More Nate conversations

I love when Alisa texts me with pictures of the kids and funny things they're doing and saying. Here are a few recent ones:

"So Nate is trying to get out of feeding himself applesauce. The latest reason: This is so going to wear me oooouuuutttt!"

Alisa: It's potty time!
Nate: NO! It's changing time! You have to change! I will get in trouble if I potty!
Nice try, buddy.

Scene: McDonalds drive through
Alisa: I need a chicken nugget meal ...
Nate: Stop saying words! I'm trying to sleep!

A few days ago, Nate was sitting on the potty (notice a theme with these stories? He's on the potty a lot) and he was drumming (always drumming) with some markers. I noticed he had a couple of pink spots on his legs and I thought he had colored on himself earlier. But after a couple minutes I noticed LOTS of pink spots on his legs. I realized the marker was leaking and threw it in the trash. Nate looked down at his legs and gasped, "I'm Pinkalicious!" (If you haven't read the book "Pinkalicious" it's about a little girl who eats so many pink cupcakes that she turns pink.)

Some very common questions we hear around here are:
What's YOUR number? Translation: "I am 4. How old are you?"
What's YOUR letters? Translation: "How do you spell your name?"
What's YOUR color? Translation: "What color is your hair?"

And today, Nate had me laughing so hard out of nowhere. We were in the truck for hours and were a little stir crazy. When Blake got out to pump gas, the truck went "beep beep." Nate went beep beep. I said "honk honk." Nate said "choo choo." I said, "meep meep." Nate said, "toot toot." I said, "Moo moo," and Nate said, "INTERRUPTING COW!!!" Oh my gosh! I couldn't breathe. I have been trying to teach him that knock knock joke for months now. (Knock knock, who's there, Interrupting Cow, Interrupting Cow Wh---MOOO!) He still has yet to tell the joke correctly, but that right there was 1000x funnier than the original joke!

You may be wondering how potty training is going--very well, actually! I may be a bit premature in saying this, and I'm knocking on wood right now ... but I'm going to say it--Nate is potty trained for poop! He has pooped in the potty every single time for two weeks now. In fact, Friday night I was getting Nate settled in bed and had already read him his stories when he said, "I have to go potty." I thought he was just playing a trick on me to let him go back downstairs where his potty is. I told him if he really had to go potty, he'd have to use the one upstairs (which he doesn't like). He said fine. Well, he went in there and pooped in the potty!!!!! And he TOLD me he had to go! I'm so excited. Now he does have a tendency to get a little constipated here and there, but it's nothing that we can't control with his diet, so we're going to have to be extra careful about it now.

We still have a ways to go with the peeing. We sit him on the potty every 45 minutes, and just about every time he'll sit down and pee very well. Many times he'll stay dry between pottying, but very often he's not dry. Right now we're using pull ups because I was ready to collapse at the thought of changing underwear 8 or more times a day for the forseeable future! But it's going pretty well and we're just going to keep at it. It looks like we'll send him to preschool next Monday in pull ups, but he'll go to the potty 2 or 3 times during the school (half) day just like all the other kids.

Nate has been doing VERY well with walking up and down steps by himself (holding onto a rail with one hand). This is major progress! But a few days ago he tripped and either badly stubbed or broke one of his big toes. I have not taken him into the doctor because I really feel like there's nothing they can do about it, but it's turning black and he's having trouble walking on it. Other times he pays no attention to it. I've broken and badly stubbed toes over the past year, and I know that both HURT. Poor guy.

The other thing Nate is doing very well is swimming! A few months back we had to drop aquatic therapy because of our insurance, so we picked up swim lessons since being in the water has been so good for Nate. Well, the last couple of weeks, he has been dog paddling (with just a float-thing on his back) from one end of the pool to the other and back again! He complains about it the whole time, but he does it! This picture is a little dark, but it's Nate jumping in the pool to his teacher, BJ.

After all that about Nate, I'll update on Georgia too. She has this ornery little crinkle nose grin that I just love. I'll post a picture another time. She's saying "Boo" (which sounds like "buh") all the time now--when opening a door, or taking off a hat, or hiding behind a curtain. Her favorite thing in the world is to empty out my purse. The child still won't play with actual toys but loves anything that seems to be a no-no. I see her wandering around with random objects in her hands. Like a box of tic tacs and a tissue. Nate's toothbrush. Fingernail clippers and a shoe. Oh, and the other day I met Alisa and the kids at the park, and they were climbing up to this little kid slide and sliding down, and while we were talking, Georgia slid down all by herself! She is such the daredevil--she giggled the whole time.

An update on Blake and me--Last week marked our 7th wedding anniversary and 11 years together! Wow! That's more than 1/3 of my life! I don't think anyone ever expected us to make it this long, lol!

Blake is notoriously bad about gift-giving. While I put thought and time into getting the "perfect" gift for every occassion, Blake asks me what I want. And I've learned to just order what I want myself so I'm not disappointed. This tells you how clueless he is about gifts--One of his good friends got married this weekend, and when I asked him what we should give him as a wedding gift, he suggested something for the guy's baby .... Honey, you don't buy a baby gift for a wedding. So imagine my shock when Blake got me a lovely anniversary gift! Sunday night Blake said he'd gotten me something and asked if I wanted to know what--NO! He is also notoriously bad about keeping secrets! I always get my gift before my birthday, or he tells me what it is. Well Monday, he called and asked, "Did you get anything from me this morning?" I said, "I got that picture of the kids you emailed me." "No, anything else?" Then I realized he had sent me flowers! And he totally spoiled it by telling me! Anyway, 18 beautiful red roses arrived at my office later that day. The next day, my coworkers and I were standing around when the FedEx guy brought in a box. We weren't expecting anything. He said it was for me! It was a dozen of the most gorgeous fancy chocolate covered strawberries! And the card said something like, "You gave me two precious gifts, so I wanted to send you two gifts for our anniversary." And this from the man who suggests rotating my tires for Christmas! (Not really, but that's not far off.) He did good!

Well it's been a very long weekend. I hosted a program for adults with SB Saturday in Louisville. Then we drove to Owensboro to attend Blake's longtime friend Scott's wedding and to spend the night at Memaw and GrandBob's house (where Memaw successfully got both of them to sleep by herself while we were at the wedding!). Then Sunday morning after breakfast we drove all the way to Lexington for a playgroup for kiddos with SB and their families. It was a VERY fun weekend, but I'm beat. I have the day off tomorrow, and I'm going to get my house in order, grocery shop, and take a nap!

Weekend funnies

I went away overnight this weekend with some girlfriends, and it was my first night away from Georgia. Blake said she woke up around 3 am VERY unhappy that I was not there, but they made it without me. :) My friends and I went to Lexington to see Beth Moore speak. If you haven't heard of her, she's a Christian women's speaker, and she's SO good. I really needed that. I had been struggling in my head with some things lately, like Nate's potty training, and she really helped me put everything in perspective. As in, remember what God can do. He created the universe. He has healed Nate so that he is walking. I'm pretty sure he can handle making Nate able to pee in the potty! Amen!

When I got home yesterday, I was determined to go to church. Blake was swamped at work and said he couldn't go (he could go Sunday, but we have a hard time actually making it to church on Sunday). So I decided I'd take the kids myself. I got them ready and in the car, and we were halfway to church when I realized I didn't even have a stroller with me. At a church the size of ours, there is just no way I could the kids in the building and to their rooms by myself without a stroller. But then I had to go somewhere, anywhere, because Nate would have been disappointed to just turn around and go home. So we went to McDonalds. Everything was going fine--Nate was eating his chicken nuggets and fries, and Georgia would steal a chicken nugget to gnaw on. He did spill his milk and melted over that, but it was easily resolved. The guy sitting in the booth behind me was doing some kind of business on his phone, and Nate kept yelling, "What are you talking about???!!!" :) Hey, that's what you get for trying to conduct business in a McDonalds. Well, then came a terrible storm. It sounded like it was right over top of us. Buckets of rain came down and the lightning and thunder were awful. So we were just stuck there for awhile. I finally let the kids down to just run around (luckily there weren't many people there). Georgia ran behind the counter! Then Nate was chasing Georgia and said to me, "She sure can vamanos!" This kid has been a Dora fan from way back.

Last night both kids actually slept all night! So I got an uninterrupted 8 hours! So we did get to go to church after all. Then after church and lunch I got to take a nap! I feel like a new woman!

Then we went to a birthday party for Nate's friend Logan at Pump It Up, which is a party place that has bouncy houses. Every time Nate goes in a bouncy house, he crawls around or just sits there and lets other kids bounce him. It's really hard to stand up. Not today! He was standing and walking and jumping and running! Check him out:

(http://whatnatesaidtoday.blogspot.com/)

After the party, we went straight to Bible Study, and as Nate was walking in, he said, "This is so going to wear me out and drive me crazy!" He is saying the funniest stuff lately!

Whobody?

So here are some recent pictures of the kids.

Nate and Georgia's latest thing is "racing." They both love running, and for now Nate can beat Georgia, but mostly he just likes having somebody to run with him. Sometimes when she's napping he'll tell us to go wake her up so they can race. I love that they play together already!

Oh they had such fun with mirrors when Aunt Mindy and I took them to the mall. Look at Georgia pointing at herself. :)

Love this picture. :) It's the Nate channel! All Nate, all the time!

Taking the kids to the mall is always an adventure, and it usually ends badly. This time I told Nate if he was good I'd take him to the food court to get ice cream when we were done shopping. So at the end of the day when everyone was tired and cranky, we claimed a spot in the crowded food court, and Nate and I stood in line at Sonic to get a Sonic Blast. I ordered and stood there for a really long time before I started wondering what was taking so long and looked over to see this girl meticulously making the world's most perfect Sonic Blast. She was neatly and evenly sprinkling crushed M&Ms around the top of it and adding a perfect swirl of whipped cream. I thought, Oh my goodness, honey, just give me the dang ice cream. It's for a 4 year old! All this time, Nate insisted on me holding him, so there I was waiting for her to finish her masterpiece with a 42 pound kid on my hip. Finally she brought it over and handed it to me, and I almost had it in my grip but she said, "Oh! there's a whole in the cup! I'm going to have to start over." And she turned around and threw it in the trash! Noooooo!!!!! By this time, Nate was crying for his ice cream. So she started all over again, and was just as meticulous this time around. She was too far away for me to explain that it really did not matter, that we just needed ice cream, any ice cream, like 5 minutes ago. When she brought it back, the most beautiful Sonic Blast ever made, I said, "You really didn't have to make this again. It would have been fine to just put it in another cup." She said, "I wouldn't have felt right about it--I would have made you another one anyway." Bless her heart.

Anyway, we made it back to the table for Nate to eat his ice cream, and he sat there with Mindy while Georgia and I went to the cookie stand to get a treat for the rest of us. While I was gone, Mindy said Nate was staring in a sugar induced stupor. She said, "Nate, are you catatonic?" He looked at her with all seriousness and said, "What did you say?" :) He says that all the time now in the same tone I would say it if he smarted off to me.

So, this past weekend was awesome! We stayed in a cabin near Natural Bridge/Red River Gorge with my friends Mindy and her husband Scott and Jenny and her husband Kevin and baby girl Ellie. The cabin was great--It had this comfy porch with swing and outdoor fireplace, and a hot tub, and it was out in the middle of nowhere. I was elated when we turned off the paved road. :) We made s'mores and played board games and ate good food and caught up with each other.

We took Nate fishing for the first time. There were all kinds of little fish just the right size for him to catch swimming around in the shallow water right in front of us, but we didn't have the right bait for them. We tried lures, peanut butter crackers, oreos (fish don't like chocolate), and chex mix. Nada. However, Nate had a great time throwing pebbles into the water, pretending to feed them to the fish. As we were leaving, I was loading Georgia up and Nate was panicking that I wasn't going to help him up the bank and that he'd fall in the water. He said, "I don't want to be fish food!" Where does he come up with this stuff?

Here he is with his Cars fishing pole. He did (sort of) learn how to cast and reel it in.

Georgia sat on the ground and ate the oreos that the fish wouldn't eat! Look at that face. Then she dumped out all the chex mix and tried to eat it off the ground. Nice.

Natural Bridge State Park had a great pool! The kids had a blast!

Georgia practiced climbing up on the side and back down again over and over.

Oh, and there was a shuffle board in the cabin, and Nate loved it! He was actually pretty good at it. I think he beat Blake and Scott a couple times.

And to explain the title of this blog post, when we were all getting in the truck to go fishing, I noticed my seat in the truck was pushed way back from when one of the guys had sat there earlier. I said, "Somebody's been sitting in my seat." Nate said, "Whobody?" We laughed and laughed at that one.

Hmm, what else. Well, Georgia is getting good at playing peekaboo. When I lay her down to change her diaper, she's always trying to roll away, so I throw her shorts over her face to distract her. She'll pulls them off and says, "Boo!" It's really adorable to hear her say it.

Last night my mom got me in the mood to shop for Halloween costumes online. (We are so notorious for starting to think about these things way too early.) I thought it would be cute if the kids wore costumes that sort of went together, like Tinkerbell and Captain Hook. Mindy suggested Nate be Peter Pan, but I wasn't so sure about making him wear tights. But when Nate and I were looking online at costumes last night, I saw a Peter Pan costume with pants. (Apparently, more parents than just me are concerned about their sons resenting them for life if they put them in tights.) I said, "Oh, Nate, look, a Peter Pan costume! Do you like that?" He very matter of factly said, "I don't." Shot down. You know what he liked best out of all the costumes? The ninjas. Sigh. He can't even say it--He says Injas. Hey, at least it's not Thomas.

An Exclusive Interview with Nate

I asked Nate a few questions before bed.

(Background: A few minutes before, we were talking about pottying, and I was telling Nate when you drink water, it goes down to your belly and out your "pee pee" into the potty.)
Me: Nate, where does your pee pee come from?
Nate: Where does my pee pee come from?
Me: I'm asking you. Where does your pee pee come from?
Nate: Hmm. I don't know.

Me: Okay, next question. What color is your hair?
Nate: Let me show you. (Grabs some hair for me to see.)
Me: What color is it though?
Nate: What?
Me: It's red, Nate.
Nate: (Gasp) My hair is red?! Show me! Where is my hair red? (Obviously thinking I'm talking apple red)
Me: No, it's like brownish red. ... Never mind, it's brown.
Nate: (Noticably relieved)

Me: Okay, if you could do anything in the world tomorrow, what would it be?
Nate: Hey, where does my pee pee come from?

Payne Family Boot Camp

Over the last 24 hours, we have started sleep training Georgia and potty training Nate. We're just whipping these kids right into shape, and it's going well so far.

Georgia has us wrapped around her little finger. That is the most determined and stubborn child. She has learned from the best, her big brother. She wants us to rock her or nurse her to sleep, then when you lay her down in her crib, she pops right back up and screams until you pick her up again. If I happen to get her asleep enough that she doesn't wake up when I lay her down, I am not ashamed to crawl out of her room so I don't wake her. But the slightest noise--like my ankle popping as I leave the room--will wake her and start the whole process over again. When I do get her to sleep, she usually sleeps fairly well until 4 am, then she expects to come to bed with me and nurse pretty much constantly until I get up 3 hours later. Enough!

Last week I made the spur of the moment decision to let her cry it out. But I was rusty on my technique, and I was soft, and I'm ashamed to say she won that battle and ended up in bed with me all night. So last night I refamiliarized myself with the technique and was determined to win. I put her down very sleepy but still awake, and she started crying as I left the room. I let her cry 3 minutes, then went in and laid her back down and soothed her for a minute or two, then left again. I let her cry 5 minutes, soothed again, then 10 minutes, and when I soothed her down again, she went to sleep. Success! She did end up waking up around 1:30 am, but she had a dirty diaper, which is really rare for her in the middle of the night. So I changed her diaper, I did NOT feed her (whoo!), and she went back to sleep! Today she has gone down without a problem for all her naps and then to bed tonight. I will knock on wood and just expect to have more issues, but for now, this is working great! Very happy with our progress. A little crying one night is nothing if it means less crying overall for the foreseeable future.

We let Nate cry it out too, but that child couldn't go to sleep at all unless he cried for 10 minutes then passed out. He did that for at least a year. It was just the only thing that worked, stubborn boy. The difference with him was that he never stood in his crib. He'd just lay there crying until he fell asleep mid-cry. Georgia immediately pops up and stands in her crib, trying to scale the side, and it's much harder to pass out cold while standing.

Anyway, on to potty training. The back story is that very few kids with Spina Bifida actually potty train typically. Most need to be cathed and on some kind of bowel management program, whether it's diet or medication or enemas or surgery. Some need to do these things to keep their bladder/kidneys/bowels healthy, and others just have to start around school age for continence so they don't have to wear diapers. Well, Nate has never had any issues with his bladder/kidneys/bowels. All the tests look pretty good. One particular test on his bladder (urodynamics) shows that he may not be able to feel when his bladder is full in order to release it, but we just can't tell for sure. So although the odds are against us, we do feel compelled to try to potty train him typically to see what happens, and we have seen some positive progress that makes us hopeful that it could happen. For the last few months, we have gone in spurts making him sit on the potty, having "naked day," etc., but Nate is not at all cooperative. That's just Nate, and it doesn't help that he's a boy and boys are typically less enthusiastic about potty training, and we don't know if it might have something to do with how much he feels or can control. We just don't know! Combine that with the fact that Blake and I have never potty trained anyone before, and we're just fumbling around in the dark here.

But Nate is now 4. It is time to potty train. He doesn't particularly like naked potty training. Apparently this is a fairly recent phenomenon, leaving a child naked to run around so he can feel when he's had an accident. Many people are horrified and disgusted at the idea. :) But many parents of young kids swear by this method. Every time I mention Naked Nate Day, Nate says, "But I want to wear clothes!" So this time I told him he was going to wear big boy underwear, and not only that--they are THOMAS big boy underwear! His response: "But I want my diapers." Okay, four years in diapers ... you're going to be kind of attached to them, fine. But I put the underwear on him anyway, and oh my goodness. Little boy underwear is so dang cute I can't stand it. Adorable! It's so funny seeing him without a diaper padding his behind--I didn't know it was possible for his little butt to be even flatter. :)

Oh, I forgot to mention the potty itself. One of the reasons I've had such a hard time getting started with potty training is I have been unable to find the right potty. We've tried everything. A Dora seat that goes on top of the big toilet--the pee guard is nonexistent so pee goes everywhere, he feels like he's going to fall off the toilet, and it's too small. A special toilet seat that has an adult seat and a built in child seat--so awesome in theory, but that goes out the window when there is pee all over my floor. A truck potty seat that sits in the floor--again, nonexistent pee guard, and the seat was made for a 25 pound two year old, not a 42 pound 4 year old. A bjorn potty seat--the best so far, but it's hard plastic and makes his legs go to sleep. The best we could do was sitting him on the big toilet backwards. I don't know why it worked, but it did. I have researched potties online for HOURS, I am not kidding. Well last week I finally ran across one I thought might work and I ordered it. Jackpot!

The Prince Lionheart PottyPod is the Cadillac of potty seats. It's $45 worth of comfort for Nate's tush. The seat is cushy AND antimicrobial. It has the perfect pee guard. It's taller and wider than most potties. It's easy to clean. I'm in love with a potty and I'm not afraid who knows it.

So it's been going pretty well. Last night he went pee in the potty, and in a total rookie move I let him sit on the couch thinking he wouldn't have to pee again for awhile. Yeah, that's how you end up with pee on your couch. This morning Blake called me at work to update me on their potty training progress, and he said he was on something like his 4th pair of underwear. Um, honey, the whole point is for them to feel that they're wet when they have an accident. If you keep putting dry underwear on him, he might as well have a diaper on. Ohhhhh, he said. We're still learning. Alisa is the only one who's ever potty trained a kid before, and Nate knows it, I think. She put him in his swim diaper before leaving the house to take him to swim lessons (Did you know swim diapers don't hold pee?), and he was dry when he got there. When they left, she put underwear on him, and they got stuck in traffic for about an hour, but he was still dry when he got home and peed a bunch on the potty. Tonight he told me he did not want to wear his underwear in bed, and I complied, of course. Baby steps.

We're getting Georgia and Nate all fixed up. Now somebody needs to come whip me into shape. I'm thinking about starting Weight Watchers tomorrow...

Dear Georgia,

Today is your first birthday! I've been thinking about this day last year and how wonderful it was to meet you for the first time after praying and wishing for you so long. I remember the doctors saying they could barely deliver you because you were grabbing onto surgical tools and your cord and anything you could find to put up a fight! Your first few seconds were a great indication of your personality, dear.

I have cherished getting to know you this year. You've been the baby doll I've dressed up. We have loved showing you off to family and friends and strangers. Sometimes you're very serious and so determined, and I think you are stronger-willed than I am. In fact, right now you are in bed beside me with Daddy and will. not. give up and go to sleep already! You have been trying to catch up to your big brother since you first saw him. You were practicing standing on our laps by 3 weeks old, and you were so focused on kicking and rolling and whatever it took to get you mobile. You did it! You're a walking machine now, and you're so cute doing it!

I'd always wanted a daughter, and I've had so much fun with you already and look forward to all those special mother-daughter moments. It's humbling for me to think that you are going to learn to be a wife, mother, and woman by watching me. I'll do my best to set a good example for you.

Happy birthday, baby girl. I love you very much.

Team Nate the Great!

The Spina Bifida Association of Kentucky is having its second annual Stroll & Roll on Sept. 18, and Team Nate the Great is getting ready! Last year our team consisted of me, Nate dressed in his Thomas costume, and 3 month old Georgia, who slept through the whole thing, but we raised $450 for SBAK! This year my goal is to raise $1,000 and have some family and friends join us.

Now that I work at SBAK, I see even better all the good things we do for families! We have playgroups where the kids can play in a safe and accessible space and motivate each other, but more importantly the parents are sharing ideas and supporting each other. We are having classes about how to get a Medicaid Waiver (very important for us peeps with enormous medical bills), how to get kids socially continent, and other important topics in the SB world. We have a financial assistance fund that helps pay medical bills, buy equipment, make homes more accessible, and send people to the SBA National Conference. We have fun social events for people of all ages with SB and their families. And we talk one on one with parents and individuals with SB to help them work through challenges, find resources, and empower them. All that with a staff of three and a small budget. So it's a great cause, and your contribution really makes a difference.

All you have to do is go to our fundraising page (secure and easy to use), and make whatever donation you want. Even if it's just $5, I really appreciate it. And if you're free Sept. 18, come be a part of Team Nate the Great!!!!!

Team Nate the Great Fundraising Page

What's going on besides birthdays ....

Because we are doing other things besides partying here! :)

For one thing, I'm so proud of our new porch! I've been scared to death of someone (especially a little someone) falling off our porch ever since we moved in. GrandBob came to help Blake put a railing up on the porch, and Memaw brought pretty hanging baskets! I bought an outdoor loveseat on clearance (I NEVER catch things at the right time of year to get a good price, so I was so excited about this) and a new doormat, and it's like a new house!

Here are two somebodies unhappy with me for not taking them outside while I took pictures. :)

Georgia is walking all over the place now. When we walk down the street and back (the cul de sac is about 10 houses down), she walks on her own most, if not all, the way! She can now crawl up steps too--look out! I have two top of the line baby gates in the garage waiting for a spare minute for us to install them. :) Sometimes I find myself carrying 42 pound Nate up the steps, and I just follow Georgia crawling up like a little speed demon.

Today I went to Nate's PT appointment for the first time since I started work back in April! It has been so hard not being at his therapy appointments, especially since I had missed maybe 3 therapy appointments his whole life before that. Partly because of my need for control :) but I also love seeing his progress and knowing what we need to work on at home. Blake takes him now, and he tells me what they did and what we need to work on, but dads just don't get all the details, ya know. I'm glad I went because the PT showed me some new exercises to do at home, and we talked a lot about his new braces we've ordered. Nate wears very short braces called SMO's. They come up around his ankle and stick just out of his shoe. Well, his new braces will come up a little higher. They aren't quite as high as AFOs (for those who know what I'm talking about), maybe about mid-calf or just below that, with a strap around the shin. The goal is to get his knee a little straighter so he doesn't crouch at all (that's very bad for the knees). I'm not totally thrilled, because higher bracing means immobilizing his ankle, and I think we should keep whatever muscles he has moving instead of immobilizing them. But we'll see what happens--maybe he'll feel a lot more stable in them and walk even better. But whatever the scenario, I can hardly muster a complaint because he's walking with very low braces regardless.

On to a couple cute stories...

Granna and Pop got Nate and Georgia a fish tank for their birthday! So far it's still in the box and we need to go pick out fish. Alisa asked Nate what kind of fish he wanted, and he said, "A shark, a whale, a fish, a fish, and a fish."

Nate has been interested in playing hide and seek. He goes to the back door and hides his eyes and counts to 10 and then comes to find Daddy. Well daddy is usually on the couch or laying in the floor watching TV, so it's not difficult! Last week I told Blake to actually hide, and it made the game more interesting! Nate laughed and laughed, but he still didn't quite get the game. He wanted both of them to hide their eyes and count together then find each other (hmm). Then once Blake was counting while Nate hid in the playroom, and Blake was just playing along looking under pillows and behind curtains saying, "Where'd Nate go?" and Nate ran out of the playroom yelling, "I'M IN HERE!!!!!"

A two month celebration

We've always celebrated Nate's birthday for at least a month, with visits to various grandparents, or trips, or dinners. We just make it a big deal, and Nate starts thinking everyday is his birthday! Well, add in Georgia's birthday one month later, and it's the summer of birthday celebrations. We had a Day Out With Thomas, a trip to Cincinnati, a birthday family dinner, an ice cream outing, birthday pictures, a party, and now we'll do something special on Georgia's actual birthday on Saturday! I wish people celebrated my birthday like that! :)

I decided to spend a small fortune at the Picture People for their birthday photos, since it's Georgia's first and they always do such a great job. If you've ever taken small children to get their photos taken, you know it's stressful and exhausting, but the results are priceless! This time I was fortunate to have Alisa go with me to help wrangle the kids and keep them distracted during the arduous process of deciding which of the thousand awesome pictures to order! Nate went first, and although he typically does his big fake cheese or doesn't smile at all, I was pleasantly shocked that he was a little model! He smiled so naturally, and posed! It was hilarious and impressive. Georgia, on the other hand, was a little pistol and didn't do anything we wanted her to. It seems like kids go through stages of what they think a smile is. Well, right now she thinks she's smiling when she has her mouth wide open! Of course she kept running off the backdrop and being generally difficult. I had gone to a lot of trouble to stop and get some cupcakes on the way to work (even asked for them to be decorated special with the color icing I wanted) and  kept them upright and intact all day at work and on the way to the studio, and don't you know this little stinker wouldn't eat the cupcake? She stuck her hand in it and looked at her hand and cried. She wouldn't lick it, and she certainly did not want to make any more mess. Fine! The pictures came out great anyway.

So I'm going to go the lazy route and just post a link to the photo album I posted on facebook. Even if you don't have facebook, you can still see them. Take a look, they are ADORABLE!

Birthday Pictures

Picture People actually prints the photos out and even frames them for you, so I was able to bring a bunch home that day. I put the framed ones on the couch, and Georgia pointed to her picture and said, "Juh juh!" Then she pointed to Nate's picture and said, "Naaaaayyy!" That was the first time I've heard her say Nate! And I probably wouldn't have realized what she was saying if she hadn't been pointing at his picture. Since then, she's been chasing him around yelling "Naaaaaayyyy!!!!" It's cute. Nate was also a big fan of the pictures and wants to look at them and identify whose in each all the time.

So, we had the big birthday bash on Sunday (July 24). Last year on Nate's birthday, I was so big and pregnant and just trying to get ready for Georgia, and I figured it was the last year that Nate really wouldn't care if he had a party or not, so all we did was get a Thomas cake and go to the zoo. So this year I wanted to do a big party, especially since it was Georgia's big number one! It was kind of a crazy weekend because I hosted a playgroup at work the day before and we had a friend's birthday party the night before, but I've realized that a party isn't too hard if you ask everyone else to do the cooking for you! :) Blake grilled burgers, Memaw brought beans and the cakes, Grandma brought chips and pop ... what else do you need? The party was a lot of fun, especially since there were a lot of kids there. We ate, played pin the tail on the donkey, busted a pinata, sang happy birthday and ate cake, and opened a lot of presents! Good friends, good food, good times. I think the cakes were the biggest hit. Aunt Kathy sent a polka dot sheet cake for us, plus a little princess cake just for Georgia and a little Thomas cake just for Nate. They were adorable, and tasted awesome! When we started singing happy birthday to Nate, he just stared straight ahead like he was being bashful. When we sang to Georgia, she just looked confused. At least she didn't cry this time when she stuck her finger in the icing. She preferred the cake part more than the icing, and Nate ate just about all of his 7 inch cake by himself! Once again I'm going to be lazy and just link to the pictures on facebook.

Birthday party

We're still writing thank you notes and putting together gifts and recovering from our big weekend! We still have balloons and a happy birthday banner hanging in the living room. We'll keep right on celebrating.

Milestones

Georgia started walking this weekend. She's been taking steps for awhile, but she finally got her confidence up, and Saturday she just took off. She's pretty impressed with herself, and we're pretty impressed with her too!

(If you're viewing this on facebook or email, click here to see videos.) Please excuse the toy store that exploded in my living room.

Also overnight last night, she popped out her two top front teeth! Now she has all four in the front.

Nate has also had some milestones this weekend. Saturday, I was very proud of him that for the first time ever, he picked up a slice of pizza and ate off of it instead of needing me to cut it in bites for him! That's a big step for him!

And Sunday night when we were getting ready for baths, Nate took his shorts off by himself, took his shirt off with minimal help, and stepped into the bathtub with just a hand to steady him. Yay!