Colton and Nathan visit Santa

On 12.23, Kristin and Colton came over for a playdate.

  The boys played at our house for a few minutes while Kristin and I decided it was time to fight the crowds and take the boys to see Santa.  (I'd tried the day before with Bethany, Izzy, Kristin, and Zachary but the line looked to be at least 2 hours long).  So, we piled the video camera, 2 Nikon's, 2 strollers, 2 diaper bags, 2 pacis, and a bunch of diapers and snacks into Kristin's car and away we went.  The mall hadn't even opened when we arrived, so we took our time getting out and decided we'd leave the diaper bags, strollers, Nathan's paci, and Nathan's snacks in the car... after all, surely there'd be no line at 9:54am right?  Wrong!  We waited in line for an hour and thankfully Kristin had cheerios.  The boys were very patient although they had no idea what they were in for!  

We decided they'd probably both scream, and since Colton is more sensitive to strangers than Nathan (and had already screamed at Santa once this year) he should go first so that Nathan's tears wouldn't make Colton feel worse.  Colton started screaming before Kristin even got him on Santa's lap.  It lasted all of about 5 seconds, but it felt like an eternity.  Colton held his breath for a while and then let out the most pitiful scream.  In those 5 seconds, I managed to get a few pics though.  Kristin was a good sport though and sat with Santa and Colton.

Nathan was an hour past nap time and a bit giddy and very tired.  We sat him on Santa's lap and he just looked at him... blank stare.  Then he touched his beard, and then whimpered a bit.  

Then he laid back and just sat there, no emotion, no noise, just quiet. 

Then all of a sudden he sat up and signed down, 

and when Santa put the reindeer hat on Nathan, that was the end of the peace.  Nathan welled up with tears and came toddling to me crying.  Poor babies!  

Here's a picture of Nathan and Santa last year and then this year... wow has he grown!

Here are the boys happy to be with their mommies away from that mean ole Santa Claus!

Celebrating Christmas with the Wilson's 12.20.08

We headed to Sanford for the day last Saturday and had a wonderful time celebrating Christmas with the Wilson's.  Mama Ginny (Chad's dad's mom), Ashley (Chad and Matt's step sister), Matt, Karmyn, Nana, Papa W, Chad, Nathan, me, and several kitty cats sat around and watched the wonder of Christmas through each other's eyes.  The kids were very excited about the kitties and their presents.  Chad, Matt, and Papa Wilson were all giddy as could be and crunching veges loudly into one another's ears.  Too funny!  We had a wonderful time and really enjoyed one another.  Here are some fun pics from our early Christmas celebration!

What a beauty!

Nathan gets his present from Nana and Papa W... a battery powered jeep.  Within minutes he'd figured out how to push the pedal... only problem?  He's terrified of the noise!  Oh well, he loves to climb in it!

Nathan in his car for the first time... he seems okay with the accelerator noise this time...

but when Karmyn is in it and pushes the accelerator, he jumps.  Too funny, poor baby!

This little kitty's name is Ed.  His front legs don't straighten out, but that doesn't bother him a bit!  Nathan has a fondness for him and even learned to say kitty cat (keekaa) while we were there.  This is the most patient cat I've ever seen!

Karmyn in her princess dress

Life sized barbie and Karmyn switch dresses

Uncle Matt

Ashley and her momma! What cute ladies!

Papa W got everyone whoopie cushions for Christmas.  Nathan again was terrified of the noise (and still is) but everyone else loved them, especially Karmyn.  Chad chased her around with one for a while till she sat on him and made him blow it up and squeeze it a million times.  We all laughed so hard!

Family pic

Paci Woes

Well, lets just say that the time to take your little man's paci is not when he's getting over a cold and cutting molars... he made it until 5am (only because he found a paci hidden in his bed to go to sleep the first time and I snatched it while he was sleeping) and then screamed and sobbed for 45 minutes and Chad and I both said it's not worth it.  We'll go back to being strict about paci only in his bed and take it away sometime before kindergarten! :)

Please be praying for us tonight! :)

Tonight, we could use your prayers... for comfort and peace for our little man, and that a gentle tiredness would take over his active little body and help him forget that his beloved paci is not with him!  Tonight is the first night we're trying this, and we pray that it goes well.  Nathan has been sleeping with a paci since almost day one, and it's time for that trend to end... we think.  We'll see how it goes! 

On a lighter note, we had a wonderful Christmas and hope all of you did as well!  Pics to come!

13 months old

"And the walking man walks"

Nathan loves to play in the cabinets and drawers too.  He can empty a whole cabinet in about 2.4 seconds.  We're still working on putting it all back in the cabinet!

Loves spending time with Papa and ShaSha.  Looking at the "bubble tree" with papa.

Bath time crayons are great and he loves for us to draw pictures for him!

Play time with Colton


Time is flying and our little guy is really growing.  With the craziness of the holidays, I've neglected my blog a bit, but here's a quick update on the little man!  He's a walking talking bundle of smiles!  He walks everywhere now, although he can't stand up with out using something for support.  He will "run" if you chase him.  He says about 20 words including some of the newest "nihnee" (Sydney), apple, YaYa (ShaSha), Papa, keekah (kitty cat), nana (banana) and uh oh.  He still calls Chad "daddee", Bailey "doggee", and me "doggee".  Yep, I'm a big fur ball who licks a lot in his mind!  He's signing many things too, such as drink/milk, airplane, cookie, paci, shoes, and a few others.  He's also making lots of "what does a ... say" sounds.  He'll tell you what these animals say: sheep, cow, lion, monkey, owl, lizard, dog, and cat.

He weighs 24 pounds 2 ounces and is wearing both 18 month and 24 month clothes.  His fleece footy pjs are 2t and he looks precious in them!

Nathan is using a fork now pretty well.  He needs some hand over hand assistance to stab the food onto his fork, but about 20% of the time he can do it by himself.  Once the food is on the fork, he eats it!  So cute and such a big boy!  He loves to drink out of a straw and drinks lots of water in restaurants because he sees mommy's cup and wants some!  His favorite foods continue to be french toast, raspberries, kiwi, blueberries, milk, and banana.  Yesterday in the grocery store, he ate an entire container of raspberries while we were shopping.  Yes, I paid for the empty container of fruit.  :)

Nathan's receptive vocabulary continues to AMAZE us.  When asked to "find the..." he can point to well over 100 different items including a cheetah (which our neighbor Sebastian taught him). When he sees clocks in books, he kisses them, although we don't know why.  Sometimes, you can ask him to find certain things, like a clock, and he'll find the book it's in and pull it out of the book basket, turn to the right page, and find the clock.  This little guy loves to learn and has got a great memory.  

We're looking forward to sharing Christmas with my folks and our neighbors and I'll have lots of pictures to post soon!