Nathan loves taking a bath!

Nathan is taking swim lessons!

Nathan and Britton sharing quality time in the pool.

Our little gentleman.

This may not seem like much but, at under 15 months, it's a small miracle.

Arrr! Happy Halloween!

October 2011

Oh boy!  October is almost over, it's been busy and I've already forgotten half of it!  (Did I mention that blogging is a great tool to help you remember what the heck you did last week/month/year?!)

The first weekend in October was wonderful!!!  Nathan and I went to Atlanta to see the best girlfriends a gal could ask for.  One of my friends (Shelley) is pregnant and provided us with a wonderful excuse to get together, a baby shower!  (Thanks for taking one for the team, Shelley ;-) )

The first night I stayed with friends, Christine and Mike and their daughter, Sarah.  They had a tent filled with balls that Nathan just loved.

Later Nathan learned that when you play with a 4 year old girl, you might get dressed up as a fairy!  He's so sweet and easy going, he was just happy to play!

On Saturday, I went to Shelley's shower with Sarah while Sarah's mom babysat (yah! for grown up time).  Saturday night Sarah and I stayed at her parent's house for an adult slumber party.  You know, the kind where you have to go to bed early so that you can get up at 7am and make it through another day with an energetic toddler.

On Sunday morning, our day was pretty open for anything and I had an afternoon flight out so our friends at the shower came over to Sarah's parents house.

We tried to take a picture with our children...

But it sure is easier without the little ones!

Nathan did fairly well on the plane to Atlanta, wish I could say the same for the way back.  Ugh, at least the flight is only 1.5 hours.  Good thing he's cute.  ;-)

I have NO IDEA what I did in the following two weeks.  I was basically swallowed whole by the transition to electronic medical records at work when I got back from Atlanta.  I worked long and hard and came back home every day mentally exhausted.  It's going to take a couple more months to get used to things and to get my productivity levels back up but I finally feel like I can breathe a little at work.  Someday we'll look back at this post and laugh and say "remember when we used to write everything down in paper charts?!"

Last weekend we went to the pumpkin festival in Hyde Park.  The weather was beautiful and Nathan enjoyed all the people watching.

Nathan's One Year Pictures

We had Nathan's one-year-old pictures taken a couple of weeks after his birthday.  He also had shots shortly after that, followed by an awful reaction to the MMR vaccine.  Nathan had a full body rash, was uncomfortable and had painful fits for about 10 days.  Luckily, my mom was willing and able to come and give Nathan some tender loving care so that I didn't have to miss work.

Nathan is now taking LOTS of steps independently but still prefers to crawl.  He LOVES playing peek-a-boo, stacking blocks, pushing the stroller around the park, moving furniture (or anything that will move) and taking baths.  He is such an affectionate little boy, crawling over to me for hugs...in those moments, all is right in the world. Love it!

The next Elton John!

Watch as Nathan sings and plays the xylophone! His mommy and daddy were both band geeks so his talent comes as no surprise. ;-)

Nathan's first steps!

Nathan took his first steps a week after his 1st birthday.  I was visiting him at lunch and thought that I would just video tape him standing all by himself.  I was already impressed and then... he took steps!

An extended birthday.

On Nathan's actual birthday, I flew to Boston for a 3 day course and Britton stayed in Tampa to work all weekend.  That meant that Nathan got to spend another weekend with his cousin Connor and my family.  The following weekend, when we were all home again in Tampa, Nathan got to open a few more presents.

Nathan's loves his bath toy even before it's out of the box!

Nathan gets his own iPhone and car keys!!!

Nathan loved going for a bike ride!

And mommy did too!

At one year, Nathan weighs 23 pounds, has 8 teeth, waves goodbye and sometimes says "buh-buh" while he waves.  So cute!

Nathan's first birthday!

Nathan had a little birthday party at home that same weekend that my family was in town. 

At this age, Nathan loves the box almost as much as the gift.

My friend Brooke helps Nathan play with his new xylophone.

Brooke stuffed the rest of the bag with tissue paper.  It was a big hit...

...for children and adults!

My dad was the milliner for us all, though he never wore one himself, suspicious.

YAY!

Nathan had his own little cake to enjoy.

He was pretty gentle with it at first.

Mommy gave him a kiss and told him to go for it! 

And he did.

Yes, he turned the whole thing over on his own.

Luckily, it did not wind up on the floor.

It was pretty yummy!

And we even had fun cleaning up!

Todd's family in Tampa!

In late July, Todd, Shu-Fen and Connor came to Jupiter, Florida.  Not the best time to visit Florida, but Todd grew up here and he chose to visit anyway.  Yay!  They came to Tampa with my parents for a 3 day weekend and we had fun at our local sprayground and hanging out at home playing with lots of toys and practicing sharing.

We had my grandmother and Uncle Ed over for lunch on Saturday and went to see my grandfather on Sunday.  At 98 years old, my grandfather is getting too old to make the trip to my house (35 min). Though he enjoys having visitors, he no longer remembers who we are and needs lots of reminders about how we are all related. He can still play acey ducey though and he even beat my brother once (Todd, is such a softy though, I don't think he collected the money).

Connor is 21 months old now and is just adorable.  He likes to imitate the adults and has lots of fun gestures, like this one: he puts his hands behind his head to relax and say "auuuhhhhh!"

He thinks he's so cute.

And he's right!!!

Where does the time go?

Our local sprayground in Hyde Park.

It's been a long time since I've blogged.  We've been BUSY!  We've had visits from my parents and Britton's Aunt Kathy and Uncle Billy and Britton's mom, Julieann, Caleb and Elijah.  We've visited with my grandparents and my Uncle Ed in Clearwater.  Britton and I both had birthdays. We've gone to graduation parties.

Nathan chilling poolside in Orlando.

Life has been mostly good, though we've had our stressors.  At Nathan's 9 month doctor's appointment, Nathan failed a screening tool to assess child development and his physician told me that she thought that he may have some developmental delay. She recommended that we go to a program that does early intervention.  I was shocked!  I handled it so calmly...until I got out of the office.  By the time I got to daycare (luckily I only have to walk there from the doctor's office) I had completely fallen apart.  Luckily, at daycare they tried to assure me that Nathan was completely normal.

Nathan walking with his walker.

To make a long story short.  I went a little crazy and reviewed everything I had learned in PT school about child development and playful interventions.  We started taking Nathan to Busch Gardens and Adventure Island, getting him to move more in the water. We worked on standing every day and taught him to pull up on the coffee table.  We even took the feet off the table to make it easier. 

Nathan with his daddy and cousins

In 3 weeks, he learned how to scoot on his belly, crawl, pull up, stand own his own with support, clap his hands, find hidden objects, extend his arm to "give" a toy,  push his arms through the sleeves when dressing and drink from a sippy cup (all things he failed on his test).  Did he need a little nudge?  Was he just taking his sweet time?  Five weeks after the 9 month check-up, we went to the Early Steps Program as recommended by Nathan's pediatrician.

He was evaluated by a pediatric occupational therapist and an early childhood intervention specialist for an hour and a half.  They both concluded that he was within the normal range on all 5 developmental categories and that he was absolutely delightful!  (He gave them lots of flirty smiles, I think he was trying to get extra credit.)

Okay, we can now look back on this and laugh.

Nathan is a happy baby!

A REALLY happy baby!  Check out his 6 teeth!

Today, I've been home with Nathan - he was diagnosed with thrush yesterday.  He's taking meds and is already doing better.  The last two pictures were taken today so he is obviously not that sick!

Nathan and I are having fun at the Hyde park fountains!

Birthday Beach Party

Nathan went to his first birthday party last weekend!

Friends of ours have a little girl, Sarah, who turned the big "1!"

Sarah was having a pool/beach party so Nathan was slathered in sunscreen with enough in his hair for some fun styling.  It's almost like he knew how cute he was.

Nathan enjoyed hanging out with his friend poolside.

This was also Nathan's first trip to the beach!

What did he think of it?  Well, at first he wasn't so sure about all that sand and salt water.

After a minute or two, he was liking the sand a little too much.   We had to have the "sand is not edible" talk with him.

The beach was surprisingly warm for May and Nathan actually went all the way in the water with us.

Nathan remains a relatively easy-going baby, he is such a joy to be with!

"We get to wear hats at the party? Awesome! Anything else?"

"Cupcakes?!!! I have no idea what this is but I'm LOVIN' it!"