Evelyn at 18 Months

- Evy loves her stuffed animals.  She takes a load of them to bed with her. And she'll ask for a different one to snuggle each night. She's also very attached to her blankie.
- If I need to keep Evy entertained for a while I'll give her a sheet of stickers.  She loves them!
- Favorite word: no.  Of course.
- Bathtime is still her favorite time of day.
- Evy is becoming such a daddies girl. She loves running to find daddy and welcome him home.  She'll ask throughout the day, "Daddy, where are you?"

- She is a trouble maker!  She us always climbing on things, making messes, and putting things in her mouth!
- Her 18 month visit was delayed due to our move, but here are her 19 month stats: 32.5 inches (58th percentile) and 23 lbs (48th percentile.)

- Evy is always eating!  She is always wanting some little snack or hanging on the refrigerator door to try and get in.
- Such a little smarty pants.

- Evy is definitly a little water baby.  Loves, loves, loves it.
- She wants to read a million books at bedtime.

- She loves her big brother.  She usually wakes up and asks for Nate Nate.
- Loves brushing her teeth.

- Evy loves to be outside.  She loves playing in the backyard, at the playground, or just going for a walk.
- She loves to see the school bus.  She waves and grins as it pulls up.  And then she shouts for her Nate Nate.

- Such a good little helper.  She's getting the hang of cleaning up. And she desperately wants to help me with the dishwasher.
- Evy's learned to throw a pretty good tantrum.

- I love it when she sings.  She knows Itsy Bitsy Spider, ABCs, Child of God, Twinkle Star, and You Are My Sunshine.
- Loves to look for bunnies in the backyard.

- She's been getting into dancing.  It's too cute!
- Before we leave her room and sometimes before she goes to sleep, Evy will ask for a hair bow to be put in her hair. What a little cutie!

- Her favorite game has got to be peekaboo.  She plays it all of the time.  Even with strangers at the grocery store.
- She started nursery and she loves it.  Her first day she ran right in and didn't even look back to wave bye to mom and dad.

- So many hugs and kisses.  I love it when she'll spontaneously come over and give me a hug.
- Evy has such a cute little personality.  So happy and smiley and sweet and full of adventure and lots of trouble!  I wouldn't trade her for anything.

First Snow

Evy and Nate both woke up in awe of the snow.  They stood at our sliding glass door for a long time just looking at it snowing.  Nathan told Evy, "Evy I like it. Snow."  I love it when he talks to her and it was so sweet of him to want to share the experience with his sister.  We went outside later in the day to build a snowman.  Nathan happily romped around for awhile.  Evy was so mesmerized.  She kept patting the snow.  I loved seeing her take in the new experience of snow.  We're looking forward to many more snow days.

Funny Little Boy

When Grandpa came to visit he taught Nathan a new trick, Pound it Turkey. Now everything is celebrated with a Pound it Turkey.

After Evy's surgery, I was grabbing everything out of the car to go inside.  Nathan was trying to patiently wait for his mommy to come inside, but he turned to his daddy and said, "Mommy slow.  Daddy it's a problem."

Today in sacrament meeting, Nathan was acting very naughty.  Brad told him that he was going to go to timeout.  Lately timeout have mostly been for hitting mommy or hitting baby sister.  So, when Brad told him he was going to timeout Nathan screamed, "Daddy no hitting!" Great, our new ward now is wondering if we abuse our child.  And it doesn't help that his leg is in a splint. But it sounds like the no hitting lesson is sticking.

Nathan at 33 Months

- Nathan is talking so much!  It makes me so happy to see him getting to the point where he can express himself more.  He's starting to pick on verbs and emotions which helps a lot with his communication.
- I am so proud of him for learning to say the word "want." Usually he just labels the object he wants.  But he is now using the word "want" to express that he actually wants something instead of just labeling it.

- We went to this awesome indoor playground and Nathan loved it.  He had so much fun sliding, climbing, and swinging.  It was nice after being cooped up from the snow.
- When he rides his bike, he has to wear his sunglasses.
- Breakfast time.  We're sitting down eating French toast and bacon, both foods that Nathan likes.  Nathan had finished his portion of bacon and was asking for more.  I told him to take a bite of French toast and I'd give him more bacon.  He immediately put in a piece of French toast in his mouth so I gave him the bacon.  He then spits out the French toast and says, "Ooo, too hot."  He eats the bacon instead.  My son had just said his first lie in pursuit of more bacon.

- He loves being a big helper in the kitchen.
- He FINALLY figured out how to jump.  We have tried teaching him for months and months.  We got him a trampoline to help with some sensory issues, but he wouldn't jump on it.  Run on it, make it into a racetrack, play with toys on it, or use it as a place to take a nap? Sure.  Jump on it? No way.  We also thought he'd figure out jumping at his tumbling class.  Nope.  What finally made him decide to jump?  I have no clue.  He just hoped on the tramp one day and decided it was time.

- Nathan can sing his ABCs.  We also got him a new alphabets book to help him learn some of his letters. He loves it!
- Nathan has a little dinosaur puzzle where the puzzle pieces are big wooden dinosaur cutouts.  One day, Nathan set up the dinosaur pieces and said, "It's scary! Ahh!"
- Naptime is pretty much gone these days.  On rare occasions I can get him to go take a nap, but usually we just have quiet time, aka. Mom needs a nap time.

- Nathan's been a lot more cuddly lately.  We often find him climbing up to wherever we are for a snuggle.
- He's decided that ice cream is yummy.  He's had such a sensory aversion to it before that he usually spits it out immediately. Grandma let him try some while she was here and he loved it!
- Getting better at saying yes and no.  One of his therapists showed him a little video about yes and no and now he mimics it.  Everything now is "Yes, I do," or "No, no, don't."

- Nathan likes going outside to play with the snow.  It's so funny to see him moving around as best he can in his snow gear.  He loves to stomp in the snow.
- This kid loves his bus and putting the little people in and out of it.  I had Evelyn with me on the couch and Nathan came over and tried to pick her up saying, "Evy bus," meaning he wanted to put his baby sister in the bus.
- He is not one for staying in his pajamas all day.  He will grab the clothes he wants to wear out of his drawer and have me help him put them on.

- He loves building with his blocks.  He makes the greatest buildings.
- Recently Nathan discovered flashlights.  He loves playing with them.  Now if only he wouldn't shine the flashlight in his eyes.  Or his sisters.

- Don't let this smile fool you, Nathan HATES bath time.  He was just happy to be done. It breaks my heart to see him screaming when we say he has to have a bath, but he has to be cleaned sometime.
- He likes building forts with chairs and blankets.
- We've been trying to get Nathan to do thumbs up as one of his targets for ABA therapy.  He wasn't able to figure it out so we decided to try it later.  Well, Brad asked Nathan to do a thumbs up and he did it right away!  Anything to please dad.

- Everything now ends with, "One more time?"

- He has a few books he is "reading." And by reading I mean, he's memorized.  I'm pretty impressed with his little memory.  He can read "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?", "We're Going on a Bear Hunt," and several other stories.
- Nathan will come up to us and lead us to sit down.  Then he plops down between mommy and daddy.   He gets the biggest smile when he has both of us by him.

- He still thinks he is incredibly funny.  And we think he's been funny too.  Love that cute boy.

Tumble Tykes

We started Nathan in a little tumbling class on Saturday mornings.  The first class was rough, but after that Nathan's been loving it!  It's a toddler and parent class so I get to help Nathan with all of the tricks.  Nathan's pretty good at trying everything.  He's great at walking along the beam and he gets the biggest grin on his face after doing a forward or backward roll.  He also loves playing with all the other kids in the foam pit.

Doing a pullover on the bar

Nathan is into labeling colors lately.  When he bends down and touches the beam he is pointing out that the beam is red.

In case you're wondering who the two ladies helping Nathan in the photos are, they are two of Nathan's therapists.  We had a couple of makeup sessions that we needed to do during the week so we invited them to come along.

I love that Nathan loves gymnastics.  I was in gymnastics classes for 9 years growing up and I loved it.  I made the gymnastics team and competed for a few years.  It's really fun for me to see Nathan enjoying something I loved so much.

Baby Gurl

We started asking Nathan a few days before our ultrasound if he would like a baby girl or a baby boy.  He's never changed his mind.  It's a, "Baby Gurl."  Looks like he was right.  We're having a baby girl!  We're so excited!  We've all been feeling like it was a little girl so everyone is happy.

While we were having the ultrasound the ultrasound tech was having a hard time getting baby girl to cooperate.  She had the doctor do some more searching.  The doctor asked us if we were feeling like it was going to be a boy or a girl and we said that we were feeling like it was a girl.  The doctor finally got a decent shot and said, "Well, I think it's a girl."

"Really?!?" I blurted out.

"I wouldn't say that unless I was mostly sure.  That would be pretty mean otherwise.  I'm 90% sure it's a girl."  Haha, thanks doc.

I went out and celebrated with some shopping.  I went to get just her first outfit and came back with way more.  Everything was so cute.  And I had to keep looking because I needed to find a dress.  I'm so excited to start decorating the nursery, making quilts, and knitting little things for baby girl.  It's also exciting to think about getting Nathan's big boy room ready for him as well.  It's a good thing we're going into winter and more time at home so I'll have time for all the projects.  Now, we need to think of a name for baby girl!

Going to the Zoo

We decided to get a pass this year to the Philadelphia Zoo (#12).  We went for our first time a few weekends ago and Nathan loved it.  I loved seeing the wonder in Nathan's eyes as he was seeing so many new things.

The lioness came over to snuggle with the lion and everyone let out a collective "Aww!" at seeing them cuddling.

I thought Nathan would love the monkeys most of all.  They're one of the few animals Nathan recognizes and knows the sound for. But as it turns out Nathan loved the turtles.  He picked right up on saying turtle and he says it in such a cute voice and gets both t's in there.

I'm glad we bought the zoo pass because I know this little boy will be asking for more zoo, zoo, zoo!

We're So Glad When Grandma Comes

We're so lucky that Brad's mom was able to come visit us a few weekends ago.  I was still getting over being sick with a nasty flulike bug and Janet was getting over having pneumonia so we kept our plans pretty low key.  Nathan loved playing with Grandma.  Janet had been worried that Nathan would be a little standoffish after not seeing her since Christmas, but from the moment she walked through the door to the moment we dropped her off at the airport Nathan wanted to be playing with Grandma.  Nathan especially loved being Grandma's special helper when we made banana bread.

We did make one venture out to Longwood.  They have their orchid festival going on which is my favorite.

We took Nathan to the children's garden where they have lots of water works for the kids to play in.  Nathan had the time of his life.  I brought a long sleeved bib hoping to minimize him getting wet.  It was no use.  He was so in love with playing in the water that he was soaked all the way to his shoes.  Good thing I still brought an extra set of clothes.

"Look Mom, no feet!"

We're glad Janet could come and spend some time with us.  We love her visits!

15 at 15

- Started walked at 13 months.  He loves his new freedom.
- Has eight teeth.  They have started to come in like crazy.  The weird thing is the only bottom teeth he has are 2 molars.  Good thing I know I good dentist.
- His 15 month stats are: 20 lbs 2 oz(14 percentile), 30.5 inches tall (30 percentile), and 18 inches head circumference (16 percentile.)
- Thinks it's so funny to go up the stairs by himself.  Probably because he knows it's naughty to go up them without mom.  He'll sneak over there and go up a step or two and look to see if I'm coming.  When I come get him he squeals with delight.
- Definitely a daddy's boy.

- He is such a messy eater.  He loves to wipe his dinner on his face, front, ears, high chair, basically any place he can smear it.
- He does this little shruggy shoulder thing that is funny to watch.
- Loves talking to babies.  I watch a little 4 month old boy a couple days a week and Nathan loves hanging out with Russell.  He gets this great big smile every time he sees him and is pretty good with him.

- He still loves bath time. If by chance I've left the bathroom door open he will toddle in there and try to get in the tub.
- He went to see the dentist for the first time.  No, it wasn't Brad.  Nathan did pretty good and he loves the toothbrush they gave him.
- He likes to play this game where mommy will chase him around and he'll find dad to save him.  He thinks it's so funny to be able to run away.

- Loves going to play the piano.  More specifically he loves pressing the buttons on the keyboard.  He will climb up and get the programmed songs going.  When we were in Minnesota, he was pretty disappointed when Grandma's piano didn't have buttons to push.
- He insists on only taking one nap, but it's a good 4+ hours long.
- Loves being outside.  He'll pat on our backdoor letting me know he's ready to go, which is like a 100 times a day.

- He think's he is pretty funny.  Well, we think he's pretty funny too.  He's always finding something to laugh about.