12 Months Old!

Here we are and Nathan just turned 13 months actually and I'm just now getting to blog about him turning 12 months.  Oh well--better late than never right?  Can't believe our boy is over 1 year old!  It's been amazing to witnes the transformation and development over this past year.  We love watching his cute little personality emerge. 

Here are things we want to remember from 12 months:

*Nate is getting close to walking--holding on to furniture and has taken a couple steps, but he's not quite confident to walk out on his own yet.  We're in no rush.  :)
*He loves playing with toys where he has to figure something out like how to open something, put something through a slot, stack something, etc.  He gets very focused and intent on figuring out the challenge.  He's also very inquisitve whether it be how to turn on a light, observing how the ceiling fan works, turning a knob, etc.  We're starting to see Papa's engineering skills in him already!
*Nathan loves to go up and down stairs
*He is still very vocal and although isn't saying any official words yet, we think he's making the connection to Mama and Papa being words to call us.  He also says "oh oh" and tries to say the words for "hot" and "clock" when he points to a clock or points to the oven or toaster.  He also uses sign language to communicate which is very helpful.  From school he's learned the signs for "eat" and "all done."  He also uses pointing to explain what he wants or needs.
*He's a great sleeper.  Goes down pretty easily and sleeps through the night most of the time.  He takes 2 naps still.  We're grateful for his sleeping skills and also jealous that he gets like 11 hours of sleep every night and 2 naps during the day.  Not fair!
*Nathan is definitely starting to assert his independence and will let us know when he's not happy about not getting his way.  :)
*Nate loves to be outside.  He loves crawling in the grass, going for walks in the stroller or going for hikes and sitting in the backpack.
*He's still a very happy and friendly boy and loves to be around people--especially his grandparents and family!!
*He laughs when we chase after him and tickle him.  He also laughs when I sing the Wheels on the Bus song to him.  There is no greater sound in the world than his laugh.

We love you our sweet boy!

1st Birthday Party

Our little munchkin is 1 year old!  Can't believe it.  I've been doing a lot of reflecting back to this time last year when he came into our lives.  Seems like it just happened, but at the same time it seems like we've come so far and learned so much the past year.  And of course now we can't even imagine what life was like before our little one came along and brought so much joy to us.

On Nathan's birthday we went in to get him from sleeping by singing Happy Birthday.  He looked at us like we were very strange.  But quickly smiled and realized something must be special about the day!  We also had a fun afternoon because his school had a Mother's Day Tea celebration where we made a craft, ate some goodies, and hung out with the other kids and moms from his class.  Unfortunately we got home and Nathan was burning up with a 103 degree temp.  We instantly guessed that he was getting another ear infection because he had been congested all week.

Luckily Nathan is not one to miss out on a good time so he rallied on Saturday and we still hosted his birthday party.  The theme was Very Hungry Caterpillar since that is one of his favorite books.  We did a lunch with all the foods from the book.  The highlight of the meal was the incredible cake that Grampa Jay made.  We had sent him a photo idea from the web but his version was much better.  Thank you Grampa Jay for such an incredible cake (as Nathan thoroughly enjoyed which you'll see below).  Most of the family came except Aunt Jacky and Uncle Johnathin who unfortunately were sick (we missed you!).  As well as our friend Shannon and her son Leo.  It was a beautiful sunny day and we had a great time hanging out, eating, opening presents and of course stuffing ourselves with cake and ice cream.   Nathan impressed us with his first cake experience.  This boy is just like his mom and loves sugar!  He was a little timid at first, but the minute he tasted that chocolate, he was all about stuffing handfuls of cake in his mouth, on his face and in his hair.  When finished we literally lifted him up and put him in the bathtub with all his clothes on!  You know it's been a successful first birthday party when you're covered from head to toe in cake!

Happy birthday to our sweet boy!!! 

Presents!!!

Amazing cake made by Grampa Jay

Our yummy spread

Cute little signs I found on Etsy to put by each food item

A banner of monthly photos hanging on the mantel

Nathan got lots of summer toys including an inflatable pool, sand toys, a beach towel and these awesome sunglasses!

Of course his favorite part was getting in the gift boxes and being pushed around the room

"Mom you're embarassing me!  I'm trying to be a tough football player and find my Beast Mode!"

"You're really gonna make me wear this dorky hat?  Ok only if I can eat cake soon."

"I am gonna demolish that thing...."

Sugar coma

The boy loves his chocolate!

The aftermath in the bathtub.  What a fun day!!

Here are a couple more photos that James took from the party:

A more complete view of the amazing cake

Our Hungry Caterpillar made out of paper lanterns

Nathan enjoying his new Alphabet Train--his gift from us

 

Official 12 month photos and a recap of all the monthly photos to come soon!!

11 Months Old!

Wow I'm way behind on blogging.  Gonna do a little catching up here...

It seems like 11 months just came and went because already Nate is 1 year old!!  But I wanted to make sure to post some photos of what he looked like at 11 months.  This was by far the hardest monthly photo shoot because the kid is so wiggly!  Good luck getting him to sit still.  But we did our best and got a few photos.

Here are some things at 11 months we don't want to forget:

*Nathan can walk on his own pushing an empty box or a walker toy
*He has quite a bit of hair and got his first haircut a couple weeks ago
*Nathan now eats 3 meals a day with bottles in between
*5 teeth--2 on the bottom and 3 on the top
*Loves to get into everything around the house--especially the things he's not allowed to.  His favorite activities are playing in the tupperware cupboard, pulling out all the DVD bins, playing with the TV remotes, and strumming the guitar.  I'm not even sure why we have baby toys--we apparently don't need them!
*When Nate does play with toys his favorites are his firetruck, ring stacker, blocks and and CD player
*Still love reading books especially with flaps or pop-ups.  He's more into turning the pages than actually looking at the pictures or hearing the story.

Such a little ham!

We had to put a rubber bumper on the crib because he was chewing on the wood when teething! 

He looks like a little boy--crazy how fast time flies

Swimming Class

In March and April we took Nathan to swimming class on Saturday mornings.  We now have a little fish on our hands!  Nathan loves taking baths so we thought he might like swimming in the pool too and boy we were right!  He loved splashing and swimming after the toy fishes.  We were lucky to have other family members join the swimming class a couple times too including Gramma and Grampa, Nana and Pops and Uncle Ryan. 

Happy Easter!

"I'm not quite sure why they want me to go find these eggs, but at least they make fun rattles noises!"

"Seriously?  No candy in it?"

"Look how big I'm getting!"

"Yay for springtime and sunshine!"

"I love my Nana and Pops!  Hmmm...maybe they'll let me have candy."

Getaway

In mid-March, James and I got to spend 6 glorious days over in Maui, Hawaii.  We got a package deal in the mail last summer and took advantage of the chance to stay in a resort that we had visited last time we were there, but could never afford normally.

We left Nathan at home with our wonderful parents so we could reconnect as a couple and be on our own schedule.  It was the first time we had really been away from Nathan and I think it was harder on us than on him.  But we really tried to take advantage of being on our own again.  It was a wonderful time of sleeping!, going out to dinner, walking on the beach, working out, laying by the pool, and just relaxing.  I reveled at not having do any house chores or errands and we just had nowhere we needed to be.  One day we got massages and on our last day we took a sailboat snorkel/whale watching trip over to Lanai.  It was just the rejuvenation we needed.  And luckily it wasn't really hard to come home because we had something to look forward to waiting for us!

Our wonderful resort!

Ah Lahaina Grill--by far one of our most favorite restaurants in the world.  Yum!

Very full and very happy

Our fun sailboat adventure!

It was definitely whale watching season--we saw a ton of whales.  What incredible creatures!

Our cataraman sailboat

Nothing beats a Maui sunset

I told James "Don't forget this moment when you're sitting at your desk next week buried in work."

This is what it looks like when we're relaxed and caught up on sleep--a rarity!

10 Months Old

What a fun age this is!  The amount of development and change that is going on with Nathan is astounding and we're just soaking up every minute of it! 

Here are the fun things happening at 10 months old:

*Pulling himself up to standing while holding on to furniture
*Crawls all over the place and is definitely starting to get into everything and anything he can get his hands on.  We love his curiosity, but are also figuring out where we need to baby proof
*He's eating 3 solid meals a day and really likes fruit (blueberries, strawberries, fruit puree), pasta, chicken, mum mum crackers, and anything mom and dad are eating
*He loves to sleep with his butt in the air and his legs tucked under--no idea how that's comfortable
*Nathan cracks himself up all the time--out of the blue he'll just start laughing either at something he sees or something he does.  It's fun to observe him from afar when he's not looking
*He still loves to read and is very into turning the pages of a book all by himself.  We read two books every night before bed and read a couple books during the day
*Nate loves people--loves to interact with them, observe them,  and be around them.  He especially loves his grandparents and gets so excited when he sees them
*He points at things now, but not with his pointer finger.  He basically raises his arm towards the object and keeps his palm up
*He's got a lot more hair now and is starting to look like a little boy.  
*Loves to play peek a boo and hide and seek.  He will go into the pantry and close the door while we say "Where's Nathan?"  You can hear him giggling inside and then all the sudden he surprises us and opens the door!  He's a sneaky one!

You just get cuter and cuter every day.  Stop growing up--it's going too fast!  We love you buddy!