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Published December 25, 2013 by thaoie

Nolan: 28 Weeks

Merry Christmas Eve!! Christmas completely changes when you have a kid. It’s not about you anymore, it’s all about the little ones and making sure they are happy. We’re so glad to be celebrating Nolan’s first Christmas and hope to have done everything possible to make it joyfully memorable. He won’t remember a thing but we’ll always have fond memories of this occasion. With the photos and videos we’ll be able to show him how much he was loved. Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!!

I got the white throw (on clearance), burlap pillows ($3 each) and Santa hat ($3) all from Target.

Here’s our official holiday card. I couldn’t get a higher resolution one since that’s all they’d offer as a proof on TinyPrints. Too lazy to scan it in.

Some “Auto Awesome” photos courtesy of Google! They had the snow and twinkle effects just for the holidays.

Earlier in the week we went to see Christmas lights at a neighborhood in Torrance. Google added the twinkly lights to this image.

We traditionally attend vigil mass on Christmas Eve and head on over to my parents’ home afterwards for dinner and gifts. Nolan got to spend some quality time with his cousins and open his first gifts.

We took these right before 4PM mass at Christ Cathedral.

Poor Nolan was asleep for this group photo; my sister, Julie, is carrying him in her Tula wrap conversion.

Nolan’s 1st gift was this Car’s themed feeding seat. Obviously, he LOVED it!

Other random photos that will be treasured keepsakes for his memory book.

Another great laugh attack on Christmas Eve-Eve!

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28 week old baby boy baby's 1st christmas christmas eve blog post family holiday photos

Nolan: 27 Weeks

Published December 18, 2013 by thaoie

Nolan: 27 Weeks

So proud of my little man this week! He’s really enjoying eating solids now at 3x a day but that may be due to the fact that he’s growing teeth!!! My heart kind of skipped a beat when Rob told me last Friday. This weird feeling of “not ready” swept over me; I felt completely silly for feeling that way but I truly felt unprepared for it. He’s been very cranky due to the pains; still smiley and laughs but now also very needy and bothered. We suspect that biting down on the spoon eases his pain, hence the reason he’s taking so well to eating. Weird thing is he also prefers the food cold, straight from the fridge. The cold probably helps ease his painful gums. Hoping we’ll get through these “growing pains” soon.

We took this photo of his emerging teeth on Saturday. This was a very difficult shot to take; he kept sticking out his tongue and wiggling around a ton. You can see two tiny white slithers emerging at the bottom there. Anyone know how long it takes to fully emerge?

His official 27th week photo posing in a super cute onesie from Uncle Ken that says:
“I don’t always drink milk but when I do…I prefer DOS BOOBIES”.
He totally looks “milk drunk” here trying to balance himself sitting. The stunna shades help hide his drunkenness too ($2 from Children’s Place).

This past Sunday we attended the annual “Christmas in the Cages” event at Rancho Las Lomas where we also celebrated our wedding day over 3 years ago. It was nice to bring Nolan to visit the grounds and to do our holiday family photo shoot at the same time. There’s normally a fee to shoot there since you can’t access the grounds unless you have an event hosted or you pay a fee to have a shoot done. This is the easiest way for us to have the photos taken on the grounds w/o any additional fees. We may take advantage of this event every year to have our family photos done. It may be cutting it a bit close to the Christmas holiday but it holds a special place in our hearts so we’ll wing it anyway. (I really hope the event doesn’t get all super crowded next year with photographers shooting families because I said all that. It would be kinda funny, sorta, not really cuz it would spoil my “secret” loophole. hahaha!) Enjoy some of the photos taken by Duy below. We’ll reveal our holiday card in next week’s blog post.

Me with Noly and one of the tigers enjoying the yummy Christmas present–a whole turkey!

A few of our family shots taken around the grounds.

These 2 are definitely twinsies–both laughing then mouths wide open at the same time!

The grounds, beautiful as always on a toasty 75 degree SoCal day!

We also got to take photos with the cool SoCal Santa.

Cousin Quinn and Godparents Quang + Nancy were also on hand for the fun. Quinn is completely intrigued with Nolan, can’t take her eyes off of this person that is the “same” size as herself.

Some candid’s while roaming around the grounds. See that pocket under Nolan’s bum? That’s a nifty slot for your cellphone!

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27 week old baby boy baby's first teeth family holiday photos rancho las lomas christmas in the cages two bottom teeth

Nolan: 6 Months

Published December 12, 2013 by thaoie

Nolan: 6 Months

On the morning of Nolan’s 1/2 birthday I sang “happy birthday” to him. Though I admit it’s one of the songs on rotation that I sing to him on a regular basis, I really actually sang it to him this time. Every time I do he gives me the sweetest smile; just melts my heart! His development has been progressing tons and he’s the most curious creature ever; observing our every move, wanting to touch and taste anything he can get his hands on. In the last 2 weeks he’s been going thru a growth spurt, waking up halfway thru the night demanding a bottle and dream feeds his way back to bed. He loves to blow bubbles, babbles up a storm and apple sauce is his favorite food (so far) served cold from the fridge. We’re working on his sitting skills and hope to have that mastered by year end.

His 6 month check-up was also today so that meant 3 more shots and new milestone stats:

Weight: 18 lbs (61 percentile)
Height: 28.25 inches (97 percentile)
Head circumference: 17.5 inches (81 percentile)

This all just translates to a mini version of Rob: tall and skinny with a slightly big head.

Good morning, birthday boy!! He’s all smiles like always.

Time to play with my feet (aka yoga = happy baby pose).

Mommy! I really, really want my paci; please help!

I love this face.

Blowing bubbles or motorboating. Whatever you want to call it.

We wanted Nolan’s 1/2 birthday to be extra special so what did we do? Dress him up as an elf and visited Santa. Weekday visits with Santa are the best, by the way! No line when we arrived so there was no rush to get out. Nolan was an angel and didn’t cry at all, but let’s see how it turns out in the coming years. We’re hoping for a hilarious crying out of control one with the strange old man in a red suit.

In case you’re wondering, yes, I brought my own DSLR to have this family photo captured for us.

Here’s the official photo we purchased. For $21 we got a 5×7 print out, the digital image on CD and got to take up to 3 of our own photos.

Another Auto Awesome video of a day in the life of Nolan.

Update on me: I see the light at the end of the tunnel (which is Saturday night to be exact). Hoping to take 3 weeks off from photography work though I know there will be at least one blog post I need to work on during that time. I will still work on Nolan’s weekly blog updates but at least I get to claim my nights and weekends back to spend with my little family. Can’t wait!!

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6 month old baby boy baby's first christmas first time meeting santa claus

Nolan: 26 Weeks

Published December 11, 2013 by thaoie

Nolan: 26 Weeks

Enjoy these photos at his 26th week mark since there will be a bigger milestone in tomorrow’s post–6 MONTHS!!

Another week, another great laugh attack.

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26 week old baby boy

Nolan: 25 Weeks

Published December 4, 2013 by thaoie

Nolan: 25 Weeks

Doing a quick update on Nolan for this post since I am again behind on editing. I’m estimating another 10 days of photography focus before the Christmas fun can officially kick in. Can’t wait!!

*Celebrated his first Thanksgiving (with family) and Black Friday (went to Best Buy + Target on Friday afternoon).
*Had mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving dinner.
*Ate prunes and green beans in the last week. Took ’em a lot better than peas.
*Screams at the top of his lungs all the time for mostly no reason; so loud that it really, really hurts my ears.
*Finally has his own designated play area set-up.

“Old McNoly had a farm, E-I-E-I-O!”
We finally organized things to make room for Nolan’s play corner. This is the Prince Lionheart Farm Playmat. It’s pretty big at 58″ x 65″ and dual sided (the other being a city roadway). The mat is pretty thin so underneath it are foam puzzle pieces to help with padding. Those pieces interlock with the 4′ x 4′ wall ones to keep things nice and bright to stimulate our little guy’s eye sight. I specifically chose this foam set since they are thicker than most out there on the market.

Bubble fun! Don’t worry, these are non-toxic and perfectly safe for baby. Picked it up from Gymboree.
Not only does he LOVE it, but it also helps stimulate hand-eye coordination.

Woooowww!! What is that?!!?

“Ugh, mommy, there’s something in my hair!!” Yep, those bubbles are stuck to his fine hair, not just floating above his head.

Laughs everytime the bubble pops.

Nolan spent his first Thanksgiving meal at his great grandparent’s home (my paternal grandparents) where a lot of my cousins congregated to celebrate with a potluck.

Nolan with 3 of his cousins: Lorelai, Charlotte and Kortney.

Mommy and me photos!!

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25 week old baby boy baby playing with bubbles

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Nolan: 28 Weeks

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Nolan: 25 Weeks