Musically Talented

Singer/Pianist/Dancer in the making

Christmas

Our Christmas this year turned out a little different than planned.  Curtis was scheduled to work on Christmas day and several days surrounding it, so we decided that we would do Christmas on the 27th, Curtis' day off.  Plans changed, however, when we received the news of Curtis' paternal grandmother's passing just a few days before Christmas.  Curtis took a few days off of work and we decided that we would head up to New Mexico on Christmas day for the funeral on the following Monday.  Curtis got home from work on Christmas morning and we all gathered around the tree to open presents. Nathan, of course, has no concept of Christmas but he could sense the excitement as we sat down by the tree.  

Nathan was completely puzzled when we handed him his first gift, but after a little tutorial from Curtis he became a pro at unwrapping.

It was fun to watch him unwrap his gifts mostly because he would let out an appreciative "ooooooooooooo" as he caught a glimpse of what was inside the wrapping paper.  

Instead of overwhelming him with present after present we let him sit and play with each new toy until he seemed ready for the next.  He got a kick out of carrying around this mat that came in a backpack from his Grandma and Grandpa Ashton for a good while...

but he had even more fun once he realized that the mat and trucks came out!!

As super cool as all his new toys were, he seemed to have the most fun with this:

Nobody believed me when I told them that all I was getting for Nathan were some empty boxes.  In fact, I think a lot of my friends felt bad for the poor little guy and wondered if I was fit to be a mother when I wouldn't go out and buy him a decent Christmas gift. What can I say?  I'm cheap, and Nathan LOVED the boxes!  So there!

After we finished cleaning up our Christmas mess we packed and loaded up the car to head to Ramah.  However, about 30 minutes into our trip our car decided to do some crazy things, causing us to turn back around.  We switched all of our luggage into my good 'ol reliable Ford Explorer, but decided that it was getting too late to make the 7-8 hour trip, especially considering the fact that Curtis had worked all night, and that we would try again in the morning.  Having not anticipated cooking a Christmas dinner, we feasted on some not so delicious spaghetti and meatballs and called it good.

The drive to Ramah was much more successful the next day and we were able to spend 3 days with family before heading back home. Now I must say that traveling in the third trimester is not necessarily something to look forward to, but with this little man as a fellow passenger, how can I complain?

Update on Nathan's Nap

If you recall, I recently switched Nathan to a new room and a new bed.  I posted this about how Nathan's first nap in his new bed went.  Fortunately, Nathan only spent the first two naps in his new room on the floor by the door.  Since then he has been great about staying in his bed and calling out to me when he wakes up.  In fact, he is even great about going down for a nap.  Here is what his nap time routine looks like:

First, I say "Nathan, it's time for a nap, let's go upstairs." He immediately stops whatever he is doing and heads for the stairs.

He then heads straight into his room:

He picks out a book to look at while I change his diaper (this is to keep his little hands occupied during the diaper change to avoid wandering hands in a dirty diaper).  After I change his diaper he throws it away in the diaper champ:

He then puts the book away:

After which I tell him to "hop in bed", which he happily does without any complaint:

He lays himself down and waits for me to tuck him in:

I hand him his baby and cover him with the blanket.  His response once I do this is "Na Night." Then, just like that he is out for 2 hours.

Not too shabby!

Christmas

(I just realized that I started this post almost a month ago and never finished!)  

I love love love decorating for Christmas!  I wasn't able to decorate last year because we moved into our new house on the 23rd of Dec, however, I did manage to at least put up our tree.  I then spent the day after Christmas shopping for cheap decorations for future years.  

Growing up, we always decorated the day after Thanksgiving while playing Christmas music on full blast.  I love this tradition and want to keep it going with my family.  The Friday after Thanksgiving wasn't a very convenient time to decorate, but you better believe that the first possible chance I got (Saturday) I pulled out the Christmas boxes.  It was just me and Nathan at home and I wanted to surprise Curtis when he got back from sightseeing with his parents.  In retrospect I probably should have waited for him to come home to get down the three large bins of decorations that were on the very top shelf in the garage.  Pregnancy, ladders, and carrying heavy boxes shouldn't really mix...but I was just too excited!  

I spent several hours decorating (which is always more fun at the beginning).  I still have a ways to go before I have enough decorations to really do up the whole house nicely, but I am happy with what I have.  I managed to save decorating the tree for when Curtis got home.  Nathan had a blast "hanging" ornaments. (I say "hanging" because most of his ornaments ended up just sitting on a branch or else on the ground.  Thank goodness for shatterproof ornaments!)

He would cheer everytime he actually got one to stay on the tree

Along with our inside decorations, Curtis volunteered to put lights up outside.  I am soooooo glad he did!  I just LOVE Christmas lights and this is the first year we have had the opportunity to hang them.  Putting Christmas lights on our home seems like such a "grown-up" thing to do, it seemed a little strange doing it.  Having a kid, buying a house, and being pregnant with our second child for some reason never warranted this reaction...but putting up our own Christmas lights...now THATS grown-up!  

We also took Nathan to see Santa at the ward Christmas party (in which he showed absolutely no interest),

and baked (and ate) lots and lots of goodies!

I have made sugar cookies once before with Nathan and it was a big hit, so I was excited to repeat the experience.  He helped me pour in all the ingredients and danced to the rhythm of the mixer.  I set up two stations (one for each of us) at the kitchen table to roll out the dough and cut out the cookies.  I made sure we both had aprons on.  I sat Nathan up at the table and showed him how to roll out the dough and cut out the cookies.  I handed him some cookie cutters of his very own and then finally a small ball of dough.  I watched in anticipation, ready to praise him for all his dough creations.  Without any hesitation he grabbed the entire ball of dough and shoved it in his mouth.  It took him quite a while to finish eating his dough and when he was done I had finished cutting out all the cookies.  So much for that idea.

I also made TONS of cream cheese mints, thanks to my inability to read directions I added 8 oz of cream cheese instead of the 3 that the recipe called for, and so I had to adjust the other amounts accordingly.  250 mints later I went to the bathroom to clean up and came back to find that Nathan had pulled a chair up to the counter and was shoveling mints into his mouth as fast as he could.  I think he had about 3 in by the time I found him, with another couple in each hand.  Needless to say Nathan had A LOT of sugar that day...

I am so excited for the Christmas season!  Like most, it is my favorite time of the year!  I hope we can all share in the joy that this season brings and remember the true meaning of the holiday.  Being pregnant during this time really has helped me to remember the tremendous sacrifice it took for Mary to bring such a precious gift into the world.  I feel a little silly complaining about back pain or doing housework when I think of the young, selfless woman traveling on a donkey and giving birth in a stable.  Mary must have been a very special woman to be entrusted with such a special son.  I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!!  The birth of our Savior Jesus Christ is truly worth celebrating!!! 

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!

Nathan's Nap

Last night I moved Nathan into his new room, complete with a full size bed rather than his crib.  I will post more on that later, but I first had to share a video of how he did during his first nap in his new room.  Because he can now get out of his bed I have had to lock his door so that he will at least stay inside his room.  As I suspected, the freedom of being able to get out of his bed was a bit too much for him to resist.  However, once he found that the door was locked he took to screaming his poor little heart out for a good 20 minutes.  After the crying stopped I heard a strange rhythmic noise that I didn't recognize right away.  I went up to check on him and found this:

His sad little sobs continued throughout his whole nap.  It breaks my heart to know that he was that upset, but he's got to learn somehow I guess.

Nursery

This handsome boy started nursery this past Sunday, I can't believe it!  He is only 17 months, but I begged the nursery leader to let him try because not only did I know he would love it and do great, but also because he is IMPOSSIBLE to keep quietly entertained during Sunday School and Relief Society.  She agreed to let him come in if I came with him too for the first time, which I was planning on doing anyway.  Let me tell you, Nathan was in heaven!  Playing with an endless supply of toys for an hour, eating pretzels and bananas at a table his size on a chair his size, singing and dancing (his absolute favorite part), nursery was built for him!  He got so excited as they started each new new activity, he would look around smiling at all the kids like he was thinking "Are you serious? We get to eat?  Seriously? We get to sing?  Isn't this the funnest thing you'e ever done?!?"  He would also copy what all the other kids were doing, like banging their fists on the table or swinging their legs while sitting on their chairs, like he wanted to make sure he was doing everything right.  I loved watching him!  He is getting so big!