Well as usual, when it rains it pours with Nathan. He never does only one new thing at a time. Just in the last few days there were three that really impressed/got to me.

Last Friday during our weekly Shabbat dinner, Danielle and I were telling Nathan about how it was Shabbat and he spontaneously started singing Shabbat Shalom at the table. So looks like we have a new Friday night tradition in our house. Then on Saturday when we were on the way up to Pennsylvania for a Birthday Party, Nathan was entertaining himself in the backseat just idly chatting as he normally does when out of nowhere he sang the ABCs all the way through all by himself three times in a row.

Finally, this morning as he and Danielle were leaving the house, I told him, as I do every morning, that I love him and this time he looked up and said “I love you Daddy” in response. Which was the first time he’s ever done that unprompted.

So, Nathans been jumping for awhile, but he recently started getting his feet really UP, and last week I noticed that he was jumping forward. Kind of cool to see that progression. He also likes to walk on his tip toes sometimes while saying “tip toes. tip toes”, and he’s getting a little better at catching a ball…though you do have to stand pretty close to him and remind him to put his arms out.

I’ve also caught him singing to himself lately. In the car he’ll spontaneously break out into a verse of Wheels on the Bus, or just sing “all through the TOWN”, and one day I got to hear him sing Twinkle Twinkle all the way through. As soon as I hear him start singing I shut right up because if I talk or sing with him he’ll often stop.

We had a fun time celebrating Nathan’s 2nd Birthday. It was unfortunate we had to work that day, but I picked Nathan up a little early from daycare so we got some extra time to play outside in the afternoon. Then Oma came over for a pizza dinner and ice cream cake dessert. Yum!

We talked to Nathan about how he was turning 2 before the big day. For a few days when we asked how old he was going to be we got an answer like “7″, but by his birthday, he knew he was 2 and was pretty proud to tell you when you asked.

Profile of a 2 year old (the morning of his birthday.)

Blowing out candles. (I really need to cut my face out of that!)

Digging in.

(Please excuse Nathan’s red and slightly swollen face. Poor kid got hit pretty hard with allergies that week, but it’s gotten better since.)

Nathan & Oma.

Family Shot.

More pictures here.

(Birthday Party post to follow!)

Nathan has hit a stage of wanting to do everything himself…walk down steps…get his own vitamin out of the bottle…pull his pajama pants on…you name it, he wants to do it. Sometimes he even tells me “no mommy no” when he’s going up the steps and doesn’t even want me to follow him up or watch him go.

It’s very adorable and I love seeing him trying to do all these things for himself. On the other hand, hearing “My do it myself” 800 times a day gets a little frustrating, and everything takes twice as long. Sometimes it leads to a tug of war since, as much as he wants to do things like walk across the street without holding my hand, it ain’t gonna happen. We’re trying to let him do as much as he can/wants to though, and it’s great to watch the joy on his face while he puts chapstick on his chin or blows bubbles while dumping the contents of the bottle on his shoe because he insisted on holding it himself.

Me: Are you having fun with your playdough?
Nathan: MeeNo!
Me: Say Play
Nathan: Play
Me: Dough
Nathan: Dough
Me: Playdough
Nathan: MeeNo!
Gary: Say Big
Nathan: Big
Gary: Truck
Nathan: Truck
Gary: Big Truck
Nathan: BiKuck
Me: Playdough
Nathan: MeeNo!
Me: What are you playing with?
Nathan: MeeNo

Ah, love the language development of the toddler! Nathan can repeat (or at least tries to repeat) anything we say, but he definitely has his own way of saying things!

I did hear him say “Me Be Hungry Too” when he and I were feeding Fen dinner the other night. Thought the word “Be” was an interesting new addition to his sentences, but I haven’t heard him say it again.

Nathan is 2 today!!! Time sure flies.
I wrote the post below a couple weeks ago and then forgot to post it, so Ill do that now since it has some updates on what he’s been doing and how I was feeling about the upcoming Birthday.
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It hit me tonight, when I was updating pictures on this website and the lilypie counter said Nathan was 1 year 11 months 2 weeks and 2 days old. At first I thought that had to be wrong, but nope, Nathan will be 2 in two weeks. TWO. I have no idea why it hit me right now, and obviously Ive known he’s about to turn 2, but sometimes it just sinks in a little more I guess. I love this age and am excited to celebrate 2 years, but I cant believe how fast the time has gone by and how much Nathan has changed. I don’t even know where to start on all the stuff he’s doing right now- talking in full sentences, telling us stories about friends at school, understanding and processing so much (Im constantly amazed at some of the connections he makes). He can count to 11 on his own, remembers songs and names of characters, and knows all his colors (even has a favorite color- orange.) Reading with him before bed is fun because sometimes he’ll start saying words from the books with me and he has a book of pictures from school that he calls the “Nathan book” that he likes to look through so he can name all his friends. He’s moving up to the 2’s room at daycare once he turns two. I think he’ll have a lot of fun there, especially because two of his best friends are in that class and there are so many new activities to do there, but Im sure there’ll be some adjustments to make too.
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Before

(It had rained this day, so Nathan’s hair was SUPER curly)

After

As much as I love his curls, I have to remember how handsome he looks with shorter hair and not wait so long between haircuts!

Since this is a way of us keeping a record of Nathan and what he’s doing, I thought I’d share some of the words and phrases he’s saying, or rather, how he says them.

Mulk = Milk
Elegator = Elevator
Coper = Helicopter
Thank Um = Thank You (which he says on his own a lot now)
Yeps = Some combo of Yes and Yep I guess
Fe-ey= Fenny (our dog)
Goggy = Doggy
BiKuck = Big Truck
Uppy Down= Upside Down

He says My for Mine, Me, My, I and I’m….My Blankie, My See Em (I see it), My All Done…though I have heard him say “I gotchu” when he catches something that falls or grabs something in the tub, but I think that’s more of an expression he’s heard.

He says Too for Also, Too, etc…I think I may have mentioned this in another post, and I dont know why I’m impressed with this particular word, but I am! The other day he was holding a toy cat and saw another one on a book shelf, and he pointed to it and said “That one kitty too”.

Nathan’s getting better and better with colors and shapes and sings the alphabet with us now. It sounds something like ABCD…G!…K!…P!…V!…Z! (some version of) Now know my ABCs!…sing with Me! And he’s counting, usually something like 2, 3, 7, 8, 9. He was stacking all his foam letters on the side of the bathtub the other night, sorting them by color and counting them as he put them into towers…7, 8, 7, 8, 7, 8. Had me giggling.

Last night we Skyped with Grandma, and for the first time Nathan was pretty much carrying on a conversation with my Mom. It was a joy to watch him get so excited to see Grandma (who he is calling Grandma and not Ama anymore) and then actually TALK with her. Eventually we’ll get our speaker issues worked out and won’t have to use video conferencing with speaker phone…which is kind of a pain when Nathan keeps wanting to play with the phone. I’m just glad we’re doing this now so that my Mom and brother can see Nathan in action more often.

Saying “Mommy Daddy Hole” to call us into the hole that used to be the tree stump.

“My Sweep.” He loves to try sweeping with this huge broom outside. We also have a little one inside that he’ll push around the living room.

Nathan has started using the word Too, as in Also. Just in the last few days and it’s another one of those language milestones that got me giddy the first few times I heard it because of how much it means he understands.

He’s learning I Love You and will say it back to us sometimes.
He’s also a big Cuddle Monkey lately, and I love it.

He’s walking up and down the stairs holding onto the rail and our hand and doesn’t really go up and down on his hands and knees anymore.

He’s putting so many words together into sentences and seems very interested in learning. He holds up his crayons to us as he’s coloring to ask what color each one is and then will repeat it after we say it.

I can’t believe he’s going to turn 2 in two months!!

A small update on Nathan’s new language skills- he will repeat pretty much the entire alphabet after us, which I’m hoping to catch on video. He’ll say I Love You if prompted. And he can, or will at least try, to repeat pretty much any words we say. We really need to watch our language now!!

I was excited to learn that Nathan’s teacher had a TV brought into their room for lunchtime on Inauguration Day so that the kids could watch, and when I asked Nathan who the president was that night, he replied “Omama!”

Nathan’s also stringing more and more words together to make sentences and he’s referring to himself a lot more. He loves books about parents and kids so he can tell me who is the Mommy or Daddy, and who is Nathan. And if there’s a kid in a book, he wants me to change the name to Nathan, so “Spot Loves His Mommy” is now “Nathan Loves His Mommy”. All of this is very cool because we’re hearing him say things that show he’s processing stuff in a whole new way now.