More on Nathan

So this morning Curtis went in to get Nathan up.  I am usually up with him by 7:00am.  That doesn't mean Nathan isn't already awake though.  Sometimes he is up at 6:00 and says plenty to let me know it!  However, recently I've been working on a routine with Nathan that should help Nathan, who already behaves pretty well, behave better, and that should also help me in the long run, by reducing the amount of discipline I have to exact on Nathan.

But today was Curtis' day off and I usually make him get Nathan up on his days off.  Nathan was making noises at about 6:30 but we were both tired, and it wasn't 7:00 anyway.  We fell back asleep and woke up again at about 7:20.  Well, it was time for Nathan to get up by then, so Curtis got up to get him. Strangely, Nathan hadn't made much noise since the initial ones around 6:30, which also made me wonder a little bit about what was going on, although Nathan occasionally will sleep until about 8:00.  So when Curtis went in to Nathan's room, this is what he discovered:

I have actually found Nathan in this sleeping "position" many times, but alas, Curtis caught it on camera!

Nathan also plinked on our piano for several minutes today while also "singing," but when he saw Curtis with the camera he stopped his concerto :(  Nathan's singing, which he does frequently and especially at church, is a  sort of monotone yell, mixed with pauses to inhale.  Hopefully he'll serenade us again, but the next time we'll catch it on camera for you!

Nathan also continues "talking." We used to think his sometimes long monologues are complete gibberish, but now that he is approaching 18 months and we expect him to speak at least several intelligible words we must be listening a lot more intently.  We're starting to believe it when people tell us that he knows exactly what he is saying, but we just can't understand him.  Lately we've been able understand "water," and "milk." He says "no" about 100 times a day, but that word is easy for all to understand!  He says more words that I can understand, I'll have to try and remember...Anyway he may have just been mimicking us with gibberish, but he may also be saying actual words, we just don't understand him.

Overall, we absolutely love to have Nathan around, because he is almost always doing something cute.  For another example, one day last week I told Nathan that it was time to get his daddy up from bed and so Nathan promptly climbed the stairs and pounded on our bedroom door while also yelling.  That sure did do the trick!

He does do some things we don't appreciate.  He still loves to splash the water in the toilet, grab anything electronic, and he'll also throw wicked temper tantrums that are becoming a little more frequent.  When he's mad he sometimes wants to hit me or knock something over.  A few days ago in one of his rants he was on the verge of knocking over our TV.  Yikes!

Nevertheless, his cuteness far outweighs his naughtiness.  We love you, Nathan!