Poke Poke

When did he get so big? So independent? I watched him eat dinner on his own last night when we went out to eat. His highchair was pulled up close to the table and it looked like he was sitting with us, like really sitting with us, not just next to us in the highchair. He watched things going on around him and ate his food, like a kid, not a baby. And this kid, my kid, who would not eat any finger-food fruits or vegetables for months and months, dug into a big hunk of cantaloupe. He even chose it over a chicken finger as he contemplated what to pick up next. It was a seemingly normal moment, but I watched him for a few minutes in amazement. When did this all happen? I’ve seen it in bits and pieces, like when we realized he loved watermelon on our trip to Ithaca, or watched him suck down blueberries or enjoy a meal out with us in Ocean City, but somehow it really hit me last night. Maybe it’s that he just started in the Toddler room at daycare and now he’s napping on a cot, and eating at a little table with little chairs. Or maybe it’s that he’s so active and opinionated and understands so much of what we say now. It amazes me a little more every day.

We took our second trip to Ocean City last weekend. This time it was just Nathan, Gary and I. Lots of sun, LOTS of heat, and it was a lot of fun. We went to a water park where Nathan could play in the kiddie pools, walked the boardwalk, played in the sand, fed the ducks, and ate lots of junk food. Perfect!

Nathan LOVED playing in the sand. At first he was tentative and he had no desire to get near the water. But once he noticed all the birds, he just took off chasing them. And eventually he plopped down and ran his hands through the sand, picking it up, letting it fall through his fingers, covering his feet in it…

Even tasting it…

Here, Nathan is giggling at Gary’s fake hiccups. Lately, this has become a guaranteed way to make him laugh.

Watching the kites on the boardwalk.

Taking a break.

On the way home we stopped in Rehobeth for lunch, and I loved the boardwalk there. Much less crowded and low-key than the OC boardwalk and lots of nice stores to browse. And did I mention it’s like 5 minutes from the outlets? Yeah, another plus. Maybe next summer we’ll visit there again.

More pictures here.

Sorry if you get to the beach and find the flowers on your deck are somewhat mauled. Nathan decided it would be fun to grab the buds a few at a time and throw them off the side, over and over. And I had to take a few pictures before I made him stop, because it was cute.

Love, Danielle

So we went to Ocean City this past weekend (post on that I am sure is coming from Danielle). While we were there we visited Candy Kitchen and were subjected to the kid-wants-something impulse purchase (not our first, we also had to buy a rubber duck in the grocery store because he saw it and started whining). They had a bunch of beanie babies at kid’s eye level and Nathan really wanted one. We found the husky one and bought it for him because he likes Fen so much.

Now he’s played with stuffed animals before but usually he was just casually interested, but this time he just loved it. He played with it most of the weekend and slept with it on the ride home. In fact as soon as we got home and came downstairs he took his new dog (Slushie) and put him in Fen’s crate and closed the door. Unfortunately I was too slow with the camera to catch that one.

Nathan giving Slushie a kiss

The ride home

We visited Dutch Wonderland in Lancaster, PA this weekend with some friends. It’s a great park for younger kids because it has lots of rides for the little guys. There was one ride that went up and down that Nathan didn’t like at all, and unfortunately we had to wait out the whole ride while he kind of screamed in terror, but at least we were with him. Other than that he liked everything else and we all had a great time.

He LOVED this bulldozer ride and got really upset when it was over. Watching him ride that by himself made me really proud, and made me realize what a big boy he is now.

Nathan loved the ducks and horses that we saw. I love this picture of him looking at me and pointing to the horses like “Look! Do you see that?!”

Other random pictures from the day:

Riding the train. I had to work for that one.

Playing with flowers and trying to hand me some petals.

Snack break with his bud Jonas

Running toward me. My new (awesome) camera (thanks Gary!) lets me take multiple quick pictures, so I got this cool little sequence.

Family Picture

Nathan was exhausted when we left and was falling asleep as he drank his bottle in the car.

More photos here.

This is Nathan’s way of saying No sometimes. Just a quick and quiet, “Nuh.”

“Nathan, do you want more milk?” “Nuh.”
“Nathan, do you want to go see Daddy?” “Nuh.”
“Nathan, do you want a cracker?” “Nuh.”

The other day Gary was asking me a bunch of questions that all had No answers (I dont remember what they were). Part way through, Nathan started answering with me. “Nuh.”

Sometimes he even says it when he means Yes. Sometimes he’ll even shake his head a little too. It’s cute, and much more pleasant than the yelling, wiggling fits where he REALLY means NO.

We finally had a nice weekend where we had time to put Nathan in the blow-up pool on our deck. He loves splashing in the bathtub and once he got used to the cold water, liked the pool just as much.

Playing

Taking a break

Happy

While we were in Ithaca we visited my Dad’s grave. We try to go whenever we’re there, but this was the first time Nathan was there with both Gary and I, and my mom. It was a little hard, a lot emotional, but also really really nice to bring Nathan there even though he doesn’t understand it yet. Nathan got to leave a stone on the headstone, which is a jewish tradition (he also wanted to take some stones off and try to eat them).

Whenever I’m there I feel like my dad sees us in some way, so he got to see Nathan too, this amazing little person that he never got to meet in person, never even knew was going to exist. I know he would have loved him so much though.

We made our second trip up to Ithaca, NY July 4th weekend to visit my mom and attend my15 year high school reunion. The visit itself was good and the reunion was not as torturous as I’d anticipated, in fact parts of it were actually fun. The drive was longer than we’d expected (why is there ALWAYS construction near Scranton, PA? Ive been doing that drive for 15 years and there is always some roadwork going on there that screws up traffic) and so it was kind of an exhausting weekend, but definitely worth it.

Nathan loved exploring my mom’s house and playing with all her cool musical instruments. I think his favorite past time was probably chasing her poor cat around.

She had a little yellow plastic chair that he’d push up and down her hallway.

And we had fun bouncing with him on her trampoline.

Is this house just a big playground for kids, or what?

Many more pictures here.