Boys will be boys...

Lately I have been feeling like Nolan has made it his personal calling to indoctrinate me into life as a Mom of boys. It almost feels like I didn't have a boy until Nolan came along. Don't get me wrong, Nicholas loves cars, trains, Transformers, and trucks as much as any other boy, but he's such a sweetheart and a pleaser and doesn't like to get messy, so I really don't have any crazy "boy" stories with him (that I can think of). Essentially, he's a first-born to a T. Now along comes Nolan and I feel like I have a new crazy or disgusting story each day! It started probably 7 months ago, when Nolan was just 1, when it was Nolan who started to loudly pass gas and then laugh, teaching his older brother the art of the fart joke! In fact, Nicholas didn't even know the word for passing gas (or farting, toot, bottom burp, or barking spiders as some have been known to refer to it). All he knew was that whenever that would occur I would say to him "Say excuse me". So I cracked up when one day, sitting at the lunch table the boys entered into a contest if you will, and Nicholas laughed and turned to me and said, "My excuse me was louder than Nolan's excuse me!"
Now I have mentioned on here how Nolan likes to keep me on my toes and is always into everything. Well about a month ago he added the toilet to that list! It started out with him playing in the water--gross!! And one time I caught him at the last second before he dunked my hair brush into the toilet! But the grossest thing yet happened the day after we got back from the beach. We were all hanging out in our bedroom when Nolan went into our bathroom and closed the door behind him. He was in there for a mere 30 seconds before coming out and coming over to me. I touched his head to realize that he was soaking wet. I couldn't imagine how it happened and went to investigate, only to find water splashed all over the toilet seat. Somehow he had managed to dunk his head and shoulders in the toilet!! Thankfully he has not touched the toilet since then and I hope his interest has waned.
Last week I added yet another wonderful story to my list as I was changing his diaper. As I was putting some diaper cream on him, he loudly passes gas (I promise this is not the only thing my child does, it just happens to be incorporated in all of these wonderful stories) and thought it was the funniest thing ever. So of course during the next diaper change he decides to recreate the humorous moment. He strains to do so but is unsuccessful, instead he manages to force himself to pee all over me! I start screaming and telling him no, which only makes him laugh and try harder. He peed on me 3 times before I managed to get a dry diaper on him! He continued to try to do this at the next few diaper changes but thankfully I was able to avoid the spray ;) I can only imagine the stories that I will add to this colorful list as he grows!
Over the weekend, Nicholas fully embraced his boyhood on his special alone weekend with Grandad and Kaki. He had such a wonderful time swimming in the pool and the hot tub, playing at their house, and going to Chuck E. Cheese. But the most exciting parts of the whole weekend were catching toads in the pool and going walking on a trail with Grandad where he taught him how to shoot a BB gun and they even saw a cow skull (and shot at it). I know he made so many wonderful memories during that special time with them. And back at home, we enjoyed our rare one-on-one time with Nolan. We had a low key weekend but Graham did enjoy taking him to Catch Air while I hosted a baby shower at the house.
Despite the craziness, or probably even because of it, I love everything about my wild boys!

Sensational Summer

Well summer is halfway over now and we sure have had a blast! The first month of summer Nicholas had a very busy schedule. First he had a week of Space Camp at his school that he loved. He loves his school so much that he doesn't understand why he has this silly long break called Summer and many mornings he still asks me if he gets to go to school that day! That first weekend in June, Graham and I escaped for a wonderful weekend up in Dahlonega. The boys had a blast at Mimi and PopPop's while we relaxed at a Spa, visited winerys, hiked to waterfalls, and enjoyed shopping and delicious meals. It was a much appreciated getaway!
We returned home to start the very busy week of Mt. Pisgah's VBS. I was a crew leader for Nicholas and 13 4 year olds. Nicholas had a little bit of a difficult time handling the loud music at first and the jam-packed activities, but he did better as the week went on and ultimately loved it! It was totally exhausting for me but I have some wonderful memories and it was great to be able to share the experience with Nick.
That weekend we celebrated Nicholas' 4th birthday! It was truly a wonderful birthday party, I could not have asked for a better experience. The party was at Farmhouse in the City and the kids had a great time with the animals, playing dress up, painting pottery, getting their face painted, hunting for candy, and of course enjoying a delicious Transformers cake. After the party, all of the family enjoyed a great pizza birthday dinner. I cannot believe my firstborn is 4 years old! I also can't believe how much Nicholas has grown up in this year. He is truly a boy now, no longer a baby, and he reminds us (and everyone he comes in contact with) of this every day. He is constantly pointing out "I'm 4 now, I'm a kid now" and he'll frequently ask, "Is this for 4 year olds?" about anything and everything I might offer him like toys, books, movies, even food sometimes. He lights up my world and I am so thankful for the wonderful, loving boy he is!
The following week Nick enjoyed yet another VBS, this time at the church where he goes to preschool. He enjoyed this one as he got to be with 2 of his closest friends from school. And I enjoyed not having to work at this one and getting to spend some one-on-one time with Nolan.
That next weekend was spent celebrating all of the Father's for Father's Day as we spent the weekend with Grandad on Saturday and then PopPop and Papa on Sunday. We are so blessed to have such amazing Daddy's and Grandpa's all around!
Other fun things that we've been doing this summer include spending lots of time with our great neighbors. I started a walking group and we get out almost every morning with our friends to get some exercise. I have also been watching our neighbor's little boy Brandon every Monday which has been fun for all of the boys.
Then last weekend we traveled to Tybee Island with Grandad and Kaki, Lauren, TJ and Trip and Mady. It was such an amazing trip--I wish we were still there! Grandad and Kaki rented a fabulous beach house that we enjoyed so much! It was just a short walk to the beach and we spent every morning at the virtually private beach. The house had a great porch with a hammock and dining table, a terrific living room/kitchen area, 5 bedrooms, and a rooftop patio complete with hot tub. I think the best part of the trip was having all of the kids together for so many days to play. Nicholas and Trip were inseperable and got to share a room and never fought once the whole trip. Mady enjoyed lots of cuddle time with each of the adoring adults and jumped right in to the boys playing when she wanted. And Nolan was his normal self, getting into everything and being a total ham. In spite of Nolan's major sleeping (screaming) problems, it was a terrific trip. We really never needed to leave the beach house/beach, which is a good thing because we discovered that there is not much to do on the actual island. The restaurants weren't very good and the shopping was downright horrible. The guys did enjoy going to a museum one day and taking the kids to the lighthouse/fort another day. We enjoyed watching fireworks from the roof each night as we could see them from all directions and one of the most magical moments was 4th of July evening when we went out to the beach and saw what must have been 20 dolphins swimming very close to shore. With the beautiful shrimp boat and birds just behind the dolphins and the sunset in the backdrop, it was breathtaking! This trip was truly memorable and we are so thankful to Grandad and Kaki for making it happen!
P.S. I love the picture I included here of Grandad and Kaki trying to wrangle up all of their grandkids into one smiling picture for the photographer--Classic! "Like herding cats!"
(Sorry for all of the pictures! There were just too many good ones to pass up!)