Best Valentine's Day Ever!!!

We had such a great Valentine's Day weekend! We went to see Aunt Kristi, Uncle Kyle, and Kenzey and had a really great time! I will post some fun video from our trip later.

Nolan had his Valentine's Day party at school on Monday. It was so much fun! All of the kids had matching shirts that said, "Cupid is my Homeboy!" Thanks to Daddy, Aunt Veazey, and GiGi for helping find all the sizes! I also found some really cute Valentine's bibs for all the kids. We brought pancakes for breakfast that morning. Nolan loves pancakes! I left for a while and when I came back I got the best Valentine's surprise ever...

Nolan took his first real steps!!! He took 4-5 steps from his teacher to me! These were real steps, not like his 1 or 2 steps falling to the floor. It was so much fun! It was exciting to get to see this! Best Valentine's gift ever!

Here are some more pics from the party!
Nolan loves going on buggy rides with Ms. Sonali!

These were the snacks we brought for the party. Heart shaped cheese sandwiches, blueberries, strawberries, bananas, goldfish, teddy grams, animal crackers, and yogurt melts. Yum!!!

Nolan is rocking the mohawk for the party!

They also had cupcakes. He wasn't quite sure what to do at first...

Then he got the idea!

It was so delicious he licked both sides of the plate clean!

Yes, that is cake in his hair!

We are definitely going to have a Valentine's Day party next year!

This is dedicated to Daddy whose school did not close for a Snow Day!

I love a good snow day and was so excited to spend it at home with Nolan! We were a little sad to miss his Valentine's Day party, but his teacher assures us it will go on as planned on Monday! All morning Nolan had been playing at the back window watching Mattie outside. We took a couple of quick trips outside to look at our fallen tree, but after his nap we got all bundled up and headed outside. I took the wagon out with us to give him something to hold on to. He was very interested at first....



Then we took a bit of a tumble in the snow....


Does it make me a bad mom that I took the picture before I helped him up???

Do you think Picasso started out like this?

Since the weather has been really yucky and we haven't been feeling too hot, I have been looking for more activities for us to do inside. If they are in the stationary position that is even better! We have taken up finger painting! Now Nolan is still just nine months old so sometimes this activity doesn't last that long!

He is very serious about his craft!

Sometimes it's even tasty too!

Starting a Blog??? I don't even have a facebook page!

So.... I apparently am the only person in the entire world that does not have a Facebook page. I get weekly emails from friends "suggesting" I start a Facebook page. I have to admit I have taken a pretty hard stance on being anti-facebook. I generally don't like people knowing all of my business, but I am doing a terrible job of documenting my son's first year of life. All of my mommy friends have blogs with pictures and memories about their children, so I thought I would give this a try..... So here goes..... But just so we are clear I am still anti-Facebook!

The Beginning...

Getting ready for Nolan was so much fun.  Everyone pitched in to help make his room just what we wanted.

Sweet things we loved

After 22 hours and 3 epidurals Nolan Michael Whalen arrived via c-section!  All 9 pounds 10 ounces of him!  All of the grandparents, aunts, and uncle spent the night at the hospital anxiously awaiting his arrival.  No one was as excited as his mom and dad for him to get arrive! 

The night started out at about six o'clock on Sunday evening.  We had been getting everything ready for the scheduled induction the next morning when my water broke.  In a bit of a panic we rushed to the hospital.  I started having contractions pretty quickly and decided that an epidural might not be a bad idea.  By the time I got it I was having contraction about every 2-3 minutes.  Very uncomfortable!  My blood pressure was still a bit of a concern so they continued to monitor it as the night went on.  After a while I developed a fever, but they could not figure out why so I received three different broad spectrum antibiotics and medication for nausea.  The night turned into the early morning and things were not progressing, so pitocin was given to speed things up.  I had what was called a "hot spot" that turned into half of my body feeling every contraction.  They decided it would be best for me to have another epidural placed "just in case"  I had to have a section.  During the placement of the second epidural things did not go so smoothly and it was misplaced.  They were not sure what was hit for a while, but then it turned out to only be a blood vessel.  After that I was shaking so badly that they had to wait to do the third epidural.  By the time they got back to me I was in so much pain.  They tried again for the third epidural and afterward they kept having to increase the amount of meds they were giving me.  Finally after 22 hours they decided to do a c-section.  They prepped me while Jonathan put on his scrubs, which he was very excited about.  They hung a curtain at chest level so we were not able to see what was going on.  Two doctors pulled with all their might to get him out.  The curtain was shaking so hard that at one point a side fell.  Finally  at 4:15 PM they got him out and they all commented on what a big boy he was.   They started putting me back together when the epidural wore off again and finally put me out completely.  Due to the fever I had and some other complications they took him to run some tests and we didn't get to see him again until 9:00 that night!

Welcome Sweet Boy!