My wrapping helper

The cutest Christmas helper ever!

I love that little smile! Dan was playing with a wrapping paper tube and Nathan was just laughing and trying to grab it!

Here is my helper.....umm....helping.

He managed to confiscate a spool of ribbon when I was not paying attention ( i mean, when I had my head turned... I always pay attention to this little guy!)

He unraveled all 3 colors and had it in a giant tangle! It was pretty cute. I gave him a present (for my brother, don't tell him!) to try and open and he just ate away at the paper (notice the missing section to the present to his left shoulder. An hour later I noticed he was drooling alot. His shirt was soaked with drool, which is unusual for him,so I thought maybe he had another tooth coming in. Well, then I looked in his mouth and he had a wad of wrapping paper shoved up into the roof of his mouth! It was so gross...but funny.

So far, his favorite thing to play with is wrapping paper tubes! Maybe I will just put the wrapping paper back on and give him that for Christmas!

He doesn't crawl yet, but he rolls. SO he rolled over to my stack of presents under the tree/table and starting pulling off decoration and ribbons. I can only imagine how it would be if he was crawling or walking! I would not be able to leave any present out.

He looked so surprised when he pulled the presents on top of himself! I love watching him try and figure things out, like how to get a ribbon or bow off. His little mind is always on the go and it is so fun to be apart of watching him learn!!

Getting ready for Christmas and 9 months

Nathan is now 9 months old!

He said his first word the other night......"mama"!! Of course, he has not said it since then, but both Dan and I heard it so it counts!! It is a funny story as to how he said it. Dan was giving him a bath, I was in the other room, and all of a sudden I heard Dan say "Uh-oh" and Nathan started sputtering and crying. Nathan had been leaning back and turned his face into the water. Anyways, Dan pulled him out of the tub right as I walked in. Nathan turns to look at me and says "Mama". It was like he was saying "save me mom, dad is trying to drown me"!! It was so cute! Don't worry he was never in any danger of actually drowning!

He also has had his front 2 teeth come in since he has been 9 months. He never fussed so I did not realize they had come in until his 9 month Dr's appt.

He has waved "bye-bye" once and it was out of context, so I am not counting it. He still does not crawl, but he scooches backwards on his stomach and rolls in order to get where wants to go.

He is still wearing his DocBand and we have about 6 weeks left of wearing it. Not much to reporet on it. HE does not mind it anymore and we have not had anymore skin breakdown on his head. It is getting pretty foul though. That sucker is starting to smell, like dirty feet. We clean it as best we can, but there is only so much scrubbing you can do!

His head continues to grow, he was in the 90th percentile for his head circumference, so hopefully this means the helmet is doing it's job since he has having such head growth.

I can already tell a difference in the back of his head. It seems much rounder in the back.

He is eating lots of "big-boy" food now. He will eat any baby food and as far as real food goes he has had cheese, turkey, mashed potatoes, meatballs, yogurt, bread, chicken, spinach, eggs, sausage and watermelon. The only 2 things he does not like are Cottage cheese and Banana's. We have tried real mashed up banana's and the Gerber banana's but he does not like either. IT must be the taste. I do not like banana's either. It is fun to watch him try new foods, but it is such a mess!! I mean he gets food in crevasses i didn't know existed!

I love Christmas time!!! I love shopping for presents, decorating , baking, singing to Christmas music...you get the picture. I love it!!

Anyways, this year has been a little different with Nathan around. It has been much more difficult to shop. I used to spend hours looking for just the right present or researching a gift. I loved to walk around the mall just to get ideas for gifts...well, not this year. Most of my gifts have been purchased on line ( i never thought i would be an oline shopper...takes some of the fun and joy out of the experience for me). Nathan is a pretty good shopper, but only in about 1-2 hour increments. oh well...he is worth the sacrifice!

I also, love to wrap and decorate presents. I would spend several full days of just wrapping presents while watching Christmas movies. That "tradition" has changed some what as well. I have had to wrap with Nathan's help, which is not so helpful (he loves to grab at my paper and wrinkle it!). At least he is easily distracted with a bow or wrapping paper tube! And only 1 Christmas movie so far, as I don't really want him to see much TV yet. (Everyone has there own opinion on that, i know).

Here he has discovered the ornaments on the tree! It was so cute to watch. He looked at the ornament, reached for it and.......

SUCCESS!! He pulled it off!

I will post more pictures of him finding my pile of wrapped presents! He was pulling at he ribbon and decorations! I think Christmas will be so fun with him this year!

More pictures of Christmas "helping" to come soon!

Hyped up

Ok, I have been trying to figure out how to post a video for over an hour now, so I hope this works!

Today, Itook Nathan back to the Aquarium agian and he acting like a wild man. He was so happy and hyper for over an hour. He was waving his arms, squealing and kicking.

The video does not get a great picture of him, as I was trying to shoot it and hold him at the same time! (I know, I'm a mom now so I should be able to multi task!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Jo_3RA_-v88

The "fake coughing" is something he started a few months ago, it went away and now he has started doing it agian. I am afraid he is going to get a sore throat from doing it all the time. I guess it is way of communicating.

Sweet moments

I came home, saw the backdoor was open so I looked outside and this is what I saw......... A daddy and his boy! It made me smile.

Apparently the daddy was giving instruction on how to build your own fiberglass subwoffer(sp?) for his car, from scratch. Nathan even had his own peice of fabric to practice! I mean who needs to learn about your ABC's when you can learn about subwoffer's?!!

I am so thankful and blessed to have a husband that is dedicated to spending time with and teaching our son! We have 1 very loved little boy!

Sort of Halloween

8 Months old!

My little Lion!!

I wish I could say I thought day and night and planned for months what the perfect Halloween costume was going to be for Nathan, but alas, I didn't, and I am glad. If I had, I would have been very disappointed with Halloween night.

This was the first time i have ever had Halloween off at work since I started 8 years ago. I just have not had a reason (besides when my cousins were little) to have the night off. We had visited a pumpkin patch/Fall Festival at a church the week before, so i had some pumpkin pictures and Nathan had already done a little "trunk or treating". Dan had to work Monday night, os my plan was to walk up to our church and go to our "trunk fest" there. It started at 6:30 and went until 8:30 so Dan was going to join us when he got off of work.

Dan had bought this cute lion costume a few weeks earlier. However, we were not planning on Nathan having a helmet at this point so, the head of the lion did not fit.

This lead to my first issue. I had to cut the back of the head to get it to fit over the helmet. It did not stay on very well once it was cut and I managed to lose it somewhere between our walk from home to the church, so I had a headless lion. I was able to get a few picture of him in it with the head before it was lost for good. I would have taken some with his helmet off but I was figuring on doing that when Dan was there to help me.

Second, Nathan became very hot and sweaty in his costume in the walk over ot the church. He was still adjusting ot his helmet. (the helmet acts as a giant sweater on his head and makes him VERY hot the first week of wearing it, until his body adjusts to the added temperature.) So, off came his costume before any of our friends could see it. then the real fun began. Here I am with a child in just a plain ole onsie, b/c that is what he had on under his lion costume, when every other little kid has on some adorable costume. Anyways, I find my friends and park our stroller by her car. At this point Nathan starts to melt down. He justs starts crying and fussing, so I feed him some dinner. He then proceeds to vomit up the pureed spinach I gave him. So there I am attempting ot hand out candy to people while holding a crying baby in a ratty onsie covered n green barf and no costume. Sigh.

At this point I decided to walk around with him and look at some of the trunks. Well, there were over 8,000 people there and 100 trunks to go past. Needless to say it took us 15 minutes to go to 4 trunks and he was still fussy (not like him)

We left ot walk back home and the minute I got him away from ll the noise and people he stopped crying and was smiling and happy. He is JUST like his father. He does not like alot of chaos or noise!

When we got home we waited for Dan and then went to a few neighbors houses for some trick or treating. Nathan loves playing with the candy wrappers. He liked to eat the wrappers too!

Yumm...M&M's!

My headless lion!

His daddy was very excited about his candy haul!

I learned some important lesons. Always try your costumes on before the "big night". Then I would have known the head did not fit. Also, we will just stick to trick-or-treating in our neighborhood from now on. It was so much calmer and he got more candy that way (I mean it is all about the candy right?!!)

DocBand = GUILT

I would consider this (the DocBAnd) the first big "Hill" we have had since Nathan was born. I was told and knew to expect alot of things when he was born. Sleepless nights, a whole new kind of love, a lifestyle change, ect. but I never knew how much guilt came with a baby. (more on that to come)

This past week Nathan received his DocBAnd. It is a helmet he has to wear for 3 months for his misshaped head (plagiocephaly). We struggled as to what the right decision was for him. He was diagnosed with moderate form of plagiocephaly and we had the option of doing nothing, it would not get better on it's own, his head would just remain the same shape, or place him in a helmet. Of course we had to weight the PRO's and CON's and prayed about it.

THE CONS: COST (insurance would not cover it b/c they consider it cosmetic), having to wear it for 3 months 23 hours a day, people staring, not knowing if it would produce much result since he is a little older, I was worried about personality changes and a fussy baby.

THE PROS: His head would be more symmetrical. It would help correct the flatness to the left side. It would get more length in his head, as it is very wide compared to long. We also do not want him to be teased when he is older about the shape of his head.

What sold us was 2 things. 1st,We had friend at work who's daughter wore one and she showed us before and after pictures and you could tell a big difference AND 2nd, they told us he may not ever be able to wear a bike helmet properly because of the shape of his head (that sold Dan right then and there!!!)

So the journey begins. Usually they are fitted and placed on babies as young as 3 months and they like to have it placed by the time the baby is 6 months old but they will treat with a helmet up to 18 months old. By the time we made the decision, had him fitted, a 2 week wait for the helmet to be constructed, Nathan is well into his 7th month by the time he officially received his helmet.

Here was picture of him the day he received his helmet. He looks so happy and totally oblivious to what is about to happen. Yes, I cried, I just felt so guilty about putting something unnatural on his head that I assumed he was going to hate.

I forgot (maybe I was in denial) to take pictures of his helmet when he first got it. This picture was on day 4. When they first put it on he did not seem to mind it so much. By he second night he was much fussier. Day 3 was pretty rough. HE was just fussy and pulling at hte helmet (yes, I was crying alot) Poor thing. Here he was suffering and I could easily stop the suffering. Tha is why I feel so guilty. This was a choice we made for him. It is not medically necessary or required. I think it would be a lot different if he was in a spica cast (when a baby breaks a femur they have to put a cast on both legs with a bar going between the legs, it is very cumbersome to deal with) or something because that would be medically required and needed.

On the 4th night we took the helmet off for his 1 hour break, to bathe him and to clean it and below is a picture of what we saw.

A horrible blister that was oozing. Talk about more guilt, we basically had caused this to happen to him.(lots of tears from mom). No wonder he was fussy and pulling at the helmet. We thought it was a pressure sore. We left the helmet off that night. the next morning we went into the clinic and they told us it was heat rash. I was told when we first got it that he would sweat a lot more because it was like he was wearing a giant sweater on his head.

We were told to leave the helmet off of him until it healed.

Well, yesterday, day 7, I put it back on him in the morning, b/c the spot appeared healed. When I took it off that night, he had a new spot on his check. So, we had to leave it off last night.

I am beginning to wonder if he is ever going to get to wear it or if we just donated $3000 to Cranial Technologies. I am getting a little frustrated, especially since he is already almost 8 months old.

Apparently Nathan has very light, sensitive skin, just like me.

On a different note, Dan has been working on painting the helmet. Apparently you can't just paint it because of the type of material it is, so he had to kind of scoff the outside to get the paint to stick, He then painted it and put a clear coat on it. Needless to say, this is a lot more work than most. the majority of the patients put stickers or wrap the helmet in vinyl. Of course, Dan had to do it professional style!!

Here are a few picture when it was just plain white. IT was very medical looking.

AND, HERE IS THE FINISHED PRODUCT!!!

TA-DA!!!

WE (umm...mostly Dan) chose the red bull theme, as it is associated with his favorite Formula One car racing team with the glorious Sebastian Vettel!Also, Red Bull sponsors the Red Bull Air Races. It is were planes have to go compete for time through an obstacle course over water and through pylons. I have to admit, it is pretty cool to watch. We have Nathan doing Red Bull air training in his swing!

Anyways, that is were the theme came from.

I think it turned out really well. It does not look medical anymore and it adds personality.

Here is a side shot.

And the back. Notice the way Dan signed it! (Love dad) so precious.

They also shaved more of the helmet from his eyes. Before, he could barely see, because it dipped down into his sight of vision.

He really has been overall happy in his helmet (notice the happy slobber), since the blister has healed. There are times when he still pulls at it, but mostly it does not seem to bother him.

The bad thing is I have to keep him cool until his body adjusts to the heat from the helmet. OS, n cute clothes for a while, onesie's only and we have to keep it cooler in the house (YEAH!!! for me, Poor Dan!)

Very creative and talented artist!

I know some people may think we are being to vain, but if you know us you know that is not true. We just want what is best for our son.

I will keep you updated as we go throughout this journey. Hopefully we will stop having skin issues and he can just wear it and get it over with. (yes, Rachel, I know I ended my sentence in a preposition!)

7 months (3 weeks late!)

7 Months Already!

Nathan continues to grow and time continues to pass quickly.

SOme highlights of this past month include Nathan sitting by himself for long periods of time. He was toppling over a month ago, but now I can just sit him down and know he won't tip over.

He also moves around so much more at night. He scooches himself into the corner of the crib with his "back scoot". The bad thing is he wakes up in the middle of the night with his head jammed into the corner and he startes to fuss. All we have to do is put him back in the middle of the crib and he goes back to sleep, but I don't like having to get up at 1am and 4 am. I am not sure how we can break him of this bad habit! We find him sleeping more on his stomach too, which we never thought would happen because of his adverseness to tummy time for so long!

He continues to be such a happy baby. He has this little "pig squeal" he makes when he is really happy. It is adorable!

He loves to play with his toys and now I can set him down for a little while and he can entertain himself with his toys!

He is getting closer to crawling! He will get up on all fours and rock back and forth. He just has not made any forward movements! It is so funny how fast he changes. One day we put him on his tummy and he got up on all 4's ,just like that! So I am assuming one day he will just decide to start crawling!

One of his favorite things is bath time! Dan ussually gives him his batah and they have so much fun splashing and playing! Nathan still loves to put EVERYTHING in his mouth, as shown above.

He is growing so fast and I love every minute of it! (even the times in the middle of the night when I am exhausted) I am just thankful to have this wonderful and prescious little boy who I love more than I could ever imagine was possible! I am not a very emotional person but somettimes my heart feels like it is going to explode with love for this little boy and it brings true tears to my eyes. If I, in my imperfect sin nature, can love someone this much, how much more must out Heavenly Father love us? I can not even fathom!!

I have gone back to part-time at work and I really enjoy the extra time it gives me with NAthan at home. Some days we struggle to find things to dao but it is a joy to watch hime play and learn new things and i am grateful to be a part of it!

My next post will be on our difficult descion and journey to put Nathan in a helmet to correct ot his head.....stay tuned!

Aquraium

I was "bored" (such relative term when you have a child) one day, really I just wanted to get out of the house , so Dan and I took Nathan to the Aquarium.

He loved it! I figured he would because he spends alot of time watching our fish at home, in a 60 gallon tank.

To begin the day we bought an umbrella stroller. I love my BOB stroller but it is the size of a tank, so it is nice to have something smaller for occasions like this.

He started kicking and "talking" like crazy when we went into the aquarium. I wish I had the video camera, it was adorable. Note to self....take it next time!!

I really think we could have parked him in front of this giant tank, left him there for the day and picked him up before bed time! (I guess that would warrant a CPS consult huh?)! He was very content and happy just watching the fish swim up to him and looking at all the different colors on the fish.

He watched this little fish so intently. It would swim up to the glass and Nathan would get so excited! He would kick his legs and bang his little hands on the glass (sorry fish!)

Dan was giving him a lesson on the different types of fish....Seriously, we would walk up to a tank, Dan would take on look and be able to name not just the type of fish but the specific name! I guess it helps he has a biology/zoology major! I hope Nathan realizes and appreciates how smart his daddy is!

Nathan really liked these types of tanks were you could stand up and be surrounded by fish!!

This was the giant sting-ray tank. The sting ray would swim right up to Nathan, he loved it!!

Dan and I had alot of fun too!!

I went ahead and bought an annual pass, as it pays for itself in 2 visits, and Nathan gets in for free. I figured we will get lots of use this winter and on days were we just need out of the house!!

I have an overdue 7 month post coming soon!

6 month stuff

6 Months and growing!

WT:17lbs 11oz (50th%)

Length: 26in. (25th%)

FOC:46.5cm (75th%)

He's a little disproportionate...but that makes him unique! The Dr. thinks they measured him wrong on his height b/c she said he looks taller, either that or he has alot of vertical growing to do!

We have had busy month of August and part of September. I have officially switched jobs. I am now back in the Trauma ICU were I originated from (they all say I was a wayward child who found her way back home!!). I will miss my job on transport. It was a fun and challenging job with alot of autonomy. I loved all my guys I worked with and it challenged me as a nurse b/c we had every type of pediatric patient population. However, my family comes first and me working back in the unit will be best for my family. I am looking forward to being back in the hospital. I like the continuity of care you have in the unit, I love trauma, I still have some good friends who work up there and I like the relationship you have with the Dr's in the hospital. And of course, the challenge!

Nathan and I took a trip with my mom ans cousins to Oklahoma. One of my cousins attends OSU, so we went to visit her and to see the exhibit "PASSAGES" at the museum in Oklahoma city.

"PASSAGES" was interactive bible exhibit that took you through how the King James Bible was written, preserved and passed on throughout the years. There were pieces of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which was just fascinating. To stand there and look at something so old and important was amazing. I learned alot and my memory was refreshed from facts I learned back in school. We could have spend all day looking at all the Bibles and interactive activities they had.

Nathan loves to look at himself in the mirror, i hope it is not an indication of him being vain!!

He loves to stand any chance he gets! With the way he hates tummy time and loves standing I am convinced he is never going to crawl but just got straight to walking!

Dan rigged up a way for us to hang his jumper up in the tree to use it as a swing. Needless to say, Nathan was a big fan! We could push him so much higher outside than in the house and he just grinned. I am so thankful it is finally cooling off enough in the evenings that we can take him outside to swing.

Nathan and Grandma on the giant John Deere tractor, he kept reaching over to play with the gear shift. I think he will be an early driver (especially knowing who his father is!)

They had a small indoor pool at the hotel we stayed at so we took Nathan for a swim. It was so interesting how it being a smaller pool, indoors with no-one else around made such a difference in how he liked swimming compared to the loud, big outdoor pool. I think he thought it was his bathtub, just a little bigger!

Playing in the fountain with Auntie Rachel. He sure has a fascination for water!

New "toy"

Nathan got a new toy this past week, well, actually DAN got a new toy this week! Nathan is getting to big for the front pack carrier and we like to hike alot so Dan ordered a Kelty kid backpack carrier. He got a good deal on EBAY for it. Of course, since it is my husband, multiple modifications had to be made to the carrier to make it just right!! For those who do not know my hubby, he is infamous for modifying any big purchase we get to improve it! He really does make it better, it just makes me nervous when the tools come out. Case and point, we had bought a brand new, expensive, smoker/grill from Lowes. When we got home I went inside and came out later to find Dan with his welding torch cutting holes into the brand new , did I mention expensive, smoker! AHHH.....of, course it turned out great and works just the way he wants it to, but it still makes me nervous!!

Anyways, Nathan seems to like his new backpack carrier. It is a little cumbersome to get on in off with him in it and the weight is up high instead of down low, like a normal backpack.

We are planning an overnight hiking trip, for just the 2 of us, in October, so Dan is starting to "train" for it by carrying Nathan around in the backpack. This will be our first overnight tent camping trip, where we have to carry all our gear, so it helps to get used to having all that weight on our backs!

Here is Nathan in his new backpack. Doesn't he look thrilled!!

This is my new favorite picture of him! We were out on our nightly walk to look for frogs at the lake! Actually, if I'm honest, I like looking for frogs! It is quit a skill to sneak up on them then run towards them and watch them LEAP into the water. The closer you get to them before they jump, the higher and further they go!! I'm sure anyone watching me must think I'm insane!! It's the little things in life.

Nathan loves his jumper-oo although he likes it more as a swing instead as a jumper. He gets the biggest smile on his face when you start swinging him.

And a cute picture to end on.