Nate loves his Dad

My son LOVES his Dad!!! It is about the cutest thing ever. Nate's favorite time of the day is in the morning, after he's had his breakfast, when I take him into the bathroom to watch Greg get ready for work. For some reason, Nate thinks it's the most intriguing and entertaining thing to watch Greg brush his teeth. Oh, and listerine. I can't forget the listerine. Greg is a champion gurgler (is that a word?) and can do it for like 2 minutes. (If you don't think that's a long time, try it sometime. I can last about 10 seconds.) Anyways, Nate just stares at Greg and smiles, like he's watching the best thing on Earth. (I guess to him, Dad IS the best thing on Earth!)

Dad's little puppy dog


Besides watching Greg get ready for work, Nate has a few objects of Greg's that he is completely obsessed with:

1. His coffee/coffee mug. I'm sure the reason Nate wants it so much is because it's off limits. Or because he always sees Dad with his mug in hand.
2. His Titans hat. Not sure why he likes that stinky old thing, but he does. He's eyed that thing since birth and been totally fascinated with it.
3. His glasses. Now this is the big one. The boy even knows the sound they make when you tap the earpiece onto the glass. (He has really good hearing!) He will crawl across a room for Greg's glasses, in a heartbeat.

Dad, please don't leave me!

Not a fan

So, despite my high hopes, Nate is not a fan of his new wading pool. We tried it today and he lasted for maybe 10 minutes. Of course, he started crying after just 1 minute, but I was distracting him with toys, splashing, and the camera. He kept trying to get out of the pool because he saw my cell phone. Awesome.


Not sure why he didn't like it....the weather was perfect - hot - so the lukewarm water should have felt good. The sun wasn't in his eyes too much, though when I tried to put him all the way under the "sun shade," he screamed at the top of his lungs. Guess he likes to sunbathe like his momma!


Anyways, hopefully he'll warm up to it next time. In fact, we'll probably try it again this weekend if the rain holds off. He better get used to the water soon, because 2 weeks from today, we'll be at the beach!!!!!!

Enjoy the pics...

Nate's first pool party

Rain, Rain Go Away

Our Memorial Day plans for a cookout and "pool party" for Nate got rained out! Such a bummer! It was beautiful all weekend, up until 2 pm yesterday (of course). Then, the sky fell out and the ditch in our backyard turned into the Mississippi River. Luckily, the rain had slowed to a drizzle by the time Greg needed to grill out - yummy chicken, shrimp, and vegetable kabobs! Casey, TJ, & Will came over to hang out, eat, and have the boys play. I had bought a blow-up wading pool for the boys to play in - it even came with a half-awning to block the sun! I couldn't wait to see Nate in his bathing suit, splashing in the water. Maybe next time!

Anyways, we still managed to have a good time and the boys are getting better at playing together. Nate only tried to steal a toy from Will once (his ball) and he enjoyed watching Will try out his exersaucer. Both showed off their crawling/wiggle worm skills, and Nate somehow managed to bite my big toe in the meantime! Thanks honey. (Sidenote: his first tooth is still not all the way through, but a tiny jagged piece is, and it HURT!)

Here is a picture of Nate attempting his new "headstand" position.(See Casey's blog for more pics and a story about how "Nathan's Mom has got it going on...." That song is SO in my head now, Casey!)

A crazy week in pics

This has been one crazy week! Thought I'd share a few pics of Nate that have got me laughing....

Nate had wild bed-head one morning after a nap, so I used a wipe to slick down his hair. Well, without meaning to, I gave my little cutie a scary looking 'do! It was slicked down and made him look like a little businessman. Or oil tycoon. Or mini-Donald Trump. I could not stop laughing! And of course, that made him laugh even harder. I swear, doesn't he look like he's like 40 years old in this pic?!

Can you tell who dressed Nate today??? It was his Dad, of course. I have NO idea why Greg thought this outfit was even remotely close to matching! If you can't see it well enough, allow me to describe....his top has pirate ships, anchors, and sailboats on it. Colors are greens, blues, reds. His shorts, however, are plaid. Blue, khaki, and white plaid. Can you say BUSY?? I swear, Greg has no clue sometimes. We had to run some errands, so I made Greg change his shorts before we went out. I was not going to have my kid looking homeless out in public!

Nate has been crazy crawling this week. I use the term crawling very loosely, because he is still not fully there. He just rotates between squirming on his tummy, rocking on all fours, moving one leg (or dragging it behind him), doing the teepee, falling on his tummy, and then starting all over. He does manage to get across a room pretty quickly though, especially when he wants something bad enough (i.e. my cell phone, Greg's hat, or Greg's glasses). This kid is a goofball for sure!!

Big news!

Nate is cutting his first tooth!!!! (Finally, at 9 months old.) He has been super-finicky lately with the bottle - about the past week - and I just figured it was because we were traveling and he was out of sorts being off his schedule. Wrong. Greg was feeling around in his mouth the other night and thought he felt something sharp on his bottom gums. He was right! I took Nate to the doctor this morning, and we saw the very beginnings of his first tooth coming through!!! Yaaaaay! (Not yay that Nate has been in pain & not drinking well, but yay for a big milestone!) Anyways, the doctor recommended that we give him some Motrin to help with the pain, and which could even help him drink more milk in the meantime. If not, we'll just wait it out for a few more days and he should be back to "normal" once the tooth breaks all the way through. (When it does, I'll try to get pictures, but I think it will a challenge!)

Anyways, for all the new moms out there, I thought I'd list the symptoms that Nate has been going through for about the past week. I should have known it was teething, because some of these are the tell-tale signs from my books:
1). Sucking on his lower lip
2). Pulling on his ears
3). Break-outs on face and diaper area
4). Pushes the bottle away
5). Sudden change in bowel movements....his got super hard and painful :(

So that's our big news! This is such an exciting time right now....our "little" boy is getting his first tooth, crawling more, and really letting his personality finally come out. Can't wait to see what happens next!!

(Sidenote: Nate weighed 19 lbs 14 oz today, so his weight has improved from our last doctor's appointment. I was surprised he had gained so much, since he hasn't been eating that well. Shows how much I know! :)

Our trip to NC

There's no place like home

There's no place like home!! We made it home safely Monday afternoon. We had a great time in Clemmons the past 4 days.....on Saturday, we had Erin's shower at noon and it went off without a hitch! Lots of good food, mimosas (!), and friends. Erin got a ton of great stuff and acted like the perfect bride-to-be! :) (Sidenote: I am BEYOND excited for her wedding in August. She is one of my oldest & dearest friends, and it will be so nice to celebrate with her and to see old friends too.) Nate was a bit fussy during the shower - I think that that many people (18) in one room scared him. Nana took some turns holding him, as well as Natalie Kranz. Thank goodness for both of them! We had Deedee & Gregg over that night for dinner, and while Nate was not very well-behaved, he did manage to show off a little. Deedee loved his "lip pout" and "tee pee" tricks. While during an extra fussy time, Nate went outside on the porch to rock with Pops - see the picture on the right. He passed out! It was beyond adorable.

Sunday was a much calmer day, because it was just Nate, me, and Nana & Pops. We did a little shopping, went to see Deedee & Gregg, and Nana took Nate for a walk before dinner. He had another bad day of eating - hardly wanted the bottle at all - so again, he had a bad night. Woke up at 3 am, hungry. And, poor thing, he was constipated and I had to help him poop. I won't go into detail here, but let's just say, I had to help pull it out. Just what you want to do at 3 am! Poor thing though, he was in so much pain. After that, he went right back down to sleep, thank goodness.

Monday, I let him sleep in while I packed our bags. We headed off to the airport with Pops around 11 am. Our flight was at 2 pm and this time, we got there in plenty of time! We strolled up and down the concourse to kill time, and Nate enjoyed standing on the window ledge and looking out at the airplanes. He kept banging on the windows, nice. I did give him a full dropper of tylenol like the pediatrician recommended, but as usual, it didn't work. He didn't sleep a wink on the plane. (To all those people who told me, "Oh your first flight will be fine - he'll go right to sleep!"......I told you so! My son does not nap - at least very well - unless he's in his crib! And I just knew he wouldn't be comfortable trying to sleep in my arms on the plane.) Anyways, we had two nice older ladies sit with us this time, so, that was a relief. The one next to us carried on a pillow though - funny how she chose to sit next to a baby if she wanted to nap. I just don't understand some people!! So, Nate was pretty wild - standing, looking out the window, tearing up the security pamphlet again, eating puffs, drinking formula, reading his book, drinking juice, banging on his food container....yes, it was work to keep him entertained for the 1 hr 20 minute flight.

The worst part of the flight was that he cried pretty loud a few times - because he was still constipated and trying to get a new load out. He turned real red and cried and grunted. So pitiful! Well, he finally got it out and though it was relief for him, it was the most god-awful smell!! I was so embarrassed for the people around us b/c I know they could smell it! And goodness knows there was no way I could change him. Mind you, this happended in the first 15 minutes of the flight. Oops! So, ask yourself this, as a passenger on a plane, which would you rather - a screaming baby or a stinky baby?? I would choose the latter, but still, I know some people were not happy with us.

When we had landed and were about to get off the plane, the man sitting behind us told me he thought Nate was extremely well-behaved (he must be deaf) and that he should be the next Gerber Baby. How sweet! Then, as a great surprise, Greg met us at before we got to baggage claim. It was so nice to see him earlier than expected! Nate's face lit up immediately, and I don't think he (or Greg) stopped smiling for at least 10 minutes. Those two are so precious together!! We got to the car and Greg wanted to sit in the back with Nate to play with him. Well, not 30 seconds into the car ride, Nate passed out. So much for playtime! He was 2 hours overdue for his afternoon nap, so it wasn't a surprise to me, but Greg was thoroughly disappointed. All in all, it was a great trip. But, there's no place like home......

Surviving our first plane ride

We survived!! :) Thank you for all the prayers - Nate & I made it to Clemmons safely! Yesterday was such a whirlwind day though....

We woke Nate up an hour early, at 7 am, and quickly changed & dressed him. Then we hopped in the car to head to the airport. While Greg was driving and cussing the traffic, I sat in the back and attempted to feed Nate his cereal & fruit. Well, after 3 rounds and only about 1/2 of the bowl gone, I gave up. We hit pretty bad traffic on I-24 and didn't get to the airport until almost 8:30 am (and our flight was at 9 am)! Greg basically threw our stuff out of the car, onto the curb, and pushed us inside. Luckily, Southwest has a "Special Services" line, and a nice attendant saw that I had a baby and let me go through. Otherwise, I think I would have missed my plane b/c the ticket line was so long!

We had our first experience in the "family restroom" and it was going well until I tried to dry off my hands. They had one of those fancy and LOUD dryers called the Xcelerator...I think Target has them as well. They are crazy loud! Anyways, that scared the crap out of Nate, so he started screaming. Nice. We headed to the gate and found them already starting to board. We were A30, so we got a good window seat and buckled in for the flight. I thought we were homefree until a lady and her 4-yr-old asked if the seats next to us were taken. I warned them that this was Nate's first flight so he might not be the best companion, but they decided to take a chance and sit with us. I was NOT happy. The 4-yr-old (named Will) talked constantly and was all over Nate. Kept reaching across us to look out the window. And he asked a zillion questions. I didn't mind talking to him at first, but oh my gosh an hour later I was exhausted. His mom was hardly even paying attention to him! That was my first glimpse of having two kids....and it was not fun! :) Nate did okay....refused to nap despite the tylenol I gave him though. He was determined to stay up and play and jump and drink his bottle slowly and talk and steal Will's markers and eat the security pamphlet. Needless to say, it was a long flight. Towards the end, he started to calm down and I thought he might actually fall asleep in my lap. His eyes closed for maybe 10 seconds and then Will says loudly "Is the baby falling asleep??" Well, not anymore you little twerp! (Sorry, by this point I was tired of him and just wanted to focus on Nate. I was so mad at that Mom for just totally ignoring her kid. She acted like I was her babysitter or something!) To try and calm Nate back into sleeping, I sang "Puff the Magic Dragon" - which usually does the trick - about....150 times. At least it calmed him, but still sleep eluded us. Anyways, we landed and got our luggage fine and waited on the curb for Aunt L. On my way outside, a lady made eye contact with me and said "I am impressed by you." That made my day!!!!

After a short stop at Wendy's, we got on the road towards Clemmons and Nate eventually fell asleep. Hallelujah! He took about an hour nap, though fitfully, and then we headed to Nana's school to meet her 4th-grade class. Nate was on his best behavior and liked his first day of school! Nana had lots of fun showing off "Nate the Great" to her kids and teacher friends.

It had been a long day, so when we finally got to Clemmons, Nate crashed and took a 2 hour nap in his new pack-n-play, courtesy of Nana & Pops. All in all, it wasn't as bad as I had thought (of course) and I was super proud of my munchkin for being so flexible and doing well. Now, we just have to get home on Monday!!

Thank goodness for girlfriends

There is a group of girls that get together monthly to play Bunco. It's so much fun - we all pitch in $5, and at the end of the night there are 4 winners and we divy up the money. For those who don't know, to win at Bunco doesn't require any skill. Which frees you up to talk! And the hostess always provides dessert & drinks. Like I said, a really good time.

Well, the past few months, we haven't had enough people to play Bunco (ideally you want 8). Instead, those that can, have just been going out to dinner at a local restaurant. I have decided I actually like this better than Bunco...no one has to worry about hosting/cleaning their house, and you get to have a nice dinner! Five of us went out tonight to a new restaurant, Fulin Asian Cuisine. It's over at the new outdoor mall, The Avenue. Great food, great conversation, and great chocolate cake!

Every time I'm driving back from one of these "girls' night out" dinners, I find myself in the best mood! I got to clear my head and get away for awhile, and come home to my husband & son refreshed. I love them both dearly, but it always feels good to have a break. And gosh-darn-it, I deserve one! :) I love having girlfriends for so many reasons.....they listen, they make me laugh, they help me escape, they can relate to anything & everything I'm going through, and they appreciate me! So it got me thinking about this story that I found years ago, about girlfriends. I have no idea where I got it originally, but I love it because it's so true. Enjoy!

Get Yourself Some Girlfriends

Young and newly married, I relaxed under a pecan tree on a hot Texas summer day, drinking iced tea and getting to know my new sister-in-law, Estelle. Not much older than I, but already the mother of three, Estelle seemed to me experienced and wise. “Get yourself some girlfriends,” she advised, clinking the ice cubes in her glass. “You are going to need girlfriends. Go places with them; do things with them.”

What a funny piece of advice, I thought. Hadn’t I just gotten married? Hadn’t I just joined the couple-world? I was a married woman, for goodness sake, not a young girl who needed girlfriends.

But I listened to this new sister-in-law. I got myself some girlfriends.

As the years tumbled by, one after another, gradually I came to understand that Estelle knew what she was talking about. I remembered that she had said the word “girlfriends” with emphasis.

As I went along, I discovered the subtle differences between friends and girlfriends. You go to work with friends, go to dinner with friends, go to church with friends, belong to clubs with friends. You send friends greeting cards. You need friends in your life; all girlfriends were once friends.

But girlfriends are different.


I offer this praise of girlfriends:

Girlfriends bring casseroles & scrub your bathroom when you’re sick.
Girlfriends keep your children & keep your secrets.
Girlfriends give advice when you ask for it, sometimes you take it, and sometimes you don’t.
Girlfriends don’t always tell you that you’re right, but they’re always honest.
Girlfriends still love you, even when they don’t agree with your choices.
Girlfriends might send you a birthday card, and they might not. It doesn’t matter.
Girlfriends laugh with you & you don’t need canned jokes to start the laughter.
Girlfriends don’t talk about you behind your back.
Girlfriends don’t keep a calendar that lets them know who hosted the other last.
Girlfriends will give a party for your son or daughter, when they get married, or have a baby, in whichever order that comes!

Girlfriends are there for you, in an instant & truly, when the hard times come.
Girlfriends listen when you lose a job or a husband.
Girlfriends listen when your children break your heart.
Girlfriends listen when your parents’ minds & bodies fail.

My girlfriends bless my life.

Once we were young, with no idea of the incredible joys or the incredible sorrows that lay ahead. Nor did we know how much we would need each other. I want to tell younger women to take my sister-in-law’s advice.

Get yourself some girlfriends. You are going to need them.

New Tricks

Every week, Nate has new "tricks." Some of this week's are especially cute/funny, so I thought I'd share.

1). See picture on the left. This is our little Buddha. He loves sitting in this position and I love seeing his chubby little feet touch. (Please note the big-boy pj's we are trying out. He gets so hot in the ones with footies!)




2). See picture on the right. This is what we call "teepee." At first, I was calling it wheelbarrow, but then Greg informed me that was incorrect. My bad. This teepee thing resembles a "plank" position in Pilates, so he must be watching videos or something while I think he's asleep. Also in the teepee position, he has done one or two push-ups before. This kid is seriously strong!

3). The "Frogger" position. He gets on all fours and teases us like he's going to start crawling. (Nope, still not doing that.) Instead, he hops forward with both of his legs like a little frog. I swear, this kid is hilarious!

4). This morning, while drinking his 8 am bottle, he proceeded to put his foot in his mouth - while the bottle was still in there!! Wonder where he gets that big mouth from...

5). Another new trick is when he clasps his hands together and shakes them back & forth. It looks like he's praying very intently. For what, I'm not sure. But it's absolutely adorable.

6). Perhaps one of my favorite new things he's doing is the "pick & drop." He picks up a toy, usually licks it, and then extends his arm all the way to the side, and drops the object. It's like he's saying "Okay, I'm done with that; get it out of my face." He has a constant need to clear his space too. Like, if we put too many toys in front of him, he'll pick them up one-by-one and drop them to the side. Guess he likes things to be simplified and organized like his Mom!! :)

I'll try to get pictures of all of these, but action shots are pretty hard to come by these days since he's such a wild man. Stay tuned though!

Can you say STRESSBALL???

Anyone who knows me will say that I am a very organized (and pretty anal) person. Well, although I am extremely organized, I am also a HUGE stressball! I over-analyze everything and stress about every little detail. It annoys Greg, but hey, he knew what he was getting into when he married me. Comes with the package, buddy!



So, for about 2 months now, I've been stressing about an upcoming trip I'm taking with Nate. It will be our first plane trip, and it's just the two of us (Greg is staying in TN to do - what else - work). We are flying to NC to see my family & go to one of my best friend Erin's bridal shower. Well, I can't believe it, but it's almost here....Friday! Though I am looking forward to the trip, I am DREADING the "getting there" part. My mom keeps telling me "oh it's just an hour flight, you'll be fine." Yeah, well I'm not so sure. I think I am going to have a panic attack. You should see all my packing lists right now. One for me, one for Nate's clothes, and then one for Nate's supplies/food/toys etc. And of course, all of the lists are in Excel. (I LOVE Excel!)



Another thing about me is sometimes I expect the worst. I'm not a negative person, but I just expect the worst scenario, and then if it ends up better than that, I am pleasantly surprised instead of disappointed. (Note: this is what I did with Nate's labor and it worked! I expected it to be awful and it really wasn't! Not sure if it will go that smoothly with kiddo #2, but we'll see.) Anyways, so here is the worst-case scenario I am envisioning.....



We get to the airport and I can barely push the stroller/carseat/Nate while dragging a huge suitcase. We have to wait in line 30 minutes just to check our luggage, and then another 30 minutes at Security. I get up to Security and they tell me I can't carry on all the formula and baby food that I have in the diaper bag. It pains me to throw away baby food since it's so expensive. So I shove it down Nate's throat, while he's screaming. He screams all the way to the gate, and continues until we board. No one wants to sit next to crazy lady with the screaming baby, but then at the last moment, a hugely overweight smelly man does b/c he has no other options. Instead of falling asleep on the plane like everyone tells me he will, Nate goes berserk and cries the whole hour. Again, everyone around me hates us. I duck my head as we get off the plane and hurry to baggage claim. I find that the carseat and stroller are soaking wet somehow even though it's not raining outside. Again, I try to lug around the stroller contraption as well as Nate and our luggage. I collapse into Aunt L's car and head to Clemmons.....



So, hopefully it will be better than that (yes, I am being slightly dramatic right now). Our flight is Friday at 9 am so anyone that says prayers, please say one for us! :) (And then again Monday at 2:30 pm for our flight home too. Thanks!)

Jogging with my munchkin

I bought a jogging stroller when Nate was around 6 months old and could not wait to use it! I was excited to be able to do an activity I love, while spending time with my son at the same time. Well, Nate had other ideas. The first few times we went for a jog, he only lasted about 5 minutes before screaming (10 minutes on a good day). I wasn't sure what was bothering him - the wind in his face, the position he was in in the stroller, the speed, or something else. I just figured I'd keep trying it and hoping he'd catch on sooner or later. Well, lo and behold, he finally likes it!! The past month or so, we have had some really great runs (well, I use the term "run" very loosely....I have to start out EXTREMELY slow and then slowly pick up the speed. That's the only way he will tolerate it). And he LOVES playing with the buckle & straps (see pic). I'm sure in another month or so, he'll go through another phase where he hates the jogger and I'll have to pull him out to carry him, while I push the empty stroller (and look like an idiot). Hey, I'm used to looking like an idiot - that comes with the territory of being a new mom!

Addendum to Mother's Day post

How could I forget to include this??

Nate gave me my first Mother's Day present.... this morning after I woke him up, I was changing his diaper. Whew, it was a stinky one - lots of poop. And since he is such a wild man in the mornings, he was kicking and flailing about as usual. Well, he kicked my hand while I was changing him and my hand landed in his poop. Awesome. Got it stuck underneath my nail and everything. Gosh, it's great being a mom...... :)

Happy Mother's Day to me!

This is my first official Mother's Day! Of course, I thought when I was pregnant last May, that that was my first Mother's Day. I have a vivid memory of eating two sausage biscuits on the back porch last year (yes, I was preggo & not afraid to chow down), while Greg was still in bed sleeping. He didn't get me a card or even acknowledge the day. Yeah, that was a pretty pathetic Mother's Day, so we should just say that one didn't count...

If you're wondering, my hubbie did much better this year! Gave me a wonderful - and mushy! - card, some beautiful tulips, and brownies bites from the Publix bakery. Score! And somehow my 9 month-old son managed to sign his name on the card. He is incredibly advanced. I am also told I am going to have a romantic dinner awaiting for me tonight once Nate goes to bed. We'll see! Either way, this year has been a HUGE improvement over last year (couldn't have been much worse)!

Being a first-time mom brings about SO many new changes in your life. Basically, your world is turned upside-down! I thought it would be fun to name a few of my new favorite things since becoming a mom....
1) Seeing Nate smile first thing in the morning when I walk into his room
2) Listening to his infectious giggle
3) Watching him horseplay with his dad
4) Playing "dress-up" with all of his cute clothes
5) Watching him play with toys; he gets such a focused look on his face
6) Having him fall asleep on my shoulder on our way upstairs for a nap
7) Kissing his toes
8) Rocking and singing "Puff the Magic Dragon"
9) Watching him sleep with that cute little tush in the air
10) Did I mention that I love his smile??? :)

This list could go on for days but I'll stop at #10! Nate has changed my life in more ways than I could ever imagine. He is the light of my life and I'm so grateful for him! Not every day is a picnic, but every moment is worth it, to be able to call myself "Nate's Mom."

Blog Virgin

I'm new to this whole "blog" thing. I love reading other people's blogs, but have been skeptical of starting my own. What do I have to say that anyone would care to read?!



Well, both of my sisters have a blog, and have pressured me into starting one. I think it's because they know that I have a lot of ....shall we say.....unique stories to tell. You see, I'm a first-time mom. That in itself is a BIG adventure. So, now, this blog will give me a place to share my adventures with the world. (Well, maybe not the whole world....I mean, I don't think anyone other than my family and a few close friends will be reading this!)



My traveling companions along this crazy journey called life are my wonderful husband, Greg, and my almost 9 month-old son, Nathan (otherwise known as "Nate the Great"). In my opinion, I have a fairytale life with my two boys....I have a great marriage, a beautiful & healthy son, a loving family, and lots of hilarious friends. What more could a gal want? We want more kids, and hopefully will have them someday, but for now, I'm content to continue being a stay-at-home mom of my little wild man. And oh is he WILD....(more on that later).



So, I guess that brings my first official post to an end. Hey, that wasn't so hard...

Here goes nothing!! :)