Here’s Nathan sleeping on the beach during our trip to Ocean City last July. He was around three months old. I really wanted him to get to feel the sand on his feet, but he just wanted to nap.

And here he is this past weekend, just a couple days shy of 14 months. This time he enjoyed playing with the sand, and loved watching the birds and airplanes flying by.

Im such a sap for these comparisons.

We took Nathan to Ocean City, Maryland this past weekend. It was his second trip down, but since he was three months old when we went last summer, this was the first time he really got to experience everything.

Turns out, Nathan really liked the beach. Here he practicing his cool beach baby pose.

Checking things out.

Playing in the sand.

Hanging out in the hole that cousin Jacob dug for him.

Trying to eat the sand…in fact, he really seemed to like it!

When we weren’t at the beach or the pool, we hung out with Oma & Opa and Gary’s sister’s family, watched birds from the deck, fed the ducks in the canal, went out for a few meals, and visited a friend in Bethany that hadn’t met Nathan yet. I wasn’t sure if we’d have enough to do since I didn’t know how much Nathan would like the beach, but we were plenty busy. And Gary and I enjoyed some downtime when Nathan was napping, either taking a nap ourselves, or catching up on reading. Gary even got to go hit some golf balls with Opa one morning.

Speaking of Opa, he and Nathan had a great time dancing.

And Nathan loved watching birds with Oma

And feeding the ducks. One morning there were nine geese that came for a visit, and Nathan got great at throwing the bread to them.

One of his favorite things to do- playing with Daddy’s Blackberry.

It was a nice, relaxing weekend. Nathan even slept great (minus waking up at 5:30am most mornings)!

Lots more pictures from the trip are here.

We decided it was finally time to get Nathan’s hair cut yesterday. We love the curls, but his hair was just getting crazy and the front was starting to go into his eyes.

I took some before pictures that morning.

Nathan did really well. He didnt want to get in the chair at first, but then he saw the cartoons, and we gave him a pacifier, and he was fine. We made sure we told the hairdresser that we wanted to leave the curls, and it was surprising that she said most people ask her to chop them all off!

All done!

I’d been putting off the haircut for awhile because it seems like this big milestone, plus he had this great curly hair. And watching Nathan get his haircut was emotional for me, but surprisingly I didn’t cry. I kept staring at him afterwords though, because the shorter hair changes the way he looks. Its much less baby and more boy. He still has some waves and curls though, and it turned out pretty cute!

There are a lot more pictures in the June Album here.

I guess Gary’s the ultimate judge, but I’d say we had a nice Father’s Day. I attempted to cook us breakfast, which is a rarity, then we ran some errands and spent the evening with Gary’s family, eating crabs and grilling burgers. It was a lot of fun, and Nathan had a blast playing ball and visiting with everyone.

Daddy reading the new book he got from Nathan.

Hanging out with O-Pa!

Playing ball in the yard

Nathan showing off his new walking skills

More pictures from the afternoon are in the June picture folder here.

Gary’s family has these beautiful flowers that have been passed down through the family. They originated with Gary’s great grandfather Vossburg, who Nathan is named after, and lots of family and friends now have cuttings in their gardens.

This is the time of year when they start to bloom, and they’ve spread like crazy in one of our little gardens. I don’t even know what they’re called, but I love them! Nathan loves them too, especially pulling all the pedals off. He’s really enjoying being outside, and exploring all the things to touch and watch.

Nathan’s been getting better and better at walking and this weekend he really took off…so to speak…he’s been walking on his own from room to room, even when there are things he could cruise around on. He gets really happy when he gets from one place to another without falling and he’ll sometimes just stand in one place and swing his arms, which is a new thing too. He also started standing up from sitting without the assistance of us or some other object (table, couch, etc.) It’s so cool to watch him do all this.

It seems like it happened really fast, and along with it, he just generally seems more toddler-y and less baby-y. It’s bittersweet, as so many of the new stages and milestones are, but this has been such a fun time for Gary and I. The rewards of being a parent just get better and better, not just the hugs, but how Nathan points to things and says something that sounds like “dish?” or “dat”, asking us to tell him what everything is; how he loves to have us read him book after book after book (okay that gets really old sometimes, but I also love that he loves books); how he gets so excited when we say we’re going to see the dog and he’ll start saying “doh, doh” (his way of saying dog. his mouth goes into this little O when he does it); and that you can tell he’s really starting to understand some of the things we’re saying to him.

Here’s a couple pictures of Nathan walking through the dining room today. I tried to take video but didn’t have it ready when he was walking all over, and then by the time the video camera was ready, he decided he wanted to crawl instead.

He’s just hanging out with his sippy cup here, but I thought it was cute.