Tricks of the Trade

I was talking to my mom the other day about all the little tricks you learn while caring for a baby. Since they can't communicate with you it's pretty much one big guessing game. But as you get to know your child and try different tactics, you start to learn a few tricks that work. Whether it's something to buy you a few minutes of alone time in another room, or to get them to sleep, or just a trick to make them happy when they're fussy and you can't figure out why. So here are a few techniques we've stumbled upon that seem to work for Nolan...at least so far.

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Things that make him happy

Diapers. A couple of nights ago he was really upset for a good half hour. Like, seriously going crazy. I'd try to sit him on my lap on the couch and he would wriggle and writhe on me and roll himself off my lap. He wouldn't eat (even though I was sure he was hungry) and he wouldn't sleep (even though I was sure he was tired). I tried changing his diaper, holding him, taking his clothes off, putting the clothes back on, etc. 

Justin took over and tried all of the above techniques for good measure, but to no avail. We then went into our bedroom and I stood holding Nolan between the dresser and his crib. My back was to the dresser where we have a little basket of diapers. Nolan kept looking over my shoulders trying to get a look at the diapers (although I wasn't completely sure at the time what he was looking at). Finally I got tired and needed to set him down, so I sat him on the dresser next to the wipes.

He was immediately quiet as he started grabbing the diapers and pulling them out one by one and setting them on his lap. I should have guessed that's what he wanted, he is a l w a y s grabbing at diapers - clean OR dirty (unfortunately). He's super silly.

Being thrown in the air. Although Justin's not actually throwing him in this video ☺

Dancing.

Blankets. He especially likes blankets over his face. We promise we're not suffocating him.
And maybe also eating blankets?

Paper. Nolan loves paper! Especially ripping paper. This particular victim is Justin's ESPN magazine ☺

Plastic bags. We know we need to be careful with this one :)

And here's a trick Justin came up with. Here is his version of a baby monitor/alarm -

I guess Nolan fell asleep and Justin wanted to go in the other room. So he set up a perimeter of crinkly wipes bags around Nolan so that if he woke up and played with one or just rolled over onto one he would hear him. He said it worked too! haha

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He's getting really close to being able to feed himself. Now that will be nice!

He's even trying to feed himself with a spoon ☺

He's so good at sitting up now.

He's pretty strong these days! Like I said before, he loves ripping paper, and sometimes he gets things in his hand that he thinks he can rip like paper, like a bag of wipes or fruit snacks. He pulls and tugs on it hard, trying to rip it.
So anyway, he has this toy that we call "Mr. Bluebird" - if you pull the bird away from the ring the bird vibrates. It's pretty hard to pull it apart, but Nolan was doing it yesterday!
Look at his face at 18 seconds, so determined haha!