"Happy Day"!

Saturday was Nolan's second birthday, or as he says "Happy Day". As I think back over this past year I am just so proud of him. There have been a lot of obstacles with his eating and talking- but he has worked so hard and come so far. He is very kind, a servant at heart, loves to laugh and dance, and for the most part is very obedient. He loves, loves, loves music. He has a CD player in his room and will sit in there for at least 30 minutes at a time and change out cd's and just listen. His favorite toys are instruments- it will be interesting to see which one he decides to play one day. He is drawn to the violin...I just don't know if I could handle that! :) He also loves to watch sports and can seriously toss a ball. His speech improves daily and I realized that he whines so much less than when he couldn't talk. And let me tell you, that kid could whine!! I enjoy him more and more every day. Happy birthday buddy- we can't wait to see what this next year will bring us.

02/20/08

02/20/09

02/20/10

We had a fairly low-key birthday. Saturday we had over our former neighbors who love Nolan as a grandson. This is his cute cake that I DID NOT make. God bless Publix- I just didn't have the energy! Then on Sunday Jerel's parents were able to celebrate with us. We went to Moe's- Nolan's favorite- but he threw up about 1 minute after we got there. There has been a nasty stomach bug going around Greenville. Lovely. He's fine now.

No problem licking off the frosting

He got this very cool toy guitar which he loves. Can you just see the joy??

Ms. Karen

Nine months ago we began the process of getting Nolan help for his eating/texture issues. There is a program in South Carolina called Baby Net- that if you qualify, they will pay for everything that insurance will not cover in the realms of occupational and speech therapy. When we were applying to be qualified for OT he also tested fairly delayed with speech. At the time I wasn't too concerned about his delay but figured if it was free and the therapist would come to my house- then bring it on. I am so so so thankful that we did because Nolan ended up becoming more and more delayed. He had his therapist, Ms. Karen totally stumped. He wouldn't/ couldn't imitate most sounds and just seemed stuck by the whole process. She tried a lot of different approaches and finally around Christmas he began to say "mama" and "dada". It was so exciting. Since then he has progressed quickly and we were working towards him regularly putting two words together at a time. The other day Nolan came out of his room and said very clearly "I want a cookie" and I thought, yep, we are done with speech. That day Karen said that he has met all his goals and was done. YEA!! He loves Ms. Karen and we will miss her but are so glad that he is age appropriate. Now if we could just graduate OT, but I have a feeling that we are in that for the long haul!!!

Great Weekend

This past weekend was so great. I feel like since we had Elliott we have been fairly house-bound and don't really do much. I know it's a phase- at least that is what I keep telling myself. Anyway, we actually did several different things this weekend and it was so enjoyable. Friday night it started snowing hard. I don't really mind snow but in the south people are so unprepared and freak out. Everything shuts down and it is so inconvenient. However, this was the perfect snow. It started Friday afternoon but we braved it and went to Moe's (our weekend tradition) anyway. Saturday morning the snow was beautiful and fluffy (usually just ice in this area) and had melted by that afternoon. Just how I like it!

Notice the lack of gloves on Nolan? Poor kid!!! Just one investment I never made.

Rocky was in heaven

Then saturday night we went to a nice restaurant downtown where I ate with abandon and went with Sandy and her sister to see Wicked. If you haven't been to that show and have the opportunity- GO! It was beyond amazing and I can't wait to go again one day. Maybe Jerel will have to take me back to New York! :)

Sunday, Nolan helped me make cookies for Jerel for Valentines Day. He truly loves to help us cook and is a great helper. I thought he did a great job with the sprinkles.

I look forward to many more great weekends!

If Only...

Elliott would be the perfect baby IF ONLY he would decide to sleep through the night or wake up later than 5:45 A.M. I am in no way, shape, or form complaining- I'm just saying that he's not perfect! We know how blessed we are to have two healthy, happy boys and I have many friends who wished their only problem was that their baby wouldn't sleep through the night. And, once he is sleeping through the night, I know that there will be something else. The reason being- he's not perfect. None of us are! :)