Sunny September

September kicked off with a photo opp of our little blessings before church...

After church Grandma and Pa Pa met us at Forest Park to go for a walk - it was such a pretty September day.  Nathan and Norah both opted for the stroller ride on the way out...

But on the way back, Nathan was all about walking with Grandma and Pa Pa...

 On Labor Day we went to Grandma and Pa Pa's for a cookout, but first we went to one of the best playgrounds we've ever been to... 

Here we are at Aunt Carrie's playing in the sand with Sarah and Madi...

And playing on their fun play set...

And running through their berm (there are just so many fun things to do there - the fun at Aunt Carrie's is endless!)...

Our little sleepy head was there too but preferred her zzz's over everything else going on...

Daddy with his little blessings...

We took Baxter to a fun event at Forest Park called "Yappy Hour" and he had a ball running around with all the other dogs (and Nathan was in his glory too)...

Again, Norah decided to sleep through the fun...

After perusing the "Yappetizer" menu, we decided to get the hummus and Nathan was an instant fan...

For some reason, this month, Nathan was into laying under things (the living room rug, the dining room rug, Baxter's bed, blankets, whatever he could slip himself under)...

Another Sunday morning photo opp...

After church we went over to Grandma and Pa Pa's to visit with Uncle Bob and Aunt Diana who were passing through on their way from Branson back home to Michigan.  They couldn't get over how big Nathan had gotten and they finally got a chance to meet Miss Norah...

Aunt Hanna introduced Nathan to the super fun past time of "airplane"...

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this in past posts, but Nathan's new favorite character for a while now has been Mickey Mouse (who he called Gickey Mouse until just recently...this month he started pronouncing a lot of things correctly, including Elmo - no more Melmo.  I'm proud of him, but it made me kind of sad that he's growing up so quickly!).  Here he is performing "The Hot Dog Dance" which all of the characters do at the end of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse show.  Sidenote: all of the characters do the dance while standing on pedestals and so when Nathan wanted to copy the dance he emptied out one of his toy bins, turned it over and stood on top - quite ingenious if you ask me!  Oh, and note one of Nathan's latest trends - he likes to wear un-matching socks (something he clearly picked up from Aunt Hanna)...

September 14th was a big day because we had a visit from Aunt Jenny and cousin Lauren, from Columbus, who came into town for a wedding shower.  Here's Aunt Jenny loving on her sweet little niece...

Check out the kitty on her butt...

Here are Aunt Hanna and Aunt Jenny playing with the kiddos...

Nathan just cannot resist loving on a baby (can you say future politician?!?!)...

  

Later that day we had a visit from Uncle Jason who was in town for business.  We were so excited that he finally got to meet Norah...

 

Nathan enjoys the stool that Grandma bought him so that he can reach the bathroom sink to wash his hands all by himself...

Sporting Uncle Jason's boots...

Nathan thought his blue tongue from his popsicle was hysterical.  He often asks to look at this picture and says "Oh...blue tongue!"...

Nathan still has fun playing with the bowling set that Uncle Steve and Aunt Hanna got him for his 2nd birthday...

However, as you can see, he doesn't want anything to do with the ball because he thinks it's more fun to jump on the pins and knock them down that way...

This was great - I asked Nathan to pose for his monthly birthday picture and he actually did it (usually he runs the other way when I grab the camera); hopefully this is something that will stick!  This month has brought with it so many strides in his independence!  First of all, his new favorite word is "mine" and his new favorite saying is "no, I do it!"  He wants to do EVERYTHING by himself!  He likes to put his own clothes on (although he often puts both legs through the same pant leg which makes things quite interesting) and he even tries to butter his own bread!  And he knows what he likes - he requests "cold water" with ice cubes to drink and prefers to drink from a cup without a lid and straw.  Such a big boy...

MaMoo sent Nathan some super cool, super fun crayons for the bath and he absolutely loves them...

Here's Nathan proudly wearing his new apron that he's been getting a lot of use out of lately!  He loves to help Mommy make jello and play dough and pretty much whenever Mommy or Daddy are in the kitchen cooking, he's right by our side wanting to help...

Tuesday, September 20th was a huge day for Nathan (and Mommy and Daddy).  When Mommy got home from Bible study that night, Daddy announced that he had some very exciting news...when he got Nathan out of his bubble bath, Nathan went over, stood at the toilet and went pee pee!  So, true to form, Nathan didn't miss a beat in remembering what Mommy and Daddy promised him, so he asked to wear his big boy underwear the very next day (which we had been telling him he could wear once he went potty in the big boy potty).  In case you're wondering, it wasn't a fluke - the next night when I gave him his bath, he did the same thing!  So, on Monday, September 26th, we officially started potty training; we did the 3-day naked method and it worked like a charm!  Here he is proudly modeling his big boy underwear (it's Plex from the show,Yo Gabba Gabba,! in case you aren't up to speed)...

And sometimes, just one pair won't do, and they don't necessarily need to be pulled up all the way...

Preparing for his big boy bed, Nathan has been napping with his pillow and wanting to be covered up...

Celebrating Sarah Ross' 3rd birthday!!!

Our handsome guy...

Loving on Aunt Hanna...

Mommy getting in on the action...

King of the mountain...

Celebrating Mommy's (gulp...39th) birthday...

Nathan sure did enjoy the yummy birthday cake that Grandma made...

Our Littlest Love...

Our sweet, blessed little family,,,

To share some sweet memories from this past month:

We were outside playing in the backyard one afternoon and I saw a bird feather on the lawn.  I showed it to Nathan and explained to him what it was; he grabbed it out of my hand, kissed it and said "ok, tweet tweet, ok."  I'll tell you, he is the most compassionate little guy I've ever known!

In addition to being compassionate, he is Type A - something he acquired from Mommy and Daddy!  He often times will take things and line them up in a perfectly straight line.  One afternoon I found him lining up his stacking cups on the dining room table, another time he was lining up his books on his bedroom floor and some boxes in his closet.  Poor kid!

He is still so in love with his little sister and one sweet moment that has stuck with me was when we were at Sam's Club shopping; he was sitting in the cart and I had Norah in her carseat in the basket and he turned around, grabbed her hand and held it the entire time we were shopping.

It blows my mind how much this little guy retains.  He started Sunday School class this month (as in, he was moved out of the nursery and into an actual classroom with a Bible story, singing, crafts, etc.).  Well, he gets a memory verse to work on and I thought to myself, 'there's no way he's going to be able to memorize a Bible verse at this age' but I have eaten those words!  His first one was I Peter 5:7 'God cares about you' and not only can he ramble it off when you ask him to but even sweeter is that he will randomly quote it while playing or on a stroller ride - praise God that His Word is taking root even at this young age!

Speaking of memorizing things, he has "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" down pat and one of my sweetest memories to date is when Daddy wanted to show him the stars outside so we took him out on our back deck before bed and stood there looking up at the stars and all singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star!

He's also listening all the time so we have to be careful what we say because he'll pick up on it...and repeat it! So, we've started spelling things but he will just repeat our spelling!

Our little honey bear is just mister personality and constantly has us laughing - we're in awe just watching him and listening to what comes out of his mouth.  One thing that always makes me laugh is that he enjoys talking to Mommy and Daddy's friends by getting their attention with "Hey X!"  like "Hey, Angie!"  It's like he's an adult stuck in a little kid's body.

Well, stay tuned for more Nathan stories next month...