Posh baby photo contest

So I entered Nolan in a fun little photo contest! I have been researching making a blog that would be fun and informative. Todd is going to help me. But this is a cool blog and has a little photo contest.

So....Vote for our Nolan

http://www.poshlittle.com/baby/baby-photo-contest.html?&task=show&id=428

The Little Village Playplace

 

Today we visited The Little Village Playplace in Arlington Heights. It was part of Nolan's early preschool class. He had a great time playing with the school bus, in the house, at the dentist office, in the grocery store, making crafts, and just running around!

MY SLIDE!

 

Nolan is fascinated with our basement, he LOVES, absolutely LOVES to play in the basement. I believe he loves the basement so much because we are playing with him. He has our undivided attention. I placed his storybook cottage in the basement a few months ago and that was quite the hit. This past weekend we decided if we are going to play in the basement, we needed some carpeting. So we bought some, and now it is a big play zone...

Today I moved the slide into the basement, and Nolan was thrilled. Up and down the slide he went, for over an hour. Here is a collage of pictures of the fun he had.

"HI!"

Nolan is 20 months old now, and his vocabulary is expanding as he is getting bigger. My little boy is growing up so FAST! I am trying to remember and capture all these little everyday happenings. He is at a very cute age, and it is fun to hear his voice and little words. He recently started saying Wrigley, well more like Wrie, ree. And the past few days he has developed his first two word combination. He now says Hi. He will say it for hello, goodbye, and he now added Hi with another word like Wrigley, mama or dada.

Here is a little video of him saying his word, HI for his favorite buddy, Wrigley.

As you can see in the video he loves her so much, so much so that he gets kissed by her, and he shares everything with her. He is also learning how to brush his teeth, so you will see him try to brush Wrigley too! We are working on not sharing everything with his favorite friend.

The FACES of Nolan

 

The many faces of Nolan--all I can say is that I love everyone of them, he is just CUTE! What this collage made me see is how Nolan has grown and learned about emotions and how to express himself within his environment. He has learned how to have other humans respond to him. He has so many expressions, our visit to the Kohl's Children's Museum just captured a few of these faces. But I am so happy that I have these flickers in time. He is growing up so quickly, and we will be able to look back at these moments! All I can say is that I love Nolan and all of his faces!

Kohl's Children's Museum

 

To start off the New Year, we took Nolan to the Kohl's Children's Museum in Glenview, IL. Nolan had an absolutely fabulous time. Upon entering the doors, you could see his eyes light up by all the colors and children around. What is neat about this museum is that it is set up to let children learn and explore. There is several different themed rooms; from the builder's zone, to water world, to the car wash, a vet clinic, and the grocery store, they even have a potbelly play restaurant. The imagination is endless for these little minds--and you could see the wheels turning in Nolan's mind. He had a great time, and did not want to go home. I can tell you, we will be back to visit again in the near future.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all of our friends and family! We would like to wish everyone a year of much joy, laughter, and love! 2009 was truly a wonderful year! We have enjoyed many of Nolan's firsts--from his baby days to being quite a remarkable little boy. He is amazing and learns daily. We love all of his laughter! Todd and I are certainly looking forward to the many happy times ahead in 2010!

Todd and I also cannot believe that we have known each other for the past 10 years. We met on New Year's Eve 1999/2000 at Rainbow Roller rink to enjoy the live music of Underwater People and Mike and Joe, on Lawrence and Clark in Chicago(which now is a condo building). We have grown a lot over the past 10 years...from our days in Oak Park and Logan Square, to Lincoln Square, to Wrigleyville, and now Inverness. We bought our first condo, expanded our family with our favorite lab, Wrigley; and "said I do." We moved to the suburbs, changed jobs, and of course have a wonderful little boy and a wonderful family unit full of laughter and love.