oreos

I showed Nolan the art of dipping an oreo in milk, and he was hooked instantly. Now when we offer him a cookie, he asks for a cup of milk to go with it!

more snow

Finally! We got enough snow to get on our gear and go out to play.
I was much more enthusiastic about this then Nolan was. He actually cried when I got his snow pants and jacket and boots on. Then when we got outside he continued crying because his boots got "dirty" (they got snow on the tops of them). After a few minutes, he enjoyed the snow more.
Then we made a very small snowman, sprayed the snow with food coloring, made snow angels, and shoveled some snow.

a little bit of snow

We have only had a few dustings of snow so far this year, so we really haven't been able to enjoy it.
This is the first time that Nolan showed interest in going out in the snow independently. He wanted to clean the snow off of the railing. Then he continued on to sweeping the snow off of the patio.

getting ready

With the cold weather, we have been bundling up. Before we go out, Nolan always says, "hat on, gloves on, coat on."
Then he says, "see now" because he doesn't want his hat to go over his eyes. The minute we are in the car, he says, "hat off, gloves off."
Now, he can take his coat off all by himself. Of course if I try to help him he says, "self."

words and signs

When Nolan was 15 months old, he had seventy signs in his vocabulary. Signing was his main form of communication and he was good at it. He knew signs for most of the things we saw every day, and also made up signs on his own for words I hadn't taught him. SInce this time, Nolan has added hundreds of words to his vocabulary. So many words, I can't even count them. He speaks consistently in 3 and 4 words sentences. He even uses sentences to recall past events that I would be sure he would have forgotten by now. Just yesterday he was telling me about going to the ocean with Katie, Robby, Michael, Grandmom, Aunt Kris, and Aunt Aimee.
But when his mouth is full, he still resorts to his signing. How clever that he knows he can efficiently communicate his wants and needs even when he can't use his mouth.
All I can say is that his language skills are a dream for an SLP mom!

a little musician

Nolan has started composing his own songs in his spare time. He started by drumming on the plant stands and singing "ah sa bye," and has progressed to using the Wii guitar and our actual guitar to sing new songs with new lyrics. Most of what he sings is silly words, but occasionally an actual word pops out too.

blocks

Nolan got his first set of Duplo blocks for Christmas for Grandma and Grandpop, and they are a real hit. He loves to build castles, bicycles, houses, cars, boats, and animals.
Most of his creations look very similar, but he is using his imagination and creating masterpieces!

Wii

It was bound to happen. Nolan was going to start to play the Wii soon!
Here he is trying his hand out at Super Smash Bros. with Daddy.

Nolan's kitchen

Nolan loves this new kitchen. He spends a lot of time stirring, using tongs, cooking in the microwave, and washing his food in the refrigerator water dispenser. He loves to cook food for Mommy, Daddy, and his animals.

brids

We feed the birds and squirrels on our back porch. Nolan loves to watch them come and go. He says, "one flew away" every time a bird or squirrel leaves. He also applies this phrase to the fish in our fish tank!

presents #2

Grandmom went so overboard on the presents, that we actually had to open them in 3 sessions.

cooking

Nolan loves to cook! He got a play kitchen for Christmas, and he spends a lot of time every day cooking hot dogs, grapes, cookies, and french fries.
He also loves to help cook in our kitchen. He makes his breakfast and lunch in the microwave, helps stir and now is peeling potatoes. He also loves to sit on the counter and watch while I make dinner.

basketball

Uncle Adam and Aunt Tobi got Nolan this basketball net for Christmas, and it is a real hit!
The boys especially love playing together!
When we play together as a family, Nolan will try to back up to where Mommy and Daddy stand to make a basket from far away. He also likes to play basketball while we sit on chairs!

Christmas Day

Nolan really loved Christmas this year! He was so excited to open presents from Ho Ho Claus. Nolan even had a very short list list of presents. He really wanted a magnedoodle from Ho Ho. When he saw a magnedoodle at the store, I told him he could ask Santa for one. For the next two days he walked around saying "ho ho, one"
This year, Nolan had to compete a little with Rudy for opening rights to presents. She tried to open a lot of his presents!
While we were opening, Nolan stopped with each gift to play for a few minutes.

Christmas Eve

at church with milk and cookies

good stuff

Nothing is better than being at Grandmom's house. We wear crazy hats and eat lollipops!

cookie exchange

Every year we do a cookie exchange and come home with 18 dozen assorted cookies. It is a huge amount of cookies so we always sample some right away! Nolan was very into the sampling of every type of cookie. He is a trained sampler, and only takes one bite of each cookie. After one bite, he passes it along to me!

self

This is Nolan's new favorite word. He says "self" about everything. He wants to walk down the stairs, wipe his hands, cool his lunch, fix his toys, brush his teeth, and figure things out all by himself. He is very independent!

gingerbread house part 2

The second part of making our gingerbread house involved a lot of eating candy and a little bit of decorating. I think the house got about 20 pieces of candy on it.
Nolan did enjoy squeezing the icing out of the tube and spreading with a knife. He really loved licking the icing off of his fingers!

Baby's heart

Nolan has gotten even more into the idea of having a new baby. At any mention of the baby, he says "baby heart." He loves to talk about going to the doctor to hear the baby's heart!

It's a BOY!

I think he looks a little bit like Nolan!

gingerbread house part 1

This year we made a gingerbread house for the first time. Nolan saw Katie come home from school with a gingerbread house and wanted one too! So we made a stop at Michael's and started that night.
Little did I know it was an all day project.
Phase one included making icing and eating a lot of candy. We also glued together the houses of the wall. I had no idea it was such a delicate process.