wysereeser + 1

The other day Nate was taking a class for big siblings at Meriter. During break he said ” Mom, what am I going to be when I grow up.” ” I gave the typical answer ” You can be whatever you want to be.” I said, “What do you want to be?” He said “I want to be a dad, like daddy”. Scott did not hear this interchange so I turned my head to tell him. While I was telling him, Nate decided to add “so I can have coffee”

Nate seemed to have a rough week during and after Christmas with his behavior and attitude. We resorted to a sticker system, where he would get a sticker for a good morning and one for a good evening and one for doing something good that day. While it only lasted about 5 days (Nate has lost interest) I feel we haven’t had to resort to time outs like we had for a few weeks there. He seems to be a much happier camper and it is easier to focus on the positive, because he has been so much more positive. Let’s just hope it sticks around.

During the first half of the older sibling class (the parents only part) we found that some of his behavior may have been due to the upcoming baby. We aren’t sure if it is that or just some of the changes. Nate seems a bit more clinging at bed time stating he doesn’t want to be alone and has been calling for me more in the night. This week however, there is evidence that he for the first time went to the bathroom by himself in the middle of the night. This is a first. Today Nate wanted to get in the crib and play baby. I let him do it without much attention and he did it for awhile and was done.

Nate has been going upfront by himself lately for children’s time in church. He has also decided that it is ok to answer questions during chidren’s time. I am always anxious as to what he is going to say. This past Sunday a question was asked about God. While this wasn’t the correct answer, we were proud of Nate none the less. He said “God is with us so we are not alone.”

On to the baby. I have felt hiccups on a few occasions and it definitely feels like the boy (Nate wants to name him Broccoli) is starting to be a bit cramped. With less than 7 weeks to go, I am starting to really anticipate knowing this guy. I have no major complaints to state pregnancy-wise. I will have energy one day and ware myself out, so the next day I am exhausted. I have had a bit of pubic bone pain, but I seem to be able to lay on my back more this time and that has helped alleviate it along with a down bed pad. “Broccoli” is moving quite alot and seems to be causing me to move a bit more. He will have some fairly huge movements that if I am sitting still, may cause my entire body to move a bit. Scott has been able to see one of these movements and tries to explain it in a sci-fi manner. Surprisingly, I think we have a name picked out that didn’t cause too much strife. It was actually scary how quickly we agreed on the name. It seemed much more challenging with Nate.

I am sure there is alot more to blog that I am missing, but overall parenting is great and I coudn’t imagine having it any other way.

I just can’t keep track anymore of what words Nate knows and what he doesn’t. The other day Nate was asking me what the word marriage meant. He seems to be asking these kind of questions more frequently. He is just so curious about things. The one thing that got me to blog today was the title of the post. This morning for the first time in for ever, the stand that we keep fruit on was empty (definitely a sign that we needed to go to the grocery store). He was eating breakfast and out of the blue he said “you have got to be kidding me”. He then pointed at the stand and noted that it was totally empty. I am not surprised that Nate has heard this statement before. I think Scott has used it and I may have as well. It was just noteable that Nate used it and in totally a correct context.

Each day is amazing!!!

It was brought to my attention that we haven’t blogged for quite some time AND the 2nd child is already getting dissed in the blogging scene.

I have had a challenging time trying to figure out what to call this child.  With Nate, if you all remember, we referred to him as “the boy”.  Well, now that we know we are having a 2nd boy, I don’t feel I can use Nate’s in utero nickname again, so if anyone has any suggestions for a nickname, let me know.

So yes, the genders are evening out in our household.  With Indah and Bailey included we will be 3 females to 3 males. Not sure this is quite equal.  Nate is VERY excited to have a baby brother.  On several occasions he will get something and want to get a 2nd something for his baby brother.  He already seems to interact well with babies and always wants to help out if the baby doesn’t seem happy. I hope this continues when “___” arrives (see nickname needed).
Last week Nate had his first airplane trip. We all went to Florida to meet Jonas. This is Jason’s 2nd child.  Nate had a blast playing with his cousin Tea, swimming, going to the zoo, the beach etc.  We just had a pleasant time visiting with Jason and Pato and the family. It isn’t often that we actually get to spend time with just their family. Usually we see them with the rest of my family over the holidays.  The 80 degree weather was so nice. Now it is in the 40’s and cold and rainy. Nate again proved his flexibility during this trip. He is used to taking 2-3 hour afternoon naps.  Several of the days, Nate went without a nap.  He still did considerably well, despite the exhaustion.

Nate has been sleeping in the crib, turned daybed.  Since baby #2 is coming, we are on the hunt for a new bed for Nate. I am thinking a bunk bed so that the kids can eventually sleep in the same room.  Nate is very exited about getting a new bed and giving up his for “_____”.  He has asked for dinosaur bedding for Christmas.  I look forward to rearranging his room and I am starting to feel the pregnancy nesting desires to kick in.  I am feeling ready to set up the baby room (which will also continue to be the guest room) and making Nate’s room a “big boy” room.

A couple weeks ago, Nate had his friend Leah over for a sleep over. Nate often says that his friends weren’t here long enough and wants them to spend the night. So we took the plunge.  Both Nate and Leah were so excited about this endeavor.  They woke up early on Saturday.  For over 30 minutes they were just cracking each other up. Nate would make a face or a gesture and Leah would laugh soooo hard. Then Nate would laugh at her laughing.   It was a pleasant way to wake up. I can’t believe how big he is getting.

So the baby a comin’. I should not neglect this wee one (maybe that should be the nickname). There is not much to say other than that he is very active. I am 25 weeks now and definitely showing.  Whenever Scott tries to feel him kick he stops moving. Hopefully he will catch him kicking one of these days soon.  Tomorrow morning we have another midwife appt.  We will see if they have any new insight.  Since I feel him now, I am not as anxious to hear the heartbeat, because I can feel him and now he is doing ok.

We have asked a friend to be our doula during the birth. Lonna Stoltzfus has agreed to do what she can to be there. Lonna is a friend from church and a guaranteed distant relative since all Stoltzfus’ are related.  They all go back to Nicolas Stoltzfus.  My Stoltzfus heritage comes from my mother’s side.  We chose Lonna since she has gone thru 3 births herself and also used the same nurse midwives that we see.  I feel like she will really be in touch with my needs and know what to do and to suggest to ease the labor.  Thanks Lonna for making such a big commitment.

I guess that should end my blog for now. Keep on me if you aren’t getting enough information through this blog. I will try to do better.

My how time flies. It is difficult to believe that Nate is a 3 year old potty trained, easy going (if he gets his sleep), overall great kid. He just spend half of last week with his grandma and grandpa Reeser. He seemed to have a great time and was torn about leaving. A sign of this is that he refuses to say goodbye. He doesn’t like to say goodbye if he doesn’t want it to happen. While on the farm, Nate helped to feed the calves, ride on the tractor, move tree limbs that grandpa and cut down, played with Katie his cousin, and hung out with his aunt Beth and uncle Andy.

Nate has had a fun summer and busy summer.

We purchased a family pass at the city pool and we were able to go about once a week. Nate is not big into dunking his head under water, but he doesn’t seem to mind that it goes under when he jumps off the side of the pool. He seemed to really enjoy our trips to the pool.

Nate has had several opportunities to go camping (with our church campout yet to come). The first trip was a nice week split between Madelaine Island and Black River Falls State Forest. Barnaby, Michelle, Connor, Quinn and Keegan joined us for the trip. Everyone seemed to have a nice time despite the black flies and mosquitos. The weather was perfect the entire time and all the boys got along really well. To this day, Nate can not get Connor and Quinn off his mind. He brings them up to people all the time. Our next camping trip was to a campground not far from Madison. It was on Labor Day weekend with a bunch of friends. It was again mosquito filled, but I think Nate truelly enjoyed being the only kid there. He got alot of attention for Keith and Bruce especially.

Nate also had a chance to visit with Grandma and Grandpa Wyse for an extended weekend and was able to play with Connor, Quinn, Keegan and Tea. Nate truelly does enjoy his cousin’s and seems to really look up to Connor.

This summer was also filled with the usual house guests, trips to the Farmer’s Market, and other summery things. Nate enjoyed the company of our house guest Justin. Justin was an intern here for 11 weeks. Nate really took to him and they had a good time playing and dancing. Nate liked dancing to Justin’s guitar. Nate also refused to hug Justin goodbye. I don’t think he was ready to see him leave.

The last update of the summer is that Nate was informed that he is going to get a brother or a sister. Nate said he wants a brother, however he thinks I am having a girl. So that is the news and we will have to start blogging about the new little one in addition to Nate’s, less than frequent these days, updates.

Last Sunday, Easter Sunday, Nate went to Sunday School with Quinn at Grandpa and Grandma Wyse’s church.  When I dropped him off he said, “I like Sunday School Mommy.”  The day was so busy that we didn’t get a chance to ask Nate about what he learned in Sunday School until Monday.  On Monday when I asked him what he learned in Sunday School he said “Jesus is in all of us”  We are very excited for him to start Sun. School at our church this fall, because he seems so excited about it.

So due to the fact that Nate is now potty trained and has been for about 3-4 weeks, I thought it time to write again. So yes, Nate is now officially potty trained. He still likes help with his pants, but if pushed can pee totally independently. I can’t believe he is getting so big.

A few weeks ago Grandma and Grandpa Reeser visited. They bought Nate a Beta Fish. Nate has since named it Foops the Cooker. We have no idea where this name came from, but have found it quite fun and cute. I asked Nate if we could shorten it to just Foops and he said very clearly that it is FOOPS THE COOKER. Foops is a part of everyday life. He sits on the kitchen table so we feed him together and watch him swim.

Nate has really become Bailey’s buddy. Nate will lay on the floor with Bailey and pet her and he is ever so concerned about if she is coming for a ride, if she has eaten etc. Nate continues to try to acquire Indah’s love, but that is impossible. Indah wants to have nothing to do with Nate.

Nate has quite the imagination. He is starting to turn regular objects into something else in his mind. He will at times pretend he is a cat, dog, dinosaur, tiger, etc. He likes to play with his friends and really play with them. Nate is looking forward to swimming this summer. We pulled him in the burley last night while we went for a bike ride and he was very excited about going for a bike ride. I think we all have spring fever.

Nate is still taking 2-3 hours naps in the afternoon and he likes to go to bed around 9pm at night and sleep until 7:30 or 8 in the morning. Last night after Scott read to Nate, Nate said he wanted to go upstairs to bed on his own. He did go up all by himself.

Nate has started to give us some attitude lately. I was hoping it was because of his 2 week cold. I do think it made it worse, because in the past few days, Nate’s tantrums have significantly decreased, however he is still trying to get his way via tantrums. Luckily we can nip the tantrums in the bud pretty quickly. We are needing to really start setting boundaries.

Nate is really looking forward to Easter at Grandma Wyse’s. He especially is looking forward to an Easter Egg Hunt at Grandma’s house with his cousins, Connor and Quinn.
Nate is wanting to play a game on the computer now, so I must end this blog.

Surprise. Surprise. Varied selection over the past year. Sorry for being a dink.

Nate’s been doing well. As I type he and his buddy Micah are running around the house chasing after balls pretending to be outside….they’re also making mention of a hockey game that they’re playing. … I consider that a good sign. Speaking of hockey, Nate asked the other day that when he got bigger if I would play hockey with him. I, of course, said that I would love to. As you can tell the overall quality of his language is getting significantly better (I think, at least). The last while it seems like he’s trying to understand things more, and offer explanations (which can be entertaining).

Update: After I posted I just noticed that the right title didn’t get emailed out. I’m not sure why that happened at the moment.

Yes another blog with many months to make up for. Where do I start. Nate is so much fun. We have not experienced the terrible twos in any form. Nate still isn’t potty trained, but we are going to make big attempts this 3 day weekend and we will see what happens.

The title of this blog is a comment that Nate made the other night in reference to some cheerleaders. Nate went to his first College Basketball Game on Tuesday night. We saw UW play Ohio St. supposedly it was the biggest game of the year and somehow I was able to score tickets. Of course UW won! Nate was intrigued by all the action during the game. On several occasions, he looked down at the Cheerleaders and stated “Those mommies don’t have any clothes on”. We are looking forward to Nate’s first hockey game of this season that we are going to tomorrow night. We went last year, but I wonder how much of it that Nate will remember.

Nate has become very expressive verbally. He often says Thank You. If he does a good job with something he will say “good job Nate” If he thinks I did a good job he will say “good job mommy”. Nate also notices when we are sad. On one occassion Nate noticed I was sad and he said  “Mommy are you sad?”"I make you feel better mommy” (slight pause and with the correct voice intonation of a question) “you feel better now mommy?” This past Sunday Nate had a fever. I told him he couldn’t go to church tonight. He responded by saying “mommy, I took the sick off, I took the sick off”

Nate was very excited about Christmas this past December. He really enjoyed playing with all his cousins. Every time he opened a gift he wooo whoood. Nate spent almost 2 weeks with both families in one way or another. He seems to really understand what “grandma and grandpa and family means” It doesn’t take him long to be comfortable with those he is familiar with.  His Wyse cousin’s taught him a new prayer that he has to say at every meal. We call it “hands”
Nate continues to enjoy helping out and fixing things. He likes to stir things when we cook and he likes to have his own screwdriver when daddy is fixing something. He also doesn’t mind picking things up. (I should enjoy it now right?). In December, I heard Nate dump legos all over the floor. I thought great, he has Thomas stuff AND legos all over. After I finished showering, I went downstairs to Nate. As soon as I got there he said “Mommy I picked up Thomas, so I could play with Legos”. I was shocked, b/c I can’t recall being consistent about that. Ever since I have noticed more times than not how conscious he is to pick up one mess before making another.

Nate still enjoys books and has really gotten into videos. I guess the fact that he didn’t watch any videos the first two years didn’t seem to curb his interest in them. We try to only let him watch one video a day. Once in awhile he will watch 2 short ones and sometimes he won’t even ask. We have gotten to the point (as a whole) that we wait for him to ask us. Nate loves to play with his trains, tractors, dinosaurs, cars etc. He has a few stuffed animals that he likes to cover up and wrap in blankets. He seems to have a nurturing side. Nate likes to sing. He is often caught in church holding a hymnal and singing whatever sounds come to him while we sing songs. He now seems to understand when it is ok to sing and when we listen.

Nate is also getting good at remembering his day and bringing things up on his own. Over Christmas he spoke about his friends in Madison that he hadn’t seen for a few weeks. The other day he said “mommy, Micah said I was mean today.” “I am not mean”. You could tell he was concerned by this comment. He will also talk about things he did that day or last week or that he wants to do. He will ask if he can go to his friend Lisa’s house or Joanne’s house etc.

Nate has really gotten into taking care of his dog. Nate likes to feed Bailey and give her treats and he tries to let her out to pee.  It isn’t so easy for him to open the door however.  Nate also doesn’t fail to forget to give the cat treats even though she continues to run when he gets close to her.

That is what I have for now, I hope to not let it go so long the next time, for I miss so many things by not typing them immediately. So many cute phrases and gestures. Nate sure has a fun, caring, joking, giggly personality and is almost always alot of fun.

Oh and just for my record, Nate still takes nice long naps everyday. A 2 hour nap is a shorter one. Lately his naps are usually 2.5 to 3 hours.

Angie called me this morning to let me know that when she woke up this morning she went close to Nates room and discovered him whispering to himself. Upon further investigation, he had a copy of “Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel” in front of him flipping through the pages ‘reading’ to himself.

[several days ago] Middle of the night and I heard Nate sneeze, sounded a little odd, i.e. from the hallway. Didn’t think anything of it. Starting thinking about people sneaking around the house for some dumb reason. Then I heard someone fiddling with Angie’s clock radio on her side of the bed. I turn over to to see Nate just standing next to Angie there staring back at me. Not a sound. I got out of bed and came over to get him. Told him it was “Too early….” and took him back to bed.

Alot has happened since the end of May. Nate continues to grow leaps and bounds. He is more and more a little boy every day.

Vocabulary and Comprehension: Nathan is now able to speak complete sentences including words like and, but, he, she, the. His verb tense isn’t always correct, but he is getting there. Lately, Nathan seems to under most everything we tell him or ask of him. It seems as if he uses new words on a daily basis that he has picked up from somewhere. An example of the “from somewhere” is that just yesturday Nate had a play thermometer. First he was taking temperatures under our arms, but then he suddenly was giving us shots. I don’t ever remember talking to him about shots and it has been quite a few months since he had a shot. I think his last shot was at 18 months. Anyway, he is somehow putting so many things together. He will play and use conversations had earlier as part of his imaginary play. Nate now is given choices. We have been giving him choices for a few months now, but he is definately to the point of understanding which choice is a better one. For awhile the choice was based on which option was given first. Now he chooses which one he wants. Sometimes he is known to change his mind. All a part of learning. Nate is also able to rationalize things. If he doesn’t want something we can talk him out of it or into something else by saying things like “you can’t get on the road because a car may be coming” or “don’t do that because you may get hurt” or “wait until I get my shoes on, then we can go outside” or ” Let’s do this and this first, then we can do that”.

Nate will request things that he wants on his own initiative. He will ask to go to Grandma’s house, the zoo, Micah’s house, Joanne’s house, the store, etc. He will also request certain things to wear. Usually he likes to wear clothing with trains, cars, bikes, dinosaurs or something like that on them. He does not like to get out of his pajamas in the morning, but luckily rationalizing works. This morning I said, “Nate, we have to put clothes on b/c we need to take Bailey to the doctor”. It was ok then to put clothes on.

Mood and Tantrums: It seems as if we can rationalize Nate out of most tantrums. Once in awhile he will be too tired or too hungry and he just needs a few minutes to cry it out and then one can talk to him. His tantrums don’t happen much, however he has been a bit whinier the past few days. There is a chance he isn’t feeling 100% though so I am not ready to say it is a new stage quite yet. Nate is also known to tantrum a bit when he is not in the mood to share. On the other hand sometimes he will offer to share without anyone asking it of him.

Relationships: Nate is really starting to learn to play with others. Alot of the play currently is still mimicking each other, but there is some play where he is playing with others.
Likes: Nate still loves books. He could sit for hours (only a little exaggeration) and listen to book reading. Some books have been read so often that he can finish sentences. One of Nate’s favorite books now is “Five Little Monkeys”. He loves saying with his finger pointed “no more monkies jumpin on the bed”. Nate loves to be outside. He loves to be around people and doing things. Nate loves to be helpful and he loves to “fix things”

A few stories:

Nate has a Teddy Bear, Hershey. We bought him in Hershey PA while vacationing out East this past summer. Nate likes to take him along whenever he is going somewhere for the weekend for security and he also likes to sleep with him. He has been known to want to protect him in his sleep by sticking Hershey under his shirt. Just this past weekend he had a slumber party at his cousin’s house (Connor and Quinn). When is aunt Michelle picked him up in the morning, she found a lump under his shirt. Low and behold it was Hershey all snug and tight.

I took Nate with me to the vet this morning. I told him on the way that Bailey needed to see the doctor so the doctor could look at Bailey’s leg. Nathan asked if I was a doctor, I told him I was a social worker. (Not sure if he will hold on to that or not). Anyway at the end of the appt. when we were leaving, Nate on his own with no prompting said “Thank you doctor for looking at Bailey’s leg.”
A couple weeks ago, Nate went to his grandma and grandpa’s for the weekend. Grandma Reeser came here to pick Nate up. That next morning we told Nathan only that he was going for a ride with grandma. We didn’t know if it would be bad or good to tell him he was going to spend the weekend there. We even packed the bag when Nate wasn’t around. As we buckled Nate in, he asked for a few things including his pajamas and said “See you tomorrow morning mommy” He then said “I said goodbye, you can go in the house now” I don’t know what was harder, to see him leave for the weekend or that he was acting like such a big boy and despite not telling him what was going on he figured it out anyway.

This past weekend as mentioned earlier we went to Ohio. Nate knew who everyone was right away. He did not at all act shy nor did it take any time for him to warm up to anyone. He was polite and gave hugs right away. On Sunday he was exceptionally cuddly with his aunt Michelle. He wasn’t afraid to go off on his own as long as a familiar face was there. An example of this was during church. Quinn followed Barnaby out of church. Nate wanted to follow as well, I talked him out of it, then at the end of church all the teachers were going downstairs. Nate wanted to go downstairs so we went into the basement. As soon as we opened the door, Nate turned left, saw Quinn in a classroom and ran towards him without any hesitation. He went to Sunday School all by himself for the first time. He had a good time and even learned a scripture verse. If one says “And God said” he will say “it is good”.

One other thing he did in church last Sunday. After a song and during prayer, Nate was sitting on the floor with a hymnal open. He started to sing his ABC’s. I said shhh Nate we are praying and Nate said “no mommy, I am singing now”.

Nate spent a weekend this summer with his friend Leah and some of our friends at Leah’s grandparents cabin on Sugar Lake in Minnesota. Nate had a blast swimming, playing, and just hanging out. Bailey also had fun that weekend, swimming all weekend long. Nate did not want to leave at the end of the weekend.
I could keep writing more and more, but feel I could go on forever. The vacation highlights for this summer are that we took a two week trip to Washington and back. It was a road trip that consisted of camping in Ohio, PA, staying with our friends Dan and Jill in New Jersey, staying in a hotel in Fairfax so we could go to DC, camping at Swollow Falls state park in Maryland, visiting friends in Colombus, stopping in Archbold and heading home. Nate was so flexible and such an easy traveler the whole time. He would just go with what each day brought him. He is still doing the same each and every day.

One more thing that needs to be mentioned. At the beginning of September we changed our child sharing arrangement. It had been with Joanne and Miriam, but now it is with Jonathan, Tonya and Micah and one day a week Chris will watch Nate. Nate already knew Micah and his family but he did not know Chris. So far the transition has gone well. We haven’t really had a chance to see Joanne since the change, so I am curious how that will go.