She's two!

Happy Birthday, Piper!

Leash!

It seems that every day Nate does something new and exciting that makes us so proud. This is a big one...his first word! Yesterday he started repeating the word "leash". It started as "eash" but, as you can hear in the video below, he's added the "l" sound and now says the word quite clearly and correctly.




Nate understands many other words that he can't yet verbalize. Those words include Piper (one of the first he knew), Mama, Dada, milk, bouncer (jumperoo thing in the doorway), music (cd player), ball (refers to one specific ball that he absolutely loves), and balloon. The first five words he picked up on his own and the rest we "taught" him through conversations like this..."Here is your BALL. This is a BALL. Throw the BALL. BALL. BALL. BALL." Now if we say "music", he immediately looks at the cd player, or "milk" and he looks right to his bottle. So back to leash...he loves playing with Piper's leash and yesterday while he was playing with it I started in on "This is Piper's LEASH. LEASH. LEASH", etc. and he responded with "eash, eash, eash". I was so excited that I woke up Edward to have him come listen. Earlier today he looked over at the leash, put out his hand trying to reach it and said "leash!". How wonderful that he can communicate what he wants with words (well, a word so far). We are so proud and hope his vocabulary expands rapidly.

"music"
We've been listening to the Beach Boys--upbeat and kid friendly (i guess?). We've been working on clapping to the beat of the songs. It seems Nate has no sense of rhythm. Sorry, kid!

Another word he understands--Elmo! He has lots of Elmo exposure--Tickle-me-Elmo, Elmo books, and Sesame Street, of course.

the beloved leash

Another favorite play thing--wires. He's always had a thing for sweatshirt strings, or really any string, wires, the leash, etc. Don't worry, I always supervise when he's playing with such things. And of course he's only allowed wires that aren't plugged into anything. :-)

He's off to the couch!

Because I'm so proud

He's made progress from just this morning! And yes, we are still in our pjs. It's one of those days. And yes, the Beach Boys are playing in the background. We were having a dance party until I became winded after only a minute of dancing with Nate.

It's going in the baby book...

first steps! These aren't actually his first, or his best, but pretty good, right?

Weekend

Friday evening

Nate taking a few steps. It's amazing he doesn't immediately fall down from the weight of his diaper. Lately Nate has been cruising more confidently (sometimes with only one hand), has been walking holding just one of my hands, and has taken a few confident steps all by himself. I think he'll be walking in no time!

Saturday morning lounging

Saturday afternoon swinging

Sunday, Mother's day
Edward got up early with Nate and played with him, fed him, and did most of the Nate-related tasks all day. What a nice break!

*New favorite picture!*
(notice they are wearing matching Polo pullovers...aww!)

What a great smile! Nate currently has FOUR molars coming in all at once. One has been making its way through the surface for weeks and is almost all the way out, the other three are just beginning to emerge. Poor baby! (by the way, that makes twelve teeth!)


Sunday afternoon meal at Outback, yum!

Last year Nate was one week old on Mother's day. Saturday evening we had gotten back from the hospital where he was being treated for jaundice and Sunday I remember being happy to be home with my little baby but absolutely exhausted. Glad to be better rested this year!

The Carol Brady flip

That's quite a face. It's as if he's saying "Stop making fun of my hair...or else."

1/4 Italian

and he's got the sandal lines to prove it. This is after walking on a few sunny days, and yes, he was covered in sun screen from head to toe. Guessing he'll be a very tan little boy by the end of the summer.

Birthday weekend

We celebrated Nate's birthday at my parents' house this weekend. The weather was gorgeous and Nate was blessed to be surrounded by his four grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.

I spent Friday morning baking a cake and cupcakes.

Obviously an M&M themed party. Be sure to notice the coordinating balloons and streamers in later pictures.

We spent the afternoon with our friends, Christina and Adrian, before heading to NJ Friday evening.

Friday night Nate tried his first Oreo.

Saturday morning, photo session #1 in the front yard
(Jessie took these great pix as I danced around behind her to make Nate laugh)

I love the crossed legs

Photo session #2 in the backyard

Party favors (Gerber baby food containers filled with candy)

Photo session #3 in the side yard

Here is the McInnes family arriving. Nate was so happy to see his buddy, Maddie.

Sweet Avonlea and Aunt Jessie

Fortunately Nate had Maddie to assist with opening gifts.

Nate and his grandparents

More presents

Birthday buddies!

Dessert time!

Sunday morning balloon time

Maddie spent the night, too.

nap before church

Nate's much taller buddy, Uncle Tim

Testing out a new birthday toy

Sunday night silliness

What an action packed weekend! It went by too quickly, as I knew it would, but now I have the wonderful memories to look back on (and Nate will have about 300 pictures to look at when he is older). Happy Birthday, Nate!