Tartan Dinner, 6-6-09

This weekend was pretty low key. We had the Mason's Tartan dinner on Saturday evening where we had haggis and other traditional Scottish/Irish foods, a silent auction where we won few things, an Irish band and dancing! Here are a few pictures and video. Also see Nathan in his overalls (before 2nd haircut)and climbing the stairs. When he wants to he can scamper up them in a minute!

New addition to our household.

This is "Napoleon".



If you have been to our home you know that the foyer has 20 foot ceilings as you walk in - and this cut out on the second story of it. When we bought the house we both agreed that we needed a suit of armor up there (Jason & Chris wanted a full sized Gene Simmons but that was a no!). So after a few years of struggling with trying to fill that space Jim and Wanda found a suit of armor that was my birthday gift. Isn't he awesome?! The tree behind him has lights in it so we can light it up at night. Need another potted plant for the empty vase and a tapestry to hang behind him- but had to share these photos immediately - so use your imagination!
Love him! He stands guard over our entrance ways!

Nathan moved up to the 1 year old room!

Today Nathan started in the 1 year old room. As far as I could tell when I dropped him off he loved it! :)







I put him down this morning and he was off! There were 2 balloons in the room and he grabbed one of them. He had all the other kids sitting around him looking at the balloon. No crying and holding on to Mommy this morning. He was off exploring his new surroundings.
In the new room he will have two out door recesses, art time, naps on mats, and 3 meals at a table. (The last two I want to see!) They provide the food and when I've gone through my frozen breast milk stash they will provide the whole milk too.
For those of you following our health - last Thursday Nathan was checked out and his ears and throat looked great. The shots cleared him up so much that they almost did not give him the final antibiotic shot. Jason was diagnosed with an ear infection last week. Hoping that June will be a healthier month for us.
Last week we had our last home group "study" and this week we will be having a cook out. We have hosted this in our home for one month shy of two years. Our leader has been offered a job in Texas and will be moving, so our group will be dis-banning. We plan to take the summer off and relax before looking for a new group. We are so grateful for the friends we have met in our group and plan to stay in touch with them and continue our friendships with them. The Lord certainly blessed us with these friends.

PS - this white shirt came home pink after his first day. Unsure if it was "jelly" or "Jello". First time he wore this new birthday outfit to school!

Day two was rainy - and he wore his rain jacket for the first time. Little big, but it worked!

Growing - Walking - Shots - Swimsuits!

Nathan starts in the 1-year old room on Monday. His tuition will go down a whopping $5 a week and they will provide food and milk (if we choose). He will only take 1 nap a day and gets to go outside for recess. They started the 1 nap thing this week and recess for the last couple of weeks. He loves recess, but is pretty tired in the evenings. He has gone to be at 7:30pm two nights instead of 8pm. They had to be eating solid foods, walking and using a sippy cup to move up. He will also get to play in the pool on Fridays.

Speaking of walking.......Nathan is a walking machine! We hear thump, thump, thump, thump all over the house. He also likes to get into the cabinet of my china cabinet and climb the stairs. He doesn't want you to take him up - he lunges at the stairs (while you are trying to carry him and 15 other things up the stairs) so he can go up them himself. We have a gate at the bottom, so he climbs the first 3 steps and shakes the gate. He also shakes the gate from the top and yells down. We can't believe how much he is growing and learning. He is non-stop. If he's not sleeping - he's going full speed. He's quite exhausting.

Tuesday he went for a 3-week follow up for his ear infection. Guess what? He had an ear infection in both ears and his throat was full of puss pockets. He had no fever, was sleeping through the night, eating okay......no sign that he was sick! I asked his doctor how the heck were we suppose to know when he was sick?! She said that he is such a good natured kid that we were just going to have to look for little signs! So since she could not verify that his ear infection cleared up she said we could go one more round of antibiotic and if they didn't clear up the infection he would have to get tubes! This is because we did two partial rounds of two other antibiotics - remember Mother's Day weekend we were at Children's Hospital with 104 temp - they changed his antibiotics mid way through! Well we were floored since this is really his only bout with ear infections! We opted for the three days of antibiotic shots and by the third day he looked so good they were hesitant to give him the final shot. So he is back to being health! We suspect that we just got him sick again before that 3 weeks were up.

During that three weeks.....I had an ear infection and then strep throat. Jason was sick for 20 days straight before he went to the doctor last week. Still have not heard from his throat culture and he is still not well. He's going back today for a follow up. So we are working on getting everyone well at one time! May has been a rough month for us - we are looking forward to June!

Speaking of the summer months....AKA "Bathing Suit Season" - AKA self-inflicted torture!
I have been bathing suit "shopping". What this means is that I ordered a lot (13 to be exact) of separates online, in different styles and sizes, and will put them all together to hopefully get a suit for Myrtle Beach. Can I just say that post-pregnancy bodies are great (said dripping with sarcasm). You would think that things would just snap back to where they were, but alas, we have the battle scars of birth upon our skin now. Thankfully our little ones are completely worth it and I would not trade my "scars" for anything. So cut me some slack and don't look too closely this summer! :)

Oh - last weekend was JWU's graduation - so I worked Friday night and Saturday. We chilled out the rest of the weekend - not doing anything exciting. Hope everyone had a nice Memorial Day - and thank you to all of you who have/do serve our country!

Mother's Day Mahem!

Our Mother's Day weekend started Friday afternoon with Nathan having a fever. He did not sleep well and the next day was a little fussy and did not want to nap in his crib. We kept him on Tylenol and thought we were going to church Saturday night....instead we spent 2 hours at the Children's Hospital. His fever reached 104 and our on-call nurse said we needed to be seen. He had been on Amoxcillin for an ear infection since Monday and they wanted to make sure it had not gotten worse. Thankfully his ear looked great - but the doctor changed his medication to Augmentin and now we have to start over! Sunday he woke without a fever and in a great mood!

So my Mother's Day started with lots of hugs and kisses and giggles. Jason made chocolate chip waffles for us and later grilled out steaks. Nathan gave me a card that plays the Peanut's theme which he and I both dance to along with a kit to make a stepping stone using his hand and foot prints and a kit to do his hand/foot print. Well we did the smaller of these and he ended up putting plaster of Paris in his mouth - so I ended up calling poison control! I was the second mom in 20 minutes to call for the same thing! The nurse/operator said she's worked this job for 12 years and gets this call every Mother's Day! So we ended up making a mold of his foot! :)

We also chatted with our mother's on the web cam so they could feel like they had a little time with Nathan on their Mother's Day too!

Last week Nathan cried when I dropped him off at daycare - and again today. He was wrapped around my neck and didn't want to let go, even to be held by one of the daycare workers. He's getting to the age that he really wants Mommy. I have also been told that Mondays are hard - after being together all weekend. It breaks my heart and I lurk outside of the room until to make sure he's stopped crying and is okay. Dropping off really sucks!

Nathan's 12 month statistics

20.1 pounds - 15th percentile
30.25 inches - 50-75th percentile
45.75 cm (head) - 30th percentile

So he is tall and thin - the doctor wants us to put some weight on him so we are changing up his diet a bit. He also needs more iron in his diet - so here comes the meat!

We also got the go-ahead to give him cow's milk so he's having his first cup of it today! So the weaning process begins.

He has also had a bottom tooth finally break through the gums.....barely, but it's there! It will probably be mostly out by mid-week.

He did have an ear infection......:( So we are currently treating it.

Overall good check-up though.

Nathan's 1st Birthday!

Nathan had a packed birthday! We started with photos - family, kilt and cake! Then we had a party that afternoon. We'll let the photos tell the story!






Those who attended his party: Grandmama, Poppa Jim, Michael, Stacy & Ethan, Michael & Rebecca, Chris & Susan.