February in Pictures

At the end of each month I try to look through all the picture that I've taken over the previous weeks and cull out all the ones that I don't want to keep forever. So I was working on that today when I realized that I had quite a few that I never shared. So a few pictures, their back stories and goodbye to February!

As has been well documented, Nathan loves to build with his blocks.  What I don't think I've mentioned is that Nathan believes all other household items deserve to be stacked as well.  This is one of the more impressive towers as of late.

Unfortunately it seems that the combination of my clumsiness and the inherent clumsiness of a toddler equals a continuous string of bumps and bruises for Nathan.  Take this killer for example.  I was on the ground, tickling Nathan, both of us giggling and having a great time, when Nathan lunges for the floor.  His head hits, but not too hard (from what I could tell), but immediately there is a LOUD cry of anguish.  I grabbed him and cuddled him in my arms, wondering why the little bump caused such an extreme reaction.  Then, thinking he could potentially be bleeding, I turn his face towards mine and see this HUGE knot grow from his forehead in front of my eyes.  I actually didn't think that sort of thing was possible, but I saw it with my own eyes.  It turned out that that little bump of his head landed right on the knob of a puzzle piece.  Nathan's bump receeded over the next few days, but during the next two weeks,  Nathan's bruise went through the whole spectrum of blue, purple, brown, green and yellow before it finally faded, only to be replaced almost immediately with another injury to the face.  Poor guy!

I think I have created a monster.  I discovered that letting Nathan sit on the counter while I'm cooking tends to keep him happy and entertained.  But now he believes that every time I step foot in the kitchen, he should be allowed to play on the counters.  And when he's on the counter, he expects to be able to play with anything within reach.  As you may or may not be able to tell from the picture, Nathan pulled out all the dividers from my recipe box (that's what those little tabs were for, right?  Handles to facilitate easy removal from the recipe box?).  And then, of course, the measuring spoons.  What's not to love about an assortment of tiny spoons, especially when they can be used to prod at the remnants of my recipe box? (After it took me quite a while to get my recipe box back in order, it now lives inside one of the cabinets instead of on the counter.  And although it made it interesting to cook when I only had one measuring spoon that hadn't made its way into Nathan's mouth, I have now replaced most of the measuring spoons with a varied assortment of rarely used utensils).

Every morning as I put on my make-up, Nathan likes to be there with me.  I set him up on the counter in our room (hmm, I'm noticing a trend here) so that he can play while I'm primping.  This particular day I thought it would be a good idea to indulge him when he indicated he wanted the water turned on.  And then I stood back as he proceeded to drench the whole right side of his body.  At least he had fun doing it... until about two seconds after he got down from the counter and realized wet clothes = cold clothes and started fussing.  I thought for a minute that the solution was to dry him with the hair dryer, but quickly realized that the situation really warranted a change of clothes.