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!!!

Growing too fast...

We retired the little man's swing yesterday.
I cannot believe he has outgrown it already!!! Up until about a week ago, he took every single one of his naps in that swing. It was used so often we actually burned through a motor and had to call and get a new one! It was a huge part of Nathan's life for a long time... it made me sad to retire it to the garage. My little man is growing WAY TOO FAST!!!!

More fun with food

Yesterday was a busy day for our little family. We got up and went out to breakfast, then we went to a baby store and bought a gift for the baby growin' in the belly of a friend of ours. She is due in April and yesterday we attended the surprise baby shower that her husband's family threw for her. After the baby shower we went to Costco and to the grocery store... we were running around out and about all day!! While we were out, whenever we ate, I gave Nathan a little something from my plate. At breakfast he got my toast crusts. He loved these and we actually had to only give him a small piece at a time, or he would fill his entire little mouth and gag on the too large amount of soggy bread in his mouth. At the baby shower, we gave Nathan pinto beans. He really liked them. We gave him one at a time, held out in our hand, and he would grab it up and pop it in his mouth just like he does with his cheerios everyday. I also gave him a couple of small pieces of pasta from the pasta salad. This was really the first time that we had fed Nathan from our own plates. Usually we just stick to him eating his baby food and stuff. It was so fun to feed him little bits of our food and to see how he liked it. He so loves that he is able to feed himself and it is fun to watch him. It is crazy that he is old enough to do that already... crazy that he is eating "adult" food. He is growing way too fast!!

My little smarty pants... the next Michael Jordan!!

Check out this video of the little man playing B-Ball



When I first saw him do this last night, I thought for sure it was an accident. There is no way that he put that ball in the hoop on purpose. Then, later in the evening, I saw him doing it with his blocks... he would grab a block, drop it in the hoop, and then pick it up and do it again. I was in awe!! Could my little 8 month old guy actually know what to do with his basketball toy already?? Sure enough... as he always does when he figures out a new skill... he repeated this new game of his over and over again all night long! It was one of those beaming with pride parenting moments when I felt like I had the smartest kid on the planet!! :)