My How He's Grown

From the first moment we laid eyes on him, Nathan changed our lives in more ways than we thought possible. He has already, in his six short years, taught me more about myself than I managed to learn all those years before him. He was long awaited and well worth the wait. We've spoiled him at times, been too rough on him, expected too much and tolerated more than we should, but he IS our first and thus has been somewhat of an experiment. All those things you tell yourself about how you will be as a parent BEFORE you are a parent come back to haunt you in ways you never thought possible. I've laughed more and cried more for and because of this little person than I ever thought possible. I've made lots of mistakes and am certain there will be more. Because of that, I am grateful that children are so resilient and so very forgiving. It's been six years since the day he came into our lives. It's going by all too quickly.

Nathan is a unique character. He is wise beyond his years in many ways, and more silly than I've ever seen. He's compassionate and worries about other people's feelings. He's trying to be a good big brother. He struggles sometimes, but his eyes light up when he sees his little brother. He's wild and has lots of energy. He's bright and likes to do things perfect on the very first try. He's up for anything and has a real adventuresome spirit. He will try anything once. He has a vivid imagination, and always has us in stitches with the things he says. To that end, I am going to post some of the funny and most often embarrassing things he has said lately.

One day after asking him the same question three or four times with no response, he finally looked at me and said "Mom, is your mouth broke or something because I think it's stuck in rewind."

He's also very fond of saying to me, when he thinks I've interuppted him, "Well, as I was saying..."

He barged in on me in the bathroom the other day just as I was pulling back the shower curtain and said "I feel like I should cover my eyes or something. Your chest looks really 'funKAAAY.'" (funky)

He has this ongoing dialogue about his bathroom business and why it takes so long. Somehow he has related moving his bowels to people at the carnival. Sometimes the lines are long. One time he said "Attention passengers! Keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times." On another occasion, when it was taking him a particularly long time and I was pretty sure he was stalling because he didn't want to go to bed, he explained to me "Mom sometimes there are old people in the front of the line at the carnival and you know old people are slow".

On a more serious note he frequently has bad dreams and prays every night that he will not have them. A few days ago he told me that he had a dream that Heavenly Father came for a visit and gave Nathan a big hug before He left. Nathan said that he was pretty sure he had that dream because Heavenly Father was trying to keep the bad dreams away. I love his innocence and faith.

So, Happy Birthday, Nathan. I love you.

Thanksgiving

We had a quiet Thanksgiving at our house this year. Dave had to work the night before and after so we stayed here and enjoyed this holiday alone. I made enough food for a small to medium sized army and we did a few things to try to make it more memorable for our family. It was a nice relaxing day and I am thankful for all that I have and especially for the three boys I shared a table with that day.

End Of Summer

We marked the end of summer with a trip to Orlando. We drove down as a pre-birthday trip for Nathan. We took his cousin Oliver along because in Nathan's world Oliver makes everything better. Sam stayed with Grandma & Grandpa while we spent a few days at Islands of Adventure & Universal Studios. We had a great time and it was a trip we won't soon forget. To sum it up, here were each of our favorite things about the trip.

Nathan - having his cousin Oliver along

Sam - having Grandma let him drink out of a big boy cup. She is SO patient

Dave - being able to show the kids such a great time

Me - my first (and hopefully not last) full body massage. ahhhh

Kindergarten Fishes & Kisses

Just thought I would add an update on Nathan's progress in kindergarten. Since my last post about it we hit an all time low with two trips to the Principal's office in two weeks! One trip to the Principal's office was because he hit another child in the lunch room. Upon further examination I discovered that what started the conflict was that he tried to kiss this little girl. She didn't like it so she hit him and he hit her back. When I talked to him about it he said very matter of fact that he just wanted to kiss her and "actually mom there is another girl in my class that I want to kiss." We worked with him a lot and had lots of talks about keeping our hands and lips to ourselves. Dave blames the kissing on me. I'm a kisser. I kiss on my boys lots. Nathan kisses everyone. His teachers, his friends and it often gets him in trouble or puts him in awkward positions to say the least. His teacher has also been really great and he respects her tremendously which is a lot for Nathan. Since then he has only had his fish moved down a few times. He made it four out of five days last week. He has even learned to "turn the other cheek" so to speak if someone is bothering him. In his latest episode he took the "turn the other cheek" thing very literally when a little girl in his class kissed him several times. (5 times to be exact according to Nathan) He said he just told on her because kissing is a "no, no NEVER".

So... for now our fish woes are on the back burner, never far from my thoughts, but not keeping me up at night either. Through all of this he has taught me about faith. He reminds me each morning that we need to pray that he can be good at school. He says that if he listens Heavenly Father tells him not to do things sometimes. We have forgotten a few times and one of those times he had a not so great day. He immediately told me that it was because we didn't have prayer. What can I say to that? Out of the mouths of babes....

Sweet Sam

I feel terrible because I don't have more to say about Sam. Sam is just sweet. Every day with him is easy. He thinks he's at least 4. He wants to do everything he sees his big brother doing. He doesn't know he's tiny. He has the best laugh. No matter what kind of mood I am in if that baby laughs I instantly feel better. He has such a sweet disposition. The ladies at the gym would steal him from me if they thought they could get away with it. He is truly a joy. He just doesn't do much that is newsworthy right now. I guess none of this is really newsworthy, but some things are just more interesting than others.

"I don't think I should call you mom"

Last night I took Nathan out on a "date". It really wasn't much of a date. I really needed him to go to the mall with me so we could get new church pants for him and he desperately needed to change his clothes before we went out, so I called it a "date". As we were driving to the mall and talking he interrupted me and said "you know, if you are going to be my date I don't think I should call you mom, I think I should call you beautiful." Awww...I know. Sweet, huh? Later though as I dragged him in and out of stores he let go of my hand and yelled at me saying "you are the worst date in the world. Dad is more fun to go on a date with!"

Just for the record, one Cinnabon later he was back to holding my hand and calling me beautiful! Men are so fickle, aren't they?

Three Goods

So Nathan took a break from eating his most favorite meal of noodles with butter and salt to find me and tell me something very important.
"Mom, I have three goods inside me. One...I'm so exciting to go to gymnastics. Two...I got to get a toy from the treasure chest and Three...You gave me a big hug because you were so proud of me".
At least I made the list, right? Some things just make it all worth it, don't they?

Nathan says something totally hilarious every day. I have not been that great at writing these things down. I know this will eventually be one of my biggest regrets in life. This morning as he walked behind me, he took a big sniff (why he would do that I don't know) and then said "mom, your bootie smells like bacon." Where this stuff comes from I do not know and I am quite possibly unknowingly revealing something really embarrassing about myself by telling this little story. But honestly I do not know what could be so bad about smelling like pork!

Sam "Boogie" is walking!

I can't believe it's happening already, but our little guy is walking. I think Nathan captured it best when he took some of his first steps and Nathan said "I must be dreaming...is my little brother really walking". Sam is so proud of himself. He thinks he's such a big boy. He doesn't realize that because he is my last baby he must remain as such for as long as possible!

Kingergarten Woes

So my little guy started kindergarten this year. I can hardly believe it. It was a sad day for mom and has continued to be a struggle. My happiness revolves around the position of Nathan's fish in the sea and whether or not he gets a "sad bear" in his backpack. "Sad bear" is not so "sad" as he is "mad" bear. I guess sad just sounds nicer. I took him off sugar, atleast in the morning and in his lunch box, checked out a slew of books about discipline and child rearing, spent a lot of time on my knees and in the bathroom literally sick. He started saying things like "I wish it could just be like it used to be when I could just stay home and snuggle you."

Well, I had my first parent-teacher conference this week. I was fully prepared to be told that my child was the worst case she had ever seen and that he was a lost cause. Instead she was very positive! She said that Nathan was improving daily. She could tell that we had been working with him a lot at home and that he was very motivated to do well which is a good sign. When I told her of all the things I had done already to recitfy the situation she looked a little shocked. First time parent stuff maybe, but I think I way overreacted. She said she was most pleased with Nathan's honesty. Anyone who knows him knows this is his trademark. According to his teacher when he got in trouble last week for throwing carrots in the lunchroom and she called him over to talk to him about it he said "well you know, it's actually not the first time I've done that." Can't fault the guy for being honest I guess.

So, for now, we are optimistic about his kindergarten future. How many more years of this do we have to go through? If I wasn't absolutley positive that I would do the most terrible job ever I would home school him. Although I don't think a vast knowledge of blogging and facebook would help him out much!