Nolanisms!

The other night after waking up very late from his nap, we had a cranky toddler on our hands. He didn't want to eat dinner or really do anything. We finally got him to sit down at the table when he realized I had a baked potato and he didn't. Usually this is the norm since he won't eat one no matter what. He asked for one so I cut mine and put it on his plate. Since it was my food though it was piping hot and hadn't been cooling like his own plate. The potato steamed as I sat it on his plate and I told him it was hot. About 20 seconds later the steam stopped and the tears started. It took us a few minutes to figure out why he was crying but for the next 10 minutes he kept saying "Where my hot go mommy?" "I need my hot" and refusing to eat or do anything but cry. Finally, it dawned on me that he was upset his food had stopped steaming! He kept thinking we took his "hot" away and he wanted it back!

Me: Nolan you're face is all red. 
Nolan: No mommy I yellow.

Yellow is his favorite color and apparently in toddler world you should get to be the color you like best!


Nolan: Mommy I yucky eww.
Me: Are you supposed to go poopy in your pants?
Nolan: No mommy. I go yucky eww at park.

He got me there. He did poop at the park!

Dress Up

There has been a lot of dress up play in our house recently. It's time for me to get a few new outfits for Nolan to play with. 

Finally wearing and loving his 2yr old birthday outfit!

Every time he wears his tutu he flips his legs in the air to be a ballerina.

"Mommy, where my sword?" So mommy made him a sword!

I blast off!!

Stylin' getting ready for his walk down the aisle.

IKEA trip teaser

Yesterday was our much awaited IKEA trip!! Four adults, 5 hours in the store, and one large truck meant this....

In store caravan. We actually had a third push cart full of stuff out of frame. That's two carts and three push ones.

Loading the giant truck.

Inside the cab is all our small stuff!

Craft area! My awesome husband got to work right away. Better finished pics to come soon.

The whole craft set up. 

I didn't take pics of our other items built yet but more will come once it's finished and decorated. I just couldn't wait to show this neat stuff though!

New wash routine

Along with moving came a few changes to our cloth routine. Nolan is getting close to being potty trained but truthfully with the move and new house full of new carpet, end of pregnancy and upcoming road trip, I haven't been working on it 100%. He has now pooped in the potty (YAY!!) and goes pee numerous times a day. We need to bite the bullet and move to undies and just be prepared to clean up accidents.

Every blog post needs a pic so here are a bunch of our diapers in action over the past 2.5yrs!

Our new house has a top loader washing machine. Tim was willing to switch out our HE front loaders for these new appliances but I was hesitant. I was pretty excited to get to try a machine that could actually soak diapers! I have to say I'm really happy. I wish it had a soak only feature which the machine doesn't or just a rinse feature but I've fine tuned our wash already. I do a lighter wash on cold first which doesn't agitate as long would be similar to our old rinse and drain. Then I do a super sized load on hot for the longest time available with an extra rinse at the end. My diapers are definitely smelling better and seem better rinsed with minimal effort. No more hand rinsing in the bathtub either! I've also stopped storing and washing inserts and covers separately since with the new machines nothing is requiring extra washing. Overall pretty happy. You can definitely cloth diaper and probably easier with the less fancy machines.

House into Home

We are slowly turning our new house into our home. I say slowly because while we'd love to be decorated and all moved in it hasn't happened. Eight months pregnant and with a toddler means I have minimal ability to do a lot of the big things. The weather and a flooded first house has meant Tim has had minimal time to do the rest. After digging, roof tarring, cleaning and drying carpets, pumping out water, and various other tasks the old house is finally almost ready for our tenants. Both of us are exhausted. Later this week will be a fun IKEA trip for the new house so new things should take shape here too! In the meantime, here are some of the things we've managed to install and gather for our forever home.

Our new dining table all ready for company.

Nolan's reading area in his playroom.

Other side of playroom!

Backside of my laundry room.

"My splashpark." The first house as it was flooding!

Maternity session fun

I had my maternity session yesterday with Cindy Morrison Photography. My good friend is the photographer Cindy. She completely knows how to get picky toddlers to interact and take good pictures after lots of experience with them herself!! Cindy focuses on amazing newborn pictures and maternity pictures.

She's posted a few sneak peeks for me on FB that you can see if you visit her page here. I'm loving them so far and can't wait to see everything!!! Less than nine weeks until Carter's estimated due date now.

Gluten Free Saga continues...

So back in December when Nolan's IGG results came back showing a high reaction/intolerance to gluten and wheat (pumpkin and parsley too) we started on the road to gluten free with him. It wasn't too difficult at first but as with anything and a two year old eventually there were tantrums and tears over not being able to have what his friends have. Our pediatrician had high hopes that once his gut continued to mature we'd be able to reintroduce these down the line. They suggested eliminating them for at least 90 days. Because 90 days flies by in the blink of an eye and our petite little man didn't suddenly become a bruiser, we continued gluten free for a full 6 months. Last week we decided to reintroduce gluten and see if we noticed a difference.

Nolan's issues aren't easily noticeable to the outside world. He doesn't swell or develop a rash. What exactly happens to him on the inside is a bit of a mystery too because he can't yet verbalize it to us. What we do know is this. After a few weeks off of gluten my picky, non eating little boy started eating full meals, drinking quantifiable amounts of food, sleeping through the night for the first time in his life, and having more regular stools. Last week with a day or two of the reintroduction of gluten, that all changed.

His first sandwich at a picnic in the park.

My usually happy go lucky little boy became a whiny miserable little terror. I know that's not my baby and he must not be feeling okay. We had gone months without him skipping a meal and in the last week he has skipped more than he has eaten. It started out well, he ate a whole sandwich at our picnic in the park but each day became progressively worse. Tim would get home from work just in time for the meltdowns and dinner time issues to begin.

Nolan is of course only two and any two year old can have a bad week so I didn't want to rush to judgement. After over a week of the issues getting worse and our baby not eating though, it's pretty clear we need to go back to gluten free and be determined to keep even small amounts from him. If large amounts have this sort of effect, even small amounts are doing some harm. So we'll be back to avoiding the bakery counters at every grocery store, shooing away anyone trying to feed him random things, and leaving playdates early when he just can't cope with the fact that he can't have exactly what someone else is eating. At least I'll have my happy little toddler back!!