And There Were Raisins for Days

{Hmm I'm not sure what to blog about now after all those feeeeelings, but catching up is in order, and I have to start somewhere, so how about this?}

TODDLER FOR SALE, OR FREE TO GOOD HOME, COMES WITH UNLIMITED RAISINS

(!!!!!!)

Yes, I made her clean it up. I am a mean good mommy.

Obviously I would never give her away. (It's the internet, I feel like I have to clarify that. Stand down, pedants and social workers.) She's ours. Squashed raisins between her toes and all.

Six and a Half

Nathan is very suddenly six and a half, which is weird because I had barely wrapped my brain around him being six, and it is becoming clear that he is really and truly, for real life (as he likes to say) reneging on his agreement to stay five forever. WHAT THE WHAT, NATHAN.

However, at six and a half, he is still (mostly*) delightful. (*Six is moody. He has bad days. Of course.) He is quite shy until suddenly he feels comfortable and gets chattery (although he glares if I call him either shy or chattery, so).

He is helpful, sweet and playful/bickery/playful with his sisters, and incredibly generous with a kind thought or compliment. He loves showing people love, and he is good at it, in the best ways a child can be. (And I adore this about him, clearly.)

He likes dinosaurs and puzzlies and patterns, and facts/trivia about animals and nature-y things, and he will talk about them to anyone who will listen. Also sometimes when we aren't listening. He likes yogurt and pbj sandwiches and hot chocolate and gummy fruit snacks. He loves to draw and write. He has capital-o Opinions about many of his shirts. He gets excited when he can wear ties, like Daddy. He still likes building with legos, he has an up-past-bedtime reading habit, and he has become a pretty fast little runner for a kid who took a healthy season of forever to decide he could walk.

He likes to send emails and write people notes and cards. They are full (full!) of exclamation marks. He is learning a little more on the computer but is still contentedly clueless (read: Mark and I are content) about phones and other techy stuff. He does know how to turn the TV on and find pbs kids, which our saturday mornings thank him for. He can make his own breakfast and pack his own lunches, mostly. He does his homework happily and quickly, which I know is no small thing and believe me, we do not take it for granted.

He frequently brings us new taped and stapled papers he has turned into books -- about music and math and people he knows, and occasionally* (*HA HA HA HA) a dinosaur or two makes an appearance. He loves to quiz everyone around him (including his sisters) on what plus what equals what. (We all need to perfect Charlotte's raised-eyebrow blank stare in response to these questions.)

He tells terrible jokes which are really just nonsensical questions with no punchlines. Why does YouTube have a face? ...And that's it. No follow up. Just the question, followed by lots of giggles. Ummm that is not a joke, buddy.

Oh and speaking of YouTube, we taught him that he can enter almost anything into the search box there and find a video about it, so he has therefore logged hours and hours of fossil documentaries, slideshows of toy cars with japanese subtitles, dinosaur sketches shown over rock music soundtracks, and every Jurassic Park trailer, twice* (*gross under-exaggeration).

Y'all, it blows my mind how bright he is. He is blowing through chapter books and asking insightful questions about them, and working through math ideas with a creative approach he definitely didn't get from me. (He still has not solved the Rubik's cube. I know someone will ask. At some point he will realize he can ask YouTube how to do it, but he hasn't yet.)

He is ever more clearly an introvert, and ever more clearly a sensitive creature, a being of feeeeeelings. He hates hurting people, but he also hates apologizing. He shuts down in the face of emotional conflict. Like, completely shuts down. He loves snuggling and back scratching, and when words and conversation evade him, he needs to be physically close to feel emotionally close. He has a very clear sense of what is fair (and not fair), and while it doesn't always line up with what we think is fair (or not fair), I like that he cares enough and is observant enough about the world and other people to have his own ideas about it.

He still does his track/walking club before school on Fridays, and taekwondo once a week, and he sings in the children's choir at church (where Another Nathan is finally finally his director, a moment I thiiiiink they have both been waiting for since oh I don't know, 2009-ish). He has started in orchestra at school, where he now knows the proper names for the strings on his cello and is learning to legitimately read music. (He freaking loves that cello. Loves. It. WE HAVE TRIUMPHED AS BAND GEEK PARENTS.)

So yeah, that is Nathan, at six and a half. And we love him so.

Charlotte at Almost Two

Y'all. Can we talk about Charlotte for a second? I want to. I need to.

I won't have pictures to add to this or be able to post it til I get home, but tomorrow is her due date, Charlotte day, August 1st, bo time! as we were ready to call it back in 2011. Now I am sitting on a quiet porch at Montreat, watching a waterfall (well, a dam), glad for a free afternoon of sabbath rest from an insanely busy week, really glad to be here -- full of heart feelings and the holy spirit and a peaceful view to boot...

...but I miss my sweet Charlotte like there is a hole in my chest.

I miss both girls, of course, and Marky, and Bowden, but today the thought of Charlotte's toothy grin and a mouth-open slobber kiss just makes me ache.

So I am going to blather on about her for a hot minute, yes I am.

In the past year Charlotte has gone from our sweet slow tiny delicate flower to a running jumping dancing grinning laughing silly little girl. She is still sweet. She is still tiny. She is still kind of a delicate flower. But thriving in her delicacy.

She is still timid around strangers, but no longer panicky. She greets people with a wave and kiss blowing and a grin. Full of teeth. That girl has a grin for days. FOR DAYS. She will copy anything Nathan and Anneliese do, and eats up their praise. She is picky about what she wears and her biggest tantrums so far involve us putting something on her that she doesn't approve of. (Her approval is exactly as predictable as you would think it is. She's almost two. That's to say, not predictable.)

She isn't a big eater but she loves yogurt and bananas and nutri-grain bars, unless she doesn't. (Again, almost two.) She sleeps every night with a menagerie of toys and animals and books, but is most loyal to Sheep and Sunny Puppy. She loves blocks and buildings and will habitually stack up any group of toys she encounters. She calls her siblings Lee-Lee and Nay-Nay and I hope she never outgrows it. They are her very favorite people.

She is quirky: Scampering to the window to wave at the car of someone who is physically standing right by her. Running a crazy run that involves one (just one) of her arms swinging by her side. Sporting the most incredible bed head where her wispy hair sticks out in front of her face like a visor, because apparently she sleeps on her face. (?) Oh and she's still wearing that winter hat in any and all weather.

She is obsessed with shoes. Never in the history of children or shoes has any child ever asked for shoes to be taken on or off more times in one day, every day, than Charlotte. Ever. If they're off, she wants them on. If they're on, she wants them off. And if she's satisfied with their current status, she's still talking about them. Syoo? Syoo? I hear it my dreams.

She calls milk how. Yeah I don't even know.

She still insists her name is Night-Night.

And in three short (long) days she will be hugging me and saying Mommy and my arms will be full of her wispy hair and sweet smell.

Happy almost two, little Booler.

This Week's This and That

This was one of our "easy" weeks this summer, without much scheduled. The following update format is shamelessly stolen from the lovely Emily.

LOVED THIS:

The kids and I made individual pizzas for dinner one night. It was a huge adorable mess. Charlotte ate more than she prepped. Who put that baby on the counter with a bag of cheese anyway?

TORMENTED BY THAT:

The sticker club mystery mail continues. Other chain letter replies are now coming in fast too (I think we can expect like thirty or something if everyone does it) but these anonymous ones are killing me. We have now added Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and a Herd of My Little Ponies to the list, with postmarks as far away as Texas and Alaska. I CANNOT EVEN. WHAT IS GOING ON? I have a few people I suspect (I don't know that many people with enough get-go and boredom to do something like this) but every time I think I have a lead, I get confused again.

(Not that I have the whole stack of envelopes on my nightstand to ponder over clues before I sleep at night or anything. *ahem*) (Every time I talk through my theories, Mark tells me my crazy is showing.)

(I told him I should totally be a professional mytery solver! He reminded me that is already a Thing, called a detective, and pointed out I am failing my first case. Well, then... hrmph.)

SWOONED AT THIS:

Sweet Charlotte has started reading to herself in the car. I mean, not just  paging through books, but babbling along in a story voice. I can't quit it. (Nathan remains the king of the photobomb.)

SOBBED AT THAT:

So, what you think you're looking at is cutie Nathan holding his tee ball trophy, and you are. But what you don't see here is that I put the wrong time on the calendar, and we missed the last game. And awards. The photo we didn't take involves Nathan in his uniform, standing at the field with none of his teammates or coaches in sight, all long gone hours before. And crying. Next to me, also crying. MOM FAIL. I feel horrible and guilty every time I think about it. I know mistakes happen, but breaking your kid's heart over one kinda sucks like nothing else. The last game! His trembling lip! Waaaaahhhh! *sob*

But, I guess this is as good a time to show you his "official" YMCA tee ball pics. They are awkward and delightful.

First five people to speak for them can have one of these beauties for fridge mounting. It will come with a personalized note from Nathan. (Hopefully not deriding his mom for ending his season in disappointment. Okay and we're back to *sob*...)

TERRIFIED BY THIS:

There was a snake in the backyard. We don't think it was poisonous, but it was big and sort of scary and far less hesitant around us than we thought it would be. Like, slithered right up to us, and right up the swing set leg where Charlotte was standing. Yikes. I killed it with a shovel. It isn't the first snake I have killed but it was the hardest one. And the only one I ever killed in my church clothes. And I cried afterwards. Poor snakey. (Stay away from my baby though, for real.)

APPRECIATED THAT:

Y'all are such lovely people, with all your congrats messages and kind words on our anniversary last week. I don't think we knew how much of a milestone ten years really was until we told the internet, and people were so affirming. Whoa! Ten years! Sappy memories aside, that's kind of a big deal! Your emails and comments and thumbs ups and texts and high fives at church? All wonderful. You made a great weekend even better by being our friends who love and support us. Thank you so much.

Mealtime Naughties

Anneliese has been giving us a run for our money the last couple of weeks.  She has tapped into her inner defiant streak.  Like Nathan at this age, she has a very clear understanding of what we're asking or telling her to do, and is quite capable of doing it.  Unlike Nathan, she is missing a key second component: the whole eager-to-please thing. 
She doesn't so much care about that.

Well, that's not exactly true.  She does care about pleasing Nathan.  If it makes him laugh or pay attention to her, she'll do it.  But getting praise from mommy and daddy for doing good listening?  Meh. 

AWESOME.

Combine a lack of motivation to do good listening with a love affair of messes, and you get this:

Yeah. Not as hilarious as you think, baby girl.

Mealtimes are a struggle.  Food on the floor, food on the windows, food on the walls, food on the cabinets.  We even had to explain to our vet last week that what she found on Bowden's coat was most definitely blueberry yogurt. 

We've talked at length with Nathan about being a good example and not laughing when Anneliese is being naughty, but we can't truly fault him for not being able to contain the giggle urge.  I mean, a dog covered in applesauce is kind of funny, even to grownups.  (Unless you're the grownups trying to A- teach your daughter to please not put food on the dog, and B- wrangle the poor dog out of your bed for a cleanup.)

And even at non-mealtimes, when she finds something hilarious (read: naughty) to do that entertains Nathan, we have an extremely difficult time disciplining her.  She doesn't buy in to time-outs being a bad thing (being separated from the action doesn't faze her, since she just assumes the party is wherever she is, and entertains herself accordingly), and even spankings (when she gets into something dangerous) only set her back for a couple of minutes and don't prevent a repeat offense.

Uggggggggghhhhhhhh.

We have known for a while that's she's an attention-monger, and will do just about anything to get someone to laugh at her or throw some smiles her way.  How do we convince her that smiles and laughs from mommy and daddy for good behavior (which we are very very intentional about, I  promise) are just as awesome as Nathan's giggle fits in response to her craziness?  Alternatively, how do we really get Nathan on board with rebuking the naughtiness instead of rewarding it?

No, seriously.  Help me.  I need ideas.

Ice Cream Truck at Church!

Nathan and Anneliese had their first ice cream truck experience this afternoon!  (This mall playdate was cute, but doesn't count as the real thing.)

We have a toy ice cream truck, so the concept wasn't totally foreign.  We have talked a lot about ice cream trucks and what they're for and what they do, but my kiddos had never seen one in action before.  But our church had arranged for one to come by this afternoon, and invited all the kiddies in the congregation to come by for a treat.  So we did.  And they loved it!

Nathan was a little bit intimidated by the truck itself at first.  But he was so in awe of the fact that I was going to let him pick whatever treat he wanted, all for himself, that he got all grinny and brave.  He narrowed it down to a green sno-cone (green is his favorite color.  did you know?  has he said it recently?  like, anytime anyone says anything about the color green?) and a fudgesicle.  And eventually went with the "chocolate ice cream on a stick, please."

True story -- you don't get that messy eating a fudgesicle if you also use a handful of wipes as part of the process.  Just ask Nathan.  He has it down to a science.  (Except for the shorts.)

For Anneliese and me to share, I picked a coconut-sicle (?) based solely on the fact that it was white and she might be the messiest child on the planet and she was wearing a winning combination of her church dress and no bib.  (Mommy fail.)  She wasn't too into the ice cream (she usually isn't) but she did have a ball running and playing (in the mulch, of course) and driving the toy ice cream truck around.

Yes, of course we brought the toy ice cream truck when we went to see the real ice cream truck.  Please don't act surprised.

And then our choir director, Dr Z, climbed a tree.  (What?  That doesn't sound like a totally normal part of an ice-cream truck outing?)  And made a few terrible puns (jokes?) about how Dr Z means Zaccheus.  Or something.  Yeeeeeeah.

But I have to say, all the kids loved it (picture several of them standing on the ground below pointing and shrieking and laughing) and it made quite an impression.  Maybe even more than the ice cream truck.  It was definitely the first thing Daddy heard about when he got home!

We should totally do this every Sunday.

Hungry Girl

When Anneliese is hungry, normally we hear a chorus of gung, gung, gung (which for at least six months we thought was go, but... no). She's moany and repetitive and single-minded when it comes to mealtime.  Sometimes she resorts to banging on her high chair in case we didn't get the message.

Your daily Anneliese

Last week, even after we got her up there, I was still having trouble making dinner happen very quickly.  She finally gave up on me and settled for Hattie and her thumb while she resigned herself to waiting patiently.

It lasted maybe a minute and a half.

Gung!  Gung!  Mommeeeeee!  Gung.

The Requisite Spaghetti Picture

Once a month our church has a big spaghetti supper that we can all show up to, pig out, and then go home full and happy without having done any cooking or dishes.

It also provides ample opportunity for the requisite baby-eating-spaghetti pictures. 

Your daily Anneliese: utensils are SO overrated

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Look!  A non-house related post!  Proof for the internet (and for myself) that I do so think about things other than renovation schedules and home improvement projects and moving logistics these days.  Occasionally.  Kind of.

Last week we went to a baseball game to see Clemson play NC State with some friends from church (the same friends who joined us last fall to see Clemson and State play football, actually).  I didn't get a picture of all of us at the game, but here's most of us (not me):

Natalie & Kyle, Mark & Anneliese, Another Nathan & Nathan

We had really good seats close behind home plate and in the fourth row.  And we got them super cheap (thanks, Groupon!).  As you can see by the way we're all dressed, it was cold out.  I'm sort of mad at North Carolina this week.  It's spring.  For real.  We should not be wearing long sleeves, much less jackets.  Hmph.

Oh!  And Anneliese had her first hot dog.  She eats anything we put in front of her, pretty much, so it was no surprise she was a fan of stadium food too (I mean... who isn't?  You either love baseball game hot dogs or you're a liar). 

lots of mustard... that's my girl

I'm not sure how much of this she ate vs how much Daddy actually got for himself.  :)

Despite the chilly weather (and the fact that Clemson lost -- badly), it was a great way to spend an evening away from working and house stuff and just have some downtime with our friends.  I think maybe we've started forgetting how to do stuff just for fun.  We'll re-learn in a month or so, right?

Loving and Loathing the Messies

I get a lot of comments about how much alike Nathan and Anneliese look (and are), and some days I totally see it.  Other days, not at all.

Yesterday I gave Anneliese a bowl of cottage cheese and peaches with a spoon in it so she could get started on her lunch.  She did about two bites with the spoon and then started shoveling it in by the bare fistful.

Nathan had a minor freakout: "She needs a napkin!  She doesn't want her hands dirty!  Anneliese, eat with your spoon!!"

Then ten minutes later, she did the same thing with a bowl of oatmeal.  (Yes, I do regularly feed my children "breakfast" food at any any all dining times, thank you for asking.)

Nathan was beside himself in tidy ocd napkin-hoarding misery on the other side of the table.

Hilariously opposite, those two.

Using a Spoon

[Disclaimer: I haven't felt like blogging this week... or two. No easy-to-nail-down reason. But that's why there are a handful of started-but-never-finished posts I'm just now (Jan 13) publishing. And look at that, we all survived.]

In the last few days, Anneliese has started using a spoon to feed herself.  This has taken lots and lots of encouragement (mostly from Daddy), since she's not really a big fan of the extra time it takes to get food into her mouth when she's relying on her own coordination rather than a parent's.  But she's totally doing it!

Some days it's a crazy messy process.

Other days it's not so bad.

If you can't see the video embedded above, click here.


And predictably, Nathan is happy to help us document any milestone with his new camera.  He's proud of his baby sister too.  What?  It's sweet!

(Yes, I took a picture of Nathan taking a picture of Mark taking a picture of Anneliese hitting a milestone.  Yes, I know that makes me as crazy as the child photographer I am mocking.  Yes, I know we officially have a few too many cameras in our house.)

The Glamour in Homemaking

Even though most days I feel confident in our family's decision to have me leave my job and work full-time at taking care of the kids and our home, there are still days when I feel that my work here is trite and unproductive, and I worry that society looks at me and sees someone useless. And I know, I know, that creating a happy home to parent my children is far from useless. I also know that no one told me it would be glamorous. Furthermore, I know I shouldn't care what society thinks, especially considering my family is so much happier and so much less stressed in my current home executive job position.

But these are the things that have been swimming in my brain this week:

1.) The whole SAHM circuit here in Raleigh is starting to wear me down a little. Why do I have so much trouble making mom friends around here? The ones with jobs are awesome but usually don't have time to be friends with me. Yet many of the ones who do have time (home with their kids like I am)... well, I have a hard time relating to a lot of them, honestly. I know it sounds weird but I just don't feel like I have that much in common with them. Yes, I left my job. Yes, I am breastfeeding. Yes, it reduces me to tears if my kids have to cry in their cribs. Yes, I put my kids in cloth diapers. But no, you absolutely may not call me a crunchy mama. I find myself leaning more and more on a handful of online friends (both friends in real life who live far away, and friends I only know through the internet... yes, I have friends I know only through the internet and seeing as it's now 2010, that's not creepy, I promise) as my support system. These are moms who don't look down their nose at me for doing "crazy" things like vaccinating my kids or shopping at wal-mart or (gasp!) getting an epidural to help manage pain during my (gasp!) hospital births -- even if those friends made different decisions themselves. I really need some people in Raleigh I can relate to as well. My friends here in town seem much more career-oriented than I am... which is great, except for that whole career thing getting in the way of the hours I want to hang out. :) That, or some of you online buddies need to high-tail your relocation to the Triangle, mmmkay? You know who you are.

2.) I am having milk supply issues. For the first tme in almost three years, I am making too little, instead of too much. I'm assuming this has something to do with Anneliese now drinking a bottle a day, and the pump (which I use to replace any milk she drinks, so my body gets the memo about that meal) just isn't stimulating milk production in the same way her mouth would. Fortunately I have a freezer full of milk, so it's not like I'm going to run out or anything (see exhibit A, to the right), but I don't like it when she latches on and off and can't get all she wants and gets frustrated. Which happens pretty much every day, by evening time. I went to Whole Foods yesterday and found some tea with fenugreek which should help (according to some of the scariest sites I have ever seen on the internet... for all the praises I can sing about my own great online friends, there is also a very large population of crazymommies out there and they're mostly lurking in forums on breastfeeding and how to do diaper laundry, turning simple questions into political platforms... consider yourself warned). Anyway I had to get some tea and mach schnell out of the store before they thought I was one of Them. :)

3.) Nathan has his Valentine's Day party at school last week when we were out of town, so today they sent us home with a bag of cards and goodies from his classmates. In that bag was a blow-pop. A blow-pop. In case you forgot, those have gum at the center. Can two-year-olds chew gum now? Is that a massively inappropriate treat for a toddler, or do I live under some kind of naive-parent rock? And these didn't come from some ill-informed-but-well-meaning loved one, they came from the parents of another two-year-old. I'm not sure what to make of this.

4.) Our neighbors sold one of their cars last week and Nathan has been very concerned about where it went. He asks about it every day. Drew's car? Drew's car went to work. Drew's car is at the ressah-dront (restaurant, in case you're curious). Drew's car is all gone. Mommy, where'd it go? It's kind of sweet, except I know he's not nearly that concerned when *I* am away.

5.) I did some good shopping today. Spent lots of time with men's dress shirts, then got a bunch of kids' clothes (12 things for $40 - yes, I am a rock star, thank you for asking) and a new purse for myself. When I got home I traded a gift card for a Rumparooz diaper, and also traded for another Goodmama diaper. Even though it sounds trite and banal, shopping for bum fluff actually always makes me happy. These diapers are still new and exciting for me, as dorky as that sounds. :)

And there you have it: a week's thoughts and worries from the exciting-in-the-most-mundane-way-possible world of a home executive. From another perspective, if these are the biggest things weighing on my mind right now, then my life is pretty ok.

Pretty. Darned. Ok.

Happy Half-Birthday, Nathan!

Nathan is 2 1/2 today! And yes, as I've said before, half-birthdays are a real thing. Don't argue with me on this one. I will win.

When I was growing up, half-birthdays meant getting to eat off the I'm The Best plate, and maybe a Little Debbie Cake or some other small treat. I liked having those little traditions, simple though they were. So last year we decided that our family needed a half-birthday tradition too. (Well, I decided. Mark rolled his eyes.)

So instead of other people bringing us presents, like on our actual birthday, in our family the half-birthday kid will give presents. This afternoon Nathan and I will go over to Interact (a non-profit in Raleigh that our church helps support) and bring some things that our family needs less than they do -- diapers and toys and formula for the women who are sheltered there with children.

And we might have a cupcake later too. :)

When I think back to where he was a year ago today-- barely beginning to walk, just tentatively back on the weight-gain track, right on the verge between baby and toddler... well it seems like a lifetime ago. Now, even when I try really really hard, it's difficult for me to see the baby in him. I just see a kid. A big boy. How did that happen already?

But Nathan is doing really well these days. He loves being a big brother. He and Anneliese will sometimes sit and babble and grin at each other for an hour at a time. He loves to go into her room in the morning and climb up on the crib rail and peer at her with a hi, cutie! So sweet. He loves to read to her and hug her and kiss her. I remember when I was so worried about seeing Nathan as a big brother (would I love them both enough? would he handle the shared attention ok? would he like her or resent her? etc) and those thoughts seem like the distant past now. Now I can't see him as anything but a big brother. It's kind of cool.

He is still very (very very very) into trucks and cars and planes and anything that goes. His favorite toys right now are his matchbox cars and his big ambulance. He calls it his ambu-lamps. And every time we drive anywhere, I have a constant narration from the backseat about all the vehicles we're passing. More than once we have gotten into almost-arguments about what he sees. (He doesn't agree with me that a hummer is a kind of suv; he just wants me to call it a hummer. He also can tell the difference in a crane, a utility truck, and a cherry-picker -- and it tends to annoy him that I sometimes get them wrong.)

Another of his favorite activities these days is coloring. He will sit in his high chair and color for close to an hour before he gets tired of it. It's so funny how he puts his face down so close to his work!

His favorite foods are bagels, bread, bananas, pineapples, applesauce, gummy fruit snacks, mandarin oranges, spaghetti, and fig newtons. We call it the all-carbs-all-the-time diet. But that isn't really true because he also loves yogurt (egg-oat, he calls it) and peanut butter and baked beans and milk. Still not very much into meat, but it's getting better as he tries more and more things. And he does love sloppy joes and tater tots -- it's one of his favorite dinners, just like his Uncle Brad. (Fun fact: if you tell a toddler that his okra is a tater tot, he'll eat it even though it's a vegetable. True story.) Also, he eats pretty much anything better if he can dip it into sauce, especially barbecue sauce. Many meals seem to just be a long chorus of dip it! Dip it please Daddy!

Nathan is still again a very good sleeper, back to his infant pattern of about 12 hours a night, from 7 to 7. That's been interrupted this week since he has a little cold and some kind of infection in his eye, which means he's been a little uncomfortable at night and in need of some extra hugs.

I have to be honest and say that I am loving life with Nathan right now. Yes, he's a complete chatterbox, but I find that sort of endearing. Yes, he throws the occasional tantrum, but on most days I can deal with that too. And it remains true that his arms around my shoulders are one of the best feelings in the world. And that love you, mommy is one of the sweetest sounds in the world. I love you too, Nathan. Happy half-birthday.

Sweet Potatoes... Going, Going, Gone!

I've mentioned before how Nathan eats the same eight foods over and over again, right? And how variety is not his thing? And how the closest thing he eats to a vegetable is a sweet potato?

But at least he really loves his sweet potatoes.

When we were in DC, we ate at a barbecue place (yes, we went from North Carolina to DC and ate barbecue there, and yes, we know how wrong that is) and ordered Nathan a sweet potato for dinner. Because I am currently not into the whole kids menu thing.

As you can see, he was pleased with the portion size, and he polished off almost all of it. Amazing. Mark and I had way more leftovers than he did!

Right now he's saying "Ooooh it's a big one!"

He digs in without any hesitation, totally unitimidated by size.

All done! (Oh yeah, and he can now officially drink from a straw.)

I like seeing my child so enjoying the simple pleasure of a simple food that just tastes really good to him. It's the small things in life, right?

Two-Year Update

Once again, I am using the days between Nathan's gestational birthday and his actual birthday to do some updating and reflecting over the last year. This second year of his life has been decidedly less eventful than his first. I need to remember that for the next time around: it gets easier!

Here's what Nathan is up to these days:

1.) Talking. Constantly. We stopped counting words he knows shortly after he turned one, because he learns them so fast now. Several a day. He's talking in complete sentences, and using pronouns and possesives. He knows his colors, can count (he knows all the numbers up to ten but rarely gets them in order, since he usually thinks nine comes after four), and [2.) Loving things that go] he can tell you the difference in pretty much any kind of truck or bus or machinery on the road. Seriously, we have moved way beyond just truck or tractor -- now when we drive along, he's in the backseat saying things like go by city bus and ride the church bus and it's a big garbage truck and yellow dump truck and oooooh it's a huge cement truck and I see the front-loader and two bulldozers (Nathan actually knows the differences between
bulldozers and a backhoes and front-loaders better than I do... I would just call them all tractors, but whatevs) and bicycle or the perennial favorite go by bike! Anyway, the boy can talk. And I must say that being able to have real conversations with him is a very fun stage for me.

3.) Learning to dress himself. He can't really do it yet, but he is starting to take an interest in putting on his own clothes. He knows the basic concepts behind putting on shirts and socks and shoes, and loves to try to do it himself. He also likes to pick out his own clothes. Which basically just means asking for his Thomas the Train shirt every day (he's usually flexible on wearing something else if that one is dirty, so he's not too stubborn about the clothes-choosing thing yet).

4.) Reading books. This is probably where he learns so many new words. We read lots of books, and we get a fresh batch from the library every few weeks. And 5.) Playing with his other simple toys. He still prefers books, balls, trucks and blocks more than pretty much anything else. A good story (with new words to learn!), or a big tower, or driving a truck up the arm of the couch while making vroom noises, those things keep him entertained the longest. Fancy and hi-tech, this child is not. Once again I have to note that simple toys are best, kids don't need all the stuff that people assume they will love.

6.) Running. Yes, after a massive delay in walking (about 18 months before he would do it regularly), we had another little delay on the running thing. But he can do it now, and run he does. A lot. Though we were told that his gross-motor delay should be gone by the time he turned two, and he would be "caught up" by now, he's still a little behind -- which is fine by us. He can go up steps (with assistance, not on his own), but going down is still a little rocky. He can climb up on the couch, but still not into his high chair. But he's improving all the time, which is what matters. I think he is just still more interested in working on other skills than these. He's really good at some things, and not so good at others... which no longer causes me any amount of stress.

7.) Sleeping -- kind of. Although Nathan has acclimated really well to the big-boy bed, he still is waking up a lot at night, as he has for the past few months. I am not kidding when I say that his newborn stage was easier than this (which is why I try not to complain about this too much). But he still stays in his bed from about 8pm to 7am every day (with visits from mommy in the middle of the night, several nights a week), and takes a 2-3 hour nap (depending on how he slept the night before), which means he's getting what he needs. He sleeps with a ton of animals (we tell him he can take two, but when we leave the room he goes and gets more), and he loves his "grandpa" pj's (yes, the prisoner ones).

8.) Eating. I would still call him a somewhat picky eater, since veggies continue to be a challenge (one that I will do better at trying to meet, I promise), but some of Nathan's favorite foods are applesauce, sweet potatoes, spaghetti ("noodles"), pineapple, bagels, shrimp (yes, really), scrambled eggs, yogurt, any kind of bread/pastry/muffin, whatever kind of chicken Daddy happens to be eating, baked beans, sloppy joes, and milk. And he pretty much insists on feeding everything to himself, which he is surprisingly good at.

9.) Being only 7% naughty. Nathan is actually a pretty obedient kid. He's really easygoing, and he buys into rules and structure. But occasionally he can be stubborn (we still hear a fair amount of no want to) or throw a tantrum like any toddler. So then he ends up in time-out. So far the discipline thing has been a non-issue though, I really must admit.

10.) Loving the water. Bathtime and pool time are some of his favorite things. He asks to go swimming almost every day. (He pronounces it go swimmint? which is pretty darned cute.) He likes to dump water in and out of buckets and cups (again with the simple toy thing!), and blow bubbles into the water. He's got the Bumgarner water thing, that's for sure. Since ten is a nice even number, and this post is long enough already, I'm stopping there. :)

Bagel, Please! (Food Update)

Wow, a lot of Nathan posts recently, huh? I realized I hadn't been posting about his everyday changes in a while, and it made me kind of sad to have missed a lot of those memories (which is supposed to be the reason I am blogging to begin with), so I am trying to do better about that. I won't apologize since I know that's why 98% of the twelve of you are reading anyway. :)

Nathan has been a somewhat picky eater recently. Apparently we didn't do a good job transitioning him from baby food to table food, because he liked the baby food vegetables a lot more than he likes vegetables now! (And he didn't like the baby food veggies much to begin with.) Now that he is the one getting food from his tray into his mouth (if we try to help him, he gets really frustrated and yells, Do it, I do it! so we pretty much let him have at it even though it makes a big mess), he is a lot pickier about the things he eats.

But one thing he will consistently ask for is a bagel. We just lop some cream cheese on there, and that's his lunch pretty much every day. I figure he's getting fiber and some amount of protein, so it could be worse.

He often asks for bagels for breakfast (but we try to do a protein breakfast like yogurt or eggs to curb his carb-cravings for the rest of the day, which usually works) and dinner, too.
I think he would eat bagels and applesauce (yes, still!) at every meal if we'd let him.

He still loves his baked beans, mandarin oranges, milk (down to 1% now, in preparation for joining the rest of the family on skim by the time he turns 2), sweet potatoes, yogurt, strawberries, waffles, french toast, scrambled eggs, spaghetti, shrimp, fig newtons, oatmeal, goldfish, and cheerios.


Note -- not a lot of veggies. Or meat. I hate to offer him foods that I know he won't eat; it doesn't break my heart to let him go hungry if he's in a picky mood but it does break up my sleep. He's waking up enough at night as it is, I cringe to give him another problem sleeping through the night. (By the way, what's the deal? He slept better as a baby! Even though the noodle keeps him from falling, it doesn't keep him asleep.) If anyone has hints to get him to eat veggies, bring 'em on.


In the meantime, bagels it is. I guess I could buy some veggie cream cheese.

Ambidextrous?

Nathan has become quite proficient at eating with a spoon. It makes a huge mess, and it takes forever, but it's oh-so-cute.

We got him some curved spoons like the ones our friend Kiran had, which are supposed to make it easier for Nathan to get the food into his mouth once it's on the spoon. But as you can see by the way the handles are curved.... these spoons are only for righties. So these cute trendy spoons are not so useful in our house, because here's the thing...

When Nathan eats with a spoon, he uses his left hand. When he eats finger food, he uses his right.

How can we tell whether he'll be a righty or a lefty?

Other people have said to go by which hand/foot he uses to throw/kick (both right, usually). I have read that thumb-suckers tend to favor their dominant hand for soothing (again, usually right). We're trying very hard not to push him in either direction. (It might or might not be because Mark views ambidexterity as a huge asset in the world of professional sports.) But I'm still curious to see how he will turn out.