Nate's Stats...

I took Nate in for his one-year checkup on Monday of last week (January 24). He was very shy and cried when I needed to lay him down on the table to have him measured, and examined. He cried shortly for the shots in his legs, but never even made a peep when they had his finger pricked. They had to fill in two circles on paper and he watched contently, just wondering what they were doing. All in all it went pretty well in my opinion.

Here are his stats...

Height: 32.5 inches (98.52%)
Weight: 23 pounds (52.61%)
Head Circumference: 18.5 inches (68.06%)

He is 1 1/2 inches taller than ET was at this age and 1 pound lighter...so Nate is taller and skinnier than ET. I only compare just out of curiosity - I know all kids are different.

Nate received the Pneumococcal Vaccine and the Hepatitis A Vaccine. I was prepared and nervous to have him receive the MMR vaccine (the most controversial vaccine). I found it pretty interesting that they recently changed the requirements and now children will not receive this vaccine until they are 15 months.

Since Nate's birthday, he has become a full-time walker! Last week he waved bye-bye to a few of his friends in the daycare. He also said, "aaah da" for "all done," when done eating.

Nate's favorite foods: Bread!!!, Bananas, pineapple, cheese, crackers, pizza, spaghetti.

Nate's least favorite foods: He doesn't care for all the canned fruit but I can still get him to eat it. Same with peas, corn, and green beans.

What?!

The other day I was playing with Nate and he bit me on the shoulder for the first time. He did it merely out of excitement and not anger. I sternly said, "no biting" and set him down on the floor and walked away. ET watched the whole thing intently.

Later on ET was a little crabby, and Nate came up to him and swatted him in the face (not even realizing, of course that he was hurting ET). ET looked at me, crying and said, "He bited (bit) me!" I saw everything and said, "He did not bite you." ET replied with, "YEAH! He bited (bit) me in sign language!"

HA! Brotherly love...taking every opportunity you can to try and get your brother in as much trouble as possible. I just didn't know this stage started with a one-year-old. :)

Puzzle Machine...

The day that we had Jay's family over for Nate's birthday (Sunday, January 23), ET went downstairs to play for a bit. He put together a large floor puzzle all on his own for the second time ever. I asked him if he would put together another one and he did. He continued until he had put together 5 big puzzles. We called him a "puzzle making machine" and you could just see the pride in his face.
This is a pretty big deal for him. I know he has been capable of doing this for a while, but has pretended he can't do it all on his own, and the fact that he sat for a good half hour to an hour doing all of those puzzles in a row shows great improvement for his maturity level. :)


I chose to take a picture of him by his Packer's puzzle because it was the day of the big game!

Nate's Birthday Party (Part 2)

On Sunday, January 23, we had Jay's family over to celebrate Nate's birthday one last time. ET was a little confused with all the birthday parties. He thought Nate turned two the day before and on Sunday he shockingly said, "Now he will be three!?"

I had no idea when I planned the party that it would fall on the exact day and time of the NFC championship game and that the Packer's would be playing. I jokingly asked Jay when I was picking a theme for Nate's party that I found a boy's first birthday party theme that was a football theme in green and gold with the number 01 (for first birthday) on all the decorations. That would have been perfect! Needless to say, we turned our celebration into a Packer/birthday party. I served shredded chicken sandwiches and many other small food appetizers. It was a lot of fun relaxing, eating good food, and being with family while we (and yes, even I) cheered on the Packers.



Watching the game with daddy, and sneaking bits of his food. :)

He had a lot of fun playing with big cousin Melissa. She was so good with him. They read books together, played with balls and just cuddled. :)

Here is ET singing the "Fifty Nifty United States" song for everyone. He performed this for my family the day before as well. We were so proud!

The kids had fun playing downstairs. We took out the GeoTrax for them. Jacob and ET were well entertained for hours.

We had another special cake for Nate, this one with stripes. This time he was a little more pokey. I don't think he was very hungry. After a few minutes of watching him, we all turned away to start serving up the big cake. All the cousins were eating their cake at the table near Nate and started laughing. Nate had started throwing handfuls of the cake every where! I took the hint that he was done, but I think he was having a good time. :)





For gifts Nate received a toy phone and an outfit from the Barth's...a sweatshirt and sweatpants from the Leals...a ladybug and many summer outfits from Papa Bob and Grandma Darlyn...and a few more winter outfits, and a spring jacket from mom and dad.


Well, I probably don't need to tell you how the evening ended.

THE PACKER'S ARE GOING TO THE SUPER BOWL!!!!

There were many loud screams and even tears in the house last night. I was a little worried about how Nate would react, but he did so well. He would occasionally even give a little scream back to join in with the excitement every now and then.

The only people not wearing Packer clothing was Darlyn and myself so we had to get a few pics...




The excitement doesn't stop there though...just before everyone was leaving, Hailey lost another tooth! :)

Nate's Birthday Party (Part 1)...

On Saturday, January 22, we had my family over to celebrate Nate's first birthday. It was pretty low key, but we had a very nice time visiting. Nate was happy and very social with everyone. I served a more traditional meal (chicken lasagna, homemade bread-sticks, Caesar salad, and an orange jello salad).



For gifts Nate received a talking ball and a electronic shape ladybug toy from the Galliks...the Tickle Monster book, and a pretend cell phone from Papa Jim and Grandma Terri...and a fishing magnetic letter game from mom and dad.




I went with a cupcake theme, and ordered a cake from my friend's business. She made a large cupcake on top of a regular cake. We removed the cupcake for Nate's smash cake. He managed to make a pretty good mess, and ate some. He didn't get any in his hair which I was thankful for. :)





I set the cake on the kitchen island while we were all watching Nate eat his cake. ET got up on one of the stools behind us and got a little curious. None of us were watching him because we had our eyes on Nate. Stinker!

At last some cake...he couldn't wait much longer!

Nate – What I LOVE about you…

-Your big brown eyes, your adorable nose, dimpled chin, your sweet hands, and your ticklish toes.
-The way you laugh when I tickle you…always resulting with the hiccups.
-The way you love to cuddle upon waking up from a nap.
-The way you smile when you are so excited (your face gets all scrunched up).
-The way you say “ma-ma,” and the way you reach for me by opening and closing your hands.
-Your slobbery kisses.
-The way you ADORE your daddy.
-Your love for your stuffed kitty and your interest to tackle Eddie.
-Your love for music and your even bigger love for dancing with mommy.
-Your curiosity.
-Your independence…your ability to feed yourself, drink from a sippy cup, walk...along with many other accomplishments you have made this year.
-The way you mimic sounds – you are especially good at copying chewing sounds when I am eating something while holding you.
-The way you comfort yourself by sucking your thumb (although, I know I will hate this later on).
-The way you finger through the pages of a book when reading on your own.
-The way you pretend to shy away from strangers, but then always go back to them to show off your flirtatious smile.
-The way you go down the step to the living room by turning around, lying on your tummy and sliding your body – sometimes looking very confused because you pushed yourself along the step rather than down.
-The way you play peek-a-boo with your blanket or jammies.
-They way you think you know how to “scoot in” while sitting in your highchair (you have watched and learned from the older kids in the daycare).
-Your love for climbing on the couch (well, maybe I don’t love that one)
-That guilty/devilish look you get when you're approaching something you know you’re not supposed to touch (dishwasher, kitchen cupboards, cubbies, bathroom)
-The way you get on all fours and put one leg in the air and donkey kick when I ask you to stand up.
-The way you point to things in the room when talking gibberish, like you’re telling me a story.
-Your love for tubby time!

I could go on and on why I love you. Most importantly I love you for who are you and whoever you will become. My love for you is never ending and will always be unconditional.

Love,
Mommy

Nate's 1st Birthday!

Nate woke up yesterday all smiles. He was so happy to see all of his friends playing with balloons, and greeting him with "Happy Birthday" when he came downstairs with me. The morning went well, but by around 11am he showed signs of a terrible cold. He slept a total of 45 minutes and then was coughing and sneezing up a storm. I had planned to sing "Happy Birthday" to him and have him eat his very first cupcake at snack time with the kids. He was so congested and miserable, I wasn't sure if I should even feed it to him. After about 15 minutes, he perked up a bit and I figured I might as well feed him it just for the sake of doing it. He winced many times at the taste of the food (surprising, but I think he just wasn't hungry for that type of food at the moment). After eating just under 1/4 of the cupcake I thought I should wash him up and be done...at that very moment he gagged it all up. Poor guy! We canceled our plans to go out for dinner and just stayed at home to care for Nate (that was all he really needed anyway). We are hoping that by Saturday & Sunday he will be better so we can celebrate with family.

Put your hands up - there's a P-A-R-T-Y in the house!!!

Bursting with excitement over the balloons!








The crown didn't last very long.

Brother ET giving pointers on where to begin with the big mound of sugar on his plate. :)



So here it is on its way back up. I'm sure none of you wanted to see that, but I had to post it just for the sake of documenting. :)

I went with a cupcake theme for his birthday, so I sent the kids home with frosted cookies in a the shape of a cupcake with one candle on it and a number 1. I placed the cookies in goodie bags and tied them to a helium filled latex balloon.




Since I made the cookies look like cupcakes, I thought it would be fun to make the cupcakes look like cookies (well, sort of). They were chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes.

He will always be my baby...

Well, tonight was the last night Nate is technically a baby. It is hard to believe that it is the end of Nate's first year, and although he is no longer a baby to the eyes of others, he will always be my baby. Any mother would agree.

I quietly went back in Nate's room this evening to take a few pics of him sleeping...