Nathan: One Year Old (and 13 months, too)

Nathan,

This time of year is CRAZY busy for our family. Not only was it your first birthday, but Thanksgiving, Holiday Parties, Christmas, and Katie’s birthday. That is too much for one mommy to keep up with!

I have tried to do my best, and hopefully I will be successful in the future, but your updates this month and last are a bit late. Oh well…

You are still as cute, lovable and ornery as you ever were.  You are learning so much and getting into everything. Since your last update, you have started Walking! Running! And climbing! You took 14 steps on October 31st and never looked back. Now that you are more mobile, you are into everything. You constantly open cabinets, pull things off the Christmas tree, climb on step stools and your latest - play in the toilet. Yuck! You are ALL boy! You have 6 teeth now! (2nd tooth on the right November 18th, Top Right on December 10th and Top Left on December 14th). I think you are actually working on your 2nd bottom right tooth, right now, as you were drooling up a storm last night.

You are speaking more, too! Your list of words include: Mama, Dada, “Bubba,” “uh oh” on November 12th, “Bella” on December 14th and you gave Isabella a hug when she got home from school, and “Mawmaw” January 1st while pointing at Grandma. You wave “Hi” (November 25th), “Bye” (December 3rd), and clapped your hands (November 25th). You are becoming so communicative. You are making sounds and gestures for your other wants and needs, and I am sure you will be talking more and more in the coming weeks and months. You seem to be growing taller and heavier, but the doctor tells us you are still under the 5th percentile for your height and weight. I am not quite sure why this is, but otherwise you are doing so well! Your hair doesn’t have any problems growing at an accelerated rate, however, as you got your FOURTH haircut right before your birthday.

You love to play “peek-a-boo” and “get you” with Katie and anyone else that wants to join. We took our first long distance road trip (to Aline) with you November 2-5th for an Early Thanksgiving with GamGam and my cousins, aunts and uncles. On the way home, you were playing peek-a-boo all on your own! It was darling. Speaking of our road trip, you did really well! I was a bit nervous to see how you would do as the farthest you have gone is the coast and back, but you slept well, played by yourself and didn’t scream for the majority of the trip (as I feared you would). This trip was when you really started eating people food well! You scarfed down Thanksgiving dinner and never looked back!

We have been all around the past two months; it is hard to keep track. I had vacation for a bit around your birthday, and I wanted to fit in as many holiday and fall activities as I could. We went to Devine Acres Farm for a hayride and to see a pumpkin patch with Tiffanie and Caleb October 30th. You had a blast being outside and taking everything in. We made several trips to the duck pond and SeaWorld, where you started taking part in feeding the dolphins like Katie. You even tried to eat one of the fish, but thankfully we caught your hand in time. We have had a slew of birthday parties, including Caleb’s November 17th, and Isabella’s December 9th at Amazing Jump. You love partaking in the birthday festivities and most importantly the cake! We have been spoiled by having Gam Gam with us twice in the past two months (once for your birthday and again for Christmas). You love to play with Gam Gam and G-Paw, and they seem to have enjoyed being here with you, as well. We went to the River walk on December 2nd while they were here with Aunt Rikki and you loved your first boat and carriage rides, as well as looking at all the Christmas decorations. We also made a quick day trip to Portland for Emma’s baptismal December 23rd with the family. You did so well in the car, but you were entirely over being at the baptism and fussed when Papaw held you instead of letting you run around everywhere.

Your Clothing/Eating and Sleeping Habits:
Clothing: 6-12 months, size 4 shoes

Diapers: size 3 disposables and “medium” cloth diapers

Sleeping: Bedtime is around 8:30pm. Sometimes you wake up around 5am, but you are awake for the day at 7:30. Your naps have been more erratic lately. Sometimes you take a morning or evening nap for 30-45 minutes, and sometimes you don’t. You always get that 2 hour nap in during the middle of the day, though.

Eating: You are eating so well! And big boy foods, too! You eat breakfast, lunch and dinner with snacks in between. You are not even kind of interesting in baby food anymore. You LOVE fruit. You would eat it all day if we let you. You like corn and sweet potatoes, but fruit is definitely the winner in fruits vs. veggies. You enjoy chicken and some beef. And you LOVE sweets. You had cupcakes and cake/ice cream for your birthday, which you thoroughly enjoyed. You still nurse 3-4 times a day and do really well drinking whole milk out of a sippe cup.

Overall, you are becoming quite the little toddler and are extremely energetic and happy 99% of the time. You bring so much joy to our family, and we are so proud to call you our son! We love you and I look forward to updating again when you are 15 months old! I am sure you will have learned so much more by then.

Love you to the moon and back,
Mommy

We are ready for Spring!!

Paul and I got Kaitlyn a sand and water play table today. Judging by her reaction, I think it is a hit!!

Kaitlyn: Month Thirteen

I don't know if I am going to continue to do monthly updates for Katie Bug. Maybe quarterly updates???  But I haven't posted in awhile, and I thought I should write to let everyone (if anyone still reads this) know that we are doing okay. It has been a busy month full of parties and a new year, and lots of work for mom/dad/grandma/everyone.

Kaitlyn is doing fantastic!! She is growing so fast....

She runs
She babbles and talks to everything and everyone all the time....maybe she is mine
She shares her chewed up food
She tries to eat with a fork and spoon, but still prefers her hands
She helps get herself dressed
                                and undressed
She loves to give hugs
She brings toys to share with you now
She tries to stack objects
She is scared of the vacuum
She loves to throw things on the floor...even food, especially food
She hates bows, hats, ponytails and anything cute I try to put in her hair
She loves balloons; H.E.B. is great right now
She adores her daddy
She tries to lift everything....even 24 packs of water
She doesn't want to take two naps a day anymore, sometimes she thinks she doesn't need any naps
She hates the sippy cup for drinking, loves to chew on it and throw it on the floor
She loves to swing
She LOVES grandma, (again, still)
She has the most adorable laugh
She likes to put lids on containers, like her bottle
She wants to be with the big girls all the time
She LOVES the water, almost as much as Uncle Jon's files
She is a drama.queen.

Example.....

She is just the most precious child I have ever met. And I am so not biased. I am dumbfounded on a weekly, daily basis, of how blessed/lucky I am to have such a sweet daughter. We are so in love with our Katie Bug.

Kaitlyn's First Snow!

We got snow in San Antonio!!!

I honestly couldn't believe it; we hear the predictions once a winter, or every other winter and nothing ever comes of it. But this year, it did! I imagine the total was less than 1/4 inch. Just enough to get everyone excited, cancel school and delay work. :o) The ice was (always seems to be) the worst part.

Katie wasn't quite sure what to think of the snow. She walked around the driveway a bit before venturing out into our deserted street and promptly fell on her booty after crossing a patch of ice. She got to enjoy a snow day with Grandma and Uncle Jon while Paul and I were off to work.

Interestingly enough, Grandma said that Oklahoma was having a horrible blizzard. The news said it was the worst they've had since February 1983, the blizzard I was born in. How cool that we had Katie's first snowfall on my birthday!