Last Week

So far, so good with me updating this blog more often :)!

Last week Christopher took a work trip to the Philippines, or as Nathan likes to say "Vanilla" (for Manilla). While he was gone Aunt Karen came to LA to shop & help out. One of the days we spent in Malibu at the Getty Villa and the beach. Here are some pictures. The boys had a ton of fun with Aunt Karen, Aunt Sandra, Shawn, & me.

I should mention that the water was freezing cold, but Nathan didn't seem to mind at all!

Closing 2011

I've really neglected this blog and I am a little upset that I have because this blog is the journal for my kids. I really have high hopes that this year I get on the ball and keep it updated more (yes, I know that it is already the middle of January and I haven't been updating this!).

Let's finish up the 2011 year!

In September the family took a trip to Europe! Our really good friends Crystal and Sam were getting married in the Czech Republic (where they live) and of course we could not miss that! The boys were incredible travelers and I couldn't have asked for better kids. Every flight we would have people come up to us telling us how good the boys were. When we would sit down I could tell the people around us were not happy when they saw that they were seated by two kids, but I think that they were pleasantly surprised!

We were in Cesky Krumlov for a week and we stayed at the coolest place called Moletin. We had a bunch of friends staying with us, which was extra cool! There was also a lot of space for Nathan to run around, which was what he needed!




Crystal and Sam's place was amazing and made me wish I had as much property as they did. The wedding was a ton of fun and Crystal looked beautiful. Nathan also ended up being in the wedding because he could not be separated from his friend Ziah (he told me in December that he wanted to marry Ziah when I asked him if he wanted to get married when he was older!).



Anderson passed out from all of the fun!


Nathan and Ziah with the goat Crystal and Sam got as a gift :)


After the Czech Republic we went to Salzburg, Austria. We loved this city and I would love to go back. After Salzburg we headed to Ljubljana, Slovenia. This was the most beautiful train ride I have ever been on! Where we stayed wasn't the best part of town, but the Old Town was beautiful. After Slovenia it was back up to Austria, but to Vienna. By Vienna we were all tired of traveling (it is hard with two kids and all of the luggage!) and we decided to skip London and catch an earlier flight home, which worked out well for us! I do still want to go back to London one of these days.

October was all about Anderson! He turned one and I can't believe that a year passed by so quickly! Here are is stats:
Weight: 23lbs 3 oz (50-75th%)
Height: 30 1/4" (50-75th%)
Head Circumference: was in the 95th percentile. Kid has a big head!

My parents came down for his birthday and the week of his birthday we had a small little party for him. He never managed to eat his cake at his party and it was pretty funny watching him handle his cake before having a complete meltdown and not wanting it at all!



Anderson is Mr. Teeth! By the end of the year he had 14 teeth and one that came in on 1/1/12. Anderson also started walking at 13.5 months in November and has gotten very good at it! He started signing a lot more and knows, "eat," "more," "all gone," "water," "bye," "diaper change," and I can't think of what else, but a couple more. He says, "Ma" for Mom and Dad, which is pretty funny. He loves playing outside, especially in the dirt. He likes to eat chalk and I have to keep a close eye on him whenever he is by the chalk. He knows how to hit and throw things courtesy of Nathan. He is a pretty chill kid, but he is more adventurous than what Nathan was at this age.

Mr. Nathan is quite the handful! He went through a big growth spurt and looks so much taller and thinner than what he had looked like. I think that he also looks bigger because Anderson is smaller than him. He still has a hard time with Anderson and hits and throws things at him. Lately, there have been a lot more moments where Nathan is being nice to Anderson and it is so awesome to see! Nathan is still going to the Spanish Immersion preschool and is doing alright with it. He never likes to be dropped off, but at the same time he doesn't want to leave when we go to pick him up.

Right now all he ever says is, "Why?...Why?...Why?...Why?" I know that kids his age say this all of the time and they are just trying to figure things out, but boy does it get a little frustrating! He is also into time and asks us frequently, "What time does..." It cracks us up!



Back to the months: October: For Halloween Nathan was a Garbage Man and Anderson was a shark (Nathan's past costume). Nathan is obsessed with garbage trucks and when you ask him what he wants to be when he grows up he says, "A Garbage Man."





November we had Thanksgiving up in Sacramento and the drive there and back was one of the worst drives yet! Thanksgiving was fun and it was nice to see family. Like I mentioned before, Anderson started walking this month and did a lot of it during Thanksgiving.

December we went up to my Parent's for Christmas. This was the first Christmas with the boys where it didn't snow on Christmas and there was no snow around. Christopher and Nathan had to trek up into the mountains to find a little bit of snow. We really wished there was snow because Nathan was really looking forward to it. It was fun and I enjoy being up with my parents.

This was the first year that Nathan kind of understood Santa Claus and Christmas. The only thing Nathan wanted from Santa was a belt! Hopefully, his requests stay that simple :) Anderson visited Santa at the mall for the first time and he was not a happy camper :(.

I splurged on food and sweets in November and December and gained 2-3 pounds and decided that in January I needed to start eating better. I made some resolutions that I hope to stick to.

Christopher started a new job (I don't know if I wrote about this before) and he loves it. It seems like it is a great company and there is a lot of potential for him. Plus, they all seem to love him. He also finally finished his flying lessons and passed his flight tests and is now a private pilot! I just now have to get up the nerve to fly with him!



New Years I was sick so I was in bed by 8 and Christopher didn't stay up too late either. Overall, 2011 was a good year and I hope that 2012 will be just as good or better!

-Heather

Anderson update

The last post was supposed to be about both of the boys, but I ran out of time and it just ended up being about Nathan. This time it will be about my baby Anderson :)

Anderson is a really great baby! He doesn't fuss much and puts up with a lot (from his brother). It used to take a lot to get him to laugh, but that has gotten much easier these days. He is pretty calm and has a great temperament. A lot has happened for this little guy since the last time I posted. It amazes me how quick he is growing up and how fast he has changed and learned new things. He is not looking much like a baby anymore and it is a little sad to see that, but I do love this new stage!

First, at his 9 month appointment here were his stats:
weight: 21 lbs 5 oz (50th%)
height: 28 1/2" (50th%)

He is starting to level off with his weight. He always used to be a chunker, but now that he is moving a lot the weight isn't coming on as much. He still weighs more and is taller than what Nathan was at this age. Everything else is looking really great for him. The one thing that we have to work on is his sleep, which I will get to a little later.

I should call Anderson Mr. Teeth, because he now has six teeth! He got his first two teeth at five months and then his top four front teeth all came in at nine months. It was two weeks of those four teeth coming in. It is funny because it took four months for Anderson's second group of teeth to come in, which was the same amount of time it took Nathan's second group of teeth to come in, but Anderson's teeth have come in four months sooner. Nathan didn't get his first teeth until he was nine months. Now that he has some teeth he has some great smiles that we get to see. He also likes to bite my arm when I am holding him, which hurts! He has yet to bite me when I am breastfeeding him (I better go knock on some wood!).

Anderson is just like his brother, mother, and father in the fact that he LOVES to eat! I guess when both sides of the family have the "I love to eat gene" the kids will get it too. Joe's O's (Trader Joe's version of Cheerios) are Anderson's favorite! Well, when he is a little fussy these seem to calm him down. I give him a lot of foods chopped up because it is easy to do. He is pretty good at eating the chunky stuff. I still give him lots of pureed baby food, which I buy because I am too busy and tired to make it for him. I do buy the organic stuff, which makes me feel a little better.

Anderson is now a mover and a shaker! He had started getting up on all fours and would rock back and forth, but it wasn't until he turned nine months where he moved both knees and hands to do the crawling motion. Within a week he was cruising! He is now ten months and he is always on the go. He has an interesting crawl in that he always pushes off with his right foot and uses his left knee (I'll try to post videos later this week). He started pulling up before he was crawling, but that is now his favorite thing to do and he does it so well and so fast. We put him on the ground and he will find any surface to use to pull himself up. He has even been able to stand for about one second without holding onto anything.

Anderson also started clapping! His clap is the cutest thing! Whenever we say "yay!" He will start clapping. Nathan really enjoys making Anderson clap and he will show Anderson how to clap. I love seeing moments like this.

Anderson is starting to look more like Nathan to me. When I look at pictures of Nathan at Anderson's age they look more similar to me than when they were younger. I think that they have the same smile, which is a great one! Anderson's hair is a light brown and there are some blonde streaks in there. I am not sure if it will end up turning blonde like Nathan's or if it will just get a little lighter. It does appear that he will have my big brown eyes!

Anderson's sleeping is getting better. We moved him into his own room and would put him down in his crib for nap time and for bed time. His naps were only about 1/2 our long and he would wake up for the first time at around 10:30pm after we put him to bed. At that time we would bring him into bed with us and I would nurse him back to sleep. I wasn't sleeping good and we decided to do some sleep training. We would let him cry it out and if patting him and rubbing his back didn't work I would go in and breastfeed him because that always calmed him down. At his nine month appointment the Ped told us that he is old enough now to not need any feedings during the middle of the night. With that being told to us I stopped feeding him and bringing him to bed. He has had some bad nights, but he has had more good. There have now been more times where he is sleeping through the night. If he wakes up early (5-6am) I will just get him and bring him into bed. His naps are also getting longer with them averaging about an hour and the other day he took a three hour nap!!!! It is nice having him sleep well, but we still have our toddler who gets into bed with us during the middle of the night.

Here are some pictures of the little man. I have to upload a bunch of the more recent ones, which I will post sometime this week!

Nathan Update

Life has been busy and crazy with two boys! Right now I am currently sitting in Nathan's bedroom waiting patiently for him to go to SLEEP! I think that I will fall asleep before he does. I guess since I am on the subject of Nathan I will start with him :)

-He wants to be a Garbage Man when he gets older. Wednesdays are his favorite days because he gets to see the garbage truck lift up the cans and dump them and then put them back down. He is also super lucky that we live in a big city because we have three cans (trash, recycling, and garden) and there is a different garbage truck for each can! There is also usually a different garbage truck for each side of the street. So he gets to see about six different garbage trucks that day! When I ask him what he wants to be when he grows up he always tells me "a Garbage Man."

-He has become a Chatty Cathy lately. Nathan is super shy and when he is around friends and strangers (except creepy looking strangers, whom he likes to talk to) he doesn't talk and will even cover up his face to hide from them. Lately he has been talking a lot to people, which is pretty cool to see. The stuff is mostly random and hilarious! One mom, from the school that he goes to, told me the other day that Nathan talked to her for a little while and she thinks that was the first time he has said a word to her (he's been at school since March!)

-He is still going to The Language Garden Community Preschool. He has been having a rough time lately with not wanting to go to school. It is a struggle to get him there, but then when I go to pick him up he doesn't want to leave! We have been working on some things to trick him into wanting to go to school and it seems to be working! Anyway, at school they speak Spanish to the kids and this month it has been a big month for Nathan in the Spanish department. He has started speaking in Spanish and correctly! I am excited to know that he is picking up the language and he is even able to pronounce some of the words that I can't say correctly! I am really looking forward to when he starts speaking it a lot more. We are still really happy with the school, kids, parents, and teachers!

-I leave the best (actually worst!) part for last. Nathan has been a pill and a half. He decided to hit his terrible twos at three. Although, I have heard that the threes are sometimes a lot harder than the twos, which I would agree with. Nathan loves to push our buttons. The biggest issue is that he likes to be mean to his brother and physically hurt him :( I really was hoping that Nathan would be this loving and caring brother, but he is not. I know that he does not like having his brother around because that takes away attention from him, but we can't let Anderson fend for himself. We went to a behavior seminar and got some good tips to help out with Nathan's behavior, which are already starting to work. I just hope that Nathan and Anderson are friends when they are older and that Nathan snaps out of this horrible phase soon!...He does have his moments of cuteness though!


Nathan the Garbage Man


Nathan being cute


Nathan about to bite Anderson


I was going through pictures and videos and was reminded of other stuff that is going on with Nathan. I am also tired and will have to end it here. Tomorrow I will post an Anderson update and then maybe after that I will do just a picture and video blog update!

-Heather

Seven Months and Three Years

I really really need to get better about this whole blogging thing! Especially since Nathan is saying stuff that is beyond cute and I need to have it documented somewhere :)

I will start off with Anderson!

The last time that I wrote in here I believe that he was in the two-three month range. Wow, how time flew by. Anderson will be seven months old in a few days and he has changed so much and is getting into the baby stages that I enjoy. Okay, so I will start with his stats first!

Four months old:
16 lbs 15 oz (75th-90th%)
25 1/4" (50th%)
42.5cm head (25th-50th%)

Six months old:
19lbs 10 oz (75th-90th%)
26 1/4" (50th%)
44.5 cm head (50th-75th%)

Anderson is a big boy! Anderson at six months is about two pounds shy of what Nathan was at a year! Nathan was always in the 10th-25th percentile for his weight, but not our big baby! Anderson's head is also on the bigger side, which I find interesting because Nathan's head always measured in the 10th percentile. Even though Anderson is a really easy going baby, just like how Nathan was, there are some differences between the two.

-It takes a lot to make Anderson laugh. It took us forever to get him to laugh and then it would just be for a second. Lately, I have found that playing peekaboo gets him to laugh. Nathan would laugh so easily and for long stretches.

-Anderson is obviously bigger then Nathan and is more proficient at breastfeeding (maybe that is why he is a bigger baby!)

-Anderson got his first two teeth at 5 1/2 months and Nathan got his at 9 months. I couldn't believe Anderson got them so early. I am not looking forward to when the top teeth come in!

-Anderson doesn't take a paci and Nathan loved his. In fact, we just got rid of Nathan's paci when he turned three (more on that later)

-Anderson is taking longer to do things (like rolling over, sitting on his own, etc) than Nathan did. I felt like Nathan was a little slow with doing things, but Anderson is taking even more time. I do have to admit that with the second child the time goes by so fast and I don't have any time to check up on the milestones that Anderson should be doing. I am also not comparing him with the other babies around (well, there really aren't that many other babies his age around). I am also not worried about him not doing something right away.

-Anderson looks more like me! It is nice to have a child that looks somewhat like me. It makes me feel like I did contribute more than an incubator :) Nathan is a dead ringer for Christopher at the same age.

-Anderson isn't as good of a napper as Nathan was. I remember that Nathan would sleep for 1-2 hour stretches for his nap. On a normal day it is only 30 mins for Anderson :( I think that a huge part of that is having another child. There is always something going on or we are going somewhere and Anderson doesn't get the consistency that Nathan did for his naps. When Nathan is home he also likes to make it difficult for Anderson to sleep :(

I think that is about all that I can think of right now. Anderson is super cute and getting cuter as he gets older. He has the chubbiest thighs that I LOVE! He started solids around 5 1/2 months and seems to like them. I had to go and buy baby food for him because I haven't found the time to make the food like I did with Nathan. I do hope that I can soon though. Anderson is a huge roller. He will get from one side of the room to the other by rolling and it cracks me up. He is starting to sit on his own, but it isn't for very long and he is still a little wobbly. I think that he will be able to in a week or so.

Now onto Nathan!

Nathan turned the BIG 3 on 4/26. I decided to have a casual birthday playdate with some of his friends (well actually acquaintances). It was really nice and then we had a birthday dinner at home with Aunt Sandra, Nana, Papa, and mom and dad. My parents were here for a week for Nathan's birthday and he was so excited to have them here. He would go into their room early in the morning and wake them up so that he could see them. It was almost like I didn't exist when they were here. It is fun to see him older and more interactive with them. Nathan's birthday weekend fell on the Easter weekend this year, so we had a birthday and Easter celebration going on. We did our 2nd annual birthday trip to Underwood Farms to pick some strawberries! They had a lot of Easter festivities going on and Nathan took his picture with the Easter bunny. I thought that he would be too shy to sit by the Easter bunny and take a picture, but he wasn't. The strawberries were not as sweet this year as last years were and I think that it is because of the long "winter" we've been having.

On Nathan's birthday we went to the park (like I mentioned above) and early on he got some bubbles in his eyes and was crying and wanted to go home, so Christopher took Nathan with him to go get the food and I think that Nathan ended up missing most of his party :( Nathan was a GREAT gift opener this time around. He opens presents like a pro and after he was all done he still wanted more! The only gift that he asked for was a cupcake and candle, which I was able to get for him!

Nathan went to the doctor about a week ago for this three year check-up and here are his stats:
34lbs (75th%)
36" (10th %)

The doctor told us that with Nathan's height and weight it makes his BMI in the overweight category! Nathan doesn't look overweight at all and just looks a bit stocky. I am sure that he will go through a growth spurt soon and then his body will be alright! I will also have to watch his intake of foods more closely because that kid can eat and he gets in the fridge all day long to get out cheese and fruits! I am just hoping that he doesn't get his height gene from me!

Nathan started preschool in March. The school that we are sending him to is a Spanish immersion preschool, so they speak Spanish to the kids and only when the kids don't understand something do they speak English to them. I was apprehensive about the Spanish speaking part, but I figured that right now is the best time for him to learn it. The teachers have said that he says some things in Spanish, but that he understands a lot. Even at home I catch him saying colors or single words in Spanish. He does know how to count to 10 in Spanish. I would love it if it became natural for him to speak in Spanish! The first couple weeks of school Nathan would cry when we dropped him off, but he adjusted pretty well and seems to really like going there. When I go to pick him up it is usually a struggle to get him to leave.

Nathan has to be one the shyest kids that I know! I am guessing that he gets it from me. When we are around other kids and people Nathan clams up and doesn't say a word. He will sometimes just stay right by my side or not venture too far out. Of course, when we are at home he is not shy at all and is a little bit of a terror! Right now he seems to be going through a jealous stage with Anderson and doesn't like it when I am paying attention to Anderson and not him.

Nathan's vocabulary is getting bigger and better all of the time. It is so fun to have conversations with him and to listen to him play. His imagination has taken off and that was one of the coolest things to see. He takes any object and it becomes something else for him. It is so fun seeing things through his eyes. He does not have an imaginary friend, but he does have an imaginary cat! When we put him to bed we have to shoo out the imaginary cat from his room. I would love for him to stay at this stage, but minus the terrible two moments. Nathan is also getting to the point where he says the funniest things. I need to get better and start recording what he is saying, so that I will have a record and memory of it later.

We have been telling Nathan for awhile now that when he turns three he is going to have to give up his paci. He knew that the time was coming and even mention it to us. On his birthday we didn't give him his paci and he did so well without one. He asked for it that day and a few days afterwards, but never cried about it. The transition from having one to not was a lot smoother than I thought it would be. I am glad that it didn't end up being a struggle for us! I really thought that without the paci Nathan would have a lot of sleep issues, but there were none!!!! Although Nathan has practically given up his naps, which sucks! I just can't focus on getting him to take a nap when I have Anderson also. Whenever he does take a nap he is so refreshed and is the nicest kid in the evenings. When he doesn't take a nap he becomes this terror that drives us up the wall!

I think that everything else is still basically the same with us. We did get a couple more chicks and they are growing so fast. We weren't satisfied with our egg production, so we got more chickens! Nathan is a pro chicken handler, but we all try and stay away from our mean chicken named Coco! Christopher is in the process of getting his private pilot's license and has soloed a couple of times already. I am not a huge fan of flying, so I don't know when I would ever want to go with him. We also got our pool re-fiberglassed and we got new blinds! Christopher made a whole bunch of planter boxes for our garden and we need to get started on that soon! It is nice getting the changes done to our house!

If you want to look at all of our pictures of the boys go here. I want to get this post posted and if I spent my time adding pictures right now it would never get done!

Our Walks Seen Through Nathan's Eyes

One day Nathan decided to bring his new camera along with him on our daily walk through the neighborhood. You will see that Nathan is fascinated with sprinklers and trees. Enjoy the walk through his point of view!

Starting the walk out. Nathan is walking alongside the stroller.





Sprinklers!




The Stroller and Lucy!




The sidewalk before the street and a close-up of the grass and a sprinkler



A real close-up of the sprinkler and a street view



More sprinklers!



Right foot, left foot



Grass and rocks



A plant and Nathan's shadow in the grass



Nathan with some trash on the ground and another street view



One last foot and sprinkler picture and a tree! Nathan likes to hug the trees on the walks.



I hope that you enjoyed the walk through Nathan's eyes!

Two months and Resolutions

Anderson had his two month check-up and he is a big boy! He weighed in at 13lbs 7 oz (75th-90th percentile) and already weighs more than what Nathan did at four months. He was 23" long (50th percentile) and his head measured in the 50th percentile. The only issue that we are now having is that Anderson has green poop that has trace amounts of blood in it. Since it is most likely a food sensitivity I have cut out all dairy from my diet since dairy is usually the biggest culprit. We see a GI doctor in January to see what may be causing it. Although, there is this issue Anderson is still a pretty great baby and isn't very fussy. I on the otherhand am very fussy because I am not eating dairy. I really miss my cheese and butter! It was very hard to not have mashed potatoes, stuffing, and cookies during Christmas because of the butter that was in them! At least I didn't gain any extra weight from the cookies I would have eaten!

**Since I wrote this post about a month ago and never posted it (took me forever to get the photos and videos uploaded) some things have happened! We went to the GI doctor and he said that he thinks that Anderson most likely has lymphoid hyperplasia. Basically the lymph nodes in Anderson's small colon are being irritated and causing the bleeding. The cause of the irritation would be from all of the colds that the poor kid has had since his birth. I think that he has been sick-free for about two-three weeks since his birth. We take some more poop samples next week and if they have blood in them then we go from there. One of the options to try and figure out what is going on is to restrict my diet even further. Right now I am not eating any diary or nuts and it is HARD! I really would just like to have some cheese! We don't think it is an allergy issue because there is still trace amounts of blood in his poop and it should have been gone by now since I have been dairy free for seven weeks and nut free for four weeks. Another option is to put Anderson on an allergy free formula and see what happens. The last option is to do a baby colonoscopy (I can't remember what the actual name for it is). Hopefully, it is just the colds that are causing his bowels to be irritated and I can go back to eating whatever :)! We also hope that we can shake off the colds and all get better!**

Anderson also had his newborn hearing finally done! And he hears just fine. While we were at the hearing place Nathan was the highlight for everyone there. He was not shy at all and made friends with some older people (the patients all seemed to be over 70).

Anderson smiles all the time now, but especially when we are around. When you talk to him he "talks" back to you by cooing and it is the cutest! Anderson has laughed, but it has only been in his sleep, which is funny to me. When we were up at my parents he woke himself up by laughing in his sleep. I am looking forward to when we can get him to laugh when he is awake.

Anderson has discovered his hands and it is fun to watch him stare at them. His hands must be so fascinating to him. He now reaches for stuff that you put within his grasp. He will sometimes grab a hold of the item and hold onto it real tight. His neck is getting much stronger and he is able to hold his head up off the floor pretty well sometimes.

Nathan is doing awesome! He cracks Christopher and me up all of the time with stuff that he says. Of course, I can't think of specifics right now, but he is funny. He does have his terrible two moments, but overall he is a pretty good toddler.

For Christmas we went up to my parent's house and had a great time. The drive there was 11 hours, with stops, and both kids did really well. Christopher and I were so proud of Nathan for doing as great as he did. He was so well behaved and he was able to keep himself entertained without any TV or DVDs! We did have to play the song "The Journey Home From Grandpas" (it goes with a book he has) about a million times though! Nathan got to play in the snow and he loved it! We told Nathan that you couldn't eat the snow because it was dirty, but that any new snow that fell he could eat. On the third day that we were there it snowed and the first thing Nathan said when he woke up was "eat clean snow." He really doesn't forget a thing. He played outside in the snow for hours. He would have stayed out there all day and night if he had his way. He did some sledding and really liked that. Christopher, Nathan, and Lucy went on a walk where there was a couple feet of snow and Nathan didn't care for that deep of snow. We found this cool hazmat looking suit that is a rain suit and we used it for the snow and it kept him bone dry. Here is a video with Nathan and his cousin Joseph sledding in the snow.

Christmas was a little more fun this year because Nathan was more into it and he was able to open up presents by himself. He still doesn't get the whole Santa concept because we haven't really talked to him about it and I was too paranoid to take the boys to see Santa in fear that they would catch a cold from all the germs on Santa. I think that next year he will understand. My brother, his girlfriend, and son were there and it was nice having them around. My nephew Joseph is super cute!

I don't think that much else is going on with us. Christopher and I are on a reading frenzy. We got Kindles and reading has become so much easier to do and we have been reading like crazy. Christopher finishes a book every few days it seems.

For New Years I do have some resolutions and here they are:

-Nathan will be potty trained!!!!

-We will get rid of the paci for Nathan

-Anderson will sleep through the night by four months (this is wishful thinking!)

-We will finally get our new windows put in

-Christopher and I will start exercising again (we have to since we signed up to run a 1/2 marathon in July)

-I will do a much better job at keeping up with this blog...:)

**Funny to see those resolutions a month later. Nathan still isn't potty trained and still sleeps with his paci, but we FINALLY got him sleeping in his bedroom by himself. Since we had Anderson things were a little out of whack with Nathan's sleeping schedule and he needed one of us to sleep with him every time he was laying down. Then if he woke up in the middle of the night and realized we weren't there he would come into our room and want to sleep with us or we would have to go in his room and sleep with him. Since things have settled down we decided that it was time for Nathan to sleep on his own. The first day was a little rough, but now it is smooth sailing! It is so easy to get him down and he stays in bed the whole night and during nap time! Our next mission will be to get Anderson to sleep more!

We are getting our windows put in!!!! It is pretty exciting to have new windows that look really nice. They should also help in saving us money in the long run with the heating and cooling of our house. By next week the windows should all be installed.

There was an opening in the Waldorf preschool in January and we were told that Nathan could join. We tried it out for a week and it wasn't working for Nathan. He wasn't enjoying it at all and both the teacher and us decided that right now wasn't a good time for Nathan to join. So, he will start preschool for the next school year.

We had our friends, the Stones, visit us the first week in January and it was so nice having them. Nathan really enjoyed the company of Ziah and it made me realize that he needs more kid interaction than what he is getting. The Stones live in the Czech Republic (we plan to visit there next year for their wedding!) and Ziah taught Nathan how to count to three in Czech. They would count to three while standing on the couch and then jump off onto the orange pouf chair that we have. Now that Ziah is gone Nathan has forgotten what "one" in Czech is so he starts at "two" and then for "three" it has morphed into "gorilla, monkey, big TREE." We have no idea where that came from!

Lastly, Nathan is a funny little kid. He has this obsession with stepping on sprinklers when we go on walks. He loves looking for the sprinklers that didn't go back down after they were on so that he can step on them and make them go down. He has to check out all the sprinklers and it makes the walks longer than usual. He also likes to hug trees on the walk. I have no idea where he picked up both of those habits because we didn't teach him that.

-Heather

Enjoy the pictures!

Two sleepy boys!


So peaceful!


HUG!


Nathan was sharing his favorite blanket and monkey with Anderson :)


Nathan painting some egg cartons for X-Mas gifts


Nathan helping me make a cake for Aunt Sandra's birthday


Nathan on Christmas Day


Anderson all bundled up


Anderson!


Tummy time and happy!