March

So I'm realizing that blogging is becoming another thing for me to check off my to-do list. I think I'm going to try switching from my once-a-month mega-blog-entry to shorter, more manageable entries as the fancy strikes me. Hopefully this will be my last mini-novel.

For Jake's Spring Break we went to Chattanooga. It was colder than we hoped, so we didn't get to do as much as we wanted to there. We still had a lot of fun visiting Ruby Falls and the Aquarium. At the Aquarium we saw a sad turtle that had its limbs cut off by the propeller of a boat--it balanced on its neck and looked out at the world. I just know the man who told us about the turtle was Morgan Freeman incognito--he looked and sounded just like him! Also at the Aquarium Nathan tried to pet the rays, was unsuccessful, and had a better time using the hand sanitizer afterwards. We got to touch butterflies in the butterfly garden, and a couple even landed on Jake's head! Ruby Falls is a waterfall under Lookout Mountain. Nathan loved touching the rocks in the cave on the way in to see the falls. My favorite rock formation was called "The North End of a Southbound Donkey" and it truly looked like a donkey's rear. Another favorite memory from our Chattanooga trip was when Nathan fell out of bed & slept through it. We had him sleep in the other queen sized bed in the room, surrounded by pillows, since he never sleeps well in the tiny hotel cribs. In the middle of the night I guess he rolled through the pillow fort onto a pillow on the floor. I slept through it too, but woke up when Jake sprang from the bed & scooped Nathan up. Nate was no worse for the wear.

I celebrated my birthday this month. Jake surprised me with a "Cash Basket." Best gift ever! He totally wins points for creativity. In The Office, Michael tries to win clients back with gift baskets. The office gets into a discussion about what the ultimate gift is. Someone says cash, then I think it's Andy who suggests a cash basket. Anyway, mine was awesome, and I took its contents shopping for cute clothes!

We've spent a lot of time at parks and playgrounds lately, and Nathan has a new obsession with woodchips. Nate calls the woodchips "ky-ky" after Kyia, his 3-year-old buddy, introduced him to the joys of playing in them. He had his first experience with eating dirt--had to happen, just didn't know when. He hasn't tried it again since.

Nathan now says the first consonant & vowel sound of just about any word you say to him, and says a lot on his own without prompting. He shouts "Mama" or "Da" when he wants our attention. He has words for his toys and books ("Bob" for Bob the Builder, and "Pan-pan" for the Eric Carle panda bear book). He can tell us what the puppy and the monkey say. He twinkles his fingers when we sing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." He even talks himself to sleep some nights! This morning Jake asked Nathan why he was taking so long to eat his breakfast and he pointed to me and said "Mom." It's a little early to start blaming me, I think!

Nate has 2 new teeth, his one-year-old molars on the left side. They've been a beast--he's been cranky and chewing his fingers constantly. Poor kid. I wish I could take the teething pain for him. But I guess he needs his new teeth to start chewing more exciting foods. Nathan has been a bit more brave lately with trying new foods. He's tried & liked tortellini, nachos, Chinese chicken, and rice.

Nathan loves water. We took him to the indoor pool at the YMCA and he kicked and splashed his arms like the world's cutest fish. I even took him under the water for a second and he came up coughing and spluttering, but ready for more. In the bathtub we're trying to teach him to blow bubbles in the water, but I think he gets more enjoyment out of watching Mom & Dad stick their heads in the tub. He does blow through a straw though, so he's starting to get it.

Nathan loves going to church, especially when it's time for the sacrament to be passed. He starts calling out to the deacons in eager anticipation, afraid they'll miss him. It's so cute to watch him sip the water out of the little cup. I wish he would always be this excited about church.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right? Nathan pretends to do his hair with my spray bottles, and even makes a "ch-ch" sound like the spray pump makes. Jake pretends to sleep and Nathan wakes him up, but now Nate has started pretending to sleep, complete with snoring sounds, and wants us to wake him up!

I thought last month Nathan would be walking by now, what with taking his first steps & all, but he continues to be very cautious, only taking 2-4 steps with our coaxing. He is standing though, sometimes for up to 30 seconds at a time, without anyone trying to get him to, so hopefully he is gaining confidence in his balance and will take steps of his own choice soon. Whatever he does, I'm always so proud of him and love watching my baby boy grow!

Getting into trouble

February has been a fun month for watching Nathan grow. He is increasingly mobile & getting smarter by the minute. His favorite thing to do now that the weather is warmer some days is to go to the swing set at our apartment complex & swing. He waves his hand back & forth mimicking the action of a swing all the time--the kid would swing in the dark in the middle of a rainstorm if we let him! It's so fun to watch him get excited (panting, kicking his legs, etc.) when we approach the swing set in the stroller. When I took him for a swing earlier today, he leaned too far forward & nearly flipped out. I yelled "Whoa!" and he thought it was funny--didn't matter that Mom was scared to death--and promptly repeated the feat of gymnastics the next time I put him in the swing. He definitely knows how to get a reaction out of me . . . like yesterday, when I stubbed my toe, falling to the ground in pain, and he laughed until I did. Today he's still laughing when I say "Mommy broke her toe!" He puts things in perspective.

Nathan took his first two steps last night! We had been trying to get him to walk, but he's very cautious. Any time we let go of his hands, he'll very carefully sit down, then crawl wherever he wants to go. I finally got the brilliant (and belated) idea for Jake & I to pray for ideas on helping Nathan learn to walk. Two nights ago we included Nathan's walking in our bedtime prayers. Then last night we were practicing with him, & Jake had the idea to push Nathan forward. His problem has been that when he walks holding onto our hands, he leans back, losing all sense of balance & throwing off his center of gravity. So I knelt about a yard away, Jake held Nate's hands for a second, let go, and pushed his top half forward. Nathan's face was the best as he took two steps, all by himself, to his mommy. I cried (of course!) and hugged him forever. He had no clue what an amazing thing he had just accomplished. We'll keep practicing, and our testimonies have been strengthened yet again about how Heavenly Father hears & answers our prayers.

Nathan is learning to say so many words, I can't keep up. Last count was around 25, and since then he's probably added 12 or so words. Recent favorites include: cheek (he likes to pinch mine, I guess it's payback for all the times I let people pinch his), tree, grapes, cookie, kisses, Pooh, butter, & bug (we perpetually have ladybugs in our house, and he loves to look for them, especially when he's in the bathtub).

Jake loves to teach Nathan new tricks. Their latest masterpiece is that when Daddy says "Nuh-night," Nate lays his head down & pretends to sleep. Nathan is also an accomplished kisser now, and kisses not only his mom & dad, but the little boy in the mirror, his stuffed Pooh toys, and random children in the Pottery Barn Kids catalogue. Just today he started kissing the pictures of the Barney & Howard families, and will gladly respond to the suggestions "Kiss Hunter!" or "Kiss Uncle Boogie!"

Nathan is a smart little boy. I know every parent thinks that, but I really do think he is advanced in some areas for his age. He is doing simple puzzles, knows when to turn the page in books, can point to the words in books, and is forming associations with abstract words. When we say "We'll do it tomorrow" or "Maybe later" he knows this means he doesn't get his way, and reacts accordingly! He also shows a developing empathy for characters in his books and his favorite movie, Winnie the Pooh (he still points to the television all the time and says, "Pooh!" in the sweetest little voice, & got a whole menagerie of Pooh stuffed animals for Valentine's Day). For example, in his book Kitten's First Full Moon he makes a said face when the kitten has misfortunes & gets excited at the end when a bowl of milk awaits the kitten on her own porch. My Nathan is definitely a book worm, and his favorites right now include Where the Wild Things Are, How Do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon, King Bidgood's in the Bathtub and KnuffleBunny. I hope he'll always retain his love of books.

In Jake's & my lives, Jake's note is being published this month. If anyone wants a signed copy :), he gets 25, so just let us know! We're also loving the American Idol & The Office seasons--hooray for our DVR, which gives us full access to these programs, despite Nathan's bedtime routine conflicting with their start times on occasion. Ah, modern technology!

January Blahs

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!

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! :)

A busy month

Time flies when you're having fun, but it flies even faster when you're busy! October went by so fast. Here's what we were up to.
We had our family pictures taken by Sara Bateman, a girl in our ward. If you haven't had a chance to check them out yet, they're on her blog www.sarabphotography.blogspot.com. Nathan was in a poopy mood because he missed his afternoon nap, but she still got lots of great shots. We took them in Franklin, just outside of Nashville, on some old railroad tracks. It was a blast!
Other October highlights included a house-hunting trip to Dallas. We went down with a few builders/areas in mind, and then did a complete 180-degree turn and found different builders in different areas that are now our favorites. The top contenders are a builder called Drees in Allen and a builder called Beazer in Frisco. Both have some pros and cons, but mostly pros, so it's nice that the decision will be hard because they are both great options. We're keeping an eye on what the builders are doing as far as pricing and incentives over the next couple of months, but hope to make our decision in December and start building in January or February. We are so excited to be in a house again soon!
Nathan's first Halloween was tons of fun. He didn't understand it, of course, but he definitely knows what candy is now, loves chocolate, and overcame his fear of our Halloween decorations over the course of the month. We dressed him up as Mr. Peanut for the ward Trunk-or-Treat. He was adorable in his peanut suit, complete with top hat, monocle, and cane. We decorated pumpkins as a family as well. It's so awesome to start your own little family traditions for holidays.
Nathan continues to grow and change too quickly. He takes a bath in the regular tub now, and loves to splash, touch the drain (I say "ka-ka" and he grins, so it's kind of a game now), and try to climb out. We usually find him sitting or kneeling up when we come to get him out of his crib in the morning. He loves to unpack things--cupboards, boxes, the diaper bag. He can even put things into things (like a ball in a cup), but usually it's pulling things out. He is starting to point to get objects he wants. He understands "hot"--when we say it to warn him not to touch something, he starts to cry (I think he is developing a good memory. When we were in Dallas, we ate at Olive Garden one night and he touched my soup bowl. I said "No, no, hot!" just as he touched it and got a little burn, so now he knows. I wanted to cry!) Nathan loves watching the washer and dryer do their thing, turning lights on and off, and unloading the dishwasher. He can't seem to take his eyes off cars as they drive by. It's crazy how much I'm in love with this little guy!
One other bit of good news--Nathan isn't allergic to wheat after all. We took him to the doctor for his flu shot, and had to bring along an egg to spread on his back to make sure he didn't have a reaction after the hives scare we had in September. No reaction, so he got his shot and did great. I asked the doctor how long to wait on eggs and wheat, and got the go-ahead on wheat, so he's been eating bread, crackers,and pasta ever since and loving them. Hooray--he can have a normal birthday cake in a couple of months instead of the frosted rice krispie treat I was planning on!

Nathan is 9 months old!

Time flies! It's crazy to think that my little man is 3/4 of a year old. He pulls himself up to standing on furniture now, can finally get himself into a sitting position, and does his little crawl all over the place. Nathan definitely does things his own way. His crawl is not the traditional baby crawl--it is more of a swim across the carpet, powered mostly by his legs, and very exhausting (Jake & I tried crawling Nathan style once, and we got quite the work out!). Nate also doesn't sit up the traditional way from his tummy like most babies do. He opts to do it from his back, like a crunch. He's developing some crazy-strong abs!
Nathan is saying da-da-da-da a lot and la-la-la. When we sing to him, he often joins in. He has also realized that Mom & Dad are in the front seat of the car, so he cranes his neck around, laughs to get our attention, and generally is the world's cutest distraction from safe driving. We decorated for Halloween the other day with a bunch of talking/singing decorations that my mom gave me. Nathan is scared of them!!! He'll stare at the witch or the tree, reach out to touch it, then duck his head into the chest of whoever is holding him. He's also scared of the toy cars that the girls who babysit him gave him. He's a sensitive little soul.
We signed Nathan up for swimming lessons at the YMCA. Each Saturday Nate & I go swimming. He loves to chase after the rubber duckies they toss into the pool and is getting really good at kicking to try to get them. The teacher shows him how to dig his hands or paddle in the water by putting a toy below the surface that he has to dig for. I love the look on his face when he gets it--he's so proud of himself! We're planning on video taping swimming lessons next week, so we can show the family at Christmas time what a great little fish Nathan is.
We took Nathan to the State Fair this month. He was in complete awe of the cows, but his absolute favorite animal is the chicken. He still laughs his head off when we "bock-bock-bock" at him.
Nathan had a doctor's appointment this month. He weighs 18 lb. 5 oz. (16th percentile), is 27.25 in. tall (16th percentile), and his head is in the 12th percentile. Such a cute, tiny guy! The doctor said Nathan is healthy and developing well. He advised us to avoid wheat in Nate's diet until he's a year, and to avoid eggs until he's 15 months (Nathan ate some jarred baby food with egg in it a few weeks ago, and broke out in awful hives). The doctor gave Nate clearance to eat table foods though, so we've given him yogurt & cheese, and various nibbles of grown-up food, some he loves a lot, and some he loves a lot less.
School is going pretty well for Jake. I'm proud of him for how well he balances class, working for Layne, and his family & church responsibilities. What a stud!
Our diet is going well. I've lost about 12.5 pounds in 6 weeks, and I think Jake has done about the same, maybe a bit more. It's getting really hard to stay motivated though, with all the social eating that's been going on lately. At the beginning of each school year, families in the ward have each other over for dinner or desserts to get to know each other or get re-acquainted after the summer. We've done something with friends at least once a week since we've been back, and it usually involves something delicious. Plus, now here come the holidays (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's . . . yum), and we're going house-hunting in Dallas in a couple of weeks, so sticking to it may be a challenge. Wish us luck!

Back in Nashville

We're finally back home in Nashville. What a relief! It has been a long, fun, crazy summer, and it's good to be back in our own space, where we know our way around the city, and where we know people's names at church. We've got Nathan on a better routine now, and we're all appreciating the sleep that results . . . usually. (I think we've got more teeth coming in. The count is at 4 right now--the bottom two, the top right front, and a random one on the left top.)
Nathan is creeping along like a rock star. He doesn't love it--I think he's wondering why all of a sudden his mom is putting him on his tummy and walking away so much--but he's motivated to get the toys we put a short distance in front of him, and motivated to get his pacifier at almost any distance. Nathan has also developed a great pincer grasp (thumb & index finger) which he uses to pick up all sorts of tiny objects that he then gets taken away from him.
Which leads me to talk about how Nathan is recognizing lots of words. He sure hears "no" often enough. His favorites are his name, "What does the kitty say? Does the kitty say, 'meee-oooow'?", "be-bo" (belly button, taken from one of his favorite books), and "up." He babbles the following consonants with a short "a" sound: b, c/k, d, g, h, m, p, & w. The other day, we were driving around running errands and in the backseat mirror we saw Nathan with a look of utmost concentration. He then proclaimed "cccaaa!" This scene repeated itself several times--concentrate, cccaaa, concentrate, cccaaa. I really admire how hard my little guy works to accomplish things. I hope this is a quality he has forever. Nathan gives hugs & kisses now, though not always when asked (he's not a trained seal!) and can pull the blanket off his or my head when we play peek-a-boo.
Nathan also enjoys a lot of different foods now, including some finger foods, like peas, rice cakes, corn chex, rice, and small pieces of ground beef. We're waiting to hear at his next doctor's appointment what to do about his suspected wheat allergy. (When we were in Houston one night, I gave him mixed grain cereal. He loved it, but half an hour later when he was in bed, we heard him start bawling. We ran upstairs just in time to watch him vomit the the entire contents of his stomach onto the sheet. Poor kid. In the past, he's broken out in a red rash around his mouth when he ate a cracker, but his crazy mom had to investigate whether it was the salt or the wheat. Looks like the wheat. Hopefully he'll outgrow it.)
Nathan has some favorite games that I'm jotting down here so that I don't forget them someday. He loves when I hold him by his hips and swing him upside-down. Spinning in the computer chair and flirting with the baby in the mirror are favorites, too. Since he was about 5 months old he adores a game we call "IN A TENT" (said in a loud, spooky voice). We cover ourselves with a sheet, look at each other, I say "Oh no, we're in a tent!" and we then thrash our arms around until we pull the sheet off. We can play this game for hours. Nathan also loves sitting in the bathroom sink while I do my hair and make up (thanks for the idea, Cammen!), and anything that makes noise--pots & pans, a box with a lid, his high chair tray. He loves dropping things from the high chair or stroller and looking for them (it's crazy, but I never get tired of picking them up for him, since I know he is developing object permanence this way).
Jake is back in school. He's taking classes in environmental law, employment discrimination, and two economic/statistics & the law type classes. He accepted his offer at Baker Botts in Dallas in their ERISA group, so that means he will be working on employee benefits packages & executive compensation packages for corporations. He enjoyed his time in that group and in the corporate group at Baker Botts, but ultimately went for the ERISA group because they enjoy a better quality of life (aka, fewer hours away from family. Robin Williams' character in Hook was a corporate lawyer, and we all know how he sent his assistant to tape his son's baseball game for him, and then his kids were kidnapped into Neverland, and frankly, we don't want Nathan going anywhere with Captain Hook).
In my world, I just started up Weight Watchers again. Last time I was on it, I lost 8 pounds in three weeks. Then I found out I was pregnant & had to stop. Hopefully this time I'll be able to get to my goal without a pregnancy putting things on hold! I also received a calling last Sunday to serve on the Enrichment Committee. It should be fun to help plan and put together the activities for the sisters. I'm sure I'll be picking everyone's brains for fun ideas.

24th of July in Utah

We just had a blast in Utah visiting our grandmas and grandpas, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Nathan really enjoyed the time he spent with the Barneys and the Howards.
On the 23rd of July, he went to the Handcart Days parade in Bountiful with Grandma Patty, Grandpa Rob, Aunt Linds, Uncles Matt & Bozz, and Cousin Kale. Mom was worried that the sirens would scare him, but he was unphased--what a great kid!
The next day, he went to breakfast at the Star Cafe in Layton with the Barneys and tried to eat the menus. After that, he enjoyed a walk in the stroller (and fell asleep!) while Mom & Dad went to Paces for a treat with Grandma Elaine & Grandpa Ken. He finished off the day with a dip in Grandma Patty's pool and a barbecue at the Wises. He saw his buddy Kelsie and feasted on a couple of delicious pickle chips.
The rest of the trip was spent visiting family & Nathan being babysat by grandmas & grandpas while Mom & Dad enjoyed dinner out, going to the mall, and getting an ice cream just the two of them. Thanks again, you guys are the best!!! Nathan had the special treat of seeing Great-Grandpa LaMar & Great-Grandma Dorothy at Leatherby's in Salt Lake. It's always neat to have so many generations of family together. The only downside to the occasion was that there was a tanker truck rollover on the freeway on the way back and it took Mom & Nathan (Dad was back in Houston for work) an hour and a half to get home. Nathan cried most of the way--he wanted to be held, but only his car seat was there for him. He fell asleep for the last five minutes of the drive, and woke up completely refreshed and playful, like nothing ever happened. Thank heavens babies are so forgetful (or forgiving, I'm not sure which!).

Besides his recent adventures in Utah, Nate continues to grow too fast. He has tried a bunch of new foods--bananas, peaches, and pears. He is starting to develop object permanence. When Mom hides his pacifier under a blanket, he goes looking for it. Nate is trying to get himself into a sitting position on his own, and is getting better at it every day. He got a cell phone for himself when he ruined Mom's with his drool (she got herself an identical new one, so that when she needs to talk on the phone, he can talk on his without feeling like he is getting the short end of the stick). His new favorite song is "Kiss the Girl" from Disney's The Little Mermaid (maybe it would help if Mom & Dad knew all the words--we're working on it). Nathan is an amazingly sweet little boy with smiles for everyone, even if the smiles are a bit bashful, with Nathan tucking his head into Mom's shoulder. We feel so blessed that he is part of our family, and that we had the chance to spend a week with them. We can't wait to see you all again soon!!!