Our Little Birthday Buddy

The rumors are true. Nolan has turned one. (Pause for effect). I'll get to the party details in one minute. First, however, you're going to have to indulge me in a little sentimental reflection.


I'm continually amazed by the differences in my children. Perhaps it's the girl vs. boy thing. Perhaps it's the first child vs. second child thing. Perhaps it's just the BAILEY vs. NOLAN thing. Whatever it is, I feel lucky to have children who bring different personalities to the table. Nolan, in many ways, still seems like a baby to me whereas Bailey seemed "grown up" by the time she turned one. With her, because she was my first child, I wanted her to walk and talk and say her ABC's as quickly as possible because I was so eager to experience the new and different stages of childhood. While I am certainly not the kind of mother who wants to baby her baby a little too long (you know the kind I'm talking about), and I've never been a hovering kind of caretaker, I do feel that internal pull to just hold Nolan in that tell-tale cradle hold of infancy as long as he'll let me. And, I won't lie, this week's transition from the bottle to the sippy cup might even be accompanied by a few tears.....mine. But, the reality is that my sweet baby is going to become a sweet little boy, and his first birthday was a defining moment in that progression.


Okay, now I can get to the fun stuff!

We held Nolan's birthday party on Saturday after Thanksgiving, which also happened to be the OU/OSU game day. I didn't know that in advance, but I probably would have still had the party that day because the next Saturday would have been too far AFTER his actual birthday for my taste. But, the timing just meant that some of the standard partygoers of the family and circle of friends couldn't attend. We had a smaller-than-usual group, but I think this was kind of nice in terms of having some room to spread out in my house.


Bailey and I decorated the table and house - we had a Monkey theme. This theme was really just dictated by the invitation I chose, but turned out cute with the cake, plates and napkins I found. I didn't go overboard because, well, he's one and doesn't know the difference. HOWEVER, he was pretty darn interested in the balloons. He wouldn't wear one around his wrist as Bailey did at her first party...he was much happier to just grab one when he wanted to.


Here are some pics of Nolan greeting his cousin Joseph (they are about 4 weeks apart in age). It's funny how little people recognize other little people!

And Bailey and cousin Anna getting into the festive mood.

And my ONE YEAR OLD playing soccer in the backyard with Bailey, Anna and my friend's little boy, Brody. If we can just get rid of the bottle, he'll be able to concentrate on his form.

Present time!! He didn't seem all that interested in opening his presents. But, he really didn't get a chance to develop his taste for it because his sister and cousin stepped into the role of present openers pretty darn quickly and enthusiastically! Oh well, at least he gets to actually play with his gifts......oh wait, maybe not. His sister thinks those are hers, too. Well, maybe next year. Smile.

This is my friend who was trying to get Nolan to wear a party hat.....he made it clear that this was not on his list of things to do. He liked looking at her wearing it, though!

If he's not a soccer star, perhaps we can turn him into a b-baller. Is that even the right terminology....perhaps I shouldn't try to use any hip lingo. LOL.

As for the cake-eating portion of the party, Nolan was a little tentative at first. He actually needed a fork to really get into the action. How very civilized of him.

I told folks at my office that it never occurred to me that the cute monkey cake with brown frosting would yield pictures that look like he's eaten mud (or worse, but I won't be gross)!! It's frosting, people, frosting.

While he did pretty well on his cake at the party, the real good stuff came on his actual birthday when we let him get into the cake again.

I think that's called cleaning your plate. No wonder he needed a bath!

Finally, I leave you with a couple of family pics we took at the conclusion of the party.

Peace...

Just a note...

Today, Bailey said the following:

"Nolan's party is going to be stupendous."

Astonished, I asked her what stupendous means.

She said, "It means the same as great."

Seriously, she's four.

Randomness Abounds

So, according to the little graphic on this page (and, well, his birth certificate), Nolan is almost a year old. This year has been a whirlwind and it really is true how quickly time ticks by as you get older. As Jason always laments, it will be Bailey's high school graduation day before we know it. The challenge is to enjoy each day and live life to its fullest!!




Since I'm pretty singularly focused on Nolan's birthday party (and Thanksgiving and Christmas - the trifecta of big events), I don't have a lot of new content for this post. However, I have some random old stuff that I have wanted to post and just never got around to it.




I spoke too soon...this is new. Nolan was ill this week. I think it was his teeth again, as the illness coincided with one of his top teeth poking through. We have 3 now! Anyway, he was feverish and lethargic. Here's a picture of him one evening....he sat like this for 4 hours straight. Poor kid.




And a few other sicky pictures. The one of him on the bed I took just in case it would be his last - he slept on our bed without moving for 2 1/2 hours straight. He hardly ever does that unless there's something wrong with him.

Here's a video of Bailey waxing philosophic about the election. Too bad I think she thinks Barack Obama is a PLACE rather than a PERSON. You'll see what I mean. I meant to edit out the end where I start talking to Nolan, but I forgot...so you get the exclusive rough cut. Lucky you!! Smile.

Here's some video of Bailey one evening when we were all having a dance contest. Yes, this is what we do to pass the time at the Cox household. There are 2 videos and, after much thought and consideration, I have decided to include the one where she gets mad at Jason for ruining her performance. This will provide some insight into some of my descriptions of our little Bailey and her legendary breakdowns.

That's all for now, folks!

My Sweet Boy at 11 Months

Nolan is the sweetest little boy I could imagine. Yes, sometimes he's way more interested in playing with sister or his toys than giving mom and dad any attention. But other times he is content to sit on my lap and snuggle. I'm not gonna lie - I love me some baby Nolan attention!! A few nights ago, he started crying 30 minutes or so after we put both kids to bed. As the good, non-bad-habit-forming parents that we are, we let him cry for awhile in hopes he would go back to sleep. When it was clear this wasn't going to happen, Jason went and picked him up. Of course, the minute this happened, Nolan's frown turned upside down and he just started grinning. They learn to manipulate so fast!! But, I didn't care. I almost felt like he knew Bailey was in bed and wanted to take advantage of having both his parents at his disposal. He sat on the couch with us and went back and forth between the two of us, giving his sweet little baby kisses and hugs. He would put his head on my shoulder or in my lap and just smile up at me like he was having the time of his life. Soooo cute!!

We've also developed a new game around our house - it's called, "I love my sister." Bailey sits across the room and Nolan walks toward her and, once he's close, he puts his arms out to her and falls into a big Bailey bear hug. She, of course, loves this. Earlier today they did this over and over again until Nolan got tired of being squeezed. Then it was time for a different game where mom has to keep sister away from Nolan with a multitude of distractions or everyone has a meltdown....that's my favorite. Smile.

They have also returned to a game from Nolan's early days - Bailey pushing him around in her doll stroller. If you've been a long-time reader of this blog, you may remember pictures of this activity. If not, here's the recap: he didn't like it. Not one bit. Now, however, he "asks" her to play by finding the stroller and pushing it into her over and over again while whining. He can't get himself into the seat by himself, so he has to rely on one of us to get him ready for the ride. He is just happy as a clam to be strapped into that thing and pushed all over the house by his reckless 4-year-old sister. Yes, we supervise the activity.....mostly. Smile.

Here are some pics from trick-or-treating and a video of Nolan enjoying his first sucker. Yum!!

Bailey was really scared of this display!

Nolan carried his basket for exactly one minute.

Here's another video of his walking skills!

Finally, here's the soapbox portion of the program. I'm tired of two things: 1) people commenting on how small he is, and, 2) people thinking he's a girl. My frustration is not aimed at blog readers or commenters, mind you, but at random strangers and acquaintances we see as we go about our daily lives. On the size thing, yes he eats and yes, he's almost a year old. There's no need to question either of these facts just because he's smaller than YOUR kid/grandkid/sister's brother-in-law's babysitter's nephew. Thus far he and Bailey have tracked along at almost the same exact size. She's just a girl, so her percentage on the growth chart is quite a bit higher than his is as a boy. They were born at 7.13 and 21 1/2 inches (B) and 7.12 and 21 inches (N). At 9 months they were 16.14 (B) and 16.12 (N). We'll see how things go at 12 months....Bailey was 19.4. I don't think Nolan's gonna get there. It's just my suspicion after looking at pictures from Bailey's first birthday party this past week. But, Bailey's growth didn't get to the upper % levels until after 18 months. So, Nolan may still have a shot at a football career.

As for the other issue, I'm not sure I have an explanation for it. We've always thought Nolan looked very BOY, even from his earliest moments. However, I don't kid myself about the fact that it's often difficult to tell the sex of babies. However, he's almost a year now so the true baby thing is starting to wear off. He wears blue and other "boy" colors at all times....I do not put him in sweet little yellow outfits (not that there's anything wrong with that), so it's not like there's any ambiguity with his clothing. As for the hair, Jason has buzzed it with a "1" guard so, again, he's not a kid that has long flowing hair that would obviously make it hard for people to tell the difference. Heck, I don't know, maybe it's related to the size issue. I just know that 4 or 5 people just in the last month have commented on how "pretty she is." I don't really care much about it, really, I just periodically wonder what it is that makes people think "girl" when they look at him. Anytime someone says that, I just smile and say, "Yes, we think he is."

That's all for now....have a great week everyone!!

K

Baileyisms and Other Family News

Since Bailey was a wee little thing, I've been telling stories of the funny or interesting things she says. She had a vocabulary of about 10 words by her first birthday, so we've had a lot of time to comment on and laugh about her sayings. Now that she's 4, I feel like I have less and less funny stories about what she's said and more and more insightful ones. However, she was cracking me up this past week, so I feel compelled to share.

1. We were out shopping and she was trying to grab something from an upper shelf that she knew she really shouldn't pull down. Right about the time she wrapped her fingers around the item (imagine her on her tippiest tippy-toes), the loud speaker clicked on and a male voice said, "We need a manager at the register, a manager at the register please." Bailey immediately recoiled and burst into tears. I had no idea why, so I crouched down and asked her what was wrong. She said, "I don't want to get arrested, momma!!" After some more questions, it became clear that what she heard was, "We need a manager to arrest her, a manager to arrest her, please." We laughed about Bailey getting "arrested" for a good 2 hours afterward. So funny.

2. After having played with the neighborhood kids for a little while, Bailey ran over and told Jason that our neighbor Calli (who is 13) is pregnant. My husband couldn't hardly stand the news and sent me over to find out if it was really true. So, Bailey and I walked back over to the group of kids and I asked everyone what was going on. Callie, almost immediately said, "I'm running for president." She went on to talk about her junior high elections. At first I didn't make the connection, then quickly realized that Bailey had mistaken "president" for "pregnant." I had to have a talk with her about starting rumors!!! Needless to say, my husband is relieved and Calli is still a sweet little innocent 13 year-old girl.

3. Bailey and I went to Target and had our standard coke and popcorn date at the end of our shopping. I didn't notice, but a baby was crying around the corner. Bailey said, "Babies are so distractive." I said, "Destructive? Yeah, sometimes they tear things up, huh?" She sighed and said, "No, they're distractive and I can't concentrate." I laughed and corrected her that she meant distracting. Then, I told her that she needs to have patience with babies, though, because they don't know how to say words to ask for what they need so crying is how they communicate with people around them. Then I reminded her that Nolan might soon be saying his first words other than mama and dada. I asked, "What do you think his first word will be?" She thought for a minute and said, "I guess he might say refrigerator." After I choked on my drink a bit, I asked why she thought this. Her reply? "Well, he has to learn all the words in the whole world, so he might as well get that hard one out of the way." Makes sense, I suppose! :-)

I'm sure there are more stories I could tell, as she never ceases to amaze me with her thoughtfulness and wit (intentional and unintentional)!

Moving on.....Nolan is buzzing around the house like a man on a mission these days. He's finally decided that walking is a pretty good deal, but we have to face the consequences of daily face plants onto the tile, side of the coffee table, etc. Poor kid just keeps right on going, but definitely gets to a point where he's just ready for me to carry him around rather than face all the obstacles in our house!

He's also started to "say" things very emphatically, but we don't at all know what he means. He really only has a couple of consonant sounds that he uses regularly (he used to say more, but has settled on a few favorites over the past month or so) so, for instance, "ma ma" could mean me....or it could have a little different inflection and mean something like "yes, I know I'm not supposed to have this remote control that I'm about to deviously throw over the backside of the couch so you have to move the 300 pound couch to retrieve it just so I can find it and do the whole routine again." Or maybe that's just me. Smile.

Here are a few pictures from the past couple of weeks. We had our church Fall Festival so the kids got to wear their Halloween costumes. Bailey is going to be Little Miss Muffett and Nolan is the spider (who sat down beside her!). He, however, refused to keep on his headpiece. He's still a cute little arachnid even without the headpiece.

We also spent some time at the zoo this weekend. Now, Jason and I had a deep discussion about whether or not Nolan had been to the zoo before. I know I took Bailey several days before he was born (hoping that the walking would push him on out), but I can't remember if he's been outside of my belly! In any case, he wouldn't have really been interested in the animals any younger than he is now. Not that he was all that interested this time. Here you can see that he gave the monkeys and the fish a second look, but that was about it!

Finally, I've included a couple of other pics and a short video from this past week. As you can see, my claim of the kids being obsessed with the computer is no exaggeration. Here they are both vying for their place in front of the screen. They don't realize that it's locked and their typing is doing nothing. :-)

What a great daddy!! Fingernail painting and everything...

Bailey doesn't usually sit in a baby swing...but, of course, since Nolan was swinging she had to do the exact same thing!