Now, this may look like a harmless way to kick off 2012 but as the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. So, here's the story...Nathan started having a tough time with naps and pretty much refused to lay down and sleep; instead, he would sit in his bed and sing, scream, cry, yell 'Mommy!', talk, or whatever he could come up with instead of sleeping. Well, after doing some reading on the subject I decided to try the approach of letting him "cry it out" for a full hour like we did when he was a baby. So, here we are on the first day of implementing this new approach. He was having his fit for 59 minutes and then it was silent; I couldn't believe that with only 1 minute to go he finally succumbed to sleep. I snuck in to see what was going on and when I cracked his bedroom door open I didn't see him lying on his pillow; after some brief heart palpitations I noticed that he was lying down at the foot of his bed. Ah hah...now I understood the high pitched screaming that I thought was just a part of his fit...apparently he had gotten himself STUCK between his bed and the wall. After taking this picture I tried to move him but he was really stuck; he woke up screaming, 'Nathan not tired!' I really couldn't get him unstuck so I had to move his bed and pry him out. I asked him how he got stuck and he told me that he was trying to turn his light on. Thankfully, there was no harm done except for a bruise on his butt cheek - and by the way, for the most part, he now lays on his pillow still as a statue and goes right to sleep at naptime, I think for fear that if he moves he'll get stuck again...
January brought with it G-Ma's 60th birthday! Here's Nathan helping to make her birthday cake...
Norah and G-Ma spending some time alone at G-Ma's birthday party...
Happy Birthday!
Such beautiful ladies...
Uncle Steve sleeping on the job (looks like we'll definitely have to make sure Aunt Hanna is around whenever we have them sit the kids)...
Nathan made G-Ma this beautiful stained glass rainbow that he picked out himself (like the old school Shrinky Dinks) that she promptly displayed in their front door window...
G-Ma thought she was having a girls day out luncheon at Josephine's Tea Room on her actual birthday but she was pleasantly and VERY surprised to be greeted by her in-town guys...
Sexy in their sixties - what a lovely couple...
The St. Louis Fam...
G-Ma and her youngest grandbaby...
Another January highlight was Nathan's trip to see Sesame Street Live - Elmo Makes Music at the beautifully renovated Peabody Opera House. Mommy and Nathan went with Aunt Carrie and Sarah and it was a blast! We kicked off our afternoon with some fun in the "Play Zone" including a visit to Oscar's trash can...
A whirl on Elmo's piano...
A hello to Elmo's goldfish, Dorothy...
The Muppet of the hour...
We learned that Big Bird is actually a canary...
The funnest street in town...
A visit with Nathan's other favorite Muppet, Ernie (whose laugh he just loves to imitate, 'heeheeheehee')...
Showtime...
During the show Sarah introduced Nathan to one of the finer things in life...cotton candy...
Which Nathan thoroughly enjoyed...
I was shocked at how enthralled Nathan and Sarah both were the entire time, their eyes glued to the stage...
What a FUN and special afternoon!
Nathan was still in the Elmo zone for a few days after the show; thankfully Aunt Hanna and Uncle Steve had gotten him some fitting jammies for Christmas that he could sport...
Baxter and Hobbes enjoying some downtime while the kids were napping...
This month brought some new things for Nathan, including crossing his arms (how cute does that look!?!?!), Daddy taught him how to put on his coat all by himself, if you ask him if he needs anything he'll respond, 'I'm fine!' if you ask him how he is he'll respond, 'Great!' he expanded his manners so that when he wants something, instead of just saying 'please!' he'll now say 'may I have...please?' he started putting his bathroom stool away after washing his hands, when having his morning or afternoon snack (which he calls a 'nacky nacky') he will get it out of the pantry by himself (like the box of crackers), get out a bowl, fill the bowl, put the box back in the pantry, sit down at the dining room table to eat and when he's all done he'll put the bowl in the kitchen sink, throw out any wrappers (like from his fig bar), push his learning tower over to the kitchen sink, wet a washcloth, wipe his hands and mouth and push his learning tower back. Unbelievable! He started clicking his tongue (not sure where he picked this up) and he really likes to try to undress and dress himself (he's pretty good at getting his jammy pants off, his jammy shirt mostly off (he usually gets an arm stuck around his neck), his underwear on, his pants on (but still needs help with the zipper and button) and he still tries to put his arm through the neck hole which makes things quite challenging. He's pretty good at getting his shoes off and on and now we're working on tying his shoes (Mommy needs to learn some shoe tying rhymes to help with this process). One of the cutest things he's started doing this month is "story time" which he must have picked up from Sunday School. After we read him his nap or bedtime story he'll want to take the book and do "story time" which consists of him sitting on the floor, reading us the book (which always has the words, 'I know Jesus lives...the only Son of God') and showing us the pages - it is so precious!
We've also got some cute Nathan stories from this month but the best one is probably this...he, Norah and I were in WalMart one morning and while we were shopping in an aisle Nathan exclaimed 'Mommy! That's Mary!' I turned around and there was a Muslim woman standing there in her full attire which resembled what Nathan had seen Jesus' mommy wearing in all the Christmas books we had been reading him for the past month. Nathan said again, 'Mommy! That's Mary!' The woman kind of glared at us and I said, "no honey, that's not Mary." I couldn't get out of that aisle fast enough and once we were out of ear shot I asked Nathan if he thought that was Jesus' mommy and he said, 'Yes - that's Mary!' I couldn't contain my laughter!
I'll tell you, this little guy's memory just blows my mind. We were watching a CedarMont kids video one day and when a particular song came on, without missing a beat, Nathan jumped up, ran out to grab one of his Mikey Mouse sound books, flipped it open right to a particular page, pushed the button and lo and behold, it was the same tune (but different words). Wow! Wow! Wow!
A few other cute stories include the time he was supposed to be napping and I was out in the office working on my Bible study and I heard a strange noise; I got up and walked into the hallway to see what was going on and there was Nathan pushing his stool out of the bathroom and into his bedroom. He told me that he wanted to turn his projector back on (which is up on top of his bookshelf). I so wish I had my camera because the look on his face was priceless when he got busted! He hasn't come out of his room during naptime since!
One cute, but possibly embarrassing story later in life, is when he was going to the bathroom and as he was peeing he said, 'Hi pee pee. How are you pee pee? I like pee pee! Pee pee happy!' Where does he come up with this stuff!?!?!
Another funny was when I was trying to get Norah's pumpkin seat out of the car and it was stuck in the base of the carseat. Nathan was still sitting in his carseat watching me struggle and when I finally got the seat out he yelled, 'Yay Mommy!'
It's definitely been a fun kickoff to 2012 and I can only imagine the stories we'll have to share as the year goes on, so stay tuned!
