don't want him mad at me when he's a teenager)

Evaluating a duck

Nolan looks a lot like Uncle Jeff in this photo!

photo of Nolan the Intrepid Bath Explorer (yes, this has been retouched to obscure certain details...)

Nolan discovers tools (note the excellent screwdriver handling technique)

Obligatory birthday smear photo...

Gotta try that icing

Ice cream cake, Oma's kitchen

Cousins Will and Elise think the birthday boy is pretty interesting...taken on Oct 2, 2005
Mike's comment, watching them all play together VERY ACTIVELY :
"Now Nolan is the baby they always wanted him to be! "