Things Nathan Says

Nathan really cracks me up with the things that he says. Most of the time I don't want to correct him because the way that he says stuff is just too cute. Here are some things:

-"Gartage trucks" He loves garbage trucks and every Wednesday he "runs, runs, runs" to go see the gartage trucks.

-"Bandin" Sometimes when Nathan gets a scratch he wants a band-aid to be put on his boo boo, but he calls it a bandin :)

-"Hottiehottie" This is what Nathan says when we get in my car and it is hot inside

-"All better" When Nathan has a boo boo or something hurts he wants you to kiss the sore spot. As soon as you kiss it he says, "all better."

-"Watch bideos" Nathan likes to watch videos that I have taken of him on my phone

-"Hit it" Nathan still has a paci during sleep times (I need to wean him off of it!) and when we ask him to get rid of it before he gets out of his crib he says, "hit it," but he means "spit it" out.

-"Nakin! Nakin! Nakin!" He says this while holding his hands palms up because he wants a napkin and he wants it now!

-"Trader Joe's O's" He thinks that Trader Joe's is called Trader Joe's O's! I think that he got this from their cereal that we eat. Whenever we go there, or he sees the Trader Joe's title (on food or an actual store) he says, "Trader Joe's O's!"

-"Hider goes, bitsy, bitsy, bitsy" We sing the Itsy Bitsy Spider to him and he associates that song with spiders now :) When he says, "Hider (High-der) goes bitsy, bitsy, bitsy" he puts one of his hands on top of his head an wriggles his fingers around like a spider.

Nathan says a ton of cute stuff. He also has this really monotone voice sometimes and it is hilarious to hear him talk. He loves to repeat stuff that we say to him, so we are watching what we say and so far he hasn't picked up any bad or inappropriate words! He is also now "reading" his books to himself. He has his favorite books and since we have read them to him over and over he basically has them memorized and will sit down and read the book to himself.

Nathan also finished his swim lessons and now can swim, float, and swim. He did such a great job during the lessons and never cried and actually would smile when he got to swim. Every parent that saw him would remark on how he was such a chill kid! I was also told that I should be prepared to have a wild child for #2, which I am hoping is not the case! I promise that I will do a blog post this week with swim pictures and videos of Nathan.

Only three more months until we meet baby #2! We still have not found out the sex and will not be finding out. We also have no name ideas for a boy or a girl and I have a feeling that we will be doing that last minute! I have been feeling really good and my belly is defnitely starting to show now.

Lastly, our garden and chickens are doing very well! I didn't plan on planting a lot of yellow squash plants, but I did and so now I have an abundance of yellow squash and have been giving them away and putting them in everything! I am also getting a ton of cherry tomatoes, some zucchini, greenbeans, and a few bell peppers. I have a pumpkin that is growing and it amazes me at how big it gets each day! The chickens are also getting bigger each day. We gave our friend Rhonda her three chickens that we were watching for her. It seems as though our other chickens miss the other three, but I am sure that they like the extra space :).

That is about it for now!

This Nathan cooking up some yummy food!


Nathan playing on a play structure!


Nathan drawing :)


Nathan and Christopher doing some serious reading!


Nathan needs help dressing :)!


Nathan at the beach


Nathan all grown-up looking


A preview of swim pictures!


Nathan hiding out under the easel :)


Here is a picture of the last ultrasound we had at 20 weeks (currently at 27 weeks)


-Heather

Updates

I think that I must say this in every post, but the time really does fly by! I can't seem to stay caught up in here even though I have every intention to do so.

Nathan turned TWO on 4/26! I can't believe that he is already two. That time did go by so fast. Luckily, he hasn't hit his terrible twos yet, but I am expecting them to be coming any time :(. For his birthday my parents came down for a week to celebrate with us. We decided that we would keep it low-key this year. We went strawberry picking at Underwood Farms and Nathan seemed to enjoy that a lot. I think that the adults enjoyed it too. You really can't beat eating all of the fresh strawberries you want while you are picking them to take home! We went to the zoo and that is always a favorite destination spot for Nathan. For Nathan's actual birthday we went to Disneyland. I thought that he would enjoy it and it would be something fun for us all to do. We left fairly early and got there in record time. When we got there it was surprising at how packed it was. I later heard from some of my friends that have season passes that Mondays and Fridays are bad days to go because they are a little less crowded than the weekends. The only rides that we managed to go on were the boat rides: Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean, and It's a Small World. Those were the only lines that had a wait time of 10-15 minutes. Nathan doesn't have much patience these days so standing in lines that had a wait time of 30+ minutes wasn't an option for us because Nathan would be struggling to get out of line. I would have liked to try some other rides, but it was too crowded. It was pretty funny though on the Pirates ride because there are a couple of dips that are in the dark and after we did the dips Nathan would shake his arm violently back-and-forth while saying, "ALL DONE!" Luckily, we were able to distract him so that he wasn't fighting us to jump off of the boat! Overall, I think that Nathan enjoyed it. We tried to get him to fall asleep in his stroller so that he could get a little nap in, but he refused to sleep until we were walking out of the park. Since we didn't want to disturb him we found other things to do for about an hour. The picture in this blog is of him finally asleep after a long day at Disneyland.

We took Nathan in for his two-year check-up and he was looking good! He was 34", which was in the 50th percentile for height. According to many peoples' theory they say that you double the height of your child at 2 and that will be their adult height. If that were the case Nathan would be 68" or 5' 8" and I think that he won't be that height since the men on my side are taller and Christopher and his brother are 6ft or taller. He was 29.4 lbs, which was in the 75th percentile for weight. His head is still in the 10th percentile, but it doesn't look like he has a small head. He also got a shot and was a trooper! He didn't cry at all. We were supposed to have blood work done, but the appointment went longer than we had planned and Christopher had to get to work and the last time Nathan had blood drawn I couldn't be in the room because it was too traumatic to watch and hear. It also took them a few tries last year. Our Ped said that he didn't have to have his blood drawn, so we didn't do it.

Nathan is still copying us and the animals! It is a little frustrating how he copies the animals because he tries to eat and drink out of their bowls! When we go on walks and let Nathan walk he copies everything Lucy does. If Lucy eats grass, Nathan eats grass. If Lucy rolls on the grass to scratch her face, Nathan rolls on the grass. It was hilarious because the other day whenever we got by a fire hydrant or a pole Nathan would lift up one of his legs like he was peeing like a dog (a trick he learned from Aunt Sandra's dog). He also likes to "bark" when Lucy barks. Whenever we tell Lucy or one of the cats something Nathan will repeat what we say, but put his name in. One of his favorites is saying, "Nathan sit." He will even sit at the backdoor before he goes out because that is what we make Lucy do. It really is monkey see, monkey do for him :).

If you are wondering I am 19 weeks now and I can't believe how fast the pregnancy is going. I can't believe that in 1/2 a week I will be half-way done. Next week we have our big ultrasound and hopefully everything will look great. Most everyone says that I look great for being 19 weeks and they don't see that I have a belly at all, but I am getting one and my pants are getting a little snug. I have been feeling the baby for awhile now and it is a cool sensation. I am actually feeling really good.

Once Christopher uploads more pictures to the computer I will do a blog post with just pictures because I am sure those are more fun to look at than read this!

-Heather

Segundo

We are expecting baby #2! My due date is 10/20/10, but Christopher is hoping that I deliver the baby on 10/10/10 :). I am just a few days shy of being done with my first trimester!!!! I forgot how much the first trimester sucks! I was feeling sick all of the time, but luckily no throwing-up and I am soooo tired all of the time. This time around I told Christopher that I didn't want to find out the sex of the baby. I want to experience the surprise of finding out the sex at birth since I am pretty sure this is our last kid. I am already dying to know what I will be having and hope that I can hold out until birth time!

The picture of the ultrasound was done at 10 weeks and everything looked great. When we were having the ultrasound done Nathan was with us and he would point to the screen and say "monkey." The other night I asked him if he wanted a brother or a sister and he didn't answer me so I asked him, "Do you want a monkey?" He said, "Monkey!" I think that he would prefer to have a monkey over a baby, but I am hoping that there is not a monkey growing in me :)!

That is the big news for now! Nathan is turning two in 1 1/2 weeks and I can't believe it! He is really funny these days. He still is in the parrot stage and repeats everything you say. He is putting three and four word sentences together, which is great. His pronunciation is really good. He has not figured out how to answer questions though. When you ask him something he just repeats the last couple of words in your question. His Aunt Sandra taught him how to say "Cowabunga and Yowza" which are hilarious to hear him say.

Here are some recent Nathan pictures.

Nathan and Christopher bike riding. That is an iBert that Nathan is in.


Nathan eating a homemade waffle.


Nathan hunting Easter eggs. I made that chicken basket :)



Whenever Nathan is wearing a button shirt he has to always unbutton it. The girls seem to love it :)


Whenever we go on walks and Nathan sees a dandelion he says, "Pick one!" We pick it and give it to him and then he blows on it. I am sure that our neighbors are not happy about us spreading the seeds everywhere :)


This picture is just really cute!


Lastly, here is one more picture of our ultrasound. Here baby Aedo is stretching.

Videos

Hi everyone,

Once again I have gotten really bad about updating this blog. I find that in my spare time I like to read or watch some TV instead of blog, but then that means you don't get updates about Nathan or us :(

Nathan is talking a lot more. He is like a little parrot now and repeats much of what we say. We have to be careful of what we say now! He is also putting two and three words together. He is becoming more adventurous and likes to fall from the couch to the bean bag chair backwards. He likes to jump from the ottoman to the couch. He likes to climb in things. He lifts his leg up on the crib's edge, but he hasn't yet figured that he has to hoist himself up to get over the crib and out (we are hoping he doesn't figure this out for awhile!). He loves water and everyday plays on the first step in our pool even though the water is freezing! Sometimes when we are outside Nathan takes off his diaper and whenever he has to go pee he will actually go in the potty. He likes going pee in there, but only outside and when the diaper and clothes are already off. He LOVES us reading books to him. The bad part for us is that we have to read the same book about 20 times before he allows us to move onto the next book :) He is good at pointing out things and saying what they are in the books. One if his favorite books is "Poop" aka "Everyone Poops." He has figured out how to open up some of our doors, which isn't that great, but he doesn't seem too interested to do it all of the time. Hard to believe that in a month Nathan will be 2!!!

Christopher and Lucy had their birthdays in February. Lucy turned four and it is hard to believe that she is already that old. I started all of my seeds, for our vegetable garden, in a starter set inside and the plants looked like they were ready to be transplanted into the ground. We got our backyard all tilled and ready for the planting. We planted and then the next day almost all of the plants were dead :( It appears as though Lucy and the feral cats trampled a lot of them :( I have to start over, but I bought bigger pots to start them in so that they can grow a little bigger before I transplant them. We have also put up a little fence to hopefully keep out Lucy.

Well, I am sure that you are most interested in some videos. Here they are. You can check more out at www.youtube.com/aedocw

Nathan at dinner.

Nathan howling. We howl when we hear sirens to get Lucy to howl and now Nathan howls when he hears sirens.

Nathan impersonating a chicken (no chickens or babies were hurt in the making of this).

Nathan picking his nose (he likes to do this a lot lately!) This video was taken today and the most recent. You can also see his new haircut in this video :)

Hope that you enjoyed them!

-Heather

Being Lazy

I don't know how many followers we have on this blog, but those of you who are out there you are probably wondering why I haven't written anything since November! The reason has been mostly laziness and forgetfulness. We had a lot going on at the end of the year and I was and still am really into reading and that is taking priority over this blog and I am very sorry because I know that you all love to hear what is going on with Nathan and our family :)

For Christmas we went up to my parents' house. My brother, his girlfriend, and their baby and Christopher's brother and sister-in-law were also there (it was very nice having them). It was the first year that my mom had to do the cooking for dinner and she did a great job! Nathan wasn't all that interested in opening presents and I think that he liked my dad's golf balls the most! There was a little snow and Nathan seemed to enjoy that. The week before Christmas Nathan and I got a horrible stomach flu and were throwing up all night. It was no fun and we managed to get Sandra sick before we left and then my parents, brother, and Christopher's brother and sister-in-law also got sick. I thought that we weren't contagious when we went up there! The good part about that was I was down some pounds, so I was able to eat a ton of cookies!!!!

We started up with our classes at the Waldorf school again. Lucy is the only one that is from the last class. This time around Nathan is one of the older ones and there are a lot more younger ones. I liked the class better when he was the youngest one because he got to see what the older kids were doing, but the kids and parents in this class are really nice. We put in an application for Nathan to attend nursery (aka preschool) at the Waldorf school for next year. He won't be quite old enough when school starts, but we are hoping that they will let him in early or that he will be able to go once he is old enough. We have our interview for that next week.

Nathan is talking a lot for him. Nathan is not a big talker and I think that he may get that trait from me :) Lately, he has been saying a lot of words and he repeats a lot of what we say. He hasn't put any words together, but his vocabulary is expanding like crazy. Of course, when he is around other people he is quiet as a mouse :) He calls our dog Lucy, "Goose" and "Goosey." I guess that we call her that a lot and he picked it up. He also calls our cat Neko, "Buddy." Neko is the cat that likes the hard petting from Nathan so Christopher and I are always saying to him, "where's your buddy Neko?" or stuff similar to that and Nathan picked it up that Neko's name is Buddy. We don't want to change it though :)

Nathan's most favorite two things in the whole world are food and water! The water that he loves is the kind that he plays in. When we go to playdates you can count on Nathan being the one kid to hang out at the table with the food for most of the time. When we go out to the park or anywhere and there is someone with some food he will go up to them and try to get food from them. Most people are nice and give him food, but I feel like I need to pay those people back with all of the food that he has eaten. Even in the Waldorf class the teacher always has to cut him off from his snack because he would just stay at the table and eat and eat if he could. I do have to say that he isn't such a good eater at dinnertime (probably because he is so full from the rest of the day!). If Nathan could be in water all of the time he would LOVE it! We go outside and he will play in our freezing cold pool water and not mind one bit. When it was raining he loved playing outside in the rain. At a class we go to there are little sinks for the kids and he will be at the sink the whole time just playing with the water. I always have to carry around an extra set of clothes to change him because I usually have to change him at least once a day because he is all wet. I am excited for him to take swim lessons this year and for him to actually swim in our pool. I think that he will love it.

Nathan loves to go on walks, especially when he gets to walk and not be pushed in the stroller. He also likes touching all the sprinklers that he sees on the walk :). Nathan likes to run and he is getting fast and good at it! Nathan loves the slides and has mastered them. He goes down them like a pro. He is also getting good at climbing the play structures. There is one playground that has a little kid section and a big kid section and Nathan liked playing in the big kid section more and did a good job at it. Nathan also loves for us to read to him and right now he likes the books that are interactive (flaps and textures).

Just today Nathan went pee in the potty! We have been working on getting him familiar with the bathroom routine. He knows that you go pee and poo in the potty and that you wipe when you are done, but he still doesn't quite get that he is supposed to go in it. We just got him his own potty so hopefully that will help. He tells us after he has gone poo or pee that he went and that his diaper is dirty. Today we were sitting on the couch and he took off his diaper and he said that he had to go pee so I took him to his potty and he went pee! He even peed a lot. That was really exciting! Then about an hour later he told me he had to pee and I took his diaper off and he just peed in it! I guess that this process will be a gradual one. I am just glad that he went pee in the potty once!

Christopher got a new job! His last day at the old job is tomorrow and he starts the new one on Monday. We are very hopeful about this new job. Christopher's hours and commute should be better, which will be a huge plus!

I don't think that anything else has been going on. I am going to try and post some videos on this blog so that you can see Nathan in "live form." I am hoping to get those up this weekend, wish me luck!!!!

-Heather

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!

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