11 Months

Dear Nathan,
I can't believe that you are less than a month away from being one year old. I'm at a loss at whether or not to continue this blog after your first birthday. My original plan was to document your first year, but seeing that you are just now starting to do cute and cool things, I kind of want to go on. Maybe instead of weekly posts, I will make monthly posts. I'll think about it and will make a decision soon.

Well, this week has been a pretty normal week. We are back to the daily routine of wake up, gym, nap, lunch, play, nap, play, dinner, bath, bedtime. On Tuesday, you went with me to teach Chinese. You were so cute and funny that you made the other moms laugh. You wanted to play DJ and start the music for me. You went around eating and drooling everywhere. You even dragged your tupperware full of snacks to me and held it to me to show me that you wanted snacks. You did this at least twice! Wow. You are starting to become such a big boy.

At home, you will also bring a book to me and hold it up like you want me to read it. If I'm on the floor, you will even crawl over and sit on my lap. I'm glad that you like to read. Hop on Pop, Goodnight moon and Thomas the Train are your favorites right now.

You are also exploring the house even more. You can now climb up the stairs, all the way to the top, by yourself. You've even figured out to turn on light switches and flush the toilet.

Since you've been nicer to Teddy by not pulling on his hair, he is starting to be less afraid of you. Here you guys are, playing tug o' duck.

Here you are giving Teddy a treat. In fact, you are getting pretty good at following directions like press this button, wait for it, and give the treat to Teddy/Mommy. 

I tried putting shoes on you this week, to get you to practice wearing shoes since you will probably be walking soon and will need something to protect your delicate feet. Crawling was a bit difficult at first, but you eventually got the hang of it. 

We had lots of fun playing at home this week. I discovered that you like playing with water bottles, so here we are, shaking and dancing. 

The popped collar is very cute on you. 

You are also starting to point at things to show me what you want. It's kind of cool to see you try to initiate interaction. You wave "hi" at people and give people things. You also like to feed mommy and daddy your food. 

One of my favorite things to do with you is wrestle in bed. You like to chase after me and then lunge your head forward towards my stomach. I think you try to blow on my belly like I do to you. It's ticklish and makes me giggle. It seems like you enjoy making me laugh and you continue to do it. You also like it when I push you playfully onto a pile of soft pillows. Isn't it fun to fall and not get hurt?

I have noticed this week that you've been chewing on your fingers quite a bit and you've been pulling at your ears a lot too. I wonder if your first year molars are coming in. It's not affecting your sleep yet, [knock on wood] but I sure do hope that you can continue to sleep 10+ hours each night like you have been doing for the past week YAY! 

You morning naps have been 1.5 hours and your afternoon naps have lasted for about 1 hour. Let's see if we can flip that around, to make your afternoon nap the longer one. That would make things a bit easier for me. Like I said, we'll try. 

Wow. Time has gone by so quickly. You have been such a blessing in my life. I love you so much, so much that I can't even explain with words. I just feel...tingly and warm when I think about you, which is like, all the time. Next week, you'll be one week closer to being 1 year old. Until then, keep being the sweet, and affectionate boy that you are.

Mommy

Week 47. Might As Well Be in Heaven

Dear Nathan,
This week has been a pretty exciting week. Grandma and Grandpa came to visit and you got to attend both of your cousins' birthday parties. You even came with mommy to help teach a practice baby Chinese class. Oh, and don't let me forget that you also went and explored your first cave. You were asleep for the first part of the tour, but once you woke up, you were pretty fascinated by the sparkly calcite on the walls and the other people around you.

We went to the pool with the family and I discovered that you really like to be thrown up in the air. Even when I didn't catch you perfectly and you fell in the water for a second, you came up with no tears, wanting more.

 You made Grandpa really happy when he found out that Thomas and Friends is one of your favorite books.

You are also getting very squirmy in the bathtub. I thought that you were so handsome, so I took a picture of you in the bathtub.

You are continuing to sleep through the night (for the most part). It seems like every other day, you are waking up once around midnight. We pat you for 10 minutes or so and then you fall asleep.

You are crawling pretty fast now. You are exploring all the cabinets that you can reach. The one with the baking pans and colander is your favorite.

You are becoming more interested in solid foods now. You want to do it yourself. You seem to like to eat what we are eating. (As long as it doesn't have rough skin). Here, you are observing Daddy as he is enjoying some ice cream. You will get to try some soon.

This morning, I noticed you making a new sound. "Nana." It's not quite mama, or mommy, but I will wait patiently until you one day say it with meaning.

I'm also starting to see that instead of always taking things out of something, you are putting things away, and then you take it back out. You're slowly getting the concept of cleaning up. This week, we'll work on block stacking. Oh, the fun.
Until next week.
Mommy

Grandma and Nathan

Dear Nathan,

Thank you for the wonderful week that we spent together.  I had so much fun playing with you and taking care of you.  I know you missed Mommy and Daddy when they were gone, but you were so good for me.  You are such a happy boy.  You love to learn new things. You are so precious!

The hardest part of taking care of you was getting you to eat your meat and vegetables.  So, I put some Cheerios on your tray.  You would reach for a Cheerio, open your mouth and then I would sneak in a spoonful of your delicious lunch.  It really was delicious wasn't it?

The easiest part was that it didn't take much to make you happy.  You are interested in any toy that you come across and spend quite a bit of time checking it out.  We made the rounds from room to room several times a day to check out all of the toys.  Your favorite toy is your Thomas book with the train sounds.  We looked at that book every time you needed your diaper changed and for quite a long time after the change.  You would get such a big smile on your face with every choo-choo sound or song.  You smiled so big that I could see all eight of your teeth at once.

You reached some milestones this week.  You waved bye-bye to Mommy and me as Daddy took you for your bath.  You also learned the sign for "more" when you want more to eat.  For the first time you were able to stack one block on top of the other.

You made Mommy very happy when you slept the entire night all week.  You kept to your sleep and eating schedule during the day.  This really seems to work well for you.

I am really going to miss you when I go home.  You made my week so very special.

Love,
Grandma

Week 45 and Still Alive

Dear Nathan,
I bet the world is so much more interesting now that you can move to explore the things that you have always wondered about all of your life.

You have discovered how to create beautiful tunes out of mommy's baking pans, and will even help unload the dishwasher. You've discovered how to turn on the TV and love pressing the buttons on the Wiimote so that you can see the blue blinking lights. 

I know you like to play with Teddy, but he's afraid of you since you pull his hair. Sometimes you'll try to sneak up on him if he's taking a nap. But you always give yourself away with your excitement. Giggling on approach is not very ninja like. Teddy is super fast, and sorry to say that your little crawl is just not fast enough. But, you figured out a way more efficient and fast mode of transportation:

Last week, we switched you into a larger car seat. For the most part you like it, but unlike the infant carseat, there's no sunshade, so I'm going to have to figure out something to do about that. Your head also hangs when you fall asleep. Daddy's going to have to figure something to do about that. 

We went swimming this weekend and you are definitely interested in watching other kids. We had a chance though, to capture some of your pool tricks. Here are a few:

You are able to hold your breath under water. Now, let's see if you can remember how to do this next summer. 

Yesterday, we had a play date at this place called Loco Motion. They have a play area just for little guys like you. We all played for a bit. You had lots of fun. 

No Girls Allowed!

Now, while it's pretty important to stay hydrated in this hot Texas weather, you kind of go a bit overboard when it comes to water. Take it easy, will ya? 

 While you do a pretty good job of drinking from a sippy cup, your last sip always ends up squirting out of your mouth, down your neck, and onto your clothes. Here, you can see that your shirt is pretty much drenched.

On a quick side note, you got 2 new teeth in. You must be becoming a pro at this teething business because you haven't shown the fussy side of your teething self.  Not that I'm complaining, or anything. Keep this up.

Oh, this week you were able to sleep from 8 at night to 6:45, straight through. Once. I kind of liked that. Can you do it again? and again? and again? I feel like the night that you slept through the night, you ate a lot at dinner time. I'm starting to think that maybe you not sleeping through the night is because you have not been able to get enough milk during the day. Luckily you are not just dependent on my milk anymore, so I don't feel as bad, but I'm glad that I continued to get up at night to make sure you got the milk that you needed.

Well, you're up from your 15 minute (supposed to be 1 hour) nap. [sigh].