Nathan now has 9 teeth- 4 on the top front, 3 on the bottom, and 2 top molars. We’re trying to get into the habit of brushing them nightly. Nathan loves chewing on the toothbrush, but we’re still working on letting “Mommy brush your teeth first, then you can have a turn.”

As for food, Nathan’s gotten much better about trying new things. Blueberries are definitely his favorite food of the moment. But he also eats grapes, cantalope and peas, and he actually liked spaghetti for the first time the other night. He likes the other kid staples too…grilled cheese, hot dogs, fish sticks, chicken nuggets, etc. Nathan’s still working on mastering utensils. He’s good at dipping the spoon, and then putting it in his mouth, and has recently started using a fork. He still needs some help getting food on the fork, but he’s getting the hang of it. We have also started having him eat at the table with us sometimes. It’s messier but I think he likes it. Also, I think we’re just about done with bottles. He was still getting one in the morning, but we’ve been slipping in a sippy cup here and there instead. He doesn’t drink as much from it yet, but I think we’re going to try going all sippy cups and see how he does.

Eating at the table

Fun with Spaghetti

Telling us he’s “All Done!”. (He turns his hands out like that to let us know he’s done eating.)

So, two long posts of updates, but Im sure I’ll have more to add before long!

Nathan is saying and doing so many new things all of a sudden. I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise, but I still find myself amazed every time a new word comes out of his mouth or he does something unexpected. I have lots of new things to report on, so I decided to do two separate posts.

In just the last week or so he’s added the words Cracker, we think Airplane, and maybe Car and Paci. And if you ask “what does (insert animal here) say?”, he can quack like a duck, moo like a cow, buzz like a bee, hoot like an owl, hiss like a snake, roar like a lion, and bark like a dog. I could barely contain myself the other morning when we were reading “Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?” and he buzzed and hooted at the appropriate times, and then when we got to where Mr. Brown knocks, Nathan took his little fist and knocked on the book. So all the words now are Dog, Duck, Cat, Fish, Daddy, Ma/Mommy, Ball, Apple, Cracker, Airplane, Car(?) and Paci(?), plus the 7 animal noises.

In the last month or so we’ve noticed that Nathan’s started listening to us when we ask him to do things…most of the time at least….for example, putting back the magnets he just threw off the fridge. If we ask him to pick them up and maybe pick one up to show him, he’ll start picking them up too. I like to keep fantasizing that he’ll always love to help out and listen to us without complaint, but since I doubt that’s possible, I’ll enjoy this while I can and cheer loudly when he does it.

More than just listening to what we ask, it’s amazing how much he understands. If we ask where his belly is, Nathan will lift up his shirt and point to his belly. He does that with a lot of body parts actually, like his nose, eyes, head, mouth, ears and toes. Nathan signs Please if he wants something, like if he brings a book over that he wants us to read, or if we ask him if he wants milk or something to eat. He doesn’t really sign More anymore, but signing Please seems to mean please, more, or that he wants something.

Showing me his belly

Signing Please

Nathan still loves to read and be read to. A lot of our evenings are comprised of Nathan bringing us book after book, or asking us to read the same book over and over and over. He also likes to look at books himself more than he used to, which is nice to see. If we ask where pictures of things are he can point them out. And sometimes if we ask what something is, if it’s a word he knows, he can tell us. He makes some great sounds when he’s “talking”. He’ll just babble away, sometimes pointing at things, like what he’s saying should make perfect sense. He does this a lot on the nightly walks we’ve been taking on our street. It’s a good way to spend some of the time between dinner and bedtime when he gets more restless, and he loves looking for squirrels, birds and especially airplanes. He hears the airplanes way before I do and always points them out to me.

Pointing to an Airplane

(Like the shirt? It’s a Stegosaurus. Get it?)

Nathan’s been blowing kisses when he says goodbye and gives hugs in greeting, if we ask for one, or sometimes just because he wants to. He’s gotten a little more affectionate as he’s gotten older, which is nice. I hope that isn’t a passing phase.

We started putting a silkie in bed with Nathan some months ago and he’s now pretty attached to it. When he’s tired or needs some comfort he’ll go pull it out of his crib and drag it around the house. He gets pretty upset if he goes to look for it and it’s not there, so we have to keep track of it. Unfortunately, the silkie often goes hand in hand with wanting a paci. I think the pacifier is helping a lot with teething discomfort, so we aren’t being very strict with how much he uses it right now. I found two top molars poking out the other night and I’d imagine those suckers would not feel pleasant coming in.

Another comfort thing has been a thick fleece blanket that Nathan’s Big Mom Mom, Elaine, gave me at my shower. He didn’t use it much until he was sick a month or so ago. For those few days Id lay it on the floor with a pillow so he could rest, and since then he pulls it off the couch whenever he’s tired so he can lay on it. Sometimes it’s just for a second, like he needs a little breather, and that’s enough to keep him going.

More on food and teeth in another post…

Nathan got invited to a fun pool party with his baby friends recently. We’ve only had a couple occasions where we’ve managed to get them all in the same room at the same time, so it was great to see everyone again. The last time they had a play date like this was in February, so you can imagine how much they’ve all grown since them.

Before we left for the pool, we managed to snap a few pictures of all the babies (er, toddlers).

Nathan (15 mos), Olivia (2 years), C (16 mos), Caroline (the host, 14 mos), Becca (13 mos), Jonas (16 mos) & Jackson (one year).

The pool was great because there was a separate kiddie pool that was no more than a foot deep, so the kids could play pretty freely.

Nathan still loved the big pool though, so we also spent some time there playing games we learned in his swim class.

It was a blast, and we can’t wait to see all the kiddies again!

Nathan fell asleep in the car while reading. Notice the page he stopped on.

And he was really tired because after this picture we put him in the stroller and spent a half hour in Target, then drove home and put him in his crib. All in all he napped for almost 4 hours. That’s much longer than usual, but it was great because Gary and I did some weeding, got to eat lunch together, catch up on a DVR’d show, and still had time left to kill.

Over the weekend, Nathan started saying Apple. It sounds like “ah-poo” and at first he looked like he working really hard to get it out of his mouth. Last night when we were looking a book, he said “ah-poo” when I pointed to the apple, and I realized that he really was saying it and understanding what it is, so I clapped and cheered for him. After that he spent the rest of the evening walking around saying “ah-poo” like he was practicing.

Nathan’s got a few words under his belt now, but this was the first time I remember seeing him start using the word and working at getting it out. Soon Im sure he’ll be yelling “ah-poo” every time he sees an apple, just like he yells out the words for Duck or Dog when he sees them.

(Much to my joy, he’s also started saying Mommy more and actually using it to call for me.)

This past Sunday we went up to Delaware to meet some friends at a zoo in Wilmington. We don’t get to see them much because they live 2 1/2 hours away, but Wilmington is pretty much exactly half way for each of us, so it was the perfect way to get together. Besides the brief hail storm we got caught in on the walk from the car to the zoo, it was a great day!

Nathan and Ava checking out the goats.

Nathan must have remembered feeding animals at the petting zoo we went to, because he went right up to the goats and tried to feed them hay.

Besides the goats, Nathan really liked the monkeys, some of the birds, and all the bright, animal shaped things in the gift shop. He came home with a plastic monkey head on a stick. A stick with a handle at the end that lets you open and close the monkey’s mouth. Of all the fun, soft, plush things in the gift shop, this is the thing he very clearly liked the best. Go figure.

After the zoo we all got some lunch before heading back home. Nathan decided a beer was in order. (Don’t worry, we didn’t let him drive.)

Saturday was beautiful, so we spent some time in the backyard.

Nathan loved carrying the beach ball around, then throwing it and chasing after it.

He seems to really like the new slide/climber.

A quick rest.

It doesn’t get much better than coming home from work to see Nathan running up to me with a big smile, and his arms open wide, to give me a hug.

He and Gary get home before me, and lately this is how Nathan greets me everyday when I get home. Usually I haven’t even walked past the doorway and put my bags down yet. That greeting almost makes being at work all day worth it.

We visited Storyville this past weekend. It’s an interactive play area at a local library with different themed areas, like a grocery store, a house and the bay. Its great for young kids, with lots of toys and books and rooms to explore. And its FREE, which is awesome.

Nathan loved this boat. He kept going back to this area and trying to climb in.

Gary reading a book to Nathan

Nathan trying to follow in his Opa’s footsteps by playing drums (which are actually stools).

Sitting in Papa Bear’s Chair in the theater. This chair was juuust right.

On our way out we loaded up on kids CD since you can check out a lot at a time and return them to any of the county libraries. So now we don’t have to listen to the same five kids CDs over and over (but we do have to listen to the occasional Wiggles song, which isn’t the worst kids music ever but will stick in your head all day).

I promise I wont post every time Nathan gets a haircut, but haircut #2 was still a special event for me, even if it wasn’t quite as big a milestone as #1.

It’s only been about 6 weeks since Nathan’s first haircut, but he was starting to show signs of a mullet and the top was getting pretty poofy.

I’m glad that the first haircut experience was better than this one. This time Nathan was a little tired and the person that cut his hair was a little scary. He didn’t want to sit in the chair, so he sat on my lap, with only me covered up, and all the hair falling down his shirt. Poor guy cried on and off through the whole thing. This haircut wasn’t as good as the first one and that might be why Im more nostalgic for his curls this time. But with Nathan’s curls you can’t really tell that things are weird and uneven anyway, and the great thing is that hair grows back.

The new cut