Our little crew is ready for spring. Being cooped up in the house all winter long is no fun. It has encouraged some new games for Nathan though: his latest interests include cruising on the furniture (not walking yet, thank goodness, his mom can barely keep up with his crawling!), rolling all the toilet paper off the roll, and clapping. He loves to play with pennies--I know, choking hazard, I don't let him do it unsupervised--and he's getting really good at putting the pennies in his "piggy-piggy." Hopefully he'll be better at saving money than his mom & dad are!
This month has largely been dedicated to getting Nathan to eat new foods. He's drinking (not really though) cow's milk now, and got over his phase of only wanting to eat crackers and yogurt. His repertoire has expanded now to cheese of all kinds, cereal, Nutrigrain bars, waffles, bacon, taco soup (loves it!), chicken nuggets, turkey dogs, fruit (kiwi is a favorite), and all things chocolate. Nathan proudly drinks through a straw now. Hopefully his weight will catch up with his height by his next doctor appointment.
One of my favorite things Nathan is doing right now is giving "loves." Instead of giving hugs when we ask for loves like he used to do, when asked Nate now smiles and tilts his head to the side, tucking in his chin. This is his dad's fault--Nathan is a great copy-cat, and every time daddy asked for loves, daddy did this action, so Nathan followed suit. It's crazy how quickly he learns.
Another cute story involving Nathan and his daddy is one I like to call, "Oh, dang it!" Jake was emptying our paper shredder one day and spilled some paper on the floor. He said, "Oh, dang it!" and Nathan laughed & laughed. So we said "Oh, dang it!" all day, and laughed a lot. That night in the tub, Nathan dropped his rubber duck and very slowly, concentrating on each syllable and sound, declared, "O-daaannn-gg-iiii-t!" Awesome. Moral of the story is, we have learned early to watch what we say around our little parrot.
In Jake's and my world, we decided to wait to start building a house in Dallas until we have more of a down payment saved so things won't be too tight when we get to Texas. We were both bummed by this decision (who wants to rent when they could own?), but we'll get a better interest rate if we wait until Jake is actually working, and we'll be able to make sure our future house is in the area of town that will best meet our family's needs. Heavenly Father works in amazing ways (although lack of funds is not my favorite way of His working things out for me), so I can't wait to see what He has in store for us!
January 29, 2009
January 8, 2009
I feel like we've been out of town more than we've been in town for the past two months, so the blog, among other things, has been neglected. We have a lot to catch up on!
In early November, Nathan & I went to Omaha to welcome my brother, Ryan, home from Iraq. It was a whirlwind trip . . . we didn't even know the exact day he would be home, but we had faith, and we got to see him for two and a half days of the five days we were there. Nathan and Ryan seem to have a special bond. It probably goes back to when Ryan babysat him with my mom back in February, and Ryan patiently shook Nate's frog for him while he cried the whole time Mom & Dad were gone.
Then we were off to Utah for Thanksgiving. That was not the most fantastic of trips--everyone got sick. Nathan had a double ear infection and the croup, his first time needing to be on a prescription. We were all exhausted by the end of the trip, and I honestly don't remember that much about it, probably due to the lack of sleep!
Seems like the next thing we knew, Jake was done with finals and we were off to Utah again for Christmas. We were healthier on this trip, but still didn't sleep great. Oh well! Nathan celebrated his first birthday while we were in Utah. He had two birthday parties, one at each set of grandparents' house. It was a good thing, too, because he didn't know what to do with the piece of cake we gave him at his first party. At his second party, he got really into it. The cake ended up all over him and the floor, and I even caught him eating it off of his toes. While it took him a second try to figure out cake, he didn't have any trouble knowing what to do with presents! This kid was born to unwrap things. The thing that surprised me about Nathan opening gifts was that he actually understood he was trying to get to a toy underneath, not just playing with paper like most kids his age seem to do. He wanted to play with each gift as he unwrapped it, which slowed things down, but definitely made the giver feel special. What a sensitive, mature one-year-old I have!
Last year was technically Nathan's first Christmas, but he was just 4 days old and we brought him home from the hospital that day, so this year felt more like his first Christmas. True to form, he did a great job unwrapping his gifts. He was spoiled rotten by his grandparents, then by his parents and Santa when he got back to Nashville. He loves his yellow Speed Racer car from Uncle Steven and shakes it so it will drive on the kitchen floor. His mom & dad's favorite is the fridge farm from Uncle Bozz--the song it sings when you mismatch two magnetic animal halves is a riot. He likes his dumptruck & train that he got from Santa and uses them to practice walking behind. I am enjoying his new toys probably more than he is--it's nice for Mom to have new toys to play with during the days home alone with Nate.
Nathan continues to develop new skills and just get cuter with each passing day. At his one-year-old doctor appointment, he weighed 20 lb. (10th percentile) and measured 29.25 inches tall (26th percentile). He started crawling at 11 months after 3 months of the army crawl and a mom convinced that he would never crawl. Now Nate won't stop and his mom wishes she had her immobile little guy back! Nathan is into everything. In the time it takes me to make the bed, he has both bottom drawers of our dresser unpacked and strewn around the room. He loves to help me put clothes in the washing machine, and enjoys taking the silverware out of the dishwasher. His favorite book is Raindrop Plop which Jake and I can both recite from memory now, and possibly backwards. Nathan's first word was "Mama" about a month ago, and since then he's added several more to his vocabulary--Dada, car, ball, gum, go, pop, kick, and bubble. He can also bock like a chicken. One of my favorite memories was when I was laying down with him for a nap on the bed at my mom's, and Nathan rolled over, put his chubby little hand on my cheek and said, "Mama." That was one of the "motherhood comes in moments" moments that Elder Ballard talked about in April 2008 General Conference.
Nathan can stack the rings on his ring stacking toy, likes to make music with his toy drum and xylophone, calls people on Mom's cell phone all the time, and climbs like a monkey. He points at things he wants, and random people, and it always cracks me up when someone (usually a middle-aged man) points right back at him. We can ask him to point to objects and people, and he is getting increasingly more accurate. Our family got a kick out of him pointing to them (point to "Grandma," "point to Grandpa") when we in Utah for Christmas.
Besides everything Jake & I have going on with Nathan, we have a few things going on in our individual lives. Jake just started his last semester of law school (hooray!) and is applying for the Texas State Bar. We just received callings as ward missionaries and I got to go out on exchanges with the sister missionaries last night. It was a cool experience where I ended up learning more from the sisters' testimonies than I'm sure the investigator got out of my being there. I'm always amazed at how Heavenly Father puts us in the right places at the right times to get the spiritual nourishment we need.
On a lighter note, Jake & I both joined Facebook. The race is on to see who can collect the most friends. Jake is winning so far, but I don't think random Danes that looked him up from his mission network should count. :( It's o.k. if he has more friends than me. We all know who's more likeable anyway! :)
In early November, Nathan & I went to Omaha to welcome my brother, Ryan, home from Iraq. It was a whirlwind trip . . . we didn't even know the exact day he would be home, but we had faith, and we got to see him for two and a half days of the five days we were there. Nathan and Ryan seem to have a special bond. It probably goes back to when Ryan babysat him with my mom back in February, and Ryan patiently shook Nate's frog for him while he cried the whole time Mom & Dad were gone.
Then we were off to Utah for Thanksgiving. That was not the most fantastic of trips--everyone got sick. Nathan had a double ear infection and the croup, his first time needing to be on a prescription. We were all exhausted by the end of the trip, and I honestly don't remember that much about it, probably due to the lack of sleep!
Seems like the next thing we knew, Jake was done with finals and we were off to Utah again for Christmas. We were healthier on this trip, but still didn't sleep great. Oh well! Nathan celebrated his first birthday while we were in Utah. He had two birthday parties, one at each set of grandparents' house. It was a good thing, too, because he didn't know what to do with the piece of cake we gave him at his first party. At his second party, he got really into it. The cake ended up all over him and the floor, and I even caught him eating it off of his toes. While it took him a second try to figure out cake, he didn't have any trouble knowing what to do with presents! This kid was born to unwrap things. The thing that surprised me about Nathan opening gifts was that he actually understood he was trying to get to a toy underneath, not just playing with paper like most kids his age seem to do. He wanted to play with each gift as he unwrapped it, which slowed things down, but definitely made the giver feel special. What a sensitive, mature one-year-old I have!
Last year was technically Nathan's first Christmas, but he was just 4 days old and we brought him home from the hospital that day, so this year felt more like his first Christmas. True to form, he did a great job unwrapping his gifts. He was spoiled rotten by his grandparents, then by his parents and Santa when he got back to Nashville. He loves his yellow Speed Racer car from Uncle Steven and shakes it so it will drive on the kitchen floor. His mom & dad's favorite is the fridge farm from Uncle Bozz--the song it sings when you mismatch two magnetic animal halves is a riot. He likes his dumptruck & train that he got from Santa and uses them to practice walking behind. I am enjoying his new toys probably more than he is--it's nice for Mom to have new toys to play with during the days home alone with Nate.
Nathan continues to develop new skills and just get cuter with each passing day. At his one-year-old doctor appointment, he weighed 20 lb. (10th percentile) and measured 29.25 inches tall (26th percentile). He started crawling at 11 months after 3 months of the army crawl and a mom convinced that he would never crawl. Now Nate won't stop and his mom wishes she had her immobile little guy back! Nathan is into everything. In the time it takes me to make the bed, he has both bottom drawers of our dresser unpacked and strewn around the room. He loves to help me put clothes in the washing machine, and enjoys taking the silverware out of the dishwasher. His favorite book is Raindrop Plop which Jake and I can both recite from memory now, and possibly backwards. Nathan's first word was "Mama" about a month ago, and since then he's added several more to his vocabulary--Dada, car, ball, gum, go, pop, kick, and bubble. He can also bock like a chicken. One of my favorite memories was when I was laying down with him for a nap on the bed at my mom's, and Nathan rolled over, put his chubby little hand on my cheek and said, "Mama." That was one of the "motherhood comes in moments" moments that Elder Ballard talked about in April 2008 General Conference.
Nathan can stack the rings on his ring stacking toy, likes to make music with his toy drum and xylophone, calls people on Mom's cell phone all the time, and climbs like a monkey. He points at things he wants, and random people, and it always cracks me up when someone (usually a middle-aged man) points right back at him. We can ask him to point to objects and people, and he is getting increasingly more accurate. Our family got a kick out of him pointing to them (point to "Grandma," "point to Grandpa") when we in Utah for Christmas.
Besides everything Jake & I have going on with Nathan, we have a few things going on in our individual lives. Jake just started his last semester of law school (hooray!) and is applying for the Texas State Bar. We just received callings as ward missionaries and I got to go out on exchanges with the sister missionaries last night. It was a cool experience where I ended up learning more from the sisters' testimonies than I'm sure the investigator got out of my being there. I'm always amazed at how Heavenly Father puts us in the right places at the right times to get the spiritual nourishment we need.
On a lighter note, Jake & I both joined Facebook. The race is on to see who can collect the most friends. Jake is winning so far, but I don't think random Danes that looked him up from his mission network should count. :( It's o.k. if he has more friends than me. We all know who's more likeable anyway! :)
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