Busy Times

HOW ADORABLE IS OUR LITTLE GUY?!?!?! We've had a great week and a busy weekend full of fun stuff! One of the highlights was Nathan's 3 month photo shoot; although we couldn't get a smile out of him for anything (even though me, Kevan, the photographer and his wife were all acting like fools making crazy noises and flailing our arms) we got some really cute shots! The proofs should be done in a few weeks so we'll be sure to include a link in one of the next few posts.

Nathan attended his first birthday party for his friend Sarah Ross who turned 1 (she's the cute little girl in the picture above...a possible arranged marriage is in the works). One of this week's funny events was when I went to give Nathan a bath...as I was placing him in the water he decided to take a tinkle. I realize that urine is sterile but I still felt like I just had to change his bath water before bathing him! I'm sure this will never happen again - HA HA :)

Nathan is 3 months old!!!

Can you believe it?!?!?! Nathan turned 3 months old this past Sunday - WOW has that gone FAST! This past week was packed full and there were too many adorable pictures to pick just five so be sure to check out the other two posts below which are just a bunch of super cute pictures!

The highlight of this past week is that we had Nathan dedicated at church and Grandma Pratt flew in from Philadelphia for the occasion! Lots of friends and family attended in addition to Grandma Pratt including Grandma and Grandpa Krestel, Uncle Steve and his girlfriend Hanna, Uncle Steve and Aunt Carrie, Bubbee and Paw Paw Vincent, Linda and Josh Walz and Lyn and Jeff White - thank you everyone for coming to this special event in our and Nathan's life. We chose Psalm 25:4&5 to be read and we're thankful that we have the opportunity to raise Nathan in a Godly household and pray that he'll come to a saving knowledge of our Lord and Savior at a young age and never stray.

You'll see a picture below of Nathan in a white silk onesie and vest with cute white shoes - this is actually the very same outfit that Kevan wore when he was christened MANY years ago! Thank you Grandma Krestel for letting us use this! Nathan was an absolute doll during his dedication - no tears were shed or anything!

You'll notice in one of the pictures that he has little gloves on; even though mommy trims his nails often I think it could be done every day! He had scratched himself a few times and we wanted to try to minimize the damage - as you can see by his face he didn't enjoy the mittens at first but he's used to them now! Isn't he absolutely adorable even when he's crying his eyes out?!?!

While Grandma was in town we went to the Great Forest Park Balloon Race on Saturday; we took the metrolink down to the park so you'll see a picture of Nathan's first metro ride! We also got a chance to celebrate Grandma's birthday on Sunday and Nathan sported the Penn State outfit that she brought him (she figured if he had Ohio State gear he had better have some Penn State stuff too).

Another exciting event of the week was that Nathan and I had our very first conversation on 9/15! It was so amazing - he and I went back and forth chatting for a few minutes and now he is just talking up a storm all day every day - it is SO FUN!!! We enjoy waking up to his chatter and sometimes we just lay in bed listening to him - it's pure music to our ears!

Nathan has been mesmerized by our hands and fingers and his too - he's been having a ball sucking on his fingers - he prefers his pointer and middle finger and sometimes adds in his ring finger. Sometimes he sticks his mouth so full that he chokes himself but he's getting the hang of it! He's also been enjoying kicking up his feet - while he's in his swing, bouncy seat, car seat and crib!

He's moved on from Tigger and his pal this week was Mickey Mouse; I love the picture of him chewing on Mickey's ear - it looks like Mickey is trying to escape Nathan's grasp! Speaking of animals, our cat Hobbes has gone from ignoring Nathan to getting pretty close to him and trying to take over his things. I couldn't resist snapping a picture of him when he got into Nathan's bouncy seat! He's also landed himself on Nathan's tummy time mat and his changing pad! We'll have to do something about that.

Well, I'll try to post next week's post more timely - enjoy all the pictures of our little blessing from God!

More Pictures

And More Pictures

Pictures from our new camera!

As you can see, we're having fun with our new camera! The first three pictures of Nathan were taken at night while his room was pitch black (except for his little night light). How cool is that -Kev was able to get these great pictures of our little guy in Dream Land! The 2nd picture was taken through the crib bars but for the 1st and 3rd picture Kev sat the camera right in the crib - I couldn't believe that the flash didn't wake Nathan because it's really bright - but it's really quick too, thank goodness.

There are so many features with this camera that Kev is going to take a photo class to learn all about it (and then he'll give me my own private class).

Don't you love how the last picture is so crystal clear and shows off his gorgeous baby blues?!? We still can't get over his chubby cheeks - they can't get much bigger!

12 Weeks Old!!!

Sorry for the late post everyone - Fall is in full swing and like everyone else our schedule seems to have gotten crazy overnight!

Let's see...Nathan kicked off week 12 with a free chicken sandwich from Chick-Fil-A (they had a great Labor Day deal - wear a shirt with a team logo and get a free sandwich). Of course, daddy had to dress Nathan in his Ohio State garb, compliments of Uncle Jeff and Aunt Jenny (for those of you who don't know, Kev grew up in Ohio and his whole family is nutty about The Ohio State University Buckeyes!!!). We met Grandma and Grandpa Krestel at the restaurant and since Nathan's not eating solids yet he was nice enough to give his sandwich to daddy and Grandpa to split! The nice manager of the restaurant gave Nathan his first balloon (which was about as big as him). Another first was Nathan's first picnic - he and I met my former co-worker, Cynthia, for a picnic lunch at Shaw Park and it was a gorgeous day! On Saturday daddy had to dress Nathan in his Ohio State garb once again to help root the Buckeye's on against USC (sorry Bucks - you didn't redeem yourselves)! Later that day we took Nathan to the Clayton Art Fair - he wasn't too interested in the art though, as he was all about snoozing in his stroller!

Ok, so what else was going on with Nathan during his 12th week? Well, he about gave mommy a heart attack when she went in to check on him while he was crying during a nap and she found his doing a face plant into his mattress! That's right folks, he rolled from his back to his belly. However, he was swaddled, so we took him out of his swaddle so that his left arm now gets in his way and he can't roll over! Daddy was excited at the progress he had made whereas mommy was a bit nervous for his safety. So, now our little guy is sleeping unswaddled and getting frustrated when he can't make it over to his belly - but all in good time I'm sure! During week 12 Nathan also decided that EVERYTHING that he can get his hands on must go into his mouth! This proves to be very interesting when he's trying to shove his hands in his mouth while breastfeeding!

Check out some more pix below - isn't the one of him in his ducky towel after bath time ADORABLE?!?! I just can't get over how cute he is and what an absolute blessing from God he is!!!

More exciting news is that we got our new camera and it is awesome! I'll be posting a few pictures from it and you won't believe the difference. I'm kicking ourselves for not buying it before he was born, but better late than never!

Recuperating

Hi everyone! This was a pretty low key week as I have been recuperating from surgery. Kev worked from home one day and took a vacation day to take care of me and Nathan. Grandma Krestel came over a few nights to help out too! Nathan is really in to his hands this week and can't seem to keep them out of his mouth and he's been drooling like crazy. He's also enjoying playing with his stuffed animals - the star of the week has been Tigger! We don't have many pictures from this week because our digital camera died (it's been good to us for 5+ years) so we just purchased a digital SLR online and are awaiting it's arrival. In the meantime we borrowed Grandma and Grandpa Krestel's camera. Look for some great pictures from our new camera next week (hopefully).

Tiff has a new belly button

Hi everyone!

Sorry for the delayed post but I was busy getting my herniated belly button repaired! As a result of the pregnancy and delivery I ended up with a herniated belly button; essentially, I had a hole in my abdominal muscles the size of a quarter! It was a quick out-patient surgery but the recovery time is apparently 3 months. Yes, that's correct, 3 MONTHS! But, the surgeon said he was able to give me my innie back and that I should be pleased with it. I'm still all bandaged up so I'm not sure what it looks like yet. Our friend Linda babysat Nathan while Kevan was with me at the hospital and this was pretty monumental as it was the first time we left him with anyone other than Grandma and Grandpa Krestel (except for the church nursery). Linda said he did great!

Nathan is doing great and growing like crazy! As you can see, we've resulted to using a binky at nighttime as it helps him get to sleep. He only keeps it in for a few minutes to soothe himself to sleep and then he spits it out (which is a funny site to see him pop it out of his mouth and shoot it across the crib). We still wrap him up like a burrito which he seems to enjoy (and he looks SO cute)!

He still has his crazy hair that sticks up in the back. Every time I give him a bath and brush his hair I think it's going to stay down but sure enough, by the time it dries, it's sticking up again!

Well, that's about it for now. Hope everyone is doing well and we'll talk with you next week!