Quality Time with Nolan

Nolan.

Nolan is one of my kids I typically spend the least amount of time with during the day.

He is usually either pretending I don't exist as a joke or giving me hugs and attention while looking at Nikki out of the corner of his eyes with a mischievous grin on his face, trying to make his mama jealous ;)

Recently Nolan has been going through a little bit of a rough patch and has been extra naughty and very emotional.

School being out multiple days in the past few weeks due to holidays and now Nikki being back in Canada for a couple weeks has only increased that.

The past couple of days Nolan has not left my side.  He follows me everywhere and cries when I leave.

I had to go grocery shopping yesterday so I decided to take him along and give him some quality one-on-one time as he seems to be really craving that right now.

Nolan becomes incredibly excited when he gets to go on an outing and this time was no exception!  After he put his shoes on, he had to go up to each member of our family and sign, "Me. Tori. Going. Eating. Bye." before we could leave.

In the auto on the way he watched everything go by with wide eyes, periodically looking up at me with a grin as if it was the first time he had seen the city.

We walked into the mall and I pointed to the Starbucks where I was planning on taking him for a treat.  He shook his head and kept pointing up the escalator.  After wondering what in the world he could have seen up there that he wanted so badly, I realized he just wanted to take a ride on the escalator!  So we took a ride up and then turned around and rode down again with Nolan giggling the whole time.  He was then more than ready to go into Starbucks for his snack ;)

He picked out what he wanted right away and told me exactly where we had to sit while we waited.  Bossy little boy!

It can sometimes be tough to take Nolan out for food as he doesn't eat well and is typically g-tube fed but he did great with his chocolate loaf cake and couldn't have been happier - except for when I told him he couldn't have my coffee...

Nolan's favorite thing to do is help with adult tasks so shopping at the grocery store might have been his favorite part of the trip!  Nothing could be put into the cart without going through his hands first and he tried to make me buy all sorts of silly stuff.

He charmed everyone at the mall in classic Nolan fashion - waving, blowing kisses, and flashing his great smile.  When we got home he told me he didn't want to be finished so he was going to stay and sleep in the auto :)

While I was tucking everyone in that night he reached out and gave me one of his giant hugs that melt my heart and make me realize how much I love him.

Nolan is typically the kid who can frustrate me the most.  He is incredibly intelligent and could do amazing things if he'd just apply himself so when he doesn't and plays his games it drives me crazy because I know he's capable of so much more.  That intelligence also means that he knows exactly which buttons to press to get me frustrated...

Spending time with him last night was so good because I got to just enjoy him for the amazing, silly, smart, goofy, affectionate, wonderful little boy that he is.

While he can frustrate me sometimes, Nolan is a pretty special kid and one who holds a very big piece of my heart.