Update on little Nola Mae

During Nola's first year of life, I would do a monthly update on her. Well, she is now nearly 16 months old and I haven't updated in a while, so here is a little bit about Nola Mae today!

- She is a happy girl. A really, really happy girl. She is super social and sweet! Anytime we go out in public, she will honestly stop at EVERY person she sees, waves and says 'Hi!' It is so sweet to watch! Most people goo and gah over her...obviously :)

- She is a great sleeper. Of course, like all human beings, she has her off nights, but she has been a super sleeper! We lay her down and she'll put herself to sleep! If she's not tired yet, she'll play in her crib until she's tired. There are many nights we hear her turn on Tabby or kick the wall to burn some energy. Every time I hear her, I can't help but smile.

- Nola is bottle free! Yay! At 15 months, she started losing interest in her bottle, so I figured I would run with it! She will take a sippy cup of milk in the morning and then eats rice cereal before bed! I am honestly so happy! I was scared that I would still have to feed her a bottle before bed when the new baby comes, and that overwhelmed me. She loves her Mommy and she's looking out for me :)

- Thanks to Auntie Cola (AKA The Baby Whisperer) Nola has learned a few pieces of Baby Signing. Now, I am not all into the Baby Signing. I know its all the rage, but I was never interested...well, I wasn't until Nola started yelling at me for more food. She was driving me nuts! I had to be 100% on top of having food on her tray or she would yell at me! I tried to teach her to sign 'more', I tried to teach her to say 'mum-mum', I tried to ignore the yelling...I felt like I had tried everything, and nothing was working! Well, one afternoon with Auntie Cola and Eva and voila! Nola signs 'more' when she wants more! Since then, Doug and I have taught her 'drink' and 'all done'. It is so sweet when she walks up to me and signs 'more' 'drink'. I know what she wants! Yahoo!!

- Nola is learning who people are and recognizing them. I am not too sure exactly when this happened, but it was really cool to see her figuring it out! When we are with the family, I will say 'Go see Grampa' and she will look around for him, find him and walk right over! Its little things like this that make her seem so grown up.

Nola is the light of my life, the apple of my eye. I never knew I could feel love like this! Since I have been home from work, it has been so amazing to spend all of my time with her - to play and watch her grow. She is turning into a wonderful little girl and I am so proud of her!

I like shoes :)

Nola loves the show rack - LOVES it! Like I have said before, it amazes me that we as parents/aunts/uncles/grandparents spend so much money buying kids toys, yet all they want to do is play with stuff around the house. Nola has been playing with the shoes for a while and she has now figured out that shoes go on her feet! She can't quite figure out how to put her own shoes on, so she works with what she's got. I just love her!

Progress

It has been an interesting journey for me for the last month or so. This pregnancy has really taken a toll on me - physically and emotionally - and in turn has taken a toll on both Doug and Nola. As I posted earlier, I have been doing my best to focus on all of my many blessings, and it has honestly made a huge difference. I have been able to let go of lots of the negative in my life and embrace the things I can do and the things I can change.

After many trips to the doctor, I am finally on a medicinal concoction that seems to be working! Yay! I am very happy to not be vomiting excessively anymore, however there are definitely some down falls of being on 3 different kinds of medication at the same time. I feel as if I eat more pills than food these days, which is really something to say because I eat alot, but I am glad to have some relief.

Time seems to be burning by this pregnancy. I cannot believe I am already 24 weeks! I remember being pregnant with Nola, time seemed to drag by. I was counting down the days to be one week further along. Now, I can't seem to remember which week I am in! I am sure chasing around my toddler has helped in this department :)

This is a picture Doug just took of me. I don't look too good, but it is the end of a long weekend! Here I am at 24 weeks!

A weekend in Fernie

For May Long weekend, we were supposed to go up to Golden to visit my bestest friend Jodi, her hubby Ryan and their beautiful boys. Unfortunately, both of the boys got the Norwalk flu, so we had to make some other plans. We decided to spend the weekend with GG in Fernie. We had such an amazing time! We spent most of our weekend playing the park and going for nature walks. It turned out to be a really hot weekend, which was nice for everyone, but me. My word, I have no idea how I am supposed to survive the summer being pregnant! We walked up town and I felt like I was going to pass out an throw-up from the heat! Yikes. I must admit, this mild weather we have been having lately has been kind of nice for me.

Here are some photos from our weekend. Enjoy!

Adversity

Oh, adversity. Blessings in disguise? Just plain crap? Unfair? Completely fair? Necessary? Unnecessary?

Well, I guess it's all on how you like to look at it, and that is the inspiration of this post.

I first and foremost want to apologize to my dear friends, especially those on facebook, who have heard me belly ache and describe (vividly) the 'joys' of this pregnancy. After me posting some descriptive status of my newest misfortune, my brother-in-law asked, 'When are we going to stop hearing about your daily vomit experiences?' That was it. That was my 'A-Ha' moment. (Thanks, Brad)

No one needs or wants to hear about the latest place I have thrown-up or how horrible I feel. I am sure there are many who just wished I would shut up and get on with it. Or maybe that I should be more grateful - I am carrying a beautiful, healthy child! What a blessing! Or maybe people were feeling sorry for me. I don't know, however I do know that every time I posted about how horrible I felt, I simply felt more horrible.

I have been taught that happiness begets happiness, and misery begets misery, and believe that to be true.

Well, I choose happiness.

Over the past couple days, I have been doing everything I can to focus on the positive - to count my many blessings. Some days, I have lots to feel great about, others, not so much, however I still try to focus on the good and not the bad.

Here are a few things that have happened today that have brought me joy, that I am truly blessed with and grateful for.

#1. Now that Nola is getting a little older, she is understanding more and more. For months, I have been asking Nola for a kiss. If I pucker my lips and look at her, she'll lean into me for a big wet one. This morning after I picked her up from Ashley's house (she stayed there while I went to my appointment), she climbed on to my lap, gave me a real hug and kissed me, without me even asking. Honestly, every pain, ache, worry and displeasure of pregnancy and parenting was made-up for and exceeded in that one simple act.

#2. Nola has been a pretty great sleeper since she was a baby. When we converted her from the bassinet in our room to her crib in her room, we bought her a transition toy - a light-up seahorse named Tabby, who plays soft music for her to fall asleep too. Tabby has been with her for nearly 10 months, and just recently I have noticed Nola showing her some love. When I put Nola to be each night or down for a nap in the afternoon, I lie her down, put a soother in her mouth, another soother in her left hand, and then she rolls over and hugs Tabby to sleep. It warms my heart every time I watch her.

See? Pretty cute, huh?

So, do I still feel like hell physically? Yup. Do I still have disgusting experience that I could share? Absolutely. Will I keep them to myself and continue to focus on my blessings? You bet.

The Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ said it best,

"I never said it'd be easy. I only said it would be worth it"

Farm girl

This past Saturday, Doug, Nola and I headed to Spring Coulee to the Malmberg farm for some fun. Doug and Clint went dirt biking after doing some branding and Nickie, Nola and I enjoyed the sun - and the wind. Nola went out to the farm once last summer, however she was too little to do anything or remember, so to me, this was kind of like her first trip to the farm! When we got there, she was super cranky, however she pulled herself out of it and we had a blast!

Its no lie, Nola loves her Auntie Nickie. I am sure a part of it is that Uncle Clint and Auntie Nickie are close so we see them often, however little Nola lights up when Auntie is around! I don't blame her - Nickie is awesome! And boy, she is so good to Nola. I am sure she loves Nola just as much as Nola loves her.

We took Nola out for a walk to see the cows and the new baby calves. The were so sweet! Then we went trudging through the fields over to the hay bails for some fun. Nola had so a blast! She is very independent and she loves to walk. She walked up and down huge hills, through mud, tracker tracks, hay and more! Every so often, she would stop and reach out for Auntie to hold her hand. It was so sweet to watch!

Here are some pictures from our fun day at the farm!

Going to give Auntie a big hug!

Sitting with Auntie on the hay bail.

Going for a walk!

She had a blast picking at the hay and handing us handfuls!


Cruisin'

:)

To everyone who says Alberta isn't beautiful? Think again!

Meeting the calves. She kept looking at Auntie to make sure everything was OK.

Simply beautiful

Awwww! For any of those who know me, I am a sucker for calves! They are so sweet!

Sharing her grass.

Taking a spill in the hay

Just love these two!

Peek-a-boo!

All she needs is a house to call home

A few posts back, I mentioned that we got Nola a big girl car seat and she loved to play with the box. Well, Doug had a genius idea to make the box into a little house for Nola. At first, she was very skeptical of the idea - 'you mean, I have to go in there, by myself?' Thank goodness her big cousin, Gabe, came to the rescue and showed that the house wasn't scary, it was actually a tons of fun! Since then, Nola spends much of her time sitting in her house and relaxing in her easy chair. She also has this infatuation with the movie "A Bugs Life". She'll sit in her chair, either in the living room or in her little house, and watch the whole movie!

Kicking back, watching her movie.

Life is good.

In her house, reaching for a book to read.

Peek-a-boo!

Hanging out the window.

Watching the movie :)

Hello? Who's there?