Nathan's very busy day

Jason worked from 7-3:30 today, and I didn't get much time with Nathan this week, so today was our day to catch up. We started off with a free Gymboree class (you can do a free preview class)- after being a little whiny, nervous, and clingy at first (collateral damage from the day care fiasco), he loved it and climbed on everything in sight. There was a lot to do! The parachute and bubbles really amused him, he just had a big smirk on his face the whole time. On the car ride home he began to nod off, so I put him straight in his crib and he slept for two hours straight!

After lunch, we went to Amaya Papaya for their $3 open play special and met up with Andrea, Scott, and Angelica. It was really great because Angelica and Nathan are old enough to explore on their own (again, after Nathan's initial hysterical freakout that I was going to leave him, which Scott tried to avert with no success) so the grown ups got to chill and hang out. Nathan played with a lot of toys, but his favorites were the hula hoops, the rocking toys, and dumping bins out. He likes to dump them and then hum the clean up song while he puts the toys away. Such a good helper! After about 90 minutes, all of a sudden he went to the door, signed all done, said "bye-bye," and waved. So we left :) This kid has such an opinion on everything! He's also just started nodding yes (before he only did no), so it's easier to figure out what he's asking for (i.e. "are you ready to go home?").

Now he's sitting at the dinner table with Jason and has eaten: a banana (yes a whole banana), an orange (yes a whole orange), an adult serving of pasta, a quarter cup of blueberries, rice and black beans, a cup of milk, a slice of cheese, crackers, and freeze dried strawberries. Each time he clears his plate, he signs for more. I guess he worked up an appetite!!

Swim pictures!

Look at my little fishie!

Nathan goes through a window

First off, the remainder of our Baltimore trip was great. Lots of good food, good company, a visit to Amish country, and then a late flight home. We went straight to my parents' to pick Nathan up and then were up bright and early the next day for swim lessons.

If you've read my previous post on swim lessons (and looked at the pictures), you know that swim lessons are not one of Nathan's favorite activities. Well, this weekend at my parents' house, he went in the pool to hang out, and then told my mom "go," which is what the swim instructor says to him when he's supposed to swim to the step. so she asked him if he want to swim and said ready set go, and the kid put his face in the water and got to the step. And stood up and clapped for himself. And then signed more, more more. So they repeated this a few times, with the same positive results. So yesterday, we were cautiously optimistic that the lesson would go well, and it did! He was like a totally different child. I wish I could have caught on camera the first smile when he came up onto the step. Whenever he takes a huge developmental step like this, my mom calls it going through a window. He didn't literally go through a window, don't worry.

In addition to his newfound love for swimming, he came back from grandma's with some new words: down, banana, and one other that's escaping me at the moment.

Live from Baltimore!

We're in Baltimore, MD this weekend, sans Nathan, for our friends' wedding. This is our first vacation without Nathan, and we're alternately enjoying ourselves and missing him terribly. We did do a lot of sightseeing yesterday, including:
touring the Harley Davidson factory




















Visiting a real working dairy farm












and going to a churascarria (sp.?) with our friends for the rehearsal dinner.

UGH

Well THAT was an altogether awful experience! I went to my blog, went to the dashboard, clicked new post, and up went a post about Nathan's poop to my work blog. UGGGGGGGGGGGGGH, how dumb can I be??? Anyways, here's the post:

Today's nugget (pun intended):
Stealth dook- what Jason calls a Nathan poop that he can't smell, resulting in him being caught totally off guard when he goes to change his diaper.

Ughhhhhhhhhh.

Swim lessons

This week was SO hectic, but at least I'm managing to get one post in before I dive into microbiology homework. On Tuesday, Nathan started his infant swim lessons. I debated a lot about whether to just do a "mommy and me" type class offered by one of the cities, vs. much more expensive and time-consuming private "infant swim rescue" classes. Ultimately, I didn't want to spend hours researching the very best option, liked the look of the ISR site and concepts, and went with that. I contacted the closest instructor to us, who gives private lessons at her home and could accommodate both Jason's and my schedules (plus my parents' who will bring him on most Fridays), since the lessons are DAILY for a month. So far, we are pleased. Nathan is not. He cries as soon as he has to get in the water.


The interesting thing, though, is that he complies. He doesn't fight off the instructor and in fact is very passive. She tells him "ready, set, go" before she drops him in the water, and at "set" he holds his breath and dunks his face. So he definitely understands the concept! As soon as he comes up, he's bawling again. The lesson is only about 10 minutes each day (it probably feels a lot longer to Nathan) and at the end, he lays on an exercise mat next to the pool, like a wet noodle. I'll post pictures intermittently and see if he's smiling by the end of the four weeks. Here's hoping!

Despite a playdate being sneezed out (aren't they, 90% of the time??), we had a good weekend. Not so productive, but good at least. Today's highlights included going on a "date" (just Nathan and me) to the Yogurt Factory, where you can pick your own flavors, your own amount, and your own toppings. Nathan LOVED it and it was a cheap date at $2.65 for the two of us. Then we worked on learning body parts for a little while, but Nathan thinks all parts are his head and that his shoes are really his feet. Sigh.

I attempted to relive my old single days, when I actually had to move things, install things, and hang things on my own. I was never good at it, but is it possible that I lost whatever little amount of skill I did have? The house is still in pretty good disarray from the move, and although I know J worked really hard to make the move as easy on me as possible (and it was) I still get frustrated when I see things that need to be done... So, sometimes, I try to do them by myself. I figured that if I could at least get Nathan's curtain rod hung somewhat straight, Jason wouldn't complain. He might go back and fix it later, but I'd still be one curtain rod to the good. Well, somehow I managed to hit a stud or something, which means I couldn't put the anchors in. Which means I tried to go search for shorter screws, because ridiculous work-arounds are how i roll. But nothing :( So now, not only do I not have a curtain rod, I'm going to have to explain my ineptitude to Jason. Yay.

Thursdays!

Thursdays are a special day in our house- we get fresh organic produce delivered from Orlando Organics. I can't say enough about how awesome it is. Not only is it affordable (I'm paying $23.99 a week for their smallest back, which is plenty of produce to last me the whole week), but the quality is great, I don't have to drive all the way to Whole Foods or settle for whatever Publix has that's organic, AND, did I mention that it gets delivered to my door? So, every Thursday, Nathan knows to look for the cooler that we leave out, and we have a great time exploring the contents. Sometimes it's fruits or veggies I've never had, which forces me to look for new and yummy recipes. Today's assortment included eggplant, peaches, mango, corn, green onions, squash, lettuce, pears, baby carrots, and grapefruits!

Milestones

Since I haven't posted for so long, why don't I just do a current update that covers the last seven months (thank you to FB for allowing me to recall past statuses to recreate this). It'll make me feel better, so too bad if you don't like it:

• First Hannukah and Christmas: Hannukah was at my aunt's house, and Nathan had a great time running around. Christmas, he slept through. Yup, the whole thing
• First birthday, February 2010: held at Grandma and Grandpa's in Viera, and yes I did allow him to have his very own smash cake. No, it was not organic. He stayed awake through the entire thing and did not have a meltdown.
• February 26th: Nathan tries to build a large hadron collider out of cheerios and his playskool busy ball-tivity center. This may be significant later when he's writing his memoirs about where he began in engineering :)
• March 2nd: Nathan realizes he loves books and asks me to read Elmer's first counting book 14 times in a row
• March 10th: Nathan announces his first word... Cheese
• Easter: Nathan learns how to do an easter egg hunt and puts the eggs in the basket, rather than sitting IN the basket like he did last year
• May 6th: we move from our huge house out in the boonies to our smaller house in the "city." I'm unbelievably happy to be 3 minutes from Publix and closer to many of my friends, but sad that Nathan will have to move from day care with my sister in law to "real" day care.
• May 24th: Nathan has his first day at "real" day care
• May 31st: I have a total breakdown and refuse to send him anywhere but to my sister in law's, even with the commute down SR 50.

And that brings us to present day. Think of it as a photo montage minus the photos. And, for the record, here's Nathan's current vocabulary: cheese, doggie, daddy (no mommy!), waffle, blueberry (are we seeing a theme here??), juice, up, open, uh-oh, Goodnight Moon (sounds like guhhh mmmmmm), book, shoes. He also signs more, please, eat, all done, and now frog.

No original title, no unique theme

I have fallen off the blogging wagon in an inexcusable way... No posts since Nathan was nine months old! No milestones, no first words, NOTHING. Bad, bad, bad. Here is my rejuvenated effort, with a rejuvenated look, to better document our lives, share milestones and funnies, ups and downs, insights and moments that can only be described as pure dumbness. You'll laugh, you'll cry, or at the very least I'll post pictures occasionally. I (ahem) solemnly. promise. to. keep. up. with. this. blog. Kudos to Andrea and Stephanie for making me feel peer pressured into doing this. Boo on Mary and Jesse for making me feel like it's ok to not blog for months at a time :)