Nathan's "first" Easter

OK so last Easter was technically Nathan's first Easter, but we were in the middle of moving and he was too young to know what was going on anyway, so we did not do anything...

So this year is the first Easter in which we actually did all the fun stuff...

The Easter bunny came and brough Nathan an Easter basket

He LOVES "bay-ball" so his basket was a big hit!

He went on his first Easter egg hunt - which he totally dug!

And... of course... he wore his baseball Easter basket as a hat!

Easter was a big hit. He had a great day.

And as a topper to the big weekend... we changed his crib into a toddler bed this weekend!! I cannot believe that he is big enough for a big boy bed already!

BEFORE... little boy crib:

AFTER... big boy bed:

He is SO excited about his big boy bed! When people came over for Easter he kept taking everyone into his room to show them his bed! And then at daycare this morning it was the FIRST thing he wanted to tell his teacher about! It is pretty cute how much he likes his big boy bed... I still cannot believe he is that big already though!

The little man

Another large gap since my last post... big suprise there!

Nathan is quite the little man these days. He blows me away with how much he has grown. I do not know how much longer I can get away with calling him my "baby" - he is such a little boy now. He turned 19 months old last week, I cannot even believe that we have passed over the 1 and 1/2 year mark and are already on the way to him being 2 years old! Where has the time gone!!

He goes to daycare now, as I started a new job this month. He goes to a great little in-home preschool with a great group of about 12 kids. He LOVES it there! They do all kinds of educational and creative stuff. They have a great backyard play area, a ton of great toys, and they do all kinds of fun arts and crafts. He really enjoys his time there and I really love the lady who runs it so good things all around! :)

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. This Christmas is pretty exciting for a couple of reasons... #1 Jeff is actually off work this Christmas... which is a Christmas MIRACLE! I can honestly not even remember the last Christmas that Jeff was not working - it has been years. And #2, Nathan is actually old enough this year to understand opening presents and to be excited about the boxes under the tree. Christmas morning is going to be so fun with him!!! He has SO many gifts under that tree it is CRAZY and it is going to be a blast watching him open them all! I am so glad Jeff will be there!!

Here are a couple of my favorite recent pictures of him:





He is such a sweet little man. He chatters LIKE CRAZY these days, but most of it is still stuff that none of us can understand. He does have a handful of words, but for the most part he just jabbers away in jibberish. But he certainly tries to tell you stuff! He gets very serious about it and wonders why you don't understand! It's very cute!

He has insane amounts of energy and gets into EVERYTHING! Everyone who interacts with him comments on how busy he is!! He is quite the little handful... but he is a damn adorable handful so it's ok! :)

HI!!

Wow! I have not been posting nearly as often as I had intended to when I first started this blog. I am a bad mother! :P

Nathan has grown and changed so much lately. He has TEN teeth now, two of which are molars and really gave him hell when they were coming in. He had a fever of about 100 degrees for about 3 days for each one of his molars. It was rough. Poor little guy!! But now he has a whole mouth full of teeth! :)

He runs all over the place and just never stops moving! He is so insanely active! When I put him to bed at night I am just ready to collapse! He tires me out!

He chatters up a storm these days, but the only word he knows is "Hi". He says it ALL THE TIME! From the moment he wakes up in the morning, until the moment he goes to bed at night, it is "Hi" "Hi" "Hi" all day long!! Everywhere we go, he says "Hi" to EVERYONE! He is the official greeter EVERYWHERE we go! :) He loves to say "Hi" and wave to people. When they say "Hi" back, he gets all giddy. It really makes his day. He is such a social little man! He loves people!! :)

He loves books lately. He likes to sit in his room and pull all of his books off of his bookshelf and "read" them. He turns the pages and looks at the pictures. It is so cute. And he will also bring them to you so you can read them to him. He hands you the book and then sits himself in your lap and waits. When you read to him he looks up at you and smiles a few times during the story. It is SO adorable!! :)

He is back in swim class again. It took us some time to get settled in our new place and to find a new swim school, but we found one and he has been going twice a week for a month now. He really loves it - just like he always did at his old swim school! He is such a little water baby! :)

Here are some recent pics of him.

This one is he & I in the pool at swim class (he had just come up out of the water):


& Here's one of my favs that I took of him recently - just playing in the living room with his toys:

1st Birthday!!!

Nathan is now officially ONE!
I can hardly believe it!!

We had a birthday party for him.
It was a small gathering of family & friends.
My Dad came all the way from Texas! He was definitely the farthest traveler for the event! I was so glad he could come!! :)

We had burgers & hotdogs. Nathan had his very own tiny little burger (Grandpa took a full size burger - bun and all - and cut it into a small circle with the top of a juice glass).



He got tons of great presents and had a blast opening them all



I made him his very own little cake. We stripped him down to his diaper and let him go at the whole cake. At first he did not quite know what to think of it, he just kind of pushed the frosting around and licked it off of his fingers a little...



But it only took a few bites for him to decide that this cake thing was AWESOME!!



After devouring about 1/4 of the whole cake, his sugar high promptly crashed and he went down for a LONG nap!

All in all, it was a great birthday...
But I still cannot believe that my little man is already ONE!!!

Walking!!!

The little man is walking now!
He took his first steps a few weeks back and over the course of the last few weeks, the distance that he can walk before he falls has gotten longer and longer. Of course, every time I bring out the camera he would always STOP (little booger)! But I finally got him on camera a couple of times in the last few days. This video is one of the longest distances he has walked so far!! :)

10 months old!!!

The little guy is ten months old today!! I can hardly believe how quickly he got to the double digit mark!! What an amazing ten months it has been! He has 6 teeth now; 4 on the top and 2 on the bottom. He isn't walking YET, but he is close. He cruises around holding onto furniture and has gotten very fast at it! He has stood without holding onto anything, but only a couple of times and only for a few seconds. He has not yet said any words, but "Mama" is very close!! When he is really upset and he wants me, he will say "Mmmmmmaaaaaaaaaaaa - mmmmaaaaaaaaaaaaa...." - so he's almost there!! He is the happiest little guy! He is always smiling and he loves people. He is always so curious about everyone wherever we go - it is fun to watch him "people watch".

He is absolutely the most wonderful little guy and I love him to pieces!!!

In addition to today being his 10 month birthday... it was his first St. Patrick's Day too! Grandma Patti got him this cute bib and some "Kiss Me" St. Patty's Day socks too! :)

Ready for Spring already!!!

Prior to being a Mom, winter was my favorite season. I love cold weather, sweaters, scarves, rain, ugg boots, hot cocoa, the holidays... everything about winter! LOVE IT! But now, winter means cold season, and with a baby, that SUCKS!! I never used to get sick much. Before Nathan came along I pretty much NEVER got sick! I have now learned however, that kids are little germ factories!! Their little baby immune systems make them susceptible to EVERYTHING and they get sick SO easily!! And while I can pretty well avoid catching a cold from my husband, or other adults in my life... it is pretty much impossible to avoid catching things from the little man. Hugging him, holding him, kissing him, and being otherwise very close to him is 100% unavoidable... so this winter I have been sick more times than I think I have been in the last 10 years!!! And poor little Nathan... he has been sick for most of the past two months!! Seeing your baby sick is just awful!!! He hurts and I can't make it better! I know how awful it feels to be sick and it sucks to see him go through it! And he has no idea why he feels so awful! It is just terrible! Nathan is sick again right now... fever, runny nose, cough... my poor little man! Last night when I put him to bed he just laid there moaning until he fell asleep! My heart broke for him!! I am so very ready for this cold season to be over. I never used to favor spring/summer over winter/fall... but I sure do now! Let's move on to the nicer seasons now please!!!