Nate's big boy train room!

Finally, I have pictures! Here's the awesome mural that covers pretty much the entire wall.

New toddler bedding (the blanket says "Thomas the Tank Engine" and has a small Thomas at the bottom. And new bookshelf.

Okay, my mom MADE these curtains out of a twin size duvet cover. I'm impressed. And there's his new chest of drawers.

It's hard to get the whole room in one shot, but here's an attempt.

Of course, Nate is THRILLED with his room. Even after two weeks, he still sometimes enters his room and says, "Wow." :) He talks about the mural, talks about his curtains, loves his new blanket ... he's in Thomas heaven. Thanks to my parents for doing all the work! And Grandbob for putting the bed together. He really, really appreciates it.

Nate has loved this week's beautiful weather. He asks to go out on the deck several times a day, just to crawl around and look at the birds and trees. One day this week, he kept asking to get ON TOP of the patio table. No! No, no, no, no, no. All day long, I was saying no, and he was so insistent to get on top of the table. We ate dinner out there, and he was sitting in one of the chairs, still insisting to get up on the table. Finally, I said, "Fine, if you can get up there by yourself, go right ahead," knowing he couldn't climb up there without help. Um, wrong! He can certainly get up on the table by himself! Climbed right up. I was pretty proud of him that he could do it, but equally annoyed. :) Then he came inside and climbed up on the couch by himself. Yay!

Today Nate woke up from his nap, and I heard him over the monitor talking. But I was laying on a heating pad because my back was hurting, so I didn't immediately go get him. After a few minutes, I heard him say, "Open da door, Mama! Hurry, hurry! Open da door! Maaaammaaa! Hurry!" It cracked me up. I went to his room and flew open the door, and he just said, "Hi." So silly.

We have such a busy week this week. Between me and Nate, we have 2 appointments every day this week! We certainly don't get bored around here.

Fun day

This morning I had yet another doctor appointment, so I took Nate to his Aunt Sunny's house. Nate just loves Aunt Sunny. :) When I got back, she said they had gone for a long walk, Nate threw crayons around the room, and he had eaten some lunch. I was putting Nate in the car, and he said, "Fun day, mama." Awww.

After his nap and a snack, we went to aquatherapy. Nate did awesome today with kicking his legs. Today was the best kicking I've seen from him in the pool! By the time we were finished, he was worn out. He kicks and splashes and moves around every second he's in the pool, and after an hour, he's always exhausted.

We came home and made dinner, and for dessert, he got some leftover cake fromt he shower. Oh, how Nate loves cake. He had some of Blake's, then some of mine, until I told him he'd had quite enough.

Well, it's not even 6:30 yet, but Nate asked to go to bed. :) He's so tired. I asked him what his favorite part of the day was--expecting him to say playing with Aunt Sunny or swimming--but without even hesitating a second, he said, "CAKE!" Then I asked him what he wanted to dream about. He sometimes says swimming or riding the horsie, or my favorite answer, Jesus. Tonight he said he wanted to dream about Daddy. He's just too cute.

Baby shower weekend (pictures)

Friday Nate had hippotherapy, and they took him riding outside for the first time. It was pretty neat. This is Nate's pony, Mickey.


We left from hippotherapy and went straight to my parents' house, where my aunt Pam and cousin Nicole were visiting, as well as little cousins Cade and Quinton. Nate was grumpy when we got there because he'd been sleeping on the way, but as soon as he saw Quinton, he cheered right up! Usually, Nate likes playing with adults, but he avoids playing with other kids. That changed when Quinton started doing little flips on the floor. Nate thought he was the coolest and didn't want to leave his side the whole weekend.



Saturday they had a little babyshower for me! It was so nice. Here's the awesome food and cake!

I got lots of cute little girl clothes, blankies, and money!

One of my mom's gifts to me was a big basket of my own baby clothes! I love it! (Sorry the pic is sideways.)

I can't remember funny sayings from Nate this weekend, but I'm still laughing about something Quinton said. I was changing Nate's diaper, and I asked Quinton if he wore diapers. He said, "No, I wear boxing pants!" Otherwise known as boxer shorts.

Today I was so tired and wanted to sit in my chair and be lazy, but Nate kept me on schedule. He said, "Mama, go upstairs and shower!" That's always fun for him cause he likes playing in my room while I shower. After that, he said, "Brush you." Thanks for the reminder to brush you! He then reminded me to brush his teeth and do his listening therapy. :) No being lazy for me this morning.

He went to his playgroup and was thrilled that Miss Leslie let them play in a sand table. She said she took him to change his diaper, and he said, "Go play!" She asked what he wanted to play with, and he said, "That stuff!" When I got there, he said, "Mama! Look at this stuff!" He loves sand. I had to bribe him with letting him watch his Thomas movie on the way home to get him out of there.

Nate's newest word is "awesome!" Not quite sure when he picked that up, but a few days ago Blake asked him if he wanted some chicken nuggets, and Nate said, "Awesome!!"

His other frequent saying these days is "I like it!" Sounds more like "I wike it!" This morning I was brushing his teeth with his Thomas the Train toothbrush, and he said, "I wike Thomas da toofbrush! I wike it, I wike it! I wike it, mama!" He would have kept going if I didn't finally say, Okay, you like it!

Yesterday we went to Aquatherapy, and Nate worked so hard! He had a good time too. After he got out of the pool, he was whining while looking at his hand. I saw his fingers were all shriveled up from being in the water so long. I told him his fingers looked like raisins. He said, "I have raisins on my fingers!" He whined and whined until they finally went back to normal. He wanted me to fix them and didn't understand why there was nothing I could do!

This is TMI, but it's a funny story. Nate is constipated, and he hasn't had a BM in 4 days. I called the pediatrician's office this morning, and she gave me some suggestions about a different way to give him the miralax and told me to give him a warm bath with baking soda ... and a suppository. Ugh, that didn't sound like fun. It was a first for both of us. I told him what I was going to do but he wasn't really paying attention until I did it. He fussed at me, and I repeated that I just had to put medicine in his bottom to help him go poopy. He said very sternly, "Medicine go in da mouf!" Ha!!!

Easter weekend

We had a great Easter weekend here! Granna and Pop came to fix up Nate's room, and I can't wait until I get the bedding in the mail and it's all done so I can post pics. It looks amazing--you won't believe it. :) Nate is thrilled.

Yesterday we gave Nate his Easter basket, and he loved all the Thomas stuff and especially the candy! This morning we all went to church. Here are Nate and me in our Easter duds.

I am extremely proud of my Easter dinner! It was pretty and tasted great too!

Time for Granna and Pop to say bye ... and a Granna sandwich.

Georgia update

I got to see baby girl yesterday at my follow up ultrasound. I'm 21 weeks along now (wow, this pregnancy is going so fast!), and she is growing right on target. She weighs 14 oz now--awww. She hadn't grown any boy parts in the last month, so we can now start decorating the nursery. :) They wanted to get a better look at her spine and heart, and both looked perfect! The tech was having a hard time seeing the heart with the way she was laying, so she went to get the doctor, and when they came back in, the tech said, "Oh, she flipped!" I said, "Yeah, I poked her." :) I saw her laying on her back, with her knees up to her chest, and she was just kicking me like a little kangaroo! She had her hands up in front of her face like she was playing peekaboo, so we didn't get any good face shots. She did look less alien-like than a month ago.

It's been such a busy week with doctor appointments and working on my project and getting ready for Easter. This morning Nate and I went shopping for Easter dinner (Nate is VERY excited about this). I was just walking along, and I started to feel kind of light headed. Then things started going black! I could barely see anything, but I knew I needed to sit down before I hit the floor. So I found some chairs (hard to find when you can barely see!) and sat down. A nice manager came by and asked if I was okay, and she got me some water. That's when I realized I had forgotten to eat breakfast this morning! Duh! My mind is so scattered. I won't make that mistake anymore. After a few minutes, I felt good as new and we finished our shopping.

Nate says his ear feels better, but the strong antibiotic is causing some stomach issues. It's not pretty. He feels good though and only had to miss aquatherapy this week. We've been doing the Listening Therapy all week. So far no more walking, but we'll be patient. He has hippotherapy this afternoon, then tomorrow Granna and Pop are coming for an Easter visit. We'll be working on Nate's room and will go egg hunting (Nate's first time!). Then on Sunday we'll go to church and have a big dinner.

Happy Easter, everyone!

2 doctor appointments today

This morning I had my 20 week doctor appointment. Nate went with me, and when we got in the truck I realized that Blake had the walker in the car. That's not good. That meant I had to take him in the stroller (he's so not into that any more) or depend on a combination of walking with him holding my hand and carrying him. So I called Blake, and he offered to bring the walker to us, which meant he got to be there for the appointment, so that was nice.

To my surprise (as I look at my belly), I am actually down a pound from my pre-pregnancy weight. No one is concerned about that, but I am just perplexed because I never, ever have any problem putting on weight except when I'm pregnant! :) I only gained 7 pounds with Nate, but then again he was so early. Hopefully I won't be a house when I deliver this one.

We got to hear the heartbeat again--that's always fun. There's some discussion about whether I should be doing progesterone shots to prevent pre-term delivery. The maternal fetal specialist I saw last month said it wouldn't help my exact situation (my water broke early last time, but it had nothing to do with premature labor), but my OB and her colleague I saw today both think I should. It's kind of a pain because I'll need to get a shot a week for the next several weeks, and our insurance does not cover it. But I think it's one of those things that won't do any harm (besides some hassle and money) and it has some possibility of helping.

Anyway, I'll have another ultrasound with the maternal fetal medicine doc on Thursday to make sure Georgia is still a girl and get a better look at the spine and heart, then I should be done with them and just see my own doctor.

Then Nate had a doctor appointment this afternoon. It started last night. He went to bed just fine, but around the time we went to bed, Nate started waking up every few minutes whimpering and crying. We took turns going in to rock him a little, situate him, calm him down, etc. But after about the second or third time, we knew he didn't feel good. Then began the process of trying to figure out what was wrong. First we thought he had a stuffy nose, so I cleaned out his nose. Didn't help. Then we thought his belly might hurt cause he's a little constipated. So I kept asking him what hurt, and he answered yes to everything. Does your belly hurt? "Yes, belly hurts." Does your nose hurt? "Yes, nose hurts." Does your elbow hurt? "Oh yes." Ugh, that wasn't working. During one of Blake's trips to his room, he said Nate was pulling at an ear. That's very unlike Nate--if he has an ear infection, he makes sure he has no symptoms and doesn't let on. :) So on my next trip, I asked him to point at what was hurting, and he made a vague gesture at one of his ears. I gave him some motrin, and we all got almost 6 hours of sleep.

So today the doctor confirmed that while one of his ears is completely healthy, the other has a pretty bad ear infection. She said she grades ear infections one to three, and his is a three. Poor guy. He also had a low grade fever. So he got an antibiotic, and we'll give him motrin for the pain. He's been acting fine today and was on pretty impressive behavior at the doctor's office.

So that's been our day. I'll leave you with a cute thing Nate said a couple days ago. We were outside sitting on the porch, and Nate was enjoying playing with some sticks. The wind started blowing some big gusts, and Nate just loves the wind. Then it stopped. And Nate yells to the sky, "DO IT AGAIN!"

New Nate sayings

Somewhere he's picked up calling people "guys." I'm not sure where he got this, but I suspect his playgroup teacher. Anyway, it's cute, but I need to teach him "yall" instead. My favorite usage is: "Yogurt is yummy in the tummy, guys!"

As of a couple weeks ago, Nate was saying a very proper "yes" in response to questions or just after everything he said. "I like chicken nuggets! Yes." This week that turned into "Mm Hmm." Said with attitude. "Dora is my favorite! Mm Hmm." Yesterday he started saying "Uh huh" instead. He's getting less and less proper by the day.

This morning he was kneeling at the table, and he clasped his hands together and held them up and said, "This is Jesus!" I think he meant that's how he prays to Jesus, but it was super sweet.

Georgia is turning into quite the little ninja these days. I have another ultrasound on Thursday to make sure she didn't grow boy parts in the last month. I've gotten a lot more energy (most days) and have started reorganizing the house. :)

Well, it's Nate's bedtime. Have a good weekend!

Some new pics

Here's Blake's celebratory dinner after Nate took steps last Friday. Nate likes "snake" as much as we do.

Rocks a la "rocks and socks."

At the zoo yesterday. Before it started raining.

Cutie with spaghetti on his face.

Let's see if I can remember all the cute and fun things from the last couple days. Well, a couple of nights ago, Nate woke up crying. I went in his room and realized he was cold. The little baby blanket he's been sleeping with isn't cutting it anymore. So I got him a bigger blanket and put it over him, situated him, and gave him his paci. As I was leaving, he whimpered, "Tank you." Awww!

I bought Nate a book about Easter a couple weeks ago and have been reading it to him to teach him about the true meaning of Easter. My mom also bought him an Easter book and gave it to him this weekend. Nate calls this one the "nother Easter book" and prefers it to the one I got. Also, I often sing Jesus Loves Me to Nate before bedtime, but the other day I thought I'd sing Jesus Loves the Little Children, which I hadn't sung to him in a long time. This is now known as the "nother Jesus song." Nate now requests the nother Easter book and the nother Jesus song before bedtimes and naps.

Yesterday afternoon, I found out that aquatic therapy had to be rescheduled, and when I told Blake, he decided to come home so we could go to the zoo. Memaw got us zoo passes for Christmas, and we have been trying our best to fit in a trip to the zoo for a couple of months! They close at five, and somehow with naptime and therapy we can never make it. So yesterday we went. It was really fun ... until it started raining. Nate still had a great time, and so did Blake, but I was cold and wet and miserable. :) Nate's favorite was the tiger. And the ducks.

This morning, Nate was playing in the floor and getting tired as naptime got closer, and he started whining about something. I heard him, but I also saw that nothing was really wrong, so I ignored it. He came up to me and said, "Mama, I crying!" Like, why aren't you doing something about it? Hehe.

This afternoon he had aquatic therapy, and he was in such a good mood, had so much fun, and did so great! The therapist was amazed at his progress just from last week. If he would start actually kicking his legs in the water, this kid would take off and not stop swimming! He loves the water, loves splashing, and loves being dunked! He kept asking her to take him underwater. And his little arms were going like a paddleboat, splashing everyone in his path. She finally told him to stop splashing us and splash himself. So he did! Right in the face! And laughed about it. He's getting good at remembering to keep his mouth closed when he goes under and to blow bubbles. When I told him we were going swimming today, he said, "Don't drink da pool." Just like Miss Becky tells him.

Then when we got home, we were sitting on the couch and he just looked at me with such a charming look and said, "I so sweet."

Okay, if you remember from a couple posts ago about Blake making up train songs for Nate ... well, yesterday I found Nate making up his own train song! And DANCING!

I also have some pics ... I'll put them in another post.