Nathan and I have been experimenting with different hair-dos. This first started when I was putting gel in my hair and Nathan wanted some in his.  We started with just the basic spikes (this isn't actually a picture of the spikes, I forgot to take one, but this is pretty close to what it looked like.  This is actually the result of me washing some food out of his hair after dinner.)

 Nathan then found one of my headbands and refused to take it off.  If it accidentally fell of he would whine until I put it back on!

 

Then came the "faux-hawk"  This one amused me at first, but after a few hours when the hair had a chance to calm down it actually wasn't too bad.  Kinda cute in fact.

(This is a baby doll that Curtis found in a box of his old stuff while we were cleaning out the garage, Nathan carries it everywhere!!)

(See?!?  He is ready to be a big brother!)

I recently discovered "splash time" at the community pool. It is only for kids 5 and under and their parents.  I took Nathan for the first time last week and we went again today.  I am thinking that this will probably become a weekly thing (at the very least).  Not only because I want Nathan to get used to the water, but because it wears him out so much that he takes a 3 hour nap when he gets home!  The first time in I thought I would try the life jacket out and see what he thought.  He lasted about 3 minutes before screaming his head off.  Once I took the jacket off he was a happy camper...or swimmer I guess.

He likes taking rides on the giant fish

Today we tried to teach him how to blow bubbles.  He did it a few times and laughed everyt ime, but seemed to enjoy watching Curtis and I blow bubbles rather than blow some himself.

I also tried showing him how to kick as I towed him around on the fish.  Instead he stayed stiff as a board.  Oh well, one thing at a time I guess.  I just get so excited that I want him to be able to do everything right now! 

His little personality is really coming out, and let me tell you he is one funny kid.  One day he decided to take off his pants and wear them around his shoulders.  This cracked him up to no end, as it did his mother :)

He's getting to be such a big boy, it's exciting and sad.  Mostly exciting though because I am ready for him to be a little bit more independent before the next baby comes.  He loves his new found independendce.  He has to walk everywhere, climb up and down the stairs himself, feed himself (seriously, he sometimes will kick and scream if I try to put something in his mouth rather than in his hand so he can put it in his mouth himself.)  He also is very insistent on doing things himself when we go out to the car.  He likes to hold open the garage door for me, he likes to walk to the car door by himself and then help me open it, he likes to climb into the car himself (with a little boost from mommy), he will sometimes crawl in and out of his carseat himself but he gets so distracted that I usually get tired of waiting for him and end up throwing him in myself.

He is also getting a lot better at communicating what he wants.  Now instead of crying when he wants something he will grab my finger and pull me to what he wants (which is usally to go outside). He really is like a new person lately and it is exciting to watch!

Time Out

Nathan's first time in time out. (First of many, I am sure)

Nathan's New Do

In the past month way too many people have mistaken Nathan for a girl. I figured this meant it was time for a hair cut. I thought I would try cutting it myself, though I have absolutely NO experience. I began by looking online for tips and how-to guides, but I still didn't feel confident enough. In the end I decided to leave it to the professionals (and then maybe watch and see how they do it for future reference.) I took him this morning, and he was a perfect angel. He sat on my lap as still as could be. Whenever he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror he would break out into a huge smile. It was so stinkin' adorable! So here we are, the before:




and the after: (they gave him a sucker which I let him play with, thinking that he wouldn't be able to get the wrapper off...by the time we got home the wrapper was almost disintegrated and he was going to town on the sucker)

He totally reminds me of his cousin Kaleb in this picture:

I love the haircut because I think it makes him look chubbier! Haha. He also looks a lot older to me, which is kind of sad. Overall though, I'm very pleased! Plus, an added bonus, it will be much easier to clean out all the food he likes to smash into his hair!

Fathers Day

So I know I am a couple of months late on posting this, but I figure better late than never! This year for Father's Day I didn't put in NEARLY as much work as I did last year for Curtis' gift. Last year Curtis got the best gift ever on Father's Day, a beautiful baby boy! There really wasn't much of a chance of topping that, but Nathan and I did the best we could to make this year special too.

Nathan helped me pick out pictures to put in a card, and then hand delivered it to his Daddy. (I wish I would have taken a picture of that but it totally slipped my mind.)


Nathan also helped pick out a gift for Curtis, I showed him a few options on the computer screen and this is the one he chose to make:

which I think was a great choice! Curtis' final gift was from me, and while not as exciting as the birth of our first child, I thought it was still a pretty good gift. I mean, who doesn't like shirts?

Happy Father's Day Curtis!

Thanks Grandpa!

My dad came down to visit for a week. He arrived on the 4th of July just in time for a BBQ dinner followed by a fireworks show that we were able to see from our backyard. My dad held Nathan on his shoulder through the whole show and Nathan was just in awe the whole time. It was pretty stinkin' cute!

After a while Nathan started holding onto grandpa's hair for...comfort? balance? whatever his reason it was hilarious.

My dad's visit wasn't just to come watch the fireworks, or even to play with this cute kid:
Nope, his visit was to help us (ok, more to single handedly) turn this:
into this:
When our house was being built we noticed that there was all this empty space under the stairs that wasn't being used. My dad had the great idea to turn part of that space into a little play area for Nathan. I absolutley love it because not only is it a fun place for Nathan to play, but it is also a great, out of the way, place to store all his big toys.

The builders didn't completely waste the space under the stairs, they at least gave us this little closet:
But it didn't even go back the full length of the stairs. So once again, dad to the rescue! He knocked out the wall and extended the closet all the way back. He even built some shelves for our food storage!

This is the additional space he found us by knocking out the wall, and I say it is well worth it!
It was quite a successful endevor, Nathan LOVES his new "play house"

And we LOVE our new storage room!
I feel bad that every time my dad comes to visit we manage to put him to work, but with results like these, how can we resist?

It is amazing how much easier these additions have made my life. Nathan spends most of his time playing in his play house! There is a window that looks out into the living room, and one that looks into the kitchen, so no matter where I am it is easy to keep an eye on him, and he loves watching me through his windows.

Can you see his little head poking out the window? So cute!
Not only does he love peaking out the windows, but he gets so excited if someone looks IN the window at him!
This place is seriously heaven to him, he just skips around from toy to toy laughing and having a ball!
The other day I was in the kitchen cooking while Nathan was playing in his playhouse. Most of his toys make noise so it is pretty easy to tell where he is. After a while though I couldn't hear him anymore, and as most moms know, silence is rarely a good thing. So I decided to check on him and this is what I found:
He had moved his bumbo (that I don't think he has seen in months) to the doorway and was just sitting in it, calm as can be. He reminded me of an old man sitting out on his porch just watching the world around him.

I constantly find him just sitting in his bumbo by the door, just chillin.

One of his other favorite things to do now is to hide things in his playhouse. The other day I found the duster, the broom, and a couple of cutting boards stashed in the back. I guess he is trying to keep the place clean?

We are so happy with our new spaces, Curtis likes to say that it has added "at least $20,000" to the value of our house :) I am so lucky to have a dad who is able and willing to help us out ALL THE TIME! I swear the man can do anything!! We are learning a lot from him, but I don't think he is getting much in return. However, I did buy him one of those "expensive" Arby's sandwiches while he was here, so maybe that makes us even! ;)

All About the Birthday Boy!

Believe it or not, Nathan turned 1 last Monday! Crazy, I know. We were lucky enough to have Curtis' sister Becky and her 3 boys here to celebrate with us! We started the day with a trip to the pool (more on that another time), and then we had some friends over for cake and presents.

My sister Crissy goes all out when it comes to decorating cakes for her boys, so I thought I would give being creative a try. I picked something very easy, and still didn't do the best job, but I don't think Nathan minded too much :)

It took him a while to decide whether or not he was going to give the cake a try, but eventually the marshmallows on top won him over.


He ended up eating most of the marshmallows, leaving the cake virtually untouched.

After a while he decided he didn't like being messy anymore.

He was still a little upset when we started opening presents...

but the frown faded once he realized that there was fun stuff to play with inside the boxes!

He especially seemed to like this little number, compliments of his Aunt Alli!

We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family to share in this special day with us, whether in person, or over the phone. Nathan got lots of calls from family and friends who sang Happy Birthday to him, and even a video from his 2 year old cousin who sang his own rendition of "Happy Birthday".

It was a pretty fun day up until Nathan woke up from his afternoon nap with a fever. He has been pretty miserable since then with a fever off and on, a sore throat and an ear infection. I guess he just wasn't very excited about the idea of getting older, probably because he's feeling guilty because I keep telling him that he is not allowed to grow up. :)

Here is a bit about Nathan at 1 year:

height: 28.5 inches; 12 percentile
weight: 16 lbs 12 oz; 0 percentile
head: 46 cm; 37 percentile

He is getting pretty good at walking, but still prefers to crawl as his main mode of transport
His favorite place to play is in the dishwasher
His favorite food is yogurt, he would eat it all day every day if he could
He LOVES taking baths, and now likes to walk around in the bathtub and scare me to death
He no longer uses his pacifier! Woo hoo!
He is a pro with a sippie cup but prefers formula to milk
He is quite the little dancer, bouncing, bopping his head, and shrugging his shoulders anytime he hears music
He is quite the little talker, jabbering away LOUDLY any chance he gets, except around other kids for some reason
He is pretty loud in church these days, we usually have to take him out, not because he is crying but because he "sings" the songs very loudly and then continues to talk loudly the rest of the time
He is starting to "fight back" when he gets bullied by bigger kids, he used to just sit there and take it, now he will push back or cry, or both
He is still taking two or three naps a day and sleeping through the night, I couldn't get him down to one nap if I tried :)
However, here in good ol Arizona the sun comes up around 5 am, and Nathan likes to be up with the sun so the spring has brought some pretty early mornings (time for blackout curtains!)
He likes to bite
If you make a kissing noise he will open his mouth and plant one on you, sometimes his teeth get in on the action too
He claps anytime he hears or sees ANYONE clapping, even if it is on TV
He is very patient, he does not get frustrated when he falls 1000 times when trying to stand or walk, instead he just gets up and tries again
He is pretty good at passing balls back and forth
His favorite toy is my "Workout Carebear"
He loves his daddy


I am so sad that he is already 1 year old, but I can't wait to see his little personality really start to show in this next year!