Two and Bright!

Nathan has changed so much since the last time updates were posted on his blog. As parents it's such a joy to watch our little boy grow and learn! He is all boy with his love for anything with a motor in it but he also is a little sweetheart by being a cuddle bug and initiating hugs and kisses. Here are somethings that have happened over the past several months.

April Highlights: On April 22 Nathan had surgery for tubes to be put in his ears after fighting ear infections for three months. He recovered quickly and was already a very happy boy that evening. Nathan had fun hunting for Easter eggs this year...and we discovered he likes jelly beans! We attempted to have our family pictures taken outside but it was unfortunate that the weather was cold that day so we didn't stay long (below are a few).

Waiting patiently looking at a book before his ear surgery.

Happy Easter!

Eating a few jelly beans....yum!

May Highlight: The first time Nathan put a Cheerio in his nose was May 21! This was a surprising shock to discover but it was a successful mission to remove the colorful Fruity Cheerio from his little nose. He did this only one other time since and hopefully that will be the last! Below are a couple pictures of Nathan and I on Mother's Day (it was an extra special day because Isaac and I just returned home from being in Mexico for a week).

June Highlight: Nathan's musical stuffed animal puppy can only take so much puppy love! His puppy officially became mute; the string remains drawn and the musical box retired from playing music. He still loves this puppy and it goes almost everywhere he goes. One advantage now that the musical box is broken, I'm able to put puppy in the washer! Below are a couple pictures of Nathan with his Daddy on Father's Day.

July Highlights: During 4th of July weekend, Isaac and I enjoyed listening to our son saying his A, B, C's (video below). He says more letters of the alphabet when singing along together but on his own he says "a, b, c, d, f, g, h, i" and then repeats this again and again a few times and ends with a yeah with clapping his hands. It's adorable!! Nathan knows a few classic nursery rhymes too; he does a great job with 'Row, Row, Row Your Boat' and parts of 'The Itsy Bitsy Spider'. Nathan can say his first and last name proudly (it's adorable!) and he can count to 10 with a little help. As for the fireworks, he wasn't so sure about them yet. Below are a couple pictures from the 4th of July; he needed a little extra comfort with him (his blanket).

Nathan's vocabulary has increased enormously! We are so proud of him with how well he is doing. He is our little Myna bird; Nathan likes to repeat a lot of words that we say which is great practice. He can say about five words or so in a sentence. Some fun things he says are: Wheels, stuck. / Doing Mommy? / Oh no, mess! / Big piles dirt. / I read it. / My turn. / I not. / Ooh dat? (means: what's that) / I like it. / I do it. / No singing Daddy. / I saw bicycle outside.

He loves to point out and talk about the different types of trucks while riding in the car. He'll say "ooh dat?" asking us what the type of truck he is seeing. He knows semi truck, digger, cement truck, fuel truck, and camper just to mention a few.

Speaking of motors, Nathan loves to mow the yard with his Fisher Price bubble lawn mower. He will be in the backyard for a long time walking up the hill and running down with his mower. It's funny how he will keep to a pattern on where he is "mowing". Another great outside activity for him is a new sandbox. Nathan just loves to play in the sandbox by filling up his buckets and dump truck, transferring sand from one bucket to another, dumping the sand out, and filling them back up again. He is a very busy boy in the sandbox and will play nicely for a good 30 minutes or longer!

Discovering his sandbox for the first time - "Ooh dat!"

He is getting sand out from in-between his toes.

He really enjoys playing on Gamma-Gamma and Papa's (his Wiese grandparents) playground set they put up in their backyard for the grand kids. Nathan was a brave boy going down the slide all by himself and enjoyed the different types of swings.

Nathan is wearing size 3T shirts and shorts this summer, in size 9 shoes, and weighs 32 pounds. We are still potty training - have had a few successes but not consistently yet.