Archive for the ‘Family update’ Category

2008 in Review - Part 2

Monday, December 29th, 2008

Of course this is also the year when Nate really stepped off into being his own person (literally). The period from 8 months to 19 months is a pretty dramatic one. Personally, this has really been a year for bonding with the little guy now that he reacts and learns and interacts so effectively. I’m looking forward to more of the same.

So many accomplishments… here are just a few.

He started moving on his own,…
Nate 20080203

learned to crawl,…
Nate learns a real crawl

learned to walk,…
Decides to Walk Video1 ADPCM

and kick a ball.
IMG_7667

He ate more solid foods,…
Carrot as artistic medium

tried blueberries (still a favorite),…
Blueberries for dinner

tried ice cream,…
Learning to lick

tried birthday cake,…
Cake mash!

and apples (as well as anything else he can get his hands on).
Apple Face

He learned to play games,…
Peek a...

and color,…
Abstract, Perhaps?

and recognize letters.

He met some fuzzy friends,…
IMG_6669

and wet ones,…
IMG_7268_edited

and some real ones too.
Nate & Nico

Mostly he’s just growing up while continuing to be the cutest kid EVAR…

Nate loves bath time! Blue eyes IMG_4230

IMG_8590

2008 in Review - Part 1

Saturday, December 27th, 2008

Ahh, the end of December, when the Christmas festivities transition to a swarm of Best of…, List of…, Top x of… posts for the year in passing.

I’ve decided to not resist this trend and write up a few short posts about eventful things that have happened in the last year. This will also allow me to schedule some posts for the next week when I might otherwise neglect to do anything on the internet.

So part 1 corresponds roughly with the first quarter of this year which found me in the highlands of Colorado for work… and just a little play.
IMG_0709

We also took our first plane trip with Nate to see family in Texas. This started out as a truly horrible trip with flight delays and illness and grungy hotel vouchers… but Nate was a trooper. The trip itself was a lot of fun and we enjoyed seeing my G-Ma C and the Wilczynski family.
Generations

Christmas Wrap-up!

Saturday, December 27th, 2008

Or should that be unwrapped?

Another Christmas has come and gone with family and presents and way too much good food.

My parents drove out Christmas Eve and joined us in the ceremonial wrapping paper thrashing yesterday morning. Everybody was curious how Nate would react, and after some encouragement we got him to look in his stocking.
IMG_8460

However, after the initial novelty wore off, he pretty much played with the first toy that was opened and ignored everything else. At least until my Dad opened the radio controlled helicopters (yes 2!) that Mom bought him. Nate was pretty interested in those, “up! up!” he shouted. Dad and I had a pretty good time trying to figure out how not to crash them instantly… and an even better time reverse engineering one to fix the other (they were fairly fragile.. but luckily far more repairable than I expected).
IMG_8462IMG_8463

My sister and her fam drove up from the Philly area to join us just in time for K’s marvelous Christmas dinner (Mmm… spiced ham with red pepper jelly…).

Today we took some time to take portraits of the kids. That went pretty well until Nate turned into a ravenous beast and had to be restrained.
IMG_8544
… or at least that’s how this picture looks. He’s actually laughing madly. I mean, in a good way.

After that we went outside to get in some sledding. Although it rained on Christmas eve, we got some fresh snow on Christmas and a bit more today. That put a bit of fluff on top of the crunchy snow underneath.

IMG_8549 IMG_8560 IMG_8571

More video

Wednesday, December 17th, 2008

Nate spent time with Daddy this morning identifying letters of the alphabet. He got 16 out of 25 (we don’t have any “I”s out right now, not sure why).

When he says “R” is cracks me up. He makes the sign for “Z” which is cute.

Some video

Tuesday, December 16th, 2008

Because Heidi asked for it…here is a video of Nate from today, hiding under the blanket.

Jersey Pics

Sunday, December 7th, 2008

Some much overdue pics from T-Day In Millville, NJ, have finally hit the gallery. Nate had fun playing with the cousins and we all enjoyed the Millville holiday parade.

IMG_7765 IMG_7777 IMG_7784
IMG_7796 IMG_7819 IMG_7827
IMG_7841 IMG_7864 IMG_7856

Thanksgiving and Black Friday.

Friday, November 28th, 2008

First off, I hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving! We’re visiting with my sister for the weekend and are having a great time. Joe (my bro-in-law) and I played in a traditional football game this morning, and then we all feasted on Heidi’s fantastic dinner. Finish off the evening with some games and it was a good day.

Of course, I haven’t gone to sleep yet because I’m trying to harvest some savings from the Black Friday deals online. After much hunting and searching I’m ready to make my purchases but it’s taking forever to process through the check-out pages. The e-Commerce sites are in serious need of some crowd control. Anyhow, I’ve been wathcing for a deal on a flat-screen display for some time, and I think I’ve settled on this one. Also, I’m picking up some 2G of fast CAS4 RAM ($9.99 after rebate)… Sorry John, I guess I screwed you over after all.

Another great deal I saw as I was plowing along was this one at RitzCamera. If you are in need for stocking up on digital media, this one is for you. SanDisk 4GB CF or SD for FREE after the mail-in rebate Snooze you lose.. Really. I was seriously tempted to get a few more cards… but I resisted… since I’ve already got more than I need.

Now if only my order will clear…

EDIT: 2:15AM: Woo-hoo! Cleared. Must sleep now.

Fun with apples and other things.

Sunday, November 9th, 2008

Nate enjoys apples, but it seems that he’s decided they’re a new artistic medium. Check out his particular sample:
20081102_7584

Nate’s also learned to run behind a soccer ball. I’d say he was dribbling it, but he mostly follows it wherever it goes.
IMG_7667

I guess its OK as long as it keeps him smiling.
IMG_7625

Putting away the dishes

Monday, November 3rd, 2008

This morning I was hastily running around the kitchen trying to throw together a crock pot recipe (that had way too many pre-crock pot steps) before heading out for the day. Nate was doing a great job of getting in my way and under my feet as usual. While I was chopping the vegetables and trying to prevent the bacon from burning, I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Nate was playing in the dishwasher full of clean dishes. He loves to take the silverware out of the basket and play with it, and I have found spoons and forks in some very interesting places. I told him “No, no, put those back and close the door,” and went back to work, not really paying attention to whether he did or not.

Once I got to the point where everything was in the crock pot cooking away, I decided I’d unload the dishwasher. I opened the door and there was no silverware, and my first thought was “oh crap, I’m going to be tracking down silverware for months.” Imagine my surprise when I later went to get a spoon out of the drawer and found that all the silverware from the dishwasher had been shoved into the front of the drawer, and the drawer closed.

Thanks Nate for helping me unload the dishwasher this morning.

Happy Halloween

Friday, October 31st, 2008

20081027_7529

Earlier this week, Nate and I went to the Moms Club Halloween event, and Nate had a blast running around in his costume with the big kids, and thought it was super neat that people put stuff into his pumpkin. He’d been carrying around the pumpkin ever since I got the Halloween decorations out of storage. He also carried around his little Cookie Monster talking doll, that did most of the talking for him.

This evening Chris took Nate out in the neighborhood to go trick-or-treating. Nate started off strong walking down the street carrying his pumpkin, but by the second house, Dad was carrying the pumpkin, and soon after he was carrying a very tired Cookie Monster too (Nate refused to take a nap today, and we knew he wasn’t going to last long tonight). Chris said that when they walked up a driveway, Nate would say “ding ding”, but when they got to the house, he wouldn’t say anything and just looked startled. We’d practiced saying Trick or Treat all day, but I think the situation was just too unfamiliar for him. He did sign Thank You and say “B-Bye” when prompted though. By the time they got back home, Cookie Monster was asleep. He ended up with a fairly good haul of candy, most of which Chris and I will enjoy. He did get some little kid friendly snacks too (Teddy Grahams and Goldfish), so he won’t be completely treat-less.

Thanks goes out to those who offered a little kid option. It wouldn’t have been anything I would have thought to do, but I will remember to in the future when I know there will be little kids coming.