Trimming the Tree

We decided to go all toddler on the tree this year. (Plus it is just easier for me) So the only ornaments we put on were plastic balls and stars with a few baby ornaments. Because of that Nathaniel got to help decorate the tree. He had a lot of fun putting the colored balls up and there is definitely an overload of ornaments toward the front and the bottom of the tree. We will have to spread them out later.

And then here is Nathaniel enjoying the finished product.

There's no dancing in this house!

No dancing allowed!!

Wait a minute . . . 

That little rebel.

Imagination

This morning N went into his bedroom and came out waving 1 drumstick stuck in his chopstick holder. It was all quiet in the house because he had just finished breakfast and Chris and I were eating ours. He was just waving it around, ever so gracefully. At first I was sitting there thinking "Where has he seen magic wands?" We don't watch Harry Potter or anything. Then Chris figured it out. He was conducting music. We asked him if he wanted music. He said yes and began to vigorously conduct the orchestra we turned on. He then proceeded to conduct music (or drum on his drum or dance depending on what was happening in the music) for the next 20 min. Here is just a little section.

Being 18 months is fun

He was about to walk into the street and I told him to stop.

This is the look he gave me.

Just playing outside.

He likes to look at paintings in his art book.

Ready to go to the lake.

Playing ball with Dad. At first he didn't even notice the lake.

Ah there it is.

He had lots of fun and drank quite a bit of lake water. Luckily he only had diarrhea for two days and no other symptoms. He just drank every time we turned our backs. 

This is his first experience with german pancakes. He was definitely a fan.

Rice Day

The boy had fun today! 

A bit of explanation beforehand. In our house, the kitchen is separated from the living room by a little counter-peninsula. This is great for us as parents, as Nathaniel can be in the kitchen (his preferred play range) while we stay in the living room on the computer or couch or whatever. He loves the kitchen for many reasons (like the fact that it is easier to push a train or car around on the floor, or the table is there for coloring and banging on), but his number one favorite thing to do is pull out the pots, pans, and large bowls we have in the lower cupboards. He loves to bang on them, sit in them, stack them, wear them, play magic tricks with them (he'll put something inside the pot and look at you and lift his arms, babbling his version of "Where did it go?"), and do so much more. We love it because we don't have child locks on the cupboards (letting him play with them is easier than fighting to keep him away from a favorite toy), we feel that the independent imaginative play is worth the wear on kitchen tools, and, best part, we don't have to be looking right at him to know what he is up to. Explanation over, on to today's adventure!

I'm tired. I haven't been sleeping well, waking up often and squirming and stuff. Pregnancy sympathizing? Who knows. Anyway, because of this, I've started sleeping on the couch to keep from ruining Kylie's sleep as well, cause she needs to work, and I just chill at home while it's the summer break (doing physics problems, reading books, playing games, going outside--ay, mine is a hard life). When I'm really tired, I will occasionally lay on the couch and just watch Nathaniel do whatever he is doing, unless he's in the kitchen, in which case I listen (I'm a lazy father, I guess).

He was playing with pots and pans, so I just kinda zoned while I tried to breathe and stay awake (there have been fires that aggravate my asthma recently) and listened to him bang around in the cupboards as he spoke to himself and stacked pots. At one point, he came over and gave me a single grain of rice, and as he babbled excitedly over it, I just smiled and asked him to tell me more ("Ooo, rice!","Really?", and "Oh yeah? Do tell!" are my standby responses when I have no context). I didn't think anything of it until I heard the snaky sound of rice being poured onto the floor. Turns out Kylie hadn't tightened the lid very well (she doesn't like it tight, it's hard to open) and he managed to twist it open, dip a 2-quart saucepan, and get at one of his favorite things--dry rice!

Offending saucepan and our rice bucket

Well, I went over and tightened the lid, but I left it on the ground. It was to late to prevent the mess, so I figured I'd let him have fun with it, and rice is great sensory play. He played for awhile, then came over and asked to take a nap (score!) after he was done. So I put him down, and now I have the privilege of cleaning it up. While I was sweeping, I opened the cupboard to put something away, and found . . .

 Hidden Mess

He had gotten into the rice long before he poured it on the ground, it seems! He was using the teaspoon to move rice from one to the other,  There was also a bit in a hamper of clean clothes, where I found another small pot half-full of rice. He loves his rice!

Cleanup on aisle 6

Well, that was our day so far. All sorts of opportunities to make messes after nap, but we'll probably just go to the baseball field and play in the dirt. 

Finally downloaded the pictures from my phone

We'll start with something recent. This was today. Nathaniel's first experience with corn on the cob. (And yup it is a mess in the background. Apparently Nathaniel had some fun earlier in the day and Chris spent the day helping someone move instead of cleaning it up : ) )

He first tried to eat it like us but soon realized it wasn't working. So then he decided fork was the way to go. He ate a bit and then gagged on a piece of silk so he wouldn't eat the corn anymore but he thought it was still fun.

Now we will travel back in time. Here is Nathaniel doing homework with Chris. A frequent occurrence while Chris is in school because Nathaniel wants to be like Chris so that means doing at least 20 min. of "homework" a day. (That's about as long as he lasts)

Now we'll go way back. This was in Marchish. When Nathaniel had his first chimichanga

This boy loves his beans. He scarfed the whole thing down. It was actually supposed to be mine but I thought I would let him have a bite because he wouldn't eat that much. WRONG.

Here he is at Red Robin. I'll admit there are a lot of eating out pictures on my phone because he loves eating out and those are the times when I have my phone and not my camera. I promise we don't go out to eat that much. 

Road trip baby is pretty fun too. Although he tends to make a mess.

It's pretty nice when he passes out. : P

This is my sad baby on the way home from the Urgent Care when he had the Croup.

He really loved my sunglasses he recently broke them so now he wears his own but before he would only wear mine. 

This is how Nathaniel folds laundry.

First experience eating at a fast food restaurant. His favorite part was that he convinced us he didn't need to sit in the high chair.

He heard something and was telling us to listen.

We didn't feel like staying there long so we finished eating at the park

Nathaniel looks pretty cute in a Jinbei. 

I don't remember what was going on here but he looks pretty cute to me.

Nathaniel does homework even when Daddy isn't around.

He does this pose a lot while drawing. Guess how Chris looks while doing homework.

This is the first time Nathaniel actually had fun exploring puddles after a rain. He normally loved watching it rain but didn't really care for the after effects. Since this day he has loved splashing in puddles!

He did experiment fairly early with what it felt like to have your head in a puddle.

Here's another sick day picture before we knew he has allergies. He was just so snotty and miserable so I put on Frozen because he LOVES it. He wasn't happy till he had Simba and a blanket and the controller. Then he just sat there breathing through his mouth. 

More homework

Now we are getting fairly recent. This was just in the past month. He has decided that the baby carrier is the coolest seat to just chill in. About a week ago he discovered that he is tall enough to stand up and walk with it too. So now it is his mobile chair that just walks with him and he has an automatic seat when ever he wants.

Yet another allergy day. Every couple weeks there is a big hay cutting day. And even when we take allergy meds we all feel it. Nathaniel especially loves stuffed animals and blankets those days.

He found the tie and wouldn't leave me alone till I put it on him. Then he opened the fridge and got himself the blueberries and sat down for a snack.

Yup....That's our son.

His friend left the sweatshirt at our house (it had been raining) and Nathaniel found it the next day. Even though it was around 90 degrees he wouldn't let up till I helped him put it on. Then he found daddy's hat. He walked around like this for at least 5 hours and took a nap in the sweatshirt.

Darth Baby. He really liked that everyone would make Darth Vader noises when he came up to them. and he soon began to mimic them.

We went to Cow Appreciation Day. Nathaniel got his own full meal for free, including a cool squeeze apple sauce and a chocolate milk but what did he want... My milkshake. He'd never even seen one before but he knew it was the good stuff. It had to sit right next to him. It couldn't be on the table. I gave in because he had had such a rough time in line and waiting for food. It was way too busy and overwhelming for a baby so close to bedtime.

Well there are my catch-up pictures. If you made it all the was through. Congratulations.