Just Toddling Around

Dear Nathan,
The day we feared has slowly crept upon us. You are now walking.

As of today, you can go a good 8-10 feet before you topple over. Most of the time you just get too excited to continue. The times when you have been able to walk the farthest was when you were calm and maybe even didn't realize that you were walking. You're actually pretty good at turning corners and even pivoting around. You can also go a bit further while pushing your popcorn popper toy.

We had a pretty busy week at church. On Friday, we went to the pumpkin patch for a play date. We took some pretty good pictures. 

Then, on Sunday, we helped out at the church's annual Trunk or Treat. Mommy painted faces, daddy made balloon animals and you were mostly stuck in the nursery. But as far as I know, you had fun playing with Ms. T. Next year, when you are older, you'll be able to actually participate in the activities.

 Mommy has made lots of costumes in the past for Halloween, but this year, I had the most fun because I got to make a costume just for you.

You are still generally very happy and social. It's really cute how you will randomly wave at people when we are out and about. I think you like to see that you can affect other peoples' behavior. You wave at them, they wave back and give you a smile. 

Diaper changes have become a bit more difficult, you just don't seem to want to lay still. But, just recently, you've discovered the wonders of shadows. 

It's also very neat to see that you've learned about the functions for different things. For example, you know a hair brush is used on the head and things that are shaped like shoes go on the feet. You've only seen Dad wear his blades once and today, when you discovered them, you tried to put them on. 

Tomorrow is Halloween. I hope you will be able to stay up a little so that you can help us pass out candy to the neighbor kids. My favorite part of Halloween is seeing all the cute costumes. I'm sure I'll take more pictures then. 

On the eating front, it seems like you are becoming less picky. I was surprised that you really liked okra. I put some in a beef stew and you just devoured them like crazy. You even ate some zucchini this week! Yay! I am so happy to find that you are not consistently rejecting veggies any more. Your current all-time favorite food right now is smoked ham. Bananas are so-so and grapes are a pretty good bet. You like pomegranate, and oranges too. As far as genres of food, you seem to like Indian and Italian flavors the best, which is good, because those are my favorites too. 

Most days you take 2 naps. 30 - 45 minutes in the morning and then another 1.25 hrs in the afternoon. But on the days that you wake up later (closer to 8), you tend to take one longer, 2 hour nap in the early afternoon. 

Lately, you've been saying "dada" and "that," or "this" a lot. A few times, I think I hear you say "mmm. mom." 

I think you really like dogs. Every time we see a dog on our walk, you get super excited. Even pictures of dogs or dogs on TV will make you squeal. It's super cute. 

Well, that's about it for now. Maybe we'll go to the zoo soon. It's been rainy and muggy recently so when the weather clears up, I'm sure we will be spending lots of time outside. 

Love, 

Mommy