Water Fun!

Yesterday was a day of fun and water for Nolan and I. We spent the morning at a splash park near the beach. Then after lunch we headed to the backyard to try out our new (2.98 on clearance) sprinkler.

While playing, Nolan got one of his water table toys and decided to start filling it from the sprinkler. Then he would walk around the yard and dump it in various spots. A favorite was the back window of his cozy coupe car. I decided to turn that play into work and pointed out my tomato plants to him. He watered the first for a while then I asked him to water the other plants and he understood and continued to do so!!

His hard work was followed by a relaxing kefir popsicle. Kefir is a yogurt like drink which has more calories than plain juice so it's perfect for healthy popsicles for my tiny guy.

Chilling in his Adirondack chair!

Playroom Update

It's been a few months since we redid the dining room and turned it in to Nolan's playroom. It gets a lot of use so I wanted to show what new things we added and give a glimpse of what it looks like fully stocked with toys.

Here is our newest addition. A way to keep track of his push toys. These were all over the house and now can hang nicely.

Here is probably the only picture of all the toys put away and every shelf dusted that you'll ever see! I had to put Nolan in the other room behind a baby gate to get this shot. He kept removing everything I worked so hard to pick up!

I'm sure he'll love the magnet board one day but for now he just loves running his hands across it and sending all the magnets flying at once!

Gym time

I've finally joined a gym. MyGym that is and it's for Nolan not me. You didn't really think you'd see me on a treadmill did you??

Monday I scheduled a playdate for my mom's group there and afterwards they offered us a steep discount. Since Nolan loved it so much, I decided to join for at least a month or two. The second we walked in the door he took off through the open kids door and straight to the fun. I grabbed him and brought him back while I signed in and he cried thinking he wasn't going to get to play. Of course they said, "Just let him in it's ok!" and off he went. I think his favorite spot was the ball pit next to the mirror. He found the handsome baby in the mirror and smiled and giggled away. Here are a few shots from our fun. I'm sure you'll see more once we start in September.

He insisted on getting in the jumpers that were up for the tiny babies. Good thing he weighs the same as them!

Smiling after a somersault.

He had a look of joy on the downswing each time and pure terror on the upswing. He seemed really proud of himself once done though!

Playing in the rain...

...and why my house is never spotless!

Toddler funnies

This morning Nolan was having music time with me. I grabbed his tambourine and was trying to get him to say the word tambourine. Nol says mainly one syllable words so I switched and said "Bells. Say bells Nolan." He grabbed his shirt, lifted it, and started rubbing his belly. I laughed as I said "That's your bell-y. This is a bell."

We are also doing potty sitting. I don't force the issue but am just getting him used to the seat. He stopped and it was obvious he was filling his diaper. Hoping to catch him actually going on the potty I asked if he wanted to sit on his potty. He took off running to the bathroom. I removed his already full diaper and sat him up there hoping he still had to go some. His diaper was sitting on the floor waiting for him to be off the toilet so I could rinse it out. Remember Nolan is in cloth so it's a bit different. While sitting on the potty, he started pointing towards his diaper and growling. Nol usually does this for any animal he sees but doesn't know the noise for or other things he thinks should growl. Apparently, his poo is a monster that growls!

Toothy grin

We have all four canine teeth starting to poke through at once. I tried to get pics yesterday and this was the best I could do. 

Nolan show me your teeth....

The pics were taken so close his little head looks all rounded!

Un-ketchup!

So Nolan is a ketchup lover! Truthfully he is a lover of all dips. Unfortunately though he licks the dip off and is a double....well usually quadruple dipper. That means he doesn't get much of the calories from the food he is dipping but ends up eating a lot of the condiment. He's also kind of sensitive to acidic foods so I decided to find something to substitute for acidic ketchup. I thought ranch might be nice especially since he is so tiny and needs calories anyways. He eats it sometime but it's not a love like with ketchup. The second I put the red sauce on his plate he gets happy!

I started googling non-tomato ketchup but didn't come up with much. Mainly a few yahoo questions where a some geniuses posted "You can't make ketchup without tomatoes. It's the main ingredient." Determined to do so, I searched on. Eventually, I found this recipe. I tweaked it a bit using a standard ketchup recipe for the spices so Nol would have something that tasted as true as possible. Here is how we started.

Yum veggies on the stove.

Carrots, beets, and yellow squash boiling on the stove were the start. Then my much neglected food processor did the rest. In went a little lemon juice as a preservative, a few spices, and a hint of brown sugar.

The food processor looked quite colorful but at least the end result is "red" enough to let Nolan think it's ketchup. So far my little monster hasn't figured out he is eating veggies. He even eats it by the spoonful like he would do with ketchup!! One word to anyone thinking of doing the same. If your child isn't too particular about the color use golden beets. The red ones stain everything!!