Nolan is Eighteen Months Old!

Well, we are a couple weeks late, but we were out of town. Here we go!

21.9 lbs
32.25 inches tall
He has been working on eating with a fork and is getting better at it.
He can count to two! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2h1ij4QtJk)
We are working on colors still. Sometimes we think he gets it, and sometimes it seems like he doesn't.

So yeah, he is still a light weight. And we are not sure why as he is a good eater, he just doesn't eat much pre-packaged food, milk, or meat (he is also a very active boy and mommy is small). The doctor has given us some ideas for more calcium, iron, and fat intake, so I will be working on those over the next few weeks. Ideas include bok choy, green beans, more butter, organic chicken breast, creamy peanut butter, and more cow's milk. We also learned that one of his favorite veggies, cucumbers, doesn't do much for him right now.

December pictures are posted (http://www.chrisandkacey.com/Nolan/December2009/)

Food

So the title of this post is a little wide-open, but it is what I want to discuss. Nolan is getting to an age where I feel he needs more variety in his diet (I can tell when he is tired of eating something). For quite some time, he ate chick peas every day for lunch along with one or two veggies, some fruit, and a piece of multi-grain bread. Dinner is not too bad as Kacey usually whips up something consisting of either pasta or tortillas.

I have tried grilled cheese which he will eat if the cheese is melted enough but the bread not too crispy (fun for daddy as Nolan doesn't like unmelted cheese, crazy boy!). I haven't tried peanut butter and jelly for him yet as we only have crunchy peanut butter. I haven't given him lunch meat yet out of fear of foodborne illness. What other healthy ways do folks out there get protein and grains for their kids? Nolan also doesn't really like eggs and that is ok as we don't really cook with them or buy them frequently. I am considering buying fresh, organic chicken breast from the store down the street that sells it for Nolan and I to eat at lunch.

Christmas 2009 Road Trip

We started our journey on Wednesday December 16th in the afternoon as to try to break up the 12 hour trek to Toledo in to two chunks. Our plan was to drive I-90 until we got tired. Around Rochester, the lake-effect snow kicked in and we had to get off the interstate. We stayed at a little roadside hotel for the night and got to Toledo the next day just after lunch.

There was much food to be eaten at the Fetcho house. Haluski, pierogies, ham, kiffles, lasagna, and much more. We also took a trip to Wren, OH to have Christmas with the Snyders. It was great to see everyone!

On the 26th we drove to Indy and our first order of business was to stop and greet my niece Leah Kate! (http://www.chrisandkacey.com/Family/Leah/) She is such a cutie and I loved getting to see her. The next day we spent the afternoon at my cousin Jason's house and had some good times and good food.

Pictures from Christmas can be found here. (http://www.chrisandkacey.com/ChrisKacey/Holidays/Christmas-2009/)

We spent the following week visiting a few friends and family. We also visited our friends at church and went out for lunch with them; it was great to see them all! January 3rd, Kacey hoped on a plane to join her classmates for a two week plant trip visiting partner companies for her school program. This meant I was a single dad for two weeks. I was able to stay at my grandparents house in Martinsville, so we had a real house with space to stay in. My brother Matt took Nolan and I to the Children's Museum for our Christmas present; it was lots of fun! Nolan ran around and saw many things. Matt and I played with a few things too. I spent time with my mom most nights which I know she loved, and Nolan had lots of fun spending time with grandma. I visited some friends for playtime with Nolan and each visit was great to catch up and let Nolan play.

On our way home we stopped in Ithaca, NY to visit Kacey's aunt, uncle and cousin. We did not get to see them at Thanksgiving or Christmas, and we have never been to their house. It was a fast, but good trip. We also got a very fast visual tour of Cornell where Kacey's uncle is a professor.

All in all, it was a good trip. Many thanks to Chas for helping watch our cats!!!

Back Home

We are finally back home after almost 5 weeks of being gone. So this is a lame post saying I will write some real posts later this week.