I was 24 years old as I sat early one morning on the couch in Reston, VA eating breakfast and watching the news. The breaking news headlines spoke about an explosion at the World Trade Center. As I was watched I remember thinking to myself that this must have been caused by some type of mechanical error. I hoped that everyone around would be alright but never imagined that the end results would be catastrophic.
Then the second plane hit.
So last week I posted my 100th blog entry. If this were a TV Series, I could be syndicated now. I unknowingly started this blog a few hours before Nolin was born. Almost 15 months and 100 blog posts later, life has become more exciting than I ever imagined.
I don’t think as a parent you are ever actually ready…much less when you only have three weeks to prepare. I had always been nervous about being a father because I just didn’t think I would be good at it. Nolin has made it easy and looking over some of my favorite posts, I realized I have learned a few bits of good parental advice along the way…
So we can only be thankful and count our blessings that in Nolin’s 13 months, he has never really been sick. At the same time it kind of makes you realize how unprepared you are for it when it comes crashing down on you.
The fun began Father’s Day. My whole plan for the day was to take Nolin on a bike ride now that he and Jenn were back in town. In the morning he just seemed off, but we figured that was just him getting back on schedule from traveling. When he woke up from his nap, he was sweating and Jenn got a little nervous, but we decided to wait for a little bit because after all, Nolin doesn’t get sick. Read more…
Nolin -
It was one year ago today that you entered this world and our lives. As I have been reminiscing over the many exciting events of the past 365 days I keep coming back to the moment that we received the call that you were getting ready to make your grand entrance and the feeling I had as we waited at the hospital to meet you.
I am not sure that anything ever prepares you for that exact moment…it was surreal.
While it seems like just yesterday that we nervously made our way upstairs in the hospital to meet you, it also seems like you have always been a part of our lives. Each day brings new exciting milestones as you continually amaze your mother and I with everything that you do.
Your grandfather said it best when he told me that I would never know what love really is until I had a child. I may never be able to fully explain to you how much joy you bring to our lives except to say that I couldn’t be prouder to be your father.
May 21st at 1:30pm was the moment one year ago that you changed our lives forever. Nolin, this is just the beginning because the future holds so many exciting opportunities and I can’t wait to share those experiences with you. Happy birthday my little man and as you keep growing older, I hope that you always know…you are the best thing that ever happened to me.
Love Always,
Dad
And the first official word is…drumroll please. Well I can’t tell you in the first sentence or there would be no need to read any further. Nolin’s first word actually came a few weeks ago, but I was hoping to sit down and videotape him speaking, which never happened, but I figured this was a pretty big milestone and one that should be recorded (at least in story). But now that he got past that hurdle, there has been an avalanche of words to follow.
As I mentioned previously (What’s in a word), I figured we would just know when Nolin spoke his first real word. At this point we are pretty confident that he has and his mother could not be any more pleased.
Nope, his first word is not mama…although that is now a major party of his vocabulary. He likes to say it all the time…unfortunately he likes to say that one more than dad or dada, but I am happy to say that has become party of his vocabulary too.
I can take comfort in the fact that he also didn’t start referring to Toonces or Pancake first either. Cat and dog came a little later. He tends to say cat more than dog, but I figure that it is just because Toonces is not quite as grumpy as Pancake. He has a thing for animals because bear and fish have also been added to the list. Sometimes bear sounds like an adult beverage and fish sounds a little inappropriate so we don’t encourage those quite as much and hopefully he never sees those two animals out in public together because we may have some explaining to do.
He has also become very good at parlor tricks. Whenever he takes a bite of food, it is always followed by mmmmmmm. If he sees food that he wants, he also responds with mmmmmmm. We couldn’t figure out where he got this one until we realized that we both said mmmmmmm if we were eating something we liked. It’s nice to have those things pointed out to you. Just this week, he started saying more (pronounced like moe) if you dont feed him fast enough. What can I say, he’s a growing boy and loves to eat.
Some of his other tricks include what does a sheep say? Nolin replies with bahhhh which really turned out well when we went to Hermitage Farms on Saturday. He was fascinated with the sheep. He kept trying to speak their language, get their attention and be their friends and would just say bahhhh bahhhh bahhhh. Sadly they merely looked at him with interest but slightly confused. He didn’t care at all by this seeming rejection, he was simply delighted that they were looking at him and started laughing and throwing his hands up wildly in the air.
The neatest trick of all though has been when you ask Nolin where his head is. He immediately touches his head and gives you a big smile. This was the result of a lot of “Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes“. I have been absolutely dumbfounded as I witness him truly understanding what you are saying and comprehending it. It is crazy.
But I digress, so back to what got us here in the first place…his first word. Ever since we started talking about having children, there has been one divide between Jenn and I. I have always wanted to have a kid that would be into rock music, athletic and just all around super cool (kind of like his dad). Jenn wanted her child to be a “nerd”. Not anti-social, but a kid who loved to read, loves geography (not his father’s strong suit, but Nolin if anyone ever asks, Albuquerque is much bigger than it looks…like way bigger), loves to travel and watch documentaries (instead of reality TV with his dad).
Well we have already proven that Nolin loves to travel. I may not be doing too bad with the music aspect and athletic ability either. I also tend to think that Nolin is already super cool (maybe even more so than his dad), so I may be batting 1000. Whether or not Nolin would love to read and watch documentaries…well that is still up in the air.
Jenn has been getting more and more excited as we have watched Nolin pass up his toys (although he is really into his cars right now) and turn to books. He can’t get enough of them. In fact once you start reading a book, he brings it back for you to read again and again and again. He goes to library time twice a week, and loves it. Jenn talks about how he has a crush on the old crotchety librarian and I explained that it is because she is the keeper of the books and to Nolin that is the coolest.
At any given time, you can find Nolin picking up a book by himself and flipping through the pages. He gets incredibly excited at each new page and just has a great time with each book (although he has also started eating them lately…not sure what that is all about). So it is no wonder that his first word was…book. Thankfully his love for reading is probably what has helped his other vocabulary grow.
The only problem is that in addition to learning new words, Nolin is also becoming very good at repeating what you say. Jenn says it is like having your own personal parakeet. On the other hand, I say this could spell trouble…
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