Nolan's Christmas Tree Farm

Nolan Shakes it Up

Here's Nolan playing with a rattle.  He seems to be picking up new tricks everyday!

Nolan Talkin' Micro Finance

A Family Portrait

Dance, Boy, Dance

Nolan Speaks Up

Grandma K's Visit

Some New Nolan Pics from Halloween

Well, here's the latest set up pictures from Nolan's pumpkin days.  Enjoy!

Nolan and the Polls

Nolan's First Important Date

Here's Nolan as the White Rabbit, with a Mad Hatter thrown in for good measure.  More pics to follow soon

A Link to more Nolan Pics

Here's a link to some more pics from our Pumpkin Patch Day.  Enjoy.

http://picasaweb.google.com/sfkernaghan/NolanSHarvestDays?feat=directlink

A Good Rest before a Big Game

Nolan slept through the night Monday night in preparation for Tuesday's win over the Phillies.  He remarked that a philly is a female pony, for whatever that's worth.

Nolan and the Great Pumpkin Caper

Nolan got his first visit to a pumpkin patch today, successfully sleeping through a good chunk of it, but these were his waking hours.  Needless to say, this was the highlight of Christine's month!

Nolan's Busy Weekend

Here are a pic from our Fall Retreat and Nolan's first go at his Bumbo seat.

Nolan at our Fall Retreat

Nolan is Back!

Sorry for such a long delay in the update process!!  Time flies when you have a kid.  :)

So, I'll start with a quick update of Nolan's hapenings and the a description of the pics.

For starters, Nolan is still large.  This week he clocked in at 15 1/2 pounds, 24 inches and a hat size of 41 cm.  Not bad for a 9 week old!  I thought about. Calling him 'Panda' after the Giants' 3rd baseman, but the real Panda is too fat to be a postseason starter.  Instead, "Buster" is his new nickname.....I like catchers better anyways. 

Otherwise, Nolan's been a bit fussy, eating a short meals and then screaming about it.   But his night sleeping has been more or less consistent, so that helps.

The pics above are from us at my favorite mtn bike trail (hiking) in Pacifica, Nolan's first Giants game (1 w/our friends' 5 month old,  Josie) and one in a G-ma Myra sweater.

Nolan Gets the Giants to 1st Place

Well, for the first time this season the Giants have sat alone on the top of the NL West and I think it's largely due to Nolan's clothing decision today!

The Rivalry

Well, it appears Nolan knows his roots.

A Visit from Old Friends

Today was Nolan's lucky day as he got to meet Ally and Alisa!  Ally is one of my oldest acquantences in SF, one of the first students I met 5 years ago.  The 4 of us spent some crazy bonding times together (Uganda included) and it's always great to catch up and hear where life is taking them!

A Lovely Visit

This ending weekend was spent with my parents, as they ventured up to spend my dad's birthday and their wedding anniversary with their first grandchild (unless Darren is hiding one somewhere).

We got to the beach and watch Gavin romp in the waves, eat lots of good food and enjoy some of the city's finest weather!

It's now 1/2 hour before Nolan's last feeding of the weekend and his various activities have caught up with him in the form of wailing and spastic movements......please God, let him sleep tonight!  :-)

Pic from the Beach

Laboring at the Beach

We spent a nice afternoon walking along the Fort Funston shoreline while Gavin frollicked among the waves.  Nolan had previously made it to the inland sand dunes of the old fort, but this was his first trip to the edge of our continent.  He didn't say one way or the other if he would take up surfing, so only time will tell.

-chris

New Pics Coming Soon

Well, this afternoon we had some friends over and turned our apartment into

a photo shoot!  Allison and Shaun came over around 2:00pm with lights,
cameras and those cool reflective sunshade-type devices for lighting faces,
and we struck a pose of fifty, trying to exhibit all of Nolan's double and
triple chins.  The initial results from Allison's viewfinder were quite
favorable, but we'll post the cleaned up versions midweek.

Other than that, Nolan's been busy cheering on the Giants with his "beat LA"
chant, occasionally joking that the opposing team only has to take the
field and the Dodgers will beat themselves.

-- Chris

Nolan's Back!

After a long silence, li'l Nolan has decided to re-appear to the blogging world! He apologizes for this time of wonder, stating his poor sleep habits and high demands placed on his parents haven't allowed for them to post any news.

Here are the recent details of Nolan's life. Rob and Jeff were able to come up last week and give Christine some lift as I was on campus for the start of another school year. It was great having them around and Nolan has now met all of his immediate-ish family! Through Christine, Nolan was able to eat some great SF food, thanks to Rob's generous take-out service. :)

As well, Nolan had his 1-month check up yesterday and he's officially fat: 11 pounds, 6 ounces, up over 2 pounds from 2 weeks ago! Unfortunately the doctor said he's very gassy and made have some food allergies we need to look into. Apparently babies can be sensitive to a mother's lactose intake, so Christine's going to restrict her diet for a week and see if Nolan's less cranky and distended.

As well, we've watched the "Happiest Baby on the Block" video, and expecting a miracle, we naively attempted Nolan's first bottle feeding AND Happiest Baby techniques before bedtime, resulting in a very long, tiring 'sleep cycle' for me! We'll keep trying and keep updating our experience.

The two pics are from Red's Java House (an old diner on the Bay, with Rob and Jeff) and Nolan's first trip to the office today, plopped on the couch w/ Leo (I didn't get much work done).

-chris, from the road

Nolan Sees the Pacific

Friday night I came to the realization that even after a hard day's work, "the weekend" is a concept too obscure for a 3-week old to grasp. As we watched The Book of Eli Nolan wailed, and as we ate dinner Nolan wailed. Friday nights will return someday, but as for now, they're just another night.

Saturday, though, was in fact a weekend day! Not working, it turns out, makes for wonderful times as a family. Gavin has been such a patient dog this whole time, so we decided to reward him with a trip to his favorite dog beach, Ft. Funston on the south coast of SF. We took Nolan along in his BOB and it did amazingly well pushing through sand-covered sections of the paved path.

-Chris, from the rocking chair

Fairly Fair

It was another pleasant day today! We tried switching up Nolan's feeding so that he just slept until he woke up, and then we fed him......but yeah, we're going back to the scheduled feeding times. It wasn't quite the magical exilir we'd hoped for. :-)

Just a quick pic from Uncle Bob and Aunty Sandy's visit earlier this week. They brought some wonderful socks for Nolan that look like checkerboard slip on Vans; pretty great!

As well, here's Christine with our boy asleep on his belly, still looking quite fantastic in his Myra-brand Jeans!

Christine's Dad will be back up here next week, accompanied by Jeff, they can help Christine out while i'm on campus all week (SFSU starts and the chaos is of chaotic proportions! She'll need all the help she can get while i'm off starting a new year of ministry.

A Pleasant Day!!

Well, it's been a pretty great day! Nolan got his longest stretch of sleep last night (Tuesday night) from 10:00pm to 2:30am! Oh, the wonders of 4+ straight hours of sleep!

Let's see, the big adventure for the day entailed the first use of our BOB stroller/runner. To give Christine some nap/rest time I threw Nolan in the carseat, dropped it into our stroller, lasso-ed Gavin and hit the pavement for a nice 4 mile run down to UCSF's campus near the ball park. We've learned the only near-failsafe way to keep Nolan quiet is to keep him in motion: walking, driving, running, whatever......just keep him moving!

The two other pics are Nolan's first attempt at a mid-sleep nose pick, and my nightly routine of camping out with Nolan (usually asleep) in the living room so Christine can get some undisturbed sleep until his mid-nighttime feeding. Usually I'm blogging or reading with the last bit of a 2 Buck Chuck in a glass. Tonight I'm reading "The Search for God and Guiness," an amazing read for several reasons...I highly recommend it!

-chris, from the paper-lamp lit corner

All Quiet on the Nolan Front

Well, yesterday was a bear of a.....for Nolan and us. Not sure exactly what changed, but poor Nolan had one heck of a fussy day! He absolutely wailed for hours on end and it was sad to see our boy in such misery. It was also rough on us, enduring the restless disquiet of our apartment.

However, all things settled down once I broke down and sold my soul to battery-powered child devices. Nolan has a fun loungy chair he really liked the first couple sitting, but then whined at furthur encounters. So, yesterday's desperation let me to pick up 4 C batteries (when was the last time something ran on C batteries?) and engage the vibration feature of the loungy chair. It was beautiful! Not only did it quiet Nolan down while he was awake, but it also lulled him to sleep!

So after a good night's sleep last night we headed to a doctors appointment for Christine and I took Nolan and Gavin to Crissy Filed and introduced our boy to the GG Bridge.

-chris

-chris, from the road

Recent Fun

Well, it's been a busy last few days, but we were able to sneak a trip out to the neighborhood farmers market on Thursday. Here's us with Nolan in his chest carrier. Man, he konks out in it, but when we put him back in his car seat he gets that gurggly low pitch scream that just kills us.



-chris, from the road

A Full Day

This'll be a short post because I'm tired, but here goes.

It was a big day for Nolan as he took his first trip out in a Baby Bjorn, had his second doctor's appointment, visited his first dog park and was introduced to Jack Bauer. Luckily, Nolan had a great night of sleep Tuesday night/Wednesday morning that enabled him to charge out with me, bouncing with every step as we tried out our Baby Bjorn child carrier. All in all, it was nice to know it worked, but I hope Nolan doesn't get Bjorn sick, with all the bouncing. :)

As well, it was Nolan's second trip to the pediatrician, and he checked out quite healthy. He grew about a1/4 inch and put on quite a bit of weight, as we suspected. The doctor said she hoped to see him put on about one ounce a day, but in reality he'd loaded up two ounces per day, equaling a 1 lb 2 oz gain in just 1 week!!

This evening before dinner Christine needed a trip outside so we drove over to the dog park to let Gavin romp. Christine sat with Nolan (in his car seat) on a bench off to the side of the ruckus area while I watched our fearless pup romp with other 4 legged friends. It was a really interesting experience as Gavin would play and sniff around for a bit, but then go back to Christine and Nolan, keeping watch to make sure they were safe. At one point he even growled at an 85 lb german shepherd who'd evidently gotten to close to Nolan!

After the park we headed home to eat dinner and ended up watching a couple episodes of 24, but Nolan seemed completely unimpressed. Glad we didn't name the kid Jack.....it seems like he may be a bit tougher than the show's hero!

Currently Nolan is an hour into his second good night in a row (a record; usually every other night is rough). I'll quit type so as not to disturb him.

Good night!

For more pics, check out: www.picasaweb.google.com/sfkernaghan

Finishing What Was Barely Begun

Well, I'm sorry I couldn't get to all the topics mentioned in my past title.....Nolan's necessity for attention and ability to scream both increased as last night dragged on. If I swore or said anything inappropriate or hurtful, I apologize; I can't remember much. :-)

Anyways, the threshold mentioned in my past blog title was in reference to our previous afternoon's outing. We went out to meet some friends and their two little ones at a local playground, and as Christine crossed the threshold of the gate into the chaotic land of playing children she had a thought: I'm no longer entiring as an outsider, this is my future as I carry my child into this new stage of life. It was a fairly monumental step!

Moving on (I'm still a bit tired), here are a couple pics of Nolan from today, one of him staring down the bee in his loungy chair, impersonating Derek Zoolander's La Tigre (hasn't stopped anything yet to be considered Blue Steel). The second is him giving his middle figure to his mouth, by sucking on it. :)

It was a pretty rough night last night, but

I'm happy to say he's been quite the angel today!!!

Fun Nolan Fact for the Day: Whenever he sneezes (usually 3 or 4 in a row) he hits himself in the face with both hand.

-chris, from the road

Legal Crack, a Threshold and a Blowout

This will just be a brief blog because I can't focus....pretty tired and don't want to lead my readers down a wandering path to nowhere. :)

As for today, its title could be grandparental weening, as Christine and I took a step toward having BePa and MeMa around a little less throughout the day. As kids try to establish their independence from parents, so too apparently do parents move out from the wings of grandparents (though w/o the rebellion and oft-nasty words).

Our events for the day included a morning with Rob & Brenda, followed by LOTS of diaper changes and a one-handed pee-containment block while Nolan was being changed. It seems his preferred schedule of urination is precisely between diaper applications. Not joking, i just went over to change his poopy diaper and he peed while I was putting his fresh diaper on.

Also, we're kinda scared, as any parent whose child is suspected of dabbling in risk taking behavior would be, that our son may becoming addicted to his pacifier. Here's a video of him working his "kong".

Also, as we were changing him earlier today, he couldn't keep his eyes off the lion Grandma Myra made for him. He stared at it for at least 5 minutes, dead on.

One final video for the night. If you listen, you can hear Nolan's hick-ups. They're especially loud after a big meal.

Dinosaurs and Drinkin'

Once again, a hiatus from blogging has occurred as Nolan's sleeping schedule has dissolved. Okay, maybe 'dissolved' is a strong word, seeing as he really hasn't hit stride with anything accept eating times. He seems to nail those dead on.

As you may be able to tell from the picture updates, Nolan seems to be a heavy drinker. He appears to be developing a double chin and a milk belly! Our next doctor's appointment is Wednesday, but I don't need to a professional to tell me that he's putty on weight fast! Here's what he looks like after a binge.

Aside from meal times, Nolan is still enjoying BePa and MeMa (Rob and Brenda) while Christine and I wander in between naps, errands and eating. It's nice to have grandparents around to keep us company, give pointers, prepare meals and run loads of pee/pooh-soaked clothes (all Nolan's so far) among other chores. :-) Apparently childcare is tiring for grandparents too, and Nolan knows it. Earlier this afternoon Nolan pooped so loud it woke BePa up out of a peaceful nap!! Of course Nolan slept through his explosion.....that's my boy.

After a changing-pad-soaking diaper change today, we decided to turn Nolan into Nolasaraus, dressing him up in a great set of feeties from Jake and Jamie.

Yesterday the 5 of us took a trip to Mission Creek Park to get Christine out of the apartment. After 5 days of staying inside all day, Christine was getting stir crazy, so we decided to introduce Nolan to one of our favorite parks in SF. It's just west of McCovey Cove, on the same little inlet from the bay......so quiet and serene, when the Giants are out of town. Unfortunately it was quite windy, so we didn't end up with any pics of the little tike as a blanket blocked the g

usty weather from entering his stroller the entire trip. In fact, I don't think he was awake for any of the trip. So far he's done a grea

t job in his car seat/stroller, and by great I mean that he simply sleeps the whole time he's in it.

That's it for now! Again, if you'd like to visit the Nolan online picture albums, use this link:

picasaweb.google.com/sfkernaghan

-Chris, from the night shift

The Boys with Their (chocolate) Cigars

I'm trying to do a post from Picasa, Google's photo program.

If you'd like to see Nolan's web albums and they arrive, use this link:

picasaweb.google.com/sfkernaghan

Looks like it worked! Malatov!

Nolan Comes Clean, Again

Well, I awoke this morning to stories of Nolan sleeping well throughout the night, but his diapers leaking at every chance they got!! I've taken over the pre-bed night shift and the early morning shift, while Christine does the mid-night through wee-hours shift. Apparently I got lucky and Nolan's bladder released only under Christine's watch, and boy did it ever!!! He wet his way through all our bassinet sheets, 3 sets of PJ's and 3 swaddling wraps, in a matter of 6 hours.....apparently he's well-fed.

Just after we got going the Richey's dropped in to say good-bye. Quite the sad moment as life-changing events had been shared and much help was lent by Myra! But we really appreciated the baby-sitting, cooking, clean, pain-au-chocolats and especially the wisdom & company she

imparted!

Around noon Rob & Brenda showed up and we gave Nolan his second bath, but this one was new and exciting because his umbilical cord fell off last night so we were able to give him a little better washing this time. As soon as Christine wrapped him up in his bathrobe and gave him a big hug, Nolan decided it was time to water the plants and soaked himself and his enduring mother......so Nolan went under the facet for a quick re-rinse.

Following his second drying session Nolan was quickly dressed to kill in a wonderful long-legged onesie bestowed upon him by our friends Josh and Alex (big thanks!).

Currently Nolan is farting up a storm and hearing about the Three Little Pigs from Be-Pa (Grampa Rob).

Seeing as it's Friday night, we'll continue on the tradition of home made pizza with Rob and Brenda, feasting on buffalo chicken and carmelized onion, sausage and tomato reduction sauce varieties.

Kernaghan Family Pics from the Hospital

Just got these pics from my mom. Some family fun on Nolan's 2nd day of life.