Merry Christmas

We had a great Christmas Eve and Christmas with my whole family. It was such a treat to have everyone here in NYC for Nolan's first Christmas. We decided to give Nolan a few presents at a time over a two day span. That way he could enjoy all of his new goodies. I swear he knew it was Christmas Eve, because he wanted to stay up WAY past his bed time. I think we finally put him in his crib and shut the door at 9:45.

The Knicks had a game Christmas day, so we headed to the Garden for a Knicks win over the Bulls. We went down to Katie's and prepared a six course Christmas dinner. It was great, and I paired each course with wine! For dessert, Rolo Cookies with ice cream and homemade Irish Cream!

The day after Christmas we got 21 inches of snow. Nolan didn't really seem to care, but it made the city beautifully white.......that is until it turned to brown slush a few days later.

Nolan in the middle of 69th St.

9 months

This was the one we've been waiting for folks! We've got two teeth, with two more on the way and a crawler! Nolan has been very creative in the way he gets around until this weekend. He is finally really crawling and is loving exploring new parts of the apartment. Uh oh, we're in real trouble now.

Nolan continues to have a great personality. He does some hilarious things with his hands, including a move we call the sorcerer! He is still very vocal, and has been extra vocal and a little clingy as we wait for his teeth to come in. He loves to laugh at Shawn and I, but most of all he loves to laugh at himself. We went to the Knicks/Heat game on Friday, and he laughed and clapped until he fell asleep. He loves going to games and cheers right along with the rest of the Knick fans. It's pretty darn cute. Earlier in the month we went to a day game, and we took a few pictures on the court, then the Knicks City Kids put colored hairspray in his hair!

He is super strong and is eating like a champ. Now that he's 9 months we've added meat and berries. He loves them all and has also enjoyed samples of my food! He just sits and stares at me making a chewing motion with his jaw until I break him off a little piece of bread, veggie or whatever else is on my plate.

On the 16th, Shawn and I took him to see Santa. It was pretty hilarious. He loves meeting new people and Santa was no different. He kept looking at him and smiling, but didn't really ever smile for the camera. Oh well, I figured there would be no tears, but it was great to get through it without him being scared or sad. Next year might be a different story!

9 month stats:

Height: 28.5 inches

Weight: 21 pounds

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a nice, low-key Thanksgiving here in the city. We got up and ready early. After breakfast for the baby, and beagles and coffee for the parents, we walked down our street to catch the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade live! This is my third Thanksgiving in NYC, but it is the first I've spent the day in the city. I have no idea if Nolan knew what was going on with all the music and VERY large balloons, but Shawn and I enjoyed it! The parade was a lot more fun then I would have ever though.

It was over by 11, and we headed back to the house. Since it was just the three of us this year, I did a lot less cooking and even "cheated" with the Turkey by buying a roasted turkey breast at Trader Joe's!

I clearly have so much to be thankful for this year. I'll keep it simple with a list:

Shawn

My sweet Baby Boy Nolan

Family, near and far, especially my sister who has been an amazing help with Nolan

Friends, new and old

Hand me downs for the baby!

Central Park

Health

Nolan's Stroller and Ergo Pack

Great flight deals

Trader Joe's on the UWS

8 Months

So far the 8th month has been the most challenging. As Nolan learns to be independent we struggle with not being able to verbally communicate. I'm trying to teach him some baby sign language, but he hasn't really shown signs of full comprehension! He is still a total ham, and it only takes one smile to make me forget about all of the frustrating moments.

Here are the crazy eights of the eighth month.

1. Making the "athletic" move from trying to crawl to sitting up

2. Downward dog and the two legs at a time crawl/hop

3. Becoming really good at feeding himself, he's mastered Puffs and is still loving every new food that we introduce to him

4. Pulling hair, coats, buttons and anything else he can get his hands on. I think I say the word gentile about 100 times a day.

5. Level 3 bottles, our little haas boy now downs an 8 oz. bottle in 4 minutes (this is not a joke!)

6. Rev 'em up arms. This kid is always moving his body and hands. We call them Rev 'em Up hands because it looks like he's trying to ride a motorcycle

7. Parallell play with his little buddies. We have the kids together a few times a week and it is hilarious to watch the play separately but together. When the do interact, we are constantly dealing with toy stealing! Of course Nolan is the most vocal about having his toys ripped out of his hands!

8. Daddy time. Nolan loves his dad, and is always so excited to see him and play with him. I was sick one day this week, and Shawn stayed home to take care of Nolan. They had such a great day, and it's so special to watch the father/son bond grow!

1st Halloween

Nolan's first Halloween was so much fun. Our entire street shuts down, and we have thousands of kids and parents flood the street for trick-or-treating and other fun. We hosted a party and had some of Nolan's friends and our friends drop by. It was so cute to see all the kids dressed up. Nolan has some great little friends, and their parents are great too! It has been wonderful to meet a new group of friends that are all have kids between 6 and 9 months!

YEA Giants

We had such a blast watching the MLB playoffs this year. It was extra special that the Giant's won the World Series the year Nolan was born. It was always be such a fun memory for us. His first ever baseball game was Mets vs. Giants here in NYC. It was so great to catch all of the home games in the NLCS in the Bay Area. The energy was amazing, and the Bay was filled with Giant's fever. Nolan was sporting his Giant's gear all through the playoffs. We managed to squeeze him into his 3-6 month size Lincecum T-shirt jersey the entire time.

What a difference 5 months makes!

Surprise Visit to CA

I get last minute flight deals on my email all the time. I finally saw SFO on a weekend that made sense. Shawn has been so busy with work, that Nolan and I decided to head home for a weekend to surprise my friend Tracy at her engagement party. I ended up surprising her on Thursday and was able to spend that whole afternoon and night with her and a bunch of my other girlfriends at cooking club. Alix and Mike hosted an amazing engagement party for the lucky soon to be husband and wife!

I also got to meet sweet little Heather's new addition, sweet little two week old Paisley. Heather met Nolan when he was just two weeks old, and it was such a treat to get to meet her baby girl at the same age. It was also such a treat to watch the Giant's clinch the National League Championship in the Bay. I was sad to leave a day before the start of the World Series, but I had to get back for work and more importantly for Shawn to have Nolan and me back in NYC!

Nolan had so much fun with his Papa and can now pick him out of a picture on our fridge! So cute. My dad already has a set of little kid golf clubs for Nolan. Can you tell by the picture that he's a natural! :)

We went with the Maddox's to a Halloween party for the kids. Nolan didn't have his costume but borrowed Roman's from last year! It was so cute and hilarious to see the 1 year olds slowly approach him to see if he was a live stuffed animal!

7 months

I seriously feel like every time I log onto the blog it's time for NB's monthly update.

It is getting cold and some times rainy here in NYC, but it has given me a reason to dress Nolan up extra cute in his fall gear. I am so thankful for everyone who has bought him clothes and even more for the fabulous hand-me-downs that we've been given.

We went to a fall party in the West Village with Nolan's best bud James. We got some great pictures, and the boys loved playing with the pumpkins and watching the big kids run around!

Now for a run down of new and exciting things:

• Sitting up so straight for long periods of time. I still have to put the boppy behind him if I leave him on his own, but he has come a long way in a month.
• Finally doesn't mind being on his stomach. He is attempting to crawl and actually likes reaching for his toys that are a little far away.
• Scarfing his 4 oz of food twice a day. He has not rejected a single food I've given him. He's even been trying to take the spoon and feed himself!
• He makes the cutest noises when he's excited, which is about every two minutes. He pants and kicks when we leave the house, come home, get to the park, he sees his dad or any of his tiny little friends, goes into the bathroom, or when we're about to get on the swings. He even gets super excited when I take him out of the swings!
• He has the best personality, and I always get stopped by strangers who tell me how cute and funny he is. He also loves to flirt with the ladies!
• He loves to sit in his bumbo chair and watch me cook dinner, do the dishes or get ready for the day in the bathroom.
• He seems to like Sesame St. for about two minutes.
• Two days in a row he took two hour naps, which is a big deal at the Bennett house. I can only hope that this continues (finger's crossed!)
• Yesterday he decided that his new thing would be clapping. It's so cute, and he just does it when he wants to. It is not really associated with anything now, but I'm sure as the weeks pass by he'll clap in context!

There are still days that I can't believe this sweet, funny, super cute and well adjusted baby is mine. He is such a little love bug, and even though days can be long and hard, seeing him smile at me or laugh when I laugh makes all the hard parts slip away!

Paris

After a couple of days in Milan, I was much less jet lagged. We flew with Shawn and the rest of the NBA folks to Paris. We were staying right next to the Arena where the Knicks played the Timberwolves.

I was so excited to get to Paris. It was my first time there, and I had so much I wanted to see and do. Besides seeing the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame, number one on my list was a fancy French Dinner. Thanks to one of Shawn's coworkers, we were able to enjoy a quiet 6 course meal at Augusto in Paris. We had a great bottle of white Burgundy to go with our meal. I had a feeling that one of the courses would be a little to refined for my taste, and boy was I right. After three amazing courses that Shawn and I basically liked up out came the pigeon! AHHHH, living in NYC, I could not get the vision of dirty city flying rats out of my head. I did my best to eat as much as I could, but after about three bites I was done! Good thing that course was followed by yummy cheese and a heavenly dessert duo of chocolate souffle and maple ice cream!

The next day Shawn was busy with work, so Nolan and I headed into the city center to meet our friend Emily. We had lunch then walked over to the Louvre, then headed to the Latin Quarter, then after walking aimlessly for hours we headed back to the hotel for a much needed glass of French Wine! When Shawn was done with work, he met us at the Westin and we went over to Pont Nuf to catch a nighttime boat ride down the Seine River. It was a great way to see the city. I have to say the Eiffel Tower lit up was a beautiful sight!

The next day was game day, so Nolan and I were on our own again. We went to the Arch De Triumph and the Eiffel Tower in the rain. Thankfully my sister let me borrow her rain jacket as it was a necessity in Paris! We made it back to our hotel in time to get changed and head over to the game. We only stayed for the first half, but I was glad we were able to see the NBA in Europe!

Milano!

Shawn had games in Milan and Paris, so Nolan and I decided to tag along. After a long overnight flight from NYC, we landed in Milan. I was very city savvy and took the train from the airport and the metro from the city center to meet Shawn at the beautiful Duomo.

I was beyond tired, but I pushed through the day. We saw some sights, and of course had espresso and gelato! YUM!

This is one of Nolan's many girlfriends! The KCD and Knicks players had a few appearances in Milan that we attended.

When Shawn was working, Nolan and I went sight seeing. We went to the Castello Sforzesco and saw some amazing art, including Davinci's Madonna and Son.

We spent a lot of time in the cute neighborhood of Brera. It was filled with restaurants, shops and of course Gelato!! I ate at least one meal per day in this neighborhood!

We also went to the Knicks vs. Armani Jeans, yes you read that right. The game sold out in 6 minutes, so we were lucky to be in the building. The Knicks won the game and were received with great cheer. I found that over all the Italian's were very friendly and LOVE babies. All of the kept wanting to touch and kiss Nolan. Normally that would freak me out a little, but when in Milan!

Here's Nolan in his sweet Adidas Knicks gear.