Photo Shoot from October!

One gorgeous day at the end of October, Bethany and I set out to a local park armed with 2 cameras, 4 lenses, 2 toddlers, 4 lunches, 9 shirts, 6 pairs of pants, and way too much other stuff. Our goal... awesome maternity pics of Bethany and some cute pics of the kids. It's taken me forever to go through the 1400 pictures that Bethany and I took that day... not to mention edit them and try to slim down the number I'd post. Then tonight, I discovered picasa's collages! I was so excited! I hope you enjoy the pics! You can click on the collages to make them larger.

PEEK-A-BOO

Wordless Wednesday

what will he think of next

yesterday when I went in to get Nathan from his nap, the light was on. I asked him how the light came on and he said...

"i frashed (crashed) my riraffe (giraffe) and push him to da wall. then i tand (stand) on his bew-wee (belly) and reach up so high to turn on dat light."

and he reenacted it for me... and yes I took pictures, but the camera is in his room where he's napping, so pictures will come later.

this morning, I watched as he woke up and played in his bed for over 30 minutes and then he said, "i tink (think) we need some light panda bear. you're so cute." and then I heard the thud (It's a 4 foot tall giraffe) and the grunt as he pushed it to the wall and all of a sudden the room brightened on the video monitor. I laughed... and then cringed as I heard this...

"oh riraffe (giraffe) you can help me reach dat handle on dat door. oooooh you sure can. and den (then) naynay can get out" and sure enough, he pushed the giraffe to the door to get to the handle (which has to be pulled up in order to be opened)... and apparently he knew that. I'd forgotten to shut the gate on his door because until this morning, the pulling up on the handle was enough to keep him in. He emerged from his room declaring, "hey everyone. naynay is here!"

hilarious! what will he think of next?

Big Boy Bed

On Monday, December 21st, we moved Nathan to a big boy bed. We talked about it all weekend before and Sunday he got to pick out sheets for his new bed. Monday night, he helped us take his crib apart...

and put his new big boy bed together (which we scored off of craigslist -mattress and all- for $50)! It's in great condition, almost new and is perfect!

These are the sheets he picked out (construction vehicles) and his first time laying on his bed boy bed (don't worry, the bed wasn't moved into position yet, those outlets aren't really in his reach!

Trying it out!

This is the quilt Yaya made for him. Eventually it will go on his bed, but for now, it just hangs at the foot of his bed.

First night of sleep... he decided to sleep on the blanket and that he doesn't like the sheets because his feet are stuck. We had no drama, no climbing out of bed, no crying, nothing! It was a seamless transition and he sleeps so much better now! After almost a month of this, we are so thankful that we went ahead and transitioned him! He loves it and so do we!!!!

NayNay you are such a big boy!

Tot School

Nathan is 25 months old

This last week of tot school was a bit slack for us, but we still had lots of fun!!!

First up was painting night... complete with an eccentric purple hat my mom gave me for Christmas. Nathan insisted on wearing this hat for several days. :) Too funny!

stamping circles on certain frog parts and letters

finger painting an H

we had to stop and pray for the paintings... and his hands... and the purple hat

using a fork to "un-paint"

spoon vs fork and the different lines they make

erasing it with hands to start all over

working on spelling his name in the finger paint... told you it was a fun painting night!

Here we are working on following directions using prepositional phrases like "put the zebra on the red box" or "put the panda bear beside the monkey"

"put the cheetah under the blue box"

making animal families and following directions (gorilla family on the red, zebra on the blue)

pretend play with the wonder pets, talking about same and different, who should we rescue and how to rescue... so much learning with this!

I realized the other day that Nathan doesn't know his numbers! How could I have missed that? He can count to 11, but I hadn't thought to teach him to identify the numbers. This is us working on that. Put the panda on the 4, etc.

puzzle time

Dominos! This was so much fun!

Putting the wheels on requires quite a bit of coordination because one goes on each side of the digger.

identifying tools and their purpose and fitting them into the puzzle

stickers and letters

learning to build train tracks

fishing game: working on colors, matching, counting, turn taking, fine motor, coordination, etc

such a sweet concentration face

Our letter wall is growing!

Join us for tot school here!

I love you Chad!!!

"... his banner over me is love" ~ Song of Songs 2:4

That's the verse Chad had inscribed on the inside of my wedding band almost 8 years ago. I just wanted to wrote a post about Chad... and 10 things I love about him...

1. his belly laugh

2. his hugs

3. watching him play with Nathan

4. his heart for worship

5. his silly voices

6. his love of cooking and decorating

7. his spontaneity

8. his giant smile

9. his drive for things he's passionate about

10. his adventurous spirit

I love you Chad Wilson!!!

Wordless Wednesday

Zoning at its finest...