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"