18 month stats!

Nate had his 18 month appointment this morning. The pediatrician assured me that Nate is still the handsomest and smartest baby she has ever seen. It's not like I didn't already know that, but it's nice to hear anyway. In addition, he was weighed and measured, poked and prodded and injected with vaccinations.

He is now 26 pounds, 4.5 oz, 33.5 inches tall and his noggin is 49 centimeters. He has stayed in the same growth categories for about a year now (about 50% for weight and 75-90% for height). He is growing great and the doctor was pleased with all of his progress. :)

18 month letter

Dear Nate,

Today you turned 18 months old. You are a year and a half old! Wow. How can it already be half a year since you turned one?! Time goes by way too quickly.

We have been all over the state this month. We went to the zoo in Asheboro, we visited friends in New Bern, and we went to the mountains last weekend. It has been a very hectic month. Luckily, you seem to go with the flow and you enjoy our crazy schedule.

You got a terrible, horrible, angry, mean diaper rash a couple of weeks ago. It plain sucked. It's something we haven't dealt with in the past and I was completely unprepared for how awful it would be. Diaper changes were so painful that you would cry so hard you were shaking. It completely broke my heart to see you that upset and in that much pain and to not be able to help you. Even worse, I felt like I was causing some of the pain because wiping your red bottom and applying diaper cream seemed to be the most painful part of the process. Luckily, the pediatrician told me to try Lotrimin under your diaper cream and it worked! In the meantime, we were sure to give you lots of naked baby time, to allow your bottom to air out. It was super-de-duper cute to see you walking around naked. Hee hee...

We celebrated your 2nd Halloween this weekend. We went to 2 parties and had a blast at each one. You were Yoda. How did you come to be Yoda this year? Well, I wanted you to be a pirate. I had this idea that if you were a pirate, we could draw a moustache on you. Hilarious, right? But your dad wanted you to be Yoda. He told me that this was the last opportunity we would have to pick your costume without your input and that you would want to be a pirate one year anyway. Apparently all boys want to be pirates for Halloween. I conceded and I'm glad I did. I honestly think that seeing you dressed up as Yoda was the proudest moment of fatherhood that your dad has experienced to date, possibly including your birth. It was that important to him.

You are becoming more opinionated by the day. I constantly make the mistake of asking you a question like, "Do you want a diaper change?" only to have you shake your head "no" at me. So far, we've been lucky that you have not started saying "no," but you started practicing with it this evening. I'm afraid we haven't got much longer before the answer to everything is going to be "no" and I'm going to have to be that crafty mom who gives a toddler two choices, neither of which is what you actually want.

November 1 starts off the next phase of the holiday season. We have Thanksgiving this month and then Christmas next month. I will admit that this morning, we went to Target and we were disappointed that they did not have their Christmas trees up yet. We were so excited to show you the trees and to see your reaction to them! You are going to LOVE Christmas this year, and we cannot wait to share it with you. The next couple of months are going to be so much fun, Nate! I'm so, so glad you're here!

Love,

Mama

Best Weekend Ever

I think I can safely say that this weekend was the best weekend ever. Back in August, a friend of mine offered to let us use her cabin in the mountains. It was so hard to find a weekend that the cabin was available and we were also free, but we finally decided that the weekend of October 24 would work. I can't tell you how many times I almost said "Never mind! It's too much of a hassle to try to pick a damn weekend!" but I'm so glad I didn't.

We drove up Friday evening and had a pretty easy trip. We had dinner and then Nate slept most of the way. He did wake up as we got into the mountains, and I felt so bad that his ears were popping and there was nothing we could do to help him. He was confused and crying and there was no one in the back seat to comfort him, other than Fiona. She didn't even offer one tiny little doggy kiss though. I wish she knew how much help a doggy kiss would be in a moment like that.

The cabin was wonderful! It's located in West Jefferson, NC, which is a cute little town full of Christmas tree farms.

Saturday morning, we got up early and went into West Jefferson for breakfast. Afterwards, we took a drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway and headed towards Grandfather Mountain.




Despite being NC born and bred, I had never been to Grandfather Mountain before! I was really excited to finally go. It is definitely worth all the hype and I can see why kids love it so much. There are trails to hike.


The mile high swinging bridge is one mile above sea level. Pretty neat, and not nearly as scary as I expected.



The scenery is beautiful.





There are bears to feed!




And bears you can't feed.


There are otters.

And a bald eagle.



I hear that there are also cougars and maybe other animals, but someone (I won't say who) was melting down at that point, so we needed to go. The drive back to the cabin was gorgeous though!



After we got back to the cabin, we took a walk up the road. The road was covered in leaves. It was a beautiful fall walk.


Then we built a fire in the fire place. It was warm and cozy. Nate sat in his dad's lap and watched the fire in amazement.





We also roasted marshmallows. They were delicious! We were going to introduce Nate to s'mores, but after 2 roasted marshmallows, we decided to save the s'mores until after he went to bed. I didn't want to see what sort of tummy ache he'd have if we gave him even more sugar.

After Nate went to bed, Erik and I picnicked on the rug and drank some wine by the fire. We roasted marshmallows and ate s'mores. We talked and snuggled by the fire. It was heaven. Just heaven. Normally, my idea of the perfect vacation involves lying on the beach. But laying in front of a fire with a great glass of wine and an amazing husband can't be beat.

Sunday morning we made breakfast at home, and then went out to Mount Jefferson State Park. The plan was to hike up there, but the temperatures proved too cold for us. We were not prepared for the wind chill! It was COLD! Instead, we enjoyed the view and then explored the area (by car) some more.



We were sad when we had to pack up and leave. Why didn't we plan to stay for a 3 day weekend? Or a 4 day weekend? Why not a 7 day weekend? That would have been nice. At least Nate helped us clean before left.


Even though it was just 2 days, we had one of the best little vacations we've ever had. It was so quiet and relaxing. Sometimes the best things come in small packages.

The end. :)

Osmosis

Most nights, I get the honor of putting Nate to bed. He goes to sleep easily for Erik too, but this is a task that I usually handle and I very much enjoy it most of the time. We sit in the glider and read, and some nights Nate is too tired to even read, so instead we just sit quietly together and he presses his head on my chest to snuggle until he falls asleep.

Often, he tries to curl back into the fetal position on my chest, just like he did as a newborn. He balls himself up as tight as he can, knees curled underneath him and his arms hanging straight down, with his head on my shoulder. We sit like that, his head under my chin, and I take in all the wonderful baby scents as I notice that we are breathing together. Inhale...exhale...inhale. If I really focus, I can feel his heart beating on my chest, directly above my own heart. And I feel the love pouring out of me and into him, and at the same time, love is pouring out of him and into me. For just a few minutes in the evening, if I'm lucky, I get to experience this osmosis of love.

A big change

Last Friday was Nate's last day at his daycare center. We left the center with a heavy heart, as we loved the teachers and the other kids in his class. However, they were increasing their weekly rate significantly... more than a 15% increase in tuition, in a year where Erik didn't get any salary increase (no state employees did) and I received a standard increase, which is obviously much less than 15%. It seemed like a really bad time, economically, for the daycare to make such a significant increase to their tuition, especially when there are no visible improvements being made. It would make sense if they were installing webcams, getting new playground equipment, or making some other improvement. Instead, they provided no explanation for the increase, other than their "excellent salary and benefits package" which is probably laughable.


Anyway. When we were notified of the increase, I looked around and found a stay at home mom, C, who was looking to babysit full-time to allow her to continue to stay home with her son, who is almost a year old. We emailed some and then met to let the kids play and to get to know each other better. Immediately, we felt at ease with her. She was on the floor playing with the kids the whole time. She has a very gentle manner and her patience seems endless (and wouldn't it have to be to stay home all the time and to watch someone else's child too?). I checked her references, and they all loved her and had nothing but great things to say about her. So we met up a few more times between then and now, and yesterday Nate went for his first full day with C.


So far, it has gone really well! C has an older yellow lab, and Nate loves her! He points and says "dog" over and over again. C gets Nate to help her with the dog whenever she takes the dog out or lets her back in. He loves helping out whenever he can. C took Nate and her son on a long walk around their subdivision yesterday and she said when she took Nate out of the stroller, he climbed back in, so they walked even more. I'm sure he enjoyed seeing the lake and all the green areas in their neighborhood. Yesterday, he fell asleep on their living room rug and slept there for over 2 hours! Silly boy! He napped on the floor again today. I guess after being used to napping on a mat at daycare, he's happier on the floor than in a crib (mental note: this weekend, put a mat on the living room floor for Nate to lay on).

One other awesome thing about C? She's willing to use cloth diapers! Wahoo! We got some more diapers this week and we're starting with full-time cloth diapers tomorrow. I'm really excited that Nate gets to go fluffy bottom full-time now. We'll still send disposables as a back-up, but I'm hoping that we can move to mostly cloth from here on out! Yay!

17 month letter

Dear Nate,

Yesterday you turned 17 months old. To celebrate, you and I spent the entire day together. Just you and me until your dad finally came home at 4:30. You were sent home from daycare on Wednesday because they said you had a stomach bug. Unfortunately/fortunately, you were fine all afternoon on Wednesday, but I still had to keep you home on Thursday because it’s their policy. So we had a mommy and son day, including a fun trip to the park. Despite all the fun we had, I was completely exhausted! Goodness gracious child, you are a handful! That’s okay, I guess, you keep me on my toes.

We visited your grandparents and the rest of the West Virginia crew this month. You had a great time up there. You got to dance and play with your grandparents, and you loved playing with the bubbles in their back yard. Your cousins kept you laughing all weekend long. I really hope that you will have a close relationship with your cousins and aunts and uncles, like your dad and I had with ours. I really hope that your dad and I will teach you to value family the way we do. Friends are wonderful, but family is family! They love you no matter what and they are always there for you. We are so lucky to have such a great family Nate, and everyone is so happy that you are a part of the family. You are a very loved guy!
One thing I love about you is that you’ve got my back. Your dad and I have been trying really hard to watch what we say around you. We (meaning I) have already had one incident of you repeating an inappropriate word. Luckily you didn’t enunciate it clearly and you haven’t repeated it since then, but still…. we just can’t have that. Like my good friend Stephanie said, ugly words just sound uglier coming out of children’s mouths. Hearing “shut up” isn’t nice from anyone, but when a child says it, it sounds awful. So we’re not just cleaning up the curse words, but trying to use more appropriate language all around. Anyway, the other night I was complaining about something and out slipped some sort of word that is better saved for adult company… Your dad called me out on it, and turned to you and said, “Nate, did you hear that?” And you, my favorite son, shook your head and said “Uh-uh!” I told you I loved you and put an extra $5 in your piggy bank. Thanks for getting my back, Nate. Mommy appreciates it. Speaking of that interaction, we have been really enjoying communicating with you recently. It astounds me how much you know and understand! I can ask you if you want something and you can tell me yes or no. You follow instructions pretty well these days too. And you LOVE to help out with things. Last weekend we were at your grandparents’ house for dinner and I was helping your Grandma clean up the kitchen. It was clear that you wanted to help, so I gave you a bottle of salad dressing to put in the refrigerator. I showed you where to put it and you were so happy to put it away for us. So then you put away all of the salad dressings. You were looking to see if anything was left on the counter, and the only thing remaining to be put away was a pot holder. To my surprise, you took it right over to the drawer where the pot holders are stored, opened the drawer and tried to put the pot holder in there. I’m not sure that I would’ve known where the pot holders were stored, but somehow you knew where it went! You pay attention to everything. You continue to amaze me every single day!
Sometimes I cannot believe how amazing it is to be your mom. I wonder if all parents feel this way. And, if so, does it go on like this forever? When you’re 10, will I still be completely overwhelmed with love for you and utterly amazed at all the new things you are learning and doing? When you’re 20, will I still stare at you, trying to capture who you are right now in this exact moment and store it away so that I never forget it? Somehow, to me, that feels like one of those great human mysteries that I just have to wait and see and experience for myself, and it makes me really excited and curious about the future. I’m so grateful that I get to have the experience of watching you grow up, Nate. I love you!

Love,

Mama

Mo? Mo?

It seems like Nate learns a new word every day. He is constantly amazing us with what he understands and says. But one of his favorite words is still one of his first words: More. He learned the sign before he was a year old and he started saying "Mo" pretty early on. He still says it all the time. It can mean anything from "I'm hungry" to "I want more of that." If he's eating something he likes, he is constantly saying "Mo? Mo?" and doing the sign at the same time. We have been working on the sign for "please," so now when he really wants something he says "Mo?" then signs "please." It's ridiculously cute and pretty much ensures that he's going to get whatever he's asking for.