::19 months::

I can't believe how much Nathan has grown the past few months. He's talking ALL the time now saying tons of words his favorites are, "Buh Bye, doggy, and kitty" He gets excited everytime he sees a dog, "DOGGY WOOF WOOF!" He's always telling the women at the grocery stores buh bye and blows kisses. He's still in love with Elmo. Absolutely captivated by Elmo. It's the only thing that keeps him sane when he's crabby or not feeling well. He's running all over the house and just recently learned how to stomp his feet. He loves being outside however, it's getting cold really fast this year and he's prone to ear infections so I have been keeping him inside lately. It's kinda sad though because he just stands at the window looking at the older kids in the neighborhood playing football and tries to talk to them through the window. Nathan needs a friend or someone to play with. So talks of having another child has came into play but, we want to wait a little bit since I'm in school for cosmetology now and who knows if I can even have another. It's sad and wonderful that Nathan is getting older. It's great because he's becoming a little more self sufficient, and he's fun, doing cute things all the time. But, I miss my baby. Being able to cuddle him whenever just lay with him and be able to enjoy those moments. I'm lucky if Nathan will sit still for even 5 minutes. Don't get me wrong I love my little boy with everything I have I just miss those moments with him. I don't feel like I get them anymore. With my schooling being 35 hours a week he's gone to his grandparents all the time. I just wish I had more time with him that was mommy and Nathan time. I get a hour and a half with him if that. I keep telling myself I'm doing this FOR him! I make myself go to class and I push myself to do this because i want the best life for my family possible. Me being able to finish school and work part time will give us a cushion financially so I can do nice things for my family we can go on vacations and all those things. It just sucks until it's finished is all. AND NOW FOR THE FUN PART.. PICTURES Nathan and Zoey in the 1st picture and Nathan playing with the football in the next! :)

OFF TOPIC OF NATHAN: The day I lost my baby 3 years ago is coming up in 10 days. Last year and the year before I was ok with it because I was pregnant, and because I had Nathan and was busy with buying a house and everything. This year is different. For some reason I feel like I could get pregnant and find out on that day and it'd be that same little angel God is sending back into my life. I Know it sounds crazy but, I think it's wishful thinking. I so badly wish I knew how that little angel would have affected our lives at the same time I wonder if we would have had Nathan. and Nathan is my world, everything I do is for my son so if that's the case I couldn't even deal with it. I guess I'm just hating that I've had to go through this pain, I still remember it like it was yesterday. I can remember what the doctor told me, I can remember the ultrasound, how I prayed to God in the bathroom after the ultrasound crying that it wasn't real that it was a mistake. I pleaded with God to give me my baby back. The hell I had to face afterwards and I'll never forget the moment Joel broke down for as long as I live. I know everything happens for a reason I just wish these bad memories and pain would die off for good. I hate the feeling coming back every year and reliving the hurt.

would love for time to slow down now..

Nathan is getting so big so fast!! I can't believe he's already almost 16 months. He's walking and talking all the time now. If I ask him what noises a dog makes he says, "woof" He's trying to feed himself with his utensils and it's not going as well because, he's getting frustrated easily. Nathan is so independent now it's unbelievable. I see myself in him now with that feature at least. He's starting to get into watching cartoons now too. He loves dancing to seasame street and yo gabba gabba. Anytime he hears music whether it's with his toys or on tv he head bangs and bounces around dancing. I'm loving these moments with him. He's getting so big!! We've got over our fear of baths again. He has these roller coaster moments where sometimes he screams like no other and then sometimes he's perfectly fine. We've also been swimming a few times this year. I went out and bought him this kiddie pool that's big enough that I can wade in the pool with him. He loves being outside and it's so hard to keep him inside on rainy or really hot days. He'll run up to the door point to it and say, "derr" then try to reach the handle. He's also really smart when it comes to meal times. I'll say, "Ok Nathan lunch time go get in your chair," At almost 16 months he'll run out to the kitchen and wait for me to bring in his highchair. I just love that he's a little less dependent on me... in a way. I'm excited to graduate college in 2014 so I can finally focus more time on my family. Well I'm hoping time would slow down so I can enjoy my moments with him now. Freeze time so that I have my little man forever. If time keeps flying like it does the next thing I know he'll be starting kindergarten or graduating highschool or lord forbid.. getting married........ argh!

TOO LONG!!

I can't believe I haven't posted since January. SOO MUCH has happened with Nathan!! He had his 1st ear infection, started taking a few steps, had his 1st birthday, 1st trip to the zoo, started blowing kisses, giving high fives, and "pounding it". We've updated his nursery to a big kid room (without the toddler bed of course) and he's started a not so great phase of kicking, hitting, and pinching.

Lets start with his birthday. His party was very stressful, he actually had his 1st ear infection the day of his party. He wasn't running a fever the day of so I decided to just let the party carry on but, he was up all night the night before with a fever and very fussy. He did great at his party for not feeling well though. He got A LOT of presents and there were so many people here our street was lined with cars. Next year, we're renting a place out or having 2 separate parties for sure! We decided to theme his party around his 1st year of life. So I just made a timeline banner of all his pictures, and decorated in blues and greens with stars everywhere since he was our little star for the day. I made his cake to save money and really didn't want to put a lot of effort into his party since he wont remember it anyways. We ate sloppy joes, chips, pasta salad, and veggies. I bought BLUE Hawaiian punch that was a hit and we called it done. Nathan got a lot of presents including clothes, a ride on train, a rock, roll, and ride tricycle from mommy & daddy, and tons more. He also made money that we put in an account for him so when he's older and wants to go to college or something we can use that money for that. So here's a few pictures from his party.







So we had his party a little early due to scheduling conflicts so on his actual birthday we had something separate. We spent the day together just the 3 of us and we were planning on going to the zoo but, it was suppose to rain that day. So we decided to take Nathan out to lunch to get his first kids meal and go to the family museum. We went to Applebees and he started acting up so we just went to the museum. He had a blast there. His favorite part was the instrument room where he could play the different xylophones and the kids area where he got to crawl around and slide down the slide. I loved seeing him excited and playing outside of our house. After the museum we went to Grandpa John's and Grandma's Sweeties to have a dinner with everyone. All his uncles showed up and she made a big Italian dinner with cheesecake for dessert. It was all really good. After that he came home and went to bed. Nothing too exciting on his birthday but, at least we did SOMETHING for his 1st birthday.. Now pictures from his adventures this day lol




So this was his 1st birthday. I can't believe it's been a year already!!! I still remember the day he was born and holding him for the 1st time and him being sent to the NICU and visiting him down there. I could never trade my 1st year experience as a parent, I don't think we did too bad. We had a lot of help from family and I think that made this 1st year easier than most people's first year experiences.

Since Nathan's 1st birthday he's standing up on his own, taking a few steps. He usually takes 2 or 3 then drops to the floor and crawls as fast as he can. He is climbing up and down stairs although going up is easier than coming down for him. He's started eating solid foods and it has made my life soo much easier! Whatever I make for us, I just feed to him. It's a good thing though because, I'm a lot more conscious about what I feed my family now. I think his favorite meal so far is spaghetti. He definitely loves Italian food! :) He's starting to like drawing and making pictures. Although he doesn't understand what he's doing I'll hand him his magic marker (Crayola's magic markers that dont make a mess!!! ) and he just draws and hits the paper to make a bunch of dots and scribbles away. It's so funny watching him because, it's almost like he's in deep concentration while doing this. We've also recently got his 1st and 2nd haircut. The 1st time his Mimi (Margo) did it to get it out of his eyes. He did fairly good with it and that made it pretty easy. One morning he got oatmeal cemented to his hair and I decided it was time to go shorter in the back. so I took him to Great clips where Joel gets his hair done and they trimmed him shorter. He looks like a little man now even though the cut isn't the best. It wasn't the hairdressers fault though Nathan put up a fight lol. I'm thinking he may grow his hair out for awhile haha. Here's pictures from his 1st haircut with Mimi





Well I hear the little man stirring from his nap. He sleeps 12 hours straight through the night now, and then a 2-3 hours throughout the day usually it's with 1 nap but, occasionally he'll split it between morning and afternoon. But I'll have to post more later!! :)

Holiday Update

So the holidays have come and gone. It's hard to believe how fast this year has flown. Christmas Eve was very busy, my grandma ended up in the hospital so we had to rearrange a few things for our evening schedule. We started the morning off opening presents as a family then. We decided to do it Christmas Eve so he wasn't overwhelmed Christmas Day. Nathan got a lot of cool toys that Santa knew he'd love including: books, Laugh n Learn puppy, Trucks, A Fisher Price Laptop, piggy bank, toy box, lots and lots of clothes, Lion King DVD, and a few other odds n ends. We ended up going out to Leclaire to celebrate Christmas with Margo's family. Nathan met his cousin Andy and his 3 children Khloe, Kendall, and Caden. He was crawling through the box tunnel and had a great time. He then fell asleep on his "mimi" and that was that. We ended up coming back to my house to celebrate Christmas Eve with my dad's side of the family which ended up being just my Aunt Mimi, Uncle John, their kids and my brother. It was no where near what I had in mind but, since my grandma was in the hospital the plans got spoiled. Christmas Day was full of excitement. We went to my mom's house first, then to Joel's Grandma Marys, then to Joel's dad's house. It was a very hectic and busy day. Nathan was getting fussy because he was over tired but wouldn't sleep due to the excitement and everyone wanting to OOH and AHH over him. He was especially fussy at my mom's first thing in the morning because all the wrapping paper noise freaked him out.

New Years Eve was interesting. Nathan and I both caught a really bad cold and were sick. We spent the night cuddling in the chair sleeping on and off coughing, sneezing, and being miserable. Out of this though I noticed today Nathan is cutting the top 2 front teeth. I'm really sad I'll be missing his gummy smile however, I know this is going to add more food items on to his menu.

I just realized last night that it's getting time to start planning out Nathan's birthday party. Next month we'll have to send out the invites!! I can't believe it's been a year already!! It's absolutely insane! Nathan is growing so fast and is learning new things everyday. Today it sounded like he said, "Up" as he was pulling at my pant legs. He is so smart and very focused on things he wants. He also minds his mommy which is good because he likes to try and eat his Grandma Sweetie's plants lol. Overall this past year has been the best year of my life, even though there has been ups and downs. I realize now more than ever that I absolutely love being a mom (besides the teething.. that part sucks!)

Joel has started night shift back up and it's back to just Nathan and I most of the time. While I'm on break from school i'm going to try and work on some house projects before it's time to focus on a full schedule. I've decided to redo Nathan's room in a sports theme when the time comes to transition from his crib to the toddler bed! I have a feeling this will be sometime this summer due to the fact Nathan is extremely tall and is already trying to climb out of the crib, but is no where near successful yet.

OH at Nathan's 9 month checkup he's 19.6lbs and 27 3/4 inches long. Dr. Walzyck said he's extremely ahead developmentally and can tell he's a very healthy child. He also said how impressed he was at Nathan's strength and the fact he understands a few words already. I was very pleased and am so proud of my boy!!

Now for the fun part... PICTURES!!!