Week 72.12 Nathan's Gonna Be a Great Big Brother

Dear Nathan,
Think of the song that starts like this: "I can see clearly now the rain is gone." Don't forget the tune, but replace it with the following verses:

I can feel happy for the sickness is gone.

All of the bad feelings have disappeared. 

Gone are the days feeling in the dumps.

It's gonna be a bright (bright), bright, sun shiny day!

It really started yesterday. I was able to go to a pump class (with severely reduced weights) for the first time in like 2 months. Then today, I was almost back to my normal clumsy self in Zumba. So, praise God for answered prayers! 

This week seems to be a huge week for you. You've made a few cognitive milestones, at least they've gone from random occurrences to intentional and reproducible. For example, you must sign "Thank You" 100 times a day. Pretty much after anyone hands you something or picks something up for you (which never happens to toddlers), you show the sign and say something that kind of sounds likes "thanks." You even look at the person who helped you. I hope this is not a fad, but a practice that you will take up for the rest of your life. Everyone loves a courteous and polite boy.

You are still the picky eater that you have been for the past few days. Although you have recently showed an interest in using chopsticks. You will grab a pair and try to open and close them like we do. But using them like skewers makes you happy too! 

We went to the Austin Zoo this weekend. It was the first above 60 day in a long time. I was surprised at how well you knew your animals and animal names. You "baa" when you saw a sheep. When you saw a tiger, you roared.

 When you saw birds, you made a high pitched squawking noise.

When you saw anything that looked like a cat (bobcat or leopard), you would actually say the chinese word for cat which is "mao." When you saw anything that looked like a dog (wolf hybrid), you would yelp a high pitched bark, or pant like a dog.

These turtles were very fascinating to you. Look at them eat their veggies! It makes me happy when someone eats their veggies ahem.

Overall, we were quite impressed with the Austin Zoo. It is pretty much an animal sanctuary, but they had a great variety of animals to look at. I'd say it's great for little ones like Nathan who don't have to travel too far to be exposed to exotic animals that we don't quite get to see in our back yard.

We had a nice picnic at the zoo and had to scare away the chickens who were eyeing our sandwiches a little bit too closely.

And finally, here is the potty picture. It's interesting how you almost always insist that we remove your pants and socks whenever you sit on the toilet. Not sure why, but it just needs to be done. Currently, we routinely take you to the toilet after meals.

 Sometimes, you go immediately, sometimes we wait. So this is what helps keep your interest while we are waiting on the toilet. You like to thread the pieces of toilet paper tube onto the toilet paper holder and then use your hand to projectile launch them off of the holder. You giggle and sign to do it again. Each time I hand you a piece of the toilet paper roll, you sign "thanks" and continue to thread the pieces on.

 Sometime during your game, you pause, make the face, I hear plops and water squirting against the side of the seat. I know you are done. I ask you to give me a hug to get you to lean forward as I clean up down there. Sometimes we do the potty party dance, sometimes we just flush and continue our business.

Sometimes towards the end of the meal, you will show us the sign to go potty and we take you. Immediately, you get your business done. Sometimes we still play the game because I love hearing you giggle.

You current best friend gave you one of her dolls. You've been a pretty good big brother. You do a great job feeding the baby water.

And solid food.

 And you are even starting to play pranks!

But the sweetest thing happened the other day when I was pretending to nurse the doll. You brought over my tablet to me. At first I thought you were going to open it and play with it, but you just plopped it down next to me and walked away. You remembered how I used to use the tablet when I nursed you! There have also been times where you would come by and pat the baby as I nursed her. It's too sweet. 

Another interesting thing that happened this week occurred while we were watching the men's figure skating on the Olympics. You got so excited that you started to mimic the skaters by turning in circles in the living room. It looked fun, so I joined you. We had an awfully fun time! 

On the coloring front, you are getting pretty good at putting the cap back on to the markers that you just used and putting it back before you get another one. You even show me the "one" finger to let me know that you pick up one marker. You seem to really like drawing rainbows (arcs) and on your hands. We have fun and it keeps you entertained for about 20-30 minutes. 

Well, now that the weather is finally warming up, and I'm feeling better, we are going to try to spend some time outside before the oak pollen comes. Until next week! 

Love,

Mommy