Mermaid crawl

It's starting...

Campbell is officially into everything. It makes it more challenging with the second one because Nolan gets upset when Campbell decides to go straight for Nolan's toys. Plus all those cars Nolan loves with teeny tiny parts don't exactly make the best baby toys.

I wouldn't say he's exactly crawling. It's more of a push-up and then dragging his feet. All I know is that baby has some major upper body strength. I kept telling him crawling is way less work. He doesn't care, I think he likes his mermaid workout.

Usually we start the day just putting him on the floor and letting him go to town. After a few hours of that, we're pretty worn out so today we made a barricade of pillows to keep the mischievous mermaid contained. He didn't care, he totally found a way out. All in all, Nolan was really easy about not getting into stuff. I think we have our work cut out for us with this one...

POPular guy

We had such a blast this past weekend with Pop in town. The great thing about Bill being retired now is that he can come whenever he wants and stay for however long he wants. We had such a great time and the boys just loved on him to pieces. I asked Nolan one night if he was happy that Pop was here and he said, "I'm glad he's here to love us." Seriously, he should write cards or something with the sweet things that come out of his mouth. He's going to be one smooth talker with the ladies, that's for sure. I have a feeling that these boys are going to look so forward to more Pop visits in the future.

Is your child smarter than a 5th grader...mine is!

I discovered within a month of my first year teaching that my 2 year old (at the time) was officially genius. He continues to live up to this title. I had a wedding shower to go to last night and I looked it up on Google to find directions. Nolan had just woken up from his nap and sees the map and screams, "There's the continents!!" Having absolutely NO idea that he even knew this, I continue to question him.

Me: Well, yes it is! Do you know what continent we live on?

Nolan: (no hestitation) North America

Me: Do you know any other continents?

Nolan: Asia. That's where panda bears live.

Me: (picking my jaw up from the floor) Do you know where giraffes and zebras live?

Nolan: Africa

Me: (yelling) Justin!!! You're not going to believe this!

Genius maybe? Dead serious that I have fourth graders that think that Texas is a country and have no idea what continent we live on. Then today I overheard him upstairs telling his daddy and Pop, "That's a Brachiosaurus." What 3 year old knows that? There was a part of me that was so proud of him for just being so darn smart but then another part of me that was freaking out a little that he has this whole other life where he's learning all these new things without me! How dare him.

Melt my heart

We've really been working on discipline lately. I think we really breezed through that two year old stage. It's so true that the threes are harder than the twos. The independence, the defiance, the attitude...whoa! Nolan has done so much better since his visits to the office at school every day a couple of weeks ago. I think after taking away his favorite toys he knew we meant business. I had to have a come-to-Jesus talk with him about how disappointed we were and that if he's good he'll get a sticker but if he's not we'll take his puzzles or cars away. That caught his attention. As a child, I remember that there was nothing worse than knowing that I disappointed my parents. Hoping that maybe I passed on that gene to him, I told Nolan that when he gets in trouble at school it makes mommy and daddy's heart sad.

Tonight as I was putting him to bed, I told him how proud I was of him for doing so well at school everyday and making good choices. He says in his adorable three-year-old voice, "Did I make your heart smile?" Just saying that makes my heart smile.

Let me count the ways I love you...

Will you be my Valentine?

I had a date today and it wasn't with my husband. Shhh, don't tell. Don't worry it was with Nolan. A lady from my church invited Nolan and me to come to a Reading Rocks Valentine Brunch that benefited the "I have a Dream" Foundation that whose creed is to make a difference though education by helping children from low-income families stay in school. You wouldn't believe how insanely cute the place was decorated. Each table had a book theme. We sat at the "I'm Dirty" table. Our chairs were covered in caution tape. Our table cloth was comprised of blueprints and we had a big tractor in the center with orange cones all around. There were at least 40 tables there...from Fancy Nancy, Bob the Builder, Dr. Seuss and they all were Martha Stewart worthy. They really did bring the books to life.

To top it off Robert Munsch, the author of Love You Forever (one of my all-time favorites) was there and did story telling with the kids. Nolan wasn't too sure of all of the fanfare at first but after some Curly's custard and a cupcake he thought the place wasn't so bad. It's amazing what sugar can do.

I just loved having some good ol' one-on-one time with Nolan. He's a great date. He even walked me to the car and gave me a kiss. I gotta make sure he doesn't move so fast on the girls when he gets older!