Week 80.20

Dear Nathan,
This past week has been pretty exciting. You had grandparents visit, a birthday party to attend, and helped me put together a bunch of Ikea furniture for your new playroom.

I am so blessed to have such an sweet and helpful boy. After our weekly grocery run, you even try to help by dragging the heavy bags of groceries from the car to the door. You also make this cute grunting noise. That's how I know that you are working very hard.

 You are quite the observant boy. It seems like you only need to see how something works once before you try to use it yourself. You found the oven mitt the other day and decided to put it on and give everyone in the house a high five.

Another cute thing that you've started to do are body motions. You will do things like clap your hands, pat your head, shake or nod your head, rub your belly, and lift up one leg after we ask you to do it. Oh, and if we put it to music like "If you're happy and you know it," you get even more excited. The cool thing is that you understand both Chinese and English directions. I wonder if you realize that you are learning 2 languages.

You really like washing your hands, but I think you really like drinking from the faucet. I guess you saw how Daddy uses the sink to get water to brush his teeth and decided that the faucet worked like a water fountain (which you must drink from every time you pass one).

On Thursday, I went to the consignment store to pick up some shorts for you. Your current ones still fit you, but they are getting a bit too short for the standards of boy fashion. Anyways, I passed by a girl playing with a kitchen set and decided to check the price. $12. In my mind, I was so excited that I was ready to snatch that kitchen set from the little girl to go pay for it, but my conscience stepped in and I made a circle around the store, picked up some shorts and by the time I got back to the kitchen set, the premises were vacated. I quickly took the tag off of the set and rushed to the cashier to claim my prize.

When Nathan woke up from his nap, I had the thing cleaned up and it was sitting in our kitchen. He played with it for at least 45 minutes before Steve came home.

 It was neat to see him mimic the things that I do in the kitchen. He put his milk cup in the microwave, pressed a few buttons, and made a beeping noise. He would wash his hands in the sink, he even got some water from the dispenser for me to drink! I love to see kids use their imagination, just to see what they come up with and it seems like Nathan is starting to develop it. I am totally excited to see what interesting things he will do with it.

When the grandparents visited this weekend, we were only able to do a few things outside because the weather got a bit rainy. We did, however get to see your cousin play softball. You got pretty excited every time the ball was hit or thrown. You even started to mimic the girls throwing and hitting the ball.

Then we went to a glass blowing demonstration inside a glass store. It was dangerous having two toddlers in a glass store with fixtures priced $500 + But when the demonstration was in progress, you were pretty much so interested in seeing what the guy was doing, occasionally pointing out things and motions that you recognized (like turning things in circles).

Unfortunately, yesterday, your stools became a bit runny. Other than a few bouts of fussiness after waking up from your nap, you were your normal happy self. Things seem to be getting a bit better, as you are on your normal poop schedule, but the texture is still a bit off. Not sure what caused it, but it seems like you were able to tell me that your tummy was hurting.

In the afternoon, you signed that you wanted some crackers. I gave you what was left in a goldfish bag and you went to town, finishing it all.

Another sad thing that has happened is that you have kicked me off of the rocking chair during our story time. You pretty much shove me off and point to tell me to sit on the ottoman as I read you the stories. I miss cuddling with you on the chair. Hopefully you will let me back on soon.

Yesterday, I really started to feel pregnant. I feel like my stomach is now beyond muffin top stage and is a full blown bump. It kind of seems to me that I am currently the size that I was a month or two before I went into labor. If I'm already that big, I'm scared to see how big I'm going to get with this one, and we are almost half way through!

Oak allergies have suddenly hit me like a brick yesterday so I've been a congested and sniffy mess. I did, however, want to take advantage of Steve being home during the day, so we took a half way point bump picture. Nathan was very excited to kiss the bump.

He's so little... in a few years, this boy will be taller than I am. Crazy to even think this. Anyways, we've been working hard on this playroom for the past 2 weeks and I can't wait to get it all finished. I will post a special entry to document the work that we've been doing.

Oh, next week we find out if you will have a little brother or sister. Stay tuned to find out!

Until then,

Mommy

P.S. You are getting pretty good at nodding "yes" and saying "mommy"

1.5 years old (little one is almost 19 weeks)

Nathan,
The time has flown by too quickly. Just the other day we were going to see the doctor for you 18 month check up. I can't believe you are one and a half years old! Stats: You are 33.5 inches tall (this brings you to 88 percentile in height, and in your first year you were measuring coming in at 2-3 percentile) and 21.2 pounds ( 1-2 percentile). I just can't see how you can be so above average in height and way below average in weight. You would think the extra weight from the height would help bump you up. And it's not like you look like a stick or anything. You pretty much look like a normal toddler to me.

Yesterday we went to the Thinkery and got to play outside at the currents fountain. You really enjoyed picking up the plastic bugs and throwing them back in. At one point, you picked up a metal scoop and was working on scooping the bugs out of the water, but the water resistance was too much so you needed some help.

Playing with water makes us hungry! 

 You even tried the painting station. You enjoyed brushing the paint on the glass and tried to use the squeegee.

Since you have had a runny nose, I didn't want to chance it and get other kids sick by going out so we stayed at home a lot this past week. It turns out that it's probably allergies, but better to be safe. Here you are practicing your scooping skills. Pecans and spoons and tongs.

We've been doing a lot of home improvement projects this week and you've gotten a chance to see us use various tools: measuring tape, power drill, paint rollers, hammers, and even a miter saw. You've pretty much imitated us using each of these tools and if you got your hands on one, you would even give it a try yourself. Just today I watched you pick up a hammer and you were about to bang the wall where we had installed a chair rail. We are still working on your playroom and need a few shelves to complete the space. We will definitely post some pictures soon.

I am pretty convinced that you recently had a pretty big growth spurt. Your 12 month shirts are getting so short that we can almost see your belly button when you stand up straight. You are still eating a lot more than you used to, but some meals you don't eat as much. You are still requesting dip for almost all of your food. You even wanted to try ketchup on your blueberry pancakes. You ended up not liking that combination and started to draw in your ketchup and syrup. See the plane that you drew? What an artist! (I just helped by adding the tail of the plane)

 Another cute picture of noodle stars on your face.

Your naps are starting to get shorter these past few days. It seems like you sleep for about an hour and then you just kind of lay in your crib quietly for another 30 minutes or so. I find that if I get you immediately after you wake up, you are super cranky. But if I give you some time alone and then come and get you, you are happy and alert.

Funny story about ice cream. Apparently, you really like ice cream. But since you don't know where we keep it, or how to say ice cream, you came up with a way to show us that you want some: by showing us a picture of an ice cream in one of your books. One night, you brought a book over to me, and when we got to that page with a bear holding an ice cream cone, you pointed at the ice cream and looked at me. I said "ice-cream' in Chinese, and then you nodded happily, and proceeded to climb down the chair, pointing outside the door.

When you want something, and we ignore you, or are busy, you will pull your face really close to ours and make sure we see what you are trying to sign or show us. You have even recently started to pull our legs or fingers if you want us to stop doing something and follow you.

You are getting to be a pretty good climber. Just today, while getting ready to go out, I left you by the car as I went in to take an allergy pill. When I came back out, you were climbing into the car and onto your carseat. When I made a big deal about it, you got the proudest look on your face. It was too cute. On the other hand, there have been times when you have not been the most helpful climber, and get yourself into dangerous situations.

In the mean time, you are still the happy, adventurous and loving boy that I am proud to be a mom of. I leave you with this adorable picture of you and your best friend, hugging each other goodbye.

Baby 2 update: no new symptoms, just stuffiness from allergies, but last night I got this feeling like I just wasn't getting enough air, to the point that I was suffocating. It got better when I stepped outside for some fresh air, but it was a scary feeling. We have not been as diligent in taking belly pictures as we did with Nathan, it kind of looks just the same. Maybe one day when I'm not wearing a T-shirt and work-out shorts, I'll take a bump pic. In two weeks we find out if Nathan will have a little brother or sister. 

Week 78.18

Dear Nathan, 

I can't seem to find a good title for this week so I am just going to go with the week #. Today we went to the grocery store and I finally remembered to bring in my phone with me to take a picture of you helping out. The pictures are a bit fuzzy, but it will have to do. 

 Sometimes when you lift heavy things, you make a little grunting noise. It's really cute.

This week we've been to story time and chinese class. So, things are back to a regular schedule now that the workers are gone. But this weekend was crazy painting weekend for us. Daddy climbed a scaffold and painted the whole living room ceiling and walls. I helped with the lower part of the walls, but I think Daddy did most of the tough work. Here you are, admiring the lovely work that he did.

 These past few weeks, you have gotten pretty good at puzzles. You are able to find the spot where the piece goes and 50% of the time twist it just right to fit it in...and the label said 3+. At almost a year and a half, this puzzle is perfect for you.

There's been a lot of loud noises going on this past few days and often you would be scared of them, especially if you didn't know what was making those noises. Daddy taught you how to cover your ears. You now do that whenever you hear anything loud.

Not much on the eating front, except for that you are still eating peas (but only in ketchup fried rice). You've gotten pretty good at using 2 spoons to eat: one for pushing the food into the other one.

 You also want to peel and section your clementines - but you end up smushing the sections, and then you don't like to eat the smushed pieces.

You were insistent on feeding baby some orange.

Last night, your nose started to run. This time I'm not quite sure if it is allergies (because I'm being affected by oak pollen) or if you caught another cold. It really seems like you don't go 1-2 weeks without catching something. And without fail, when you get sick, you always wake up once or twice at night, needing some cuddles, but then you go back to sleep.

So, since you may have a cold, I decided to make you some chicken and stars soup. You are able to use the big soup spoon to drink your soup pretty well. You really liked it. Your reaction after tasting it was similar to your reaction to ice cream.

 But the thing is that stars are kind of hard to eat from a big soup spoon. Plus they are small enough to get into your nostrils. We had to squeeze a few out throughout lunch.

My hips have been in pain these past few days. They pretty much get worse after I squat for awhile. I started feeling them after pulling weeds and cleaning out the garden bed earlier last week and it just hasn't gone away completely. Some days it is excruciating to even walk. I'm thinking about going to go see a chiropractor.

So, it's been difficult to carry you up and down the stairs, especially now that you are so heavy. For some odd reason, you almost always just refuse to come down the stairs on your own anymore. Yesterday, I was so desperate, I bribed you with some ice cream. I showed you the bucket and a minute later, you were sliding down the stairs on your belly. The second time I tried, you still refused to come down. I came up and helped you a bit by encouraging you and cheering you on, and eventually, you came down on your own, but I wonder why you are afraid of coming down. Does it hurt?

I'm feeling the little honey bun move around mostly in the evening. The sensation isn't strong enough where you can feel it from the outside, but it's there. Three more weeks before we find out if it's a girl or a boy! By then we'll be finished with the living room, breakfast area, and playroom projects and we will be ready to move on to the new nursery. Can't wait!

That's it for now. I hope you feel better soon. We have an exciting weekend ahead of us. Birthday parties, baby parties, and church dinner.

Love,
Mommy

Voracious appetite of Week 77.17

Dear Nathan,

You seem to want to grow up just too fast! You are getting so good at imitating us and sometimes you are even a bit too insistent on trying to do things just like us. But luckily, you have moments like these that still let me know that you are a little toddler.

No major milestones reached this week, but you seem to be expanding your range of sounds. When we are at the grocery store, you will show me something, wanting me to tell you what it is. You are still using your signs pretty well as you have learned a few more this week. Sometimes you get confused and just randomly sign “thank you” when you really want something. There’s also been times when you start to whine when you really want something and we have to remind you to use your words. It’s really cool because it seems like you are understanding our reminder and after the talk, you use signing to communicate what you want.

Good news! You ate one more green vegetable this week: peas. So now, you will accept liquid spinach, okra, and peas. We are making progress! Now that you are finally over a long string of colds, your appetite has really been voracious. You’ve been an endless pit, just wanting to eat everything (except most vegetables). You even attempted to eat your Clementine oranges with chopsticks and somewhat succeeded.

Last night, you ate so much and were so happy that you just collapsed on the floor with a look of sheer happiness on your face. It was too cute to not take a picture. Here you are showing us your big belly.

Oh, and before I sign off this week, here’s a picture for the grandparents in Illinois.

Does this remind you of anyone?

I had my 4 month check up this week and things are looking good. The baby’s heartbeat is strong and this past week, I felt the first few flutters. I think you are starting to understand why my belly is expanding. One day I talked about a little baby and you pointed to my stomach and looked at me with a smile.

In a month, we get to find out if you will be getting a baby sister or brother. I have a feeling that it’s a girl. We’ll see if my gut feeling is correct.

Oh, side note, we’ve been getting some work done on the house for the past 3 days and you’ve still continued to nap like a champ for about 1.5 hours each day. The workers are banging, drilling, sawing loudly, and you still sleep. Amazing.

Love you so much,

Mommy 

Week 76.16

Dear Nathan,

It is so amazing how quickly you pick up on the things that we do. For the past few days, you've been getting over a cold, so at night a humidifier is in your room to help you breathe better. The other night, I noticed that it was off, so I used my foot to turn it on while I was singing a lullaby. The next morning, you were trying to turn the knob with your foot! 

You are getting to be a really good mimicker with silly actions and hand motions to songs. You just want to be able to do everything that we do. 

One night, before bedtime, Daddy and I decided to play a few games of ping pong. You watched us and even helped me a few times. Nowadays you are pretty much obsessed with playing ping pong. You understand the gist of it, but still lack the coordination to hit the ball. With luck, sometimes the ball bounces and hits your paddle as you are waving it back and forth. 

 I pretty much got tired of chasing balls all the time, so now we play baseball with a ping pong ball and cardboard bat. You are permanent pitcher because you can toss the ball so well. We have just as much fun.

You know all those times I rush over to stop you from taking stuff out of the dishwasher? Well, I didn't know that you just wanted to help put the dishes away. You've been helping me out by handing me dishes from the dishwasher, but for the first time this week, you actually started putting the silverware in its proper drawer. I got the camera just in time for the last utensil.

 This is what the drawer looked like afterwards, but hey, you'll get sorting down soon.

Here is a picture of our art time. You are good at taking one marker out, using it,

 putting the lid back on, and placing it back into the container before getting a new one.

This weekend, Daddy decided to change out a few burnt light bulbs around the house. He got the ladder out and sure enough, you followed him up. After he was all finished, we let you climb up the ladder, just to see how far you could go. 

 Once you got up, you were a bit scared to come back down. Hey, I totally understand. I have no problems climbing up things, it's getting down that's the hard part for me too.

Other things you are doing include hanging off of horizontal bars like parallel bars at the playground, kitchen drawers, and your crib. You just hold on and lift your legs. It's really cute. I'll have to snap a picture next time I see you do it. Your repertoire of sounds seems to have increased as well. No longer are you making 1-2 syllable babbles, you seem to be babbling sentences. Of course I don't quite understand what you are saying, but you seem to talk a lot when you are playing by yourself. You also will out of nowhere, start giggling. This happens mostly when you are in the car, or when we are walking outside.

Even though you've had a cold, I felt that your appetite has gotten voracious. As a pregnant lady with a toddler, I've recently rediscovered the awesomeness of all you can eat buffets. I seem to be more hungry this time around and nowadays, an entree from a restaurant doesn't quite satisfy me, so for once in my life, I can actually get my money's worth from eating at a buffet. Plus, kids eat free! And since your tastes are ever-changing, variety is always good. This past week we went to an Indian buffet and a pizza hut. You pretty much ate as much food as you normally do in a day in one sitting. I was shocked.

Since you've been eating so much lately, we decided to weigh you in on the wii. We've been keeping track of your weight ever since you were born and it's actually pretty neat to see the line graph of your growth on the TV. Anyways, afterwards, Daddy suggested that you try playing a simple Wii game, the flying chicken game. You got on the board and started flapping one wing and had so much fun! You actually did pretty good. You were able to make the connection between you flapping your arms to making the chicken fly.

On the pregnancy front, things are going good. I'm finally starting to gain some weight, after losing weight for the past few weeks, it's good to see the scales go in the other direction. I am now about 2 pounds heavier than my pre-pregnancy weight. It could be that I'm eating more, or since I've had the energy to work out more, I'm gaining back my muscle? Who knows. 

Next week we finally start construction on the new play area for you and your upcoming sibling. It may be a kind of hectic 2-3 weeks, but in the end, we'll have new play space / reading nook. 

You are adjusting to the time change pretty well. I think we did good by pushing your bedtime earlier slowly starting a week before daylight savings, pushing your bedtime forward by 5 minutes. On the actual day, you were about 30 minutes off...new bedtime was 8:30. Now we are working on moving it back to 8:00. Tonight we put you down at 8:20 and you were asleep within 10 minutes.  Hopefully in a few days, it'll be back to 8:00. 

One thing I've noticed in the past month or so is that when you wake up, you don't cry for us. You just lay quietly in your crib until we come and get you. I've only realized this because I've been getting up earlier and when I check the monitor, you're already awake. In the past, you have been my alarm clock, waking me up each morning with a good "come get me" cry. 

Yesterday, I met up with an old friend in San Marcos and we both met her son, who is 2 years older than you are. It was a very good visit, but the reason I'm writing about it is I want to document how you may have gotten over your "sand is icky" phase. We spent about 1.5 hours at a playground, most of the time spent in a sandbox. At first, when you got sand on your hands, you would just look at it and hold your hand up helplessly, whining quietly, wanting me to clean it up. After countless reminders of "just brush it off" you started becoming more occupied with playing than getting dirty. Well, today, we went to the park by our house. You fell in the mulch and usually you stand up, look at your hands and kind of whine as you clap your hands together, but today, you just stood up, and without thinking about it brushed the mulch off and just continued to do what you wanted to do. 

Seems like you've had a pretty significant mental growth spurt, and perhaps soon, a physical one too. Your 18 month check up is coming up soon. Wow. I can't believe you'll be a year and a half in less than 2 weeks. 

Until next week with love,  

Mommy

Week 75.15

Dear Nathan,
Just wanted to make sure you know what the 75.15 means. The whole number tells how many weeks you have been outside the womb. The decimal tells us how many weeks your little sibling has existed in the womb.

Unfortunately, you have come down with another cold, although it seems like these colds don't even bother you much. You still play and act silly. I don't know what else I can be doing to prevent you from being sick all the time. If you can think of anything, please, let me know.

Things you are obsessed with this week include: hanging off of bars, hand washing (or playing with water at the sink), clementine oranges, drawing, and gloves. One day I watched you open a drawer, grab the top of the drawer and lift your feet off of the ground. Really quickly, you got a "no, no. Danger, danger" from me. A few seconds later, you found the oven door handle and decided to hang off of that. We'll have to get you on some monkey bars soon. Daddy's got you trained pretty well to turn on the water to wash your hands. You never really liked any sort of citrus fruit, but this week, you spit out the first bite, realized it was pretty good and then signed for more. Almost every day, we spend a little time drawing at your table. You like to scribble over my drawings as I point them out and you also like to draw lines back and forth. But today, you were able to draw a circular shape and loopy loops. You seemed pretty proud of yourself after you did it. And then, there are gloves. It's gotten cold again these past few days and so when we go out on our afternoon walks, I bundle you up really good. You are always good to remind me to put your mittens on. Oh, and your head is finally big enough to wear the Yoda hat that grandma knit for you.

Just a side note, you have finally outgrown your size one cloth diaper covers that you've been using since birth. We ordered you a few new number 2's this week and you seem to be more comfortable in them.

On the food front, you are still not swallowing any green veggies. In fact, the other day, I fed you a bite of chicken pot pie (With chicken, celery, and carrot). You managed to chew the bite and just spit out the celery. Amazing skill! What a palate!

I was able to hide an assortment of veggies (including green zucchini, peas, mushrooms, bell peppers) into a shepherd's pie that I made the other night. You didn't like the mashed potato portion, but ate the meat/veggie mixture at the bottom. Score!

And you still like meat off of the bone.

Last night, I had some chunks of chicken on your plate. You saw that we had chicken on the bone and was pretty insistent on eating that instead. I gave you a leg and your face just lit up. Too cute!

I also discovered that you like liver. You really liked the few pieces of chicken liver that I gave you last night. I thought that it tasted a bit bitter, but you didn't mind it at all. Wow. Daddy didn't even try it.

We found a certain brand of soy sauce irritates the skin on your face. Too bad I just bought a 5 gallon container of that stuff. But on the plus side, you no longer have a food sensitivity to strawberries.

This past weekend, I found a few great deals at goodwill. One of them is this Thomas the train toy that you can ride on. When the weather was warm enough, we were able to ride down the driveway a few times before I got tired of pushing you back up. You are pretty good at using your feet to push yourself backwards, but have not quite figured out how to go forward. I will take a picture of you next week when you hone your skills a bit more.

There is a church camping trip coming up next month. We are thinking about taking you tent camping. The only thing I'm concerned about is the sleeping situation. You tend to fall asleep better when we follow the routine to a T. Out in nature, it will be difficult to do, but I've read that toddlers who go on camping trips are so worn out by the end of the day that they fall asleep and stay asleep pretty well.

Daylight savings time is coming up this weekend. Wow, that crept up fast. Our plan is to put you to bed 5 minutes earlier every night or 2 until we push your bedtime up by an hour. By this weekend, we should've hit the half way point. You have been waking up an hour earlier these past few days anyways, so that makes it a bit easier to shift everything up.

I guess that's it for now.

Love,
Mommy

On the pregnancy front, things are getting better. I'm feeling more energy, starting to show more, and am still having very vivid dreams. I have been craving sweet things less, and when I do have sweets, I tend to feel a bit nauseous afterwards. I'm starting to realize that in a few short months, we will have 2 little ones depending on us, needing my attention all the time. I'm afraid that I won't be able to handle it. I'm starting to pray for guidance, and comfort now in preparation for the challenges that will come.

We are due for a date night. But we just haven't figured out what to do. We haven't gone out on a date in a long time. We will probably take one soon (after SXSW music festival in town is over).

Week 74.14 Nathan is 17 months old!

Dear Nathan,
You have been talking up a storm lately with new word developments like, a joking "no, no, no" and my personal favorite, "mama." After 17 months of waiting, I finally heard it this week.

Things you have been interested this week include drawing, putting together train tracks and playing with trains, playing with your little people school bus. Every time we go upstairs, you show me the sign for drawing. We normally can get about 10-15 minutes of art time before you go down for you nap. When you find random pieces of paper, you show me the sign for draw. I hope this is the result of me teaching you that we only draw on paper. So far [knock on wood] you do a pretty good job of that. Except for when you draw on your hands. But I'm ok with that.

This week you figured out how to connect the pieces of track together and push the train along the track.

 This skill seemed to have co-developed with your shape sorting puzzle skills. You can now pick up a shape and if you are paying attention, you will bring it to the right hole to drop it into the container. It's really neat to see how it just suddenly clicked.

I also picked up some play-doh at the store the other day. At first, you were a bit unsure about the texture, you even tasted a little bit of it (but immediately spat it out). You had a bit of fun pressing the cookie cutters into the dough and using various tools to cut the dough. I think you'll have more fun with this activity in a few more weeks.

Tonight, I figured out your sign for ketchup. you use a pointed index finger and dab it down on the tray like you are dipping something. You signed this after I placed a few tater tots on your plate. After I squeezed a bit of ketchup on your tray, you started to dip everything in it. Meatballs, rice, and tater tots.

Potty training has become a bit more frustrating this week as your schedule has become less normal. Some days we sit on the toilet for what seems like 10-15 minutes with no results. I've decided that I will just have you use the toilet after you show me the sign. You've been pretty good with it the few times you've had to go during non-scheduled potty sessions. I'm sure there will be a lot of poop rinsing in the days ahead of me, but I don't know if I can sit and entertain you by the potty for such a long time anymore. 

You are still not eating your veggies, although you tried asparagus, carrot, and radish this week. 

As far as news with me, I'm feeling better, less tired, but some days I still need an afternoon nap. On Monday I was so exhausted after teaching that I decided to take a nap. I laid down in bed, only to find that my back was a bit sore. So, I did a happy baby yoga pose, (legs froggy style in the air) to stretch out my back and fell asleep in the position...for 2 hours. I woke up, and carefully straightened my legs as they had gotten slightly sore from being in that position for that long. Crazy, huh? 

It seems like this pregnancy, I've gotten more than my fair share of stomach bugs. I hope it won't affect the baby too much. 

I've also had super vivid dreams with details that seem to really fit with what's going on in my life right now. They are so realistic and relevant that they could very well happen. It's pretty crazy. 

Well, everyone in the house is sick. It's getting late, so I better get my sleep. Until next week! 

Love, 

Mama