Anything Worth Blogging About: August 2011

Nolan's only 8 months old and she already has to learn the hard way. Since she's started crawling, she wants to go all over the place and pull up on everything, including the dog. Brinkley is really patient, letting Nolan crawl all over her and grab her hair and paws, but that doesn't stop her from knocking Nolan over sometimes. Nolan got her first official owie when she busted her lip trying to pull up on the shower door. There was a little blood and a few tears, but she soon forgot about it and continued on her merry way.

Brinkley, bracing for the worst :)

Brent's birthday was August 9th and we spent about a week celebrating. It started with dinner at home with his parents, my parents, Lisa and Shahyan. I made french dip sandwiches, roasted fingerling potato salad, green salad with everything good, and s'more cupcakes. Yum!

2 candles for turning 32

helping daddy with his presents

tasty!

On his actual birthday, the three of us went to dinner at Blue Sushi in Fort Worth and Curly's Frozen Custard for dessert. When the weekend finally arrived we headed to Oklahoma to enjoy an adult night out at Choctaw with Lisa and Shahyan. We had fun at the pool, a nice dinner, a lovely hotel room, great company and fun times (when we don't think about the money we lost at the blackjack table). I don't think we'll go back for the gambling since the odds are highly stacked against us (you have to pay to play and we lost our money in no time). We also got to see some Jacob Black lookalikes (Twilight fans know who I'm talking about)!

Brent, looking like a 5 yr old smiling for a school picture, posing so I could get a pic of the Jacob lookalikes. Soon after, casino security came by to ask me to delete all photos b/c you aren't allowed to take pics in a casino. I managed to save this one though.

Brent and I took advantage of restaurant week last night and ate at Lanny's Alta Cocina in Fort Worth. We had a fabulous meal and would go back if their usual prices weren't so crazy. I'm thankful for restaurant week so we can try places like it. We also get to try Al Biernats before restaurant week is over.

Carne Asada

It was a fun week of celebration and I look forward to the next big celebration in our family of three... Nolan's 1st birthday! I can't believe it's less than 4 months away! Maybe it's too early to be planning it already, but I can't help thinking about it!

More pics from the last few weeks:

playing with her blueberries

already obsessed with electronics (is 9 months too young for her first iPod? hehe)

she loves drinking out of a straw and it provides much entertainment for adults

clean baby!

crawling through her tunnel, which she eventually tried to pull up on but it couldn't hold her weight so we had to put it away

Brent's angry face at Brinkley for jumping over the furniture

Nolan's impression of Brent's angry face

not thrilled with myself in this pic, but i love it of her

silly girl

I have to show off my new wall hanging. I wanted to do something unique with her 7 month pics so I ordered some round prints on illustration board and hung them with a plate hanger. I love how it turned out!

Nolan has changed so much since my last post! I can't believe how fast she's growing and changing.

Probably the most exciting new development for me:

Mama... I know she doesn't know what it means yet and she hasn't said it much since this video was taken, about a week ago, but it really is the greatest sound I've ever heard, and I know she will say it and mean it soon!

...and then she was mobile:

She's been determined to get moving for awhile now. For a few weeks she's been able to scootch almost anywhere she wants to go, but she's finally mastered the forward crawl. She seems to be over it already though because she's always preoccupied with trying to pull up and stand. I have a feeling it won't be long before she'll be cruising and then walking. we are almost done baby proofing our house, I think. I guess our next task will be to baby proof the grandparents' houses!

Now that she's mobile she doesn't go to sleep as easily as she used to. She likes to climb around in her crib for 30 minutes or so before she falls asleep. She'll move around until she literally passes out from exhaustion. I was watching her on the monitor the other day, and I saw her fall asleep sitting up. She just fell over and continued sleeping.

You hear people say all the time how sad they are that their baby is no longer a baby, but I kind of feel the opposite. I am so excited for her future! I can't wait for her to start school and make friends, join extra curricular activities, learn how to cook with me, take dance lessons... the list goes on. Maybe I'll change my mind when she learns how to talk back and have her own opinion that doesn't match mine, but right now I'm excited to see who she becomes.