No's and Naps

I'm starting to think Nathaniel has two definitions for the word NO (or na in his voice). One is the real definition. He displays this more and more. I'll give him a choice between two things to eat and he will shake his head NO to one of them. Or I'll ask if he wants to go upstairs and he will shake his head NO. The second definition is a little less clear, but I think he shakes his head when he doesn't really have any other reaction or when I am telling him NO. If I say NO he runs off saying 'na na na'. It is the only time he really says it, which is interesting. It is almost like he is mocking me. I'll say something like 'Are you drinking water?' and he will shake his head NO even though he is (and I know he knows it is his water). Or 'Is that Mickey Mouse on tv' and he will shake his head NO (and I know he knows Mickey Mouse).... not sure why these get a NO answer. Maybe NO also means YES in these circumstances.

 

Which brings me to this... he does not know YES. His version of yes is *no reaction* usually. If I ask something and he just looks at me it is his version of YES. We have now been trying to exaggerate our YES's. Hopefully this will help him catch on. He hasn't been too frustrated with the communication thing so that is good. Although every once in awhile he will throw out a YES in a right context. I haven't caught on to the pattern yet, but he sort of gets it in certain scenarios and can say the word.

 

Having a toddler is kind of like solving puzzles constantly. But a puzzle that cries or throws a tantrum if you don't solve it in a timely manner ;) Actually, he doesn't cry or throw tantrums too often (unless it is having him come inside or not allowing him to go outside). On occasion though he is a bit of a drama king for no reason. It cracks me up sometimes how absurd the situation is, but so REAL for him. You can suggest something as simple as a different book and WOWZA you regret that suggestion immediately. It is as if you don't understand that 'Billy Goats Gruff' for the 10th time in a row is completely reasonable and The Hungry Caterpillar is the worst book ever (even though tomorrow it will be the best book). Or don't suggest he stay off of the ottoman and crawl on the couch instead... bad idea. And if you are even thinking of putting the grated cheese away without offering him any... watch out. What? you were going to close the refrigerator door before allowing him to peek inside... good luck!!

 

I'll chalk up his drama king ways to his need to explore to learn. He couldn't possibly be turning into a miniature brat could he?!? In his words 'NA NA NA' ;)

 

Now onto his napping. A few weeks ago I declared him a one nap dude. He graduated to the next level. One nap a day. Well, he thinks he is a one nap a day kind of guy, but not so fast. What that really means is that he takes one nap a day in his crib. He is consistently sneaking in a morning nap, just not in his crib. He takes that nap in the car on the way to anywhere. I'll look in the back of the car and almost everyday, there he is .... sleeping soundly. He is so superdee duperdee cute I can't possibly wake him so I let him sleep. I know I'm a sucker mom with nothing pressing to get to, plus it almost guarantees me a pleasant afternoon because he is all rested and happy. There are days I wake him up and he truly does have one nap that day.

 

I can't hardly blame him since he gets this habit from my DNA. I have always had a tendency to sleep in the car from a very young age so it's hereditary. My dad always teased that I'd barely get out of the driveway and I'd be asleep. We traveled from Phoenix to Kingman a lot when I was a kid to visit family and it felt like the distance was 5 miles. I never remember the ride there. This was when the road was a lot worse too and it took longer. Sleeping in the car is awesome when you are a kid. Now I have to stay awake because I don't trust Kevin's driving HA! j/k I can still fall asleep, but I try not to for safety reasons.

 

Just remember if you see a momish looking person sitting around in a random part of a parking lot looking at her iphone she probably has a sleeping child in the back. A child who will use the word NO less because he is rested!

Veggies

Thus far vegetables have not been Nathaniel's favorite. Actually I take that back, he eats plenty of vegetables as long as they are pureed (not including my homemade puree (little booger) or from a restaurant. For some reason any whole vegetables that I make at home get the big *toss to the floor* or the *no no no headshake*. I know it is a little weird to still be giving him pureed anything, but I decided if it gets him a serving or two of veggies/fruit/protein why not? He still gets plenty of the finger foods to go along with it.

 

Like a Sherlock Holmes mystery I tried to figure out what the restaurant vegetables had that mine didn't. There was the obvious BUTTER/oil. Maybe it was just the excitement of eating out. Maybe the spices. My main conclusion was that mine were a little squishier than a restaurants. I tend to steam a whole batch and freeze it. The defrost process doesn't always leave the freshest tasting veggies. So I tried a different cooking method. I just do a small batch in the microwave and add a tiny bit of organic real butter and PRESTO. Green beans, broccoli, cauliflower and peas have all been eaten. I wouldn't say it is his favorite thing ever, but he eats them. Woo hoo. He has also suddenly started to love grape tomatoes and cucumbers. Those are so easy to fix, like fruit, so I am excited

 

In general Nathaniel is going through a little bit of an eating change. He is starting to turn down any of the puree's from a jar and his daily oatmeal. So while I solve one problem (veggies) other problems arise... murphy's law right. The oatmeal is more worrisome than the puree. He still doesn't eat meat. Not that I have tried a ton, but every time he is offered any he spits it back out. I think it is the texture. The puree's I'd choose always have some protein so he is missing out on a bit of that, but I can replace that in other areas. The oatmeal had some good vitamins, fiber and grains, which I don't have a great replacement for yet. Maybe the oatmeal will just be a phase. In the mean time I'm going to put a little undetectable wheat germ here or there.

 

On a side note he is getting better at using a spoon and fork. He ate 2/3 of a yogurt the other day with a spoon. Pretty good for him. Normally he uses the spoon for about 3 bites and gets bored. The fork is a little bit funny. He likes to poke at the food and then take it off the fork and eat it. I know some people push for a toddler to use a fork and spoon, but for now I figure as long as he gets what the point of it is I'm happy. I don't even always remember to give him a fork or spoon so that probably doesn't help haha. He will use them in due time and for the rest of his life, it is the only time you can eat like a cave man and no one cares :)

 

On another side note this poor kid is getting several teeth. Every time I get a glimpse in his mouth I swear I see another molar coming in. Right now I think he has four teeth that are half way erupted. 3 molars and the fourth one on the bottom front. He is drooling a bit and chewing on stuff. I assume because it feels good. I can't blame him.

What a Good Dog

One of the craziest questions I'd get while pregnant was 'Are you keeping your dogs?'... I'll never understand that question. Why wouldn't I keep my dogs? Why does having a kid mean you can't have animals. Animals are actually great for kids (unless they are vicious) When I adopted my dogs, I adopted them thinking about 10-15 years down the road. If we had kids or moved or a lot of other things I was committed to them. I was committed to still making them a big part of the family no matter what. Yes, it takes extra planning to make sure they get walked, etc., but it is worth it. I enjoy their company and really can't imagine not having them around.

 

And here is a little example of why 'I kept my dogs even though we have a kid' Mocha is such a good kid dog!

UUUuuuAAaaa

*UUUuuuAAaaa* that is that sound you make when you are surprised. You know the one that you breathe in and gasp a little? Nathaniel does this sound and it is funny. Sometimes he makes the sound because the ball isn't where it normally goes or Mocha just took the toy that he actually gave him. Or maybe he is copying me. I make that sound when he looks like he is going to fall :)

 

The funniest time he made this noise was at the zoo. We had just gotten off the carousel. We grabbed the stroller and were heading off. Nathaniel crawled onto a bench so i was watching him and not the bag of popcorn in my bag. The popcorn tipped over and spilled onto the ground. Nathaniel pointed and made his surprise face. I explained that it was ok. He then made the sound and pointed again. Cute, cute!... The carousel guy looked over and laughed. He said 'that is alright miss I got it'. Nathaniel again gasped and pointed to the spilled popcorn. By this time I was like 'I get it, I spilled popcorn, geez'. It was pretty cute though how he couldn't get over it.

Picture Time

18 months, 1 groupon, 8 emails to photographer, 6 clothing purchase returns, 2 appointment changes, 3 location drive-bys ....and we finally had a professional family picture done. I'm seriously shocked we ever got it together. I'm not a huge fan of having my picture taken so that aided in the procrastination. Last wed. we had our photography session.

 

We tried to get pictures done in the Fall, but the photographer was booked until Christmas so we waited until spring. Then I had to cancel our first appt. because of rain. Then the 10 day forecast kept switching from rain/no rain for our new scheduled day. I was starting to think no matter when I scheduled the appt. it was going to rain. It ended up not raining, but was unseasonably warm (80+humidity). That temperature isn't horrible, but when you have the family in pants and sweaters it can get a little warm (mostly me). It went down to a cool perfect 65 by the next day :(

 

Waiting until Spring to take the pictures seemed like a good idea at the time. What I hadn't anticipated by waiting until spring was how active an 18 month old is... especially around dirt and rocks. While he is the cutest thing in the picture he is also the most mobile. I'll be surprised if there are 10 pictures where one part of his body isn't blurry from moving! Or 10 pictures that he doesn't have dirty hands from holding rocks and touching gross stuff. I'm told 'boys will be boys' At one point we were throwing a disgusting water bottle lid that he found 10 ft in front of him to fetch just so he'd look towards the camera... yep he was basically a kid-dog at that point. The dogs would have been proud of his retrieving ability.

 

It will still be a few weeks until we get our pictures, but I'll be sure to share (well if there are any good ones haha).

 

Here are a couple of fun pictures from the past week. Enjoy.

 

The first pic is his cute scrunchy face... and I like his cool guy look in the 3rd :o)

Cherry Blossoms (and ASU fan club) pic

Nap Time!!

 

Shy and Skinny

 

Nathaniel has always been a pretty easy going guy. He is usually happy, easily amused and friendly. Well, over the last few weeks he has become quite shy. I am hoping this is just a stage he is going through. I had started to notice in stores that when people would say 'hi' to him, or the cashier would talk to him, he would turn his head all shy. I hadn't realized how bad it was until we started the 'mommy and me' music class again.

 

The last music class we had been to was towards the end of fall. Our instructor had a baby and took some time off. The first class back was about 2 weeks ago and was interesting. I wondered what would happen because I saw this shyness creeping in. The minute we walked into class he grasped on to me like it was armageddon. He had his head buried in my shoulder. He didn't cry or anything, but he wasn't about to let go. He sort of looked once and made eye contact with the teacher and back in to my shoulder he went. Luckily, half way through class he was walking around, but no real interest in class. I was just happy he was confident enough to be walking around not holding on to me. The next class it took a little less time for him to let go of me, but still not his old self.   The people in the class that know him are so surprised by his shyness because he was so happy go lucky when they last saw him.  He does a little better at the library class - not sure why?

 

Another time that I saw the severity of his shyness was at a teacher supply store. He was walking around the store just goofing around. He went about 15 feet from me, but in complete eye sight. One of the workers leaned over and talked to him. He turned into a statue. A super petrified statue. He put his face next to what he was looking at and wouldn't move. The worker said, 'I think he is going...' by that time I was already there and she was right... he was about to cry. He was scared stiff... literally. I scooped him up. He didn't cry, but I got an earful. I'm not sure what he was saying, but he was definitely telling me something.

 

It is so weird to see him transform. He will be enjoying himself walking around somewhere (zoo, store, wherever) but once a person comes near he grabs on to your legs and wants picked up. I figure I'll just keep on keeping on and hope he feels comfortable again. My sister made a lot of sense when she said, 'He is more aware now'. That is true. Now he gets that there are people he doesn't recognize and he is probably trying to sort that out in his brain.

 

We obviously aren't around a lot of people we know since we don't hardly know anyone, which doesn't help. But I was happy to see him warm up pretty quickly at a happy hour we went to the other day with some people that work with Kevin. Nathaniel was super shy for about 10 minutes, but started warming up to the table. By the end he was flirting a little with his big smile and playing like nothing was bothering him. Yay!

 

Ok, now on to skinny.... I mentioned awhile back about how when the seasons change I have zero clothes for the kid. The weather has been warming up so I needed some shorts. I figured it was a sign when we were playing outside and he was super sweaty :) I went out and got him a few pairs to start out the season. I put them on and he walked off all normal and about 2 seconds later the shorts were around his ankles. They just fell right off. They were too big. I wish I had that problem!!! Anyway, I tried the next pair... around his ankles. One pair lasted about 1/2 hour. He was outside with Kevin and I guess the humidity stretched them out because all of a sudden he was in the front yard with his pants down. Funny. Apparently, size 24 months is not going to work unless they tie or have size adjusters built in. His shirts are all size 2 or 24 months and fit fine. Last year's shorts are too tight and too short (he looked like a creepy coach haha) So off I go to find a few more.

It's a First

The weather was in the low 70s this weekend. Perfect spring weather. The cherry blossoms are blooming and are so gorgeous. They look like perfect pink puffs. We couldn't wait to get outside and take it all in. For me there is a small window between perfect weather/no bugs and too hot/bugs. I have already seen a few bees buzz by.... boo! I wish Buzz from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse could change my thinking about bees, but NO. There is even a cute cartoon called The Hive on Disney Jr. channel. Those bees could not be cuter, but still not changing my mind.

 

We decided to go to the city park. This particular park has a ton of playground equipment and a walking path. Sooooo we took the dogs too. It is our first trip with all 5 of us in the car. We thought for sure we had done it before, but nope. We take walks all the time, but in our neighborhood so we don't all hop in the car. Kevin and Mocha sat in the front - Kona, me and Nate in the back. It went pretty well except for Kona wishing she had more room in the backseat. We all unloaded at the park and had a nice stroll. Nate got to go on the swing and be scared of anyone that looked his way (more about this later). It was cute how Kona would look for Nate and Kevin in the play area and get excited when they would head our way. The dogs got a lot of attention as I walked them around the play area boundary. I think it is so funny how all the kids think Mocha is a dalmatian. They get so excited... 'look a dalmatian!!' When we left I figured we should be fair so Kona got the front seat on the way home while Mocha laid across my lap in the back. Fun times.

 

Because of the nice weather we were obviously outside a lot. Nathaniel loves to run up and down a little hill we have in our front yard. It gives me a slight heart attack each time because he is basically in a slightly controlled fall/run as he barrels downhill towards the sidewalk/road. He laughs the whole time and loves it. We wait at the bottom to scoop him up before the sidewalk. After about 20 of these he ran off down the sidewalk. This is where he fell. He was in shorts since the weather was nice. This made for a scraped knee. His first scrape. He looks like a real boy now :)

 

Nathaniel's first Bocce ball game. It looked like a strong man competition the way he would lift those balls. Of course he didn't really play, but he had a great time moving those balls around.

 

 

Boogers

I thought about what to call this post. After some thinking there is no better way to title this post other than 'Boogers'. I have been super fortunate. Nathaniel has not had a cold his entire life (knock on wood) ... until last week. (In full disclosure he had a bit of a stomach thing once when we got home from PHX. It only lasted for a day, but that could have been just travelling, not sure). Anyway, he got a bit of the common cold last week. Thank goodness my first sickness with him was a mild common cold. No fever really, no coughing, no sneezing really, no anything really..... other than BOOGERS. haha.

 

I had a package of grape flavored boogie wipes that I had bought before he was born and it hasn't even been opened. That is how little we have wiped his nose.

 

I honestly had no idea how gooey and green and sticky and resilient and stretchy boogers were. Really I had no idea. Grabbing boogers may be worse than poopy diapers. Of course the little dude did not want me near his nose. I was playing a complex game of cat and mouse with an 18 month old trying to get something that I didn't even want. Just when I think I have it (the booger) it ricochets back up into his nose.... there is some serious stretch in those things. So then it becomes a waiting game for that big disgusting mass to show its face again.

 

I became quite skilled in what I like to call 'the sneak' I don't let him see me coming and I reach around and try to grab it before he has time to maneuver away. Sometimes sans kleenex. You have to do what you have to do before it ends up in some mysterious part of the house or your hair or on your shirt! Nathaniel learned to wipe his nose on Kevin's shoulder. Kevin's shirts were all goobed.

 

Part of me thinks he should just let me blow his nose, right? - why isn't he just letting me and behaving? Then I realize (thank goodness) that he hasn't been sick so why would he have any idea what I was doing or want me to do it. I assume over time I'll be able to teach him.

 

I must admit I've always heard of kids *flinging* their boogers and figured it was just a saying, but now having seen what a little kid booger is made out of they probably can *fling* those suckers. Now that I have had the wonderful opportunity to be up and close with kid boogers they are crazy gross!! I'm pretty sure they are made out of a mix of tomatillo salsa and that stuff they use to stick gift cards to the packaging (you know that glop of glue stuff).

 

Appetizing post huh ;)

18 month appt

9/30 - He was born and was 21 inches tall and 8 lbs 7 oz
10/11 - He was 11 days old and was 21 inches tall and 8 lbs 9 oz
10/24 - He was 3 and 3/7 wks old and was 21 3/4 inches tall and 9 lbs 9 oz
12/1 - He is 2 months old and 24 inches tall and 11 lbs 10 oz

1/20 - He is 3 1/2 months old and 25 3/4 inches tall and 14 lbs 8 oz

3/30 - He is 6 months old and 27 inches tall and 17 lbs 4 oz
6/28 - He is a lil under 9 months old and 28 3/4 inches tall and 20 lbs 12 oz
10/1 - He just turned one and is 30 3/4 inches tall and 22 lbs 11 oz

1/3 - He is 15 months old and 32 1/4 inches tall and almost 24 lbs

4/1 - He is 18 months old and 33 inches tall and 24 lbs 15 oz

 

 

The 18 month wellness check was on Monday. It was on April Fool's day so I kept telling Nathaniel that he wouldn't have to get a shot... then I would say 'April Fool's'. I'm so mean. Luckily (hopefully) he doesn't understand. He got his final vaccine of the newborn vaccines. He only had to get one on this trip. It is SSOOOOO nice to be done with vaccines (at least for awhile). He handled this one like a trooper. He fussed a bit, but no real tears. YAY. I'm sure I'm happier than he is. So glad not to have my little guy poked at the next visit. It is so stressful deciding to get vaccines and which ones and just hoping he doesn't have any adverse reactions. Besides a little sluggish and a slight fever all went well (knock on wood). Just glad to have it behind us.

 

 

We hit a big milestone. Now our next appointment isn't for 6 months instead of the usual 3. I am not sure how I feel about that happening. I kind of like checking in with an unbiased source every 3 months. I think I need someone to check my work. I was always the student running to the teacher to make sure my work was correct. I need that confirmation now too :) Not that the Dr. really says too much, but at least I leave knowing Nathaniel is healthy and on some sort of right track. At least from what the Dr. can tell in a 15 min appt.

 

 

We didn't have nearly as many questions for our Dr. this appt as we have had in the past. I'm not sure why. I guess things don't quite change as much as they did in that first year. We did want to double check his language skills with her. She said he looks and acts like a typical 18 month old and not to worry if he isn't saying as many words as we want. She just reassured us that he'll get there and boys can be slower. Why she isn't worried is because his receptive skills are just fine. Usually, if there are red flags with speech, the receptive skills are lacking at this point. I guess we will wait and see.

 

 

He is picking some funny words to start saying consistently... besides mom and dad.... he says choo choo and star.... out of all the words he hears on a daily basis ...he is saying those 2. Funny huh. Not dog or go or up... choo choo and star. He has 2 other words he says all the time, but I don't quite know what they are referring to. One might be about the dogs, but I can't be sure. He says 'na' for no. I'd rather he be saying 'yes' ;) He has some others, but I will wait until they are consistent and I'll start making a running list of Nate words *Word Fun with Nate*

 

 

Let's see... something I think I usually forget to mention about his Dr. visits is that he always measures big for head size. Apparently he has a big head! Let's hope his skull is bigger and thicker too since he tends to bump it more than I'd like. I'm sure he is normal, but for a first time mom every head bump (no matter how small) seems like a monumental emergency.

 

 

The next Dr. appt update will be at 2 years. 6 MONTHS AWAY - FOREVER!! But, no shots YAY