Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Opposites

During the last couple of weeks Nate has been really into learning his opposites.  At any moment during the day he'll say "Opposite of..." and then expect me to quiz him on opposites.  Sometimes he quizzes me, too.  It makes me feel really good when I nail it and get a "good job!" from Nate. 

Here is an example of some of his new found knowledge.  Oddly he wasn't that interested in playing opposites with me this time.  Usually he's so into it.  But hey, at least he's still getting them right.

An...Incident


Last Friday Nate face-planted onto the floor from the potty.  There was a lot of blood, tears, and mommy-guilt.  My foot got caught on his tube when I stood up to get him a wipe and it just launched him right onto the floor.  Oh the horror.  Honestly I'm just glad it wasn't worse.  I thought he'd knocked his teeth out when it first happened.

The next day he proclaimed he was "all better" and was back to the important things in life like riding through the house on a kitchen cart.


Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Poop and Peep

One of the questions I get most frequently is whether or not Nathaniel will be able to be potty-trained.  I still don't really know the answer, but I do know that if you stick him on the potty, he will go "poop and peep" nearly every time.  He also spends a lot of time just sitting there wanting to hold hands and give me eskimo kisses.  Something about being on the potty makes him really affectionate.
 

I will have to delete this post before he gets old enough to read this blog.

Monday, January 21, 2013

Friday, January 18, 2013

Pow-pow-powerchair

Nate got to try out an electric wheelchair for the first time last week.  To say he was not thrilled about the idea at first would be an understatement.  There were a lot of protest tears and I was a little worried he wouldn't actually end up trying it out that day.  But, in true Nate form, he came around and by the end of the hour was totally loving it.
 
It was my first time in a powerchair, too!  To get Nate to warm up, the therapist had me drive a chair and Nate had to chase me.  Turns out those things are not as easy to use as they look!  I'm impressed Nate did as well as he did on his first try.  The joystick he was using wasn't positioned in a great place for him and wasn't sensitive enough for a kid of his strength level.  But he adapted and had a great time traveling around the therapy gym.
 

 

We'll have practice sessions like this once a week until the therapist feels comfortable enough to write Nate a prescription for his very own chair.  Then we get to wait for months for paperwork, insurance, hopefully a van, etc. before he'll get the chair.  But we're very excited about the idea of this kind of independence for Nate!

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Family

 One of the best parts about Christmas this year was getting to spend so much time with family.   Most of our family already lives close to us, but we also had aunts, uncles, and cousins come into town.  Almost every day was a party.
 
Lowe family


Uncle Marcus feeding Micah and making a tunnel for Nate, what a multi-tasker


cousin Greta

Cousins Jonah and Carrie came all the way from Texas to watch cartoons with us


Uncles are great for teaching little boys how to play with superheroes (my superheroes always just go to the grocery store)



Cousin Jonah was such a sweet friend to Nate.  He gave him a ton of attention and Nate just loved him.  On this day, they were coloring together and Nate colored his nose red and said he was Rudolph.  Jonah immediately did the same thing. 


 

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Child of the 80's

 
Grammy found some of Scott's old clothes from when he was Nathaniel's age.  Is acid wash
back in yet?
 

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Great-Grandpa Lowe

During Christmas break, my grandparents came for a short visit.  My Grandpa Lowe has always been really special to me and it made me so happy to see Nate take such a shining to him.  They just snuggled on the couch and talked and played for a long time that day.
 
 
I think it might be time to brave a vacation with Nate one of these days.  I think Nate would love to spend more time with his great-grandparents, plus they only live ten minutes from Disneyland.

Monday, January 14, 2013

Golf Cart

Last weekend Nate had the best time ever.  And I really mean that.  I can't remember a time when Nate had a better time.
 
The three of us got to ride around on a golf cart at Grandpa's club.  It is so gorgeous there.  I'd never actually been on the course before and I couldn't believe how nice it was.  The first thing Nate said when we started out was "It's pretty!!"
 
There are a ton of twists and turns and steep hills on the course so it was kind of a roller coaster for Nate (and me).  Thankfully Scott used to work parking enforcement on campus when he was in college so he's a total pro golf cart driver.  As we were going down hills Nate kept saying "Woo hoo!  Woo hoo hoo hoo hoo!"  He had a huge smile almost the whole time, except for when we stopped to take pictures.  He just wanted to keep going.
 
 
 
One awesome thing about the course is there are always a ton of deer up there.  We came across eight or nine deer all together at one point.  Nate immediately figured out that they were Santa's fleet but really wanted to find Rudolph, who didn't seem to be with them.
 
 
After a long ride, Scott and I were freezing our bummies off so we decided it was time to go inside for dinner.  Nate cried until we promised to bring him back another time.  He spent most of dinner either really bored or asking to go back on the golf cart.  It's hard to sit through dinner when you don't like food and you know there are golf carts right outside.
 
 
The bathrooms at this place are pretty much my life's fantasy.  Why is it all of a sudden really fun to use hairspray and lotion and toothbrushes with toothpaste already on them when they're presented to you for free in a really fancy bathroom?  I don't know, but I think Nate agrees there's something pretty great about it.
 

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Christmas

Not surprisingly, Christmas was totally magical for Nate this year.  This was the first year he was really old enough to get into all the excitement, and excited he was.  There is just so much to be excited about at Christmas!  He loved our tree and all the decorations, Santa and his reindeer, the music, seeing so much family, going to parties, and of course presents.  Remarkably, his favorite part of the whole thing was the Nativity story, which he would recite to anyone who would listen.  This is probably the only year that will ever happen but it was pretty cute.

Christmas Eve we went to Jeanette's.  Nate played with cousins and had fun sitting in a big boy chair at the table.   
On our way home from Jeanette's we stopped at Grammy and Grandpa's to open up jammies and hang stockings.
Christmas morning was so exciting.  Nate was such a good boy this year that Santa decided to come visit.  Also I think Scott slept in a wind tunnel that night.
Next stop was Grandma and Grandpa Lowe's.  We had our traditional Christmas breakfast and opened presents.  Here is Nate holding a tiny baby Jesus in a manger.
Grammy and Grandpa Green's brought more family to play with and more presents to play with.  Nate got some really fun stuff these year.  I don't think he'll be bored again until next Christmas.

Books


 
One of the many things I love about Nate is how much he loves to read.  You do not read just one book to this kid.  You sit down with a stack of seven or eight books and hope that he will be satisfied by the time you've plowed through them all (usually he's not).     
 

Still Kicking

Since I last blogged (yes I know it's been forever) Nate...
 
...took Green family pictures...
...perfected his fake smile...
...spent a lot of time looking at the moon...
 ...demanded to get out every superhero movie we have in the house...
...experienced the magic of Christmas tree lane...
...acted as a decoy as I took pictures of my dreamiest dream house ever...
...looked super adorable in his Christmas jammies...

...and acted as a model for Daddy's artistic experiments.