Bonus

We found the Tardis!

Nathaniel always stops crying when he hears this noise.

New Experiences

This week has been a  fun week with lots of new experiences. We got a swing from freecycle and Nate didn't know what to think of it at first. Two days after getting it he discovered the mobile and the mirror that hang above him in the swing. He just sat there staring at the mirror or mobile (I can't tell which) for about 10 min. It was so cute to watch him looking so intently. I really wanted to know what was going through his head because I know he was learning and figuring something out. I was talking to a child this week about Nathaniel and the child commented that it must be so boring to be a baby because you can't do anything. I disagree. I think being a baby must be the most invigorating stage because everything is new. There is so much to think about and learn and see for the first time.

This week we also went to the wedding of one of my best friends. It was an all day event and the longest that Nathaniel has been away from home because it was about an hour and a half away. We left at 8am and didn't get home till 6pm. He was so exhausted by the end of the day though I think he had fun seeing so many new faces and places. He did get a couple short naps in but it wasn't near his normal amount of sleep.
In between the ceremony and the reception we went to my Uncle's home because he lives near where the wedding was and he hasn't met Nathaniel yet. My Uncle has a dog named Burt. Chris  has been excited all week to introduce Nathaniel to Burt. He really wanted Nathaniel to love Burt so that he could convince me that we need a dog. He is always saying a boy needs his dog. : )
This is Nathaniel meeting Burt for the first time.

He was already a little overtired. We think his dismay was more at the fact that anything was licking his face and bothering him, not that he doesn't like dogs. We're pretty sure he is too young to form that opinion. Chris was pretty sad that Nathaniel didn't want to play with Burt though. 

Nathaniel also got to meet my cousin Lucy for the first time. After he met Burt, Lucy (2) got up from her nap. So they were both tired and not very interested in each other. Lucy was shy and afraid to come really meet him but she did give him a hug when we left. My Uncle got a picture but I haven't got it from him yet. (Burt photobombed the picture, I'm pretty excited for it.) Lucy woke up from her nap and started singing the Eensy Weensy Spider while she waited for her Dad to come get her from her crib. It made me so excited for when Nathaniel gets a little older. : )

The final new experience of the week happened all today. I decided that I wanted to try and get Nathaniel on a loose schedule. Up until now I've kind of been letting him rule the house. He lets me know when he wants to sleep, eat or play. And now that we are working towards a schedule I'm still willing to be flexible, like if he gets tired early or hungry early but I want to be able to say, "This is approximately his nap time, so we should go grocery shopping at a different time." The schedule is actually going fairly well. Of course, we are just working toward it, so we weren't on it today but thinking about it made it easier to help Nathaniel get all the rest he needed. It made bed time for the night so much easier than it has ever been. Instead of 30 minutes of rocking before he fell asleep, we did a night time routine and then sat down and rocked. Within one disney song he was out and he has been sleeping soundly for 3 hours since. (Very little fussing). 

This is the night time routine Chris and I came up with. I'm so excited  about it. It is so much fun and it gets me ready for bed to because it is so peaceful and such great bonding time. 

Bath Time - He loves this and talks a lot. This is Chris's main job unless he is at work during getting ready for bed time.

Lotion/Massage - This is my job because Chris hates the feel of lotion. This is when I get to talk with Nate.

Story Time - He only listens to one very short book right now

Scriptures/Prayer - He has his own Book of Mormon picture books that we look at. We are going to get a set of Bible story picture books to go through after we finish the Book of Mormon ones. Then we will start over. 

Swaddling - This is another Daddy job if Chris is home. Nathaniel likes his swaddles better. He sleeps better when Chris swaddles him. Chris will normally reswaddle him when he gets home if he wasn't there for the initial swaddle. 

Music/Lullabies/Rocking - He prefers to listen to Disney at bedtime. But if Daddy is rocking him than he listens to lullabies or classical music because Dad doesn't want to listen to Disney music every night. 

The whole routine took about 40 minutes tonight. When we came up with it we expected an hour, though it may take an hour some nights because I don't think Nate will always go to sleep so quickly. We shall see if we keep the whole routine or shorten it, or maybe lengthen it, who knows. I'm just really excited about it because we had such a good time tonight. : )

Toys

Nathaniel has finally started reacting to toys besides just staring at them. About 5 days ago he started batting at the rattle on his bouncer and a couple days ago he shook his ball rattle. Then yesterday morning he got a hold of a receipt out of Daddy's pocket and kept crinkling it.

 So yesterday I decided it was time to get him some toys. I got him a mirror that has chimes in it and a teething ring on the end. Then we got home and we had a package from the Great-Grandparents Valentine that included a musical elephant.

Needless to say we had a lot of fun playing yesterday. He also cuddled with Pooh Bear all on his own and ate Pikachu's ear. He's still not interested in his teething toy but he's also not teething, so I'm not to worried about that.

Unfortunate event of the week. He has decided he hates tummy time. As soon as we turn him over he starts crying. He was doing so good. On Monday he was on his tummy for 40 min straight. Since then it has been a no-go.

I had my postpartum check up yesterday as well. Looks like I'm all healed up and doing good. I'm four pounds from pre-pregnancy weight! Now I just have to work out so that those pounds are muscle not fat. : ) Aunt Kelsey watched Nathaniel while I was with the midwife. He was good for her, except getting his diaper changed. He was not a fan of being changed by her in the bathroom. Hope it was a good run through for her. haha. She is watching him while Chris and I go to a wedding tomorrow. So she'll have him for a little longer.

Things I Like

Nathaniel has started developing likes and playing with us. Besides loving to have conversations...

He likes to have you blow air in his face. He tries to eat the air.

He also loves to be tickled. He always sticks out his belly for more after you tickle him. He also usually gives you a big smile. 

He loves music. We sing a lot and sometimes he tries to sing too. Most of the time he just gives us big smiles for singing to him. His favorites are Disney, Country, Instrumental and Irish. He also likes some current Pop/Rock like Radioactive, he tells us when he wants us to change the song though. He doesn't like many current female singers, like Royals, not a fan. Haha. Same with oldies, not a big fan of most female singers, like My Boyfriends Back, nope can't get away with that. However, he loves the Beatles and Creedence Clearwater Revival. He does not like Daddy's louder rock like Lincoln Park. We tried quite a few times to get a video of him singing or his big smiles while we dance but he won't do it for the camera.

He is very interested in the camera as well. If he notices the camera it is very difficult to get him to go back to what he was doing. I have trouble getting his smiles on camera, even though they are frequent enough, because as soon as he sees the camera he stops to stare at it. That's why he looks startled or scared in so many pictures. It's because he's stopped, wide eyed, to stare at the camera, generally open mouthed. : )

Tummy Time

Spending time with Daddy. Working out my muscles.

St. Patrick's Day

We planned for Nathaniel to wear his frog outfit for St. Patrick's Day. Unfortunately, it turned out to be too big. So, we just took pictures. He still looked cute.

Daddy and Baby hung out while Mommy made breakfast (see green creamed egg below). However, we ended up eating a cold breakfast because Mommy had too much fun watching us when she came to tell us breakfast was ready. 

Waking up is hard to do

It takes him a good five minutes to open his eyes sometimes. He is just like his Daddy. Waking up is hard but once he's up he's happy.

We're Back!

Sorry it's been so long. I think I'm finally ready to at least semi-"get back to blogging". I think this is a little better forum for posting all the pictures of Nathaniel that I take. I think my facebook friends are probably getting bored of me inundating their feeds with him. I also feel more comfortable sharing videos on here, plus you are more likely the people who might enjoy the videos. Not that he doing that much yet but I'm a new parent so everything he does is video worthy to me. : )

We are loving having Nathaniel around. Chris is always so excited to hold him when he gets home from work. He will just sit and play with Nathaniel for a good thirty min to an hour. Which definitely wears Nathaniel out. I usually do chores during this time. Then I walk in on them being cute, grab my camera and suddenly Nathaniel is at the end of his rope for play time. That is why most of my videos to this point have ended with him crying. I always seem to come in at the end of playful Nate.
We are kind of getting a little bit of a schedule. Many nights he sleeps in three hour spurts throughout the night till about 10a. Then he is alert for a couple of hours, takes one or two two hour naps and then he is alert again for when Daddy gets home. Then it is night time again.
Unfortunately, Nathaniel doesn't like something I'm eating, it makes him gassy. The nights that he gets gassy are pure torture. He only sleeps in 15-30 minute spurts and generally only if I'm holding him upright. Minutes after I lay him down he will wake up. On the positive side we think we've narrowed the possibilities down to onions, corn, dairy or any combination of the three. Now to eliminate and see what makes him feel comfortable. : )
Update on Nathaniel's cleft. We went to see the surgeon. He said that the cleft is very minor. It should be a one and done easy surgery. We will have the surgery mid-may and stay the night in the hospital to make sure he is still feeding well. There is a little bit of a question if the jaw is involved. The surgeon thinks that its just a little dent in the jaw and Nathaniel's teeth should come in fine but he says there is no way to know until they take x-rays. Which there is no point in doing now because that surgery wouldn't be until he was 6 years old anyway or we could give him fake teeth in that area. Really he just suggested waiting to see if the teeth come in and if they don't, then getting the x-rays.
Chris is doing well at work. He really likes his new job working back in the pharmacy. He loves how busy it gets. The busier the shift, the happier he is when he gets home because he says it goes by so fast.
We started doing Family Home Evening again this week. Monday we talked about scripture study and how we want to do it with Nathaniel as he grows older. We also talked about how we can improve in our family scripture study now. I feel like we set some great goals and I'm really excited to work towards being more consistent.
I really liked this blog post. It gave us lots of ideas. Not exactly what we want to do but I'm putting it here so I have it for future reference. Also, you can read it if you like.

 http://www.raisinglemons.com/spiritual/scripture-power/