Nathan is 2!

Two already??? Its crazy how I feel like I blinked and two years passed by, yet I honestly cannot remember what life what like before him. And I am glad I don't have to because this kid is pretty awesome.

We spent Nathans birthday celebrating at the zoo, just the three of us, and had a blast! Nathan was absolutely fascinated with all the animals. What a difference from the last time we went. The best part has been hearing him tell us all about the animals even days after our trip. We talk about the "big monkey (Gorilla) eating a 'nana" quite a bit.





After the zoo, we took Nathan for his favorite meal; pizza (actually a cheese quesadilla but Nathan calls it pizza) and rice. Then is was back home for cupcakes!




Happy Birthday Little Man!! We love you SO much!

Let Freedom Ring-Goodbye Crib

And if anyone needed more proof that my little boy is no longer a baby...we have officially transitioned Nathan into his "big boy bed," which for now, is actually just his crib mattress on the floor where his crib used to be. Nathan was starting to try to climb out of his crib, and while he never actually succeeded, thanks in part to my obsessive stalking of the video monitor, he was getting dangerously close. We had been talking up the big boy bed for a few days in anticipation of the switch, and the first night we decided to give it a try, Nathan was SO excited. We cuddled and read some books in his bed and when it was time for sleep, he gave me a kiss and said "nigh nigh" and that was it, he want right to sleep! I had no idea the transition would be so easy. I fully expected his first night of freedom to be crazy, either resisting the bed completely, or just running around pulling everything down in his room. I guess I should have had a little more faith in the boy because he didn't budge the entire night. The next morning when he woke up he didn't even make a peep, he got out of bed, got a book off his bookshelf, and "read" it quietly to himself in bed. I may or may not have slept just a little bit longer while he read so nicely in bed. He has been sleeping in his big boy bed for about a week and a half now with virtually no problems. I am one proud momma, but this growing up thing sure is bittersweet.

In other big news, Mark unexpectedly got transferred back to Raleigh and we are all moving into a townhouse in about two weeks!!! The move is only temporary, about 6 months or so (hopefully longer!), but we will take what we can get right now. It is going to be so nice to finally be together again and not have to do the long distance thing anymore. Nathan is going to be so happy to have his daddy there everyday. The official move in day is August 12th and hopefully Nathan will transition into his new home as easy as he transitioned into his new bed.

Future Singer??

A video of Nathan singing Rain, Rain, Go Away. This kid sings ALL the time, and this happens to be one of his favorite songs right now, along with BINGO, Old McDonald, and Elmo's world. Sorry for the horrible lighting.

July 4th Weekend

I am pretty sure I was 10 years old when we first started our annual July 4th visit to Point Pleasant beach at the Jersey Shore. My dads immediate family pretty much all live in Jersey so this has always been our time to visit. When it first started, we all used to stay at this small (somewhat ghetto) motel right by the beach called Point Pleasant Manor. Every year we would get 4 or 5 hotel rooms for our families and completely take over the motel and pool area (my family is pretty big). I have so many great memories at this hotel, like knocking on random peoples hotel rooms and running, walking to the Italian ice store down the road, and going across the street to the beach and paying $7 just to walk on the sand. We went to this motel every year until 2003 when my aunt and uncle decided to buy a house at the shore. While our trips before were very fun and memorable, everything became much better once they bought this house(minus the first year when we stayed there with no AC during record heats...brutal) Our entire family stays in this one house during the July 4th weekend. The place is completely packed, people are sleeping in all corners of the house, and both of the bathrooms always seem to be occupied when you need to use it, but its great because we can all be together.

What makes me so happy is that we are now introducing the next generation of our families to this wonderful tradition. Two of my cousins have daughters that are 7 and 10 months older than Nathan, and both of them are pregnant again! This was Nathan's second trip to the shore, and it is already very evident that he loves it. It is so special to me that some of my favorite childhood memories may be some of Nathan's as well.

This year, with the babies growing older, the trip was much less of a relaxing, do nothing kind of trip and more of a making sure the babies don't fall in the pool, brawl over playdoh colors, or color on the walls sort of trip. Thank God for nap time! None the less, the trip was still as great and memorable as always.


A view from the pool in the backyard. No wonder Nathan's new favorite word is boat.


Nathan and his cousins at the boardwalk. This was his first time on a ride, and he was very serious about driving that boat!


Nathan eating his first Popsicle with his cousins.


Mommy and Nathan in the pool

Vocabulary Explosion

Literally in the past few weeks, Nathan's vocabulary has exploded! I mean, the difference from just last month is incredible! Not only is he learning new words everyday, but he is actually talking in sentences now! His first sentence was "Where it go?" He drags out the "go" part really long and says it in the highest squeakiest voice he can. It is quite possibly the cutest thing I have ever heard. Oh and he always puts both hands up and shrugs his shoulders when he says it, which only adds to the cuteness of it. When he first started it he would just all of a sudden yell "where it go?" and frantically start looking around for something that he apparently wanted in his head. Which was fine until he got frustrated that we couldn't read his mind and help him find whatever it is he wanted. He is getting better now and starting to tell us what he is looking for, like "Where lego go?", or "Where milk go?" Also now, when he finds whatever he is looking for he yells "There it is!"

Some other big sentences right now: "here you go", "Airplane. In the Sky" when he sees/hears an airplane, and "Bless you" when someone sneezes!

In other news, Nathan also peed on the potty for the first time on June 24th!! We were both SOOOO excited. He was so cute and proud of himself. He even flushed and waved bye-bye to his pee pee and then we did our potty song and dance. We still have a LONG way to go with this potty training thing, but he is loving it right now and asks to sit on his potty all the time.

I think that is enough bragging for now! So with that I will leave you with a picture of Nathan from our engagement party.



How cute am I??????

A Celebration of Love

On Saturday, June 26th, Mark and I celebrated our engagement surrounded by all of our friends and family. We both had a blast and ate some delicious homemade food made by my wonderful mom. My sweet mom worked hard to make our engagement party so special. She came up with a sunflower theme and decked the house out in sunflowers and pictures of Mark and I. My mom made all the food and my dad grilled burgers and hot dogs in 100 degree heat. My parents are amazing and I am so thankful for everything they did to make the party so great!

the blink of an eye

I swear I feel like I blinked and a month went by. The biggest news is Mark and I got engaged!! On March 8th while walking around UNC's campus, Mark got down on one knee and proposed! Of course I said yes with tears in my eyes. And since Mark and I met while I was visiting UNC and now we got engaged at UNC, it only seemed fitting that we be married at UNC. We have set the date for May 14, 2011 at the Carolina Inn in Chapel Hill and we are both so excited to finally become husband and wife! So now I have added one more thing to my already hectic life, wedding planning! But I am really having a lot of fun doing it and I have already knocked out a lot of the big things.

We also went to my cousin Jackie's wedding in NJ this past month. It was so wonderful to see all my family and the wedding was absolutely amazing. Its gonna be hard to go after that one! Nathan was also their ring bearer and he totally rocked at it! As soon as it was his turn to walk down the aisle, he walked into the church and yelled "Hi" and waved to all the guests. He was definitely a big hit. If it wasn't for child labor laws, I would totally rent him out for weddings.

And now Nathan is almost 20 months old. Which means he is almost 2!! He is really just turning into a little boy now. He is talking much more now and trying to put little sentences together. He also comprehends so much more now. I actually think he understand almost everything I say to him now, although he choses not to listen most of the time. He is definitely a very independent stubborn little boy!

Pictures from Jackie and Matt's wedding:

"Roar" and "Quack" and "Oof", Oh My!!

Those are the sounds that Mark and I heard all day on Saturday when we took an impromptu trip to the Asheboro Zoo! Roar for lion, Quack for duck, and oof for dog, are three of Nathan's favorite animal noises to make. And in Nathan's eyes, every animal at the zoo made one of these three noises. The owl said "quack", the polar bear said "roar" and the otter said "oof." He will get it straight one day. But we really had a great time. We were only able to make it through half of the zoo before Nathan fell asleep, but we will be going back in the next couple weeks to tackle the other half. Maybe I should teach Nathan some new animal noises before then!
>

My New Tricycle

This weekend, Mabecca bought me my first tricycle. I Really like to sit on it and yell "bike" for the whole world to hear.




...But my favorite part of all, is that I can put all my toys in this little basket on the back.

Myrtle Beach Trip

Last week, Nathan and I took a trip with Mabecca and Pops to their condo in Myrtle beach. It was too cold for swimming, but we played on the beach pretty much every day. We built sand castles, collected shells, played with dogs walking by, and splashed in the water. Nathan's favorite thing to do at the beach was chase the seagulls or "ducks" as he kept calling them. It was very funny to watch. We also went to Ripley's aquarium. They have an exhibit where you stand on a conveyor belt and it loops your through a huge dome shaped tank. It makes you feel like you are actually in the water with all the fish, stingrays, turtles, and HUGE sharks. Pops would hold Nathan up to the sharks when they passed over our head and Nathan would immediately yell "all done!" Smart boy, they had some big teeth! We had a great time but now it is back to reality and back to studying for final exams. Yuck!

Feeding Himself With a Spoon

One step closer to becoming an independent little boy.....



And this is the wonderful mess mommy got to clean up afterwards. We are still working on it....

18 months old & Easter

Another month down, many more milestones hit, and an ever-growing, hyperactive, toddler personality. And I must say, I am loving every single minute of it. This stage is definitely my favorite stage so far. I know I have said that many times in the past, but it just seems like the fun factor increases as each month passes. Not a day goes by now that Nathan doesn't do something that has me hysterically laughing.

We have been working on his animal sounds (he now knows dog-"oof", cow-"boo", and lion-"roar"), his manners (he now says "pleeease" when he wants something, instead of that annoying sound that made people think he was choking), eating with a fork and a spoon (which has resulted in some of the biggest messes I have ever seen), his numbers, and letters(5 is his favorite number and X is his favorite letter, for reasons we may never know). We still have a long way to go with his numbers and letters. Right now he really only knows what 1 and 5 look like and he will just point to things as someone else count them. He is starting to recognize letters too, but his favorite part is the ABC song. Several times a day, he sings nonsense words to the tune of the song. He is also talking more and more everyday. I gave up on trying to count how many words he knows. At this point it has to be between 50-100 words.

Nathan has also discovered his incredible love for airplanes this month. Side note: If you ever want to know what his favorite thing is at the moment, be the one that gets him from his crib when he wakes up. 99% of the time the first thing he will say to you is his favorite thing. First it was ball, then is was bubbles, now its airplane. Anyway, we took him to the RDU observation park for the first time this month. They have a little park, and an elevated deck that over looks their biggest runway. We watched the planes land and take off, and Nathan thought it was amazing. We will definitely be going back there.

We went to his 18 month well check up this week. Still a peanut as always. But after obtaining a copy of Mark's growth chart from when he was a baby, we discovered that he was a peanut too! In fact, they were almost exactly the same at this age. It made me and the doctor much less worried about it. He will probably be just like mark and be a "late bloomer". He weighed 21 lbs (5%) and was 32 inches tall (25-30%). And even though he may be small, he makes up for it in brains! The doctor was impressed with Nathan's communication and motor skills and said he is above the average 18 month old developmentally. I told him it is probably because he got sick of hearing mommy talk to herself all day, so he decided to talk back! :)


And last but not least, Easter was this past Sunday. The weekend before we went to an Easter Egg hunt put on by the town with Mark's parents. There were so many kids there and within minutes, all the eggs were gone. Thankfully, Mark was smart and ran out in the field like a child and put a bunch of the eggs in his pocket and threw them at Nathan's feet one at a time. Nathan's favorite thing he found at the egg hunt? An empty candy wrapper. As soon as he saw it, he threw all his eggs down and ran to the wrapper and was as happy as if he found a golden pacifier. Poor kid had no clue there was actual candy inside the eggs! Easter morning, Nathan woke up to a big basket from the Easter Bunny, and the Pardue family came over for an egg hunt and yummy food. It was another great holiday surrounded by all the people we love.

The wonderful trip where everything went wrong

Last friday, on my 24th birthday, My mom, Nathan, and I set out for RDU airport at around 10:15 AM for our trip to NJ. Our flight was scheduled to take off at 12:2o pm, and we planned everything out perfectly to arrive at the airport the recommended (and annoying long) 2 hours before take off. I was really, really hoping the day would run smoothly since A. it was Nathan's first time on a plane, and B. it was my birthday and the last thing I wanted was for anything to go wrong. well, obviously, the airport gods had different plans for our day. I swear if we could have seen them they would have been pointing their finger and laughing at us. At first it was a few small delays but that quickly turned into many long delays. I had brought a stroller, (an old stroller that my parents used for my sister and I when we were younger and had been stowed in the attic for 20 years), in hopes that Nathan would maybe sleep at the airport. Not happening. Regardless of how cranky and tired he was, he was not sleeping. He just wanted to run around, talk to random people and watch the airplanes. FINALLY, sometime around 4 pm we were allowed to board the plane. When we actually started to moving down the runway, we got really excited, but I should have known better. The pilot came on the intercom to announce that the weather was so bad in Newark that he was going to have to turn the plane around. WHATT?? At this point Nathan was a mess and the airplane felt like it was 95 degrees. After and hour and a half of deterring Nathan from crying with mounds of airplane pretzel sticks, we finally took off and arrived in Newark a little before 7 PM. We get off the plane, open the stroller, put Nathan in, and CRACK. Completely broke in half. At this point I just had to laugh.

That night we went to Janine and Billy's for pizza and birthday cake and spent the next day enjoying the wonderful company. That night, the crazyness continued after dinner when we lost power from a horrible storm. Not only did we have no electricity, but we had no water either. Apparently, it was the worst storm they had had in 20 years. The next day (Saturday) was Jackie's bridal shower and we still had no power. Thankfully, the venue had a generator so the shower was still able to happen and it was absolutely beautiful! The power never came back the remainder of the weekend. We stayed at my Grandmas house Sunday night. She had power, but no water. Monday morning, we headed back to the airport. Thank you airport gods for realizing we had been through enough We actually arrived back in Raleigh ON TIME.

So was the weekend crazy? Completely!! More than I could ever have imagined. Was it worth it? Absolutely. Despite everything we had a wonderful time. Nathan had so much fun playing with his cousins and we loved seeing everyone. I am so lucky to have such an amazing family.

Cute Video of Nathan Talking-2/16/10

Sick Nathan

Last week, I had to take Nathan for his second sick visit to the pediatrician in his entire life. He was sick once with a fever when he was 4 months old and has been pretty healthy otherwise. Until last week. He randomly spiked a fever of almost 104 one night and when it didn't break at all the entire night, we went to the doctor the following morning. Despite the high fever, no one would really even be able to guess he was sick. The doctor was pretty amazed at how much he was still playing and smiling. She said his throat was pretty red, but both strep and flu tests came back negative. She sent us home with orders rest and fluids. Trying to get a rambunctious toddler to actually rest is pretty much an impossible task, but after 3 days of the fever, it finally broke. Lots of cuddling, cool compresses, and Tylenol seemed to do the trick, and he is definitely back to his crazy self now.

On a happier note, Nathan is 17 months old today!!!!!

Weekend with Mabecca and Pops

This past weekend I put on my brave mommy face and left Nathan for the weekend with my parents for the first time. Nathan did pretty well without me! Of course it helps that he was home with Mabecca and Pops, 2 of his most favorite people in the world. I went to Roanoke to spend Valentines day weekend with Mark. It had been 6 WEEKS since I had seen him last. Way to long! We had such wonderful time together. Friday night he had made reservations for a restaurant called Coach and Four. They were extremely busy and we ended up waiting about an hour past our reservation time to be seated. We were in no rush though, we just sat at the bar and talked. It is not that often that we get uninterrupted time together to just talk. Being so far away from either other has definitely made us appreciate the little things even more. The next night we went to a bar downtown and played shuffleboard. It was my first time playing and once I got the hang out it I was pretty good. Mark and I are both very competitive people so we ended up playing for a good 2 hours because I was determined to beat him. And yes I beat him once, and no it wasn't just because it was the last game and he was tired. Sunday we went to lunch and then it was already time for me to leave. Nathan was very excited to see me when I got home! And I like to believe it is because he missed me so much, and not because I walked in with my arms full of presents!

Silly Routines Video-Nathan and Pops-10 months old

Silly Routines

It's funny to me how babies always create these little routines for themselves. For example, Nathan always needs a sip of water from my big cup that I keep on my nightstand when he first sits on my bed. Or every time I brush his teeth he has to hold another tooth brush in his hands. I always sit him on the counter in the bathroom to brush his teeth for him and the minute his butt hits the counter he frantically reaches for his toothbrush to hold. It's as though his little toddler world will come crashing to an end if he doesn't get that darn toothbrush or sip of water.


One of my favorite routines he has is with Pops. We are big fans of eating food grilled on the BBQ in this house so at least once a week Pops is out on the back porch grilling some delicious food. Each and every time he goes outside to grill Nathan stops whatever he is doing and runs to the window in an uncontrolled manor. Pops always makes faces at him, and knocks on the window and Nathan cracks up. It's quite possibly one of the cutest things ever to watch. The other night Nathan was in his highchair eating his dinner when he saw Pops go outside to grill. He urgently yelled "all done" over and over cause he just had to go to the window to watch Pops. Luckily, he was satisfied with me pulling the highchair up to the window (My skinny boy can not be skipping meals!) and he let out a big sigh of relief. God forbid someone intervene with one of his routines!!

Video to come!

Chatterbox Update

I wanted to start making a list of the words that Nathan can say. He is really starting to copy lately. So I have a feeling this list will expand very fast and that also means we have to really start watching what we say around him!

Words/phrases that Nathan can say and in the order he started saying them:

milk
mom
bye-bye
hi
Book
All done
bad boy (directed towards Riely, poor dog)
get down (again directed towards Riely)
up
again
baby
bubble
egg
bug
Ball

Stinky
Beans
Football

Touchdown (He even throws his arms in the air)
Base (When we are playing chase, he runs to the pillows on the fireplace and says "base") 

Dada
Blueberry
Belly Button
Eat
UH-OH

Let it Snow!

Woohoo we got 5-6 inches of snow last night! The last time Nathan saw snow it was over a year ago!!  Its hard to even remember him being that little!!!

   My little snow bunny at 3 months old!

I remember being so excited when he was so young to show him snow.  I was even more excited this time for him to actually PLAY in it!! So i bundled him up in a million layers, dug the sled out of the attic and out we went with mabecca and pops! Nathan didn't crack a smile once! He was too busy trying to figure this whole thing out.  But we still had fun and I bet the next time we go out he won't want to come back in!

Pictures from playing in the snow....round 1

 

Mommy and Nathan!

Mommy and Nathan sledding!

Nathan Sledding!

 Mabecca, Pops, and Nathan

Whats the word on the street? Bubble!!!

The weather in NC has been so nice the past couple days. 60 degrees and perfect! Which means Nathan and I spent as much time as possible with his Gazillion Bubble Machine. This thing is awesome!! I bought it for his birthday party last October and he is just now realizing how amazing it is. And since bubble is one of his newest words, he has been letting me know how often they are on his mind! And let me tell you, its pretty often!

The back porch is our bubble place of choice. His little treehouse is there too so we gate off the stairs, turn on the bubbles and play on the slide. It is pretty much like toddler heaven.

So happy!!

So proud that he can climb the stairs
to the treehouse all by himself!




Trying to catch the bubbles.

Note to self: Buy more bubbles!

What is this thing????

Chatterbox

I wanted to start making a list of the words that Nathan can say. He is really starting to copy lately. So I have a feeling this list will expand very fast and that also means we have to really start watching what we say around him!

Words/phrases that Nathan can say and in the order he started saying them:

milk
mom
bye-bye
hi
All done
bad boy (directed towards Riely, poor dog)
get down (again directed towards Riely)
up
again
baby
bubble
egg
bug
Ball

An apple a day keeps the dentist away...

....well not if you are Nathan who only eats applesauce and who GRINDS HIS TEETH!

yup, he has inherited one of my not so wonderful qualities (everything else he got from me is most definitely wonderful though I'm sure). We started noticing that he had a few chips in his top 4 teeth. I asked his pediatrician about them at his last well visit a couple weeks ago and he seemed to brush them off as no big deal. Well in the past 2 to 3 weeks they have most certainly been getting worse. So off to the pediatric dentist we went today. We saw Dr. Daniel Howell in Cary and they were excellent! Nathan and I both loved them! Well, Nathan probably liked the huge play area the best, and the stickers and prizes they gave him, but either way we were both very pleased with the visit. And I have to brag because Nathan was so cooperative with the dentist! He sat in the big chair with his head back and mouth open and just let the dentist poke and mess with his teeth. I was so proud and they were extremely impressed. Unfortuneatly, there isn't much they can really do for his teeth right now. The only helpful thing for teeth grinding is a mouth gurad, and obviously that isn't going to work very well. So he gave us some things to look out for and basically said see you when hes three for his first cleaning.

As a reward for being so good (and because it was 64 degrees out and not a single cloud in the sky), Nathan and I took a walk to the park this afternoon! We had so much fun swinging and climbing and playing on the slides.

Bubble!!

Wordless Wednesday