Nathaniel Lately

I'm amazed everyday by how much my little boy is learning. He really is like a little sponge. He remembers so much! He talks so much. He loves being outside. He loves playing with tools and "fixing" things. He loves having visitors and showing off.

My favorite thing these days is when I pick him up from daycare and he says "Hullo Mommy." It just cracks me up. He says "hi" and "hullo" to everyone and everything now.

He is super picky when it comes to food. Most of the time he will eat raisins. He likes hot dogs, sometimes he likes turkey, he apparently hates cheese now, and he will eat yogurt for every meal if I let him. He loves steak and sausage. He eats Goldfish almost daily. He loves milk, too. He requests it all day long. I think it's helped him to put on some chunk.

He's officially been weaned for almost two months, and it's so nice to have a break. It was so easy. He was only nursing before bed for a few minutes, so I just had Jesse put him to bed for a week or so and he didn't ask to nurse again.

If I ask him "where's the baby?" he'll point to my stomach and giggle. Sometimes he will say "baby sister" and it's cute when he says "Evelyn." He seems to really like babies these days, so I hope that doesn't change.

He has six Sesame Street stuffed animals now. His two favorites are Bert and Ernie, but he tries to hold all six at a time. He loves Elmo's Song, except now he likes to switch it up with other characters and just switch out the name. His favorites are Bert's Song, Big Bird's Song, Ernie's Song, and Zazoo's Song. I seriously had to sing Zazoo's Song about 15 times on the drive home from daycare the other day.

He loves to sing, too. He just belts it and sounds like he's yelling. It's hilarious. When we were in Marianna, I set him on our bed after his bath to get him dressed. Before I had the chance to put a diaper on him, he got up and started jumping on the bed. He stuck out his finger, and in a very serious voice said, "No more monkeys, bed!" This went on for a while...

He's obsessed with The Lion King. He wants to watch it everyday. He sits on the couch and says "moonie, Simma" (movie, Simba). He gets so into it. He gets very tense at all the scary parts and says "uh oh, Simma" and "Simma, run!" a lot. He also gets a bit emotional at the sad parts. It's my favorite movie, so I don't really mind.

His favorite non-Sesame Street song is Africa by Toto. Almost daily when we get him he walks in the door and asks for it. And we have to listen to it at least 3 times. I don't mind this choice, either.

He loves to play in water and to swim. I bought a kiddie pool for the 4th, and even though the water was ridiculously cold, he loved it!

He has a weird obsession with Uncle Cory. He's seen him very few times lately, but now he says his name all the time. Randomly at dinner he starts saying "pretty Cory." He saw a magazine cover with Brad Pitt on it the other day, with gray hair and a goatee, and said "Cory."

He started to get into a great routine going to bed at night, but then he got Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease and started fighting bed time. We're starting to get him back to an easier routine, but he still says "NO" when you tell him it's time for bed.

He loves bows, I swear.

Sick boy :(

Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease.

He loves cows!

Watching Bert and Ernie.

I gave him a little spoon and took away his big spoon...

He LOVES chairs.

Partners in crime.

Working on the lawn mower.

He played with these more than he plays with toys.

He didn't really care about the fireworks.

Watching The Lion King with a bowl of Wheat Chex.

Trying to hold all of them.

Watching The Lion King (again) with his crew.