reading

Reading is one of Nolan's favorite activities. He loves to pick a book and bring it to Matt or I to read. He especially loves pop up and lift the flap books. Another favorite is books that can be sung. Some of his favorites now are: Giant Pop-Out Vehicles, Pop Goes the Weasel, Baby Animals, Do Your Ears Hang Low, Dog, Old McDonald, and Hello Bee Hello Me.
We started reading when Nolan was just one day old. Aunt Kristen read to him in the hospital and she was amazed at how he listened to the book. Since then we have had a 5 book a day minimum. Needless to say, we read about 15 books a day and many of them we read multiple times!

sign sign sign...and words

He is signing and talking! We have been working on labeling and requesting with signs and words, and it is paying off. Nolan can now sign bird, airplane, more and all done. He is saying cat, fish, and up.
Here he is signing airplane!
And also hamming it up for the camera!

little monkey part two

I know I have mentioned how much Nolan loves to move and climb, but I am always amazed at the things he will try!
Here he is posing on top of his garage. This is a tame pose because usually he stands up and cheers for himself by putting both arms straight up in the air.

sandbox

Nolan got a sandbox for his 1st birthday, and he loves it. He was unsure at first, just like he was with the sand at the beach, but then he loved it. He asks to play in the sandbox all the time. When it was rainy he decided to play on the cover of the sandbox because I refused to open it.
He sprinkles the sand with his hands, fills up buckets, dumps the sand outside the sandbox, and also tries to imitate the things I do. His imitation skills are really improving.
Also, it has been a few weeks, but Nolan had his one year appointment on April 22. He was 21 and 1/2 pounds and 31 inches. That is the 30th percentile for weight and the 80th for height. He has reached all of his milestones right on time!

point pleasant

We took a very cold day trip to Point Pleasant New Jersey to walk on the boardwalk, have lunch, and feed the birds. Nolan was fascinated by the sea gulls on the beach. He seems to be interested in all birds. When he first got on the sand he was a little leery of it, but soon he excited and walking all around.

Kid's Music Round

Daddy came to Kid's Music Round for the first time, so we could finally take pictures. Nolan is in his second music class now, and it has been amazing to watch him develop the skills we work on in class. He has learned to clap to the music, dance to the beat, and use instruments. Just this week, he started singing along to the rhythm patterns. It is also amazing to see him learning to interact with other kids, clean up the instruments and get into the mob of children to get the instrument he wants. We have never worked on cleaning up at home, and a few weeks ago at music class Nolan followed all the big kids and put his instrument back into the box.