Pioneer Day + Baseball + Fireworks

Justin saw that the SL Bees were playing the Tacoma Rainiers this weekend AND there would be fireworks after the game! The Bees always put on an amazing (and long!) fireworks show so we thought it'd be the perfect thing to do for the Pioneer Day holiday.

We were a bit worried however that a 9 inning game + fireworks might be asking a bit much, even of Nolan, so we went to Mo Bettah's for dinner and planned to get to the game about half way through. But, it took us so long to park that by the time we got to our seats it was almost the 7th inning! It worked out though because the game ended up going 11 innings so we felt we got a good amount of game in. Not to mention we had a perfect spot right on the front row where Nolan could watch, walk, sit, etc. It was perfect!

---------- ♥ ♥ ♥ ----------

Little baseball fan

Picture overload, but he was just so darn cute!

 

Of course my guys had to wear their Mariners shirts!

I couldn't decide which one was cuter, so here's both family pics ☺

Nolan being a ham

 We sat next to this cute boy, Kaycen, and his mom and dad and Nolan was in heaven having a friend to play with. He was sure sweet to Nolan too, it was fun to watch!

More cuteness

This little boy absolutely adores his dadda!

FIREWORKS!!

Nolan got a small taste of fireworks from the car as we were driving home from the cabin on the 4th of July, but this was his first time really seeing them and he loved it! For days after he's been saying "Fiawohks! Pew! Pew! BOOM!"

I'll say it again, we don't deserve this kid. He was SO good. Even during the late walk back to the car and on the drive home (with no milk) he was a perfect angel ♥ 

Summers Are For Getting Wet!

 We signed up for swimming classes again! It's the same teacher as the last two classes we took (which is awesome, she's great) AND we showed up on the first day to find our friends Brian and Meghan Shelby and their daughter Samantha also in the class!

It's been a while since our last class and Nolan is a bit older so I wondered if he'd like it as much as he did when he was a baby. He's definitely more hesitant this time, but still seems to like being in the pool which is good. He now doesn't like it when I put him on his back in the water, where he didn't care before. And he's always struggled with not closing his mouth when going underwater, which makes him cough so he doesn't always like that. Actually, if you just put him straight down into the water and bring him back up he does just fine, it's when he's 'swimming' on his belly and you dip his head under water while still moving forward that he struggles with, but he did much better with it yesterday so that's exciting. I think he's remembering and getting more comfortable.

---------- ♥ ♥ ♥ ----------

Being a good boy and waiting on the side until mom says it's ok to come in the pool.

Definitely still remembers how much he loves splashing haha!

  

Sometimes he gets out and wants to run around so dadda has to bring him back to the pool. Yesterday he found the red 'No Running' letters on the ground and pointed to them and said the letters. I absolutely LOVE how he recognizes letters and wants to say them now. 

  

He of course wanted to go down the 'side!' after class, but only once. After going down he always wants to stand right in front of the slide (or maybe climb up it?) so I always have to move him and convince him to play somewhere else.

He loves sticking his hands in the streams of water. He's also so much better at being able to walk around in waste deep water without falling, improving so much even since last week!

 

  

---------- ♥ ♥ ♥ ----------

Summer fun at Jeanni's house!

"What da heck?!" haha, I'm dying!! 

We're still not sure why the resolution is so bad on these, but you get the picture ☺ he's being cute hehe

I just think it's so cute and sweet how Jeanni's boys play with Nolan. What a lucky boy! He will be sad when they go back to school in the fall.

Also, apparently he doesn't like it when his feet get wrinkled because sometimes he'll look down, inspect his wrinkled feet, then say, "I done." ☺

---------- ♥ ♥ ♥ ----------

Last Friday after dinner we stopped at the park so Nolan could play. I think he enjoyed it so much more that it was not as hot and not as crowded as it is on a Saturday afternoon.

I think this was his favorite slide because he could climb up and slide down all by himself!

 Beautiful mountains in the background

"Helping" dadda play a game

Cool kid

 Having so much fun in the water!

 Running to daddy! 

Justin took his shoes off and ran through the sprinklers to show Nolan how it's done ♥

Helping dad get his shoes back on

Soaked to the bone and lovin' life!

 I got tired, found a spot on the grass, and watched the cuteness from afar.

He was saying "up and down, up and down" and "ready, set, go!" Usually he said all three himself. I was trying to prompt him in this video, but only got out a "go!"

Things Going On Lately

First, some BB2 news:

July 20 - I was sitting on the couch watching the Bachelorette (☺) with Justin and BB2 started moving around. I put Justin's hand on my belly and after a few seconds he felt a kick! Of course Justin melted feeling his son moving around for the first time.

July 21 - Today was the first time a complete stranger commented on my pregnancy without hesitation, as if it was obvious (rather than either not asking for fear of being wrong or asking, but a bit nervous to ask). I was in the elevator of the conference center he said, "it must be tough being pregnant in this heat!"

I remember my first comment from a stranger with Nolan. I was playing softball on the Ancestry.com team and after getting to first base at an at bat the girl playing first pointed to my belly and asked when I was due. I remember being so excited that my belly was finally obvious! ☺

---------- ♥ ♥ ♥ ----------

In Nolan news:
By far the most exciting new thing Nolan is doing lately is that, to our surprise, he recognizes and can say at least 20 of the letters if the alphabet!! What?! We came home from church on Sunday and after lunch he kept pointing to the top of the fridge where we keep his letter magnets. Justin got it down and opened it for him and he proceeded to pull out letters one by one and say what they are!

We were seriously in shock. I mean, as much as I'd like to take credit for his knowledge, I haven't really been making a concerted effort to teach him letters yet (bad?). Justin said he often points out letters to him, but nothing on a large scale. So we were blown away by how much he knew. After getting over the initial shock we put all of the letters back in the box and pulled out the camera. So this video shows pretty much his first time showing us letters. He got a few wrong the first time, but by that evening he knew several of the letters he didn't know before. For instance, he didn't know 'X' or 'W' - but now he gets those, no problem. He still struggles with 'M' sometimes and 'R' and 'G', and he can never seem to get 'Q' right - but he knows at least 20 letters for sure. 

I guess Jeanni has been working with him on letters and he loves the show Super Why! so it's probably a combination. Either way, we're impressed!


Nolan likes to be the one to knock on Jeanni's door in the morning. He puts his cute little hand in a fist with his thumb tucked in underneath his fingers. Adorable.

I also love how if you have something he wants he'll reach he hand out to you and, while opening and closing it (kind of like an upside down talking hand), calmly say, "I hold!" ☺ Update: Just now we were watching the Daniel Tiger episode about becoming a big brother and when Daniel holds his baby sister for the first time Nolan looked at the screen and said, "I hold!" Awww ♥

He loves clipping buckles right now (and it entertains him for long periods of time), but sometimes he accidentally clips his finger. When this happens, and he wants a kiss better, he'll turn to one of us and rub his thumb and first two fingers together (kind of like you would to insinuate having money). It's too cute!

I love how he says, "where are you?" for several things: "Suwawhy (Super Why!) where are you?" "Memote (remote), where are you?" Or when he's looking at his new Elmo Look and Find book - we'll ask him to find Cookie Monster for example and he scans the page saying, "Cookie, where are you?" before finding it and exclaiming, "I fun it!" (I found it).

He's also started saying goodbye to inanimate objects just before leaving the house. "Bye remote!" "Bye TV!" "Bye Elmo!" Of course he also says bye to us ♥ "Bye dadda!"

He's always inspecting the bottom of his foot these days. Silly.

I can't believe I'm even recording this, but he's discovered the annoyance of having an itch haha. One day he was in his seat and kept all of the sudden kicking up his leg and reaching for it. Finally we figured out he might have an itch so I scratched his leg and he looked relieved haha. Now he knows the word 'Itch' and says it whenever he scratches his skin.

He likes to tickle!

--------------------

Aren't little boys supposed to be momma's boys? Well not this little boy. He is all about daddy. While I have to plead and beg for hugs and kisses most of the time, daddy hardly has to ask! Once when I was lying in bed with Nolan, he kept squirming trying to get comfortable. I asked him if he wanted to snuggle and he said, "No, dadda." Ok, I'll admit, that one hurt a bit haha, but Justin is known for his snuggling so I guess it makes sense.

Also, the other night Justin was ahem taking care of some business in the other room, so I started reading Nolan a book (story time is usually daddy's job). I even tried to read with excitement, but as soon as Justin walked back in the room Nolan grabbed the book from me, said "dadda," and handed it to Justin as if to say, "nice try mom, but this is daddy's department."

Seriously?! - I think maybe I'll make daddy birth the next baby and shop for all his food and try to make him healthy meals and shop for all his clothes and sign him up for swimming classes and....oh well. ☺

"You just gotta ask yourself one question. Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya punk?"

He loves to hid in closets and "cose a doh" (close the door)

"Cougars!"

---------- ♥ ♥ ♥ ----------

In other news:

A coworker of mine from another team that I've been working with on the Freedman's Bureau projects brought this in for me because he said, "I'm doing such a great job and am really great and easy to work with." How sweet is that?! Made my week!

A beautiful sunset at softball

League champs! Also, and I'm super bitter about this so I can't think about it too much (no seriously), but apparently I was the top women's hitter for the league...until my very last at bat when I got out and the second place person (also on our team) got on base. Now, as if that isn't bad enough, I have actually won this title I think 4 times now and every time they give me this stupid, useless, jacket material type thing but with short sleeves. It's always too big for me and there is never a time when I'll actually use it. Well, this time they freaking gave out an awesome Easton backpack! Ugh, just typing this out is making me mad all over again!

Justin says it's pretty darn good to have been (pretty much) the top hitter in the league at 5 months pregnant. But that doesn't cut it! Plus I won the hitting title when I was 5 months pregnant with Nolan so it would have been fun to say I won it with both pregnancies. Oh well. I'm over it. I think.

Back row: Brian Farr, Jabe Washburn, Park Sorenson, Justin, Paul McHardy
Front Row: Liz Farr, Alison Smith, Shelby Low, Meghan (np: Abby)