Big Girl Toys, Reading and Signing

Sarah's personality has really blossomed in the last two months. It started with her wanting to read the same books over and over during the trip to Gran and Pawpaw's (somewhat appropriately "Old McDonald had a Farm"), and has accelerated as she is now walking and signing more.

She always, always loves to sit with me in the rocking chair and read. I'm pretty sure that every time we've sat down to read, I've been the one to lose interest first (or felt my "to do" list calling). Honestly, I've challenged myself to sit with her and read for as long as she wants to, and 15 or 20 minutes later we are still going and I'm ready for a new activity!

 Sarah loves to play with balls. And, apparently, loves stickers too! Nathan was putting stickers on his hands and after he was done with the sticker sheet, Sarah picked it up and was trying to peel them off to put on her hands too. So I helped her put stickers on the back of both hands and she kept them on ALL DAY LONG!

This one brings back memories of Nathan's early love for the broom.

And I guess we are starting to play dress up already? Sarah loves for me to put this toy on her head and Daddy always laughs at her "skull cap"! And once again I'm amazed that she will keep it on her head and wants help putting it back on when it falls off.

I was reading some random blog posts about signing with babies about two weeks ago and it inspired me to try harder with signs for Sarah. So I did and within a few days Sarah learned "more", "read a book", "eat", and sometimes "milk". She's also gotten more consistent with "all done" and this week she added "swing" to her vocabulary as well. As far as verbalization, she is certainly babbling more and sometimes I hear things that really sound like words (like "hi" or "hello" or "me") but she doesn't use them consistently enough for me to tell for sure.

Cay Creek Boardwalk

During our "destination vacation" at Gran and Pawpaw's, we were eager to find new, fun things to do with the kids. So one afternoon Gran and I drove the kids to the Cay Creek Nature Preserve where they had this long awesome boardwalk through marshlands out to the creek.

 I, of course, was clicking away on my camera, when Nathan asked if he could take some pictures with it.  Here's the shot from Gran's angle...

... and here it is from Nathan's!

I got Nathan to pose for a picture....

...and then it was my turn.

Nathan then took a series of the grass off one side of the boardwalk, which didn't make the cut for the blog - sorry kiddo!

Finally we made it to the end of the boardwalk.

But with no time to waste, Nathan decided to sprint back toward the tower we had seen earlier.

We were only able to tear Nathan away from the tower the first time with the promise of a "picnic" on top of the tower on our way back.

What kind of picnic?  An M&M picnic of course!

A fun afternoon at a cool park on a beautiful day.  And to top it off, the park ranger found the sunglasses that Gran and I almost left behind, and then we picked up fresh caught shrimp to boil for dinner.  It doesn't get much better then that!

This and That

I'm not sure where it came from, but about two weeks ago Nathan became significantly more loving and cuddly.  He now routinely says things like:
"Mommy, I wuve you.  You're a sweet girl." and
"Mommy, want to cuddle?"

So, so sweet!  We used to never cuddle at all and I didn't know how much I was  missing out!

* * * 

Nathan still loves to play "chases" and "hide and seat" with Daddy.  But the games have become an obstacle course event now that Sarah is walking.  This evening, Nathan and Daddy were running in circles around the house and Sarah was toddling around the circle with them.  It's going to get even crazier in a few months when she can run with them!

* * *

Sarah's favorite game to play with the family is her clapping game, usually done at mealtimes.  She will start clapping until the rest of us join in.  Then she'll stop clapping and wait for us all to stop as well.  Then she'll start up again, beaming the whole time!  Repeat, repeat, repeat!

Destination Vacation at Gran and Pawpaw's (Part 1)

Gran and Pawpaw came up for a visit in October since they were already in-state for a ceremony at Ft. Bragg.  We got to celebrate Gran's birthday together, and a few days later Gran drove with me and the kids down to Ft. Stewart to spend a week.  It had been TWO YEARS since Nathan and I had been at their house - Nathan was exactly the same age on that trip that Sarah was this time around.  The timing worked out perfectly because Brian was away at a anesthesia convention in DC and then came back home in time for a black call weekend (on call Friday/Sunday).  So Mommy was eager to not spend that long week home alone with the kids!

We celebrated Gran's (third?) birthday at our house!

Ft. Stewart has a park about every other block in the housing areas. No joke.  We went to one or two or three parks a day, every day, for the five days that we were there and didn't go to the same park twice.  And that was just on our one corner of post.  AMAZING!

 Sarah enjoyed "driving" the play cars.

Nathan LOVES "circle" slides!

It was Nathan's first time on a merry-go-round.  

Sarah always loves to swing!

Preschool Tidbits

Tuesday was Nathan's first sick day.  He started acting lethargic around 8:30, and after going back and forth in my mind whether I should keep him home, I finally asked him if he felt sick and wanted to stay home or if he wanted to go to school.  He chose to go to school and acted completely normal during drop-off.  But then my phone rang at 9:40 and my instincts were confirmed - his teacher was calling for me to pick him up from school.  When I got there, I could just tell by his face that he really felt crummy.  We made it home and I was rocking him on the loveseat when he asked me to carry him into the bathroom for him to go potty.  Thankfully we made it in before all the contents of his stomach covered both of us.  Two naps and about 5 hours later, Nathan was almost back to his normal self.  Thankfully it was a very short-lived bug and, so far, no one else has come down sick.

Fast forward to preschool drop-off this morning.  It was the first time that Nathan didn't demand that I carry him to his class room.  Instead as we got close, he took off sprinting down the hall and into the arms of his teacher.  "I"m all better!" he exclaimed as he gave her a great big hug!  Then he walked into the classroom, turned around to give me a handshake and told me "I'll see you in a few minutes.  Bye Mommy!"  I'm so glad he loves preschool!

PS. I have worlds of pictures and stories to put on the blog that I've just been procrastinating on.  Hopefully I will find some motivation soon to get through them all and get posts published!

Nathan-isms

(At Tanglewood Park a few visits ago)

Mommy: Nathan, do you see the white horse?
Nathan: Yes.  And there two more!
Mommy: Yes, Nathan!  Two more horses!
Nathan: Actually... they might be elephants.

Catching Up: September Pics

Wow, September was a long time ago!  But I had these pictures uploaded but never got around to posting them to the blog.  So just consider this a "bonus" post while I get through reviewing and editing the pictures from our visit to Gran and Pawpaw's a few weeks ago!

I always have lots of great ideas for activities for Nathan that I get from Pinterest or from my amazing playgroup friends, but for some reason I feel like I need to save special activities for special occasions. But what this actually means is that I get all these great ideas and/or buy supplies for projects that never actually get done. Which is sad, really. So one day I was determined to do some new activities for Nathan. And he loved it, of course! I had bought some "water pearls" months ago for a fun sensory play toy for Nathan, so in the morning we got those out and started them soaking.  But since the rehydration process takes a while, Nathan asked to play in the water and had tons of fun at the sink.

The eye dropper is always a big hit, as is the syringe!

We had bought Sarah a toothbrush at Walmart, so Nathan decided to teach Sarah how to brush her teeth... er... he decided to mimic her as she chewed on the wrong end!

After nap, the water pearls had grown to full size and Nathan had a blast playing with them!

And when Nathan wants me to take pictures of him and Sarah, I'm always happy to oblige!

"It's My Imagination Movers" Halloween

That's what Nathan said all night as he pointed to his Halloween outfit!

Nathan's first celebration of Halloween was a great success, with an wonderful costume (thanks to Nana's sewing skills and some last minute scrambling by Mommy to get the name tag and logo done correctly), nice weather and good friends to share the experience with.

Imagination Movers is a show on Disney Jr that we discovered though a DVD at the library.  Nathan randomly grabbed it one day (I was on the search for some movie or show that would catch his interest to have for car rides) and it was love at first watch.  One of the characters has "Wobble Goggles", which are glasses that helps him see special things (sound waves, through walls, etc.), so this summer when I bought Nathan some goggles for the pool, they quickly became his "Water/Wobble Goggles".

Sarah wore her new ladybug dress with her coincidentally matching coat, so I made both of us lady bug antenna to wear.  Her's lasted through the first house, while I kept mine on a little longer.  No pictures of me, though!

We went to maybe 20 houses, but had to walk a ways between houses until we got to the main street in our neighborhood, so it was lots of in and out of the stroller for the kids.

Clark was our buddy for the night, who went as a jelly fish.  His costume was definitely the most popular with the adults handing out candy!

Nathan did a great job going up to stranger's houses, always remembering to say "Thank you" for the candy, but he kept having to be reminded to say "Trick-or-Treat".  He was even brave when one man came to the door in a light-up astronaut helmet, kind of scary for a three-year old!

Sarah was a little bit of a handful during the night, with Daddy carrying her a lot because she didn't want to be cooped up in the stroller.  But once we stopped trick-or-treating around 7:00, Meg loaned Sarah her hat (Mommy had a big "fail" on bringing enough warm clothes!) and she snuggled down and fell right to sleep for the walk back to Clark's house.

Mommy and Daddy let Nathan keep all the candy he got on Halloween, picking one piece to enjoy after lunches and dinners if he ate a good meal.  The first few nights he also spent lots of time examining all the different pieces of candy - "Mommy, don't put my bucket away.  I want to look at my candy.  I want to hold my candy."  He also decided that he didn't like Reeses cups and voluntarily shared his two with Mommy and Daddy.  Lest you think we rigged this, we told him before hand how yummy they were and they were some of Mommy and Daddy's favorite candy!  But I think this could work out well for years to come!

So our first time to celebrate Halloween with the kids - success!

Sarah's Really Walking!

At the beginning of the week, Sarah started to venture out on walks without cheering and open arms to meet her. She's gotten progressively steadier on her feet during these past few days and now is really starting to stroll around the house on her own. She still crawls at least 75% of the time, but I imagine that won't last long! Here's what she was up to today!

Nathan's 3rd Birthday (Part 1)

Nathan had a pretty special birthday this year! It started out first thing when Nathan found the balloon bouquet that Daddy got for him. He was super pumped about the balloons all morning, and the excitement wasn't even dampened when his first favorite balloon deflated.

I had signed up to host playgroup on Nathan's birthday and turned it into a very simple friend party for him (since he had a preschool party the next day and the family party that is still to come). Nathan was super excited about it because at 8:00 (an hour and a half before playgroup starts) he was asking "When are my friends coming? Are my friends here yet? What are my friends doing? Are they riding with their mommies (to our house)?" I kept him distracted by requesting his help decorating the cupcakes with dinosaur sprinkles. 

Last week, when we were talking about what he wanted for his birthday, he first told me a "blue cake."  Then he changed his mind to a "brown cake" and when I said, "Oh, a brown chocolate cake?", that sealed the deal.  This kid loves chocolate!  So chocolate cupcakes it was, "with sprinkles!"  I also made popcorn, one of his favorite treats that I rarely get around to making.

Before his friends arrived, he said something about Clark and his balloon that I didn't really hear.  I thought Nathan was worried about his friends taking his balloons, but he said no, I want to share my balloons!  I asked if he meant while they were playing at our house, or share so they could take one home?  He said share to take them home.  I was thrilled since I was going to suggest that to Nathan, but I was so glad he decided on his own he wanted to share!

FINALLY all his friends got here and we sang "Happy Birthday" and ate cupcakes and the kids had tons of fun playing while the moms all chatted and ate.  Before everyone left, I got this picture of the big kids, each with their balloons!  Disaster almost struck when his friends were leaving, though, because twice balloons blew away in the wind (the very minor impact Hurricane Sandy had on us).  But Jen and I both made dashes into the neighbors yard and were able to snag them, much to everyone's relief!

After nap, we had a full afternoon planned.  We went to AC Moore to buy Nathan a tiny, yellow teddy bear that he had seen at the check-out lane during previous visits.  He had always asked if he could have one, but since I have a strict "no checkout lane purchase" policy, I told him that he could get one on his birthday.  He then proceeded to remind me about it every day for the two weeks before his birthday!  Our second stop was Harris Teeter, where we found the red race car cart to ride in and bought powdered mini-doughnuts, his requested treat for his preschool birthday celebration.  I had a pretty short list for the store that day so when we went to check out before Nathan was ready, he thought we needed to get something else.  So to humor him we did some additional laps around the store until he decided he had a long enough ride in the race car cart!

We went home and hung out for the afternoon, talking to grandparents and family on the phone and playing until Daddy called to and said he would be home in time to go out to eat. Nathan's restaurant pick was Jason's Deli with the "black milk" (the carton is black and white cow print) and an ice cream cone at the end of the meal.  He definitely has a sweet tooth!

Then it was home to put Sarah to bed and present opening.  We got it all recorded and I'll share some of the highlights soon (I hope).  My gift ideas for Nathan haven't always been great hits in the past, but this year he was pretty excited about the slide whistle and mix cd with his favorite song.  Its the little things!

So it was really a wonderful day.  Everyone was super cheerful, no timeouts and fun for all of us all day long.  Just how I think a birthday should be!