You've lost that eating feeling...

And by "you," I mean Nate.

Nate is a picky eater, but I feel like I need a better term than that for him. When I think of the phrase "picky eater," I envision a kid sitting at a table, gingerly peeling back the bread on his sandwich and closely examining the contents.

Nate would pull the sandwich apart and look at all of it, but not very delicately. It's also fully possible he would walk up to the table, take one look at the sandwich, simply say, "No. I not hungry." and walk away. That scenario would actually happen with many, many things.

Nate will eat:

• chicken nuggets
• macaroni and cheese
• carrots (this plus the two above items constitute at least 50% of his dinners)
• grilled cheese/quesadillas (sometimes)
• pancakes/waffles (always)
• smoothies/yogurt (always - must be drinkable, though)
• fries (we only serve sweet potato fries)
• fried egg (especially in the "bird in a nest" style)
• peas
• corn
• long pasta (spaghetti, linguine, etc)
• apples (whole, not sliced)
• bologna (this is a new development)
• tacos (deconstructed - meat, cheese, taco shell, corn - all separate... this used to include beans and rice but those have mostly fallen out of his favor)
• snack food (fruit snacks, mini muffins, popcorn, applesauce in a pouch, etc)

Things Nate used to eat and almost never does now:

• beans
• rice (and "rice and beans" as a combo dish)
• bananas (but he made my day by asking for one the other day and then eating it completely)
• cooked vegetables other than peas and corn
• short pasta
• anything with sauce
• peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
• some cold cuts (turkey, ham)

Nate has never liked/eaten:

• anything cold (ice cream, popsicles, etc)
• raw vegetables other than carrots (I'm convinced he thinks I'm feeding him houseplants or backyard bushes when I make a salad)
• soup/yogurt in a cup/pudding/cereal with milk (i.e. anything requiring a spoon - he requests a fork for dinner every day and won't eat without it being on the table... BUT he rarely uses it and won't ever use a spoon. My charming little caveman.)

Sigh. I have minimal complaints about Nate. I wish he didn't get out of bed after bedtime and I wish he ate more. That's it, really. So I know to be grateful (and am, every day)... but man, what I wouldn't give to be able to serve him some soup and a salad. I don't even remember when the food refusal began, but I so fondly remember making one dinner and serving all three of us. That is very rarely the case now since I don't want to live on chicken nuggets. I look at old pictures of him shoveling food in his face in his high chair and want to cry because I really miss those days.

And I know the research says he's training me to feed him what he wants - that if I put out food and don't let him eat anything else, he won't starve himself and will eventually eat what's in front of him. I believe it, too. But I just do not have the strength to deal at 8pm when he's hungry, refusing to eat what's available and pitching a fit because I won't let him have a yogurt or some cheese (again). I know it sounds ridiculous and I wish I could really think back to myself 10 years ago and remember what I would think if someone told me they couldn't get their 2 1/2 year old to sit at the table and eat something. I probably would have thought that person wasn't trying very hard... and maybe I'm not.

When I was engaged and debating changing my name, someone said to me, "You have to pick your battles. You have to decide for yourself if this is the hill you want to die on." I.e. is this issue important enough for you to stand your ground, not budge, and make it a central focus of your life.

Nate's nutrition is important to me - extremely so, particularly because obesity runs in my family and I believe the food culture in our country is toxic. However, I'm just not willing to send my two year old to bed hungry. I am not convinced he will understand yet why I'm doing that if he doesn't eat what's on the table. I think it's a dangerous line in terms of my power as a parent - being the keeper/distributor of the food - and I don't want to wield that power in any way that Nate could misinterpret in a damaging way.

So what do I do? I put bananas, whole wheat flour, and flax meal in his waffles. I put kale and spinach in his smoothies. I limit him to one yogurt, snack of each type per day (though I do not have control over what his caretakers may give him on their own). I ask him what he wants for meals sometimes and if his request isn't reasonable or doesn't work right then, I explain why and offer an alternative. If it's outside the norm but still reasonable, I do it. I have him help in the kitchen sometimes (he likes to mix/stir things) and I always offer him a bite of what I'm eating (he has not once ever taken me up on that offer, though).

Really, I'm hoping this is a phase and it passes. He's two. I can see this continuing into three but I'm hoping by 3 1/2 that he's eating more than he does now. I don't need him to be an adventurous eater now (though I do hope he is some day). I want him to be someone who will always try something, because I think that's valuable, but I also want him to lead a healthy and fulfilling life, and have a healthy relationship with food. So hopefully a year from now, I can think about making a list of what Nate eats regularly and the list will be so long that I won't be able to remember it all.

From the mouths of babes...

Or the mouth of one babe, in particular... There are so many things Nate says now that make me laugh or smile. On the talking spectrum, he's right where he should be, which means he knows a lot of words but isn't putting together sentences the same way I see little girls his age doing. He still babbles a lot and it's clear that he thinks he's saying sentences, and he talks ALL DAY LONG.

Wheeee!

Amongst all that chattiness, there are a few things that make Tom and I crack up to ourselves long after Nate's gone to bed.

Lock - Nate pronounces lock as "yock," which makes me snicker when I think about it. It's so cute sounding. And he is obsessed with locks - he wants to close all doors, all the time. He also wants to make sure I remember to lock the car when we park it. When I take him out of his car seat, he starts going, "Yock! Yock! Mommy? Yock?"

Sock - This one is pronounced with an "f" - fock. I think that says enough.

Backpack - Mack Mack - LOVE it. He now understands that the backpack is used to carry stuff, so he takes toys with him when we go to my in-law's house.

Fix it - This is a common request after he throws some toy and all the pieces come apart. "Mommy? Mommy? Fix it!" He also thinks putting the key in the ignition in the car is fixing the car. After I buckle him into his car seat (and he says, "Buckle! Buckle!"), he starts saying, "Mommy! A key! A key! Fix it!" I guess the car is broken without the key. Really kinda makes sense, right?

Cool - This is Nate's latest exclamation. He uses it correctly and appropriately, which cracks me up. He'll be playing with his toys, have one of them do something, and then go, "Cool!"

Oh Man! - This one definitely came from Dora the Explorer. Ugh. But it's just funny when he says it.

Night night - Every time Nate sees a bed, he says, "A bed! Night night!" (This was extra funny in IKEA the other day.) For the past few weeks, Nate has been waking up in the middle of the night, usually between 12:30am and 5am, at which point he comes to our room and falls back asleep with us in our bed. One night last week, though, he woke up at 11:30pm, when we were still awake. He stumbled into our room, squinting at the light still on. He walked over to our lamp, turned it off, said, "Night night!" and crawled into our bed and fell asleep. We were laughing SO hard; we couldn't help it. Even after we both also laid down, we kept giggling for a while.

A phone - Nate loves all phones. When we recently went to the Verizon store to get my iPhone, he just ran around going, "A phone! A phone! A phone! A phone!" because, well, you know - there were phones everywhere. He was out of control.

Mom - He usually still says Mommy, but sometimes he says, "Mooo-oooom." What??? NO. He better stick with "Mommy" for at least a few more years. (Somehow, Tom is still Dada, not even Daddy, even though Nate was saying Dada long before he was saying Mama.)

Uncle Kenny - It took Nate a long time to call my brother something considering he lives with us. A few times he tried to say Kenny and it came out "keh-yee" but I guess that didn't work for him because he's taken to calling him Kiki (kee-kee). CRACKS ME UP every time. I told my brother that I bet he never guessed in a million years that he'd be called Kiki regularly without some reassignment surgery.

Knock knock - Sometimes Nate will knock on Ken's door. Other times he just stands at the door and screams, "Knock knock! Kiki! Knock knock! Kiki!" Hysterical.

A - Everything is singular right now. Ken is "a kiki," every phone is "a phone," every cookie is "a cookie."

What - We have this little game in the car where I say, "Say whaaaat?" and Nate goes, "Whaaat!" And then we both giggle. I love it.

Blue - Pronounced "BOOOOO!" Even though he knows several colors (white, purple, red), he calls all of them blue right now. He also calls Blue from Blue's Clues "Boooo!" (It's also one of his favorite shows right now.)

Hold on - Every time we walk down our back steps, I tell Nate to hold on to the handrail. He always does, but now he also yells, "HOLD ON!" with every step down he takes. (I'm laughing just thinking about it. It's so funny. At least I know he's listening.)

Pizza - Pronounced "Izza!" (Eat-za) My parents babysat Nate last Saturday while I was at a conference and ordered pizza for dinner as a treat for Nate. When the pizza arrived, he yelled, "Izza!" and ran to the table and scrambled into his seat, sat up tall and said, "Eeeeat! Eeeeat!" He knows what he likes.

Climb - Nate has to use a stool to get into his bed (it's just a smidge too tall for him) and I guess I said, "Climb into bed" a bunch of times because now every time he does climb into bed, he says, "Climb! Climb!" He also likes to carry his stool around the house and try to reach new things (light switches, window sills). He gets up on it and goes, "Climb!" He also says it at the playground as he climbs the structures. It's hard to describe how he says it - it's kind of like "kyime." Very cute.

Color - Nate says "kuh-goo" to mean color or crayon. I have no idea why/how it works out that way, but I think it's adorable.

I really can't state enough just how much I love all of this. It's still challenging when Nate's trying to tell me something and I don't yet understand what he means, but looking at a list like this makes me realize just how much we actually communicate now and how awesome it is. This list is just a snippet of all the things he says - the funnier things. We really do have a chatty little boy, and it's fantastic.

22 & 23 Months

Dear Nate,

Today you turn 23 months old. Obviously, this means you'll be TWO YEARS OLD a month from today - but instead of getting wistful about that right now, let's talk about the last two months, which have been PACKED with all kinds of new adventures.

The biggest new adventure has been your big boy bed! Two weeks ago you started climbing out of your crib on a daily basis, so rather than risk having you get injured, we decided it was time to move you to a bed. There are built-in bunk beds in your room (the ladder has been stowed away since we moved in, though) so we moved you straight into a twin size bed instead of getting a toddler bed in the interim.

It's been a bit of a bumpy transition. You've been waking up at 6am nearly every day and won't go back to sleep unless I come in your room (instead you get out of bed and stand behind your closed door screaming because you can't open it). Little by little, I think you'll start sleeping later. Overall, you're doing really well. Nap time is still a struggle most days, especially Saturday, but we're working on it.

Then, of course, there was our trip to the emergency room this past weekend. But you are quite a little trooper. No one would know you had a dislocated elbow this weekend.

If we dig back a little further to last month, you had an even less happy encounter: the Easter bunny! Last year you were so happy to sit on that big, fuzzy lap. This year? Not so much.

But that's okay. I know it'll be better in a few years. You just love to be on the go now and don't appreciate being told to sit in one place for any period of time unless there's food in front of you. You still love to eat, but continue to be a bit picky. It's been challenging to find nutritious foods that you'll eat without hesitation, but we're learning. And you're still growing, so I think everything is okay. You weighed 33 lbs at the hospital this weekend and are wearing all 2T clothes and a few 3T shirts. All four of your two year molars are at least partially in, so you are officially done breaking in any new teeth until you get your adult teeth!

And you take great care of your teeth, too. In your Easter basket from Grandma and Grandpa, you got two new toothbrushes, which you demanded be opened immediately so you could use them - which you did. You spent the next hour walking around, using both brushes simultaneously. You LOVE brushing your teeth (although you mostly love playing with the water in the sink - but you do actually brush your teeth well).

Your first time walking Buster with Mommy... You were SO excited and happy!

Your vocabulary is getting bigger every week and you've begun to know some letters. Yesterday you (accurately) pointed out the letters A, B, C, E, K, M, and O - and even connected some words to them - "B! Boo! (blue)" "M! Me me me!" You basically point out these letters everywhere we go. I think your favorite colors are blue and green, although you call both of them blue ("Boo!").

Your favorite new item is the "mack mack" (backpack) the Easter bunny brought you on Sunday.

For the past two days, you've put it on and tried to leave with me when I left for work. I think maybe you think that owning a backpack means you get to work with Mommy? (Since I take a backpack to work almost every day to carry my schoolbooks in case I have time for them.) I think you'll be very excited to put it on Thursday to take it with you to Grandma's house for the day, even if you don't quite get the concept yet of using it to carry things with you.

Other things you absolutely love right now: playing with your LeapFrog tablet, helping Dada get the dogs ready for their walk, giving the dogs their treats after their walk, pointing out where our jackets are and which one belongs to who, pointing out the cars in the driveway and which one belongs to who, telling me that the door is for going "outside, away," saying, "Oh man!" ALL THE TIME, telling me where my coffee cup is ("foffee! foffee!"), telling me that every bed is "a bed, night night," eating raisins, asking for milk (even if it's water or juice), helping me unload and close the dishwasher, helping put clothes in the dryer... do you see a theme? You love to help, to do whatever we're doing, and to tell us the purpose of everything around. I love watching you figure it all out and how you surprise us with a new word every day sometimes.

I can't believe you'll be two years old next month, although we already say we have a two year old because you're such a big boy to us. We love everything about you. Even the 6am wake-up screams aren't so bad because when we open that door, you are so sweet and happy to see us and start your day or snuggle back to sleep. Every minute with you is a joy, truly. We love you!

Love,

Mommy & Dada

Nate's (and our) 1st trip to the ER

I know it was bound to happen sometime. Apparently emergency room visits are all the rage with parents of young children. However, the hubby and I have very little emergency room experience. I think I went once as a kid (twisted ankle) and I think the hubby went once (scratched cornea - yowch). So we were ill-prepared for this.

On Saturday, I was playing with Nate. He likes to stand behind us on the couch, have us hold his hands over our shoulders and rock front and back or side to side - kind of like a piggy back ride, but while sitting. After a certain seeming non-extraordinary moment, he said, "Ow" and pouted and was holding his wrist - so I thought maybe I had held too tightly onto his wrist. By this point, he was two hours overdue for a nap, though (he doesn't nap well, sometimes at all, on Saturdays) so we figured maybe he was cranky because of that and didn't really hurt much. So at 3pm, the hubby put him down for a nap.

We were scheduled to go to dinner at 5pm for my brother's birthday, so around 4:15 I went in to wake Nate up. As soon as he woke up, he started crying - hard. And he just kept crying. I sat in the glider with him and he was sort of clutching his left arm a little, but also not moving it at all. He would move his right arm just fine, but his left arm he kept bent and close to his body. If I tried to lift it (slowly and gently), he would cry, "Owww!" and then cry more.

So we called our pediatrician's weekend service and they said it sounded like "nursemaid's elbow" (which I had never heard of and had to Google) and that we should go to the ER, so we did.

This is where the lack of ER expertise came in because the hubby dropped off Nate and I while he went to go park the car (Nate was already feeling better by this time - his arm probably really hurt early because he spent over an hour sleeping on it, poor thing). I walked in and realized I had no idea what to do. It was nothing like it is on TV - no bloody people lying around, no gurneys running through. Plus, this was specifically the pediatric emergency room - so mainly there were kids and teenagers sitting around, looking bored, watching Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs on the flat screen.

Nate's "bracelet," Curious George, and my striped sleeve

So I walked up to the desk and probably just said, "Uhhh.. um." But they, of course, knew what to do - took our information, gave Nate a hospital bracelet (which he liked - he likes bracelets) and then we sat in front of the TV and I gave him the coloring supplies I had planned to bring with us to dinner.

"Kuh-goo!" (that's how Nate says "color" or "crayon")

Nate was really great in the waiting room. He was really interested in the automatic door (he's obsessed with all doors needing to be closed, so seeing a door that closed itself was a highlight for him). He said hi to the other kids and was just generally running around if he wasn't watching TV or coloring.

 
That looks like a toddler with a dislocated elbow, right?

We were eventually moved to the second waiting area, where we kept Nate entertained with episodes of Thomas on our phones. Eventually the doctor saw us, flexed Nate's arm three times and told us it was nursemaid's elbow. I asked her if she'd have to set it and she said, "I just did." OH. Well, okay then. No wonder Nate just cried for a minute (I figured it was just because it hurt).

Waiting for the Motrin to kick in so we can go home

She had us give Nate some Motrin and then we had to sit around for 20 minutes waiting to make sure he could use the arm (if he couldn't, it might have been a fracture). Nate seemed too nervous to use the arm. He'd use it when he wasn't thinking about it, but as soon as we asked him to, he'd refuse. Eventually the open door in the waiting room got the better of him, though, and using his formerly injured arm, he pulled it shut (one of those heavy hospital doors with a rubber doorstop). The doctor saw that and said, "Well, okay. I think you can go home now."

The next morning (Easter morning), Nate woke up like nothing had happened. He was happy and energetic and seemed to have no memory of being hurt. He was his regular self and was totally happy to open up his Easter backpack ("mack mack!") and eat some Easter treats.

So there it was. Nate's first trip to the ER. Our first parental trip to the ER. Fairly uneventful and not too scary (no blood or anything). Nerve-wracking, for sure, and it sucked that we had to miss my brother's birthday dinner, but at least it wasn't anything worse and we're very lucky to not have had to do this before. I would like to avoid doing it again but I have a feeling this won't be our one and only ER visit. At least next time we'll know the drill.

Twenty Months

Dear Nate,

Today you are 20 months old. You are no longer a teen-toddler (I have no idea what that means but I just like the way it sounds). Part of what it must mean, though, is that you really are in toddlerhood now, heading straight for preschooler age. Your dad and I look at you now and there are few remnants of babyhood left to you. You look and move like a little boy now, with a little less of that toddler tummy, much less early-toddler uncertainty, and even more agility than you already had.

This month has been a fun one for you. It was your second Christmas and the first holiday you've actually understood and appreciated opening presents, which made it immensely fun for your dad and I. The moment in which your dad and I brought out the wrapped kitchen from Grammy and Pop-Pop and you realized that it 1) was a present and 2) was for you will remain one of my favorites.

And now you have a new obsession: Thomas the Tank Engine. Uncle Kenny bought you a Thomas bath toy for Christmas and now you have to take the little Thomas with you everywhere. You ride your trike around the house with Thomas in your hand, sit on the couch with Thomas, take him in the crib for naps, keep him on the table while you eat - you are never without your "choo choo!" (As I write this, however, I have to admit that I don't know where Thomas is right now and am totally scared of not being able to find him later.) You'll point to your Thomas toy, then to the remote, and then to the TV, which is your way of telling me you want me to put Thomas on Netflix. (Thomas on Netflix is how Mommy gets to take a quick shower, which is very useful.)

But this doesn't diminish how much you love to be active. You run laps around the island in the kitchen and love to be chased. You love to kick your big bouncy ball around the house and run with it (like you're dribbling a soccer ball). You are trying to figure out how to jump but all you can manage right now is to get up on your toes.

You mastered climbing into and out of your high chair (mostly, except for one fall) so it was time to move on and this month also brought your booster seat, which you are very happy with. What you're not always happy with, though, is eating. This month really brought out the whole picky eating thing and now it's basically a guess as to what you'll eat on any given day. Last night for dinner I made stew. Four of your favorite foods are shredded beef, potatoes, carrots, and peas - all of which were in the stew. However, you ate none of it. Every time I tried to give you some, you turned your head and simply said, "No. No." So your dinner was applesauce, carrot sticks, and animal crackers. But we keep trying. I know this won't last forever and you still eat plenty of good food, so it's really not a problem, just something new from our little boy who used to eat anything.

You're still a good sleeper and seemed to have gotten past the little glitch in the past two months where you were waking up early or in the middle of the night. You're back to sleeping roughly 7pm to 7am and taking a nap from about 12:30pm to 2pm. All that running you do means you need a lot of sleep, so I always feel better when you're resting well.

You love to say things twice - once in your regular voice, and once in your monster voice: "Oh no way!" then in a growly voice, Oh no way!" You love puppies (all dogs are puppies) and anything crunchy is a cookie. You love to look out the window at all the cars in the morning and help Dada get the leashes ready for the dogs to go outside. You love to give kisses and hugs (you give me a big hug when I put Thomas on) and you love to snuggle on the couch right after you wake up. You love to help zip up your coat or your pajamas and sometimes you can put your own shoes on (and even if I help you, you like to close the velcro). Sometimes you pat your diaper to let me know when it needs to be changed, but you fairly consistently don't like your diaper actually being changed. That process has become a bit of a battle, but you're also definitely not ready for potty training so we'll just battle it through for now.

You are joyous, curious, silly little man. You are loving and sweet but with the best glint in your eye because your curiousity always has mischief right around the corner.

Happy 20 months to my handsome little man! Mommy and Daddy love you so much.

Love,

Mommy.

Nowhere-Near-Wordless Wednesday

Since Nate started climbing into his high chair by himself last month (by first climbing on a dining room chair, then crawling across the dining room table before stepping into the high chair), I've wanted to get him a booster seat. But bills and Christmas gifts had priority, so he continued his climbing every day. Last week, what I feared finally happened - he fell from the high chair. He was trying to back off the tray, slipped, hit his head on the dining room table, and then landed on the floor on his tush... not happy. He cried for about 10 seconds but then he was fine.

This is what always happens. He does something daring (he's fearless), takes a small tumble eventually, scares the life out of me, and then is fine in 10 seconds and (I think) even more fearless. It's amazing that I have no grey hairs. I'm convinced one day I'll wake up with 50, bang.

But anyway, that one spill was it for me. The booster seat plan was going into motion - and this past Monday, it did.

Cutest little booster seat man ever. (And is there a more quintessential toddler lunch than chicken nuggets and carrot sticks?)

He loves his booster seat and didn't care in the slightest that we moved the high chair out. I love how easily he transitions from one thing to the next. Even more, I love that I have to worry less about that particular fall happening again. But I really love that now it feels even more like he's sitting at the table with us. My big little man.

19 Months

Dear Nate,

This month is the first month I've ever not completed your monthly letter on the day you turned a new month in age. And it certainly isn't because I have nothing to say about you. If anything, it's because I'm too busy running around with you! (In truth, it really is just such a busy time and given the choice, I'd rather spend our little time with you than at my computer.)

I'm joking about running around with you... but only partly. Your favorite activity every night after dinner is to run around the island in the kitchen with someone or Buster chasing after you. You will run laps around the island until you are out of breath.

You are our little adventurer. You will never hold my hand when we walk somewhere; you hate being carried from the car to the house (which means it takes us foreeeeever to get from the car to the house because you insist on investigating everything in the driveway and picking up every acorn you see until both of your fists are full of them). You love to investigate the perimeter of any playground and then walk all through the play structures. You aren't afraid to climb up on anything and love to go down the slide all by yourself.

You're also becoming much more opinionated. We're seeing more and more toddler tendencies in you. You want to be able to make choices. You will only sit for a story at bedtime if you were allowed to choose it first. Sometimes you don't want to finish all of your yogurt. Sometimes you want to just play with the yogurt cup. Sometimes you eat the whole yogurt, start to finish, and then want to leave the table without incident. We never really know, but we're happy to allow you to do what you want because supporting your curiosity and independence is really important to us.

You've hit a little bump in your sleeping - taking naps that are an hour and 15 minutes long instead of the two+ hour naps you were taking, and sometimes waking up in the middle of the night and actually requiring soothing to get back to sleep - but from what I've read, it's normal for this age because you're learning so much and, hopefully, it will smooth out in a couple of months.

The other day I found you trying to climb into your crib to get a toy you threw in there. Somehow, amazingly, you have not climbed out yet (I fear even writing that because I know I'm jinxing us). But you climb up on any chair in the house. You climb up on the dining room table. You slide down off your changing table. You'd get in the bathtub fully clothed if I'd let you. There isn't anywhere you don't want to go and that you don't fully believe you can go.

You still love to be picked up - when you want to be. You'll stand on the very tips of your toes and stretch your arms as far up as they go as you insist, "Up. UP. UP." If no one picks you up or, worse yet, actually says, "No, not right now," your arms drop to your sides and then you raise them back up and drop them back down in frustration as you pout. This is sometimes followed by you gently laying down on the floor and crying (wouldn't want to hurt ourselves collapsing on the floor, of course). I think my favorite is when you run into another room to lie down and throw a mini-tantrum. I hate to say it, but your dad and I laugh pretty much every time you get upset because, really, it's just funny, and it's always over in less than 15 seconds. Other than that, you're still our smiley, laughing, gleeful little man.

You love to get whatever you want on your own and then tell us you got it: "I dot it, I dot it!" And I can tell there's so much more you're trying to tell us but the words just aren't forming quite yet. You've decided to call Buster "B" (don't know why, but it's cute - like your own personal nickname for him). You love to pat Oreo and say, "Good girl" and then just keep on walking (if Oreo lets you anywhere near her in the first place). At your 18 month appointment with Dr. Jill a few weeks ago, she was really happy to hear all the words and sentences you have (about 35 works and 10 sentences), although you did wreak havoc on her exam room (nearly jamming the electronic scale and shutting the lights off mid-exam). You were so into everything in the room that she told us it was obvious she didn't need to ask about your gross motor skills!

As of that appointment, you weighed 32 lbs and were 33 1/2 inches tall. You're in mostly 2T clothing now, still size 7 shoes, and size 6 diapers now. You fight a lot of your diaper changes, but you generally don't mind getting dressed if we do it quickly enough. You're pretty content in the car most of the time and don't mind being dropped off to stay with Grandma or when Kate comes over when we have to work. Overall, you are a toddler through and through but you are still pretty agreeable, for which we're really grateful.

You dad and I continue to love you more and more with each day, thinking every day it's not possible to love you more, and then we do. You are amazing and wonderful.

Love,

Mommy

7 Quick Tuesday Takes

So this will be one whopper of a quick take, followed by six probably quite anti-climactic ones...

1. Today is my 3rd wedding anniversary. No, that's not the whopper. The whopper is that I completely forgot about it until someone on Facebook wished me a happy anniversary. OOPS. Seriously, internet friends, how bad is that? Seriously bad wife material? :-/

2. Tomorrow is Nate's 18 month well-baby (well-toddler?) visit. I am always so crazy excited about his doctor's visits. That's probably a bit odd but I just love seeing the actual measurements of how big he's grown and making sure he's on track with all his milestones.

3. Sometimes (at work) while I stand in the student center waiting for my lunch to heat up or in the faculty room making photocopies, I run through the five ballet positions and do a demi-plie and grande plie for each (after quadruple checking that no one's watching). This is why I can't remember new information sometimes - because information like this, last used in 1983, is still stuck in my brain.

4. Technology is out to get me this week. Is there some Mercury retrograde going on or something? It's one of those weeks where every major tech item in my life has given me some out-of-the-ordinary type problem.

5. Tuesday is the one day of the week that's a little busier than the rest because the hubby takes Nate to his parents' house before work. Because he has to be at work earlier than I do, this means they have to be out of the house earlier that day than any other day. Yet Tuesday is the one day that Nate will choose to sleep an extra half an hour, if he ever does. Murphy's Law, baby sleep clause. (Nate wakes up every single day at 6:45 like clockwork... But today I had to go wake him up at 7:15.)

6. Have I mentioned that this means I can't recall the last time I slept past 6:45? Oh friends without children, relish in your ability to sleep, I tell you. (especially since even when Nate does take a random later wake-up, I'm still awake at 6:45 or earlier, just lying there, unable to snooze because I'm sure he'll wake up as soon as I do)

7. Writing #6 totally made me sleepy, remembering waking up this morning. At least I still have my good sense memory skills.

Happy Tuesday! Hope you're having a good one!

18 Months

Dear Nate,

Today you are 18 months old - or officially one and a half! I was just looking at pictures from your birthday party and it's incredible to think about how much closer you were to being a baby then and how much you are a full-on toddler now.

People often ask us, "Is he running?" and I have to stop myself from saying, "Are you kidding?" Peanut, you run all the time, every day. You love being outside, going to the park, running around, climbing on everything you can - which includes just about anything at home, too. You've always been a climber, climbing long before you started walking, but I keep joking with everyone that pretty soon we're going to have to suspend our furniture and belongings from the ceiling. I tell everyone that you were a monkey for Halloween on purpose: you are my little monkey and you also love bananas.

And just as easily as you climb up, you then scoot right back down and scamper off to the next climbing object. You are so on the go that "I go!" is even one of your favorite things to say. The only sentence you say more often is, "I see." I did hear you say, "I do" a few times, but it's not a regular yet. Your favorite words these days are shoe (which is always "shoooooeeee"), oh no (which has replaced "uh oh"), and you still use "thank you" all the time (and usually correctly, which is so sweet). And in the past week you also started saying "sorry." You were pushing Curious George around the house on your ride-on bus and he fell off. You said, "Oh noooo. Sah-wee!" and put him back on the bus and went on with playing.

(Curious George is still your favorite, too. You have travel George in the car, sleepy George in your diaper bag for naps away from home, and big George for the house. George is definitely the thing that makes you the happiest... aside from food. lol)

You also like to figure things out, especially how to put things back together. So yesterday morning when you broke a crayon, you tried to put it back together. When I cut your grilled cheese or banana in half, you try to put it back together, too. You're really interested in the relationship of how things go together and I think that even includes people as you've gotten really good at giving kisses and hugs this month. Your hugs are THE BEST, hands down.

And it's amazing how big you've grown. Your hugs are real hugs - you really span your arms out and hug. You're wearing 2T shirts, 18 month pants, and size 7 shoes. You're still in size 5 diapers, but we might be moving that up soon. I can't wait for your 18 month check-up next month to see exactly how much you've grown in the past three months. You can reach so many more things now that I really think you've gotten taller, for sure.

You seem to grow happier with every day, as well, if that is even possible. You've always been happy, but now that you're just constantly on the move, it's like the joy you have just has to spread. You make everyone who knows you happy, especially your father and I. I don't think we could be any happier about our family than we are. We love you so much, Peanut.

Love,

Mommy

17 Months

Dear Nate,

Today you turn 17 months old. I think we've officially hit the month where telling people how old you are in months starts to sound obnoxious, so since the first of the month whenever anyone asked, I would say, "Oh, he'll be one-and-a-half next month" - which, for the record, is hard to believe.

And people do ask me about you all the time. Three times this weekend I was stopped by nice older ladies in the supermarket so they could tell me how beautiful you are and how blessed I am. People just think you are incredibly adorable and I just have to agree.

I truly relish every day with you because right now, you are just SO much fun. You love to run around and squeal and babble and spin in circles and bump into things on purpose. When we go to the playground, you prefer to actually walk or run the perimeter of the park than to actually play on the playground structures. You do like to go down the slide by yourself, but you'll only do it once or twice before you're off again, chasing the grass edges and picking up rocks and sticks.

At home you are into everything. You figured out how to open the dishwasher, so you open it every day, multiple times (even when it's running!). When it's clean, you like to hand me the silverware so I can put it away because you love to be my helper. You also figured out how to open the refrigerator, so that's another appliance we are constantly saying, "No open!" about except in the morning, when you go in and pull out the milk so I can fill up your morning sippy cup. (And, yes, you pull out a full gallon of milk and hand it to me.)

"Cup" is actually one of your newer words, along with "I see." Your favorite phrase right now is "Thank you." Since I say it whenever you hand me something, now you say it whenever you hand me something. You still do a lot of pointing and whining, which I'm hoping gives way to more words soon. You babble a lot - all day long, really - and I'm really looking forward to the conversations you seem to have planned.

This week you gave me a cold, but other than that you've been really well. No sign of your two year molars yet, I think (you don't make it easy to check) and you still sleep like a champ. You love to play with Buster and to choose your own stories before naptime and bedtime. Right now your favorite books are ones that let you feel different textures and just last week you started pretending Curious George was exploring the books, making his hand feel the fluffy bunny or tree bark in your story books. I think this is super exciting because it's a beginning glimpse into the start of your imagination. Up until now, you played with your toys by exploring them and you flip through books every day (both your own and mine! lol) but this is the first instance of you seeming to actually pretend something. So exciting!

You're so naturally curious, interested in nearly anything; it's amazing. Two weeks ago, we had to take you for your first routine blood work - and you didn't even cry! You watched with such curiosity as the nurse put the band on your arm and then swabbed it. I cringed then as she approached with the needle, but you just watched without a peep until you saw the blood flow and said, "Ooh, boom." (I don't know why that's what you said, but I'll take it over crying any time!) Your level of curiosity seems incredible to me. (For the record, I cried when they drew your blood. So at least one of us did.)

And yesterday I think you sang along to a song on the TV for the first time. You and I were watching The Fresh Beat Band (Mommy likes that show too much) and their song, "Get up now and go, go" was on and you kept saying, "Go go! Go go!" I can't wait until we get to sing more together. Every day I sing the alphabet to you and just this week you started babbling during some of it, so I'm wondering if you'll start trying to participate soon. We'll see!

I love you, Peanut. You amaze me every single day and make me look forward to every minute I get to spend with you.

Love,

Mommy