Nolan's World

Nolan's First Year

2009-10-21T15:34:00.000-07:00

http://gallery.me.com/ajbayer#100053

Baby Turned Toddler....not a chance he's still my baby

2009-10-11T22:01:00.000-07:00

What a fall! Or winter begins however you choose to look at it. Some much has happened since my last post. I really need to get better at this. Nolan Turned one and so became a "toddler" according to the daycare list. Sad day, he also started walking and is saying quite a lot of gibberish and some actual words in between in there. What a monkey!! I did a triatholon at the end of the summer, Aaron got a new position and a big promotion. Life is Good!

The birthday party was fun! Nolan enjoyed his cake, however it did not agree with his system and he was up all night with a belly ache. He got way to too many toys than he will ever need and we got to see lots of family and friends! Some that we haven't seen in quite awhile, so fun! Nolan got to meet his Great Aunt Kathi for the first time, Thank you so much for coming out! And thank you everyone for all the wonderful gifts! That kid is loved!!

We have a lot of fun upcoming events in the Bayer household. Aaron is having Lasik done in a week and half. his glasses are falling apart and we are hoping that they can make it that long because he cannot wear his contacts for a month prior to surgery, they are currently being held together by hockey tape and super glue!!! Its a sight to see. I am heading out to DC the last week in October for an HR conference, coming home for the weekend then heading to Texas for a Leadership Conference. Then the following weekend I am going to Cali with my mom and my friend Mandi and her mom for a girls weekend. I am looking forward to it, except leaving Nolan that much!! Aaron is going to Puerto Rico in January for work, where my brother and sister in law and niece live. So Nolan and I are hoping to get to go out there for at least part of the time that he is there.

On a sad note two of my great aunts are not doing so well. the family got together today to see her one last time and unfortunatly she was too ill to make it. They do not expect her to make it much longer. Breaks my heart and I don't know if I can take anymore funerals, but we'll figure out a way to make it through. Pray that she goes peacefully.

Summer Summer Summer time..

2009-08-15T17:41:00.000-07:00

What a summer!! We have been so busy I cannot believe that it has been June since I have written. Nolan is growing like crazy, and he is getting braver by the day. Nolan went to his first Twins Game and he was more interested in flirting with the girls behind us than anything to do with baseball. He lost interest in walking, which we are happy about for now. Although he is so fast crawling that I can't decided which is worse. He recently has decided that he loves waving, Ziggy and pulling glasses off peoples faces and playing in Ziggy's water dish. his personality is growing by the day. He gets the giggles and he is making all new kinds of sounds. He absolutly hates anything that confines his movement, so far his crib, swing, carseat, stroller and walker pictured above might as well be torture chambers for all he knows. Grandma Bayer has been down and spending lots of time with Nolan. We spent the 4th of July up in Park Rapids at the Bayer Cabin, and we will be heading up for Labor Day as well. On the last weekend of August we will head to my parents house for the annual Ribfest Event. Unfortunatly both of my brothers will not be in attendance, Jeff being in South Carolina and Jeremy off to Puerto Rico to join the rest of his family. So it will just be Aaron, Nolan and I heading down. I really like tradition, so I am having a hard time wiht this. It is sad that all my family is moving away.
Nolan's new daycare is still going extremly well, we are very fond of our daycare provider Kelly. They play outside everyday and do lots of projects and get lots of attention. Work also continues to go well, Aaron is planning on applying for a different position in the same unit. It has been a great summer and we cannot believe that Nolan is 6 weeks from his first birthday! Please mark your calendars for Oct 3rd for his first birthday party! We cannot wait. I am competing in my frist Triatholon next weekend, I am very nervous excited and scared a pleuthra of emotions but I am sure I will more to report on that. Until then!

Crawlings for the Birds

2009-06-15T16:05:00.000-07:00

Nolan man is going to be walking any day now, its inevitable. He has also made some other very important discoveries recently. The kitchen cabinets and its contents, door stoppers make fun noises, stairs are fun to climb; (with any thing else that is climable), Ziggy tail tastes funny and so do his feet, Cheerios, throwing Cheerios at Ziggy, temper tantrums, bouncing, pulling movies off the rack, and clearing any and every item off the coffee table. Nonetheless we are having a great time enjoying every minute except for maybe the temper tantrums. He has also tried climbing out of the tub a number of times.

We had a wonderful time on vacation, we spent most of our time just hanging out as a family and getting to spend lots of quality time together just the three of us. We went swimming and to the zoo and to the Noah's Arc the Musical. Our trip was threatened right before we left cause I ended up in the hospital with appendicitis but all is well and I am healed up now.

We are enjoying lots of fun summertime activities including softball and spending lots of time with family and friends.

Warp Speed Ahead!

2009-05-17T19:34:00.001-07:00

It has been a big week here at the Bayer household. On Thursday we were getting ready for softball and as I was looking down and getting things situated in my softball bag out of the corner of my eye I see little Nolan Man crawling...I immediatly was elated and started yelling to Aaron to get into the room. You were all laughing and clapping and you could tell that Nolan was indeed proud of himself. On the way to softball I was so excited just chatting away and then something my Daycare lady Kelly said to me that day dawned on me. "Are you going to show her how you can crawl, I mean Scoot" I didn't think much of it at the time but I am pretty sure he crawled for the first time at daycare. I asked her about it the next day just because I was curious.. she kind of skirted around the question in an attempt to let me believe that he had done it at home for the first time. :)
I was really excited to hang out with the little Monkey this weekend in an attempt to refine his crawling skills but unfortunatly we had drill. My mom was here watching him and he decided to shock her by pulling himself up into a standing position, only 2 days later. So although we are extremly proud of him, we are sad that we had to miss out on 2 "firsts". Hopefully we will be blessed enough to get to be around for his first steps. Unfortunatly we have to have those stupid things called jobs. We are going on vacation next week to celebrate our anniversary so we are looking forward to lots of quality time together!

I Love Swimming!!!!!

2009-05-05T15:22:00.000-07:00

When we first got Nolan into the water he had the "What the heck" look on his face and didn't quite know what to do. Within just a few minutes he was splashing and playing and enjoying every second of it! Ever since bath time has become a whole new game. He is laughing and splashing and playing on his tummy and rolling around in the water! It is so much fun.

Here they are at the end, and they are sooo tired...

Uncle Jeff was home over the last couple weeks and got to spend lots of quality time with Nolan.

We finally got to meet baby Miles!!! What a peanut!! It is crazy that Nolan used to be that small. Otherwise, all is well in the Bayer household. We keep thinking that Nolan is going to crawl anyday he has got the Army crawl down pat and is getting really fast. He is finally sitting up on his own, although he prefers to be on his belly so he can move.

It is so crazy to me still even though Nolan is 7 months old that we have kids, especially when Lindsey and I have all our kiddos together. It seems just yesterday her and I were in 7th grade playing softball, goofing off and making dumb jokes. Crazy that we are the adults now....now we just need to get Ang to join the club.....

We have a really busy few weeks here coming up, our jobs are crazy busy and we have an inspection coming up at the base that is always extremely busy and stressful. Then at the end of the month we are going on first family vacation and we are really excited!! Less than 3 weeks!!

New Friends!!!

2009-04-16T18:43:00.000-07:00

Nolan got a new friend today that we not yet gotten to meet! One of my oldest friends Lindsey had her baby this morning, Miles Lamont Ferguson! Prayers are needed, there is a small issue with his heart. I don't have all the details yet, I don't think that its super serious! But please pray for them! Another girl at work also had her baby today. She also had a boy and they named him Cylis.

I didn't realize how long it had been since I had written a blog until my old friend Ang called me out!! Sorry to my loyal readers! I am starting to get back in the swing of things at work, finally. Little Nolan man is getting bigger and changing so much. Sometimes I think he grows during the day while he is at Daycare. He is the champion of Army crawling he is fast scooting around on his bellyHe is close to crawling up on all fours and rocking and has been for awhile now, but I think he gets inpatient and then just wants to move so he resorts to Army crawling. He has deinfinitly discovered his voice and is getting a little bit of an attitude which he gets from his mama! Grandma and Grandpa Wildes are comign this weekend to watch him while we have drill and then Grandma Bayer will be here on Monday to hang out with him. He is weighing in at over 17lbs now too!. WE are regurlarly feeding him new foods and so far he has liked all of them eventually despite his initial face which is usually quite entertainingWe have gotten to see lots of friends recently and the kiddos are growing up so fast! Here some fun pics! These two were having a bit of a Nuk war which was quite entertaining. Lauren and Nolan are 4 months apart.

This Emery and Nolan, only 9 days apart and can you believe how much he has changed. With Lindsey just having her baby this morning it has me reflecting back to those first few days with little Nolan... Can you believe that he was every this small.

And little Emery only a few days old and me very preggo.

We are all going swimming with the kiddos next weekend so I should have some fun pictures to post on my next blog.

Rollover Rollover!!!

2009-02-26T21:12:00.000-08:00

What an exciting week!!! We started our new Daycare this week and it is going sooo well! For all of you that don't know I pulled Nolan out of daycare a week and a half ago because I didn't like some things that had been going on. She set me over the edge two weeks ago and I decided that Nolan wasn't going back. What a great decision that has been, he has been totally back to his happy self and we are really liking Kelly our new daycare provider. She told me this morning how happy she is that she took Nolan on and what a great baby he is. What a great thing to hear after the old daycare always made me feel like she was irritated with him.
Last week we started some rice cereal, and Nolan is loving that too! He was just not staying full on breastmilk so the cereal has been a good addition to his diet. Then he surprised me today by rolling over. He had been rolling onto his side for quite awhile but to my amazement today he figured out what he was doing and rolled over and then continued to do it over and over again!!! His little arms and legs were moving like crazy and he is not far from crawling! It was so exciting i was jumping up and down and going crazy! We tried to get it on video but every time I had the camara on he refused.
We are heading up to Grand Marais for the weekend with some friends from Church tomorrow so I plan on having some fun pics to post. Until then............enjoy the snow.

Day Care Blues

2009-01-25T18:26:00.000-08:00

Sorry fellow readers that I have been off my game the past few weeks. We are all adjusting to me being back to work and it has taken quite a toll. The first two weeks weren't that bad all of us were on autopilot. This past week has been awful. I started to come down with a cold at the beginning of last week. I should have stayed home Tuesday but I was trying to tough it out being that I used all my sick leave while I was on maternity leave. So I continued to get sicker and I would come home after work and have to nap, and poor Nolan wasn't getting enough attention. He became fussier and fussier as I got sicker. Finally I stayed home with him Thursday and we had a relaxing day snuggling and resting up. Friday I was feeling better, so he went back to daycare and was fussy all day long. The poor kid is hardly ever fussy so I checked his mouth because he had been showing signs of teething and he has 4-5 teeth coming in!!! poor little guy. He was such a champ though, he was barely fussy for how much pain he probably in.
We had drill this weekend so my parents came up to babysit Nolan for us. It worked out great they had dinner all ready for us and even did our laundry while we were working! It was fantastic to come home to! My neice Bonnie was here all weekend too, I could see how worn out they both were when they left but they had a blast. I haven't taken any new pictures but I did get them proffessionally done over Christmas.
Here are those. I have yet to order because I want them all.
http://www.debrageislerphotography.geislerfamily.net/galleries/20
I will have more exciting things to write about next time.

Uncle Jeff, Baptism and My 1st Christmas!

2009-01-02T20:30:00.000-08:00

Uncle Jeff was home for Christmas, and this is their first meeting! Jeff has been at our house quite a bit so they have gotten to spend a lot of time together.

The weekend before Christmas we had Nolan baptised and unfortunatly there was a big snow storm and quite a few people weren't able to make it but it was a very eventful and emotional day for us as parents, being that it was the first BIG event in his life and probably one of the most important. A special thanks to our photographers our friends Mandi and Katie.

Below is us with Nolan's Godparents John and Sara Bayer and our Pastor.Pastor Hans and Nolan presenting him to the church.

Here is the brunch at our house. Too much excitement for these old folks.

Then it was time for Nolans 1st Christmas. Even though he had no idea what was going on it was so much fun, and we had a lot of anticipation thinking about how exciting it will be next year.

This is Nolan opening his 1st Christmas Present and you can tell how excited he is about it.

This time next year both Nolan and Bonnie will be running around causing mayhem.

A few days after Christmas our friend Sona came over, he has been in Germany since Nolan was born so this is their first meeting.

My cuddle bug, I am going to be so sad when he doesn't want to cuddle with mom anymore.

This is us on our way to the Gopher Hockey game, we were all decked out so we thought it was prime family photo opportunity. We never ended up actually going but that is a different story.

It is winding down to the last few days of my maternity leave and I cannot believe that 3 months can go this fast. I am not looking forward to leaving him, but we are hoping that I can be at home within in the next 6 months. So cross your fingers and say a prayer for us that we are able to make it work.

Santa Claus is Coming to town!

2008-12-19T20:59:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, my co-workers came over and brought me lunch so they could see Nolan. It was fun to see them all and lunch was good!
He was sporting his super cute Gopher's outfit.

At the base they have Santa Claus come out so the families of military members can come out and make toys in Santa's workshop and visit with Santa. Being that it was my last month of maternity leave (booooooo!) I took Nolan in to visit, we had to wait way too long and Nolan passed out and missed all the fun. He is wearing a little Santa's elf apron that could probably fit him two times over but it was too cute to pass up. I can't help but be excited for next year in what the photo's will look like!

Nolan has just recently allowed me to start putting a hat on him that he will keep on, Grandma Bayer gave us this one on her last trip down. It was Aaron's hat when he was little so that makes it all the more fun, plus he looks absolutly adorable in it.

His personality is really starting to come out, he is laughing and cooing and smiling on a regular basis and of course he has his loud moments as well, but for the most part he is still a really happy baby. Although he has decided that he no longer wants to take a bottle, which is not good since I am going back to work in a few weeks (booooooo!!!!!!!) so we have had to make sure that he gets a bottle a couple times a day (vs nursing) and he protests almost every time. He is standing and has been for a few weeks now (with our help to balance of course) and he has started using his hands and grabbing things, at this point we are not sure if knows exactly what he is doing but it is fun to see him start to figure things out. We have been playing the Baby Einstein movies for him and he is very attentive to the screen while they are on. This morning he was laughing and shreiking at the TV while they were on. We also have been reading to him a lot and he is starting to notice the pictures, versus just staring off into nowhere.

We are really excited for Uncle Jeff to get here, he is coming in tomorrow and will meet little Nolan for the first time. He is driving in from North Carolina as we speak, and will be here for two whole weeks so we are excited to spend lots of quality time together. Nolan is also getting baptised on Sunday, we scheduled so close to Christmas so Jeff could be here and Grandma and Grandpa Bayer would also be in town so we have a busy weekend. Here are just a few more cutie pics.

Mommy Play Date

2008-12-10T19:24:00.000-08:00

I got together with a couple other mom's the other day to have a little girl time, its fun to get all the babies together although scary to think about when all 5 of them are walking and running around.

Here are the babies, Lauren on the far left is just about 6 months. Emery in the middle is 9 days older that Nolan. We laugh all the time because Emery and Nolan weigh the same but Nolan looks so little next to her. Here are the toddlers below Dylan and Leslie, always being cute and causing trouble.

Mandi's Home, Thanksgiving and my first cold.

2008-12-07T20:07:00.000-08:00

So Nolan got to meet my friend Mandi for the first time a few weeks ago. She was in Iraq when he was born. Little Nolan liked hanging out with Auntie Mandi!

On Thanksgiving Eve we took Nolan to church service, here is Nolan with his surrogate grandma Suzi

and Pastor Bonnie

Here are some fun photos from Thanksgiving.

My neice Bonnie getting to be a big girl! The wanted to hold him all night it was really cute. I don't think she quite understood that he was really a person and not a doll.

Grandma with her grandkids!!

Uncle JeremyAntie Sara

Yesterday we had friends Thanksgiving and Nolan had a fun time with all the other little babies. But in the middle of the night he woke up with an awful cold. Poor guy kept chocking on all the gunk in his throat, it was awful. Although we cleaned him out as best we could with the bulb syringe (genuis invention) and napped all day with a humidifier and some essential oils and he is much better this evening. We are thankful for that because it was really hard to listen to him hack and cough and not be able to do anything for him.

Maternity leave should be at least a year long!

2008-11-25T17:17:00.000-08:00

It has been awhile since I have posted a blog mostly because Nolan and I are running around all day and then at night we just want to relax with Dad. We have been having a good time doing all sorts of things. Last week Nolan hung out with Auntie Sara and Uncle Johnny while we went out on a date. We went to the Olive Garden, and then went and bought Wall E and came home and watched it. It was wonderful. We have lots of play dates with Emery and Amanda. We made it down to Grandma and Grandpa Wildes house two weeks ago, and got to spend some quality time.

This last weekend we went to Peyton's 5th Birthday party. It was fun and also a little sad I remember the day that Peyton was born and I cannot believe how fast it has gone. Peyton was very excited and wanted to help with Nolan

The week before I had lunch with one of my oldest friends Lindsey and her daughter Annaleah, she is also growing up way too fast.

This is kind of a somber blog. As the days go by my heart keeps getting heavier and heavier at the realization that I will have to leave my son and go back to work. I keep hoping for a miracle or maybe someone to sponser me (like pay me my current salary to stay at home :) I do not want to go back, we keep hoping that Aaron will get a promotion and then maybe it will be a possibility but at this time its not.

Anyway on to more exciting things we are really excited for Thanksgiving. We are going to my parents house on Thursday and then on Friday we are going to John and Sara's house for dinner with Aaron's family. We are hoping to get the house decorated for Christmas and relax a little over the weekend. Happy Thanksgiving to all.

My boys snoozing away together!

To Grandma and Grandpa's House we go!

2008-11-09T22:44:00.000-08:00

Nolan had his first babysitter this past week! I was aching to get back to the gym, and they don't take infants until six weeks so my gracious neighbor Jean offered to watch him so I could go to water aerobics! They had a great time together and she offered to take him every week so I could go work out which is so great because she is right next door. She also has offered to watch him during broomball season.

We took our first road trip this weekend to Grandma and Grandpa Bayer's cabin this weekend! They are getting settled into the cabin as their new full time home. The entire family was there. Nolan's aunt Sara and Uncle John (also Nolan's goodparents) were there. Sara's parents and her brother and his girlfriend Laurie also joined us. The guys all spent the weekend hunting and us girls went into town to shop while dad and Nolan stayed home to watch the Gopher game. Unfortunatly the gopher football game was a disappointment and the guys came home with no deer. In fact the only one they saw the entire weekend was on the way back to the car when they were headed home. However we had a fun time just hanging out and playing Settlers of Catan. Of course the major highlight of the weekend was the Vikings beating the Packers! woohoo!!!

On the way up we stopped in St. Cloud to visit my cousin Becky and her daughter Claudia again! She is growing so much, she still looks so tiny next to Nolan. He is out growing so many of his clothes already! Claudia looks so much like her dad! I am wondering how both Becky and I carried these babies for 9 months and there is no physical evidence that they belong to us!

We then stopped at my good friend Missy's house, she also lives in St. Cloud and had not yet met Nolan! Here is a picture of Missy, her son Peyton and Nolan. It was so much fun. Nolan was telling us he was hungry in this picture.

Grandma Bayer and Nolan.

Grandpa Bayer and NolanUncle Johnny, Aaron and Nolan

Auntie Sara and NolanAnd just another cutie picture..

Today we went a visited Dad at his school and got to meet all his students. It is so funny to see at a baby through the eyes of 1st graders. I forgot my camera though, I'll have to bring it next time.

1 Month Old already!!!!

2008-11-02T19:29:00.000-08:00

I have decided to start a blog to update everyone about little Nolan. He was one month old on Sunday, I cannot believe how fast it has gone. Aaron and I are both loving being parents, he is so much fun. Nolan has been making lots of new friends, last week he had future wife Emery over for a play date ( Emery and Nolan are 9 days apart for those of you who don't know that) and later on friends Dlyan and Leslie came over for a dance party.

Amanda, Emery and me and Nolan Enjoying the nice weather at the end of Oct.

My Aunt and Unlce and cousin Phillip were in town last week. They came in to meet Nolan and Claudia who my cousin Becky also just had 2 weeks ago. So on Halloween we took our first road trip up to St. Cloud to meet Claudia, she seemed so little compared to Nolan.

For Halloween were a Pirate Family. We went to our Church and participated in the annual Trunk or Treat. It was fun.