10 Months Old!

I got my new DSLR camera just in time to take 10 month pictures of Nathan.  I LOVE my new camera!!  It does have one drawback: I take so many pictures with it, I have to be RUTHLESS in deleting the pictures that are just so-so.  Out of about 200+ pictures that I took of Nathan yesterday, I had to get it down to a manageable number to keep and post.  Unfortunately, I had a hard time getting Nathan to look at the camera, much less smile for me, but at least that made sorting through the pictures slightly easier.

This one may be my favorite

What a thoughtful look from our little boy!

Here's my cheerful Nathan!

The Leaf Series:

Something about this expression just gets me!

Nathan is working hard on pulling up during these last few days.  He usually gets only halfway up (onto his knees), but he LOVES it when we stand him up at one of the dining room chairs so he can play when Brian or I are sitting at the table.  His other favorite "place" to pull up is on my legs when I'm working in the kitchen.  I'm going to have to be careful not to trip over him or knock him over as I bustle around!

We Have a Crawler!

I just wanted to quickly share that Nathan started crawling today!  Over the past couple of weeks, we've had two great helpers that I have to thank for their part in teaching Nathan how to crawl - Nana and Gran!  During both of Nana's recent visits and now during Gran's, they helped Nathan crawl to me by supporting him under his belly and preventing him from swinging his legs around and sitting up.  Earlier today, Gran realized that Nathan didn't need support under his tummy anymore and started holding onto his belt loops to prevent him from sitting up.  This afternoon, Nathan was pretty fussy and Gran was helping him crawl to me.  She let go of the belt loops and he just kept crawling!  He then crawled to greet Daddy when he got home tonight!  Breakthrough!

Busy, Busy, Busy

I've been busy with new activities and projects, so I may be light on blogging for the next little bit as I try to get a handle on everything.

I took a photography class Tuesday night with Jennie, and bought a DSLR camera on Wednesday.  It should arrive early next week and I can't wait to get started learning how to take great pictures with it!  Since I was gone to class that evening, it was up to Brian to put Nathan to bed.  I left some milk for Nathan in a sippy cup, however it didn't go over very well.  It took 45 minutes of fussing and crying for Nathan to get to sleep, poor boy!

I've spent a lot of time over the past few months working on making my blog into hard copy format.  My original plan was to make a book, and I downloaded software from Blurb.com that allows you to import your blog entries directly into your book layout.  However, I was being VERY particular about how I wanted the pages formatted and spent many, MANY hours working on it.  I've now decided its just too time intensive and have a new plan (which means abandoning all the work that I've done to date).  I'm going to just print out the text and pictures and put them into a scrap book.  Today I'm going to pick up everything I've printed for the blog posts from January and we'll give my new plan a shot.  Wish me luck!

Another project that I've spent some fruitless time on is turning our home videos into DVDs that can be watched on the TV.  Again, I spent a couple hours on this project, only to burn the DVD and realize that the free software couldn't convert the sound files (or something), and we ended up with silent movies.  Boo!  But I now have a lead on some new software that I'm going to try the free 30 day trial of to see if that will work for me.  But I don't want to start that until I get a handle on the blog book.

Of course, all of this is going on in between the daily tasks of cleaning, laundry, playing with Nathan, errands, cooking, reading with Nathan, etc.  And I naively thought I would have all sorts of free time and potentially be bored as a stay at home mom!  Silly me!

Family Pictures and Crawling Update

Nathan with Nana and Granddad

The fam

If you had asked us a few weeks ago if  Nathan would ever crawl, Brian and I would have both said "no".  Once he started scooting, any attempt to put Nathan on his stomach would immediately result in him getting back into a sitting position.  He was just too busy to bother trying to figure out how to crawl.  But that has slowly been changing, and this weekend Granddad make the pronouncement "Folks, he's crawling!"  Still not "crawling" as in making mad dashes around the house on all fours, but he is doing one or two... whatever would be the equivalent to "steps" for crawling.  We also agreed that as he can't scoot very well on carpet, the more playtime he has on carpet, the faster he'll start crawling in earnest.  So down to the basement and our newly carpeted playroom for Nathan and me!  And maybe we'll have a crawling video to share in the coming weeks!

Two Babies Under 1 Year! and Videos

No, I don't have a secret pregnancy that I'm hiding from everyone, but this was the situation at my house on Friday:

In the picture with Nathan is Penny, our friends Shane and Crystal's daughter.  Shane needed someone to watch Penny while he did some job training, and I was the one for the assignment!  I was nervous about how it would go, but it was a breeze!  So now I'm thinking that maybe its possible that I could potentially handle two little ones while probably still keeping my sanity (at least on a good day).  We'll give it some more time, though...

Daddy was super impressed the other day with Nathan's improving ability to feed himself with his pincher grasp.  Now you can be impressed too!

Then, even more exciting for both of us, Nathan started clapping last night!!  Brian and I were in the room with him playing with blocks, and he kind of started clapping with a block in his hand.  Then he dropped the block and continued the clapping.  He was so proud of himself and Brian and I were too!!  The funny thing is that I haven't even been practicing clapping with him, but after figuring it out last night he's now a clapping pro!  He was excited to show his new skill off to Nana and Granddad this morning!

Clean up, clean up! Everybody do your share!

Many months back, I began incorporating a quick clean-up of Nathan's room into his before bed routine.  My motivation at the time was purely self-preservation: I kept stubbing my toes and/or bumping into a toy that would make noise as I went in and out of Nathan's room for dream feeds and night feeds.  When this happened, I'd get irritated because I would wake up Nathan, hurt myself, or both.

Fast-forward to a month or two ago, I started singing the "clean up" song and made sure Nathan was watching me as I picked up his room.  Then one night as we were picking up the blocks in his room, Brian held one out for Nathan and then "helped" him drop it into the bucket with the rest of the blocks.  After "helping" Nathan help us clean up for a while, in the past 2-3 weeks he's started putting away blocks by himself sometimes!  We'll put a small block next to him, and he will pick it up and drop it in the box!  He's not 100% consistent yet, sometimes he wants to chew on the block instead, sometimes he'll miss the box and sometimes he'll try to retrieve the block from the box after he's dropped it in, but I'm super excited that we're already teaching him how to help clean up his room!  9 months old isn't too young to start chores, is it??

Crib Changes and Wall Art

Brian and I made some changes to Nathan's room two weekends ago.  The first is finally, FINALLY getting the "Nathan" art project checked off my list.  I bought the letters before Nathan was even born and it took me nine months to decide for sure what I wanted to do and finish painting, decoupaging, assembling and hanging them.  (When I bought the letters, we were still also considering Carter as a name, so I have those extra letters as well.  I wonder if AC Moore would give me store credit for them??)  

Nathan seems to be pleased with the changes to his room!

The second change was to lower the mattress on the crib and take out the bumper.  Nathan isn't pulling up on his own yet, but is getting pretty close.  We wanted to be sure that the first time that it did happen, he didn't topple over the edge of the crib rail!  The crib looks so bare now, but I guess these changes are inevitable as  Nathan grows up!

Fly Fighting Duo

Finding New Places

Since I've started trying to take pictures of Nathan outside every so often, I'm on the search of some scenic areas around town that meet the following criteria: a) some or lots of shade, b) good variety of scenery, c) free, d) not near a busy road because the cars distract Nathan.  I found a new little park today with some cute bridges over a little creek.  We didn't quite meet criteria "d", but were able to get a few good shots anyway.

Nathan was happy to get out of the house for an adventure!

He still loves to stick his tongue out lots!

Laughing at something goofy Mommy was doing!

Trying to shove miscellaneous pieces of nature in his mouth.

Farmer Nathan!

Catching Up!

Just when I think I'm doing a good job staying on top of the blog, I hit a dry spell with the posts.  I've had stuff to post about, so no excuses there.  So I'll just catch everyone up on the latest happenings in Casa del Kornrumpf.

Nathan signed for the first time yesterday!!  We've been doing signs with him for 2ish months now, some with more regularity then others: "all done", "milk", "more", "eat" and I guess "bye-bye" counts as a sign too.  Well yesterday Nathan signed to me "all done" after breakfast and lunch.  I was so excited!!  And both times he was definitely done eating (I tried to feed him a little more both times and he was not interested, but now I need to remember to NOT try to feed him more to show him I understand and respect it when he says all done).  Today, however, no signs, but I'm really pumped about this development and need to decide what else I may want to teach him.

Nathan was super fussy this afternoon, maybe he's finally starting to teeth?  I still don't know exactly what his gums are supposed to feel like when he's about to cut teeth, and he hasn't really been drooling more then usual, but maybe...

We all went to Addison Ashley's first birthday/pool party last night and had a great time.  Nathan and Brian got to go swimming together for the first time (fun!) but we almost had a close call when the pool dropped off much more quickly and steeply then Brian realized!  However everyone was really impressed with how well Nathan went underwater.  Good job buddy!

Last Sunday Nathan was formally "introduced" to the church, with one of our elders saying a prayer for Nathan (and Brian and me) and presenting us with a quilt.  They usually do this within the first couple weeks or months after a new baby was born, but it seemed like something always came up and it took this long until we got around to doing it for Nathan.  We dressed Nathan up in his tie (I'm not sure if I've taken a picture of Nathan in his tie yet!) and quite a few people have told me how much they loved the tie!

On another note, this weekend we continued to make progress on the basement.  Hooray!!  We laid carpet down in the large storage closet and Brian built one set of shelves, which we had filled in less then half an hour.  More sorting, organizing, purging and shelving needed before we move on to finishing the main room, but there is light at the end of the tunnel!

Ok, I'm going to call it a night, put my feet up and read a good book before bed.  Goodnight!

Double Diapering Comes to an End

When we started double diapering Nathan way back when, I knew a lot of the need was due to how many feedings he had while still in the same diaper (we finally realized that we didn't have to change a wet only diaper in the middle of the night - that was a huge bonus!).  Back then it was the going-to-sleep feeding, the dream feed and a middle of the night feed.  I haven't fed Nathan in the middle of the night for months, but his diapers were still pretty full in the mornings, so we continued with the double diapers.  At about eight months old, I decided it was time to work at getting rid of the dream feed as well.  I was usually dream feeding around 10pm, right before I got ready for bed.  So I started by moving the feeding up by half an hour for a few days, then to 9:00 and then to 8:30.  I was stuck at 8:30-9:00 for maybe two weeks (I would just get busy doing something after dinner and before I knew it, it was 9:00 already!).  While Nathan and I were visiting my parents a few weeks ago, I got Nathan up for his dream feed one night and he didn't want to nurse!  So I put him back down (thankfully he went right back to sleep!) and I took that as a cue that dream feeding was over.  We quit cold turkey and (so far) he hasn't woken up wanting to nurse in the evenings or during the night.  So with two of the three feedings gone, Nathan's morning diapers weren't full to the brim anymore, but I hadn't worked up the courage to try a single diaper (I really didn't want him waking up super early because of leakage).  But Saturday night Brian suggested trying it without the second diaper, and Nathan made it through perfectly until morning!  Thus, we bid "adieu" to double diapering.

Kisses for Nathan

When Nana was here last week, she watched Nathan while I went out and got some things done.  After I came back from one of the trips, she told me how much Nathan loved looking in the mirror and giving himself kisses.  So we practiced today.  Nathan understands and knows what to do when we ask him to "give kisses."  He'll (usually) give me or Brian kisses, and even gave Nana kisses as she was leaving last Friday (and, of course, the cats always get kisses as I mentioned yesterday).

I Finally Figured it Out!

Weeks (months?) ago, Nathan started putting his mouth on the cats.  I would think to myself "Eww, why is he licking the cats?  I hope he gets over this phase soon!" but he never did.  Then today it finally hit me, he isn't licking the cats, he's KISSING the cats!  Now that I realize that fact, I also realize that Princess gets the most kisses of anyone in the house during the day!  But I still don't understand how Nathan can stand the cat fur in the mouth part.

The Most Fearsome Predator

After this happened...

 Oreo tried to find a hiding space.  Unfortunately, he allowed himself to be cornered by the most fearsome predator, a newly mobile infant...

Fortunately, he was able to wait the predator out, which took maybe 30 seconds, allowing him to escape without further attacks.

I guess Nathan and I still need to work on remembering to be gentle with the cats.  "No, Nathan, pulling Oreo's tail is NOT being gentle!"

Turning Pages

We have made great strides in the book department over the past few weeks.  Nathan has recently become very interested in turning the pages of the books as we read.  In fact, I think he's trying for the title "Fastest Page Turner Ever!" because I have time to read about one phrase per page before we've moved on to the next one.  Every once in a while, he'll slam the book closed on my thumb so he can check out the cover again (still not quite over that obsession).  But Nathan is really starting to like books.  Hooray!

For a long time, I would keep all the books put away on the little bookcase in his room.  Finally some were left on the floor and I realized how interested Nathan was in looking at the books himself!  He would pick up the book and examine the front and back covers (of course) and then open it to look at a few of the pages.  Now I purposely leave books scattered around on the floor because I finally realized that allowing him to explore and "read" books on his own will likely help him learn to love books.  I also resort to books whenever Nathan hurts himself and starts crying - it is the perfect distraction to take the mind off his boo-boo and help him get back into a cheerful mood.

A few of our favorite books are But Not the Hippopotamus, The Going to Bed Book, Goodnight Moon, Pat the Bunny and Is Your Momma a Llama?.  Nathan can do everything in Pat the Bunny except for waving "goodbye" at the end (although sometimes he gets carried away and puts his face into the book like he's smelling or looking into the mirror on too many pages).  He's pretty funny when we read Goodnight Moon because he'll turn the pages more quickly when we're on the black and white illustrated pages, and more slowly when he's looking at the pages in color.  He also usually kisses the book on the "goodnight comb and goodnight brush" page, and I have no idea why, but he's pretty consistent about it!

Look What I Found, Mom!

Maybe one of the best things about Nathan's unique way of getting around by scooting on his bottom is that it leaves him with one free hand.  Many times he just holds his free hand up in the air at an odd angle, but other times he will carry something around, held high to show off his trophy.  Today its a pen that he must have fished out of my purse.  Probably not one of the safest toys I've let him play with, but I guess scooting with a pen isn't as dangerous as running with scissors, right?

Whirl-wind Painting and 9 Month Checkup

Nana (Carroll) came Monday for a visit with Nathan (and got Brian and me as an added bonus), and we have been having a great visit!  I think there has been one visit ever with the Kornrumpfs that hasn't involved tackling a home improvement project (which was right after Nathan was born), and this visit was no exception to that trend.  But first...

Tuesday morning was Nathan's nine month checkup, and we have updated stats to share!

  Length: 28 1/2 inches (50%)

  Weight: 21lb 1 oz (50%)

  Head: 18 1/4 inches (75%)

I thought that Nathan's growth had been slowing down, and the stats prove it!  The doctor said that Nathan was doing great, super healthy (thank you God!) and also was one of the easiest and most cooperative 9 month olds she'd seen in a long time.  Still no teeth and no real crawling, but those will come with time.

While we were at the doctor's, Nana got started on our little project for the week: finish painting the big basement room, including... ceiling, walls, baseboards, crown molding, door molding, door, closet door, fireplace as well as door moldings and closet doors for other downstairs rooms.  Like I said, a little project.  But we've made terrific progress over the past two days and the room is really starting to come together.  I mentioned to Brian last night that I can now envision myself choosing to spend time in the room rather than it being a cobwebby, dark place that I don't dare go into without real shoes on because of the risk of stubbing my toe on junk, stepping on a nail, or needing to smoosh any bug that decides to jump out at me.  Anyway, I'm super excited about the progress and am so thankful for the help!

Oh, and between all the coats of paint, we've been having fun playing on the floor with new toys, showing Nana how well we can scoot and how good we are at feeding ourselves, and lots of other fun Nathan stuff.  But this full schedule leaves me pretty tired, so that's all for today.  Maybe some before and after pictures of the basement soon!

Around and Around and Around He Goes...

...where he stops, no one knows!