Nathan's 2nd Birthday Party

We had Nathan's 2nd birthday party this past weekend, and overall it was a great success! Brian and I went back and forth trying to decide if we wanted to do a party or not, and finally decided that we would.  I'm glad we did, although I'm certainly thankful that its over!

We rented a shelter at a local park with a great playground. I decided originally to do a "Colors" theme, since Nathan still loves playing with his "matching colors" puzzle. Then we went to a playgroup activity where there was a bubble machine, which Nathan LOVED (that post and pics for another day), so I decided to buy a bubble machine and have a "Colors & Bubbles" theme for the party.

Nathan liked the bubble machine again, but in competition with the park (especially the swings), it didn't hold quite the appeal that it had previously. But he definitely had fun for a little while...

Brian grilled hotdogs for our dinner. 

Jennie was there and it was so good to spend time with her.  I was also pumped because I knew I could hand off my camera to her during the cake & candles and count on her to get some great shots - which she did, of course!  Here, Nathan's giving her a high-five.  Nathan was also super excited about eating Cheetos and probably ruined his dinner because he ate so many... but that's what birthday parties are for, right?!

We had about 30 people there, including kids.  Here's half of the crew, including family and people from church...

...and here's the playgroup half of the crowd.

This is what made the whole thing worth it for me.  Nathan was grinning from ear to ear when everyone gathered to sing "Happy Birthday" to him.  Throughout the whole song, he was just looking around at everyone, so happy and excited, and I got a little choked up right at the end. 

He also did a great job blowing out his candles.  He got one on the first try and the other on the second try!  I'm sure the practice that he got the night before blowing out the candle on Nana's birthday cake (twice!) helped with his success!

And here's the video that my wonderful husband thought to record on his phone.  It is also Nathan's new favorite video to watch on the computer!


The cupcakes we made for the party gave Carroll and me fits, and if it wasn't for her help, I would have probably given up and thrown them all out.  Between burning batches, forgetting ingredients, and icing that started out tasting marginal and then gave us problems with consistency, I'm amazed that they actually turned out tasting fabulous (in my opinion).  It was also my first time trying to pipe icing, so that was a learning curve as well.  It just reaffirms my typical rule for myself not to try new recipes when it really matters if it turns out well or not!  But next time I make them, I'm sure it will go a lot smoother!  I used this recipe for the cupcakes and this one for the icing (we added some powdered sugar at the end to sweeten slightly).  After hearing all my problems, I'm sure you'll want to try the recipes too (haha), but really, I thought they ended up tasting great and got lots of compliments on them from the guests!

As with last year, Nathan wasn't super interested in eating his cake.  He actually ran away from the table as soon as the candles were blown out.  He did try a bite of Daddy's a bit later though.

Jennie got a few shots of some of our friends who came to the party.

Nathan loved going down the big slide with Daddy and by himself.  Check out the awesome hair!

Now, I can shift my focus onto the next big event: our baby girl's arrival!  Thankfully she'll have a place to sleep now that I've cleaned out all the party supplies that were accumulating in her crib!

Teeth, Toothpaste and Party Preview

We bought Nathan a new toothbrush this past week at Walmart.  If I had only known that this little purchase would make him so excited about brushing his teeth (instead of fighting it), I would have let him pick out a new brush months ago!  I also bought myself a hand held mirror.  Seems like these two purchases don't have much in common, but just watch...



Seeing him do this, I have to remind myself that this kid's still a few days shy of turning two.  But doesn't he just look like a little man handling that brush and toothpaste??

Saturday afternoon we had Nathan's 2nd birthday party and it went SO well.  I am so thankful how smoothly the party itself and also am thankful its over!  I'll be posting details, pictures and I think a video later this week!

Potty Progress

A few new things to report on this slow-as-molasses route I’m taking with Nathan toward potty training…

About two weeks ago, Nathan and I went on our first outing with him wearing big boy underwear.  We were going to playgroup, which I figured was a pretty safe bet in that we would have a potty easily accessible the whole time.  We did stop at the post office on our way to playgroup, then hit the bathroom as soon as we got to baby Luke’s house (I brought along his little red potty just to help things go smoothly).  Then I set my timer and had Nathan stop playing and go with me to the potty every 30-45 minutes.  We made it home and proudly announced to Daddy that Nathan stayed dry the whole morning!

The next day, Nathan suddenly decided that he was done with sitting down to pee, he wanted to stand up!  After I made quite a few attempts over the next few days trying to keep him from peeing all over the floor, wall, cabinet, etc., I passed the baton to Brian.  I figured Brian would have a much better idea how to teach Nathan to “aim” then I would.  Thankfully the timing was perfect and Brian had just started a week of vacation, perfect for temporarily taking over potty duties. 

Brian’s approach was to convince Nathan to start going in the big potty – hooray!  So now we have a stool permanently stationed in front of the big toilet for Nathan!

Even with all this good news, the fact is that Nathan is still in diapers for most of the time most days.  And with my due date less then 5 weeks away (hooray and yikes at the same time!),  I am still comfortable letting him take the lead on any progress we do or don’t make during that time.  As I think I mentioned in a previous post, I know that any baby steps taken now will make the final process that much easier whenever Nathan or I decide to commit to getting him fully potty trained.  I’m just proud of how well and how far my little boy has come so far!

Oversized Load Coming Through!!

Last week Nathan started trying to pull (tow) stuff with his "zoom-zoom" ride-on toy. He tried shoving the handle of his wagon and then his rolling musical toy underneath the zoom-zoom, but of course they would stay behind as he scooted away. Daddy helped him out by fashioning a "trailer hitch" to attach the wagon to the zoom-zoom. And has that ever been one of the best things he could have done for Nathan!!

Nathan began towing the wagon around the house…

…then he needed to add a few items to his “trailer”.  First off, his tape measure and shoes…

…and that was sufficient for about a few seconds.

Then Nathan decided he needed some tools.

And from there, the sky was the limit!  Dada showed him how to hook the handle of his rolling music toy to the back of the wagon, which Nathan then decided would be the perfect ramp for loading his lawn mower!  (I’m sure all this resulted from seeing Granddad’s truck and trailer a few weekends ago, and then the loading of the Oldsmobile on the trailer for the trip back to Knoxville.)

After Dada convinced him that his ramp plan wasn’t going to work, Nathan decided that brute force was the best way to load that lawn mower.  (I guess he also sees yard men on our street with lawn mowers on their trailers.)

A good driver always checks to make sure the load that he’s towing is secure!

Occasionally, the trailer hitch needs to be inspected and adjusted.

How happy is this kid with his  new purpose in life?  Very, very happy!

Catching Up: Visit with Gran and Papaw

Papaw and Gran came for a visit one weekend in August. We were so glad to see them!
The sad part is that two months ago for my pregnancy-affected brain equals practically a lifetime, so I don't remember much about the visit except for what was captured in these pictures...
The weather was nice (for August), and we all spent time outside Saturday afternoon. After lots of being pushed on the swing, Nathan moved on to water fun with Papaw! We got the wading pool out, but Nathan was much more interested in having Papaw fill his cup up with the hose and then dumping it on the ground. He started by dumping it right next to the pool and Papaw, or in his water wheel toy, but gradually he would traipse farther and farther away to deposit the water on various parts of the yard. Unfortunately, this very specific watering plan of Nathan's didn't save our backyard from crisping up by the end of summer, but it certainly kept him entertained for quite a long time.

If I remember correctly, Brian was on Saturday call that weekend, so Nathan and I really were even more excited then usual to have company come visit. Mom and I spent our evenings working on projects - definitely sewing the crib skirt for the baby's room and I think also starting work on the new curtains now hanging in Nathan's room. During her one visit since then, we also sewed the crib bumper for the baby's room and hemmed Nathan's curtains.  I still have decorating projects I'd like to do for both rooms, but with Mom's help, we definitely got the biggest sewing projects completed!

Video Archives

Brian has quite a few videos on his phone that I wasn't even aware of!  But now I've seen them and we're passing them on to you!

Daddy's Truck


Tire Inspector


Measuring, New Batteries and "Patrick Kornrumpf"

(for those of you who don't know, Patrick is Nathan's middle name.)

So, this ones kind of funny...


...and Nathan agrees.

Last "Hurrah" for Kornrumpf, Party of 3

This is the last time we'll do this as a family of 3! I'm so thankful for beautiful weather, perfect temperatures, a fairly cooperative Nathan and an indulgent husband (who said that he would have been fine quitting after 3 pictures but humored me through about 250 more). And, of course, thanks to Jennie for doing goofy dances and whatever else you could think of to get Nathan to look at and smile for the camera. You took some really great pictures!

New Family Pics to Come!

Last night my wonderful friend Jennie took some family/maternity pics for us, and they turned out wonderfully!!  Especially considering that Nathan only wanted to cooperate by looking at the camera and smiling a small part of the time.  As you can see, I updated the blog banner with some new pics and will have a blog post with more (and bigger) pics within the next few days!  Thanks Jennie!!

Favorite Things

1. The lawn mower.  I’ve mentioned this in several recent posts, so I’m not going to write too much about it, but because its one of Nathan’s most favorite toys I needed to mention it here.  We always love playing with it inside, but as soon as we go outside, it must come out with us too.  Its also very important for it to get parked before naps and bedtimes; these days the designated spot is  always beside the TV in the living room along with the zoom-zoom (ride on toy) and his wagon.  When spoken about, Nathan always calls it “my nu-nu” and Daddy’s lawn mower is “Dada my nu-nu.”

2. The “colors game".  One of Nathan’s presents from Christmas last year was a set of 2-piece puzzles of matching colors and/or textures.  For example, one side of the puzzle would be a square of pink and the matching piece would be a pink pig.  A few weeks (months?) ago I decided to start using the puzzle pieces as flash cards to teach Nathan his colors.  We started with just three colors and have now worked our way through the whole set, including gray, black, white and “rainbow sunshine” (for the rainbow).  For a while Nathan would always get certain colors confused (like red and green or blue and yellow), but most of the time now he can rattle them off no problem.
From there we progressed to showing him two different colors and asking him to point out which one was ______.  And now we are using them as the 2 piece puzzles they were designed as.  I’ll lay out four cards (two matching sets) and he picks the two that are the “same color” and tries to fit the pieces together.  Every time we play his motor skills get better and he is now able to put the pieces together by himself most times.

3. Family photos on the fridge.  This was a little project that I’ve had in mind for a long time and finally finished about a week ago.  I printed out pictures of all the family that Nathan’s met and put them in plastic sleeves on the fridge at his eye level.  He spends quite a bit of time looking at the pictures, or rearranging the pictures, or naming everyone in the pictures. 



4. His tape measure.  Though he loves playing with any tool, especially the real ones, his favorite thing to do is measure various objects around the house with his tape measure.  For a while he was concentrating mostly on his lawn mower, but really he’ll be content to measure almost anything!