Nathan is 23 months old!

Nathan turned 23 months old last Friday.  He's really grown so much this summer.  He is now speaking in 4-5 word sentences.  We are having conversations about everything!  He still adores Emma and loves to play with her.  He loves dinosaurs and is always asking me to draw him a dinosaur.

One of my favorite words he says is "vamp", for elephant!  Sometimes he says "el-vamp", but either way it's cute!  He really likes to pretend to be different animals.  He will hop like a frog and say "ribbit", and hiss like a snake!  He also pretends to be a monkey, hopping around saying "oo-oo"!  He has even strapped a soft collapsable laundry hamper to his back and said that he's a turtle.  He is so creative!

We went ahead and turned Nathan's car seat around to face forward in the car.  He really likes it and enjoys telling us what he's looking at out his window.  He'll see a bus and scream "Bus! SEE IT!" He also likes taxi cabs and calls every yellow car a taxi.

He loves to run and jump, and asks us to watch him run or jump.  He loves an audience, it kind of reminds me of someone else who likes to show off!  He is a very sweet and loving boy, always giving hugs and kisses to us.  We are so lucky to have him in our family!





 

Emma on balance beam

On top of the world!

Climbing monkey!

Someone stole my breakfast taco!

Nathan!

Today Nathan said his name for the first time! We visited the Children's Museum today and had a great time.

Nathan is 22 months old!

On Tuesday Nathan turned 22 months old!  He's continuing to grow and learn new things everyday.  He says so many words now!  I love the way his little voice sounds when he speaks.  He says dump truck but the dump sounds like "dumb" and instead of the "tr" sound he uses "f", so it that's kind of fun and also embarrassing when he's screaming it out loud!  Watermelon sounds like "other woman," soup sounds like "sue-pa" and flamingo sounds like "mingo." He says please and thank you, and no thanks.  His most common phrases right now are "with you" ( meaning I want to go with you) and "with me" (meaning I want you to go come with me).

Yesterday he was up from 3am - 6am with some vomiting, so we went first thing to the doctor's office when they opened.  He just had a stomach virus and should be fine.  His weight is almost 24 pounds, so he's definitely been growing since his 18 month check up 4 months ago.

Nathan is learning his shapes and knows most colors.  He loves puzzles, playing hid-n-seek, and jumping!  He still loves his trains and cars, finding bugs, and digging in the dirt.  He's such a happy little guy, and we are so lucky to have him in our family!

Emma Update!

Emma has really been enjoying this summer!  We've kept her super busy with lots of activities.  She completed 4 weeks of swimming lessons over May and June.  The lessons really helped her become more comfortable in the water, and now she is actually putting her face in the water and swimming a little bit!

She's had 3 weeks of camps and has one more week in August.  She's also spent a weekend with all her grandparents, and I'm sure she enjoyed all the attention and time with them.

Emma really enjoys playing pretend with her dolls, ponies, and princesses.  She also loves to paint and does so almost every day.  She has learned to hula hoop and to braid doll's hair!  She knows all of the alphabet and can write most of the letters.  We are working on learning upper and lower case letters, and identifying the sounds each letter makes.

She is starting to really enjoy playing with Nathan.  They play hide and seek together and they both love to play Legos.  Emma likes to pick out Nathan's clothes and help dress him.  She calls Nathan her little buddy or "my Nater" and likes to lead him around the house.

Each day while Nathan naps I try to have some special one-on-one time with Emma.  We call it "mommy-Emma time" and I usually let her pick an activity for us.  She almost always wants to paint, so I've been doing lots of water coloring lately!  In one year she will be about to start Kindergarten so I am trying to maximize the quality and quantity of time we have to spend together.

We love her so much!  She is an amazing person inside, so good and kind.  Her daddy loves her so much too!  He gives her special cuddles they have named "ba-ttentions."  This involves lots of tickling and blowing of burfles (also know as raspberries or zerberts).  We are so blessed to have Emma!

Emma and her grandmothers!

Box boy!