Birthday Week!

Nolan's birthday is this week. I will be posting about Nolan all week long.

Nolan was my easiest newborn. I thought I had lucked out. I foolishly thought he was my reward for keeping the first two alive. Then, unlike the other boys, he got harder as he got older. The first two were just warming me up for Nolan.

Nolan is a handful. Let me rephrase that. Nolan is two-hands full. He is busy. He is almost always on the move. I should have known he would be. He was very active in the womb.

Very, very active.

He is a speed crawler and a quick climber. One day he decided he wanted to climb stairs, so he did. There was never a learning curve. No trial and error.

He just did it.

Just last week I left him in the Family Room with a pile of toys. I ran into the office to look up a recipe on-line. Five minutes later I went to check on him. He wasn't there. Parenting Fail: I forgot to put up the baby gate. As silently as a ninja he crawled out of the Family room, down the hall, right past the office, up the stairs, down another hall, through my bedroom, and into my bathroom. I found him emptying my tampon supply all over the bathroom floor. I'm only surprised he wasn't splashing in the toilet. He is usually drawn to water.

Nolan is adorable. I'm quickly discovering that my children's appearance is directly correlated to the amount of mischief they are capable of. Their adorable little faces are their best protection. Like another mommy blogger said, they are "Cupcakes Baked by the Devil." Those big blue eyes keep him alive. I can't resist them. Even when he is tearing apart, and eating, child-proofing devices.

But his isn't always a terror. He is a sweet little guy. He loves his brothers fiercely. (Sometimes a little too fiercely.) He loves to wrestle and play. He has the best cheesy grin ever. He's pretty go-with-the-flow.

And I adore every last inch of him.

He's my favorite baby ever.

(Not counting the other two. They are all my favorite babies ever.)