Pictures. Lots of Pictures.

A few shots of our merry Christmas:

Nathan and PawPaw at the children's mass

"Texting" with Uncle Ben

Wow, Santa!

Hanging with Great Grandpa (Nate loved driving his wheelchair)
The cousins: Nico, Logan, Santiago, and Nathan

Cousin Logan

Red Letter Day

I'd like to take a moment to brag about my sweet husband. After many weeks of anxiously awaiting the results of his Professional Engineering exam, a torturous eight hour long test meant to measure the knowledge gained during an engineer's first four years of work (for civil engineers this covers an especially wide array of subject matter), the results are finally in. As I'm sure you can tell by the title of this post (and probably would guess anyhow because he is such a hard-working, smartie pants), Jason passed and is now a licensed engineer. This is an enormous accomplishment, and I am so incredibly proud of him! Hopefully he won't be too embarrassed that I'm sharing it with the world. :)

A message from Elmo (and Nathan)

(pssst...you should ask Jason what Elmo sounds like)

Oh, Christmas Tree

(singing)

My little guy started saying "Mama" on Saturday.

I am still on cloud nine (and I may not ever come down).

CONGRATS!

So, for those of you who know Charlie (Carrie's brother), you know that he is going through the biggest challenge a high schooler goes through (other than finding a homecoming or prom date), which is applying to college. He went on visits to TCU and A&M, and loved both campuses equally. Since he applied he has been on pins and needles, but this week he was accepted to A&M! He is totally pumped, I am really happy for him. Carrie and I both would have been excited either way, but I am a little partial to Aggieland. I am glad that another member of the family will bleed maroon, and now the Longhorns are matched, two to two.

The next challenge is convincing Carrie that season tickets are a GREAT idea, so everybody feel free to tell her that.

Great job Charlie! Carrie, Nate, and I could not be more proud of you.

Christmas thoughts

I cannot remember when I have been more excited about the Christmas season (and it is no secret that Christmas and all of its magic have long been the most anticipated part of my year). But this year is my sweet baby's first Christmas. I know he doesn't understand what the decorations, music, Advent candles, or gifts are for. I know that he will probably love playing with the wrapping paper and boxes more than the gifts we are so excited to give him. I know that he will wiggle through Christmas Eve mass like any other service (and probably even more so since it is extra long). But I just can't help but think that this wonderful time of the year is even more special because we have our precious son to share it with.

Check out Nate's reflection in the ornament...
Pretty much the funniest thing I've ever seen.

Clearly, I struck out with this one...

Dada

So lately Nate has been "talking" a lot more, not just making his pterodactyl noises (we are now referring to them as his Nateosourus Rex noises, thanks to his new t-shirt). He is sounding out repetitive "words," mostly "AYA" and "ADA," so when said repetitively "ADA" sounds like "DADA," which it pretty cool. He is manipulating his tongue and getting more control every day. In fact, yesterday he folded his tongue in the front (a new trick). When he is holding or looking at something he seems so curious, like he's really concentrating and thinking. I guess this means he is going to be curious like his dad, so we're in big trouble. I can't wait for the day I come home and Nate has taken apart one of toys in an attempt to "fix" it (I used to do that all the time. I was able to put it back together in working order a little more then 50% of the time. Hope he is a little better than me).

Last night Nate did another new thing: His high chair is on casters, and he crawled over to the chair from the living room and was trying to climb up the back side of the chair. I helped him keep from falling as he pulled up on the cross bar (it came up to his chest while standing). He leaned on the bar and started walking. He had converted the high chair into a walker, and we walked all over the kitchen. He loved it!

Nathan is learning things so quickly and always trying to advance his "skills." Cabinets and drawers trump any toy you put in front of him, and a new texture or object captivates him instantly. This has all happened so fast. Hard to believe that he used to just lay on me and sleep most of the day away.

Simplicity

Yesterday I found myself in a pinch to create something to capture Nathan's attention while I sat down to work for a few minutes (looming deadlines and curious baby boys can be a tough combination). I ended up pouring a few beans into his mini Nursery Water bottles to make shakers (he loves to shake, shake, shake). I watched him study his little instruments and then proceed to happily play with them. No lights. No music. No gears or wheels or batteries required. Simplicity is a beautiful thing.

Thanksgiving Pics

Sorry this one is blurry...It was too cute to pass up!


Clapping for the Aggies.
So much sweeter than whooping, in my opinion.


Future QB, Current QT
(Forgive me, I cannot help my corniness.)


Experiments in Sharing


More family fun

Cyber Monday

I thought I would post a quick picture-less update for all of you who are partaking in "Cyber-Monday" and stopped by the blog while Christmas shopping. We had a great time down in Houston with Tata and Toto this weekend. The entire downstairs of their house is tile and wood, so Nate was able to cruise all over the place. Also, because there are no dogs he was able to crawl and play everywhere, and I know he enjoyed the free reign he had over everything. Nate wore his 12th Man jersey Thursday, but it had no effect on the Aggies and their football team. He had to witness another slaughter, and at this point I think he is really questioning how I can be so loyal to such a frustrating and disappointing team. All I can say is that it is only temporary, and hopefully by the time he's old enough to care we'll have things turned around. At least he can root for the Horned Frogs because his mommy's alma mater is turning into quite the perennial powerhouse. And for all those haters out there that want to say that it is because they are in a weak conference, I would say that the fact that the big boys don't want to play them, and the ones that do won't play in Fort Worth speaks to what the football world thinks of them.

Enough about that. Logan came over on Friday to see Nathan, and they played football together. Logan could barely hold it together to kick the ball because he was cracking himself up. Pretty hilarious. They also played with some of Logan's toys. It was an interesting site to watch an eight-and-a-half month old and nine-and-a-half month old try to figure out the concept of sharing.

When we got back home we put up the Christmas tree, which Nate thought was really fun to touch. I hope once the decorations are on we can keep him a safe distance away. We have been successful keeping Gracie and the killer tail from doing any damage, so I am confident that we can keep Nate from pulling the tree down.

Check back later for pictures.

"Take Books Out"

I know Jason introduced you to Nathan's favorite game, "Take Stuff Out," in an earlier post. More recently, this has game has evolved into "Take Books Out" (but don't be fooled, once the books have all been removed from the bookshelves and baskets, he moves on to whatever else is neatly put away). I couldn't help but snap a few pictures to document the hilarity of this process (I promise I'm also working on teaching our little explorer about putting things away, though it doesn't seem to be sticking just yet).

Thanksgiving

Most of you know about Ben, but most of you may not know when it all started. Last year on Thanksgiving he was taking Tylenol for what he was told was a "pinched nerve", "sciatica", or "a bone spur." We were all anxiously awaiting the arrival of Nate, in fact we had a small family baby shower (included in the items was a Longhorn onsie). It was a great Thanksgiving: A&M beat Texas for the second year in a row, Fran got canned, and Nate was on his way, healthy and happy. It wasn't long before we found out what kind of fight Ben was in for. We were all scared and nervous, and none of us could do anything to help. This year has been full of its challenges. Times are uncertain and money is tight, but it is moments like this that we can all step back and be thankful for the things that REALLy matter. We aren't thankful for the things in our life, we are thankful for the people and the memories we have had this past year. I am thankful for my wife, for Nate, for my new job, my family, my health, and for the many blessings in my life.

Over the past year there was a part of me that worried about the unknown, and there has been a lot of unknown. Ben's health was a huge piece of that, but today I happy to share (with those who don't know) that his surgery went well, he is in physical therapy, his body is responding well to the latest rounds of chemo, and he is getting back to the things he used to do. So this year I have so many moments to be thankful for, especially this one:

HAVE A HAPPY AND THANKFUL THANKSGIVING

Christmas Bust

So today after work I went by Toys 'R' Us to pick up a gift for Christmas. It was something we read about online and thought that it was a truly great gift, but when I got there it was a complete bust. Needless to say, it was quite frustrating to be totally disappointed and realize that the gift that was to be a great one was a total bust. While I was there I witnessed several rather odd sites. First was a woman at customer service in the front of the store who was going down a list of items asking the sales staff to find them all. I saw two clerks running through the store looking for this woman's items. Basically, she just stood there as they did the work for her. I thought it was odd and kinda lazy on her part.

I was also floored at the incredible machine that is High School Musical. They have their own section of the store, and it's bigger than the section for Fisher Price, Legos, or any other staple of the toy industry. They have board games, scooters, figurines, bikes, and a random smattering of things with the logo and likeness of the cast. Kinda creepy. I mean, we never had this kind of phenomenon. Saved By the Bell was about as big as it got, and I never saw a Zack Morris Scooter, or a Kelly Kapowski easy bake oven. I just think it is a bit over the top.

Another site that seemed strange was a mother with her son (he was about 2 or 3) going through the book aisle. As the boy found a book he wanted to read he would take it off the shelf, sit down on the ground, and start reading. His mother would then sit down and join him. You would have thought we were in the middle of the public library. Then it struck me that is what adults do at Barnes & Noble, and I convinced myself it was not that odd.

The final memorable thing from my unfruitful excursion to toy mecca, was a girl that was walking down the aisle with her parents and she was pointing to just about every other thing on the shelves saying, "I want that. I want that. And that. And that. Are you getting all this Mommy?" she asked her mother who was frantically writing down her daughters requests. I found that to be a microcosm of our society and our insatiable wanting and our "want it, need it now" mentality. I vowed at that moment that my children will make wish lists to Santa Clause, and we will not take them to the store so they can walk down the aisles of never ending toys and "want."

I can only hope that my family, and others, will learn from these hard time we are living in and impress upon our children that things are just things. This is a lesson I have learned in the past year, as I have found that things don't have value, but the memories tied to them is where the value comes from. Nathan has a giraffe (Geoffrey, see older posts to learn more), and this simple toy came as part of a play mat that he has long out grown, yet this little stuffed animal is his fearless companion that has been by his side through his first 8 months of his life. I could never imagine getting rid of it, but looking back I never would have thought it would become such an integral part of Nate's life.

Well Nate just woke up. I went to put him back down, and have lost my train of thought. I now realize this thing is so long already, so I will just end it here. Goodnight.

New favorite thing

Ok, I'm sure you are all sick of hearing about my "favorite" thing that Nate is doing, but he is what this blog is all about (since the election is over probably no more politics). So, as I was saying, when I come home Nate is either one of two places: in his little cruiser or in his room on the floor with his mommy. Lately, he has been in his room more times than not. When I walk in the house Carrie says, "Look who's here. It's Daddy!" Nate will turn towards the door, a huge smile and a giggle comes out, and he starts crawling towards me. When he gets to me he pulls up using my pant leg and reaches up to be picked up. THAT is my favorite thing. I will try to catch it on video and post it. It probably won't be the same but at least you can see his mad crawling skills.

For those of you who have not been around Nate lately, let me fill you in on HIS new favorite thing. For whatever reason he loves to drink from a real cup (big boy cup as we call it). Basically, if I have a cup of ice cold water, he wants his fair share. It is really hilarious to see. After he takes his sip he will pat the cup, almost as if to say, "This is good stuff." He just cracks me up.

Once final thing, and my mom will appreciate this, when he goes for something he is not supposed to, like the night light (his current favorite), and Mom says "No, no. We don't touch that," he turns back to her smiles and giggles. And less than 5 seconds later he is back at it. Some how I feel this is a genetic predisposition. If you don't believe me, ask my mom which gray hairs belong to me.

Christmas music BEFORE Thanksgiving

I remember watching football on Thanksgiving when I was a kid, and that day clearly marked the beginning of the Christmas commercials. The one that always sticks out to me is the Folgers "Home for the Holidays" commercial. From that point forward it was 30 days of Christmas. A month of smiling faces and holiday wishes, all leading up to the big family get together full of food, laughs, and presents. My mom would break out the Christmas Cd's the day after Thanksgiving while we started decorating the house. That is all a thing of the past. I was in downtown yesterday, and there is Christmas music playing! I get the decorating thing, they want it all in place for the lighting ceremony on Friday after Thanksgiving, but music? Really!?!

Anyway, there is nothing I can say or do that will change this trend. I will say that I am very excited to get the Christmas decorations out. I think Nate is going to really love Christmas. It will be very special for us. A lot has happened this year, and we all have a lot to be thankful for, and a lot to celebrate. I can't wait to see how excited Nate gets when we let him tear into the paper. If you have ever seen what he can do to a magazine, you know he has some destructive tendencies when it comes to paper. You can be sure that there are going to be great pictures and videos.

Is Chewing an Instinct?

So last night after dinner Carrie pulls out this canister of "Sweet Potato Puffs". They are like a cereal for toddlers. Though they don't give an age range, they basically say that if your baby can crawl and pinch the food in between their index finger and thumb they are good to go. So I figured, why not? Nate can handle this. I put one on his tray, and he grabbed it with his hand and brought it to his mouth in an attempt to eat it. He didn't quite grasp the concept of "open hand, shove in mouth". To his defense, the little cereal stuck to his hand, and that is an advanced concept for an 8 month old. I put another piece on the tray and showed him how to pinch it with his finger and thumb, and after only two demonstrations he mastered it. Unfortunately, he still couldn't quite get to the "place in mouth" part. He would open is mouth, open his fingers to release the cereal puff, but it was stuck to his finger. I decided to give him a piece myself, just to see what he thought about it. When I put it in his mouth he instantly started chewing it! The things that he learns so quickly never cease to amaze me, but just the concept of chewing something for the first time, and chewing it enough to the point of being able to swallow it is pretty cool. This kid is constantly figuring stuff out, and I am so happy when I'm there to witness it. I never want to miss a thing.

On a quick related side-note, those who REALLY know me know I LOVE to sneeze. For whatever reason I always have, and because of that I never hold it back. It comes out almost like an explosion (not in a gross mucus way though). It is a lot like my dad when he sneezes if you have ever been there for that. Anyway, the point is Nate LOVES to sneeze too! No matter what his mood, if he sneezes it is always followed by a HUGE smile. Sometimes if there are a couple in a row he even laughs. Last night he was really having a hard time at bedtime because he's getting more teeth, so he is really in pain and uncomfortable. He was in a full-on crying attack when he suddenly sneezed. That instant he went from bawling to smiling. Some things are just unmistakably passed from father to son. I got I from my dad, and now Nate does it. Mock it if you will, but that is how I see it.

Weekend fun

While Jason and Charlie visited A&M this weekend, Nathan and I hung out with Noni, Paw Paw, and Great Aunt Char. We later celebrated Aunt Heather's 29th birthday. Such fun! During our long drive home the little man decided to grace us with what we lovingly call an M.O.P.D. (mother of all poopy diapers). Suffice it to say that diaper changing is difficult enough when you have a wiggly eight-month-old boy, but when he has been in the car for several hours and is desparate to move around, it is darn near impossible —except for when you stop at the Whataburger in Midlothian, TX. There you will find a flat screen tv built into the wall above the changing table...Seriously.

{Too cool for my kisses already?!!!}

Well, good morning to you too!

Eight

Months, that is. That's how old our little guy is today. He also "graduated" from his Bugs class at the Little Gym this afternoon, so that means he'll be moving up into the Birds class next week (I know, "Bugs" and "Birds." You probably think I'm ridiculous, but it's been such a great experience for him). When he first started his class three months ago he couldn't even sit up on his own, and now he is pulling up to stand every chance he gets. It's amazing how quickly little ones grow right before your eyes. The class has also been a gift for me because it's allowed me to meet several other moms my age, which is more challenging than you might think. I didn't have my camera at the Little Gym, so I snapped these when we got home:

Little Aggie

Well, if you read the last post you know that Nate had a blast at Owen's birthday party. When we got home he was all about the A&M game. Yes it was against OU, and yes it was a slaughter. But, like his Dad, Nate watched it for as long as he could. There is no real relevance to this post except to say that Carrie took a picture of Nathan watching the game, and I set it as my desktop background this morning. I have two screens here at work, and I typically have things open on both screens, but all day I have kept one open so I could see him. I miss my family all day, but pictures get me through. For those of you who have experienced it you know what it is like when you come home to your kid and he smiles. It is the greatest feeling in the world. No matter how bad a day I have had, or how bad traffic may have been, it all disappears when I walk in and see that smiling face. Here is the picture I have been staring at all day:

Little party man

Saturday Nathan went to his pal Owen's 1st birthday party. Owen's parents, Bill and Cindy, are friends of ours – wonderful people with a precious little boy. It's amazing to think that their baby is now one, and ours is just four months behind him! Cindy found a really cool inflatable ball pit for the kids to play in, which Nate clearly loved...

{Bill, Birthday Boy Owen, Nathan, and Jason}