Eight Months Old!

Since Nathan turned 8 months old yesterday (I think this every month "birthday", but I can't believe how quickly these months have been passing!), Nathan and I spent some time today outside taking some pictures.  He wasn't in much of a smily mood, but I was still able to get a couple of cute shots.  Enjoy!

  

More Favorite Things

Our Shadow
I think I first noticed this one at the pool with Nathan two or three weeks ago.  But now, whenever I'm carrying him around outside (I'm pretty sure he doesn't ever look for it inside), he will squirm around in my arms until he can bend over and inspect our shadows on the ground. Sometimes (like when its behind us), I'll turn around and show it to him so he'll stop twisting around to find it.  I mentioned to Brian last weekend (while on the wild day trip to Dunn, NC to buy some tires and rims for Brian's truck for his bday) how much Nathan loves to look for his shadow, and he didn't believe me.  That was until later when he was holding Nathan, who was writhing in his arms and looking for their shadow! 

Cups
Nathan has liked cups for a while, we have one in the bath tub for months to help rinse him off, but he also really likes it as a toy.  He will bang it on the ground, or on his head, or practice drinking out of it.  Within the last few weeks, he has gotten really good at drinking water out of grown-up cups that Brian and I hold for him.  The sippy cup, however, is still a work in progress.

Mommy's hair
Today I was nursing Nathan, and he was trying with all his might to reach the hair over my shoulder.  He kept twisting and stretching (while still eating), determined to grab and pull on my hair.  I kept stretching and leaning back away from him, but he would not be deterred.  You should have seen the determination in his eyes!  I had to call Brian to bring me a clip so that we could finish the feeding in peace.  These days, having my hair down is asking for trouble on my part!

Mommy's legs
Sounds kind of silly, but when we are sitting on the floor together playing, or especially at the swimming pool, he loves to play with my legs.  He will pat them or grab them or try to eat them.  Last week when we were at small group church in Knoxville, Nathan was sitting on the floor playing during the devo.  At one point he was starting to get fussy, so I moved my leg near him as a distraction.  Well, it was a distraction for more then just Nathan because Mark Luck, who was leading the devo, commented "Look at him grabbing onto his mother's leg!" 

His Changing Table
I've mentioned this one before, but Nathan continues to love his changing table.  He loves playing with the toy we have suctioned to the mirror.  He LOVES to kick his legs super fast - Brian called it "pinwheeling" today - before, during and after diaper changes.  The changing table continues to be his "happy place"!

Book Covers
We may finally be working our way past this one, but whenever I try to read books to Nathan, he tries to close them so that he can examine the cover of the book.  It is of utmost importance to him to examine and reexamine the cover of any book we try to read.  I can't seem to get him interested in any pictures inside the book, so whenever I read to him it turns into a "fight" over the book being open or closed.  I'm trying to persevere because I want Nathan to love to read as much as I do (ok, maybe not quite that much because I get VERY unproductive when I get immersed in a good book).   However, we may be turning the corner today, because he actually didn't fight me the whole time when I read to him. 

Cheerios!

Since we got back from Knoxville, Nathan has been working on finger foods. We've tried pieces of cantaloupe, avacado and banana. The banana has worked best, when I cut it into the correct size pieces. The trick is cutting it big enough for Nathan to grab, but small enough so that he doesn't choke. The avacado and cantaloupe were more difficult because they seemed to "stick" to his high chair tray more.

Last Thursday we finally went to the store and bought some cheerios, which have worked out much better. On his first day, he was pretty good at picking up the cheerios, but was having trouble with releasing them into his mouth, as you can see in the video.

Since last week when I took this video, however, Nathan has gotten much better with actually getting the cheerios into his mouth.  I think he's picking them up differently, but has certainly learned that he has to open his hand to get them into his mouth.  I've been putting him in his high chair with a few cheerios on his tray to play with and eat while I'm getting his food ready, so this has given him good practice time.  He has decided that he LOVES cheerios!

Spitting and Squealing

Some of Nathan's new favorite activities are spitting and squealing. Here is a sampling of his newly developed skills!

Hanging with the Grands, Part 2

On Wednesday of last week, Nathan and I moved over to Nana and Granddad's house to spend two nights with them.  Nathan and Nana had a lot of fun playing together on Wednesday, and we spent most of the day just hanging out at the house.

When Granddad got home, he was able to fix one of Nathan's favorite toys!  We needed a special triangle-head screwdriver to get the thing apart, which he had, and all the toy needed was a new battery.  I (and Nathan) were super excited!

Wednesday evening, we all went over to see the new house Nana and Granddad just bought.  I'm so excited for them!  The house needs a lot of work, but the lot and the view are wonderful! 

Thursday morning, Nana, Nathan and I headed back to the new house to pick raspberries.  They have a HUGE raspberry thicket, and Nana and I were able to pick lots and lots of berries.

The HUGE raspberry thicket.

Nathan was supervising the picking from his blanket.

Here's all the raspberries that we picked - yummy!

That afternoon we went shopping, with Nana buying Nathan a bunch of clothes, including some cute new pjs and swimsuit.  I also got two new swimsuits as well.  That evening little David came over for dinner, and we had a nice time. Friday we packed up and headed back to Winston-Salem, where Nathan and I were both really excited to see Brian again! 

Hanging Out with the Grands...

Brian is working nights the whole month of June, so Nathan and I decided to hit to road to visit family for a couple of days.  We packed up and headed for Knoxville first thing last Sunday morning.  Nathan did really well on the drive over.  He slept for the first 1:20 of the trip, and then he played in the backseat until we reached Ashville.  To keep him occupied while he was awake, I would hand him back new toys one at a time, so by the time we stopped, he had quite a pile in his lap.  Here's what he looked like after about 5 or 6 toys fell out of the car when I opened the door. 

The rest of the trip was uneventful, and we safely arrived at Grandmother's and Granddaddy's around 2, with Gran getting there just a few minutes later.  That night we went to church with Gran and grandparents.  I had called Carroll and David to see if they were going to be there as well, but they were on their way back from Mississippi and weren't going to be back in time.  Nathan was so good during the small group service - he played on the floor most of the time and everyone just "ooed" and "awwed" over him.  Then as we were getting ready to leave, who should arrive but David and Carroll!  They just couldn't pass up the opportunity to see their sweet grandson, so they stopped by the church right as after we finished services for a short visit and, of course, a photo op.

Nathan slept well that night, only waking up once during the night, but then got up bright and early at 5:30am.  Gran generously got up and played with Nathan so that I could sleep in until 7.  We all went for a walk at the mall in the morning, and that afternoon, Gran, Nathan and I did a little shopping.

Monday night Nathan slept much worse, waking up maybe 5 times between 11 and 2, so that was a bummer, but Gran got up with him when he woke up at 5:30 and let me sleep in again.  We had planned on going to the mountains Tuesday morning, but couldn't leave until close to when the the maids were to arrive at 9:30, but fortunately we all were able to keep Nathan awake so that he would sleep in the car on the way to the Smokies.  We stopped at the Cade's Cove picnic area, where we planed on spending most of our time. 

Playing with the rocks - he REALLY wanted to taste them!

We sat down to a typical and tasty picnic lunch - PB and neutella sandwiches on homemade bread, carrots, cherries and a little chocolate for dessert!  Unfortunantly, as we were finishing eating, we heard the rumble of thunder and it started getting dark.  So we decided to pack up and take the short drive around Cade's Cove instead of reading/playing by the stream as originally planned.  However, I wanted to be sure to let Nathan experience the stream (and get pictures, of course!).

Our picnic lunch.

Nathan loves practicing drinking out of a big person cup.  He can drink really well when someone holds the cup for him!

Yummy, carrots!!

Nathan was excited to look and listen to the stream.

The stream was cold, but Nathan didn't seem to mind.

We look pretty cheerful, don't we!

We had a pretty nice drive around Cade's Cove.  Nathan did really well for about 3/4 of the trip, but then started getting really fussy because he was tired.  So I nursed him to sleep, and then he slept for the rest of the drive around the cove as well as the trip home. 

Here are a few scenery shots from Cade's Cove - it was beautiful!

Take Me Out to the Ballgame!

We had a fun filled afternoon on Friday.  The Young Marrieds and CYP from church were meeting for a Winston-Salem Dash baseball game at the city's brand new stadium that evening.  Shane had proposed that we tailgate before the game, and we were definitely in!  However, we found out that afternoon that the city doesn't allow tailgating (what!?), so a last minute change of plans had us meeting at Shane's house.  It was the normal posse in attendance: our family, Shane, Crystal and Penny, and Dom, Melissa, Francesca and Dominic.  Unfortunantly, this would be the last "hurrah" for our group before Melissa and the kids headed off to Alabama next week and Dom at the end of the month.  However, we didn't dwell on that, and had a yummy cook out complete with Carolina Style turkey dogs, Melissa's Famous Buffalo Chicken Dip, and all sorts of other yummy eats.

About 20 minutes before the game was supposed to start, we packed all the kids into their respective carseats and headed towards downtown.  After we parked, everyone broke out their baby carriers and we all walked to the ballpark to meet up with the rest of the group. 

Look at these two manly men with their baby carriers and matching plaid shorts!

How cute - Nathan and Daddy!

We had really good seats, just behind the visitor's dugout. Not that the stadium is so large that you could have terrible seats, but still they were closer to the field then I expected.

Our typical self-portrait.  It worked better before Nathan because there's no way to attract his attention to the camera.

A slightly better family photo.  Nathan's staring at a bottle of milk that I pulled out for him.  He was more interested in that then the camera!

Nathan in the free Dash hat!

We had a really good time and Nathan did so much better then I expected him to.  As he started getting tired, he would start crying when the cheering would get really loud (I'm having to learn to to cheer more quietly so I don't scare Nathan, which thrills Brian as well!).  He finally fell asleep on Brian about 8:30 and napped for about half an hour.  We ended up winning the game against the Wilmington Bluerocks 4-3, and the three of us started walking back to the car before the fireworks went off, which allowed us to avoid any post-game traffic.  Definitely a fun evening!

Fun at the Big Pool!

Nathan and I went to the city pool for the first time on Tuesday, and we both had a lot of fun! We ended up meeting Melissa, Francesca and Dominic there, so I had someone there to show me the ropes (and lend me the additional $16 I needed to buy the summer pass).  We sure are going to miss them when they move next week!

Our adventure started out rough, but luckally got better as we went along.  The main problem involved the sunscreen.  Before we left the house, I carefully applied it to Nathan's arms, legs and face, avoiding the backs of his hands and trying to be very careful around the eye area.  But as we were running errands before heading to the pool, Nathan rubbed his right eye and got sunscreen in it.  When we stopped at the library, it was red and teary, so I went to the bathroom and wet a paper towel to try to wipe the sunscreen away.  Unfortunantly, when we got to the pool, his eye was even more red and swollen, and his face was getting splotchy.  I had a washcloth that I used to wipe his eye again, and I think that got the sunscreen out because his eye SLOWLY started to look better.

Looks might comfortable, doesn't it?

We all started out swimming in the big pool, where Nathan is required to wear a swim vest.  As you can see from the picture above, even the smallest vest size was a little big on him, so that was the first strike against  the big pool.  When we got into the pool, Nathan wasn't too sure about the water.  We bounced in and out for a while until he was comfortable just being in the water with me holding him.  After a while longer, I was able to hold him under his arms and encourage him to "kick, kick" and he did!  He was happy for a little bit, then I thought he was getting sleepy because his eyes kept closing.  When we got out of the pool and I took off the swim vest, Nathan seemed fine again, so I think it may have been the brightness of the sun reflecting off the pool that was making him squint.  But Nathan definitely got a second wind after getting out of the swim vest, so we headed over to the splash pool where no vest was required!

 

Nathan trying to "catch" the water from the little fountain spout.

We started out by just sitting on the beach entrance (I think that's what you call it when you have a sloped entrance to the pool?), watching everything going on in the splash pool and also getting used to the little waves washing up on us.  After Nathan had observed enough to get comfortable, I took him over to the mushroom/fountain/thing to see what he though of it.  He wasn't too crazy about getting splashed in the face, so we retreated to some tamer fountains back in the very shallow water.  These fountains had two little streams of water arcing from each of them and Nathan enjoyed playing with them for quite a while. 

That's my son!  SPF 70+, hat, shirt, and swim trunks.  The most covered up kid at the pool!

The fun continued after we got home because Nathan still had on his bracelet from the pool.  It is the perfect chew toy because its right there on his wrist and since it is designed to stay on in the water, it doesn't dissolve as he chews on it!

One Step Closer to Crawling

Yesterday, for the first time, I saw Nathan push up onto all fours and rock back and forth.  I was super excited about him getting closer to crawling (though I may regret the eagerness at some point after he's mobile and I just want him to stay put for ONE SECOND), and then was even more excited when he did a repeat performance after Brian woke up yesterday afternoon.  Here are a few short clips showing off his new skill.  Towards the end he starts getting fussy, but that, unfortunantly, is typical these days.

We also had another "first" yesterday: when I went in to dream feed Nathan, he was asleep on his back.  This is the first time we've seen that since we unswaddled him months ago.  Usually he wakes up when he rolls onto his back (his favorite sleeping position right now is on his side), but this time he just stayed asleep.  But who knows how long it would have lasted... after dream feeding I put him back on his stomach and got an un-interrupted nights sleep.

What do Greeks and Rednecks have in common?

The only thing I can think of is my random picture post!

This first picture is from the Greek Festival that we went to with friends after church in May.  We had a good time and ate some really yummy food.  Nathan got passed around to lots of people who care about him, and here he is just chillin' on the table after we finished our lunch.

These next two pictures are from our Memorial Day Redneck Farewell Party for the Mastroianni's.  Inspired by Dom and Melissa's love of theme parties, and keeping in mind that they are about to move deeper south to Birmingham, we had a fun costume party on Memorial Day with lots of yummy food.

As Dom called it on Facebook, here Nathan and I are as Jeff Gordon's #1 and #2 fans.  How was I supposed to know that everyone dislikes Jeff Gordon?  I was just excited to find this awesome Nascar shirt at the local thrift store.  Cut out the collar, add some cut off jean shorts and (of course) the obligatory camo, and I thought I pulled off "redneck" pretty well.  Then add Nathan in only a diaper on my hip, who could beat that?

Well, Brian did.  He won 3rd place in the costume contest with his camo shirt, cut off jean shorts (showing a little more leg then I did), work boots and an attempt at a mullet.  Here's the whole fam!

Summer Fun!

Today Brian had to work a 24 hour shift, so Nathan and I were on our own for the whole day.  Though I was anticipating a not very exciting day (actually, I thought it would be one of those you can't wait until they are over), we had a really fun day.  Church went well, with Nathan taking a 30 minute nap in the nursery.  Then we went out to eat with TONS of people of church at Kimono, and Nathan was so well behaved and happy, everyone couldn't stop complimenting him!  Then we stopped by the hospital to visit our new friend, one-day-old Tucker Keen (and Dad, Mom and Nana too).  Nathan was pretty excited about little Tucker and acted like he wanted to eat him when we took a picture of the two of them together.  About one minute after driving away from the hospital, Nathan was asleep in the car and continued his nap in the crib once we came home.  After he woke up from a short nap, I decided it was time to blow up the $5 kiddie pool I bought for him at Walmart and let Nathan have some pool time. It was not a total success... 

The problem came with filling up the pool.  Our hose in the back yard is busted, so I was planning on using a bucket to fill from the outside spigot.  However the spigot in the back is really low to the ground, so I had to finagle the bucket underneath (too lazy to go out front, and probably ended up making more work for myself, oh well).  But after dumping two partial buckets in the pool, I realized that the water was pretty cool.  So I stopped filling and put Nathan in the pool.  Because it was warm outside, he was happy for about 10 minutes.  When we were done, I left the water in the pool.  I expect the water will be warmer tomorrow after sitting, but I'm worried about how much debris will drop into the water.  We'll see... 

After pool time, we gathered our stuff and headed over to Shane and Crystal's for dinner.  We at a yummy roast beef dinner and then Nathan and I hung out until he started getting sleepy, so I double diapered him, put him in his pjs and hit the road for the 5 minute drive home.  One last feeding for Nathan, and he was down for the night.  Now I'm trying to get caught up on bunches of stuff I've slacked on lately (blogging, laundry, balancing the check book, backing up pictures and videos, picking up the house).  Well, one down and more to go before bed!

Nathan started eyeing the cord hanging from the camera.  It reminds him of the one he loves to chew on "his" cell phone.