Lazy

I'm feeling a bit too lazy to write much, but here are some pictures and videos that I have taken of Nathan in the past month. The first few are not great pictures but they show his teeth! He is up to 6 now! There are are also some of him playing with his second cousins, and some of him eating his new favorite food: grapes (with the help of the easy feeder mesh thing). Nathan is also quite the talker now, really, the kid never shuts up :) It has made it a bit difficult to teach primary because Nathan wants to talk over us. There are a few videos of his never ending babble. Enjoy:

Family and Friends

Over Easter weekend we visited Curtis' parents in New Mexico. We were able to spend a few days visiting, watching General Conference, and eating delicious food!

Nathan and his daddy sitting on the couch at Grandma and Grandpa Merrill's

Curtis' sister Nikki and her family were able to come up for a bit and Nathan loved playing with his cousins! He tries to fit in and be one of the big kids.

He wanted to play their games...

follow them around...

and just hang out with them!

Nathan enjoyed playing with the many many toys at Grandma and Grandpa's house



He also had his first experience with grass while we were there. He didn't want to touch the grass with his hands because it tickled, so he would do his best to avoid touching it. It was pretty dang amusing!



(Nathan is learning how to clap, and every time he watches the video above and sees himself clapping he will start clapping...too cute!)

He somehow managed to get into a crawling position while on the grass and had a hard time trying to figure out how to sit back up without having to touch the grass...

On our way home from Ramah we stopped by a duckpond (the very duckpond that Curtis used to take girls to in college when he was trying to find out if they were date worthy...)




It was a fun ending to a fun trip. Next time we will have to actually bring some bread to feed the ducks!


The day after we got back Curtis was off to work again, so I decided to drop by and visit my friend Heidi. Nathan loves playing with Heidi's little girl Samantha...but after a while Samantha got a little sick of Nathan following her around and playing with all of her toys. He wouldn't even let Samantha sit with her mommy alone.


Nathan refused to leave her alone and so Samantha had to resort to pushing him away, every time she did Nathan would get the saddest little look on his face...kinda like this:


I hope that Nathan either never gets rejected by a girl when he is older or else he mans up a bit and handles it better than he does now!

We ended up staying for a very long time and poor Nathan was so exhausted, having missed his naps, he ended up just resting his head on the couch for a bit:

When we finally got home I gave Nathan a bottle, but he was so tired he fell asleep eating. It was too cute.



The next day we went to the park with some friends. We got to try out his new Jeep stroller (that's for you dad!), and play on the swings. Nathan loves the swing! He gets so excited on them that he actually doesn't need to be pushed, he pumps his own legs...kinda

So that's what we have been up to lately. Lots of fun with friends and family!

9 Months

Believe it or not, Nathan is 9 months old! Nobody who sees him believes that he is that old because he is just so small! At his doctors appointment last Monday he weighed in at 15.5 lbs, putting him in the 0 percentile...yes you read that right, 0%! He is 26.5 inches (28th%). I have no clue how Curtis and I ended up with such a tiny little boy! He is super healthy and eating lots so no worries! I also had to take him to the lab for his hemoglobin test, an adventure that I was NOT looking forward to! They used to do a little finger poke for this test but I guess that's not good enough anymore because they had to take a whole vial of his blood! I swear this kid is so tiny I was surprised he even had that much blood in him! I was a nervous wreck as they were getting ready to put the needle in, wishing I would have made Curtis take him instead. I had to hold him on my lap with one arm around his body, pinning his right arm down, and the other hand holding his left arm straight. The lady told me to make sure he didn't bend his arm and to brace myself for a struggle. That was almost the breaking point for me, but I tried to be brave...I watched as the needle got closer and closer to my poor tiny little boy's arm and took a deep breath as it made contact with his skin..and then...nothing! Nathan didn't even flinch, it was like he was completely oblivious to the needle in his arm!! Man oh man, I hate getting my blood drawn! It was at that moment that I realized that I am way wussier than a 9 month old :(

Nathan has 3 teeth, the two front bottoms, and one of his vampire teeth (which I must say looks pretty silly). This is the best picture I can find of his top tooth.

However, he seems to be getting 3 more all at the same time, which has not made for a very fun week. Nathan has been the easiest baby in the world so I am not very good at handling the lack of sleep that his teething has caused. The funny thing is this "lack of sleep" that I am referring to is due to Nathan only sleeping about 7 or 8 hours at night as opposed to his usual 11 :) He also has woken up a few times in the night which usually never happens, but he has been able to put himself back to sleep in just a few minutes. He has also been a bit whinier during the day which is also very uncommon for him, so I will be very happy when those teeth are no longer causing him pain!

Like I said, he is sleeping about 11 hours at night (about 8:30 pm-7:30 am) with a couple of 2 hour naps during the day. When he isn't sleeping or eating he is always so happy! He is getting more and more mischievous every day. He loves turning the computer off while I am using it, his favorite toys are our dvds and books, and when we tell him "no" he just looks back at us and smiles. He likes to use his pants to play peek-a-boo while I am changing his diaper, which is one of the cutest things I have ever seen! He is a wicked awesome dancer (like his mother...haha, jk!), when the theme song to The Big Bang Theory comes on he stops whatever he is doing to bounce up and down in time with the music (unless, of course, I have the camera out). He also stood on his own for the first time yesterday! I wouldn't be surprised if he starts walking in the next month or so because in church last week he was walking around pushing a little chair around the back of the primary room, this little adventure didn't end well, however, as evidenced by the huge bump/bruise that soon developed on his forehead.

He is basically just a stinkin cute kid with such a fun little personality.

I have been saving up a lot of cute pictures and videos for the this post, but sadly I deleted most of them from my camera thinking that I had already saved then onto my computer. So here is what I have taken in the last couple of days.







This was the best video I could get of his dancing, it's kind of sad though because right as he starts getting into it he hits his chin on the table :(


This one is an ok one of him dancing, he's not quite as into it as he usually is though.

Nathan's Latest Tricks

As I mentioned before, Nathan is quite mobile now. He has mastered crawling, and has also figured out how to pull himself up to standing. Just today, however, he took his accomplishments a step further...literally. Nathan gets a kick out of standing, he quite often laughs while doing it, or screams happily, or talks loudly...he really seems to enjoy himself. I thought I would try to get this on camera. As I was taking a video of him standing, however, he surprised me by taking the tiniest step sideways. It might not be a huge deal, but it is to me, and I am so glad I got it on camera!



This is some of the fun that Nathan has now that he has learned these new tricks. Needless to say it's been quite the adventure having a mobile little boy!


And this picture is just because I love it, and never posted it.

Nathan and his daddy

Utah

My friend Felicia and I decided to take a VERY last minute trip up to Utah. The idea started forming itself on Saturday, and we were on the road Tuesday morning! Surprisingly enough a 15 hour drive with an 8 month old and a 3 year old wasn't too bad! We thought it would take 2 days to complete the drive, but found that it was actually quite possible to do it in 1!

I was way excited to see my family, but most excited to see my nephews, since I hadn't seen these kids in forever! (OK so maybe it had only been about 4 1/2 months, but that is a long time to me!!) I spent most of my time there hanging out with my sister Crissy and her 3 adorable kids!

While there I took the oldest two boys out on a date. First, Jaden (age 5) and I went to Leatherby's for some chicken and fries, brownies, and ice cream!

He got a bit embarrassed when I told him he had a little bit of brownie on his teeth...

so we quickly fixed that!


One of Jaden's date requests was that he be allowed to put salt on his fries. I knew this kid loved salt, but didn't know the extent of the obsession...

We also enjoyed dancing to the tunes from the juke box. After dinner and dessert Jaden wanted to go to Target to pick out a toy (gotta love their dollar section!) He also picked out toys for Kaleb and Bradley.

Later that week I took Kaleb (age 3) out on a similar date. He was so stinkin cute because he was afraid to go without Jaden. You can tell that he doesn't often have the opportunity to go places without his brothers. Such is the life of a middle child! Once we got in the car though, he was super excited, especially when I told him that we could do whatever he wanted! Of course he chose to go to Wendy's for their chicken and fries.

He thought this strangely shaped piece of chicken was hilarious!

While there the littlest things seemed to excite him. Getting to pick anything he wanted to eat, getting to choose where we sat, getting to play his new card game that came in his kids meal for as long as he wanted, getting to choose when to leave, and getting to choose what to do next. Of course he chose to sit right next to the only other people in the restaurant, and we played many versions of his card came for what seemed like hours, but I was more than happy to let him do what he wanted on his date.

After Wendy's he also wanted to go to Target and get the same toy that Jaden picked out. (There was a moment of panic when I couldn't find the same toy anywhere, but that was soon relieved when Kaleb found something he wanted more.) Once he found a toy for himself and his brothers and Nathan, he wanted to "please go home now". I think he had fun on his first date, but I think he also was excited to go back home and play with Jaden.

I also was able to go see Fiddler on the Roof with my sister, Alli. We are always up for a good musical and enjoyed this performance very much (despite some of the poor Irish/Russian sounding accents).

On Saturday Alli and I took the boys to Jungle Jim's, a fun little indoor carnival type place.

These two held hands everywhere they went, it was so cute!

Nathan had a blast hanging out with his cousins, aunts, uncle, and grandparents!

Bradley was such a good little helper. He was constantly giving Nathan his blanket, bear, and toys. When I got home from my date with Kaleb, Bradley quickly pointed out to me that Nathan was upstairs sleeping so that I wouldn't worry (quite impressive for a kid that doesn't talk yet). He even took his turn feeding Nathan.

I think Kaleb put these glasses on Nathan

Nathan loved taking baths with the boys, which is a huge accomplishment because up until then he HATED taking baths! Maybe he just needed someone to show him how fun it is to splash!


It was a great trip! However, I think Nathan missed his daddy, as did I. He was very excited to see him when we got home!



When we got home (at 12:30 in the morning!) I pulled into the garage to find this sign leaning against the door with a box of whoppers next to it (yummy!!)


Curtis "heart attacked" me by placing cut out hearts through the house with all the reasons he missed me. What a cute man I have!