Happy Holidays!

Had a quick second to make a photo album with some recent pictures of Nate (ok, so the album from Smilebox was reminding me of our vacation in a few days...oh it looks so nice!) I think the biggest news update is that Nate is now drinking from a sippy cup! Only have him doing it once a day...we patiently waited until he had enough practice with an empty sippy before moving on to one with liquid. He's also back to sleeping mostly through the night (once mom figured out that he was cold--unless it happens to be coincidence that we've just been keeping him busier lately!)

Hope you all have a nice Christmas and New Years! I'm sure we'll be posting Christmas and vacation pics soon. Someone is going to be way excited about wrapping paper, gift bags, and bows!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Meeting Santa Part II

Nate did better meeting Santa for his second time. He actually looked at the camera :) I saw with children around a year and a half or so though that they don't like Santa (the whole scream/cry fiasco) so maybe next year we'll just watch other kids greeting Santa!

Its hard to believe that Christmas is just about a week away (and then just about a week away from being over!) Very excited for the holiday and for our vacation the day afterwards-we're heading to our fav northern Arizona spot, Sedona, for a few nights. The whole gang (including the dog,Lily) is going along this time. We rented a cabin in a canyon (think creeks and pine trees) so we're anxious to see some snow (and hopefully watch it fall!) Daddy has off from that time through New Years so it will be really nice to be altogether.

Nate crawls at super speed now (one minute he's in the room, turn around and then he isn't). He can also stand up on his own,without support for a few seconds (as each week has been going on its been longer and longer). He enjoys following all of us around the house. So I'm increasingly becoming more active : )

We hope everyone has a good holiday!

Meeting St. Nick

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving! We had both families over for the holiday and it turned out really well.

Nate got to meet Santa Claus last week at Zoolights (our zoo in Phoenix is decorated with Christmas lights). He loved watching the dancing trees and wasn't scared of Santa at all. He was very fascinated with Santa's beard : ) We couldn't get him to look at the camera as he was focused on Santa's face the whole time. It was cute and funny. I'm sure he might encounter him again yet before Christmas gets here.

On that note, we're very excited for Nate to experience his first Christmas. Personally it's my favorite holiday of the year so I'm super stoked to live everything through his eyes (which includes writing a letter to Santa and leaving out cookies and milk--the whole deal!) At just about 10 months old, he's starting to cruise around furniture more so he may be close to walking at that time. He does like looking at Christmas trees with the lights, so once we get our live tree the parents will have fun trying to pull Nate out of it : ) Oh well, it only comes once a year!

Back to playing I go...

Little Cruise

Nate is pulling himself up on everything now (though we haven't tried out on our tile yet, just the carpet rooms). But thats all he wants to do ! In his crib in particular he goes from side to the other while holding on. Now he's trying to master sitting down from the stand up position! Currently he just falls on his bottom.

We've all been under the weather this week with cold symptoms so hopefully that will be better soon. Despite being a little sick, Nate is starting to master (knock on wood) sleeping through most of the night! Almost the last week or so he hasn't been waking up until the 3am-6am range (if he gets up at 3am he'll go back to sleep for another two hours or so then yet). We were going to try letting him cry through the night, but chickened out a little and started just gradually giving him less and less formula when he woke. But now, thanks to giving him a bigger supper (a ton of rice cereal in addition to a bottle) he hasn't been waking up until later in the morning. Ah, finally!

Until next time...Happy Thanksgiving!

Weaning

Nate had his 9 month check up this week. All looks good, he's a little over 19 pds and is almost 30 inches long. We had a long discussion about his eating and sleeping as its been sporatic lately. Unfortunately, according to our pediatrician whether Nate is teething/having a growth spurt he is NOT suppose to be eating at night as long as he gets X amt of formula during the day. Alrighty then...so, if anyone has any experience with weaning the baby who loves his formula and bottles to death let me know! We're suppose to try plain water once he's been in bed for six hours and otherwise let him cry it out. He hasn't ever consistently slept through the night yet (in fact I think the last time he ever slept through the ENTIRE night was 4-5 months ago!) So the dr lectured him before we left about giving mommy and daddy a full nights rest!

I've been having trouble sleeping lately so I guess until Nate starts sleeping better (and without food!) my sleep will just have to wait. Hopefully it only will take a few days training rather than a week or more! (especially since daddy is going on a business trip next week....aaahhh)

Thats our fun for this week!

Standing Up!

Nate's up, but not flying away yet : ) He's very close to not having any trouble with standing up (while holding on to mom or a piece of furniture). He's wobbly once he gets there, but he's trying real hard to balance himself without help. He has no trouble sitting up from lying down (but can't do it the other way around : ) ). My little baby is growing up! Have a good rest of the week.

Halloween

Nate for the most part had a good Halloween day. He answered the door with us for a little while before he pooped out (and we ran out of candy). He's back to not sleeping too well I think as more teeth are trying to make their way in. Its good that he doesn't mind the toothbrush so much! Nate is still trying to pull himself up (and getting frustrated in the process). He was finicky the last week about eating his jar food, but once I determined that the food needed to be at "room temperature", right from the cabinet, he's been gobbling it up. Now we're looking forward to his 1st Thanksgiving : )

Make a Smilebox postcard

Teethbrushing Time!

Well, sort of. Nate's two middle bottom teeth are starting to sprout! Each day it seems like they're taller and taller, to the point where we should probably start taking care of them. I'm also happy to report that despite being "off schedule" for a few days, Nate doesn't seem to be having any issues getting back into routine *knock on wood*. For all you mothers out there, you know what a deep sigh of relief that is! Have a good rest of the week and weekend!

Aaaaah....San Diego

We just got back from five days in Southern Cal and had a great time. Like anticipated the car was hard for Nate once we hit about two and a half hours, but once we were there it was all fun. We went to Sea World for two days, the San Diego zoo for most of one and then wine and dined some before hitting the beach for a little. Unfortunately we weren't at the beach for very long--it was chilly and Nate wasn't enjoying himself after a little while. Just wish we had an extra day to try that again.

Nate loved the new sights so much he just couldn't hardly sleep. At Sea World his favorite seemed to be Shamu, at the zoo it was the monkeys (of course) along with the panda. He just wanted to be and see everywhere!

At the beach he was enjoying the sand until he tried to put some in his mouth. He liked the water taking sand away from his feet except that the water was pretty cold.

So now its time for routine again. We'd love to be back in San Diego during the day as long as we all had our own comfortable beds at night to sleep! Until next time...enjoy our first family vacation pictures!

Make a Smilebox postcard

Speed Racer!

Yep, Nate's practically taking off on the floor now (fast army crawling still that is!) He's starting to get up on all fours, pull himself up and is almost there on sitting up from a laying down position. Pretty good progress for having been sick a little with sniffles, but that's pretty much gone away now. He'll be 8 months old on Saturday. It's almost not too crazy to be thinking about his first birthday party, its practically around the corner! Wow.

Otherwise, we're just trying to hear those San Diego waves! A week away.

Think some teeth are on their way in...seems like some bottom teeth are right on the gum line waiting to break out.

Have to run, have a good week!