13 Month Recap

Nolan turned 14 months a week and a half ago, and since we stopped doing formal "monthly photos" after 12 months, I thought moving to recaps with iPhone photos (capturing everyday events) would be a good way to show snapshots of our life each month.

Nolan at 13 Months

May was marked by 2 big events: Joe and I ran the Broad Street Run on Cinco de Mayo and our big OBX trip over memorial day weekend.

Broad Street Run Finishers!

My mom watched Nolan while Joe and I ran down Broad Street through downtown Philadelphia for 10 miles. It was a really fun race - the largest 10 mile race in the country with around 40,000 runners. There were people cheering along the entire route, and we got to run most of the race together. Nolan loved the medals :)

You can read more detail about our OBX trip to Kill Devil Hills here, but it was a great time and fun way to introduce Nolan to the ocean!

Beach Ready

OBX

Sweet Boy

Walking:

Nolan got his cast off on May 17th and bounced back very quickly. By the end of May, he was already farther along in development than he had been pre-cast. The doctors warned us it could take up to 3 weeks after the cast came off to just return to where he was before the break, but it only took Nolan a few days! Very proud of our guy!

Getting his cast on in late April

By the end of the month, Nolan is back to cruising everywhere - including walls, going from laying down to sitting up by himself, pulling himself up on everything, and walking the length of a room between mommy and daddy. He'll be independently walking before we know it - he just needs the confidence to "let go".

Cruising along the walls!

Steering his walker in all directions

Pulled himself up - so proud of himself. I'm in love with the scrunchy nose smile.

Eating:

By the end of 12 months/beginning of 13 months, Nolan had moved completely to whole milk from formula. Good riddance, expensive formula (thankfully he was only on it for a few months)! The transition was very smooth - Nolan has never been super picky about his bottles - he's taken all types of bottles we've given him, and never cared much about the temperature of the liquid. He also made the big switch from bottles to sippy cups. This was also smooth and seamless - so much so that daycare even remarked on how easily he switched over! He drinks out of Avent sippy cups for his milk and straw sippy cups (playtex and Zoli) for water. We still give him a real bottle before bed just to get him sleepy and soothed.

You're feeding me what?!

For solids, Nolan is getting better and better at finger foods. So far his hands down favorite food is... DUMPLINGS! Who would've thought! :) He loves the frozen dumplings from Trader Joe's that mommy sautees and even eats it with some "Trader Ming's" sauce. His favorites are the pork variety but also eats shrimp and chicken. He also loves ravioli's, meatballs, sausage balls, goldfish, cheese sandwiches, apple sauce, and yogurt. He'll still eat veggie/fruit purees I make. Unfortunately, I guess I pushed our baby bullet to the limit and it died on me this month. We'll be picking up another food processor soon, but in the meantime he's been enjoying the pouches you can buy at the grocery store.

Graham Crackers and Zoli Cup

In general, he's been a pretty good eater, although I sometimes wish he'd eat more "real food" and less snacks (graham crackers, goldfish, etc) but at this point I'm just giving him whatever he'll eat to keep him growing! It also really varies day to day.

Bottle before bed = heaven for mommy. Lots of cuddle time!

Sleeping:

In general, Nolan has been a great sleeper this month. He hasn't had an ear infection in quite awhile now (hooray for warmer weather and no colds!) The biggest disruption in sleep has been due to his first MOLARS coming in! This kid is definitely on the earlier end of getting all his teeth - he now has 10 teeth! (4 in front, two on bottom, and four molars). It looks like more are on their way too!

Sleepy Boy

Besides a couple memorable-not-in-a-good-way nights when we could not get him back down, Nolan usually falls right back asleep if he wakes up and we give him a small bottle of milk. The nights we notice he is in pain due to his teeth, we give him infant tylenol, which sometimes helps.

Worn out from the doctor's visit for his cast

Talking:
We're still waiting on his "language explosion", which occurs more in the 18-24 month stage, and are just trying to expose him as much as possible to words, both in English and Spanish. All his toys that have a spanish option are set to that, and Joe and I sing the alphabet song in both languages along with telling him numbers, colors, and other simple words. Recently, my mom got us some CDs of fun spanish kid songs that Nolan and I listen to on the way to and from work/daycare. We hope to give him a leg up on learning a second language so we'll see how that goes! 

Love him!

For now, he loves "chanting" in a particular rhythm "Da...Da...Da-Da-Da!", says "Mamamama" when he's wining/needs comfort, and I'm pretty sure he's saying Dean "Dee", and Dog "Doh". He can understand a lot (prob more than we realize), and follows simple instructions like "Give me that" or "Go get that" or "Where's Daddy?" (looks around). He babbles constantly, which sounds like another language and is very cute especially when his pitch goes from low to high :)

Favorite things:

Nolan is getting more and more playful, and loves playing games. He loves "peekaboo" and hiding from us waiting for us to say "Where's baby Nolan?" then popping into view and smiling when he say "THERE he is!"

"Where's Baby Nolan?"

There he is!!

With cruising everywhere comes getting into EVERYTHING! He especially loves opening and closing doors (he frequently scoots into the bathroom and shuts himself in there) and pulling things out of drawers/cabinets. His favorite toys are mostly non-toys (bowls, cups, brushes, markers/etc) A whole new level of baby proofing is ongoing making sure all reachable tabletops are free of dangerous items and all cabinets are either locked or dangerous materials moved. Even with this effort, we still keep our eyes on him constantly. He's a real handful right now (as he should be!)

Banging on the pots and pans

One of his favorite things to do (besides pulling up and cruising) is to throw things! We have lots of little toy balls and he loves to throw them, scoot over to where they go, then throw again. He even "shoots" at his mini basketball net and knows to put the ball in the basket. Joe and I are both getting excited to play catch and sports with him as he gets older - it will be so much fun!

He also loves puzzles and figuring out spacial fits. When we were in OBX he was so excited when he realized the remote would fit into an empty VHS cover and did it over and over. He tests if things will fit all the time - my little analytical mind :)

Things to Remember at this Age:

This is such a sweet age. I always saw my friends saying things like "THIS is my favorite age, no THIS is my favorite age" and I get why - it just keeps getting more and more fun as you can interact and play with your kid. Sure things get harder - chasing a baby around the house trying to prevent them from killing themselves is exhausting! But the rewards are just so much greater with the smiles, giggles, and hugs. I feel thankful for him everyday.

Cute things at 13 months:

• His hair. It's sort of like a baby mullet now - it's getting longer in the back. With the humidity of all the rain, the back is getting pretty curly (just like mom!) But the front hair is still super straight and easily stands straight up (he gets fantastic bedhead!). He ruffles his own hair quite a bit so he's always looking a bit frazzled, which is cute as a button.

Mr. Crazy Hair

Crazy bedhead hair!

• His silly scrunched nose smile (see pic at beginning of post)
• The way he sways from side to side when hearing music 
• Clapping and stomping his feet during the right verses when he hears "If you're happy and you know it" 
• His look up for approval when he figures things out like puzzles/opening and closing things/etc
• His scooting everywhere and constant hugs he wants to give when we bend down to him

I'm sure there's many, many more. But the point is, we're enjoying him so much and I want to remember this little snapshot of life for years to come. Can't wait to see what future months will bring.

Nolan and Mommy

Nolan and Daddy