Well, it seems our little Nathan is well on his way to becoming a toddling toddler. The last two days he’s started taking more stable and sure footed steps.

I just about died when I watched him, very deliberately and all on his own, let go of the couch, get himself steady on his feet without holding on to anything, reach out his arms, and take 3 or 4 steps over to his music table. He’ll take a bunch of steps between Gary and I now without falling into us at the end like he was doing the last couple weeks, and he walks really well for a long way if we’re just holding one of his hands. His balance is getting really good now too. We noticed earlier in the week that he was standing without holding on to anything a lot more often and he’s even swinging his arms around when he’s standing now!

Eventually we will get new videos up here, so you’ll be able to see him toddling around.

Nathan has started hugging us. Mostly it’s when we are playing with him in the playroom. He’ll stop what he’s doing, come over, and lean his head on one us with his arms out. I don’t know if its him telling us he’s tired, or if he’s really learning to express his affection that way, but it’s seriously the cutest and sweetest and most make-your-heart-turn-to-mush-thing ever.

He’s also discovered our belly buttons, and it’s really funny when he comes over to us, lifts up our shirts and sticks his finger in our belly buttons to make us laugh. He gets such a kick out of it and will start laughing with us. He’s starting to do it on other areas of our stomach, so I guess he’s trying to tickle us. And now he’s got it into his head to start trying to blow raspberries on our stomachs like we do to him.

The weekend after Nathan’s first birthday we had a small party to celebrate. The timing worked out perfectly, so my brother was already on the east coast and could come visit, as well as my grandmother, mom and her fiance, Bob.
Gary’s mom graciously hosted the party (thank goodness because it took SO much potential stress away from me), and it all turned out great.

I think Nathan had a great time. He played on the floor with the other babies that were there, helped open presents, and ate lots of junk food, including a good bit of his cake!

Here are the other mommies and babies that came.

And some of the family

There are a TON of pictures here. Between the three camera’s going, we really got a lot.

Thanks to everyone for coming and for the awesome presents. Now Nathan has lots of great toys and a stylish summer wardrobe too!

For Mother’s Day I decided I wanted to go to the aquarium. I wasn’t sure what Nathan would think of it but he seemed to really enjoy looking around at everything and all the people.

They don’t let you use strollers, but they provide free backpacks, which was a fun way to tote Nathan around.

Our attempt at a family picture

Nathan and Gary

Nathan and Dani

My family came to visit the weekend of Nathan’s birthday party. Here we are after a trip to the American Visionary Art Museum .

Bob, Danielle, Ethan, Grandma, Mom and Nathan

Danielle, Grandma & Ethan

Unfortunately Gary is missing because he had to work that day.

Some of the pictures from that weekend are already up in Photo Albums, but I’m hoping to put up more soon, as well as a post about his party.

Just love these two recent pictures of Nathan, so I decided to give them their own post.

This is Nathan at the playground. He loved picking up the pieces of mulch that covered the ground and either handing them to me or trying to eat them.

Here Nathan is just standing by our front door. He loves to hang out there, especially with Fen, and watch what’s going on outside. I feel like this picture gives you a glimpse of what he’ll look like as he gets older. And is it just me, or does his hair look like it’s got a little red in it?

We’ve gotten into the habit of giving Nathan one of his spoons to hold or play with while we’re feeding him. Sometimes he wont let us spoon feed him unless he has one, and the last few days he started to want to put his spoon in the food. Yesterday I helped him guide the spoon from the bowl of yogurt into his mouth, which he really liked.

Well, last night at dinner he was eating pieces of a quesadilla and we watched him place a piece on his spoon and maneuver the spoon into his mouth with the food on it! He did it all by himself, no prompting or help from us at all. Gary and I just started at each other in amazement. Once we picked our jaws up off the floor, we yelled “yay!” and clapped, which made Nathan very proud of himself. He had the biggest grin as he clapped along with us.

There have been a few times over the last year where its like a light switch just went off in Nathan’s head and all of a sudden he’s doing lots of new and amazing stuff. The last few days have been like that again. With the self-feeding interest, and also all the “talking” he’s begun doing. He’ll point to things and in his own baby gibberish language seem to ask us what it is, or he’ll be playing and just babbling away. Its more than the mamas and dadas that he was doing before, now it’s all kinds of consonant and vowels sounds mixed together. It’s like he thinks he’s saying complete sentences that make total sense. He’s also started saying “nana” when he wants something.

Cool, huh?

23 lbs
29.25 inches

Nathan is still in the 50th percentile for height and weight. He was much more wary of the doctor at his check-up this time, probably because he’s much more aware of what’s going on now, but he did well with the exam. He was not as happy about the two shots he got, one of which is the MMR vaccine that I’ve heard is pretty painful. Poor guy. A few minutes of comfort, walking around the room, and a pacifier, and he was doing okay again. We got the go-ahead to feed him just about anything, with a few exceptions like honey and certain fish.

“I think I used to be smaller than this thing.”

“Yup, I was.”

But he was definitely bigger than the bear by six months

“No way Im gonna leave that sign up there so you can see how old I really am!”

Not into stealing the sign at one month

But by six months he was learning…

And other cute pictures from our one year month-by-month photo shoot day…

Nathan!! Wow. Where’s the last year gone??

We celebrated Nathan’s birthday Monday night with cake, presents and Oma. This weekend my family comes in to town and we’re having a party (with more cake and presents! Yay!)

Loved his new tunnel and first Tonka Truck

Mmmmm…

Chocolate Cake sure makes a boy thristy!

And a little dirty….

It’s a little unbelievable to me that we have a one year old. I miss the little baby from a year ago, but I wouldn’t trade this age for anything. Everyday is a new challenge, such as the current fun of how to get him to eat fruits and vegetables. But, all the babbling and sharing and laughing is wonderful. And every time he does something new (like stand unsupported, or take a few steps without help), and Gary and I look at each other in amazement, like “did he just do what we think he did??”, it’s such a great feeling! Noticing how he’s starting to understand and respond to us when we say things to him is really neat too.

Happy First Birthday Nathan!