Strange Child

Nate using a slice of apple to feed himself a Cheerio.

A new way to play with his ring stacker.

Trying to walk in his daddy's shoes.

I'm sure all kids do funny things, and that my child really isn't that unique, but lately Nate has done some strange things.

The first, and funniest, is that he tries to use other objects to feed himself his cheerios. At a restaurant in December, we caught him using the tip of a crayon to stick in the hole of the cheerio, pick it up, and eat it. The other day I found him doing the same thing (pictured above) with a piece of apple. He was successful with both the crayon and the apple!

In the bathtub Nate plays with two different toys - a bathtub book that he got from his Nana for Christmas, and a set of barnyard animals. Now that he has the book, he uses it as a raft for his animals so they float. The other night while I was gone, Stephen said Nate spent his entire bath time lining up his animals in perfect order on the ledge of the bathtub, knocking them off, and then starting over. We're afraid he inherited some of his mother's semi-OCD.

One of his favorite toys is a ring stacker. I guess since he mastered stacking the rings on the normal way he's moved on to turning the pole upside down, using a ring to hold it in place, and stacking more rings on top of the base (pictured above).

I could go on some more, but I'll spare you for now.

First basketball drills

Christmas in January

With all the busy-ness and traveling during the holidays, we left Nate out. So last week I finally ordered his gift - a Little Tikes basketball goal. I've been wanting to get it for him for a while, to start his basketball stardom off at an early age. :) It's perfect for his height, and will grow with him for a few years. If we can just get him to do more than chase the ball around and actually put it in the hoop, his future might look brighter. He doesn't quite seem to have the skills of Christian Laettner, but we'll be working on that.

Random

Stephen picked up this hat at Steak n' Shake on our trip back from Kentucky. We think Nate looks pretty cute in it.

One day last week Stephen put Nate's socks on him. Then Nate went and found another pair of socks and took them to Stephen, so he put them on his hands.

It's a girl!

I had great intentions of posting more yesterday, but I ended up with a stomach virus in the night on Wednesday night and can no longer brag about my strong stomach and not throwing up for years at a time. Stephen stayed home from work yesterday to take care of Nate and me and then came down with the same thing last night, but decided he had to go in today. He's crazy! We're praying that the virus doesn't get to Nate.

So, after two all-night 15 to 16 hour drives to Kentucky and back, and some really good, relaxing visits with both of our families for the holidays, we came home to find out that Baby Blan #2 is a GIRL! We're both very excited. Stephen isn't sure what to think about having a girl. I think he really expected it to be another boy, but he's adjusting to the idea and I'm sure she'll be a daddy's girl just like Nate is a mama's boy.

As for me, I'm a little nervous about the drama and emotion a girl might bring since I lean hard toward the non-emotional side of life. But I am very excited about all the pink I'll be buying in the years to come. (Baby Girl Blan will have a lifetime supply of pink corduroys!) I'm also excited about regaining the mother/daughter bond that I've been missing for 8 months now, and only hope that I'll be in her life for longer than my mother was in mine. And I hope she hopes that too!

Christmas with the Iles's

Nate with a strange hat. Thanks, Daddy!

Elizabeth with Sam, my brother Nathan's son.

Nate and Sam.
Nate is becoming more aware of Sam, but I think Sam is still oblivious to Nate.

Nate kept trying to touch him, but very apprehensively. Not sure what to think of him.

Christmas with the Blans

Nate and his friend Jacob Shultz playing after church. I can't wait until they're a little older and can really play together when we visit Lewisport.

Nate's Christmas gift from Uncle Tim, Aunt Annie, Camo, and Kate. It's not his favorite yet, so Mom and Dad will have to borrow it for a while. :)

Our nieces, Cameron and Katie, ripping into their gifts.

Nate opening his gifts, with some help.

At the zoo

Nate kept a firm grip on my shirt, making sure I wasn't going anywhere.
(Also, the first views of my growing baby belly)

Poking at the bird.

Yesterday, on December 19th, the high was 73 degrees and it was a beautiful, sunny day here in Fort Worth. We had some free tickets to the zoo (thanks Kari Davis!), so we took advantage of the day by spending it outside with the animals.

Nate's favorite part, or at least my favorite part, was going inside the adult size bird cage. Nate and I had been in it before, but this time I bought a couple sticks with seeds on them to feed the birds. They were landing all over my hands and arms, and Nate didn't know what to think! He was very brave and held the seed stick, but poked at the birds instead and shook them off the stick when they landed on it. Elizabeth got a few good pictures of the event.

Building Towers

Getting started ...

Getting taller ...

It's still standing?

My sister Elizabeth, Nate's Aunt Liza, arrived in Fort Worth on Wednesday. Nate is a different kid when someone else is in the house. He follows her around instead of me and stands outside her door when it's closed waiting for her to come back out. It's quite refreshing actually!

Elizabeth has also managed to teach Nate to help build a tower instead of knock it down. Here they are building towers together.

Close-ups

Some close-ups of Nate's sweet little face.

Nate on the move

Finally, the update you've been longing for ...

Nate is walking all over the place. He started really taking off Thanksgiving week while we were in Kentucky, and he's slowly picking up pace. For some reason he still stays pretty much by my side during the day while Stephen is at work, but when we're all here together he feels more secure or something and wanders around the house quite a bit. He likes to arrange and rearrange anything and everything. The above picture is a good example. It's a picture of how we found the bathtub after he was in bed last night.

Our biggest trial with him has been keeping him from throwing everything in the trash. We finally gave in and moved the trash can to the laundry room, which is very inconvenient for us! But after losing a car key and finding shoes, socks, sippie cups, toys, and many more random things in the trash, we decided it was better to move the can instead of lose more important/expensive items!

Dance Machine

Watch him go ...

Professional Pics

After 15 months of Nate, I finally took him to get some professional pictures made. We were going to do it last Christmas when we were home, but places were booked up for Christmas. Then I planned on it again months ago, but just never did it. So yesterday, after a lot of chasing, a few tears, and several cheerio bribes, we left the portrait studio with some decent pictures. I've posted a few of the best.

iPod Nato

Some of our friends threw a birthday/costume party Saturday night. We were low on creative juices, so we chose our favorite brand as our inspiration - Apple. Stephen and I dressed as the Mac and PC guys from the Apple commercials (I'm missing a picture of us), and I made Nate an iPod costume. He's supposed to be the iPod Nano, but Stephen said he was the iPod Nato. He did great in his costume and didn't even seem to notice it was on. He even won second place in the kids costume competition. I was hoping for some better pictures, but he was on the go all night and this is all we have. Maybe we'll get some more on Halloween.

Runny noses

Nate has had a runny nose for weeks now. Thankfully it hasn't turned into anything more, but I'm constantly wiping away his snot and running to him every time he sneezes, before he goes after it himself. Yesterday morning I had just wiped Nate's nose and the tissue was sitting on the couch for use again soon. Then Stephen sneezed and sweet little Nate picked up his used tissue and offered it up to Stephen to use.

Nate's really changing and becoming more and more aware of the world. He's understanding some words, mostly food words it seems, like "drink", "snack", and "cheerios". He definitely knows what "walk" means and would hold onto our hands and walk the day away if he could. He understands "nap" and many times drops his head to my shoulder when I ask if he's ready for one. So many changes so quickly! My baby is turning into a little boy.

Bathtime Fun

Walking

Nate is getting better and better at walking, but he's still not quite brave enough to take off on his own. Here's some footage:

Kentucky

A couple weeks ago we made the trip to Kentucky. The main reason for going was to attend Stephen's cousin Ryan's wedding, but Nate and I went early to spend the week with my sister and to work some more on Mom's house. The first part of the week was productive, and then I got sick. Sinus/respiratory infection on top of pregnancy symptoms took me out. Thankfully, Stephen picked up my slack when he arrived and it still made for a fairly productive week. Sadly, I only took one picture the entire time I was there. My brother and his family came in for the weekend, so here's a picture of Nate and his cousin Sam "playing" together.

Coming soon ...

Nausea, extreme fatigue, and a clingy, not very independent 14 month old are keeping me from posting some new pictures. Update coming soon ...

Baby Blan #2

We found out this week that I'm pregnant! I had a sonogram on Thursday and it looks like I'm 7 weeks along. My guess was less than that, but I'm very happy to know that the nausea and fatigue will end a little sooner than I thought.

Due Date: I was lying on the table having the sonogram and most of my nervousness (the nervousness that comes with having had a miscarriage - you always wonder if you'll see a heartbeat or be given unwanted news) had passed because the doctor saw the heartbeat and said everything looked great. Then she told me my due date - May 14. A mixture of emotions came rushing to me. First of all, May 14 is my late father's birthday. He was born May 14, 1942. But that date became even more significant last year when we buried my mother on that day - a coincidence she would have been very happy about because she loved those associations.

So now Baby Blan #2 is expected to arrive on that same day. To bring life instead of death, and to bring joy during a time that would have brought more grief and remembrance of the days spent last year sitting next to my mother's deathbed. As you can imagine, I'm overwhelmed with gratefulness to the Lord for this gift. To be reminded that he "heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds."

And of course I know the chances of the baby actually arriving on this day are slim to none, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't expect it. Things like that just seem to happen in our family.

Boy or girl? Right now I think we're both hoping for a boy so Nate will have a playmate, but of course we'll be excited either way.