Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Thanksgiving Trip

For Thanksgiving this year none of us were sick! This meant that we got to go to Grandma Hope's house for some yummy food! Nathan loved being at Grandma Hope's house because he had a lot of space to run around. There were also some sheep that he loved watching, and they had chickens too (and he loved following them around!) The food was great and I personally think that I can eat Thanksgiving Day meals every day and not get sick of it :)


We took the plunge and got Nathan's hair cut!!!!! My Uncle Johnny does haircuts and we decided to have him do Nathan's first professional one. Nathan did really well and was sitting in the chair not moving around much. My Uncle let Nathan play with the clippers so that Nathan wasn't afraid of them, which helped a lot. Then my Uncle started on his hair cut...he shaved the back of it and my first reaction was "oh, that is short!" Once it was done it looked as though I had a different kid. Nathan definitely looks like a little boy now. Towards the end of the haircut he was getting antsy so there were some pieces that still needed trimming that we got later on :) Here are a before and after picture :)







The full gallery of Nathan's hair cut is at http://gallery.christopheraedo.com in Nathan (pt2) at the end.

Until recently, Nathan has not been very adventurous around things like the slides at playgrounds. He has turned a corner though, and this time when we went he was excited to try. When we put him on the slide he got this really terrified look on his face, but as soon as he was at the bottom and either Christopher or I had him he got a HUGE smile on his face and would start clapping and want to do it again. While we were there Nathan took a tumble and busted his lip open :( I think that it was his first big injury. He had blood everywhere and was crying a lot. Needless to say, I have not wanted to take him back to that playground. I took a picture of his fat lip, but those still need to be downloaded from our camera.

Then when we were in Sacramento for T-Day one of my cousin's had a toy slide to play on. Nathan has never been too interested in the slide. He would go up this one almost to the top and then climb back down. After some encouragement from Grandpa Nathan started going down the slide. He would even go down without one of us holding his hands. He was loving it!

We have parent and child classes at our local Waldorf school and they have a playground with a slide and Nathan has always been too scared to go on it. He would sometimes try to climb up the slide from the bottom of it, but that would be it. This week he was climbing up the play structure to get to the top of the slide and then would go down it, which is a huge step for him! Sometimes he would get so excited that he would forget that he needs to sit down and I would have to catch him before he took a tumble down the slide. I am very excited that he now is not afraid to go down a slide :)

I was noticing today how much Nathan has changed in just a few months. He really has grown a lot. He repeats a lot of what we say and do now. I think that "sushi" is one of my favorite words that he says. I taught him how to give Eskimo kisses and those are the best! It is amazing how fast they grow-up! I really am enjoying this time with him!

-Heather

p.s. Christopher built Nathan this cool play kitchen and once we upload the photos we will blog about it!

Monday, November 9, 2009

Time Sure Does Fly!



We decided that Nathan's hair was out of control and it needed to be cut. Being impatient and not knowing how Nathan would do at a salon Sandra and I cut it. It is a good thing that I do not work in that profession because I didn't do such a great job :). Since it has been forever since I have written in here Nathan's hair is now long again. I think this time I might take him somewhere to get it cut professionally!

*****ROADTRIP!!!***** To Sacramento and then Graeagle for Amber and Evan's wedding!

First stop was Sacramento where we stopped by Grandma Hope's place and Nathan got to have her homemade tortillas! I think that he loved them!


Next we went over to my brother's place to meet our new nephew and Nathan's cousin Joseph! We also got to meet Deziree :) Here is a group picture of all of us!


Now we were in Graeagle for Amber and Evan's beautiful wedding!

Here is the wedding party waiting for Amber (I am the second bridesmaid from the left)


Here is the married couple!


Here are Christopher and I at the reception :)


*****HARVEST FESTIVALS & HALLOWEEN*****

We went to Underwood Farms' Harvest Festival and it was a lot of fun! Most of the pictures I got of Nathan were from far away and of his back. He just takes off and it was hard to try and get a picture of the little man on the move!


Next was the Lombardi Ranch Harvest Festival. The day we went it was super windy! Nathan enjoyed the petting zoo the most :)


Here is Nathan among the pumpkins


Nathan HATED his costume so I took a whole bunch of pre-Halloween pictures just in case he wouldn't wear it on Halloween. Here are some pics of the cutest shark ever!

















Nathan actually cooperated a bit for Halloween and allowed us to put the costume on for a couple of minutes without a struggle! For some reason Halloween was really slow this year with kids trick-or-treating. That meant that we were left with a ton of candy, but Christopher was nice enough to take it all to work!

Here's the little shark at Rhonda's house (he had to have his snack cup with him during this time!).


Here is the back of the costume


Nathan with Denise, Christopher, and Ginger


*****VISITORS*****
Aunt Karen and Monika came out to LA in October to do some wedding dress shopping. It was really nice seeing them both! Here is Nathan with Karen.


*****SANTA BARBARA TRIP!!!*****
We went to Santa Barbara for a 1/2 marathon, but made it into a little vacation because my old boss got me a great rate at the motel I used to work at! Thanks Shawn!!! Being back in Santa Barbara always makes me wish that I lived there. I really do miss that beautiful city!


Here are Nathan's cute footprints in the sand :)



Christopher and I both did the 1/2 marathon. Christopher did it completely barefoot! I did it in my funky Vibram Five-Finger shoes. We both were not as prepared for the race as we should have been, but at least we finished it! I did push myself a little too hard and felt like I had to puke afterwards. It also took me a couple of days to not feel soreness in my muscles!


*****NATHAN RANDOMNESS*****
We have been taking Nathan to a Waldorf Parent and Child class. The class has six students and everyone is so nice. So far we are loving the school! I look forward to the days that we get to go there :)

Nathan got in teeth #8 & #9! #9 was a molar and that one took forever to come in! I think that it also caused him a lot of pain.

Nathan is saying a lot more words now. I was just thinking today how it is funny how he seems to pick up dog commands easily! He knows "sit," "stay," "go," & "leave-it (sounds like e-it). He knows many other words too.

Nathan has become a very good mimic and we now have to watch what we say and do. Lately, he will copy us on a movement we do or a word we say. It is amazing how much he picks up! He really is a smart little guy, but I am guessing that most kids his age go through this exact same phase :). The cutest is watching him blow his nose or cover his mouth when he coughs.

Nathan has gotten into the bad habits of scratching our faces or arms, biting, or yelling when he is not happy about something. All three of these are not very fun and we aren't sure how to stop them.

Nathan is now 18 months old! Hard to believe that in just six months he will be two!


*****OTHER RANDOMNESS*****

It is officially fall and my bell pepper plants and tomatoes are just now blooming! I got a late start on those. It is cool to see my plants produce food. Here are some pics :)




Ok, I am officially tired! I will promise to do a better job at keeping this more updated! Joliene, I hope that you enjoyed this!

-Heather

p.s. you can go to gallery.christopheraedo.com to check out all of our pictures

Sunday, September 20, 2009

To Cut Or Not To Cut


Just a quick update :) Nathan's hair is getting a bit long and we are debating on whether or not to cut it. It looks like he has a surfer hairdo right now, which is pretty cute, but his hair gets in his eyes often. I guess once people start asking if he is a girl then it will be time to cut it :)

Nathan has been quite the helper lately and here is some video to prove it!





I think that we will be getting rid of our cleaning lady very soon :)

-Heather

Monday, September 7, 2009

Loves To Eat

Nathan LOVES to eat. Here are some good ones:

Nathan eating his favorite food, cheese!


Nathan eating a banana


Nathan stealing Grandpa's breakfast bar :)


Nathan also loves to put things around his neck lately! We have to watch him very closely to make sure that he doesn't strangle himself! We aren't quite sure what the fascination is?




Nathan loves to wear this necklace around his neck. He is looking very stylish in this outfit :)


Nathan got tooth #7! He seems to take his time on getting teeth :) Nathan also started standing up on his own and now he doesn't have to crawl somewhere to pull himself up to a standing position. He is practically running now, but he is still really wobbly! It looks like he is a little drunk when he is walking/running, but I promise that we do not give him any of Christopher's beer! Nathan has a few "words" in his vocabulary. He says "bruh" for bread, "ch" for cheese, "hot" for hat and hot. Whenever he sees the computer he says "dada" because we Skype with Christopher and Nathan is used to seeing Christopher in the computer. Whenever someone comes in the door Nathan will usually say "dada" because he is excited to see Christopher coming home from work! Nathan understands a whole bunch and it is a little crazy to us that he comprehends so much. He loves to read and he will give us his favorite books over and over to read. He particularly likes Goodnight Moon, Brown Bear, Bear On A Bike, The Foot Book, Goodnight Gorilla, Ten In The Bed, and the Hungry Caterpillar. He loves to point at stuff in the book and he seems to understand what a lot of the pictures are.

Speaking of caterpillars, I have come to loathe them! I used to like them, but now that I have some big tomato plants growing I am really upset when I find the leaves and tomatoes all eaten up by the caterpillars. It really bothers me when the tomatoes are eaten because I have not had one tomato ripen yet and I would like to try at least one! There are also so many caterpillars and I don't know where they all come from. I seem to find at least five a day. I do feel a little bad about getting them off of my plants because I know that they are hungry just like in Nathan's book :) I have some bell peppers that are growing and doing well and the rest of my plants have died! Next year I think will be a better year!

We got a surprise this weekend! My parents came down to visit with us for a couple of days. We had no idea and it was great to see them! We wish that they could have stayed longer, but at least we got to see them!!!!

Bye!

-Heather

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Clapping & 15 months old


Nathan has finally started to clap! He seems to like taking his time to do some milestones. One day he just started clapping and now he doesn't like to stop! I think that clapping was the last big milestone I was waiting for him to do.

Nathan turned 15 months old and since our Doctor is going out on maternity leave we went and saw her at 15 months instead of at 18 months for Nathan. Nathan weighs 24 lbs 5 oz (50%), he is 30 " tall (25%) and his head is in the 12th percentile, but it really doesn't look that small and I can't imagine what a 100th percentile head looks like, yikes! Everything else was looking good and his next appointment will be at two years.

Nathan still isn't talking much, but he does communicate a lot in signs. His newest sign is for "flag." Whenever he sees a flag he opens and closes his hand. He also knows more parts of his body. He understands a lot, which is really amazing. He is still walking like crazy and is getting faster all of the time. His new adventure is to get into our garbage and recycling cans and take stuff out. We are trying to decide what we can buy to prevent him from doing this! Lastly, his hair is getting really long and I think that we will soon have to give him a haircut so that we can get the hair out of his eyes :)

Christopher and I are currently back into running and exercising. We are both running "barefoot." We got these five fingered shoes that are supposed to mimic your natural foot, but with a little protection. I run in the shoes all of the time, but Christopher will run completely barefoot a lot of the time. The book that inspired us to get into running again was Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. If you want to check out the shoes you can go to www.vibramfivefingers.com

This year I finally got around to planting my garden. I did it in containers because most of my backyard is cement and I have to say that this year was a big flop! My backyard gets way too hot during the summer and it has killed off most of my plants. I did get one cucumber and one zucchini though. Next year I will have to move my plants into a more shaded area or build some shade for my plants...I really thought that plants LOVED the sun, but I guess that they don't love it that much :)

I think that is it for us!

-Heather

Thursday, July 16, 2009

He walks!

Nathan is finally walking around, unassisted! For the last few weeks (or two months?) he has been happy to walk around just about anywhere - as long as he could hold your hand. If you slipped out of his grip he would go at most two steps before he realized what was happening, then he would squeal and drop down to a crawl. Today though, a visit from his Aunt Sandra was enough to distract him from the fact that he was walking, and it finally clicked!



Sunday, July 12, 2009

Learning Explosion



It seems like Nathan has been learning a lot of stuff in the last week. I was showing Nathan parts of his body and when I would ask him where his head or tummy is he would point to them. Sometimes he will go a little overboard and keep hitting his head with both of his hands. It looks like the Home Alone pose, but on his head. I asked him where my nose was and he pointed to it. I couldn't believe how he picked this up so fast. I am now working on trying to get him to point to other body parts.

Nathan has learned two new signs. He now knows what "cheese" and "all done" are. He does a modified version of the sign for cheese because he can't quite get the hand movements for it. It is funny when he does the sign for "all done" because sometimes he is just doing it so that he can swing his arm around even when he isn't really done :) For the most part he knows what it means though.

Nathan has officially said his first word. We were playing with his bubbles and I kept saying the word bubbles and then he started saying "buba." I thought that it was cute how he was trying to mimic me, but then this weekend when he would see either the bubble juice or the bubble machine he would say "buba!" I couldn't believe that he was actually trying to say bubbles to the right thing! He has been saying "mama" and "dada," but he will say those while babbling and not to us. When he does want us he will use those words, but I am not counting them as his firsts because he doesn't use them consistently. He has also been trying to mimic sounds that we make and I am sure that his vocabulary will be growing a lot soon. It is kind of funny how all of this stuff happened while Christopher was in Costa Rica :).

Nathan also got in tooth #5! This tooth has been coming in forever and it finally broke through the gums on Saturday. I am really happy that Nathan doesn't get super grumpy when he is teething.

Nathan also took a few steps on his own. The steps he took (all three of them!) were from one piece of furniture to another. He'll walk anywhere as long as he has one of our hands to hold on to, and will usually take two or three more steps if we let go. He loves to walk, but will only do so holding our hand or finger (he has yet to get up by himself and start walking though). If we aren't around he will find anything to push around and use as a walker. He seems like he is close to walking, but I know that he has to try and stand up on his own and he hasn't done that yet. Both Christopher and I don't mind that he isn't walking yet because we can keep better tabs on him :) He does like to climb all over stuff and seems pretty fearless.

That is about all for now!

-Heather

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Nathan is waving!!!!!



Nathan has finally started to wave to people when you say goodbye or hi! He doesn't do it all of the time and it is a very sloppy wave, but it is one! He waves with his whole arm up and down and fast :) We were in the parking lot and this lady stopped in her car to let us cross and I put out my hand to say "thanks" and Nathan started waving to her! She started laughing and waving back! I am glad that he is finally waving. Now I just have to get him to start clapping :)

Aren't Nathan's teeth cute? I actually think most things about him are cute :) I do think that he is getting cuter as he gets older. His appearance has changed a lot in a couple of months. I was looking at some old pictures of his and I can't believe how much he has changed. Go to gallery.christopheraedo.com and you can take a look at our bazillion pictures we have!




Nathan LOVES to eat!!! We had heard that babies/toddlers usually get really picky about what they eat after they turn a year, but that is not the case with Nathan. He eats about anything (he has even had a little taste of some cat food that he got to before we could get to him) and likes it all. He also eats a lot! I think that he gets that from both sides of the family :) One of his first signs was for "cracker" and he does that sign all of the time. He will crawl over to the fridge and look up at the crackers and do the sign. He also loves to stuff his face with food. It is amazing how much food he can cram in his cheeks. In the above picture I had some chips on the table and I didn't think that he could reach them and I was in the next room and I heard something fall and I went in and I saw that he had pulled the chips off of the table and was scrambling to eat them as fast as he could before I could get to him or the chips. He is a great eater and you can definitely tell by his chubby little legs!

We had a nice 4th of July weekend! Rhonda ended up feeding us two nights in a row and we are very thankful for that!!! We didn't watch any fireworks show, but we think that next year we will keep Nathan up so that we can watch some show somewhere. This coming week Christopher is going to Costa Rica for work and I am really jealous that we don't get to come! We will definitely miss him around the house!

-Heather

Sunday, June 28, 2009

I am now 30! And other stuff...

I had my 30th birthday last weekend and we had really good time. On Friday night we went out with our friends from dog class (we take Lucy to dog classes almost every Monday) to celebrate a bunch of June birthdays. On Saturday night we went out to dinner with some of our friends and then went and watched our friend Alec Mapa film a comedy show for the Logo network. He was hilarious and we had a lot of fun! On my actual birthday Christopher and I went out to see a movie, which was a real treat! We went out to sushi for dinner and then drove quite a way to get some cherry pie. I LOVE cherry pie! My birthday was on the same day as Father's Day, so Christopher missed out on a Father's Day this year because I said that my birthday trumped that day :) Thanks to everyone who called or emailed me to wish me a Happy Birthday!

Nathan went back to do refresher "swim" lessons this past week. We were only scheduled to go for two days, but he didn't get it until the fifth day! I figured that he would take longer than the two days because of the last time we did refresher classes. The first day he did really bad and he swallowed a whole bunch of water. He ended up throwing up three times! It isn't fun to see him throw-up. I really didn't want him to go to the classes after that, but I knew that it was in his best interest to do so. He ended up only throwing up once after that. I can tell that he has changed from the last time he took the classes because he didn't fit in his bathing suit and he looked a lot bigger in the water. He also knew as soon as we were walking through the gate to the backyard what we were going to do and he would start crying. When I would try and pass him to the instructor he would hold onto me really tight and then start screaming! During the lessons he knew what to do, but he also knew that the instructor was in the pool with him and he would keep looking to her for help. There were also times when he was floating well and he would roll over onto his stomach! I figured that he was doing this because when he is getting his diaper changed he is always rolling over to get on his hands and knees so that he can move away from us. I figured that he thought that if he rolled over he could get away from Jessica, but no such luck in a pool. On the fifth day he was doing everything great! Now, we just have to make sure that we keep up on his refresher classes and don't let four months pass by before we go back again!

Nathan is a bona fide copycat these days! He tries to copy almost every noise and movement that we make. When he was at our friends' house they were outside and some birds were making noises and Nathan tried to make the same noise that they were making :) He will try and howl when we are getting the dogs to howl (they howl at the sound of sirens). He also tries to whistle which is super cute! He finally got the sign for airplane and will do that now. I have tried and tried to get him to wave goodbye and to clap, but he refuses. I think that he is refusing because I want him to do it! He really does understand a lot even though he doesn't talk.

Something that is so cute is that around 6pm every day our male cat Neko will come into the kitchen and go to the corner where our kitchen rug is and Nathan will crawl after him. Nathan will then start to pet him "hard." Neko likes it when you are a little rough with him, which we don't get! Luckily, Nathan isn't very gentle so it is a match made in heaven for both of them. It cracks me up because it is their special time together. Sandra, Christopher, and I have tried to record this, but every time we get the camera out Nathan crawls away from Neko! It is super cute and I hope that one day we will get their interaction recorded.

I am sure that there is more stuff that I haven't written about, but my brain is in shutting down mode!

-Heather

p.s. I didn't post a picture because we haven't uploaded our pictures to our computer yet...I should do that tomorrow!

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Grammie B



The last couple of weeks Nathan and I have been doing a lot of traveling. About three weeks ago I got word that my Grammie B had about two to eight weeks left to live because she had really aggressive cancer that was in her lungs and liver. Nathan and I flew up to Reno two weeks ago to say our goodbyes to her. When we got there she wasn't doing so good, but she was able to recognize us and she even lit up when she saw us. She held Nathan's foot for a little bit and at one point Nathan went over to where she was and was holding onto her fingers. I was really glad that we were able to see her even though it wasn't like it was my Grammie anymore.

We flew back home on Tuesday and my dad called me on Wednesday to say that my Grammie B had passed away. I was pretty sad about the news, but I knew that it was the best for her because she was in a lot of pain. That weekend we made the long drive (about 9 hours) up to Graeagle so that we could go to her funeral service. It was nice being at home again and seeing my dad's side of the family. It is definitely going to be weird not having my Grammie B around anymore. I really am going to miss her!

Onto some happy news! Nathan now has five teeth! He has his four front teeth and just today one of his top side teeth came in. Nathan also waved to someone today when they were leaving and that is the first time that I have seen him do that! Nathan is babbling like crazy and saying "dada" a lot, but he hasn't associated it with Christopher. He doesn't say any words yet, but he seems like he is really close to doing so. Nathan is also getting better at standing alone. He can stand all by himself for a while, but if he notices that he is standing without support he will either start to cry or he will find something to hold onto to. I think that he will be walking at 15 months and not the 13-14 that I predicted. He is just taking his time on the walking and I am not complaining about that :). Nathan still loves his food and whenever he is cranky all we have to do is give him some food and he is happy (hopefully, this will not cause any problems later in life for him!).

On a last note, this is my last week of being in my 20s! It is hard to believe that I am almost 30!

-Heather

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Another tooth!


Nathan just got in his third tooth today! What a Mother's Day gift :) It is one of his top teeth and the one next to it looks like it will be coming out shortly. He didn't seem to be too grumpy with the teething, which was nice for us! It will be weird seeing Nathan with more than his bottom two teeth.

Speaking of teeth, I have started the process of weaning Nathan from breastfeeding. He was breastfeeding about four times a day and then I got that down to three and now I am working on getting that down to two. Now that he has top and bottom teeth I want to be done:). Weaning him has been a little tough because I would breastfeed and rock him to sleep before he would go down for a nap or to bed and now he needs that to help him fall asleep. It has been a little bit of a struggle to get him to fall asleep. Rubbing his back for a LONG time seems to help sometimes. I am ready to be done with breastfeeding, but I am definitely going to miss the bonding with him. I hope to be all done by the beginning of June (I want to be done for my 30th birthday!).

The below video is for your viewing pleasure! We thought that it was hilarious!




Christopher got me a sweet MacBook for my anniversary, Mother's Day, Birthday, Christmas, and any other holiday (at least that is what I said it was for) a little bit ago and I am planning on using it to get more videos posted of Nathan. We were watching some of them today and they were pretty funny. It is also crazy to see how much he has changed since he was first born.

That is about it for this week. HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all of the moms I know!

-Heather

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Nathan is ONE!!!



It is official, Nathan is one! He turned one on April 26th. It really is hard to believe that he is already a year old. The time flew by! On 4/25 we had a little birthday party for him and if you go to gallery.christopheraedo.com you will find all of the birthday pictures (and more). Nathan didn't understand the concept of opening gifts and was more interested in crawling around, but he did love his cupcake! He wasn't sure about the cupcake at first, but then once he had a bite he tried to shove the whole thing in his mouth. We also discovered that Nathan loves Mac & Cheese! Nathan's Grandma and Grandpa O'Neill were also in town to help celebrate his big day!

On Nathan's actual birthday we just hung out around the house. Both Nathan and I were sick and we got Sandra and my dad sick :( I blame Christopher because he was sick the week before! At least we don't have the Swine flu!

On Tuesday we went in for Nathan's 1-year check-up and here are his stats:

Weight: 22lbs -25th-50th percentile
Height: 28.5" -10th-25th percentile...I personally think that the lady could have gotten a longer reading if she stretched him a little better :)

Nathan also had to get his blood taken because they have to test iron levels and some other stuff. I couldn't be in the room when they took the blood from his arm. I was getting squimish just looking at the guy next to us get blood taken. I also could hear Nathan screaming and I don't think that I would have been able to handle being in the same room. Nathan did great though!

Nathan is still not walking (he does cruise around on the furniture a lot!). He babbles so much, but isn't saying any words on purpose. He is climbing on furniture. If the furniture is low enough to the ground he can hoist his body up on it! He still only has two teeth, but it looks like his two top front teeth will be coming in very soon!

That is about all for now!

-Heather

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Busy, busy, busy



Wow, we have been so busy that I have not had much time to post in our blog. There is a lot to write, but hopefully I can summarize it all without writing a book :)

-Swim lessons:
Nathan finally did great on his refresher classes. It turned out that all he needed was to be rested. We joked around saying that we have to make sure that when Nathan accidentally falls in the pool he has to be well rested. We will be doing refresher classes again sometime in May.

-Hair:
Christopher and I got hair cuts. You may be wondering why I mention this and it is because I got about 14-15" cut off! I was ready for a change and told our stylist that she could do what she wanted. She cut off 10" to donate and then the rest was for her to play with. I am on the fence with the hair cut (it is really short for me), but I think that once it grows out a little I will like it. It kind of reminds me of my mom's hair!

-Birthday Party for Christopher:
Even though he said it wasn't his birthday party it was, sort of. He had his annual big bash and he was able to get a couple of kegs emptied. The house was packed and the disco floor was a lit. I think that most everyone had a good time. Nathan was even able to take a nap during it all!

-Australia:
On 3/27 we left LA to Australia. The flight there was 14 hours and I think that it was the longest 14 hours ever! Our plane left at 11pm and Nathan could not fall asleep in the terminal. It then took him forever to fall asleep on the plane. They provide you with bassinets on the plane, but the catch is that if there is turbulence you have to take the baby out and put them on your lap with the kid belt. Well, there always seemed to be turbulence right when we would put Nathan down to sleep. We thought that we would just keep him there and not move him, but we got busted! We didn't get much sleep and I basically was Nathan's pacifier for the whole trip. We did fly V Australia which was really nice and the staff was GREAT! We also got seated in an area that had more room for babies which was really nice. Nathan got diarrhea on the flight and it lasted for a few days and that wasn't fun!

It was so nice to be visiting with Crystal, Sam, Ziah, and Marley! Their house was so cute and felt like we were at home. Much better than staying at a hotel! Nathan who is 11 months was about the same size as Marley who is 3 months. Nathan was heavier, but Marley didn't look that much smaller. Ziah was a great big sister! She loved playing with Nathan and being around him. She was wanting to hold his hand all of the time. I think that Ziah really enjoyed having some new playmates (Christopher and I included).

We took a trip up to Cairns (Australians pronounce it like "can") so that Christopher could dive the Great Barrier Reef. I was not excited about the 3 hour flight there, but it wasn't too bad. The hotel that we were at was beautiful and we had a water view from our room. The hotel also had it's own indoor rainforest and that ended up being the place that Nathan and I went to all of the time. They had a ton of birds and Nathan is very fond of the birds. He even would start saying "ba, ba" when he would see the birds. There was one cockatoo that used to be a pet that was there. His name was Big Bird and he couldn't fly, but he loved being on you. All you had to do was go up to his cage and he would climb on you. It was really hard to get him off of you too! The only bad part about the rainforest was that it was HOT! While Christopher did his diving, which he said was great, Nathan and I mostly stayed in our room because it was hot. Christopher did pay for me to get a massage because he felt bad for leaving us for two days (he was back for the night).

When we were in Sydney we saw the Aquarium, which is supposed to be the largest in the world. It was pretty good, but it was raining so hard and Nathan was grumpy which wasn't a great combination. When we got back to Crystal and Sam's they asked us if we had been swimming because we were so wet. We had taken public transportation and had to do some walking. The public transit was really easy to navigate. We checked out some of the beaches that were gorgeous! We toured the Harbor and saw the infamous Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. We went to a great park where there were wallabies and Kangaroos that were roaming around in the park that you could pet and feed. It really was a great park and even though it was crowded for the park, it wasn't that bad! We had a really great time!

Driving on the opposite side of the road was interesting. I didn't do any of the driving, but it was weird being a passenger. The city streets in Sydney were not very grid-like so it looked too confusing for me to drive it. That is one reason we took public transportation to some things. Trying to do anything all together was almost impossible. Having three kids that were taking naps at all different times made it hard to do some stuff together. It was nice though to just relax at home! Crystal made us some amazing dinners! She really is a great chef and she makes some great sandwich bread that I tried to copy and didn't succeed at. We also got to meet Sam's parents and have dinner with them. They too are great cooks and were really nice!

Christopher and I discovered on our trip that when Nathan is fussy all we have to do is give him some bread or other food and he is happy! Kind of bad that food makes our baby happy. Hopefully, he won't have serious issues when he is older :). Nathan was also a great eater and I think that he may have eaten more than Ziah at each meal!

Our flight home was only 13 hours and it wasn't as bad, but it was still long and a little painful! The hardest part is getting Nathan readjusted to the time change. He did ok there, but now that we are home he is having the hardest time. We put him down at his normal time and either 5 minutes or an hour later he is up. He would be up until 2 am and that was killing us. Now he goes to bed with us. It was nice not having him sleep with us, but it seems to be the only thing that calms him down. We hope that soon he will be back to his old sleep habits!

THANK YOU CRYSTAL AND SAM FOR BEING GREAT HOSTS!!!!! WE LOVED VISITING WITH YOU GUYS!

Here is a link to all of our Australia pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/christopheraedo/OZ#

-Family:
Once we got home Christopher's sister Karen was here with her two daughters Danielle and Natalie. Natalie stayed with me while the rest of them went shopping and it was very nice to have Natalie watch Nathan so that I could do some things.

-Nathan:
-Is a VERY FAST crawler!
-Is babbling like crazy! We think that he will be talking soon
-Walks around holding onto the furniture like a pro, but isn't even close to wanting to walk by himself
-He still only has two teeth and it doesn't look like more are coming in
-He likes to imitate Christopher and me. He will do hand motions or mouth motions after we do them. He still will not wave though!
-He plays peek-a-boo with his blanket and it is super cute
-If you ask Nathan "how big is Nathan" he will lift both of his arms up in the air
-He loves the animals and will constantly go after them. Bella has scratched him a few times (we trimmed her claws so this wouldn't happen again!)
-Nathan is into headbutting everything. The cutest is when he headbutts a cat or dog. Sometimes one of our cats will headbutt him back.
-Nathan is almost ONE! Only a week to go!

That is it for now. We have to go to bed!

-Heather

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Waving


Just a quick update.  Nathan is now waving.  We have been working on this for a long time and sometime last week he figured out how to do it.  The only thing is that he doesn't like waving at humans, but rather at cars and airplanes!  It is really funny to watch.  The first time he waved we were in a parking lot and a car was coming towards us and he stuck out his hand and started waving.  When we go on our daily walks Nathan likes to wave at cars if they are coming towards us.  I sometimes wonder what the people in the cars think.  When he hears an airplane going by he will look up and stick his hand up and start waving.  I think that him waving is more like him pointing, but he puts the wave in.  I hope that he will start waving at us when we say "hi" or "bye" :).  

Nathan also has not adjusted to the time change and we LIKE that!  He was waking up at 6 in the morning, but now is getting up at 7.  We tried to change his daily schedule to make it similar to what he was already on, but then we thought that we really like him waking up later so we are keeping him on the same schedule he was on so now he gets up later and takes his naps later.

Nathan LOVES food.  He gets that from both Christopher and me.  He will eat practically anything that we give him and when we stop feeding him he will start screaming.  He loves to feed himself and we are giving him lots of finger foods now.  He is like a little chipmunk though because he puts a lot of food in his mouth and stores it there.  It is hilarious because he will have his mouth completely full and if we try to make him laugh he will lock his lips up and not open them so that no food will escape!

That is about it for now.  This coming up weekend I should be posting about the refresher swim lessons that we did!

-Heather

Sunday, March 1, 2009

10 Months and the News


Nathan turned 10 months on 2/26 which was Christopher's 36th birthday! We didn't have a big birthday celebration because Christopher worked and then Nathan goes to bed early. Hard to believe that in just two months Nathan will be a year old.

Nothing much has changed from last week. Nathan is standing up on furniture a lot and his balance seems to be getting better. I don't foresee him walking in the near future though :)

We still have Grandpa Aedo here and he will be here until the end of next week. We are hoping that next week we will be able to go to the zoo because Bill and Nathan should really like that.

Lastly, we were asked by our instructor if we would be one of the demo babies for a piece that the ABC news in LA was doing on swimming. We agreed, but then the instructor called and said that the piece was canceled so we would not be doing it. We were really excited about it, but oh well. I am also not quite sure if the piece was canceled or if our instructor decided that she didn't want us to demo and was saying that it was canceled to be nice.

The reason for our instructor not wanting us to do the news piece is that we had to go to her house during the weekend for a refresher class and Nathan didn't do so well. Nathan started crying immediately and then he was kicking and flailing all over the place. He was having a hard time floating. After a few minutes he calmed down and was able to float, but he was having a hard time rolling over. He got the rollovers except when he was put face down in the water. In the pool he had a huge burp and threw-up some water. When Jessica took him out of the pool he threw-up water a few more times. He also fell asleep right away. I then moved him to change him and he was having a hard time trying to stay awake. He then threw-up again and got me and him all wet. We came home and he threw-up about five more times and completely drenched himself and me and got the floor all wet. I tried breastfeeding a little after he had thrown-up and he threw that all up. It was incredible how much water he had thrown-up. He swallowed a ton of water during the refresher class. It was a little worrying that he had such a hard time floating and rolling over considering that we didn't finish classes too long ago. Jessica called me over the weekend to say that the piece was canceled and she also wanted to talk about what was going on with Nathan. She wants me to bring him back to classes in a week for a couple of days to see what may be going on. I think that he was just super tired because he had missed his nap. By putting him in the pool and "working" it really tired him out. He also had been eating apple products which makes kids super gassy. It should be interesting to see how he does in a week. I hope that he does well because it worries me that he wouldn't do well if he fell in the pool. Jessica is also going to talk to her instructor to see what may be going on. I hope that it was just a case of Nathan being overly exhausted!

-Heather

Sunday, February 15, 2009

ISR "Float" Lessons

As most of you know we enrolled Nathan in the ISR (Infant Swim Resource) program.  They teach babies 6-14 months how to float on their back if they ever fall into a body of water.  You may have seen the clip of "Miles" falling into the pool in his pjs and then floating on his back until someone came to get him.  We saw this clip and thought that this was something that we needed to teach Nathan.  We looked on the website for instructors near us and we got the last slot for the winter session with Jessica.  She is a new instructor and was having these classes at her house in her heated pool. 

The classes were for 10 minutes a day for five days a week.  The session was to be five weeks, but longer if we needed it.  Part of this program is documenting EVERY time Nathan pooped, peed, slept, ate, drank, had medicine, went to the doctor.  I also had to document everything that he ate.  Nathan was also not allowed to have certain foods at all times, certain foods some of the time, and have limits to when he could eat before class.  It was a lot of work on my part :)

Jessica started Nathan off with getting him to float properly.  His biggest problem was that he wanted to keep his arms real close to his body and with time Jessica was able to get him to spread his arms out to his side.  The next step was making sure that Nathan had good breath control when he was being turned down into the water.  Jessica would make sure that he was closing his mouth when he was getting close to going under water.  Then when Nathan would turn back on his back she would make sure that he would spit out any water that he swallowed (he is really good at this).  She then would make sure that Nathan was taking good deep breaths when we was floating.  At the beginning he would only take short fast breaths.  Once they are able to take deep, relaxed breaths she starts working on flipping the babies face down in the water and helping them turn over onto their backs.  Jessica helps out the babies less and less until they can rollback on their own.

For three weeks Nathan needed Jessica's help to roll over onto his back.  He would always be searching for her to help him out.  We were going into week four and he was still unable to do it on his own and I thought for sure that we would have to go longer than five weeks.  Then one day Nathan just got it.  It was amazing to see.  She flipped him over and he rolled back like a cork screw.  It was so fast and so smooth.  She did it several more times and he kept doing it.  He didn't need her help at all anymore.  It really was funny how it just "clicked" for him one day.

Now that he could roll back every time Jessica rolled him into the water it was time to move onto the next step.  She would flip him backwards into the water from the pool.  She would put him on the edge of the pool and toss him into the water at different angles.  She would also drop him down into the water as if he was jumping in.  Every time she did this he managed to roll on his back and float.  It was incredible to watch.  Once he got down this part it was time for the clothes!  The first clothing lesson Nathan had to wear summer clothes.  We had him in a regular diaper, shorts, t-shirt, and flip-flops.  He did all of the flips and rollovers in these clothes.  It was hilarious to see him in the pool in flip-flops.  I didn't bring a camera so I don't have pictures but trust me, it was hilarious.  The weight of the diaper when he got out was so heavy!  After summer clothes it was time for winter clothes.  He was wearing pants, socks, boots, a long sleeved shirt, and a jacket.  He was able to float on his back with all of the weight of the wet clothes.  He was so heavy from all of that water weight and it was great seeing that he could float on his back.

Christopher and I are confident that if Nathan fell into our pool he wouldn't drown because he would be able to turn over and float on his back.  I am still amazed that a 9 month old could figure this out.  The program is great!  Once Nathan is over 14 months and walking we will do the swimming portion of the lessons.

Below is a video we took on the last day of classes for Nathan.  I think that it is amazing to watch Nathan.  I also want to mention that out of the five babies Nathan was the 2nd one to graduate from the classes!




-Heather


Saturday, February 7, 2009

I'm a bad blogger!



I hadn't realized how long it has been since I have last written in here and I am shocked that it has been over a month! Hopefully, I will be a little better at this in the coming weeks :)

Since I know that everyone is dying to know, Nathan is a crawling pro! He crawls all over the place and fast. It was amazing how quick he got in such a short time. He loves to go after Lucy, the cats, Lucy's toys, and the water bowl for the animals. I think that he must want to be one of the animals :) Shortly after he started crawling he started pulling himself up to a standing position and now he is a pro at that too. The one big problem is that he has trouble getting down from a standing position and this isn't very fun during the middle of the night when he wakes up! He is starting to cruise around on the furniture, but he still isn't too confident about it and will not go very fast or far.

You might also be wondering about swimming lessons. We started those almost five weeks ago and this next week will be our last week. As soon as I hand Nathan over to the instructor he cries, but he stops once they start working. Nathan was working on floating and then rolling over onto his back. He had the float down really good, but wasn't doing so good on the rolling over to his back. I thought that we would probably be told that we need to go for an extra week or so of lessons until Nathan figured it out. When he would roll over he would need Jessica's (the instructor) help. Just last week it seemed to click for him and it was amazing to watch. When she would roll him face down in the water he would roll over onto his back so quick and without any help. She put him in the water in different positions and he was always able to roll over and get on his back and float. It was so great to see and I can't believe that a 9 month old has figured this out. Next week we will be working on "falling" into the pool from the sides of the pool and falling in the pool with clothes on. It should be interesting to watch. I think that it is awesome that Nathan will know what to do if he ever falls into a pool. A great part about these lessons is that they are happening in the LA winter. It has been ridiculous with the temperature and the weather has been perfect for the classes. The pool is outside and just this past week when we finally had rain the classes were canceled. Below is a little clip from one of the lessons that Nathan took. Next week I hope to get a new clip and it should be more interesting :)



Nathan now has TEETH! He got his first tooth a few weeks after he turned 8 months. When Nathan was crying during his swim lessons the instructor said that it looked like he had two teeth coming in. The Saturday after she said that one of the bottom front ones broke through. The second bottom one came in last weekend. I had thought that when the teeth came I would be able to see the whole tooth. I didn't realize that it takes forever for the whole tooth to come out. The first one that came out is now visible, but it still seems like it has a ways to go before it is out all of the way. Once I can get a good picture of his teeth I will post that! It is nice to know that Nathan has some teeth. Nathan has not bitten me yet while breastfeeding and I will keep my fingers crossed that he doesn't do that!

Nathan is now 9 months old! It is hard to believe that I have had him as long as I was pregnant with him. When I was pregnant the time went by so slowly and now it has gone by so quickly. At Nathan's appointment he weighed 19 lbs 3 oz and moved up to the 25th percentile for weight! I really think that having 3 solid meals a day with a couple of snacks has helped him gain some weight. He was 27 1/4" long and was in the 25th percentile for height. He is right on schedule with everything and our next appointment will be when he is a year old!

Nathan is eating like a champ! He eats everything we have given him and doesn't seem to be picky at all. Just recently I have started giving him more finger foods and he loves being able to feed himself...and Lucy. It is hilarious because he will hold out his hand with food in it and try and give it to Lucy. I now have to keep treats by Nathan when I am feeding him so that I can reward Lucy when she doesn't take food from Nathan. I am still making all of Nathan's food for him and it has been really easy to do and I think that we are saving more money by doing this. It has also given us the opportunity to pick out a whole bunch of weird combinations for foods. I never thought that broccoli, asparagus, sweet potato, and pear would taste good all mixed up together. His favorite food is the Gerber Puffs. Another mom described them as being "crack" for babies. They are pretty tasty and I can understand why the babies love them so much.

What else for us? Our family is going to Australia at the end of March to visit the Stone family and we are so excited about it! Christopher went and got certified for diving and we are planning on going to the Great Barrier Reef so that Christopher can dive there. Christopher is obsessed with brewing all grain beer and he has a whole set-up and loves to talk about it! We now have four full kegs on tap and Christopher wants to brew more even though we don't we room for it! I have joined a couple of moms groups and I have met some cool moms. I haven't been able to go to a lot of the gatherings, but that should change once we finish with the swim lessons.

I think that I have written about all of the biggest and latest news for us. We are still adding photos to our gallery if you want to check them out. Thanks for reading my short book :)

-Heather

Saturday, January 3, 2009

HAPPY 2009!

Wow, I have a lot to write in here because we have had a busy couple of weeks.

Nathan had his first Christmas up in Graeagle.  Nathan and I flew up and he was doing great until the landing.  He started crying and then just as we were close to landing the pilot had to abort the landing because it was too windy!  On the second try we landed, but Nathan was crying the whole time.  Luckily, I was seated around some really nice people and one lady was playing peek-a-boo with him.  I really hate flying into and out of Reno. 

Graeagle was a winter wonderland!  It was snowing while we were there and we were so happy that we got to have a white Christmas.  Nathan didn't seem to pay the snow much attention, but Lucy sure did love running and jumping in it.  Here is a picture with Nathan in his huge jacket outside of my parent's house.  



Nathan hit the jackpot with presents this year!  He got a lot of books, which he promptly put in his mouth, some toys and clothes :)  He tried opening up some presents, but he just didn't get it!  I don't know why he doesn't know how to open up presents yet :)  Later that day we went up to my Grandma O'Neill's house for our annual Christmas dinner.  Like usual, the food was delicious!  


It was so nice visiting with my family and friends.  We also enjoyed the cold weather.  When we got back to LA it was in the mid-70s and it felt like it was Autumn.  For New Years we ended up staying at home because Nathan has been sleeping so horrible and we didn't want to have his sleep disturbed by being somewhere other than at home.  We don't know what is going on, but he is only sleeping for an hour or two before waking up and crying non-stop.  It is really frustrating because nothing seems to calm him down except for me feeding him, which we don't want to keep doing.  We think that his sleeping problems are associated to teething because there doesn't seem to be any other reason for it, but we have yet to see any teeth come through.

On 12/26 Nathan turned 8 months old!  It is so hard to believe that in four months he will be a year old.  The time has just flown by and everyone that I talk to that has kids tells me that I need to enjoy this time because it goes by so fast and I really do believe it.  Now that Nathan can sit unsupported we put him on our scale to weigh him.  He is almost 18 pounds, which is small for a baby his age, but he looks healthy and he has some really big thunder thighs!

The biggest news is that Nathan is crawling!!!!  Over the Christmas holiday he was getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth and a couple of times he scooted forward.  Then on 1/1 he was able to move a couple paces forward and then fall down.  This was huge progress!  Now he gets up on all fours and starts crawling around.  He isn't fast and falls a lot, but I think that by next week he will be a pro at it.  He seems to be getting better at it each day.  Both Christopher and I are excited that he is finally crawling!

Lastly, we are starting Nathan on "swim" lessons in a couple of weeks.  The lessons really aren't on how to swim, but rather on how to survive if you fell in the pool.  With kids Nathan's age they teach them how to hold their breath underwater and then how to float on their back.  We are really excited about this because the group's (Infant Swim Resource) video was pretty remarkable and having Nathan know what to do if he fell in the pool will be so valuable.  

Like always, we have added more pictures to our gallery and if you click on the slide show in the upper right hand corner it will take you to those pictures.  There are a ton so you will have to scroll to the bottom to get the most recent ones.  You can also go to gallery.christopheraedo.com and it will take you to all of our pictures.

We hope that everyone has a great New Year!!!

-Heather