Nathan outgrew size 4 diapers. As well as his previous shoulder strap placement in his carseat. He is a tank of a toddler, now.
When he first saw me at the airport he was a little perplexed and went to me in the way he'll go to anyone who stretches out their hands towards him. He then immediately turned back to Jeff. Once we were home, though, it was all back to normal. Except now he is really, really big.
"Baby Nathan, guess what? Your dog is a poodle." "That's Mustard!"
"Where is Mustard? I want to see Mustard."
"No barking, Mustard. Do you have to have a timeout?...... Ha! I told the dog he had a timeout."
"What kind of popsicle do you think Baby Nathan wants? I think he will like the orange one."
(Later) "I am going to have the orange popsicle. " "No, Ellie. The orange one is for Baby Nathan."
"Can Baby Nathan ride in our rental car? It is black."
Next week I am leaving Nathan (and Jeff) for 6 whole days. My mother is coming and will stay with Nathan while Jeff works, and I am trying to work on the list of air conditioned places to go, things Nathan eats, etc. I find myself getting very, very specific about games to play and whatnot. Nathan does love routine and his schedule but I am not sure he absolutely has to do sidewalk chalk at 7:25 every morning. (But it is the only time of day when it is cool enough to do sidewalk chalk. So that suggestion remains.)
I did a trial run by letting my father-in-law watch Nathan the other night- he came over after Nathan went to sleep, and I left and Jeff came home an hour later. Of course Nathan got up, so Jeff walked in to find Buzzard on the couch, holding Nathan while listening to a jazz drum solo.
So I am anxious not so much about Nathan but about myself- am I going to enjoy myself, or am I going to spend the whole time thinking about what I am missing? I know Nathan is going to start walking while I am gone. He has just started giving kisses, too, and 6 days without Nathan kisses seems like a long time.
On the other hand, I keep thinking about my airplane flight- my first flight in 15 months with no one in my lap. I am fantasizing about reading a whole magazine straight through. You know when you are dreaming of coach air travel you need a vacation.
My sister Sarah sent me this article, very concerned that this was Nathan's future.
This made me sad that Jeff and I never got on our brilliant idea to do our own Bush children's book spoof, Good Adviser, Karl.
This morning while I was fixing eggs, Jeff was getting Nathan settled into his high chair with some milk and some melon. He noticed Nathan's baseball cap on one of the kitchen chairs. Now, what I would have done would have been to surreptitiously move it out of sight. What Jeff did was point it out and put it on Nathan's head. So Nathan ate breakfast in his pajamas and Dodgers hat.
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There have been many, many times lately where I have said to Nathan, "Why are you doing that? You are so weird!" Every time Jeff says, "He's not weird, he's being a toddler." Until we got Nathan a keyboard and Nathan kept crawling up and sitting on it. THEN Jeff shook his head and said, "He is weird."
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Nathan's whole body lights up when he sees Jeff. And if there is one thing I know Nathan will never doubt, it is that his father loves him more than anything and thinks he is the greatest. Happy Father's Day, Jeff!
Toddlers are headstrong and Nathan is no exception. Not for nothing is one of his favorite games what I call "The World's Slowest and Least Dangerous Game of Chicken"-- basically, we both crawl towards each other and when our heads meet we try to push each other's forehead back. He's very good at it. He's literally headstrong. And figuratively.
I resolved ages ago, after observing a lot of toddlers, that I would not try to battle my own toddler unless it was very, very, very important. If you are fighting your toddler about everything, you are losing a lot, is what I observed. And I was doing pretty good at it, even if it meant sometimes Nathan left the house with some of breakfast still on his face, or whatever non-life-threatening but not preferred thing he wanted to do that day.
Today, though, he decided he wanted to wear his baseball cap all day long. I do not really think you should wear baseball caps inside but he did not want me to take it off. I caved, but when he decided he wanted to wear his baseball cap sideways?? That is where I picked an unnecessary battle with my toddler.
Guess who won?
After I posted about his not walking of course Nathan decided to up the ante and instead of taking one step and plopping on his bottom, he took two steps and then went forward and crawled the rest of the way. Two steps!
I tried to get him to do it again all afternoon and instead he would stand up, pause, and then sit down. And laugh hysterically. I kind of think he is messing with me.
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In other news, in the past day he has gone from being able to stack three blocks to being able to stack five blocks. His block stacking skills are extraordinary. (And I think this is why all parents think their kids are geniuses- they are, if you compare them to who they were a week ago or a month ago. Take a kid and compare him to who he was a year beforehand and you'll think your child is the next Einstein.)
Nathan loves the steering wheel more than anything. Yesterday he was headed toward it but a much older girl was playing with it. Trying to head off a toddler-big kid fight, I said, "Do you mind if Nathan plays with you?" She looked at me and said, "Well, we are playing pirates." "Oh," I said. "Maybe Nathan can steer the ship so you are free to do other things?" She immediately ran off to the top of the playset and announced to her friend, "The BABY is going to steer the ship so we can be pirates."
Nathan still gets called the baby a lot even though he is huge (yesterday at playgroup I realized I could no longer call the other Nathan, who is six months older, "Big Nathan," because he is not actually bigger than my Nathan). It is the crawling, I think. A mother said to her child yesterday as her child was walking up the steps and Nathan was crawling, "Look out for the baby!" and then said, "Oh, how old is he?" Turns out her child was 2 months younger than "the baby."
He is working on giving up the pacifier, though. Or rather I am working on it and he is reluctantly going along. I am limiting it to the crib, the carseat, and the stroller, because he wanted to just have it in his mouth all day, and once he started being able to talk with the pacifier still in I put my foot down. So now when he gets up from his nap or out of the carseat I say, "Binky stays in the crib/car/stroller." At first I had to pry it out of his mouth and face tears, but now he cheerfully takes it out and throws it down. And then pitches a fit because he loves cooperating/understanding something but doesn't actually want to give up his binky. I figure in a few more weeks the fits will go (and they end as soon as we leave the room and are on to something else).
Everything with him is kind of like that- I remember how I used to have to fold him in half to keep him from arching his back so violently I couldn't get him into the carseat. Now? He tries to help buckle himself in. He goes through occasional bath strikes where he screams and stands the second he gets in the water, but always after a few days he is back to loving the bath and taking 30 minute splash-fests. I am trying to remember that with his walking- he takes a step here and there but every time looks alarmed and immediately sits down. One day he is going to keep stepping, and that day will be on his schedule. My job is just to wait. He's not a baby, but that means he gets to set the pace for when he toddles.
- I have always found kids pretending to talk on the phone adorable. Nathan is no exception- he picks up a phone, says, "'Lo??" and the jabbers, pauses to listen, and jabbers some more. But now he will say, "'lo?' and then crawl over and put the phone up to my ear. Perhaps I should make him go work as a receptionist.
-Took his first deliberate step. He was standing against the wall, looked at me, and decided to get over to me by walking. It was only one step, but still.
-When reading Good Dog Carl, will start wagging his fingers when I turn to the page where Carl and the baby jump on the bed. Because that is where I always say, "Didn't anyone ever tell Carl 'No more Rottweilers jumping on the bed?'" (I also always cover Nathan's eyes when I read the pages where the baby gets out of his crib. I don't want him getting any ideas.)
-He was in the living room and I couldn't see him- I was in the playroom with a friend of his. I said, "Nathan, why don't you come here and show Katelyn your books?" And he crawled into the playroom and to his box of books and picked one up and handed it to her. I am not saying he is some sort of genius. Except I kind of think he is.
-Fed himself yogurt (including getting the yogurt onto the spoon by himself). But more importantly, he decided he wanted to eat all his green beans before having any yogurt. He ate vegetables. A whole serving of them!
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